Chapter 6 Novella Course-3

"I don't need a special place. I can sleep anywhere. I slept in the cowshed once. On the floor of the living room, or in the bathroom." He said hastily. "Then how can it be?" The old man said with a serious face, "We have to work hard when you are here, and we can't rest. Do you want to exhaust us to death? Don't push your burdens on us, everyone has their own obligation." "Someone tried to break in while I was at home." "It's not a bad thing. We can't wait for such a thing! Aren't you the uninvited guest we broke into? Let me tell you, it's Miss Li's opinion to let you go home and sleep."

The two old men went back to scratching their fleas.Their attitude towards Pipzhun suddenly changed. They seemed to feel that he was in the way, so they angrily moved their chairs to another corner of the living room, away from Pipzhun, and continued their work. Pip would watch sadly as they clawed at the air for a while, having nothing to do but leaf through the magazine.He has already read the urban anecdotes in that magazine by heart, and they don't interest him at all.Just when he was about to lose his mind while reading, a paragraph of text entitled "Old Zhang's Telescope" caught his attention unexpectedly.The text reads like this: "Upstairs in the soy sauce shop on West Fourth Street in this city, there lived a strange man who had a hobby of collecting women's underwear. Every morning, many bamboo poles protruded from the upstairs window, and there were various kinds of underwear. The underpants are waving in the wind like triangle bunting..." Commodore Pip read and reread this passage, fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.He had flipped through this magazine many times before, and read all the articles on it, but somehow he never paid attention to this text.He searched between the lines again to see if there was some hint about himself, but fortunately there was none.He thought of Lao Zeng, and the strange passion between himself and Miss Li.That kind of passion was like a farce, and he didn't understand it at the time, but when he thought about it now, he felt very embarrassed. "Lao Zhang's Telescope" went on to write:

"...The soy sauce shop downstairs is a time-honored shop. The owner and customers are very old-fashioned and orthodox people. Whenever the strange guest comes downstairs, people will lower their eyelids and fall into a kind of reverie until the footsteps of Dongdong The sound disappeared, and then he raised his eyes numbly. However, on a frosty morning, two policemen brought up the strange man's body. They muttered something beside the shopkeeper, who nodded solemnly, and the policeman again The corpse was carried away. The few customers in the store were bewildered and hurried home with soy sauce, and the owner closed the store."

Pip couldn't help but read out the concluding sentence of "the shopkeeper closed the shop with it", and then he was surprised again, and looked at the two old people quickly. "We are listening," said the old woman, "and this is a very good text." "I didn't read it aloud, what did you hear?" "What does it matter if you read it or not? We know about it because it concerns our niece." The article "Old Zhang's Telescope" made Pip Zhun more and more uneasy. He held the magazine as if he were holding a piece of coal, but he was afraid that the two old men would find out.They obviously knew his mood, smiled knowingly, nodded, casually said the name "Old Zeng", and called him a magician.In the end, they talked happily, stopped catching fleas, and went into the bedroom together. When they came out, one of them held a pair of light green women's underwear and told Pip Zhun that it was brought home by Miss Li as a souvenir. They didn't expect their niece. They were proud to be the figures in the telescope, and they had expected their niece to do something great.When they said this, they didn't mention Pipzhun a word, maybe Miss Li didn't tell them, maybe they didn't even know that Pipzhun had been to West Fourth Street that night.Thinking of this, Pip felt a little relieved.There was one more problem that disturbed Pip's mind: the magazine had long been under his bed, and the events described in it seemed to have happened since he had gone to West Fourth Street the day before yesterday.According to the magazine, Lao Zeng was finished after he left there, so it seems that the articles in this magazine foresaw the future, which is too strange.

"Pipzhun's complexion is not very good. Is it anemia? I'm going to bring you a bowl of pork liver soup." The old woman said with concern, and then went into the kitchen. "What do you think of the strange man mentioned in the article?" Pip asked Li's father. "Stranger?" The old man was taken aback, "We didn't pay attention to this, what do you think?" "He lives upstairs from the soy sauce shop, and Miss Li is looking for him! I think the person written on it is Lao Zeng in our building." Pipzhun said. "Old Zeng? The more you talk, the more outrageous you are. How could you do this? If you didn't talk nonsense like this, we would have always regarded that strange man as yourself. Although we haven't mentioned you much, you can't feel resentful, just Make it up, you take your own business too seriously."

