Micro-Fiction — Daxiang 微小说—大祥
The Qingming rain fell soft and fine. Guozi did not go home. At home, facing the direction of his hometown, he set out a cup of cold tea.
He thought of his uncle again — Daxiang.
Daxiang was forty-one when he died. Like some who leave in their prime, gone in an instant. Guozi was small then; he only knew how to cry. Forty years had passed in a blink, but his uncle’s face grew clearer in his memory.
Daxiang was born in the mid-to-late 1940s. His name meant “kind and steady,” and he was exactly that. In the early 1960s, his mother died of famine. His father was an honest, illiterate farmer. Daxiang was the eldest, with a string of younger siblings. He gritted his teeth, worked in the fields and studied, making it through high school. But there were no college entrance exams then — admission was by recommendation. The son of the neighboring brigade secretary got into university as a “worker-peasant-soldier” student. Daxiang’s family had no connections, so he returned to farming.
Fortunately, his father was a Party member from the Liberation War. The village arranged for Daxiang to work at the commune’s livestock farm. It was a job in name only — feeding pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese. From dawn to dusk, year round, he could barely collect any wages. Poor — truly poor.
Daxiang was over thirty and still unmarried. Once, a match was finally arranged, but his own uncle sabotaged it. A few other attempts fell through. So he remained single. Without children of his own, he poured all his love into his nephew, Guozi.
Guozi remembers: when he was naughty and his parents chased him to beat him, his uncle would hide him behind his back and say with a smile, “Didn’t see him.” Once Guozi set a neighbor’s cornstalk pile on fire and hid at the livestock farm. Daxiang didn’t scold or hit him. He crouched down, reasoned with him all evening, and only took him home the next day, telling Guozi’s parents, “Don’t you dare hit the boy.”
Daxiang valued Guozi’s early education. He bought him comic books — Three Fights the White Bone Demon, Railway Guerrilla — saving up for each one. He told him stories: “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “Wang Erxiao,” his eyes shining at the exciting parts. He also taught him to write and do arithmetic. Once, he pulled Guozi out of bed at dawn to run. Guozi had never woken so early. He ran a few steps, out of breath. Daxiang had to take him back to sleep. He never made him run again. But Guozi knew his uncle wanted him to be healthy.
Daxiang was pure-hearted. Unlike some villagers who gossiped endlessly, he loved singing Huaihai opera, reading, and running. His heart was as clear as a spring.
In the early 1980s, Daxiang was diagnosed with liver cancer. The family was poor; cancer was a death sentence. They couldn’t afford a big hospital. Every night, he writhed in pain, drenched in sweat, rolling across the bed. Once, he couldn’t bear it anymore and took a rope to hang himself — his family stopped him. He suffered like that for years. In the mid-1980s, he passed away.
On the day he died, Guozi cried his heart out.
Guozi often thinks: if only his uncle were still here. Those important choices in life — schooling, work, starting a family — what advice would his uncle have given? What heartfelt words would he have spoken? None of that happened. His uncle left too early — before Guozi had a chance to grow up, before he could say thank you.
Villagers say an ordinary person is forgotten in ten or twenty years, fifty at most. But Guozi remembers. He remembers the way his uncle hid him behind his back. The way he crouched to reason with him. The way his eyes lit up telling stories. The way he writhed in pain but never cried out.
The cold tea grew cold. Guozi stood by the window. His hometown was hundreds of miles away; he could not return.
But he knew that on his uncle’s grave, the grass would be green again.
