Chapter 19 Chapter Seventeen

Li Zhigao and I raised a big basket and brought up our experience and skills.Calluses on shoulders.A large basket of cotton weighing two hundred and fifty kilograms was put on the shoulders, and he no longer swayed from side to side and struggled to walk.Now we trot all the way carrying the big basket.We were sweating hotly on our heads and singing ditties in our mouths.As I said before, Li Zhigao is versatile, he is good at playing, playing and singing.He can sing Lu opera and Beijing opera, compose jingles, and write doggerel.I learned all the little tunes I sang from him.We sang while running, and the female workers in the workshop looked at us and laughed.The director of the workshop, Guo Mazi, is a fan of theater, he likes to have fun and liveliness, and he began to like us.He likes us very much.He said to the factory manager:

"Those two guys are really good. They are full of art. They do such tiring work without complaining or complaining. The spirit of revolutionary optimism has driven the enthusiasm of the whole workshop. It is recommended to give them five cents a day." I was very moved when my uncle said that Guo Mazi was speaking well of us in front of the leaders.I think despite Guo Mazi's tricky mouth, he is actually a good person with a clear distinction between likes and dislikes.I told Li Zhigao about the situation, and Li also said that Guo Mazi was not bad. As soon as the two of us lifted the big basket, we were full of creativity. I think it is very likely that the artistic cells are like cotton that has absorbed water. When the lever is pressed, the art will flow out:

The flaming sun sets, Three hundred catties of cotton were carried on the shoulders, Jumping back and forth with a big basket, He carried the cotton into the workshop. I saw the female Chanjuan at a glance, Cover your head to cover your face, Only two hairy eyes are exposed, How can I not feel sad. ... Most of them are words like this. Li Zhigao and I invented the singing technique.Singing is our bread and our anesthetic.We lift for an hour, then we can rest for half an hour.During the rest, we either lay on the cotton pile and counted the stars, or sat in the corner of the workshop, watching the female workers, especially Fang Biyu.

The girls were buried in cotton by us.They are very willing that we pile up cotton on the left, right and back of them, because this can save them the effort of bending over to hold the cotton.In addition, burying the body in cotton can also resist the invasion of cold wind.We always bury Fang Biyu with cotton first to save her effort and keep her warm.The other girls were jealous and scolded us.We will not bury anyone who scolds us, let her keep bending over to hug cotton from a long distance behind her, and make her shiver in the cold wind in the middle of the night. "Brother Li, Brother Ma, bury me quickly!" the girls begged us.

We admire the white lint like a waterfall, pouring out from between the two rollers like a continuous white cloud, and falling into the cotton storage box in front of the roller machine.The girl who collected the lint was pushing the lint cart back and forth between the two rows of cotton gins.The lint cart is actually a big boxy bamboo basket with four bearings installed under it, making it rattle when it runs.There is a lifting device at the end of the workshop.The lint trolley is pushed onto the support, the girl pushing the lint trolley presses the bell, and the temporary worker in the packing workshop upstairs presses the brake lever, lifts the lint trolley up, pours the lint into the packing box, and then lifts the empty trolley down.

Cotton fluff is a nasty thing. It likes to stick to people so much. It gets on our clothes, on our hair, on our eyebrows and eyelashes, and in our nostrils and throats.It can't be torn off, you can only brush it down with a brush and wipe it down with a sponge.Walking on the street, it proves our identity to people. The sight of white makes us visually exhausted. At the beginning of November in the lunar calendar, the bright red blood stains the white flowers red. That night, according to the usual practice, we buried the girls with cotton, and then lay on the cotton in the corner of the workshop to watch the scenery.That night, the first-grade cotton was processed, and the cotton wool was fat and fluffy.Because of the extreme cold, we poured four large baskets of cotton around Fang Biyu, and buried her whole body below her chest. The girl with long braids next to Fang Biyu was a very nice person, and we buried her very deeply. , It should be something, a gust of wind blew off her work hat, and the braids coiled in the cap suddenly came loose, at this time she was turning her head to hug the cotton, and the two rapidly rotating leather rollers ate her braids.We hear a scream.I saw the girl lying face up on the machine.Everyone was stunned.Bright red blood splashed everywhere, and the surrounding cotton was stained with blood.Guo Mazi yelled: Stop, stop, stop!He ran toward the diesel engine room, his legs heaving like springs.The women screamed to flee the machines, hindered by the cotton we piled around them.In an instant, the whole workshop was in chaos, and the female workers struggled to get out of the cotton with hands and feet like they were trapped in quicksand.

