Chapter 83 82

Carrying the loess from the Qinling Mountains on his body, the third son Ruiquan entered the ancient city of Xi'an on New Year's Eve, wearing only a thin cotton school uniform. Before that, his black bean-like eyes had seen the wild waves of the Yellow River, the sails in the center of the Yangtze River, the turbulent waves of the Three Gorges, and Sanjia Village in the chaotic mountains where he had never seen even tea leaves. For him, there is no place like Beiping.However, every place made him understand more about China.China, now he understands that there are so many different weathers, terrains, customs, dialects, and products; China is so big that he exults, fears, and trembles.Even the clouds and mosquitoes are different everywhere!He couldn't forget Beiping, but he was also happy to see those different regions.The rolling yellow stream and the pitifully small mountain village seem to be primitive and have never been managed by human beings.But they also have a kind of power because of this, which is a kind of power that Beiping does not have, and they are tightly connected with the sky and the earth.If the man-made, exquisite, Beiping, can be burned down by a big fire, these rivers and villages seem to be able to exist forever - since the beginning of history, they seem to have never changed, so they will never be afraid, cannot, be destroyed. destroy.These places may have been like this before the three volts, and they will always be like this.They made him worry about their outdatedness, but he was also happy about their solidity and simplicity.He thought that the new China probably emerged from these solid and simple forces, and those rotten cities, like Beiping, might not be able to bear this responsibility.

He also loves those peasants whose feet are on the loess. Their farming methods are conservative, their education is almost equal to zero, and their life is extremely difficult, but they are honest, prudent, kind, and thrifty.As long as they understand it, they (even if they have to go hungry!) donate food, money, and even their children to the country.They are not as elegant, intelligent, or eloquent as the people of Peiping, but they, they, take full responsibility for the war of resistance; China is theirs.It was they who shoveled the boulders in Qinling and Bashan to build roads; they used baskets of gray sand to fill up paddy fields and build airports; it was they who burned houses when the enemy came. , led the oxen and horses, and retreated with the national flag; it was they who sent their children to the front line and rescued the wounded soldiers from the battlefield.With such a people, there are soldiers who can fight without enough food and clothing.

Without them, "primitive" China will participate in modern warfare. They don't know much about the general trend of the world, and they don't even know their own names, but they have the morals handed down for two or three thousand years imprinted in their hearts, and they have to distinguish right from wrong when encountering things.If they know nothing else, they know that the Japanese are unreasonable.This is enough.They all use flesh and blood to compete with unreasonable people.Because of the barriers of mountains and rivers and the inconvenience of transportation, they are obviously scattered, but the cultural history and traditional morals bind them together: they are all Chinese, and they are proud of being Chinese.

Seeing it this way, Rui Quancai proudly admitted that he is Chinese, not just from Peiping.He was almost ashamed of being from Peking.He has some knowledge and loves cleanliness, but he can see that he lacks the simplicity, strength, and wisdom grown from the earth of the villagers.There are many things that the villagers know and can do, but they do not know and cannot do.His knowledge, elegant and clean, seems to be dispensable decorations; it is the villagers who have really grasped their lives, and are busy doing things closely related to life from day to night, from spring to winter; Sometimes, they dared to go all out—even though their skin was dark, their blood was perhaps a little hotter and redder than his.

He started not paying attention to his appearance.Seeing the torn clothes on his body, the dust on his shoes, and the black mud under his nails, he was not only not sad, but felt proud instead.He even felt that if the villagers had lice, he should have a few.In the past, when he was in Peiping, like other young people, he liked to say "people".However, at that time, his "people" were nothing but ignorant, dirty, and foolish people.He felt that he had knowledge and kindness, so he should be the respected teacher and leader of the foolish people.Only now did he know that the villagers are not only not stupid in many things, but they are also worthy of being his teachers.

He began to give up the pride of being a college student, and decided to work with the villagers and fight against the enemy together.Moreover, he must teach the villagers what he knows; at the same time, he must also learn from the villagers what he does not know. He was not good at singing, but he sang anti-war songs to the common people.He can't act, but stretched his face on stage.He can't write articles, but he raised his eyebrows and wrote stories about the War of Resistance for people.Similarly, he doesn't know how to ride a horse and shoot a gun, but he made up his mind to ask the people to teach him.He even forced himself to admit that the girl in red trousers and green coat in the country is prettier than Zhaodi.If he wants to marry, he must marry a country girl!

