Chapter 17 seventeen

I ate her a white flour steamed bun and a lot of potatoes, and I was ashamed to go again, although she repeatedly urged me to come back tomorrow when I left. After breakfast the next day, I was still lying on the straw bed with the 1954 edition of Capital translated by Guo Dali and Wang Yanan, but I didn’t take off my clothes like yesterday, as if I was waiting for something. I am embarrassed to go, but want to go very much. Although the snow had stopped, the ground was already covered with a foot of snow.On the corridor in the middle of the house, dust and snow were mixed together and trampled into solid lumps.Layers of dark clouds are still piled up in the sky, and even the air seems to be gray, and snowflakes will fall at some point.Captain Xie came to our "home" after dinner and told us that we were not going to work today.He also said that the snow fell well and well this year. He said that this year everyone has no strength to do work, and the winter water that should have flowed has not flowed. This snow is equivalent to making up for this winter water. The moisture content must be good, and Xia Zhuangjia has hope.But the ignorant lieutenant contradicted him, saying that no matter how well the crops grow, the ration of food is still a little bit. What does the crops have to do with us? !

In a word, Captain Xie was so angry that he pulled up his legs and walked away.I think he wanted to stay a little longer, because he found me reading and wanted to chat with me. After the lieutenant was demobilized, he worked as a small section chief in a government agency.After being re-educated through labor, his "rightist" hat has been removed, and his old comrades are arranging work for him in the suburbs of Beijing, and he will not stay here for long; he is young and vigorous, so he dares to say this kind of dissatisfaction words come.But I was still amazed.What surprised me was that after the lieutenant contradicted Captain Xie, although Captain Xie drooped his eyelids in anger, he didn't arrange for us to criticize the lieutenant.If you are in a labor camp, you are waiting to be roped!

I suddenly felt a sense of liberation.At this time, I was reading Note 51: "Savages and semi-savages use their tongues in different ways. According to Colonel Barry, the inhabitants of the west bank of Baffin Bay lick things twice to show their tongues. After the deal was completed, the Esmerimians in the east also exchanged items by licking their tongues." I think that free people and non-free people must also show it in how they use their tongues.What are you afraid of?Nothing to be afraid of!At noon, at that hour yesterday, she came again.I knew it was her when I heard footsteps.The snow had thickened, and the sound of her footsteps was not rustling, but clacking, but still very light.She opened the door all at once, and yelled directly at me, "Hey, what's wrong? You've done half of your business and left it alone?"

The "Director of the Sales Department" giggled: Everyone is resting, but he wants me to work. He is very satisfied.I put down the book pretending not to be happy, got up slowly, and followed behind her.As soon as I turned a corner, she laughed and slapped me innocently with her shoulder.Her demeanor reminded me of the scene when I skipped school with my cousin when I was a child and ran to the corner of the garden that only the two of us knew, and it seemed very natural that I had a tacit understanding with her.I laughed too.This kind of smile is not a smile that I eat too much; I feel happily that the flourishing business that has left me very, very far has returned.However, today, she really dismantled the kang.

Hai Xixi squatted at the door with her elbows in her arms, her thin lips were tight, her eyes were gloomy, and she had an unhappy expression on her face.Outside the house, a puddle of mud has been reconciled: inside the house, the surface of the kang has been completely raised, and the adobe is also ready.It looks like it's waiting for me to do it. "You just need to command." She said, "Let Xixizi do it, he has a lot of strength. Come on, you have some potatoes first, to keep warm, and I will steam white buns when it's done." "He—— command me!" Hai Xixi didn't even look at me, spat on the ground, and refused to accept the potatoes she gave.

"Everything is ready, let's do it first." I said, "I'll start the fire as soon as the work is finished, otherwise the kang will not work." Hai Xixi still squatted there without moving.His laziness and contempt for me stimulated my vitality and competitiveness.I stepped into the Kang wall. "I'm here alone! It's a little work, huh!..." I seemed to have infinite strength. "Are you going to do it?!" She glared at Hai Xixi, and only asked sharply. Like a kicked dog, Hai Xixi stood up abruptly, rolled up the sleeves of her padded jacket: "Ball! Let me do it alone!"

"You, you have an elm head, and you have a chemical head." She stuffed a potato into my hand and laughed at Hai Xixi, "You should look after him today, and you will work for him." She often Say some vivid words that I can't imagine and are amazed by writers and poets.Farmers here label the emerging plastic products they have never seen before with the word "chemistry", such as "chemical comb", "chemical button", "chemical cup" and so on.This "chemical head" is the same as that "coffin body", which makes me wow.It turned out that when I was eating potatoes at her house yesterday, I told her that although her stove is good at heating, the kang is unscientific.When the villagers are on the kang, the chimney and the stove door are diagonally lined, most of the heat escapes from the chimney, and only the top of the kang is a little hotter.The most scientific and economical method is to turn the kang over the fire and turn it into the shape of "Hui".I drew a picture of her on the ground, and I said: "This kind of kang only needs a fire, and I call it a full kang! In fact, it doesn't take much trouble to change it, just a little operation on the kang." Today Well, she really did what my "chemical brain" thought.

I work while eating potatoes.When I was very young, I admired the way the actors in the movies worked while eating, and the way the sailors rushed out of the cabin and climbed up the mast when they heard "Assembly on deck!" chewing bread in their mouths.I think it shows a man's busyness, energy, handsomeness, and professionalism that completely ignores personal hunger, coldness, and warmth.But in the past I didn't do any work, and then I did work but there was nothing to eat, and what kind of work was it!Today, I had a great time.The Kang was modified, and the stomach was filled with potatoes.

