Chapter 12 twelve

The northeast wind blew away the clouds.After noon, the coolies and pedestrians on the road gradually felt the threat of the sun again. Unfavorable news from the front line came and went, causing people to panic.A few days ago, radio stations of all sizes in Shanghai were mobilized, appealing to the citizens to donate trucks, comfort goods, and medicines—but now they have added winter clothes. Outside the barbed wire fence in the New French Concession, a group of refugees had already slept there overnight; inside the barbed wire fence, Annan patrolled and walked back and forth, or stood beside sandbags like logs.Two small French officers got on their motorcycles, making the sound of bushes, and headed northeast one after the other.Fields, factories, clearings, skyscrapers, and factories again: they flew past their eyes like colored pictures.Finally arrived at a beautiful residential area, the car stopped and people went down.

A small Spanish-style two-story house by the road, with a red-tiled roof and chalky walls, is particularly dazzling in the sun.There is a grape shed in the small yard. The flowering time has passed, but there are not many fruits, but the dense and fat green leaves have aroused the envy of passers-by outside the wall.A tortoiseshell cat is squatting by the wooden pillar of the grape shed. The wind is composed of the four elements; all living things are also composed of the four elements. dragonfly.Luo Hansong is like the deformity often seen in those juggling troupes: the body is short and thick, and there are almost no legs, but the two arms are very long, and one side touches the stone steps in the yard.There are five stone steps in total, and a pair of cypresses about three feet high stand on the left and right.The grape shed is from this stone step to the gate.

On the road, under the scorching sun, there was an endless stream of cars and pedestrians.Among the passers-by, there were many refugees, dragging their tired feet, looking at the noble houses on the side of the road; One gives them something to eat.These refugees have been wandering in the concession in Shanghai, and the longest time has been more than a month. Three large trucks in succession, disguised with bamboo branches, rumbled past, attracting the attention of pedestrians.The bamboo leaves are all dried up, rolled into small tubes, rustling all the way.The carriage was full of piles, which were probably donated by people from all walks of life in Shanghai. A young girl in boy scout uniform stood at the rear of the carriage, clasping the wooden board along the carriage with both hands.

In the yard of the small Spanish-style house, the tortoiseshell cat stretched coquettishly at this time, rubbing its back against the wooden pillars of the grape shed; A certain property of the object and the relationship between the objects. , bypassed the Podocarpus pine branch, ran to the back between the kitchen and the lower room, the small yard where the coachman and the maids often gather, jumped on the lap of a handsome young maid, and screamed, Lusciously rubbing her back against the pretty maid's breasts -- it's a sign of begging to be scratched, and as usual, it can be satisfied.

However, the handsome maid was talking vigorously with her companions at this moment, she reached out and grabbed the tortoiseshell cat by its collar, and threw it to the ground. "Oh, yo, don't be a little tricky! You don't know?" The handsome maid said this to the coachman, but at the same time she cast a wink at another older maid. The tortoiseshell cat looked at the pretty maid, as if it was going to jump on her lap again, but turned around suddenly, and took a fancy to the fat cook again; but the fat cook was very vicious, and drove it away with his feet.At this time the coachman said in a sly way:

"I don't want to be a roundworm in someone's stomach, I know what he does!" The handsome maid pursed her lips, glanced at the fat cook, and seemed to say: Listen to his nonsense, you can't even fool a child! "But, you should know where the master goes every day!" said the older maid; her air was not so much helping the two as she was trying to think of a way out for the coachman. But before the driver opened his mouth, the fat cook had already said coldly: "I don't know! How could he know? He doesn't take his eyes when he goes out every day!"

"Where do you go every day?" The coachman was a little annoyed at this moment. "You're going to call me a liar after you tell it. You're like interrogating prisoners. Three eat one, so I won't talk about it." But after a pause, he said again, "It's not about seeing friends in the south, east, west, and north. An office of a different brand, a large bungalow where cars come and go, an East Asian hotel, an international hotel: there are always seven or eight places I go to every day, and I can’t remember so many!” Of course, those three were not satisfied with what they said, but they couldn't think of how to ask and refute.

"They're rich men," said the coachman now, automatically. "Businessmen, compradors of foreign firms, bank managers; officials, such as commissioners, such as ministers; there are also military officers, but I don't know what they are." "Are there any oriental ghosts?" The handsome maid came up with the most important question. The coachman shook his head and replied angrily: "Who knows if he has it! They don't have engravings on their faces. Anyway, ghosts are not good things." The fat cook didn't seem to believe it, he suddenly shortened his body, turned his legs, staggered a few steps, stretched out a little finger for comparison, and said: "You can see it by looking.

