A Drink with the Spouse

By Hua Mingyue

When Brother Liu decides to decline the dinner parties outside and retain a bit of capacity to drink with his wife, he’s trying to express his attachment secretly,“If I do not tell my heart to you, to whom I will confide.” The openhearted conversations between the couple while having some pleasant drinks are the reason why they can go hand in hand for the rest of their lives.

Quitting drinking

Brother Liu, nicknamed “Corn Juice,” is 48-year-old deputy general manager of a 4A-level interior decoration company.

Three years ago he disclosed that his alcoholic liver was damaged and that the doctor ordered him to quit drinking.Since then, he has drank corn juice when at the bar or with friends.

None but Mrs. Liu and a few friends know that Brother Liu still can drink. After half a year’s recuperation, his mild alcoholic liver improved. However, his drinking capacity is getting smaller day by day. In order to keep the capacity to drink with his wife, he cannot do anything but announce his abstinence. His reason is that now drinking is not to fight for high ranks and riches,but to seek for a tipsy feeling. Can outsiders allow you to have such a feeling?

Like most families in China,Brother Liu earned money and his wife stayed at home for more than 20 years. When Brother Liu said that “I only have you as my drinking partner,” Mrs. Liu was a bit surprised, stunned, and at a loss.

There are too many reasons for Brother Liu to send a wechat message to urge his wife to prepare him the wine: In the morning my leader just praised me, but in the afternoon criticized me instead, so I want to “seek for comfort”; I read a juicy article,let’s drink together for it; I bought Wang Zengqi’s collection of calligraphy and painting,equipped with his well-known prose; passing by a popular network shop, I bought a delicious goose paw; today I weighed myself, one kilogram lighter; I got the lotus-colored bloomers you have been longing most, so when practicing Taijiquan, you would be more like Nie Yinniang, a female knight-errant, flowing and graceful out of this world...

男人推掉外面的應酬，留點酒量與老婆對酌，其中藏著“我的心事不與你說，更與誰談”的潛臺詞，這就是能甘心牽手走下半輩子的理由。

戒　酒

“玉米汁”劉哥是一家4A級室內裝潢公司的副總，48歲。

三年前，他就放出風，說酒精肝嚴重了，醫生要求戒酒。從此一眾酒客中，他堂而皇之端著玉米汁跟人干杯。

只有劉嫂和少數好友知道，劉哥能喝酒。經過半年調理，他的輕度酒精肝已逆轉。只不過，這酒量的確一日小似一日。為了留著那點酒量去跟老婆喝，只好聲稱戒酒。

劉哥的理由是：現在喝酒，不為拼功名利祿，就為找個微醺好感覺。這種感覺，外面的人能允許你有？

與中國大多數家庭一樣，這個家男主外、女主內二十多年。當劉哥說“我以后的酒友只有你”時，劉嫂有點驚喜，有點驚愕，還有點不知所措。

劉哥發微信催妻子備酒的理由太多了：上午領導剛表揚我，下午就變臉批評我，我要“求安慰”；看到一篇酣暢淋漓的文章，正好用來佐酒；買到了汪曾祺的書畫精選集，配有他的散文名篇哦；路過網紅店，買到好吃的鵝掌；今天稱體重，輕了一公斤?。毁I到你最想要的藕色燈籠褲，打太極的時候，就更像女俠客聶隱娘一樣出塵飄逸……

理由這么多？饞酒就饞酒了。劉嫂嗔怪他。劉哥如今臉皮也厚：我就饞跟你單獨說說話的機會。

當然行，求之不得。

備　酒

為著劉哥的新習慣，劉嫂每年多了不少工作。比如，備酒。秋天，新米下來的時候，劉嫂都要回鄉下娘家去，向種糯稻的鄰居定三十斤土燒。這都是自家發酵，用土灶蒸餾出來的酒，像上品原漿一樣，呈濃濃的米黃色。

酒裝在六只土燒壇子里，取回來不能直接飲用，還要增加果味。劉嫂把一部分做成楊梅酒，另一部分做成紅參酒、青梅酒。

做青梅酒最復雜，因為原料需要從沒打過農藥、施過化肥的青梅。每到6月初，劉嫂都會拜托閨密們在自家小區里尋尋覓覓，找自然掉落的青梅。

梅子用粗鹽揉搓，去除酸澀，瀝干，在半陰半陽處晾曬。梅子表面用牙簽戳出很多小洞，加速水分揮發，也方便酒味與梅子味互相滲透，還需要土法制的紅糖。立刻就有閨密出差時，從遙遠的云南，背回陶土碗蒸餾的、幾近失傳的“碗碗糖”。

還得備菜。除了劉哥自行帶回的鵝掌、蓮蓬頭，劉嫂會自己發豆芽、鹵花生、糟鴨舌、油煎小黃魚。為了盡興對酌，劉嫂甚至在父母家種了一壟花生、一壟秋葵、一壟毛豆。

9月初，最后一茬毛豆收回，烘青豆就快上桌了。在一個大炭盆里生火，把鐵絲網架上，將毛豆在網上薄鋪一層，微火慢慢烤。這才是神仙級下酒菜，鮮糯中有一股咬嚼韌性。

母女倆熏得頭發里都是炭味。母親嗔怪女兒劉嫂：“看你把女婿慣的。這么勤快地備酒備菜，圖什么？”

劉嫂心里說：就圖知己一般的交流啊。實踐證明，一個男人到了中年，推掉在外面與官員大佬、上司下屬喝的那些言不由衷的酒，留點酒量與老婆對酌，真的能使人生上一個新境界。

對　酌

夫妻對酌，喝的就是把風霜雨雪都關在門外的逍遙自在。

So many reasons? Alcoholism is alcoholism. Mrs. Liu blamed him. Brother Liu is now thickskinned: I am only greedy to be alone with you for a chance to chat, he tells her.

