Updated: 2012-06-12

The most dilapidated area in City A - Tongsang Lane.

When the first light of dawn illuminated the place, everything that was sleeping woke up in amazement, and there were probably casually seen stalls selling breakfast, a big steamed bun for five cents, soy milk for a dollar, white porridge, and pickles, and the fragrance of fried dough sticks wafted from time to time, mixed with the shouts of uncles and aunts.

It seems that because it is a Sunday, there are significantly fewer people buying breakfast on this big street than usual.

The sound of high heels from a distance made people on the street look up, and a young woman came slowly, dressed fashionably, carrying a LV brand-name bag, and exquisite makeup, all of which surprised the people here.

This alley is inhabited by some low-class migrant workers, who have never seen such a beautiful woman, and looking at her appearance, they are not very familiar with this place, either they are looking for people, or they are government people, and they are ready to demolish this place, to be honest, this place is too old to live in.

"Uncle, do you know where No. 133 Tongsang Lane is? I haven't found it for a long time!" the woman asked, taking the address in her hand, stopping at the stall next to her.

"No. 133 is at the very end, you just keep going!" the uncle spoke not standard Mandarin, and his voice was a little muddy. He looked at the woman's eyes, and instantly there was something else.

"Girl, do you want breakfast?" asked the uncle, as he continued the frying dough sticks in his hand.

"No thanks!" the woman smiled back, and although her stomach was hungry, it was still important to get down to business.

This woman is none other than Xiaoli.

As she walked down the street, there was a lot of talk behind her, probably some random rumors. The woman living in No. 133 was the most famous prostitute in Tongsang Lane back then, Haozi's mother, Yao Jinfeng. It's just that now that she is old, she can only make a living by sewing some clothes for others, and it is no problem to eat two meals.

Xiaoli finally got these news from Qiangzi's mouth, and took advantage of Haozi and Xiao Luofan to go out on errands today, so she planned to take a look, she wanted to open his heart knot, and the only way was to start with his mother.

Finally came to the end of the alley, it seems that the sun here is not very good, a little dark, after many years, some corners of the wall have grown some moss because of the dampness, the top of the alley, surrounded by a thick high wall, this is the end?133.

If she hadn't really seen it, Xiaoli would not have believed that there was such a place in City A, the house was built with old bricks, there was no decoration on the outside, the roof was black tiles, and there were tiny mushrooms growing in some places, which looked weather-beaten, but overflowed in the extreme.

stepped forward, Xiao Li looked at the big characters 133, although some of the handwriting has been corrupted by the years and cannot be seen clearly, but on the whole, the original outline of the strokes can still be seen, after confirming that the door number is not wrong, Xiao Li began to knock on the door carefully.

It was the oldest wooden door, two-open, with two bells knocked on it, iron, rusty.

With a "squeak", the door was opened, and a cold wind drifted from the house, which made Xiaoli feel a little creepy.

Standing in front of Xiaoli is a face that still has charm, the wrinkles on the forehead and the vicissitudes in her eyes have witnessed the wind and frost she has experienced. Her hair was simply tied up and curled up on the back of her head to form a good-looking, her face was clean, without any rouge gouache, she was wearing a peach-colored cheongsam that was about to turn white, and there was a faint smell of wormwood on her body.

Seeing Xiaoli, there was not much surprise in her eyes, and her pursed mouth opened slightly. "Who are you looking for?"

Her voice was soft, as light as if unreal.

"I ...... I'm looking for you!" Xiao Li tightened the shoulder strap of the bag on her shoulder a little nervously, and the small note with the address in her hand was inadvertently twisted into a ball by her.

"Oh?" Yao Jinfeng looked her up and down, and from the way she looked at Xiaoli, it seemed that she had sensed something.

"Can we go in and talk?" Xiaoli pointed behind her, it was pitch black inside, and it seemed that the lights were not on.

Yao Jinfeng slammed the door to the maximum, stepped aside, and Xiaoli walked in.

Suddenly, the lights turned on, and the whole room was covered with a faint orange glow. The furnishings in the house are very simple, only a table, a sofa, two small benches, the hall is like this, and then it should be in the kitchen, the bedroom is on the left side, there is no door, just a simple plain cloth curtain hung up and blocked.

"Sit down. Yao Jinfeng spoke, moving a stool to Xiao Li's feet, Xiao Li straightened the hem of her skirt, and when she sat down, "Wait!" she spoke again.

So Xiaoli stood up again, only to see her take the small bench, and then wipe it with the rag next to her, and then let Xiaoli sit down.

Her actions made Xiaoli feel a little flattered. The bench is too low, and it is not comfortable to sit up at all, not to mention Xiaoli's height of more than six or seven, coupled with six-centimeter high heels, sitting here is simply not uncomfortable.

After Yao Jinfeng cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks on the table, he walked into the kitchen again, and didn't seem to treat Xiaoli as a guest and let her do as she pleased.

There was a sudden burst of fragrance in the kitchen, the faint smell of rice porridge, this smell began to fill the whole room, which reminded Xiaoli of the white porridge cooked by her grandmother when she was a child, which was also the same taste, but that time, only stayed in her childhood, and now I recall it, I feel that the years have mottled that fragmented past, in the image, it is only a blur, no matter how I think about it, there is only a faint silhouette, and the thin body of the hunchbacked grandmother in the stove.

