"prelude
On the flower street, night lights are lit.
Today, there is no trace left. But in the last years of the Taisho period, in that small port that stretched into the Seto Inland Sea, there was a weathered area that made people feel lonely even at that time, and its name was "Changye Slope".
Having lived to such an old age, I still often think of the white flowers and deserted lights that were lit all night. The strange thing is that every time I think of it, it always looks so cold and lifeless.
Let’s just say it’s a dead lamp shadow. The light was empty, like light and shadow falling on the dark water, and it quickly drew a tail and then disappeared - yes, the bright red colors of the Flower Street and the lights covering the gorgeous and messy clothes of the girls, somehow, It actually made me feel a little similar to the gloomy light of the white lanterns in mourning.
Time moves with ease, and the years pass by like water. It has been a prosperous port for various ships plying the Seto Inland Sea since the Ho-Naga period. It was also a place where boatmen, merchants, and passers-by found a moment of solace, and its reputation spread far and wide. However, such a prosperous place declined all the way after the railway reached the town. The screams of the girls, the sound of the sanxian, and the laughter of the drunkards were all suppressed by the strong sea breeze and the sound of the waves. Perhaps it can also be said to be a kind of reflection. In the late Taisho years when that incident occurred, it was like the last spark of life was ignited, and there was a period of time when the place regained its brief prosperity.
I don’t know why, but people suddenly thought of Changye Slope again. They gathered under the lights on the slope and had a lot of carnival, forgetting the whiteness of the East.
But it was still a dark age!
The Great Kanto Earthquake, the Osugi Incident, etc. came one after another, and the sound of the impending collapse of the era also brought echoes to this place - people flocked to the street as if to escape this gloom, greedily craving for a night of fun.
Under the cold and empty lights, the flow of human desire surges every night. It looked like a desperate funeral ceremony to bury something in life that had been contaminated by the darkness of the times.
However, it was just the last burst of flames.
One year after the incident, the Taisho era came to an end, as if swallowed by the end of an era. The lights on Changye Slope were turned off, and no one mentioned its name anymore - well, yes, it was the last time I saw the flower street with my own eyes. A light went out, and it was one of the people involved in that event.
At that time, I was in a building in the back street of Changye Slope.
A shabby house, living together with Ah Xian.
Ah Xiu must have been thirty-seven or eighteen years old at that time. She was born in a rural area in a neighboring county. In her hometown, Ming Yuanzheng married her husband, but her husband fell ill not long after they got married. She lived a life of good times and bad. In order to earn some medical expenses, she was forced to come to Changye slope work. .
Of course, it was not convenient for her to pick up guests at that age, so she had to work as a servant in a decent hotel. She has thin skin, tender flesh, and a slightly chubby softness, so there are many men who want her, but she is loyal and lives a pure life. She doesn't know why, but she has a lot of sympathy for me - yes, it's because she is a stubborn woman who is willing to work in the flower street for her sick husband, so she is not like a coward like me. Let's get along with a man. I am also so old that instead of looking for those young girls who only know how to fool around, I would rather have a serious body that has been washed away by the lights of the flower street.
Not long after my old wife passed away, I tested Ah Sui. Unexpectedly, because her husband's condition worsened and the burden of medical expenses became heavier, she began to feel uneasy about the future, so she agreed without a second thought. Then, yes, we were like an old couple, quietly living together in a corner of the slope.
No, no, regarding my life experience, please forgive me for not mentioning it!
I am the third-generation owner of a cloth shop in a neighboring town, but I was not born to do business, and I don’t have a single son or daughter, so I left the business of the store to the shopkeeper. Starting about two years ago, I work half the time. The Azao family lingering on the slope.
In April of this year, it was the day when the cherry blossoms were blooming. Axiu told me that her husband had passed away, so we discussed spending some time together - which was exactly when the incident happened - to find a larger house. Live together.
——Yes, in the incident I am going to tell you below, the man who played a certain role was a neighbor who lived next door to Axiong. No, I remembered that man long before the incident happened, because I always felt that the man's back looked very thin.
