A rare snowstorm hit the city in December, and folklore says it was the city's first snowstorm in 1,114 years, but the official version is that it snowed for the first time in 200 years. The blizzard came suddenly, and the weather forecast predicted a cooling half a month ago, a week ago that it could be a serious drop, and it was confirmed that it would fall heavily eight hours before the heavy snow started. All the preparations were too late to be done, and people were confined to their homes – not because the roads were closed, but because there was no one in the city to prepare thick clothes, and the air conditioning could only cool down.

The government sent planes to bring cotton clothes and pants to the city in the blizzard, and the city sent a team to pull bundles of cotton clothes and pants in a car to distribute them from house to house. At first, the heavy snow melted when it fell, and after a few hours, it began to fall into a thick layer, which became thicker and thicker, until the road was blocked, and the car that delivered cotton clothes and cotton pants broke down on the road, and the people on the car had to get down and carry cotton clothes and cotton pants to and from the streets of the city.

I remembered that Qiu Pei had told me that she had never seen snow, and that she had been to the north four times since she was a child, all of them on trips, and each time she went to a different city. The first two were in the summer, and the last two were specifically picked in the winter. The dry cold was unbearable for her, and she felt cold no matter how much she was wearing. The weather forecast for the days she went said that there would be cool weather in the north, which was likely to bring heavy snowfall. She couldn't do it excitedly, and she and her girlfriend lay on the windowsill of the hotel all night waiting for the snow to come. The temperature dropped dramatically, and the biting cold wind blew into the house, but she didn't mind. But she stayed for a whole week, and there was no sign of heavy snow, only the cold that stuck with her. Coincidentally, on those days, the two northern cities she visited in the summer were covered with heavy snow for half a month. On the way back with her best friend, she sadly said that she might never be able to live with the snow for the rest of her life. I told her that there were at least three heavy snowfalls a year in my hometown, and that from the first snowfall to the beginning of spring next year, the snow did not melt for a hundred days. The whole world is covered in snow, the snow will crush the bare tree trunks, the roads will disappear, the wasteland is full of pit marks left by hare running, and you have to squint your eyes for everything outdoors, the snow is as transparent as it reflects, and the sunlight is extremely dazzling. At that time, the river freezes and even the waterfall has to stand still in the air, forming a beautiful curtain of ice.

She was so fascinated that she complained that she had only seen typhoons, torrential rains and hail. I told her I could take her to my house to play and let her enjoy the heavy snow. And in the city where she stayed, dozens of days after she left, it snowed for the first time in two hundred years. She could have witnessed history and fulfilled her wishes, but I think if it weren't for me, she might not have left so early, and it was not self-inflicted to think so. Her hometown is only a hundred kilometers from the city, and the cold wave may cover them. I looked up information on the Internet and found that the sun was shining and the temperature was pleasant. It's not that far apart, and maybe she'll return to the city for this snowfall. I was relieved to think of this, but I wondered where she would stay if she did come back to the city to see the snow. Will the streets of the city, the sugar palm trees weighed down by the snow, the familiar landmarks I took her to take her back in time and taste the past? I don't know anything about her, but one thing I know for sure is that she will never return to this yard. Although I have made many wrong judgments about her before, this time I believe that my judgment is absolutely accurate.

It snowed heavily for two days and two nights, and after the cotton clothes were distributed to everyone, the streets and yards were crowded with people, many of whom had seen snow for the first time, and almost all the streets were full of people wearing army green cotton clothes. They do every kind of snow-related activity imaginable, with snowmen and snowballs. On the third day, the snow stopped abruptly, as if someone had cut it through the air with a knife. The sun was shining, and it took just over an hour for the snow to melt without a trace. The streets are flooded with water, countless insects and animals have frozen to death, the river is full of dead fish with white bellies, and the landscape trees such as wine bottle coconut, ficus microphylla, and banana have all frozen to death on the streets and seashores. The government began to tidy up the cityscape, recount and plant landscape trees. The blizzard killed five people and put 3.9 billion dollars in property down the drain.

The ceiba tree in the yard where I live froze to death and never blooms bright red again in February. The landlord went back to the yard, cut down the tree, and prepared to plant a new landscape tree. He asked me what kind of trees I should plant, and I said don't plant anything, it's better to keep such a spacious place. The landlord listened to my suggestion and replanned the yard, laying bricks and putting together a kapok pattern with red floor tiles in the middle.

"That kapok was planted by my ancestors 200 years ago, just after the last heavy snowfall in the city." The landlord said, "You have to keep a memorial." ”

I don't know if he's telling it or not, I can't tell how many years a tree has grown, and I don't count how many rings it has when it was cut down.

Yingxiu is promoted for the fifth time, but he is still only one level above the average employee. He attached great importance to this promotion and held a banquet to celebrate, and he sent me an invitation letter in the form of a courier, and explained that he would reserve a seat for me as a guest. I think he's making a big fuss, and with his personality, he'll get a sixth, seventh, eighth promotion, but he'll always be one level higher than the average employee.

