The weather in Linxi town

When you put aside stubbornness and fear and go over mountains to find someone, it will be a life full of weeds.

So some people say that if you go too far, you will always forget the purpose of coming.

? -Tianya.

……

In the 1970s, the world was stable and grounded, regardless of the distant ratio of 100 yuan to 10 yuan.

Just like those years, when I was ten years old, I took my brother to the market and found a dollar. I was as happy as finding a huge sum for a long time.

I grew up in that family.

But Linxi is different from me.

The year I met him was the first time a country bumpkin went to Beijing to learn his craft in the 1980s.

When I was a sophomore, I really couldn't learn physics well because I broke the school flowerpot and was afraid of being recorded by the principal. I was sent to Beijing by my mother to learn tailoring.

In those years, clothing technology has not yet reached full automatic mechanization, and clothing factories mostly rely on manual sewing machines to operate.

Being rushed to Beijing by my mother in a thousand words became my first trip in my life.

When I got off the train, I was so capable that I simply carried a bag and searched for my best friend Song Xiaozhi in the crowd. She promised to pick me up.

But before I looked around and found her face, I saw a boy carrying a travel bag half a head taller than him at the exit. My name is written in black and white on the back of my backpack.

That was the first time I met Linxi. There is no typical Beijinger, but what he said is an authentic Beijing film.

In my memory, the 19-year-old imperial city doesn't seem to be cold. After exchanging pleasantries, Linxi settled me in a small courtyard, not far from the hutong where he lived.

At that time, I learned the craft of cutting in a venue in Beijing, and I could also help make some clothes.

On weekends, when we have a rest, Linxi always comes to chat in the name of friends who visit friends, or we will go to see the street view of old Beijing.

I don't like snacks, so most of the time, we go to the hutongs and parks in old Beijing. Every time Song Xiaozhi comes, Linxi and I always stop him for no reason.

Linxi told me that he is not a real Beijinger. Since he came to Beijing with his parents to do clothing business at the age of two, he has taken root in Beijing, so he can speak fluent Beijing dialect.

Knowing that this was my first time in Beijing, Linxi specially took a day off from school and chose an afternoon in a week to take me to Tiananmen Square.

At noon that year, people around Tiananmen Square were not as crowded as they are now.

After strolling around the door, Linxi patted my arm and asked, "Do you want to go to Chairman Mao Memorial Hall?" You should be able to see the respect of the chairman! "

I stared at my big round eyes and followed Linxi to get the ticket in disbelief.

When checking in, I looked up at the glory that has come through thousands of years. People coming and going actually felt the distance for the first time.

Just as I was immersed in my own thoughts, Linxi suddenly knocked on my forehead: "What's the matter? Are you afraid? "

I looked up at his angular chin and smiled contemptuously: "What are you afraid of? ! Never afraid, courageous! "

It was the most extraordinary day of my first visit to Beijing.

Just like Linxi wrapped in a woolen coat, she suddenly appeared in front of me across half of China. She was pleasantly surprised.

Every week after that, I still went to the factory to learn technology and make clothes.

Occasionally, Linxi can join the team and sit next to my sewing machine and chat with my parents. Take me to appreciate the local customs of Greater Beijing at the weekend.

At that time, there lived an old lady in the alley where Linxi lived. I used to water the flowers in front of the old people when I visited them. Day after day, I gradually got to know them.

The old lady often invites Linxi, Song Xiaozhi and I to eat jiaozi together.

Perhaps it is out of some special memory, so from then on, Beijing gave me the impression of being as warm and elegant as the friends I met.

This plain and secure life lasted for a year.

A year later, my academic achievements have reached the point where my boss invited me to stay and work.

Unfortunately, my mother also brought me a letter of condolence from home.

But I grew up under the strict requirements of my mother, and it is the imperial edict that I respect my mother's life.

The day before I left, I just dragged Linxi to find a remote shop to eat hot pot.

Winter fog and rolling steam blurred Linxi's face sitting opposite me. It also covers the fog in my eyes.

"You usually talk so much, why don't you say a word today?"

Linxi ate and confused spit out such a sentence.

