Storytelling | my old story in the south of the city

there is a hooligan named Lin Huairou in the south of the city. He is named after a woman, but he is short and black. People in the south of the city call him Black Dog. The black dog runs fast and can climb so high that a few-meter-high tree goes up in the blink of an eye. People in the south of the city say that the black dog specializes in sneaking around, and the most common thing to do is to climb into the house, poison the dog, wipe the chicken around the neck, put it in a sack, and sell it in a small restaurant. Once, the black dog climbed into the house, accidentally sprained his ankle while jumping off the wall, fell into the pigsty, and could not stand up, so that five or six people were beaten half to death in the hut, and then sent in for a free meal.

Black Dog is my father, and my classmates call me a puppy. My father was released after I finished primary school. My mother said that she had been created by a black dog for half her life and never wanted to see him again, so my father came out and my mother left. My mother asked me if I was leaving, and I said no. I already knew that my mother had been picked up many times by a man in the north of the city in a small shabby car. I know my mother is still a young woman. Just go. I'm grateful that she didn't throw me away all these years. I can't follow her anymore.  
 

my family lives in the south of the small town. People in the small town call this the south of the city. The south of the city is the same as the north of the city. The moonlight in the city is bright. People in the city like to eat white flour steamed buns and braised meat just out of the pot. It snows heavily in winter in the city, sketching the world white. The day my father came back, he got his ankle under the snow. He was parked in front of his house on a broken, loud motorcycle. He said, "where's your mother?" I said, let's go.

he didn't ask where he was. He said, boy, I don't know his name is Dad.

I said, Dad.

 before, my mother would cook half a bowl of braised meat for me during the holidays. Black dogs can only steal meat, can't cook meat, and can't even make steamed buns of white noodles, which makes me regret not leaving with my mother. Black dog can only make noodles, mix spring onions and cucumbers with soy sauce, black dog bought a sack of noodles, a big bundle of onions, filled with several bottles of soy sauce, the black dog said, boy, you learn, when I am not at home, do not starve to death. I said with disdain, I would have known this a long time ago.  
 

I don't know what Black Dog is up to. After eating, he rode off on his broken motorcycle. After he came out, he had a bit of a limp. Everywhere he went, he rode that broken motorcycle. He rode very fast and didn't want to die. Sometimes he carried me, took a sharp turn, the motorcycle tilted to one side, and his head was so low that he even touched the grass by the side of the road. He asked me if I was afraid. I said I was not afraid. But the heart is trembling.

 when school is over, Black Dog sometimes waits for me at the gate of my school. He took my schoolbag and hung it around his neck. I jumped into the back seat of the car. When it snowed, I got into his coat. He had a green military coat, which was warm. He said, boy, dad will take you to a restaurant. Every time the black dog took me out to a restaurant, he would bring a woman. When I was a little older, I knew that the black dog was looking for a woman, and I was picked up. But whatever, it's better than eating soy sauce noodles at home.  
 

sometimes the black dog asks me what this looks like today. I said, average. He patted me on the head and said, boy, the vision is quite high. Dipped in the light of the black dog, I have known all kinds of women since childhood, they wear all kinds of clothes, they have all kinds of eyes, but the women the black dog is looking for have big breasts.

I think I'm a little precocious. I feel precocious not because I was young and began to see all kinds of women have looked at women's breasts, but because one day I dreamt about Liu Xiaohong. Liu Xiaohong doesn't have a mother either. her mother is gone. Liu Xiaohong's father haunts all kinds of bets in the south of the city and doesn't go home with her mother Rest, so her mother may not be lonely and drank pesticides, which doubles Liu Xiaohong's worth at school. Unlike me, at that time, the black dog was carrying me on a motorcycle, and I often heard my classmates shout, "big dog a and small dog, black and ugly." Liu Xiaohong's mother left, but it made people feel that fate was unfair to such a little girl. At that time, we had just learned an idiom called Chuchu pitiful. There is a boy who does not know whether to live or die to get up and make a sentence: Liu Xiaohong is very unfortunate, how pitiful she is. Then let the teacher clean the toilet for a month, it is quite pitiful.

at that time, there were always boys rushing to see Liu Xiaohong home after school, although Liu Xiaohong's home was in the hutong next to the school.

