Those years, those cigarettes smoked

The taste of Qingcheng cigarettes is relatively spicy. There is no filter. It is short and smoked hard. It will be finished in three or five puffs. Sometimes the smoke is too strong, the tongue is numb and spicy, and the butt is burned. Fingers hurt. However, this short and quick way is suitable for doing it in the aqua toilets of Yicheng where people are smoked to death.

We kids sometimes choose Qingcheng cigarettes because they are cheap, only cost 50 cents, come in a flat box, and are not very big in our pockets.

In Yicheng more than twenty years ago, Qingcheng cigarettes were mainly circulated among older people. It has a simple beauty unique to all product packaging of that era, orange in color, and square. After smoking, you can still fold the triangle, but its paper is relatively brittle, and the triangle made of its cigarette paper will fall apart after just a few uses.

Whenever I mention Qingcheng Yan, this picture always appears in my mind:

An elderly man, sitting cross-legged on the earthen kang, with those years in front of him Kang table unique to rural Yicheng. This kang table is either painted vermilion or pine yellow. An oil lamp or a stick of white wax is usually placed on the table. These are not for lighting, but for the convenience of smoking. Most people draw sheep sticks by light of lamps or candles.

The sheep stick is made of lamb leg bones and is polished clean, with holes drilled at the bottom to hold a pipe. The pipe is made from pistol bullet shells. At the top is a thin brass cigarette holder. Cut tobacco is usually carried in a small homemade leather bag. These gadgets are generally not produced in Yicheng, but come from sacred trees that are more than a hundred miles away from Yicheng. There is a street in Shenmu County called Nanguan, which is the only remaining gate among the four gates of the old city. Inside this city gate is a main street, where gold, silver, copper and iron, cotton, linen and silk, food and clothing, and peddlers and pawns are all sold. Five elements and eight works, three religions and nine streams, paper fire shop, noodle shop, hair and face shaving, longevity wood shop, kitchen utensils, antiques, grass grows on the old house, but the door opening is brick carvings from a hundred years ago. Several obituaries are often posted in front of the city gate, announcing the demise of one old sacred tree after another. Rental advertisements are often posted on the telephone poles in front of the gate. On the rice-character grid paper used for practicing calligraphy, a large calligraphy pen on the front of the altar reads "RENT". It took me ten years or eight years to write the word "", and there was a mobile phone number attached next to it, which exuded the atmosphere of an old city person seeking rent.

The shredded tobacco used in sheep sticks is sold on Nanguan Street.

The cut tobacco is always square, cut squarely, and the ten squares make up a package. The packaging paper is made of thick and tough oil paper. The shredded tobacco inside is shimmering dark yellow. After buying it, crush it, spread it out, and squirt it several times with water in your mouth to make it taste better. At that time, my grandfather did this and my father did the same.

At that time, when no one was around, I would secretly imitate my grandfather and father and smoke a goat stick twice. Rushing, strong, this is the first feeling, but the taste is mellower than Qingcheng smoke.

The sheep stick was probably brought over by the Shenmu people who immigrated to Yicheng in large numbers. A few years ago, when the courtyard of Yicheng Iron Industry Society was not demolished, when I walked into the courtyard, it was a small sacred tree, and the masters all spoke of sacred trees. Later, the Iron Industry Society was demolished, and these masters, old and young, were scattered all over the place, like a river that had its course changed, leaving only a dry river bed, which was depressing.

The old man sitting cross-legged on the kang mentioned above is a person I am familiar with. He had a son who drove a tractor to collect sand. Too much sand was collected, and the sand cliff became unstable. Suddenly, the sand poured down and buried his son alive. If you plan hard and slowly, people will not be able to do it. The old man vomited a mouthful of black blood and almost died. Qiang Qiang'er struggled to survive. He didn't go to the ground every day. He sat cross-legged on the kang and smoked by a kerosene lamp. He no longer used a sheep stick, which was made by his own hands when his son was still alive. I smoked Qingcheng cigarettes, saying that this cigarette is strong and strong, and I feel very strong after taking one sip.