"What about the dead body?" "Corpse? What's the matter? We read it every day, and it's commonplace. Don't take this kind of thing too seriously. You read the article here, and while you read, you worry about some side issues, but what we are interested in You are impatient to think about it." Miss Li's mother came out with pork liver soup.Pip must have drank a few sips, and he drank something slippery and slippery. He felt very uncomfortable, and he wanted to ask but was afraid to ask. The two old men sat down far away from him, busy to and fro on their own, seeming to have forgotten him.Just now the old man said that they were interested in something completely different from his own. Pip knew it himself, and he wanted to have the same interest as the family, but he couldn't do it. His will was too weak, and he always One click to the east, one click to the west, there is no certainty.Although now he is discussing life at Li girl's house, he always feels that he is an outsider, he speaks and does things in a different way, he has no clear purpose, and he can't go straight to the point, he can only muddle through.This is not to say that he just wants to be separated from Miss Li's family, he is also willing to muddle along like this, he is just afraid of going back to the house to sleep alone, but there is no room for negotiation on this matter, so he has no choice but to bite the bullet and do what they say , because everything is messed up.Unexpectedly, in just a few days, he could not do without Miss Li and her parents, even though the old people made him puzzled and disgusted him, and made him drink slippery pork liver soup, But in his heart, he regarded them as his relatives.

That night, Pipzhun insisted on sleeping at Miss Li's house again. He kept begging and finally knelt down, but Miss Li's parents refused.Pip Zhun returns to his house alone, and is frightened out of his wits by a big mouse as soon as he enters the door.Later, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he was, so he rolled up his bed and ran to the third floor, but the door of Miss Li's house was tightly closed, no matter how hard he knocked, she would not open the door. It was late at night, so he had no choice but to spread the mattress on the ground at the door and sleep with his clothes on.Although the aisle was so dark that you couldn't see your fingers, there was a ray of warm light coming from the crack in the door of Miss Li's house. Miss Li's parents didn't turn off the lights, and he even heard the footsteps of the old people walking back and forth in the house.Pipzhun woke up from the cold many times that night, and every time he woke up, he saw the faint light shining through the crack of the door and heard the footsteps of the sleepless old people, so he felt relieved.There was even something sweet about the smile on his face when he fell asleep.

For several days, Pip Zhun guarded the two old men at Miss Li's house to catch fleas during the day, and slept at the door at night. During this period, he went to the old Wang's house to change a magazine, which was originally Pip Zhun's too.Lao Wang told him that all his things were stored in his museum, and maybe one day, he would lead him to visit, but it was not yet time. "There are many advantages to storing things with me." Old Wang said, "You have already tasted the sweetness. These things are enough for you to enjoy for a lifetime." He opened his mouth and said nothing.

There was another article in this magazine that Pip hadn't noticed before, maybe noticed but didn't understand.This article talked about the workload of the ambulance, called its driving on the street "invincible", and gave an irrelevant example: In a ×× teahouse, a group of elderly people in their seventies were drinking tea, The ambulance sirens blared from far to near, and the expressions on the faces of the old people froze.The water in the teacups had been drained, and there was a thick layer of tea leaves at the bottom of each cup. The proprietress filled the teacups one by one, and then began to listen.The car stopped at the door, the proprietress lost her mind, and the aluminum teapot fell to the ground, splashing boiling water all over the floor.The door of the car was opened, and besides the driver and the doctor, there was a person lying in the car, his whole body was wrapped in plaster bandages, and his eyes were constantly moving.The proprietress, who went out to watch, returned to the house and found that the old people had slipped away, and the table was messed up.After another two seconds, the alarm sounded again and the car drove away.But are the old people really gone?In a corner under the counter, a man was squatting on the ground and drinking tea slowly. "Did you hear that?" asked the proprietress.

