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Chapter 88 Cat Town (9)

Collected Works of Lao She 老舍 3838Words 2018-03-20
The misty forest is very beautiful: the leaves have grown bigger than the palm of your hand, thick, dark green, with a circle of golden red borders on the edge of the leaves; the fattest leaves have some mottled spots, like a forest of big flower.Sunlight penetrates through the silver-gray sky, making the colors of these flowers and leaves deeper and more beautiful, without dazzling luster, but making people love to look at them more and more, and feel more comfortable in their hearts the more they look at them, just like looking at an old picture. The color of the picture is still very bright, but the layer of floating light on the paper has been subtracted by the age.

Outside the Milin, there are many, many visitors standing all day long.No, not for visiting, because they all closed their eyes; no matter how far their noses were stretched out, they could smell the strong smell of leaves; their mouths were open, and the shortest one was two feet long.When there is a little wind, we don't turn around at all, we just use our necks to chase the wind, so as to absorb the fragrance contained in the wind, like some snails after the rain are moving their necks lightly.Occasionally, a big ripe leaf falls, and although everyone closes their eyes, they seem to be able to smell the sound with their noses—the sound of a leaf falling to the ground—immediately they all open their eyes, and their lips twitch together; Before coming to pick up that piece of treasure, they always rushed to pick it up like a ball of hair; there was a sigh like a ghost from all around!

Da Xie dispatched 500 soldiers to protect the Milin Forest, but all the soldiers were stationed two miles away, because if they got close to the Milin Forest, they would be the first to rob.However, they must be dispatched. The customs of the cat country regard harvesting lost leaves as the most important thing, and soldiers must be dispatched to protect them. Everyone knows that soldiers do not protect anything for anyone, but they are not responsible for protection. The protection of the responsibility is to publicly insult the soldiers. Daxie is a beautiful person, so he naturally doesn't want to be criticized by others, so it is a matter of course to transfer troops, but they are placed two miles away to avoid chaos.The wind was a little bit stronger, and it was blowing toward the barracks, Da Xie immediately ordered him to retreat for half a mile or a mile, lest the soldiers come along with the wind and rob them all.The reason why the soldiers obeyed his orders was because I was there; without me, the soldiers would have mutinied long ago. "A foreigner coughs and frightens the five hundred soldiers of the cat country" is a proverb.

Besides the five hundred soldiers, it was Daxie's twenty generals who really protected Milin.These twenty are all loyal and reliable people who understand righteousness; but sometimes when they are happy, they may tie up the big scorpion and rob Milin.After all, it was because I was there that they didn't dare to be happy, so they could remain loyal and reliable. Scorpion is really busy: watch the generals, not to steal a lost leaf; watch the wind direction, so that they can order the troops to retreat; watch the visitors outside the forest, so as not to lose a half leaf.He has already eaten thirty lost leaves in one go.It is said that if you eat forty leaves at once, you can stay awake for three days, but you will be mournful on the fourth day.If you eat too little leaves, you will be energetic and unwilling to do things; if you eat too much, you will be able to do things but will die soon.The big scorpion can't help but eat more lost leaves, knowing that he will die, but he can't eat less because he is afraid of death; although he is extremely afraid of death, poor big scorpion!

My dinner is reduced.Eat less at night, so I can be alert at night, and the scorpion treats me like a cat person.Milin only relies on me for protection, so I have to stay alert at night, so I have to eat less dinner, and those with the highest merit will be rewarded, this is again the logic of cat people.I dropped my meal and my dick, and the next day my meal was full again, and I now know how to deal with cat people, although I feel very uneasy. It was a light wind for the day, the first time in my experience.When I first arrived here, there was no wind at all; when the leaves turned red, there was only a slight gust of wind occasionally; this was the first time that it continued to blow for a whole day.The fan leaves sway gently with various colors, which is very beautiful.Big Scorpion and his generals rushed to build a large wooden frame in the center of the Milin forest overnight, at least four or five feet high.This was originally intended for me.This small wind is the famous misty wind in the cat country. Once the misty wind arrives, the weather will change.There are only two solar terms in Cat Country, and the first half of the year is a quiet season with no wind.The second half of the year is the moving season, with wind and rain.