 I dreamt about Liu Xiaohong that day, but I forgot what I dreamt about. The strange thing is that when I saw Liu Xiaohong at school, I suddenly remembered this thing, and I kept thinking about it, and I kept looking at Liu Xiaohong in class, which reminded me of the black dog's eyes on those women's breasts. Of course, Liu Xiaohong doesn't have boobs, no, it should be a little bit.  
 something happened that day, which made me think that something would happen to me and Liu Xiaohong, and it was hard to disobey providence. I don't know how Liu Xiaohong fainted when she went to the toilet. One foot stepped into the dunghill and half a leg was buried. The teacher asked a boy to send Liu Xiaohong home. The usual dog-like boys are now silent. My head went through my head, and I said, I'll go.  
 I held Liu Xiaohong with one hand, but Liu Xiaohong tried to control the distance between us, probably for fear of getting on me. It was a rare sunny, warm winter afternoon. Liu Xiaohong said to me, thank you, puppy. I said, never mind. Liu Xiaohong said, your mother is gone, my mother is gone, the children in the south of the city may only be me and you, your father is a hooligan, I think you also look like a hooligan, but I do not hate hooligans.  
 

the black dog is still a rascal. The black dog hears those boys shouting, big dogs and small dogs. Black and ugly. A sharp turn parked the motorcycle in front of the boys, and the boys were scared. The black dog said, boy, go down and slap them both in the face. I jumped down and slapped them twice, neither light nor heavy, dry and crisp. I was in a fight at school, and the child I beat took his parents to my house to find me. If the black dog came out of the house at home, he slammed the door and shouted, dare to come, and beat him lightly.

there seems to be no one but hates black dogs, and even I am hated by my classmates by the way. But that day Liu Xiaohong said that she didn't hate hooligans. For this, I thought she was different from others, and she was a girl without a mother. Liu Xiaohong said you help me to the river, I want to rush the trouser leg. I said the river is frozen. Liu Xiaohong said, "it's warm today. You break a hole for me. It smells too bad." So I helped Liu Xiaohong over and smashed a hole in the river. I pulled up a bundle of grass, dipped in water, and helped Liu Xiaohong brush his trouser leg. Liu Xiaohong said, Thank you. Growing up, few people have ever said thank you to me, and I am a little embarrassed. I put my hand into the river, and the cold water bit by bit pierced my pores and nerves.

I don't think I'll ever forget that warm, cold, and smelly afternoon.

there is a gentle river in the south of the city. Besides our school and behind my house, standing on my bed, looking out the back window, I can see a big willow tree with luxuriant branches in the middle of the river. There is a dark bird nest on the top of the willow tree. When I was a child, I really couldn't understand how it grew into the middle of the river. If I had drowned long ago. In winter, there is thick ice on the river, and the school children report here at noon every day, chasing and rolling in small groups. Sometimes when it snows, the children come quickly after lunch, and those they don't know are divided into several groups to have snowball fights. In the end, they knew each other.

  the monkey and I met because of this river. Black Dog went to make a living that day. I had a stomachache and didn't go to school. I slept in the afternoon and stood up and looked out of the window. The sun had not been so strong all winter, and the students had not finished school yet. I rubbed my eyes, only to find a man lying under the big willow tree, motionless. I don't know what he was doing. I watched it for more than ten minutes, but he was still lying there. Is that man frozen? It was a funny scene. I got out of bed and ran to the river. The man saw me and called me over. I said, what are you doing? He said that he went up to dig out the bird's nest and fell, and the ice cracked. He was afraid to move for fear of falling. I giggled. He said you laugh my ass. I said, tough mouth, call Grandpa, I'll drag you up. He glared at me for a moment, then whispered, Grandpa. I laughed, then turned and ran away. I heard him greet the black dog in the back. I ran home, took a bundle of rope, ran back, threw it to him, and dragged him to the river. He said, Xiao Dog Lin? I thought you son of a bitch ran away. I said you know me? He said, you know, big dogs and little dogs, black and ugly. I said, piss off. He said his name was Monkey, and I saved him today.