"I'm sleeping," he replied. Brigadier Pip read this article to the two old men, and although his tone was very excited, the two old men did not pay much attention to it, and not only did not pay attention to it, but interrupted his reading and asked some irrelevant questions.For example, is he full after eating two steamed buns in the morning? After a few sentences, he stopped to answer their questions.Instead, they nodded, looking satisfied. Finally finished reading the article, the girl's father walked away, stood on a chair and looked down the window, waving and shouting constantly, looking very excited.At this moment the old woman went into the bedroom, and came out with a small bag wrapped in a handkerchief, which she handed to Pip, who begged him to throw it out of the window.Pip obliged.Miss Li's father jumped off the chair, with a painful expression on his face, and said:

"We're now just across the river from her." "Who?" Pip asked. "Who else! Think about it, now you live here, you can say that you are with us day and night. How can she come back? This is a matter of common sense. We used to say that she left, which means the same thing , now you know? She really ran away, she passed under here just now, I feel like I don't recognize her, and you are playing that hydrangea-throwing trick with her, right?" "My mother asked me to throw this hydrangea down. May I ask if she picked it up?" "Very well, this is in line with your personality. Don't worry about throwing it away. It doesn't matter if you pick it up or not. There will be many opportunities like this in the future. Ah, her appearance has changed so much that I can hardly recognize her." She's gone, maybe one day, I really won't recognize her!" Later, the two old men continued to catch fleas as if nothing had happened. Pip couldn't sit still anymore, he paced up and down the room, thinking about many things.He recalled that just yesterday, when he put his bedding in the kitchen, he was reprimanded by the girl's mother.She said the bedding "smells like sweat" and it made her sick.She scolded, and Pip would have to hang the bedclothes from the bathroom ceiling, and though the bathroom was very damp, he had to make do with it.While hanging the bedding in the bathroom, he remembered the unforgettable night he spent here with Miss Li, the feeling of him holding her hand, and the subtle conversation between them.Recalling all this now, Pip was full of longing to see the girl.He struggled in his heart for a while, and finally asked the old people: next time Miss Li passes by the door, please tell him that he wants to meet her. "You're crazy." The two old men said at the same time, and their hands stopped picking at the fleas. "One night, I stood hand in hand with her in this bathroom..." His eyes were full of fascination. "But you have taken her place now, you have moved all the bedding in, and you want her back, isn't it too overbearing? If you say that again, I will cut off your feet, even though you are mine I don't feel sorry for my son-in-law either." Li's father said. While persuading her husband, the girl's mother accused Pip Zhun: "That's right. You have no heart. We haven't officially recognized you as a son-in-law. How can you become so arrogant? It's ridiculous. Do you think we are not romantic enough? Or we are too old, Can't represent Miss Li? Facts will tell you the answer, now we have to work." They ignored him all that day and didn't call him at dinner.Pip Zhun had to wait until they had finished before going to the kitchen to have a cold meal, wondering and angry. When he was sleeping at the door at night, he was woken up by Lao Wang.Old Wang leaned into his ear and whispered to him: Miss Li and Lao Zeng came to visit in the middle of the night, and now they are waiting for Pip Zhun at his home.Pip got up quickly and followed Lao Wang upstairs. In that small room, Lao Zeng stood against the wall with his back to them, wrapped in a raincoat and wearing a pair of deep-tube rubber shoes on his feet, so they couldn't see his face.Pip moved forward to shake hands with Old Tsang, and just as he touched his raincoat, he was suddenly overwhelmed by an eerie feeling, because the man wrapped in the cold raincoat was motionless, too motionless.He retracted his hand and asked tremblingly: "Where is Miss Li?" Lao Wang replied: "She is visiting my museum, and you won't see her today. She said that she will conduct research on the fragrant wood you threw away. You see, this is the flower umbrella she used just now, and it is outside It's raining heavily." Pip must