Text/Hu Huajun
When I was a child, I felt that winter was very cold, almost inseparable from the stove for heating, there was no heater in that era, there was no oil, for ordinary people, nothing can bring warmth more than a coal stove.
In the early morning, before dawn, Grandma got up and built a stove, and the raw coal stove was carried into the house, and suddenly the whole house warmed up, and people stood by the stove and felt that there was a heating coming. Grandma would put a small square stool by the stove, on which there was a diaper, Grandma said that the diaper was placed next to the stove, and it would not be too cold to change the diaper for my sister, and in the winter, our family would rely on this briquette stove for heating. When I came back from school, the first thing I did was to walk to the stove first, first pick up my hands and then put my hands on the stove for a few turns, wait until the hands are warm and then wash my hands, wash my hands and then stand next to the stove, feel the heat will be warm through the skin to the whole body, people will immediately warm up a lot. The fire that burned in winter made our family spend one cold night after another.
In that era, I liked to sit by the coal stove with a little book, because only next to it would not feel cold, I enjoyed the warmth of the fire, the fire warmed me with its body temperature, my grandmother would put a kettle on the stove, the lid of the kettle kept steaming out, and when it was about to open, it would sing happily, and when the water was boiling, the kettle cover was full of warmth.
Every winter snow day, the snow outside the earth silver crystal, glass windows on the ice flowers, and because of the coal stove in the house a little more calm and warm, our family around the stove to listen to the snow, this is a pure warmth. I like to see the burning flame in the furnace, it comes out of the coal eye with a red light, and the flame dances passionately on the stage of the coal cake, constantly burning and rising, the light and shadow are intertwined, graceful and colorful. They sometimes gather in one place, sometimes scatter around, divide and merge, merge and divide, and enjoy the freedom of action. The fire, which sometimes turns red, sometimes yellow, sometimes blue, not only makes me feel a little warmth in the touch, but also makes me feel a flash of revelation and hope in my heart through the touch. It feels like we have many dreams that suddenly arise in this flame, leading to many dreamlike thoughts in me, aren't we human beings just like this flame, always burning and shining? ......
When I joined the army, I couldn't see the stove in the dormitory, and there was no heating equipment, and as long as it was a big sun during the winter day, I would rather stay under the sun when I rested, rather than stay in the dormitory, because the dormitory was too cold, like going to the ice cellar to do anything cold. In winter, I prefer to go to work, because the nursing station has a stove, which is burned 24 hours a day, and we burn the stove vigorously, so that the nursing station is as warm as spring, especially when we work the night shift, with this stove will not feel cold. In order to solve the problem of carbon monoxide poisoning, the nursing station made a chimney with iron sheets and extended to the outside of the house with the stove, the stove mainly burned coal, and the task of adding coal was undertaken by the nurses of our nursing station, and sometimes the military doctors and hygienists saw it and would help us add coal.
Whenever I was on duty Chinese New Year's Eve, I was particularly homesick when I left my hometown, I felt very lonely, the whole ward was on duty as a nurse, the patients who could be discharged were discharged, the ward seemed cold and clear, and those who remained in the ward were all patients who had not yet healed. A hundred yuan to talk about the Chinese New Year's Eve, in the nursing station I do not know how to send this cold Chinese New Year's Eve, I was in a nursing station in a daze, suddenly pushed the door in the three patients, which was completely unexpected, according to the ward regulations patients can not go to the nursing station, these three patients do not know where they got sweet potatoes from, said we Chinese New Year's Eve eat baked sweet potatoes, I was amused by their humorous language, suddenly drove away the coldness of the ward, to the Chinese New Year's Eve nursing station added the flavor of the year, added warmth to the heart. I put the sweet potatoes under the fire and roasted them, and there was constantly burning coal in the stove that rolled to the mouth of the stove, covered the sweet potatoes, and baked them for a while, and then the sweet potato aroma kept wafting out, my saliva glands followed, I kept swallowing, I kept turning the sweet potatoes, waiting until one side of the sweet potato was baked to brown, and then turned over to bake the other side. After a while, the sweet potatoes were roasted, a fresh fragrance came to my nose, I pulled out the skin of the sweet potatoes and took a bite, wow! Really fragrant, hot fragrant sweet potatoes are really delicious, I handed the baked sweet potatoes to the patients, then the outdoor cold wind was cold, the warmth of the house melted, we all said and laughed, roasted on the stove, serene and idyllic, on the ancient and modern, cooking wine on heroes, because with the fire, the world has a taste, this is a simple tranquility, especially warm and beautiful, especially poetic, giving people the feeling of talking at night in the hearth, and there is a warm feeling, as described by Mr. Wang Zengqi: "The family sits idly, the lights are amiable" Although the patients are not family, But it makes me feel warm, so that I am not lonely on the winter night of the night shift, and I feel happy Chinese New Year's Eve someone to accompany me. With the fire, the nursing station has a life, and in the melting fire, I have walked through the cold of March 9.
I love the snow in winter, I love the ice in winter, I love the scenery in winter, and what fascinates me especially is the fire in winter. Unconsciously, I fell in love with the warm fire.
When I returned to Hangzhou, I often lit a fire from the depths of my memory, with hope and beautiful vision, flying and flickering in my mind, and from time to time jumped out of a passage in the famous writer Zang Kejia's "Fire": "I want to have such a warm afternoon, around the fire, holding books, eating snacks, not anxious, not impatient." Let my thoughts wander lazily between the words, and in the quiet room, the flames jump and slowly warm me. And I have my parents and my brothers by my side. For the fire once warmed not only our bodies, but also our hearts." The fire shows a fiery and exuberant vitality, the enthusiasm and mood of life, like a warm song of the years, giving people a huge encouragement and courage to strike forward in the dark.
(Image from the Internet)
【About the author】Hu Huajun, a party member and college culture, transferred from the military to a local job in 1982 and worked at Zhejiang Foreign Chinese College, retiring in 2009. Love literature. His works have been published in newspapers and magazines such as "Blooming Army Flowers", "Soldier Mother", "War Years", "Pursuit" and other newspapers and magazines, and he is the author of the essay collection "Buds in the Heart". The author is currently a member of the China Miniature Novel Society, the China Prose Literature Association, the Zhejiang Writers Association, the Zhejiang Provincial Prose Literature Association, the Hangzhou Writers Association, and the Hangzhou Xihu District Writers Association.
Sponsored by the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Society, Contemporary Prose is a bimonthly prose journal, which mainly publishes the works of members of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and welcomes Shandong prose writers to apply to join the Shandong Provincial Prose Association. The Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association holds various prose activities throughout the year to provide book publishing services for writers. Contact number: 13853164811, 18765312921, 18653131587; submission email: [email protected]
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