Chapter 9 The first part of the nine-story building

More than forty years ago, in the northeast corner of Beijing, near the corner of the city wall, a red nine-story building was built.Now that the city walls are gone, the building is still there.It is not surprising that there are nine floors, and apartments and restaurants with dozens of floors can be found everywhere.In the midst of the mountains-like buildings, time is really relentless. That building has become thin, ugly, and old. It is hard to imagine that it was once a proud and brilliant place.I remember it was 1959, when I was in the second grade of elementary school, it was like a morning glow rising suddenly in the sky, standing among the dark and low houses surrounded by darkness, bright, brilliant, and full of spirits.

Before it broke ground, the teacher described it to us in class: there are really "upstairs and downstairs electric lights and telephones", with gas, heating, and elevators; people who live there don't need to use it themselves After cooking, I go to the cafeteria after work and eat whatever I want; there is a club there, where people can play chess, cards, and exercise during their breaks; There are libraries, public bathrooms, medical stations, canteens... In short, that building is a society, a microcosm or model of an ideal society, where people are one big family regardless of each other. It can be said that they have almost entered the society. communism.Slowly, people there don't even want to earn money.Why?It's useless.Think about it, you go to the cafeteria to eat when you are hungry, and clothes are made for you when you are cold, and the same goes for all daily necessities—do you need them?Well, just reach out and take it.Don't worry about who will take more.May I ask why you took more?sell it?If you can't get it, which fool would buy it from you?At that time, everyone only needs to do their own job well, and you don't have to worry about other things. The country has thought of it for you, and it is more thoughtful than you.Think about it, what is the use of money?It's too hard to wipe your ass!Yes, yes, we were all born in good times, and we all have to live in that kind of building.From now on, such buildings will be built one after another, taller, bigger and more majestic.For those of us who are lucky, that kind of life is not far away, and that kind of day is just around the corner... The teacher said happily, with excess saliva piling up at the corner of his mouth.We stared wide-eyed and listened, applauding involuntarily, congratulating sincerely, thinking how did we come at such a good time?

A few classmates and I often climbed to the city wall to see, looking in the direction of the building that was about to be erected. The city wall was dilapidated, and sometimes collapsed. I heard that the collapsed city bricks and loess had killed people, and our parents firmly prohibited us from going there.But we still went secretly, not only to see the building earlier, but mainly to play.The city wall is riddled with holes, I don't know whether it was dug by people or washed by the rain. There are many holes, some of which are quite big. I drilled in and crawled in the dark. After a while, I reached the top of the city wall and arrived at some unexpected places.There was no one in the wild grass, and the entrance of the cave was naturally very hidden, so everyone thought of tunnel warfare, saying that if the Japanese devils came again, they would lure them here, "Ping, Ping Ping——!" How about it?

On the construction site of the nine-story building, the engine roared day and night, the long arm of the tower crane turned slowly, and the whistle of the command was beeping non-stop.We sat on the edge of the grass and watched, guessing where is the club, where is the library, where is the restaurant... I can't remember who mentioned the public bathroom, said that there are baths, men and women wash together. "Don't be crazy! Who said that?" "Nonsense, do you understand public bathrooms?" "What's wrong with public bathrooms, public bathrooms are bathhouses, have you ever been to a bathhouse before?" "Oh, oh, do you understand? ?A public bathroom is a public bathroom, and a bathhouse is a bathhouse!" "I don't know better than you? A bathhouse is a public bathroom!" "Then why not call it a bathhouse, but a public bathroom?" This question made the other party confused .Everyone also pondered for a while, imagining what it would be like if men and women washed together.After thinking about it for a while, they couldn't think of any tricks, so they all lay down in the grass again, seeing that the bulldozer on the construction site looked like a devil's tank, and shot there in a "ping-ping-pong-pong" manner.After driving for a long time, it was really boring, and some people said that those "tanks" were already fucked up, brothers, let's go!So he charged, shouting, rushed down the city wall, and rushed to the construction site.

At the front of the construction site, the old man guarding the construction site stopped us: "Hey, where did such a group of unlucky children come from? Stop the fuck!" We had to stop.Tunnel warfare and the Japs are all behind us, so we have to ask the building: when was it built?Is there really a club and a screening room in it?Really watch movies for free?In public bathrooms, do men and women really bathe together?The old man laughed: "Beautiful you!" What is "beautiful you"?Why "Beautiful You"?This question is not clear, and someone asked again: Then, when we arrive at the cafeteria, do we eat whatever we want?Is it okay to eat stew every meal?Eat a lot and no one said?The old man said: "I'm afraid I'll eat you to death!" All the children laughed, believing that this was probably true.As for eating to death - don't be ridiculous!

