Chapter 3 two

A vulgar little person, is it worth your writing? Friends! I have an answer for you: "It's worth it." Zhang Tiemao was only seventeen years old, and the nickname "Iron Cat" was given to him by those real thieves after he came to the labor camp. He has a quiet face, with a smile showing the tip of two small canine teeth, coupled with slender eyebrows and eyes and a delicate nose, at first glance, he looks as shy as a girl.But this little guy, before coming to the labor camp, had already performed a play that was almost absurd. He was born in a family of woodcarvers in S City. His father was a famous artist who could carve Qionglou and Fengge on apricot stones.When "Iron Cat" was twelve years old, his mother died of bowel cancer, and his father married a stepmother who was like a shrew. From then on, "Iron Cat" began to suffer.First he was stopped from going to school, and then he was called "Iron Cat" to work as a errand; when famine hit this medium-sized city in 1960, the food shortage led to escalation of family conflicts.The stepmother took a rolling pin, first knocked on the panel and cursed him as a "dung-making machine", and then simply raised the rolling pin to point at Sang Huai and kicked him out of the house: "Do you see that the dough bag is empty? The nose and eyes can vent their anger." Get the hell out of here, and find your own way!" The father of "Iron Cat" is afraid of his step-wife, just like a mouse is afraid of a female cat, and at the critical moment, he can't let out a loud fart. In a rage, "Iron Cat" left the home where he had lived for seventeen years—this little house sparrow, whose breast hair had not yet faded, flew to the boundless sky with its wings, and began to look for food by itself.

It would be well if he were really a bird; but he was not a bird, but a living being with brains and limbs.In those days, food was so scarce that the "iron cat" walked around the city for a whole day without a single bite of hot food. At dusk, his belly was already close to his spine. Amidst the rumbling sound of his stomach, he slipped into the toilet of the department store in R City, and after the store locked the door after get off work, he slipped into the pastry counter.When he was full, he stole a canvas travel bag from the counter of the department store, filled it with a bag of pastries, and huddled in a corner of the secluded counter, waiting for the dawn.

It was midsummer at that time in August, and the days were long and the nights were short.While "Iron Cat" was still dozing against the counter, the door of the store opened.The salesman at work immediately spotted him, and "Iron Cat" jumped up like a civet cat and ran towards the door.At this time, a flood of people poured into the store that had just opened, and the "Iron Cat" scrambled through the bustling crowd of people; by the time the salesperson chased him to the door, the "Iron Cat" had long since disappeared... Originally, the "iron cat" has become a fish swimming outside the net.It happened that the weather was extremely hot and the sun was like fire. "Iron Cat" stuffed his stomach with greasy food and felt his mouth was dry. He finally found a faucet of a water pipe in a secluded alley. He impatiently put his mouth under the faucet and drank it. Come cold water.Friends! If you have been in the countryside for a long time, you must know this common sense of life: If a cow, horse, donkey, or mule that has slipped from the rein, goes to the yard where the grain is spread, eats too much sorghum and soybeans, and then drinks too much cold water , It is easy to cause gastrointestinal rupture.As the spirit of all things, the stomach is more delicate, which is something the seventeen-year-old "Iron Cat" doesn't understand.Therefore, as soon as his lips left the tap, his stomach started to writhe like a pulley, and he rolled on the ground clutching his belly.

Friends, when "Iron Cat" woke up from a coma, he was already lying on the sickbed in the hospital. The person who visited him next to the sickbed was not his relatives, but the police. "Iron Cat" was worried that he didn't have a nest to live in, so he made up the myth that he was a habitual thief, so he was taken to the labor camp to join me. This child has a very unique hobby. He likes to use a knife to carve things like flowers, birds, fish, and insects on wood.Whenever there is a holiday or rest in the field, hungry people like to squeeze to the base of the wall or a corner sheltered from the wind, and start the same "spiritual dinner". "Iron Cat" always hides in the distance alone, carving his works of art with a small knife.When he knew that I was once a young writer, he dug up a piece of blue-gray clay while he was working, and with his two slender hands, he squeezed a head of Lu Xun and gave it to me.This clay sculpture vividly expresses Mr. Lu Xun's stern expression, which is almost no different from the portrait of Lu Xun.In order to thank this friendship, I gave him a copy of Andersen's Fairy Tales.Our friendship—the friendship between a "rightist" and a "thief" began like this.

