On National Day, in Conghua, a small southern town, the autumn air was crisp and the sky was blue. On impulse, I took my camera and drove to the bank of Liuxi River at the entrance of Conghua Street. On both sides of the Liuxi River, I sometimes stopped to admire it, and sometimes drove to watch. I heard the sound of the flowing stream and saw the light from the city.
Along Hebei Road, I came to the foot of the Jiekou Bridge. In the past, at the foot of this bridge, there was the "Hedong Passenger Transport Station", which was bustling with people coming and going. Many years ago, this was the place where I first boarded a passenger bus, and that day was also the first time I took a bus to Guangzhou, the provincial capital. It was a day when I was still in elementary school. Nowadays, it has been transformed and renovated into Jinghaowan Hotel. To the right of the hotel is the busy Jiekou Bridge, and behind it is the rippling Liuxi River. Its strategic location makes it popular among advertisers. A real estate developer once hung a huge billboard on the roof of the hotel, writing in a pun - "Life is different with a 'river'." Indeed, wherever there is a river, life is different. Therefore, both sides of the middle and lower reaches of Liuxi River have basically been developed into real estate properties.
The rapid development of real estate along the Liuxi River is unexpected. When I was in junior high school, Hedong and Hexi were full of unfinished buildings and abandoned land. Even the Agile Riverside Garden, which is loved by the whole city today, was just a piece of abandoned farmland and yellow mud land with a price tag of only a few million at that time. In the past decade or so, Conghua has been changing rapidly. The boom in real estate has driven the development of the whole city, but it has made Liuxihe, which has been passed down for thousands of years, feel inexplicably sad.
Sometimes, I feel sad for Liuxihe. But when I saw, next to the old passenger terminal in Hedong, people were walking in the morning sun on the cobblestone paths in the green park; next to the Riverside Park in Hexi, people were playing Tai Chi and dancing Kung Fu fans in the spacious waterfront cultural square. My mood suddenly brightened, and I realized that instead of the natural greenway riverbank, we still have the artificially built ten-mile ocean field; bidding farewell to the original pastoral scenery, we have also carved out a golden waterfront that benefits the whole people. No matter how crazy the real estate grows or how old it is, we can still walk along the familiar Liuxi River, stay away from the hustle and bustle of the city, visit the waterfront, listen to the sound of water, and sing loudly.
American poet Robert Bly once said, "It is good to be poor but to hear the wind." I have never quite understood this. But when I came to the bank of Liuxi River and heard the sound of water, I suddenly remembered this sentence. Only then did I realize that the "sound of wind" mentioned by the poet and the "sound of water" I heard have similar meanings. In the "concrete forest" of reinforced concrete in the bustling city, how many people can often hear the sound of gurgling water? However, standing on both sides of the Liuxi River barrage dam at the Third Waterworks in Congcheng, this sound of water is so unusual and shocking. At the foot of Fengyun Ridge and in front of the barrage, listening to the sound of the joyful stream and looking back at the young and beautiful Congcheng, I couldn't help but feel relaxed and happy, and I also wanted to hum a song.
But before I could open my voice, suddenly, from nowhere, the joy and melodiousness of the Taiwanese folk song "High Mountains and Blues" came - "High mountains are green, streams are blue, and the girls of Alishan are beautiful." Like water, the young men in Alishan are as strong as mountains..." I followed the sound and looked far away, only to realize that in Hedao Park on the other side, a group of old people were playing familiar music and performing a collective chorus. They finished singing the song "High Mountains and Green Mountains" and then sang "Wandering, wandering, rolling thousands of miles, the river never stops. After all the treasures are exhausted, all the things in the world are mixed into one rolling tide." Oh, it's the classic Cantonese version of "Shanghai" Beach", I listened to their singing attentively, and watched the winding flow of the stream. I seemed to hear the vicissitudes of history and the sadness of the times.
I guess among these singers, there must be folks who were born and raised by the Liuxi River since childhood, retired science, education, cultural and health workers, etc., and even some from Congliangkou, Lutian or Aotou. Farmer uncles, uncles and aunts from remote villages and towns moved to Jiekou urban area. Over the years, each of them had their own destiny. Some married to Conghua because of love, some settled in Conghua because of work, or moved to Conghua with their children.
They may be old friends and classmates, old colleagues, old comrades-in-arms, old neighbors, or they may just be new singing friends who meet by chance and have never met before. But when you meet a close friend in the mountains and rivers, there is no need to have known each other before. Today they gather at the bank of the Liuxi River and sing together, which is a destiny.
There is no need to be sad in Liuxihe, because there are always generations of destined people who are willing to soothe its sadness with singing. In addition to them singing by the river, there are also citizens who play ball, fish, and bask in the sun by the river, as well as tourists and friends who ride bicycles and stroll along the river embankment greenway, as well as intimate lovers who hang out and make love to each other by the river. . Whether you are a native of Conghua, a person who comes to Conghua for study or work, or a person who comes to Conghua for tourism, you are all destined to Liuxihe, right?
There is a saying:
The flowing stream is as affectionate as an old friend, and the joys and sorrows of the morning and evening are close to each other.
The clear water of the river scares the egrets, and in autumn, the blue clouds come from the city.