To my dear Mr. Meng

I have known Mr. Meng since the day I was born, but we are not related by blood.

According to the law of development of literary and artistic works, if two people want to become a match made in heaven, there must be some fetters. It is best to tie a red thread as thick and hard as a crane arm. Holding a broken wooden ladle, with a standard affectionate smirk showing eight teeth, he shouted the slogan "Three thousand weak waters, I only take one ladle to drink".

Thanks to Xiao Wang, a senior reader of online love novels, for reminding that the above line is probably outdated, and now it seems to say "You are me, the first light in the dark world, the last fire in the winter night, the hot heart." Cinnabar nevus".

Sure enough, the parallel sentences are magnificent.

Xiao Wang is 26 this year and has only been in love once. It is said that he fell in love with a female colleague during his internship in a company just after graduating from university.The road to pursuit is long and difficult, and it is so easy for the dream to come true. You and I have worked together for more than a year, but failed to achieve a positive result. Halfway through, a "Lexus" snatched it.

"Lexus" is Xiao Wang's nickname for that rival in love. It is said that after his ex-girlfriend flew him, that man drove a shiny Lexus to the company every day to pick up Xiao Wang's ex-girlfriend from get off work.Xiao Wang couldn't bear the idleness, and resigned in a hurry without waiting for promotion.

I said that young people will suffer if they are too impulsive.

"Brother Jun, it's hard to move without money." Xiao Wang sighed, "Your girlfriend doesn't urge you to buy a house? What if you get married?"

I said inscrutablely: "A gentleman is always poor."

Xiao Wang has always regarded my words as the standard when it comes to emotional issues. After listening to it, he remained silent for a long time, drank the Coke in his hand, and sighed deeply, expressing that his wife is like this, and his husband can't ask for more.

Xiao Wang looks exquisite in all aspects, but he still has a bit of sentimentality in his heart, which can be seen from his love novels about being addicted to spring flowers and autumn moons.It was the same with Liang Xinru in the past. I couldn't help but suspect that there might be some unknown requirements hidden in the recruitment conditions of the old Secretary Zhou.

In the past, when Miss Liang accidentally learned that my "girlfriend" and I were childhood sweethearts, she was overwhelmed with envy. According to incomplete statistics, she said the phrase "I'm so envious of your girlfriend" more than 20 times.This little girl is also having a difficult time in love. She has a boyfriend who is seven or eight years older than her. One day my heart was broken into scum, and the next day I can continue to make progress.

Probably Mr. Meng and I satisfied her utopian fantasies of love. After pestering me to talk about our love history, we immediately awarded a golden "ideal boyfriend" top hat.

I am truly ashamed.

Mr. Meng and I were probably related because we were born in the same maternity and children's hospital.

According to my mother, because she was premature when she gave birth to me and had no milk, I was so hungry that I cried. The next bed happened to be Mr. Meng’s family, and his mother took me there to nurse me without saying a word.

Regarding the point of eating mother-in-law's milk, although it sounds a little abnormal, it is definitely an extraordinary experience.

Mr. Meng is two days older than me. I just finished breastfeeding when he just woke up from sleep.However, after I sucked the milk, Mr. Meng had no more milk to eat, and his father could only make do with a small pot of milk powder, which made my parents apologize very much.

This incident was an insignificant beginning, and for many years afterwards, I caused countless troubles to Mr. Meng.As the saying goes, you can see the clues at that time, in fact, you can see the clues at that time, but it is a pity that at that time, he and I could only kick our legs on our stomachs, and we couldn't even open our eyes. Naturally, we couldn't pursue the so-called fatalism.

I have been a troublemaker since I was a child, but Mr. Meng has never shown any dislike for all these years, and I am really grateful to him.Perhaps because the older generation of his family followed the party revolution to conquer the world, and the good gene of humiliation and humiliation circulated in his blood, so in the decades of getting along with me, he was mostly patient in everything, and he also did everything to me, the white bandit who forced him to survive. Accommodate and tolerate.

I shamelessly told Mr. Meng these hypocritical words. After listening to him, he smiled and patted my dog's head, but didn't say anything.

I thought it was the default at the time, but in retrospect, that probably wasn't the case.

Mr. Meng's grandfather and father were both cadres who were transferred from the army, and he was passed down through three generations, but he had never been a soldier, so the old Meng family's military tradition was completely broken by him.However, when Mr. Meng was a child, he still showed some signs of joining the army. It dates back to when we were still neighbors in the compound.