However, I want to tell you that because of this festival interview, the friendship between me and "Iron Cat" was severely tested for the first time.Do you still remember the "ice hockey game" I wrote earlier? According to my understanding, the reason why "Iron Cat" disregarded his face that day and grabbed the bag of sugar on the ice floes in the trench was entirely for me.According to the procedure of friendship, "Iron Cat" should first give me the white sugar he snatched - and then, we eat it together. This is the logic of morality and friendship.Otherwise, Captain "Hunchback" will also go after this catty of sugar that exceeds the limit.However, "Iron Cat" has not only said nothing about this matter these days, but always avoids my gaze, as if he has endless thoughts lingering in his bosom.Usually, before going to bed, he would ask me to tell him stories from famous literary works, such as: Gogol's "Taras Bulba", Hugo's, Guo Moruo's "Peacock Gallbladder", Sun Li's " Lotus Lake... In the past two days, as soon as he lay down on the kang, he threw his back to me.This is simply a "mystery" to me.What surprised me the most was: one day, I woke up, and when I got up from the kang and came back, I saw the "iron cat" staring blankly at the roof—on the corner of the roof, Crawling a spider spinning a web.

"Iron Cat--" He closed his eyelids immediately, but I clearly saw his eyelashes trembling slightly. "What are you doing so stupid?" I pushed his eyelids away with my hands, and said to him half-jokingly in the language of the labor camp. He sighed. I saw his gloomy face, and induced him to say: "You are so young, why are you sighing, I will tell you a story to make you happy!" "I do not want to hear." "What happened to you today?" "Ye Tao, don't you really know?" "Iron Cat" propped himself up on his elbows, poked his head and said to me, "Huang Ding was severely 'bitten' by the 'Second Lieutenant' and sent to the confinement room! "After finishing speaking, he stretched his neck instinctively, and glanced vigilantly at Luo Yunzhong who was sleeping in the first bunk by the door.

"I know." "Then why are you still thinking..." He narrowed his eyes and stared at me. "Can you cry Huang Ding out of the confinement room?" "I don't cry, but I don't have the mood to laugh!" He frowned impatiently. I was silent for a while and said: "This 'old hat' is still staring at me and asking for that catty of sugar! He said it was overweight food, and it should be handed over to the captain, and he would put a stamp on it and send it back." "Really?" He tilted his body up again, and his eyes widened.

"Yeah, where did you put the sugar?" He hesitated for a moment, as if remembering something forgotten, he turned over the corner of the mattress and jumped up on the kang: "It's so fucking weird, why did that bag of sugar grow wings by itself?" "Hush!" I took his hand. "Why do you keep quiet when you lose something?" "Iron Cat" shook off my hand, "Hula", lifted the whole quilt, threw it on the neighbor, and shouted loudly towards the door, "Report to the monitor, the bag The sugar is gone!" In the middle of the night, more than 20 "members" in the room were all woken up by his voice.Some of them sat up in draped clothes, showing concern for the "iron cat";I understand the meaning of these eyes: "You always regard the thief as your friend, this time let the thief bite you!" "You have read a lot of books for nothing, but you don't even understand the allusion of 'the thief shouted catch the thief'!"

This silent gaze, although there is no sound at all, is more deterrent than machine guns and cannons. My face blushed, and I subconsciously glanced at "Iron Cat". "Iron Cat" was as sensitive as a mimosa, and immediately responded to my scrutiny of him.He mockingly shouted at the whole room: "You are all blind, you really didn't see that bag of white sugar? The squad leader has to hand it over to the team headquarters! Which of you stole it?" "'Iron Cat'," I covered his mouth with my hand, "stop shouting, and look for it tomorrow during the day!"

