How did hiring someone to press a pig image during Chinese New Year become a top trend?

The distance between Tianjin and Tangshan is not far, but the clattering of the green train is enough for a myna bird to learn a new dialect phrase.

Xu An huddled in the corner of the hard seat, turned up the collar of his military overcoat, trying to disguise himself as a bag of luggage that no one had claimed.

The man opposite him was a local from Tangshan. He was very kind and kept teasing the birds with his distinctive Tangshan dialect, which had an upward inflection at the end.

"You say 'yes'! You say 'yes' or 'no'?" the older brother tempted, holding up a sausage.

Baldy tilted his head, a shrewd glint in his beady green eyes, and opened his mouth to shout:

"Great! Great! Awesome!"

Xu An covered his face, feeling that his twenty-three years of social anxiety skills had completely crumbled at this moment.

This bird is not only a repeater, but also a linguistic hybrid.

The Henan dialect word "中" (zhong), combined with the Tianjin dialect intonation, and now mixed with a touch of Tangshan's boldness, sounds like a seasoned veteran who has traveled all over the country.

"Hey buddy, you've got a bird that's amazing!" The older brother slapped his thigh with laughter. "If we took this to a banquet in Tangshan, we'd definitely have to serve it two rounds of chess pieces and sesame cakes as a reward!"

Xu An could only force a smile, but in his heart he was thinking about whether he should buy a mask for the bird when they got to Tangshan.

After exiting Tangshan Station, the wind became noticeably stronger.

The wind here lacked the salty, fishy smell of the Haihe River in Tianjin; instead, it carried a dry, almost tangible scent, like a mixture of cement and steel.

Xu An didn't dare take a taxi, fearing he might run into another driver who knew him and insisted on taking him to eat free chestnuts.

He checked the navigation and found that the earthquake memorial square was not far from the train station.

"Hey, let's walk and digest our food."

Xu An tightened his grip on the canvas bag in his arms; the letter, as thick as a brick, was digging into his ribs and causing a slight pain.

Walking on the streets of Tangshan, Xu An's biggest feeling was—newness.

The roads are wide, the buildings are new, and the green belts are neatly trimmed.

It's hard to imagine that this land beneath our feet was once a wasteland just a few decades ago.

But he could also see something different.

The old man playing chess by the roadside moves slowly, and even when he has checkmated someone, he just chuckles, exuding a kind of "it's good to be alive" kind of open-mindedness.

The auntie selling candied hawthorns would give an extra hawthorn to every child who passed by, her eyes full of doting affection.

The people in this city seem to cherish the warmth of the present moment more than people elsewhere.

Xu An opened the live stream.

Although no one spoke, the camera honestly recorded everything.

[ID Tangshan Big Brother Catches]: Anzi is home? See this? This is our great Tangshan, a phoenix rising from the ashes!

[ID History Representative]: Every time I see this monument, my heart feels heavy. Anzi, who is this letter for?

[ID: Uncle Xujiacun]: Anzi, wrap your coat tighter! Don't let my bird get cold!

Earthquake Relief Memorial Square.

The massive concrete monument pierces the sky, like a spine erected on the earth.

There weren't many people in the square, only a few pigeons strolling leisurely.

The wind blew across the monument, making a whistling sound, as if it were whispering.

Xu An stood at the edge of the square, his social anxiety preventing him from moving to the center.

He strained his ears, trying to find the sound of the accordion in the wind.

Since the envelope says "a blind man who can play the accordion," there must be music playing.

But apart from the sound of the wind and the distant traffic, there was nothing else.

"Didn't they come?"

Xu An was a little worried. If he couldn't find anyone, would he have to squat in the square all night?

Just then, a very faint yet exceptionally clear melody drifted out from the shadows behind the base of the monument.

It's neither a stirring symphony nor a popular pop song.

It's a very, very old Soviet song, "The Hawthorn Tree".

The music was slow, the bellows were pulled wide, and each note seemed to be torn apart by the wind and then pieced back together, carrying a sticky sadness.

Xu An followed the sound.

On the back of the monument, on a stone step sheltered from the wind, sat an old man.

The old man was wearing a faded blue Zhongshan suit, with the top button fastened. Although it was old, it was so clean that there wasn't a single crease.

He was wearing a pair of large sunglasses that covered half of his face.

He was holding a red accordion in his arms. The instrument looked older than him, with its keys worn yellow, but the red lacquer was still dazzlingly bright.

The old man didn't play the violin; he simply placed his hands on the keys, his head slightly tilted back, as if listening to the wind or waiting for someone.

