Chapter 7 Chapter 5 Schweik is in the police station

The beautiful days of Schweik in the lunatic asylum passed away, but the days that followed were full of torment.Inspector Bruin, fierce as one of the benevolent executioners of the Roman Emperor Nero, said: "Put the boy to prison!" The words were dry and crisp.But when Inspector Bruin said this, there was a strange and unnatural satisfaction in his eyes. In the prison, a man was sitting on a bench.Thinking about something.He sat there listlessly, and judging from his expression, when the key of the prison door rang, it was obvious that he didn't feel that it was a sign that he was going to be released.

"Good morning, sir," said Schweik, sitting down beside the man on the bench. "I don't know what time it is?" The man sullenly said nothing.He stood up and paced back and forth between the cell door and the bench, as if he was busy trying to rescue something. At this time, Schweik looked at some inscriptions on the wall with great interest.In the inscription, an unsigned prisoner vowed to fight the police to the death.It read: "Never let you catch me." Another wrote: "Fat-headed fellows, you're talking nonsense!" And yet another just plainly said: "Yu 1913 I will be imprisoned here on June 5, 2011, and the treatment is good.” Then a meditative gentleman wrote a poem: Sit by the stream when the sun sets.

Fuqiu reflects the twilight, and the beautiful woman is still in the future. The man who was sprinting back and forth between the cell door and the bench stopped, then panted, and sat back in his original place.Suddenly he put his head in his hands and shouted, "Let me go!" Then he said to himself, "No, they won't let me go, no, no. I've been here since six o'clock in the morning." Then, unexpectedly, he spoke.He stood up and asked Schweik, "Do you have a belt on you? I'll just kill myself." "Happy to help you," replied Schweik, taking off his belt at the same time. "I've never seen a man hang himself with a strap in prison!"

He looked around, and then he said: "But it's too bad there's no hook here. The window sill won't stand you. I'll give you an idea. You can hang yourself like that by kneeling beside a bench. I'm most interested in suicide." But that's all." The sad-faced man looked at the belt Schweik was tucking into his hand, threw it into a corner, and began to whimper.Wiping his tears with his dirty hands, he exclaimed: "I am a man of sons and daughters! God, my wretched wife! What will the people in my office say? I am People who have sons and daughters!" He cried and said, endlessly.

Finally, he finally calmed down a little, and went to the door of the prison, and beat and smashed on the door with his fist.There was a sound of footsteps outside the door, followed by a voice asking: "What do you want?" "Let me go!" The voice was desperate as if he had no more life left. "Where will I let you go?" the outside continued. "Let me go back to the office!" replied the sad father. In the silence of the corridor, there was laughter, a very terrible laugh.The footsteps moved away again. "That guy doesn't seem to like you, that's why he sneered," Schweik said.At this moment, the depressed man sat down beside him again. "The cops can do anything if they get mad. If you're not going to hang yourself, just sit back and watch what they do."

After a long time, heavy footsteps sounded in the corridor.The key rattled in the lock, the cell door opened, and the inspector called Schweik out. "I'm sorry," Schweik said boldly, "I didn't come until twelve o'clock. This gentleman has been waiting here since six o'clock in the morning. I'm in no hurry." He received no answer, but the inspector's powerful hand had dragged Schweik into the corridor, and taken him silently to the second floor. In the second room sat a inspector at the table.He was a tall man with a good-natured look.He said to Schweik: "Well, you are Schweik, aren't you? How did you get here?"

"It's easy enough," Schweik replied. "One of the inspectors brought me in because they were going to throw me out of the asylum without my lunch, and I refused. What do they take me for?" "I'll answer you, Schweik," said the inspector kindly. "We have no reason to be angry with you here. Shall we take you to the police station?" "As everyone says, once you're here, everything depends on you," Schweik said contentedly. "It's also a nice evening walk from here to the police station." "I'm glad we're on the same page," said the inspector cheerfully. "Look, Schweik, let's have a frank and honest talk!"

"It's always nice to talk to anyone," Schweik replied. "I promise I will never forget your kindness to me, my lord." Schweik bowed deeply and returned to the guard room accompanied by the inspector.In less than a quarter of an hour, Schweik was walking down the street. He was escorted by another inspector, who had under his arm a thick book with the inscription Arrestantenbuch⑵ in German. At the corner of Spaalina Street, Schweik and his bettors saw a crowd crowding around a notice board. "That's the emperor's proclamation of war," said the inspector to Schweik.

"I expected it," Schweik said. "But they don't know about it in the lunatic asylum. In fact, they should be better informed." "Why?" asked the inspector. "Because there are quite a few officers there," Schweik explained.As they approached the crowd that had just crowded around the declaration of war, Schweik called out: "Long live Franz Youssef! We will win this war!" No one in the excited crowd knocked on his hat, so, passing through the crowded crowd, the good soldier Schweik re-entered the gate of the police station. "Our victory in this war is assured. Everyone, believe me, you are right!" After saying these words, Schweik said goodbye to the people walking beside him.

----------------- ⑴ Nero (37-68), the tyrant of the ancient Roman Empire. ⑵ means: "arrest list".