Five six seven eight

Postscript of ninety

Short message one

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The golden light of the rising sun dispelled the morning mist like light smoke hanging over the river; The peaks on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have turned green. The east wind played a gentle tone. The yellow muddy river flows down in the tight bundle of the canyon, and small eddies appear from time to time.

There was a faint whine, like a monster's roar, coming from behind the upstream mountain wall. A few minutes later, the vague voice suddenly expanded into a long male voice and folded into a rumbling echo between the cliffs on both sides of the strait. A light green boat swept away the fog majestically and sailed briskly, and the river was immediately drowned by the muddy engine sound.

This is the famous Totoro Wheel on the Chuanjiang River. I started from Kuifu at dawn today and arrived in Yichang at two or three o'clock in the afternoon.

Although it's only eight o'clock in the morning, the ship's side is full of people. These are friends from the third class who came out for fresh air. The corridor outside the top-floor restaurant is not so lively; Only two women reclined on the green iron, overlooking the magnificent scenery of Wuxia Gorge.

They stood side by side, their faces facing the bow. Twisted his waist, his left arm leaned against a dead branch, and he looked only in his twenties, wearing a waist-long white satin blouse. Here is a long dark black dress, which breeds the wind and makes her slim figure particularly graceful. She cut her hair, and a pair of dark sideburns hung curvedly beside her oval cheeks, lined with long and thin eyebrows, a straight nose, charming eyes and small and round lips, which showed that she was an impeccable oriental beauty. If you look from the back, she is the embodiment of tenderness; But there is a heroic spirit in her brow, and a small mouth that is often closed also shows her perseverance. She is the kind of person who never looks back after setting a goal.

Her companion is a stout middle-aged woman; The position of the five senses is not so ugly, but the flat lips have two downward angles, forming a gloomy face. She is wearing clothes of good material but out of date. A pair of delicate feet, covered in too big black leather boots, arched instep like two balls. Compared with her companion's long and narrow feet, this shows a lonely look.

Both of them have nothing to say. The magnificence of mountains and rivers has already washed their hearts; Emptiness and rashness, they indulge in this nature.

The ship's whistle rang again. A cliff stands in front of the river in the distance, towering into the sky; On the left and right sides, the peaks and rivers face each other like spreading wings, becoming two high banks. There seems to be no road ahead! Sunlight, like a touch of gold, only smeared the tips of those peaks, which is an example of dark green. The ship is still moving forward firmly, but the whistle is more frequent. The cliff blocking the river is approaching Ran Ran, higher and bigger, and you can vaguely see the trees gathered in the middle of the waist.

"This is the first of the twelve peaks in Wushan!"

The middle-aged woman looked at her companion and said; At the same time, the conceited nod made the big bun at the back of the head almost fall apart.

The young woman answered with a smile and turned to avoid the stench of the big bun. She moved slowly and looked forward more intently. The cliff that hit us is closer now, and its top is out of sight; A clump of green cypress trees is laid obliquely halfway up the mountain, like a wall belt, and then a deep ochre stone wall is directly inserted into the water, and some vines such as dill are mottled. All this, the screen of this cliff, is slowly zooming in and out, and then, suddenly shaking a few times, turning around skillfully, as if to show off the scenery on the other side.

Pu Hong! The whistle gave a pleasant cry and the ship turned. The towering cliff dodged to the right, and the endless river rolled in front of it.

"Chuanjiang waterway is like this! From a distance, there is no road, but when I get there, I know there is still a road. I don't know how many twists and turns! Miss May, this is the first time you have seen it. You must think it's very interesting? "

The middle-aged woman shouted from behind. But the east wind was so strong that the experience was unfortunately blown away. Miss Mei looked glumly at the east river and heard nothing.

The wonders of Wuxia really touched her. Think of your past, is it treacherous and changeable, and I have walked into a dead end several times; She bravely pulled out half the silk of life interwoven with light and darkness. What will happen in the future? The future of this mystery! She has no illusions or pessimism; She just waited quietly, like an old boxer waiting for his opponent. This is a deep mark left by the turbulent life on her young age!

