Chapter 14 fourteen

Shortly after dawn, the sound of the cannons was a little less, and Shi Quansheng, with a crooked face and a pair of tired legs, was on his way back to "home". A bit of chilly damp wind hits the face, like cold water, soaking to the marrow of the bone; the crooked face lowers the head, does not turn away, the whole body trembles, and in his heart he just wants to go fast, but the two legs are hard and disobedient, - no , Even if the legs can barely "come on", but his spine just bends and refuses to straighten.It seemed as though all night's hunched over work had broken his spine.

The street lights were still on.Under the leaden sky, these street lamps are still showing their strength, like some pointed stars, making people feel ominous when they see them. The crooked face tightened his neck and clenched his teeth, making his face even more ugly.Haig Road ahead.A five-story apartment building dominates the corner of the road.The crooked face looked like a wounded wild animal, saw the dense bushes, staggered to the foot of the wall of this large building, and fell down.This road dialectics comes from the Greek word dialektiketechne, which means to talk, and has recently followed the example of others. The glass windows of some big shops are nailed with crossed wooden boards, as if there are cross-shaped crosses on the beautiful faces. sticking plaster.The back of the crooked face was just such a large window, which was full of colorful displays, all of which were winter clothes for women and children.

At this time, no shops of any size were open, and the wind swept the fallen leaves of the phoenix trees, spinning endlessly in the center of the road.Refugees in twos and threes carry parcels, boxes and cages, and even dilapidated pots and bowls, helping the old and the young, like a continuous dotted line, flowing from the south of the road to the north of the road.Most of them have been running around all night, their faces are gray and extremely sleepy, but their eyes are all wide open and fixed. The old couple, dragging a five or six-year-old child, seemed to be unable to walk any longer, so they also came to rest at the place where the faces were crooked.As soon as the crooked face turned his head and glanced at the three, the child burst into tears.While pulling the child into her arms, the old woman wriggled her lips, as if trying to coax the child not to cry, but there was no sound, while she was also looking at the crooked gray and blue face, but her eyes were terribly red. Dazed; the fierce appearance of the devil soldier who stabbed her daughter-in-law through with a knife appeared before her eyes again.

"Don't be afraid, Ah Mao, he is not..." the old man also said weakly. The crooked face also felt a little bit, lowered his head, and asked accostingly, "Where did you escape?" "It's very far away!" The old man replied breathlessly, pointing to the south. "I walked for a long time yesterday, and last night was in the middle of the night. I couldn't get in outside the barbed wire. I waited for dawn... I didn't eat for two days." "Is this your grandson?" "Nephew." The old woman replied. "He's the only one left."

"Where's the son?" "I went to pick bullets for the army," the old man's face suddenly changed when he said that, as if something had blocked his throat, he couldn't speak any more, just shook his head. A buzzing sound came from the sky, and a group of three planes flew over the five-story building, slowly heading west, but turning south again, flying lower and lower.The child nestled in the arms of the old woman screamed again. The crooked face also instinctively flinched, but then smiled and said: "I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid here."

Sure enough, the child was not afraid, but he was hungry again.The old woman ignored him, and said to herself: "All are big shops, all are high-rise bungalows, and I haven't seen a single seller of big pancakes." This reminded the crooked face, and he reached into his pocket and took out a thick piece of cake. He handed it to the old woman and said, "Give it to him, children can't afford to be hungry. Give it to him." This corner of flatbread is the "midnight meal" given out at Yelai's factory - one catty of flatbread per person, two salted eggs, and as much boiled water as you want; the workers all said that Boss Yan spent more, but Cai Yongliang Made a fuss out of it.Crooked faces always drink more boiled water, eat less cakes, and the salted eggs don't move at all, and take them back to "home".Last night, Zhou Amei and Xiao Changlin gave crooked faces all the pancakes they couldn't finish, which created the highest food record for crooked faces since the Anti-Japanese War.

