Chapter 37 fourth quarter

Xia Mingruo nodded: "It's delicious." Xia Xiubai pushed the cage in front of him as well: "Eat more." The uncle asked him: "Why don't you eat?" Holding the soy milk, he said with the fritters: "At this price, I'm full just looking at it. Alas, it's a strange thing. When I was young, I enjoyed a lot. I didn't know how many bird's nests I ate. I especially like fresh fish from rivers and lakes, such as those from the Yangtze River. Swordfish, whitebait from Taihu Lake, crabs from Yangcheng Lake..." Xia Mingruo said: "It is the socialist transformation that has been done well."

"Well," Xia Xiubai nodded, "Actually, it's not bad now." He nodded his son with chopsticks and said, "You should feel happy if you have crab roe dumplings. Do you know that when your mother gave birth to you, there was a famine, and the three of us were in our hometown. At that time, the old family couldn't even eat rice bran. The wild vegetables have also been dug up, and the bark and leaves have been eaten by people. Both your mother and I have registered permanent residence in Beijing and are fleeing from famine. We cannot go to the production team to get work points, let alone occupy the rations of our family. I can go hungry, but How can your mother do it? Then I thought of a way, every day in the middle of the night, I got up in the river pond to touch mussels, snails, small fish and shrimps, catch whatever there was, and cook soup for your mother when I went home. Your mother couldn’t finish it. I'll drink again. This has to be done secretly, because the river is also the river of the public, and if it is found out, it will be labeled, and the whole family will have bad luck."

Speaking of the past, he sighed softly: "You said mussels and snails are so cold in nature, how can a pregnant woman eat them? But there is no way, I am even more hungry when I am trapped in Beijing... But things are unpredictable, in fact Those things are all high in protein, not only milk, but also fattening, you see your mother is fat now. In fact, your mother was pretty and slim when she was young, and Sijiucheng is definitely one of the best." Xia Mingruo said: "Dad, don't brag about it. I've seen pictures of my mother when she was young. She's no thinner than she is now. Besides, would a thin person dare to be called Yang Yuhuan?"

The uncle interrupted their father and son's conversation, pointed to Zhang Zhu and said, "He's leaving, Leopard, follow quickly." The leopard quickly stuffed the last three steamed buns in the fifth cage into its mouth, and ran out following Zhang Zhu. "Eat quickly, don't waste it." The uncle urged Xia Mingruo, "Don't worry, no one can escape with leopards around." The leopard followed Zhang Zhu and his girlfriend for a few streets, and when they reached a place with few people, they suddenly punched Zhang Zhu down with a sideways punch, and then dragged him to a more secluded alley. Seeing that the situation was not right, he screamed and turned around and ran away.

Zhang Zhu hugged his head and shouted: "Don't hit me! Don't hit me! It's none of my business!" Leopard said: "I haven't even started asking, how do you know it's none of your business." Zhang Zhu said: "I know what you are going to ask. I have already transferred those two items. I am an ordinary person and dare not keep those items." At this time, other people also arrived one after another. Xia Mingruo fumbled Zhang Zhu's pocket up and down. Although there were no traces of cultural relics, he actually took out foreign exchange certificates worth more than two thousand yuan.Foreign exchange certificates are rare things. If money has a say, foreign exchange certificates are at least twice as much as RMB. It is nothing to have a hundred yuan in your pocket. If you have a hundred foreign exchange certificates, you are a rich man.

Xia Mingruo stuffed the money back jealously: "If I had known that bastards were so rich, I wouldn't have taken the college entrance examination back then!" Zhang Zhu shouted: "Aren't you plainclothes? Don't scare me!" The uncle pressed his face against the wall and kicked him hard in the hollow of his knee: "Tell me, where did you go?" "Ouch! This...I can't say anything about this, I have already agreed to it." Hearing the words, the leopard went up and swung his mouth so that half of Zhang Zhu's face was swollen: "Say it!"

"Hey!" Zhang Zhu said crying, covering his face, "I really can't say, this is the rule... Hey, don't hit me! Don't hit me! Big brother, I beg you! It hurts! I I can't stand it!" Leopard lowered his fist and stared at him. "But this rule... don't fight!! Brother, it's true. If I say so, they won't let me go." Leopard sneered, turned to the uncle and said, "Master, some people are just fucking cheap now, and they have to be beaten up to be happy." The uncle said earnestly: "I told you not to watch too many movies and books. If you watch too much, you will always mistakenly think that you are also unyielding. You should be quicker!"

