Chapter 56 Yangguan
After this was said, no one talked about anything else during the whole dinner, and they kept talking about the "proposal". Dad Mai repeatedly warned Mai Sui not to know about this.
At the end of the show, Zhao Xiaowei recommended exploring the surrounding areas, including Yadan Devil City, Dunhuang Film and Television City, and Yangguan Pass and Yumenguan Pass, all of which were now in excellent condition. He emphasized with a heavy tongue that if they wanted to go, they had to have him as a local guide.
But the next day, he was visited by the excited Mai Dad. The two brothers tried to find a way to make a ring. Seeing that Hang Liumei couldn't let go of the new cave, the others took her to Yangguan to relax.
It's a sunny day like this, perfect for anything except going out. When I got off the bus, there were no tourists around. I saw a vast, imitation-antique city wall. A plaque reading "Yangguan Museum" hung on the gate. The four characters on the double-eaved building were even more impressive: "West to Loulan." Banners fluttered on either side, creating a rather imposing scene.
Hang Liumei and Qi Xiuchun put on their sunglasses and said this was a bit like the Dunhuang they remembered: desolate, isolated, with back-aching sunlight and no shade to find.
After entering the gate, there were exhibition halls on both sides, and it took a long time to finally reach the gatehouse with the inscription "Yangguan". The tourist facilities were quite decent, with a sign at the entrance with a "Wanted" poster. Hang Liumei pointed to the portrait of a bearded man and asked Xiaomai, "Does this look like your dad?" Xiaomai thought she was joking again, but upon closer inspection, the resemblance was indeed quite striking.
There are only two ways to get to the real Yangguan site after passing through the city gate: a donkey cart or an electric car. The four of them naturally boarded the donkey cart with a blue tent and yellow tassels, just like Zhaojun's journey to the frontier.
Looking out, the vast plains stretched as far as the eye could see, the wind raging furiously, the yellow-brown gravel stretching as far as the eye could see, the bare earthen hillocks offering no shelter. If she were truly on the frontier, she would be heartbroken at this moment, unlike Hang Liumei, who was in the mood to recite "I don't know the Yangguan Road, I've just come from Dingyuan."
"Sister Xiuchun, do you remember the last time you rode a donkey cart?" Hang Liumei crossed her legs and leaned comfortably on the railing of the cart, and told the donkey driver to go slower.
"Last time? How could I have such good conditions and still ride in a donkey cart or horse carriage all day? Those who can walk on two legs don't rely on animals." Qi Xiuchun thought for a while, "But later when I went back to northern Shaanxi, I took Yingying to burn paper for my grandfather. She was too young to walk, so my brother put her on a donkey and pulled her up the mountain."
"We sat here several times before when we were at the research institute, do you remember?"
"That donkey was so stubborn and hard to control. I'd rather ride a bicycle than a donkey cart."
Hang Liumei looked into the distance and said slowly, "Lao Jiang and I once rode a donkey cart in Xi'an and met a strange man. We had just gotten married at the time, and when we went back to my parents' home, we stopped by to play nearby. There was a temple fair in the next town, and one of the stalls was surrounded by people. We squeezed in to see an old man wearing a melon-shaped hat. He sat on a recliner with his hands in his pockets, ignoring everyone. There was only a cup in front of him, but that cup was really strange. There was a leaf lying in the small, open, shallow teacup, and you could even see the veins of the leaf clearly.
When someone asked how much it cost, he ignored them. When someone asked how it was made, he didn't answer. When someone asked where it was from, he said with disdain, "Jizhou, Jiangxi." I loved to join in the fun, so I mixed in with the crowd and deliberately teased him, saying loudly, "This cup is nothing special. We've even seen luminous cups in Dunhuang!"
As a result, my words made the old man anxious. When he couldn't find me, he shouted to the crowd, "Luminous cup? What's a luminous cup! This is a wooden leaf Tianmu cup, a treasure left over from the Song Dynasty! Do you see what's inside? It's a real leaf. To burn it on such black glaze, a kiln is born and a kiln is dead. How many people can't create a miracle in their entire life!"
