Prose: Native Smoke

On the street, you can often see some half-jointed cigarette butts lying there, and in front of them is walking the owner who just discarded them. These cigarette butts that still emit white smoke either wait for the wind to burn them out naturally, or are crushed by the pedestrians who follow them. In the end, they become garbage again. On the dining table where cups and glasses are intertwined, zero smoke is placed on the table. Next to the tea cup, it was soaked by the overflowing tea, and was finally discarded...

Every time I see this scene, I feel distressed, and I naturally think of the past. Something to come.

When I first changed my job and went to work in a local area, because the people I interacted with were mostly men, in order to socialize, I often bought some cigarettes to disperse, but I didn’t smoke them myself. It’s not that I can’t learn it, it’s that I don’t dare. Thinking of my father's embarrassing appearance when he was young, I naturally lost the pleasure of smoking.

My father, who often coughs and coughs, has developed the habit of smoking since he was young. Over the past few decades, under our instigation, he stopped smoking several times in the name of his health, but It didn't last long, and it started to smoke again. Later, we simply stopped talking and left it to him.

But the strange thing is that he smokes less. Even when I collected the zero cigarettes that others distributed to me outside and brought them to him, I didn’t expect that he would not be willing to smoke them. They were all moldy there. , but still there. At first, I thought he had quit smoking and he only held it under his nose to sniff. When I saw him take out a cigarette from his trouser pocket, I realized that he hadn't quit smoking, he just didn't smoke in front of us.

Dad, the cigarette I gave you is not poisonous, why did you leave it alone and not smoke it? Once, I couldn’t help but ask.

He looked at me and said nothing. Hope my expression is so careful. I smoked my own... It seemed like after searching for a long time, he finally found this reply to me,

Are you reluctant to smoke? That's specially given to you...

I'm used to it.

Over time, the cigarettes I gave him turned yellow and fell apart. When cleaning, my mother threw them away.

Next time, don’t give your dad cigarettes. The cigarettes he smokes are cheap. He said your cigarettes were too expensive, and he was afraid that you would end up smoking them all, and that it would increase your burden. My mother was stunned for a moment, observing my expression, and then added, you are giving him expensive cigarettes, why not get him some local cigarettes, maybe he will be happier.

God, where can I get soil smoke? Aren’t the days of smoking native cigarettes long gone? I smiled bitterly but didn't say anything.

※ ※

When I was young and my father was young, our family grew native tobacco.

Tobacco seedlings are only sold on the street during the day. Those who sow seeds start to get busy as soon as the Spring Festival is over. When the sown tobacco seeds sprout and take care of them until they are more than ten or twenty centimeters high, they bundle the tobacco seedlings into wrist-thick bundles and get them early. Sold on the street. The small stall was only as big as the bamboo bamboo pole carried on my back. The people who formed a circle every time were the men who usually like to smoke.

Actually, it seems that I bought several handfuls of tobacco seedlings, but they were not easy to plant, and they were only planted in a patch the size of a mat in the ground. This is enough. If you don't share some with outsiders, you can definitely smoke the new local cigarettes that will be on the market next spring.

Yes, "stretched" is not an exaggeration at all. I feel that the local cigarettes grown in our family are often in short supply, and there is not enough for my father to smoke every year. But the strange thing is that he never expanded the scope of planting. First of all, when buying tobacco seedlings every year, he set a rule for himself, no more, no less, and he would buy the same number and take home. But in my opinion, it seems that the small vendors selling tobacco seedlings are becoming more and more suspected of playing tricks. Once the land is prepared and the tobacco seedlings are planted, a lot of area will be left vacant.

Of course, there is not enough local smoke for my father to eat. There is another main reason, that is, after the tobacco seedlings are harvested every year, the edible local tobacco is made. My uncles and uncles use it to eat at home. They took the opportunity to take away the gift that their father had given them in advance to enjoy together - bunches of leaf cigarettes. Although everyone doesn't get much, for them, it is like getting a treasure.

Seeing that the "leaf tobacco" that I had worked so hard to grow and make was suddenly allotted to me, I felt sorry for my father. "Why don't you keep more for yourself? You have to give them so much every year, but you...", my throat choked, and I felt sad for the hardships of growing and harvesting cigarettes.

