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墨書 Inktalez
Thirty-one answers
After Guo Jia passed away, Jia Xu finally had the courage to meet his former mentor. Several decades had passed, but Chen Gong still looked as young as ever.
Jia Xu said, "Master, you still look so young," but Chen Gong just smiled and refuted, "I'm no longer the master."
It means to ask Jia Xu not to be immersed in the past. Jia Xu, however, said to himself, "Back then at Ling Mountain, you asked two questions: what is eternal life, and how to maintain inner peace." Chen Gong asked Jia Xu if he now has the answers.
Jia Xu has a lame leg and can't kneel like he used to. He remembered that during their time at the academy, Chen Gong liked the three of them the most. Xun Yu had grown up, and he felt embarrassed, so only Guo Jia was willing to rest his head on Chen Gong's knee and ask some inappropriate questions. Chen Gong would also answer him with a smile.
Jia Xu asked again, is it about memory, right?
Chen Gong was stunned for a moment and then smiled, saying, "You actually found the answer, Wenhe. You truly are my favorite student."
Jia Xu said, "Your favorite is Fengxiao."
Chen Gong did not deny it, but instead smiled and patted Jia Xu's head, as if at the academy, then asked, "Are you sad about Fengxiao's death?"
Jia Xu neither admitted nor denied, but remembered the day Guo Jia left. After accompanying the army several times, Guo Jia's riding skills had surpassed his own. He rode on a tall horse and said with a smile, "Wait for me to come back, and we'll go eat crabs together."
Just one month, and such a healthy person suddenly passed away. Chen Gong said that Guo Jia's death was his predetermined fate, as everyone will eventually meet death. But Jia Xu felt it was absurd, that such a lively person could suddenly depart, as if fate was toying with people, or as if there had been a premonition.
The dead cannot come back. During the funeral in Biyong, Guo Jia and Jia Xu encountered the funeral procession on their way back home. White paper money flew high into the sky with the wind, the eldest son of the family carried the memorial tablet at the front of the crowd, and the long prayer flags intertwined like reluctant entanglements. The soul bell rang urgently, but it couldn't disrupt the melody of the funeral singer. The local dialect in Biyong was obscure, and the singer's special accent was like the heavy breathing of mountain trees, and the loud cries of birds, following the wind, following the wind. Guo Jia listened for a long time on tiptoe, and then vaguely understood the meaning of some of the words. Jia Xu asked him if he understood, and Guo Jia said, "Snow falls from the sky, covering the mountains white. When the sun rises, the shadows disappear. When the snow melts, it returns to the sea. The dead cannot come back." The last sentence of each verse was the same, repeated many times by the singer. The two of them stood by the street and listened many times, and as they walked on the mountain road, Jia Xu thought that death is actually a natural thing, like the coming and going of the wind, the blooming and falling of flowers, the melting of snow, and the waxing and waning of the moon. The singer chanted the concept of life and death, using all things in the world as metaphors for the natural cycle of life and death, comforting the living who have lost loved ones, teaching them how to accept the death of friends, family, and even themselves. Jia Xu always thought that death was light and floating, like a feather falling to the ground, until many years later when he suddenly realized that death has weight, like a mountain collapsing, yet it is also light and floating, like the wind taking away everything related to it. It was many years later that he finally understood the meaning of the last line of the funeral song, "The dead cannot come back."
thirty-two fire cauldrons
After sending someone to their final resting place, one must step over fire cauldrons when returning home, symbolizing the permanent separation of the living and the deceased.
At the entrance of the Embroidered Attire Tower, fire basins were lit, and everyone stepped over them to enter the building. Jia Xu stood by the fire basin for a long time, so long that sparrow thought Mr. WenHe was afraid of setting his clothes on fire due to his leg discomfort, and was about to crouch down to tidy his clothes when Jia Xu made a move.
Dragging his lame leg and using a cane for support, he stepped over the blazing fire basin, the flames still licking at his robe. He turned back as if sensing something, only to see the small figure of sparrow standing behind him.
Suddenly, Jia Xu remembered the winter of his seventeenth year, when he and Guo Jia had jumped over the blazing bonfire on the land of Liangzhou, and then, twenty years later, he had bid farewell to the young man by his side.
During the time spent gazing at the bonfire, do you recall the loud shout of safety from Guo Jia in the beginning, or his pale face lying in the coffin?
The scene of the Liangzhou land passing by the bonfire is not included in the "Biyong School Year" that I read in the short story collection.
Thirty-second literatureNever goes out of style.
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