Monkey is also a student, two grades older than me. A monkey is called a monkey because he is good at climbing trees. Monkeys can not only climb trees but also run fast. I watched the monkey climb the tree and jumped up a couple of times, which reminded me of the black dog, but after the black dog came out, he could not climb because his feet were broken. The monkey said that his father always drank, and when he drank too much, he beat him and was kicked. The monkey learned to run, and the more he ran, the hotter his father became, but he couldn't catch up with him. His father locked the door and chased him in the yard. Unexpectedly, the monkey dragged something directly to the wall. The monkey was chased and killed by his father for many years. I said, have you never been overtaken? The monkey said I won't run when he wakes up drunk, go back and let him kick, run out without food and starve to death.

 the monkey and I became friends, and he said, puppy, you saved me once, and I have to give it back later. At that time, I always took the monkey to play with Liu Xiaohong. The three of us went to the river to skate and climb trees. The monkey and I stole sweet potatoes from other people's fields and took them back to my house to cook. Then the three of us crouched on the roof of my house to eat. The monkey said, Lin puppy, your father is better than my father. Your father doesn't care about you. I'll come to you if I don't come home from now on, and I'm not afraid to starve to death. Liu Xiaohong said, my father found me a stepmother who is still very beautiful, but your father didn't find one? I said, yes, but considering that Black Dog hasn't taken me to a restaurant for a long time, it's not good enough. Maybe Black Dog has found my stepmother for me. When I close my eyes and think about it, I can imagine what a woman with a black dog looks like.  
 the clouds are very high and white in winter. We lie on the roof, I am in the middle, the monkey is on the left, and Liu Xiaohong is on the right. Sometimes it snows. Liu Xiaohong asked, puppy, what are you thinking? The monkey smiled and said, maybe I miss the fuck, . I said, fuck you.  
 

the monkey was expelled from school just before the Spring Festival. That day we were going to climb out the back door of the school to play billiards. As soon as the monkey got on the wall, I heard a woman screaming on the other side of the wall. The monkey said that as soon as he went up, he had a face-to-face meeting with the new Chinese teacher in his class, and then the woman kept screaming. It was estimated that the bald headmaster would be impotent when her pants were halfway off. The monkey gestured to me to go back quickly, and I thought to myself, shit, in this cold weather, you dead old man is good at it.

the monkey was expelled from school. I'm fine. The monkey's father threatened to break his legs. The monkey dared not go home and lived in my house for a few days. The monkey stood on my bed and looked out of the window. He said, puppy, you have a good view of the bed. I said, if I didn't see you that day, you might be frozen on the river. During that time, monkeys and I honed our billiards skills and game skills day and night. We sometimes played a game with the billiard shop owner, and if we won, he would buy us a drink. Sometimes we teach the owner of the game hall one or two big tricks and he lets us play for free for a day. Such a day is satisfying and exciting. Such excitement makes me forget what should happen between me and Liu Xiaohong. Some people in the school said that Liu Xiaohong was bad at learning from the dog and didn't come out for a long time at the dog's house. I found the person who said that and slapped it twice and dumped it. Liu Xiaohong always followed us, I said, Liu Xiaohong, you go back, there are a lot of fights at the billiard table, come to my house to bake sweet potatoes on Sunday.

  Liu Xiaohong said I'm going out on Sunday, puppy.

I said, where to go.

she said I don't know.

I said, next week.

  Black Dog has been gone for some time. I don't know where he went. I don't think he won't want me, but I don't know how to find him. The hundreds of dollars left to me by the black dog have been used up, and the noodles are gone, so the monkey and I have to go to other people's fields to steal some food at night. It was not until one day that the gas tank ran out of gas that I realized the seriousness of the matter. I dug up a dirty electric rice cooker from home. Fortunately, it worked.  
 

within a few days, the electricity in the house was turned off, damn it, the rice cooker and electric blanket couldn't be used, the house was cold, and it froze the next morning when I poured a glass of water at night. I said, monkey, why don't you go home.

the monkey said, puppy, let's steal two cars and sell them.

I thought about it and said, OK.

the arcade often loses its car, so we decided to do it there. It was Saturday, Lesser Snow, and there was a thin layer of ice on the road. There were many people on Saturday, and the door of the game hall was full of students' cars. I went in with the monkey for half an hour and saw a student park a broken car and come in unlocked. The monkey said you are watching at the door. I went to the door and saw that the student had found a place to sit down and open a round of boxing king. I made a sign to the monkey. The monkey generously pushed the broken car and stepped on it. It was a success. After that, we went to the billiard hall to push one away. The monkey and I rode two broken bikes down the river. It took us half an hour to sell it to a waste collector for 50 yuan. The monkey and I ran back down the road, out of breath, and our heart was still beating. It felt like we had made a big deal. We were sweating a lot, hot and cold, and stopped running. We lay on the river together. I thought I'm a rascal. Whatever.

