Chapter 11 【Walk one kilometer along the railway】

The railway passes through the northern end of the city, and Wuqian Lane at the northern end of the city lies seven or eight meters away from the slope of the railway road. There is a river nearby, and a large lead-gray iron bridge is erected on the river. A hollow and crisp vibration sound.Residents of Wuqiannong have been used to hearing this sound for many years. Amidst the screeching train whistle, the neighbors’ conversation in front of the door suddenly turned into yelling at each other, in order to let others hear his comments about the weather or pickled radishes. Dry insights.Sometimes some kind of dark, cruel news came from the railroad, usually about dead people.Everyone knows that besides being a magical means of transportation, the railway is also a simple and crisp death machine.

A man was hanged under the bridge.The woman drying the dried radishes carried a bamboo plaque as she walked through the narrow Wuqian Lane, spreading the news along the way.A man in his thirties is still hanging on the bridge, go and see.The woman drying the radishes walked with a bamboo plaque and said, "He was hanged on the bridge with his trouser belt. Please don't look at his face when you go to see him. The face of the hanged ghost is the scariest." Many women and children ran out of their homes in a hurry, and some people were already running rustlingly on the gravel road at Wuqian Lane, gathering under the bridge.Jian bumped into that group of people when he was walking to the alley after school. Without asking anything, Jian realized that something happened on the railway again, so Jian shook his schoolbag and ran under the big iron bridge with them.

There is only a long and narrow space for people under the bridge opening, so the sword cannot be squeezed to the front position this time.The two sides of the bridge hole are already crowded with people watching.The sword could see nothing but the blackness of a living human head.Someone pointed to a piece of blue cloth hanging from the bridge and said that it was the trouser belt.Jian stood on tiptoe and looked up, and sure enough, he saw a piece of blue cloth hanging on the iron frame. The wind in the bridge hole patted it, and it was slowly sliding down to one end.Almost fell, almost fell into the river.Jian told people loudly, but no one paid attention to his discovery.The onlookers seemed to care only about the face and body of the deceased.Jian retreated a few steps towards the river bank, raised his head and stared more intently at the blue cloth strip on the iron bridge, he saw it bend in the wind, the two ends of the cloth strip were kinked together, and then thrown away suddenly, among them The longer end continued to fall downwards, while the other end was buoyantly rising.Jian felt inexplicably nervous. He saw the blue cloth strip falling powerlessly like a dead branch from a tree. It would not stay in the air for more than a second.The sword let out a strange cry, and he slapped his schoolbag and shouted, it fell, and fell into the river.

People turned their heads to look at Jian, Jian's face was flushed, and he seemed embarrassed.What are you yelling behind?Someone questioned Jian dissatisfiedly.The sword pointed to the piece of blue cloth on the river and said, it has fallen, look at it floating in the river.The onlookers glanced briefly at the dirty and oily river, and then turned to face the dead in the bridge hole. It seemed that no one was interested in the piece of blue cloth, and the discovery of the sword still seemed superfluous and insignificant. Jian was silent for a while behind the crowd, then he picked up a tree stick on the bank, bent down and squatted by the river to salvage the blue cloth floating on the water, the blue cloth floated without rules, flickering Xi, walked and stopped suddenly, so it was very difficult to salvage the sword, but Jian was very patient. When he was looking for the blue cloth along the river with a stick, he heard someone talking about the strange dead man.

Why hang in the railway bridge hole?Wouldn't it be easier to lie under the wheels of a train?said a neighbor. I guess he wanted to lie under the wheels of the train, but when the train came, he was frightened again, and ran into the bridge hole as soon as he was frightened.said another neighbor. Listening to those people's conversation, Jian felt that their speculations were ridiculous and absurd. Jian thought that only the deceased himself knew what was going on.Like all residents living in Wuqianlong, Jian has witnessed all kinds of deaths on the railway. He likes to watch those tragic death scenes, but he always despises the self-righteous or compassionate comments of bystanders. , The sword in the crowd always looks lonely and out of place.Sword is used to searching for objects left behind by the dead, such as a pen, a handkerchief, and a half-pack of squashed cigarettes.Once he found a small glass bottle on the roadbed, which was filled with pink and light yellow pills. The sword god picked up the medicine bottle by mistake, and he wanted to hide it in his pocket. Here, it was Jian's mother who stopped him sharply. Jian's mother thought his behavior was crazy and immoral, because the medicine bottle had undoubtedly fallen out of the dead man's pocket.

