My hometown is in the hinterland of the Central Plains, at the foot of the Taihang Mountains, a small city, the diet is based on noodles, dinner is usually noodles with soup.
Soup is different from porridge, more water and less quality. In a big bowl of soup, there are only a few grains of rice. When I was in Nanjing, I realized that I was drinking less water than others because I was used to drinking soup instead of water since I was a child.
Tonight we eat rolls with soup, soft, thin white flour round cake, spread in the bottom of the flat plate, in the cake evenly sprinkled with a few locks of vegetables, can be green vegetables, shredded potatoes, pickled vegetables, vinegar bean sprouts, dipping sauce marinated pork, and so on, and then rolled up the cake, the bottom of the upper fold. Eat to the mouth of a variety of dishes and rolls of delicious strong mix together, easy to digest and full of sense of satiety, it is really a unique flavor.
Since it's hard to get such authentic home cooking, I ate a lot of it for dinner, and a walk afterward was the first thing I did.
Although it was already the height of summer, the night was still a bit cool because of the light rain over the past few days, and the evening breeze was soothing to the face and body.
My father and I met up with three or five of his old friends in front of the house, and then headed out along the hutongs.
A large empty space at the mouth of the hutong, which was previously used as a distribution center for the family's agricultural trade, is now deserted. The empty space has grown a lot of weeds, some of the vitality has been more than one person high, that a few upright poplar tree is not too much change, the empty space on the side of a row of storefront houses in disrepair, has been unable to see when the lively scene. This piece of vacant land because of the epidemic of the whole was blue iron plate seal, only a small door to let people through, closed space more show down.
From the small door, outside is a completely different scene, a straight road like a long dragon through, the opposite side of the road is a few years of new construction of open-air civic square.
The square is now the most crowded and bustling time of the day, presenting a scene of vibrant nightlife in a small town.
The square is a rectangle, the center is a few round pieces of open space and curved corridors, the west side is a small soccer field, the east side is a basketball court, the square is carefully decorated with a variety of greenery, so that the whole square is full of greenery. Surrounding this rectangle around the plastic runway and bar, table tennis, integrated fitness equipment and other sports equipment.
Half past eight, the sky is completely dark, the square lights shine, there are square dancers, basketball players, soccer players, runners, walkers, but also three or five friends sitting together and chatting. On the side of the square, there are some sharp business minded people set up a lot of stalls, there are children's air-cushion castles, there are cold drinks stalls, and the list goes on and on.
Before the square was not built, the people around this, most of the night men get together to drink, women have nothing to do. After the square was built, more people went out of their homes to exercise, and a square could change the lives of many of China's grassroots people. My father and his old friend are members of the neighborhood cool walking team. When I arrived at the square, my father didn't go with my old friend to participate in the activities of the cool walking team, but walked with me alone.
My father has a goal of walking 10,000 steps a day, and I'm glad he's sticking to this healthy habit. According to my father's own words: one is for fitness, and the other is also the external incentive: he only needs to insist on walking more than 10,000 steps per month for more than 15 days, and the unit will send some prizes, so it seems that the employee's health unit also pays attention to it.
I walked and talked with my father, and walked four times counterclockwise along the square's plastic runway. My father took out his cell phone and looked at the number of steps, only six thousand steps today, my father then suggested that we go to the embankment together.
We came out from the east end of the square, in turn, passed through the gate court where many elderly people are active, the brightly lit indoor badminton court, the quiet and deep small park, and came to the east of the intersection. At the northeast corner of the intersection is the new farm distribution center, and all the way to the east is the trail to the riverbank, which we crossed to enter the trail.
On one side of the trail was a row of typical northern two- and three-story homes, commonly referred to as yards in the north. Many people were cooling off in the doorways, some bare-chested, some wearing tank tops, and many small children were playing ball under simple basketball hoops mounted on the walls of the houses. On the other side of the path was a large, dark, farmland planted with corn and vegetables.
We walked quickly forward, past this row of houses, street lights are no longer, the path is completely in the dark, only like a veil of moonlight on the path, about two hundred meters in front of the undulating like a city wall is the river bank.
There are no lights on the embankment, and occasionally there are a few beams of light like scissors tearing through the darkness, cutting through the smooth, thick black silk cloth of the night.
Walking up the embankment is like being in a winding train traveling into the darkness. The riverbank is also a bit cooler, the breeze with the moisture of the river mixed with the fragrance of grass and trees, so that my whole heart calm down.
Standing on the embankment, raise your eyes and look down, the embankment from the river is still about a hundred meters away, next to the embankment is a dense forest of aspen trees, the middle of the dense forest or through a few wisps of light, that is the summer night to catch the monkey flashlight issued by the light of the people. Catching monkeys is generally in the summer night night, when the monkeys move slowly, flashlight to, a catch a accurate.
Through the aspen forest in the trail, is extended to the river on both sides of the fertile grass, grass or occasionally emit firefly-like light, that is the night fishing people to lure the fish on the hook lights. The river is not wide, about ten meters, the water quality is fresh and clean, the sound of water gurgling like a dream.
The other side of the embankment is not far from a two-way two-lane wide road, the road on both sides of the natural growth of a piece of poplar forest, the warm yellow light of the street lamps through the poplar forest into the eyes, like a summer night when I was a child, my grandmother shook the fan humming lullaby.
My father and I walked along the embankment, and after a short while there was a path down the embankment, connected to the road, we returned to the activity center along the road to the square. The people who danced at this time have been dispersed, there are still some people walking in the square, my father and look at the number of steps, today's goal has been achieved, we did not stop walking slowly through the dark abandoned vegetable farms home.
The old home is not as beautiful as the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, but the night walks in Nanjing have never given me such a calm, solid feeling.
Ten o'clock has passed, the night is very thick, far away from the wife working in Nanjing, can not enjoy my life at this time idle, and now also has gone to sleep.