Chapter 19 Secrets of the Five Street Sweepers

Qin Shutian and Hu Yuyin, two members of the five categories, have been punishing Qingshiban Street every morning for two or three years.Both get up very early.They usually sweep from the center of the street to both ends, and each person sweeps half.Sometimes they sweep toward the center of the street from both ends, and meet at the center of the street.Fortunately, Qingshiban Street is not wide, and it is only about 300 meters long.There are three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, and three hundred and sixty-six days in a leap year. When the people in the town are still dreaming and falling asleep to the precious "sense of light in the sky", they are already waving bamboo brooms and sweeping silently. Scanned silently.It seems that spring, summer, autumn, and winter are all under their bamboo brooms, being swept away one by one, and then swept back.

Qin Shutian's street sweeping also pays attention to his posture and pace, which probably has something to do with his previous experience as a director of a song and dance troupe.He made the broom as high as a person, with his waist straight, his right hand up and his left down, holding the broom like a dancer holding a paddle on the stage, swinging it freely; The feet land on their tiptoes, moving one after the other, as if gliding to the beat of the music on the stage.Because of the light and coordinated movements, he always sweeps quickly and well, and sweats less.And every day, I have to help Hu Yuyin sweep a long section.Hu Yuyin was sweating from exhaustion every morning, looking at Qin

The Epilepsy was envious of the gesture of waving the broom.This is a way for women to outdo men. Speaking of Qin Duzi's performances over the years, it is sufficient, despicable and ridiculous.During the "Four Cleanups" movement, he was the most ruthless one among the five types of elements in the town brigade.After that, the party branch of the reorganized brigade obtained the consent of the working group, and he continued to serve as the small leader of the five types of elements.This is called fighting poison with poison.He just added the word "iron hat" in front of the word "rightist", meaning that this hat is immortal and destined to be worn in a coffin.Thousands of years later, it will be excavated as cultural relics for historians to research and write academic papers on class struggle in rural China in the middle and lower twentieth century.Fortunately, Epilepsy Qin never married and has no descendants.Otherwise, his political legacy will be passed on from generation to generation.Even Qin Zhizi himself understands that a movement must have an object, and a struggle must have an enemy.Every village and every town does not keep a few dead tigers and live targets. In the future, mass movements and class struggles will be launched again and again, and who will be used for the surgery? At the second meeting, the five types of elements were pulled on the stage, exposed, criticized, and fought, and then reported to the superiors how many (sub)class enemies were criticized during the movement. The masses have raised their consciousness and so on.Some production teams whose members of the five categories have all died let their children take over and continue the duties that their reactionary fathers did not complete.Otherwise, how do you ask grassroots cadres and poor and lower-middle peasants to understand that throughout the historical period of socialism, classes, class contradictions, and class struggles have always existed? If you don’t understand, how can you grasp this important historical mission? In the vast countryside, Grassroots cadres all get work points but not salaries, and there is no such thing as "capitalist roaders" or "bourgeois agents."Grassroots cadres and commune members can only view and understand the historical continuity of class and class struggle from the five types of elements and their children.Otherwise, how can we talk about the century-old and ten-thousand-year plans of "the future and destiny of the party and the country"? Who has made it clear? God! It is true that after the land reform, in the previous movements in the vast towns and towns, there have been re-divisions over class components.However, the means of production are public, and the problem of exploitation by private owners does not exist, so it is based on a political attitude that is extremely flexible.But there is still the issue of inheritance, that is, the issue of the class composition of the ancestors of the descendants of each class hereditary ancestors... Alas, the issue of descendants is left to the descendants to study.If the ancestors solved all the problems of the younger generation, wouldn’t the descendants become simple-minded and ineffective idiots? It’s alarmist and inconceivable.Let's get down to business, let's take a look at the various performances of the iron hat rightist Qin Duzi over the years.