At the same time, the people are so naive, they listen, watch, and believe his songs, dramas, and stories that even cattle are not happy to accept.He is happier, not because of pride, but because he has become one with the villagers.He believed that if he could stay with the villagers for a long time, he would become as simple and strong as the villagers, and the villagers would become as lively and intelligent as he; hum, defeating Japan would be easier than killing a chicken! This innocence, joy and self-confidence made him forget about Peiping.In Peiping, he was helpless; now, he has grasped the real object of patriotism.Patriotism becomes a concrete fact—love of the people and the land.Unexpectedly, the war made urban youths know the real China.

He was thinner, but his stature was half an inch taller. His face was tanned, but the corners on his cheeks were firm and hard.Unable to play basketball with the country youths, he learned to wrestle with them and lift stone blocks.Feeling his own muscles, he felt that he could smash the heads of two enemies with one shot. The blood circulated quickly, and his imagination also came quickly, and he even thought about the post-war plan.After his victory, he thought, he should live in the country forever, marry a country girl, and have children as strong as calves.In order to educate his dolls, he conveniently set up a school so that all men and women in the village, young and old, could have the opportunity to read and write.He will set up a cooperative, a small factory, a hospital, a... He not only saw the victory, but also saw the new China after the war.In that new China, the villages were beautified like gardens!

However, soon, due to the distrust of the people and the suspicion of the free thought of the young intellectuals, Ruiquan was forced to leave his job and friends, and had to go to the city to do a job he was not happy with.Shock and disappointment made him angry.But "don't lose heart"!He thought of the parting words given to him by Uncle Qian and Brother Ruixuan.He held back his breath, closed his mouth, and gave up the time for talking and singing to quiet thinking. From the background of history, he re-examines himself.He saw that his self-confidence and innocence were only flowers urged by a burst of heat, and could not bear fruit.His responsibility is not to fight against the enemy with only a wave of enthusiasm, to hope for a cheap victory, and to dream of a utopia after victory.He must also calm down to resist and transform history.History has made Chinese people kind and lovely, and history has also made some people have ulterior motives and intentions.He must monitor himself so that he can gain real weight on the balance of history.He could see that the Japanese invasion of China opened up 18 levels of hell, and the ghosts not only had to go out to kill, but also had to fight Hades and the bull-headed horse-faced monsters.

After living in the city for a long time, he got the chance to return to Peiping.If he could work among the people or be taken in by the army, he would never want to return to Peiping.He really loved Peiping, but now he realized that it was a poisonous place.The sunny sky, the palace with glazed tiles, the good food and drink, and many other small conveniences and enjoyments are all poisonous substances.They make people comfortable, depressed, restful, lazy.Ruiquan would rather roll in muddy ponds and blood prisons than return to his over-cultured hometown.But since there was no other chance, he had no choice but to go back to Peiping to disinfect it.

