introduction

A small typhoon brought a trace of coolness to the Hong Kong and Kowloon land on the coast of the South China Sea in the hot summer, the typhoon did not blow much, but the rain fell a lot, the water accumulated on the ground, and there was a trickle of water in some places, and the flowing water washed away the leaves and dust on the road together, and the ground looked much cleaner.

The typhoon had passed, but the rain was still falling, and the rain was floating high in the canopy of the trees and into a small courtyard on the side of the mountain.

This is an old courtyard, the main building is a flat-story old house, blue bricks and red tiles, narrow windows and green moss, among which there is a figure-eight shaped intracted porch, to the inside is a hall without a gate, into the hall, in the middle of the place is placed a table of eight immortals, the oily tabletop, round and smooth wood, all tell everyone who sees it, this is an old object, very old, solid sour branch south wood, strong tenon and tenon riveting structure, or it was once a large family's belongings. On the side of the table of the Eight Immortals, there are several stools, which are extremely incompatible with the Eight Immortals Table, and what is matched with this Eight Immortals Table should be some things such as the official hat chair and the Taishi Chair, rather than this kind of bench that only ordinary farmers have. The hall has no suspended ceiling, and through the gap in the red tiles, you can faintly see the sky light outside. The ground is Sanhe soil, and it is also flat, or the owner of the house has also spent a lot of thought on the ground of Sanhe soil, and some small porcelain blocks are inlaid on the ground of Sanhe soil for embellishment, and some patterns of magpies and plums can be seen. In the whole hall, the most lively is the clear water wall that is not painted on three sides, and on the blue brick wall, the county hangs a lot of calligraphy works, and the pen walks the dragon and snake, but it is also very imposing. One of the middle halls, not only the size is huge, the brush words are even more magnificent, the content is the Tang Dynasty poetry: why don't men take Wu hooks, collect Guanshan fifty states. Please go to Lingyan Pavilion temporarily, if you are a scholar and a marquis! In the lower left corner, the signature is signed, and if you look closely, it is the words "Hundred Longevity". The calligraphy and paintings in the hall are mostly works of Bingshen Wuxu two years, and a few of them are made by Gengzi Nian, that is, this year's new works. One by one, only to find that these calligraphy works are not framed painting core, among which the more particular, with a wooden strip to press the upper and lower ends, nailed into the wall cracks, not exquisite, with paste directly painted on the wall, there are a few very master style works, has been dead paste on the wall, even if you want to remove it and re-mount it is impossible.

Out of the hall door hole without the door, outside is actually a green world, a narrow gray path from the door to the courtyard door, the yard is divided into two parts, on both sides of the handrail of the wrought, planted with all kinds of plants, carefully look at it only to find that these plants are not the landscape tree species of the rich and noble, all are farm vegetables, there are melons and beans, there are vegetables and green onions, close to the wall of the west end, a loofah is lush, on the simple melon rack, hanging long and short loofahs, the small yellow flowers of the melon tip tremble gently in the rain, which makes people love and pity. It's not a small garden, it's just a vegetable garden.

The courtyard door opened, and a mud-yellow oilcloth umbrella accompanied by a faint rain reflected in the courtyard, and under the oilcloth umbrella, two figures appeared, a man and a woman, the man was barefoot, his trousers were rolled high on his legs, revealing two thin short legs, and he was holding a pair of leather shoes in his hand. It is clear that the owner of the shoes would rather walk barefoot in the water than soak the shoes in the water, and if he is not a person who lives a very careful life, he is not financially well-off.

Sticking to the two bare feet are the calves of two plump women, under the feet are a pair of women's flat sandals, and above is a light-colored cotton cheongsam, the owner of the cheongsam is about thirty-seven or eighteen years old, white and dignified, with black hair and fine eyes, and a slight fat face full of smiles. Holding an umbrella in his hand, the umbrella tilted as much as possible towards the barefoot man, completely ignoring the fact that half of his shoulders were already drenched in the light rain.

The man is not tall, not much different from the woman, very thin, and the short-sleeved shirt is tucked in the suit pants, showing a small waist and extremely compact. Not only are men small, but their faces are also small, with a small face that is only about two-thirds the size of a woman, with high cheekbones, a straight nose, and thick lips. In his fifties, he was a typical white-faced scholar, his face was neat and beardless, his hair was already gray, and he was neatly combed to the back of his head, making it a fashionable big suit. The only thing that is not quite harmonious is the man's eyebrows, the right eyebrow is thick, the left eyebrow is light, and it is broken into three pieces, and the scar on the eyebrow bone can be faintly seen.

This pair is the owner of this yard.

Walk through the gray paved path in the yard, cross the small ditch in front of the main house, walk up the steps of the house, stand in the porch of the figure-eight inward, the eaves block the rain outside, the ground becomes dry, and the outdoor rain is getting smaller and smaller, like fog and wind, fluctuating, which makes people look forward to a softness. The woman put away her umbrella, took a bamboo chair in the corridor for the man to sit down, took the leather shoes in the man's hand, walked into the hall, and after a while, walked out with a pair of clogs in her hand and leaned over in front of the man. Only then did the man see the woman's shoulders wet with the rain, and said bitterly: "You don't have to pick me up, this rain won't last long, I'll just walk back by myself when the rain stops." ”

The woman raised her head, smiled, and said, "It's boring for me to stay alone in this empty yard every day, so it's better to pick you up and see you sooner, so that I won't be lonely sooner." Brother Fu, you sit here, I'll go get dinner, and I'll call you when the meal is ready. As she spoke, the woman opened a small square table, propped it up next to the man's bamboo chair, and took out the "Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty", which the man usually likes to read, and put it on the square table.

