Chapter 30 Chapter 28 (1)

It was snowing heavily in the Palou Mountains, but the county town eighty miles away was still dry.From Sanxing Village to the county seat, the first batch of young men who sold leather were walking on the hillside, making the sound of snow all the way, but when they reached the edge of the city, they all stepped on the flat ground without a single speck of snow, and they said "ah!" to each other. Suddenly, in a moment, I understood that the county seat is a big and prosperous place after all, and even the falling snow is different from the mountains.The wet yellow sun coated the county town with a layer of copper. Even though it was winter, the teenagers in Sanxing Village felt extremely warm.The wound on Sima Lan's leg has healed 80% and he has become a regular customer of selling skins. He led the group to go through fire and water and walked in front. Brother Sima Hu, Sima Lu, Lan Liugen, Lan Yanggen and Du Du Zhuang and Du Zhu, a group of more than a dozen, followed behind him, walking cheerfully towards the Jiaohuoyuan in the east of the city, like a group of lambs about to grow up on the grass, looking around and whistling.Along the outer ring road under the city wall, you can see the high ridges of many old houses in the city wall, and you can also see the ancient gun towers at the corners of the city wall.Sima Lan said that the gun tower was built by the Japanese, did the people in the same company tell the truth?He said he heard about it when he was three years old and followed his father Sima Xiaoxiao to sell leather.So, the teenagers admired this Sima Lan who dared to come to the county town to sell his legs at the age of sixteen even more.At the fork in the east of the city, a fuzzy red appeared in front of him. After walking for another distance, they saw the red walls and tiles of the Jiaohuo Academy, and the blood of the young people was rushing with excitement.

"The older generations of our villagers sell leather here." "What if there aren't many people buying leather today?" "There aren't many buyers, so I'll sell as much as you can first." Sima Lan said, "The village chief said that besides buying wheels for the village, the rest of the money will be his own, so whoever is in a hurry will sell first." The teenagers looked at each other, and Du Zhu said that after running for eighty miles, I had to sell a piece of thigh leather anyway to buy a pair of trousers, saying that I hadn't worn a new pair of trousers in four years, and they were all left when my father died. old clothes.It is said that when my father died, the whole village knew that he was buried naked, and that my mother left all my father's clothes for me to wear.Sima Lan thought for a while, and said that today, only one person can sell skins, and he will only cut off your Du Zhu's legs.Du Zhu was satisfied with these words, and there was a layer of pink light on his forehead.But Lan Liugen, who came with him, said that we also ran 80 miles, 160 miles back and forth, and lived in a barn with everyone last night. Our family has two brothers, and two people can’t let us alone I can't sell it either.Sima Lan said that if Du Zhu sells one piece, you brothers will sell the second piece, so that the two of you can sell it together.

"And me," said fourteen-year-old Sima Hu, "brother, we have three brothers here." Sima Lan was a little embarrassed, and stood at a fork in the road as he walked, and the embarrassment floated over his face like a cloud.At this time, another guy said that he had to sell a piece of leather today. He said that the dry food on the way to sell the leather should be borrowed from others. If you can't drop it, what can you do to return the dry food noodles?The teenagers were chattering at one another, arguing in red-mouthed vernacular, like who stole whose money, and the sound of quarreling was as loud as water splashing on cliffs and rocks.Du Zhuang, the oldest member of the group, threw his dry food bag on the ground, and shouted that he would sell it to death, and said that even if the Jiaohuoyuan only cut one person's skin, he should cut me too. Said that my daughter-in-law has been engaged for three years, and if I don’t have money, I won’t be able to marry my daughter-in-law.Said that I will be twenty years old soon. If I am exhausted and overturned the ground, I will still suffer from laryngitis. Even if I live to thirty-eight years, there are only eighteen years left. Baby, it's common for women to lose their belly in three or two years. Who can guarantee that a married daughter-in-law will be able to have a baby?He said that even if the daughter-in-law gets pregnant once she gets married, she will be born in the second year, and when he dies, the eldest child will only be fifteen years old. What about the second, third, and fourth children?Didn't I live my whole life to watch my children get married and girls get married?

The sun has risen to half height, and the fields outside the city are brilliant.In the wheat fields in the four fields, the sparse wheat seedlings withered and withered on the scorched red land.On the hillside in the distance, a crowd rushed towards one direction, all holding shovels, shovels and so on.To the west of the intersection, there are a few sheep happily gnawing wheat shoots in the wheat field. The owner of the sheep is smoking a cigarette at the head of the wheat field, looking at his flock.Sima Lan stared at the 20-year-old Du Zhuang who was not yet married, and said that in this case, if there are fewer people buying skins, I will let you go.

