Chapter 3 first quarter
With all my strength, I slammed the fire ax out.This time the ax went right into the chisel of the young pine tree and chopped it down the middle.The top half of it lay flat in the snow.I put down the axe, quickly rubbed my hands together, then took out a coil of nylon rope to tie the tree trunk, grabbed one end of the rope, and dragged back step by step.Despite all my protection, the extreme cold still made me feel like I was wearing nothing.The cold wind is like a ferocious executioner, first binding my limbs with low temperature, and then cutting off my flesh and blood one by one.
Five minutes later, I finally dragged the pine tree to the main entrance of the library.In just a short distance of tens of meters, my three-layer mask and goggles were already covered with hoarfrost, and my face and fingers were slightly blue-gray.If I stayed for a few more minutes, it might not be the pine tree that fell, but me.No, maybe I won't fall down, I will stand frozen in the boundless snow, frozen into a human pillar.I gritted my teeth, raised my almost frozen arm, and knocked on the door.The passage next to the main entrance opened with a "squeak", and three or four people wrapped themselves into rice dumplings stretched out their arms, dragged the pine tree and me in with all their might, and then quickly closed the door.In this short moment of switching, a large snowflake and the cold wind howled through the gap, making a strange whining sound.
It wasn't warm at all in the library, only three or four degrees higher than outside, but at least there was no wind.A fire was burning blazingly on the floor at the front of the lobby.The fire was not too big, and there were broken tables, chairs, and wardrobes inside, and there was a pungent smell of burning paint and plywood glue.A dozen people sat around the fire, wrapped in various styles of clothes, all of them looked melancholy.I threw the fire ax to Xu Cong and Shao Xuecheng, and asked them to split the pine tree. Then I rushed to the fire, took off my gloves, and wanted to put my hands directly on the fire.
People around moved their buttocks to make room for me.I brought back enough fuel to last at least four hours, entitled to some warmth.
Someone handed me a glass of water, which was melted from snow. The water was very warm, and there were all kinds of suspicious PM2.5 suspended matter floating in it, but I didn't care about it and drank it all in one gulp.At this time Xu Qi came over and asked, "Old Ma, how many pine trees are there outside?" I told him that this was the last one nearby, and if I wanted to cut it down again, I had to go to the Science and Technology Commission compound next door, where there were still pine trees. Several landscape plants.After hearing this, Xu Qi was worried: "Then it's at least six or seven hundred meters away?"
I took off my boots, raised my feet and approached the flames, my stiff toes were licked by the flames, and there was a burst of numbness: "Yes, in this kind of weather, no one can last that far, let alone transport fuel back It’s over. Let me tell you, we’re really doomed this time!” “This is to freeze us to death on purpose.” Zhu Jiayin poked her head out from under the blanket and muttered.I glared at him, and he retreated resentfully, continuing to fiddle with the radio in his hand.The radio hadn't received any signal since a few days ago, just various noises.Only Zhu Jiayin thinks that these noises must hide special rules, and listens to the knob nervously every day, none of us bother to talk about it, let him toss.By the way, Zhu Jiayin is the only one among us who can sing "Uneasy" verbatim.
Xu Cong and Shao Xuecheng had already finished dismembering the pine tree and brought over dozens of firewood of different lengths.Xu Qi picked it up for a long time, picked up a short piece of firewood and threw it into the fire. The fire made a crackling sound, became a little more vigorous, and gave off a fragrance of pine needles.He looked around, saw everyone staring at him pitifully, sighed, and threw in another long one.
It was an accident that our group got stuck in the library.To put it simply, on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the cold snapped suddenly, and by the time the citizens realized that this was not an ordinary cold spring, it was already too late.The snowstorm has completely blocked the entire city, whether it is the airport or the highway, they are completely paralyzed.In a city where just a little rain or snow can cause traffic jams throughout the city, one can imagine how much trouble a snowstorm can cause.Every car was moving slowly towards the direction of leaving the city. Many people froze to death on the Third Ring Road, the Fourth Ring Road or the overpass. Some people tried to get out of the car to cover the license plate, and they were frozen alive holding the CD, which was very tragic; more people chose to leave on foot, and their ending was even unimaginable.
