Chapter 9 blockade

Tram drivers drive trams.Under the bright sun, the tram tracks are like two glistening curly weasels that come out of the water, stretching out, then shortening; stretching out, shortening again, moving forward just like that—smooth, There is no end, no end to the old elder's long song... The tram driver's eyes are fixed on these two creepy rails, but he is not crazy. If there is no blockade, the tram will never stop.blocked. The bell is ringing. "Dinglinglinglinglinglingling," each word "ling" is a cold dot, connecting dots into a dotted line, cutting off time and space.

The tram stops, but the people on the road start to run. People on the left side of the street run to the right side of the street, and people on the right side run to the left side.The iron gates of the stores were all slammed shut.The ladies tugged at the iron bars frantically, shouting, "Let's come in for a while! I have children here, and old people!" But the door was still shut tightly.The people inside the iron gate and the people outside the iron gate looked at each other, fearing each other. People in the tram were pretty calm.They had seats to sit in, and although the facilities were a bit poorer, they were better than what most passengers had at home.Gradually the street also became quiet, not absolutely silent, but the voices of people gradually faded away, like the words in the pillow of reed flowers heard in sleep.This huge city dozed off in the sun, resting its head heavily on people's shoulders, saliva slowly flowing down people's clothes, and the unimaginable huge weight weighed down everyone.

Shanghai seems to have never been so quiet - in broad daylight!Taking advantage of the silence, a beggar raised his voice and began to sing: "Master, Mrs., Mrs. Miss, you have done good deeds to save me poor man? Ah, Mrs. Mrs..." However, he stopped shortly after, being overwhelmed by this The familiar silence froze. There was also a more courageous Shandong beggar who resolutely broke the silence.His voice is round and clear: "Poor, poor! I have no money alone!" A long song, sung from one century to the next.The musical rhythm was contagious to the tram driver.The driver of the tram is also from Shandong.He let out a long sigh, crossed his arms, leaned against the car door, and sang along: "Poor, poor! Alone, I have no money!"

In the tram, some passengers got off.Among the rest of the group, there were scattered people who said something.The people who came back from several office rooms near the door continued to talk.One person shook his fan with a slap, and concluded: "In short, he has no other problems, the only disadvantage is that he can't be a man." The other snorted and sneered: "If you say he can't be a man, He handled his superiors very well!" A middle-aged couple who looked like brothers and sisters hung their hands on the leather belt and stood in the middle of the tram. She suddenly shouted: "Be careful not to get your trousers dirty!" He was startled and lifted his hand, holding a package of smoked fish.He was careful to keep the oily paper pocket two inches away from his suit pants.His wife muttered to herself, "What's the price for dry cleaning now? What's the price for a pair of pants?"

Sitting in the corner, Lu Zongzhen, an accountant of Huamao Bank, saw the smoked fish and thought of the spinach buns his wife asked him to buy at a noodle stall near the bank.That's what women are!The steamed stuffed buns bought in the most difficult alley in Twisted Twisted must be cheap and good!She didn't think about him at all - a person who was neatly dressed in a suit, wearing tortoiseshell glasses and carrying a briefcase, running around the street with a steaming steamed bun in the newspaper, was really outrageous!In any case, if the blockade was prolonged and his dinner was delayed, at least the steamed stuffed bun would come in handy.He looked at his watch, it was only half past four.Should it be a psychological effect?He was already hungry.He gently opened a corner of the newspaper and opened a sheet inside.Each one is snow-white, emitting a faint smell of sesame oil.A part of the newspaper stuck to the bun, and he carefully tore it off. The bun was printed with typeface, and the words were all reversed, as if reflected in a mirror. However, he had the patience to lower his head and recognize them one by one:

"Obituary... application... Huagu News... grand debut waiting for education..." They are all necessary words. I don't know why they are reproduced on Baozi, but they are a bit joking.Maybe because "eating" is such a serious thing that everything else is a joke by comparison.Lu Zongzhen felt displeased when he looked at it, but he didn't smile, he was an honest man.He saw the articles in the newspaper from the articles on the bun, and finished reading half a page of the old newspaper. If he turned it over to read it, the bun would fall out, so he had to.He read the newspaper here, and everyone in the car followed suit. Those with newspapers read newspapers, and those without newspapers read invoices, regulations, and business cards.Those who don't have any printed materials, just look at the market signs on the street.They could not help filling this terrible emptiness—otherwise, their brains might come into play.Thought is a painful thing.

