The location of "Yashe" is halfway up the mountain, and there are about seventy or eighty layers of earth steps below the road. In front is a spiral rice field. Looking further into the distance, there are several lush distant mountains, next to which are sorghum fields, bamboo forests, pools and cesspits, and behind them are uninhabited slopes. If the place is desolate, on a moonlit night, or on a windy and rainy day, there are often guests. Generally speaking, friends are not too far away, and distance is friendship. Tourists climb dozens of steps first, and then they have to go uphill when they enter the house, because the floor in the house is paved by the mountain, with a high side and a low side and a great slope. All the guests are surprised, but I will settle down for a long time. Every day, walking from the study to the restaurant is uphill, and after dinner, it is downhill, and I don't feel great inconvenience.
There are six "elegant houses", and I am the second. The grate wall is not firm and the doors and windows are not tight, so my neighbors and I can communicate with each other. Neighbors' binge drinking, chanting poems, whispering, snoring, sneezing, eating soup, tearing paper and taking off shoes all ripple out from the cracks in doors and windows at any time, breaking my silence. In the evening, mice can have a bird's eye view of the lamp, move freely as soon as they close their eyes, or move walnuts along the slope on the floor, or suck lamp oil to overthrow the candlestick, or climb to the top of the tent, or grind their teeth at the foot of the door frame, which makes people unable to rest. But for mice, I am ashamed to admit that I "have no choice". The sentence "There is no way" is often quoted by foreigners, who think that this sentence can best represent the lazy and forbearing attitude of China people. In fact, I am not lazy in dealing with mice. Paste paper on the window, and the paper will break when you poke it; The door is tightly closed, but like a mouse with teeth, a bite is a hole. What else can we do? Isn't it "helpless" for foreign devils to live in "elegant houses"? Mosquitoes are more annoying than mice. There are more mosquitoes and lice in Yashe than I have ever seen before. "Gather mosquitoes into thunder" is really true! Every evening, the house is full of mosquitoes, dark and big, with hard bones. When mosquitoes have been eliminated elsewhere, they are particularly rampant in Yashe. If tourists don't pay attention, their legs will swell like corn, but I'm still safe. When winter comes, mosquitoes will naturally disappear, and next summer-who knows I still live in the "elegant house"!
"Elegant House" is best for moonlit nights-the terrain is higher and the moon comes first. Look at the moon on the mountain, red plates pour in, and in an instant, the lights are bright, the sky is high and the clouds are light, the fields are silent, dogs bark, and all the guests sit quietly! There are two pear trees in front of the house. When the moon rises at noon, the clear light falls from the trees, and the shadows on the ground are gorgeous, which makes it very quiet. Until people dispersed and went to bed, the moonlight still forced through the window to help me feel sad. On the occasion of drizzle, Yashe is also interesting. Looking out of the window, it looks like Michaelis' composition, and if the clouds are foggy, they will diffuse. However, if it rains cats and dogs, I will feel uneasy again. There are wet marks all over the roof. At first it was as big as a bowl, then it expanded like a basin, and then it dripped endlessly. Finally, the plaster on the roof suddenly cracked, like a wonderful flower in full bloom, betting with sudden mud. At this moment, the room is in chaos, saving the common people. This kind of experience is not uncommon. The display of "Yashe" can only be considered simple. Sweep and wipe it, and there will be no dust. I'm not a powerful person, so I don't allow photos of Minggong and Qing to enter my room. I'm not a dentist, so I don't have a doctorate. I don't have a haircut, so I can't shoot the Ten Scenes of the West Lake and movie stars. I have a chair, a couch, a deep sleep, writing, reading and nothing else. But although the furnishings are simple, I like to renovate. Westerners often laugh at women who like to change the position of desks and chairs, thinking that this is one of the signs of women's natural change. Whether it's fake or not, I like change. Old-fashioned families in China have the same furniture. There is a cabinet in the main hall, with a square table in front, an armchair on one side, two armchairs and a coffee table on both sides. I think the furnishings should be uneven, and the most taboo is to arrange my spouse. There is nothing novel in "Elegant Room", but the arrangement one by one is not vulgar. People knew this was my room as soon as they came in.
What Dai Li Weng said in Fate is exactly what I want.
"Yashe" is not mine, I'm just one of the tenants. But think about "everything goes against the journey", life is like sending, I live in "Yashe" for one day, and "Yashe" is all for me. Even this day is not your own. At least, I really bowed down and tasted the ups and downs that Yashe can give on this day. Liu Kezhuang's words: "Be at home." At this moment, I live in Yashe, which is like my home. Actually, it seems to be home, and I can't tell it apart.
For a long time, there was no slang, the writing was self-contained, arbitrary and informal, and the word "elegant articles" was used to express the place and ambition of writing.
(1) This article is selected from the first article of the author's Essays on Elegant Rooms (published by Bi Hui Book Company), so it is a cloud.