? Text/Peng Hui
When I was a child, I always looked forward to my birthday. No matter which of us has a birthday, my mother will cook a plate of scrambled eggs with leeks and serve them on the table. Forty years ago, I went down from the city with my mother to that remote mountain village in northwest Hunan. At that time, there were several hens laying eggs at home, and the eggs had to be replaced with daily necessities such as salt and soap. At ordinary times, the family is reluctant to eat eggs, but we can eat scrambled eggs cooked by our mother on our birthday, which is also a luxurious meal. One year I caught a cold on my birthday and had a high fever all day. Before dinner, my mother made me two poached eggs and put them in front of me for me to eat alone. My younger brother and sister stared at my bowl in a daze. Later, when I grew up, my brothers and sisters became families, and we seldom spent birthdays together. As we grow older, we gradually become indifferent to birthdays. Over the years, I have been running around outside and rarely spend my birthday with my family. Because of busy work, I forgot my birthday many times. Twenty years ago, with the yearning for the blue ocean, I broke into Xiamen, a coastal city. That day, I finished the night shift in the editorial department of a newspaper and was on my way back to my dormitory. Passing by a shop selling braised pork heads, I saw rows of braised pork heads. My mouth is watering. It suddenly occurred to me that today is my birthday. I went up and bought some pig's head snacks to celebrate myself. The shopkeeper is a Minnan man in his forties. He told me that there are two prices for pork head. Pork face meat is cheap, and the piece near the pig's ear is more expensive. He is afraid that I can't understand his Minnan Mandarin. He picked up the white knife for cutting meat and kept gesticulating on his face. I couldn't help laughing and said to him, "Master, I understand. You don't have to draw on your face, just cut off your ears. " ? I also imitated his appearance and gestured on my face with my hands. Then I bought a bottle of beer and went back to the dormitory to eat meat and drink alone. After eating meat and drinking wine, I stood at the window. In the dead of night, the sea breeze blew, looking at the direction of my hometown, remembering my childhood birthday, as if I had returned to that distant mountain village. ...
?
Every year is one year old, and the child's birthday is always in my parents' minds. I just arrived in Changsha the year before last. On my birthday, my mother called me early in the morning to wish me a happy birthday. I didn't know today was my birthday until I heard my mother's voice, and my heart was sour. My mother's white-haired figure, my son's birthday and my mother's bitter days floated in front of me. I thought it over. For many years, I have been busy with my life and seldom asked about my mother's life. When I was a child, I only knew to ask my mother for it. I didn't know that the wrinkles on my mother's forehead were full of stories for too many years. At that moment, I suddenly felt so far away from my mother.
? Today, I remembered my birthday. I got up before dawn and turned on my cell phone. I have been looking forward to my mother's phone call, but it has become a distant fantasy, because my mother's phone is no longer in the service area. On the other end of the phone, I can't wait for my kind mother's sincere birthday wishes. ...
Wuyi avenue, shrouded in the morning fog, is already full of traffic, and passers-by in a hurry pass by me. I was thinking that there were strangers like me in the crowd. Today, maybe one of them forgot his birthday and ran for his life, because the world itself is full of contradictions and competition.
The annual rings have passed unconsciously, and the infinite nostalgia for the years is engraved in the passage of time. I am still running. Today, on my birthday, I once took out my mobile phone with tears in my eyes and tried to dial my parents' mobile phone number. I want to have a dialogue between heaven and earth and give my blessing to my parents in heaven.
? "Dad, mom, are you okay over there?"
(2065438+September 4th, 2008, July 25th of the lunar calendar? Changsha)
The author's recent article:
"A Bronze Whistle" was published in the fourth issue of Hunan Waterway magazine, 20 17.
The dusty past of two blind men and Zhu blind men was published in Changhang Literature and Art,No. 1 issue, 20 18.
"Those things in the team room" was published in Hunan Port and Shipping magazine,No. 1 issue, 20 18.
Childhood in Ice and Snow was published in Chushanchun magazine,No. 1 issue, 20 18.
"Zhongheng Highway, Looking for the Most Beautiful Scenery" was published in the second issue of Hunan Port and Shipping magazine 20 18.
Embrace Tianchi was published in the third issue of Hunan Port and Shipping magazine 20 18.
About the author: Peng Hui, pen name Pengfei, is a writer and media person. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, he was active in the literary world. He has published nearly 100 literary works in China Consumer News, China City Appearance News, Chengdu Business News, Straits Herald and Hunan Automobile Transportation News. Among them, the novel "The First Horse" was selected as 650 mini-novels in China. Now he is the secretary-general of Hunan Port and Shipping Association and the editor-in-chief of Hunan Port and Shipping magazine.