We are all relatives, how can there be any reason for a person to eat alone? Father knows the reason why I am sad. From now on, if I don’t have any cigarettes or food, I just won’t cause any trouble to you! Besides, they can’t grow native tobacco. I have to plant it every year, so I give them some to eat!

When I heard my father say that he would not cause trouble for us in the future, I seemed to be greatly comforted and felt "relaxed" a lot.

But when it came to the "critical moment" when he became addicted to cigarettes, it was different.

※ ※

When I plant tobacco seedlings every year, I naturally think of my father’s addiction to cigarettes in the “off season” and triggering us to rummage through boxes and cabinets. As for us, we naturally obeyed his command and helped to find the whereabouts of "cigarette bone sticks" and "cigarette butts" in every nook and cranny. We then encouraged him cruelly and said: "We should plant more cigarettes this year, otherwise we will have another problem." Not enough." But he said every year, your mother is not happy to even do this, and she wants to expand the scope. Where can the family eat?

He dug a nest in front and planted it, and I followed behind to water the withered seedlings. It was at this time that he assigned me the next task, and I completely accepted it without saying a word.

Among the tasks he assigned, he had to prevent the newly planted seedlings from being bitten by soil silkworms, pull tobacco buds and weed the seedlings when they were big. As for watering and fertilizing, he had to do all the work. throughout the life cycle of tobacco seedlings.

The native silkworm is a nasty guy. No matter how much you "value" it, it always likes to bully Yan Miaoer when she is still young. The smoke seedlings were still growing well the day before, but after a night's sleep, there were some seedlings picked up early the next morning. Use a small paper towel to search along the root, and you will find the fat, dark guy. He actually stayed there even after he was full.

The tobacco seedlings that had been bitten by local silkworms had to buy them back to replace them when their nests were empty. Compared with the first batch of planted tobacco seedlings, the second batch of tobacco seedlings were slightly inferior in size.

The buds between the tobacco leaves and tobacco stems should be removed as early as possible, otherwise the fertilizer will be sucked away and the entire tobacco seedling will not grow. Therefore, when I came back from the tobacco fields on a dewy morning, my trousers and sleeves were all wet with dew. Even when I went to school to study, my clothes were stained with the acrid smell of smoke. I was a little embarrassed to be used as a source of gossip by my classmates.

There are still some bits and pieces that I still remember vividly. When the tobacco leaves mature, it is the happiest time of the year for my father. Probably because I thought I would be able to have a full meal from now on. During that time, he had no worries about smoking native tobacco, such as drying live tobacco leaves, rubbing them repeatedly, and moving them in and out every day. The heavy workload was all done by him alone.

We didn’t dare to get close to the strong pungent smell emitted by the tobacco leaves. Even when we went to do things nearby, we had to cover our noses with wet handkerchiefs, otherwise we would vomit. And to him, maybe it smells good.

It was under this circumstance that I personally heard the story of my grandfather and Tuyan from my father’s mouth. Otherwise, he usually wouldn't say it.

He said that when my father was alive, I was not allowed to smoke, but I still smoked.

Ever since he was young, my father has been working in a landlord’s house more than ten kilometers away from home. Because he was serious about everything, he started by plowing and harrowing the fields. Later, he was accidentally discovered by the landlord who was in charge and rewarded him with specializing in growing cigarettes. Later, he even taught him the skills of making native cigarettes. From planting tobacco seedlings to making finished products, he worked on dozens of acres of land by himself day and night.

The landowner not only smokes the native cigarettes he makes for his whole family, but also sends them as tribute to the gentlemen in the county government office. In addition, they are sold to people who know the goods at high prices.

Later, the landowner started smoking cigarettes happily. In order to control our father, he added cigarettes to the local cigarettes that "Da Fang" gave to our father. Because the cigarettes my father grows create a lot of wealth for the landlords every year. The officials in the county government were used to smoking local cigarettes grown by my father, and they lost their flavor if they smoked other cigarettes, so they wanted to smoke cigarettes grown by my father by name.