The girl's braids, together with the entire scalp, were spit out from the roller machine and into the lint box. Her head turned into a disgusting and terrifying gourd with blood on her face, and her eyes and eyebrows were indistinguishable. .A group of female workers screamed and ran out of the workshop, bending over to vomit in the cold wind. The diesel engine stopped suddenly, and the factory leader and regular workers ran into the workshop panting.Guo Mazi sat on the cotton with his head in his hands, like a dead person.The factory manager yelled: "Guo Mazi, I'll fuck your ancestor!"

The hygienist "Current" who enjoys the most favorable treatment among temporary workers came running with a medicine box on his back.Seeing the long braid, she threw away the medicine box, called "Mom", sat down on the cotton, and passed out. The branch secretary ordered people to carry the girl with long braids to a nearby hospital.She writhed on the cotton like a gnawed bug.Wherever it turns, it becomes red.For the first time, I felt that cotton was so dirty and so disgusting. The regular workers were afraid of getting their hands dirty with blood, so they dodged and retreated, and most of the female workers escaped from the workshop.The branch secretary was a big fat man. He pulled the girl with long braids, and immediately fell on the cotton, with blood on his hands.He said angrily:

"Come on, it's important to save people." It's not that I deliberately made Fang Biyu a hero in order to elevate her.Everyone present at that time would attest that Fang Biyu was a hero and fearless.It was she who rushed up after the secretary of the branch, hugged the girl with long braids, and was quick to wit, wrapping the girl's bloody head with a large ball of lint.She dragged the dying girl out of the cotton pile, the white apron on her chest was covered with blood. The branch secretary said: "Come here, send me to the hospital." Fang Biyu said: "Li Zhigao and Ma Chenggong, quickly bring the big basket over."

We immediately carried out her order and brought the big basket in front of her. "Put the lint in the basket!" she said. We took two big bags of lint and put them in the basket. She put the girl into the big basket, waved her hand, and ordered Li Zhigao and me: "Pick up, run, go to the hospital!" Li Zhigao and I's basket-carrying skills were performed beyond the standard in critical moments.It was about three miles from the cotton processing factory to the commune health center, and we ran for eight minutes.Fang Biyu held the edge of the basket and helped us maintain the balance of the basket.

We ran in front, followed by a group of people, procrastinating, like defeated soldiers. The next morning, the girl with the braids died. The girl with long braids, surnamed Xu, is from a village near the cotton processing factory.Miss Xu is an orphan who grew up with her distant uncle.Letting her come to the cotton factory as a temporary worker is the village's care for her.The man was taciturn and unhappy, and he cherished those two braids very much.I don't have a bad impression of her.Unexpectedly, she died on those two braids. Her distant uncle came to make trouble.Without shedding tears, Guangshu said how much it cost to raise her.The number is naturally astonishingly large.The factory gave her uncle 300 yuan, which was too little, and an additional 200 yuan was added, but it was still too little, so another 50 yuan was added.Her uncle left with five hundred and fifty yuan.Before leaving, he said that he didn't want the dead body, so it should be burned or buried in the factory. At that time, cremation had just started, and the factory thought that to go to cremation, you had to hire a car and buy an urn, which was both troublesome and expensive, and it also expanded the negative impact.Just dig a hole and bury it.A mound was piled up during the burial, and a strip of white stone was buried there as a memorial. Lao Cai wrote five big characters in red paint on the white stone strip: Tomb of Xu Lianhua. The factory dealt with Xu Lianhua's funeral so hastily, and the temporary workers, especially the female temporary workers, felt quite chilled.Seven female workers packed their beds and went home.The female workers who did not leave were also depressed and frightened.For a while, there was no laughter in the factory, and production was greatly affected. There was a fatal accident, and the factory was disgraced in the county commercial bureau.The director and secretary of the factory were beaten, and they were depressed all day long.After a few days, the factory realized that in case of a major accident, it is even more necessary to focus on production and progress, otherwise it will make even more ugliness.As long as the production can be caught up, the superior will forgive.A party meeting was held in the factory, and regular workers who were not party members also attended the meeting.The heads of each workshop and group reflected the workers' emotions to the meeting, and some regular workers who found out with a conscience even raised their opinions to the leaders, hoping that the factory would spend some money and do some work to calm people's hearts. The factory decided to hold a memorial service for Xu Lianhua.The memorial service was held in the open air in front of Xu's grave. The factory manager presided over the memorial service, and the branch secretary delivered a eulogy.Before the memorial service ended, the branch secretary also praised Fang Biyu, me, and Li Zhigao. The secretary said that the three of us were brave and swift in rescuing the wounded.The secretary called on all the workers in the factory to learn from us.In order to commend our deeds, the factory decided to publish a blackboard newspaper and awarded each of us ten yuan.