Chapter 6 six

Luo Qiuzhi’s home was in the so-called French-New Concession, a three-room, two-story semi-Western-style building at the bottom of a long-necked bottle-shaped alley①.This "neck" is almost a hundred meters long, and its concrete tunnel has always been used by children as an ice rink, but the situation tonight is obviously different.When Luo Qiuzhi passed by here, under the dim street lights, he saw only a few refugees with shoulders and necks. -------- ①The alley is a residential area in Shanghai, similar to the Hutong in Beijing. ——Author's original note. Normally, Luo Qiuzhi hated the long and noisy alley; tonight it was unexpectedly deserted, but he felt eerie.And he became suspicious of those refugees again. "Refugees have never come here...the gatekeepers at the entrance of the alley are very serious about their work,...why did they come here suddenly tonight, and seem to be spending the night in the alley?" He guessed in his heart, and his feet unknowingly increased the speed .He didn't know he had run too far until a wall blocked his way.

When he turned back to his door, Luo Qiuzhi saw another person looking around.The man's lower body was a pair of worn suit trousers, his upper body was a Chinese-style double-breasted blouse, and a copper basin hat covered half of his face. He was neither tall nor short.Luo Qiuzhi couldn't remember whether there was such a man among the refugees he saw just now, but it didn't matter whether he was there or not. The suspicious appearance of this man was sure and credible.Luo Qiuzhi immediately thought of the traitors that were being talked about in the streets and alleys these days, so he secretly squinted to take a look.The man was leaning against the corner not far away at this time, and he was also peeking at Luo Qiuzhi's movements with his head tilted.

Luo Qiuzhi panicked.He didn't dare to look at the man again, but he was sure that the man would rush towards him at any moment; he wished he could escape into the gate of his house immediately, but just as he stretched out his hand to press the bell, he immediately withdrew his hand, and a new guess broke in suddenly. His flustered mind: "Could it be a spy?" Originally, after he and Su Zipei went to visit Su Xinjia this afternoon, he was always worried.He always felt that what Section Chief Wang said to him alone not only implied that Su Xinjia's incident was unexpectedly "troublesome", but also that he himself was "attention".And now that he really has a tail, this sneaky guy really followed him until he came home.

After estimating the man's identity in this way, Luo Qiuzhi's first thought was to get rid of this terrible tail as soon as possible.He thought of how to use the car to make a few more circles on the road.He was about to turn around and leave, but suddenly he had a second thought: Since this guy has followed him home, is it the same if he can't get in?And at Section Chief Wang, not only wrote down the address, but also told them that my father is Luo Renfu from Dahua Manufacturing Factory.Hiding is impossible, and hiding is meaningless. Luo Qiuzhi resolutely pressed the electric bell on the gate.He peeked at the man again, the man was still in the same place, but now his head was lowered. "This is intentional," Luo Qiuzhi thought, and when he rang the bell for the second time, he stole another look.what!The man was not only looking at him again, but also changed his reclining posture to an upright position, as if he was about to make a move.Luo Qiuzhi's heart also jumped, and he pressed the bell for the third time. He held it down until the door slowly swung open.The door was not opened wide enough, and Luo Qiuzhi's body was already stuffed inside.He ventured to look back one last time, but the man was gone.

"It's been confirmed that this is my home, so I can go back." Luo Qiuzhi thought again when he hurriedly walked through the corridor inside the gate.Now he's sure he's being followed, he finds he's been "watched" so badly;— This plunged him into hopeless terror. On both sides of the corridor is a small open space where some flowers and trees are planted.Luo Qiuzhi felt that there was a pair of eyes watching him under the dark tree shadows.He knew it was ridiculous to be so neurotic, yet he couldn't help feeling otherwise. He hurriedly ran into the room with the brightest lights and the liveliest laughter, only then did he feel that the scary thing was far away.

A delicate voice rang in his ear: "Ah, young master, if you don't come back again, the old lady will send someone to beat the gong!" Luo Qiuzhi took a closer look, and what caught his gaze was a pair of watery eyes, two thin lips painted blood red, and a crab-shell face with thick rouge and powder, the white parts were too white, and the red parts were too red.He recognized that this was his mother's poker friend, Yin Meilin, who was a widow not long ago.On the opposite side is his mother, holding a card in her hand, trying to play but not playing, she is using her brain.The mother's family is two middle-aged women who don't know each other well.