I was too scared to say anything at that point; it was made from real leaves! I wanted to see more, and those with deep pockets offered money, but he refused, saying he was just displaying it so everyone could see how our ancestors still had this craft. Others asked him if he was so skilled, why didn't he make more? He said he was going to dig up some mud from the Qinling Mountains and make the most amazing wooden leaf cups. Then he closed up shop. He looked tattered, but he was very proud of his cups.
Later I remembered that strange old man. Originally I wanted to learn porcelain making, but the school transferred me to study painting, and I had no chance to learn it after arriving in Dunhuang.
"Hmm," Qi Xiuchun snorted, "I remember clearly that there was a porcelain mending shop in the county town back then, and you always went there to look at it. The guys there thought you were interested in him, but who would have thought you were really there to look at those broken porcelain pieces? How come you liked that stuff so much?"
Hang Liumei thought of her grandmother again: "My grandmother used to make extra money by weaving bamboo baskets, sewing clothes, and making shoe soles for people. Since I was a child, I loved to watch her work. Later, when it was almost time for me to go to school, my family was broke, and my grandmother said that all girls had to go to school, and if the older ones went, the younger ones had to go too. So she took me to work in a porcelain factory in another village. My grandmother couldn't do technical work, so at first she could only watch the furnace and remove the molds, but she was very skillful, and later she could gradually repair the clay and apply glaze.
I couldn't help, I just played nearby. Everyone inside was afraid of children causing trouble, but I obeyed and just sat next to the workers and watched. They loved my questions and conversations. My grandmother and I went there again and again for many years. I don't know why, but the memories of that time are etched in my mind. I still remember how those workers made blue and white porcelain tea cups.
"Your grandmother is such a good person—" Before Qi Xiuchun could finish her words, the donkey driver had already stopped the cart.
The staff pointed to the front and told them to just drop them off there and they could walk the rest by themselves.
The four of them walked against the wind for a short while before they saw a lone boulder inscribed with the words "Yangguan Former Site" standing at the far end of the high slope. Below them seemed to be the edge of the desert, and the distant dust filled the space between heaven and earth like smoke. The wind stung their faces, and they covered themselves tightly, taking one deep step and one shallow step up the wooden plank road.
It felt a bit like my first visit to the Mogao Grottoes: the same overwhelming sense of vastness. There was nothing around, and people moved slowly, each movement akin to disturbing the land. No wonder they say, "There are no old friends west of Yangguan."
When I was nineteen, sadness and fear were fleeting. I was always full of ambition and enthusiasm, and I felt that as long as I worked hard, I could overcome anything. Now at sixty-nine, I'm not so impulsive anymore. I believe in fate, destiny, and God. There's no need to fight. Every time I fall and get bruised and bloody, I'm happy to be able to stand up again.
Hang Liumei wiped her hair, damp with sweat, from her forehead. She then folded it over and handed it to Sister Xiuchun. Xiaomai offered her a cup: "Grandma, it's too hot right now. Drink some water or you might get a heat stroke." Hang Liumei took it, and she and Qi Xiuchun quickly guzzled it down.
The two old ladies were so desperate for water that they hurried back to the donkey cart to urge Xiaomai and Pu Zhihe to get back to the bathroom. While they were there, Pu Zhihe and Xiaomai wandered around the cultural and creative product store outside.
There weren't many tourists at the moment, and the salespeople were all napping on their desks, too lazy to greet anyone. The two of them were trying on hats, then backpacks. Xiaomai paused when he saw a pair of embroidered water bags. His father's birthday was coming up soon, and maybe he'd be blowing out his birthday candles in Dunhuang. As a son, it wouldn't be nice to go empty-handed, so this would be a good match for him. Buy two, one for him and one for his mother. A pair of gifts would definitely make him happier.
