Author: Dou Xianjun.
When I moved into Changqing Hutong, my first impression was the three big poplar trees behind Uncle Tao's house, which were 1,000 feet tall and sheltered from the clouds and the sun.
There are four families in the alley, my house is in the innermost part of the alley, facing south in the north, and Uncle Tao's house is in the south and north at the mouth of the alley. Uncle Tao's family has three daughters and one son, and the fireworks in the house are thick, and they come in and out every day, which is easier and easier to get close to than the other two families who are sons.
When I first moved to the clouds, the family built a new house, and some of the remaining wood scraps were to be cut into firewood, and there were no tools at home, so I recklessly went to Uncle Tao's house to borrow them.
Aunt Tao led me directly to ask Uncle Tao. Uncle Tao didn't say a word, and replied to me happily in a very solemn tone, okay, I'll lend it to you. At that time, I thought it was normal, not all neighbors were like this, what to use, to each other, there was a borrowing.
After many days of this incident, I heard that the days of Uncle Tao's family, that is, foreign policy, were very similar to the "self-containment" of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Even if his family makes an exception, it is a centralized system, and Aunt Tao doesn't count. No wonder when I went, Aunt Tao wanted to take me to see Uncle Tao.
The iron door structure of Uncle Tao's house is also different from other houses, it is fully enclosed, and a palm-sized keyhole is also tightly covered. The cane is more than one person high, and only two eaves are exposed in the two houses on the east and the west.
Several large poplar trees outside the back wall resemble dignified guards, standing guard for Uncle Tao's house every day. In addition, there is also a dense elm wall outside the cane, which still guards Uncle Tao's house like a wall even if the leaves fall off in winter.
Uncle Tao's house is always heavily guarded, and it's hard not to guess what the daily life there will be like. However, no matter how dense the wall is, it will be ventilated, and it is necessary to open the door to live every day.
Each of the three daughters of Uncle Tao's family is Uncle Tao's soldier, and Uncle Tao commands Ruoding. When buying coal in winter, the youngest daughter of Uncle Tao's family is just enough to be high enough for a small cart, and she has to participate in labor. From the mouths of a group of children of all sizes, no voices of resistance could be heard.
The children can carry shovels and shovels, and they can push carts, everyone can't use anything, use small ones, and feel that as long as they can pant for breath, they can work, and the coal piles at the door that seem to be like a hill are transported by Uncle Tao's transportation army in half an hour. The hutong where the coal had been piled up was also cleaned up, and it felt like nothing had happened in the alley if it hadn't seeped into the soil from the coal surface.
has lived in the hutong for decades, and the most time I see Uncle Tao is in the morning. I exercise every morning, and none of them will be earlier than Uncle Tao.
The elm wall of Uncle Tao's house is always a face, and Uncle Tao's eyes and rulers generally keep the elm wall at a constant thickness and height.
The elm tree wall is difficult to tend, people sleep on the tree but do not sleep, and the elm tree will always be like a child in the growth period. Uncle Tao was responsible for cutting off the plucked, disobedient, green, and fluffy little whiskers.
Uncle Tao is using a pair of big scissors every day, so that the evergreen alley with a row of big poplar trees has an additional dazzling garden landscape.
In autumn, the alleys often attract children to pick up the fallen leaves of the poplar trees. The children pick up the largest leaves, remove the leaves, leave only the leaf stems, and play a battle game with each hand, named "Le Baotuo".
The child squatted under the tree, grabbed the ends with both hands, and crossed with another person who did the same thing, and broke off. Every day after school, there are piles of children gathered in the alley, and Uncle Tao, who was originally diligent, was not in a hurry to clean the alley because of this, until the leaves withered and the children were no longer playing, so he came out to do it.
Although I often see Uncle Tao, I don't communicate much. Uncle Tao, who is too serious, always gives people a sense of oppression, and has been neighbors with Uncle Tao for more than ten or decades, and has never really been to Tao's house to sit down. I also seem to be Xi to the way I get along with Uncle Tao, and accept Uncle Tao who only exists in the alley. Throughout the year, elm trees are pruned in spring, summer and autumn, and only snowy in winter.
Several families in the alley, when it snows, no one from every family is dispatched, but Uncle Tao must come out. I slept late at night, got up late in the morning, and when I opened the courtyard door, I often saw Uncle Tao doing it alone, and I was always embarrassed.
However, every time Uncle Tao chases me, saying that he can do it alone. The 100-meter-deep alley, if it snows heavily, it is not a job. It's not even kung fu, but strength is also necessary. I'm in a hurry, Uncle Tao doesn't. Uncle Tao works at a glance, and the scene after the snow, even if there is a lot of grass growing in his heart, with Uncle Tao, he will fall down.
Uncle Tao governs the family well, three daughters and one son, the daughter is not squeamish, the son is not delicate, and everyone is a character when he leaves the house. Uncle Tao's daughters are like their mothers, petite and exquisite, but it does not affect their survival in society.
Before his retirement, Uncle Tao worked as a custodian in a company, and his family had a side business, and his family was prosperous, but he could not see luxury in his children, and his labor was glorious.
Aunt Tao beside Uncle Tao has no opinion all her life, and she is still fun. The power of life and death in the family is in the hands of Uncle Tao. None of the four children in Uncle Tao's family are like their mothers, which is related to Uncle Tao's strict family education.
Uncle Tao, who has lived like an iron rod all his life, will get sick one day, which is unacceptable for a while. The disease caused half of Uncle Tao's body to fail, and I thought Uncle Tao would be idle because of this. However, Uncle Tao was still like that, and picked up the big scissors again when he got out of the hospital.
Uncle Tao still wakes up early, and doesn't go to the ground all day to greet those fluffy, mischievous elm whiskers. It's snowing in winter, and only one arm is good, so Uncle Tao is still doing it with a snow shovel. I won't let Uncle Tao do it. Uncle Tao said that if you don't work, you will be a waste.
Every day, Uncle Tao's children are not around. After Uncle Tao got sick, he still did everything he did before he got sick. After getting sick, Uncle Tao's temperament changed. The dense walls are not soundproof, and he often hears the sound of him scolding Aunt Tao. Aunt Tao explained, your Uncle Tao is not happy, just scold.
Such an Uncle Tao, after I had been Xi used to it for a few years, got sick again. This illness only gave him a month, and it turned out that it was terminal. Uncle Tao didn't do any struggle, calmly dealt with the aftermath, and didn't make any illusions about his illness.
Uncle Tao died in early spring, and on the morning of leaving, a layer of snow fell on the ground. Amid the cries of his three daughters, Uncle Tao left his small kingdom, passed through large poplar trees, elm walls, and long alleys, and walked on the road of no return.
How many years later, I still miss the days when Uncle Tao was alive.
Throughout the year, Uncle Tao has moments that I miss. After my parents passed away one after another, Uncle Tao was more like a father. My sorrows, once like the fluffy little whiskers that grew day by day on an elm tree, were cut off by Uncle Tao for me in the early morning dawn.