Luo Qiuzhi smiled shyly, and said in a trance: "Is Mom anxious about waiting? Oh—I remember making a phone call." Mrs. Luo finally played the cards in her hand, looked up at her son, and said slowly: "The call came. We had just entered the game at the time, and now it's eight laps and it's almost over. What, is aunt okay? " "It's okay." Luo Qiuzhi replied, and planned to walk away. Yin Meilin smiled, and suddenly said: "Master, please replace me with a pair." At this time it was her turn to draw a card, she picked up a card, touched the card surface with her fingertips casually, and then raised her orchid finger Send that card to the next player.The square-faced, narrow-eyed middle-aged woman from the next house said "yes" and laid down her cards.

Yin Meilin giggled again, stood up, glanced at Shang Xiajia, said "I'm sorry", and walked to the door with dancing steps, but turned around and waved to the little lady who waited on the counter, Xiang Luo Qiuzhi gave him a wink, then twisted his brisk body and disappeared. Luo Qiuzhi stood beside Yin Meilin's vacated chair, leaning on the back of the chair, smiling bewilderedly.This is not the first time that Yin Meilin asked him to represent him; but today, he has no interest.The middle-aged woman with a square face and narrow eyes urged her repeatedly, and the one from the previous family also echoed.In front of these two companies, there are a lot of chips piled up.

Now it's Yin Meilin's turn.Not long after it started, the food and drinks at Shangxiajia have been impressive, and both of them have already made it clear that they have big names.Luo Qiuzhi saw that there were only a few chips in front of him, and he was a banker, and when both the upper and lower families were coming, he felt a great responsibility.He gathered his energy and prepared to pass this level.However, he couldn't concentrate.The cards sounded, and some inexplicable thoughts also came and went, blitzing him: a two-barrel would arouse the association of handcuffs; "Prison", and immediately reminded him of the man outside the gate, did he really leave or pretended to leave; especially the square-faced and thin-eyed servant, who somehow looked more and more like that Section Chief Wang.Luo Qiuzhi ordered himself "don't look at her" in his heart, but his eyes just wanted to look at her, and they went around and finally fell on her face.

This deck of cards took a very long time (of course Luo Qiuzhi's subjective feeling), and the result was Shangjia's draw, which was not as big as expected.Luo Qiuzhi heaved a sigh of relief and was about to confess, but Yin Meilin didn't come. Luo Qiuzhi is calmer now.He felt that his servant was not like Section Chief Wang.He is always alert to himself: don't think wildly.He also advised himself from time to time: After I finish this, no matter whether she comes or not, I will definitely not continue to do it. He himself felt that he had not played a wrong card, and he actually had the hope of "listening".

