Painting the Soul (short story) Zhang Baotong 2016.8.23

Every 3rd, 6th and 9th of the lunar calendar is the day when the local Dai people gather together. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info When the day comes, people will flock to the streets of the town from all directions. In fact, the streets of the town are very narrow, a street paved with bluestone slabs is less than 200 meters long and about four or five meters wide. The streets are lined with two-story attics made of planks and bamboo. Because of age, the attic has become old and discolored. At the east end of the street there is a splendid pagoda. It was a place where the Dai people often went to worship. On the day of the market, the mountain people of the villages and villages bring their home-made and made items to the market in baskets, burdens or small wheelbarrows to trade. The market is a thriving scene.

Men and women who have nothing to do will also take advantage of this time to go shopping and shopping for goods. Moreover, those Dai girls who have reached the age of marriage will cook the yellow stewed chicken early in the morning, and then dress themselves up beautifully and bring the roasted yellow stewed chicken to the market. This marks that they are free to choose Lang Jun. They went to the market, found a more conspicuous place to put the roasted yellow stewed chicken in front of them, and then sat on a small bamboo chair, waiting for their sweetheart to come. This custom is known as "driving the yellow stewed chicken" in the Dai people.

The young men who were old enough to find a partner would also come to the bazaar at this time, walking around and watching, and if they had taken a fancy to the girl, they could come up and talk to her. If the girl is in love, the pot of yellow stewed chicken is the food in the young man's mouth. The girl would hand the boy a stool and let him sit beside her. At this time, the young man said, "We have a saying in the Dai family: eating together is fragrant, lifting together is light, come and eat together, the chicken will be more fragrant." The girl said, "We also have a saying in the Dai family: let go to eat is fragrant, let go to be profitable, there are many people here, so let's just carry it to the forest to eat." "After eating chicken, a marriage is settled. If the girl doesn't like the young man, she won't go to the woods with the young man, and even if she goes to the woods, after the young man eats the roast chicken, the girl will ask for a sky-high price, and the other party feels that the words are not speculative, so she will leave with interest.?

On this day, Ding Shaoguang finished breakfast, and when he was idle, he wanted to take a walk around the market and learn a lot about the customs and customs of the local Dai people. He walked alone along a path on the edge of the cottage that could cross a wheelbarrow, through dense forests, over dams, and following the women in beautiful dresses and the men in new clothes, towards the other side of the town. After bypassing two peaks three or four hundred meters high, we entered a relatively wide road. This road is the road from Menghan Town to the county seat. After walking about four or five miles on the road, I entered the small town of Menghan.

Menghan is a small town covered with natural vegetation, full of lush woods and fruit groves. It is not far from the border between China and Myanmar, and many relatives are on the other side of the border, so you can also buy many Burmese goods in the bazaar. At this time, it was already nine o'clock in the morning, and the market was at its most bustling, and the narrow streets were crowded with people. The hustle and bustle of selling and bargaining rang out. Ding Shaoguang didn't plan to buy anything, he just wanted to take a look, look for some themes that could help him create, and by the way, see if there was anything he needed to buy.

In fact, he is not good at shopping, and he has very limited items in his daily life. Grain and cooking oil are distributed by the team, vegetables can be grown in their own plots, and it is a big deal to buy some chicken, meat and bamboo shoots to improve their lives once in a while. And the most he buys are paper and oil paint. It was essential for him to paint. However, he still had a lot of paper and oil paints from the last time, and he was not in a hurry to buy them, so he quickly walked around the market, wanting to buy some meat or bamboo shoots, because he hadn't eaten meat for a month or two.

When you walk to the other end of the market, there are no buildings or shops, but a few large trees scattered around. The temperature in spring is still a little cool, and the breeze blows from the forest next to the street, which makes people feel a little cool. But the sun was shining brightly, shimmering slowly in the sky, casting a warm golden glow on the open spaces in the streets and on the trees. It makes people feel very warm and warm.

Ding Shaoguang came to the street, because there are often some mountain people who sell raw chickens or roast chickens. The chicken they make is delicious. Therefore, he will come over almost every month to buy one to improve his life and satisfy his cravings.

However, he did not see the mountain people selling raw chickens and roast chickens, but he saw some Dai girls who were very brightly dressed and beautiful, sitting under the big trees, with a casserole of stewed meat in front of them, and the faint aroma spread from afar, which was very attractive. He thought that they were out to sell roast chicken, but what puzzled him was that when they came out to sell roast chicken, why did they wear such a new and beautiful dress, as if they were going out on a blind date.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he saw a very handsome girl. The girl was about seventeen or eighteen years old, and she wore a short blond blouse, wide breasts and a thin waist, and a beautiful skirt. The neatly coiled bun is adorned with a string of ornaments that resemble golden grapes. There was such a delicate and beautiful girl in this cottage, which made his eyes suddenly sucked. At this time, the girl saw him too, and was looking straight at him with that shallow smile.