But Sima Hu quit, "What about me?" Lan Liugen said, "Should we just make this trip for nothing?" Sima Hu said: "My brother brought you here, and our Sima family has to sell yours after we sell them." Sima Lan glanced at his sixth younger brother Sima Hu, and said, "Learn from your fifth brother and talk less!" Sima Hu snorted fearlessly with his nose, squatted on the head of the field and fell silent.In front of the gate of the Jiaohuoyuan, people kept coming in and out, and there were many urban teenagers who were about the same age as Sima Lan, wearing yellow military jackets of the same color, or wearing earthen jackets with a military cloth shirt over them.They were in a hurry, discussing something at the door, and one of them rode a bicycle and flew towards the city from the back wall of the teaching fire academy.Sima Lan turned his gaze away from the Jiaohuoyuan, his face was still stiff with embarrassment at first, and then disappeared with a whoosh.He said: "Let's do this." He counted the number of people again, "We have twelve people. Twelve people are seven families. I will match seven sticks, from long to short. Today, the Jiaohuo Academy only bought one piece of leather. , whoever draws the longest one will sell it; if someone buys two pieces of leather, then the second longest lottery will take turns; if someone buys three pieces of leather, then the third longest lottery will take turns. If the line goes down, whoever smokes the shortest will be unlucky?"

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, silent. Sima Lan said, "Speak up, you guys." Lan Liugen said: "We brothers also draw a lottery?" Sima Lan said: "The three of my brothers also smoke one." Lan Liugen said: "How much does it cost to buy human skin?" Sima Lan said: "One person can only sell one piece. After seven yuan, the family can sell two or three." Sima Lu looked at Brother and said, "I agree." Du Zhuang, who came here for the joint shop, said, "I agree too." They all agreed. Sima Lan went to a willow tree on the side of the road and broke off a twig. With his back to everyone, he cut off seven pieces of the twig.Putting the seven branches side by side in the palm of his hand, there was a strong willow smell coming out from his palm.When walking towards the youths, Sima Lan sniffed the breath of willows, thinking that spring is not far away, maybe after a while, the snow will melt and the ice will open, and spring will come quietly. Plant something.

At that time, the villagers with the three surnames walked back from the laryngeal death.He thought that it would be great to renovate the fields in the village with labor from outside the village within this year.How nice it would be for everyone to be able to eat food from the new soil.Who will draw the lot first?In fact, it’s the same if you smoke first and then smoke. If you can’t sell the skin today, the skin will still grow on your thigh, like money in the bank. When the next batch is sold, it is equivalent to withdrawing the money from the bank. "If you can't sell it, it means that the bank is not working today." As he said, he stretched out the hand holding the lottery to everyone's eyes, and that hand swelled up like a black and yellow dry bun.Everyone looked at the bun, Lan Liugen said that I would draw first, and Sima Lan said that whoever drew first would be the same. In ancient times, several brothers drew lots to be the emperor, and everyone competed to draw lots first, but no one got the lottery. That last idiot.Since even the emperor's lottery can be reserved for the last lottery, the village young people don't compete to draw lots first, and let Lan Liugen draw first.However, when Lan Liugen was about to smoke, Sima Hu, who had been squatting silently by the field, jumped up and stood up.

"I'll draw first," he said, "only three of my brothers will draw a lottery, and our Sima family should be the first to draw." Sima Hu drew lots first.Sima Hu looked around at Sima Lan's clenched hand, looked at Sima Lan's face, and whispered, "Brother, which one to smoke?" Sima Lan said which one you want to smoke. Sima Hu stared, "I've never seen you as a brother." Then he asked Sima Lu, "Fifth brother, which one do you want to smoke?" Sima Lu said, "The one on the far side." Sima Hu decided to draw a lottery with the length of two fingers on the side, and asked if it was the longest?Sima Lan said that he would know after one draw.Sima Hu held the lottery and stood on the side carefully waiting, watching the person who wanted to join the shop draw lots, watched Du Zhu draw lots, watched Lan Yanggen of the Lan family brother draw lots, whoever was drawn would go compare.When the lottery is all drawn, put the lottery on a flat ground to compare, and it turns out that Sima Hu's lottery is the longest, with the second-longest half of a finger growing out, and other people's lottery is a dry willow branch, which is dark yellow. The tiger's lottery is rotten white, and it is a section of vitex.