Several of our friends came to this library to collect materials for a project.As a result, procrastination broke out. We played three rounds of "Please Close Your Eyes When It's Dark" and five rounds of "Three Kingdoms" in the empty reading room, completely forgetting about the information check.When we came to our senses, the entire library was surrounded by heavy snow, and there were only thirteen people left in the entire building, including ten readers, two staff members, and a Nazarene... Oh!I was wrong, it was a Chinese Jew named Li Chao.He is very suspicious and always thinks that others will betray him.As soon as anyone approached him, he screamed and shouted: "One of you betrayed me!" The library is a Soviet-style building, very thick, and the cold-resistant characteristics of the Russian nation flow through the reinforced concrete.Under its protection, we were finally temporarily protected from the severe cold and became one of the few survivors in the city.But as the temperature dropped further, the library began to become unbearably cold.We tried to leave, looking for another foothold, but were stopped by the snowstorm.The extreme cold makes any outdoor activity deadly.We had to go back to the library, get local materials, use wooden materials such as tables, chairs and cabinets as fuel, dismantle them and ignite them.
No one knows how this severe cold attack came about and how wide it affected.The TV and Internet have been completely scrapped in this severe cold weather, only the radio lasted for a while.According to what Zhu Jiayin deciphered from the noise, the entire northern part of China has been engulfed in snow, and the government announced to move the capital to a certain city in the subtropical zone. "Everything is not accidental, all of these are connected." Zhu Jiayin squirmed in the blanket, just like Jabba in "Star Wars".He said a lot of strange things like this. One day he said that he was a captain in his previous life, and the next day he said that he had been to India, but no one took it seriously.
"Fuck! It's useless to talk about it, hurry up and find a way to keep the heating on!" Shao Xuecheng shouted impatiently.Zhu Jiayin jumped up suddenly: "And you! There is something wrong with your name! There must have been some signs when you were born! What department did your father work in in the country! He must have participated in some kind of plan?" Shao Xuecheng was furious. Angry, he raised his hand to hit Zhu Jiayin, but was quickly stopped by others.
At this time, Sister Zheng said slowly: "Young man, what are you in a hurry for? There are plenty of things that can be burned here!" She held a bag of potato chips and looked at Lao Wang with a smile.Our eyes all moved to Pharaoh.Lao Wang immediately became very nervous. He picked up a piece of firewood from the ground and used the "Pine Welcoming Guest" of the Huashan School, and shouted tremblingly: "You don't want to play books! Don't blame the sword in my hand for being ruthless! "Lao Wang and Sister Zheng are both senior employees of this library. They were on duty when the blizzard came, but they were also trapped.Sister Zheng's response speed to survival, even us young people are ashamed.As soon as the blizzard broke out, she quickly ate up her lunch box, and then used a coin to take out all the snacks and drinks from the vending machine.If we want to eat, we have to buy it from her.She even got everyone's weight around the corner. I happened to see her fat calculation formula written on a piece of paper, and I didn't understand her deep meaning-by the way, my ranking is quite high...
And Lao Wang is another kind of person.He regards the books in the library as treasures, and resolutely forbids anyone without a library card to touch them. If anyone dares to violate them, he will teach that ignorant bastard a lesson.The martial arts moves he yelled out varied, but in fact there was only one move: hitting head-on with the broom.No one knows how old Lao Wang is.According to Sister Zheng, Lao Wang is a senior man in the librarian circle. He repaired the floor for Marx. He didn’t know where he was when the Alexandria library was burned, but the day Confucius went to Lao Tzu for advice, Lao Wang must be I'm on sick leave.
It is understandable for such an old guy not to let us touch the book.In the case of sufficient fuel, we are happy to respect the elderly and protect the crystallization of human wisdom.But now that everyone is facing an existential crisis, how to choose is not very difficult.
"Old Wang, we understand your feelings, but human life is at stake. Look, we still have girls here. They are too weak to survive the severe cold." I comforted, pointing to a few girls huddled in a corner. Boy, try to arouse his sympathy.
"You can help them with your body temperature, why burn books!" Old Wang's counterattack was also very sharp, directly hitting the vitals of some people.At that moment, several unrequited love and fiery eyes intertwined, and everyone hesitated for a moment.
"That's not the point! In short, you have to get out of the way and open the library as soon as possible! The fuel is not enough." I said as calmly as possible.Lao Wang shook his head: "Unless you step over Xiao Zheng's body."