In 1967, it was the heyday of the red contest and the "leftist" struggle. I don't know where a gust of wind blew up. At the door of the five types of elements, a dog statue had to be made of mud to show that they were like ordinary revolutionary masses. The difference between the family and the family is convenient for the dictatorship of the masses.Just like in some big cities at that time, the children of the five categories of red wear red armbands as red guards, the children of parents with general historical problems wear yellow armbands as the "red peripheral", and the children of the eight categories of black wear white symbols as "puppies".There are twenty-two five-category elements in the town brigade, and twenty-two dog statues must be erected.This is a voluntary job, and there is no work-point subsidy, so it is naturally assigned to the iron-capped rightist Qin Duzi who can write and draw.After taking over the task, Epilepsy Qin dug loads of sticky mud from the mud fields, and a load of five-category members piled up a load at the door of each family.This is simply a work of art.Every day, there are many people watching, commenting and giving pointers.He was conscientious and worked overtime: within one month, twenty-two statues were erected in front of the doors of twenty-two households with five categories of members.There are men and women, tall and short, fat and thin.The name and title of each nigger is also marked under each statue, and it has a little bit of that person's appearance characteristics.At this time, it became a big anecdote for the town brigade.Adults and children automatically organize appreciation and evaluation.It is agreed that the dog statue at the door of Qin Duzi's own house is the most vivid and most resembles his own shape.

"Crazy Cousin! You selfish bastard spends all his time pinching your own dog!" "Hey, it's not selfishness... The highest instruction says that life is the only source of literature and art... Of course, I am the most familiar with myself, so I can pinch the most like it." But there is an important omission in Qin Duzi's "artistic labor". He even forgot to make a statue of Hu Yuyin, a young rich peasant widow, at the entrance of Laohuji Inn.It took a long time for this "conspiracy" to be discovered, and a criticism was immediately organized against him, interrogating why he wanted to shield Hu Yuyin and what kind of collusion he had with Hu Yuyin.He patted the back of his neck, and hastily bowed his head to confess his guilt. It turned out that he only recorded the number of old people in the five categories of members of the town brigade, and forgot the newly designated rich peasants in the "Four Cleanups".He promised to repent with practical actions, but dragged on for a long time.Soon the superiors passed down the spirit that quality and policy must be emphasized in the struggle against the enemy, and the five types of elements must be criticized ideologically and thoroughly, and criticism should not be mere formality.Therefore, there have been no statues at the entrance of the Old Huji Inn.Hu Yuyin was very grateful to Qin Shutian.It is said that on the night Qin Shutian was criticized, she hid in the room and her eyes were swollen from crying.Brother Qin was suffering on her behalf and saved her life.Otherwise, she would really commit suicide when she saw the statue at her door being pulled up by the dolls to pee.

Although the higher-level documents require not to engage in formalism, every time the five types of elements parade in the streets, they still have to hang up black signs and wear high hats.Furong Town is a small place, and it is also a provincial border, so remote and remote.I heard that people held a struggle meeting in Beijing, and even put black cards on the targets of criticism, and put high marks on them.Some of the targets of criticism are big cadres and old revolutionaries.Where is Beijing, and what is Furong Town? How old is it? On a map the size of half a house wall, there is no black spot the size of a matchhead.Needless to say, the black brand of the twenty-three five-category elements in the town brigade came from the master Qin Duzi again.In order to show his selfless virtue, his own black brand was specially made bigger.He wrote the "professional title" of each of the five types of elements on each black card, with the name under the "professional title", and marked all of them with a "X" with a Chinese ink pen, indicating that they deserve death and should be killed every time they parade in the street. Shoot once.This time he played tricks again, and the black card of "new rich peasant Hu Yuyin" was not red and crossed.Fortunately, there are many people with mixed eyes, and his "conspiracy" has never been discovered by the discerning eyes of the revolutionary masses, and he got away with it.Hu Yuyin, a new rich peasant who was born selling rice and tofu at a small stall, has tears in his eyes every time he parades in the street, and he is grateful for his painstaking efforts.The same sports beggars.In this indifferent world, she still felt a bit of spring-like warmth.

