Yu Guangzhong's most warm and touching family prose "The Sun Never Sets".

The sun will never set. Author: Yu Guangzhong

There is a lion on an old man's Hong Kong dollar, wearing a crown to control the ball, and his posture is very powerful. However, after July of 1 year, when Hongkong returned to China, the golden crown was eclipsed, and the globe could not claim to be the world. The forty-five years of Elizabeth II's reign coincided with the first time. Between the two Elizabethan eras, the British Empire lasted for more than 400 years, equivalent to the Han Dynasty. In its heyday, the territory of this empire, the naval port of San Francisco and Canal, was full of water, land and air balls, which was a quarter of the world that the empire had never seen before and was known as the "country where the sun never sets".

Now, the sunset empire is shining with the last sunset glow in Hong Kong. "The sun never sets in the countryside" will become history, and it will be replaced by "the sun never sets at home".

After the Cold War era, the world has become increasingly open, with frequent exchanges, convenient tourism and developed information. The world is really going to become a global village. So the same family left their hometown and returned to the well, scattered to the ends of the earth, upside down day and night, compared with the cold and summer, it became "the sun never sets." This year, our four daughters, two in North America and two in Western Europe, left their parents on the island. A family is divided into five countries. You wake me up and sleep, which is not the same, and it has become a "day does not fall home".

Ji Shan, a young girl, spent five years in France. She first studied French in Wenge, and then went to Paris to study advertising design. She seems to have some Gaul flavor. My English level is not low, but my French pronunciation is often corrected by her. She is good at imitating people's tone, using funny gestures, and often amuses her mother and sisters, but she smiles lightly. It is conceivable that most of her jokes are taken from French experience, and French men bear the brunt. Marcel Marceau is her idol, which once made her want to learn pantomime. However, she also learned design very well. My translation of Wilde's comedy "The Ideal Husband" is her cover. Now she lives in Canada and hangs alone in the southern suburbs of Vancouver. The time difference with us is eight hours early.

After finishing art history in Kansas, Shanshan, the eldest daughter, stayed in the United States and lived in new york for a long time. There are many galleries and exhibitions in metropolis, so you can enjoy them to your heart's content. Shanshan has not been idle. The two-volume version of Modern Art is the translation and continuation of her spare time and kitchen waste. Painters in China published paintings on the East Coast and asked her to preface them many times. It seems that she also participated in my "serial disaster" and became a "family trouble". Although bitter, it was not in vain. She has become a mother. The boy is four years old and the girl is under two years old. As far as the tutor is concerned, while waving dinosaurs and electric magic soldiers, the little boy casually shouted the names of Van Gogh and Mona Lisa, integrating archaeology, science and technology and art. He was an urchin who read widely and memorized them thoroughly. Among the four sisters, Shanshan came first. In vivid memories, she was the first crow, and a crow crowed, and all crows responded, bringing the excitement and prosperity of flying eight pigtails in the future. But over the years, she has been away from us for the longest time, and it is also the most difficult for her to go back to Taiwan Province after having children, so she has to make do with "staying at home" and it is inconvenient to go back to her parents' home often. There is a whole American continent between her and her sister. The time difference is three hours early.

The Atlantic Ocean in Vivi, Yue Ling, sailed eastward for five hours, and reached the hometown of "gems inlaid on silver waves" praised by Shakespeare. The second daughter, Yang Shan, specializes in Wordsworth at Manchester University. She is burying herself in the complete works of countless poets. She was so happy that she sweated and swam in the lake area cast by the poet. Wordsworth is the main peak of English romantic poetry school. Young Shanshan wrote her master's thesis in Berkeley, and it was this Cui Wei that she climbed. Ten years later, she went to her hometown in Fahrenheit to write her doctoral thesis in Manchester City, and it was still Xueding who landed. It can be said that she is loyal to her life. The closest woman in the world to Fahrenheit is, of course, his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. Secondly, I'm afraid it's my second daughter's turn.