A gust of fragrant wind distracted a few percent of Luo Qiuzhi's attention.Then there was a hot tone, poking at the back of his neck; he knew that Yin Meilin had come and was sitting behind him.Yin Meilin had obviously re-applied her make-up, and the rich makeup and powder aroused Luo Qiuzhi's troubles.He often tried to avoid Yin Meilin's tentacles, but Yin Meilin's hair brushed against his ears again.Yin Meilin was looking at the cards in front of Luo Qiuzhi.The cards are neatly lined up, everything is complete, but one is missing.Yin Meilin looked again, and found that beside the only three or four remaining chips, there was another one flattened, which was obviously "hanging the head".At this moment, it was Luo Qiuzhi's turn to draw the cards, so he got up solemnly, his brows furrowed after only a glance, and he put his hands on the table casually.This is the "two barrel" that once reminded him of handcuffs!Say "here we come" to Jiabusong, and put the cards down. Yin Meilin stretched out his hand to lift the flat-covered card to have a look, suddenly exclaimed "Oh", and couldn't breathe from giggling.She was about to fall into Luo Qiuzhi's arms, and secretly squeezed Luo Qiuzhi again. Luo Qiuzhi Wangran also picked up the flat-covered card and looked at it, blushing immediately, and hurriedly threw it to the scattered cards. After stirring in the pile, he pushed Yin Meilin away, stood up and left. It turns out that this one is also a "two tube", and it was there when it came up.Because it was a single sheet, Luo Qiuzhi hated its shape, so he put it aside, and unexpectedly forgot it. He always misremembered that it was a "two cables". Luo Qiuzhi fled into his room, the image of the "two tubes" still swaying in front of his eyes.With a touch of self-denial, he threw himself into bed, and was constantly at the mercy of the most grotesque and horrific visions. Gradually, he caught hold of one of those chaotic visions—the least terrifying one, and he planned to use this one to fight off the other, more terrifying visions.With a bit of malice, and with a feeling of lowering his own identity, he thought back to Yin Meilin's smile, wink, all provocative movements, and even the strong and suffocating mixture of special characteristics on her body. The smell is powdery.With a look of contempt on his face, he thought of Yin Meilin's repeated disgusting coquettishness, and even his bold and frightening offensive... Then, as if he was tired of thinking, his mind temporarily went blank. However, another phantom gradually emerged in the blank space.This is Su Xinjia, the Su Xinjia who didn't care about foreign affairs half a year ago and was quite close to him.Although this is quite far away, time has not faded Luo Qiuzhi's memories.As he was thinking, he looked at Su Xinjia in the picture of Su Zipei's family reunion on the mantelpiece opposite. He stared at it for a while, and suddenly felt a little fever on his face. However, Su Xinjia in her memory suddenly jumped from half a year ago to the present, especially the day before she was arrested. This afternoon, Su Xinjia and her mother were supposed to go to visit Mrs. Luo together, but , when Luo Qiuzhi went to pick him up at the Su Mansion, Yan Jizhen and Jiexiu came again, so Xin Jia left with Yan Jizhen and the others.At that time, Su Xinjia's expression of hesitation and then determination, now Luo Qiuzhi still remembers clearly; and this memory makes him painful.But what was even more unexpected was that the terrifying phantoms that had harassed for a long time and had been dormant for a while now made a comeback, and they were extremely violent. Luo Qiuzhi jumped up from the bed, thinking: "Then it's better to watch them play cards, or forget about these annoying things." There was Yin Meilin's laughter in the middle.This laughter is normal, Luo Qiuzhi remembered that when Yin Meilin laughed at him, it was not like this.In a trance, he smelled Yin Meilin's terrifying strong fragrance again, and saw the even more terrifying watery eyes.He was really afraid of her, because he knew he was not a very resistant person. He walked around in a daze, not knowing why, but thought of some family situation he had heard by chance about this young widow.He suddenly realized something, and said to himself: "Hey, look! I'm desperate, and I'm so anxious that I always think that weird guy in the alley is here to spy on you, but I don't know that his target is Yin Meilin!" He breathed a sigh of relief, believing that he was not in any danger.He even wanted to run out the gate to see if the weirdo had left.But when he suddenly changed his mind, he felt that his guess might not be completely accurate. "Yin Meilin's father-in-law, Hu Qingquan, is certainly suspicious," he thought, "but Yin Meilin herself is just a romantic widow who uses her freely, coquettishly young, and always wants to play with the man she likes. Hu Qingquan is now Madam, people say that she is a bastard. Hu Qingquan himself is a "Japanese expert" and has many Japanese friends. He should pay attention to him, and his wife should also pay attention to him, but why bother to send people to pin down Yin Meilin? Besides, such a person Women