"No, you can keep it for yourself." The old man and the old woman humbly agreed.But seeing how greedy the child looked, the wife snatched off a piece of the big pancake and returned the rest to her crooked face, saying repeatedly, "Enough, enough." The crooked face was no longer polite, he stood up, put his hands in his pockets, and went back to "home". He walked along Hagrid Road for a while, then turned into a cross-road, which ended in a noisy, dirty side street, at the end of which the No. X Refugee Asylum was set up in a disused factory of some sort. This is the so-called "island-shaped" Chinese territory surrounded by cross-border roads.There are many such "islands" in Greater Shanghai.The Chinese police exercise their functions and powers in such an "island". However, when entering and leaving the "island", people and armed forces must be separated, and formalities must be followed.

The "X refugee shelter" is located in the central part of this "island".The abandoned factories are not large-scale. The factory buildings are alley-style houses, but the gates are very grand and equipped with iron bars. In the past few months, this small "island" has actually enjoyed some "wartime prosperity".From the big cities, small towns and even villages in the Eastern Battlefield, from Jiangwan, Wusong, Nanshi, and Zhabei, refugees ranging from rich to poor, there are always six to seven out of ten fleeing to the nearest and seemingly "insured" two concessions; Thousands of third- and fourth-class refugee apartments have also been added to this "island" out of thin air, contributing their consumption power from their pockets that are shrinking day by day, and contributing to the prosperity of this "island".

Now, the cold damp wind in the autumn morning still blows through the narrow and dirty streets here, and it still makes the people shivering in the dilapidated and damp bungalows and buildings.But all kinds of stalls and vendors have already been bustling with each other, filling up the narrow and winding streets. In front of the gate of the "No. X Refugee Shelter", because the street is wider, it seems to be a "square", so it gathers the essence of the whole "island". There are baked sweet potatoes, white sugar porridge, flatbread fried dough sticks, mildewed bread, stolen dead beef, "Peanut King", dried spiced tofu; there is even a blue cloth blouse with buttons open. Man, put a large tray with wide lacquer and inlaid copper. The plate is shiny with oil, and there are some smoked and roasted pig intestines, pork belly, pork heart and liver, as well as vegetarian chicken and vegetarian ham.

On the steps on both sides of the iron gate of the "No. X Refugee Shelter", there are several stalls selling second-hand goods; Son.Obviously knowing that there will be no customers, but there is always hope in case.An unsatisfied stomach, more than anything else. Crooked faces squeezed through the deep positions of the food vendors, and the aroma of various foods stimulated his appetite, which was simply unbearable.Remembering how many days he and his family had run out of oil, he stared at the man's tray in a daze; especially the thick, round and shiny pig intestines made him swallow a few mouthfuls.He cursed Cai Yongliang in his heart for being mean: why is it always salted eggs instead of changing them, such as pig intestines?If the man with the tray would trade with him, he would be very happy, and he believed that his wife would not scold him.

