Jia Pingwa's short story: Butcher Liu Chuanhai

As soon as I saw the yellow beard on my lips, I recognized him; He saw me, too, and his eyes were smiling like flesh, and he ran towards me with a dead smiling face. I habitually stretched out my hand, and he stood in front of me, but put both hands "double" in his sleeve: "No, no, the peasants don't like this!" I blushed. The year before last, I held a variety of business on-site meetings in Zhen'an County, he was a representative of Zhashui County, we lived in a hotel, and when we laughed and laughed, I once joked that we were more particular about being cadres: we had to shake hands when we met, and we had to say goodbye when we met...... Now, I am vigilant and try to avoid some Mandarin words, for example, I just said "I came to this Liujiayuan last night", and I hurriedly said: "I went to the brigade at night". Otherwise, he'd choreograph me to say I was "from the bowl."

"Go to the house!" He said, pointing to the three tiled houses at the entrance of the village. "My daughter is at home, and when you go, you can say your name and say that you have seen me. It's really not a coincidence, the north of the village came to Shun's house to kill pigs, and I invited it a few times. I answered. The personnel should be small, the wrong personnel is big, the moon is wrong for an hour, and the price of meat on the market is high and low, and the price is wrong! As he spoke, he uncovered the bamboo cage he was holding in his right hand, and there were pig-killing sharpets, machetes, pumice stones, iron hooks, and so on.

"What are you still doing?" I say.

"What's the solution? Everyone has to eat meat during the New Year, and someone has to kill the pigs. Let's go in with white knives and come out with red knives, and we can't do this thing for long, I think one day when I get to the netherworld, those pig ghosts will chop me off the oil pot with a knife. But then again, the pig heaven makes a dish for people, just like raising a woman when she grows up, she is someone else's family. Aren't you a book writer, the year before last you pestered me to tell you some flower cases, this time I'll tell you again, I am now a member of the security committee, in these four towns and eight villages, you inquire and inquire, when that kind of thing happens, which one covers our eyes? "

He's still such a talker, and I'm happy. The daughter-in-law of a family in the north of the village shouted from afar: "Second uncle, the water is boiling, why are you so worried that you can't leave?!" He winked at me and scolded, "Fuck you!" I don't know who is concerned? Then he whispered to me, "See? This is the daughter-in-law of Laishun, everyone said yes, and found out, this little fox and the big water at the intersection of the west of the village is good, the new sweet potatoes in the autumn came, left her husband and children, took two hot sweet potatoes and the big water to eat behind the wall of the old man's temple at the entrance of the village. With that, he scolded and ran away.

I found his house, and there was a large field in front of the door, and along the edge of the field were a few piles of wheat straw like the foreskins of a small hill, and the wind was blowing, and a few blades of grass were rolled into balls, and they were rolling up to the door of the earthen walled yard. The yard is empty, my friend has already told me that his wife died five years ago, leaving a daughter to him, life is not good for a few years, now that the daughter is older, it is more relaxed, and there are people inside and outside. In addition to killing pigs, he giggles and plays fast all day. I walked into the yard and deliberately stepped on my feet, but there was still no answer, and I saw smoke and steam spewing out of the kitchen window, so I shouted: "Is there anyone?" "

"Who?" A cloud of heat erupted from the kitchen door, and when the heat dissipated, I saw a girl standing, with fine skin and white flesh, bangs, and eyebrows, and the water vapor immediately condensed into droplets. I said my name, and I said that I had seen her father, and she was so happy that she pulled me into the house. It turned out that she was steaming buns. The twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth days of the lunar month in Shangzhou are particular about steamed buns, and she has steamed out a few pots, and Bai Tengteng put a basket of puff baskets, and grabbed a few of them for me with both hands:

"My dad used to talk about you, and said that you loved to listen to him the most. Do you eat it, and see if the steamed alkali is even? "

When I asked about their family background, she nagged about his father's no, saying that he was nosy, and that he was good when he was good, and he was not good when he was bad, and that he was in his fifties, so that the young people in the village did not love him.

"What's going on?"