Only an old man sitting across from Lu Zongzhen was rubbing two smooth walnuts in his palms, and his small and orderly movements replaced his thoughts. He has a shaved head, reddish-yellow skin color, oily and wrinkled face, and his entire head is like a walnut.His brain is like a walnut, sweet and moist, but not very interesting. Sitting on the right of the old man was Wu Cuiyuan, who looked like a young mistress of the church, but was not married yet.She was wearing a white cheongsam cheongsam with a narrow blue border—dark blue and white, which looked like an obituary.She was carrying a small blue and white plaid parasol.Hair is combed in a stereotyped pattern, lest it arouse public attention.

Yet she was in no real danger of being unduly conspicuous.She is not ugly, but her beauty is ambiguous, as if she is afraid of offending someone's beauty, everything on her face is light, loose, and has no outline.Even her own mother couldn't describe whether she had a long face or a round one. She is a good daughter at home and a good student at school.After graduating from university, Cuiyuan served in her alma mater as an English teaching assistant.Now she plans to use the time of blockade to revise the paper.Opened the first article, it was written by a boy, loudly criticizing the crimes of the city, full of righteous anger, using ungrammatical, goofy sentences, cursing "the prostitute with red lips... The big world...lower dance halls and bars".Cuiyuan pondered for a while, then took out a red pencil and marked the word "A".Normally, if it is approved, it will be approved, but today she has too much time to think, and she can't help asking herself why she gave him such a good score: It's fine if you don't ask, but when you ask, she actually flushed.She suddenly understood: because this student was the only man who dared to say these things to her so unscrupulously.

He treats her as a well-informed person; he regards her as a man, a confidant.He thinks highly of her.Cuiyuan always felt that everyone looked down on her in school—from the principal, professors, students, school officials...the students were particularly angry: "Shenda is getting worse and worse every day! Using Chinese to teach English Ordinarily, it shouldn't be, let alone a Chinese who has never been abroad!" Cuiyuan was angered at school and at home.The Wu family is a new model family with a religious background.The family tried their best to encourage their daughter to study hard, climbed up step by step, and climbed to the top-a girl in her twenties was teaching in a university!A new career record for women was broken.However, the parents gradually lost interest in her, and would rather she be a little more sloppy in her books and spare some time to find a rich son-in-law.

She is a good daughter and a good student.Her family is full of good people. She takes a bath every day, reads newspapers, and listens to the radio.There are more good people in the world than real people... Cuiyuan is not happy. Life is like the Bible, translated from Hebrew to Greek, Greek to Latin, Latin to English, and English to Mandarin.When Cuiyuan read it, Mandarin was translated into Shanghainese in her mind.That would be a bit of a diaphragm. Cuiyuan put down the paper and put her face in her hands.The sun was hot on her back. Next door sat a nurse with a child lying in her arms, the soles of the child's feet pressed tightly against Cuiyuan's lap.Little tiger-headed red shoes wrap soft but hard feet...