In the morning I heard a noise in my dream, just outside my hut.Climb out and see, the big scorpion is in front.Twenty masters will line up behind.The scorpion had an eagle's tail feather stuck in its ear, and held a long wooden stick in its hand.The twenty masters all held something in their hands, which seemed to be musical instruments.Seeing me come out, he poked the wooden stick on the ground, and the twenty masters raised their instruments together.The stick shook in the air, and the instrument rang.Some play, some play, twenty instruments give off different sounds, and no one has a tendency to harmonize. When I came out, I took a breath; after I took a breath, I blew it. I leaned back and forth a few times, but I refused to take a breath until I was almost suffocated. Two of them fell to the ground, but they still blew.The music of Maoguo pays attention to the long and loud sound.The beating tools are all wooden objects like clappers, and they are beaten vigorously without beat or pause.The sharper the sound of blowing, the tighter the sound of beating, as if dying with blowing and beating is the most joyful and glorious thing.After blowing the tee, the big scorpion raised his stick, and the music stopped.Twenty masters will all squat on the ground panting.The big scorpion plucked the feathers from his ears, walked towards me respectfully and said, "The time has come, please come on stage and watch over the gods and collect the leaves." I seemed to be hypnotized by the music, or more correctly He said that he was stunned, and wanted to laugh in his heart, but he couldn't help but followed the big scorpion.He put his feathers in my ears and led the way, I followed him, and the twenty musicians followed me.When they reached the high shelf in the center of Milin, Big Scorpion climbed up, prayed to the sky for a while, and the music below started playing again.He climbed down and asked me to go up.I seemed to have forgotten that I was an adult, and I was fascinated by a toy like a playful child, and climbed up like a little monkey.Daxie saw that I had reached the highest point, and with a wave of the wooden stick, the twenty musicians scattered all around, and stood at the edge of the forest at a considerable distance, facing the tree.The scorpion ran away.For a long time, he brought a lot of soldiers.Each of them held a large stick and had a bird feather stuck in their ear.Walking outside the forest, the brigade stopped, and the big scorpion pointed at the high shelf, and the soldiers raised their sticks, probably as a salute to me.Afterwards, I realized that I was originally the representative of the Great God on the elevated shelf, to protect the lost leaves for the big scorpion—he must be the noble person favored by the Great God. One piece, Big Scorpion told them, and I would hit them with a grenade.Zhang Grenade is that "art".The twenty musicians turned out to be the monitors. Someone cheated, so they played and played the instruments. When Da Xie heard the music, he asked me to release a grenade.

After worshiping the gods, Daxie ordered the soldiers to disperse in groups of two, one person went up the tree to pick them, and the other waited below to sort out the plucked ones.No one picked the trees closest to me, because the big scorpion told them: These trees are too close to the representative of the great god. Once the representative's nose blows out, they will collapse on the ground and cannot get up again for the rest of their lives. The scorpion will pick it by itself.The cat soldiers seemed to be hypnotized by the big scorpion, and they all split up to work.The big scorpion probably ate another thirty pieces of high-quality variegated leaves with variegated leaves in one go, patrolling back and forth like a shuttle, always ready to beat the soldiers on the heads with wooden sticks.It is said that every time the lost leaves are harvested, the landlord must beat one or two cat soldiers to death; if the dead cat soldiers are buried under the tree, the harvest will be abundant in the coming year.Sometimes, the landlord did not prepare foreigners to be the representatives of the Great God, so the soldiers buried the landlord under the tree, robbed the leaves, and planed the tree to make weapons—that is, wooden sticks; cats used this weapon. Humans regard it as the most powerful army.

I fisted myself on the frame like a big parrot, I couldn't help laughing, what am I doing?But I don't want to destroy the customs of the cat country. I come to see everything about them. I have to play on the occasion and join their group, no matter how ridiculous their behavior is.Fortunately, there is a little wind, so it won't be very hot. Besides, I asked Daxie to send me a straw cover made by myself to serve as a straw hat temporarily, so that I won't be fainted by the sun. There is no difference between cat soldiers and ordinary cat people, if they don't have the wooden stick and the bird feathers on their ears.These sticks and bird feathers would naturally make them superior to ordinary people, but when they were hypnotized by the scorpion, they probably suffered a little more than ordinary people.Silkworms eat mulberry leaves after sleeping. After a short time, I can already see the trunk of the tree that was originally covered by dense leaves.After another moment, the cat soldiers were all on the top of the tree.Those who were closer to me picked the leaves with one hand and covered their eyes with the other, probably because they were afraid of seeing me and doing them harm.