He recognized that the girl was none other than the girl in the "Beauty Bathing Picture" he had painted that evening. It's just that the long, flowing hair is not draped over one shoulder, but on the top of the head. The dress was also dressed more beautifully than it was that day. There was no solemn anger on his face, but a kind of spring light. Immediately he remembered that wonderful summer twilight, the calm water was sprinkled with brilliant sunsets, and a beautiful girl came out of the water with her naked ketones, and her hair flowed down like a waterfall, like a fairy coming out of the water.

He plucked up the courage to go under the tree, walked up to the girl, and asked, "Do you still know me?"

The girl blushed and said, "Why don't you know each other, you also come to the market?"

He said, "It's okay to come out and walk around."

She let out an "oh" and smiled at him again.

He asked, "Are you selling this chicken?" he asked, pointing to the chicken next to her. Because he wanted to buy her roast chicken to express his apologies to her that day.

But the girl said, "No, if you are hungry, you can eat." ”

When Ding Shaoguang heard her say this, he smelled the fragrance wafting from the jar. The smell was so tempting, but no, he hadn't eaten meat in two months. When he smelled this, he really felt a little hungry. So, he joked, "Then you're welcome." ”

The girl smiled and said, "Eat it." As he spoke, he took out a small chair for him to sit and eat.

In fact, this seventeen or eighteen-year-old Dai girl is called Yujuan, and she is the flower of flowers among the three most famous local beauties. It's not that there are no guys to buy the yellow braised chicken today, but the price of the chicken she sells is too high, so high that I don't know how many guys are scared away. And the local guys also know that Yujuan's eyes are very high, and if it's not a talented guy, he doesn't dare to walk in front of her. In fact, just a few minutes ago, a handsome local student who was very outstanding came to her and asked her if she sold her chickens. She says sell, but you can't afford it. The guy asked what the price was. She said a chicken for two yuan a chicken, but she said a hundred yuan a chicken. When the young man heard this, he was startled, shook his head, and walked away very boringly.

And Ding Shaoguang's appearance was indeed beyond her expectations. Ever since she met this Han youth by the river, Kao Yujuan's heart has been beating from time to time. She knew that the young man who painted was a member of the neighboring team, and she heard that he was also a teacher at the Yunnan Art Institute. As soon as she thought of him, she took out the "Picture of a Beautiful Woman Bathing in the Bath" from under her pillow, and the more she looked at it, the more she felt that he had drawn it so well, and painted her like a fairy. She longed for the day when she could sit in the woods with him, facing a pot of braised yellow chicken, the two of them frowned, chatted while eating, like a pair of lovers, heart-to-heart, and affectionate. However, she knew that it was impossible to do it as much as a daydream. Because he is a university teacher, he may have to go back to the big city one day. And she will always be just a phoenix in this dam. So, when the young university teacher came up to her and asked her for braised chicken, she couldn't believe her ears and felt like she was daydreaming again.

Ding Shaoguang saw that the girl really wanted him to eat chicken, so he said again, "I really want to eat it." ”

The girl said, "If you want to eat, you're welcome." ”

Ding Shaoguang sat on a small chair and began to eat chicken. The girl sat down in front of him, watching him eat deliciously, not to mention how happy she was, and her big eyes kept flickering at him. Ding Shaoguang was a little embarrassed to be looked at by the girl like this, and said with a red face, "You can eat it too, otherwise, I won't be able to eat it alone." ”

"All right," said the girl, and sat down beside him and ate slowly with him. The two of them chatted and laughed as if no one was eating chicken in the market. They were all very happy.

After eating the chicken, the girl said, "It's still early, let's go play in the grove ahead?"

With such a delicate and beautiful girl, Ding Shaoguang immediately happily agreed. However, when he was about to follow the girl towards a verdant grove not far away, he heard someone calling his name, "Shaoguang, what are you doing?"

Ding Shaoguang was puzzled, because no one knew him in the local area, and no one knew his name. He turned his head and saw that it was Xie Guangrui, a middle school teacher who had been sent from Kunming to the local area with him. Xie Guangrui is also a young man, two years older than him, because his father used to be an officer under Wang Longyun in Yunnan, so he was also listed as a delegated officer. However, he is now working as a teacher at Jingshan Mountain Village Primary School, not far from Dayu Cottage, where Ding Shaoguang lives. Ding Shaoguang went to him to sketch and chat. Therefore, the two are like a pair of brothers.

Ding Shaoguang saw Xie Guangrui calling him, so he said to the girl, "I'm sorry, I want to have something to do, I'm out of company, thank you for your hospitality." Then he ran to Xie Guangrui and said, "Why are you here too?"

Xie Guangrui said, "I just went to the commune for a meeting, and I stopped by to walk around the market. As he spoke, he asked, "What's new lately?"

Ding Shaoguang said, "Anyway, there are a lot of paintings, but none of them are satisfactory." In fact, there was only one that made him very satisfied, but it made the girl leave.

Xie Guangrui said, "Let's go, go to me, I'll let Yurong cook two dishes, and let's drink together." ”

Ding Shaoguang said, "Okay. However, when he turned around to go with Xie Guangrui, he saw that the girl was still standing under the big tree waiting for him. He had no choice but to wave at her, indicating that he was going to break up with her. (To be continued.) )