Young Shan studied in England for three years. She has a British accent. Whenever a friend visits Britain, she is duty-bound to drive passengers to Cumbria County in the northwest to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the lake area. She became Wordsworth's spy guide. So persistent, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do. I often advise You Shan to write down her experiences in Britain, including her aesthetic trip in the lake area, one by one, so as to avoid "studying in Britain" becoming "leaving blank" in the future. However, she cherishes words like gold and never writes, just like her sister hides the French years in her heart.

Although Youshan is far away from England, she seems to be less lonely this year. Because her third sister Pei Shan is studying in Belgium, it is not difficult to meet her, and there is no time difference. Our third daughter, with quick thinking and wide interests, is changing her mind: her three degrees are Bachelor of History, Master of Advertising and Doctor of Marketing. So my name is "Liu Sanbian". When she was studying at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, she passed Grade 8 in piano performance and once planned to go to the United States to major in music. Later, he served as a cultural and educational reporter for Sing Tao Daily. So I often laugh at my family at the dinner table: "Be careful what you say in front of reporters."

After returning to Taiwan Province, Pei Shan has been teaching in the Department of Business Administration in Donghai. Over the years, she even translated three famous works of our bank into Chinese and published them in Tianxia and Liu Yuan. This year, she went to Belgium to do market research, covering the Netherlands and Britain. According to my father, her interest in consumption is not only academic, but also a hobby, especially for fine products. Her trip to Belgium not only saw the Buddha statue and Launders's famous paintings, but also tasted all kinds of wine. She went further to Turkey and listened to the melodious prayers on the minaret (below). It must be a very rich experience.

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The world has become a global village, and this feeling is most concrete when watching the weather forecast on TV. Taiwan Province Province is too hot, the temperature difference is small, and the local meteorological reports are not vivid enough, so I like to watch the changes in temperature in other places, especially the cool low temperature. Every time I broadcast to all parts of the mainland, I always look for Shenyang and Lanzhou "Wow! Twelve degrees below zero! Enjoy it! " So the whole snow scene came face to face, feeling that the world was still colorful.

Since the family is divided into five countries, the climate is naturally different. In fact, all four daughters are in the cold zone. The northernmost Manchester is about 53 degrees and a half north latitude, and the southernmost new york is still 4 1 degree, both of which belong to high latitude areas. In a word, although the latitude difference between the four daughters is 12 degrees, the temperature is the same, with only one cold word. Young mountains are most afraid of cold, but Manchester is cold and deceitful. Wordsworth, who can't finish reading, has to study hard for a long time and it is difficult to reach cold. In contrast, Kaohsiung, located at 22.5 degrees in the low latitude, is much warmer. Even if a cold snap comes in, you have to make a bed just like a midsummer night in England.

Dusk is the most sensitive and fragile time of the day. The weather forecast always goes from near to far, and finally reaches North America and Western Europe, bringing our care to high latitudes and focusing on strange and friendly cities. Strange, because it is a cold zone. Kindness, because that is where our children are.

"Vancouver is still below zero!"

"The blizzard hit new york and the airport was closed!"

"London is so cold, Manchester is even colder!"

"How about Brussels? Is it similar? "

Sitting in a cool chair in the tropics and watching the weather in foreign countries, we always make such a fuss, not because we have never seen snow or ice, nor because our children are too young to keep warm, nor are those countries too humble to keep out the cold. Just because parents are old and miss their daughters deeply, in the depths of memory, in the focus of dreams, at the bottom of the shady subconscious, their daughters are still the same as before, with the same smile, which will always be cherished in the innocent childhood-so it's cold, we have to add clothes for them, and it's dark, so we will wait for them to come back one by one, report to the hot dinner, report to the golden chandelier on the top of the dining table, and let all the braids. Whenever I care about the past, the happiness of youth stops at this scene.

