I held the hydrangea in my hand, and countless thoughts occurred for a while.The little guy hiding in the quilt also poked his head out, he stared at the hydrangea in my palm, and then looked down at the black ball in his arms, as if he was stunned, and he didn't even know that the quilt above his head had slipped off.After so many years, the hydrangea is still very well preserved, and it can be seen that the old man attaches great importance to it."
Grandma, can you tell me about your past?"
I put the bamboo basket aside and half-squatted in front of the old man with a hydrangea."
I'm getting older, and I can't remember a lot of things clearly."
The old man threaded the needle and thread, and after a while, green waters and green mountains appeared on the satin, and her hands were very skillful, like a pair of butterflies flying.I could hear the old man's refusal, and I knew it was rude for me to ask, but now that she was my only breakthrough, there were some things I had to figure out.The voice slowed down, and I raised the hydrangea in my hand: "Grandma, when was this hydrangea at the bottom of your bamboo basket made?"
The most strange thing is that the satin has faded, why does the pattern made of needles and threads still retain its previous color?
”After the old man heard the word hydrangea, his steady hands suddenly trembled slightly: "What I made many years ago is not a precious thing, just a memory." ”"That's all?"
The wrinkles on her face were shaking when she spoke, and it could be seen that she was very emotional, and she couldn't hide it at all.The old man apparently didn't tell the truth, which further confirmed a certain suspicion in my mind.I gently put the hydrangea back into the bamboo basket and covered it with satin: "The hydrangea is put back for you, I just see that it is different from the silk on it, and I am a little curious." ”"The workmanship is different."
The old man's expression eased a lot, and the wrinkles on his face also relaxed: "This kind of hydrangea woman will only embroider once in her life, and the embroidery is not an ordinary needle and thread, but her own hair." ”"Hair?
It is no wonder that after all these years, even the silk has faded, but the needle and thread are still tough and smooth, and bright as ever. ”I looked at the black needles and threads on the hydrangea, and then at the silver-haired old woman in front of me, and for the first time I felt the power of time so clearly."
There is a skill in Suzhou embroidery called hair embroidery, which is to use green silk as thread and white silk as the backdrop."
The old man didn't say something, but I was already aware of it.In the past, hair was used to convey loyalty and affection, and women would give their hair to their lovers, meaning eternal union.From this point of view, this hydrangea must have extraordinary significance for the elderly."
Is there anything else you want to ask?"
The old man looked at me with only the whites of his eyes, "If not, go outside and rest, don't touch the chain on the door, don't go near the window with red paper, and remember not to let the red candle go out in the house." ”She made a few strange requests, but I didn't do as she was told, and bent down to glance at the dwarf black figure in the quilt, and my eyes resting on the orb in his arms."
Grandma, are you a survivor of the pig cage apartment from decades ago?
You......
Have you ever eaten meat too?
”As soon as I finished speaking, the old man's hand shrank back sharply, and when she looked down, she saw that her fingertips were bleeding from the needle.The old grandmother didn't expect me to say this sentence at all, and I was caught off guard, and I seemed to shake out the secret in her heart.His fingers were bleeding, and the old man was stunned and took the half-embroidered satin, and the blood dripped on the white brocade and dyed the silk thread red."
I've never mentioned this to anyone, how do you know?"
The old woman's voice changed, and she was a little hurried."
Jinghai is so big, you just live around the pig cage apartment, and you live there for a few years, which is a very abnormal thing in itself."
I stood on the edge of the bed, lifted the quilt on the bed, and the short black shadow hiding inside swooped and hid behind the old man: "The person you have been waiting for should be this child, the thing he is holding in his arms, although I can't see clearly, but the size and shape are exactly the same as the hydrangea you treasured."
I once looked at the ancient building from Bai Yaer's house on the fourth floor, and this little guy ran out of there.You say you don't have a family, so why do you wait for a child to run out of the ancient building every night in the Red Mansion?
Since he is not related to you by blood, then there is only one possibility, you have known each other a long time ago, and that hydrangea is the best proof of this. ”"This little guy has been holding the hydrangea and not letting go, which means that it is his most precious thing, and you have kept the hydrangea for more than 70 years, which shows that you also care about it."
Taking a breath, I sorted out all the clues in my head: "And what you just said - I have passed seventy years, and he just repeated it for another night."
