May 1st#
I don't know if it's because of the continuous rain that has increased the humidity, or because of the chili I've been eating for a few days that has caused me to get inflamed. The wisdom tooth that had already sprouted has started to swell and ache again. "Toothache is not a disease, but it can be fatal when it hurts." It's really true. I feel like my brain is throbbing with pain. We ran out of acetaminophen at home, so I quickly went to the pharmacy to buy some while it wasn't raining in the afternoon.
Next to the pharmacy used to be a family of three who made spicy hot pot, but now they have started making oil pancakes. I had them once a few months ago, and they tasted pretty good. Today, when I came out of the pharmacy, I saw that their stove was already lit, so I bought two pancakes for dinner.
Watching the dough wrapped with filling being rolled into a thin sheet on the cutting board, and then fried in a shallow oil pan until golden and crispy, it's really appetizing. Of course, this kind of food should be eaten in moderation. It's okay to occasionally satisfy a craving.
There are two oil pancakes that I can't forget. One is in the Songcheng Scenic Area in Hangzhou, and the other is on the street in Chengdu last year. The first time I went to Songcheng as a child, when I was very hungry, I ate an oil pancake called "Wu Dalang Pancake" and it tasted really good. Later, when I accompanied a friend, I also recommended it, but I don't know if it still exists and if it still tastes good. The oil pancake on the street in Chengdu was discovered when I was wandering around last year. It was a young couple, with the girl making the pancakes and the boy frying them and packing them. At that time, Zeze also sighed and said, "If we had such skills, we could also set up a stall."
Acheng wrote in "Homesickness and Protease":
When a person is not fully developed, there are many possibilities for the composition of proteases. As different types of food enter the small intestine, the types and structures of proteases gradually form and eventually stabilize... So the admonition from elders to "not be picky eaters" will affect the future of children. The reason is that you should eat various foods as early and as much as possible, so that the formation of your proteases can be as complete as possible. Then you won't be afraid of anything and you can eat and digest everything, which is half of a happy life. Therefore, I have observed that homesickness is basically caused by eating unfamiliar food, which is difficult to digest, and then it starts to affect one's mood.
This is scientifically based and also in line with my observations. Let's consider it as a "truth" for now.
The reason I love eating oil pancakes can be traced back to my ancestors who used to make them for me. When I was a child, I was very picky about what I ate. I wouldn't eat anything that was too hot, too cold, too salty, or too bland... I could list many things that I wouldn't eat. During holidays, my ancestors would make my favorite sweet and sour spare ribs and oil pancakes. My family members even teased me, saying, "I've never seen a child who eats sweet and sour spare ribs with pancakes."
In order to change my bad habit, my father would send me to relatives in the mountains as soon as summer vacation started. At that time, there was no road in the mountains, only narrow paths trampled by people. Lu Xun's saying, "There was no road in the world, but as people traveled more, it became a road," was quite realistic. It took about an hour to walk from the drop-off point to the place where we stayed. The first time I went, everything felt new. There was a section of road covered in coal ash, and I didn't recognize it. I asked my father seriously, "Why didn't they sweep the road? It's all black."
In the late 1990s, the mountains were still very poor. We lived in adobe houses and ate vegetables we grew ourselves. Originally, my uncle wanted to kill a chicken to treat us, but my father refused. My cousin was afraid that I would eat too plain, so he went to the river to catch a fish. Even though I hadn't started elementary school at that time, I knew that they were trying very hard to make me eat better. During meals, I didn't show any pickiness, but instead ate happily in a performative manner.
At that time, there were no computers or cell phones. At night, my cousin set up a big bed in front of the house, and we lay down to watch the stars and listen to them tell stories. My father and uncle took a plastic bottle, drilled a small hole in it, and caught a bottle of fireflies from the mountains.
Every summer vacation, I would go to the mountains to stay for a month, until the fifth grade of elementary school. Not only did I get rid of my picky eating habits, but I also learned some farming. In my memory, I carried two baskets of vegetables from the vegetable garden back home, trembling but still stubbornly refusing their help, with my shoulders scraped. I fetched water from the well to water the vegetables. I picked wood ear mushrooms and mushrooms in the woods with my cousin, and also picked up a lot of firewood. I chopped firewood, sawed wood, and learned how to start a fire. I carried a hoe to dig the ground...
Those days were really beautiful!
May 2nd#
This morning, I saw the news that the number of casualties on the Meida Expressway has increased to 36. Ah, who could have imagined such a heartbreaking incident.
I have heard several local friends from Guangdong say, "Is this because we have offended the Dragon King this year?" They are also worried that if it continues to rain like this, and then there is a dragon boat rain, the disaster will be even worse.
At the beginning of April, when I flew back from Guangzhou to Beijing, my flight was canceled three times due to severe convective weather. At the end of the month, when I returned to Guangzhou, Zeze looked at the weather forecast and suggested that we buy sleeper tickets. I thought I would just sleep and arrive, but I didn't expect that the next morning, shortly after leaving Hengyang Station, the train stopped. We had to wait until noon to be informed that the railway line ahead had been destroyed by floods and we could only return to Hengyang Station. Although the station promised to provide free high-speed rail transportation to Guangzhou, I didn't know how long we would have to wait, so I decided to refund the ticket and rented a car to drive back home.
It took more than five hours on the road, and about four hours of it was in the rain. The rain in Hunan was relatively light, but it poured like a leak in the sky as soon as we entered Guangdong. When passing through Qingyuan, the rain was pouring down as if the sky had opened up. Zeze looked at many villages below the highway that were submerged by floodwaters and said worriedly, "The disaster has struck just as spring plowing has begun." Although the highway was not flooded, there was still a lot of standing water, and the tires were slipping. I had to slow down, drive in one lane, not too fast, and not change lanes casually.
Shortly after entering Guangzhou, my father called to ask where we were. He could hear the rain hitting the windshield, and he was very nervous. I was also nervous. It was already night, and it was raining so heavily. It's already unsafe to drive on the highway.
I want to mention one thing specifically. In the past two days, the suicide of a young man in his early twenties in Chongqing has been trending on social media. Some people are pointing fingers and making judgments about the deceased. Even if someone has chosen to end their life, can't we show some respect for the deceased? They have made such a choice, you may not agree with it, but please don't analyze or even insult the deceased with the tone of a winner. Show some humanity and don't reveal your inherent vulgarity so blatantly.
That's all for today's essay.