Chapter Three That Year
Huang Shu-jun once sang in "Changes" (1995), "In my previous life, I was the father of the nation; in my next life, I'll be a prince. This life, I'd better behave myself. My talent isn't enough to be talented, and being bad isn't bad enough..."
I was an ordinary person in my past life, as ordinary as a shrimp in a pond. I don't know what I'll be in the next life, but this life... I came into this world with memories, and saw the sunlight that once flowed through my life shining on my shoulders again. Where should I go from here? Should I start all over or sell out to my past self?
In June 1988, the arrival of a person disrupted our family's peaceful life. Many years later, looking back, I finally believe in the phrase "predestined fate".
On the first day of summer vacation, Mom brought a frail old man from outside the yard, almost choking me who was drinking water under the grape arbor.
The old man's hair was white, his facial features were regular, and he wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He was dressed in a dark blue Changshan suit, leaning on a crutch, with a clear and bright air about him. The resemblance was striking, extremely so... the old man looked exactly like Bao Fang, a veteran of Hong Kong's entertainment industry who passed away in 2006.
The old man walked up to me with a kind smile, looking at my disheveled appearance, making me feel as warm as spring, and cold sweat flowed down my neck.
Won't be Hong Kong and Taiwan compatriots coming to seek relatives from thousands of miles away? This guy shouldn't be my grandfather's brother, I haven't heard that my grandfather has a brother who escaped there.
While I was daydreaming, my mother scolded me "Xiao Fu, look at you, no manners at all, quickly, call Uncle and Grandma?"
"Ah!" I reacted and quickly bowed my head to greet the old man, it's really a reunion after a long separation, this old man is not easy to find...
"You're Little Fu, right? Good, really good." The old man's eyes were misty as he looked at me, somewhat excited.
"Ah! Uncle, you must be tired from the journey, please come in and sit down!" I replied excitedly, but my eyes didn't see Uncle. I was puzzled, why did I keep seeing pieces of paper with Victoria printed on them flying before my eyes? Forgive me! Forgive me...
As we entered the house, Uncle Lao pulled me and my mom to sigh and tell us about his legendary experiences that can only be seen in Hong Kong and Taiwan TV dramas...
Uncle Shaoji's original name was Xue Shaoji. He sneaked into Hong Kong at the time and started working as a dockworker, but later took advantage of the Queen's amnesty to leave the docks and work in a shoe factory. After saving up money, he opened his own teahouse, then switched careers to real estate, coinciding with Hong Kong's economic takeoff in the 1970s. As an old man who had spent his whole life single, he felt homesick and came back to seek out his relatives, taking advantage of the spring breeze of reform and opening up...
I couldn't help but secretly feel relieved, fortunately you old man had smuggled into Hong Kong, if you had swum to Kinmen instead, it's likely that the thought of coming back to take a look would have taken many more years to materialize.
My uncle in Yunzhou had a great time for several days, perhaps because of "intergenerational relationships" or maybe he was looking for his childhood self. He also secretly took us to Liuli River to catch fish and to Dayan Mountain to hunt birds, and absolutely at the senior level.
After my uncle satisfied his hometown addiction, he finally revealed the purpose of this trip, hoping to take our whole family to Hong Kong. He thought that Hong Kong was more suitable for me and my sister to grow up in and hoped that we would inherit his business in the future. His proposal was strongly opposed by my grandparents, and in the end, under the compromise of everyone's choice, my sister was taken to Hong Kong by my uncle. In fact, I didn't want to go myself, I couldn't speak Cantonese, and after being reborn, I had a deep affection for this childhood memory from the 70s. I tried hard to recall the happiness I once had. So, with reluctance to leave home and tears in her eyes, my sister followed my uncle away...
After sister left, our family's life returned to calmness, only occasionally reminded by letters from Hong Kong that they still had a granddaughter and a daughter living a lonely life in a foreign land.
My childhood was spent waiting for my sister's letters, and it slowly dissipated in those days. My sister said she seemed to be eating grapes from the grape tree in the yard, I really want to eat the sugar people at Ganhai Temple Fair, I really want to...
I really want to write a letter to tell her, "Sister, do you know that since you left, I no longer go to the Luli River to catch fish, nor do I secretly climb the mountain? Because the water of the Luli River has become turbid due to pollution, and the trees on the Dayan Mountain are no longer suitable for birds to build their nests; because we have grown up and can never go back..."
