I lived in Pudong that year with Axi, a small house of 30 square meters, the door was open to the kitchen, the bedroom and dining room together, there was a small balcony to dry clothes, the toilet rosette always dripping water.
We endured more than a year in such a house, and now looking back, that year’s memories are lush summer, I moved back from the flower market a flower stand, that is I bought hanging orchids, mint and a few pots of succulents, the boss discount processing to me second-hand. At that Time, Ah Xi was surprised and said, when the wind blows over, there will be the fragrance of grass.
Ah Xi would go to the nearby Food market at the end of the day, always with only twenty or so dollars on him, haggle with a few old Shanghai aunts, and then be happy that he bought a fish for six dollars, but the cooked fish smelled like paste.
A Xi always took over the dinner work, and the best dishes were always the same – scrambled eggs with tomatoes, cauliflower, and shredded pork with green peppers, these three dishes are the most memorable part of my memories of A Xi.
I said at the time, if one day you do one more dish, I may be happy for many years.
Later, in order to “develop” a new dish, Ah Xi followed the recipe and got the steps wrong, and almost set the kitchen on fire with all the fuss.
I was very busy at that time, and when I came back from work after dinner, I always said I would do the dishes, but every time I had enough to eat and drink, I leaned back in bed and always went to sleep in three minutes. When I got up in the morning, my clothes were by the bed, neatly folded, and Hei was already in the kitchen cooking two eggs.
Hei helped me charge my bus pass, but I always had to take a taxi because I couldn’t sleep, and what Hei estimated as a month’s worth of expenses, I would always exceed in a week.
Later, Hei went to help me to do a bank card, let me deposit 2000 yuan every month to it, zero deposit, who take who puppy.
At that time I looked at the card, standing at the intersection of the Pu circuit giggling. I said, a month to save 2,000, a year will be 24,000.
Axiom said, 24000 a year, there are 2000 interest, save more than two years, at least you can save a Home to pay the down payment money.
Since the work, I began to particularly do not like to make friends, for the social almost will not be too keen. Axi would take me to meet people around her and actively push me towards her friends.
In that process, Axi always sat watching me awkwardly greeting her friends, once I had a big fight with her over this matter, Axi did not know where she was wrong, standing on the side of the road looking at me aggressively, I walked a few steps, see her still dazed in place, turned back and said, let’s go home, she immediately broke into tears and laughed up.
The washing machine at home is broken, and every time I use it, the uncle downstairs will come upstairs and knock on the door and ask me to go to his house to help him mop the floor. Later we did laundry, Axi always dragged the hose out of the sewer, followed by a bucket, catch a bucket full of water, she clicked pause, carried the water to the toilet to dump it, and then came back, inserted the tube, and clicked start.
Because the water is full up, the pipe will float to the surface, Axi always worried about this, simply take a small bench to sit on the edge, with hands to press the hose to keep it from moving.
I laughed at Hei’s stupidity and took out a large clip from the cupboard to dry clothes and clamped the hose on the side of the bucket. A Xi looked at me and said, “You’re really smart.
I said, the reason why people are superior to animals is that they can use tools. Axi couldn’t hear that I was calling her stupid and said with a smile, “Yeah, yeah.
Axi’s taste is very poor, every time shopping, she can not pick clothes, holding up a three or five years ago, cheerfully ran over to ask me if it looks good. I said no, it was too ugly, and she jumped over to change another to show me.
Once my birthday, she bought me a BALLY bag from the Internet, and when I opened it, I burst out laughing. I said, I can use it when I’m 50 years old, Axi said excitedly, that’s also good ah.
In the winter, Ah Xi’s lips were very dry, I bought her a lipstick, just for fun, I did not buy the ordinary style, but the new egg-shaped.
Axi took it as a novelty and asked me how to use it. I said your lips are too dry, you have to lick it first, and then apply it. As a result, Axi licked the lipstick with his tongue, and I laughed out loud on the spot.
