Du Ruo got off the plane at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, her first return to Shanghai in a decade. The early autumn weather is unpredictable, sometimes sporadic with light rain and sometimes pouring rain, which makes Shanghai's already congested roads even worse. Du Ruo's grandmother's former home in Shanghai was sold to a mainland businessman a few months ago and will soon be converted into a boutique hotel. She was told to go back to the old house before the renovation and to retrieve some old items that were not specifically identified in the contract as belonging to the buyer as a memorial service.

When I arrived at the old house in Yangshupu, it was time for the lights to come on. The old house is close to the century-old waterworks and wharf, and now this area has long been planned as a business district, with luxury residences, commercial buildings, and even hundreds of meters of waterfront promenade and yacht marina, turning the originally lonely East Bund into a prosperous and fashionable French Concession.

The silent old house stands quietly surrounded by new high-rise buildings, and there is a kind of abruptness that is out of place. But it is this abruptness that makes her the most eye-catching. How many years have passed, and the earth-shaking vicissitudes of life have nothing to do with her, as if you can push open the heavy wooden door and return to that era that has long passed in a hurry.

No one has lived in the old house for a long time, and when you push the door in, you can smell a faint musty smell. The temperature here seems to be a little cooler than outside, and it is a little cold and gloomy. The first floor is the original kitchen, patio and living room, and the first floor is the pavilion room where my grandmother lived when she was not married. On the second floor are four rooms of the same layout and size, and on the third floor are the original attics. I didn't expect that this old house, which I lived in for a few years in my childhood and never visited again after graduating from elementary school, would become an eternal fixed point in my memory. How many years have passed, and when Du Ruo thought that those childhood memories had disappeared, he didn't expect to be wrapped in a tsunami-like momentum and make a comeback with huge waves.

She climbed the spiral staircase and pushed open the wooden door between the pavilions that had not been opened for a long time. The seventeen or eighteen-year-old grandmother on the wall looked at her with her eyes open and smiling. Du Ruo thought that when she was a child, her grandfather always said that she didn't look like her father or mother, but she and her grandmother were carved out of the same mold. Looking at this photo now, she believes that she really looks more and more like her when she was a child.

The old desk lamps, telephones, and record players in the house were specially labeled and became the property of the hotel. But the photos on the wall, my grandmother's photo album, letters, and the brocade clothes with the scent of camphor can be taken away. Du Ruo casually put the small objects into the box, and moved a small stool to get the photo frame on the wall. But somehow as soon as his hand slipped, the photo frame slammed to the ground, which also caused a small earthquake in Du Ruo's heart. Du Ruo subconsciously looked at the photo frame that fell to the ground, although it was old and fell from a height, the glass and the photo frame were miraculously intact, but the back panel was a little loose. Du Ruo tried to install the back panel, but unexpectedly found a pile of diaries. As the years go by, the paper has turned yellow, but the handwriting of the pen on it is as fresh as yesterday. The diaries were supposed to be hardcover, but they were artificially dismantled and turned into a pile of ancient paper, which seems to be someone who deliberately did not want these diaries to be discovered.

"Oh my God, my grandmother may be hiding a lot of shocking secrets." Du Ruo's heart was almost jubilant, she took out the diaries with her hand, and sat on the sofa next to her and read them carefully. The dim light, the warm heat of the fire in the stove, the silence all around, and the bright and beautiful girl reading quietly, this picture has the taste of these quiet years.

……

The best time in Shanghai is in the alleys with nine bends and eighteen bends, and the best times in the alleys are in the deepest mansions. In the summer of 1919, on the most sweltering day in Shanghai, I was born in a large mansion deep in an alley near the Yangshupu Water Works. My birth was not a big deal for a family of five granddaughters and three grandchildren, but it was "the most celebratory day of our lives" for my parents. I already had twin brothers, and it wasn't until the third year after their birth that my mother finally looked forward to me, a little angel. For her, her sons belong to someone else, and even her upbringing is under the supervision of her grandfather, and I am the only one who is hers, and I can be a carefree little princess. My father named me Zhu Huiran according to the ranking of the family, and compared to my cousins, my name is much more elegant.

My loud and tireless cry became the first watershed in my life, and my grandfather, who was very dismissive of me, felt some pity because of my crying. Coupled with the monk's saying "great things will be accomplished" from the monk who came to join in the fun, he had many unwarranted expectations for my future. In his heart, although I will not make much merit, I will definitely be able to find a wishful man who can achieve great achievements, and the Zhu family will be able to prosper and grow more and more under his shadow.