Jian also failed to pick up the piece of blue cloth this time, and the blue cloth suddenly sank from the river.Such a light strip of blue cloth suddenly sank from the surface of the river.Jian threw away the stick in his hand in disappointment. He felt that the blue cloth strip he found this time was a bit incredible. Turning over the broken wall of the Wuqiannong house, passing through a sloping field full of sunflowers, the sword went to the railway again.Jian walked on the gravel road outside the railroad track with his head down, stopping and going, occasionally leaning on the railroad track to listen to the sound of the train running in the distance.It was a subtle clanking sound like insects, from which Jian could judge how far the train was from him and which direction the train was heading. Jian could also judge whether it was a passenger car or a freight car. It was said that Wuqian There are many boys who have got this extraordinary judgment.

Sword is looking for objects thrown from train windows, cigarette casings, sugar wrappers and beer cans, which are often left on the embankment by passengers.Jian puts the items he chooses into his schoolbag, and he will take them home in the end, although Jian's mother hates those items that look dirty, she often throws the items brought back by Jian into the trash, But Jian is still obsessed with his roaming and searching on the railway. It was a relatively quiet time on the railway in the afternoon, and the early summer sunshine diffused like broken silver on the railway tracks and sleepers, making the world look bright and open.The sunflowers on the road slope stand quietly in a similar posture, with huge golden flower discs hanging down slightly.Swarms of wasps flew from the sunflower discs to the white briar bushes down the slope.The train was coming from far south, and it was the relatively quiet time of the afternoon on the railways.Jian suddenly stopped beside a pile of newly made sleepers and looked around. He was amazed at the rare silence on the railway.The sleepers under the feet exude a strong smell of fresh asphalt. Looking down at the curved ruler-shaped Wuqian Lane in the distance, the low and simple houses look small and messy. They remind Jian Jian of some children's building blocks knocked over on the ground.

As usual, after walking a kilometer along the railway embankment, Jian saw the crossing, which was a wide and lively place.The simple straight rails are twisted and overlapped here, and the black leather trucks full of goods will suddenly change direction when they drive here.Jian has always thought that the crossing is an interesting and magical place, and he can see those shunting workers climbing on the iron ladder outside the carriage, cursing obscenities and waving small red or green flags in the distance.Not only that, Jian also picked up a beautiful wallet with sheepskin here. Although the wallet was lost a long time ago, Jian clearly remembered a strange smell after opening the wallet. A picture of a strange woman, and a train ticket from Shanghai to Harbin.With no money in his wallet, Jian didn't feel sorry, what he liked was that train ticket, which he knew represented a very long journey across most of China, and for Jian who had never been on a train, it was almost like An enviable piece of jewelry.Jian treasured that train ticket. Of course, he decisively tore up the photo of the strange woman before that. He didn't want a strange woman's face to occupy his consciousness. The strange thing is that her face often appeared in Jian's mind later. .With a young and beautiful smile, bright red lips and a mole as big as a soybean grain on the lip, Jian feels shy because of this, maybe it's not shyness, but an indescribable feeling of unease.

Did that woman return to her home in Harbin from Shanghai, or did she leave home from Shanghai and go to Harbin in the northeast?As usual, Jian would think of this question when he walked to the crossing. He knew it was boring and ridiculous to think about this question, but he couldn't help but think of this question when he walked to the crossing. The switch house stood alone by the railroad track, and the switchman Lao Yan stood alone by the window, staring at the signal light in front of him.It was a man in his fifties, his ears were a bit strange, and the earlobes had accumulated excess lines, which looked like a plump wonton.

The reason why Jian entered the switch room in the first place was because of Lao Yan's ears, he found it interesting and endearing.The friendship between Jian and Lao Yan has existed for several years. For Jian, what he likes is Lao Yan's ears, but he still doesn't know why Lao Yan likes him.When Jian took home the peanuts and melon seeds that Lao Yan had given him, Jian's mother said pitifully that the old man was so pitiful that he guarded the crossing all by himself and could only talk to the child.Jian's mother tried to peel a peanut, and she told Jian not to eat his food in the future, for no apparent reason.Don't run to him in the future, do you hear me?

