It was a morning in 1968, the autumn wind was blowing gently, and the summer heat was gone. A 14-year-old boy, Sang Sang, boarded the roof of the tallest building in the middle of the grass house in Yau Ma Tei Primary School. He sat on the roof and Yau Ma Tei Primary School jumped into his eyes for the first time. The white clouds in autumn, as gentle as floc, are drifting away, and the dead leaves of Indus are falling in the autumn wind. The boy sang sang suddenly felt that he was going to cry, so he sobbed quietly.
Tomorrow morning, a big wooden boat will leave here with him and his home before waking up in Yau Ma Tei-he will bid farewell to this golden straw house that accompanies him day and night forever. ...
one
Tuhe and Sang Sang are classmates from Grade One to Grade Six.
This bald crane should be called Lu He, but because he is a complete little bald man, the children in Yau Ma Tei call him Lu He. The small village where the white-headed crane is located is a small village where many maple trees are planted. Every autumn, maple trees are red and very charming. But in this village, there are many bald men. They walked bareheaded under such a beautiful maple tree, which attracted the teachers of Yau Ma Tei Primary School to stop and watch quietly. Those bald people are under the maple tree, slightly glowing with red light, and occasionally there are gaps when they meet maple leaves. When someone walks there, they will shine like tiles in the sand. Teachers who put their hands in their trouser pockets or cross their hands on their chests smile at people and don't know what it means.
The crane has seen this kind of smile many times.
But in Sang Sang's memory, the bald crane didn't seem to care about his baldness until he was in the third grade. This may be because he is not the only bald person in his village, or because the crane is too young to remember whether he should care about his baldness. The crane has been living a happy life. If someone calls him a bald crane, he will happily agree, as if he was originally called a bald crane, not a land crane.
The bald head of the crane is very authentic. He supported such a naked head with a long beautiful neck. This head has no scars and is so smooth. In the sun, this portrait is as bright as wax, which reminds his classmates of that night for no reason, and it will also be bright. Because of this baldness, children tend to be fascinated and have a desire to spit with their fingers. In fact, bald cranes often touch their heads. Later, the bald crane found that the children liked to touch his head. He attached great importance to his head and stopped touching it if he wanted to. If someone steals his head, he will immediately turn around and judge that he is weaker than him, so he will catch up and let that person eat a punch in the back; Seeing someone better than him, he will scold. Someone has to touch it, that's fine, but you have to pay the bald crane something: either a piece of candy or lend him an eraser or pencil for half a day. Sang Sang was hit twice with a broken ruler. At this time, the bald crane cleverly lowered its head and put it in front of Sang Sang. Sang Sang stretched out his hand to touch it, and the crane could count. "Once …" Sang Sang felt that the head of the crane was very smooth, just like touching a pebble washed by water for countless years by the river.
When the bald crane was in the third grade, something happened. It seemed that one morning, he noticed his baldness. The bald crane's head can't be touched now. Whoever touches it, it is quick-sighted and desperate. If people call him bald crane again, he will not agree, and no one can exchange anything. Ding Si, the butcher in Yau Ma Tei, saw the bald crane's greedy eyes looking at the meat on his meat case, so he cut off a piece of meat weighing two pounds with a knife, poked a hole with the tip of the knife, put on a straw rope and held it high in front of the bald crane: "Let me touch your head, and this meat is yours." As he spoke, he was about to extend his greasy hand. The bald crane said, "Give me the meat first." Ding Si said, "I'll touch it first and then give it to you." The bald crane said, "No, give me the meat first." Ding Si waited at the door for some chatting people to come over and gave the meat to the bald crane. The bald crane looked at this piece of meat-it's really good meat! However, the crane slammed the door hard, threw the meat on the dusty road, and then ran away. Ding Si grabbed the butcher knife and chased it out. The crane ran for a while and then stopped running. He grabbed a brick from the ground and turned to gnash his teeth at Ding Si with a sharp knife. Ding Si didn't dare to take a step further, waved the knife twice in the air, said "little bald man" and turned to leave.
The bald crane is no longer happy.
