Original text of "Winter Sun-Childhood-Camel Team" preface to Old Things in the South of the City

Preface to "Old Things in the South of the City" "Winter Sun-Childhood-Camel Team" Original text:

The camel team came and stopped in front of my house.

They are arranged in a long row, standing silently, waiting for people's arrangements. The weather was dry and cold. The camel puller took off his felt hat, and steam was rising from his head, a stream of white smoke that blended into the dry and cold air.

Dad is negotiating the price with him. Each of the two-humped camels carried two sacks of coal. The camel puller said that they came from Mentougou, and they and the camels walked step by step.

Dad agreed with him on the price. People are unloading coal and camels are grazing. I stood in front of the camels and watched the way they chewed: such ugly faces, such long teeth, and such quiet attitude. When they chew, their upper and lower teeth grind back and forth, steam comes out of their big nostrils, and white foam sticks to their beards. I was stunned and my teeth started to move.

The teacher taught me that I should learn from a camel and be calm. See, it is never in a hurry. If you walk slowly, you will always get there. If you chew slowly, you will always be full. The leading horse always has a bell tied under its long neck. When it walks, it rings, clang, clang.

"Why do you need to tie a bell?" If I don't understand something, I have to ask.

Dad told me that camels were afraid of wolves and wore bells. When the wolves heard the sound of the bells, they would not dare to invade.

My childish mind was full of different ideas from adults. I said to my father: "No, Dad! Their soft soles walked on the soft desert without making any sound. Didn't you say that they walked for three days and three nights without taking a sip of water, just chewing the food poured out of their stomachs without making a sound? They must be the camel pullers who couldn't bear the long and lonely journey. I just put a bell on the camel to make the journey more interesting."

Dad thought for a while and said with a smile, "Maybe your idea is more beautiful."

Winter. It's almost over and spring is coming. The sun is so warm that it makes people want to take off their cotton-padded jackets. Isn't it? The camel also took off its old camel hair robe! Its fur fell off its body in large pieces and hung down under its belly. I really want to take a pair of scissors and cut them because they are so uneven. The same goes for the camel pullers. They also took off the large sheepskins they were wearing and put them on the small peaks of the camel's back. The sack is empty, and the bell rings more clearly with the relaxed pace.

Summer is here, and there are no more camels. I asked my mother again: "Where do they go in summer?"

"Who?"

"Camels Yeah!"

My mother couldn't answer, she said:

"Always ask, always ask, you kid!"

Summer is over, Autumn passed, winter came again, camel caravan came again, but childhood was gone forever. I will never do the stupid thing of imitating camel chewing under the winter sun. However, how much I miss the scenery and people living in the south of Beijing in my childhood! I said to myself, write them down. In this way, I wrote a book "Old Things in the South of the City".

I thought silently, writing slowly, and saw the camel team coming under the winter sun, and heard the slow and sweet sound of camel bells. My childhood came back to me.

"Old Things in the South of the City" is the masterpiece of Taiwanese female writer Lin Haiyin. This work tells a story about Yingzi's childhood through Yingzi's childhood memories, reflecting the author's nostalgia for childhood and the south of Beijing.

Main story:

In the late 1920s, a six-year-old girl named Lin Yingzi lived in a small alley in the south of Beijing. Xiuzhen, a "crazy" woman who often stands in alleys looking for her daughter, is a friend of Yingzi. Xiuzhen once secretly fell in love with Si Kang, a college student. Later, Si Kang returned to his hometown and never came back. The daughter Xiu Zhen gave birth to, Xiao Guizi, was sent to the foot of the city wall by her family and disappeared without a trace. Yingzi sympathized with her very much, so she agreed to help Xiuzhen find Xiao Guizi.

Yingzi accidentally discovered that Niuer's life experience was very similar to that of Xiao Guizi, and also found the green mark on the back of her neck, and hurriedly took her to find Xiuzhen. After Xiuzhen recognized her daughter after being separated for six years, she immediately took her to find her father. But in the end, the mother and daughter died together under the train while catching the train. Yingzi had a high fever, was in a coma for ten days, and almost lost her life. Later, Yingzi's family moved to Xinliangzi Hutong. Yingzi met a young man with thick lips in a nearby deserted garden.

In order to support his younger brother in school, he had to steal things. Yingzi thinks he is very kind, but can't tell whether he is a good person or a bad person. Soon, Yingzi picked up a small bronze Buddha on the grass and was discovered by the plainclothes police, who led the patrol officers to arrest the young man. This incident made Yingzi very sad because he lost a friend. Later, Aunt Lan came to Yingzi's house. Yingzi found that his father's attitude towards Aunt Lan was wrong. Yingzi thought of a way to introduce Aunt Lan to Uncle Dexian. Later, the two of them fell in love, and finally they left together in a carriage.

When Yingzi was nine years old, the husband of her nanny Song Ma came to the Lin family. Yingzi learned that Song's mother's son drowned two years ago, and her daughter was given by her husband to a childless couple riding a tricycle. She felt very sad and didn't understand why Song's mother left her child alone and came to serve her. other people. Later, Song's mother was also picked up by her husband on a donkey.

Finally, Yingzi's father also died of lung disease. Because of her father's departure, Yingzi realized her responsibilities and felt that she had grown up.

"Old Things in the South of the City" was created by Lin Haiyin based on his life between the ages of 7 and 13. During the period when Taiwan was occupied by Japanese imperialism, Lin Haiyin's family was unwilling to live under the iron heel of the Japanese invaders and moved their family to Beijing, where Xiao Yingzi grew up. Seeing the camel team approaching under the winter sun, and hearing the slow and melodious ringing of bells, childhood returned to the author's mind. Summer passed, autumn passed, winter came again, camel caravan came again, but childhood is gone and never returned. The author missed the scenery and characters in his childhood when he lived in the south of Beijing, so he wrote them down so that his actual childhood would pass and his spiritual childhood would remain forever. This was Lin Haiyin's original intention in writing this novel.