We went to pay the electricity bill and bought a big bundle of noodles. We were ready to go home and get the bottle to buy soy sauce. Before we reached the door of the house, the monkey saw the owner of the game hall and his father standing in front of my house. The monkey was blinded and said, "Little dog Lin, what the fuck did you see? we were seen?" I said, no, did you meet an acquaintance on the road? At this time, the ear rang out the cry of collecting waste products: collecting junk, collecting waste paper, old televisions, bicycles.

the monkey scolded, "Damn it, I got this all the way."

the waste collector saw us and shouted at my door: the two boys selling cars are here.

I thought, shit, that's a fucking loud voice.

I saw the monkey's father copy directly from the side of the road and run with the wooden stick.

the monkey said, puppy, I'm done. My father is going to break my leg this time.

goth prom dresses is definitely the perfect choice you will always cherish. Don’t waste your time and money at overpriced retailers – we are here for you.

I said, run.

he said, "I fired myself. It's all right. Everyone has gone to my house."

he said, my father at least gave me food and drink for so many years, but still let him clean up my mess?

he said I have to go back and get beat up, at least to calm my father down.

he said, puppy, I'll come out of the house in a few days, you wash the pot, we'll catch a chicken stew, and we'll have a drink.

I watched the monkey being kicked back by his father, and then I went home, boiled a bowl of water, burst into tears while eating, fell to my mouth, and licked it, a little salty, just right.

Black Dog said, boy, don't dislike my cooking is not delicious, you are not very hungry, everything is delicious when you are so hungry.

I stuffed my mouth full of noodles and thought, if the monkey would say, this noodle is so fucking delicious.

that night I suddenly felt a little lonely, which is not often for me. I think there are a lot of indescribable emotions in my body. If there is anyone around me, I must talk to him and talk to him all night. But there was no one around me, and the black dog did not know where to go. The monkey might be kneeling at home and getting stuck with a stick. I went out to the river. The air was cold and the moonlight was white at night. I went to the ice, hummed an unnamed song, walked and ran, slid out far on the ice, and then fell on the river with a splash.

  Liu Xiaohong said that the other day, she asked me to make a hole in the river and wanted to jump.

I said, how cold it is to jump.

she said, Yeah, so I didn't jump.

 I want to hit a hole and jump now, but it's so cold that I don't want to be a frozen puppy. I was cold when I was lying on the river, and my breath seemed to freeze instantly. Now that they are all asleep, there is no sound between heaven and earth, and half of the infamous song can't remember the following tune. I want to hear something. I raised my hand and patted it on the river with great strength. It was like a crisp slap in the face.

the monkey didn't come to me the next day. I don't think I can get out of bed. I wanted to talk to Liu Xiaohong, but Liu Xiaohong didn't come. I just remembered that I didn't seem to see Liu Xiaohong for a long time. I remembered that I seemed to tell Liu Xiaohong that I would go to my house to eat sweet potatoes at the weekend. I was going to learn to dig two sweet potatoes. Then buy some meat. Liu Xiaohong said she could cook braised meat. I wanted to talk to Liu Xiaohong, or not talk, eat something, or sit on the roof for a while. After school, I went to find Liu Xiaohong. Liu Xiaohong's door was closed. I pushed the door in and saw Liu Xiaohong's stepmother washing her hair under the eaves. I said, where is Liu Xiaohong? She said that the dead girl didn't call her mother, and she stared at her all day long and asked her father to send her to her grandmother's house.

I said, where is her grandmother's house?

she said I don't know, kid, close the door for me.

  Liu Xiaohong said I'm going out on Sunday, puppy.

I said, where to go.

she said I don't know.

I said, next week.

it turns out that Liu Xiaohong is gone. I think I should go with the girl who happened to her. Like my mother, they left with nothing. I don't know where they went. This makes me think that women are a little cruel, or men may be more likely to let women down. I went out, and when I closed the door, I heard the woman say, a bunch of sons of bitches. So I kicked half the door off the frame with all my strength and ran away.

I ran to the monkey's house and called him outside the door. His father opened the door and said, "he's not at home. I don't know where the hell is. After a few days, send him to the army, and you'll know to make trouble for me. Don't come looking for him."