It rained heavily that day, and the bald crane came to school without an umbrella. Although it rains, it is not dark, so the head of the crane is particularly bright in the silver rain curtain. Paper Moon and Toona sinensis, carrying a red oiled paper umbrella, flashed by the roadside and let the bald crane pass by. The crane felt it. The two girls' eyes were fixed on his head under the red oiled paper umbrella, and he walked past them. When he turned to look at them, he saw two girls covering their mouths with their hands and hiding their smiles. The bald crane walked to the school with his head down, but he didn't walk into the classroom, but walked into the bamboo forest by the river.
Rain rustled on the bamboo leaves, and then dripped from a gap in his bald head. He touched his head with his hand and looked at the river with a depressed face. On the water, two or three chubby ducks swam around in the rain, looking very happy.
The bald crane picked up a tile and smashed it, which made the ducks flap their wings and swim away. The bald crane smashed six or seven tiles in succession, and he didn't stop until his tiles could no longer disturb the ducks. He felt a little cold, but he didn't walk into the classroom with trepidation until he finished a class.
When he got home at night, he said to his father, "I won't go to school."
"Did someone bully you?"
"Nobody bullied me."
"Then why not go to school?"
"I just don't want to go to school."
"Nonsense!" Father patted the bald crane on the head.
The bald crane looked at his father and bowed his head and cried.
Father seems to suddenly understand something. He turned around and sat down on a stool in the dark, and then the bald head of the bald crane reflected the flickering light of the cigarette in his father's hand.
The next day, my father didn't force the bald crane to go to school. He went to town and bought a few catties of ginger: someone taught him a secret recipe, saying that he rubbed his scalp with ginger, and his head grew out in 7749 days. He told the story to the crane, who sat on a stool and silently let his father rub a piece of ginger back and forth on his head. Father polished it carefully, like a coppersmith who wanted to impress customers, wiping one of his bronzes. The crane soon felt a burning sting, but the crane sat still.
Let my father rub it with ginger.
When they saw the crane again, the crane was still a bald man, but the bald man had a kind of blood color, as if he had just drunk wine.
I don't know if it's paper moon or Toona sinensis. The bald crane came into the classroom and smelled a good smell of ginger. He said softly, "There is a smell of ginger in the classroom."
At that time, all the students in the class were there, so everyone sniffed together, only heard the sound of a gust of wind, and then said that it really smelled of ginger, so they sniffed each other again. As a result, it seems that everyone smells like ginger, and no one smells like ginger.
The crane sat there motionless. When he felt that there might be one or more noses sniffing along the smell route, he said "I want to go to the toilet" and ran out of the classroom as soon as possible. He ran to the river, dug a handful of mud with his hand, wiped it on his head, and then washed it off with clear water. This was repeated several times until he thought he had completely washed away the ginger flavor before returning to the classroom.
Forty-nine days have passed, and there is still no movement on the bald crane's head.
When summer comes, when people try to take something off their bodies and heads, the bald crane appears in front of Yau Ma Tei people wearing a thin hat that his father specially bought from the city.
Sang Sang is the son of President Sancho. Sang Sang's home is on the campus of Yau Ma Tei Primary School, which is also a straw house.
Yau Ma Tei Primary School is a hut of the same color. More than a dozen straw houses seem to be regular, but they seem to be irregularly connected. They are used as classrooms, offices, teachers' dormitories or activity rooms, warehouses and so on. Before and after these huts or between them, there are always some arrangements, or a bunch of two bamboos, or three or two roses, or a colorful canna, or simply a small piece of grass mixed with small flowers. These arrangements, without a trace of deliberate, seem to be where the campus was originally, so it was. This straw house doesn't look tall, but it has a big roof and is spacious inside. This kind of straw house is actually very expensive. It is not made of ordinary straw or wheat straw, but made of thatch on the beach 300 miles away. Thatched grass grows vigorously on the beach, one tree grows very resilient, blown by the sea breeze and exposed by the sun, without shelter. When the sun shines, it shines like copper wire, and when the sea breeze blows, it can make a metallic sound. The house built with this grass is immortal. All the rich people here save money to build this kind of house. The grass house in Yau Ma Tei Primary School is elegant and luxurious. The grass selection is stricter than any other one here, and the roof is very thick. So in the grass house of Yau Ma Tei Primary School, it is warm in winter and cool in summer. These houses, under the pure and quiet sky in the countryside, exude a simple atmosphere, but when the sun shines in the sky, the flash on the roof only shows luxury.
