Phoebe | Moonlit Night
I hadn't seen her for nearly three months, and when Xiao Jing came back from her trip, she asked me to have dinner at her house. I arrived, stood outside the courtyard gate, and watched her come down the stairs and open the door for me with a smile.
Xiaoxi was very excited to see me and kept jumping on me because it knew me. Last November, Yang Mi and I experienced Kintsugi restoration in the courtyard of Yungong Kaiwu and saw Xiaoxi often. Yang Mi went back to her hometown for a while and entrusted Xiaoxi to Xiaojing. Xiaojing's haha, because of the bad patella, it is no longer suitable to go up the mountain with us, so she entrusted Xiaoxi to her parents.
Xiao Jing said she was going out again soon, so we had dinner together. I asked her where she was going. She said she was going to Chiang Mai for work. I was envious. Because of work, she could go to different places and have some fun. Just thinking about it made me happy.
Xiao Jing is cooking, and the house is filled with the aroma of food. It is always a happy feeling when someone cooks for you. After eating the food you cook, we are friends from now on. One meal determines a lifetime, why not? The more you eat, the deeper the feelings. Although sometimes things in the world cannot be so simple.
As soon as I entered the room, I looked around. Something seemed to be missing from the room. There was a whiteboard on the wall covered with English. Xiaojing was studying English seriously, listening while cooking. Learning a foreign language is not difficult, but what is difficult is to spend time and continuously weave it into your life, so that it becomes a part of your brain and muscles. There are also two interesting black and white photos on the wall, which were there before, and Xiaojing said they were from Baomei's photo collection.
Drawing on cardboard, Trout Begonia. This trendy green plant has red leaves on the back. If a little red is added, the painting will be more visually rich. But as it is, the leaves look a bit like strange bean pods, with the beans inside shining and running around, trying to break away from the mother body and fly into space... This is more of a small scene style. You are what you paint!
Xiaojing planted the primroses he brought back from Xipo in a pot and entrusted them to others before leaving.
There is a painting of Yiyi in the window, which Jason bought from an exhibition and gave to Xiaojing. Yiyi is a girl of the Yi ethnic group, an amateur painter and creator. Ayi Kejie, I like this name, simple and pure, strong and soft. Jason wrote about Yiyi's husband Yihao in his blog in 2019. Yihao and Jason met again by chance. Many years ago, they lived together in Yuanfang Inn for a while, when Yihao was a young street poet. Jason recorded that Yihao brought Yiyi to his house for a meal, reminiscing about the past and talking about the recent situation. I also went to see Yiyi's exhibition and bought a picture album as a kind of motivation for myself.
Cute plant pompoms. Xiaojing said she picked them on the riverbank in Yangshuo. I searched and found out that they are water bayberry (Water Bayberry, Rubiaceae). I remembered that in 2016, I went to Hangzhou Botanical Garden with ZK and Shaoying and took pictures of it in its fresh state in the bonsai garden.
The cup made by Xiao Jing contains a sour papaya. If you get close to it, you can smell its fragrance. The smell makes you feel that it is quietly brewing itself into wine.
There is a beautiful sheep skull on the table, small and exquisite, which was picked up by Xiaojing, Yangmi and Yanzi when they went to Xipo. I said that when Sanmao got married, Hexi gave her a sheep skull (I searched when I wrote this, and camel skulls are desert treasures, worthy of Sahara weddings!) I mentioned that Xiaojing promised to show me the collection she brought back from Thailand, and she went to the storage room next door to look for it. When we chatted online, she emphasized that "we agreed not to give it to you first." I laughed, how precious is this!
There is a big bucket of acacia in the storeroom. Xiao Jing said it was left by Yang Mi and asked me if I wanted it. Because the fragrance is too strong, it is isolated here. A year ago, I picked some acacia branches from the beach of Wase and brought them home. They were probably half dried, and the flowers I picked home had no smell. The first time I saw acacia was in the south of France, with a few branches in Feifei's small vase. Feifei introduced it to me, this is mimosa. So, the first thing I remember is its French name. After traveling through a long time and space, I felt its strong fragrance for the first time.
The Cangshan Mountain and fields seen from the top terrace.
There is snow on the top of the mountain. Last winter, the snow piled up to the middle of Cangshan Mountain, but this year there is no hope.
Xiao Jing took out a mushroom from the sealed bag and said that there were several of this kind and he could give me one. Seeing it reminded me of the cymbals on Cangshan Mountain (Russoporales). Google said that this was a small-pore fungus (Polyporaceae, Polyporaceae, Microporaceae, is it a yellow-stalked small-pore fungus?). The small-pore fungus is as thin as a piece of paper, and the back is also smooth, almost as smooth as paper, with a bit of leather toughness, and a strange feel. On the right side of the picture above are the Casuarina fruits picked up in Fangchenggang. When I first heard the name Fangchenggang, I felt like I was in Vietnam. I searched and found that it was a border port. The first time I saw Casuarina was when I went to M's house and saw it at the beach. There were no fruits on the tree at that time, and I thought it was a pine tree, but the "pine needles" were in pieces. Casuarina is native to Australia and the Pacific Islands, and is an "excellent tree species for windbreak and forest protection on the southern coast."