The melody he just heard seemed to be just an illusion he had while testing the sound.

Xu An stopped five meters away.

He dared not get too close, for fear of disturbing this seemingly frozen scene.

The chat in the live stream became unusually quiet at that moment.

[ID Music Academy]: This piano... it's an old "Parrot" brand, at least from the 70s.

[ID Old Tangshan]: I've seen this old man before! He sits here every afternoon, but I've never seen him play a whole piece; he just sits there touching the violin.

[ID Tearjerker]: Who is he waiting for? Is there a story hidden behind those sunglasses?

Xu An took a deep breath, just about to muster the courage to step forward and start a conversation.

The birdcage in my hand suddenly shook.

Er Tu Zi, this clueless myna bird, sensed the oppressive atmosphere around it and decided to liven things up.

"Get to work! Get to work! No slacking off!"

That shout, sharp and piercing, shattered the somber atmosphere.

Xu An was so frightened he almost threw the cage out.

We're doomed.

This not only caused social unrest, but also disturbed the peace.

He quickly bent down to cover the black cloth on the cage, preparing to face the old man's wrath.

However, the expected scolding did not come.

The blind old man, who had been standing like a statue, suddenly jolted upon hearing the bird's call.

His fingers, which were resting on the piano keys, trembled violently, producing an extremely discordant bass note.

"Buzz—"

The old man suddenly turned his head. Even through the sunglasses, Xu An could feel that the unseen gaze was fixed on him.

The old man's Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and something seemed to be flowing down behind his sunglasses.

"You were sent by... that 'mute' guy?"

A mute?

Xu An quickly went through the genealogy of Xu Family Village in his mind.

There is indeed a mute uncle in the village, the one who lives at the scrap yard and can play the erhu.

But the previous letter was delivered to the Northeast Red Star Forest Farm on behalf of Uncle Ya.

This letter was found at the very bottom of the tin box, and it was signed with a symbol that looked like a hammer.

hammer……

Xu An suddenly remembered something.

That's the deaf-mute stonemason from the quarry on the back hill, the "Stone" Grandpa!

Grandpa Stone is mute, and this blind musician calls him "mute"—that's a logical loop!

"Grandpa, I am Xu An from Xu Family Village."

Without further hesitation, Xu An took out the thick letter from his canvas bag.

"Grandpa Stone asked me to bring this to you."

"He said... no, he drew an accordion on the envelope, and also drew an ear next to it."

Upon hearing the word "stone," the old man's hands finally stopped grabbing randomly and accurately found the buckle on the violin case.

"The stone... that stubborn stone..."

"I thought he had buried himself in that pile of rocks."

The old man gave a wry smile, a smile that contained three parts reproach and seven parts relief.

Xu An stepped forward and handed the letter to the old man.

The letter is heavy.

The moment the old man took it, his hand sank, clearly not expecting the weight of the letter.

He didn't rush to open it, but instead used his sensitive fingers to stroke the envelope back and forth.

I felt its thickness, I felt its hard, rigid outline.

"This is……"

The old man was stunned.

Xu An was also very curious about what kind of book was in the envelope.

If it's a book, how can a blind person read it? Unless it's a Braille book.

But Grandpa Stone was a stonemason who could barely read, so how could he possibly write a Braille book?

The old man suddenly pressed the envelope to his face and took a deep breath.

The envelope carried the smell of Taihang Mountain stone powder, an indelible scent emanating from Grandpa Stone.

"Child, could you please... tear open the seal for me?"

The old man handed the letter back, saying, "My hands are only good for touching piano keys now. I'm afraid I'll damage the contents if I tear something so delicate."

Xu An nodded.

Under the watchful eyes of hundreds of thousands of viewers in the live stream, he carefully tore open the seal.

There was no sound of paper rubbing together.

What was poured out were...stone slabs.

To be precise, it consisted of a dozen or so thin bluestone slabs, polished to the thickness of cicada wings.

Each stone slab is densely covered with raised dots.

That's not Braille.

That's... sheet music!

It's a simple musical score, carved out of the stone bit by bit with a chisel!

Xu An couldn't understand it, but he was deeply shocked.

How much skill does that take?

Grind the stone as thin as paper, and then carve musical scores on it so that blind people can read them.

This is no letter; it's a weighty "stone book"!

The old man reached out his hand with trembling hands, and the moment his fingertips touched the first stone slab, he felt as if he had been struck by an electric current.

He touched quickly, his fingers flying across the cold, hard stones.