People in the town said that Epilepsy Qin had been oiled and slippery for more than ten years, and he was an old athlete.Whenever the militiamen came and asked him to hold a criticism meeting, he would act as if he was going to work, his face would not turn pale, his heart would not tremble, and he would behave calmly.Take him to parade through the streets, he is also familiar with the road, and he is always at the forefront of the five types of elements in the whole brigade, just like a gangster with a letter of appointment. "Qin Shutian!...'Yes!" "Iron Hat Rightist!" "Yes!" At the beginning of the "Two strikes in one batch, clean up class ranks" movement, the entire commune held a meeting of ten thousand people to mobilize.The five types of members of the various brigades were also brought to the conference venue to show the public, like frogs sold in a fair.After the public demonstration, they were ordered to park on the corners around the venue to receive policy education.But then the meeting broke up and everyone left. Twenty-three members of the fifth category from the Furong Town Brigade were abandoned in a corner, forgotten by the militiamen who escorted them.Serious occasions of class struggle appear a little less serious.However, when the discipline of the conference was announced at the beginning, there was a rule: Without the order of the party secretary of each brigade, the five types of elements in various places are not allowed to speak and act indiscriminately, otherwise they will be punished as sabotaging the conference.How can this be good? Do you really want to stay in this corner until the year of the ox? Later, Madman Qin figured out a way. He asked his fellows to stand in a line and shouted the password: "Stand at attention! Look to the left! Look to the left!" Look ahead! Report the number, take a break!" Immediately afterwards, he turned back in a serious manner, took two steps, touched his heels, stood at attention, faced the empty venue, and saluted with his right hand at the same level as his eyebrows. He asked in a loud voice, "Report to Secretary Li! Branch Secretary Wang! Twenty-three members of the five categories from the Furong Town Brigade came to the Ten Thousand People's Congress today to receive criticism and education. Please allow them to return to the production team to control labor and repent. New!" After asking for instructions, he waited for a while, as if he had heard some instructions and answers from someone, and then said: "Yes! I follow the instructions of my superiors, obey the law honestly, and the team is disbanded!" Everyone put it back.

Early in the morning, the fog is rippling.On Qingshiban Street in Furong Town, dogs didn't bark, roosters didn't crow, people and animals were still sleeping, so Qin Shutian dragged a bamboo broom to call Hu Yuyin.Each other is the first person to see every morning.They always stand at the door of Laohuji Inn, look at each other and smile. "Brother, you wake up really early. It's always you calling the door..." "Yuyin, you are ten years younger than me, there is no one who doesn't snooze." "It looks like you can't sleep well at night?"

"I? Well, I used to suffer from insomnia when I was doing mental work." "Can't sleep at night, how are you doing?" "I just hummed the song from "Happy Song Hall"..." When they mentioned "Xi Ge Tang", they all fell silent. "Happy Song Hall", a disaster song that brings them misery and misfortune... Gradually, their meeting every morning has become an indispensable lesson in their poor life.Occasionally, one morning, if someone didn't come to sweep the street, he would panic badly, as if something was missing... he would silently sweep the whole street alone, and then go to inquire and visit.It wasn't until the next morning that they ran into each other again, looked at each other and smiled, that they felt at ease.

This morning, it was foggy.They started sweeping from the middle of the street, back to back, and swept towards the street entrance.It's really quiet, the only sound on the street is the rustling of their bamboo brooms scraping on the bluestone slabs, rustling... Qin Shutian swept to the corner of the sales department of the supply and marketing cooperative, leaned against the wall for a rest, and suddenly heard The side door on the other side of the alley wall of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative creaked open, and he couldn't help turning his face to the side to have a look, but saw a thick black figure flashing out of the side door and closing the door with his backhand. strict. "Thief!" Qin Shutian was startled.But no, that man was empty-handed, and his body was not bulging. How could there be such a thief? He felt very strange in his heart, and watched the black shadow walk away along the base of the wall.He knew that all the employees of the supply and marketing cooperative lived in the dormitory in the backyard, and only the female director Li Guoxiang lived upstairs.The back of the person who slipped away looked familiar.What good thing is this? He didn't say anything, and he didn't dare to say anything.At noon that day, he deliberately went to the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative, but he didn't hear the people in the supply and marketing cooperative say that they had lost anything.

