Poplar tree at No.5 Daxing Estate
Text/Yang Zhuo
The poplar trees that impress me most are still very many places in the heart. For example, the small building at the junction of Luoyang Road and Hebei Road, No. 241 Xinhua Road, and No. 8 Linheli in Huangjia Garden, together run through the childhood memory. The link that connects these years belongs to the Guilin Road Garden, and the garden of more than 100 square meters has now become a street green space. A few tall poplar trees in the garden are always facing passers-by in the direction of Guilin Road and Chengdu Road, and they are full of gaze. Scattered around the poplar trees are gold and silver wood, Xifu begonias, large-leaf boxwoods, and the favorite punch card place for young children - elephant slides, reinforced concrete skeletons, ash mortar finishes, terrazzo skateboards, carrying the happiness of generations of children. The garden belongs to the only way for the friends to go to Changde Road and the four children, and it is also the joy of seeing each other and the expectation of the moment of parting. The memory of the garden is even more profound than those few disappeared homes! Today, after the demolition and construction, the old trees are still there, which is very comforting!
The poplar trees of childhood are not always the timing of spring, summer, autumn and winter, some are only the fierceness of golden autumn and the cold of severe winter, but because of people's fearlessness and stubbornness, they have become endless warm currents, warm and moist to this day. The poplar trees at No. 5 Daxing Estate are among them.
At the end of October, when I was in kindergarten, an elder from my mother's family was moved to live in a place on the border between Chongqing Road and Kunming Road. Their children were all in the countryside, and Grandma asked her mother and father to help arrange the chores for the new house.
I remember the first time I knew about that place, it was after my mother picked me up, along the already yellow-lined belt of Changde Road, and then turned right to the small building embraced by poplar trees. The receptionist directed the empty room, which exuded a dull atmosphere. The mother carefully checked and checked, measured the required size, sighed softly, locked the doors and windows, and walked back along the Chongqing Road. How comfortable the air outside is! Like a bird escaping from its cage, I jumped in front of my mother, blending in with the soft call of my mother into the autumn sunset. Unconsciously, he was more than thirty meters away from his mother. Suddenly, at the entrance of a row of two-story brick buildings, I stopped my cheerful steps and threw myself into the quiet picture of the court: facing the window of the entrance home, like a magic mirror, reflecting the autumn color of the poplar trees, as if reflecting in the water; looking down, on the red brick floor paved between the two rows of buildings inside and outside, and on the bluestone steps, there were large yellow-green slightly stained purple leaves, which fluttered from time to time, refracting dazzling brilliance. Although there are this fallen leaf in front of the house, I have never seen such a large and beautiful leaf, and I can't help but move my feet to pick up the most beautiful leaves and show off in front of the children for the sake of tomorrow.
I was happily choosing when I heard a faint coughing sound. Follow the prestige, suddenly unexpected. On the steps of the house outside, a grandmother is sitting on a low, mottled wooden chair cooking, with one hand clasping the branches and the other shaking the broken fan into three or five pieces against the stove. Although her blue-gray pants and blue-black sleeves were very old, they were neat, and the hair that was close to her neck was tied together by a dark blue cotton strip, and between pitches, her hair was slightly upwards, and in a trance it reminded me of the neighbor's big sister Lingyue's tugging. A miscellaneous truck that I am familiar with was made of bamboo toddler trolleys and blocked in front of the semi-underground shutters. What attracted me was that on the windowsill was a milky white bottle, with two leaves of a large poplar tree inserted in the mouth of the bottle, and three high and low yellow chrysanthemums on the top, although they did not fully bloom, but they could not hide the beauty that would eventually be proud. The bamboo cart must have taken a long time, gray has become the main color, the armrests are polished, and the beams and bracings are tied with a lot of connected bamboo and wood splints, carefully wrapped with dense wire and power lines, without losing the sense of refinement. I know this old man, she often sets up a stall on the erchi side of the five intersections of Xi'an Road and Changsha Road, selling some children's toys, shuttlecocks, beads, leather bands, jump rope, glass balls, iron rings, gaga...
Just when I was overwhelmed, my mother turned in, smiled helplessly and said, "Why are you playing greedy again?" Did you pick it up? I guess Dad is home. The old man got up in surprise and stared at his mother to see and look, and when he wanted to say something, his mother smiled apologetically: "I'm sorry that the child disturbed you!" The old man finally made a soft tentative voice: "Is it the third girl of the Meng Pu family?" He leaned over to his mother again, and then lowered his voice: "I am the Zhang family of Gegu Jishun." Seeing her mother's hesitant and cautious gaze, she continued: "From the time you picked up this baby to walk in the small garden, I saw that there were many people, and I didn't dare to recognize it." That's more than two years. The mother suddenly realized, respectfully helped the old man sit back on the small wooden chair, and murmured, "The fourth aunt of the eleventh master's family?" "I distinctly felt it was a trembling sound. The old man smiled happily, "You are the same as my eldest sister." I think of her, I just don't dare to look at her and not cause trouble. Good day, finally talking to you, solid. The mother took her hand in disbelief: "You live here now?" She covered her mouth and smiled, her eyes were so stubborn and calm, pointing to the half-underground room: "God, hunger is not dead, diligent people, I don't add burdens to the children, draw it out, live by yourself!" In this way, the two of them enjoyed themselves under the huge crown shadow of the poplar tree, whispering and cheerfully conveying each other's intimate messages, twisting their heads against the wall from time to time, and crossing their cheeks with their hands until the street lamp lit up with a dim halo...