While thinking this way, he had already reached the iron gate.As usual, there were quite a few yellow and thin faces embedded in the squares of the iron grid, and the sunken eyes were particularly large, all staring greedily at the colorful food basket outside the gate.They were lucky to be able to enjoy their "eyes" so freely for a while, because the iron-faced inspector who often called them "greedy ghosts" was still looking for his sweet dream on the bed at this time, but maybe In his dream, he was waving his whip to drive these "greedy ghosts" back to their respective berths. Among those greedy and hungry eyes, with a crooked face, he saw his ten-year-old daughter, A Yin, with her small face sandwiched between the withered arms of the two adults.With a crooked face, he subconsciously put his hand into his pocket, grabbed a piece of pie, and entered the iron gate.Ah Yin also had sharp eyes, and immediately squeezed out of the crowd, chasing after him and calling, "Dad!" "Oh!" There was a smile on the crooked face, "Take it—eat!" A small piece of big cake was placed in Ah Yin's hand.Ah Yin took it, and jumped back to the iron gate, as if just looking outside could make the pancake taste more delicious. The crooked face walked through the empty space outside the staff office and entered an alley. There was another empty space in front of it. There were two or three large garbage dumps on the field, which were left over from the former factory. Some small refugees crawled there to dig I kept digging, hoping to pick up something valuable.Facing this empty field, there is a row of at least five buildings, but some of the internal partition walls have been removed, and it has become four rooms up and down.With a crooked face, he walked into the second room downstairs. There was a broken mat by the window, and his wife sat on it, spreading out their only luxury—the quilt, which was of good quality but filthy, and was catching bedbugs and lice. . The space occupied by the broken mat is the "home" of the crooked face. As soon as Crooked Face sat on the mat, he hurriedly dug out the big pancakes and salted eggs from his two pockets and put them in front of his wife.When both pockets were empty, he let out a long breath, and then fell down on his back, as if all the energy in his body had really been exhausted by this time. The salted eggs and flatbreads attracted the attention of other refugees in the room one after another.From dawn to dusk, the never-ending cry of hunger and cold, cursing and quarreling, blaming others, the voices of men, women, and children gradually quieted down, and finally, only a few feverish patients were still murmuring. What's more, a middle-aged man and a woman who had diarrhea for three days, although they also stared at the pair of surprisingly white salted eggs with wide eyes, still said "Ah, ah!" shouted.But within a minute, the voices of complaining and cursing rose again, suppressing the groans and ravings of the patients. This long and narrow room is only 10 by 25 feet, with a cross in the middle, but there are ten units in the "family", and there are more than forty men, women, and children.During the day, some people with good energy and two legs that can support their bodies are unwilling to swallow the spicy and stinky smell and be constantly harassed by bedbugs and lice.But recently, they can no longer hold on, and the number of those who have been curled up on straw mats for a long time has gradually increased to a dozen.Those drowsy and feverish people, according to the witty words of a boy in the same room who used to work in foreign companies, "better than a No. 2 gas stove", so the temperature and humidity in the filthy air increased even more, making them People are fidgety, as if out of breath, but as long as they have the strength to speak, their mouths chatter more and more. The flies called for friends and flew in groups among these ten "homes". Their attention was also attracted by the new big pies.They buzzed and flew in circles, then swooped down in twos and threes. The three-year-old child in the "family" with crooked faces and their next-door neighbor raised his naked buttocks, crawled over, slowly reached out, and secretly touched the smooth salted egg, the dirty little finger and the skinny Just like a bird's claw.The wife with the crooked face sighed softly, gave the "bird claw" a small piece of big cake the size of her thumb, and put away the rest, while looking at the crooked face with no blood, she asked: : "Why are there more today?" no answer.The sleepy crooked face only moved its eyelids. "Is the machine disassembled?" The crooked face suddenly sneezed, drove away the flies licking his nostrils, and replied vaguely: "It's almost over, it's almost there, damn it!" "So when will you move?" "Ghost knows!" "So, what about us?" "Humph—" The crooked face was too tired, and he didn't want to speak