after a few days.There is no fog in the morning.Qin Shutian and Hu Yuyin parted ways from the middle of the street again, each sweeping toward the street entrance.He swept to the corner of the wall of the supply and marketing cooperative, and rested against the wall again.This time, without waiting for the side door of the enclosure to creak, he turned half of his face from the corner to stare at it.After a while, the side door creaked, and a thick black figure flashed out of the door again, closed the door behind his back, and hurriedly walked along the wall of the alley.Qin Shutian saw this clearly, and was secretly surprised, it was him! God, what are you doing in this fence every day? The matter is so important that Qin Shutian dared not say anything.But after all, he was "the man is still there, the heart is not dead", so he dragged the broom and ran to the other side, called Hu Yuyin to a secluded corner, and revealed this "top secret" to the young widow's ear.After the lecture, I was a little scared, and repeatedly told: "You must never tell the third person. The neighbors in the neighborhood can't control this matter. We can only pretend to be blind. Besides, we have this status..."" It's him?" "It's him." "Where's that one?" "It's her." "He, she, he, the ghost knows which one you are referring to." Hu Yuyin seemed very happy, her face slightly slightly Flushing: "Ghost! You talk into people's ears, and you don't shave your beard, which makes people's faces hurt!" "Ah, ah, my beard... must be clean, every day! "They were face to face, eye to eye, so close for the first time. Another early morning, Qin Shutian came up with a ghostly idea.He and Hu Yuyin met in the middle of the street, and told the ghostly idea.Hu Yuyin just smiled and said "It's up to you".It was their first violation of the law. Instead of sweeping the street first, they used a shovel to scrape a bunch of rare things from the entrance of the production team's cattle pen, and placed them at the entrance of the side entrance of the alley wall of the supply and marketing cooperative. place.Then, the two hid in the corner of the corner of the sales office, showing half of their faces to watch.It's annoying, it's foggy this morning.Their bodies cuddled together unconsciously, without paying attention.After waiting for a while, they heard footsteps upstairs from the sales office and came downstairs.Qin Shutian was tall and squatted down.Hu Yuyin leaned her chin on his shoulder and looked in the same direction.them They were both excited and nervous, as if they could feel the beating of each other's hearts.Half of Hu Yuyin's body was sticking out of the corner of the wall. Qin Shutian stood up and stretched out his arms to hug her back. Slap away.The side door of the alley opened with a creak, and the black figure flashed out. It must have stepped on the thin guy with its head and foot. With a bang, it fell on the bluestone board like falling wood.The man must have been hit hard on the head, and he fell on the stone slab humming ouch, and he didn't get up for a long time. "You deserve it! You deserve it! God damn it, you deserve it!" Hu Yuyin clapped her hands like a little girl, and laughed softly.Qin Shutian quickly covered her mouth, grabbed her hand, and glared at her.Qin Shutian's hands were warm, and a warmth spread to Hu Yuyin's body and heart unconsciously. The two street sweepers continued to watch from the corner of the wall. Seeing the man groaning, he didn't get up after climbing a few times. It seemed that he had fallen somewhere.Qin Shutian was taken aback at first, but then felt that this was an opportunity to "make meritorious service and atone for sin", so he whispered "such and such" in Hu Yuyin's ear.But his cheeks were shaved clean, and he didn't poke someone's face with his beard anymore.After hearing what he said, Hu Yuyin pushed his hands away, turned around and went to the intersection to sweep the street. Qin Shutian walked back to the middle of the street lightly, and then swept over step by step.Suddenly, as if he had discovered something, he dragged a bamboo broom and strode towards the wall of the supply and marketing cooperative, asking repeatedly, "Which one is that? Which one is that?" When he came to the wall of the