Chapter 12 10

Twenty or thirty people crowded into one room, sitting silently in the dark.The lights were turned off at nine o'clock this evening. Car horns sounded on the road outside, approaching from a distance, and then gradually drifting away.The white light of the headlights suddenly shone into the dark room, and the black shadow of the iron bars on the window fell on the man. There is a loudspeaker in the cell, high up on the wall.Suddenly there was a rustling sound from the speaker, and then a deep guttural voice began to speak: "Frankness is the way of life, resistance is the way to death." Quietly, the voice was extremely low, but with a heavy breathing sound.

There was silence for two or three minutes. "Frankness is life, resistance is death," repeated softly.I said it seven or eight times over and over again, and finally stopped. Body to body in absolute darkness.Occasionally, I heard the dirty, stiff and greasy cotton clothes rubbing against each other, making a slight sound.Occasionally someone changed their sitting posture, and their leg bones rattled.Someone couldn't hold back his cough, and the filthy and dry hot wind passed over other people's faces in bursts. Half an hour later, one person couldn't bear it any longer, and scratched the flea-bitten place on his body rustlingly.But suddenly a ray of yellow light appeared under the door, and the rustling sound froze immediately.

Someone unlocked the door, and as soon as the door was opened, the light of a flashlight came in, sweeping back and forth among the crowd.Everyone opened the eyes of the blind and let the white light caress their faces in a daze. The flashlight turned to shine on Liu Quan's face.As soon as the thick and white beam of light touched the face, it immediately made the whole body numb and the heart stopped beating.Then the white light swung away again and fell on a man sitting by a lead bucket in the room. "Yao Xuefan! Stand up!" Two people shouted at the door, then stepped in from the crowd and dragged him out.

The door was locked again.A group of chaotic leather shoes rushed into other rooms. About one after another called several people out.Everyone listened attentively.After a moment of silence, several shots were suddenly fired from another part of the house. It's too much like the sound effect of the stage, Liu Quan thought to himself.But people who are in the scene, even if they see through this dramatic nerve attack, can't get rid of the sense of horror, just like a person sometimes understands in his heart clearly in a nightmare, knowing that it is a dream, but still terrifying extremely.

Half an hour later, the lights suddenly came on. "The diehards who resist confession have been shot!" The loudspeaker clearly announced: "Everyone, confess quickly! Reflect carefully, and confess thoroughly as soon as possible!" Suddenly the light went out again, and I fell into the dark world again.If this is a play, it really controls the audience's emotions very tightly, preventing people from breathing. There was no sound in the room, not sure if they were all reflecting.Liu Quan has been here for more than ten days, and knows very little about the prisoners in the same room, because talking is forbidden.But every time a new prisoner came in, the one sitting next to him would ask softly, "Where did he come from?" Sometimes the newcomer just sat with his head down.But there are times when simple answers are available.Some seem to be high-level retained personnel of state-run institutions who have been accused of corruption, mostly for the purpose of extorting their property in the name of returning stolen goods. In addition, there are non-Party cadres like Liu Quan.Liu Quan also heard that one of the main purposes of the Three Antis is to "clean up the middle class."There are nearly tens of millions of cadres who are not party members, and they need to be cleaned up once.They are called the middle class because they are between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and their position is not clear enough.After this three-anti campaign, many will be eliminated.

After Liu Quanguan came in, he had already asked twice, but he categorically denied any corruption.He has already made up his mind, no matter whether they use torture or psychological tactics, he will never confess his crimes indiscriminately, and "confess" things that he has not done.It's not about pretending to be a hero, but it's actually impossible.If he admits to corruption, he has to return the stolen goods. Where did he get the money?The family absolutely cannot afford to pay, and there are no rich relatives who can borrow money.Everyone is in trouble now.At most, he himself dies, and he can no longer harm others.