At the end of February, the heat gradually warmed up, and the house seemed a little damp, also because the things in the house had just been wiped down by the owner very carefully.

"Have you had breakfast?" The warm voice in the kitchen came, not like talking to someone else, but like talking to himself, with a faint tone, and I couldn't hear any emotional ups and downs.

"Ah...... I haven't eaten it yet!" Xiaoli suddenly felt a little embarrassed, a bit like the scene where she bullied her classmates when she was a child and happened to be caught by the teacher, and she didn't even have a place to lie.

So, Yao Jinfeng came out with a pot of boiled white porridge, she first put a rag on the table, and then pressed the pot down heavily. The pot is still bubbling with bubbles, fresh and hot, and from time to time there are bursts of rustic fragrance.

Xiaoli wanted to help, but found that she didn't know where to start, Yao Jinfeng quickly took out two pairs of chopsticks and a plate of small pickles from the kitchen.

This is her daily breakfast?Haozi's mother, and Haozi, what kind of family environment did he grow up in.

"Girl, eat!" Yao Jinfeng put the scooped white porridge in front of Xiaoli and said.

When Xiaoli heard this title, she felt a little moved in her heart, and for a moment, her eyes moistened. I wanted to say something, but it was as if something was holding my throat, and I couldn't speak, and I was so uncomfortable that I tightened up.

So, during this period of breakfast, everyone was quiet, just like a real mother and daughter, there was no barrier together, no words, it was so natural.

"Auntie, I'm Haozi's girlfriend, my name is Xiaoli!" Xiaoli finally spoke slowly, her eyes staring at Yao Jinfeng's expressionless face, a little nervous.

"Well, you love him very much?" asked Yao Jinfeng, but her eyes didn't look at Xiao Li, she just picked up the rice grains that accidentally fell on the table and put them in the bowl, there were fine crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, and the light just hit her face, which she could see very clearly.

"Yes, I love him very much, but I know that your love for Haozi must be much more than mine, much, much. Xiaoli replied.

"Why did you come to me?" Yao Jinfeng brushed the hair scattered in his ears with his hand, turned over, and looked at Xiaoli.

"I want to know, what happened between you and Haozi?" Xiao Li is bound to solve this misunderstanding.

Yao Jinfeng grinned, her smile was a little pale, her expression was not much, judging from the arc of her smile, she should not have laughed for a long time, and she laughed so reluctantly.

It was about a year ago that she met her son, and she seemed to be lost in thought.

The year before last, it was also about to be the New Year, when she was drying her clothes in the back of the house, and Haozi suddenly came back, he was injured, his arm was bandaged with a white cloth, and his clothes were messy and dirty. Yao Jinfeng was undoubtedly startled when she came out of the house and saw him like this, she wanted to step forward, even if it was just to hug him and give him a trace of warmth, who knew that she was pushed away by Haozi.

"Don't touch me, dirty!" was the first and last sentence he said when he came back this time.

She got up from the ground with tears in her eyes, but she just felt distressed, bitterly distressed.

Haozi took out a thick stack of RMB from his arms, threw it on the table with a "snap", didn't say a word, didn't even look at his mother, got up, and walked in the direction of the door.

Leaving only a back, in Yao Jinfeng's memory, the face she had seen since she was a child was so unfamiliar, his eyes were full of hatred for her, he was in this way, to take revenge on her, revenge for what he felt she had done wrong.

"When Haozi was four years old, his father died of illness, leaving us two mothers and sons alone, helpless, I am a woman's family, and I have no skills, I can't support myself at all. So I remarried, married an old man who was a place in the alley, how did I expect that, although he said that he didn't dislike me for bringing a son, but he said behind his back that Haozi was a drag oil bottle, and often scolded him, so, for Haozi, I resolutely left the man. We have also lived the days of living on the streets, begging for a living, in this most difficult time, some of Haozi's father's former creditors actually came to the door to repay the money for us......" Yao Jinfeng paused and smiled again, it was the second time Xiaoli saw her smile, it was so desolate, without a trace of temperature.

"So I became a prostitute, a prostitute!" she repeated the words, and though her tone was a little heavier, there was no change in her face, as if she were casually telling someone else's story, not painful, but only deepening the rhythm of the reading at the climax.

Xiaoli was shocked, she was sad, sad, she couldn't imagine how Haozi's childhood came over.

"There is no one in this alley who does not know me, and it should be said that there is not a man who does not know me. Hiroko grew up, he rarely talked to me since he was sensible, and sometimes I felt that we were not like a mother and son at all, but like strangers. He hadn't even graduated from junior high school, so he mingled with some miscellaneous people outside, and then he didn't even go home, and he went home less and less, and the last time I saw him was a year ago!"

………………………………………………………….

Xiaoli didn't know what kind of mood she was in when she left here, and in her mind, Yao Jinfeng's smile without any joy kept appearing, it was so faint, faint, very easy, and it was sad.