"No, I have to figure it out." "Iron Cat" simply put on a padded jacket and jumped from the kang to the ground, "Otherwise, the squad leader asked me, where can I find this catty of sugar!" The kang holes in front of each bunk were turned over by hand. At this time, the squad leader who was sleeping at the gate—a "Lifan" Luo Yunzhong, who had been a second lieutenant in the Zhazi Cave of Gele Mountain, walked over, pulling his two shoes.He grabbed "Iron Cat" by the hair like a chicken, and shook it fiercely: "What kind of garlic are you pretending to be? Nobody smells like a thief in this room except you who are 'Three Hands'." Son! You put sugar in your stomach, and you're still running here, 'Stop thief'!"

"You show the evidence!" "Iron Cat" shook his head and escaped from the powerful palm of "Second Lieutenant". "'Iron Cat'!" I yelled at him restrainedly. "What are you afraid of?" "Iron Cat" glared at me, "Isn't he just the monitor of the labor camp? I don't pee on him at all? He was the one who framed Huang Ding's confinement. I want to see it today. You put Can my 'Iron Cat' be sent to the confinement room?!" "You are attacking the government --" Second Lieutenant Geleshan turned pale, "It is my duty to get close to the government, you..." "Me? What's wrong with me? My two hands are clean." "Iron Cat" stretched out two palms like a challenge, "There is no other people's blood on them, and I will never take out other people's pockets for no reason. I Unlike you, the cow is turned upside down -- the x always faces forward. Just rely on your mouth to deceive government officials!" Second Lieutenant Geleshan's eyes flashed fiercely, he suddenly grabbed the "Iron Cat" by the cotton collar, "Iron Cat" slid, and slipped under his arm, he ran to the door, and slammed at the "Second Lieutenant" He spit out a mouthful, stomped his feet on the ground as if to relieve his breath, shook off the padded jacket he was wearing, and pushed the door out. I quickly put on my clothes and chased out the door, trying to get the "Iron Cat" back, but the night was so dark, who knew where he had slipped away? Keeping his eyes on me, he obviously focused his anger on "Iron Cat" on me.I pretended not to see, and met his fiery gaze with silence. Lying on the kang, I couldn’t help but regret: Why did I mention that pound of white sugar?! It’s true that sugar has an undeniable effect on the rise and fall of human life. At this time, for me and him, who are as thin as sticks, it is of course no different from air. , moisture and sunlight.However, just such a small bag of white sugar has already caused an uproar at this moment. Our squad leader, the tall and hulking Second Lieutenant Geleshan, followed me with narrow, bloodshot eyes, just like the shining red lamp on the grid. Light, this is a very dangerous signal! Dear friend! I am writing this, absolutely not out of fluff, deliberately sensational, so as to make you feel more mysterious about this character.No, that's not the case. With the development of the novel, you will understand that the second lieutenant of Geleshan is really worthy of the creepy place name "Geleshan". The strange thing is that some of our reform-through-labour cadres—especially the supervisors who are proud of being "big bosses" seem to prefer their nodding and bowing, and hate the intellectuals who are neither humble nor overbearing.For example, Yan Benshan, the reform-through-labour captain of our team——because there was a lump of meat on his back, and the "pocket" like a kangaroo moved to his back, people called him Captain "Humpback" privately, and he was such a character.He obeyed Lieutenant Geleshan's words; he would rather use a former brothel owner in P City as the squad leader than appoint an intellectual to assist him in his work.Therefore, those of us "rightists" who were sent to the labor reform team are at the bottom of the bottom, the most humble and slightest grass, and anyone can trample on your spine a few times. My bad luck began because of that catty of lost sugar.On the third day after the "two red signal lights" of "Second Lieutenant" flashed towards me, when we were queuing up to go to work, the captain of "Hunchback" cut his hands upside down, walked to the front of the line and called: "Ye Tao--" "Yes!" I stepped out of the queue. "Come with me." The conversation took place in his office.I sat on a small wooden bench near the door according to the rules. "Ye Tao--" He sat on the interrogation seat three meters away from me and asked me in pure Tianjin Wei words, "What did you do that night?" "What night?" "After the festival, the eighteenth day of