"Confession is life, resistance is death," the speaker whispered again.Repeated over and over again. There is a car passing by outside the window, and the light from the headlights shines on the window, and the glimpse is fleeting, as if the whole world is passing by before his eyes, so kind, warm, and full of unexpected opportunities. Liu Quan recalled his experience in the past twenty years.I don't take the unpleasant things to heart, just think of some memorable things and people. He thought of yellow silk.At the same time, I couldn't help thinking of Goshen, after all, she gave him many happy times.It seemed to be given to him for nothing, yet he paid a high price in the end.This is also life, right?

If he was killed, he hoped that Huang Juan would never know the real reason for his disaster.Had she known that he had been framed for another woman's sake, she would have felt that he had cheated her, that their relationship had been completely insulted. Don't let her know that this is his greatest wish now. The door suddenly opened again, and the white light of the flashlight shot in, searching the crowd. "Liu Quan! Stand up!" Someone shouted. Liu Quan supported a person next door and stood up with difficulty.Sitting too long. The white light of the flashlight finally found his face.

"Come out come out!" He squeezed his way through the crowd without waiting for them to come in and drag him.Two fellow sufferers hurriedly shook his hand.I don't know who it is in the dark.If he had time to analyze his own mood, he really hated these two people, because at this time, he only wanted to be free, and they were like life itself, pulling his heart sadly. Two police officers escorted him down the corridor and down the stairs.Of course, he would not be taken to the Jiangwan execution ground in a car. He was executed in prison in order to "kill chickens to scare monkeys".Downstairs he went through a very long corridor. He thought he should go to a courtyard, but he was still indoors after wandering around.You also need to go through the formalities of verifying your identity.

He guessed it was the warden's room, and saw the door open from a distance.The lights inside are bright, and there are glass-topped round tables, sofa chairs, coffee tables, and vases, like a reception room.He looked at it with a strange feeling.He has forgotten what an ordinary room looks like and how people live. The police led him into the room, where there was only a young woman in a liberation uniform standing under the light. Huang Juan held him with both hands, and looked at his face with a smile.The strange light in her eyes turned into tears and overflowed.He must be dreaming, and the dream is about to wake up, because it has reached the saturation point.He could feel it quivering, about to burst, to dissolve into the night.