The slut upstairs, who even said he was a bastard, also had a bit of this taste. " The three smiled knowingly.The handsome maid put her mouth next to the older maid's ear and muttered a few words.The coachman and the fat cook also put their heads up to listen, and then the four argued with each other in low tones.Now the object of their discussion is not the master but the mistress, and the authoritative speaker is not the coachman but the handsome maid. At this time, in the upstairs bathroom, a short and fat woman came out of the bathtub, wrapped in a large towel, and sat on a wicker chair.

She looked at herself in the mirror and remained motionless for a long time.This is Zhang Tuantuan's face, with curved thick eyebrows, a mouth that seems to bite someone, and eyes that are seven parts seductive and three parts murderous.If the thick black eyebrows were not so long and curved, and the seductiveness of the eyes could be reduced so much, I dare say that no one would believe that this face is not a man; just like her age, the skin can never be sure.Suddenly, the eyes in the mirror opened with a fierce light, as if they were about to kill someone, and then he smiled triumphantly, but this smile was a bit charming; Big towel, stood there naked for a good minute, and then with amazing agility, put on a dressing gown of apple-green silk trimmed with black lace.

The woman was busy planning how to take revenge on one man and how to conquer another.After getting dressed, her plans are mostly decided. According to the usual practice, she still needs to spend some time applying makeup, but there are frequent ringing of the phone outside the door.She ran out of the bathroom angrily, walked through the corridor outside the bedroom, walked into the two small suites in the study, one light and one dark, and saw the telephone on the mahogany table, and only then did she know the voice of Ding Lingling It came down from the outside stairs.It turned out that it was not a telephone, but an electric bell to call the servants.Because it was not the phone call she was expecting, she became even more angry, and she turned around and left.Unexpectedly, as soon as I retreated to the door of the Ming room, the phone inside really rang in surprise.She turned around and went in again, just as her hand touched the phone, the ringing stopped suddenly.She picked up the receiver, put it to her ear, and kept saying hello, but there was no response.She cursed and put down the receiver, but the ringtone came again, startling her.The ringtone was so urgent, but she acted like she was angry, she didn't stretch out her hand, she just pouted and looked at it.After about half a minute, she felt that she had already blamed the other party enough, and then she pointed her fingers, as if catching a bird flapping its wings frantically, and grabbed the receiver in one go. The earpiece was still screaming, which pierced her ears very hard.But she waited patiently.Called.As soon as she answered "Oh", she frowned. This was not the call she was expecting. "Who are you?" She suppressed her anger and asked, but after hearing what the other person said, she simply said three words: "I don't know," and hung up the receiver. She walked towards the bedroom and suddenly thought that she shouldn't have rejected the caller so hastily just now, she should have asked him what he was looking for with the surname Chen, and should have used this opportunity to find out some of the tricks of the surnamed Chen. Outside the bedroom door, she saw the handsome maid coming out of the room, holding a tea tray in her hand, with a half-smile on her face.The maid was about to close the bedroom door back, when she saw the mistress coming, she stood sideways, and seemed to deliberately avoid the mistress's sharp eyes, lowered her head, turned around and walked away with small steps.Someone was talking in the bedroom at this time: "Sooner or later we'll figure it out. Don't rush! I haven't forgotten..." "Oh! Oh?" ​​It was a female voice. The short and fat woman's eyes rolled, and her face was full of fierceness in an instant; she lifted her toes lightly, with a bit of joy and nervousness of catching something, and suddenly jumped into the bedroom. But to her surprise, the positions and expressions of the two people in the room were normal.Her husband was sitting on the sofa near the window, neatly dressed, with a newspaper spread out on his lap; and five or six steps away from the sofa, on a chair next to the small round table, their young mistress was also sitting there. Sitting quite dignifiedly, if there is something to criticize, it is that she is also wearing a silk dressing gown, which is brightly colored and shows all the curves of the whole body. A smile flashed across the face of the young lady.Of course, this smile made the short and fat woman "mother-in-law" uncomfortable.However, what made her even more uncomfortable was that the young lady stood up suddenly, walked out without saying a word, and closed the door behind her, and the action of closing the door was not gentle or polite. The short and fat woman changed her face, took a few steps forward, stood in front of her husband, with her hands on her hips, and asked, "What is she here for? What are you talking about?" The husband raised his head from the newspaper and saw his wife's vicious look. He couldn't help laughing, looked down at his newspaper again, and at the same time replied in an