Xiaomai was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Pu Zhihe had already walked to the other end of the shop. She wanted to buy some postcards for the group. The thing under the sleeping waiter's body seemed to be one of those popular silk postcards online. It looked like paper, felt like silk, and was printed with caisson patterns from various murals. Pu Zhihe carefully pinched a corner and tried to pull the postcard out from under her arm.
"Hmm--?" The waitress was still woken up by her disturbance. Half of her face was covered with wrinkles from her sleeves. She subconsciously wiped the corners of her mouth and asked Pu Zhihe what she wanted.
Pu Zhihe shook the postcard in her hand and asked, "This is it. How much is it?"
"One twenty, one hundred for a pack." She yawned and held her head.
Pu Zhihe paid the bill and was putting a commemorative stamp on the counter when she heard Hang Liumei calling Qi Xiuchun from behind: "Sister Xiuchun, what do you think this is?"
Qi Xiuchun said it was a flute.
"No," Hang Liumei gestured, picking up one. "This is a hujia. You have to hold it against your upper lip and blow with your mouth half open. I can't demonstrate it, and it doesn't look very elegant, but it sounds really nice when played. Xiaomai, Xiaomai, do you remember that grandpa could play this? You also learned a piece of music on the qin before, the 'Eighteen Beats of the Hujia'."
Hang Liumei excitedly picked up a hujia to pay the bill. Seeing the postcards in Pu Zhihe's hand, she praised them for being special. Pu Zhihe waved them, trying to get the ink behind them to dry quickly. She joked with Hang Liumei, "Teacher Hang, look, everything here has some connection to Dunhuang. You said there's a rare karmic painting in the new grottoes. If we turn it into a souvenir like this, maybe the new grottoes will become famous. With attention, people will naturally protect them. Aren't the bodhisattva statues, the beautiful bodhisattva statues, and the caisson ceiling all famous in this way?"
"That's great," Qi Xiuchun agreed. "You were just talking about the Muye Tianmu lamp and the weird old man. Why don't you find some Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from the murals and print them on them? We can also make some bowls, plates and cups. I'm sure people will buy them. When I went to those shops before, I saw that the coffee cups they sold were not very good-looking!"
"Our cups are pretty good—" the waiter suddenly became excited and started selling.
"Isn't this a joke?" Hang Liumei blurted out, and then quickly explained to the waiter: "I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about us——"
"Grandma, Uncle Zhao is a ready-made expert. My dad even asked him to make a ring, so we can also ask him about making porcelain."
After listening to Xiaomai, the waiter understood a little and interrupted, "You guys want to make your own things? Are you here for tourism? Are you artists? We're going to hold a cultural and creative competition. You can enter. If you're selected, there's a prize. If your product is really good, you might be able to sell it. They'll print posters for you to promote it and put it online!"
When Pu Zhihe and Xiaomai heard this, they immediately asked her for details. The four of them discussed it all the way and finally decided to give it a try.
When they got back to the hotel, Dad Mai was already sitting in the lobby. He pulled his son aside and asked, "You guys are finally back? How was your trip today?"
"That's great. Where's Uncle Zhao? Grandma wants to enter a competition, and we need to ask him about porcelain firing. I'll go up first, Dad."
"Hey—don't leave! Does that mean you're not in a hurry to go back? You have to stay here for a few more days?"
Xiaomai scratched his head: "Really? I can't make the decision on this matter."
"That's perfect! Your Uncle Zhao recommended a small courtyard to me. I was originally thinking of staying alone to make a ring for your mother, but since you guys are staying here too, I'll rent the courtyard and move in. It'll be more convenient for us to move in, and we won't have to stay in this hotel like we're just guests."
After saying this, Dad Mai hugged his son and went upstairs. Once inside, Dad Mai leaned over to the window and lit a cigarette. He searched his pocket for a lighter and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. He beckoned his son over and said, "I almost forgot something important. This is a secret treasure your dad finally found. Please help me copy it again. Write it beautifully! Use that thin gold font for me."
Xiaomai took it and read it, and couldn't help but sigh that if his father's old house caught fire, it would be really unbearable.
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