Issue 18~The ship docked at the port in Taiwan Province, my country, and the dock workers continued their family tree

Sit quietly with your thoughts and recall the past. Life on board is full of ups and downs, from the harshness of Australia, to the comedy of India, to the touchingness of Taiwan Province of my country. I have always believed that as long as you discover life on board with your heart, there will always be a few things that you will remember for life. I think the purpose of running a boat back then was to travel around the world for free. Now it seems that I have achieved my goal. Time flies so fast, and in a blink of an eye we have returned to Taiwan Province in China.

If the harbor is busy, ships will first anchor and wait for a berth, and then queue up to dock. A good time is worse than a good time. In the evening of the same day, our ship docked directly at the berth in Taiwan Province. Although I have never been to this place in China, it is relatively new to me. The docks in Taiwan Province feel particularly friendly, because there are slogans printed in Chinese on both the loading and unloading equipment and on the walls of the port. Even the port seemed to be inhabited, because I could clearly see rows of small houses in the port, with kitchen chimneys on the tops of the small houses. It was time to cook dinner, and the smoke was curling up, giving a special smell of fireworks. I had a hurried dinner on the boat, stood on the deck, took a deep breath, and immediately felt relaxed and happy, with a sense of intimacy like returning to my hometown in the countryside! I don’t know if you have any experience living in rural areas, because I am a rural person. When I was a child, after school at night, every household would light a fire to cook. The whole village was filled with the smell of fireworks, and the smell was particularly comfortable. And in the port of Taiwan Province, I once again found the feeling of childhood.

We started unloading the cargo that night after the ship docked. But I still had to stand on duty at the ladder entrance, and the second officer was hanging out at the gangway entrance as usual. Let me give you some popular science here. After the ship docks at the port, our gangway is the busiest place, because this is the first window for the ship to communicate with the outside world. There are people on duty 24 hours a day, so if many people are bored, Everyone will stop at the gangway entrance. The second mate walked up to me and I asked him with a smile, "What's the matter? Second brother, what do you like again? How about we sell the boat this time?" The second officer cooperated with me and said, "I came here to tell you that I have just contacted the buyer in the room. The price is 300 million, and we will split it equally"! Because we both knew each other was joking, we burst out laughing. I asked the second officer very seriously, "Let's go to the field together tomorrow. My mobile phone screen is broken. I want to go to the field to fix it." The second officer also answered me very seriously, "Don't think about it. He has been here many times. Every time We are not allowed to go to the ground. If your mobile phone is broken, you can tell the third mate that there should be a supplier on the ship tomorrow, just to deliver ingredients to us. See if you can ask the supplier to bring you some. mobile phone". I felt lost all of a sudden and thought, "Forget it. I may not like the mobile phone they bring, so just stick with it! I'll buy it for the next flight"!

I was on duty at the gangway. I was really bored, so I picked up my mobile phone and called my family to report that I was safe. After the call was connected, my mother told me: "During this time, your grandfather has been complaining that you are not safe." "Call him." In fact, I always call my grandfather immediately every time I dock in port. However, he is old and I dare not tell him the true situation of our industry's lack of signal, for fear that he will worry. So I hurriedly hung up the phone with my mother and called my grandpa. My grandpa is still as cute as before. Every time he answers the phone, he always says "hello" loudly a few times, and I will subconsciously raise my voice on the other end of the phone. Because of this, the boatswain thought I was quarreling several times, and he would always He taught me, "It's hard to get to Hong Kong once, don't have conflicts with your family, and talk to me if you have anything to say!" It made me dumbfounded. When I told my grandpa that he was in Taiwan Province now, something my grandpa said made me uncomfortable. Grandpa said, "Actually, I have an older grandpa, my brother, who came to Taiwan Province that year, and I haven't contacted him since. Grandpa also told me his nickname and gave me a serious description of his appearance. He asked me to pay attention to it. If I meet him, he must go home and take a look." I thought to myself at the time, Even if Grandpa is still alive, he should be over ninety years old now, and I can’t get off the boat yet, so where can I pay attention! But in order not to hurt grandpa’s mood, I decisively agreed.

