Painting the Soul (short story) Zhang Baotong

After eating a little wine, the marriage between Ding Shaoguang and Yujuan was settled. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 But according to the customs of the Dai people, before the person who loves each other gets married, the man has to work hard in the girl's house for 3 years. Every morning, he went to the well of the village to fetch water, went to the mountains to chop firewood to meet the needs of the whole family, and at night he also went to the rubber forest to help tap rubber. At the same time, the man also had to learn how to make silverware, and he had to make a set of silver jewelry and a silver belt for the girl before the wedding. And silver jewelry and silver belts are very expensive. The unmarried guy can only sleep in the living room of the woman's house every night.

The Han people are patriarchal, while the Dai people are patriarchal. And it is the man who wants to marry into the woman's family. When you get married, you have to pay a lot of dowry. If any family has more sons, they will bankrupt their parents' family. Let Abba and Auntie not be able to hold their heads up in the village. The son has no responsibility to support his parents and has no right to inherit property. Parents are fed by their daughters. Parents who do not have daughters have to live on the donations from the temple when they are old. But women have absolute authority at home, and women have the final say in big and small affairs. But women are very hard, and married women have to take on the heavy responsibility of supporting their families and work in the fields every day. After marriage, men are very leisurely, they only take care of the children at home, do some housework, and get together to smoke and drink tea, play cards and fight cocks when they have time. Otherwise, some people say that the men of the Dai tribe are "slaves for three years and emperors for life." ”

However, Ding Shaoguang is different, because he is a state official and has a salary. Therefore, although he has to work in Yujuan's house for three years, everyone does the work at home. And he just picks up water, chops wood, and has Yujuan by his side every time. In fact, he spent most of his time at Yujuan's house painting his paintings, and every time he painted, Yujuan asked him to be a model. Therefore, this kind of life makes him feel full of the joy of love. Under the nourishment of this love, he felt that the monotonous and boring decentralized life became rich and colorful. In this sweet time, a spark of inspiration flashed in his youthful passion. In addition to his work, he painted a large number of white drawings, and gradually formed his own unique painting style.

That day, the postman brought him a large letter. He opened it and saw that it was the People's Pictorial that had sent him the pictorial of the month. The pictorial published four of his paintings of Dai girls. What a great achievement it would be for one person's work to be published in the People's Pictorial! Moreover, a group of four works was published. I remember when he was a university student at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, once their teacher published only a very small work in the People's Pictorial, and he happily showed it to all his classmates. It was as if it was a major achievement and gain in his life. In comparison, Ding Shaoguang's achievements are not much higher than that teacher.

Yujuan was also very happy to see her portraits published in the pictorial, and showed them to Abba and Aunt and the sisters in the village. provoked the whole village to praise Yujuan for her blessings, and Quaiding Shaoguang for her talent, and she will have a lot of success in the future. Ding Shaoguang was so happy that he bought Yujuan a beautiful dress with the painting salary of 100 yuan he sent. Therefore, every time Yujuan wears this dress, she tells others that Ding Shaoguang bought it for her with the money from painting.

The work was published in the "People's Pictorial", which greatly encouraged Ding Shaoguang, made him more interested in creation, and full of confidence in his ideals. Yujuan didn't let him work in the fields anymore, so she let him stay in the house all day and paint, and whenever she had time, she stayed by his side, watched him paint, or modeled for him. Later, Ding Shaoguang's paintings were published in many provincial and national pictorial magazines.

Maybe it's because Ding Shaoguang is a state official, or maybe it's because they see that Yujuan likes Ding Shaoguang so much, so Yujuan's parents decided to let them get married early. In fact, Ding Shaoguang only worked at Yujuan's house for a little more than a year and a half. Because Ding Shaoguang is alone, his grandparents are old, and his parents have gone to Taiwan, so this kind of marriage depends on him. Moreover, he is a literati scholar and is not good at local customs and habits, so he handed over all the decisions and operations of the marriage to Yujuan's parents. Therefore, his wedding with Yujuan was all handled by Yujuan's family. According to Dai customs, the wedding day should be held at the woman's house first, and then at the man's house. Because Ding Shaoguang's family is not in the local area, the wedding and wedding banquet are only held once at Yujuan's house.