alley, he pretended to be surprised and called softly: "Secretary Wang! Why did you accidentally fall here while walking? Get up! Get up!" "You two members of the fifth class swept the street! The cow dung at the door slipped people..." Wang Qiushe sat down on the thin guy, and his body was stinky.He cursed bitterly, but didn't dare to raise his voice. "I apologize, I apologize. Come, Wang Zhishu, I, I will help you get up." Qin Shutian used his hand to lift Wang Qiushe's foot stuck in the gutter. "Oh, hello! It hurts to death! This foot is twisted!" Wang Qiushe was sweating coldly from the pain. Qin Shutian quickly let go of his feet, not afraid of dirt and smell, put his hands on Wang Qiushe's buttocks, and helped him sit on the threshold. "What's the matter? Secretary Wang, go home? Or send you to the health center?" Qin Shutian asked with concern. "Go home! Go home! This time, you, Madman Qin, behave better and carry me back. Ouch, I will benefit from you in the future. Ouch..." Wang Qiushe was in so much pain that he didn't dare to shout loudly for fear of alarming neighborhood. Qin Shutian bowed down, picked up Wang Qiushe and left.He felt that the Diaojiao master was as strong as a bull because he had learned a lot in the past few years. No wonder he had to come out every night to look for wild food and eat dewy grass. "Secretary Wang! Your old man got up too early today. You are out of luck. I'm afraid you may have encountered a ghost!" "Stop talking nonsense! Hurry up, let people see it, the five types of elements recite the party secretary, the influence is not very good... Turn around, look back, you have to go up the mountain to find two herbs for bruises!" A hundred days of injury.The owner of the hanging feet lay on the bed for more than two months.Fortunately, the barefoot doctors from the cooperative medical team sent him to the hospital and took care of his daily life.Due to busy work, Li Guoxiang couldn't spare time to visit.She left the "squat office" upstairs in the township supply and marketing cooperative, and went back to work at the county revolutionary committee. Qin Shutian and Hu Yuyin got up before dawn as usual, and cleaned the Qingshiban Street.At first, both of them were happy.Every morning, dragging a bamboo broom and meeting at the door of the Old Huji Inn, you just look at me and I look at you, with hot faces and beating hearts.By playing tricks on Wang Qiushe, they got closer day by day.It's almost like no one wants to leave anyone.They were all suppressing an indescribable pain, a grinding emotion... One day when it was getting dark, Qin Shutian sent her a shirt with a light bottom and hidden flowers in a cellophane bag. A red ribbon tied... God, she was panicking.Never seen clothes of this material.Do I still deserve to wear it when I am such a person? Can I wear it? After Qin Shutian left, she took the shirt out of the cellophane bag, the material was as smooth as silk.She didn't want to wear it.She hugged her clothes tightly to her chest, covered herself in bed and cried all night.She seemed to be holding a warm heart, and she had a sense of guilt.She decided to go to the grave the next day when people were unprepared, burn some paper on Gui Gui's grave, and talk to Gui Gui about her thoughts and discuss them.Gui Gui always relied on her, followed her, pampered her, and loved her.Guigui's soul will also bless her, forgive her, and she hopes that Guigui will entrust her with a dream at night... Early the next morning, when Qin Shutian knocked on the door and asked her to sweep the street, she slammed twice I put on the floral shirt as an inner garment, which is intimate and close to the flesh.But she even tucked in the collar of her shirt so that no one could see it. They silently swept Qingshiban Street... Everything was fine at first, but Qin Shutian suddenly dropped the broom in his hand, opened his arms, boldly, and hugged her tightly! "Are you crazy? My God, Brother Qin, are you crazy?" Brother Shutian..." Hu Yuyin trembled, her eyes filled with tears... She was sobbing and let Qin Shutian hug and caress him for a long time before pushing him away, pushing him away.She was so cruel, but she had to push it away.God, what kind of thing is this? I have become a counter-revolutionary