don’t know how to do those things. People say that although she loves nonsense, she is also timid, so she only likes honest people like me.” The more Luo Qiuzhi thought about it, the more reasonable he felt, and at the same time, he realized how dangerous he was. Deeper and deeper. This time, the terrifying black shadow was chasing him closely, not allowing him any room to dodge.Yet he was able to think calmly. "The words of Section Chief Wang obviously gave me a hint that Xin Jia had some kind of relationship, and they got the evidence." Luo Qiuzhi analyzed the "incident" from the beginning like a third party. "Then, does Xin Jia have any relationship?" He shook his head in disappointment.He really couldn't figure it out.Half a year ago, or even further, a year ago, if he dared to say that he understood her 80% with the most reserved attitude, then even if he was asked to say something boldly about Xin Jia now, Don't dare to be confident with 50% certainty.He walked to the mantelpiece, stared at Su Xinjia who was in the family carnival for a long time, and finally sighed, "Xin Jia has become mysterious day by day recently!" After he made such an assertion, he immediately remembered that Yan Jizhen and Jiexiu pulled Xin Jia aside and bit their ears the day before yesterday, and Xin Jia even ignored the scheduled appointment to visit the elder,——"Isn't this a mystery? "Luo Qiuzhi felt a little angry, so he couldn't keep his third-party attitude. He recalled what happened that day with a "probing" mood. When Mrs. Su and Xin Jia were getting ready and were about to go out, Yan Jizhen and Jiexiu came suddenly.They saw Mrs. Su wearing clothes for going out, and Xin Jia and Luo Qiuzhi were both holding Guanshengyuan's cardboard boxes, so of course they could guess what was going on; but they still pulled Xin Jia aside, muttering He murmured for several minutes.At first, Xin Jia bowed her head and said nothing, but then she ran to Mrs. Su and whispered something, and Mrs. Su said, "It's still early. Let's go together when you come back." At that time, Luo Qiuzhi took the time to ask Xin What's the matter with Jia, Xin Jia smiled "mysteriously" and said half-truthfully, "Are you going? You go too! You will know what it is when you go." Luo Qiuzhi didn't go.He and Mrs. Su waited for an hour, but they didn't see Xin Jia coming back, so they didn't wait for her. All these trivial and insignificant plots, now recalled by Luo Qiuzhi's extremely abnormal and malarious mind, are magnified thousands of times, and they are shining with mysterious light.On the one hand, Luo Qiuzhi was "pursuing", and on the other hand, he was regretting why he didn't follow them to "see" at that time; - the reason why he didn't go at that time was of course to make a silent protest to Yan Jizhen and the others, but I really want to take this opportunity to give Xin Jia a hint: he doesn't like Yan Jizhen and his niece, and he doesn't want Xin Jia to be with Yan Jizhen. Although he can't prohibit Xin Jia from doing so, he reserves for himself not to cooperate. He will definitely not participate in any occasion where Yan Jizhen is involved. Now Luo Qiuzhi concluded that Su Xinjia had some kind of relationship.He walked to the window and looked down at the dark trees—only half an hour ago he had fancied that there was a pair of eyes watching him behind a certain tree, and now he was much calmer, he thought regretfully : "That's right, how good would it be if we went to see them that day? What's the secret, what's the relationship, can't we know everything?" He looked up at the sky, where there was no moon or stars.In the southeast, far away, there is a red light, and there seems to be black smoke.On the left, it is very close. A tall apartment building has layers upon layers of countless window openings with twinkling ghost-like lights, adding a more menacing atmosphere to the gloomy sky.A moderate west wind swept past the window.The wind brought the cannon.After the wind passed, the trees under the window were still surprised, whispering susu.Of course, what is more "realistic" is the sound of playing cards downstairs and intermittent laughter, among which there is also Yin Meilin. All of this did not respond to Luo Qiuzhi's nerves.His mind was busy following some people - Yan Jiexiu, Yan Jizhen, Chen Keming.He met Chen Keming at the Su Mansion, and it was only a month ago. He and Chen Keming can be said to have no grudges, even though he had long felt that he and this professor couldn't get along.Yan Jiexiu, this is the person Luo Qiuzhi is afraid of, and the degree of this fear develops along with Su Xinjia's intimacy with Yan Jiexiu.In the end, Luo Qiuzhi's thought followed Yan Jizhen.To be precise, he and Yan Jizhen only know each other and know each other's names. Yin Meilin is also qualified to be proud that her "friendship" with Luo Qiuzhi is far more than that of Yan.However, Luo Qiuzhi felt bad for this person he only knew, because firstly, Yan Ji really studied in France, secondly, he also studied medicine—although he did not graduate, probably because of political connections, and thirdly First, because of political relations, he came to Shanghai from Beiping half