Sima Lan slapped Sima Hu across the face. Sima Hu gave Sima Lan a bad look, and then kicked him on the thigh. He was kicking the scar where Sima Lan had cut the skin. Sixth brother Sima Hu hit him on the head. Unexpectedly, Sima Hu looked at the stone, his fourteen-year-old neck was stung, and his face was full of anger and hatred. He stretched his head in front of Sima Lan and said, "If you want to hit me on the head Drop it, don’t drop it, you’re not my fourth brother.” Sima Lan had no choice but to throw the stone down, otherwise he would be ashamed in front of the sixth brother.When he was in trouble and smashed down, Fifth Brother and other teenagers hugged him and snatched the stone from his hand.

Sima Lu said: "Fourth Brother, Brother Hu is just fourteen, you have to let him go." Sima Lu said again: "Sixth brother, father is dead, fourth brother is father, we should all respect fourth brother." Sima Hu shortened his long neck. Sima Lan stomped her foot on the ground, and said that you still kicked my legs, it's nothing if the tender skin is damaged, but the good skin next to the wounded skin will be smashed, making my leg skin unsalable in the future. Drop, you see I don't want your life.Blocking and embracing each other like this, the teenagers went to the Jiaohuoyuan, and said that Sima Hu's fake lottery was not counted. Du Zhuang, who signed Du Zhu, ranked third by selling leather.Because the Sima family brothers fought, they all agreed that Sima Hu's lottery should not be discarded. I feel sorry for the Sima family brothers, and they all agreed that they should be ranked fourth in the middle.

