Chapter 115: Tea Night Talk
"How many people have left your family?" This is the first question people ask when they meet in Tang City today.
During this extremely hot August, Su Yun basically spent the entire time around Tang City, and only during her rare breaks would she send a telegram back to Hong Kong to report her safety.
Although no acquaintances came to visit her, privately, support materials were continuously sent to her from all directions. No matter how much, it was a token of thoughtfulness.
In the early days, Su Yun served as a search and rescue dog, using the system monitoring to look for vital signs underground, and then calling for people to come and rescue. In the later stages, after most people who could be rescued had been rescued, he became a multifunctional person in the rear, taking on roles ranging from supervisor to laborer, mixing a little bit of everything, just to do his best.
The little red hat she wore to make herself easily recognizable became her symbol. After the search and rescue mission was over, Su Yun also habitually wore this iconic decoration. When many people saw this little red hat, they would think of the days when people of all classes worked together without any reservation.
After all, she was not the only bourgeois who came to Tangcheng, but here, there was no distinction between the bourgeoisie and the propertyless.
Yes, there are only brothers and sisters who gathered here for disaster relief.
After the statistical results came out, looking at the death toll of over 40,000 and the number of seriously injured of over 60,000, Su Yun collapsed on the mat and breathed a long sigh of relief.
With this ending, she no longer feared any judgment that she had ruined her future: the worst that could happen was that she would be completely frozen.
She had buried so many fires everywhere, and even if it would take longer than originally expected, there would always be a day when the fire would be rekindled!
This feeling is just like her original answer - when she thinks that this action can save many lives, she will not be afraid of anything.
No matter when and where, we must believe that a single spark can start a prairie fire.
I thought everything was going well, but on this evening at the end of August, a drizzle with a chilly autumn feeling began to fall.
The whole city quietly and silently entered autumn at this moment.
"Someone wants to see me?" Facing the serious-looking visitors, Su Yun was a little confused.
However, after seeing the identification they showed, Su Yun sighed helplessly in his heart, saying that it was a blessing in disguise and a curse that could not be avoided, and then he obediently followed the man into the car.
After arriving in silence at a low-rise building, Su Yun followed the guidance, took a deep breath, and tiptoed into a room.
The first impression is simplicity: a small fluorescent lamp is the only light source in the room, a few half-new chairs, a person who looks like an assistant is making tea next to a half-new small tea table, and in the front is an old man with his head down reading a document...
But when Su Yun saw the old man working at the desk, his eyes suddenly widened.
In an instant, all the things I had heard and read in my childhood from the mouths of my elders and in books, the traces of those years of hard struggle with smoke and sparks of war, flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern, so heavy that it made my breathing stop, but I still couldn't bear to look away for even a moment.
Maybe she was too excited or for some other reason, her eyes felt inexplicably sore and tears fell as soon as her eyelashes trembled slightly - this was not her intention. When facing the respected man, she clearly wanted to show her most generous and decent side as much as possible.
But for some reason, when she tried to force a smile, the muscles on her face seemed completely out of her control and she could only make a few broken sobs from her throat.
Hot tears of excitement rolled down the corners of her slightly curved lips. Without looking in the mirror, Su Yun knew how rude she was being.
"What's wrong with you?" The old man seemed to have noticed something. After raising his head and seeing Su Yun's appearance, he immediately asked with concern.
The Hunan accent made Su Yun feel even more complicated. For a moment, she raised her hand and covered her mouth to hide her excitement and rudeness.
"This kid must have been too excited to speak after seeing you." The assistant next to him smiled and pushed a cup of tea over. "When I first met you, I wasn't as calm as she is. Anyway, my head was dizzy, my hands and feet were weak, and I almost collapsed on the spot!"
"Come, don't be afraid, I just want to see you and talk to you." The old man smiled and asked Su Yun to sit on a chair next to him. "Have a cup of tea. You must be tired these days, right?"
"Not tired! Not tired at all!" Su Yun stood at attention with a start. The next second, she realized how overly excited she was. She sat down on the chair with a flushed face, suppressed the trembling of her hands, and then held the handle of the teacup.
The warmth with a delicate fragrance spreads from the cup to the body as it touches the skin. The chaotic thoughts in the mind seem to be washed away by the fresh tea fragrance at this moment, leaving only a moment of clarity as if I had suddenly realized something.
I remember reading an article in my Chinese textbook when I was a child that described the old man's time in Huashan. I was too young to understand the deep meaning of the article, but I was very interested in the tea in the article that was "neither sweet nor spicy".
What she didn't expect was that after a long time and space, in such a deep night when every raindrop brought the flavor of autumn, she actually realized her childhood wish.
The cup of tea opposite was very strong, the aroma of Longjing tea seemed mellow and full due to this brewing method; but the cup of tea in front of me was clear and bright, with a sweet and fragrant aroma like orchid.
Strong tea and light tea, old people and children, in the lingering tea fragrance, seemed to be confused at the junction of the past and the present.
"I, I have always admired you!" After taking a sip of tea, Su Yun seemed to have generated boundless courage, and said this directly to the old man, almost bowing down like in ancient Chinese novels.
This expression of love, which seemed like a silly goose, made the two people in front of him laugh.
"I've watched your master Lu Shaolong and your movies before. They were great." The old man took a sip of tea and slowly recalled, "Your master's kung fu is very good, and the world you created is also very good..."