and a servant, can I still fall in love and have normal human feelings? No, no, no... She hates it, she hates it, hates it There is still a fire in my heart that has not been extinguished! Why is it not extinguished? Why not become a wooden person, a stone person? You tormenting will-o'-the-wisp! Like a leper, he was expelled from the circle of normal people and entered into another book, but only this will-o-the-wisp remained.All morning, she cried while sweeping the street. After this incident, for several mornings in a row, they just swept the street silently, ignoring each other.They are all in pain.They are eager to live a "human" life.Qin Shutian, as usual, came to the door of the Old Huji Inn every morning and waited silently until Hu Yuyin got up and opened the door, and then he turned and left silently... Time, like a doctor of life, It heals the wounds of the soul, soothes the pangs of despair, and silences certain irresistible feelings.Although this kind of silence and silence is temporary and superficial.After about half a month, Qin Shutian seemed to calm down.Hu Yuyin smiled at him, and called "Brother Qin" away.And in that smile, in that voice, there is more affection than before.From then on, they seemed to have reached a tacit agreement not to mention the crime of leading people into the fire pit.On the contrary, they feel calm and close to each other.Life went back to the old track.They are like the two street sweepers on Qingshiban Street, they don't know why they are alive, why they are still alive.But this situation did not last long.Soon, Hu Yuyin caught a cold, had a high fever, and slept on the bed talking nonsense.It's hard for Qin Shutian to get up early every day, one person does the labor of two people, and wields a bamboo broom to sweep from the street to the end of the street.Then he gave full play to his poor medical knowledge, went up the mountain to collect herbs, and cooked the "accomplices" to eat and drink.People in the mountain town have long since paid little attention to these two characters, so no one paid attention.Hu Yuyin was so sick that she could only lie on the bed and eat soup and medicine with Qin Shutian's hands every day.Every day, with tears in her eyes, Hu Yuyin yelled "Brother Shutian..." The nobles have their lives, and the sluts have their lives.After ten days or so, Hu Yuyin recovered from her illness and got up early every day to sweep the streets.One morning around five o'clock, Qin Shutian went to wake up Hu Yuyin again, and the two came to the street again.But at this time there was lightning and thunder, and the wind was strong.Soon there will be a downpour.There has been a lot of rain this spring.They are still mechanically sweeping the streets.The difference is that now they swept side by side, one on each side.The rainstorm came as soon as it was said, and the dark sky was like the bottom of a pot full of sand holes, sifting down the arrow-like rain columns and rain threads. Hu Yuyin suddenly pulled Qin Shutian away, ran away! Running back to the Old Hu's Inn, both of them were drowned.It was still dark in the room.There is not a dry yarn on them anymore.They all took off their wet clothes.The clothes that were taken off were all wrung out.Hu Yuyin was shivering from the cold in the dark, her teeth were chattering: "Brother Shutian...Brother Shutian, help me, I, I'm as cold as ice..." "Oh, you just recovered from your illness, and you're freezing again. I'll help you to sleep on the bed, and keep warm under the quilt..." Qin Shutian groped, but it was so dark that he couldn't see his fingers.When his hands touched Hu Yuyin, both of them were startled, they forgot that they had already taken off their clothes... Stormy, vast and wild.Thunder God and Lightning Mother, don't be angry, don't roar... Rain, fog and rain curtains, block the whole world.This pair of sinners in the world, this pair of political niggers, their source of life has not been exhausted, their spiritual spark has not been extinguished, they will still strike the lightning of emotion, they will still emit the light and heat of life .The dead tree of love will sprout new branches and leaves when it encounters wind and rain, and it will also bloom thin flowers and bear sour and bitter fruits...