This is at least true. In the tram, a medical student took out a picture book and diligently revised a sketch of a human skeleton.The other passengers thought he was there sketching the man dozing across from him.Everyone was idle and had nothing to do, so they gathered one by one, in twos and threes, with their backs propped up and hands behind their backs, surrounded him and watched him sketch.The husband with the smoked fish whispered to his wife: "I just can't understand the cubism and impressionism that are emerging now!" His wife whispered, "Your pants!" The medical student carefully filled in the names of every bone, nerve, and tendon.A person who came back from the office covered his face with a folding fan, and quietly explained to his colleagues: "Influenced by Chinese paintings. Now Western paintings are also popular with inscriptions. It really is 'East Wind Graduating West'!" Lu Zongzhen didn't join in the fun, and sat alone in the same place.He decided he was hungry. Everyone walked away, and he happened to be eating his spinach buns calmly, but when he looked up, he caught a glimpse of a relative of his in the third-class carriage, the son of his wife's aunt's cousin.He hated Dong Peizhi so much.Peizhi is a poor boy with great ambitions, he only wants to marry a lady with some wealth.Lu Zongzhen's eldest daughter is only thirteen years old this year, she has already been favored by Pei Zhi, and with wishful thinking in her heart, she walks more and more frequently.Lu Zongzhen caught sight of this young man, and secretly screamed badly, afraid that Pei Zhi saw him and wanted to take advantage of this golden opportunity to attack him.It would be unimaginable to be trapped in the same room as Dong Peizhi during the blockade! He hastily packed up his briefcase and steamed stuffed bun, rushed to the opposite row of seats, and sat down.Now he happened to be blocked by Wu Cuiyuan next door, so his nephew would definitely not be able to see him.Cuiyuan turned her head and gave him a slight glare.Oops!The woman must have thought that he had changed seats for no reason, with malicious intentions.He could recognize the face of the molested woman—the face was motionless, there was no smile in the eyes, the corners of the mouth, or even the hollow of the nose, but there was a trembling smile somewhere, Can be spread out at any time.People who think they are too cute can't help but laugh. Damn it, Dong Peizhi saw him after all, and walked towards the first-class car, humbly, bowing from a long distance, with long red cheeks, and a gray cloth gown with a monk-like atmosphere-a man who endures hardships and stands hard work, guards his body like jade The most ideal son-in-law for riding a dragon.Zongzhen quickly decided to follow his plan, pushed the boat forward, stretched out an arm to rest on the window sill behind Cuiyuan, and quietly announced his plan to flirt.He knew that Dong Peizhi could not be deterred by his doing so, because in Peizhi's eyes he was always an old man who did all kinds of crimes.From Peizhi's point of view, people over the age of thirty are old people, and old people are full of bad things.Peizhi saw him being so obscene with her own eyes today, so she had to report it to his wife in every possible way—it's good to be angry with her wife!Who told her to get him such a cousin!Angry, you deserve it! He didn't like the woman next to him very much.Her arms were white, like squeezed toothpaste.Her whole figure is like toothpaste squeezed out, without style. He whispered to her, "When will this blockade end? It's so annoying!" Cuiyuan was taken aback, turned around, saw his arm behind her, and her whole body froze. No matter what, Zongzhen couldn't allow him to withdraw that arm by himself.His cousin was looking at him with burning eyes, with a knowing smile on his face.If he made eye contact with his cousin in a hurry, maybe the kid would lower his head timidly—a virginal embarrassment; maybe the kid would wink at him—who knows? He gritted his teeth and attacked Cuiyuan again.He said: "Are you feeling bored too? It doesn't matter if we talk a few words! Let's—let's talk!" He couldn't help it, and there was a pleading tone in his voice.Cuiyuan was taken aback again, and turned to look at him again.He remembered now that he had seen her get into the car—a very dramatic moment, but the drama had happened by chance and could not be attributed to her.He whispered: "Do you know? I saw you get in the car, and the advertisement on the front glass was torn. From the broken place, I saw your profile, only a little chin." The ad for milk powder depicts a fat child with a woman's chin suddenly appearing under the child's ear, which is a bit scary when you think about it carefully. "I saw your eyes, eyebrows, and hair later when you lowered your head to take the money from the purse." Taking it apart and looking at it part by part, she does not lack her charm. Cuiyuan smiled.It's hard to see that this person can speak sweet words--I think he is a reliable businessman!She glanced at him again.The sun shone red through the cartilage under the tip of his nose.The hand he was resting on the newspaper bag, protruding from the cuff, was yellow and sensitive—a real person!Not very honest, not very smart, but a real person!She suddenly felt hot and happy.She turned her face away and said softly: "Stop saying such things!" Zongzhen said: "Huh?" He had already forgotten what he said.He stared at the back of his cousin - the knowledgeable young man felt that he was superfluous here, he didn't want to offend his cousin, they would meet again in the future, we are all good relatives who can't be cut off; he turned back The third-class carriage went.As soon as Dong Peizhi left, Zongzhen immediately retracted his arm, and his conversation became serious.He chatted up and looked at