have seen the flowered cloth umbrella in the corner of the room, it was Miss Li's umbrella, and there was a pool of rainwater dripping under the umbrella.He turned his gaze to Lao Zeng again, remembering the sentence "the shop owner closed the shop door afterward", and his whole body trembled violently.He hesitated and couldn't make up his mind about one thing: Should he greet Lao Zeng?Could it be his neighbor Lao Zeng who was wrapped in a raincoat?He wanted to ask Lao Wang, but Lao Wang had already lay down on the bamboo armchair, and was reading a book by the dim light, concentrating on it, as if there was no one in the room.Pipzhun looked at the ground again. The floor of the whole house was wet. It turned out that Lao Zeng's raincoat and the flower umbrella were dripping water constantly.Pip must have given up the idea of ​​asking Pharaoh, and decided to find out for himself.He followed Lao Wang's example and lay down on another bamboo armchair, and took out a magazine to read.It turns out that the sentence at the end of the article "Old Zhang's Telescope" is not "The shopkeeper closed the shop door afterward", but there is another short paragraph, moved to the upper left corner of the next page, which mentions a kind of illusion .This discovery surprised him, and he kept raising his head to look at the raincoat and rubber shoes in front of him, but the person inside the raincoat remained motionless.Could this be an illusion?Look at Lao Wang again, he has fallen asleep, and the book fell on the ground.Commodore Pip picked up the book and read it. The title was "How to Fix a Tractor".The book is full of drawings of various parts.Pip must have tried to memorize the last sentence in "Old Chang's Spyglass", it was a very delicate sentence, he remembered it again and again, he couldn't remember it, but he always remembered "The owner closed the shop with it door" sentence.Before this sentence, he also remembered a strange sentence, that is, "a drop of water contains the whole world". Pharaoh slept soundly, and Pip must have heard his heart beating violently.Being locked up in a small, wet room with an unknown object wrapped in a raincoat gave Pip a lot of horrible associations.Just at this moment, the electric light turned off by itself again, and it was so dark that you could hardly see your fingers.With a strange cry, Pip ran out. After going down two floors, he saw Old Wang coming out of a room on the fourth floor, blocking his way. "You? Why are you here?" Pip said stammeringly. "Hey!" Pharaoh smiled lightly, "Don't be surprised, there are a lot of secret passages in this building. Did what happened just now scare you? I didn't expect Miss Li to arrange it like this. She asked me to call you, Zhi Zhan I have no idea what kind of plans I have, and I am not much better than you. This is your magazine, and I replaced it for you , You lost everything in a hurry. This house used to belong to Lao Zeng, so don’t stretch your neck to peek, his family is sleeping.” "It turns out that the two of you have a secret connection!" "You ran away like this, Miss Li is angry over there! You are too irresponsible, and your nature is hard to change. To be honest, I was not very satisfied with this way of meeting, but it was arranged by Miss Li Next, what can you do? I don't like that guy making my house wet and messy, but Miss Li likes this, so I have nothing to say." "Have I no hope of seeing her?" "You haven't given up yet? She is studying the fragrant wood now, how can you interrupt her? You must obey her arrangement. Now Lao Zeng has also gone to the museum, let's go home and wait for him ." Pip must have been pulled into the room on the fourth floor by the old king, and led by him in the dark, as if walking up a narrow passage step by step.In his feeling, he walked for a long time, almost as high as a dozen floors.At last Wang opened a door, went in and turned on the light, and Pip found himself in Wang's little room.The person in the raincoat has disappeared, the ground is still full of rain, and the flower umbrella is still placed in the corner of the house. "Miss Li and I really had a good time, don't you believe it?" Pip said in a trance, "Not long ago, we stood hand in hand in the bathroom all night and talked about some sweet words. I also feel puzzled now: I am a relatively selfish person who is used to thinking wildly alone every night, and I am not too young, how could I do such a romantic thing. I always think about this now, and I am distracted no matter what I do. This time you ask I waited for her, even though you used to