Wang Qiang|In the month of that year, I went to sell Spring Festival couplets

In the month of that year, I went to sell Spring Festival couplets

Wang Qiang

I remember in the late 90s of the 20th century, the harvest in the field was not good, and there was no money at home in Layue, and there was no way to pass the year. I can only make some money for the New Year like this, and I have no other way. Because writing Spring Festival couplets is a small business, with a brush, a few bottles of ink, and sell some red paper, these investments will not be too big, I can afford it, and it is easy to put it down, this is the first time in my life to go outside to make money, decades have passed, I still remember the scene of writing Spring Festival couplets in the market town.

　　Sticking Spring Festival couplets, in our countryside, is the most ceremonial thing in the Spring Festival. If you have money or not, stick a pair for the New Year. People put red stickers in front of the door, in the house, in the pigsty, in the sheepfold and even on the tractor, for auspiciousness and festivity. Thousands of households always replace the new peach with the old one.

　　At that time, there was no printed Spring Festival couplets in our place, and people were looking for people with culture in the village to write them. When I was in middle school, I practiced calligraphy for a while with a teacher surnamed Gao, and at that time my calligraphy was better than that of the fifth grade students. I decided to write about the Spring Festival couplets in the market town. I took the only 50 yuan I had in my family and went around the county for a day, bought a couplet book at Xinhua Bookstore, and went to the wholesale market to wholesale 300 pieces of red paper and ink, which cost 10 yuan and took the village bus back home.

　　I folded the red paper into seven words, eight words, and twelve words, drove a nail at one end of the table, pressed the folded red paper on the table, and cut the red paper with a string, and I was busy until 12 o'clock, and then I cut 100 pairs of red paper. I have already looked for a place, that is, my classmate Chen Laoer's house, their house is on the street of the township government, the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, these days the villagers buy New Year's goods are passing by in front of their house, these days is also a good time to sell Spring Festival couplets.

　　The first day was the hardest, for a person who had never been far away, had never seen much of the world, and to be precise, had not really stepped into society, the difficulties encountered were much more difficult than I imagined. Early in the morning, I rode a bicycle with red paper and ink to the destination, and I didn't care about the cold wind invading my thin body, and rode the bike quickly, and when I arrived at the village street, the sky was not completely bright, there was no one on the street, and the door of Chen's second house was not opened. I knocked on the door. I went in and sat on the stove at their house and roasted it. I told him what I thought. He lifted a square table outside and brought me a chair. I set up my stall and waited anxiously for my customers to arrive, the weather was gloomy, the northwest wind was blowing, and it was likely to snow in a few days.

　　It was almost ten o'clock when there were people on the streets, and I knew that the couplets were also on sale at this time. Occasionally, a few pedestrians came over to ask for the price, and they all walked away again. At about eleven o'clock, an uncle came over, dressed in neat and clean clothes, gray hair, with a kind face with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and he didn't ask the price, but looked at the couplet I wrote seriously, and I saw the opportunity to ask, "Uncle, do you buy the couplet?" The uncle looked at me seriously and said, "Get me 12 pairs." I looked at the two sentences selected by the uncle and quickly wrote two pairs of the door and the back door for the uncle, and the uncle said: "You baby calligraphy is good." Uncle smiled and nodded, after leaving, I was cold all morning, all of a sudden hot and hot, so excited, although 14 couplets sold for 6.3 yuan, but this is my hard work and dedication, is a recognition of doing this, I am very grateful to the strange, kind and amiable uncle.

　　While I was happy, I suddenly saw a familiar face in the crowd, yes, it was him, walking towards me from not far away, he was my high school teacher. When I saw him coming from my side, my face turned red to the base of my ears, and I hurriedly twisted my head in other directions, my heart beat faster, pretending not to see him, hoping that he would not see me, and walk past me as soon as possible. Indeed, when he saw me and he came over, he realized that for me who was not yet 20 years old, I felt that setting up a stall was not a decent thing, and my inner inferiority complex and timidity were my biggest difficulties. Teacher Gao walked up to me and said, the ink is frozen, can you write it on paper? I stood up and looked at Mr. Gao, not knowing what to say. Just as Chen Lao Er walked out of the door, Mr. Gao asked him to bring a cup of vinegar, and added some vinegar to the ink, and the ink couldn't freeze. Mr. Gao wrote dozens of couplets in one go. He took a few of them, put five bucks on my desk and left.

　　The sun was about to set, and I never sold a couplet again. I woke up early in the morning and didn't eat, and now I'm hungry and shivering with cold, and I'm getting ready to go home. In the morning, the master appeared again, and he brought three uncles of the same age, and the three of them also happily picked up the couplets that they liked, and this time sold 20 pairs, earning 12 yuan.

　　In winter, it was less than 5 o'clock, it was almost dark, and there were very few pedestrians on the road.

Since the first day of the sale, the second day began to be a little familiar with the road, slowly not afraid of other people's eyes, bold, but also dare to shout loudly, will also ask for a bargain, because of my enthusiasm, careful, the next few days of business is still very good, to the thirtieth month of the month, earned more than 200 yuan, sold the rest of the couplets I have to friends and relatives.

At that time, 200 yuan was a lot of money, how important it was to me, and in the afternoon of the thirtieth, I bought more than a dozen catties of pork, vermicelli, firecrackers and other items. When I got home, my mother saw me buying a big bag of New Year's goods and asked, "Baby, where did you get the money, why did you buy so many things?" I said, I earned it by selling Spring Festival couplets." That year, I wrote the money to buy the Spring Festival couplets, and I spent a year with my mother, when I was eighteen years old, and the perseverance to endure hardships and stand hard work at that time, the will to work hard, is now almost impossible to find in me.

I also know that the calligraphy I write is very ugly, and I really can't take it out, and I have never sold Spring Festival couplets again. Although I have forgotten the difficult days at that time, due to economic constraints, I gave up calligraphy practice and fell in love with literary creation, but I also achieved some achievements in literature.

(About the author: Wang Qiang, a native of Yanhe Village, Mingyong Town, Ganzhou District, is the first peasant writer in Ganzhou District to be absorbed by the members of the Gansu Writers Association.) His works have been published in newspapers and periodicals such as "Flying Sky", "Yellow River Literature", "Short Stories", "Youth", "Young Writers", and "Xi'an Evening News". ）