Nursing homes, in our impression, should be a calm and quiet place, living with peaceful and indisputable old people, living a peaceful and indifferent life every day. However, the nursing home in the novel "Night Watch" is a different scene: different gangs, different classes of open struggle, mercenary deans do not make enough money, no bottom line, and finally desperate, the protagonist drives a cow to find his abducted fiancée leaves the mountain and enters the city, pretends to be dumb in the nursing home and is entrusted by people to patrol the nursing home at night, and unveils one ulterior secret...
The author Yu Feng arranged this suspenseful story in a nursing home, which is very appropriate. In this era of increasing aging, everyone is inevitably old and may go to a nursing home to grow old, we have no reason to reject such a story, although the plot in the novel may not happen in reality, but the social problems and unfathomable human nature reflected in it are also worth thinking about.
The author's portrayal of the characters is the highlight of the book, and it is also the most attractive place for me. The protagonist is a mountain man who is loved by his heart, and has to come to the city for the love of his heart, to the nursing home on the edge of the city, to see everything is fresh, and the author brings one character to life by depicting what he sees, hears and feels.
For example, when driving a cow to a nursing home, in addition to the elderly who are full of legs and feet, they also smell the breath that belongs to the elderly:
"I smell a strong smell of old people, which is not overbearing, but it disturbs you. It's like you can't smell fish in the water, you only smell it on the shore: fishy is always an ominous sign. In fact, this uneasy atmosphere and feeling also paved the way for the subsequent plot development.
There are also depictions of white-skinned old men fighting each other and yellow-and-black-faced Shi Lao'er. From the perspective of the people driving cattle in the mountains, there are many monkeys in the mountains, and the confrontation between the two groups of people is likened to a monkey confrontation, and we can see a lot of vivid and humorous and ironic depictions: "Shi Lao'er is now proud." The monkey king in the mountains was proud and stretched out his arms to catch lice. Shi Lao'er was more senior than the Monkey King, and he was free to dig his nostrils. Hey, he was really like a decent man, digging out his nostrils and wiping his fingers with a white napkin. I laughed at this paragraph, obviously the behavior of not being able to go on the table, written by Yu Feng, through the eyes of the bull driving, how can it be so charming!
In terms of plot arrangement, there are suspenseful overlaps and plot reversals that suspense novels will have. In the process of reading, I have also been guessing who is behind the scenes, thinking that the guess is not far from ten, and only later did I find that I Too young, too simple, or underestimated the author's ability to conceive the story. When the truth surfaced, I felt like the protagonist driving a cow, like being deceived by the whole world, deceived by the beauty and simplicity that you once believed, deceived by life, and powerless to fight back except to accept the facts. Always think that you are the protagonist of the story, after you are around the source, the wind and water, suddenly find that you are just a pawn that has been used by people, and you are still counting money for others when you are sold, which is really ironic!
The novel reflects many social issues and is thought-provoking. For example, because the Golden Crane Nursing Home is driven by personal interests, the surface scenery is unlimited, but in fact, it has long become a tool to squeeze the elderly and satisfy private interests, and I sincerely hope that the nursing home in real life will never be like this. In addition, the different classes in the Golden Crane Nursing Home look down on each other, and the people at the bottom are oppressed by the upper levels until they are old and die. The fundamental reason for driving cattle and Wu Sanmei eventually parting ways is the difference in personality and values. The name of driving a cow has a very deep meaning, hinting at his simple and pragmatic nature, how can the boy who drives the cow catch up with the third sister who flies away on a plane? Or the cow mother has foresight, knowing that these two babies are not all the way, they can't be together for a long time, and the long pain is not as good as the short pain, so she let the third sister go to the world alone so early. Although driving cattle for her to slowly integrate into the city, but in the process he often feels lost and uneasy, but also has been thinking of although poor but down-to-earth life in the mountains, so in fact, the author arranged for them is the best ending.
The story of "driving cattle" reminds me of a TV series I watched many years ago, "Urban Cattle Herding", before choosing to live in the city, who can predict how the migration from the countryside to the city will bring about earth-shaking changes for themselves? Just like "Night Watch" wants to convey to us: entering the market is risky, driving cattle need to be cautious!