much, so he just snorted and closed his eyes. At this moment, a feverish patient who had been talking faintly suddenly burst into tears with some unintelligible words, as if he was arguing with someone or begging for mercy. "Ah, ah, pitiful!" Someone said softly, "The fever is so severe, give her a drink of cold water. You see, her mouth is full of stupid words, all about her suffering, suffering, it's too miserable! Hey, Doctor Mo should be here soon, right?" There was a sudden silence in the room.An old woman is reciting Buddha's name.Flies buzzed and flew. The patient also became quieter. After a while, the children who didn't know whose "family" started to cry, so the room was full of cursing, resentment, hatred for the enemy, and random speculation about the war. The crooked wife complained endlessly about her husband: "Can't you just ask more carefully? The factory is going to move, and if you don't fasten it, what will you do if you are left behind! We are blown up, You don’t have a mouth, so it’s not easy to ask them? Are you planning to live here for the rest of your life? Hmph!” "Hey, hey, oh—" The crooked face opened its eyelids, and then closed them again immediately.He was extremely tired, and when he closed his eyes, only the sound of dismantling the machine filled his ears in a daze, and his wife's words were simply drowned out and had no effect. But the more the wife talked, the more angry she became. "In such a place like a pig's nest, you can't get enough to eat two meals of porridge a day, and people say you can't get rice, and you will be asked to leave after ten or eight days. This place is going to close. Do you want to eat two meals of porridge a day?" Until you die of old age!" This is not new news either.The rumor that the shelter is difficult to maintain, it was half a month ago, and it can no longer stimulate the paralyzed nerves of the refugees, so even if the crooked face did not fall asleep, he would not be surprised, at most he would sigh Just breath. But the snoring with crooked faces annoyed his wife.This piece of exciting news that she said by herself was like a blow to the head, forcing her to be full of anger.Just as she was about to speak again, a person in white appeared at the door, and suddenly, the noise that filled the room subsided again. The eyes of the refugees were all on Dr. Mo at the door.Thousands of words of blood and tears of pain and hope are expressed in their solemn and sincere eyes.Dr. Mo is not a living god; ten years of hard study overseas and seven years of clinical experience in China can't help but such a harsh environment.He can't make a clean ward with his bare hands, and he can't make medicine either; it's not that there is no better place in Shanghai for these patients to live in, nor is there no other special medicine except aspirin, But none of this is under his authority.If he has cured several illnesses during his service in this "No. X Refugee Shelter", it is by no means his medical skills, let alone the healing of the stone, but his kindness and enthusiasm that healed the hearts of the patients first. , and then the patient's own will to survive overcomes the serious illness. But such a thing can only be regarded as an accidental "miracle".The scientifically minded Dr. Mo certainly does not believe in "spiritual self-healing".So it was a great pain for him to come here every day. "Doctor Mo!" The woman suffering from diarrhea screamed as she propped up her upper body. "Help—help, help! My intestines are all broken!" In an instant, all kinds of cries for help, groans and ravings, all broke out together. Dr. Mo shook his hand lightly, and only said, "Everyone, rest assured", and then swallowed again, his eyes were a little wet, and his gentle face suddenly turned solemn and solemn.He walked into the room and stood at the intersection of the "crossroads".He was wearing a mask, but the hot, sour and smelly smell in the room still made him sneezed twice.The wife with a crooked face took a step forward, pulled Dr. Mo's clothes, pointed to the woman who was always raving and had a fever, and said, "Yesterday was fine, but today—hey, Dr. Mo, you must think about it." Fa'er, save her!" "Oh, don't worry. I—" But Dr. Mo's voice stopped again.He tried his best to make a smile, and walked slowly along the "cross road".He visited each "family" and "family" in order, and he examined both the sick and the good.His face was serious, and there was no smile at all, but both the sick and the good felt that his seriousness was more comforting and arousing to people's faith than some people's smiles. During his examination, all kinds of inquiries were constantly thrown at him from all sides.He answered simply, in a calm voice, as the ladies do when they talk about family matters.Sometimes there was no answer at all, just a nod or a shake of the head, sometimes the answer was only a soft glance of the