Sister Zheng jumped up and shouted: "Old Wang, please don't get involved with me. I'm not an official establishment. I don't have a place to distribute things during the festivals. You want me to work hard right now. There's no way!" Lao Wang is gone The reinforcements had no choice but to grab firewood, step back a few steps, with firm eyes and an uncompromising face: "Books are the ladder of human progress and the crystallization of human wisdom! You can't burn them! Knowledge is power!" "France is Bacon." Everyone followed up habitually.Then I said bluntly:
"For us now, knowledge is heat. Besides, this library is the only one. Hasn't our government moved the capital? They must have brought a lot of books there." "Nonsense! Do you believe in this assumption?" Is it?" Faced with Lao Wang's question, I couldn't answer confidently.Seeing that my momentum was a little weak, Lao Wang puffed up his chest and sighed a long time:
"Now that the information from outside is cut off, maybe the whole world has been destroyed now, and we are left here. If you burn all the books, our human culture for thousands of years will be lost and extinct. What will we do then? Explain to future generations? You can't destroy a species for your own self-interest." "What can you say to a traitor in Xicheng District! Just knock him out and finish!" Suddenly a person shouted sharply.The one who said this was Tian Xiao, who worked as a director at a TV station, but was a fanatical Xuanwumen revivalist at heart.Since the capital announced the abolition of Xuanwu District's establishment two years ago and merged it into Xicheng District, he has always felt ashamed and expressed his dissatisfaction on various occasions. At the same time, he has a deep-rooted hatred for people from Xicheng District.Lao Wang hurriedly said that he was from Haidian, but Tian Xiao didn't listen at all: "Haidian is also from the West!" It was on fire, and the two pushed and shoved.
In fact, I was a little hesitant, and everyone said to respect the old and the virtuous, but at this critical moment, who cares about a few broken books.Old Wang has lived for so long, even if he dies in a book, he is worth it.We are still the sun at eight or nine o'clock, and we haven't lived enough yet.At this time, a girl stood up from the corner and said softly: "Everyone, stop arguing. At this critical juncture, we should help each other." "Same boat?" Zhu Jiayin immediately cheered up. But I’m asking the right person, I know where the Ark is, it’s not in Tibet at all! It’s a Hollywood conspiracy!” “Tongzhou?” Tian Xiao’s face softened a little when he heard the name, Tongzhou is in the east.
I signaled the two of them to shut up quickly and let the girl continue talking.Her name is Liu Yue, and she is a female master who is about to study for a Ph. D., but she still looks normal at the moment.Liu Yue adjusted her glasses: "I suggest that we practice democracy and set up a book review committee. When burning books, as long as a simple majority of thirteen people—that is, at least seven people—consents, the book can be censored. Burn it.” The suggestion sounded reasonable, and everyone agreed.But Lao Wang was still a little unwilling.Shao Xuecheng and Xu Cong stood on both sides of him, each holding an arm.I said sadly: "Old Wang, you have thought it through clearly. If we are pushed into a hurry, then what the organization says will be what it is, and you will not even have a chance to vote." Lao Wang thought for a while and said you You have to agree to two conditions, or you will kill me first.I asked him what the conditions were, and Lao Wang said: "You have to go through the formal borrowing process for books, borrow them from me and then burn them. I will open the library and let you burn them casually, and you can borrow books from me and burn them again." , are different in nature.” His request elicited bursts of laughter.Seeing his righteous face, he also knows how to work around.I asked him what the second condition was, and Lao Wang's face became very serious: "Never, never open the deepest library on the second basement floor."
There are at least 200,000 books in this library, enough to burn for a long time, so I readily agreed to his condition.
After completing the work of Pharaoh, we started the big migration.At present, our fire is too close to the front hall, the temperature will get colder and colder, and it will be very troublesome to move the books out of the library. We simply moved the fire to a place further inward, right at the door of the library.Probably to solve the big problem of fuel, everyone moved quickly, and quickly moved all the warm clothes and the fire.Zhu Jiayin walked last, still fiddling with his radio, talking to himself along with the noise.Lao Wang stood at the door of the library, took my library card seriously, and asked, "What books do you want to borrow?" I was taken aback.This question is well-asked. Before, I only thought about getting books, but I didn't think about what books to get.Ordinarily, it doesn't matter what kind of book it is, as long as the paper is enough and thick enough, but now that there is a book review committee, it must be fully considered, and it is necessary to choose those books that everyone thinks can be burned.
"Let me do the math with Tarot cards." Another girl, Xiaoying, finished speaking, regardless of whether others agreed or disagreed, she laid out a handful of cards on the ground, and quickly retracted her little hand into her sleeve. The face is solemn.Li Chao, the only Christian here, looked at the cards in her hand, made a sign of the cross on her chest, and muttered softly: "Hmph, feudal superstition." Xiaoying closed her eyes and concentrated, and quickly drew a card from the array, When it came out, it was an upright magician.
"Okay, burn Liu Qian!" Xu Cong shouted.
"Idiot! How many books has Liu Qian published? It's not enough to be popular." Xiaoying looked disdainful, "The meaning of this card is speculative, and it is obviously to be a philosopher." "I recommend Foucault, and I have never read it." Understood." Xu Cong shouted again.