While waiting for dinner, I spread out Xiao Jing's collection on the table and looked at it carefully. The indigo cloth is like a deep ocean, with all the beautiful drifting objects floating in it. Things that are not rare in other places become particularly beautiful when you pick one or two to take home. As the saying goes, there are three thousand rivers, but you only take one scoop.
The most bizarre thing was this. It looked like some kind of shellfish, but it had a nice set of teeth, all in perfect order!
Xiaojing said that there are all kinds of strange things at the seaside, some of which are unclear whether they are animals or plants.
After looking at this bag, I opened another sealed bag and looked at the mushrooms and other dried foods.
As soon as I spread it out, the meal was ready. So I ate first. Outside the window, the sky was slowly getting darker. Me: "Look, it's getting darker outside, so beautiful." Xiao Jing: "It would be better if we turn on the lights."
Radish and pork ribs soup, fried radish and broad beans. Xiaojing went out to get a haircut and buy vegetables in the afternoon. The vegetables are very fresh, the beans are tender and the radish is sweet. The yellow tomatoes next to them are bought from Jingwu Grain and Oil Store, 15 yuan a box. Two bay leaves were put in the pork ribs soup. Xiaojing said: "This is what my family uses. It is different from the bay leaves from other places. I will pack some for you to take back." Indeed, as soon as the two leaves were put into the pot, a different fragrance filled the air. I looked at the leaves and said: "This is from the Lauraceae family. Look at the veins on the leaves. There are three veins from the base." The city tree of Hangzhou is the camphor tree. Shaoying used to talk about this word with me.
When I got home and looked at it again, I found that some of the bay leaves had three veins. I searched and found that this was the South China cinnamon (Laurus genus), the bark of which can be used to make cinnamon bark, and the branches, leaves and fruits can be used to extract cinnamon oil.
It was the first time I had fried radish with broad beans, and it was good. The aroma of dried chilies added to the wok flavor. Xiao Jing said, "I think the radish can be stir-fried, and the broad beans can be stir-fried, and it shouldn't go bad if they are mixed together." The rice bowl was made by Xiao Jing herself, and it was very cute. I worked hard to eat the rice and vegetables slowly, and threw the bones I had chewed on to the ground for Xiao Xi, who launched a new round of attacks on them. The food was salty and delicious, and Xiao Jing said, "You are like Yang Mi, you eat light food. I can't do that, I want to dip it in water." She ate the radish and ribs in the soup with a plate of Danshan dipping water.
While eating and chatting, I asked Xiao Jing: "Why is Yan Zi so persistent in setting up a stall?" Xiao Jing explained that if she didn't go, she would be nagged by the person who rented the stall to her, so she tried to set up the stall. Xiao Jing said that Yan Zi was very self-disciplined. Every time she led an activity, she always arrived half an hour or an hour early and went up the mountain to play first. However, going out with friends still took priority over leading the team. Yan Zi still loved to play. I really like the group of photos Yan Zi took when I went to Xipo Haoran's house to eat the pig-killing meal in December. They were great! It was a coincidence! That was also the first time I saw Yan Zi, after hearing about her for a long time.
Jason asked me a while ago: "Do you think Xiaojing's writing has improved recently?" I: "I don't have anything to compare. She posted her childhood diary in the article, which is quite spiritual to read. Now there are some things she has absorbed from reading Japanese prose. She is very good at learning. What do you want to say?" Jason: "I think she is studious and makes rapid progress." Me: "The girls in our picking group all have good aesthetics, which is a kind of literary talent. It is natural to make rapid progress if you are talented and studious." Jason: "Well, talent is important, and learning is also important." Me: "Isn't it said that most people's efforts are not enough to compete with talent? You still have to work hard first."
I really like Xiao Jing's recent article " We Arrive in Dali Together ", which is fresh, interesting and memorable, and indeed a great improvement. Cangtu's success can be said to be a victory of aesthetics, vitality and free will.
I slowly finished almost all the dishes. Last month, I went to Xiaoyi's house for a dinner with Vivi and Yoyo. The food that day was so delicious that we ate and drank for four hours. I didn't eat so much during the Chinese New Year that I had to stand up and walk around the house. When we left that day, we packed up the leftovers for each other. A perfect dinner, in addition to delicious food, also requires a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere and friendship between each other.
After dinner, I drank tea and Xiaojing drank wine. If I wasn't driving, I could drink some wine, but I don't think it tasted good. Rio was okay. I've tried the wine M bought and it went well with the big meal he cooked. Xiaojing poured himself some homemade plum wine and added ice cubes to it. The ice cubes looked really nice, Xiaojing said as he stared at the floating ice cubes.
