Foglock Bluestone Alley

The fog at the entrance of the alley is always three times thicker than elsewhere, like cotton wool soaked in water, wrapped in moss marks on the bluestone and flowing slowly. Lin Yan was carrying a half-worn bamboo bookcase, tapping his heels on the stone floor, his voice muffled by the fog. He moved into this old alley three days ago and rented the old house with a small attic at the end of the alley. It is said that the previous owner was an old gentleman who was good at painting landscapes. When he moved out, he only took away an unfinished "Fog Alley Picture". At night, you can always hear a slight rubbing sound, like someone grinding ink on paper. Lin Yan thought it was a mouse at first, until on the fifth night, he was awakened by the coolness on the window lattice and saw the moonlight penetrating the mist, casting a slender shadow on the desk. The shadow held an invisible pen and lightly sketched on the blank rice paper. Wherever the pen tip crossed, the light-ink alleyway gradually blurred out, exactly like the foggy alley outside the window. "You also like the fog here?" Lin Yan asked softly. Shadow paused and slowly turned around. In the mist-like outline, there is a vague appearance of a woman in plain clothes, with a hazy veil between her eyebrows and eyes. "I have been guarding this painting for thirty years." Her voice was like the wind blowing through the rice paper. "My husband passed away due to illness halfway through the painting. I am the ghost of the ink that was not dry on the tip of his pen." Lin Yan remembered that his landlord had said that the old man had murmured to the drawing paper before he died: "The fog is not gone, the alley is not dry, and this is the place that haunts me in my dreams." He opened the book box, took out the inkstone he brought, and began to grind the ink. The fragrance of ink rose up and blended with the mist, and the woman's outline became clearer. "Let me help you finish the painting. I will help you finish the painting." Lin Yan picked up the pen and dipped it in ink. The woman's shadow nodded slightly, and her fingertips ran across the rice paper, guiding his brushstrokes. The lines of the bluestone slabs, the ferns in the corners, and the copper bells hanging under the eaves, all gradually come to life in the words. When the first ray of morning light penetrated the fog and fell on the last stroke of the painting paper, the woman's figure began to become transparent. Her voice trembled with relief, "The painting is done, it's time for me to follow my husband." " Lin Yan looked at the vivid foggy alley in the painting, and suddenly found two figures, an old man and a young man, standing at the entrance of the alley, smiling gently at him. The fog gradually dissipated, the sun shone on the bluestone, and the moss marks glowed with moist light. Next to the "Picture of Fog Alley" on the desk, there is a piece of warm black jade, with four words engraved on it: The fog disperses and the love is deep. Later, someone asked Lin Yan why he could always paint the most moving scenes of foggy alleys. He just rubbed the ink jade and said with a smile: "Because there is the lingering fragrance of ink in the alley, and the gentleness that doesn't want to leave. " Do you need me to continue writing extras to this story, such as the new adventures Lin Yan later encountered with "Fog Alley Picture", or to supplement the past relationship between the former owner and Mo Hun? "Fog Alley Picture Extra" Lin Yan never sold the "Fog Alley" again. He mounted the painting in a rosewood frame and hung it in front of the most conspicuous wall of the studio. Every morning he would carefully wipe the hazy alleyways in the painting. Since that day when he bumped into the shadow of the woman in the painting in the foggy alley, he always likes to sit quietly at the entrance of the alley with paper and pen. When the fog rises, he will outline the cornices at the end of the alley and the moss at the base of the wall. The foggy alley in his paintings gradually becomes less weird than when he first saw it, and becomes more warm and smoky. Three years later, Lin Yan became a well-known landscape painter, specializing in painting foggy scenes in Jiangnan alleys. Someone was willing to pay thousands of dollars for his early painting "Fog Alley", but he smiled and shook his head: "There is a fate hidden in this painting, which cannot be exchanged for a thousand dollars." That day coincided with the Qingming Festival, it was drizzling, and there was light mist in the mist alley. Lin Yan walked into the alley holding an oil-paper umbrella, and suddenly heard the sound of soft footsteps coming from the end of the alley. He raised his eyes and saw a woman in a moon-white shirt and skirt standing under an old locust tree. Her features and eyes were somewhat similar to the shadow in the painting. Seeing his gaze, the woman smiled slightly: "Mr.'S painting brought this foggy lane to life." Lin Yan's heart moved and he asked tentatively: "Have you ever seen the person in the painting?" The woman's fingertips stroked the rough branches of the locust tree, with a smile in her eyes: "When I was a child, I lived in this alley with my grandmother, and I often chased a white butterfly in the fog. The alley entrance in Mr.'S painting is exactly where I fell." In the mist, Lin Yan looked at the woman's features and suddenly understood that "The Fog Alley Picture" was never a spell to trap anyone, but a token of fate that connected him. Later, he often walked in the foggy alley with the woman, listening to her talk about the old times in the