But I never entered that building.Only one building like that will be built.Until now, I don’t know what it was like in that building, whether there were clubs and screening halls, and whether that kind of paradise-like life really existed. Not long after the nine-story building was completed, the so-called "three-year difficult period" arrived.Maybe the phrase "always eat stewed meat" was misspoken, and as a result, the old man couldn't eat stewed meat anymore.Why did the meat suddenly disappear?The fish is gone, the oil is gone, and the food is getting less and less, and then all food and clothing must be provided by ticket.Every month, on a fixed day, at a fixed place, people lined up cautiously and solemnly to receive various tickets: red, green, yellow, thin paper the size of postage stamps.The people who received it counted it again, carefully tucked it into their arms, and muttered in their mouths, what was added or what was missing this month.What was there, and how much was there, I can't remember clearly, but I began to understand what hunger was all about.Hungry means that the stomach is always screaming, and delicious things keep popping up in the mind.To be hungry is to go to bed early at night and bring all the delicious things to your dreams.Hungry, or get up before dawn in the morning, follow grandma to the gate of the shopping mall and wait, see if you can get lucky and buy some food that does not require a ticket but can be eaten; or go to the butcher shop to queue up , Exchange one or two colorful meat tickets for a certain amount of fat or oil.If the precious meat ticket is only exchanged for a small piece of lean meat and pigskin, it is simply a failure of personality, and all eyes will send you pity.If you can buy big oil, the situation will be different. Holding a big piece of oil makes you feel superior to others. All the passers-by will pay attention to you. Of course, they will look at the big oil first and then you.Your eyes stay on the big oil for a long time, and then move to you. At this time, you should be sober. If you get a lot of praise, it is probably because of the big oil. If you see doubts, you must check yourself.Of course, there are times when the oil is not as good as others. If the big oil is not very good, but the owner of the oil is kind-eyed or dignified, people will justly express regret for this. The regret between the brows is like treating a big-name Stars make occasional mistakes.And if an ignorant child is actually holding a piece of top-quality oil, people may guess his origins, or take care of him and say: "Get it and go home!" It means: know what you are taking. ?

To be honest, in those few years, I could basically eat 80% of my fill, but my mother and grandma were hungry and swollen, and there was a hole in my leg and hand.At that time, I didn't know what happened in China, and I didn't know that many people in the countryside had starved to death.But I saw two brothers in front of my house. In summer, they were both wearing cotton clothes, sitting in the sun and counting soybeans.They hadn't eaten for several days, and they finally got a handful of soybeans, which they shared with each other, and they were ready to cook and eat when they went home.I also saw a classmate in our class, he fell asleep on the table during class, the teacher asked him to stand up, and he fell down as soon as he stood up.It was only later that he found out that his parents didn't know how to plan, and they almost ate up all the food for a month in half a month, and drank rice soup in the rest of the day.

My grandma is very good at planning. She uses a bowl to measure the amount of rice for each meal. After measuring, she grabs a handful and puts it in a small jar for emergencies.The rice in the small pot gradually increased, so grandma bought two chicks and fed them a little rice once in a while, hoping to finally get eggs. "Are you sure they are hens?" "Not wrong." The two chicks grew up slowly and were covered in white. I put them on the clothesline and shook them vigorously. I hope they Can spread its wings and fly high.However, they leaned forward and back together, screaming in surprise and deceit, and flew down to the ground with a "thud" when they saw an opportunity, in a state of shock for a long time.Grandma said: "That's not a pigeon, it's two chickens that are getting bigger and bigger, and they are both females. Grandma said that I have to build a nest for them. My father and I went to dig loess under the city wall, built city bricks, and prepared to build chickens." Nests. Beside the city wall, there was an endless stream of people digging soil and building bricks. When they asked, they all wanted to build chicken coops, so they exchanged experiences with each other. The city walls became more dilapidated and turned into chicken coops. In some places, the city bricks It has been lit up, and there is only a loess mound left. When the wind blows, the sky is full of yellow dust. In the yellow dust, the nine-story building still stands majestically not far away, shining like a sunset. The people digging the soil are tired and straighten their waists. , Wipe off the sweat, that piece of brilliance will surely come into view, and you can’t hide it.

Unexpectedly, on the other side of the nine-story building, under the cover of its splendor and majesty, I saw the bell tower of the church again, lonely and dim.At the foot of it is a courtyard, in which there are several rows of houses, where many families live in a crowded place.But one row is different, the door is locked, and the windows are hung with white gauze curtains, neat and quiet. One of my elementary school classmates lived in that yard, and he took me to his house to play, and I saw the bell tower again by chance.Surely it's the one I saw back then?If there's only one there ever, that's it.I can't say for certain.The surrounding scenery has changed drastically, the clothes hanging to dry are criss-crossed, the fronts of every house are smoky, and honeycomb and Chinese cabbage are all arranged on the window sills.The novel "Spring and Autumn in a Small Town" is being played on the radio.Dong Xingji's deep and melancholy voice was so characteristic that I had forgotten what the novel was about, but I remembered a small town in misty mist and misty weather, and the depressed residents in the city.

I don't know what it is about that row of distinctive houses, but its cleanliness and tranquility attract me.My classmate said: "Don't go, my father and my mother won't let me go." But I still approached it, walked up the steps tremblingly, and looked in through the gap in the curtains tremblingly.It looks like a conference room inside, with a long table, two rows of high-backed chairs, and a large picture frame on the front wall. A slanting sun is just projected on it. In the picture frame is a woman holding a baby.Nothing more. "What are you doing here?" "I don't know. My dad and mom never let me ask."

"Well, I see." But I know.The woman in the frame is extremely peaceful, and there seems to be a ray of sadness in her benevolent eyes.No, I didn't know who she was at that time, but her eyes, her posture, her calmness, plus the surrounding white gauze curtains and the faint sunset, once again shocked the ignorance in my heart, Although not as strong as the first time, but there is the joy of reunion after a long absence.I seem to hear the bell, the singing, the soft sound of feet stepping on the fallen leaves, and the rustling sound of the wind passing through the vast expanse of the forest... "What do you know?" "I do not know either." "Then you say you know?" "I just know it. If you don't believe it, pull it down." "Memory and Impression 1" (parts 1-9) completed on March 15, 2001