meet me in such a strange way, which made me very scared, and your bamboo chair hurt my back, and I knew I couldn't see her, but I still waited here. Tell me, what happened to me?" "How dare you belittle my bamboo armchair?" Lao Wang was angry, "You playboy, how can you appreciate the benefits of my bamboo armchair? You don't like anything in my house, to be honest , if it wasn't for Miss Li's temporary interest in you, I wouldn't let you come to my house! You treat people too casually, recklessly and snobbishly, Miss Li's parents let you read magazines, and if you don't read clearly, you will mess up Read it for a while, hum. Could it be that you, lying here, facing this familiar flower umbrella, won’t you have some reverie? Is your soul so dry? You lie still, let me give it to you Tell me about my legendary career, and as you listen, you will feel the night slipping away from you." Lao Wang talks about his legendary life: "I moved in when this building was first built. At that time, there was only my family in the whole building. You know, I am a jobless person, that is to say, I don't have a formal job. I rely on my parents for a little Legacy lives, day by day. When I first moved into this building, the loneliness almost overwhelmed me. The day was fine, and the family members came and went in the room, making noises; the most uncomfortable thing was In the middle of the night, when you wake up and hear the helicopters going around above your head, and that noise keeps you from falling back to sleep. In those early days, I always kept my eyes open and pictured the structure of the building in my head , the shape of the room, the stairs and passages, and the location of the bathroom and kitchen, etc. I soon got tired of this game, because my brain itself became a building in this way, as soon as I entered it, The door and windows opened automatically, rats were running in the empty room, foam was sprayed from the fire canister stored by the stairway, and the water pipes were buzzing non-stop. And in the morning, when I got up, my wife It is often said that I have a hideous face. I am determined to live in a different way. "I woke up very early that day. I got out of bed lightly, got dressed, and slipped out the door to stand on the stairway. Suddenly, a miracle appeared before my eyes. I recognized by the hazy moonlight that in the room of my house Next to the door, there was another small door, which was half-opened and half-closed, and it was dark inside. I walked in, and a ray of moonlight from outside the door revealed a narrow path extending downward under my feet. Stairs (you have already seen them), I felt the handrails of the stairs and went down, turned one turn after another, walked for a long time, and found that I came to an ordinary living room, I looked back, the small door behind me It was closed so that not even a trace of the door could be seen. In the living room of this flat, boiling water boiled over the fireplace, and in the steam sat three persons, an elderly couple and a very young girl of about ten Four or five years old, three kittens surrounded a plate, licking and eating milk. I stood by the wall for a long time, the girl finally found me, she giggled, not surprised, she turned and told the elderly couple , Said that the person they were waiting for had arrived, and then buried his head to play with the cats. "The man on the seventh floor, come and sit down," said the old man. "Who are you, please? "Who am I? A resident on the third floor!" he said reproachfully. "There is no one in this building except me! "Yes, so it was. Now you have found us, have you not? Our girl is only fifteen years old now, but she will make a wonderful woman. Are you confident of that?" "Me? Maybe, maybe not, I don't know. "That's good. The old man bowed his head and ignored me. "The little girl and the old woman paid no attention to me. "I was surprised and excited. I stood there for a long time, until the little girl came to me and said: Why don't you leave? I left unhappily. When I walked out the door, I found myself standing on the stairs on the third floor. "This is how I got acquainted with Miss Li's family. Later they told me that they had lived in this building long before me. I was very surprised. Why have I never seen them? They He said, there are some things that you can see without wanting to see them. Later, I used the same method to find Lao Zeng’s family living on the fourth floor. When I entered, Lao Zeng was collecting his colorful things into the A sack, he lied to me that those things were textiles, and