Author / Flagship
Hangzhou in April is the most beautiful and poetic season. The locust blossoms bloomed under the apartment in Times Square, my temporary residence in Hangzhou, and I wandered under the locust trees, intoxicated by the strings of flowers and the bursts of incense.
When I was in elementary school, my family was in Jiangsu. It is the age of hazy understanding, accidentally read a novel from Anhui literature, although the plot has long been blurred, but the text depicts the Hefei ring road, that strings into pieces, white as snow, fragrant and fragrant acacia flowers, but bloomed brilliantly in my childhood memory, I kneaded Hefei and acacia flowers together in my heart. Life is really a coincidence, but I didn't expect that a few years later, our family moved to this city surrounded by locust trees with my father.
Hefei Ring Road
In the mid-70s, I graduated from high school in Hefei and went to a small barren village on the banks of the Huai River. The heavy work and hard life, as well as the uncertainty about the future, made me 17 years old melancholy and confused. Zhang Guizi, a strong and enthusiastic young man, was a good friend of mine, and he gave me a lot of help. In April, during the busy farming season, I went to the fields with him at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and did not return to the village until 11-12 o'clock in the middle of the night. Although I only do chores, and the oxen and plow the land are all the work of a crutch, at the end of the day, I only feel that my whole body is scattered, and I go back to my hut, and I am stuck in bed motionless, and I don't even bother to make dinner.
It was Zhang who often brought me food from home. As soon as I lay down in the middle of the night, I heard him shout from afar: "Quick, get up, the people in the city will give you something to eat." I looked at the big bowl of mush he was holding in front of me, and smiled wryly: "Isn't it just gnocchi?" "Taste it, it's delicious, and make sure you don't eat enough." I took the bowl, and a familiar fragrance poured into my mouth and nose, and when I devoured a large bowl of gnocchi into my stomach. Only then did I remember to ask: "It's really fragrant, what is it made of?" Zhang Zhu dragged me out of the door, pointed to the locust trees in the village that had crowded the courtyards, roads, and ditches, and said, "That's it, acacia flowers." ”
I saw it and was stunned, and the locust flowers all over the village and trees were blooming. It was the fifteenth and sixth day of the lunar calendar, a round of white swaying and a bit of dazzling moon, hanging high in the air, the small village seemed to be immersed in the silver water, the high and low locust trees were hung with silver bright locust flowers, the air was soaked with sweet fragrance, and the small village hidden in the thick shade of the locust tree seemed to become a fairy tale castle in a dream. At that moment, I realized that my surroundings were not always gloomy and bitter. Later, I became a soldier, and after changing jobs, I returned to Hefei, and traveled all over the famous mountains and rivers of the motherland, and read the beautiful scenery of the world, but what really made me remember was the scene on a moonlit night in the small village: when I think about it, I seem to be able to smell the sweet fragrance of flowers, and the cool and bright moonlit night.
I'm in love. Often after work, I go to the ring road and press the road with my girlfriend. When the locust flowers are in full bloom, they prefer to pull her into the fragrant locust forest. At that time, the tree species on the ring road of Hefei were single, and few peach blossoms and magnolias were called precious flowers and trees at that time, and it seemed that only the locust flowers were in full bloom in late spring. After a few springs in the busy work and study, my love has become a positive fruit like a locust tree, I married my lover, had children, and lived a calm and ordinary life.
In the early 90s, I didn't want to live a mediocre life, so I made one of the biggest gambles in my life, left the original stable and comfortable public institution, resigned and went to Guangzhou. Almost penniless, I rented a rental village in the city of Sanyuanli, with the escort lady and those roosters and dog thieves, wandering alone in the business world, almost not going home all year round, that time can be said to have experienced loneliness, poverty, and countless survival pressures that I have never experienced in my life. After my career went well, in order to survive better in the cruel competition, and because of my work, I would go to Beijing every few months to apply for approval to introduce edition numbers or produce all kinds of new audio and video programs.