In the evening, sometimes from the window facing the alley, I would see a man who seemed to be going out to buy something walking down the slope. His figure really seemed to melt away in the dusk in the alley.
This is not true at all.
I am not saying this just because he died in detention after that incident.
It was that thin figure, not fake at all, that made me miss him so strangely.
Once upon a time, there was a geisha Ataki who often interacted with me. She often talked about the chef of a small restaurant in a mantra: "Look, why is Ashin-san's back so thin?" After hearing this often, I also started to talk about it. Remember the chef named Nobuchi. One day, I happened to pass him on the corridor of that restaurant. I looked back inadvertently and saw his back figure leaving in the darkness of the corridor where the faint light reflected through the paper door could not reach. , even a stranger like me seemed to be saying goodbye. It seemed extremely lonely.
Not long after, I heard the news of Nobuyoshi's death from Ataki. At that time, I couldn't help but think that this girl could tell his fate from his back, which deeply touched me. I was still young at the time, and I was very interested in the scene in Flower Street where people greeted each other with their backs... No, no, this Master Nobuyoshi had nothing to do with the incident.
I just want to say that every time I see that person's back, I will be reminded of the late Shinji's back for no reason. They all have the same thin shadow.
Yes, yes, shortly after the incident, the man died too. Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel that maybe he was also in that dark alley, with that back view as if nothing had happened, quietly saying his last farewell to me alone before he died.
The man was about thirty-five or sixty years old. His thin body was often covered with a thin kimono like a monk's robe, and his back was slightly hunched. It was as if he didn't want to see anyone.
Well, he lived in the room at the end of my row of houses.
I remember his name was Igawa Jiupei. Looking at his weathered appearance, I suspected that this was not his real name. But there is a nameplate with the four characters "Igawa Jiupei" hanging on the door of his residence. Although it is hidden by the vine leaves extending from the wall of my residence, you can still see that the calligraphy on the name tag is very beautiful.
That's what I say, but I dare say that not many people who live on the slope will recognize this name.
People only know that he is in the writing profession. A person who lives alone in a small house will naturally not have much contact with neighbors. Therefore, the title "Mr. Scrivener" is already very appropriate.
There is a piece of paper taped to the narrow glass door with the word "Affidavit" written on it, which serves as a billboard. As expected of someone who works in this field, the handwriting is indeed impressive, but on windy days, you will always see the corners of the paper peeling off, trembling on the unstable and creaking glass door, as if it is about to It seemed to fall off and run away, which showed the person's daily living conditions. It seemed that he was extremely lonely.
Despite this, he lived up to his name, and there were not too many people coming in and out of his house.
It's no wonder that since the location is on Flower Street, most of the girls are from nearby poor villages, and reading and literacy are out of the question. Therefore, in order to write letters to their hometown, or send money home, the girls have to I came to ask him to write for me.
Sometimes in broad daylight, when I was sleeping in the room, I heard the sound of the glass door panel creaking, followed by "Mr. Scrivener, please, please". The young girl's voice seemed to be very young. It's a lot of fun to listen to this kind of talk.
Yes, that man is very quiet, and because of the friendship between neighbors, I can't help but occasionally come to his door and ask him to write a New Year's card or something like that. Sometimes I go over to chat when I have nothing to do. I met him in a public bathroom and I will help him. It was hard to rub my back, but in the end, we couldn't achieve harmony. No, he is definitely not the kind of person who shows off his indifference and refuses to stay out of others.
He has that quiet look, he's still quite young, and he feels a little detached.
Ah Xiu would sometimes go over and ask him to write letters home and so on. One time he even said: That man is a bit like a monk!
I always chattered about boring things, but he never showed an unhappy or bored look. Most of his white face had a faint smile that seemed to be there, and Ah Xiu and I asked him to write for us. What, it’s basically free.
He must know that girls are like that "
He saved every penny of his hard-earned money and sent it back to his hometown. He was never stubborn about the fees, so the money he earned must be very limited. Therefore, his reputation was very good - yes, even if people knew he was involved in that terrible incident After he was the culprit, many people on the slope still sympathized with him.
