Chapter 45 Traitor

Maogong's eldest son is called Yanzao, and he always does some heavy work in the team, picking manure from the cowshed, breaking stones, burning charcoal and so on.When building a house, he threw adobe bricks, and when he went to mourning, he carried the coffin. His jaw was always drooping because of exhaustion, and he couldn't close it.For this reason, even on hot days, he would wear patched trousers to cover his unsightly legs. The first time I saw him was when his grandmother was still there.His old grandmother is a Gu Po, the legendary country poisonous woman, who made highly poisonous powder made from snakes and scorpions, hid them between her fingernails, and secretly threw them into the diet of enemies or strangers in order to take their lives.These people throw Gu, usually for revenge, and there is also a saying that they sacrifice other people's lives to increase their own lifespan.People said that Yanzao's grandmother became a venomous woman only after the cooperative system, presumably because she had class hatred for the poor and lower-middle peasants, and she refused to let go of her old life with the Communist Party.Benyi's mother died many years ago, and Benyi has always suspected that this old hag laid a Gu, and has held a grudge to this day.

That day, Yanzao's thatched hut was blown down by the wind, and he begged the villagers to help repair it.I also went to help with the mud.I saw that well-known old woman with kind eyes and kind eyes, lighting a fire under the stove, without the vicious appearance that people say, which was completely beyond my expectation. The thatched hut was repaired in one morning.People go home with their tools.Yanzao chased after him and said loudly: "Why don't you eat? How can you leave without eating? How can there be such a reason!" I had already smelled the smell of meat wafting from the kitchen, and felt that it was unreasonable for everyone to leave.Later, I heard from Fucha that not only did people not want to eat at his house, they even dared not touch his teacups.Everyone remembers that there was an old Gu woman in his family.

I stuck out my tongue and hurried home. After a while, Yanzao came door to door again, begging everyone to eat, and opened the door of our room.Angrily, he plopped down and knelt down first, and made three clear and crisp kowtows first: "Do you want me to throw myself into the river? Do you want me to hang my neck? Three emperors and five emperors have not had the rule of doing things for nothing. You step on I am the face of everyone in the room, I will not live today, I will die here." We were so frightened that we quickly pulled him up, saying that we had cooked at home and didn't plan to eat it. Besides, we didn't make much effort, so it was embarrassing to eat.

He was so anxious that he was sweating profusely. After working for a long time without pulling anyone, he almost cried. "I know, I know, you are worried about that old..." "Nothing, nothing, what are you guessing?" "You can't trust that old man, maybe you can't trust me? Do you want me to take a knife to gouge out the heart, liver and lungs for you to see? Well, if you are worried, don't eat it. My little brother is redoing the pot! Which one of you is worried , go and watch her do it. This time I won't let that old one get close!..." "Yanzao, why are you bothering?"

"There are a lot of you adults, leave me a way to survive!" He thumped and knelt down again, smashing his head on the ground like garlic. He begged all the helpers one by one, and finally smashed his forehead until he bled, but he still didn't invite them back.As he said, he really removed all the three tables of meals he had prepared, poured them into the ditch, and asked his sister to wash the rice and borrow meat to make three tables again—it was time to start work in the afternoon.His grandmother had already been tied up by him with a rope, far away from the pot and stove, and tied under a big maple tree at the entrance of the village for public display.I took a look out of curiosity.The old woman was only wearing one shoe, and seemed to be half asleep, her eyes were slantingly looking at a certain point on the upper right, her toothless mouth was opened and closed, and she made some indistinct sounds feebly.She's wet her pants and they stink.Some cubs looked at her from a distance, not without fear.

Several tables of meals were re-arranged on the ground of his house, but there were still no people there.I saw Yanzao's sister sitting at the table wiping tears. In the end, we educated youths couldn't help being greedy, and we didn't believe in evil.Someone took the lead, and several men went there to enjoy a few pieces of beef each.One of them secretly said that he almost couldn't remember what the meat looked like, so he didn't care if he had a voodoo or not, he just wanted to be a full dead ghost. Probably because of this time's favor.Yanzao was especially grateful to us later.We hardly ever collected firewood ourselves, he picked it up on time.He is especially heavy-duty.In my impression, his shoulders are almost never empty, either with a load of cow dung, a load of firewood, or a whole threshing machine dragging along.His shoulders cannot be empty in winter, nor empty in summer; nor empty in sunny days, nor empty in rainy days.If he doesn't carry anything on his shoulders, it's abnormal and awkward, a snail without a shell, which makes people look uncomfortable.It's a disability that makes him unsteady and stumbles when he starts to walk—he does stagger when he's not carrying something, and often kicks his toes bloody.