eye without moving the head.However, whether it is a patient or a good person, after getting such an answer from him, I feel half relieved and feel that I have something to rely on. He examined the few with fever and the two with diarrhea.Turn around slowly and look around, as if looking for something.The eyes of the whole room followed him.But he lowered his head again, walked slowly to the "crossroads" intersection, then raised his head to speak. As if talking about family matters, he told people who were not sick how to watch out for infection, how to drink water carefully, and if they didn’t find it too strenuous, they should spend more time outside in the open space and spend less time in the house; Now, his eyes turned to the crooked face lying there snoring, he pondered for a while, and then continued: "You guys discuss it yourself, see if there is a way to get people who are not sick to come closer to the window. When mentioning the patient, in addition to repeatedly telling the two people with diarrhea to be patient and not to shit everywhere, they walked out of the room and said, "What about the patient with fever, um, I'm going to make a prescription for it." Medicine, ask them to bring it later." "Do you think she's okay, Doctor Mo? But she just had a fever and went crazy!" Someone asked. Dr. Mo stopped, pondered for a moment, and then replied: "It's okay, I'll get some injections later." When he said this, he felt a cold shiver all over his body.Knowing that there were a dozen or so pairs of gloomy eyes staring at his back that hadn't lost hope, he didn't dare to look back. He strode to the empty field, took out a notebook and wrote a few words, then Go to those rooms upstairs to continue the examination. An hour later, Dr. Mo sat with his head in his hands in the small room next to the staff office.This is the dormitory for the staff, with two rows of wooden beds and a rectangular wooden table in the middle.Dr. Mo's face was pale, and he fixed his eyes on a teapot with a missing spout on the wooden table.In the office next door, someone was talking quietly, and there was the sound of tables and stools moving.Dr. Mo reached out to look at the watch on his wrist, picked up a pencil from the table, knocked on the edge of the table impatiently, turned his face to the outside of the room and shouted: "Hey, Miss Tuozhao, I can only wait another ten minutes! " "Oh, oh, just come!" A hoarse voice answered from outside the door.But then he obviously said to another person: "Go to the general meeting and negotiate. You can barely handle it tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow there will be no grains left, so I have to drink the northwest wind!..." Then a square-faced, medium-built young man of about twenty-five or six came into the room and sat down heavily on a bed opposite Dr. Mo across the board table. Zhigezhi screamed. Doctor Mo looked up at Director Zhao's square face, and asked softly, "What's the matter? Can't you get the rice?" Director Zhao nodded and didn't speak; the pair of big eyes on Fang's face were shining with resentment. "Of course, 300,000 refugees is not a small number," Dr. Mo said to himself, looking at a small black beetle wriggling in the crevice of the board table, "but yesterday I saw the pile of Several trucks of bread in the hallway are moldy; why are they moldy? It is said that the enemy planes have bombed too much these days, and the trucks cannot be fired. Oh, of course this is also true. But, why? How about not distributing them to refugee shelters? It is said that that is not acceptable. The bread donated by public corporations or private individuals is designated to comfort the army. Party member, that’s how you do it!—But, Misto Zhao, if you can’t get rice the day after tomorrow, what will you do?” "What should I do?" Officer Zhao's hoarse voice was like a knife scraping on a piece of glass, making people's hairs stand on end, "There must be a way. For example: I have bought a bunch of incense sticks, and all of us Six members of the staff led the refugees, each with a stick of incense in their hands, and went to kneel at the gate of the General Assembly—but I hope that this action will not be used. I hope that we will not be forced to take this action! I don’t I would like to make foreigners see the joke. The family ugliness should not be exposed..." He suddenly became irritable, stretched out five fingers, inserted them a few times in the hard matted hair, and said with a sneer, "Some of the shelters do not know the procedures. , but we can get what we want! We lose money and contribute our efforts to serve the country with all our hearts, but there is a nail in the left and a nail in the right. In short, it is discrimination..." "Hey, hey, this is endless," Dr. Mo interrupted Zhao.He took out the notebook, glanced at it, and said: "Today is a great luck, only one and a half patients have