"You're out of luck." Yingxiu saw me and said, "You have been in this city for two years, and there have been two natural disasters that are rare in a thousand years. ”

His so-called banquet consisted of only eight people, a round table in a restaurant, and none of the people present were his colleagues, all of whom were friends he had met in the city. Some of them I had seen before, and there were a few new faces, and he still used the same language when he introduced me: "This is my hair small, called Lou Yuqi, and he is a painter." "He talked tirelessly and tirelessly during the dinner, and he didn't mention anything about work or promotion. But this time he lived up to expectations, never fell again, worked hard, did a good job, and his salary increased, but he still didn't have much savings.

"Inexplicable." He said, "Where did I spend all my money?" ”

"You have to buy a condom for 10 yuan." I said, "Naturally, the money is spent on yourself." ”

He suddenly realized as if he had heard a famous saying, lamented that he lived a luxurious life and had no sense of financial management, and thanked me for showing him a clear way. As a thank you, he gave me his big TV, and then changed it to a bigger one himself, saying that it was the last time he would buy something expensive. I didn't turn on the TV once, once when the landlord came to the yard, I asked the landlord to help me go to the thrift market to sell it, and the landlord said that the things were not bad, and I took them myself, and I paid a month's rent. And Yingxiu still does his maximum amount of consumption every month, and often doesn't know how much money he has in his account. But he is very sensitive to the boundary of 2,000, and whenever he sees that there is 2,000 yuan left on his bank card, he tries to practice the long-term style of life, until the next time his salary is paid, he spends lavishly, as if nothing has happened.

I went back to the old days, cleaned the room again, moved the bookshelves and the bed, and gave the piano a more comfortable place to play. As long as nothing else, I practice the piano for at least forty-five minutes every day, and spend the rest of the time reading, everything in a bland and docile tone, occasionally a little boring.

When I wrote my name and time on the back of a completed work, I was reminded of the dates and years I had been in the city for almost three years. I went back to the house that day and looked at myself in the mirror for a long time, re-examining myself, hoping to see a different change in myself, and I wanted to see the same self. When I was in the school library, the little librarian said that I was revealing this scholarly demeanor, but I didn't think it was at the time. When Yingxiu came to the city and introduced me to his friends as a painter, a few people said that I was not a painter, but a scholar. I doubted that I had a wrong opinion of myself, so for the second time in my life, I looked at myself in the mirror and still did not realize that I had the pedantic air they were talking about.

This is the third time I have stood in front of the mirror to examine myself, and the change in me is obvious, my hair has changed from short to long, and I have never had a haircut since I changed rooms with Qiu Pei. It's not for anything, but I can't think of a haircut at all, and let it grow freely. Before I knew it, my ears were starting to be covered by my hair, and my eyes were covered by hair, and I parted the hair on my forehead to the side. Eventually, I had the habit of pulling my hair behind my ears like a woman, and the hair on my forehead could no longer be parted to the side to solve the problem of obscuring my vision, so I used my bow to pull my hair back. When I saw the effect of pulling it up in the mirror, I was startled, and the position of the hair roots on my forehead reminded me of Hai Linlin, and I quickly threw away the hair bow. Finally, trying to parting my hair to the sides, Qiu Pei made some small curls for me with a curling iron, and against the backdrop of my beard, the whole person exuded a sloppy melancholy temperament. Qiu Pei liked this kind of look very much, as if I was a perfect work of art that she had taken care of.

And this shape made my pedantic aura disappear in front of others, and no one said that I looked like a scholar, but I heard more often: "You look like a painter." "Among my male colleagues in the company, two have bald heads and shaved their hair cleanly, like freshly peeled poplars, and the rest have long hair. At first, I was the only one with the most ordinary male haircut. But I believe that the reason why I grew my hair long was not because I felt that I was too different in the company, but because I really didn't think about getting a haircut. I also believe that the nature of the work will have a subtle effect on people, and all the changes I will not know about it, and the haircut that I didn't even think of may have something to do with it.

But it's a fact that I've become more of a painter. I used to think about what kind of person I wanted to become, but I wasn't satisfied with all the possibilities I could think of. When I first arrived in the city, I wished I could become a rich man, but when my life gradually fell into flat, the dream of being a rich man gradually faded away, so much so that I almost forgot that I had such a thought. For a while, I wanted to be a wandering poet, and I always believed that painting is not only the same as music, but also with poetry. When I was alone, I often sang the masterpieces of the famous poets of history who were full of negative emotions when they were down, and often wept about it, not because I felt the same way, but because I felt sorry for them. I once saw a beggar who had the same hairstyle and beard as me, who had lived for a week or so in front of a shop not far from the courtyard where I lived, and who was so envious of his idleness, desirelessness, and desire to be like him. I thought about being a software master like Yingxiu, and there was a moment when I wanted to be a composer when I was learning piano. I have thought of many people who I want to be, some of whom are deviant and despised by the world. Some are destined to live a life of mediocrity. No matter how many possibilities I have thought about, one thing is for sure, I never wanted to become a painter, even though I make a living with brushes and paint. But maybe it's because I paint for a living that I don't want to be a painter – to paint for the rest of my life.