understatement tone: "Oh! You are asking about Merrill Lynch. Is it? Of course it is for that sum of money. But..." A piece of news in the newspaper caught his attention.But he didn't forget that his wife was still waiting for him to speak, and with her hands on her hips, she must still be pinning him and watching fiercely.He watched the news and said, "However, there is nothing... There must be a way." There were not many words in that piece of news, but it seemed that those words could jump, so a character like him who had always boasted of being able to "use all five senses and see ten things at a glance" had to concentrate a bit to catch all those words.The gist of the news is as follows: The person in charge of a powerful people's organization told the reporter that the traitors in this city are secretly active, and the traitors like XX pretend to be patriotic and have close ties with people in the party, government and military circles. I hope all parties pay attention , whose name will be announced when necessary, so that there is nowhere to hide. "There must be a way, huh!" The short and fat woman sneered and sat down on the sofa. "She borrowed it by herself, she fell into the trap of dismantling the White Party, why can't she have the ability to get it back?" The husband gently pushed aside the newspaper, murmured to himself, and said softly: "Announce his name if necessary, hehe, just to scare the country folks!" "Our young mistress must be disciplined!" "Yes, please!" replied the husband half-truthfully. "But, my dear wife, you are too busy, right? You spend too little time at home, how can you control her?" "Are you teaching me?" A pair of eyes under thick eyebrows flashed fiercely. "It's okay to say it's a lesson." The husband didn't change his face, and smiled easily. "But I don't intend to teach anyone a lesson. I'm just explaining a truth to you: the young lady is too free, no, but if you want to restrict her freedom, then you have to guard her. It's not your own freedom that is also lost. Is it? So my solution is: I would rather each keep his own freedom." "Bah! You open-eyed tortoise!" The dumpy lady cursed softly, but the fierce light in her eyes subsided a little; but she immediately felt that she was being scolded in this sentence, so she changed her mouth and said, "You have this With shameless thoughts, no wonder you want to be a traitor!" But the husband laughed and replied triumphantly: "My dear wife, remember, sooner or later, people will think that traitors are a little better than those who are now officials in the dynasty!" After a pause, He casually picked up a treat list on the small tea table beside him, flicked it with his fingers, and said with a cold smile: "Yan Boqian, this is a moderate official who came to Shanghai from Nanjing for business; I come and go. What do you think he is doing?" "I don't need to guess, anyway, you people can't do good things!" "You scold me so much, my good wife!" The husband smiled lightly again. "However, it would be more interesting to change one word: anyway, we people don't do stupid things! It's hard to say what is good and what is bad. You can tell if you are stupid or not. Don't be a fool. ! This little secret, my good wife, you are better than me." The plump lady covered her mouth and smiled, but she also felt that there was something in her husband's words—there might be a knife hidden in her smile.As much as their age mismatch, the pair often mistrusted each other.Although the woman is "not weak", she often has to be more vigilant in front of this husband who claims to be inferior to her. "Oh, why are you so polite?" said the dumpy Mrs., with a sidelong glance at her husband. "Who doesn't know you are..." "What am I?" The husband suddenly became serious. "I am number three. If you compare the people in front of you, the guest who lives in our house, my old friend Mr. Chen, is the number one fool, then our young mistress is number two; Both are stronger, and I am number three. But compared to Yan Boqian, an official from Nanjing, I am much worse! What is he? No one dares to say that he is a traitor, but in fact I have to worship him as a teacher But it was me, not him, who bore the name of a traitor! Look at the news in the newspaper, how annoying it is!" The husband picked up the newspaper and threw it in front of his wife, stood up, stretched himself, and walked around the room. "Do you think you're among the names they're going to announce?" Mrs. Chunky asked softly, putting down the newspaper. The husband just smiled coldly and didn't answer. "I think your old friend, Mr. Chen, must be playing tricks on you. Why do you invite him to live at home? You don't know what he does?" "Why don't you know!" The husband stopped and said with a smile, his expression and tone of voice showed that he was quite sure. "Maybe he doesn't necessarily understand what I'm doing now, so he's the number one fool." "Someone called him just now." "I don't want to spy on his secrets." "But he may not be polite to you." "Then he must be busy for nothing!" laughed the husband loudly, looking at the watch on his wrist. "It's getting late, I have three appointments today." Walking to the door, he turned around and said, "According to people like Yan Boqian, our enemy is the group of anti-Japanese elements who wish to cooperate with them; so I said that Mr. Chen is the number one fool!" He laughed again as he spoke, and walked away in a