Chapter 93 Section 2 3

I have a black woolen coat, which is fat and long. I don't remember which consignment company I bought it from, let alone who the original owner is.I dare to assume that there is a Japanese sumo wrestler in Beijing who is so poor that he sells coats, or that there is a circus troupe owner who loves his Himalayan black bear very much, for fear that it will freeze in winter; otherwise, it is impossible to explain why there is such a thing in Beijing. Such a large dress, if I want to walk in this dress, I have to stretch my arms and support one shoulder with each hand, otherwise I will trip over the hem-if I walk on the street like this, I will be caught. People think of it as a big wardrobe.Of course, these disadvantages only exist when walking on a street during the day.Wearing it to sit on a bench at midnight has all the advantages and none of these disadvantages.There is a small park in Dongcheng, Beijing, surrounded by iron fences, with lifeless rockery and dry ponds inside. On winter nights, the trees are like bare brooms, planted on the ground with their hands down.The park is called Dongdan Park—it's still there, just much smaller than it used to be.

At this time, the park has been locked, but behind the park, there is a street passing through the park, and there is no wall here.On the three concrete poles, the street lamps sprinkled mercury light all night... I was fat, wrapped in this woolen coat and sat on a bench by the roadside, my face was pale (under this kind of lamp, it is impossible not to be pale), With a dull expression, he watched the people who were off the night shift ride past in front of him.It was a winter night in 1975, and the sky was covered with fine, sporadic, dusty snow that looked like miniature bird droppings. If you want to understand the winter night in 1975, you must understand the gray snow, which is a crystal like monosodium glutamate, it is not very cool, but it is very dirty.You also have to understand the pale street lamps, which weigh down the sky, and you have to understand the dust and flying confetti on the ground.You have to understand the cyclist in the middle of the night, he rings the bell and coughs from a long distance, probably thinking that sitting alone in this secluded place is a bit scary.Anyway, you can't understand why I'm sitting here by myself.I don't expect you to understand either.

At twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, a dilapidated truck drove by.On the wooden board behind the carriage stood three men wearing bare leather jackets and Japanese soldier-style combat caps.If you have never come out at night, you will not know that the garbage workers in Beijing used to be in such a costume.Not far from here, there is a heap of rubbish, or muck, because its composition is essentially burnt briquettes.At night, the noise of cars is very loud, and the voice of people talking is also very loud.After the car stopped, those people jumped down and picked up the garbage with a shovel, and there was another harsh sound of metal rubbing.It is empty talk to say that there is silence at night -- one sound disappears and another comes in, there is no silence at all.The garbage workers said: That man is there again—he probably has something wrong.That person is me.I continued to sit in silence, as if waiting for Godot... There was a cold stench coming from the rubbish being turned.

After the garbage truck drove away, a man came out from the alley opposite.He was wearing a blue cotton overcoat and a red armband. He walked back and forth a few times, shaking the flashlight around—as if it was unintentional, and it hit my face a few times.I remained dull and ignored him.The old man could only open one eye, so he turned his head to look at me, like a large landline used in a photo studio... He had to walk back, and at the same time he said to himself: What's wrong.After that, there was no one else.There were silent rustling sounds all around... She got out from the neckline, took a deep breath and said, "I'm suffocating to death──are they all gone?"Yes, all gone.It will not be until two o'clock that the next person from the night shift will pass by.On the surface, I am sitting alone in the dark; in fact, there are two people touching each other skin to skin under the coat.Except for the coat and a pair of big-toed shoes, our clothes were hidden in the bushes in the park, and we were naked. If I remember correctly, she liked to curl up in a ball and lie on my stomach.So there were a lot of long nights where I was pregnant...but we were talking like kangaroos and she called me mother kangaroo.It turned out that the mother kangaroo was me.