I went home and sat for a while, feeling at a loss. I stood on the bed and looked at the river. There was no one, and the students were still at school. And students like us who do not go to school are also entangled by their own stories. I think we were supposed to be together, but there was nothing we could do. It was so cold at home that I kept stomping my feet. I might as well go out for a walk again.

I walked north along the widest street and looked around. I thought if I was lucky, I might see Liu Xiaohong. I want to know where she is. I want to tell her I'm sorry. I don't think she should disappear from my life. She doesn't seem to have thanked me yet. When I was walking all the way, a little dog followed me all the way and kept barking at me, but the sound was not loud. I thought I might be hungry. I was also hungry. It was really hard to be hungry. I bought a bag of Youtiao from the side of the road. I ate as I walked. I tore it together for the puppy with my mouth.

I don't know how long I walked, and the puppy stopped following me after eating up Youtiao. I thought to myself, it's not a thing. I didn't see Liu Xiaohong, but I saw Black Dog's motorcycle parked in front of a shampoo.

I walked in and saw a big-chested woman with heavy makeup sitting by the fire. I remembered that the black dog seemed to have taken me to dinner with her before, and I had a bad impression of her. I asked, is that Black Dog's motorcycle? The woman looked at me and laughed. You must be the son of Black Dog.

I nodded.

she said, "I still want to come to you. Your father has been arrested again. I don't know how long it will take."

I listened, but there was no reaction.

she came over, touched my head, took a pile of ten and five dollars out of her pants pocket, counted a few to me, and pulled me to the stove to sit down.

she said, there is no money in the future, come to me again, you sit here for a while and roast the fire.

then she turned into the inner room. After a while, she brought out a bowl of noodles. It was the most delicious bowl of noodles I have ever eaten in my life. It was a bowl of eggs with chopped onions. Noodles gravy, she put two eggs. I even drank up the soup. When I eat, I want to cry. I may be worried about my future life, or I may regret having a bad impression of this woman, or I may be moved by this rare good person, and she is a woman with big breasts.

I buried my head in the bowl and finally held back because I didn't want to be humiliated. Not long after I finished eating, a fat man pushed the door and she told me to leave quickly.

I asked her, can I push this broken motorcycle away?

she smiled and said, "push it away. No one needs it anyway, so be careful on the road."

  it snowed when I came out, and my body became colder and colder.

I saw the puppy that followed me, followed by another man, who went home and threw half a steamed bread to him. I smiled, and I might as well be a puppy.

I pushed Black Dog's bulky broken motorcycle on the road several times, and I felt a little angry when I fell the last time. I thought how could life be like this? I was so angry that I kept kicking at the broken motorcycle and kicked off the only rearview mirror.

then I felt my body warm-up. I picked up the motorcycle again, picked up the rearview mirror and stuffed it into my clothes, and went on walking.

I'm going home.

I feel very sleepy. I want to go home and boil some water in the rice cooker, wash my face and hair, then cook noodles, and then sleep in the quilt that has been with me for the longest time and has a dream.

it's best to do it a little longer.

I have been dreaming for a long time.

later, the monkey went to join the army. He went to the southernmost sea in China. He said that they were so hot that they were naked, tanned, and shaved by themselves. He still liked to climb trees, and he became a monkey.

he also said, back. Treat me to a lot of delicious food when you come.

the night before he left, he came to me and stole a chicken from his house. We killed the chicken and boiled it in an electric cooker. The plug of the cooker smoked before it was cooked, and then it broke with a bang. He said he was leaving, and before we left, we hugged each other, just like the parting of brothers on TV. He cried and so did I.

then I learned to ride a motorcycle. I rode the broken motorcycle left by the black dog to see the black dog once. He said, boy, you don't know your name, Dad? I said, Dad. He didn't say much, just told me that it doesn't matter to be a rascal, it's easier for a hooligan to live, but don't do anything about arson, and don't starve to death.

later I sold water at the railway station in the small town because I thought I might meet Liu Xiaohong here. Some kids who don't go to school like to follow me. They help me pick up clean mineral water bottles and fill them with tap water. We sell them at the railway station, asking for one bottle and five yuan for one bottle. If you don't give it, you won't let it go. Everyone around the railway station knows us, even beggars, but few people call me to puppy anymore.

A beggar with only half of his body likes to beg next to us and says it feels safe. I sent him back by motorcycle in the evening, and he gave me one yuan at a time.

 later, I didn't find Liu Xiaohong either, but I believe I will meet her again one day because it is doomed.