hurry. Half an hour later, Mrs. Chunky finished her makeup and was busy on the phone.On the phone, she quarreled with the other party, and finally dropped the receiver angrily. The young grandmother Yin Meilin walked outside the room and vaguely heard her "mother-in-law" arguing on the phone.At this time, Yin Meilin herself was not at ease, and of course she was deaf; when she felt that she might as well pay attention, the quarrel was coming to an end, and she only caught half a sentence, which was said by "mother-in-law": "—Have no conscience! "Yin Meilin smiled gloatingly, and walked back to her room. Many years ago, Yin Meilin might have believed that there was a so-called "conscience" among people, but now she doesn't believe it. This is the result of her "mother-in-law" leading by example.Therefore, she suddenly heard that the word "conscience" came from this "mother-in-law", and it was requested from others, she couldn't help being surprised. Voices came from the courtyard downstairs.Yin Meilin went to the window to look around, but saw that short and fat figure in brightly colored clothes was going out of the gate, and that strange staggering posture seemed to be still full of anger.While watching, Yin Meilin wondered what kind of person the person who was scolded as "heartless" was; she suddenly became worried about this unknown person—"Maybe her life will be in her hands!" She Thinking about it, he stretched out his hand to cover his eyes.Yin Meilin believes that her heart is soft, even if someone betrays her affection, she still holds an attitude of indifference, neither hating others nor resenting herself.She is so kind, but unfortunately Luo Qiuzhi doesn't think so. Yin Meilin sighed, as if a little discouraged.However, after a while, she regained her energy and dressed herself up very colorfully, and went out with the heart of a Bodhisattva who "sacrificed her life". Now, in this small Spanish-style house, there is a state of silence as usual every day.The fat cook preferred to sleep, and both maids exchanged opinions about their masters with their neighbors at the back door.Only the tortoiseshell cat patrolled the house lonely. On the sidewalk outside the gate, from far to near, came the intermittent sound of the huqin, and the old and the young walked slowly.The old man was playing the huqin, his fingers trembling unceasingly. The sound of the qin was so out of tune that it made people's hair stand on end. The little one, wearing a faded tea-green shirt and two small braids, looked at most thirteen age.These two were refugees, and they were new to the profession. The tortoiseshell cat squatting high on the balcony railing narrowed its eyes to see the old and the young passing by; the tortoiseshell cat looked as though it looked down on the two singers, but it was too lazy to meddle in other people's business.But the wolfhound in the neighboring yard raised a pair of front paws and climbed on the grille of the iron gate, barking majestically until the old and the young left its "defense line". The tortoiseshell cat stretched and continued its parade.Showing off its skills, it stepped on the ridge of the railing, walked slowly and dignifiedly to the back of the main room, jumped suddenly, and landed on the window sill of a wing room. The wing room is long and narrow.Opposite window.The tortoiseshell cat leaned sideways through the slit window, and slid gently down the high back of a chair to the floor.It seemed very satisfied with its "privilege" of intruding into the house, and stood there looking around proudly. After a long while, it began its "inspection".The first target is the bed huddled in the corner of the room.A towel, a pillow, and a mat are all neat and orderly. Obviously, it is impossible to hide many secrets here; the experienced tortoiseshell cat's attention is on the bottom of the bed.There were some boxes there, and the tortoiseshell cat picked one of them, opened its sharp claws earnestly, scratched at the corner of the box for a while, then came out from under the bed, and jumped onto the small desk opposite.This desk is not like that bed, the things on the desk are too many and not neat.The tortoiseshell cat gently shifted from the pile of books to the pile of letters and newspapers, and stretched out its front paws to fiddle with a pencil, like an experienced censor, it did not let go of any piece of paper, but left no trace .Finally, it was satisfied, and sat on a pile of newspapers, squinting at the diagonally opposite door, as if it was attentively waiting for the occupant of this room who had to come back. The weather outside the room has changed at some point.The sun's rays disappeared without a trace, the wind also turned, and the sky was gloomy, like dusk.After a while, the sound of rain came.There were also changes in the room. The small desk and the bed disappeared into the shadows, and only the middle of the room—the area where the opposite window was located—had preserved a small area of ​​whiteness. The tortoiseshell cat still stood there quietly.Its eyes glowed green in the gloom.Suddenly the two green lights moved, and there was a slight cracking sound from the keyhole on the door.The tortoiseshell cat shrugged alertly and went underground.The door opened.Indistinctly, someone came in.Er the electric light came on.The man closed the door and turned around, took off his hat, the light shone on his face, it turned out that he was Chen Keming.