the exercise book on her lap, and said, "Shenguang University...you are studying in Shenguang!" He thought she was so young?She is still a student?She laughed and said nothing. Zongzhen said: "I graduated from Huaji. Huaji." There was a small brown mole on her neck, like a fingernail mark.Zongzhen subconsciously twirled the nails of his left hand with his right hand, coughed, and asked, "Which subject are you studying?" Cuiyuan noticed that his arm was no longer there, and thought that the change in his attitude was due to the subtle influence of her dignified personality.After thinking about it, he had no choice but to answer, so he said, "Liberal arts. What about you?" Zongzhen said, "Commercial." He suddenly felt that their conversation was a bit too moralistic, so he said, "When I was in school, , busy exercising, out of school, and busy making a living. Books, I haven’t read much!” Cuiyuan said: “Are you busy with business?” Zongzhen said: “Too busy. Take the tram in the morning I went to the office and came back by tram in the afternoon, I don’t know why I went or why I came here! I’m not interested in my work at all. It’s just to make money, but I don’t know who it is for!” Cuiyuan said: "Everyone is a little tired." Zongzhen said: "You don't know—my family—cough, don't mention it!" Cuiyuan secretly said: "Come on! His wife doesn't sympathize with him at all! All the men in the world who have wives seem to be in desperate need of sympathy from other women." Zongzhen hesitated for a while before hesitating and saying in great difficulty: "My wife— —no sympathy for me at all.” Cuiyuan frowned and looked at him, expressing full understanding.Zongzhen said: "I simply don't understand why I go home every day at the end of the day. Where do I go? In fact, I am homeless." He took off his glasses, faced the light, and wiped them off with a handkerchief The water stains on it, said: "Cough! If you mess around, you'll just mess around, you can't think—you just can't think!" The nearsighted person took off his glasses in public, Cuiyuan felt a little obscene, as if he was taking off his clothes in public , out of order.Zongzhen continued: "You—you don't know what kind of woman she is!" Cuiyuan said: "Then, you..." Zongzhen said: "I also opposed it at the beginning. She was ordered by my mother. The next one. Of course, I would like to let myself choose, but...she used to be very beautiful...I was young...young people, you know..." Cuiyuan nodded. Zongzhen said: "She became such a person later - even my mother fell out with her, and blamed me for marrying her! Her... her temper - she didn't even graduate from elementary school " Cuiyuan couldn't help smiling and said: "You seem to value that paper diploma very much! In fact, women's education is nothing more than that!" She didn't know why she said this, which hurt her own heart.Zongzhen said: "Of course, you can make sarcastic remarks beside me, because you are highly educated. You don't know what kind of person she is—" He paused, out of breath, just now Put on the glasses, then take them off to wipe the lenses.Cuiyuan said: "Are you talking too much?" Zongzhen squeezed his glasses in his hand and made a gesture with difficulty: "You don't know she is—" Cuiyuan hurriedly said, "I know, I know." She knew that their husband and wife were not getting along, and she definitely couldn't blame his wife alone, as he himself was a simple-minded person.He needs a woman who forgives him and tolerates him. There was a commotion on the street, and two trucks, full of soldiers, arrived with a bang.Cuiyuan and Zongzhen went out to look around at the same time; unexpectedly, their faces were very close.In a very short distance, anyone's face is different from the usual, tense like a close-up shot on a screen.Zongzhen and Cuiyuan suddenly felt that this was the first time they met.In Zongzhen's eyes, her face is like a peony flower drawn with a few simple strokes, and the two or three short hairs on the forehead are the stamens in the wind. He looked at her, and she blushed, and he was obviously very happy to see her blushing.She blushed more and more. Zongzhen didn't expect that he could make a woman blush, make her smile, make her turn her face away, make her turn her head.Here he is a man.Usually, he is an accountant, he is the father of a child, he is a parent, he is a passenger in a car, he is a customer in a store, and he is a citizen.But to this woman who didn't know his details, he was just a simple man. They are in love.He told her a lot about who in their bank was the best with him, who was at odds with him, how the family was at loggerheads, his secret sorrows, his aspirations when he was studying... endless words, But she is not bothered.Men in love always like to talk, women in love always like to listen.A woman who is in love is exceptionally seldom talkative, because subconsciously she knows that a man will not love a woman after he understands her thoroughly. Zongzhen concluded that Cuiyuan was a lovely woman—white, thin, and warm, like the breath out of your own mouth in winter.If you don't want her, she will quietly drift away.She is a part of yourself, she understands everything, she forgives you everything.When you tell the truth, she feels sorry for you; when you tell lies, she smiles, as if saying: "Look at your mouth!" Zongzhen was silent for a while, then suddenly said: "I'm planning to remarry." Cuiyuan quickly put on a panicked look, and shouted: "You want a divorce? Then... I'm afraid you can't do it?" Zongzhen said: "I can't get a divorce. I have to take care of the children's happiness. My eldest daughter is thirteen years old this year, and she just entered middle school, and her grades are very good." Cuiyuan secretly said: "What does this have to do with the current problem?" She said coldly: "Oh, you plan to marry