vernacular

Chapter 1

The old things of the Six Dynasties follow the flowing water, and the peach blossoms on the river bank fan the wind.

I don't know where the mountains and rivers are at the end of the year, and Wu Gou recalls the old city in my dream.

The story also starts from a small village on the edge of Nanjing City.That fall, the vicious Japanese invaders created the Fengtian Incident and launched a massive attack on the Northeast.In the far south, Jinling City has suffered decades of wars and has just shown signs of peaceful development. However, the young government who established its capital here declared "no resistance". .

God also seems to be very disrespectful. For several years, natural disasters have continued, either floods or insect plagues. North China and Jiangnan have become disaster areas.Under the famine, there is also a harsh government. The common people have no food, and the burden is getting heavier day by day. The reform in the countryside is quietly taking place.

Many years later, Lin Zhanyu always scoffs when he hears that those years were the golden age for the development of Nanjing City.His impression of those years was not only the day-to-day hunger and the small and old coarse clothes, but also the smell of sour and bitter herbs in the earthen house in his hometown, so that he often waved his hands and sighed to his disciples : "Maybe, I don't know, I just know that there was a famine all over the country at that time, and it must not be the golden decade for ordinary people."

Lin Zhanyu was already 12 years old at the time. Due to long-term malnutrition, he was very thin. When walking on the street, people thought he was no more than eight or nine years old.

That morning, as usual, he took the medicine jar to the traditional Chinese medicine shop at the head of the village to get the medicine for his sallow and emaciated father, who looked like a consumptive ghost. It's almost the twelfth lunar month, when can I have a good meal with my father.

However, God will not be merciful because the new year is approaching: In the cold winter months, besides the dirt road, besides the usual skinny corpses who starved to death, there are also homeless people who froze to death because they couldn't afford cotton-padded clothes.

They were held together in one place, and scattered in the gutter under the old tree.Because the thick trunk is always gnawed by hungry people, it is now full of potholes and mottled, like a map.

Lin Zhanyu is no stranger to this. As long as he can remember, it is not normal for a few people in the village not to starve to death every day.Fortunately, his father Lin Xiucai left some savings from teaching in his early years, which has supported the two of them for these years.

But what Lin Zhanyu didn't expect was that, due to unexpected events, his father, who had been sick for many years, didn't last until his son came back, and finally passed away amidst waves of coughing that no one cared about.

So when Lin Zhanyu walked into his thatched hut, what he saw was his father's surviving corpse.

At first, he thought that his father was just asleep, after all, this man was usually sick, and the time when he was awake had become less and less.He pushed his father a few times and yelled twice, but the other party didn't respond, so he suddenly understood.

Although his father had been too ill to get out of bed a few months ago, this incident was still too sudden for a child like him.He didn't have any mental preparations, his legs went limp in an instant, and he was stunned for a long time before weeping, tears streaming down uncontrollably.

He took the medicine jar out of his hand and fell straight to the ground. The dark brown juice seeped into the soil, but the strong and sour smell of herbs permeated the room.

"Father!" Lin Zhanyu knelt on the ground and moved forward with hands and feet.He cried so heart-piercingly, and it was time to eat, the neighbors were all attracted by him after a while.

"Ouch." His neighbor's aunt just ran to the door and saw the scene in the house. Although she had expected it, she was still very distressed.She stepped forward and tried to drag Lin Zhanyu up: "Son, let's go to my house to eat something first."

Lin Zhanyu was crying so much that he was almost unconscious, so he didn't have the energy to answer what the aunt said.He knelt on the ground and wept in the dark, until he passed out directly in the end.When he woke up again, the sun was already in the west, and he was lying on the bed at the aunt's house, even in a trance for a moment.

There was only a curtain made of rags between the inner room where he lay and the outside.When Lin Zhanyu was in a daze, he heard the sound outside. The noisy footsteps and the continuous sound of pouring water made him gradually wake up.

He got out of bed and went outside, and found many people standing in the outer room.

The head of their village also came.The old man is over half a hundred years old. He was injured in a battle in his early years, and his legs and feet are a little awkward.He stood among the group of people in the room leaning on a cane, frowning and said: "Although my family is not well-off, it is not a problem to spend some money to bury Lin Xiucai. It is the little Zhanyu in their family who is still young." Little," he couldn't help sighing deeply when he said this: "Old people, what do you think this child can do?"

"Although my family doesn't have much money or food, I can support him for a while." The neighbor's aunt replied: "Lin Xiucai taught our third son to read when he was healthy in the early years, and we know that Entubao is not. It's just," she said very hesitantly, "the couple in my family often can't fill their stomachs. I can raise him for three days and five days, and I'm afraid..."

"Zhan Yu?" A middle-aged man saw the child standing at the door of the back room: "Are you awake?"

"Okay, okay." Seeing Lin Zhanyu keeping his head down, the neighbor's aunt inevitably felt uncomfortable.She sent everyone away: "Let the child live in my house first, really, this poor child."

