September 6, 2025
It's cloudy today. For Dali, which has no shortage of sunshine, cloudy days are more comfortable.
In the afternoon, I work at Mengwang Coffee, on the terrace on the second floor. I see a lush banyan tree at the door. I like the bar table by the window. I turn on the computer. If I feel tired of sitting, I can stand, or if I feel tired of standing, I can sit. What kind of height-adjustable table do I want? Modern people have made tables so complicated.
The cool breeze is blowing slowly, the leaves are swaying, and I want to open Yu Hua's "To Live" and continue reading. When I encounter a good book, I don't like to read it in one sitting. When I read a paragraph and close the book, my body and mind need to digest it, especially the impactful novel. I don't have the energy to read it in one sitting. It's like a strong dose of Chinese medicine that I can't drink in one gulp. This is different from reading Jin Yong's martial arts novels.
I had read Mo Yan's book before, but I didn't quite understand it. I couldn't understand the content of the story and the way it was described. I just thought it was written strangely.
However, the content and expression of Yu Hua's books are more familiar and have great impact.
I wonder if the characters in the book have prototypes. If such a life really existed, or a similar life, it would really make me sigh.
The protagonist Fugui is indeed hateful, but starting from the second half of the book, people can't hate him. He has indeed been punished with cruelty, not ordinary cruelty. From the second half of the book, I can't say that I feel sympathy for him, but just a feeling.
In fact, the initial gift that fate gave him was very good. A large part of the reason was that he played the card of fate badly, and the other part of the reason was that he encountered a rare and special turbulent era.
Born into a wealthy family, his wife is affectionate, hard-working, and will never leave her even when the family is in trouble. A son and a daughter, how perfect.
His son Youqing is sensible. He has perseverance and faith since childhood and is not afraid of hardship. He has natural warmth and affection. He also possesses the rare trait of tolerance. In the face of Fugui's sometimes unreasonable scoldings and beatings, he can temporarily tolerate and obey. He is only a 10-year-old child. To be honest, having such a child is truly a treasure. His parents are willing to put in no matter how hard and how much effort it takes to raise him.
My daughter, Fengxia, was born mute. I have seen mute female characters on TV and movies. I have always felt that mute women have a unique charm. After they cannot speak, their expressions through their eyes and actions will show depth, because speech is often more casual and lacks thoughtfulness, and eyes and actions are precipitated by some thinking, so they make people feel powerful. It is like writing a book or posting on a circle of friends. Which one is precipitated? Another feature of the book is that the expression is more complete and systematic. Unlike a piece of text, which often leads to misunderstanding due to incomplete expression, making the text meaningless, a book is different.
Fengxia is as sensible as Youqing. She has the thoughtfulness and well-behavedness of a daughter, and is also warm and affectionate. Sometimes she feels that although that era was turbulent, it was still very humane, and nature existed in the body. In today's era, many people lack these, like genetically modified food, tasteless and homogeneous, like fake life forms.
It's a pity that Jiazhen, Youqing and Fengxia's final fate was quite bitter. I will explain it later and have to work.