It is, of course, most welcome.

Preparing the spirits

Every year Mrs. Liu has a lot more work for her husband’s new habit.Take preparing the spirits for example. When the new rice is ripe in autumn, Mrs. Liu returns to her mother’s home in the countryside to buy thirty jin (15 kilograms) of local spirits from a neighbor who plants glutinous rice. This is the self-fermented spirits distilled from the clay stove, like the top-grade virgin pulp, taking on a thick beige color.

The spirits are stored in six jars. However, it cannot be drunk directly when taken back home—surely it will need fruit flavoring.She would make part of it red bayberry wine, and the rest red ginseng wine and green plum wine.

Making plum wine is the most sophisticated because the plums used have never been sprayed with insecticide and chemical fertilizers. So at the beginning of June, Mrs. Liu would ask her best friends to search their communities for naturally falling plums.

Firstly, the plums are rubbed with coarse salt to remove the sourness, drained off and dried in a semi-shaded and semisunny place. Next, the surface of the plums are pricked with a toothpick, allowing the small holes to accelerate the evaporation of moisture and to facilitate the mixing of the spirits and plum flavors. Finally the brown sugar is made by traditional methods. Her friends bring back “bowl bowl sugar”from Yunnan Province on their business trips. This sugar is distilled with the local clay bowl and the method is less and less known these days.

She also has to prepare some dishes. Brother Liu often brings goose paws and lotus seeds back home. Mrs. Liu herself sprouts soybeans, brines peanuts,marinates duck tongue in rice wine, and sautés little yellow croaker. In order to enjoy themselves to the fullest, Mrs. Liu even plants a ridge of peanuts,okra, and soybeans on her parents’ farmland.

At the beginning of each September, the last batch of soybeans is harvested and the green soybeans are ready to be baked. She makes a fire in a large carbon basin, framed with barbed wire over top of it, spread the soybeans evenly out and slowly bakes them over a fire. After it is done, it is a fine delicacy prepared for drinking. Its consistency is similar to fresh glutinous rice,with a chewy resilience.

Mrs. Liu and her mom often smell of charcoal while preparing these dishes. The mother teases her, “How you spoil your man!Why are you preparing the wine and dishes so obligingly?”

She keeps silent, thinking to herself, “Isn’t a fun conversation a sufficient reason?” It is not easy for a middle aged man to decline those lip-born spirits swayed by officials, bosses, superiors, and subordinates and leave a little bit of wine to drink with his wife. In so doing, they really make their life count.

Drinking together

Drinking between husband and wife is the most carefree enjoyment, seldom considering the wind, frost, snow, and rain outside.

While drinking, such a couple has more to gossip about. They gossip about Cloudgate Theater’s new dance, Jia Zhangke’s films, Yu Hua’s latest novel, the archaeological breakthrough of Haihun’s Marquis, Wang Shu’s township reconstruction project,Miyake’s cross-border design,Shuhei Aoyama’s transformation of narrow vernacular dwellings and so on.

何況，這一對兒，喝起酒來話題可多了。云門舞集新排的舞蹈，賈樟柯的電影，余華的最新小說，海昏侯的考古新發現，王澍的鄉居改建工程，三宅一生的跨界設計，青山周平對狹窄民居的改造……

兩個人的臉上，都不時涌現柳暗花明的驚喜，劉哥也是過了這許多年，才發現劉嫂如此有見識。她在帶娃生涯中，沒放棄對世界新潮流、新變化的廣泛涉獵，她的藝術觸覺、閱讀靈性并沒消失。而劉嫂也發現，被她戲稱為“酒肉班頭”的丈夫，依舊保持了知識分子的清凈覺悟、獨立見解。名利就像沼澤地，他以輕功一般的身姿飛渡跨越，沒有中途淪陷。

總而言之，棋逢對手的快適，提升了相互的認知。這可是他們戀愛三年、結婚二十三年都沒認識到的一面。

放下塵世焦慮的對酌，是兩個靈魂的交手。像對攻，又像補位；像考問，又像贊許。◆

（摘自《莫愁》2018年第1期）

Now and then, their faces are full of pleasant yet surprising expressions. Brother Liu is astonished to find his wife so knowledgeable. Actually, while rearing their child, she never gave up her interests in the new trends and changes in the world, so her artistic and reading abilities have never diminished.At the same time, she also found that her husband, whom she has dubbed the “Head of Spirits and Meat,” still maintains the intellectual’s free consciousness and independent insight. Luckily her husband passed through the marshland of fame and fortune without falling halfway.

Like two players in a chess match, the couple enhances their mutual understanding. They discover different dispositions of each other which they seldom recognized in their twenty-three years of marriage.

Their drinking is the match of two souls, laying down their earthly worries. They, like a pair of rivals,attack, supplement, examine and approve each other.◆