a year ago. Fourth, Luo Qiuzhi has various reasons to conclude that Yan Jizhen should be responsible for Su Xinjia's recent "mutation". Someone turned on an electric light in the yard, and the branches flickered the light.Looking at the flashing light, Luo Qiuzhi suddenly became irritable, and the flickering of his thoughts became faster and shorter. "Xin Jia is completely obsessed," Luo Qiuzhi thought, "I can bet that she is blindly following them, she really has no idea what they are doing!" Suddenly clapping his hands on the window rail, Luo Qiuzhi thought again: "However, even if she knows what they do, she won't understand the certain relationship behind them." "How could she understand?" Luo Qiuzhi stared intently at the flash of light shaking from among the leaves, as if saying to it, "Xin Jia didn't know anything about politics at all, she just buried herself in her books and couldn't bear any grievances. It was her aunt who pampered her." "Section Chief Wang is right! Xin Jia has gone astray!" Luo Qiuzhi sighed, feeling that Yan Jizhen was even more hateful, and believed that his hatred of Yan Jizhen had nothing personal or unsightly. "However, Xin Jia's temper just refuses to admit defeat. Section Chief Wang and the others force her to speak, but she will definitely not speak." Luo Qiuzhi thought with his head down.After a while, he suddenly laughed by himself again, and thought proudly: "If I find out about Yan Jizhen's relationship behind it, and find a chance to expose Xin Jia, then she will understand." So Luo Qiuzhi's thoughts went around a circle and returned to the place half a while ago.He regretted with sincere emotion that he did not "go" with Xin Jia to "see" the day before yesterday. His remorse didn't last long, and the sound of playing cards and Yin Meilin's laughter woke him up from his bewildered state.He changed his mind, and thought in a more "realistic" way: "But, if I don't eat mutton, I will go to see it that day, then I will have some kind of relationship, probably tonight." You can't stay at home." A soft pecking sound came from the door, but Luo Qiuzhi never heard it.The door opened slowly, and the maid Gu Ma came in with a tea tray, and there were two plates of snacks in the tea tray. "Young Master," Gu Ma put down her snacks and called softly. "My wife said, there are still four rounds of cards, and we will start dinner after the game is over. If the young master is hungry, let's have some snacks first." Luo Qiuzhi turned around and saw that the two plates of dim sum were fried pasta.He took one, but saw several letters under the plate, so he put down the snack and read the letters first. The top one is a rustic Chinese envelope.Luo Qiuzhi frowned and thought, "Where did this come from?" He picked it up and tore open the cover, but unexpectedly the letterhead inside was beautiful foreign paper, with silver columns and pink flowers printed on the four corners.There are three in total.Luo Qiuzhi read a sentence or two, then turned to the last one to see the signature, then turned his head sideways and thought, "Zhao Kejiu, who is this?" Frowning, he said to himself: "Hey, hey, nonsense! Another man possessed by a demon! Anti-Japanese War, Anti-Japanese War, why didn't you go to the front line?" After the second one, while looking at it, he said in amazement: "Oh! So you are Yan Jiexiu's classmate? Oh, and you know Xin Jia too? This is strange, how did you know me!" He read the third one faster Suddenly, he stretched out his hand and patted himself on the head, shouting: "Oh, oh! It's him! How can I remember! It's just a one-sided acquaintance. In such a messy place, and so many days apart!" Luo Qiuzhi took another look at the signature at the end of the letter, put down the letter, and ate a snack.He slowly recalled the most tense and passionate scene in his life, which was called "the most absurd" by his father: when university students who were fighting for patriotism and freedom insisted on going to Nanjing to petition, the North Railway Station, which was full of military police and temporarily martial law While standing around looking for the "driver", I don't know which narrow-minded ghost signed up for Luo Qiuzhi, so amidst the push, pull, applause and applause of many classmates, Luo Qiuzhi was embraced by the sighing driver. The locomotive, and was busy half the night with three other college students who did not know each other. One of them was the rustic Zhao Kejiu, a second-year student of Tongji Engineering. "Hey! What a nonsense!" Luo Qiuzhi thought, reaching for the second letter.As soon as he saw the words on the envelope, he couldn't help shouting: "Oh, these are my brother's words!" He opened the cover, took out a small piece of paper, read it quickly, his face was beaming, and immediately stood up, He grabbed the last remaining letter from the tea tray and ran out of the room. It turned out that his younger brother, Qiushi, and younger sister, Qiushi, came out of Peiping and finally made a detour to Hankou, where they met his father, who was busy with factory relocation and construction. This is good news, Luo Qiuzhi is eager to tell his mother.As he walked, he opened the third letter