Sang Sang likes these straw houses, not only because he is a student of straw houses, but also because his home is in straw houses.
It is in these thatched houses, before and after the thatched houses, in all directions, that Sang Sang shows himself and tells people "I am Sang Sang".
Sang Sang is Sang Sang, and Sang Sang is different from other children. This is not because Sang Sang is the headmaster's son, but because Sang Sang is Sang Sang.
It is consistent for Sang Sang to be whimsical or to do some unexpected strange behavior. Sang Sang thought he had a good place to live, but his pigeons didn't ―― many of his pigeons had to drill holes in the wall for the night or hatch young pigeons. He felt sorry in his heart and determined to improve their situation. When Mom and Dad were not at home that day, he called Asu and Zhu Xiaogu, sorted out all the dishes in the cupboard at home and threw them in the corner. Then, he moved out the cupboard. According to the appearance of a senior dovecote in his imagination, ask Asu and Zhu Xiaogu to start work together and transform it greatly with a saw and an axe. Four legs are unnecessary. I see it. There is no need to knock on the glass door. That cupboard has four floors, but each floor is too big to consider. Sang Sang asked Asu to steal some boards from home and divide each floor into three files. Sang Sang calculated that there are three "homes" on the first floor and twelve "homes" on the fourth floor. He felt that he had done a great service for the pigeons, and he felt that he was noble. He was moved by himself. As the sun sets, the sun reddened the thatched cottage. After several efforts by him and Asu, the big pigeon coop has been firmly hung on the wall. In the evening, my mother watched a disabled cupboard hanging high on the western wall as a new home for pigeons, so she dragged Sang Sang home and beat her up behind closed doors. However, Sang Sang has no long memory. Only ten days later, he relapsed. That day, when he was playing by the river, he saw a fishing boat fishing with a net on the river. Every net can catch fish and shrimp, and he really wishes he had a net in his heart. But there is no internet at home. Sang Sang felt itchy and felt that she had to have a net. He walked around the house and saw a mosquito net on his parents' big bed. This is obviously a mosquito net, but in Sang Sang's eyes, it is obviously a good net. He tore off the mosquito net three times and two times, then found a pair of scissors, and transformed the mosquito net into a net with three times, five times and two times. Then he asked Asu and them to make a net frame with bamboo poles, support a duck boat and go fishing on the river. People from both sides came to see the river and asked, "Sang Sang, what is that net made of?" Sang Sang replied, "Use mosquito nets." Sang sang thought, what can I do without mosquito nets? People on both sides of the strait are happy. Wen Youju, a female teacher, said worriedly, "Sang Sang, you are going to be beaten again." Sang Sang suddenly realized the seriousness of the problem, but with so many interesting eyes on both sides of the strait, he was still very excited to immerse himself in the joy and impulse of fishing. At noon, my mother saw two or three pounds of fish and shrimp in the bamboo basket and asked, "Where did you get the fish and shrimp?" Sang Sang said, "I called." "Did you take a taxi?" "I took a taxi." "What did you use?" "That's how I play." Mother is too busy cooking to check carefully. At noon, the family happily ate fish and shrimp, eating and eating, and the mother became suspicious again: "Sang Sang, what fish and shrimp did you use?" Sang Sang is eating a red shrimp in his mouth, and he squeaks on purpose. But mother put down her chopsticks and didn't eat. When he finished eating the shrimp, he asked, "What kind of fish and shrimp did you use?" Sang Sang tried to leave the table with a rice bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, but her mother said in an irresistible tone, "Don't go yet. You say, what do you use to catch fish and shrimp? " Sang Sang retreated to the corner. Little sister Liu Shu sat in a chair, chewing shrimp with relish, swinging her legs happily and looking at Sang Sang: "Brother fished it with a net." Mother asked, "Where did he get the net?" Willow said, "This is made of mosquito nets." Mother put down her chopsticks and walked into the room. After a while, my mother came out to scold the back of the mulberry that had run away. But my mother didn't chase her. In the evening, after Sang Sang came back, his mother didn't hit him either. His mother took off his mosquito net to punish him. As a result of taking off the mosquito net, he was bitten by mosquitoes and his left eye was red and swollen.