Studio
When I have free time in Beijing, I invite actors, singers, performers, recording engineers, leaders of various ministries and commissions, and friends from all walks of life to eat and drink in various restaurants, and often go home drunk.
I remember that it was very difficult to make a record album program at one time, a top singer at the level of a big name in the military, because I pointed out in front of everyone that she had sung a word in her song incorrectly, read a different word, and had to sing it again. The singer felt that she had lost face, and she actually played a big temper, and she didn't want to listen to me correct her mistakes, and she scolded and scolded in her mouth. I used to be a soldier, and I lost my temper, and I immediately told her to get out. She was really obedient, so she simply picked her son and left without singing.
When I calmed down, I regretted it, I felt that although she was wrong, but I also handled the problem inappropriately, if I could calmly communicate with her privately and make a kind reminder, I would not let her feel that she had lost face and scolded. What's more shouldn't be that he still played tricks with her, scolded people and told her to get out. If she really rolls away and no longer cooperates with the recording of the rest of the program, I will lose more than 100,000 or 200,000 yuan, which is a lot of money.
In order to save face on both sides, I could only invite other young singers, recording engineers, and musicians to go to dinner and drink, and secretly signaled to ask them to help me mediate.
The meal made me so drunk that my friends sent me back to the Hardgate Hotel after the meal, and it was the middle of the night when I got back to the hotel. I don't know why, I didn't sleep like a dead man after getting drunk as before, I woke up from a hangover, I was depressed for a while, I got up and pushed open the window of the hotel, and with the silver moonlight, there was the familiar fragrance that poured into the room, and the acacia flowers under the hotel window bloomed.
At that moment, my aggrieved tears welled up, I had been away from Hefei for many years, and I was homesick. Although he chose freedom, he also gained freedom, and he earned the first pot of gold in his life. What is to lose? I do not know.
At the end of 2003, I took a bigger gamble in my life and ran a group of companies with a few friends to United States the NASDAQ listing. However, due to various factors such as politics, piracy, and the right time and place, after a few years of operation, I tried all my energy, scattered hundreds of millions of money, and finally failed to land on the NASDAQ of United States on the other side of the ocean, and failed to become the envied rich man in people's eyes. The end is back to the beginning, and I'm a penniless pauper again.
At that time, I couldn't bear to face the home of the duplex building in Guangzhou, which was considered a luxury house, and the old houses that I had lived in at every stage in Guangzhou, and these fixed assets would be sold by me in order to pay off the debt. I don't want to be an old man, I want to be an upright person. As a last resort, I returned to my hometown in Hefei and returned to the small house of the Radio and Television Department of the original unit. I didn't want to see anyone, I didn't want to go anywhere, so I turned off my phone and left the Internet. I shut myself in the house and closed my mind for dozens of days.
Hefei Huancheng Park
Winter turned to spring, and on a moonlit night, I walked alone on the old Huancheng Road, now the Huancheng Park, and smelled the mellow and elegant fragrance of flowers that made me unforgettable, and saw the branches of the old locust tree next to me hanging with white and pearl-like bunches of flowers, and I seemed to feel that I had also recovered from the sting. The old locust trees in the Huancheng Park should be the same as this ancient and young city, which has grown on the ruins of the city wall that was torn off after liberation, and it has been more than 60 years. With the ring road was transformed into a ring park, the road widened, some locust trees were also cut down one after another, leaving these old locust trees that have gone through ups and downs and are accustomed to wind and rain, still standing proudly, although the vigorous branches have recorded the vicissitudes of the years, but they are still in a hurry and happy when the solar term arrives, throwing out the stamens like flying snow in the sky, showing a lively ode to joy.
The years alternate between cold and summer, and life has a cycle of withering and glory. In life, no matter what one pursues, the true return is freedom and peace of mind. In the days when the acacia flowers fell, I found a new coordinate in my life - yes, I want to be a writer! I want to write about my ordinary, but wonderful and resilient life story.
Time is really fast, and I saw the acacia flowers blooming again. This busy day is tranquil and fulfilling.
Written in Hangzhou on April 18, 2019
A recent photo of the author