It was already mid-morning, and the sun was hanging over the roof of the old church of Jiaohuoyuan, making the church building glow red, as if it had been painted with a new layer of red.When everyone wondered how the sun can make the old wall bright, they saw someone carrying a red paint bucket to paint the wall, so they all walked over there, watching the two people paint on the wall, and Sima Lan came up The church building asked the dean to contact him to sell the leather. Sima Lan was already acquainted with him at the Jiaohuo Academy, and he followed the next old doctor in a white coat after going upstairs.The old doctor was in his fifties. He stood under the wall and looked at the teenagers in Sansurname Village. He said they were all so young?Sima Lan said that he was not young, he was sixteen.The old doctor went to the ward.Everyone hurriedly asked Sima Lan, saying that no one bought leather?Sima Lan said that a few days ago, six burn patients came here. They were all young people with strong regenerative ability.The teenagers were full of hope, and asked Sima to go with the old doctor, and told the doctor that the leather was cheaper, and he would buy it if the price was reduced. Sima Lan said: "That's not the old doctor, it's the vice president. Anyone who sells skins has to go through him." Sima Lu said: "You go, fourth brother, don't call him a doctor or the dean, you call him an uncle or a master." Sima Lan said: "Do you need to explain? I'm neither foolish nor stupid." Chasing after the figure of the vice president, Sima Lan followed into the ward.The two painters turned around and stared at the teenagers in the mountains with puzzled faces, seeing their disheveled hair, dusty faces, and the same color of crotch pants that had been rare in the city for a long time. What are novel eyes. "Where do you come from?" "Rural." "Needless to say, they are from the country," said the two men, "people in the city don't look like you." Lan Liugen said: "We are villagers with three surnames in Palou Mountain." The two said, "Oh—is it selling leather?" Lan Liugen asked: "You know?" The two people said that everyone in the county knew that there was a village with three surnames in the world, and the whole village suffered from throat death, and lived on selling human skins for generations.He also said that you came today by coincidence. The day before yesterday, people from one faction in the county burned down the headquarters of another faction.It is said that this group of people has even smashed the bank, and you can sell the leather for a higher price. Du Zhu's eyes lit up. "Is fifty yuan a square inch expensive?" The middle-aged man with the bucket answered, "One hundred is not expensive, leather is priceless." Immediately, the faces of all the teenagers with the three surnames brightened, and they looked at the painted man in surprise.After a while, they all looked at each other again, not knowing what to say or where to put their hands.Most of them are doing things like touching and pinching the clothes in front of their belly with their hands.The sun has moved over the church building, and a piece of dry cement has been plastered on the wall at the entrance of the building. The cement is painted in clean white, and a red portrait of a figure is printed on the clean white.In the orange sunlight, the characters are glowing and smiling brightly.A dozen or so teenagers from Sanxing Village sat in the light and ate dry food for a while, when they saw Sima Lan come out of the ward, the excitement on his face could be seen from a long distance away, falling to the ground with clangs, and the bright yellow smile also appeared. Such as the image on the wall of the Jiaohuoyuan.When everyone saw him, they stopped the dry food in their throats, pulled their necks and asked how he was doing?He said that the lottery was for nothing, and there were six patients who had skin grafts, and it happened that every two of the twelve of us were sold to one person. They all stood up from the ground. "Really?" Sima Lan said: "Can there be fakes?" Someone threw away the willow stick that he had been holding. "What about the price?" Sima Lan said, "If you kill me, you won't be able to guess how much an inch is?" Lan Liugen took a step forward, "Fifty dollars." Sima Lan shook her head, "Too little." Several people said at the same time: "Is it eighty?" Sima Lan was very surprised: "How do you know?" They all smiled at each other.Sima Lan said to everyone in a smooth manner, I slept by the cow trough last night and dreamed that two cows stepped on my chest and walked past. My chest was like a watermelon, splashing and smashed to pieces, and my heart and lungs were like a watermelon. Watermelon kernels flowed out like red pulp. As soon as I woke up from the dream, I knew that I dreamed of blood every night, and the skin was broken during the day. Today we will definitely be able to sell the skin.Look - how is it?Let's have a dream.You will all listen to me from now on, Brother Du Zhuang, don't look at you at twenty, four years older than me, there is nothing wrong with listening to me in the future.One day, I will become the head of our village with three surnames, hmph, at that time people lived longer and lived richly, not to mention that you all want to find one daughter-in-law, it is not difficult to find two or three—you know what I am How did you raise the price?The last time I sold skins was only forty yuan an inch.But today, I saw those people talking very loudly, talking about who’s family’s things they refused to hand over. A burn patient folded himself on the bed and said that he would not hand over all his belongings. The bank deposits were confiscated.As soon as I heard it, I knew that I met a buyer today.I said we have twelve people here, if you want to buy skins, you have to buy some from all twelve of us.People say that we will buy two of you for each patient number.What price did I say?People say you say it.I said that we had to use the money to buy wheels, baskets, shovels and shovels, and that we had to replace the 400 mu of land in the village, and that we had to use the money to buy clothes for each family and medicine for the sick. , to bring some things from the city to the brothers and sisters.Sima Lan said that I said everything I could say, and that Liu Gen, your father, was buried naked when he died, and he couldn't even afford a piece of clothing. If that person dies again, the grave that just died is opened, and the coffin is carried out to re-embry the deceased.It is said that when a person dies on the road, there must be a coffin.It is said that a coffin was reused eight times in two years at most, and eight people were buried.In the end, I persuaded those burn patients.They said you don't talk so much nonsense, just tell me how much it is per inch.I gritted my teeth and said sixty yuan.Those few people didn't even blink, and they said sixty and sixty.I tried to say, we are all babies, the skin is tender and good, and it is the best time to grow, seventy yuan per inch, right?People hesitated and said that it would be seventy.I don’t think this talk came to an end. When I went out, there was a man a few years older than me, wearing a green uniform, who was dedicated to taking care of those burns.He sent me to the door, and as soon as I turned around, I knelt down and kowtowed to him, called uncle, and said that what we are selling is human skin, can it be 80 yuan per inch?That person got annoyed and said, are you finished?Didn't you say sixty seventy ten?I just knelt on the ground and couldn't get up.Word came out from the house that it would be 80 yuan if they said 80 yuan, and let them wash the skin on their bodies, which raised the price to 80 yuan per square inch. Everyone surrounded Sima Lan, and listening to him was like listening to an adventure story told by the older generation. No one answered the conversation, and all of them looked pink with solemnity and reverence, pink with joy and surprise, and waited for Sima Lan to finish speaking. , What are we doing now? Sima Lan said: "Let's go take a shower. Doctors and patients will hate it if it gets dirty. Maybe the price will be lowered." They all went to take a shower. Under the south wall of the Jiaohuo Academy, there is a big pool with three rooms, the water is thigh deep, and a ticket costs 20 cents.At first, no one said that when they came to the city, the family members carried money on their bodies, but they thought that they could sell two or three inches of skin after lunch, and they could earn two hundred yuan. Take them all out to buy bath tickets.The remaining 1.9 yuan was taken out by Du Zhuang. He actually took 6 yuan with him, saying that it was all the savings of the family. He was afraid that he would not be able to sell the leather, so he used this money to tear four feet of good cloth for his wife and take it back.After Du Zhuang took out the money, everyone said that which burn patient had severe burns today, and the burnt pieces were big, so they asked Du Zhuang to sell the leather to whom.When Du Zhuang heard this, he was moved and thanked God, and said that in this case, after taking a bath, he would treat everyone to a bowl of haggis soup and spend all the remaining four yuan and ten cents.