Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info autumn to spring, the years change, five years have passed in a blink of an eye....

Five years is enough time for one person to forget a lot of things...

However, some memories are still lingering, making people feel like yesterday and unforgettable!

Zhou Bendao has changed, completely changed, in the past five years, he seems to have changed a soul and a shell!

Since his wife died, no one has seen him cry, no one has seen him laugh... He walks independently, lives in a simple place, and the whole person is like a monk who sees through the red dust, silent in this world!

His eyes were cold, but definitely not the kind of decadent cynicism, but with a hint of calmness, with a hint of indifference, with a bit of detachment and wisdom of the world....

Since the death of his wife, Zhou Bendao, who had been working for others, completely gave up this job, he declined the invitation of his former patron, and took his children to live in this narrow and dilapidated courtyard, except for some daily purchases, he basically rarely went out....

Regardless of spring, summer, autumn or winter, Zhou Bendao would sit in the courtyard at night, drink wine, look at the starry sky, and then get drunk and paint under the starry sky.....

Alcohol is drunk and crazy, but Zhou Bendao is not crazy, as if spirits can make him more sober, as if spirits can make him see the world that ordinary people can't see...

After getting drunk, his face was dark, as if he was a different person, one was him and not him...

Zhou Bendao will paint a painting every night, the protagonist of the painting, always a woman with a simple face, although in his brush, the woman's demeanor is different, but the woman's age seems to be forever fixed at the age of twenty-eight, has never changed....

Zhou Bendao was completely immersed in painting, and it seemed that only in the process of painting would he find the happiness he once had! It seems that this is the only way to find the pleasure that has been lost for a long time! Under his pen, drop by drop of ink, with his hand, gradually, melted into the rice paper, he seemed to return to that year, to that day, before his wife gave birth, that last warm hour! Every time this happens, a smile appears on his face!

The news that Zhou Bendao would paint gradually spread out, everyone was very curious, and the neighbors competed to see, and in the end, it was the capital that was hundreds of miles away, and there would be people who came to watch...

It is said that Zhou Bendao's paintings have a certain spirituality, so that all those who watch will have an inexplicable sadness from the bottom of their hearts....

Zhou Bendao is a mortal, he was and is now, he still needs to live, even if he doesn't care about himself, but for the sake of his children, he still opened a studio at home, specializing in painting people!

Zhou Bendao does not paint mountains, water, sky, or earth, he only paints people, and he is about to die, his paintings are lifelike, just like living people...

Gradually, his fame is getting bigger and bigger, not only in Hanyin County, but also in the capital, if there is a funeral at home, ordinary people will come all the way to him to paint...

It is said that even the most famous painter in Kyoto is inferior to his paintings, because his paintings have a soul! His paintings are alive, and those who have passed away are the same as they were before his death...

Zhou Bendao is famous, a painting is hard to find, but not everyone will go to the door, he only paints for the poor people, as for the reward, generally he only needs a pot of wine, as for the copper coin, how much others give, he takes as much, never take the initiative to ask for it....

The baby of that year has also grown up, now five years old, Zhou Bendao named him Zhou Yuling, the little guy is either accompanied by Zhou Bendao everywhere every day to paint people, or sneaked to the opposite private school to read and hyphenation, the little guy is very smart, at the age of five, he can actually recite a lot of cumbersome scriptures backwards, catchy!

Zhou Bendao has never interfered with all this, although he also knows that there is a private school opposite, and he doesn't take a penny to study there, but he has never been there, nor has he seen the gentleman who teaches!

However, every time the little guy goes, Zhou Bendao will ask him to bring a pot of wine, which is all painted by Zhou Bendao for others over the years...

This originally remote alley, because of the free private school, because of Zhou Bendao's miraculous painting skills, gradually became lively, from an unknown poor countryside, to a well-known place on the north bank of the Lancang River...

The alley is full of people every day, because there are many children who come to school, because there are many outsiders who come to Zhou Bendao to paint, gradually, this narrow alley is lined with shops, restaurants, inns, itinerant vendors abound, and in the end, even those neighbors whose ancestors have been living here, their way of life is also quietly changing.....

However, for the sentient beings in the red dust, they may not understand until they die, what is the real reason for this series of changes...

Time passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye, another five years had passed...

This year, Zhou Bendao is forty years old, and the little guy is also ten years old, his appearance is somewhat similar to Zhou Bendao, but it is not very similar, the little guy's red face, black eyes, looks like a beautiful porcelain doll, his appearance, to be exact, is very similar to Wang Yi in the Tianyuan Continent back then, and it can even be said that the two of them are carved out of the same mold at all!

Zhou Bendao, still paints every day, goes out to paint others during the day, and paints his own under the starlight at night, that woman has been sketched countless times under his brush, and in the end, even the house has been all piled up...

But the strange thing is that all the paintings, although they are painted by the same person, have different expressions, and there is never a duplicate one....

The little guy has grown up, maybe the environment, his body has a trace of calmness that is rare at this age, over the years, although he has seen other friends have been accompanied by his mother, but he has never asked, as if, his mother has always been by his side...

"I have a mother, and my mother only shows up at night...."

"In the starlight of the sky, among the flying fireflies, I saw my mother..."

In the private school, whenever he said these words, he would provoke the ridicule of his friends, but he didn't care, as if, his mother, really always by his side, always with him....

He still goes to the private school to study during the day, and accompanies Zhou Bendao to paint at night, and only at this time, his face will reveal a happy smile surrounded by maternal love, he seems to know that the woman who keeps appearing in Zhou Bendao's paintings is his mother...

More than four years have passed, and tomorrow is the death day of Zhou Bendao's wife...

This night, Zhou Bendao did not paint for the first time, he looked at the starlight in the sky, and his expression was surprisingly calm...

The little guy has been accompanying Zhou Bendao, looking at the starlight from time to time, and smiling happily there from time to time....

After the little guy fell asleep, Zhou Bendao shook his head and walked out of the house!

For the first time in fifteen years, he walked out of the house at night.

Outside the house, the moon and stars are scarce, accompanied by the light breeze blowing from the Lancang River, which makes this night more sorrowful in the tranquility...

Zhou Bendao knocked on the door of the private school opposite, and almost at the same time, the door slowly opened, and a white-bearded old man stood there...

"You're here!"

The white-bearded old man didn't seem to be surprised at all by Zhou Bendao's arrival, although they hadn't seen each other in the past fifteen years, and even the other party had only heard of it, but the expression on their faces was as if they had known each other for many years...

"I'm coming.." After a simple sentence, the two of them walked through the courtyard and into a room in the middle.

The room was full of books, which looked heavy, but they were also very old, and many of the covers were already yellowed!

After entering the room, Zhou Bendao took out two pots of wine from the bag on his waist, opened one pot casually, and handed the other pot to the old man, and then sat on a yellowed stool and began to drink it in a big gulp....

After the white-bearded old man took the wine, he also sat down slowly....

There was no word for a while, and the whole room was only the sound of two people drinking...

After a long time, Zhou Bendao put down the wine jug, didn't look at the old man, and said lightly: "I don't know who you are, but I saw you fifteen years ago, no, I should have seen you forty-five years ago, when I was born..."

The old man was obviously not surprised by this sentence at all, he didn't speak, just listened quietly, and his expression didn't change in the slightest...

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