If he was carrying cotton, there would be so much cotton that his figure would be hidden.From a distance, it looks like two piles of snow mountains jumping forward automatically on the road, which is very strange. Once I went to deliver grain with him, and on the way back he actually put a large stone in each of the two empty baskets.He said that if you don't press it like this, you will have no posture when you walk.Sure enough, once the shoulder pole on his shoulders was bent, the burden became closely integrated with his body, the muscles of his whole body were danced, his steps became elastic, and he jumped in front of him very quickly. He disappeared on the road, completely different from the appearance when he was carrying the empty basket just now; his face was pale, and his steps were broken and chaotic.

He is also a traitor.I learned later that in Maqiao people's language, his father was a traitor, and he couldn't escape being a traitor either.He himself sees it that way.When the educated youth first came, he saw that he picked up a lot of manure in the cowshed and worked hard, and he was taken for granted as a model worker. He was taken aback and waved his hands anxiously: "Wake up, I am a traitor, how can I be that! " The educated youth was taken aback. People in Maqiao felt that the policy from above required to distinguish between the enemy and the enemy's children, which was superfluous.Probably based on the same logic, when Benyi became the secretary of the party branch, his mother-in-law went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy meat, and other women said jealously: "She is a secretary, how dare they shorten her scale?" I didn’t study hard in school, and the teacher actually reprimanded me like this: “You are a secretary, and you still talk small talk in class! Urge!”

Yanzao later became "Niu Ya Ya", that is, dumb.He wasn't dumb before, he just didn't talk much.As a traitor, plus there is a voodoo woman at home, wrinkles have formed on his forehead, and he hasn't found a woman yet.It is said that his sister once lied to him and told him about a blind woman. When the house was consummated, he had a dark face and insisted on not entering the room, and carried the pond mud outside for a whole night.The second day, the third day... still the same.The poor blind girl cried for three nights in her empty new house.In the end, the elder sister had no choice but to send the blind girl home and pay a hundred catties of grain, which was regarded as a divorce.My sister cursed him to be ruthless, so he said, he is a traitor, don't do harm to others.

His older sister married far away in Pingjiang County, and every time she went back to her mother's house to visit, she saw that Yanzao didn't have any good clothes, and there was always half a pot of cold syrup in the pot, without a trace of heat.Dozens of catties of grain were distributed from the team, and I had to save it for my younger brother Yan Wu (see the entry "Weird Weapon") to take to school for lunch, but my sister's eyes were so red that she didn't do it.They were so poor that they never had more quilts, and the older sister always shared the bed with the younger brother every time she went back to her natal home.One night when it was raining heavily, my sister woke up in the middle of the night and found that the end of her feet was empty. Yanzao sat on the head of the bed, hunched over, not sleeping at all, and there was a sound of sobbing like a cat in the dark.My sister asked him why, but Yanzao didn't answer, and went to the kitchen to rub straw ropes.The elder sister was also sobbing, and when she walked into the kitchen, she stretched out her trembling hand, and finally took the younger brother's hand.Said that if you can't help it, don't treat me like a family member, just treat me as someone you don't know, anyway...it will also let you get a taste of a woman.