alley, and the paintings he wrote became more and more vivid. And the original "Fog Alley Picture" always hung in front of the wall of their study room. The fog in the painting seemed to never dissipate. Fog Alley Picture Extra (continued) After that day, Lin Yan and Su Wan often roamed the foggy alleys together. The fog in late autumn was particularly thick. When the morning fog spread over the bluestone road, it actually caused a loose green brick at the base of the wall to rise slightly. Su Wan leaned over to help, but as soon as her fingertips touched the brick surface, she felt that there was nothing underneath - the green bricks were actually moving. "There seems to be something hidden here." She said softly. Lin Yan knelt down and carefully removed the blue bricks, revealing a rusty copper box underneath. The box was engraved with fine intertwining lotus patterns, and the corners had been darkened by moisture. The copper box was unlocked and opened with a slight lift. There is a layer of yellowed tissue paper inside, wrapped in a small silver butterfly hairpin. The lines on the butterfly wings are still clearly discernible, but it is covered with a thin layer of rust; there is also a neatly folded old paper, the page is so brittle that it seems to break when touched. Su Wan unfolded the paper, and it was written in childish regular script with a child's twist: "It's foggy today, and Adie lost her left wing. I hid it here and will find it back when the fog clears. Grandma said that the fog in Fog Alley will remember all wishes." "It was written when I was a child!" Su Wan's eyes were red and her fingertips touched the handwriting on the note. "I remembered that the white butterfly I was chasing had a piece of its wing blown by the wind. I cried and searched for it for a long time but couldn't find it, so I hid my favorite silver butterfly hairpin here, hoping to get it back." Lin Yan picked up the silver butterfly hairpin, took a closer look at it in the dim light of the fog, and suddenly smiled: "Look at the back of the butterfly wings." Su Wan came closer and saw a very small word "yan" engraved under the rust - it turned out to be an old thing he accidentally left behind when he was young. Back then, he was studying painting with his master and was sketching in the foggy alley. He accidentally lost the hairpin his mother left him. He searched for it to no avail, but he didn't expect it to be hidden here. The fog gradually faded, and the sun penetrated the clouds and sprinkled on the alley. The old paper and silver hairpin in the copper box glowed warmly under the light. Su Wan looked at Lin Yan and suddenly understood that her grandmother's words that "Wuxiang will remember all wishes" were not false - the past buried by time, those fates that seemed to be missed, had long been quietly treasured by Wuxiang, waiting for the right time to return to them. Fog Image: Scavenging in the Fog at the Alley When the morning mist filled the Qingshiban Alley, seven-year-old Lin Yan was squatting next to the old locust tree at the entrance of the alley, staring blankly at a moire-patterned pebble on the ground. The stone surface was soaked in fog and shone, and the natural lines were like the lingering fog in the album. As soon as he put the stone into his pocket, he ran into a pair of foggy eyes. "Have you seen my candy?" Su Wan's braid was stained with tiny drops of water, and she was holding a rolled-up "Illustrated Book of Fog Images" in her hand. The gray-blue paint on the cover was wetted by the fog, making it hazy. Her voice was crying, and the tip of her nose was red, "It tastes like milk, wrapped in gold powdered sugar paper, and dropped near here." Lin Yan was stunned for a moment, rubbing the pebbles in his pocket with his fingertips, and bent down to rummage in the grass. The fog became thicker and thicker, making the shadows of the two people grow and shorten. He finally touched a sticky thing next to the root of the locust tree - it was the toffee coated with gold powder. Most of the sugar coating had melted and was stained with grass leaves. "Here you go." He handed the candy over, and his fingertips accidentally touched the back of her hand, and both of them retracted their hands as if they had been burned. Su Wan peeled off the candy wrapper and stuffed half of the milk candy into his mouth. The sweet milk flavor mixed with the mist and moisture spread on the tip of his tongue. She pointed to the pebbles exposed in his pocket: "This is so beautiful, like clouds in the fog." Lin Yan took out the pebbles, and the cloud patterns on the stone surface were vaguely visible in the fog. Su Wan tore off a blank page from the "Illustrated Book of Fog Images" and carefully wrapped the stone: "Let me use this as a bookmark. When the fog dissipates, I will draw you a picture of the fog image." She opened the album and pointed to one of the pages. "You see, there are many things hidden in the fog that will disappear, but once you draw them, you won't forget them." Su Wan's mother's call came from the alley. She hurriedly stuffed the paper wrapped with stones into the album, waved her hand and ran into the fog. The blue ribbon on her braid disappeared in the fog. Lin Yan stood there, the taste of milk in his mouth had not dissipated, and the candy wrapper in his pocket was stained with fog. The title page of the "Illustrated Book of Fog Images" was later sandwiched between the pebbles by Su Wan. When he turned it over many years later, there was still half a vague fingerprint with gold dust hidden in the fog marks on the edge of the page. 1. When the fog was so heavy