the first lunar month." "Nothing." "What are you doing? Why are you disturbing the dormitory?" "'Iron Cat' lost the white sugar, and he thought it was stolen by someone else." "You don't know, isn't he the only thief in your dormitory?" "I don't think he's a thief!" "why?" "He only stole the pastry once!" "He is a habitual thief, we have the material." "That's an account he made up!" "And the birds that are willing to fly into the net?" "Yes! When the bird can't return to the nest, it has to find another nest." "Ye Tao--" Captain "Humpback" didn't have a gavel in his hand, but picked up a stack of letters from reformers awaiting trial to send out, and patted it as a gavel, "We have your materials, you and 'Tie Cat' hook hook up." I easily said: "Nothing!" "Why did he grab that bag of sugar for you?" "But he didn't give me the sugar!" The captain of "Humpback" took out a small notebook from his pocket, and flipped through it on the table for a long time, as if he had found some important evidence between me and "Iron Cat", a sneer flashed at the corner of his mouth: "What did you drink for him?" Well, rice soup? Well, Guo Ge (Ge) Li (Li), Yu (Yu) Brother (Guo)... Well Gorky Gorky's..." "Their books are not reactionary." "Foreign books are reactionary!" He threw the small book on the table and shouted at me with his short thick neck. "The Communist Manifesto is also a foreign book." I still said calmly, "It is the compass of our revolution!" "Ye Tao--" I listened quietly to his reprimand. "You rightists are counter-revolutionaries. How are you qualified to talk about revolution? You go to the construction site to do self-reflection immediately!" He threw out the "trump card" of power, and I had no choice but to withdraw from the threshold of the office.That's the whole conversation I had with the labor camp captain who was in charge of us.My friend, it is hard for me to understand a person who transforms other people's souls. Without a little political common sense, how can he understand the meaning of the word "human", how can he use a clean cloth to wipe off the rust spots of criminals' souls?! How can he use The key, to open the heart of a person to dig out the Ural gold buried in the field of the heart?! Of course, there is another type of cadre here.Take the old man Kou An who looks at the vegetable garden as an example. He is the veteran who opened this labor camp, just because he participated in the Pingjiang riots of Boss Peng and worked as a guard for Boss Peng when he was young. After being imprisoned, radio waves can actually be transmitted to Kou An, who has not met Boss Peng for decades.Legend has it that before we joined this labor camp, he was first dismissed from his position as branch secretary, and then removed from his title as field chief, and reduced to an ordinary labor camp captain.The old field chief couldn't figure it out, so he brushed off the big and small black yarn on his head, and instead of accepting the job of the labor camp leader, he volunteered to be the guard of the vegetable garden.A military dog ​​that was eliminated by the guards, a shovel that changed the edge of the border when the water was released, and a jujube stick became his three partners. It is said that the charges assigned to him were some "right-leaning elements" in the party, and it was a "dragon beard" that Peng Dehuai's ghost extended to the reform-through-labor unit.The "dragon's beard" has been pulled out, but the director's seat is still vacant, because in this labor camp, no one can match the qualifications of the old man Kou An; although some people peep at this position, no one dares to sit That golden chair.However, the position of secretary of the branch is not vacant. After the old man Kou An was evacuated from this position, someone replaced him; this person is none other than the captain of the "Humpback" who regarded all foreign books as reactionary when he interrogated me just now. . The title "Captain Hunchback" came from the mouths of the prisoners, and there was no malice in it, just like many people in society were dubbed a certain nickname because of their image characteristics.Reeducation through labor campers are also human beings, and everyone has a steelyard in their hearts.In those corners that are not noticed by the cadres, they are whispering every day, evaluating the cadres who manage them. The nickname "Humpback" is not so much a pejorative as a tribute to him.Because his figure is like carrying a pocket, in the hungry years, his "pocket" is always empty.He is not like some cadres who carry the rice with the "public" surname to the "private" family; nor