At that time, we were only two or three years old. One day, Mr. Tianmeng had guests at his house, and our parents all went to join in the fun. The little kid from the same courtyard ran out to make trouble, and another one was sent to knock on the door of Meng's house.After a while, Mr. Meng was carried out by a man in military uniform, still clutching the epaulets he had picked out.When he walked in front of us, Mr. Meng lost his grip, and the epaulettes fell to the ground with a "click".The man picked it up, and Mr. Meng grabbed it back. The man put his arms around him and joked:

"I like epaulettes so much, do I want to be a soldier in the future? Captain Xiao Meng."

The captain turned his head and told the adults about it, and everyone laughed together.Later we grew up, but the grown-ups still liked to make fun of it from time to time, which I barely remember until now. As for other details, I have no way to talk about it.

When he was young, the children in the yard called him "Captain Meng", but as he got older and thin-skinned, he gradually stopped calling him that.

Later in school, Mr. Meng was often called by the teacher to be a presenter because of his good image. On such occasions, he likes to play tricks. Middle school students who are not too old can't even wear suits, but they still have to be serious. Ms. Ma'am", she really laughed out loud.I never wanted to go, I only wanted to help backstage. Occasionally I caught him coming backstage, and I pretended to call him "Mr. Meng" just like the hostess.

He didn't have time to catch me and beat me up, so he gave me a hard look across the laughing crowd.At that time, I can especially understand the vulgar taste of ruffians and bullies teasing women from good families.

I have persevered in this ridicule to this day, and Mr. Meng has been able to deal with it calmly, and even turned against me one day.

"Have you read Ba Jin's book?" He asked me.

I was puzzled: "What misunderstanding do you have about me, a literature student?"

He rubbed his chin, thoughtfully: "It is said that Xiao Shan is called Ba Jin 'Mr. Li'. I didn't know it before, so you hinted it on purpose."

"Hey." I touched his face casually, "I found that after you studied finance, your skin became thicker every year."

He tilted his head and kissed my knuckles: "Both each other."

It's amazing to say that sometimes there is more than one man surnamed Meng in a crowded place, and he can accurately distinguish whether I am calling him or not.I asked him how he knew which Mr. Meng I was calling, but he kept silent and put on an inscrutable smile.

I was in a hurry once, and held his face and refused to talk about him. If he insisted on telling me that he was ugly, he would kiss me by the way, saying that it was because of his "heart-to-heart".

This is obviously a clever deception, but I have no choice but to catch it.

But Mr. Meng didn't call me by my name very well.Like those classmates in our primary school class, he called me by nicknames.

This nickname is really detrimental to the reputation.

As far as I know, boys nicknames are nothing more than "Huahua" and "Xiaochun" and other nicknames for girls, except for the unspeakable nicknames such as "dog egg" and "bull shit". Too many tricks.In contrast, I would rather be called Goudan or Huahua.

Instead of "Badger".

This nickname is a combination of novelty and sweetness, as well as the essence of mystery and humor.Some people tried to explain the facts to me, saying that this nickname is awesome, it sounds like a spy code in a foreign spy war movie, and the spies in it all have such names: Cobra, Moby Dick, Falcon...

I still feel like that's the case.

When this nickname came out, I was just in the first grade, and I didn't know the word "badger" yet.The one who gave me this nickname was the oldest boy in our courtyard. He was in the sixth grade and read the "Encyclopedia" with a weight of several kilograms in his arms all day long. The little kid who couldn't tell the difference between southeast and north was stunned for a while, and the elders called him "Xiaobai".

Once our elementary school held an activity to promote Peking Opera. The teacher asked each class to pick a few children to come out, put on rented outfits, and stand behind the stage as a human flesh set.In fact, I was tired and bitter, standing next to the headlight, like a boiler room, sweating all over my back, and I couldn't even drink a sip of water.But children are strange, everyone is scrambling to go. Now that I think about it, our class teacher is quite realistic. He picked a few, and they are all the most beautiful little boys and girls in the class.

like me.

Of course, Mr. Meng is also indispensable.

It's a long time ago, but I still have a little memory.I remember that the large dance studio was used as the backstage of the event and the dressing room. The Beijing opera teacher invited from outside asked us: "Look at these clothes, do you recognize the character?"