"What do you want me to do for you?" The man asked.

The woman thought for a moment and said, "When the rain stops, you can help me pick two loofahs!" ”

The rain soon stopped, and the blue sky appeared in the east, and the courtyard suddenly became bright, and the water droplets on the vegetable leaves reflected colorful light under the refraction of the sun, little by little, like pearls on jadeite, crystal clear. The man who was called Brother Fu was also attracted by the droplets, stood up, picked up a small four-toothed rake in the corner of the wall, rolled up the trouser legs again, and walked straight into the vegetable field without wearing clogs.

I really didn't see that this white-faced scholar was a small man with a solid taste, who turned out to be an authentic vegetable farmer, taking advantage of the rain to soak the land, the four-toothed rake in his hand was dexterous and easy to crisscross in the vegetable cracks, and the soil was also taken away while taking away the weeds. Finally, in front of the loofah rack, the man chose two loofahs and gently picked them. Back in the corner, I washed the dirt off my feet with the stagnant water in the gutter, put on the clogs, and walked into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, the woman was stir-frying, the green and red peppers and two eggs were fried into a plate, and placed on the small dining table, the woman took the loofah in the man's hand and said, "Brother Fu, you take a small sip first, and I'll clean up the loofah." ”

The man nodded, bent down and sniffed the chili scrambled eggs, revealing a very enjoyable expression, as if this was not an ordinary plate of chili scrambled eggs, but a plate of rare treasures. The man did not eat first, but took out two pairs of chopsticks and two bowls in the cupboard, arranged them neatly on the table, and then sat on a low stool next to the table, ready to wait to enjoy this not sumptuous dinner with the woman. When he was bored, the man stretched out his fingers, and wrote a few words on the residual water left by wiping the table on the dining table: Enjoy it, and then habitually write down the payment: Baishou is invincible.

This inconspicuous little man with a white face and a scholar turned out to be the commander of the 526th Brigade of the 176th Division of the National Revolutionary Army in Tongcheng, Anqing 20 years ago. The woman who stir-fried vegetables is naturally Zhou Shiming, the wife of Mo Di in Tongcheng.

Zhou put the fried loofah on the small table, served two bowls of rice, and then handed Mo Di a small wine glass, in the wine glass, there were about two taels of turbid wine, almost at the same time, the chopsticks in Mo Di's hand had picked up an omelette and put it in Zhou's bowl.

A smile swayed on Zhou's face, this scene has been programmed and fixed, in the past few years, as long as the two of them eat at home, no matter what the dish is, the husband will always give the first dish to himself, and the first few times he still wants to transfer the good dish back, seeing the husband's loving and reproachful eyes, he will accept it calmly, and he will come and go, and habit will become natural.

In the past ten years, his family's life has not been good, after coming out of the mainland, her husband Mo Di and his family opened a small farm in the New Territories, growing vegetables for a living, I don't know whether it is fate or bad luck, the farm has been operating for a year, but has not been able to make a profit, after taking the savings brought out from the mainland, the farm is transferred to others.

Fortunately, there is no endless road, and at the end of the road, Mo Di, who has been in the army for more than 20 years, has become the foundation for the survival of the family because of the foundation of Chinese language and calligraphy when he was a teenager. In 1951, the British government of Hong Kong began to prepare for the establishment of Chinese education schools, recruiting talents with a foundation in Chinese language to engage in teaching work, that year, Mo Di was already 41 years old, wielding a gun for more than 20 years, Mo Di went to apply for a Chinese language teacher and calligraphy teacher, and became a sought-after excellent teacher, completed the perfect transformation from a martial artist to a literati, and truly understood what it was to put down the knife and gun and pick up the pen and paper. Since then, on Hong Kong Island, there has been one less General Mo and one more Teacher Mo. With his solid foundation of Chinese culture and calligraphy background, he has been full of peach and plum in ten years. The most important thing is that in the process of teaching the apprenticeship, Mo Di completely changed from the mentality of the martial artists in the past, and became a standard teacher, living in it and enjoying it.

In 1956, an old boss in the Gui family left Hong Kong to settle in Canada, and half sold and half gave them this yard, and the Mo family bid farewell to their rental career and had their own place on Hong Kong Island. Plant a yard of small vegetables, raise a few local chickens, although it is a humble room, the same warmth.

After dinner, I came to the porch, only to find that the storm clouds in the sky had long disappeared, and a clear blue sky had been returned.

"Brother Fu, where have you written, do you have me?" Zhou Shi came to Mo Di with a small teapot and a small low stool.

Mo Di shook his head and said, "Not yet, I just finished writing the Northern Expedition." ”

"Did the Japanese devils come in?" Zhou asked.

Mo Di shook his head

"Then I won't watch it, whether it's the Northern Expedition, or the bandits, it's all Chinese fighting Chinese, there's nothing to see, I just watch the story of you fighting devils." Zhou said with a smile: "Back then, a group of girls in our Tongcheng Qianshan cried and wanted to marry you, just because you beat devils. To this day, I don't understand why you only chose me in the end in such a large group of girls, I want to see it in your memoirs. ”

Zhou Shi looked at Mo Di, his eyes were full of expectation, Mo Di smiled, this question is more difficult to explain than to win a battle.