that they could not see the alley entrance clearly, the two of them squatted under the old brick wall and made a promise: "When we are old enough to touch the light rope of the street lamp at the alley entrance, we will go to the seaside outside the alley to watch the sunrise together." They also secretly carved two crooked little footprints on the brick wall with stones (to mark the agreed height). ? The girl is good at sketching, and the boy picked up a tree branch soaked by rain at the entrance of the alley as a pen, and together they drew "The Monster Hidden in the Fog" on the damp ground - it was actually the "troubles they imagined they would overcome together when they grow up". The girl even tore off half of the sketch and gave it to the boy: "When we meet again, put the two halves together and you will know whether the other party has forgotten the promise." ? There is an abandoned mailbox at the end of the alley, and the two of them each wrote a note "for each other when they grow up": the girl wrote "I hope you still dare to run in the fog", and the boy wrote "I will find the fog monster you drew". They stuffed them into the mailbox together, and agreed that "on the first foggy day after adulthood, I will come here to pick up the note." The girl drew Fog Alley on the back of the candy paper she picked up, and the boy carved his initials on it with his nails. The two agreed that "no matter where they are when they grow up, as long as they see the paper with Fog Alley drawn on it, they will know that they are each other." After adulthood, the boy became an architect, and the facade of a building he designed happened to be a replica of the Fog Alley lines on the candy paper. As an illustrator, the girl saw a photo of this building in an art exhibition and instantly recognized the familiar outline. The two discovered that the old locust tree in the foggy alley would emit a specific rhythm of "rustling" when blown by the wind, so they agreed that "if you get lost in the fog when you grow up, you will clap to the rhythm of the locust tree." As adults, they clapped their hands at the same time because they were lost at a foggy music festival, which happened to match the rhythm of their childhood. The boy's family made incense candles, so he secretly took a piece of wax mixed with alley cypress leaves, shaped it into small cubes and gave it to the girl; the girl tied the straw rope she braided to the wax block, saying "the fog will retain the smell, just like our agreement" - when she grew up, the girl saw a piece of the same type of cypress leaf wax in an antique store (the boy's family has long since gone out of business, this is the only remaining stock), and the boy happened to be a part-time restorer in this store and was sorting out old things. 1. In the middle of the fog alley, there is a bluestone slab with grooves pressed by the wheels. On rainy days, a pool of fog will accumulate. The two squatted in front of the stone slab and dipped their fingers in water to draw circles: "This is our 'Boundary of Fog'. When you grow up, no matter who encounters difficulties first, just come here and step on the stone slab three times, and the other party will definitely feel it." They also buried two small stones of the same style they picked up under the stone slab as "tokens." ? .? Girls always say that there are "fog elves" hidden in the depths of Fog Alley, so the boy uses a transparent glass jar picked up from the alley grocery store to collect a jar of "fog" (actually moist air and a few locust leaves) and gives it to the girl: "When we grow up, we will take this jar of fog to travel and let the elves witness our agreement." The girl hid the glass jar in a wooden box in her attic and drew a small Fog Alley icon on the lid. ? ? The two discovered that in foggy days, the old street lamps at the alleys would emit warm yellow light, casting irregular light spots on the ground. They agreed that "when they grow up, no matter which city they are in, whenever they see lights like this in the fog, they will stop and think about each other for a second." They also imitated the appearance of street lights and used their fingers to draw the shape of light spots on the back of each other's hands as "exclusive marks for girls." Using scraps of blue cloth left over from her mother's sewing, she drew a simple map of Fog Alley, marking the bluestone slab where they hid the stones, the mailbox where they buried the note, and the old locust tree that could "sing"; the boy used a blackened match head to draw a map on the back of the map. A crooked compass, saying, "This way you won't get lost in the fog, and I can find you in the right direction." When she grew up, the girl became an ancient book restorer. When sorting out a batch of old things, she found a blue cloth map on the back of the book. The compass instantly reminded her of her childhood; and this map was a relic entrusted to the boy by his grandfather before he died, asking him to "find the owner of the map." The girl taught the boy to sing a nursery rhyme taught by his grandmother, with the lyrics "The alley is deep in fog and the locust flowers are fragrant." , Pebbles are hidden, the promise is long"; the boy added a clapping rhythm to the nursery rhyme, and the two agreed that "when they grow up, as long as they hear someone singing this song + clapping the right rhythm, it must be the other person." As adults, the two worked as volunteers in the same nursing home , when singing nursery rhymes to the old man, the girl sang that familiar melody, and the boy subconsciously beat the corresponding rhythm. The two of