On New Year's Eve, he entered the ancient city of Xi'an.Because of the thin clothes, he was very cold.After going around a few streets, he couldn't buy a cotton robe.Shops have all closed their doors for the New Year.He knows that Xi'an and Beiping are ancient cities with the same smell, and people must celebrate the New Year no matter there is war disaster or not.It is inconvenient for him to be angry; if he is not angry, he will slowly think about it.This is a little bit of precious self-cultivation he has acquired in the past three or four years. He knocked on the door of the shroud shop.Whether it's New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, there is always death in the world; the shroud shop will not refuse transactions because of the New Year.He bought a cotton robe for dead ghosts.he laughed.Well, if the living wear the clothes of the dead, it can be regarded as a sign that they are not afraid of death. From Xi'an, he went east.He would sit in any car he encountered; if there was no car, he would walk.When he took a train or a bus, he would sit with the Japanese, chat with them, and give them something to eat, as if he liked the Japanese the most.If he had confidential documents or anti-Japanese propaganda materials, he would put them in the luggage of the Japanese to avoid inspection; sometimes he asked the Japanese to take them out of the station for him.These little tricks made him feel very worthless, because the Japanese are only fond of such little tricks.However, when they got the effect they deserved, he couldn't help being a little happy, and said in his heart: "You can play, so can I!" When he was on foot, he sometimes took many detours to avoid the Japanese and sometimes deliberately entered the occupied area, and got the opportunity to observe the situation in detail.After walking for a while, he could draw a map for himself with his eyes closed.On this map, there are not only mountains and rivers and small and small villages and towns, but also the dynamics of armies and people everywhere.This is a map drawn with blood: a small village may have been burned ten times or eight times; a quiet stream may have been robbed by the enemy and us many times.Looking at this map in his mind, he knew that the Chinese were not honest and would not surrender to the enemy easily.On that picture, he saw some figures, those poor, dirty, ignorant and omniscient, honest and shrewd people.Really, it was them that gave some bright red color to the map of his mind. The further he walked, the closer he was to Peiping, and he couldn't help thinking of home.He misses his mother and elder brother especially.However, this did not make him feel bad, because three or four years of exile, he could see that he would never insert himself into the family of four generations and return to the pre-war life.That's almost impossible.He has seen a vast country, so many people, and so many civil problems.His future life relationship is not family, but social.The war had opened his heart and eyes, and he no longer wanted to put himself at home.It was already autumn, and he got on the train from Langfang. He decided to become a Langfang man.It's not difficult, as long as his accent changes a little, he can pretend to be from Langfang.His clothes—a long blue cloth jacket, a pair of half-worn mill-soled satin shoes, and a blue satin cap—taught him to look like a young shopkeeper in a grain store.His luggage is a half-worn "carrying a horse" with the words "Sanhuaitang" vaguely on it.His surname is Wang.In addition, he wears a pair of large goggles and a towel.Using a towel as a handkerchief brings out a little countryman's rustic, and the big goggles just add a little shopkeeper's air to him.There are the "dead soul" cotton robes and three or five small clothes in the piggy bank.Except for the "Sanhuai Hall" on the horse, he didn't have any writing on his body. Tall and dark, he got on the train pretending to be stupid, quite like a businessman who often walks.In the car, he thought about the family tree of shopkeeper Wang Shao and the map of Wangjiacun.Once, twice, ten times, he memorized the family tree and map by heart.If the Japanese are interrogated, he can use detailed descriptions and descriptions to satisfy their meticulousness and triviality-the Japanese are not the most ideal enemies, they are too trivial.The triviality makes the Japanese only see the trees and forget the forest, so they waste all their energy on insidiousness and destruction, and forget the most noble and meaningful things in the world. It is getting closer and closer to Peking.As the train moved, Ruiquan saw home with a twinkle in his eyes.The gate of the house, the big locust tree outside the gate, and everything in the courtyard are all present in front of me at the same time, like a picture.He quickly closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the train wheels, hoping to hypnotize himself.He must not make his heart beat faster just because he saw Peiping.He has been touched by the Japanese on his chest several times to see how fast his heart is beating.This is Peiping, his home, and the tiger's mouth; he must enter the tiger's mouth without hesitation, and not be bitten by it. The car stops.He slowly picked up the luggage, held up the ticket in one hand, and the dusty towel in the other, and got out of the car slowly.The ancient city wall next to the station and the crisp local accents around him made it impossible for him not to take a deep breath.As soon as he inhaled, he smelled the unique smell of Beiping.He wanted to run a few steps quickly, as excited as a child when he saw the door of the house.Beiping is poisonous, but after all, Beiping is his birthplace. The color, smell, and voice all make him feel comfortable and just right, as if he could touch his mother's wrist as soon as he stretched out his hand.However, he must be calm and walk slowly.He knows that when someone taps him on the