Dai weddings are ancient and simple. According to local customs, the wedding must be held on the bamboo floor of the woman's house. The tethering ceremony is the main content of Dai weddings. A wedding table is set up in a spacious bamboo hall with a top covered with banana leaves, a hat made of banana leaves, and a male and female rooster below. There are also red cloths, white cloths, and banana leaf boxes on the table. The officiant sits at the top of the wedding table, and relatives and friends sit around the table close to the officiant. The bride and groom kneel opposite the officiant, ready to be baptized in the tethering ceremony. After the wedding ceremony is congratulated, the bride and groom grab a lump of glutinous rice from the table, dip it in wine, and dust it around. After that, raise your hands to show your remembrance of your ancestors and the festival. Next, the officiant takes a long white thread from the table and wraps it around the shoulders of the bride and groom from left to right, placing the ends of the thread on the table. Then, a shorter white thread is attached to the newlyweds' wrists. It means that their souls and hearts have been tied together, love each other, and never separate. At the same time, the old people who were sitting there also picked up the white thread, repeatedly tied the thread to the wrists of the newlyweds, and wished them happiness after marriage, giving birth to sons who would plough the fields and build houses, and girls who would weave cloth and plant rice. After the tethering, one chicken on the table was offered to the old man who was reading the greeting, and the other was shared by the young man, wishing them to find the girl they loved as soon as possible.

At the other end of the bamboo building, the host sets up sumptuous delicacies to entertain the guests who come to congratulate them. The bride and groom toast to the guests. At this time, guests often ask various questions for the bride and groom to answer on the spot. The humorous Q&A sometimes caused laughter in the hall, and the atmosphere was unusually enthusiastic. Next, ask the singer to sing. Because the Dai people themselves can sing and dance, young men and women can sing. Everyone sang and sang and began to congratulate and frolic the newlyweds. At this time, those unmarried men and women took the opportunity to sit with their sweethearts, drink and talk to each other, and talk about love.

After a lively day, the lifelong event was finally completed. A large rock fell to the ground. Two people who love each other finally become a family. In the evening, Ding Shaoguang still painted a picture for the beautiful and moving Yujuan as usual. But when he was ready to go to bed, he found that the bed and bedding in the living room were all gone. Only then did he remember what Yujuan had said to him, "We are married, you can sleep in the bedroom with me." "It shows that he has become the master here. But because of the habit of not peeping into the master's bedroom that he has developed for a long time, he is still not used to entering other people's bedrooms.

So, after painting, it was already late at night, and he still sat at the small table, feeling a little overwhelmed. At this time, Yujuan came out of the bedroom and said to him, "It's been a busy day, let's go to sleep." ”

Listening to Yujuan's words, he remembered what Yanlong had said to him, "I'll tell you a girl, how good it is to work with you during the day and sleep together at night!" and this girl was right in front of him, looking at him with a smile. Her smile was so sweet, so charming, and so enchanting him. He took her hand and said to her in a amused tone, "I'm still used to sleeping in the living room." Why don't you sleep in the living room with me?"

Yujuan said with a serious face, "What can you do?" and said, pulling Ding Shaoguang into the bedroom.

Under the light of the kerosene lamp, Ding Shaoguang saw the bedroom of the Dai family for the first time. The bedroom was half the size of the living room, and half of it was occupied by a bed. This bed is not a bamboo bed, but a large bunk. The bunk was about twenty centimeters above the ground, and it was connected from one door to the other. Next to the door over there is a tent where my parents sleep, and it is black. And their tents are pink, brand new.

At this time, Yujuan's parents were already asleep. Yujuan took off her coat and entered the tent. Ding Shaoguang looked at Yujuan, took off his clothes, and also entered the tent. Yujuan blew the oil lamp, and then the two dear people hugged each other tightly. (To be continued.) )