A Xi has face Blindness, always can not distinguish between Bai Baihe and Wang Luodan, Zhang Zhen and Qin Hao, Liu Yifei and Huang Shengyi, she will be very confused to ask me, why they all look the same. Then I played a TFBOYS song for her and she said all three kids were cute, but no matter how many times I said it, she couldn’t tell which one of them was who.
Axi asked me why I didn’t write anything anymore, and I said I couldn’t write anymore.
When she finished, she said, “You write very well, I think you should stop working and write.
I said, “If you don’t go to work, how will you get the money to support me?
Axi said, you can ah, in fact, raising you do not need a lot of money.
I said, “Oh yes, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, cauliflower, shredded pork with green peppers, it really does not need a lot of money.
Axiom said, you like, I can always do to you eat ah.
So much so that when I later watched “Beijing meets Seattle”, Tang Wei cooked for Wu Xiubo to eat, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, that bridge every time I think about it, I unconsciously think of Axi.
But I only took it as a joke, but did not even lift the pen.
One night I had a toothache, I felt like a sip of water would hurt out of tears, I called her, she is because a good friend housewarming in each other’s home as a guest, when I received my call, I mumbled no words, she did not say anything to rush back from a friend’s home, open the door to see me rolling on the floor, took out a bottle of white wine from the kitchen, sprinkled with salt, stirred and let me drink.
I said you want to kill me, she said this is the old Family recipe. Later, the tooth really does not hurt so much, she accompanied me around to find a hospital, but there is no dentist at night, back and forth, and finally we only stood on the roadside in the night breeze looking at each other.
At that moment, my teeth were actually no longer hurting, but I kept covering my mouth.
I said, “You’ve touched my heart tonight. Just finished, she was excited with the force, I screamed, she was anxious, and finally almost cried out.
I said, you don’t cry, I’m all lying to you.
She looked at me and said seriously, you don’t say that on purpose to make me happy so that I don’t worry.
A Xi did not know that I really lied to her, and she still thought so purely of my good.
On the day of the New Year’s Eve, Axi and I were crowded in the Bund, holding hands tightly, but we were finally separated by the crowd.
That night, something bad happened, the scene was in chaos, I panicked and kept calling out her name, but there were too many people, no one could hear me.
Later, when the police arrived and the crowd gradually dispersed, I saw Hei standing under a street lamp across the road, her eyes red with tears. She saw me, bawling, said she had just plowed through a lot of people, almost stepped on the bottom, she was really worried about not seeing me, I immediately hugged her.
However, Axi and I did not end up together.
The next summer, I quit my job and had to leave Shanghai. On the day I left, Axi helped me pack my bags and stood at the door, saying goodbye to me.
She told me, with tears in her eyes, to have a safe trip.
I sat in the cab, imagining that Hei would come after me and stay, but Hei didn’t show up at all. I couldn’t believe it until I got on the plane, and Hei and I were still separated.
After I left Hei, I started writing again, remembering the little bits and pieces of Hei’s company and her not-so-good “flaws”.
At that time, I wrote a story every day on my public website, each story was about my time in Shanghai with Axi.
But every time I shared it in my circle of friends, Axi did not like it once, let alone leave a comment.
One day, I was giving a speech at a university, and a young girl raised her hand and asked me, “You are so good, are you also very demanding of the people you like?
At that time I said, in fact, I am not that good, and, even if they are good, they will not be very demanding of the person they like, because love does not exist evenly, quite the contrary, we love each other when we love each other is bad.
The more time passes, the more I can’t remember the good things about her, and instead I miss the bad things about her.
I suddenly want to say to Hei, clumsy and stupid you, I like; no fighting spirit you, I also like; feel slow you, I also like; even if the cooking is always very bad you, I still like the same.
Maybe it’s like one reader said, love is giving your complete love to someone who is not complete, so it’s because you’re not good that I feel so fond of you.
Recent Comments