Teacher Yan circled around Lao Qiao three times, and I stood aside and looked at him coldly.
Lao Qiao is a tree. A tall pine . For some reason, Teacher Yan called it Lao Qiao.
The mountain where Lao Qiao lives is called Maoshan, which is the highest altitude mountain in the jurisdiction of Wacheng. It is not a mountain, it is a mountain connected by one.
Teacher Yan’s camera lens , regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, aimed at Lao Qiao countless times, and the shutter clicked continuously. In his photography studio, there is a large photo of Lao Qiao, the morning glow of orange-red , the dark green of pine needles of , the dark brown trunks of the tree, and the dragon-like branches, which are in a different form of majestic and solemn against the white snow. This is one of Teacher Yan’s representative works.
In the past, Teacher Yan only regarded Lao Qiao as the photographer and never went by his side. But this early spring day turned out to be abnormal. He pointed to the cliff under Lao Qiao's feet and said to me, go up and take a look.
On the cliff under Lao Qiao's feet, there are a large area of accented mountains and red .
We took a lot of effort to climb to Lao Qiao. I thought Teacher Yan would shoot those flame-like red mountains from a high place, but he turned around Lao Qiao three times and said, "Go down the mountain."
Teacher Yan said, then let’s go. Similar nonsensical words and deeds are his norm. I have been used to it for a long time and never ask the bottom line.
I have known Teacher Yan for nearly twenty years, but I have been unable to understand him thoroughly.
Teacher Yan is one of the earliest photography enthusiasts in Wacheng. He has been at the forefront of fashion from film machines to SLR machines. He is also particularly good at perfectly combining hobbies with the technique of making a living. It can be said that his hobby is his profession. The other way around is right.
I have seen photos of Teacher Yan when he was young. Long hair, bell-bottomed pants, standing in front of Beijing Railway Station in a relaxed position. Long-haired bell-bottom pants were a popular dress for young men in the early 1980s. They wandered around the street all day, with a toad lens on the bridge of their noses, a trademark sticking to one corner of one lens, and sometimes they had to carry a dual-slot recorder in their hands.
I smiled and said, but I didn’t expect that Teacher Yan is still a fashionista.
Teacher Yan also laughed, and after laughing, he arranged to eat and drink. I often eat and drink in his studio.
With the help of alcohol, Teacher Yan shook out all his love story in the bell-bottom era. The year the educated youth returned to the city, he met two girls and took turns dating them. Later, one girl danced Bohai , and another girl danced zhanghuang. Fortunately, they were rescued in time. After getting ashore, the girl swears to never see Teacher Yan from now on, saying that she would urge to jump into the sea as soon as she saw him.
Teacher Yan is very good at drinking. He said that he once went to the locust trees in Wugu'an for a picnic alone. He was drunk and fell asleep in the fragrance of locust flowers for an afternoon. The two nuns came together and poked him with wooden sticks to see whether he was dead or alive.
Teacher Yan once enjoyed the flowers while drinking beer and eating scallops under an acacia tree downstairs. He sat on the beer box and drank to the bottle. Drink all the bottle, and then throw the bottle at your feet, take out another bottle from under your butt, and then drink it. As a result, before he could finish drinking, his butt fell into the box, making a fat neighbor laugh at him.
Forgot what year it was in autumn. Teacher Yan, me, my colleague Xiao Gao, and our group of three went to Yuntai Mountain in the far suburbs to pick wild chrysanthemums . It is not just picking wild chrysanthemums, it is the buds of wild chrysanthemums. Teacher Yan uses flower buds to make chrysanthemum tea . Teacher Yan scoffed at the chrysanthemum tea sold on the market, and he only drank the chrysanthemum tea he made himself.
At noon that day, it rained while we were having a picnic in the oak forest in Yuntai Mountain. It's light rain. The raindrops hit the oak tree leaves, rustling. The leaves are dense and raindrops rarely fall on us. I suggested going down the mountain, and Teacher Yan said, "What's this little rain? We still have to drink tea after drinking." He has a complete set of outdoor tea-burning utensils, air tanks, stoves, kettles, and tea cups, everything. Drinking alcohol and tea in the wild is the norm in his life. It can be seen. He was filled with a strong Wei and Jin style.
The rain is getting heavier. The rain falling into the teacup started with drops and then clusters.My hair was wet, my shoulders and my sleeves were wet. I said, Teacher Yan, let’s go. As soon as I finished speaking, a basin of cold water suddenly poured on my forehead. I shouted and jumped up, hugging a tree next to me. I have noticed that the trunk of that tree has been dry for so long. I hugged the tree and looked at it again. Teacher Yan and Xiao Gao both hugged a tree, and the three of them stared at each other with big eyes. At this time, Xiao Gao was hanging on the pocket speaker on the tree branch, playing "The Love Song of the West Sea" by Jiangyang Zhuoma .
That day, Teacher Yan, Xiao Gao and I were soaked except for the corners of the body.
There was no such thing as drinking and driving at that time. Later, Teacher Yan entered a state of half-abstaining from drinking. There is no way, who can stay at home every day and not go out?
What I can’t figure out the most is how could Teacher Yan master so much confused knowledge? For example, he could smell the mushrooms and pick mushrooms together, but no one could pick him. For example, if you pick sour jujube , he has a double yellow line in his eyes. It must be sour jujube growing on gravel, preferably on shale, and on loess, it is definitely not. For example, in the mountains of Liaodong , he walked and stopped along a stream, and in a short time he found a piece of river moyu .
The day after returning from Maoshan, we went to visit Lao Qiao again. Teacher Yan took out a narrow strip of red cloth from his pocket, tied it to the trunk, then folded his hands together and murmured. After he finished murmuring, I asked carefully, what is this for?
Teacher Yan kicked away a ball of dead grass at the root of the tree and said, come and take a look. I leaned over and was startled. There were axe marks more than half a foot long and two inches deep at the roots of the tree, and the wooden stubble was very fresh.
Teacher Yan said that someone is trying to make Lao Qiao’s idea, I have to protect it.
I pointed to the red cloth strip on the tree trunk and said, can it work?
Teacher Yan smiled and speechless.
That day, Teacher Yan was very excited and photographed all day long.
Two weeks later, we visited Lao Qiao for the third time. I saw that there were three red cloth strips wrapped around Lao Qiao, and there was an incense burner under the tree, with three remaining incense sticks inside the furnace.
Teacher Yan slapped Lao Qiao three times and said with a smile, Lao Qiao, you have become a god.
Not long ago, I saw a photo of an oil pine tree in WeChat Moments. There were many red cloth strips wrapped around the trunk and there were also branches. The photo was called "Mashan Sacred Tree". I recognized it at a glance, it was Lao Qiao.
I forwarded the photo to Teacher Yan’s WeChat, followed by a like expression. (Author Hou Deyun)