At that time, you were saying in an exclamatory tone, I didn't understand this sentence at first, but after seeing the same hydrangea between the two of you, I slowly understood.You and this little guy lived in a pig cage apartment more than seventy years ago, but something happened and you survived, and something unfortunate happened to him. ”After finishing speaking, cold sweat broke out on my back, and I was worried that the old man would be like Zhang Shuxue, unable to stand the stimulation and be taken over by obsession.A few minutes passed, and the old man was still sitting in the same place, and she turned her head to look at the short black figure behind her, and there was a very complex emotion in her eyes full of whites."
That's right, I'm the survivor of the pig cage apartment back then."
The old woman slowly closed her eyes and told me a story that was more gloomy than despair."
More than 70 years ago, my family came to Gyeongkai from Shonan to escape the war, and it was still a foreign concession at that time.""
My father is a silk merchant, and he has taken care of everything before he came, and he thought that he could escape into the concession smoothly, but who would have thought that the concession party would delay again and again, and we were finally temporarily arranged in the Longchang community and became the earliest tenants here.""
At that time, I was only eight years old, and I followed my mother to learn Suzhou embroidery every day, looking forward to entering the concession as soon as possible, but unfortunately every time I waited for my father to come back late at night, this only hope would be disappointed.""
More and more people want to take refuge in the concession, more than a month has passed, and at least tens of thousands of people are stranded outside the Beijing Customs.""
Longchang continued to expand under the self-organization of the disaster victims, and new tenants moved in, and he appeared at that time.""
His name is Gu Junsheng, he is one year younger than me, he is not as tall as me, his body is thin, I thought he was a sick man when I first met.""
His father is a soldier, and it is said that on the front line, it is not easy for his mother to pull him alone.""
There are a lot of children in Longchangli, but they are very wild, and it is common to fight and fight, Junsheng is always the one who is bullied, once I really couldn't stand it and helped him, and since then I have had one more follower.""
He likes to read and watch me embroider, and I like to listen to him read poetry.""
Jin Se has fifty strings for no reason, one string and one pillar Si Hua Nian.His voice is very good, and after getting along for a long time, I slowly realized that he is not thin, but relatively delicate. ”"Such days lasted for a while, and after about seven months, the front line was tightened, and there were successive defeats, and the flames of war finally burned to Jinghai, all supply channels were cut off, and Jinghai became an isolated city.""
It became difficult for the army to replenish the army, and the food distributed to the refugees naturally became less and less, until in the end, the concession completely abandoned the tens of thousands of people outside the Guan, and they even set up machine guns on the Hongqiao Port, and those outside would be shot directly if they forced their way into the Guan.""
The hope of taking refuge in the concession was also completely shattered, and some people tried to leave Jinghai at that time, but the outside had become an enemy-occupied area, and the whole territory was blocked, and only one or two out of ten people escaped alive, and tens of thousands of people were trapped outside the pass.""
There was no fixed source of food, tens of thousands of people were like locusts, frogs, fish fry, voles, everything they could eat was stuffed into their stomachs, and later even fern roots, grass stems, and tree bark had to be scrambled."
The old man's voice was trembling, and she closed her eyes tightly: "Dragonflies eat their tails when they are hungry, and people will do even more terrible things when they are hungry and crazy."
Hunger was all over the place, and a special kind of 'meat' began to appear among the refugees. ”"If you don't eat, you'll die, if you die, you'll be eaten, crazy, all crazy.""
In a few months, there were fewer and fewer people alive, from strangers to family members, crying and swallowing, and Longchang was called the pig cage apartment at that time.""
My mother committed suicide because she wanted my father to stay and take care of me, but she didn't expect him to go out once and never come back.""
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From tens of thousands to thousands, it only took more than half a year.In order to survive and avoid unnecessary deaths from fighting, someone in the apartment has made a whole new set of rules, everyone has their own number, and when the previous person is eaten, the next number will be randomly selected to serve as a food ......
"calloused hands cover her face, the old woman lowered her head, I can't see her expression."
Unfortunately, I was drawn the following month, and that night I was washed and left alone in the house, guarded outside, and I couldn't tell if it was fear or relief.Sitting on the chair where my mother often sits, I threaded the needle and thread as I had done a long time ago, and I wanted to leave something for Junsheng. ”"In the second half of the night, Junsheng suddenly came to me, and he said that he had found a way to escape from the guards, and he wanted to go with me.""
I believe it, when the day was about to dawn, he led me quietly out of Longchang, walking the same road as usual, but there was no one to watch.""
When I got to a place close to the enemy-occupied area, he suddenly said that I had forgotten to take something very important, and asked me to wait for him at a certain col where we used to play together, but who knew that the wait would be so long......"