He remembered the song his uncle taught him: “The ox still grazes on the hillside, but the cowherd boy has gone, no one knows where…”
清明雨细，郭子没有回去。他在家里，面朝老家的方向，摆上一杯清茶。
他又想起了大伯——大祥。
大祥走的时候，41岁。跟一些正值壮年却突然离开的人一样，说没就没了。那时郭子还小，只知道哭。一晃四十年，大伯的模样在记忆里反而越来越清晰。
大祥生于上世纪四十年代中后期，人如其名，慈祥稳重。六十年代初，母亲死于饥荒。父亲是个老实巴交的农民，大字不识几个。大祥是家里老大，底下弟弟妹妹一溜儿，他硬是咬着牙，一边挣工分一边读书，读到了高中毕业。那时候没有高考，上大学靠推荐。隔壁大队书记的儿子，凭着“工农兵”身份上了大学。大祥家没有门路，只能回村务农。
好在父亲是解放战争入党的老党员，村里照顾，让他去了公社办的家禽场。说是工作，其实就是喂猪、喂鸡、喂鸭。从早忙到晚，一年到头，工资都结不到几次。穷，是真穷。
大祥三十多岁了还没成家。好不容易有人说媒，他亲舅舅跑去把婚事搅黄了。后来又说了几次，都没成。就这么耽误了。他没有自己的子女，便把所有的爱都给了侄子郭子。
郭子记得，小时候调皮捣蛋，被爸妈追着打，大伯总是把他藏到身后，笑着说：“没看见。”郭子闯了祸，点着了邻居的玉米秸垛，吓得躲进家禽场。大伯没有打骂，蹲下来跟他讲道理，讲了一晚上，第二天才送回去，还叮嘱二祥夫妻：“不许打孩子。”
大伯注重郭子的启蒙。给他买小人书，《三打白骨精》、《铁道游击队》，一本一本攒。给他讲故事，狼来了、王二小，讲到精彩处，眼睛会发光。还教他写字、算算术。有一回大清早，大伯把郭子从被窝里拽起来跑步。郭子从来没起过那么早，跑了几步就喘不上气，大伯只好把他送回来，让他继续睡。以后再没叫他跑过。但郭子知道，大伯是想让他有个好身体。
大伯很纯粹。不像村里有些人，张家长李家短地嚼舌头。他喜欢唱淮海戏，喜欢看书，喜欢跑步。心里干净得像一汪水。
八十年代初，大祥查出肝癌。那时候家里穷，癌症就是绝症，没去大医院治。每天晚上，他疼得在床上翻滚，满头大汗。有一次实在受不了了，拿了根绳子想上吊，被家人拦下。就这样在痛苦里熬了几年，八十年代中期，他走了。
走的那天，郭子哭得撕心裂肺。
郭子常常想，如果大伯还在，该多好。人生中那些重要的选择——考学、工作、成家——大伯会给他什么建议？会拉着他的手说哪些体己话？这些都没有了。大伯走得太早，早到郭子还没来得及长大，还没来得及跟他说一声谢谢。
村里人说，普通人死了，十几二十年、顶多五十年就没人记得了。可郭子记得。他记得大伯把他藏在身后的样子，记得大伯蹲下来跟他讲道理的样子，记得大伯眼睛发光讲故事的样子，记得大伯疼得满床打滚却从来不喊一声的样子。
清茶渐渐凉了。郭子站在窗前，老家在几百里外，他回不去。
但他知道，大伯的坟头，草又该青了。
他想起大伯教他的那首歌：“牛儿还在山坡吃草，放牛的却不知道哪儿去了……”
四十年了，大伯，郭子还记得你。
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Suzhou Victory Textile Co., Ltd. （苏州维特瑞纺织有限公司）is located in Changshu city(belongs to Suzhou District) Jiangsu,China. 80 Kilometers away from Shanghai Port.
Our team has been working in textile over 18 years.Our mainly products are Tie dyed Fabric,Velour/Velvet,Quilt Fabric,Jacquard Fabric,Single Jersey, Pique,Rib Fabric,Bird Eyes/Mesh Fabric, Interlock, French Terry/Fleece, Polar Fleece, Coral Fleece, Flannel Fleece, PV Plush, Sherpa Fleece,Coarse Needle Fabric etc Fabrics.
Compositions include Polyester,Cotton,Spandex/Lycra,Nylon/Polyamide,Rayon/Viscose,Modal/Tencel,Bamboo,Arcylic,Soybean,Wool,Flax/Linen,etc.
Functional Fabric:Sportswear Fabric(Coolmax,Coolpass,Coolplus,X-dry,Cooldry,Feelcool Ice,Topcool,Sorona,Supplex etc.),Waterproof,Fireproof(Aramid,Polyimide),Heat(Thermolite),Antibiosis(Sanitized),Uvioresistant,Radiation-proof,Recycle,BCI,Organic,Pima/Supima etc Fabrics.
We also have invested a home textiles & garments factory where we move our fabrics to sew many kinds of Garments, blankets etc.
Our marketing team and QC department are checking all the day in every process and keep close contact with customers to make sure customer knows every stage of the production. All the fabrics and blankets are inspected by our QC before packaging and shipping. Also we can provide some certifications Such as Oeko-Tex standard 100, SGS, Intertek etc.
We have production capability 5000 tons of various type of fabrics annually.Our products are mainly transported to China, southeast Asia, Middle East, Europe and America etc.
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