Jian felt that his mother's words were also unclear, and he didn't want to listen to her words. As long as he walked on the railway, and walked along the railway for one kilometer, he would naturally see the lonely wooden house, and he would naturally walk into the old switchman's house. to the house.Jian had already seen the birdcage made of bamboo strips, which was hanging in front of the window, dangling slightly in front of Lao Yan.Inside the birdcage was a beautiful wax-billed bird with gorgeous feathers. Jian liked this kind of bird. He knew that he missed this wax-billed bird more than just looking at Lao Yan's ears when he went to the switch room. Is the train coming soon?said the sword. Coming.The yellow light is already on.Old Yan said, come in, I should switch the road. Jian and Lao Yan exchanged places at the narrow door, and Jian walked into the house that smelled of diesel oil and shoes and socks.He went to the window and took off the cage, and put it on his lap, so that he and the jay in the cage seemed closer.Jian put his little finger into the cage to touch the bird's beak, but the bird avoided it indifferently. It huddled in a corner, its feathers fluttering slightly.Jian suddenly felt that the bird was immersed in the fear before the train approached, and he thought that the bird must be afraid of the sharp whistle of the train. The alarm clock on the table is almost pointing to two o'clock, and a freight train will pass the crossing soon.At 1:55, Jian, like Lao Yan, knew the exact time when each train passed the crossing. Jian wondered whether the wax-billed bird, like them, knew which train was about to rumble past it. Lao Yan walked in with a bow, took off his greasy gloves and threw them on the table, Lao Yan stared at the sword with an obviously angry expression.He said, you took off the birdcage again, I told you not to toss it, but you took off the birdcage every time you came. Take it off and play with it, what's so great about it?Jian muttered and re-hanged the birdcage. He patted the broken rice grains on his hand and said, words don't count. You promised to raise it for a few days and gave it to me, but now you don't even let me play. At that time, I was afraid that the bird would not be able to survive in my place, and I was afraid that the bird would not be able to stand the sound of the train, but it didn't seem to be afraid of the train, it was as used to the train as a human being. No, it's afraid of trains, it's just that it can't talk.Its feathers quiver as the train goes by, watch it right now, I bet its feathers quiver. In fact, I don't know if it is afraid of trains.Old Yan smiled apologetically. He looked at the cage and said, as long as it can survive in the switch house, it is much better to have a bird with it than to be alone. But it can't speak.The sword said, how can it accompany you if it can't talk? It can't talk but you can.Old Yan grabbed a handful of peanuts from the basket and stuffed them in the sword's hand, with a gentle and sly expression on his face.So are you willing to come and talk to me every day?Lao Yan said, as long as you come every day, I will give you the bird and the cage after summer. Your words don't count, and I won't be fooled by you.Jian thought for a while and said, besides, I still have to do my school homework, how can I come to talk with you every day? I'm joking with you, even if you don't come to my place, I will give you the bird and the cage after summer. real?This time you mean what you say, right? Of course it counts.Old Yan wrung his fingers and said in his mouth, June, July, August, and in September, I will leave the railway and return to my hometown.He said, I will retire and return to my hometown in September.Turning the road depends on strength and spirit, which is no longer what I used to be. If you have to wait a whole summer, maybe the bird will die.Jian was a little unhappy, he turned his face and looked out the window, where the first train of the afternoon was neighing and rumbling by.He paid attention to the wax-billed bird in the cage. Its colorful feathers tightened, trembled, and finally stretched out again as the train moved away.This process is like the leaves of mimosa, which changes shape when touched, which looks wonderful and interesting. Wuqiannong at dusk was immersed in a noisy and chaotic atmosphere, and people flocked to Zhao's house on the west side of Wuqiannong.Something happened to the Zhao family.It was Xiaozhu, a seven-year-old girl from the Zhao family, who had an accident, and it turned out to be another accident on the railway. The cause of the incident has nothing to do with Xiaozhu. A group of boys are arguing endlessly for courage and courage. Who dares to lie on the middle of the railroad tracks and let the train pass by?They firmly believe that the gap between the bottom of the train and the rails can keep the brave safe and sound.A group of boys were arguing fiercely, eager to prove to each other that they were the only real heroes in Wuqianlong. They pushed and shoved towards the railway, and Xiaozhu followed the boys, asking as they walked, are you really the only real hero? Do you want to compare on the railway?Are you really not afraid of being run over by a train? Xiaozhu is Jian's younger sister.Jian didn't like his younger sister following him, so Xiao Zhu often played with other boys.That day Xiaozhu followed the group of boys up the railway.The boys were yelling and lying in the middle of the railway tracks. They were lying there in different postures, with strange expressions on their faces. Xiaozhu stood aside and looked at them, laughing while covering her mouth.They lay for a while and the