When my father found out about the landlord’s bad idea, he quickly made a decision and resolutely left the landlord’s house. When he went to pay his wages, the landowner thought he was just talking, because he didn't believe that the big smoke he gave to his father could not control a master of native smoke. As a result, the guy was disappointed.

After my father returned home, in order to break his addiction to cigarettes, he even stopped smoking local cigarettes.

He told me that it was all because people took advantage of him by smoking local cigarettes, and asked me not to smoke local cigarettes in the future. But I don’t have as much determination as he does!

※ ※

I remember that there were many people smoking local cigarettes around our house. Even women were affected and were very interested in that stuff.

The men smoked with an iron cigarette holder in front of a long pipe, while the women used bamboo hookahs. Moreover, the packaging and production of the local cigarettes they smoke are also different.

At that time, my father made homemade local cigarettes by wrapping tobacco leaves into tubes. Sometimes he would also take paper from our draft books and combine the thin "face" of the local cigarettes with the cut "bone sticks". "Combined together, it looks like a cigarette. The seriousness with which he smokes is really attractive to the smokers next to him. My mother also smokes, but she learned it under the influence of my grandmother.

I heard from my mother that when she was a child, she used to put "mao smoke" on the hookah for her grandmother. When she saw how sweet her mother smoked, she couldn't help but want to try it in private. Over time, she learned how to do it.

But the cigarettes my mother smokes are specially "extracted" from native cigarettes. "Mao cigarettes" are extremely expensive and not easy to buy. Ordinary people cannot afford them. Including the "mao cigarettes" that grandma later smoked, they were all made of native cigarettes.

Before giving native cigarettes to uncles and aunts, my father would first select the best leaf cigarettes to make special "mao cigarettes". One part would be given to grandma and the other part would be left for grandma. Mother satisfies her craving.

Later, when I grew up, although I grew up in an environment where I was influenced by tobacco and smoke, I was never interested in smoking.

As my father got older, his addiction to cigarettes seemed to have diminished a lot. I wonder if it was because of the trouble of smoking local cigarettes every time, so he started smoking "economy" brand cigarettes that cost eight cents a pack. But "Yueyuehong", which costs 16 cents, is rarely visited.

I couldn’t get local cigarettes for my father, and he never made a request in front of me. Later, even cigarettes were no longer touched.

Just when I thought native cigarettes were about to be extinct, I happened to see local mountain people smoking leaf cigarettes in another province where I served as a soldier.

Feeling curious, I approached the old man who came down from the mountains. Fortunately, there was no language barrier in our conversation, so I quickly learned the new information about Tuyan from him. .

He was not wearing shoes, and it was winter at this time. Although there was a little sunshine in the sky, the cold wind blowing around him was still too much for his body wearing a thick sweater. He threw the "cigarette butt" that was not smoking with a pot and still had a small section on the ground, and stepped on it motionlessly with his bare feet, without any expression on his face.

Uncle, don’t your feet hurt?

He simply moved his feet. Taking this opportunity, I saw that the soles of those feet had many cracks and scars all over them.

What kind of cigarette are you smoking? I kind of knew what I was asking. It won't work if you don't do this, otherwise you won't be able to get what he said.

Maybe it was the "smoke" that brought us closer. He bowed and looked at me kindly. "This is the native smoke we grow ourselves." He then took out an old blue cloth bag from his waist, "Would you like to take a taste? The smoke smells good..." He said as he started to give it to me.

I quickly stopped him. Is native tobacco good to grow? I wanted to break the embarrassment and continued to ask.

When the tobacco seedlings are small, they need to be protected from the bites of soil silkworms. When they grow up, they need to be pruned. When the seedlings are cut down and made into soil tobacco, there are many steps. While he was talking, he took out another cigarette bag without any scruples, wrapped it in a cigarette, wiped it on the cigarette with the corner of his mouth, and said to himself, I asked you to smoke. If you dislike it, then get a fire. Lit.

Uncle, I don’t think that’s disgusting, I don’t know how to smoke at all.

He didn't understand what I said, and still kept talking to himself, saying that earth smoke is full of treasures, and the smoke bone stick is also a good thing.

After listening to the old man’s words, I thought about it in my heart for a long time. Isn't this all I did back then? At this moment, it really feels like returning to childhood.