Voice Messages from Grandma

By Zhao Ting

Late at night, my bus was crossing the border of Vietnam and Laos, with high mountains, deep valleys and barren lands disappearing slowly at each side of the silent road. Finally, the bus pulled up by the muddy roadside near the border. I then picked up my cellphone and found that it was luckily connected to a free WiFi network nearby. Six or more messages popped up on my cellphone through WeChat.

I pressed the first message and the others followed automatically. A familiar voice reached my ears:

“A Ting, it’s Grandma. How are you? Hahaha.”

“What are you doing now? Have you had your meal yet?”

“Is the food abroad delicious? It’s getting colder and colder, so don’t forget to cover yourself with two quilts when you sleep.”

“Can you understand foreigners when they speak? Have you bought me some delicious snacks?”

I checked my watch and found it was past eleven o’clock, which means it was past midnight in China. Grandma should have been asleep. I looked at the stars in the sky, and sent a voice message to my grandma: “Hi, Grandma. It’s A Ting. How are you?”

When I was ready to get back to the bus, to my surprise, I received her reply: “Oh, A Ting, why do you stay up so late? Go to bed now! Remember to cover up well, and don’t leave your feet outside the quilt.”

I lay down on the bed and answered, “Don’t miss me so much. I’ll be back soon.”

這一路，崇山峻嶺，曠野荒蕪，駛過(guò)無(wú)人公路，開(kāi)過(guò)越南老撾邊境。

夜深了，汽車停在離越老邊境不遠(yuǎn)的一條土路邊。我本能地拿起手機(jī)，發(fā)現(xiàn)竟然連上了WiFi。有一個(gè)人連續(xù)給我發(fā)了六七條語(yǔ)音。

我按下第一條，傳出溫暖的聲音：

阿挺啊，我是你外婆啦，你還好嗎？哈哈哈哈哈。

你現(xiàn)在在干嗎？吃飯了沒(méi)有呀？

國(guó)外東西好不好吃？天氣越來(lái)越冷，睡覺(jué)要蓋兩條被子。

外國(guó)人講話你都聽(tīng)得懂嗎？好吃的給我買了沒(méi)呀？

我看了一下時(shí)間，十一點(diǎn)多，此時(shí)中國(guó)時(shí)間是十二點(diǎn)多，外婆應(yīng)該早就進(jìn)入夢(mèng)鄉(xiāng)了。我看著滿天的繁星，給外婆發(fā)了一條語(yǔ)音：我是阿挺，外婆，你還好嗎？

準(zhǔn)備再次上車時(shí)，微信有了提示音，外婆竟然發(fā)來(lái)了語(yǔ)音：哦，阿挺啊，這么晚還沒(méi)睡啊？

你趕緊睡覺(jué)啊，記得被窩要蓋好，腳不要露在外面，手腳都要放到被窩里。

我躺在通鋪里說(shuō)：你不用太想我，我馬上就能回來(lái)了。

汽車發(fā)動(dòng)，沿著土路緩緩?fù)伴_(kāi)去，我看著這條語(yǔ)音轉(zhuǎn)啊轉(zhuǎn)一直沒(méi)發(fā)出去，于是趕緊加了一句：你早點(diǎn)睡啊，我馬上就回來(lái)看你，給你買了很多好吃的。

我本來(lái)打算從老撾飛緬甸，然后再去印度，一路向西，繼續(xù)我的背包窮游生活。現(xiàn)在我一路回聽(tīng)著外婆的語(yǔ)音，覺(jué)得應(yīng)該先給外婆帶點(diǎn)什么吃的東西回去。

第二天早上六點(diǎn)，車才到達(dá)瑯勃拉邦（老撾著名的古都和佛教中心），我從瑯勃拉邦坐了十二小時(shí)的汽車到了老撾首都萬(wàn)象，從萬(wàn)象又坐了一天兩夜的國(guó)際大巴終于到了昆明。在昆明，我疲憊不堪，連走路都想睡覺(jué)，在市區(qū)匆匆買了鮮花餅后就坐上了回寧波的飛機(jī)。

The bus restarted, going slowly along the bumpy road. I found my voice message had not been sent out yet, so I added one more: “Go to bed early. I will come back to see you soon, and bring you a lot of delicious snacks.”

I had planned to take a flight from Laos to Burma, then to India, all the way west, to continue my backpacking journey. However, replaying my grandma’s messages on my phone again and again on the bus, it came to me that I should stop my journey and buy her some snacks first.

At six the next morning, the bus finally arrived in Luang Prabang (a famous ancient capital and the Buddhist center of Laos). It took me twelve hours to travel from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos by bus, and then a day and two nights from Vientiane to Kunming by international bus. In Kunming, I was so tired that I nearly fell asleep while walking. After I grabbed some flower cakes from a downtown store, I got on the plane back to Ningbo.