train did not come.Lie down for a while, the train really came, a boy suddenly screamed, the train is coming, get up quickly.All the boys quickly got up from the middle of the rails and jumped outside.The seven-year-old girl, Xiaozhu, was frightened by the black shadow that was speeding ahead. Xiaozhu turned around and ran forward. Xiaozhu staggered between the rails and ran forward, seemingly not hearing the cries of the boys behind her. , jump out, jump out quickly.Xiaozhu ran forward frantically for a while, and suddenly stopped and looked back. She saw the train flying towards her with a circle of red light flashing.Train, you slow down, you stop.Xiaozhu let out a shrill and sharp scream, and finally she was frightened and cried.But her voice was crushed by the huge and hard train in an instant, and Xiao Zhu's frightened jumping figure was completely swallowed up by a milky white mist. The boys heard the blunt bang of the brakes on the train, but the annual disaster had happened again, and they saw a red plastic sandal splash like a drop of water from under the train's wheels. Jian found Xiaozhu's plastic sandals at the foot of the road the next day. It was lying between the hairy branches of two sunflower trees, and the shoes were stained with night dew.Jian picked up the tiny red plastic sandal, wiped off the dew on it, and put it into his schoolbag.Jian noticed that his sister's relics were very clean and bright like everyone else's. Since summer, Jian's mother has been mentally disturbed. Every time a train passes by near Wuqian Nong, her body will tremble violently, and the siren of the truck at night makes her scream more sharply and long. Jian's family lives in a small Bead's young undead in the shadows. Jian's mother forbade Jian to go on the railway again. Now Jian knew how to obey his mother, and he was busy carrying medicine pots for her.I'll listen to you, he said, I'm not going to play on the railway.But in that hot and humid summer, Jian was always in a trance. When looking out the window at the railway track not far away, his heart was as hot and humid as the weather. For the sake of desire.He only went once, to the crossing to see Lao Yan and Lao Yan's wax-billed bird. He said to himself, he would only go once, and he would never go there again. This morning Jian finally sneaked onto the railway. When he walked across the railway bridge, he suddenly remembered the man hanged under the bridge, the blue cloth strip that looked like a trouser belt, so Jian supported the railing of the iron bridge with both hands, He tried his best to look into the bridge hole below, but he saw almost nothing, only the river flowing slowly under the bridge hole, with oil and garbage still floating on the water surface, everything was normal.Jian continued to walk along the railway. He slowed down when he reached the place where his sister Xiaozhu was in trouble. He felt very sad, and the delicate red plastic sandal appeared in front of his eyes. The strange thing is that those impressions are already blurred and erratic. As usual, Jian walked along the railway for one kilometer, and finally came to the crossing, and came to the log cabin of the switchman Lao Yan.The first thing Jian paid attention to was the bamboo strip birdcage. He was frustrated to find that the birdcage was empty, and the cute and beautiful wax-billed bird had gone to nowhere. When did the bird die?Jian made no secret of his dissatisfaction with Lao Yan. The day before yesterday, he died at night.Lao Yan glanced at the empty cage with a sad and self-condemning gaze. He said, I regret not giving it to you last time. If you take it home and raise it, the bird may not die. Birds scare trains to death.Jian said, I said it earlier, but you don't believe it. Who knows?Maybe from starvation.Lao Yan sighed and said, I forgot to feed it the day before yesterday, and I have been restless for a while, and I can go back to my hometown soon, but I am always restless. Damn you, you killed a good bird. If you pull the wrong way, not only will the train overturn, but many people will die. No, I won't turn the wrong way. I have turned the way for most of my life, how could I turn the wrong way?Old Yan suddenly shouted loudly and excitedly. He looked closely at Jian and said, young man, don't curse me. The old and the young were a little unhappy at once. They sat together awkwardly, staring at the signal light socket beside the track through the window.Jian silently imagined what the death of the wax-billed bird would look like, what would a bird scared to death by a train look like?But Jian didn't know whether Old Yan, the switchman, was thinking about birds or trains.He glanced sideways at Lao Yan's old wrinkled face, and Jian realized that he now resented and hated Lao Yan, all because of that cute and beautiful wax-billed bird. You haven't come to my place for a long time, Lao Yan finally touched Jian's ear, he said, is it because your family won't let you go on the railway? Don't touch my ears.Jian yelled loudly, as a kind of revenge and vent, he stood on tiptoe and grabbed Lao Yan's weird wonton-shaped ears, then he said as he walked outside, your words don't count, I don't want to See you.Walking out of the wooden house, the sword still did not appease the resentment in his heart, so he yelled at Lao Yan again through the window, you are an old fool, you will make the wrong move, you will definitely make the wrong move. The hot summer is coming to an end, the heat pervading both sides of the railway subsides day by day, the school is about to start, and the children in Wuqiannong gradually calm down after a crazy summer.Jian hasn't been on the railway for a long