This is a story about waiting, in the end, it is also a bit bland, and no matter how the process of geometry, the commentary which, in the end, no one mentioned the end of the story.
The status of women in ancient times was extremely low, not to mention that few can have a name of their own, that is, the last name, but also to be married with the groom and change, and the story of the people, she is still unmarried, and we call her as ---- Ruohua.
A
April's Jiangnan water town, willow.
It was just dawn when Ruhua opened the door of the hut next to the riverbank and leaned against the door to continue weaving her brocade.
Over the years, she has been alone, except for this simple tea and wine store behind her, she relies on weaving and embroidery to maintain her own livelihood. She is very good at it, those brocade, fine stitching, embroidered flowers, embroidered bamboo vivid, to the bazaar to exchange, but also can always get a good price. At this time she threaded the needle, in the purple brocade weaving a large butterfly flowers, spring, a great pattern.
Already close to completion, the brocade weaver stopped and sighed quietly as she looked at the river rolling forward in front of her.
---that year, when she sent him to the capital, she embroidered for him on the handkerchief, is also this pattern?
This river flowed long, the years were relentless, and eighteen years had passed, hadn't they?
Two
That year, Ruhua was still at the age of cardamom, with the innocence of a child and the feelings of a young girl, and like many women at that age, there was someone in her heart that she wanted to commit to for life.
It was a young man who grew up with her childhood friend and had unusual aspirations. She grew up sitting on the edge of the case, supporting her head, quietly watching him read.
The teenager reading, very serious, but also very desperate, sitting in front of the case, often is a whole day, he occasionally will look up in the four books and five sutras, rushed to her a smile, she will return to him a smile of encouragement. And more often than not, he had no time for her, and she never minded. When he put pen to paper, she was researching ink for him, night came, she was holding the lamp for him, until he finally could not afford to fall asleep, she silently put on a cold coat for him, when he woke up the next day, warm millet porridge had been boiled and placed in front of the case.
The days of those times were quiet and happy, just a cloth dress, tea and rice, she was also very satisfied. With the sunlight beating down from the skylight of the cabin, she could make out the subtle fuzz on the teenager's face, and the slightly furrowed sword brows as he thought, and after so many years had passed, these were the only images left of the teenager in her memory.
That year, the teenager was going to the capital to take the examination. It coincided with the season of willow fluttering, a river of tobacco, full of poplars. She stood on the embankment, and the boy stood in the boat, carrying the bag she had organized for him all night.
He waved to her in the passenger boat, shouting at the top of his voice, which is unique to young people, bright voice:
"When I win the gold list, I will definitely carry a sedan chair, ten miles of red make-up, to marry you as a wife! You must wait for me ...... must wait for me!"
The young man's voice faded away, and the boat had gone with the river, becoming a point out of reach. She stood where she was, looking at it for a long time, as the wind on the embankment picked up, and the willow flakes fluttered and tickled against her face.
She reached up to wipe it away, only to realize that tears had already moistened her cheeks.
That year, she remembered the teenager's oath. It was evident that it was remembered so y at the time that it was enough to sustain the long wait that followed.
She turned the cabin into a simple tea and wine shop, and during the day, she moved a chair and leaned against the door, while doing women's work and looking out at the end of the river, and occasionally people from other countries passed by on horseback and sat down to buy bowls of tea, and then she asked them about news from afar. Every night, there is always a light like beans in the cabin, that is, she lit up the oil lamp, lying in front of the window, while listening to the geese on the river, while gazing into the distance, to see if there is a night return to the boat, carrying the light and the return of the heart of the traveler. She thought that with the lights lit at night, when he came back on the boat and saw the faint light, he would not forget where his home was in the first place.
Only, she and he are still too young to know that the things in this world, often will not be as simple as envisioned. Youth and the river as in the flow away, she waited, is eighteen years.
Threea
A whispered inquiry called back Ruohua's thoughts.
"Miss, could you sell me a bowl of wine to drink?"
She was startled, and hurriedly turned back into the house, and poured a bowl of wine out, the traveler collected his reins, and bent down on his horse, took the wine, and came up to drink it.
It was then that she took the time to raise her head and survey the man who had bought the wine.
From his green shirt, he should be a government official, although not a nobleman, but also must be a scholar, who has passed the examination. However, this man's face is quite a bit of frost, between the eyebrows of the wrinkles are especially deep, I think, these years of career is not smooth.
"Good sweet wine, but the girl's own brew?" The man on the horse took a sip and marveled.
She lowered her eyebrows and nodded slightly.
The man brought the bowl to his mouth again and drank. When he had finished, he handed the tea bowl back to her and drew the embroidered handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his mouth.
The handkerchief attracted her attention, the material used was the finest silk, embroidered with double happiness mandarin ducks out of the Green Ting, is a great good intention, symbolizing happiness and success.
"Your Excellency, where are you rushing to?" Ruhua pursed her lips and asked.
"I was relegated by the court, and I came in to take a look at my hometown as I was passing through." The man smiled bitterly, while answering, paid for the wine, and reached back to point, "Behind me accompanying, is my family."
The woman held her bowl of wine and looked in the direction of her finger, and sure enough, there was a carriage following her.