When I got off the plane, I didn’t go home. I went straight to my grandma’s house with five boxes of flower cakes.

Grandma looked at me for a long time before she opened a box and took a bite of a flower cake. She exclaimed, “Wow, it is so delicious!”

I was surprised by her “wow.”

Grandma asked, “In which country did you buy it?”

I faltered, “L, L... Laos.”

Grandma responded: “Weird name, but delicious food.”

And then, my grandma handed me a flower cake and she began to eat one at a time. I said: “I have eaten flower cakes all the way here.”

With a small amount in her mouth, Grandma said, “Don’t lie to me.”

That day, my grandma ate over half of the box of flower cakes. While eating, she took out a Chinese-made smartphone that she got as a free promotional gift and said, “I can also use WeChat now. By the way, I am going to learn about computers at the university for the elderly, so that I can communicate with you at any time in the future.”

When I unlocked the screen, I found the interface was her WeChat dialogue with me, and I casually pressed the back key to the main page.

Upon seeing it, Grandma grabbed the phone and said: “What are you doing? You closed the page, how can I chat with you again?”

I calmed her, “Why? You can open WeChat again.”

Grandma said, “It’s too complicated. The young man next door taught me to keep the screen like this, so that when I wanted to talk to you, I could just press the speak button and then press down to listen, but now you made the buttons disappear.”

I opened WeChat again and reopened the dialogue page between Grandma and me.

Grandma said, “Yes, that’s it. Don’t touch it any more.”

In her world, putting the WeChat dialogue page between her and me as an interface meant a lot.

Holding the smartphone in her left hand and a flower cake in her right, she said: “It’s really delicious. Buy me some more next time, OK?”

Twenty years ago, I had asked the same question. While eating a big piece of chicken from KFC her house, I said to Grandma, “It’s really delicious. Buy me some more next time, OK?”

(FromGrandma’s Heroic World, Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing, Ltd. Translation: Zhou Honghua)

下了飛機(jī)，我沒(méi)回家，帶著五盒鮮花餅徑直去了外婆家。

外婆上上下下端詳了我很久，才打開(kāi)盒子拿著鮮花餅咬了一口，說(shuō)：“哇，這么好吃？”

我被這聲“哇”嚇了一跳。

外婆說(shuō)：“哪個(gè)國(guó)家?guī)?lái)的？”

我支吾說(shuō)：“老……老撾。”

外婆說(shuō)：“名字這么難聽(tīng)，東西倒蠻好吃的。”

說(shuō)完，外婆遞一個(gè)給我，就一口一個(gè)地吃起來(lái)。我說(shuō)：“我吃過(guò)了，一路吃著鮮花餅過(guò)來(lái)的。”

外婆嘴里塞著鮮花餅說(shuō)：“莫騙我哦。”

那天，外婆吃了大半盒的鮮花餅，邊吃邊拿出一部促銷送的國(guó)產(chǎn)智能手機(jī)說(shuō)：“我也會(huì)弄微信了，對(duì)了，我老年大學(xué)準(zhǔn)備學(xué)計(jì)算機(jī)，以后和你隨時(shí)溝通。”

我打開(kāi)這部智能機(jī)，只見(jiàn)界面就是和我的微信對(duì)話框，我隨意地按著返回鍵，退到桌面。

外婆一把奪過(guò)手機(jī)說(shuō)：“你這干嗎，都把我弄掉了，我還怎么和你聊天？”

我說(shuō)：“你可以再打開(kāi)微信啊。”

外婆說(shuō)：“太復(fù)雜了，隔壁年輕人教我的時(shí)候就說(shuō)這樣別動(dòng)，想和你說(shuō)話的時(shí)候就按住說(shuō)話，聽(tīng)的話按一下就好了，現(xiàn)在全被你弄沒(méi)了。”

我又打開(kāi)微信，回到外婆和我的對(duì)話框。

外婆說(shuō)：“對(duì)，就這樣，別動(dòng)它了。”

在這個(gè)世界上，永遠(yuǎn)把和我的對(duì)話框作為手機(jī)界面，這就是一部智能機(jī)對(duì)于我外婆的全部意義。

她左手拿著那部廉價(jià)的國(guó)產(chǎn)智能機(jī)，右手拿起一個(gè)鮮花餅，說(shuō)：“真好吃，下次再給我買一點(diǎn)，好嗎？”

二十年前，我也是這樣，在外婆家，啃著肯德基的大雞塊對(duì)外婆說(shuō)：“真好吃，下次再給我買一點(diǎn)，好嗎？”

（摘自《外婆的英雄世界》江蘇鳳凰文藝出版社）