Hai Xixi doesn't eat potatoes, maybe he doesn't bother to eat them, maybe he's full.He handed me the adobe and mud, with a gloomy face, and he kept muttering, saying that if the solid kang next to the adobe burned well, he would jump into the river.I pretended not to hear.After putting the last piece of face on the kang, I jumped off the kang and waved to him: "Okay, you can get on the mud!" Hai Xixi knelt down and looked left and right, as if trying to pick out something wrong.She had already cut up the buns for Momo, put them in the cage, and scolded him, "What are you looking at?! Be careful not to dazzle your eyes! It's not even, a handful of mud. Don't you know the work of a bricklayer? Get mud from the side of the pot first. I'll start the fire right away."

In this snowy day, she brought bundles of dry firewood from nowhere, and quickly lit a fire in the stove.At first, some smoke came out from the cracks in the surface of the kang. As the area of ​​Haixixi mud became larger and larger, the smoke gradually decreased and finally disappeared.Haixixi jumped off the kang after finishing the mud, watching the raging fire in the stove rushing towards the chimney, and the whole kang was slowly evaporating water vapor, the brown wet mud gradually turned white, and there was no sound . "You die! You jump into the river!..." She teased Hai Xixi with a smile.The stove fire reflected her vivid face, and I haven't seen such a beautiful bright red color for a long time.

I sat on the unmovable adobe stool and smoked leisurely. For the first time, I felt that labor would be respected by people.This feeling wiped away the somewhat humiliating feeling when I accepted her charity yesterday, and maintained my psychological balance.I think that I am now a "self-reliant laborer", an agricultural worker, and I am only twenty-five years old. If I cannot become a strong laborer and an expert in agricultural labor, I will not be able to settle down in the future.Today, the little skill I learned from the heating engineer immediately changed the status of me and Hai Xixi. A few days ago, I regarded the handlebar style as unattainable, so I had to give it to me. Work as a small worker.This fully demonstrates that here, in this poor country, in this place where I may stay for the rest of my life, only the results of physical labor are the measure of a person.And judging from the work I did just now, as long as I can eat enough, I may become a tall, tough, bold, all-rounder like Hai Xixi who can do it anywhere!I have full confidence that I can become a "self-reliant laborer"! Four years of imprisonment, four years of starvation, and the "rightist" hat I still wear on my head after the punishment is lifted have destroyed any other ambitions of mine. .We called back Ersher who had been left in someone else's house, and we started eating. This is a real meal!How many years have I not eaten it!How many years? ... "Here, serve it after you finish eating." She first served me a large bowl of boiled cabbage with potatoes, and then stuffed me with a big white flour steamed bun, "You can eat two steamed buns today, and I'll save them for you. Come here, I'll distill it for you." Hai Xixi squatted next to the pot table with a livid face, staring at her two hands holding the dishes and buns with unabashed jealousy.I ignored Hai Xixi.Today I eat this meal for good reason.This is the rule of the villagers here: whoever builds a kang and builds a house must have dinner at that home.I picked up the steamed bun with peace of mind.Today's steamed buns are leavened and whiter than yesterday's.I turned around to check, and there were no more fingerprints like yesterday. But how would I feel even with fingerprints like yesterday's?How would I feel if there were such fingerprints on today's momo instead of yesterday?Man, how easily you are subject to circumstances, how easily you forget the past!After eating at her house, when I came back to "home", I bought another barnyard bun from the kitchen and ate it too.I didn't know what "fullness" is! "Full", not "bloated"! I lay on the grass bed under the lantern, squinting my sleepy eyes, intoxicated by the comfort of being full, and dizzily counted how much I ate today, but I couldn’t figure it out after a long time.Because I'm full, I can think about things other than food.I thought of her and Hai Xixi.It was obvious that they were not husband and wife, and the friendship seemed unusual.But my intuition told me that Hai Xixi didn't possess her.If Hai Xixi had taken possession of her beyond the law, he would not obey her like a dog, and experience her sometimes almost mean ridicule.These two people are really subtle and intriguing, especially her, who is so kind and pungent... Besides, Hai Xixi, this manual laborer also has something worthy of my envy.As the saying goes: "A layman watches the excitement, an insider watches the way." Even if he does simple labor such as handing over the mud, I immediately know that he has a good eye; The principle is that there is not a single redundant action.After finishing the mud work, my body and hands are very clean, almost spotless.In rural areas, this is very important.For example, some girls and daughters-in-law make noodles, and a pound of noodles will stick to their hands, basins, and chopping boards.And the girls and daughters-in-law who are praised by others pay attention to "three lights";The same is true of labor.Cleanliness, neatness, and speed are the highest standards of manual labor, just as the highest expression of wisdom in literature is simplicity.This cannot be achieved by experience alone.People who have never done agricultural work think that all they need is strength, and practice makes perfect.In fact, it is not the case. I have seen old farmers who have worked all their lives and are still procrastinating in their work-the locals call it "the cat poops", which is the same as someone who has written articles all his life. Simple physical labor can also show a person's wisdom, personality, temperament and style... I slowly fell asleep.In the dream, I really turned into a poster "What have you contributed to the motherland?" "Standard manual laborer on ", but strangely, my face is very much like Hai Xixi!