been added here. But, Misto Zhao, is there really no way to isolate those patients? " Officer Zhao smiled wryly and shook his head: "There are not enough rooms, and the refugees are unwilling. For example, if a family of three falls ill, do you want to isolate him? They say that if they die, they will die together!" "But if things go on like this, they will really die together!" Dr. Mo suddenly said loudly, his voice trembling a little. A few seconds of silence.A few beads of cold sweat appeared on the forehead of the square face, and a row of big white front teeth bit his lips tightly; finally, Zhao let out a long breath and said, "Okay, let's work harder. At least we can isolate the serious illness first. All the rooms , Sprinkle the stinky potion several times a day. Oh, Lao Huang got some medicine, Dr. Mo, take a look--" He leaned over and pulled out a paper bag from under a bunk. Dr. Mo opened the paper package, frowning as he checked the bottles and boxes.He tore a piece of paper, wrote a few lines with a pencil, picked out a few medicines from the pile, and handed them to Director Zhao, saying: "You will distribute them according to the order later." He paused and sighed , "I can only perfunctory like this, relying on God's blessing. There are still a few serious illnesses, which cannot be treated by these ordinary off-the-shelf pills. I will go back and make up the medicine, and I will send it." After finishing speaking, he got up and shook Officer Zhao's hand across the board table.But suddenly, Dr. Mo's face became very serious, exactly the same as when he walked into the refugee's bedroom; he held Zhao's hand tightly, and fixed his eyes on Zhao's face. Officer Zhao's hands were cold and damp, and there were a few beads of sweat on Officer Zhao's broad forehead, but his sunken cheeks were flushed, especially those big angular eyes radiated a strange light. Dr. Mo gently put down Zhao's hand, walked around the board table, stood in front of him, patted his shoulder lightly and said, "Brother, your lungs—how do you feel, have you ever had any problems?" "Perhaps,"—was an understatement answer, with a slight smile. Dr. Mo shook his head in disbelief, stretched out his hand to look at Director Zhao's eyelids, and said to himself: "Malnutrition, overwork." The small room took a look around, pointed to a bunk by the window and said, "Just here, let me listen to your lungs..." Officer Zhao smiled, but before he could speak, someone outside the room shouted: "Brother Chengzhang! Is it time for a meeting?" "Okay!" Officer Zhao replied loudly, holding Dr. Mo's hand, and said frankly: "It takes time to heal a disease. Thank you for your concern. I also know that I am not very healthy. Lung—probably Nothing yet. 'Malnutrition, overwork,' - you were right when you said that. But even if it turns out to be true..." "Of course we'll find a way," Dr. Mo said. "Well, then, come to my clinic when you have time—tonight? Or tomorrow? Make a time." "That's easy. But—" "At least you need to rest." "Oh—" Director Zhao's big eyes narrowed suddenly, and a blush appeared on Fang's face. "I don't really expect..." He pondered for a moment, then suddenly said again: "Doctor Mo, I see that your complexion is not good recently, and you also need to rest. But why don't you rest? Because now is not the time for us to rest. .I don't need to rest yet. As long as there are less unnecessary troubles at work, this is better than rest!" Doctor Mo remained silent and lowered his head.He was still holding Officer Zhao's hand, and he felt that his hand, which was cold and wet just now, was a little hot now.Suddenly he couldn't calm down any more, his nose was sour, and his eyes were filled with tears, as if something was about to explode in his chest. "We are doomed to bear the cross!" He murmured, he had been influenced by Christianity in his early years, and now it seemed to be fermenting again. "Seeing the seriousness of the disease, knowing how to treat it, but being helpless: this is the greatest pain for us as doctors. Every time I come here and approach refugees, I feel like a criminal,--professional responsibility My heart condemns me: You are a murderer! I can't bear this pain, I am almost numb sometimes, almost passive, but a bigger voice calls in my heart: Take up the cross!  …” Dr. Mo's voice was trembling with excitement. He felt that Director Zhao's hand was hot now, and he was clenching it tightly.He breathed a sigh of relief, looked up at Director Zhao and said, "You'd better come to my clinic once! I don't think you're helpless just by yourself." Nodding his head without making a sound, Director Zhao's big eyes sparkled, this is excitement and joy, but not gratitude, this is the joy of gaining comrades during the arduous journey, this is the natural occurrence of noble qualities respect and affection. Neither of them spoke, and walked out of the staff dormitory.