"Hegel!" "Too thin! Or Sartre!" "Don't be an idiot, Sartre's books are not thick! Simply burn the set of 'World Chinese Translations of World Academic Masterpieces' in the Commercial Press , I remember that the series on the orange cover are all about philosophy!" "Facing so many masters, you are not soft at all? You are a sinner of mankind!" "Bah! I'm freezing to death, who cares?" There are so many!" "Then why don't you start with Nan Huaijin's? It's ignorant to only think about burning Western ones!" "It's better than worshiping foreigners! I'm Chinese, and of course I want to save Chinese civilization for the end. Today I Leave the words here, you little traitor, as long as I’m here, you don’t even want to burn a single book on Eastern philosophy except Yu Dan!” “Down with the schoolboys!” “Huh? There’s no such book in the library.” "This is my slogan!" The room was full of quarrels, but I never thought that these guys usually drink a lot of wine and eat meat, like a group of bandits, they also secretly hide an academic kingdom in their hearts.At this moment, Shao Xuecheng leaned over to my side: "Old Ma, it's not okay to go on like this. Damn, these little intellectuals are talking nonsense, and the bastards have their own little plans, so we can't let them make up their minds." I nodded, Also aware of this problem.If they are allowed to choose by themselves, they will inevitably quarrel because of different ideas.The current solution is to leave the choice to God or probability theory.
I signaled them to be quiet, and then said, "I think we should stop looking for books by ourselves. We will draw randomly, and everyone will vote to decide whether to burn it or not." I reminded them that this is a matter of life and death for everyone. Burn it rationally, without mixing too much personal emotion.At this point the temperature in the room dropped a little more, and the fire began to shrink.Everyone realized that they couldn't be frozen to death because of such a ridiculous thing, so they all shut up.I saw a small cart next to it, which was full of books that had just been returned but hadn’t been put back into the library. It was in disarray, so I picked out a book from it and showed it to everyone.
"Will Yu Qiuyu's book be burned?" "Burn it!" "Burn it!" "Should it be flammable?"
This time the opinion was quite unanimous, with only one dissenter.This opponent is a thin and weak young man with a very thin neck but a big head. The one bigger than his head is his name, Long Aotian.Long Aotian is our junior, even more pussy than Super Girl.He raised his hand timidly: "Do I have to burn it? I like Master Yu very much. When I participated in the new concept composition, I imitated him." Xu Qi comforted him: "Now that there is such a big trouble The master will definitely be heartbroken, and once he is heartbroken, he will definitely write a wonderful book, not bad for this one. Besides..." He flipped his wrist and revealed the cover, "The name of this book is not very auspicious, It’s better to burn it sooner.” We leaned over to have a look, and we all nodded and said that it was about to burn.
After I went through the borrowing procedures with Lao Wang, I threw the book into the fire, and soon the pages were curled and burned to ashes.Zhu Jiayin said: "It's burning well! What kind of cold, frost, snow, and city are you bringing? It's not good at first sight. These things with unlucky words should be burned!" Shao Xuecheng gave him a hard look, from Another set of books was picked up from the trolley. ""Tomb Raiders Notes", will this be burned?" "I haven't read it yet." I said.
"Then what about the first seven volumes? Throw it into the fire first?" "Keep it, the volume eight came out too late, I almost forgot about it, I have time to read it again." I put that set back and went to find other volumes. Book.At this time Xu Qi came to my side and said softly: "Actually, I can teach you a trick of choice." "Oh?"
"Any girdle that declares that the global sales volume is second only to the Bible can be taken out and burned, and it will not be wrong." A flash of inspiration came to my mind, and this suggestion is really good.I quickly jumped onto the table... because the table has been burned... and said to everyone: "I have an idea, let's burn all the books that successfully learned that classification, they are thick enough, and there are enough , Do you have any objections?" The proposal was quickly unanimously passed by the committee, and even Lao Wang voted for it.So we picked out all the success stories, from Carnegie to "Letter to Garcia", and threw them all into the fire.I don't know if it's a psychological effect, but the books on success learning are particularly prosperous, warming everyone's heart.
"It'll be fine if it stays like this." I looked at everyone's smiling faces with relief, and wondered whether to focus on life and health care or horoscope divination next.Burning the former may annoy Zheng Dajie, who is a fan of various health regimens. She has tried swallowing loach raw and drinking mung beans; burning the latter may embarrass Xiaoying.In terms of thickness and paper, the two types of books have the same burning quality, so it is difficult to choose.
I was still hesitating when I suddenly saw Zhu Jiayin huddled in the corner, not enjoying the fire with everyone, and fiddled with the radio on her own.He suddenly leaned over and put his ear next to the horn. A few seconds later, his eyes suddenly widened, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably, like a toad that had been electrocuted.