It turns out that cat people are not incapable of doing things. I thought to myself, if there is a good leader who forbids eating lost leaves, this group of people can also be very useful.If I drive the big scorpion away and become the landlord and general for him... But this is just a fantasy, I dare not decide anything, I don't know the cat people well after all.As I was thinking about this, I saw (because the leaves were thin and I could see clearly below) the big scorpion's stick was aimed at the head of a cat soldier.I know that even if I jump down, I won't get hurt, and it's too late to stop his stick; but I have to jump down, in my eyes, the big scorpion is worse than that group of soldiers, even if it's too late to save that soldier, I have to give the big scorpion A great one.I climbed to a height of more than two feet above the ground and jumped down.Running over, the soldier was already lying on the ground, and the big scorpion was giving an order to bury him underground.A person who does not deeply understand the psychology of the people around him is often harmful to others out of good intentions.When I jumped, the cat soldiers thought I was coming down to release a grenade. I jumped on the ground, only to hear a lot of soldiers fall from the tree in all directions, probably not a few of them were injured, because there were miserable screams all around. with.I didn't care to look at them, so I grabbed the big scorpion with one hand.As for him, he also thought that I came to help him because I watched him punish the cat soldiers, because I obeyed him everywhere this morning, so he naturally thought that I was completely his minion.I caught him, and he was puzzled, probably he didn't think it was wrong to kill the cat soldiers at all.I asked Daxie, "Why did you beat someone to death?"

"Because that soldier ate a leaf stalk." "It's enough to eat a leaf stalk..." I didn't continue; I forgot that I was among the cat people, so what's the use of arguing with the cat people!I pointed to the soldiers around me and said, "Tie him up." Everyone, you looked at me and I looked at you, as if you didn't understand what I meant. "Tie up the big scorpion!" I said more clearly.Still no one came forward.My heart is cold.If I really lead such a group of soldiers, I will probably never make them understand me.They didn't dare to go forward, not out of love for the big scorpion, but because they didn't understand my intention at all—revenge for that dead soldier is extremely difficult in their hearts.This puts me in a difficult situation: if I release the big scorpion, I will definitely be despised by him; if I kill him, there will be many places for me to use him in the future; no matter how bad he is, for me on Mars—at least It's the part of the cat kingdom—he must be more useful than this group of soldiers.I pretended to be calm and asked Big Scorpion: "Are you willing to tie me to a tree and watch the soldiers snatch away all the leaves? Or are you willing to accept the punishment?"

When the soldiers heard me tell them to rob them, they immediately got up all their spirits, and there was someone to do it right away. I grabbed the big scorpion with one hand and kicked two of them over with one kick.Everyone stopped moving again.Daxie's eyes were closed into a straight line, I know how much he hates me: the representative of the Great God he invited punished him in front of the soldiers, it was extremely embarrassing, naturally he would never have thought of it because of an accident It was his fault that he killed someone because of the knotty leaves and stems.But he decided not to take on me and he admitted the penalty.I asked him what reward the soldiers got for collecting fan leaves for him.He said, give each person two small fan leaves.At this time, the ears of the surrounding soldiers stood up on their heads, probably guessing that I will ask Daxie to give them more fans.I asked him to give them a meal after collecting the leaves, like the dinner I eat every day.The soldiers' ears fell down, but a little sound came out of their throats, as if they were choking on food, and they were not satisfied with my method.For the soldier who died, I asked Daxie to compensate his family with a hundred national souls.Big Scorpion also agreed.But I asked for a long time, who knows where his family members are?No one said anything.For things that are beneficial to others, even if it is to say a word, cat people are not in the habit of helping.I didn't know this until I lived in the cat country for several months.Daxie's 100 national souls were thus saved.
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