Su Yun lowered her head silently, and like a well-behaved primary school student in class, she listened to the old man's recollections very seriously.
In the 1970s, in order to broaden people's horizons, understand the world, relieve fatigue, and express emotions, the projection team of the relevant departments introduced many foreign films and screened them in the West Building Hall.
After watching many foreign blockbusters, and considering that Hong Kong is known as the "Oriental Hollywood" and its films dominated Asia and Europe and America in its heyday, even in the era when there was no cultural exchange between the two places and movies could not be introduced, the personnel of the relevant departments still made a special trip to Guangzhou to make some connections, and finally found Zhao's film loan, which occupies a leading position in the Hong Kong film industry.
Those were the times when criticism was rampant. When Zhao Rifu, who was in charge of the Zhao family, heard the news, he was immediately shocked.
However, after the explanation from the relevant department staff, Zhao Rifu thought about it and lent them Lu Shaolong's kung fu movies as a guide. It was not until he confirmed that they were just borrowed that he gradually added Zhao's films produced by his own company.
However, the hard-core martial arts films and romantic costume films are not the taste of the people here. In addition, kung fu films are predominant and the theme is national rise, so they prefer Lu Shaolong's kung fu films.
"Whenever a good movie comes, he often doesn't even look at the documents and starts watching the movie right away." The assistant laughed, "Generally, when he borrows movies from Hong Kong, he watches them for a few minutes at a time in his rare free time, and it takes him more than ten days to finish a movie. But when it comes to your master's movies, he will keep them for at least a month and watch them over and over again."
"But you got two films, 'The Perfect Match' and 'Artificial Intelligence'. The old man watched them and said the stories were good and your acting was great, no wonder you won the award." The most important thing is that under such circumstances, he still went to receive the award as a Chinese.
"I'll arrange it as soon as I get back and have the remaining films sent over!" Su Yun was so excited to be recognized by the person he had always admired that he almost asked the system to make a copy on the spot - fortunately, he still retained a little rationality and knew that such black technology could not be released to the public yet.
The old man listened while reviewing the documents and nodded with a smile.
Because Su Yun is an artist, she sang two songs softly from memory during the breaks in the conversation. One was the melodious "Pearl of the Orient" and the other was the heavy and passionate "Descendants of the Dragon".
As they talked over the aroma of tea, Su Yun thought carefully for a while and then said, "In my opinion, true harmony is not about rejecting differences but about seeking common ground while reserving differences."
"Let's put it this way. Seeking common ground means that a hundred people have the same idea and want to make their own idea the first priority; while seeking common ground while reserving differences means that even if these hundred people have a hundred different ideas, they respect each other."
As early as the 1950s, China had envisioned resolving the remaining problems in a harmonious way.
"It's like being in a big family. The eldest brother farms, the second brother studies, the third brother does business, and the fourth brother practices martial arts..."
"They have different interests and specialties, so why do we have to make them all the same? Let the old hand who knows how to farm go to school, let the tycoon who can do business go to practice martial arts... wouldn't this just make the originally talented people lose their original advantages?"
“No matter what these children do or become because of their own interests and specialties, the most important thing is to see whether everything they do from beginning to end is to maintain this big family and make contributions to this big family.”
"This way... they will always be part of this big family."
The old man nodded again in appreciation: "When I was young, in my twenties, I swam in the Xiang River and told others that I could swim in the Xiang River even when I was eighty... Two years ago, I really did it."
"I don't really have any special abilities, except for one thing: I'll stick to the path I choose until the end."
“As long as a person can always stick to his beliefs, no matter how great the difficulties and setbacks he encounters, he will not give up easily.”
"Children of your age are like the sun at eight or nine o'clock. The future world will eventually belong to you. Hope rests on you. You are the driving force behind the creation of history."
"I'm from Xiangxiang, and you're from Hong Kong, so we can be considered 'fellow countrymen'..."
"That's not a big deal. When we go abroad, we are all fellow Chinese people," Su Yun continued.
The old man was amused by the innocent words of the child and touched Su Yun's head kindly: "Good child... Then what does Hong Kong look like in your eyes?"
"Hong Kong is a pearl that grew in the East. Although it has gone through a lot of hardships to become a pearl, one day, it will shine brightly before the eyes of the world." Su Yun smiled and lowered her eyelashes. "However, despite its dazzling light, its essence is still that simple little stone, shining brightly and always thinking of its hometown in its heart."
Hearing this, the old man laughed happily: "This rain will eventually stop, and the sky will clear up. I am really happy to have a child like you to share the wind and rain in the future."
They drank two cups of tea until late at night. When leaving, Su Yun couldn't help but look back at the old man for the last time.
Just like the protagonist in "Groundhog Day", he can save a child who falls from a tree, and a young man who is accidentally choked... The only person he can't save is the elderly homeless man whom he always wanted to save in the beginning.
The medical staff’s answer to him was, “When you get old, that’s the time.” Humans have overcome countless difficulties and obstacles, but they are helpless in the face of the passage of time.
The world is full of changes, and time is the most ruthless. Being able to meet each other in this intersecting moment is an unforgettable night that she will never forget in her life.
How many tests there are in the future may not be clear yet, but what she heard about this night, one meeting and one farewell, has given her the fearless courage to face all the storms in the future.