Leopard rolled up his sleeves excitedly, and Zhang Zhu fell to the ground and curled up crying. His long face was full of tears, sweat, and mud. It was already ugly, but now it was even more unsightly.Xia Xiubai, who had been silent all this time, suddenly sighed softly, and said, "Brother Yuwen, brother Leopard, it's not good for you to do this, it's too rude." He squatted in front of Zhang Zhu, and said in a much gentler tone than usual: "Little comrade, I apologize to you on behalf of them, you can go." Xia Mingruo grabbed his arm and shouted exaggeratedly: "Father!"

Xia Xiubai said: "Let him go, he is not a bad person. I don't think the cultural relics can be recovered, so why bother to bully others here." Zhang Zhu looked up at Xia Xiubai, trembling, his gratitude was beyond words, Xia Xiubai smiled at him.Zhang Zhu quickly got up and said "thank you". Just as he was about to leave, Xia Mingruo suddenly said in a slight but audible voice behind him: "Dad, you are hurting him like this..." Zhang Zhu stopped, Xia Xiubai said with a smile on his face, "Let's go. What's the matter?" Zhang Zhu stepped forward hesitantly, Xia Mingruo said again: "Look, this is really hopeless."

Zhang Zhu didn't leave, and turned back to Xia Xiubai, "What are you talking about?" Xia Xiubai put on airs and refused to say anything at first, and waited for a long time before being begged for a long time before he sighed softly and said, "You think they are asking about the whereabouts of the cultural relics, but they are actually trying to save you. Those two items were obtained by us occasionally. Yes, I didn't think much of it at first, but later I realized that they were weird." He observed Zhang Zhu's face, and asked in a caring tone, "Are you okay?"