She looked at Lin Zhanyu's outline and red and swollen eyes, which were somewhat similar to his father's, and finally she could only sigh deeply, and said with a forced smile, "Are you hungry? Mommy will warm you up with a bowl of porridge to warm your stomach first."

The old village chief did what he said, and he quickly paid for the child to bury Lin Xiucai.On the day of the funeral, the clouds were very gloomy. From time to time, a few flakes of snow drifted over, smeared on people's faces and turned into snow water, and if you didn't look carefully, you thought they were continuous tears.

Watching everyone busy inside and out, the old village head put his rough arms around Lin Zhanyu who was standing beside him with red circles: "Child, do you miss your mother?"

Lin Zhanyu leaned into his arms, and wanted to shake his head, but the child was simple-minded and couldn't do the duplicity, so he nodded slightly after thinking for a while.

The old village chief rubbed the top of his hair and sighed, "You poor Lin Xiucai."

The sound disappeared into the bitter cold wind of winter, and finally disappeared.

That day, Lin Zhanyu cried so much from morning to night that he didn't even know he was gone.Only then did he realize that he was alone.

He is really reluctant to let go of his father, coupled with the overwhelming fear and helplessness, these are too heavy for him, a 12-year-old boy, so that he feels that there is a breath in his chest that he can't get up or down, and his two sides are so stuffy. His eyes were darkened, his ears were buzzing, and his heart felt like a tearing pain.

With his hands on the dirt, he became vaguely aware that he needed to think about what he was going to do next.Treating his father used up all his family's savings, and he owed a lot of money to the villagers.Among other things, he had to know how to survive and how to have a good meal.

"Zhanyu," Lin Zhanyu hurriedly turned his head when he heard someone calling him, and saw the old village head standing not far away in the dark night waving to him: "Come home with me, and stay at my place tonight."

So Lin Zhanyu followed the old village head.The other party didn't say anything when they returned home, and the family members only showed some complex expressions of pity and helplessness every time they saw Lin Zhanyu, until one night when the new year was approaching half a month later, the old and young in the village gathered again.

"Village chief, it's not that I don't want to raise it. You can go to my house and have a look." Their village is relatively small, and the families in it are somewhat related, and many of them are not blessed. In terms of seniority, Lin Zhanyu may still call this speaker A four-year-old girl.

She counted with her slender, black fingers, and she said with tears in her voice: "My family has six mouths to eat, and I'm going to borrow rice from my second brother right now."

Old Village Chief Lin looked at the yellow and thin woman in front of him, feeling very embarrassed.Why doesn't he know the plight of the villagers?He was the head of the village, and he knew it all too well, and it was the same in his own family.

As long as there is any room for change, he will never hesitate to add a pair of chopsticks, but helping Lin Zhanyu bury his father with dignity has almost spent all the money their family prepared for the New Year, and he really can't afford to support this baby.

At this time, Lin Zhanyu who was sitting in the corner suddenly spoke.Although he looks thin and small, he is already in his early ten years, and the child from a poor family has already taken charge of his family, so he already has the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and also has the self-esteem that he does not want to be a burden to others.

He sniffed, tried his best to hold back his tears, and walked to the people with his head down: "Grandpa Village Chief, uncles and aunts, Zhanyu will not cause you any trouble. Send me away, where are you going?" Whatever. I'm young, I'm strong, and I can do hard work to support myself."

As he said that, he knelt down and kowtowed solidly to everyone: "If I become prosperous in the future, I will definitely not forget how kind you are to me."

The room was extremely quiet for a moment, and everyone looked at each other in the dim candlelight, and no one dared to make a sound, until the old village chief began to cry loudly.

The village chief not only cried with snot and tears, but also cried very loudly.This scene made all the villagers stunned in place, and it was also remembered by Lin Zhanyu for a lifetime.

As the saying goes, a penny can't beat a hero, and it's the same in any dynasty or generation.The old village chief who has been indomitable all his life has never been afraid of foreign devils, and he has never been intimidated by landlords and riches. He can charge forward without fear of death with foreign guns and artillery, but now he looks extremely weak and helpless.

In the past, he always showed a calm and calm image, using his half a hundred years of life experience to help this and that, doing his best to be the backbone of the whole village.For the first time in his life, he was so vulnerable, so powerless.

"Grandpa, the village chief." Lin Zhanyu straightened up and approached tentatively.

"What a wonderful child." When he was almost crying, the village head pulled Lin Zhanyu up from the ground and patted the dirt on his torn cotton coat: "My child, don't worry, although I don't have any great skills in this life, I can do it." Never let you go hungry."

Lin Zhanyu nodded ignorantly, and couldn't help crying again.

In the afternoon of Laba, the village head took him into the city.