is it like some cadres who confiscated food weighing more than two catties in name when they dismantled and inspected the mailboxes of inmates in labor camps. stuffed into his stomach.Yan Benshan was a stout, stout, strong man. When Ma Yinchu's "New Population Theory" was regarded as absurd, the six boys and girls he gave birth to due to "dense planting" were of course Vitamins and fats are needed... But he will never confiscate the overweight food from the reeducation through labor campers in a disguised form, but he will never hand over imported goods weighing more than two catties to the reeducation through labor—even if you are skinny and boneless, he will Nor will he show mercy; just like when I met the family that day, he returned the overweight sugar to my mother.He ordered those who received the parcels to put the excess food in the parcels, and the internal staff would return them to their families.The postage is deducted from the meager living income of the labor reformers. This is the portrait of the captain of the "Hunchback"; this is the special character of Yan Benshan, who is in charge of our labor reform team.Although he has the advantage of being a clean official, he also has the defect of being as cold as ice to people.He is very respectful to his superiors, and he also asks the reeducation through labor personnel to bow their heads and ears to him, and listen to his every word as thunder; and I just contradicted his education in a disguised way, and of course what awaits me will not be "safe and sound". Friend! So you can guess that when I walked out of his office I was not going to be in peace.I carried a shovel for repairing the earth, and my bag of food (because there are too many master thefts like "Shi Qian" and "Yang Xiangwu"), and headed towards the construction site for dredging the ditch with a depressed mood. come.Although the sky is blue and blue, wild geese lined up in a formation, singing spring songs in the blue sky and soaring northward, even though the ground is black and dark, spring grass sprouts stand up straight from the melting snow My waist is thick, but my heart still feels like a piece of ice, and the dark clouds of severe winter are silting up in my chest, without any joy of spring.As I walked, I couldn't help thinking of the bag of sugar, and from the sugar I thought of the character "Iron Cat".It seems that his soul is pure and white, and he will not repeat his three-handed occupation, but where has the white sugar gone? My brain is like an electric sieve at this moment, sifting through the twenty or so people in the same room, one by one. From Luo Yunzhong, the second lieutenant of Geleshan who guards the door, to the one at the end of the kang.Among them are executioners, rebels, hooligans, drivers who cause accidents, and doctors who rape corpses... Although the cases are strange and the characters are as bizarre as a kaleidoscope, they will not swallow the food that belongs to others into their own stomachs. . "Is it really 'Iron Cat' performing a funny show of 'Crying Thieves, Catch Thief'?" Suddenly, I thought of some doubts. Why did he avoid my eyes for several days? Why did he keep silent about the bag of sugar? ?Why didn't he dig into other people's kang holes in a serious manner until I asked him?  … Dear friend! I was really blinded by this little house sparrow whose nipples hadn't shaved off—that's when I rushed to the labor site to be sure.When I appeared on the soil slope of the dredging ditch, the captain of "Humpback" had arrived at the construction site early on his bicycle, and he and "Iron Cat" were sitting on the river slope talking.The moment I passed behind them, the early spring wind carried their conversations into my ears: "You have to be honest," captain "Humpback" reprimanded loudly, "did you eat that bag of sugar yourself?" "I confess, I ate it!" "Then why do you want 'A thief shouts a thief'?" "I...in order to deceive Ye Tao, I covered up my actions!" "Isn't Ye Tao very close to you? Why are you..." "I'm a thief, he's an intellectual..." "Iron Cat" murmured, "We two can't talk at all!" That's enough! My friend! I'll just extract these key lines of dialogue, and you can understand how complicated my mood was at the time.I was guilty, I was angry, and I even felt that I had lived 27 years in vain (I was 27 years old at the time).You know, I don't feel pity for that catty of white sugar—although it is very precious to me; I pity my feelings and my "color-blind" eyes. A thief who doesn't deserve my pity, doesn't deserve my love! I consciously handed in a self-examination to Captain "Hunchback".