At that time, many of the older generation in the family liked to watch operas. My grandma liked to watch operas on TV. I knew a little about it, so I pointed to a white dress and said, "This is the white lady."

My grandma likes "The Legend of the White Snake" the most. Every time she sings on TV, she always stops to watch it.I only remember that the white lady is as white as snow, and her clothes are fairy-like, much whiter than the mosquito net hanging on my bed.

I wanted to wait for the teacher to praise me, but there was a boy in the senior grade who gave me a list of names, and the teachers looked at him with admiration, so they didn't bother to praise me.A few children standing next to me secretly laughed at me, which made me a little unhappy, as if I had made a fool of myself.

The teacher asked me to play Xiang Yu. I didn't know what "Xiang Yu" was. The boy said Xiang Yu was a bad guy.

Of course I refused to pretend.

The Peking Opera teacher coaxed and persuaded me. I found that Xiang Yu’s outfit in her hand was more majestic than others. I was secretly happy, but she was still coy on the surface.

Later, the teacher really took care of my emotions at any time.

I don't know where I got so scheming, I feel ashamed.

On the day of the event, the Peking Opera teacher made up our faces, and I realized that I was a "painted face". When I went out with a black and white face, the host "Xiao Baike" said: "You are like the European badger in the encyclopedia."

(Next to this passage is a scrawled head of a badger, with an arrow pointing towards it, and the words "European badger.")

Immediately open the book and point it out to us.I stretched my head to look, and the thing called "Badger" has two black edges on its white face, isn't it the same as my face?

Now that I think about it, I doubt that someone would keep an encyclopedia in their bag at any time. Maybe this is a long-planned conspiracy, but unfortunately I can no longer find out the perpetrator.

"Badger" screamed more and more, and gradually became my fixed name when I walked around the rivers and lakes.Later, it became popular to call each other "dog ×" among bad friends, and the word "dog" in my "badger" naturally transitioned from a noun to an adjective.For example, Xu Miao became a "dog seedling", Xie Xiaohua became a "dog flower", and Meng Qiansheng became...

A little too harsh.

In the beginning, I justly asked Mr. Meng to call me by my name. I don't know if he did it on purpose or if he really couldn't change it, so I gradually stopped mentioning it.What I can't bear is that some people I don't know well associate my name with my nickname, thinking that my nickname is "He Huan", and every time it makes me scold my mother in my heart.

At that time, Mr. Meng played Wu Song, and I wanted to stand with him, but the teacher pulled me to Yu Ji who was holding a sword.I must be next to Mr. Meng, the teacher is angry and funny:

"Meng Qiansheng's "Wu Song Fights the Tiger" is not the same play as yours."

I am a person who is easy to speak out when I am in a hurry. This bad habit was brought out from my mother's womb, and my parents didn't even think about helping me change it.According to my mother's recollection, I yelled loudly at the time:

"Then I'll be his tiger!"

I can't remember the specific situation, but I should be able to imagine the roar of laughter at that time.My mother went to take pictures of me that day, and she often brought up this incident. It has become a repertoire for my family to talk about childhood fun during the New Year and holidays. I am tired of hearing all kinds of embellished details.

It's a pity that the teacher had already sent a plush toy of a tiger to Mr. Meng, and he held it in his arms.

My mother said, I don’t know if I was too hot and tired standing under the headlights, or because of something else, just after the event, she went to the bathroom, and when she came back, she saw me standing under the stage holding Meng Meng. Mr. Meng cried and cried, Mr. Meng's mother didn't even bother to take pictures, and kept comforting me.

The teacher pulled us away, and I cried even more sadly, my face was covered with a paste, like a European badger with half of its make-up removed.Mr. Meng stuffed his tiger into my arms: "The tiger is for you, don't cry."

My mother said God, you stopped crying immediately.

This incident was later fixed in the photo, which was made by Mr. Meng's mother: the most useless overlord of Western Chu in history dragged the little tiger with one hand, and tightly grabbed Wu Song with clear eyebrows with the other. Behind the camera is a messy and chaotic stage, and the headlights shone brightly over our heads, like a sun that never sets.

The author says:

Xiao Shan is Ba Jin's wife. For details about how Xiao Shan called Ba Jin "Mr. Li", please refer to the article "Remembering Xiao Shan" in "Following Thoughts".