Seeing Zhang Zhu shaking his head numbly, he continued: "When we found out, we were terrified, and were about to bury these two things in a no-man's land. Who knew that someone who didn't pay attention was secretly taken to the county seat, Then it fell into the hands of your brother-in-law and you. We pursued it not because we were reluctant, but because we really couldn't let those two things stay in the world." "You also saw your sister's situation last night." Xia Mingruo winked at his father, and continued, "She was lucky, she only looked at the box, if she also looked in the mirror, it would take half a month or ten days , you are going to arrange for my sister’s funeral.” Zhang Zhu said, "Eh? That mirror isn't rust..." "It just looks rusty." Xia Mingruo interrupted him, "Let me tell you that the soul-absorbing mirrors have been made rusty, black, and blunt from ancient times to the present. How can I lie to you fools? But in reality Anyone who has come into contact with the soul-absorbing mirror and the soul-locking box...well, it's all over, you can go, lest we change our minds." Zhang Zhu said urgently: "No, then..." "Let's go!" Leopard yelled at him, "Could it be that you can't bear to part with me?" Xia Xiubai greeted and said: "Brother Yuwen, Leopard, son, let's go too, we won't be able to catch the bus back to the provincial capital if we are late." The four guys pretended to walk forward for twenty or thirty meters, and the uncle whispered: "Don't believe it, you've passed it, you see what names you made up, have you heard too much storytelling?" Xia Mingruo was also annoyed: "I made it up, but he seems to believe it." "You kid is playing indiscriminately, how can we pick it up now?" Zhang Zhu looked at their backs and hesitated for a moment, then chased after them: "I... transferred it to Ma Minghui, the woman just now." "So she wasn't your partner? Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" Leopard roared back. Zhang Zhu wiped off his cold sweat and shivered, he was afraid, he was a hard-nosed person, usually bullying the weak and afraid of the hard in the county, but when he really did things, he was a pussy.It was indeed the first time for him to participate in reselling antiques. If he hadn't been drinking too much last night, or if his brother-in-law Liu Amao hadn't pulled him in suddenly, he wouldn't have dared to touch cultural relics with ten guts. According to him, although Ma Minghui is only in his thirties, he is a "luzi" in the local area. The so-called "luzi" is someone who has connections with transnational cultural relics smuggling groups.Ma Minghui used to shop for goods from Liu Amao, but Liu Amao was frightened by his wife's poisoning last night, so he actually transferred the things to his brother-in-law.Ma Minghui was not willing to go short, so he found him that night and promised to buy him at a much higher price, moreover using foreign exchange certificates.Zhang Zhu agreed without thinking. He pulled the Xia family father and son and refused to let go, and asked the people who had touched the two cultural relics what the consequences would be. Those two guys deliberately hung him up, and you would know after just saying something, which made Zhang Zhu very anxious. Leopard asked Zhang Zhu, "Where does that girl live?" The uncle said: "He knows what a fart! Go to Liu Amao and ask." Liu Amao is still in bed in the hospital.His wife woke up, but her whole body turned blue, even the whites of her eyes were slightly blue, looking like a fat bronze statue from a distance.Liu Amao's complexion was gray, his hair was disheveled, and his face was covered with criss-cross nail marks. He really gave up on those two cultural relics, so he gave Ma Minghui's address without even thinking about it, and told Xia Mingruo and the others that Ma Minghui's younger brother, Ma Mingwei, was the driver of the county health bureau, and he often used buses to pick up Ma Minghui in and out. county seat. "If you want to recover the baby, you have to hurry up. Ma Minghui might be transferred tonight." Xia Mingruo and the others quickly ran downstairs to Ma Minghui's house.Cultural relics dealers like Ma Minghui have always lived in seclusion, but as the saying goes, if you are not afraid of thieves stealing, you are afraid of thieves thinking about them. Thieves always have a way. The uncle said: "Just keep an eye on this girl, and call all the buddies in the tea shop to help." "How come? No car." "What a car! You have to come here by tractor!" At six or seven o'clock in the evening, those buddies really went into the city against all odds.When Xiao Shi saw the uncle and the leopard, he called out, "Huh? Isn't this Master Li? You came back from Lop Nur?" The uncle smiled and said, "I'm back, I'm back." Xiao Shi said in a jiggle, "We all thought you were dead, and we've been terrified for so many days." Xia Mingruo slapped Xiao Shi on the head and said, "Shi Weidong, are you bored? Is it time to reminisce about the old days?" Xiao Shi said: "It's all my fault that I didn't straighten my mind and deeply understand the spirit of the Party Central Committee's documents, so that I was always riding on the neck of others. Sure enough, class struggle can't be forgotten, and I have to be an iron fist..." These more than a dozen people squatted together in the alley near Ma Minghui's house, all of them looked solemn, and the first reaction of others when they saw it was to take a detour. It was dark and the rain was falling, but the curtains of Ma Minghui's house were still drawn, and the curtains with green bamboo patterns on a white background were motionless, and the people below were waiting like ants on a hot pot. "Turn on the light." Xiao Shi said softly, "Why is there no movement, do you think she will transfer tonight?" "Probably yes. She is different from ordinary cultural relic dealers who are looking for suitable buyers. She is a transnational smuggling group who is responsible for receiving the goods, and she will sell the goods immediately when they arrive." Xia Mingruo said, "Just wait." The rain was getting heavier and heavier, but no one complained. Everyone