I-brand and Yan-brand are two cheap cigars, and all the elderly masters in the Iron Industry Society compound smoke these two types of cigars. The smell of I-brands is strong and smelly. If you wear I-brands with a pair of feet wearing Jiefang brand yellow rubber shoes, it will be a standard for working hard. There is no need to ask about their age or appearance, their faces are blurred, only the green smoke coming out of the I-shaped sign in the corner of their mouth has been curling up in the depths of time.

The wild goose brand is thinner than the I-shaped brand, and it has a slight sweetness when smoked. If you smoke it too much, it will be like eating too much saccharin, which will make your mouth and throat sore. When I was studying at my own expense in Hohhot, there was a classmate who was very addicted to cigarettes. Once he became addicted, if there was no cigarette in front of him, he would rummage through boxes and cabinets like crazy to find something. If he couldn't find it, he would ask others for it, or if he didn't, he would pick up cigarette butts all over the floor. Once, I was cleaning the dormitory and swept away all the scattered cigarette butts under the bed. As a result, he became addicted to smoking and couldn't find a cigarette butt on the floor, not to mention cigarette butts, not even tobacco. I rushed outside to look for him, followed by me who was watching the fun. Finally, I finally found a cigarette butt in the grass outside the dormitory door. It was a Yan brand cigarette butt. I picked it up and lit it as if I had found a treasure. I took a few deep puffs and asked me if I wanted to smoke.

This classmate was born in a rural area and his conditions were not very good. His sister went out to work very early, so that he could go to a self-funded school. Before graduation, there was a job fair. This classmate went to attend. He majored in broadcasting. There happened to be an important person from the radio station at the job fair. I temporarily borrowed a shirt from someone in my dormitory. It was purple, dark, and had a similar color to his face, so I wore it and went out excitedly. When I came back in the evening, I was already drunk as soon as I entered the dormitory. I memorized Li Bai's "Jian Jin Jiu" no less than 20 times. After memorizing it, I sang "Meeting is a Song" again and again, and I couldn't stop singing. Tears burst into tears. I asked him the whole story the next day and found out that at the job fair, he was asked to recite a passage, saying, "You are a very good young man. You are self-taught, right? Where are you working? Go back and work harder."

This classmate was so provoked that he swore not to major in broadcasting, and instead studied newspaper editing. Later, he was admitted to a provincial morning newspaper, and ten years later, he was admitted to a national news agency. Occasionally when we meet, he has stopped drinking but still smokes cigarettes. He hands me a cigarette, Zhonghua. I lit it, smoked it, and was relatively speechless. It was a good smoke, but it didn't have the same flavor as before.

The cigarettes from Butterfly Spring were also good. They cost three yuan a box back then, the packaging was plain, and the smoke tasted mellow. The oldest student in the dormitory loves to smoke. When I came to school to study at my own expense, I had already been divorced once. I didn’t go to class during school hours, I covered my head and fell asleep while I read novels. The dormitory teacher came to check, and when he lifted the curtain of his bed, he was so smelly by his feet that he took five steps back, stumbled out, and did not dare to open his mouth to speak. When I wake up, I lay down first and smoke a butterfly fountain, then I get up, use my razor with cold water in the cold water pool outside the door, shave like cutting grass, and then come back and talk about the mountains. He once said that Zang Tianshuo came to Hohhot for a concert. He went to see it. After watching it, Zang Tianshuo was sitting by the door signing autographs for fans. He walked over and looked at Zang Tianshuo coldly. Zang Tianshuo asked him if he wanted to sign autographs. He Say no. Zang Tianshuo asked him why you were standing here, and he said he was happy. Zang Tianshuo was so choked that he was speechless for a long time.