Maybe many people envy her life. However, Ms. Mei feels that she just can't forget the word "drift". In the past four years, she has suddenly become a striking "nouveau riche", and there is a "Miss Mei" in southern Sichuan and western Sichuan. She is an extraordinary daughter. She is a rainbow figure. However, she didn't expect this at first, so she enjoyed it. It is only because of the changes of the times that she rushed forward with the spirit of a soldier! Her characteristic is "forward!" Her only ambition is to conquer the environment and destiny! For several years, her only purpose is to restrain her strong femininity and stronger motherhood!

On a bright spring day and a bleak rainy night, she sometimes feels that the inheritance of women for thousands of years is stupid in her heart; At that time, her temples were covered with tears, and she fell into a great immersion of bitterness and lingering. At that time, she felt unlucky. It was at that time that she resentfully called her life turbulent. However, the turbulent experience condensed her life into a new type, and the turbulent May 4th Movement has turned the pointer of her thoughts, and she will never look back. She can only resolutely suppress and eliminate the roots of tradition and strive to adapt to the new world and new life. She didn't stop, didn't wander, didn't contradict.

Now struggling to cross the Yangtze River in Wuxia seems to be a symbol of her past life. Her future life should be as unrestrained as the Yangtze River under Kuimen!

Ms. Mei couldn't help laughing to herself. She turned around and saw her companion squinting at her, then she remembered what she seemed to have heard the old lady say just now. She doesn't like this disgraceful companion very much, but she won't offend her casually; And as long as she doesn't smell bad, she doesn't want to hear that she is old.

"Mrs. Wen, it's windy. Aren't you afraid? "

Ms. Mei approached lightly; Specially standing in the upper hand position, very affectionately said.

"I pay this old bones, which difficulty haven't tasted? Still afraid of the wind! When I joined the regime this spring, the wind was stronger than this and it rained heavily. I'm not afraid! I didn't have an umbrella, so I took my sisters to the governor's office to petition! "

Mrs. Wen said excitedly, shaking her big round bun repeatedly.

Ms. Mei pursed her mouth and smiled, but she also pretended to admire her.

"At that time, Miss Mei, why didn't you come? Oh, you are the personal secretary of the governor, you are a red man, and you are an official. But, Miss Mei, being an official is not participating in politics! Participating in politics is-"

Speaking of the last sentence, the lady paused and moved closer to Ms. Mei to prepare a longer speech.

Ms. Mei also stepped back and carefully kept the upper hand position, but soon broke Mrs. Wen's words:

"There is a governess who is the governor. What secretary? People laugh at me. What nonsense, so we have to laugh it off. Mrs. Wen, when you lost your husband when you were young, you always knew that those frivolous people would only insult women and make random rumors. "

Mrs. Wen's downward-pointing corners of the mouth moved and made no answer. She always feels disappointed when she mentions her youth. Although the days of "fear of rumors" have long passed, she is now engaged in the political participation movement unscrupulously. However, when she broke into the provincial Council, she heard the guards secretly cursing "tigress is evil" behind her back. Somehow, her momentum was frustrated. Subconsciously, she felt that the shadow of the past defiled her bright future. She wants to do things in society because she is a woman. The only necessary condition is innocence. She and many people who oppose the right to participate in politics are really comrades in the view that women can only be loyal to their own lives. "The governor is advocating new ideas. He has a special view on gender issues.

Maybe Mrs. Wen has also heard of it? "

Seeing her companion's discomfort, Ms. Mei smiled and changed the direction of the topic. However, the word "gender issue" is probably unfamiliar to the ears of this long-winded regime participant, so she looked at Ms. Mei clearly and did not answer.