Her hair was disheveled, her underwear had been unbuttoned, and Yubai's breasts met her younger brother's astonished gaze. "Just come on me, I don't blame you." He jerked his hand back, taking a step back. "I don't blame you." My sister reached for her belt, "We are not human anymore anyway." He rushed out the door as if fleeing for his life, and the sound of his footsteps disappeared in the wind and rain. He ran to his parents' grave and cried a lot.When I went home the next morning, my sister had already left.A bowl of boiled sweet potatoes was left behind, and several gowns were washed and mended, and put on the bed. She never returned to her natal home after that. Probably from this time on, Yanzao was even more reluctant to speak, and seemed to have cut off his tongue.He does whatever he is told to do.If he was not told to do it, he would squat aside until no one gave him orders, and then he would go home silently.Over time, he almost really became a mute.Once, members of Quangongdu were called to build roads, and he also participated as usual.On the construction site, he found that his rake head was missing, and he was so anxious that his face flushed and he searched everywhere.The militiamen who guarded them asked him vigilantly, what the hell are they doing here and there?He just yelled. The militiaman thought he was evasive, thought he needed to investigate, and pointed his rifle at his chest with a clatter: "Say, frankly, what the hell is going on?" His forehead was sweating, his face was red to the base of his ears and neck, his stiff facial muscles were stretched to one side, shaking like a spring again and again, and every time he shook, his eyes opened wide, and his mouth—— the one that was worried by others The expectant mouth has long been opened, and it has been empty for a long time, but no word comes out. "Tell me!" Someone next to him was so anxious that he broke out in sweat. He was out of breath, and made another effort. His five sense organs wrestled and tortured each other fiercely, and finally made a sound: "Wow—harrow!" "Rake what?" His eyes were straightened, and he didn't say a second word. "Are you dumb?" The militiaman was even more annoyed. The muscles around his cheeks twitched. "He is a mute," someone beside him interceded for him, "He has a golden mouth and fine teeth, and he has finished speaking in the previous life." "Don't talk?" The militiaman turned around and stared at him, "Long live Chairman Mao!" Yanzao screamed even more anxiously, raised a thumb, and made a gesture of raising his arms and shouting, to show the meaning of long live.But the militia didn't let him go, and he was determined to speak out.On this day, he received several slaps on the face and kicks on his body, but he still couldn't fully say this sentence.After holding back until the end, he finally yelled out the word "Mao". Seeing that he was really dumb, the militiamen fined him five loads of extra soil. It was from this time that Yanzao's status as a mute was officially confirmed.Of course there is nothing wrong with being a mute, talking too much hurts one's vitality, and misfortune comes out of one's mouth. If you don't speak, you will lose a lot of right and wrong. At least Benyi no longer suspects him of saying bad things behind his back, and he will be less vigilant when he says reactionary things.When the team needs someone to spray pesticides alone, Benyi even thinks of him, saying that this Gu mother-in-law might not be afraid of poison, and if he becomes dumb, don't talk to anyone, it's not lively, let him go alone to beat the drums and sail the boat alone . The torrential field is cold, and there were not many bugs in the past.According to the local people, the bugs are all produced by the diesel engine. When the engine is noisy, all the thatch flowers on the mountain will become bugs.Of course there were insects that had to be sprayed with medicine. After a day of beating, I was foaming at the mouth, lying on my back with bruises and swollen legs. They said they had been poisoned. Since then, no one dared to use the sprayer.Send landlords and rich peasants to do this kind of hard work, and they are afraid that they will use pesticides to poison the cattle or pigs of the collective, and poison the cadres.After much deliberation, Benyi thought that only Yanzao was considered a relatively honest and law-abiding traitor, which was appropriate. Yanzao was also poisoned at the beginning, and his head was swollen like a pumpkin. No matter how hot the weather was, he was wrapped in a piece of cloth all day long, with only two eyes blinking outside, like a masked thief.After a long time, he probably got used to the poison slowly. The cloth towel on his head was removed, and the mouth and nose mask given by the educated youth was no longer worn. He didn't even have to go to the water to wash his hands before going home to eat.The most poisonous medicine, 1059, 1605 and so on, he doesn't take it seriously at all. The hand that has just applied the medicine can wipe his mouth, scratch his ears, grab a sweet potato and stuff it into his mouth, hold cold water and suck it into his mouth. Others were amazed.He has a earthen bowl, covered with medicine dirt, specially used for mixing medicine.Once he caught a few loaches in the field and threw them into the bowl, and the loaches rolled their eyes straight in it for a moment.He lit a fire on the edge of the ground, burned the loach and ate it one by one, but nothing happened. People in the village talked about this matter, and they believed that he had become a poisonous person, and the blood flowing in his veins must not be human. People also said that since then, he no longer needs to put a mosquito net when he sleeps, and all the mosquitoes will stay away from him. As long as they are touched by his fingers, they will die immediately.He blew on the mosquito flying in front of him, and the little bastard would immediately fall to the ground dizzy.His mouth is better than a sprayer.