He was still muttering to himself:

"Do...fa...so...this is..."

Suddenly, the old man stopped moving.

Two lines of clear tears slid down the edge of her sunglasses, dripping onto the bluestone slab, instantly spreading into a dark flower.

"That old bastard...that old bastard!"

"He didn't forget... he actually carved that piece of music for me!"

"Thirty years have passed... I've searched through all the sheet music, but I still can't find that variation that we played together in the cultural troupe back then."

"So, it was all in his mind, all in this stone!"

Xu An stood aside, watching the old man weeping bitterly while hugging the stone slab in the cold wind.

Although he didn't know what the piece of music was.

But he knew that this was definitely just another kind of stubborn romance between two old men.

One is blind, and the other is mute.

One cannot see the sheet music, and the other cannot speak.

So the mute man used stones to carve out a pair of "eyes" for the blind man.

"Erbald guy."

Xu An gently kicked the cage. "Stop making a fuss. This time I'll let you hear something real."

The old man carefully placed the stone slab on his lap, as if he were handling a rare treasure.

He took a deep breath and placed his hands back on the piano keys.

This time, it's not a test.

"Child, please thank that stone for me."

"Tell him that the blind man isn't blind; his mind is perfectly clear."

The bellows is turned on.

"Waaah—"

The moment the first note sounded, Xu An felt as if the wind in the entire square had stopped.

It was a piece of music that Xu An had never heard before.

It was passionate and fervent, yet it carried a sense of desolation and rebirth following the tremors of a great earthquake.

Each note is like a stone, striking one's heart.

In the live stream, countless people were captivated.

[ID Central Conservatory of Music Professor]: My God! This is a variation of "Phoenix Nirvana"! This is a lost and unique copy! Only Li Guohua, the "Number One Qin Player of Tangshan" back then, knew this fingering technique!

[ID Tangshanren]: I remember now! Grandpa Li! During the earthquake, his eyes were blinded by a collapsing beam, but what he held tightly in his arms was this piano!

[ID: Uncle Xujiacun]: That old rascal Shi Tou, he's usually so quiet, turns out he can write music? I'll have to find him for a couple of drinks later!

The music grew more urgent and faster.

The old man seemed to have returned to the stage of thirty years ago, back to the time when his eyes could still see the light.

His fingers danced on the piano keys, the tears behind his sunglasses long since dried.

Just as the music was about to reach its climax.

The bald guy on the ground seemed to be infected by this emotion, or perhaps he simply wanted to steal the spotlight.

It flapped its wings suddenly, and in a break in the music, it shouted in perfect Tangshan dialect:

"That's great! That's great! One more!"

The old man's hand trembled, and he almost broke the last long note.

But he wasn't angry.

Instead, he tilted his head back, looked up at the sky, and let out the most hearty laugh he had had in thirty years.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"What a bald bastard! One more, please!"

"Stone, oh stone, though you're mute and can't speak, this bird has said it all for you!"

Xu An couldn't help but smile as he watched this scene.

He suddenly realized that he had made the right choice in bringing the bird.

Sometimes, a heavy past needs a little bit of carefree chatter to turn the suffocating sadness into a story that can be enjoyed over drinks.

The old man put away his zither, then carefully placed the stone slabs one by one back into the envelope and kept them close to his body.

"Son, there's a place nearby that sells chess-piece-shaped sesame seed cakes; they taste really good."

The old man stood up, slung the violin over his back, and moved with such a nimble demeanor that he didn't seem like a blind person.

"Come on, let me treat you to some sesame cakes, and give this bird a couple too."

"It's right, life has to be lived to the fullest!"

Xu An quickly stepped forward to help, but the old man waved his hand and refused.

"I don't need any help. As long as I have this instrument and this sheet music, I can walk straight on the road."

At sunset.

A blind old man carrying a red accordion.

A socially awkward young man wearing a military overcoat and carrying a birdcage.

There was also a myna bird that kept saying "Dejin" (meaning "awesome").

This combination, walking on the wide streets of Tangshan, became the strangest yet most heartwarming sight.

In the live stream chat, someone was spamming the chat with the following sentence:

Even amidst the ruins, as long as someone plays the violin and birds sing, this is what life is all about.

By the time we finished eating the sesame seed cakes, it was completely dark.

Xu An took the old man home, to an old neighborhood not far from the square.

The old man did not reply when he left.

He simply pointed to the stone book and said, "This is the reply; he understands."

Xu An didn't ask any more questions; the tacit understanding among the older generation sometimes doesn't need words.