I didn’t go to play chess with the dancer. She was so proud that she could compete with Rong Rongji’s other women in a round robin. She couldn’t beat them at all. I played chess very well. Generally speaking, I just didn’t have to make one hand feel happy with her, because the two of us at first she reached far away, but gradually she forgot to bend over the chessboard. Otherwise, her black hair would touch my chest. Suddenly, her face turned red.
I’m sorry to be scolded, she said, pushing the chess away. At this time, mother was in front of the public bath, and Chiyo Lily hurriedly came from the bathroom and fled back without going to the second floor.
On this day, Rongji played in my room from morning to evening, which was simple and seemed very kind. The hotel hostess advised me that it was a waste of time for such people to eat.
In the evening, I went to a small hotel and the dancer sang three strings with her mother. When she saw me, she stopped, but after listening to her mother’s words, she picked up the three strings again. Whenever her song was slightly higher, her mother said
Didn’t I say I couldn’t speak loudly?
Rongji was called to the hall on the third floor by the restaurant opposite, reading something that can be seen from here.
What did he read?
Ballad
What a strange ballad
Important friends can’t type the old domain name, but they can access it by visiting the alternate domain name.
That’s a vegetable seller. He can’t understand anything you read.
At this time, a 40-year-old bird shop merchant living in a small hotel punched a paper partition and asked several girls to eat vegetables. Lily, the dancer, took chopsticks to the next room to eat chicken hotpot left by the bird shop merchant. When they came back to this room together, the bird shop merchant patted the dancer on the shoulder and her mother showed a fierce face and said
Hey, hey, don’t touch this kid. She’s still a yellow flower girl
The dancer called the old uncle and begged the bird shop merchant to read her the story of wandering in the Yellow Gate. But the bird shop merchant got up and left soon. She read it to me again and again. But she didn’t tell me this directly, as if my mother had asked me to. I picked up a popular story with an expectation. The dancer quickly leaned over to my side. When I read it, she almost touched my shoulder. Once her eyes sparkled, she stared at my forehead without blinking. It seemed that she was listening to people read it. Just now, the bird shop merchant almost touched her face. I’ve seen this together. This pair of black eyes and big eyes is the most beautiful part of the dancer’s body. The lines of her eyelids can’t be said to be beautiful. Secondly, she laughs like a flower and laughs like a flower. This sentence shapes her to be realistic.
After a while, the hotel maid came to pick up the dancer. She changed her clothes and told me that my horse would come back and wait for me, and then I went on reading.
She went out in the corridor and bowed her hands and said I was going.
You mustn’t sing, mom said. She nodded slightly with a drum.
Mother turned to me and said that now she happened to be changing her voice.
The dancer sat on the second floor of the restaurant and drummed. From here, her back shadow seemed to drum my heart in the next hall.
As soon as the drum rang, the room became happy. Mom looked across and said
Chiyo Lily also went to the lobby over there.
After an hour, four people came back together.
That’s it. The dancer poured fifty cents into the palm of her mother’s hand from her fist. I read the story of wandering in the Yellow Gate for a while. They talked about the baby who died on the journey. It is said that the child was born like water and didn’t even have the strength to cry, but he still lived for a week.
I seem to have forgotten that they are itinerant artists, and they are neither curious nor contemptuous. This normal affection for them seems to have penetrated into their hearts. I decided when to go to their big island home in the future, and they discussed with each other that they could let him live in the master’s room, which is very spacious. If the master lets them come, it will be quiet and never be able to study. Then they told me that our two small rooms are on the other side of the mountain.
Besides, they are going to play in Beaufort in the month, so let me help.
I have come to realize that their travel mood is not as difficult as I originally imagined, but with the breath of the field. Because they are the youngest family, I feel a kind of flesh and blood, and they are always shy and shy in front of me.
After midnight, I left the inn and the girls came to see me off. The dancer set up the clogs for me. She poked her head from the door and looked at the bright sky.
Ah, the moon is coming. It’s so happy to be in the field. Let my mother buy me a comb and there are still many things to do. Will you take me to the movies?
For the artists who walk the streets along the hot springs in Sagamikawa, Izu area, the city of Tiangang is always on a journey, and their hometown is full of their lingering atmosphere.
chapter five
five
Artists each carry the same luggage as when crossing Tiancheng Mountain. Mom holds the puppy’s front foot by her wrist. She is used to traveling. She walks in Tangye and enters the mountainous area. The Asahi shines on the mountainside. We look at the direction of Asahi. Hejin Beach is on the Hejin Beach, and it is displayed in front of Hejin River.
There is the big island.
Look how big it is. Come on, said the dancer.
Perhaps it’s because it’s too sunny in autumn, near the sun, and the sea is covered with a mist like spring. It’s a 20-kilometer walk from here to the field, and the sea is flickering for a while, and thousands of generations are singing leisurely.
They asked me whether to take the steep path or the convenient avenue, but it was about two kilometers to climb the mountain. Of course, I had to take a shortcut.
The trees were covered with fallen leaves, and the road was so steep that it was next to my chest. I walked breathlessly, but I went away. I stepped on my knees and watched them fall behind. She followed me closely. She walked behind and didn’t want to shorten the distance or fall behind me again. When she spoke, she seemed surprised. She stopped and smiled and answered. When the dancer spoke, I waited there, hoping that she would catch up, but she also stopped and waited for me to move forward. She didn’t take the road twists and turns. I stepped up my pace even more because of the obstacles, but the dancer climbed wholeheartedly and still kept a distance of one or two meters. The mountains were silent, and the others fell far behind and could not hear anything.
Where do you live in Tokyo?
No home. I live in a dormitory.
I have also been to Tokyo to enjoy the flowers. I went dancing when I was very young, and I don’t remember anything.
Then she asked about your father, did you go to Jiafu, and so on. She said that she was going to see a movie in Tian and talked about the dead baby.
At this time, I came to the top of the mountain. The dancer unloaded the drum in the withered grass and put it on the stool with a towel to wipe the sweat. She wanted to dust her feet, but suddenly she squatted at my feet and shook my skirt. I hurried back. She couldn’t help kneeling down and bending over to dust my whole body, and then put the turned-over skirt on the table. I said, sit down.
Just next to the stool, flocks of birds flew over, and it was so quiet that they heard the rustling of dead leaves and branches of parked birds.
Why run so fast?
The dancer seemed to feel hot, and my fingers drummed on the drum, and the birds flew away.