The English Romantic poet Byron wrote in his work Childe. Harold's Travels writes: "In happy times, who will refuse to experience the life of childhood again."
So when she grew up, Lin Haiyin thought silently and wrote silently. Seeing the camel caravan in the winter sun coming, hearing the slow and pleasant bells, childhood came back to her heart.
Lin Haiyin's "Old Things in Seongnam" is an autobiographical short story that tells the story of the people and experiences yingzi met in her childhood through the memories of Xiaoyingzi's childish eyes, they have a kind Xiuzhen, a bitter girl, a generous thief, an ill-fated Aunt Lan and a simple Song mother. These people have their own misfortunes and eventually parted ways with Ying Zi, but this does not affect Lin Haiyin's nostalgia for his childhood and his longing for the south of Beijing.
At the end of the 1920s, Taiwan was invaded by Japan, and the Ying Zi family, who were not willing to live under the iron hooves of the Japanese Kou, moved to Beijing and lived in the hutongs south of the city, and the young Ying Zi liked to stand at the mouth of the hutongs and do the stupid thing of learning to chew camels under the winter sun.
The first one in this alley is the Hoi An Pavilion. At the entrance of the Hui'an Pavilion, there is often a woman wearing a purple cotton jacket and black velvet, with a row of bangs on her head, combing large braids with oil pines, and a big red velvet rope tied on the braids, she always stands leaning on the door wall, looking like people passing by. Probably because of the winter, the face is white and blue, the tip of the nose is a little red, and the two thin lips are also tightly closed.
Every time she saw Hideko, she was smiling, smiling and waving at her, her eyes were very bright. But just when Ying Zi was about to go to the woman, she was always pulled back by Song Ma, who was working in her house, because the whole alley said that she was a crazy woman, although she just leaned against the door, did not pick up things to eat, did not beat people, but the people in the whole alley still said that she was crazy.
She is XiuZhen, the daughter of The Hoi An Curator Class, who guards the door of the guild hall, and they live in the most street-facing room, and the others live in college students. That year, a poor student named Si Kang lived in the Hui'an Pavilion, and every day Xiuzhen went to send boiling water for Si Kang to wash his face for his father, and after a long time, the two people knew each other and knew each other. One night, after drinking wine from each other, Si Kang took advantage of the wine to let XiuZhen follow him, and Xiuzhen saw that he was honest, saw that he was talented, saw that he knew cold and knew hot, and gave him his body and mind.
Later, Si Kang received a letter from his hometown, saying that his mother was sick and told him to go back quickly, si Kang never came back after this trip, but at this time Xiuzhen already had a child, and the child was born in the autumn when the fragrance of osmanthus flowers was full, so Xiuzhen called her Little Guizi. Unfortunately, as soon as Xiao Guizi was born, she was carried by Xiuzhen's father and mother to qihuamen city roots and thrown away, and Xiuzhen only remembered that there was a green mark in the middle of the back of Xiao Guizi's neck. Xiuzhen, who was pregnant before marriage, lost her lover and lost her child, became everyone's talk after dinner, and Xiuzhen, who sorted out Sikang's luggage every day and looked at the doll holding the big goldfish on the wall in a daze, became a madman in everyone's mouth.
But the innocent and kind Hideko likes this "crazy woman" that everyone calls her, because she loves to smile at Hideko, loves to tell Hideko the story of her and Sikang, and tells Hideko to take her home if she meets her little Keiko.
Full of trust, full of thoughts, full of worries, in exchange for endless sadness.
In addition to Xiuzhen, Hideko also has a good friend in this alley, You'er. She has a short, yellow braid that resembles a puppy's tail. Mama Song always said: "This child looks handsome but handsome, just a little thin, the eyes are too transparent, the old is like water, there are two tear troughs under the eyes." Ying Zi didn't understand the meaning of Song Ma's words, she only knew that she liked Yu'er, and Yu'er was her good friend.
Of course, it is impossible for You'er to play with Ying Zi every day, because she has to hang her throat, follow her father to the overpass to sing, to earn money to raise her parents, if she does not get a reward after singing, when she returns home, She'er will be beaten by her father with a stick, and she will be pulled by her mother to twist her arm hard, so she often has various scars on her body. Later, Yu'er learned that this was not her biological parents, she was just a child they had picked up from the roots of Qihuamen City, and she was leaving, she was going to find her own biological parents.
In the stormy night, she was beaten again and ran to say goodbye to Hideko, Yingzi, who had a high fever, listened to You'er's words, and unconsciously reunited Xiuzhen and You'er's face together, she excitedly went to see the back of Yu'er's neck, sure enough, there was a blue birthmark, Yu'er saw Yingzi's abnormal behavior She was afraid, but was still pulled by Yingzi to Xiuzhen's room in the rain, just a glance, Xiuzhen recognized that this was her little Guizi, she put on new clothes for Xiao Guizi, packed her luggage, and took her to the train to find Sikang in the rain, As a result, the mother and daughter died tragically under the train.
Everything That Xiuzhen experienced, as said in "Like a Person": "What hurts you is not the other party's desperation, but your insistence on fantasies." ”
After experiencing Xiuzhen and You'er, the Ying Zi family moved to the new curtain alley, and her mother told her: "If you want to think about the future, the future things are a new home, a new friend, a new school." ”
At this time, Hideko had already gone to elementary school and began to read and recognize words, and her favorite text she had just learned, "We See the Sea", would be read several times a day at home. But recently, there have been many thieves on the street, and many large families' things have been stolen, and everyone is afraid that their homes will suffer. The Ying Zi family is no exception, and the father who is about to go out is told by his mother to buy a lock and come back. But the thief who stole things was bumped into by Hideko, and it had to start with helping his partner pick up the ball.
