July 29, 1979 Rain

Yesterday, I made an appointment with Xiaoling to go to Huangpu Port today. I got up early in the morning and looked at the sky, but couldn't help frowning; the sky was dark and gloomy, as if it was deliberately opposing us. Xiaoling said if it rains, we won't go, so I estimated that the possibility of going this time was not very high.

At the agreed time, Xiaoling had not yet arrived. At this moment, the sky gradually brightened, and I became anxious, walking to the entrance of the alley to look down the road. Ha, she’s here! I immediately ran back home to change clothes.

Everything was ready, and we set off. Along the way, the weather was sometimes dark and sometimes bright, which made me a bit worried.

Once on the 33 bus to Huangpu, my heart settled a bit. The bus passed through the bustling city center and drove onto the road leading to the suburbs.

The bus was speeding along, and outside the window were vast, boundless fields and rolling mountains, forming a series of colorful landscape paintings that constantly entered my view. I was extremely excited.

Xiaoling and I were enthusiastically admiring the scenery outside the window, and before we knew it, the bus had arrived at Huangpu Terminal.

“It’s so quiet here, hey, it’s like a park!” Xiaoling couldn’t help but say.

Yes, it is indeed beautiful here. Although it is far from the city center, the environment is quite similar.

Trees were neatly lined up on both sides of the road, and not far away was a large flower bed. Next to the flower bed was the Seamen's Cinema, and beside that was the Seamen's Club. The main purpose of this outing was to find Xiaoling's uncle, who was in charge at the club, to take us into the port, as entry was only allowed with an acquaintance.

We arrived at the entrance of the club, told the guard we were looking for someone, and walked in.

Inside, it was very quiet, the floor was shiny, and there were a few large sofas on both sides of the hall, resembling a palace.

We went to the second-floor conference room and saw Xiaoling's uncle presiding over a meeting, so we walked away.

The staff said the meeting would last until the afternoon. Ah, what to do?

I thought for a moment and said, “Let’s go to my aunt’s house for lunch. She lives in Huangcun.”

Xiaoling agreed.

After a short ride, we arrived at my aunt's house, and I happily said, “Xiaoling, this is the place I used to play when I was a child.”

My aunt was very happy to see us and quickly started cooking.

After lunch, we planned to go out for a walk. Xiaoling said she wanted to take the binoculars that the child at her aunt's house played with.

At the street corner, we met my great-aunt's fourth daughter, Amei, next to a fish stall. She has grown a lot and was naturally very happy to see me.

Then Xiaoling and I walked down a small path leading to the railway.

As we walked, I pointed to the lychee grove ahead and said to Xiaoling, “Do you see it? When I was a child, I used to play with my friends there, and I also caught crabs in the nearby fields.”

Xiaoling picked up the binoculars and looked over there, her posture resembling a commander in the field.

She echoed me and then sighed a bit, saying, “The scenery here is really beautiful; it would be great if we had a camera.”

I thought it was a bit of a pity too. After a while, large dark clouds gathered in the sky, but we still didn’t want to go back. Unknowingly, we walked near the railway, and at that moment, we heard a long whistle as a train came from that side, dragging a long tail as it disappeared into the distance.

We turned around to head back, and suddenly, Xiaoling exclaimed as if she had discovered a new continent, running towards the roadside ahead. It turned out there was a very large banyan tree there, and beside the tree was a stone roller. Xiaoling ran over, climbed onto the stone roller, and then climbed up the tree. I followed her example and climbed up too. Hey, it was really fun. The binoculars came in handy again; I held it up to look at the distant mountains and vaguely saw many trees on the mountain. I said while looking, “There might be many graves on that mountain.” I had seen many on the mountain next to us while on the bus.

“Yes,” Xiaoling replied.

“Look! How beautiful that scene is, a lush big tree next to a gently rippling pond. It would be great to capture this shot with a camera,” she suddenly said loudly beside me.

“Oh no! It’s raining!” I couldn’t care less about her and shouted as I saw many raindrops falling into the pond, disrupting the regular rippling waves.

The sky became increasingly dark, and it seemed a heavy rain was about to come. We were still some distance from my aunt's house, and we started to panic.

Xiaoling went down first, but her feet couldn't reach the stone roller. Hey, the more anxious we were, the less we could do. In the end, we finally jumped down recklessly.

The rain got heavier, and we ran quickly, finally making it back to my aunt's house.

Looking at the rain outside, I couldn’t help but feel a bit melancholic, saying, “What bad luck, encountering such terrible weather!”

After a while, it finally stopped, and we set off for Huangpu.

This time we finally had some luck and reunited with my uncle.

My uncle took us to the Seamen's Club again and showed us the entire club.

It turned out there was also a lotus pond, a rockery, bonsai, as well as a hostel, ice room, reading room, and restaurant.

My uncle took us to the restaurant, which was even more elegant, with neat and clean dining tables and chairs, and deep blue velvet curtains hanging by the windows. My uncle told us: In the evening, the seamen would return from the sea, and the entire restaurant would be filled with people.

I looked around; now, besides us, there was only one table with three people sitting at it.

My uncle treated us to soda and snacks, and then we walked out.

I said to my uncle, “Uncle, we want to go see the port.”

“Oh, then I’ll take you there later. I have to work now; just wait for me at the port,” my uncle said.

My uncle finally came. He took us to the entrance of the port, showed his credentials, and we went in.

What a large port! There were giant ships of ten thousand tons docked. Cranes were loading and unloading goods under the operation of dock workers.

My uncle took us to the rooftop of the second floor of the warehouse, and this time we could see clearly. The sun had come out, shining on the river surface, making it sparkle.

We asked my uncle many questions. Xiaoling asked, “Was the movie 'Harbor' filmed here?”

My uncle shook his head with a smile.

I asked again, “Where is Huangpu Military Academy?”

He pointed across the river and said, “It’s right across from here; it’s blocked by the ship.”

Then he pointed to a large yellow cargo ship ahead and said, “This ship was bought from West Germany for several tens of thousands.”

After watching for a while, we went down from the rooftop. At that moment, the loudspeaker was playing a segment of 'Iron Bow Fate,' almost drowning out our voices.

We walked along the riverbank, and I saw ships named “Nanxiang” and “Jinchengjiang.” My uncle said these were all made by us.

We arrived next to a foreign cargo ship and saw workers loading and unloading. The unloaded items were large boxes with some English writing on them that I couldn’t understand.

Xiaoling pointed to a somewhat imposing foreigner on the ship and asked my uncle, “Uncle, is that person a big boss?”

My uncle smiled and replied, “Not necessarily; he could be the captain or the first mate.”

At that moment, I suddenly remembered a novel I read a few years ago called 'The Fortress Besieged,' which described how reconnaissance personnel solved cases at Huangpu Port. Looking at the crane operators who were loading goods, I thought: perhaps one of them is Huang Dagu.

Thus, we almost toured the entire port. The sun was occasionally hidden, and finally, it saw us off as we headed home...