It was an ordinary winter day. When my friend and I met at Green Lake, seagulls were flying lively.

It was easy to spot the old man among the crowd feeding the seagulls. He was already hunched over, wearing a faded, outdated cloth coat, and carrying a faded blue cloth bag. Even the large plastic bag containing bird feed had faded from use. My friend told me that this old man walked more than 20 miles every day from the suburbs of the city to Green Lake just to deliver meals to the seagulls and keep them company.

The place with few people is his territory to feed the seagulls. The old man carefully placed the biscuits on the fence by the lake, took a step back, raised his beak and called to the gulls. Immediately a group of seagulls came in response and swept it clean in a few strokes. The old man walked along the railing and let the seagulls rise and fall according to his rhythm, forming a flying white sheet and flying into a colorful musical score.

Amidst the chirping of seagulls, the old man sang something in a measured tone. Listening carefully, it turned out to be local dialects that were so intimate that they changed the tone - "one-legged", "gray-headed", "red-mouthed", "old sand", "princess"...

"You give me Did the seagull have a name?" I couldn't help but ask.

The old man looked back at me and still leaned towards the seagull: "Of course, each one has a name."

"Do you recognize them?" The same white wings were on the seagull. The sunlight flashed by so quickly that I doubted the old man could see clearly.

"Look, look! The one with the ring on his foot is Lao Sha!" The old man pointed it out to me proudly. He suddenly shouted to the water: "One leg! Lao Sha! Get up!" "Quick!"

Two seagulls jumped up from the water and flew towards the old man. As expected, one seagull's feet shone with metal, and another flew over and pecked at the old man's hand. It had only one foot and had to flap its wings to maintain balance when it landed. It seemed that it had one leg. The old man was feeding it and talking to it affectionately.

When talking about seagulls, the old man’s eyes immediately became vivid.

" Seagulls value friendship the most and are attentive. The year before last, a seagull rested on my hat five times the day before it flew away from Kunming. I thought it was playing a trick on me, but later it I know it's saying goodbye to me.

It didn't come last year, and it didn't come this year... The seagull is an auspicious bird, a bird of happiness! The ancients said that "white gulls bring poems wherever they fly." More than ten years ago, a seagull came. Come on, I knew we were lucky. Look at their little faces! Tsk..." The seagulls heard the old man calling and immediately flew over, surrounding him, causing passers-by to stop and watch.

The sun is in the west, and the old man’s plastic bag is empty. "It's getting late, and they will go back in a while. I heard that they rest in the Dian Lake, but it's a pity that I can't go there." The old man looked at the gulls hovering in the sky with hope in his eyes.

My friend told me that for more than ten years, when winter comes, the old man will come every day, and he and the seagulls are like relatives.

Unexpectedly, more than ten days later, someone suddenly told us: The old man passed away.

Hearing this news, we seemed to see the old man and the seagulls accompanying each other by the green lake again... We enlarged the photo of the old man feeding the seagulls for the last time and brought it to the green lake.

An unexpected thing happened - a group of seagulls suddenly flew over, circling around the portrait of the old man, and screamed continuously. The sound and posture were very different from usual, as if something big had happened. We were very surprised and hurriedly backed away from the old man's photo to make way for the seagulls.

The seagulls flapped their wings rapidly and took turns flying into the air in front of the old man's portrait, like relatives who came to pay their last respects. The old man in the photo was silently watching the seagulls flying around him, and his "sons and daughters" who had been with him for many winters... After a while, the seagulls landed one after another, and actually stood in two lines in front of and behind the old man's portrait. . They stood still, like white-winged angels guarding the old man.

When we had to put away the portrait, the seagulls rushed towards the portrait like a camp was blown up. They screamed loudly and flapped their wings so close that we finally got out of the flying white vortex (wō).

......

At the funeral held for the old man, we slowly walked towards the mourning hall carrying the portrait. The old man was carrying the blue cloth bag and pouting, as if he was still calling to the seagulls. In his heart, there must be a flock of flying gulls.

Extended information:

1. Appreciation

"The Old Man and the Seagull" is a literary work edited by Deng Qiyao. The book mainly tells the story of an old man feeding seagulls by Green Lake in Kunming. Later, the old man passed away, and "we" placed the old man's photo by the green lake. Seagulls flew in groups to say goodbye to the old man. It expresses the deep friendship between the old man and the seagull.

The structure of the text is clear and can be divided into two parts: the old man loves seagulls and the seagulls give gifts to the old man. The first half shows the old man's love for seagulls through examples such as feeding the seagulls, calling the seagulls' names, and talking to the seagulls affectionately.

The latter part shows the shocking love of seagulls for the old man through tragic scenes such as seagulls flying, circling, standing in silence, and chirping in front of the old man's portrait after the old man's death. The language of the text is simple, and the ordinary contains deep feelings. Everyone who reads it will be moved by the sincere feelings between humans and animals.

2. Introduction to the author

Deng Qiyao is a member of the academic committee of the "Southwestern Frontier Ethnic Research Center of Yunnan University", a key research base for humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, and a visiting professor of Yunnan University and Yunnan University for Nationalities. Executive director and deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Folklore Society.

Director of the Humanities and Historical Geography Professional Committee of the China Exploration Association, Vice Chairman of the China Folk Photography Association, Special Invited Expert of the U.S.-China Art Exchange Center at Columbia University, and Chinese Director of the Sino-U.S. Cooperation "National Culture Field Research Group" .

Baidu Encyclopedia-The Old Man and the Seagull