水龙头的水 Water from the faucet

水龙头的水流形状发生变化的事情要从两个半小时前的停水说起。像往常一样，我准点从房间走到厨房，依次从冰箱里把需要的食材取出放在灶台边的位置，检查平底锅在上次使用后已经洗净，喷油、在靠右手边的台面直角位上轻敲一颗从左手边移动过来的鸡蛋（一次敲击后检查鸡蛋壳上的裂纹是足够将蛋壳打开的程度）、将鸡蛋打入平底锅的边缘位置。午餐的准备到此为止跟往常没有什么不同。甚至连鸡蛋平稳下锅之后的下一个动作也按时发生着：我朝左后方转身，靠近洗手台，准备清洗沾上了一点蛋液的左手。这就是厨房的洗手台停水了这个事实被正面遇上的时刻（我之所以会特意说明是“厨房的”洗手台停水而不是更笼统意义上的全面停水的原因是，我随后抬着还沾有蛋液的左手快步走向了洗手间并庆幸地发现那里的水流一切正常）。之后的午餐准备迅速回到了原轨，除了草莓今天是在洗手间的洗手台洗净的和我在炒菠菜时思索了一会儿做一餐饭需要用到流动水的次数。但既然我说到水龙头的水流形状发生了变化，那么说明在停水之后的一段时间，厨房的水龙头重新拥有了水流。是的，我在房间吃着午餐时突然听到压力、气体、液体非常不规律地坠落到不锈钢水槽上的声响（我把水龙头的开关打开了以便知道水流回归的状况）。让我们稍稍略过对于这重新开始的水流的噪声和乖戾性情的描写，还有他并不清澈（以一个白瓷碗盛水作为评判标准）的色泽。水流的形状在两个半小时后发生了变化，以前他从来都是一样的。水流的形状很难去描述，但大概是由于每日使用和见到的缘故，仅在开关打开的一瞬间就能发现：原本以更饱满圆柱体形态出现的无色液体现在在以一种略微向下收紧、四周稍有参差的方式流下。“或许是水压的问题，”我这样想过，但由于所有测量和比较的对象都不可见，我迟疑地没有给出一个结论。

The change in the shape of water flow from the faucet started two and a half hours ago when the water was cut off. As usual, I went from my room to the kitchen, took the ingredients out of the refrigerator in a proper order, and placed them next to the stove. After checking to make sure the pan had been cleaned, I sprayed it with oil and tapped an egg from the left-hand side on the right-hand side of the counter (I checked that the crack in the eggshell was wide enough to open up upon the first tapping) and poured the egg into the edge of the pan. As usual, lunch preparation went smoothly, and even the action after the egg has landed steadily onto the pan was done on schedule: I turned around, walked towards the sink to wash my hand, which was stained with egg wash. That was when the fact that the kitchen sink was drained of water confronted me. (I specifically called out “kitchen” sink instead of saying that water was cut off in general because I then ran to the washroom with my left hand still covered in egg wash and discovered that water there was, thankfully, still working.) Lunch preparations went back on track quickly, except I had to wash the strawberries in the washroom sink and except I wondered how much running water would be needed to prepare a meal while I was cooking the spinach. Since I mentioned that the shape of the water flow changed, it meant that the water flowed again in the kitchen at some point. The sound of pressure, gas, and liquid splashing onto the stainless steel sink occurred to my ears when I was in my room having lunch (I leaved the faucet on so I would know when the water was back.) Forget about the noise and misbehavior of this returned water and its slightly murky color (judging by it in a white porcelain bowl). Despite always being the same before, the shape of the water has changed after these two and a half hours. It is not an easy task to describe the shape of water, but presumably due to the daily contact, it was noticeable at the very point when the faucet was turned on: a tighter stream was flowing down the faucet in a slightly jagged pattern, instead of the usual colorless liquid that appeared in a full cylinder shape. "Maybe it's the water pressure," I thought, but with all the subjects of measurements and comparisons being invisible all along, I hesitated to draw a conclusion.