he was in the sales business. Lao Zeng was a very passionate person. His wife said that almost everyone who saw him was fascinated by him. This kind of His nature has harmed him. He hangs out with women all day long, and he can't do any big things. "After I got acquainted with these two families in a special way, some people moved in one after another. They are all ordinary people, including you. I watched you move in, but I didn't Desire to make your acquaintance at once, I let things happen naturally, and you certainly remember how I made your acquaintance. And those two families, I have been their protector since I made my acquaintance. You You know, people like them have a little bit of a trance, and they talk and act as if they are flying in the sky, so they are easy to be hurt by insidious villains. My job is to supervise everyone who tries to get close to them, and that person To induce him to become conscious of his new situation. I've been doing this job for years, dealing with all kinds of people whose files are in my museum, My museum is in this building, but it's invisible, just like those secret passages. Only three people can enter it, me, Lao Zeng and Miss Li. You wouldn't know it, when we checked those files, looked through What secret joy boiled in our hearts, what kind of pride! However, since you came, Miss Li has gone away. This is of course a sad loss for me, but it also contains pride Feeling: Because the little girl has grown into a wonderful woman at last. So are his parents, they hate you and appreciate you. You probably remember what they said to you: Although they lost a daughter, they gained A real son who doesn't live up to expectations. Is that what they say? Now you will never see Miss Li again because you have already met her and have a special relationship with her. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What? I have been puzzled by this question for a long time, and the parents of Miss Li are the same. Every night, I stick my head out of the window, look up at the starry sky, and see that the thin clouds seem to hide something. I can't find the answer to this question. I tell You, in this building, you are the only person who met Miss Li and had that special relationship with her. You should be cautious about your future, because you are involved in many relationships. Do you want to Think, you are over 50 years old this year, and your head is starting to go bald. Suddenly you have such good luck-a young girl has taken a fancy to you. This kind of luck will never happen again in your life. , don't mess around. "Now let's talk about me again. Since Miss Li and you got together, I have devoted a lot of effort to you. Do you remember that one night in the middle of the night, you witnessed a murder in your room? Then It was a good show me and the old one put on in your room, we threw a boot through the window and you took it for a person. You're a coward, but you're honest. "Soon I set up these two bamboo armchairs in my home. I am waiting for your arrival. I know that your entanglement has made Miss Li make up her mind, so I reserved this armchair specially for you. You just now I was very impatient and irritable when I came here, but now I'm much better. I'll let you in on a secret: these cushions are not filled with sand, but with some bones. You can tell by touching them. "One heavy rainy afternoon, Miss Li came back with a flower umbrella, and she knocked on my door. The poor girl was completely soaked, and her eyes were full of sadness. She stared at me for a minute, and then I understood The next day I learned that you were sleeping in front of her house. Since then, I have become a messenger between her and you, and I feel deeply responsible. "Our building has long been full of people. They bring in colorful and cheap furniture by car, and then move in through the gate. They are all irrelevant people. No one knows that there is a secret passage in the building. Really Yes, I have lived here for more than twenty years, and no one has ever even hinted at it, and if I did, they didn't take me in the slightest, thinking that I was spreading another general Rumors. Year after year, there are more and more secret passages, almost filling the entire space. At night, the rooms disappear, and every part of the building is composed of these dark narrow trapezoidal passages. When you walk on the passage, You can hear vague footsteps in the distance. Once you get close to that place, the footsteps disappear again. This matter is a secret between me, Lao Zeng and Miss Li. We have kept