Goodbye, Wuliangshan, Goodbye, Mexican Girl

More than ten years ago, I went to Dali Town for the first time and stayed at the Bird Bar on the upper section of Renmin Road.

After a stroll in the evening, there was not much business except for a few snack shops, and it was almost quiet when I reached Yeyu Road.

At the northwest corner of the intersection, there is a half-new house with a yellow light on. There is a sign saying "Coffee" on the door. I walked in and saw a man with glasses and disheveled hair copying calligraphy seriously. I didn't disturb him and just looked around the house.

He knew I came in, and I knew he knew I came in, and we got along fine.

After finishing a page of calligraphy, he greeted me and said sorry that there was no coffee to drink today. I said it was okay, I just came in to take a look. When he saw me staring at his calligraphy practice, he smiled and said that he was practicing calligraphy recently. He showed me the pipe he made, which looked simple and interesting. He also told me that he planted coffee in Wuliang Mountain and roasted it into coffee beans after harvesting.

I seldom see such relaxed people in the city. We are always used to introducing each other's families and exchanging information, but not like this, where they talk about their lives without asking each other's names.

After sitting for a while, I stood up and left, saying to him like a friend: What you are copying now is not suitable, you should write Weibei more suitable, try copying "Zhang Heinu Tombstone". Goodbye, friend!

After meeting Sting , he thought I was an interesting person and allowed me to observe his life.

In the old stone-walled house in Lvtao Village, I saw the lifestyle and spiritual world of hippies. Although he never advertised himself, I defined him as a mild hippie. His friends were just like him, not discussing getting rich, speculation, love affairs, etc., but focusing on themselves. They came from all corners of the country and lived together at the foot of Cangshan Mountain, not lingering on the past, nor looking forward to the future, but living in the present.

The sun shone into the courtyard, and several young people sat on the lounge chairs, quietly basking in the sun. At that time, Dali was full of folding lounge chairs, covered with a piece of cloth, like a hammock with a stand. No matter how you sit, you can't sit in an elegant posture, so you just lie down lazily and feel more at ease.

Behind the tiled roofs are Cangshan Mountain, white clouds are rolling in the blue sky, and the dazzling sunlight sharpens the scenery. An orange-yellow-and-black tricolor cat walked across the gray tiles, hesitated for a moment, and then lay down. I guess it didn't feel threatened by these people. It closed its eyes and stretched out its paws. I saw that its claws were like peeled mangosteens, which made me happy.

I observed one of them. He stared at the small flower that bloomed under the cracks of the stone slabs in the courtyard for a long time. Time seemed to slow down. I also stared at the flower, an ordinary little flower. Because it burst out from the cracks of the stone, even its color was a little proud, and it enjoyed the breeze. There is a word in Japanese called "sparrow tears", which describes such a small thing, as insignificant as the tears of a sparrow. When I stared at a flower, I didn't have a great enlightenment, nor did I feel happy, but I felt a good peace.

The scenery here is beautiful and the people here are very relaxed. I also want to be in such scenery and become such a person.

So I stayed and, like playing house, opened a small grocery store, selling all kinds of interesting but useless beautiful gadgets. The store was also located in a small old house with a tiled roof and an attic. I installed a fireplace, raised a fat cat, and hung a crystal chandelier. I went up and down the creaky wooden stairs, feeling inexplicably happy. Can I make money? I haven't thought about it, probably not. Will I lose money? Let's wait and see, anyway, I'm very happy at the moment.

Sting came to see my shop, I treated him to tea under the green window pane in the courtyard. He said you look happy, I said yes, I just want to do something that makes me happy, it's not grand, and I have done it. The background music that day was "Mexican Girl", Sting was a little excited when he heard it, he said he hadn't heard this song for a long time. I said I also like to collect the tears of these times, he laughed heartily.

Sting sometimes brings some fresh fruits and vegetables to my shop. One time he brought steamed yam beans, which I had never seen before. They tasted soft and sticky, and I was very impressed. He described to me in detail that these are small balls that grow in the axils of yam leaves, and can also be used to make candied haws.

Later I stopped playing house, and changed my life every five or six years, but never left Dali. I met Sting once or twice a year, like old friends, without asking how you were doing recently or what your plans were for the future. We drank tea and smoked cigarettes, and then we dispersed like jade clouds on the mountainside.

During the Xiulou Salmon period, I met Sting on Pingdeng Road. We stood in the alley and chatted for a while. He repeated a joke I told at a party a long time ago, which I couldn't even remember. Regarding Su Tong's words about drinking tea in "Mei's Teahouse", Sting said that he read this passage in the article later and immediately understood that I was not telling a joke at the time, but just stating it, but I gained the effect of telling a joke. It doesn't matter what it is. The old jokes can still trigger laughter, like the secret code of old friends, and they understand each other.

The last time we contacted was in the winter of Jiachen. He said he was preparing for a new store and invited me to dinner when it opened, but I can no longer eat there. Yesterday I met Sister Mao at Xiangmu Coffee. She said Sting had left. I was speechless for a long time.

He always laughs loudly, he presses scrap steel bars into solid square seats, he often wears slippers to the vegetable market, he rides KG382, his hair has turned a lot whiter, and he is just as gentle, funny, and self-sufficient as when I first met him.

When some new friends talk to me about empowerment, private domain, and profit model, I always get distracted and think of those trivial things I talked about with old friends, such as "Mexican Girl" and yam beans. Every tear of a sparrow will leave a mark. I don't want to forget my original intention. I chose to live here in order to be a relaxed but not bad person.

Life is like a train. Friends who travel with you will get off first, and one day you will say goodbye forever.