Ms. Mei's beautiful eyes were very alert, and she went on to say:

"This special insight is that a wife is a lifelong companion; Companions are friends;

The more friends, the better! "

Suddenly, the ship's whistle sounded again; First, there were two short bursts, followed by a long, exhausted whistle. The alarm bell at the bow also rang wildly. This is because some bandits shot at the ship in the ravines on both sides. This is as usual. The passengers' messy footsteps immediately filled the whole ship. When Ms. Mei pulled Mrs. Wen into the aisle in front of the dining room, she heard intermittent purring on the left. Passengers lying high in the first class don't know when they have got up, scrambling to squeeze on the small ladder leading to the lower cabin. A crew member made a gesture to Ms. Mei, and both of them went down. Ms. Mei instinctively just moved a leg, and suddenly a bad smell rushed into her nose, and she suddenly stopped.

"I don't go down. The ship is too fast, and the robber's bullets can't hit it! "

Ms. Mei said with a smile. Before Mrs. Wen could answer, she rushed into the dining room, went into her room, lay on the couch and picked up a book to read. Her room is on the right. The shadow of the sun flickered at the window. Ms. Mei got up and tried to close the curtains. She saw a wooden boat full of awnings in Sheung Shui and went to the cliff. It passed quickly. She listened, but there was no sound. She went back to lie on the sofa and yawned. I had a lot of dreams at night and couldn't sleep well. I got up too early this morning and she felt very sleepy. She crossed her hands under her head and closed her eyes.

The sound of changing hands on the door rang gently. Ms. Mei opened her eyes lazily and saw Mrs. Wen standing in front of the couch. Probably crowded in the crowd, the lady's big bun almost fell apart and hung lazily around her neck. There are still a few drops of sweat sticking to her forehead.

"Great Dick should even shoot foreign ships! Scare! But, Miss Mei, you are too bold. Bullets have no eyes, and the sacrifice is not excessive! "

Mrs. Wen sat heavily on the sofa, panting.

Ms. Mei smiled, sat up and walked to the window, leaning against the toilet. She tried to persuade Mrs. Wen to comb the bun first, but she changed the subject and stopped:

"It's a pity that we were interrupted. Mrs. Wen, do you think the governor is right? "

"Great people have different opinions."

This meaning can be said to be perfunctory, but Mrs. Wen's attitude is very serious. Ms. Mei gave a light smile. She cocked her left foot, gently kicked the tassel at the bottom of the curtain with the toe of white high-heeled shoes, and seemed to say to herself more gently and lightly at the same time:

"But he only said' the wife is a lifelong companion', not' the husband is a lifelong companion'."

Mrs. Wen opened her eyes wide and was puzzled.

"His lifelong partners now have five." Ms. Mei quickly went on to say. "He is considerate, equal and cautious; Almost all eunuchs were used in his famous big garden. It is simply his Epang Palace! "

Mrs. Wen missed the point of this sentence. But the number "five" caused many "anecdotes" she heard, and also induced her feelings;

She suddenly asked in a low voice:

"I heard that there are also extremely ugly. Is it true? "

Now Ms. Mei doesn't know much about it either. But she took a surprised look at Mrs. Wen and immediately understood; She smiled. She stretched herself and replied coldly:

"The person who wrote the poem' I used to be a hero's concubine and didn't want to be a layman's wife' can probably be regarded as the first negative beauty in Tian Zi!"

The light outside the window suddenly dimmed, much like a ship entering the bridge. When Ms. Mei was busy, she looked out and saw a very high mountain on the right bank slowly looking back and retreating; You can't see the mountain peak, just hang it in front of you. It's just trees with one floor high and one floor low. The trunks are straight and thin like hemp stalks. Miss Mei looked back at Mrs Wen's sad face and said:

"The special thing about General Epang Palace is that his companions are almost all ugly people."