a concubine." Zongzhen said: "I am going to treat her as a wife. I——I will arrange it for her. I won't make it difficult for her." Cuiyuan said: "But if she is a girl from a good family, I'm afraid she might not agree? All kinds of legal troubles..." Zongzhen sighed: "Yes. You're right. I don't have the right. I shouldn't have thought of it at all... I'm too old. I'm already thirty-five." Cuiyuan said slowly, "Actually, judging from the current point of view , that's not too big." Zongzhen was silent.After a long while Fang asked, "How old are you?" Cuiyuan lowered his head and said, "Twenty-five." Zongzhen paused, and then asked, "Are you free?" Cuiyuan didn't answer.Zongzhen said: "You are not free. Even if you agreed, your family members would not agree, would they?...Isn't it?" Cuiyuan tightened her lips.The people in her family - the spotless nice people - she hated them!They coaxed her enough.They want her to find a rich son-in-law, Zongzhen has no money but has a wife - it's okay to be angry with them!Angry, you deserve it! The number of people on the bus gradually increased again. There may be rumors outside that "the blockade will be opened soon". Passengers came up one by one and sat down. Zongzhen and Cuiyuan crowded them tightly. Come closer. Zongzhen and Cuiyuan wondered why they were so confused just now, so they didn't expect to sit closer automatically. Zongzhen felt that she was too happy to protest.He said to her in a bitter voice: "No! This is not possible! I can't let you sacrifice your future! You are a high-class person, you have such a good education... I-I don't have much money, I can't I've ruined your life!" But no, it's still a question of money.He has a point.Cuiyuan thought: "It's over." She will probably get married in the future, but her husband will never be as cute as a person she meets by chance—the person on the blocked tram...it will never happen again Natural like this.Never again... Heh, this man is so stupid!so stupid!She only wants a part of his life, a part that no one wants.He wasted his own happiness for nothing.Such a stupid waste!She cried, but it was not a gentle, ladylike cry.She literally spat her tears in his face.He was a good man—one more good man in the world!What's the use of explaining to him?If a woman has to rely on her words to impress a man, she is too pitiful. Zongzhen was so anxious that he couldn't speak, and repeatedly shook the parasol in her hand with his hands.She ignores him.He went to shake her hand again, and said: "I said—I said—there is someone here! Don't! Don't do that! Let's talk carefully on the phone later. Tell me your phone number." Cuiyuan didn't answer .He forcefully asked: "You have to give me a phone number no matter what." Cuiyuan said quickly: "Seven five three six nine." Zongzhen said: "Seven five three six nine?" She fell silent again.Zongzhen murmured and repeated: "Seven, five, three, six, nine," reaching out his hand to find the fountain pen in his upper and lower pockets, the busier he was, the more he couldn't find it.There is a red pencil in Cuiyuan's purse, but she deliberately does not take it out. He should remember her phone number.Don't remember, if he doesn't love her, they don't need to talk further. The blockade is open. "Ding Ling Ling Ling Ling" rings the bell, and each word "Ling" is a cold point, connecting each point into a dotted line, cutting off time and space. A wind of cheers blew through the great city.The tram dangdang drove forward.Zongzhen stood up suddenly, squeezed into the crowd, and disappeared.Cuiyuan turned her head away and just ignored it.he's gone.To her, he was dead.The tram speeded up and moved forward. On the sidewalk at dusk, the stinky tofu seller rested his burden. He was holding the box of King Wen's divine hexagram, shaking it with his eyes closed.A tall blond woman with a big straw hat on her back smiled at an Italian sailor and made a joke with her big teeth showing.Cuiyuan's eyes saw them, and they lived, only for a moment.The car ran forward, and they died one by one. Cuiyuan closed her eyes in annoyance.If he calls her, she will definitely not be able to control her own voice, and she will be extremely warm to him, because he is a person who died and came back to life. The lights in the tram were turned on, and when she opened her eyes, she saw him sitting far away in his original seat.She was startled—it turned out that he didn't get out of the car!She understood what he meant: everything during the blockade was as if it hadn't happened.The whole of Shanghai dozed off and had an unreasonable dream. The tram driver sang loudly: "Poor, poor! I have no money alone! Poor, but..." A poor woman hurried past the front of the car in a panic and crossed the road.The driver of the tram yelled, "Pigs!" Lu Zongzhen arrived home just in time for dinner.As he ate, he read his daughter's report card, which had just arrived.He still remembered the incident on the tram, but Cuiyuan's face was already a little blurry—it was a face that was born to make people forget.He couldn't remember what she said, but he remembered his own words well--softly: "How old are you?" He said impassionedly, "I can't let you sacrifice your future!" After dinner, he took the hot towel, wiped his face, walked into the bedroom, and turned on the light.A gnat crawled from one end of the room to the other, halfway through, when the light was turned on, it had to lie down in the middle of the floor without moving.Are you playing dead?Are you thinking?Crawling around all day, there is little time for thinking, right?Thought, after all, is painful.Zongzhen turned off the light, and pressed his hands on the console. His palms were sweaty, and his whole body was dripping with sweat, crawling like bugs.He turned on the light again, and the tortoise disappeared and crawled back into its nest.