Tang Tang | On the Road

Wang Wang | Foreword

Before Tang Tang left Dali this time, I met her at Yinshi Youdu. When she walked in, she looked so well that I could describe it as glowing. She said, "Life and work have been going very smoothly lately; you are truly a lucky star."

I felt a bit embarrassed. The cherry blossom trip last time must have brought her something positive. I hope this time is the same. After reading this article, I said I liked the feeling of writing in different scenes. When the person is on the road, the writing is also on the road. The writing mirrors the person. This time, Tang Tang seemed so relaxed, writing "without restraint." As long as she's happy, it's good. She walked out of Yinshi Youdu with her backpack, turned into the alley, said a quick goodbye, and didn't look back. That's wonderful.

Tang Tang | On the Road

Jizu Mountain Hike: A Buddhist Pilgrimage Route

At a café in the ancient town, Wang Wang suddenly said, "Why don't you write another piece about the Jizu Mountain hike?" If I ever become a writer, he deserves some credit for it.

At that moment, my first thought was: what should I write about? It had been a long time since I'd done a proper hike. The route is beautiful for a short hike, but since I hadn't hiked in so long, I was just thinking about the hike itself and didn't know how to start writing.

I looked at Xiao Xi sitting on the ground. How about starting with Xiao Xi bringing eight tea eggs, of which I ate one, a companion ate one, and he ate the remaining six. The tea eggs were very tasty, but eating six might not be easy to digest. I glanced at Xiao Xi's innocent face and decided to write it that way.

Since I can't drink coffee lately, I chose Yunnan black tea. After a few cups, I felt a bit dizzy. I guessed it was real Yunnan black tea. Wang Wang's occupational habit kicked in, and he and Xiao Xi persuaded the owner of the Yinshi Youdu coffee shop to go dig up potatoes. They called themselves "gleaners of the earth" – packaging geniuses.

I went to Mengwang Coffee, which Xiao Xi recommended. Apparently, they close late, at 7 p.m. Well, I really envy the lifestyle of the people of Dali.

Then the first half of this article took shape by the window of Mengwang Coffee. The long table faced the second-floor windowsill. The road outside was very quiet, with only the occasional students walking by in groups. The breeze gently brushed the trees on both sides of the road, and the sound was very pleasant. The afternoon sun was just right for writing letters. After finishing the letter to Dan and postcards to A Huang and Jing, I picked up my pen to write about Jizu Mountain.

The earliest memory stops at the moment I saw the meadow. Before that, the path was all mountain trails. Suddenly, a huge flat meadow appeared before my eyes, and my heart suddenly opened up – probably because of the great contrast in scenery. The altitude here was a bit higher, and even though summer was approaching, there was still a deep chill. The grass was starting to turn green. In a while, it would surely be all green, but I really like this borderline of seasons. Spring and summer alternate on the meadow, time flows, and it makes you feel that no matter how people change, nature quietly continues its cycle of seasons, unchanging in a sense – that itself is romantic enough.

The wind was strong and cold. Being in the wilderness made me clear-headed. I love this feeling of clarity.

Many flowers had already bloomed on the meadow, but it wasn't the peak season. What left a deep impression on me were clusters of small yellow flowers. They weren't dense, scattered across the meadow, as dazzling as sunlight – warm and unrestrained. Blooming in the wind without any shelter, they gave off a sense of life's stubbornness. Xiao Xi said they were called wolf poison flowers – what a peculiar name.

We needed to cross the meadow, walking all the way along the low-lying area. The meadow felt soft to walk on. When I reached the halfway slope and looked back, the path we had come from lay fully in view, stretching far into the heart of the meadow. Suddenly, I realized the road behind us was already so long.

On the return train, the night deepened. Usually, I would fall asleep immediately, but the last couple of days I had eaten quite rich food, and my stomach was a bit uncomfortable. Two months of dietary restraint were half wasted. Unable to sleep, I found writing soothing, so I decided to continue writing.

The hike in my mind is not continuous; only the most impressive images remain – a certain image or a certain segment. As soon as I picked up the pen, the first thing that appeared was a large patch of raspberry bushes. The thorns were very sharp, and I remembered one falling into my shoe and hurting my foot. They weren't in season yet; in a while, you could walk and pick raspberries along the way. The joy of hiking seemed even greater then. The rustic pleasure of picking wild fruit in the mountains is incomparable to buying from a market.

Wang Wang said the magical thing about this route is that every section seems to have completely different scenery, adding a lot of fun to discovery. After crossing the meadow, I didn't remember how we entered this forest. Looking up, I noticed the woods on the side – sunlight filtered through the leaves and scattered through the forest, some falling on the leaf-covered forest path. A gentle breeze stirred, and the shadows of the trees danced gracefully. The afternoon sunlight was extremely soft, and my heart became extraordinarily tender in that moment. Walking on the forest path felt like walking on endless starlight. Stepping on the sunlight and fallen leaves on the path, I felt very light. Looking up, the light and shadows in the forest were soft and lazy, exuding a sense of ease and contentment. I truly wished I could keep walking like this forever.

When I wrote this passage in the night of Shenzhen, it felt as if I were in that mountain forest. My heart was very soft. Beside me was the tea brought by Lin Ya'na. Everything was just right. To feel such peace on a workday filled me with gratitude.

When we reached the foot of the mountain, we saw a temple. The temple building and the Buddha statues were very exquisite. Encountering it here felt quite magical in itself. When I walked from the side hall to the main entrance, I realized it was actually a temple I had stumbled upon eight years ago. When I first came here back then, I had to take a car along a very winding mountain road to reach it. At that moment, I couldn't help but believe that the coincidences in life are truly wonderful.

I love being on the road; every time brings different encounters and feelings. Life may be just an experience, so why not savor it.

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