thought of a question: If Ma Minghui really wanted to transfer the cultural relics tonight, how should we stop her? "Call the police." Someone suggested. Wang Xin grabbed the man's arm, wanting to kneel down.Once he reported to the police, he would be indefinite at most, and at least he would be reeducated through labor. He would always pay a heavy price for his temporary greed. Suddenly, two beams of light suddenly illuminated the alley, and everyone jumped up and pressed against the wall, holding their breath and hiding in the shadows. "It's probably his younger brother Ma Mingwei's car, and she's leaving." Xia Mingruo said in a low voice. The car did not stop at the entrance of the alley, but drove directly to Ma Minghui's downstairs.A tall woman appeared from the stairs carrying a travel bag and got into the passenger seat. "Keep up! Keep up!" Everyone chased the dark green jeep out of the municipal committee's family compound and watched it disappear at the corner of the street. When they were at a loss what to do, suddenly a bus stopped in front of them with a scream of sudden braking, and the leopard in the cab poked out. Half body, shouted: "Come on!" Everyone rushed forward, and only after they got on did they realize what kind of bus it was, and it was clearly a funeral car.There is a huge "Dian" character in the middle of the front of the car, and the walls of the car are covered with black cloth. Wreaths, paper carts, paper horses, paper figures, white cloth, and black gauze are all available, but most of the seats have been removed because they need space to put them in. The gaudy paper coffin; on the elegiac couplet pasted on the rear window of the car, one side says "sound and appearance are present" and the other side says "nobility lasts forever".When everyone sat inside and turned on the lights, they all looked quite immortal.Lao Huang sat in the middle of the coffin lid, dignified and solemn, like a totem. The uncle took off his rubber shoes and slapped the leopard: "I told you to get a car! Just get me such a thing!!" While dodging, Leopard leaned on the steering wheel and said, "There is no way, I can't borrow cars from other units!" Xia Xiubai stopped him and said, "Hey, Brother Yuwen, be careful!" During the quarrel, the car shadows of Ma Minghui and his brother disappeared, and the students asked where to chase them.The uncle thought for a while and said, "Toward City Y." There is no train in the county seat, only the nearby city Y. If Ma Minghui wants to transfer cultural relics to Hong Kong or further afield, he must first pass through Y city and then transfer to Shanghai. Ma Mingwei will not drive his official car to Shanghai. They were chasing with full horsepower, when they suddenly found that the green jeep that Ma Minghui and his brother were riding was parked on the side of the road ahead, and there was no one in the car. "Don't worry about it, rush over." The uncle commanded, "Only by blocking the front can we seize the opportunity." Wang Xin was a little more familiar with the county seat, and said that it seemed to be the family building of the Health Bureau nearby.Xia Mingruo said: "I don't understand. They didn't put those two cultural relics together. I put one at my sister's house, and one at my younger brother's house. When the time comes, I will take them together. In fact, we will be able to eat together if we go down at this time." .” The uncle shook his head and said, "This is someone else's territory, and we are not the police. If we act rashly, we may be arrested by them instead." They drove more than ten kilometers in one breath and stopped on a narrow concrete bridge.This place is in the wilderness, surrounded by farmland, and the villages are several miles away. Only a dim yellow fishing fire occasionally lights up in the big river under the bridge.The rain was pattering down, and the undulating rice fields that could not be seen were connected with the gloomy sky. Xia Xiubai listened to the singing of frogs and insects, and said it was wonderful.Others are not as leisurely as he is, and they are all discussing what to do. Leopard got out of the car, turned around and said that he had been to this place before, and the crematorium was just across the bridge.Everyone looked in the direction of his finger, and they saw a dark building with a tall chimney in the middle. Xia Mingruo asked: "Is this where you got your car?" Leopard smiled wryly and nodded: "I'll send it back to them when it's used up. Alas, in fact, I'm most afraid of death. Master is in a hurry to ask for a car, so I have no choice." He changed direction and pointed: "Look, the cemetery is on those two hills. It's scary to see the densely packed tombstones during the day." At this time, he was not worried about other cars anyway, Leopard simply parked the hearse across the bridge to block the road, and everyone stood in a row in front of the car, gearing up and waiting for Ma Minghui to come to the door.Soon, the sound of an engine came from far away in the night sky, they exchanged glances, and at the same time said in their hearts: "Here we come!" "Hurry up and hide!" the uncle suddenly shouted, and at the same time threw down the paper figurines, paper Ma Xiaofan and white cloth on the car, "Take things and hide quickly!" "What do you mean?" Someone was puzzled. "If you tell you to hide, then hide!" The Xia family's father and son reacted quickly, one of them wrapped in a piece of white cloth and ran into the bridge hole, others followed suit, the uncle got out of the car last, and carried several bundles, which were full of paper money. "What's wrong with you?" Xiao Shi asked the uncle. "Stop talking nonsense!" The uncle hurriedly put on his sackcloth, "Put on all the clothes!" Xia Mingruo's eyes lit up with excitement while arranging his clothes. He even said it was so interesting, and asked him and Lao Huang to take the lead for a while.The uncle refused and said: "You can't do it, you tend to act too much, I'd better go to Brother Xiubai." Xia Xiubai tied the white cloth strips upright on his head, and smilingly made a gesture to guarantee the completion of the task.