This is the third time in Lin Zhanyu's memory that he has left the village where he grew up. The first two times were when Lin Xiucai was able to support his body to travel far.Everything he saw was new, but what he didn't know was that the reason why the village chief chose that day was because at that time most people came out to do small business and buy new year's goods, so it was easier for him to find a way out.

There were so many people in the city, Lin Zhanyu walked forward behind the village chief, holding on to the hem of the village chief's clothes, not daring to let go for a moment, so that when the two of them found a stall to eat noodles in the afternoon, the village chief's short cotton coat Already wrinkled out of shape.

The old village head asked the shopkeeper for two bowls of hot noodle soup, took Lin Zhanyu to find an empty seat, and poured a bowl of hot water for the child.

Just as he put down the teapot, he suddenly heard a man at the next table say: "Tonight, Boss Qiao is offering a job at the open-air bookstore of the Confucius Temple, why don't you join us?"

"Go." The others echoed one after another, and one of them said loudly: "I bet, even though Boss Qiao is not as good as those bosses in the theater now, he will definitely become a role in the future."

The old village chief frowned slightly: The stage name of Boss Qiao mentioned by those people just now is Qiao Xiaoyan, he is a busker, and he has been quite famous in Nanjing City in the past two years.He had seen that man's business in Liandi a few times, and he saw that kind-faced, kind-looking, thin middle-aged man speaking Nanjing dialect and playing tricks and amusing, he was really likable.

At this moment, the noodle soup came. Looking at Lin Zhanyu who was devouring the food, the old village chief suddenly had an idea.

The old man thought, I don't know if it can be done, but I have to try it anyway.

After a while, the two finished their noodles.The midwinter is short, the outside is already dim and yellow, only a little light of the setting sun is left to reflect the crowds passing by.

The village chief grabbed Lin Zhanyu, who didn't know what happened, and showed his first smiling face these days: "Son, let's go, grandpa will take you to see something interesting."

Boss Qiao is very popular in Nanjing, and the Confucius Temple is already full of people before the opening.Lin Zhanyu was too small to be seen, so the old village head asked him to sit on his shoulders: "Zhanyu, watch carefully."

Lin Zhanyu didn't understand what the old village chief meant, but he nodded obediently.After a while, a young man in a dark gray coat came to the middle of the open-air bookstore, smiled and bowed.

"Don't worry, everyone. The student Wei Qingyun is here first to warm up the scene for everyone." The man said unhurriedly, and opened the folding fan with a swish: "Three emperors and five emperors of morality, famous for Xiahou, Shang and Zhou. Five tyrants and seven heroes are in the Spring and Autumn Period. Rise and fall have been hand in hand. There are a few lines of names in Qingshi, and countless barren hills in Beimang. The predecessors sowed the seeds and the later harvested, it is said that dragons are fighting with tigers."

As soon as the other party opened his mouth, Lin Zhanyu's eyes were fixed there.The child looked carefully, and saw that the man looked really young, and the coat looked very smooth on him, and the whole person was like a bamboo that sprang up after the rain.Although he was also thin, he was not as thin as the disaster victims. At least he could maintain his dignity while still alive.

At that time, Lin Zhanyu was young and didn't understand anything, he just watched the excitement, he found that although the man didn't look like a ostentatious person, he was like a living treasure on stage, working extraordinarily hard, and never caring about others.He didn't know what figure was, but he felt that every move of that person on the stage was exceptionally smooth and beautiful, which naturally aroused applause from the onlookers in the audience.

"Not to mention, Boss Qiao's little apprentice is really good." The two people around Lin Zhanyu spoke.The two looked like hawkers who had just closed their stalls, and one of them swore: "I heard that Brother Wei was a monk halfway through, but he got the true biography of his master. It can be seen that he has worked hard."

"What's the use of working hard? He's not a stinky artist." Another person sneered at this: "Don't look at him and applaud him, he is not much nobler than our brothers."

"Okay, why don't we just watch something, why are there so many words?" The other party noticed Lin Zhanyu's curious gaze, and felt that he and his companions had made a mistake, and couldn't help being embarrassed: "Let's go quickly, I have to sell it elsewhere tomorrow." goods."

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The three emperors and five emperors of morality, the fame of Xiahou, Shang and Zhou.The five hegemons and the seven heroes are in the Spring and Autumn Period, and they rise and fall in an instant.There are several lines of names in Qingshi, and countless barren hills in Beimang.The predecessors sowed the seeds and the later harvested. It is said that dragons are fighting with tigers.From Yang Shen in the Ming Dynasty

The old things of the Six Dynasties follow the flowing water, this sentence is the sentence of the great god Wang Anshi, and the other three sentences are made up by me

Open a new article!It tells the story of Nanjing vernacular artists in the period of the Republic of China. I hope everyone will join in!Please bookmark starfish comments!Thank you~

Another: Note as follows:

Making art: refers to the performance of artists in the old days; stinking art: a contemptuous term for artists in the old society

Gay: Refers to folk art, acrobatics, etc., such as cross talk, drums, magic