Then the atmosphere between us was deadlocked for a few seconds.

In those few short seconds, I decided not to tell him that I was going home.

"Maybe I didn't sleep well yesterday, so I don't want to talk to you today."

Linxi stopped to stare at me with chopsticks and continued to chew the smell outside Beijing.

The next day, after greeting Song Xiaozhi, he left.

When he left, he asked Song Xiaozhi if he wanted to come back with me. Xiao Zhi said that Beijing has her dreams and friends, and she wants to stay here.

I got on the return train as when I came, looking at the familiar retrogressive scenery outside the window. I thought that from that moment on, I would wave with the people here and the memories here, and there would be no intersection.

After returning home, under the careful planning of my mother, I opened a cram school at home to teach girls around me to cut clothes.

Because of this, I can earn a little extra money unexpectedly after reviewing.

In those days, because my family was still a prostitute, I taught my students to give all the money I earned in a month to my mother, leaving only a little money for my own pocket money.

In those days, I was scared and felt quite at ease.

Occasionally I will think of all kinds of people and things I met in Beijing. I wonder what Linxi will be doing, whether the flowers in the old lady's house are blooming, or what Song Xiaozhi will come back to do. Maybe I can hear about Linxi again from her mouth. ...

It was not until the first snow that winter that the students I took became less and less because of the weather. I just suspended classes that season.

The snow on the surface had not begun to melt that morning.

When the sun came out at noon, I took the quilt that had been left for several days and went out to bask in the sun.

The moment I opened the door, Linxi stood in the snow wearing the dark brown woolen coat I first met him, like a hipster in Beijing.

"How do you go also don't say with me? Not even goodbye? I have known you for so long! Too boring! "

Linxi conveniently took off the smoky scarf around her neck, repeated the address she got from Song Xiaozhi, and revised it with me.

I know, with four-fifths of the wrong address, he should have walked a long way to get here.

I took Linxi for a walk that day and looked at the place where I grew up.

In winter, when the streets melt, mud is deposited in the water.

Linxi suddenly stopped and asked, "When will you go back to Beijing? You can't always stay at home and forget your old job! "

I looked at Linxi's smiling face through the night, and the familiar angle seemed to overlap with the one I looked up at in the memorial hall that day.

"I may not go back. ...

Promise my mother. Well, I may not go back to Beijing ... "

I didn't see Linxi again the next morning.

There is only one letter waiting for me on the table in the empty room.

I approached and lingered for a long time, and finally opened the letter.

The handwriting on the letter is flying like a dragon and a phoenix, but there are only two simple words: treasure

I watched the door open and chased it far away, and my legs were covered with melted mud at that time, but I knew that probably nothing would help.

The weather improved after Linxi left. I continue to teach in the town.

After a year like this, I finally saved enough money to travel to Beijing again.

When I carried my bag in and out of the familiar alley again, I saw the old lady who planted flowers that year, but I never saw Linxi again.

The old lady told me that the Linxi family moved away six months ago, as if they were going back to their hometown to get engaged to their son. Specifically, she knows nothing.

That morning, I went to Tiananmen Square again.

Two years later, in the late autumn, I stood in front of the memorial hall for half an hour in a beige jacket sent by Linxi, but I never set foot in it again.

The glazed tiles in the red buildings make my eyes ache.

The autumn wind with the chill of winter is shrinking around me.

I was still in a daze when Song Xiaozhi came with his luggage.

"Tianya, do you really never come again? Alas, it's good to go back. You don't have to float all the time. I'm going back soon, too. Enough shopping ... "

When I left that day, I forced Song Xiaozhi and I to go back to Tiananmen Square and take a photo as a souvenir.

Song Xiaozhi is puzzled, but he can only answer me.

……

Many years later, my daughter dug out a picture of me standing in Tiananmen Square wearing a jacket and smiling.

Looking at the old place that has passed for a long time, the memories of the past rushed past like a flood.

It's just that there are no ripples for Linxi and me.

Maybe the connection between us has been broken since I first decided to leave Beijing.

So all the memories and fate, also with that season, the mountain is high and the road is far, there will be no future. ...