them were stunned at the same time. The boy used the cypress leaf wax from his own incense candle shop to pinch two small bells, each of which was engraved with the wheel of Fog Alley. The girl made two bracelets out of the grass at the alley and strung bells on them, one for each person: "The fog will carry the smell of cypress leaves, the bracelets will follow us, and the bells will ring when we meet again." After growing up, the girl was under great pressure from work. I recently put on a straw rope bell bracelet that was attached to the bottom of the suitcase. On a commute in a foggy day, the bracelet accidentally caught the backpack of the man next to me. The man was wearing the same bell bracelet on his wrist. The fragrance of cypress leaves spread out in the fog. Reunion with the blue cloth map. Raindrops woven diagonally across the bluestone road. Su Wan clutched the blue cloth map in her pocket and ran her fingertips over the frayed stitches on the edges. This was the token he gave her when she parted ways with Ayu ten years ago - crooked mountains and rivers embroidered with cotton thread on indigo coarse cloth, with half a ginkgo leaf sewn on the back. He said, "When the maple leaves turn red three times, you can find me on the map." She followed the old alley marked on the map and heard the faint sound of banging from the bamboo weaving shop in the rain and fog. At the corner, a young man in a gray shirt was lowering his head to repair a bamboo basket. Half of the faded red rope was exposed on his wrist, which fit perfectly with the half of her wrist. Su Wan's heartbeat suddenly accelerated and she slowly unfolded the blue cloth map: "Excuse me, do you recognize the marks on it? " The moment the young man raised his head, the rain seemed to have stopped. The outlines of his youth were still there between his brows and eyes, but the corners of his eyes were a little more calm, and their eyes suddenly lit up when they fell on the map. He took out the other half of a ginkgo leaf from his pocket and gently clasped it on Su Wan's half - the veins of the leaves were tightly connected, as if they had never been separated. "I've been waiting for you for ten years," his voice was hoarse, and his fingertips stroked the cotton mountains and rivers on the map. "Every year when the maple leaves are red, I repair the bamboo basket here, fearing that you won't recognize it when you find it. " Su Wan suddenly saw a stuffed doll lying in his bamboo basket, with the same indigo pattern as the map embroidered on the corner of his clothes. It was the stuff she had sewn with her own hands and accidentally left under the old locust tree. The rain and fog gradually dispersed, and the sun penetrated the clouds and fell on the blue cloth. Those faded stitches seemed to glow again, tightly weaving the two figures spanning ten years into the reunion at this moment. The fog at the entrance of the alley has not cleared yet. Lin Wanxing holds a half-rounded bronze token in his pocket and hears brisk clapping from behind - "One, two, three, clap your palms, the soles of your feet are printed on the bluestone; four, five, six, clasp between your fingers, there is the Big Dipper hidden in the fog; seven, eight, nine, walk around the alley, find the token and you can meet." " She turned around suddenly and saw a young man in a blue shirt clapping his hands in the corner. There was a silver sticker on his palm that matched the pattern of her token. The young man raised his eyes and continued to tap his palms with his fingertips: "You answer the last sentence. " Lin Wanxing's throat was tight, and she clapped her hands along with his rhythm, her voice shrouded in mist: "Everything is perfect, we are in harmony with each other, and if the code is correct, there will be no separation. " The moment the clapping sound ended, the young man took out a yellowed map from his arms. When he unfolded it, Lin Wanxing saw the location marked "Misty Hidden Alley". Seven red dots corresponding to the "Big Dipper" in the nursery rhyme were painted with cinnabar, and the groove of her token could fit into the depression in the center of the map. "The third sentence of the nursery rhyme says 'walk around the alley'," the boy's fingertips traced the winding alleys on the map. "It actually reminds us that the real road is to follow the moss in the corner - the moss on the bluestone only grows in the direction where the Big Dipper points. "The seemingly accidental ink dots on the edge of the map are actually "clapping rhythm codes" - every three ink dots are in a group, corresponding to the severity of the clap (solid ink dots for heavy claps, hollow ink dots for light claps), which perfectly match the "one, two, three/four, five, six" rhythm of the nursery rhyme. On the back of the map, "stars to the moon, cards to slots, see the ancient bridge when the fog clears" is written in rice soup. It needs to be wiped with warm water to reveal it, indicating the next place to go after recognizing each other. "Qing Qing. "Footprints on the stone slab" alludes to the need to step barefoot on the third bluestone engraved with stars in the alley (to verify identity) when recognizing each other; "The Big Dipper is hidden in the fog" not only corresponds to the red dot on the map, but also implies that the tokens of the two people together will form a complete Big Dipper pattern; "meet" in "find the token to meet" does not refer to meeting, but that after the instruction token is embedded in the map, it will trigger a hidden interlayer, revealing half a piece of scrap paper with family secrets written on it. Intention: fate