I like that wine grape, it makes me feel at home. "When I was a kid, one of the few chores I did was to get soy sauce."
Xiao Jing asked: "The tailor started shooting videos, did you notice?" "No, I didn't watch it. How was it?" "He has his own perspective. The tailor bought a camera with a retro color." "Yes, he asked me about the camera." I went home and watched a video shot by the tailor. The sight was gentle, the music was just right, and it looked casual and orderly, like a prose poem in the mountains. Music can create an atmosphere and turn daily life into a movie.
Apart from chewing bones, Xiaoxi spent most of his time sleeping under the table. Occasionally, he would enthusiastically want to interact with me, and his wet nose would stick to my face. While drinking, I would push the door open to go to the bathroom, and take my camera with me to take pictures of the sky outside. Recording is like an instinct.
The clouds in the evening are particularly eye-catching, and the moon is slowly rising.
Xiao Jing took out the small stove she bought in Yangshuo, which can be used for heating and baking food. As she spoke, she started to bake oranges on it.
After roasting the orange, I roasted the glutinous rice cake. The glutinous rice cake slowly expanded, became plump, and became brown and tempting. I also want to add such a stove, suitable for night talks around the stove, and I also want to reproduce the roasted rice cake in "Midnight Diner Private Cuisine", spread butter soy sauce, and sprinkle some seven flavors. But winter is almost over, I'll talk about it next winter.
The roasted orange evaporates some of its moisture, making it sweeter. The skin of the glutinous rice cake is crispy. It is served on a plate made by Xiao Jing, and it looks good and tastes good.
We talked about a lot of love topics, other people's, our own, the past, the recent, and the future. If love must contain passion, then it is doomed to not last long. In a love that has lasted for several years and ended successfully, you are familiar with each other's love history and heart-touching moments, those moments like the falling of flowers in Nanshan, those emotions that have bloomed as hotly as short-lived plants in spring. You share the secrets of each other's lives, and build deep trust and friendship through time and shared experiences.
Family and friendship are like air and sunshine. Love is like wind and rain, but there are rainbows in the wind and rain. When the wind is calm and there are no more waves, does it transform into family and friendship? Whether we admit it or not, everyone longs for love and affection. Stay cute for the sake of love. Stay cute for the sake of being satisfied with yourself. Whether it is physical or mental, being satisfied with your own state is the most important thing. Only when you are satisfied with yourself can you have the energy to benefit others. Out of the interest in appreciating the complexity and subtlety of human nature, new love seems to be always worth looking forward to.
Following this topic, we talked about several directors, Eric Rohmer, Hong Sang-soo, Shohei Imamura... Xiaojing couldn't quite remember the names of the movies he had seen, but he was sensitive to the tones and certain atmospheres of the pictures.
The music for chatting is nice, it is in Xiaojing's favorites. I also want to collect some music I like and play it randomly when I eat and chat with friends. There is a guitar piece by Gontiti that I am familiar with, the BGM of "Still Walking". When I was studying in Aix, I watched this movie in the classroom on a snowy day. I remember that I also watched two Itami Juzo and "After" in Japanese class. Ten years have passed in a flash, and I have experienced and heard a lot of life and death. Living is no longer as natural as when I was young. Living is more and more a grace. So, when I was chatting with Hongkai, I said that maybe the later in life, the more you should focus on what you are really interested in, so that you will have fewer regrets.
I flipped through the books on the table and found a copy of Lin Bai's Women's Chats. Xiao Jing said, "This is a good book." "Have you finished reading it?" "Not yet." "Lend it to me after you finish. My mother will love this book. She likes to read about secular life." "Do you want to read this one? I don't," Xiao Jing handed me a copy of Thirteen Ways of Smelling Trees. A couple of her friends left Jingtian Village and Dali, and before leaving, they offered to lend her this book. The act of actively lending a book must be a subtle way for someone to say "I want to see you again." I have heard of this book, another work by the author of The Invisible Forest. I'll take it first, even though there are a lot of books at home that I have borrowed from everywhere but haven't read or finished. "Tomorrow, Lai Mingzhu's version of Murakami's novel will be mailed," Xiao Jing said with anticipation. I recommended a Peninsula FM program to her before, the theme of which was to compare the Lin and Lai translations of Haruki Murakami's works.
"Tomorrow I'm having dinner and drinks with another friend. We haven't seen each other for a long time. When we're happy, we'll dance together. Can you imagine?" "Of course."
"Your terrace is so nice, with such a wide view. It must be great to eat and chat under the night sky in summer." "It's a pity that summer is the busiest time. I don't have time." "Come twice before or after that."
When the moon reached its zenith, I left. The moonlight and the sky were both pure. Xiaojing took Xiaoxi downstairs, and I watched them disappear into the night on a path that seemed to lead to the fields.
