About winter
Text | Su Tong
El Niño does exist, and one of the most obvious examples of this is that the current winter is not as cold as before, and the winter of the previous years passed so sloppily as if it were a little water, and people did not know whether it was happy or worried. In the winter, I was still in charge of sending my daughter to school at noon, and occasionally I would see the ice in the puddles on the ground that was about to melt, a thin layer that looked fragile, not like ice, but like a piece of plastic paper. I asked my daughter if the ice was thicker when her mother gave her in the morning, but my daughter was not impressed, in fact she had grown so big, she had never seen ice growing on the ground, that thick, solid ice.
When northerners come to Jiangnan for the first time in winter, almost everyone glares at you with deceived eyes and says, "Why is it so cold?" Why are you so cold here? People don't know where the illusion of winter in Jiangnan comes from, just as when I went north to study, my family was worried about whether I could withstand the severe cold in the north, but one day in November, I found that even the radiators in the dormitory toilets on the campus of Beijing Normal University were sizzling, which made my fear of the harsh winter disappear.
I remember that the winter was always cold. The northwest wind howled outside the window for three days in a row, and the coldest part of winter arrived. Mother took out the cotton clothes of a family of six people from the camphor wood box, the cotton clothes, cotton shoes, hats, and scarves of the six people, whether you want to or not, we must wear winter clothes that exude the smell of camphor wood, whether you want to or not, you must go to the street to welcome the arrival of winter.
When winter comes, the houses on both sides of the street close the wooden doors that have been open for the other three seasons, and a street that has no secrets has to reveal its mysterious face. It's actually just as cold indoors and outside, and people who have nothing to do are basking in the open space. This is talking about the weather that comes out of the sun, but many days in winter are actually cloudy, the air is humid, the sky is leaden gray, everything seems to be brewing about the cold, and the weather forecast of cable radio confirms this conspiracy again and again, and the broadcaster does not know where to hide and tells everyone in a calm tone that the strong cold air from Siberia is moving south, and will reach the Jiangnan region tomorrow.
In winter, the streets are clean, there is almost no garbage on the ground, and the smell of industrial exhaust fumes in the air is blown far away by the strong wind, so I feel that I can smell myself in winter when I open my nostrils. The smell of winter may not be a smell, it is clear and pure, and sometimes it brings sour irritation to the nasal passages. The potholes on the granite pavement on the street are covered with thick ice, especially in the days after the snow, passers-by in order to deal with the ice and snow on the road are full of tricks, some people like to tie a straw rope on the sole of the rubber shoes to prevent slipping, and the children use the ice and snow on the road to find fun for themselves, they wear cotton shoes to slide across the icy road, thinking that it is called ice skating. There is a proverb in Jiangnan that says that snow dogs rejoice when it rains. I don't know what the basis is, there are very few people on our street who have dogs, I don't see any special performance of dogs in the rain and snow, I always think that this proverb is more suitable for children, children in the winter mood is bitter and lonely, but a heavy snow often suddenly changes the boring and difficult nature of winter, after the heavy snow, the children rush out of the house and rush out of school, just like the rock song house Cui Jian sang in the song, they want to withdraw a little wild in the snow, to create a festival for themselves to pick up. The snow in the south of the Yangtze River reminds people of family planning, and it is very modest, and it comes once or twice a year, which makes adults frown and does not let children hate winter. My first memory of snow was not building a snowman or having a snowball fight, it was a bit boring to say, I squeezed a large handful of snow with my hands, pinched it into an ice bowl, and kept it in a broken tea jar, and I had a vague idea in my head to save that ice until the spring, so that it would be a treasure like no other. As you can imagine, a few days later I pulled the teapot out of the briquette and saw that it was empty, not even the melted ice water, because it had seeped into the coal pile through the hole in the teapot.
The snowmelt weather is disgusting, the sun is shining, but the whole world is wet, and the ice cubes on the eaves are always dripping unhurriedly onto the streets. The road was black and white, the sewage was quietly flowing into the manholes, and the remaining snow was still stubbornly resisting, and the streets were like a mess as if the war had just passed. I also hate the overly industrious housewives, who rush to dry out their clothes, sheets, diapers, and the like as soon as the weather clears, and a white street is made a mess.
Winter is mixed before and after the heavy snow, or just in the heavy snow, the Jiangnan folk proverb says that the sloppy winter solstice is a clean year, which means that you are willing to sacrifice a winter solstice, but also have a clean Spring Festival without rain and snow. I remember that the streets of the winter solstice are always muddy, and the people of Jiangnan regard the winter solstice as a festival, and every household wants to drink some oriental wine and eat some yokan, and they don't know where it comes from. Once, I went to the grocery store with a bottle of wine to get Toyo sake, and smelled that the wine was really fragrant, so I secretly drank a few sips on the way, and when I came home, my ears were red, and the back of my cotton coat was splashed with mud, and my mother reprimanded me fiercely. Now I don't remember whether my mother scolded me for the smell of wine in my mouth or for not making my newly changed cotton clothes so dirty, but anyway, I felt wronged, so I went into the room and sat on the bed, and before I knew it, the alcohol came up, and I fell asleep on the bed.
Everyone says that Jiangnan is good, but no one says that Jiangnan has a good winter. I'm always very mediocre about the temperature of the season, and I whimsically hope that one day the climate here will be like Kunming in Yunnan, with all year rounds. I don't like winter, but when I remembered a winter in the past, walking with my neck bent on the way to school, I suddenly heard the sound of silk strings coming from the teahouse on our street, and I walked over and saw a group of elderly men sitting behind the greasy tea table, each holding a cup of hot tea, listening to a man and a woman talking about the bullet stalls, and it didn't look cold at all. I thought, these old guys, they're having fun. I still remember the warmth of this winter, and I think that if I spent it like this, winter would be a little more interesting.
The Legend of the Yellow Bird by Su Tong Mao Dun Literature Award Winning Works Paperback People's Literature Publishing House ¥31.5 Buy
Scorching Sky (Fine) Classic Famous Novel Library by Su Tong ¥29 Buy