"How could you come?" He said softly, "I thought they would not be allowed to meet at all." She didn't answer right away. "It's not impossible," she murmured, casting a slight glance at the two policemen at the door. The two policemen stood there idly with their hands behind their backs, one foot stretched out at a slant, patiently, as if preparing to stand for a long time, and deliberately looked up into the air to show that they would not interfere with their conversation. Liu Quan couldn't believe such preferential treatment.He hugged her tightly, leaned into her ear and said, "You must tell me why you are allowed to come. Otherwise, I will always think it is a dream." Forced by him, she had no choice but to mumble, "It's Goshen. She's very helpful." Liu Quan didn't expect Ge Shan to be so powerful, and he was especially surprised that she had such a large number of people, and she went to try to get the right of "special interview" for Huang Juan, so that they could meet him.Her heart for him is really touching.Although in the final analysis, she still harmed him this time, but she may not know it herself, and it is not her fault. "How are you?" Huang Juan asked softly. "Okay?" She touched his shoulders and arms timidly, she wondered if he was covered with bruises. "I'm fine, nothing at all." Huang Juan snuggled up beside him, looking at his face fondly. "You met me again." "how?" "It's like when we read the blackboard paper on that rainy day," she whispered. Liu Quan smiled.So he kissed her passionately whether there was anyone around or not.She was very strange today, she hugged his neck so eagerly, but she was cold.She struggled like a stone statue to come to life, but a perpetual silence and death had crept into her muscles.He seemed to feel that he was kissing the lips of two white stones, and it was like kissing a white rose, and the flower's heart breathed out a little chill.He intuitively felt that she came to say goodbye to him today.She must have gotten word that he was going to be executed. "Have you heard any news?" he asked. "Don't worry, be patient. You're fine." He didn't make a sound. "Let's talk about something else." She made an air of cheerfulness. "What are you talking about?" Liu Quan said with a smile. Tears welled up in her eyes again, and he had to think of something quickly to say, "Oh, there's something I've been forgetting to ask you." "What's up?" "When I left Hanjiatuo, you asked me to send a letter. Was that letter written on purpose or was it originally intended?" Huang Juan couldn't help smiling. "You take it that I sincerely want you to know my address, don't you?" "You don't admit it?" "of course not." "Okay, that's me making a gentleman's belly with a villain's heart." He pressed his face against her cheek and rubbed it. "It's fun to think about the old days," she said. "You remember singing on the truck, but you never sang, just opened your mouth?" Liu Quan said. "You also said that I sing well." "Really, I've never heard you sing." He felt very surprised that she actually fell on his chest and sang in a very small voice.Her voice is too thin, but singing in such a low voice still has a charm.They sang a song they were familiar with in middle school: "A little cloud floats in the sky; There was a slight breeze blowing on the ground. Ahh...the breeze blows my hair. How can I miss him? " She stopped suddenly, pressed her face against his clothes, and didn't raise her head for a long time.Liu Quan didn't make a sound either. "I don't remember," she finally said. "I don't remember either," Liu Quan said with a smile. The policeman suddenly said to Liu Quan, "Hey, we have to go! The time has passed." But Huang Juan hugged him tightly, tears streamed down her face, and she kissed his eyes and mouth frantically.She was like a stone statue struggling to come back to life again, a cold stone statue in the misty rain. "Liu Quan!" She choked up and said, "Liu Quan, I will never forget you." Didn't she forbid him to say that he would never forget her?She took the remark as ominous, as if they would never meet again. Liu Quan stood there dumbfounded as if he had been electrocuted.She made it too obvious that they were farewell forever. "Let's go!" Two policemen came up to pull him, Liu Quan instinctively pushed Huang Juan's hand away, and walked out quickly.He didn't want to be dragged around by these people in front of her. The police escorted him back to the original dark room. "I don't know when it will be executed," he thought. A person sitting next to him asked quietly, "Where did you come from?" He didn't answer at first.Then he said, "I am Liu Quan." The man was surprised. "Think I'm a newcomer." He seemed a little embarrassed. "What? No how?" "It's just a matter of time." "Confession is the way to life," the speaker whispered again ghostly: "Resistance is the way to death..." About midnight, suddenly the lights came on.The guard opened the door, gave each of them a piece of paper and pen, and asked them to write the confession before dawn. Liu Quan wrote his confession very carefully, but he knew that he had handed in a blank paper. At dawn, the confession was collected.Their policy has always been to play with each other's nerves.After such a tense night, the next day was spent very peacefully.A few new people were added one after another, all transferred from other rooms.There was no room