Join silently. Mrs. Wen, who likes to talk, seems to be touched by a strange feeling. She suddenly collapsed on the sofa and covered her face with her hands. Her bloated figure and unnatural feet remind Ms. Mei of the "unconventional wife" who lives in Epang Palace. So the impression of the past slowly solidified, blocking Ms. Mei's consciousness like a wisp of light smoke. Trance is also a tutor in that big garden. She saw the familiar lakes and mountains, fish ponds and western-style octagonal pavilions. Oh! This unforgettable little pavilion! There, she once refused the temptation of money and jewelry; She loves luxury, but also freedom. In particular, she doesn't want to be a prisoner of Epang Palace. It is also here that she fully realized the root of female jealousy formed by thousands of years of dependence on life. In Ms. Mei's disconsolate thoughts, a pair of small round faces with murderous triangular eyebrows suddenly appeared in generate; Then came Braun Lin's smooth muzzle, like a strange round eye.

Ms. Mei gave a half-sneer from the bottom of her heart, which shook away the misty memory that pervaded her consciousness. This half sneer is the only one in Zhuangzi-the chicken's "scared" answer to the owl's clinging to the rotten mouse as a treasure. Teacher Mei's last lesson as a governess is the fable of Zhuangzi.

There was a slight snoring on the sofa. Mrs. Wen has fallen asleep. Ms. Mei looked at the window, then quietly walked out of the room, went to the corridor outside the restaurant, and chose a cane chair to sit there.

On both sides of the river, there are still uninhabited mountains, which rise like two high walls from the muddy waves of the river. In the tunnel of this mountain, Long Maolun gasped and walked in a straight line only in the middle of the river. One or two sailboats appear from time to time on both sides, but they are all close to the cliff. It seems that the people on the boat can climb the vines on the rock wall with their hands out. There are some small wooden boats under the cliff protruding in the distance ahead, which look like they are stuck in the narrow river and there is almost no way to escape; But a few minutes later, with a majestic sirens, Long Maolun had already passed, only to see that the river was still as wide as four ships. The two huge waves aroused by the dark wheel boldly rushed to the cliff, so the wooden boat attached to the cliff shook like a snail and was intoxicating.

Ms. Mei looked at the wooden boats and smiled. She praised the great power of the machine. She has no pity for those snail-like things that are hit by mechanical waves. She trusts this huge monster. She is deeply aware that this monster of modern civilization will bring her a new "future". Although the world ahead is unknown and unfamiliar, it must be broader and more enthusiastic: Ms. Mei is so unconditionally convinced.

However, she has no illusions. The experience of the past four or five years has taught her not to cling to the past and not to dream about the future. Just seize the moment and go all out. Her past life was like sailing in the Wu gorge; I often see a cliff in front of me, and I suspect that there is no road, but I walk bravely to know that it is still a wide road, but after a short walk, there is a cliff in front of me, and I can't see any road. At this time, when I looked back, it was Yunshan who locked the door early. The past is unbearable and the future is confusing and dangerous. She should seize the present and work hard. She is a "Christian now".

The wind is blowing with a pungent smell. The river breaks the sunlight into thousands of pieces of gold. It's almost noon. Ms. Mei leaned on the high back of the cane chair and gradually felt her eyelids heavy. Although the scenery in front of her is very meaningful, she is a little tired now: the barren hills around her are always so high, the winding rivers are always endless, and the journey is always mysterious but repeated again and again! And there are always victorious shouts and shrill whistles!

She collapsed in a chair, letting her drowsiness digest monotonous time. No old stories disturbed her calm, and no new expectations aroused her excitement.

The waiter came to invite her to lunch. When she asked if she would arrive in Yichang around 3 pm, she thought the Longmao express was just a local train. She is looking forward to going out at once. Now, the closer it is to Sichuan, the more impatient she feels; She feels that everything that belongs to Sichuan is narrow and tortuous, just like rivers now.

After lunch, while Mrs. Wen's chatterbox was still on, Ms. Mei hid in her room and fell asleep. She had long seen that the famous female political participation movement "athlete" was not very interesting, but now she felt sick. Hate her manners too vulgar, hate her eyes only half an inch long, hate her seemingly lofty and vulgar, hate her chaotic feminist thoughts to the extreme.