The relative on Kunming Road is also the Zhang family, the mother's cousin and cousin. A military jeep pulled two large boxes of books, and a green canvas bag for one person, a clothing and notebook, and then an aluminum rice bowl, an enamel cup, and toiletries in a net pocket. The mother had already seen a few pieces of furniture for sale at the commission shop on Xi'an Road, and the cousins and uncles first thanked their mother's father, and then decided in an unquestionable tone: "I don't know how long I can live, don't waste it." There is a bed, two writing desks, two single wardrobes, two basins on it, pots and pans and your cousin's mother will be fine. "Every week, our whole family will come here as a guest, especially love to eat the Shanghai bengang dishes cooked by his lover, in that year when materials are scarce and travel is very inconvenient, "luxury goods" are not enough to express the happiness and vanity at that time. In fact, the method of cooking is different. My cousin admired his father's courage and his loyalty and love for his mother. When he came to my house as a guest, he once said something like this: "A person's conscience is like water, sweet and bitter from the heart, and has nothing to do with external affairs." People, do not expect to change the environment with their own strength, but we must not be changed by the environment, which is the only criterion for measuring human nature. It is necessary to know that the hardships in front of us will always pass, and looking back on this period after a few years, I believe that we will not become the laughing stock of future generations... "Thinking back to this passage of water metaphor, it really makes sense, brewing wine, making tea, boiling rice, making coffee... The role of water quality is irreplaceable! Later, the cousin learned about the situation of the fourth aunt of the eleventh grandfather's family, specially asked his mother and father to accompany them to Daxing Estate to visit the clan relatives, and insisted on paying for her mother to change her furniture, asked her father to make a light and durable car, and left six hundred and sixty yuan for emergency, humorously comforting and encouraging her: "Six six big Shun! Clear skies and dark clouds are the norm of life, and the world can remain unchanged! And told her to forgive the child, "just like the elders forgave us when they were green." The biggest regret in life is that I did not give my elders time to forgive my stupidity. ”
Pleasant times are always short-lived, really let the cousin say right, just after the spring, the cousin and uncle couple were released, but also quite anxious, the book is not allowed to bring. The furniture was distributed to relatives in need. The mother only wanted to leave the two boxes of books, but one step too late, the unit that managed the house disposed of it in the name of "waste". In the impression, this was the mother's most indignant moment, the sister did not dare to speak loudly for several days, only after the father returned home, he dared to squirm in the father's thick arms instead of the usual pampering.
After that, I often came to Daxing Estate with my father to give my fourth aunt some life allowance. Mother often said: "Your father was very good when he was not sick, and the people who did not dare to come and go with the Liu family and the Zhang family were all your fathers who came to visit and fulfilled the responsibility of family affection, so grandma and your aunt loved their third aunt and third brother-in-law the most..." In the early eighties, the fourth aunt was taken away by the second cousin who was married to Rong Cheng's wife, and never returned to Daxing Estate. In the late 1990s, my cousin and his wife returned to Gegu Province from Shanghai and specially asked their mother to accompany them to Kunming Road and Daxing Estate to see. The small buildings on Kunming Road are no longer there, and there are few poplar trees left, while the houses and poplar trees in Daxing Estate are still the same. The cousin and grandmother were full of confusion, and the cousin left a faint sentence: "The poplar trees of the northern country, it is so good!" ”
Today's No. 5 Daxing Estate has been regarded as an ideal study by an architect in accordance with the original intention of "maintaining the original appearance and continuing the history", borrowing the life temperature that still exists in time and space to provide some convenience for the vegetarian passers-by. Why ask for a last name? Why do I need professional family assets? Leave a unique figure, present a familiar and shallow smile, and cross the indifferent and clear gaze...
The fireworks that have passed away? If so, how long? Perhaps, think too much. Then cherish this rare era of peace in history, do something you love, or choose to stop in the study for a while, breathe in the air of the same world, take a few old photos, insert a vase of flowers, cook a pot of tea, play a piano song, turn over an old book, draw a sketch, relive an old song that is almost forgotten but is heartwarming...
Perhaps, here you can meet your former self, or your relatives, shake off the dirt, kiss the flowers, and continue to write the words of the world in your heart...
Just like the poplar trees in this courtyard, silently allowing spring and autumn to drift, allowing the sound of wind and rain year after year to bloom out of the irreproducible colors of flowers and fruits...
【About the author】Yang Zhuo (male), number: Yuanyun, screen name: Tomorrow's Cloud. Registered Builder, Landscaping Agricultural Garden Direction, Flower Arrangement Lecturer. He is a director of the Tianjin Poetry Society and a member of the Chinese Poetry Society. I like to wander in the ancient alleys of mountains and rivers to explore the traces of ancestors. Occasionally leave a few words to record what you see and hear.