Chapter 241 I tell you the story I heard
At 7 a.m. on July 6, I got up early and called Lao Xiao.
He smiled and said, "Why are you rushing me so early? Mr. Chen is going back to his hometown and will get off at the stop before Shangzhou. Xiao Ruan can go to the station earlier to pick him up. We can leave later, let's leave at ten o'clock."
After hanging up, I called Shiyu again and sent him the single-party document from the computer, asking him to attend the class himself. Then I went downstairs to have breakfast.
From a distance, I spotted Chen Xiaoxia sitting in a corner. I took the food over, sat down, and said, "Your RV camping festival ad was creative and well-written."
She smiled shyly and said, "Imitating others."
I looked up at her. "Who are you imitating?"
"Peach Blossom Spring in Youyang, Chongqing."
"How did they write it?"
“There are only two paradises in the world, one is in your heart, and the other is in Youyang, Chongqing.”
I gave a thumbs up: "That author is amazing."
After breakfast, I packed my compass and my handbag into a large bag. Then, President Song called me and said he'd be attending the provincial prose society meeting the next day, which would last three days. He asked if I had time to meet.
I asked, "Including registration, it will take four days?"
"We invited a writer from Beijing, along with several others from the province, to give us lessons. It was considered training."
I didn't know if Mr. Chen had anything else to do after arriving at his house, so I said, "I'm about to go out of town. I don't know how many days it will take. If I can get back in time, I will definitely come to visit you."
"So busy."
"We work for others, and we're ordered around. Just like the song goes: We run around everywhere just to make a living. But can we ever be so sure of ourselves?"
"You're still so happy."
"Life is not necessarily happy, but we strive to make it happy. Life is not necessarily poetry, but we strive to live out the poetic mood. Drinking a pot of wine warmed by a small red clay stove will warm you and me in winter."
He laughed heartily. "Thank you for remembering the prose poem I wrote."
"I often read your collection of essays."
"You really love literature. Yitong has been transferred to the Tourism Bureau. Now he doesn't write prose anymore, he only writes official documents."
The two chatted for about ten minutes.
It was almost ten o'clock when Lao Xiao called. I went downstairs to put my things in the trunk. As soon as I got in the car, Xiao Ruan called. He asked if we had left yet.
I said, “I’m getting ready to go.”
"Oh, no hurry. Just get to town by one in the afternoon."
I told Lao Xiao, but he didn't say anything.
The traffic in the city was very bad and it took an hour to get out of the city. Lao Xiao turned the steering wheel and the car got on the national highway.
I felt strange and asked, "Aren't you taking the highway?"
"I want to revisit the past. He and I were best friends once, and I walked this old road to his house countless times."
"It's understandable. Just like every wanderer, even though their parents are gone, they still want to go back to their hometown to revisit the mountains they climbed, the water they played in, the roads they walked, and the people they met."
"Yes, the Master is better than others in one thing: he always hits the nail on the head."
"When you went to Mr. Chen's house, you should have taken the bus, right?"
"Yes, you need to buy a ticket, and it's very crowded."
"There must be a story, tell it and have fun."
"What kind of story?"
"I'll tell you one first, and then you can use this as an example. The title is 'A Romance at the Radio Station.'
Lao Xiao laughed, and then said: "See if your story is funny. If it is, I will tell you one."
I began to tell:
"This story was told by Ju Xiang, a fellow villager of mine. In the early 1980s, Ju Xiang was admitted to a technical secondary school. Because he was a good writer, he was chosen to be the editor of the school's radio station.
The radio station was located on the fourth floor of the school's administrative building. To facilitate broadcasting, a female announcer in her thirties lived in the studio.
Ju Xiang was the editor. He would revise the manuscripts submitted by everyone and then send them to the female announcer for broadcast. Therefore, he often went to the fourth floor of the administrative building.
One Sunday, there was a breaking news in the school. Juxiang quickly wrote a news report, trotted up to the fourth floor, pushed open the door of the female announcer, and was stunned.
Conditions were poor back then. The studio served as both the broadcaster's studio and bedroom. It was too far from a bathhouse, so she used electric heating tubes to heat water and bathed in a wooden tub.
Because it was Sunday, the administration building was closed and empty. She lived on the fourth floor, so she was careless and didn't fasten the door.
Hearing this, Lao Xiao laughed out loud: "I saw something I shouldn't have seen."
I said, "If that's all there is to it, there's nothing to be happy about."
Lao Xiao hurriedly asked: "Are there any other thrilling plots?"
"Yes. It was very exciting." The female announcer heard the door creak and stood up in fright. She covered her lower body with a towel with one hand and her upper body with the other, and screamed in fear.
She thought the sound would scare off the loud noise. Unexpectedly, the loud noise just stood there, motionless. At that moment, a thousand alpaca horses must have been running through her mind.
When she saw that the loud noise did not take any further action and just stared at her stupidly, she immediately understood that the loud noise would not hurt her, but just wanted to take a look at where he wanted to go before leaving.
So, the female announcer was married after all, and was quite experienced. She knew what the young man of eighteen or nineteen was thinking, so she quickly let go of her hand and warned him in a deep voice: If you want to see, take a look quickly.
Old Xiao laughed out loud when he heard this.
I said, "Actually, the loud noise wasn't about to take a look. He was suddenly frightened and turned around to run away, his legs failing him. It wasn't until he heard the female announcer's second warning that he regained consciousness and ran away desperately."
Lao Xiao said: "This story is true. He told the truth. For example, if a person suddenly sees a tiger, his legs will definitely go weak. After realizing what's happening, he will run away desperately."
Suddenly, Lao Xiao asked again: "Why is he named 'Big Bang'? You made up this name, right?"
I said, "I'm not making this up. There's a river where we live that freezes in the winter and thaws in the spring. On the night my mother was born, there was a sudden loud noise in the river, the ice broke apart, and the water rushed eastward.
The village's famous fortune teller, Sanye, gave him this name, saying he would have a bright future: if he told people to stand up, they couldn't sit down, and if he told people to sit down, they couldn't stand up. He became a teacher after graduating from technical secondary school.
Lao Xiao laughed out loud.
I said, "Now it's your turn."
Lao Xiao said, "Okay, it's almost twelve o'clock now. Let's eat first. After dinner, I'll tell you a story about myself."
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