Semi-consciously comparing herself with her peers, Ms. Mei suddenly remembered the problems after coming to Shanghai; She asked herself in her mind, "We are representatives, but what does * * * stand for?" ! How can we accomplish the mission of unity? "She couldn't help laughing. She admitted that she was just trying to escape the entanglement of the short general in the name of attending the National Student Union. She knew that if she didn't get away, she would be forced to be the middleman in Epang Palace. As for the personal purpose of Mrs. Wen, her companion, she is naturally more reluctant to infer.

Sleepiness is gradually dissipating. From Mrs. Wen, Ms. Mei thought of other acquaintances. From middle school until two years ago when she was a teacher in southern Sichuan, a good friend, Ms. Xu, suddenly jumped out and became the center of Ms. Mei's memory. "She is in Nanjing!" Ms. Mei thought excitedly. So many incoherent memories and feelings followed, and finally Ms. Mei was pulled out of the hospital bed.

The rumbling sound also came from the deck. The footsteps outside the window are very dense. Mrs Wen leaned into half a head from humanly scaled mouth and shouted happily:

"You don't want to see KuiMen? Coming soon! "

Ms. Mei answered with a smile. The vitality of people outside made her feel hot; She put on a tulle shirt, wiped her face with a towel and ran briskly into the corridor.

The banks are still high cliffs, but not as steep as before, showing a slightly ferocious shape. Behind the high cliff, like a screen, stacks of higher peaks shine with sunlight and turn golden yellow. The wind is just blowing gently, like taking a nap.

The ship seems to be walking very slowly, and the sound of water hisses evenly. Whistles always shout loudly, as if old officials came out with majestic drinks.

There are still many people, including Mrs. Wen, waiting on the edge of the iron. Ms. Mei stood in the aisle with her hands behind her head and shook her shoulders smartly. Short-sleeved sleeves off the shoulders, exposing two white arms on both sides of the head, forming a pair of equal triangles. Attracted a lot of attention. The beauty bit her lip and smiled, showing her unruly spirit. Then, her long eyebrows suddenly rose, and she jumped forward and passed through the group of several passengers until she reached the captain's room.

About ten feet from the bow, I pulled up two stone walls facing each other, like a knife. There are no trees, no vines, and no ferns. It just looks like a muddy rock in the dark and stands tall like a big doorframe without a top. Connecting this strange stone cliff are towering and undulating mountains. The turbulent waves of the river rushed to the door of the cliff and hit the bottom of the cliff.

The whistle sounded deafening again and the ship sailed into Shimen. Ms. Mei looked up. The strong sunlight dazzled her. She felt the rapidly retreating high cliff shaking as if it were about to collapse. She instinctively closed her eyes and saw a piece of red light, followed by endless darkness.

Miss Mei hung her head and put her hands on her head, thinking:

"Ah, this is Kuimen, this is the gate of Sichuan, and this is the gate of hell that isolates Sichuan from the world!"

The sudden feeling made Ms. Mei temporarily confused. Until the ship's whistle woke her up again, she looked up and suddenly felt her eyes shine. The powerful river spread out in front of her, and there was no coast in sight. Far away, there are only some gray clusters of clouds lying flat at the junction of water and sky. As if the bondage on her chest had been lifted, Ms. Mei smiled and raised her arms and took a deep breath. She praised this great nature! Only then did she realize the great spirit of the Yangtze River.

She looked back to the right. Kuimen stone wall is still faintly visible. Now it's just a gap between hills; There is mysterious darkness in the cracks.

"I can't see the good scenery from now on; All the way out of Sichuan, the Yangtze River is a plain! Kuimen is a natural boundary. "

Mrs. Wen's voice came from the left. Ms. Mei turned away and saw Mrs. Wen struggling to move her little feet and hit her head. Ms. Mei pursed her lips and smiled, then whispered:

"Since then, I have left the tortuous, narrow, dangerous and mysterious road and entered a broad, open and free world!"