time. Sometimes he picks mature flower discs in the sunflower field under the road slope, digs out the gray-yellow flower seeds, stuffs them into his mouth and chews them.Jian found that the smell of those flower seeds was very strange. He felt a faint smell of iron and asphalt, just like the smell of railroad tracks and newly laid sleepers. Jian saw a line of green passenger cars approaching from the north at a slower and slower speed, and finally stopped on the railway bridge. For the children in Wuqian Nong, they knew that this was an abnormal phenomenon, maybe someone had fallen on the track.The children ran out of the house, screaming as they ran, and there was another death on the railway, another death. But this accident was not as simple as Wuqianong's children thought. They ran to the railway bridge and did not see the bloody dead body. The fireman on the train told them that the accident happened on the side of the crossing, and there was a transport machine The truck in front derailed and overturned, which was caused by the switchman's wrong turn. Jian stood in a daze in front of the locomotive, vaguely remembering the curse he had made on Lao Yan in the switch room that day, and Jian was deeply at a loss about the process of fulfilling the curse.Later, Jian followed a group of people towards the crossing.From a distance, he saw the train of overturned freight cars, which looked like a huge collapsed house, scattered on the railway tracks or under the road slope, the air was filled with the strange smell of scorched gunpowder and oily smoke, and some carriages were still burning , the nearby road surface is scorching hot. Some railway workers gathered in the accident area. They were using tools to clear the blocked railway. Some people waved to the children of Wuqianong, come and work together, don't stand there and watch the excitement.The children rushed to help.Only the sword stood aside, he was thinking about what happened to Lao Yan, and what happened to the train derailment.Jian looked at the window of the switch house. The birdcage was still hanging in front of the window, but the switchman, Old Yan, was nowhere to be seen. Two workers stood in front of the switch house and talked about Lao Yan while drinking water. He was taken away by the railway police, who guessed that Lao Yan had been drinking before turning the track. Jian didn't believe the rumors about Lao Yan's drinking. He firmly believed that the car accident had something to do with the death of the wax-billed bird. If the wax-billed bird was still jumping in the cage, the accident would not have happened.But Jian didn't tell anyone what he was thinking, he approached the switch room and quietly took down the empty birdcage in front of the window, Jian felt a little guilty when he picked up the birdcage, fortunately no one paid attention to him. Later, Jian walked back with an empty birdcage. Since the broken iron crossbars on both sides of the rail had not been cleaned up, Jian bypassed the overturned area from the sunflower field. He flickered on the railway, looking like water from a distance. of floating fish.Jian carried the empty birdcage and walked half a kilometer along the railway and looked back towards the crossing. The workers clearing the obstacles were still busy under the scorching sun. The green passenger car is parked on the lead gray railway bridge, and it cannot drive now. Many people stick their heads out of the car windows and look forward. What happened?Was someone run over by a train?When will the train go forward again? I have no idea.Sword shook his head and answered loudly. In front of the car windows passing by one by one, Jian suddenly saw the face of a woman who seemed to have known him before. She threw down a neat roll of apple peel from the car window, stared at Jian and the birdcage in his hand with a smile, the woman's lips A black mole shone with a magical halo in the window, which stopped Jian's hurried home. You're carrying a birdcage, right?the woman asked. Jian stared intently at the mole on the woman's lips, but did not answer her question.Jian was silent for a while and suddenly said, you are going from Shanghai to Harbin, I know you are going from Shanghai to Harbin. No, I got off the bus when I arrived in Tianjin.The woman laughed, and her hand stretched out from the car window, as if she wanted to touch the birdcage in the sword's hand.The woman said, where are the birds?Why is there no bird in your birdcage? don't touch it.Jian started to run in a hurry at this time, he pushed away the strange woman's hand and started to run in a hurry.The hand holding the cage hook tightly with the sword was soaked with sweat, and he felt an inexplicable tension and fear, just like a real thief being chased.Jian didn't know what he was afraid of, but while he was running, he already knew what he was going to do next. He wanted to throw away that birdcage, and he actually wanted to throw away that empty birdcage.Let my hand out of the birdcage, Jian thought, quickly let this birdcage out of my hand. Jian stood on the high railway, facing the direction of Wuqian Lane and raised the birdcage in his hand.Jian roared and threw the birdcage out with force, but the birdcage made of bamboo strips was very light, it only flew a short distance in the air, and landed silently in the sunflower field under the road slope.Jian saw it tap lightly on the plump sunflower leaves, and then it fell silently into the sunflower field. August is still the sunny season for sunflowers. In the south, sunflowers are often planted on the road slopes on both sides of the railway. It is common knowledge that this beautiful plant likes the hot sun.