The man pulled the reins tightly, and then wanted to go, and at the end of the leaned down and asked softly, "Miss, but waiting for someone?"
Ruhua lowered her eyes and stopped talking.
The man laughed softly, "The flowers can be folded straight must be folded, do not live up to the good years."
After saying goodbye, the man on horseback led the carriage along the embankment.
Four
At this point, the man who told the story tapped the listening log and slowly rose, signaling that the story was over.
The people listening to the book on the stage slowly dispersed, and some people reluctantly asked: what about the follow-up? There is no more? What happened to the woman?
The storyteller folded the folding fan in his hand and said with a slight smile, "This story originally had no ending."
"Why?" There were still people who did not understand.
The man shook his head, not knowing how to explain, a more qualified storyteller beside him took a drag on his water cigarette and slowly said:
"This story, will not have an ending. Reunited or not, golden list or not, living on the street or not, that woman will only wait in the story, while that young man, but has long since not been the young man in the story."
The person who asked the question became even more confused and shook his head and turned away.
The party storyteller, however, suddenly looked like he had been struck by five thunderbolts, and got off the stage and flew away.
Five
That story, in fact, is not yet finished.
Six
When the man on horseback was far away, Ruhua turned back and closed the tea and wine shop.
She swayed a few times, trying to return the wine bowl to the stove, yet only a few steps later, the bowl fell from her hands and shattered eloquently into several pieces.
Tears slid down the corners of the woman's eyes, and the equanimity she had built up over the years was shattered along with the bowl.
Originally, he has already taken the examination, become an official, already have a family?
Originally, he has forgotten the original oath, even the handkerchief has been replaced by someone else weaving pattern, no longer the year of the butterfly love flower.
So, he has not had a good life all these years.
"When I win the gold medal, I will marry you in a sedan chair, with ten miles of red makeup!"
In fact, after eighteen years of time, she still recognized him at first sight. It's just that she knew that the young man she was waiting for had already disappeared into the years, never to return.
That night, for the first time in eighteen years, there were no lights on in the cabin.
The next day, Ruhua still opened the door early out, do in the door to finish weaving yesterday's brocade.
Then she got up and stood on the embankment, looking down at the river at her feet, and the willow branches planted in the past years had grown into big trees, with thousands of threads, as if recording all the people and events that happened here.
The wind sprang up, the river water wrinkled, her skirt fluttered up, as if at any time will go with the wind ......
Seven
The storyteller ran all the way wildly.
Finally returning to the long embankment, he stumbled along it, the willows along the shore tearing into a blur in his vision.
This used to be the place he knew best, yet it had been many, many years since he had set foot in this place, and he dared not approach this long embankment, for he knew that there was a woman here who watched over her.
He was the boy, but not the boy in the story.
When he was young, it was from here that he set off in a boat to Kyoto, aiming for the Golden List.
However, in Kyoto, he took the imperial examinations several times in a row, but in the end, he was not on the list, until the years grew thicker, and the sideburns of the young man began to climb the frost, and he still did not go to high school as he had promised.
Later, he quietly returned to his hometown, he heard that the original home into a tea and wine shop, the night is often lit, he knew, she is still waiting.
But he didn't dare to go to see her. He couldn't get a job in the capital, so how could he face the promise he had made?
He has a lot of talent, but there is no place to show it, so he has to make a living as a storyteller in a restaurant in the town. He made the past into this story and told it day after day, but the woman in the story, who was like a flower, he never managed to make up an ending for her.
Because he didn't know what kind of ending would be called an ending in today's world.
The words of the old storyteller in the party were like a blow to the head---the woman in the story, waiting for is always the young man in the story, and outside of the story, the woman who waited for him, will not wait forever.
Eight
It was sunset when the familiar cabin finally came into view.
The air smelled of wanting rain, willow branches swayed in the darkness of dusk, the door to the house was open, and the man stepped inside with one foot, the house filled with dust.
A piece of brocade hung on the wall, embroidered with beautiful butterflies fluttering around a flower - just as they had promised each other back then.
All was as it had been that year when he had not left, except that the woman who had waited was nowhere to be found.
Is it too late?
Is it ...... late after all?
Nine
The man came to the river.
The river slowly came up, already knee-high, and his feet, submerged in the water, were cold and heavy. However, that river could remind him of many things from eighteen years ago, and the man suddenly burst into tears.
A veiled woman appeared vaguely in front of him, reaching out to him, smiling peacefully.
"You ...... have been waiting for me for a long time, haven't you? Look ...... I'm back, aren't I?"
The Extra Episode
The Golden Palace.
"Princess like you, is your blessing, you again do not know good and bad, I will order people to go to the woman beheaded!"
"Your Majesty, I will not marry."
"You! What are you going to do!?"
This year's Golden Scholar, in order to rebel against the emperor's forced marriage, self-extermination in the Golden Palace, full of contempt.
Pity this determined young man, soon forgotten by the emperor and the princess, even the annals of history will not leave his name. However, eighteen years later, in the hometown of the scholar, there were people who saw him again.
They saw him riding on horseback with a carriage, walking along the embankment and on and on, and after passing that one tea and wine shop, he suddenly disappeared again at a certain place.
"You don't have to wait for me anymore, although I can't hold hands with you as promised, but you know what? I have actually always been in ......"