There is an overgrown yard near Ying Zi's house, the spooky is abnormal, everyone says that this is haunted, so generally no one dares to go in, a small partner kicked the ball accidentally kicked into the grass, the bold Ying Zi went in to pick up the ball herself, and found a copper plate in the grass, under the copper plate is a neatly folded table blanket with tassels and a very exquisite silk dress, which frightened Xiao Ying Zi and quickly covered it with a copper plate to leave, this matter she did not tell anyone, has been buried in her heart.
A few days later, the inquisitive Hideko came to the abandoned courtyard known as the haunted house again, this time she saw a man in shorts, bald head, thick eyebrows, and thick lips crouching in the grass. She remembered that Uncle Lee, who could see the picture, said that the thick lips were honest people, so she was not afraid and talked to him.
Xiao Yingzi read him "Let's See the Sea" that he studied at school, and he told Xiao Yingzi his story. He said that he had a younger brother and an old mother, who was blinded by his lack of interest, but his brother was a good student, who was the first in the annual examination, had ambitions, and had to cross the ocean to study after he grew up. But he couldn't afford it, because the three of them even had to eat the nest and didn't eat it. This is what he was forced to do in this line of work in exchange.
He asked Hideko, "Do you say I'm a good guy or a bad guy?" Hideko replied, "I don't understand that there are too many good people, bad people, and it's hard to distinguish." "I can't tell the difference between good guys and bad guys, just like I can't tell the difference between the sea and the sky."
Yes, we can't tell the difference between good people and bad people, let alone children! A thief who supports his mother and provides for his brother to study is a good person, but he steals things and is a bad person. What are the measures of good and bad? We have been groping, but we have all used our existing knowledge to draw conclusions to people.
Later, the plainclothes police walked the streets and saw the little golden Buddha that Hideko was playing with in his hand, and arrested the thief through secret investigation, that day Hideko just came home from school, she looked intently at this young man who was bent on reading for her brother, and remembered that they were going to meet together to see the sea.
The era was chaotic, and in addition to bandits and robbers, there were also college students on the streets who were shot in the streets who were constantly making revolutions. Just when everyone was panicking, two people from the Ying Zi family came: Uncle Dexian and Aunt Lan.
Uncle Dexian and they are fellow countrymen, studying at Peking University, with a pair of black-rimmed glasses, and Yingzi's father often said that he was a great new youth. A plate of peanut rice, a plate of sheep's head meat, and four or two roasted knives can talk until midnight. But Hideko didn't like him because he had a long face, he was picky, and every time he came, his mother would be unlucky and make them a Hakka dish that she couldn't cook well.
But Aunt Lan is deeply loved by Ying Zi, she is young and beautiful, and she also loves to take Ying Zi to the Seongnam Amusement Park to play. Don't look at Aunt Lan's smile often, in fact, there is a lot of pain in her heart.
When Aunt Lan was three years old in Suzhou, she sold her for her sick brother and her mother, and at the age of fourteen she was taken from Suzhou to Beijing, where she met many people, and at the age of twenty she followed Old Master Shi, who was more than forty years older than herself, and became an aunt. Five years later, unwilling to waste his youth in that courtyard, he escaped and hid in Hideko's house.
After a long time, Ying zi's father developed a different kind of affection for the young Aunt Lan, and the clever Ying Zi realized this, and she began to match Aunt Lan and Uncle Dexian, saying good things about each other in front of each other, helping them to meet at the Beijing Press, helping them pass notes, and watching movies with them. Later, Aunt Lan dressed up as a student, and Uncle Dexian wrote about why they had met each other, and the two left Beijing together.
Before leaving, Ying zi's father poured himself into a blush and told Uncle Dexian to treat Aunt Lan well. Eiko felt a little sorry for her father from her heart, and she was even more sympathetic.
Since the birth of her brother, Mama Song, who has been staying at Ying Zi's house as a wet nurse, is also a bitter person. The husband did not show up, beat her at every turn, and Mother Song came out to make money on her own.
Mama Song has two children, the little plug and the maid, and usually the little plug is in the countryside to show people cattle, and the maid is still young, so she spends money in the countryside to bring it to people.
Every year, Mother Song's husband would lead a donkey to Yingzi's house and take away Mother Song's money, as well as the clothes and shoes that Mother Song made for her two children. But this year, Song Mama's heart has been uneasy, and after several nights of dreams, Song Mama asked Ying Zi to help her write a letter of peace and ask her husband to bring the child to her next time, but unfortunately her husband still came alone.
Under the pressure of Mother Song, her husband finally confessed that the little plug fell into the river and drowned two years ago while showing cattle to others, and the servant gave it to a carriage driver before he went out of had gate when he carried it back. After this, Mama Song still took good care of Ying Zi's younger siblings, but she could no longer hear the songs sung by Mama Song.
Ying Zi accompanied Mother Song to Find the Servant at Hade Gate, but after half a month of searching, there was no news, and finally Mother Song followed her husband back and prepared to have another son.
In the blink of an eye, Hideko is about to graduate from elementary school. She received the graduation certificate on behalf of all the students and gave a thank-you speech, but her father could not attend the graduation ceremony on the spot, because her father was sick and left them forever, and the oleander in her father's yard fell, and Hideko was no longer a child.
Through Hideko's memories, we experience the innocence and kindness that children cannot say, and also feel the complex emotions of the world under feudal ethics and morality.