to sit in the room, some people had to stand, and everyone changed shifts. Liu Quan waited until the morning of the third day, but there was still no movement.Until about three or four o'clock that afternoon, he was suddenly called out and taken to a simple office downstairs, where a comrade in a yellow uniform sat in front of a small desk.This is more like a scene of "verification of integrity". "You are Liu Quan?" The man flipped through a thick stack of documents. "yes." "After investigation and research, you and Zhao Chu have a very close relationship. That is an undeniable fact. You will never be ignorant of his crimes against the people. You are very suspected of covering up and concealing each other. In any case, you are not vigilant enough. Gao, your stand is not firm enough. But the people’s government is very lenient, and they still want to win over you. You can return to your original post to work, but you are still under the control of the masses for the time being, and let the masses monitor and inspect your actions. You will be punished by law soon, do you understand?" Liu Quan didn't understand at all, and was thrown into a fog by what he said.Is that how you let him out? A policeman led him to another room, handed back to him a few odd objects that he had copied from his pocket when he was in prison, and sent him out of the gate.The iron door closed behind him with a bang.He stood blankly in the faint sunlight on the side of the street, with a yellow-clothed guard standing guard on one side, holding his rifle and looking at him expressionlessly. It wasn't until he got on the tram that he felt a little more at ease, feeling that he was gradually leaving the danger zone.It always seemed like they could go back on their word at any time and take him back. The tram went over the bridge.A tricycle came head-on, and the young driver seemed to be a bit childish, with a small red and green paper pinwheel tied to his armrest, and turned around against the wind.Liu Quan couldn't help smiling.It's spring after all, he thought. He stroked his hair and chin, and decided to go to the barber shop first, so as not to be so filthy, and everyone would look at him with horror wherever he went.He should also go to have a bath, but he couldn't wait to go to Huang Juan, he had so many things to ask her.He thought she knew that the meeting that day was a farewell, of course he was oversensitive.When we met that day, I don't blame her for being sad. He rushed to the Wen Wei Po Office.During the period of the Three Antis, there was a special atmosphere in all state-run institutions, deserted as if there were few people, but at the same time tense and disordered, everyone was absent-minded.Huang Juan was not there, and the people in the newspaper said she hadn't come in two days, and they didn't know if she was sick or if she had asked for leave. He thought she must be ill, and went to her dormitory at once. "Comrade Huang moved out," the maid told him, "You came a day late, you just moved out yesterday." "Where did you move?" His heart sank. "I don't know, I haven't heard that." He asked to see the dormitory administrator.The administrator is a middle-aged woman, wearing a blue cotton uniform on the upper body, but a pair of black cloth trousers tied underneath.Her flat oblong face was like a bar of yellow soap. What she told him was the same two sentences, but her temper was worse than that of the maid, and she was more suspicious, asking directly "Which unit are you from?" "Who are you?" Finally she said: "You go to the newspaper office to find out, we don't know." Liu Quan walked out of the dormitory, thinking he was going crazy.He must have just come out of prison and is out of his mind.How can a person disappear like this? He decided to go to the newspaper office again, insisting on talking to the person in charge, and he could always ask for some clues.If you can't ask anything, you have to wait until night, when all the female cadres boarding in this dormitory come back, and then ask them one by one. There will always be one or two who are close to Huang Juan and will know her current address. He went to the newspaper office for the second time, and suddenly remembered halfway, didn't Huang Juan talk about this time, and Geshan was very helpful?It sounds like she has been in contact with Goshen a lot, and she must have known about Goshen's move.There must be a reason for her incredible behavior. He passed a shop and looked at the clock inside.His own watch was returned to him when he got out of prison, but it had long since stopped.He didn't have time to dial the watch, so he hurried to the bus stop again.Goshen always came to the newspaper office very late, so he might still be at home at this time. He rushed to Goshen's place in the twilight, and she was coming out after locking the door.She didn't seem very surprised to see him. "Ah, you came out, congratulations!" She smiled and said, "Come in and sit." She took off her leather gloves and took the key to open the door.The weather in early spring is still very cold at night. "When did it come out?" she asked. "This afternoon." "Come and see me as soon as I come out? Don't dare to act, dare not act," she said with a half-sneering tone. "I heard Huang Juan said that you are very enthusiastic about helping, and I am so grateful." Liu Quan quickly understood the purpose of