This classmate always talked about this mountain section with everyone, both when he was sober and when he was drunk. When he wasn't talking about this, he started making dinosaur eggs. He picked up a round stone the size of a goose egg from somewhere and plastered it with cement every day. He said it was fake and could be sold at a high price. After making the dinosaur eggs, he came up with the idea of ??selling mutton skewers at Xinhua Plaza. As a result, one night, the beer and the meat skewers were all eaten by these people.

Holding a butterfly fountain, he stood against the dark background of Xinhua Plaza, smiling sideways, as if he had made a lot of money from his kebabs.

More than ten years later, he came to Yicheng and we had dinner. At that time, Butterfly Spring had been discontinued and was becoming popular in Lanzhou. While eating, he started talking about Zang Tianshuo's refusal when he wanted to give him an autograph. At that time, Zang Tianshuo had already gone in, and he had already found a wife and given birth to a child. He worked as a small photojournalist in an evening newspaper and kept silent about the dinosaur eggs and Xinhua News Agency. The kebabs in the square were eaten clean by a group of classmates. They just lingered endlessly, hanging the butterfly fountains that they smoked one after another on their stubble-covered lips.

We also have a high school classmate who is a girl. When she was studying in Hohhot, she claimed that she didn’t smoke anything except Hilton. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because Hilton is cooler and very few people smoke it. In their school, she is like a big sister.

A group of us ate and drank together, drinking from noon to afternoon, and then from afternoon to evening. We were all so drunk that our faces were red and our faces were red, and we were like the cover of the "Young and Dangerous" series. In the meantime, I smoked the Hilton with dark gold packaging.

……

I haven’t seen this classmate much since I went to work. I heard that she no longer smokes Hilton, but occasionally smokes two moles, and then she quit smoking completely.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten years have passed. We occasionally bump into each other on the streets of Yicheng, just nodding and smiling. Sometimes, when we see each other from a distance, we deliberately avoid each other, so as to avoid having nothing to say when we meet. of embarrassment.

Some wines must be drunk when young.

Some cigarettes must be smoked at a young age.

And some people... don't have to see each other again after many years.

I have always had a bad impression of Daqingshan. I even think it’s not as good as Qingcheng. However, I heard that there is a well-known writer in Ordos named Ao Desil, who has been smoking Daqingshan for many years, saying that he is used to this taste.

At that time, writers were an extremely noble being in my mind. Later, I gradually met some writers. I lost my curiosity and my admiration for the writer was far less than my admiration for his works. In fact, it is normal. People believe in the Dragon King because he can rain, and rain is his miracle. People think a writer is magical because they think he can fabricate strings of words out of thin air and create miracles one after another on paper, that's all.

It is because of a writer that I have an impression of Daqingshan. Otherwise, I probably would not remember this local cigarette that does not taste very good.

After five consecutive championships, I didn’t smoke much. When I was ten years old, I saw a box on the table at home. I secretly took one and hid in a corner to smoke. After smoking, I felt very dizzy and couldn’t walk. The child shook. This smoke was named to commemorate the winning streak of the Chinese women's volleyball team. It was very powerful and was indeed as powerful as the women's volleyball team's offense.

Hadmen is soft, a bit like the mellowness of the old city.

Marlboro rushes straight, as if it were called by its first name in the English-speaking world.

If you smoke too much osmanthus, you will get tired. Just like the fragrance of the osmanthus trees on the streets of Shanghai, you will get tired if you smell it too much.

Jade is good, refreshing and refreshing, but it disappeared after a short period of time.

Baiyun was very good when he first came out, feeling a bit top-notch, but then he gradually lost his ability, like a fatuous and old king who finally abdicated.

To smoke Jianpai, you have to squat in a dry toilet that was not popular in Yicheng in the early years. It is quiet and leisurely.

Having said so much about the taste of cigarettes, the thing I miss the most is the sheep stick. A kind elder who will be remembered by future generations for a long time.