this secret for many years. Now you Come on, you know this again. But if you think that you can join our group, you are very wrong. You can only be regarded as a peripheral person in the organization, and you have to ask for my every move. Opinions, so that there will be no trouble. "The day before yesterday I collected another treasure for the museum. It was an old file thrown away by the old man who repaired the lock downstairs. I saw that he had used this file for more than ten years. Isn't that unusual? I took it away. I keep these things with me, and if they come and ask me for them one day, I will return them in their original form. Sadly, this never happened, and they throw them away and don't care anymore. You are the only one who remembers The person you threw away, but I can't return all your things to you now, and you understand why. You threw a piece of fragrant wood, didn't you? It's because you remember this that I I see you differently. I went to your room with Lao Zeng and took all your things and put them in this museum. You will never see them again, except for one thing, and that is those magazines Those magazines are also treasures of the museum, but you have to carry them with you, what should I do? I adopted this method, giving you one copy each time, and changing it when you run out. Facts have proved that this is a very good method. "Where have I already said? Forget it, for now, Miss Li is coming back here to get her umbrella. Now go to her house. You must not let her and Lao Zeng see you. She said She must never let you see her and Lao Zeng together again, you can go." Pip would go back to the third floor and leave home sullenly.Miss Li's mother was killing an old rooster, and blood was splashed all over the kitchen.She yelled for Pip to help, but Pip timidly walked over and grabbed the rooster's feet, and the rooster struggled hard, making his face bloody.The old woman was very angry and called him a "rice bucket". The old man was in a daze in the living room, and Pip walked over and told him in a low voice: "Miss Li is here, and she is with Lao Zeng in Lao Wang's museum." The old man turned his head and looked at him and said, "You are wrong, Lao Wang is lying to you. Our niece will never come here again, don't you understand? I was thinking about your problem just now, and now your night Sleeping at the door at night, bathed in the light from the room, and our two elders paid a heavy price for this. We don’t sleep at night, turn on the lights, and make all kinds of noises on purpose. What is it all for? You know the inside Is it the bitterness of you? You were there trying to find your scented wood, and we lost something. I'll tell you again: my niece won't come because of you." After being talked about by the two of them, Pip must have felt very boring, so he sat down on a small bench with interest, and took out the magazines in his pocket to read.On the cover of the magazine was printed a row of large characters: The Midnight Landers Caused Mysterious Disturbance in the City.There is a photo under the large characters. In the photo, there is a person on the speedboat with a fish head and thick limbs.The following text introduces that this guy with a fish head and human body was seen by many people and took pictures, and this picture is one of them.As soon as the guy landed, he went straight to an all-night soda shop, and there were some customers in the shop, drinking coffee and talking, they were some idle people in the city.As soon as the strange man came in, they stopped talking and hung their heads.The boss poured a glass of iced milk and asked his assistant to bring it to him.The assistant put down the plate and left without looking at him.He sat there for about ten minutes, got up and left without milk or payment.People resumed talking, only the boss was worried. However, the guy with the fish head and human body appeared in another place.It was a game room where people were playing cards. When he entered, only one person looked up at him and sat down again.He stood at the window, no one noticed him anymore, and the owner of the game room lowered the curtains after he left. At the end of the introduction article, it is written that this strange guest has added one mystery after another to the city.He came and went in a hurry, and very few people had noticed his whereabouts, but his unrelated demeanor made people ignore him unintentionally. After reading this, Pip raised his head and saw that the old man sitting across from him was licking the edge of a dagger with his tongue out, his face