"What do you say about him! He is always dissatisfied that young people nowadays are not serious, and there is no matchmaker when it comes to love...... When I got home, I grunted while eating. Of course, I don't like to listen to it, so I resisted, and he got angry, saying that I don't understand anything, and adults have grown up with and urine, and now they don't listen to the instructions? Accusing me of not being a little doll now, but becoming an adult. He said, 'You turned your face?' Ha! If you don't listen to the old man, you will suffer! Sometimes when I scold people, I am so angry that I don't eat, and when I want to eat, I will scold me for being unproductive, sitting in a way that is not a girl's seat, and eating and devouring. I had no choice but to sit down, and as he listened, tears began to flow, and he scolded again: 'Eat your meal, take your chopsticks!' Aha! …… Are you crying? You unteachable! 'Look at him like this?! I'm afraid that I have killed too many pigs, and people's psychology has also changed their minds! "

I laughed and said that his father was not in his seventies or eighties, but the new thing was still so unsightly?

"No! Treat me to death for a day, today is the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, here is the set, I said to go to the set to see, he roared roughly, let me be at home, said a big girl's house, crazy in front of people is not a system. Ah, the bun is ripe! "

She shouted, jumped up, went to the pot, patted the lid with both hands, and shouted, "Long! Long! Then he lifted the lid of the cage with a bang, and the room was so white that he could not see anything clearly, except that she exclaimed, "Too good! It's all blown up! Then she blew one breath at a time, and the heat gradually dissipated, and she scooped the water in the bucket with a loud voice, dipped the water, and brought a bun out of the cage like a dance. Shangzhou people do not have many white noodles, and they often add white grain noodles to the steamed buns, and the buns are very particular about bursting. She finished moving the bun and dipped her chopsticks in red paper and dotted it on the top of the bun one by one. Let me eat another one while it's hot.

After steaming three pots in a row, and when everything was cleaned up, she asked me to sit in the sun in the courtyard, and went to the box in the upper room to get a new pair of cloth shoes. The sole of the shoe contained a dense hemp rope eye, and the gang was also stiff, and the whole shoe was as strong as an iron shell, so it was last with a wooden last. The last was so tight that it couldn't fit in, so I poured some water and tapped it lightly with a hammer

"This is your father's New Year's shoes?"

"It's done for my dad."

"Whose is that?"

"Mine. Oh, you smoke! "

She blushed, and said that she went to the next door to do some errands, and left. The wall between the two houses was not high, and I saw her standing in the courtyard of that house, shouting to the window to buy a cloth card, "What price are you?" "Do you sell it?" You're a seller, you say. "It's a dime a dozen in the bazaar." "But you're my sister-in-law!" "And what do you say?" "A dime, a foot." "That's just a glance." "Sanmao!" "You have that generosity?" "If you don't sell less, if you don't sell more, how much do you want?" "Dime five." "Okay, anyway, I gave it to outsiders, so I let my sister-in-law make a fortune!" The two of them handed over the money with one hand and the certificate with the other, and then said: "Sister, you tell the truth to your sister-in-law, if you give your good friend a good tear, I will give you for nothing, and you can tell your sister-in-law ......" "Listen to it!" I don't have a good match, you can find me one! Shhhhh They looked this way, and I hurriedly lowered my head.

Later, when she came back, she asked me if I would go to the market, and if I did, I would go with her, and if I didn't go, I would guard the door at home. Of course I went, and she carried me and wrapped the shoe in cloth and tucked it under her arm.

The bazaar was huge, and the narrow avenue was crowded with people, and the girl asked me to follow her first to buy window paper. She picked the paper very carefully, to be smooth, even, touched it one by one with her hands, and put it in front of her eyes to shine on the sun. I bought the white ones, then the red ones, the green ones, the yellow ones. The most elaborate decoration of the house here is the window, the white paper is all pasted, and the middle grid is the place where the craftsmanship is expressed, one is red, one is green, and one is yellow. The window grille is absolutely colorful, dozens of knives, where to add, where to go, where to transmit light, a total of carved on a piece of paper, then dyed, and then coated with wine, daylight penetrates, night light shines on, bright and dazzling, charming and lovely.