A person's life has one and a half childhood. One childhood is in my childhood, and the other half is in my child's childhood. Childhood is a mythical era of life, and it is difficult to archaeological, because it is suspicious and partly decided by parents. I missed my childhood and got a second chance. It was my child's childhood. The happiness of young fathers is probably second only to that of young mothers. In the dark alley of Xiamen Street, I used to be such a complacent young father, with four baby girls wrapped in milk-scented swaddling clothes and thrown into my happy arms. Black and white, the newly created spirit pupil turned to me, stared at my face, did not move or blink, and looked at me seriously, which seemed a little confused.

"It seems that it is not that (mother), this (man)." She is talking about me with a sense of super-language confusion. I am closer to her face and gestured to her with a super-language smile: "I am not others, but your father. I love you, maybe not as considerate as your mother, but not less than her." She decoded my smile with her transcendental intuition, so she imitated my appearance and suddenly smiled. This is the first time that father and daughter smile at each other, like the wind blowing water, forming ripples, but leaving no trace.

We laughed at the cuteness and childishness of the baby girl. Encouraged by our smiles and laughter, the little girl also smiled. The baby girl smiled and we answered with a smile. When the baby girl cries, we laugh more. The baby girl just stood up, and we smiled and encouraged her. She fell to the ground again, and we smiled and comforted her. Four baby girl circuses usually roll to my house one by one, and then climb, fall, shake, shake and jump into Zhang Ying's arms-their childhood is our "laughing season".

We made faces to make them laugh. In order to teach them to babble, we first babble by ourselves: "This is a pea, that is a cake, and insects can fly!" " "Adult disdain and dare not do childish tone and strange movements, we are privileged in front of children, but we can completely liberate and perform. In a child's real childhood, we found our own fake childhood. Homesickness usually happens again when we are young, whether it is true or false, half or completely.

A happy childhood is mutually beneficial: on the one hand, when children grow up, they yearn for the kindness of childhood; On the one hand, parents are old and miss their children's childhood. Because the affection between parents and children is the most primitive, purest, strongest, longest and deepest impression, even after thousands of robberies, it is indelible. Sitting in front of the TV, watching the weather and thinking about those four women, I often think of their childhood, reaching out to carry them and begging for hugs, just because that picture makes me dream most.

The first long summer that haunted me most was Shanshan lying in a white gauze tent, letting me shake my cradle, my eyes still looking up at me, and the cicada hissed in an alley outside the window. It was You Shan who crawled out of the hole in the bed and looked like a little fat beast on the ground, which surprised everyone and made everyone laugh. She took Pei Shan to the movies. Her bright eyes whirled in the dark, flashing the reflection of the screen, looking so nervous and focused, and her little hand was sweating slightly in my hand. When Lushan was a child, he was afraid of thunder and firecrackers. When a loud noise came, she buried her crying in her mother-in-law's arms and sobbed for a long time.

I don't know how their mother remembers to take pictures of every girl when she first appeared. It may be too dense and complicated, etc., even going back to before it was formed. It's not the image, it's the touch. It is the handstand squat in the fetal period, holding hands and kicking.

When everything returns to its origin and chaos begins, the baby girl's life begins with the ingenious meeting of her father and mother's eggs, which is the embryonic form of all love stories. Starting with the father's body; A tadpole is a tadpole, and only the lucky ones are accepted by the mother island. So the October karma of mother and daughter together began wonderfully. Mother settled the baby girl in the womb, fed her with embryos, protected her with amniotic fluid, talked to her mysteriously through the umbilical cord, gave her a vague sense of security, gave her heartbeat, pulse and blood type, until the big tadpole became a big-headed baby, with his head down and his arms crossed, curled up, ready to push open the narrow door of life, break free from his mother's body, and encouraged his lungs to shake ghosts and gods with the power of not breastfeeding.