The next day, as usual, I came to the gangway to register and inspect the workers coming and going on our ship.

Maybe I am more outgoing, or maybe I sail in the deep sea for a long time without anyone to communicate with. When I am on duty at the ladder entrance, I always have a lot to say. I greet everyone who comes on board to work on our ship very warmly. When I see someone, I always say, "Uncle, thank you for your hard work. Pay attention to your safety when working. If you need some water, tell me and I will get it for you!" There was an uncle among them, he was probably in his fifties, about the same age as my father, and he brought a lunch box with him when he got on the boat. When I saw him registering his name at the ladder entrance, I found that he had the same surname as me, "Chen". I immediately felt like I had met a relative. I said casually, "Uncle, our surname is Chen. We are a family. When you eat later, I will help you take your lunch box to the microwave on the ship to heat it up." He looked at me very kindly. I said "Thank you, no need, it's too much trouble"! Since unloading hadn’t started yet, the two of us started doing our homework by the gangway.

Later he asked me: "Do you know our genealogy of the surname Chen? What generation are you from?" I was immediately interested, because when I was in my hometown, my grandfather belonged to our big family surnamed Chen. I am the eldest man. The family tree has been kept by my grandfather. My grandfather often told me these things. I blurted out, "I am a grown-up, and our family tree is not messy. It has been going on for more than a hundred years." Unexpectedly, this strange uncle and I were of the same generation, so he quickly smiled and said, "We are of the same generation, you can't call me uncle, you should call me eldest brother"! In this way, in a strange port, two people who had only met each other once felt like they were talking to each other like relatives. After a short chat, we both ended the conversation and went back to work. When I was about to get off work at noon, I ran over to this uncle to help him heat up the food in his lunch box. I also gave him a bottle of Coke that was left in my room. While eating at noon, the two of us were together. Conversation started again in the first mate's office on the first floor. Then he told me his story.

The uncle said, "His father has passed away. He always wanted to contact his relatives in his hometown. However, due to the inconvenience in many places, his wish was not realized until the last moment of his life." I quickly asked, "Has the old man told you where your hometown is? Do you have any relatives at home?" The uncle replied, "My hometown is probably Huaiyang, Henan. The old man went out to serve as a soldier after getting married. There is also a married wife at home. The wife who has just been married for three months is not sure whether she is pregnant. There are also two Brother, a sister." I suddenly fell into deep thought. Isn't this similar to the situation of my great-grandfather? What is certain is that he is definitely not my great-grandfather, because my great-grandfather is not married and his hometown is not from Huaiyang. . But no matter what, they are destined to be together. Later, my uncle asked me about my family's genealogy. He said, "Only the old man knows the genealogy here. Now that the old man has passed away, his sons don't even know their seniority." Fortunately, my grandfather forced me to recite it when I was a child. I especially I excitedly told him the word "ge" for seniority, and then I wrote down the ranking of seniority in my childhood mind and gave it to him. This uncle really has a special sense of family affection, and I can feel how excited he was at that time. Keep saying thank you.

Many people may be curious, "Why don't you ask grandpa's specific seniority ranking? What if he writes it wrongly?" In fact, I wanted to call grandpa many times and ask him, but I was afraid that grandpa would think too much and think that I had found him! After all, he is so old. Besides, for this uncle from Taiwan Province, what he cares about is not the genealogy, but the feeling of missing his hometown and relatives. After that, I would always meet this uncle when I was on duty at the gangway every day, and he would come up with a lunch box every day. What touched me was that the lunch box was no longer his lunch, but the special rice balls made by his wife. , he brought it up for me to try, and I felt really comfortable inside.

On the last day after docking, I invited him to sit in my room on the ship. When he saw the furnishings in my room, he smiled and said I know how to live! I planned to give him the two homing pigeons. After all, they ate too much and I was embarrassed to ask the chef for millet to feed them every day. Unexpectedly, he told me that I could sell it, so he took it away, skipped work and ran out of the port to help me sell it. He sold it for fifty US dollars and gave it to me as a gift. I refused decisively, but he finally gave it to me secretly. (To be continued)