Encouraged by this expectation, my cousins and I embarked on a very different path in life. After finishing junior and senior high school, I smoothly entered the best girls' middle school in Shanghai, Zhongxi Girls' High School, and became an enviable female student. After coming to the United States, I was very enthusiastic about writing a memory of my life, and it was then that I realized that I was able to have all these vigorous stories because of my loud cry and the monk's unintentional words. If it weren't for that, I would have been married early in my teens, and I would have become a "boring, hateful woman" in my life of firewood, rice, oil, salt, and raising children and grandchildren.

The summer vacation before entering the Chinese and Western Girls' High School was the most wonderful time I had lived in 16 years at that time. Away from class for a while, my mother also relaxed my strict supervision of piano learning, and I began to get acquainted with this familiar and unfamiliar city again.

Wearing the tailor-made Yin Dan Shilin cheongsam, the girl's figure was perfectly displayed, and I was no longer ashamed and annoyed by my budding boobs as before. I attended my friend Mislin's coming-of-age ball, and although this traditional family didn't allow me to have it, the joy of growing up was enough to make me forget the imperfections of life. I bought a small Lancôme lipstick at Wing On Department Store on Petain Road with the money I had saved, and although I didn't dare to wear it to show off the market, the hot red had already burned my restless heart. It was also in that summer that I met Cao Yu'an.

I still remember that day, a fairy-like Mislin dressed in a beautiful dress introduced to me: "This is Cao Yu'an, my cousin, who has just returned from the East. ”

In fact, the Orient is still a strip of water for me, and there are neighbors who deserve respect and learning, and the advanced technology and wonderful products there have given birth to a deep-rooted yearning in my young heart.

I smiled and stretched out my hand to Cao Yu'an, and asked irrelevant words: "Hi, hello, I'm Zhu Huiran." I really envy that you can go abroad to see the world. ”

Cao Yu'an is the same age as me, born in the cherry blossom season, and is a few months older than me, but his temperament and conversation are already very mature: "There is nothing special, but I have not even visited all the attractions of Tokyo in these years." ”

I stuck out my tongue, which is the most common action I use when I'm sorry. Mislin gracefully pulled us to the table and brushed us over the awkward topic: "Daddy promised me a big surprise, guess what?" ”

I said, "Could it be a Straussian piano, brand new, with a tripod, that big." As I spoke, I waved my arms in an exaggerated arc.

Cao Yu'an said: "If you are so stubborn, will he prepare a huge surprise for you?" I think he must have contacted the boarding school and wanted to send you to the United States to suffer. ”

Mislin shrugged, apparently unhappy with both of our answers: "If Mommy hadn't forced me, I wouldn't have learned any piano." Besides, Daddy loves me so much, I just want to go to the United States to be self-reliant, and he must be reluctant. ”

While the three of us were arguing, the lights on the stage instantly focused on Lin Zhiyuan's body. Chairman Lin, who was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, said in a solemn and somewhat nervous tone in front of the modern PA equipment: "Thank you for attending my daughter Lin Keer's sixteenth birthday party, I promised to give her a big gift before, and now it belongs to her." ”

In the direction of his finger, it was a latest, lemon-colored Ford convertible. Mislin covered his face with a scream, and judging by the glittering water between his fingers and the choked tone of his voice, this good friend of mine was crying with joy.

Cao Yu'an's outstretched hand swirled around Mislin's shoulder a few times, and finally took it back stupidly: "You have grown up, and now you have to pay attention to men and women. Well, Miszhu, you should comfort her for me. ’

I said, "Okay, yes, yes." ”

Cao Yu'an gave me a huge puzzled look.

I replied very politely, "Everyone calls me Ranran, and you can call me that." ”

Cao Yu'an didn't answer me, but I felt very sensitively that his slightly shrugged shoulders were not because he was moved, but because he was holding back his smile.

The party was not over until ten o'clock, and when the guests had all left one after another in their own cars, Mislin finally couldn't help but say to her incomprehensible cousin, "Cousin, can you please send Ran Ran home?" ”

Cao Yu'an asked politely, "Ran Ran's family didn't send a car to pick her up?" ”

My best friend, in order not to expose my sore feet, gave him a very skillful look: "If her grandfather had known that the girl had come home in the middle of the night, he would have sent someone to tie her up in the cave room tomorrow." ”

Cao Yu'an said thoughtfully: "I see, I will definitely send her home safely." He made a gesture of please for me to get into the car and politely closed the door for me. Don't say it, just by these few actions, you can see his good cultivation. Sure enough, it is the idle son of a big family who has the leisure time to practice such a style.