in his hand.When he unfolded the rather magnificent Jiagong letterhead with the name of the institution printed on it, he was walking to the top of the stairs. The light here was dim, and there were only a few lines of small characters on such a big letterhead, and there were flat and wide Song typefaces underneath. Long Zhuyin.Only then did he notice that the name of the organization was also printed on the envelope.As he went down the stairs, he thought to himself: "This is probably another official business given to my father by the factory relocation supervision committee." There are clothes hangers in the wide corridor under the stairs, and the "bamboo battle" in the room on the right is at its peak. There was a sound of slapping and patting cards, and there was not even a little laughter.The little eldest sister and Gu Ma shuttled back and forth, bringing in tea and snacks, and bringing out cigarette butts, melon seed shells and fruit peels.Luo Qiuzhi slowed down, and under the light, the few lines clearly read as follows: I hereby inform you that Su Xinjia, who is suspected of being involved in some kind of suspicion, will come to the department at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning to have a talk with Section Chief Wang. Luo Qiuzhi stared at the two lines with his eyes wide open, and his hand holding the letterhead trembled uncontrollably.This lasted a minute, then he turned and went up the stairs again to his room, threw the letter away, and said with a sigh: "It's over!" He sat stiffly on the chair, his heart flustered, and for a moment he felt that "talk" was nothing more than a conversation, and probably there would be no side-effects; disappeared by itself". "What do you want to ask me?" He lowered his head and thought, anxious and worried. "Maybe it's fine if I persuade Xin Jia to write a letter of repentance? Maybe it's the same sentence, Xin Jia's relationship behind it. Ah, it really kills people! I don't know, they must suspect that I am covering Xin Jia, They suspect that I am also her accomplice; let’s say they know, but I really don’t know, and I can’t explain why, so they are still not satisfied.” Thinking of this, he deeply regretted that he didn't go to "see" with Xin Jia that day, and at the same time he hated Xin Jia. "If you want to do it, don't hold back." He looked at Su Xinjia in the photo of Su Zipei's family reunion on the mantelpiece, and said bitterly. After confirming that Su Xinjia was to blame, and he himself had no faults, Luo Qiuzhi was ready to resign himself to fate, and he felt more at ease. Unfortunately, this stability cannot last long.He was pacing up and down the room petulantly.He repeated a sentence repeatedly: "You have to be prepared, you have to be prepared." He felt that the order of "talking" had to be obeyed, and the good or bad after the "talking" was really unpredictable, so the only way was to be prepared in case they When he "does not understand", how can he not suffer too much. He sat down at the table and planned to draft a telegram to his father, "Although my father is far away in Hankou, he will send a telegram and ask someone to intercede," he thought very well. The content of the telegram has not been properly thought out, and the letter from Zhao Kejiu on the corner of the table suddenly touched his inspiration.He put down the pen, opened the drawer, rummaged through the pile of old letters and miscellaneous papers, and finally found a "classmate book".He hastily flipped through the "classmate records", and finally found his target among many names. This is the address of a staff member of the school.This is a person who "has a mission". His classmates called him a "dog", but Luo Qiuzhi had his "help".It turned out that it was the time when I met Zhao Kejiu. Although Luo Qiuzhi was indeed dragged into the "locomotive", "trouble" came to him afterwards; At least two people who worked on the locomotive in the middle of the night have "disappeared by themselves", but at that time they helped Luo Qiuzhi and finally got "understanding". Yes, it is this "mission" element. "He can prove that I am safe and secure," Luo Qiuzhi thought, and now his face was beaming with joy, "at least he can help me find a way." Luo Qiuzhi saw that there were thirty or fifty yuan in the wallet, and walked downstairs briskly.In the corridor, when he met the Chief Secretary, Old Zhang, Luo Qiuzhi told him, "Tell my wife, I have an engagement." On the corridor in the yard, the coachman Ah Si came to meet him, and shouted with a smile: "Master, where are you going? Do you want a car?" Luo Qiuzhi hesitated for a while before answering "no". The lights in the alley were still so dim, and the 100-meter-long corridor was still so deserted, but now Luo Qiuzhi didn't feel anything strange.When he walked past the big cement trash can in the middle of the alley, he caught a glimpse of those refugees squatting beside the trash can, and one of them seemed to be the suspicious man, with the copper basin cap still covering half of his face. "What is the number?" Luo Qiuzhi looked back at the man confidently, thinking in his heart; but immediately smiled again and said to himself: "Let him go!"