coming, saying that he was only here to thank you. "That's nothing, my power is limited." "Why did Huang Juan move out of her dormitory?" Liu Quan couldn't help but asked immediately, "I haven't been to the newspaper office for two days." Goshen sat tapping the edge of the table with one of her leather gloves. "Why, didn't she tell you? Didn't she visit you the day before yesterday?" She said flatly. "She didn't say anything." Liu Quan looked at her, suddenly filled with fear.The fear has always been there, just waiting to be confirmed. Goshen paused slightly.She doesn't have to tell him the truth, but he will know sooner or later, and he won't give up if he doesn't tell him. "She is living with Kaifu Shen, I heard her say. The exchange is that he will find a way for you. Otherwise, you think, it's so simple and you will be released? Your situation is very dangerous." "Shen Kaifu?" Liu Quan whispered.It seems that I have seen this person more than once during a meeting, but I can't remember anything at this time, and my mind is just blank and booming. "Shen Kaifu has a bit of latent power. Some people say that he has a phone call with Chairman Mao every night. I don't know if there is any basis for this statement." Liu Quan just sat there silently.Suddenly she felt sorry for him.She went over to pick up a bottle of wine from the chest of drawers, found two glasses, spilled the remaining tea, poured two glasses of wine, and handed one over. "Come on, cheers! Isn't it worth celebrating when you come out?" He took the drink mechanically, but didn't drink it. "Don't act like that," said Ge Shan, "just look at it. You don't have to feel sorry for her, Shen Kaifu is really serious this time. Of course their relationship cannot be made public—Lao Shen's lover is a person of high status. If he wants to get a divorce, the party will not approve the old party member who holds the second and third positions in the All-China Women’s Federation.” "Where did he get the yellow silk?" Liu Quan asked suddenly. "Who knows. Anyway, you don't have to think about meeting her again, unless Shen Kaifu collapses one day." “Or the Communist Party has collapsed,” Liu Quan said. "Why, do you have a change of mind?" Geshan asked with a smile. Liu Quan shook his head. "I'm not that bold. One day, maybe we won't be able to see in our lifetime." He raised his glass and drank most of it in one gulp.It's a bad brandy. "Don't say a few words like this, but don't go to other places to talk nonsense when you are drunk. Just lie here for a while when you are drunk." "I'm not drunk. Finish this drink and leave." He was a little dizzy.It was warmer inside than outside, and the windows were covered with a layer of water vapor, making them completely opaque.The neon lights on the opposite side of the street faintly seep through the steam, turning into a mist of miserable red and green.A coat hanger hangs from the curtain rod against the foggy background.A pair of pale red silk briefs stood on a hanger.In Goshen's room, it seemed to be a flag of sensuality that hung high. He wondered if Huang Juan was with Shen Kaifu at this moment.He thought of her tears, her cold pale face, and the greedy lips and hands of another man on her body, his heart was burning like fire, wishing to die immediately.His life was given to him by her, but life became a burden to him. "You introduced Shen Kaifu to her, didn't you? So she said you were very helpful." He placed the glass heavily on the table. "You don't have to rely on it. ─ Otherwise, how would she know him?" "What am I doing?" Geshan said with a smile, "So what if I introduced you? Isn't it also to save you! Do you hate me?" Liu Quan looked at her quietly.That strange stillness seemed to be the prelude to violence!She was a little scared, but it also had a kind of stimulation to her. "Why don't you kill me when you hate me?" She giggled and pestered him, trying to put his hand on her throat. "You'll kill me, what are you afraid of, anyway, you have someone backing you now!" The soft eyes glanced at him and smiled. "Huh? Do you hate me?" She murmured. "Whether I hate you or not, I don't know myself," Liu Quan said, "But I hate you, and I think you should know too." As soon as this kind of words came out, it was like smashing something, smashing it to pieces.Liu Quan originally wanted it to be like this, but when he said it, he felt uncomfortable. "I'll know next time," Geshan said, "I'll let you be shot, and whoever saves you is no good!" She picked up her glass of wine, leaned back and drank it all, but dripped all over her body. "I'm sorry, I'm drunk," Liu Quan stood up with a smile and said, "I'm really not good at drinking, I shouldn't be given alcohol." He opened the door himself and went out.It was very cold outside, and there were a few stars in the dark blue sky. He didn't want to go back to the dormitory, so he wandered on the road and walked a lot.In a daze, he has already walked to the vicinity of the International Hotel.A red flag was planted on the top of the tall building, and a few strong electric lights were probably installed under the flagpole, shining upwards, illuminating the red flag.It fluttered in the dark blue night sky, and it was astonishingly red, like a small miracle. He raised his face and stared at the bright little red flag for a long time.It is like a star in the sky, and I really want to shoot it down.