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Mother's love begins long before children can breathe, so people in China calculate their age from the number of pregnant women. In the first ten months, although I haven't opened my eyes yet, I want everything from my mother, and I owe too much. On that day, the same life must be separated, and the tire must be broken and the bone must be completely removed. In the throes of intense acceleration, we struggled to make a dash for the door. The sweetness of birthday cake and the brightness of candles are all paid by mother's blood. However, the catastrophe of production is only the beginning of maternal love. In the future, the mother's hard care, from hug to hug, from help to push, from pull to lift, has never been seen in the dictionary. The article "E-E" said: "I lost my parents and gave birth to me." In fact, mothers are far more caring and hardworking than fathers. Therefore, "Guo E" also said: "Mother bows to me, dotes on me, nurtures me, protects me, and goes in and out of my abdomen. If you want to report virtue, you will be extremely confused? " Among them, most of them are mother's kindness. The phrase "I go in and out in my abdomen" is the most vivid description of my mother. I'm afraid only the kangaroo family has a better relationship than humans.

Once upon a time, four daughters were always around, taking care of them and going in and out of their stomachs. My skin is fair and my four daughters are hereditary, so I jokingly called them "a nest of mice" when I was a child. When I was in Denver, I was on a business trip for a long time, and a nest of mice was in my car, which was stuffed in the back row. That scene is like putting all the eggs in the same basket. I can't help being more careful when holding the steering wheel, but the family is satisfied while enjoying the beautiful scenery. During the ten years in Hong Kong, the hot soup was steaming and the lights were dim. Four mice, a big mouse and I make a table. At one time, there were six mouths, delicious food, witty remarks, and endless chatter.

Now, a nest of mice is scattered in all directions, and such a feast has long since disappeared. The rest of the parents can only try to figure out the warmth and coldness of foreign weather forecasts in the four places after a cold meal. In China, people greet each other by playing pranks and answering the phone. We really "greet" our four daughters on TV every night, which is not polite, but contains true feelings, because China people are not used to hugging their families and showing their kindness, and they are told to add clothes every time they ask for help.

Often after the weather forecast, the long-distance call from my mother crosses the ocean and the mainland, and directly dials the other side of the snowstorm to "greet" and report the recent situation of the Kaohsiung family. For example, my father just went to Mexico for a meeting, or she is going to give a speech at Sichuan University next week, and she will also go with him. Sometimes she calls all night, calls all over western Europe and North America, monitors four countries and collects the latest trends of our "staying indoors".

Looking at my mother dragging the wire and holding a microphone to talk to her daughter nine thousand miles away, I suddenly realized that this is still the habit of mother and daughter holding hands and whispering. However, in the past, umbilical cord was used to communicate with the body. Now, cables are used to transmit sound overseas.

In addition to the umbilical cord complex, we continue to write letters, attach photos or newspaper clippings, and sometimes send parcels to supply books, clothes, medicines, contact lenses and so on. Going overseas is like the front line of logistics support. This kind of supply has never stopped, just like at the beginning, mother used placenta to deliver nutrition and oxygen to new life: endless maternal love, alas, never exhausted.

The so-called kindness is that love plus effort times time, so it is increasing and deepening because of accumulation. Therefore, the Book of Songs sighed: "If you want to report virtue, you will be extremely confused?"

It all started before Shanshan cried for the first time. To be thorough, we have to go back to forty-five years ago, when the mothers of four baby girls first met their fathers, the cover of the myth had just been unveiled, and romance was just the title page. It will be a beautiful illustration when the baby girl is born. The first picture is my father's pouch. The second picture is the mother's palace. The third picture is a nursery bed in Neijiang Street Maternity Hospital. The fourth picture is a baby basket, shaking four baby girls in turn, but turning them into girls, an ancient house in the deep lane of Xiamen Street, instead of the Waipo Bridge. I don't need to say the illustrations in the future.

This illustration, you see, dad is old, and he is still writing poems under the lights of the Strait Night. Mother went to bed early and smelled snoring. She may be dreaming. Once upon a time, there was a nest of mice playing hide-and-seek with her, and then they got separated. She was too tired to catch up for a while.