shoulder, he has to hope for the best and bravely accept the worst.This is no longer Beiping, but Tiger's Mouth.All right, he handed over the ticket in his hand in front of the wooden fence on the station.However, he still dare not be happy; any piece of soil in Beiping can become his tomb at any time. Sure enough, as soon as he stepped out of the wooden fence, a hand was lightly placed on his shoulder.He was calmer because it was what he had expected. He knocked off the hand on the shoulder with the hand holding the towel, and then asked with the air of a young shopkeeper: "What are you doing?" Disdainful to see whose hand it was, he walked forward as usual, chattering: " I have an acquaintance hotel, don't solicit business randomly! Beiping is a place where you often come and go, don't treat me like a country head!" However, this silly thing didn't work.Something hard pressed against his ribs.A voice came from behind: "Go! Don't talk nonsense!" Shopkeeper Wang Shao of Sanhuai Hall became anxious, turned around and confronted the person behind him. "What's going on? Kidnapping tickets at the station? If you don't run away from me, I'll call the police!" Ruiquan babbled like this, but in his heart he wished he could bite off a few pieces of that man's flesh.It was a young man from China.Ruiquan hated such people even more than the Japanese.However, he had to hold his breath and speak kind words to people who were worse than pigs and dogs.He called "Sir", "Sir, I don't have much money on me, so show me your hand!" "Let's go!" The dog gritted its teeth, with very neat and white teeth. Shopkeeper Wang Shao saw that it was useless to talk softly or hard, so he sighed and followed the dog. A hut behind the box office is the tiger's mouth he expected.Inside, one Japanese, two Chinese, are the three giant teeth of the tiger's mouth. Ruiquan was busy bowing to the three tiger teeth, busy putting down his luggage, and busy wiping his face with a towel.Then, standing opposite the Japanese, he foolishly picked out his ears with his little finger, and rubbed his ears and eyes lightly. The Japanese looked at Ruiquan as if appraising an antique for a long time.Rui smirked all the time. The Japanese began to lift a large thick photo album.Rui Quan followed suit pretending to be stupid and stunned, and saw several people he knew well.The Japanese watched a few films, stopped for a while, looked up at Ruiquan for a while, and then looked at the photos again.After watching for a long time, Ruiquan saw his own photo.He has forgotten where it was taken, but he still vaguely remembers that it was about three years ago.In the photo, he is fatter than he is now, and he has parted hair (now, he is bald), and a lock of loose hair hangs on his forehead.Perhaps because of these differences, the Japanese did not see the relationship between the photo and Ruiquan, but turned over it.Ruiquan stuck out his tongue imagining. The Japanese pushed away the photo book and began to interrogate Ruiquan.Ruiquan stuttered and spoke out the family tree and local annals that he had memorized one by one without being too flustered.He said that the two Chinese people recorded it. After questioning and answering for a while, the Japanese went to flip through the photos again, and a Chinese was interrogated by the boss again, looking at the records with good eyes.After asking this question once, the second Chinese coughed slightly and asked backwards from the end of the record.Ruiquan's answers were all right. The Japanese pushed away the photo book again, and suddenly smiled. "I know Langfang!" After saying this, he immediately reached in and touched Ruiquan's chest. Ruiquan pretended to wriggle his body, as if he was a bit shy, but it didn't prevent the Japanese from pressing his hand on his chest.His heart is beating normally. The Japanese moved his hands away and began to "study" Langfang with Ruiquan, as if he had a deep affection for that place. After listening to a few words, Ruiquan knew that most of the Japanese words were made up temporarily, so he should not follow the Japanese words completely, nor should he choke on them. He must mobilize well, there are good and bad, and the true colors are painted on the lies. "Is the big pit in the north of Wangjiacun still there?" "That big hole? The one where the kids went to bathe in the summer? The Japanese army filled it up!" "There are two roads to the south of Dakeng, which one do you take home?" "I won't go either way! I'll always take the trail, and it's nearly half a mile away!" The Japanese asked many more questions, and Ruiquan answered them all quite decently.The Japanese pouted, and the two Chinese went to check the luggage and Ruiquan.Nothing was found. The Japanese go out.The two Chinese were stunned for a while, and then walked out. Ruiquan fastened the buttons, then folded several clothes neatly, and put them back into the piggyback box.While tidying up, he cursed secretly.He hated this sneaky juggler.This is not an upright battle, but a child's play.However, he must play this game patiently, and must achieve his goal of resisting the enemy in the game.Yes, war itself is perhaps the most foolish game of all.He sighed silently.Then, he leveled up the piggyback, sat on it, and leaned his back against the corner, pretending to doze off. After "sleeping" for a while, he heard a person walking back.He became more sleepy and snored softly.Only those who have no heart disease will snore. "Hi!" the man said, "Still the fuck out?" Ruiquan opened his eyes, wiped his face, stood up calmly, and picked up his luggage.He bowed deeply to that person, a Chinese, and said in his heart: "Boy, goodbye! If I don't deal with you, traitor, my surname is not Qi!" When he got out of the house, he looked around slowly, as if he had forgotten his direction, and dawdled there.He knew that if he ran away, he would be caught by them again; maybe how many eyes were watching him in the dark!