was very hideous.On the ground lay the rooster that the old woman had killed.He felt something dripping from his forehead, and when he touched it with his hand, it turned out to be chicken blood.Perhaps while he was concentrating on reading the article, they killed the rooster.At this moment, someone started talking in the bathroom, and upon listening carefully, it turned out to be the two women next door to the office, their voices were sharp and harsh, and some vulgar words were mixed in.They mentioned Pipzhun's name, and said he was nothing but a dog, fit only for dog food and kennels.Pip stood up eagerly, wanting to go to the bathroom. "There will be no one there." Miss Li's father said, "Didn't you just read the article about the Midnight Lander? Why haven't you understood yet? Read that sentence again." Bar." Pip must have picked up the article again, his eyes searching between the lines, but finding nothing.As soon as I put down the article, I heard the two women talking in the bathroom again. They deliberately raised their voices so high that they were almost hoarse.Whenever he turned his ears towards the bathroom, he would see the mocking look in Li girl's father's eyes, so he blushed and lowered his head. After about an hour, he coughed and stood up to go to the bathroom to relieve himself.The old man looked at him sarcastically.He walked to the bathroom door and found that the door was bolted from the inside, there was a sound of fighting inside, and some glassware fell to the ground and shattered.He pushed the door hard, but the door didn't budge. "You shouldn't have chosen to use the bathroom at this time," the old man said, holding back a laugh. Pip would have to go back to the drawing room and sit down. "You can read that sentence in the article again to see if it makes sense." Miss Li's father said again. "Which word?" asked Pip June. "Don't you understand yet?" "please tell me." "你不会不明白的。" "我一点也不明白。"他在喉咙里咕噜着，烦躁地将那本杂志翻来翻去的。 离姑娘的母亲开始烫鸡了，她提着一壶开水刚一倒下去，那只鸡就从桶里蹦了出来，满屋子乱跑。老妇人在客厅里追过来赶过去的，脚下一滑，忽然跌倒了。皮普准走过去想搀扶她，却被她狠狠推开，指着鼻子骂了一顿。 "自从你来到这个家，你就处处挡我的路，"老妇人愤愤地说，"这下弄得鸡也杀不成了。你这一事无成的家伙，你不是五十多岁了吗？"她说到这里忽然睁圆了老眼，猛地一扑，逮住了那只垂死挣扎的大公鸡，再次将它塞进盛了开水的桶里，一顿乱搅。 "刚才是谁在浴室里呢？"皮普准问道，"吵得那么凶，现在又一声不响，总不会飞出去了吧？" "你不应该死死地纠缠这种问题，"老妇人说，"难道我们心里就没有烦恼吗？你把我们的侄女逼走了，我们怎样来对待这个问题呢？最终我们容纳了你，还让你睡在门口，为你的事彻夜不眠。我和老头子都是那种知足常乐的类型。可以说，午夜的登陆者那篇文章里有着所有的事情的答案，你一定要找出那句关键的话来，你的生活才会有一个中心。刚才你去了老王家，他给了你这本杂志，实际上这本杂志原来就是你的。我的意思是说这本杂志原来就在你家，你买了它，却并没有拥有它，现在老王亲手将它交给你，你就开始初步拥有原本就是你自己的东西了，所以不要不耐烦。猫身上的跳蚤最近又少起来了，这不是某种希望吗？" 皮普准将手中的文章看了又看，一句一句地读出声来。两位老人瞪着他，表情呆板。不论怎样翻来覆去地读，他心里总是纳闷，总是懵懵懂懂，他渴望有一线光从那字里行间射出来，照亮他那昏暗的大脑。这时那只猫又来了，咬扯着他的裤管，"呜呜"地叫着。皮普准觉得这只黑猫是个最大的谜，谜中之谜。 "泛滥的河水就像妖魔一样翻腾。"他读道，只觉得周身发热，脑袋里"哗哗"乱响。 "停下。"老女人说，"这不就清楚了吗？" 但皮普准心里并不清楚，他又听见那两个女的在浴室里肆无忌惮地闹，他终于按捺不住，冲向浴室，猛地一脚踢开了房门。 浴室里面站着在餐馆里遇见的那两个老头，他们抚着胡须，镇定地看着皮普准。 "你们是谁？" "这还用问吗？你早知道了。"其中一位答道。"我们是这里的常客，和你差不多，我们也是他们家的女婿，几乎和你同时来的。" "我并不认识你们，为什么你们总来纠缠我呢？在办公室也好，在这里也好，你们弄得我不能安生。" "确实是这样，"老头说，"你从来不认识我们，也没有这个必要，否则我们就到树林里去了，你得到香木的那片树林。不过现在，我们没功夫和你讨论，老王在等我们俩呢。" 他们挽着手出了门，皮普准追了出去，看见他们下了楼，摇摇摆摆地进城去了。 "原来你们还招了两个这样的女婿来家里，"皮普准气愤地说，"你们真是贪得无厌!什么人全招了来，好让我们相互牵制。现在我的生活全毁了。" 听了他的这些话，离姑娘的父亲瞪着他问： "是我们招了这两个人来的吗？" "不是你们又是谁呢？" "这两个人对我说，他们是受人之托，特地来帮助你渡过难关的。我还以为你们早就串通一气了呢！你现在不满意他们，把气发到我们身上，真是不识好歹，恩将仇报。喂，假如你对我们不满意，你可以走呀，你现在就回你自己家里去吧。"离姑娘的父亲将他推出门，将门关上了。 皮普准神情恍惚地上楼，眼前晃过熟悉的楼道，楼道里放着撮箕，堆着煤灰和杂物。一些房门紧闭着，一些敞开着，从敞开的房门可以看见里面的客厅，那些客厅里都放着一个煤炉，炉子上的开水在冒着气，蒸气弥漫着，充斥了整个房间。看见这一模一样的住所，皮普准的脑子里忽然冒出杂志上的一句话："登陆者在大街小巷中巡游。"也许这句话便是关键之中的关键？他无法确定，他的脚步变得迟缓沉重。 当他打开自家的房门时，又吃了一惊，因为他新近买的那些用具又被人搬走了，其中有一盏台灯、挂在墙上的一面镜子、还有厨房里的碗筷之类。惟一留下的东西仍是那张钢丝床，床的中央似乎塌下去了一点，床上的被褥像是有人刚刚在上面睡过。皮普准脑子里乱糟糟的，一屁股坐在床上发起呆来。 一会儿就有人来敲门，谨慎地敲了三下，门就被推开了。皮普准连忙站起来。进来的是刚才在浴室里的那两个老头。 "我们知道你回来了，所以才敲门。"其中一个说，"离姑娘派我们来替你守屋的。你家里太脏，我们把那些多余的东西都扔掉了，你看，干干净净的，可说是十分超脱，我们对你的住所现在的风格很满意。" 看见这两个人，皮普准心里无端地升起一股烦恼，他恨不得给他们一人一个耳光。这两个人在他房里推推搡搡的，似乎要干什么，相互谦让着，又似乎有什么无法启齿的话要对他说。 "你们究竟要干什么？"皮普准阴沉地看着他们。 刚才说话的老头漱了漱喉咙，开口道： "你也知道了，我们是离姑娘派来的，与你是同伙，今后我们就住在这里了，这是今天打扫完卫生后我们决定的。你这里只有一张钢丝床，我们俩都比较瘦小，睡了正好。你如果要搬回来，老王答应将他的竹靠椅让一张给你，你今后就可以睡在那上面。至于吃饭，你仍旧可以到离姑娘父母那里去吃。我们三个人住在这里一定会很和睦，我们决不会影响你胡思乱想的。现在我们就去老王家，你去搬竹靠椅，我们还要与他谈一谈。"他俩不由分说地挟持着皮普准往楼下去。 老王正在竹靠椅上睡觉，他们敲了好久的门他才开，表情冷漠地将他们三个让进狭小的房间。两个老头向老王说明来意，老王点了点头，答应了。两个老头又向老王表示要参观他的博物馆，老王竟也答应了。他打开房间侧面的一扇暗门，他们三个便走了进去，然后随手将门带关了。皮普准将耳朵贴到那扇门上头，他又听到了那两个女人吵架的声音，那声音还屡次提到他的名字。皮普准搬了竹靠椅往楼上走，那声音又在后面追击。皮普准将竹靠椅安放在厨房里，他想尽量离那两个老头远一点，因为他们不但多嘴，学女人腔，身上还有一股特殊的臭味，令人作呕。他摆好竹靠椅，就在硬邦邦的垫子上面躺下了。虽然垫子里的砂石硌得背疼，但他分外疲惫，就昏昏沉沉地入睡了。 刚睡一会儿，敲门声又响了，谨慎的三下，随后老头们就进来了。皮普准注意到他们两人当中总是那同一个人在说话，另一个沉默不语。 "你怎么把你的床放在这里？"他说，"这可不行，离姑娘要生气的，你这样一搞，一切都要乱套。"他说着就与另外一个老头一起来搬竹靠椅，搬到他俩睡的房间，与钢丝床并排安放着。"这就对了，"他说，"难道这不是一件好事吗？我是指你与我们同室而眠这件事。人人都有软弱的时候，差不多每个人到了夜里都是偷鸡贼，这没什么大不了的。你不是读过午夜的登陆者这篇文章吗？" 皮普准想起了不久前的那个夜晚，外面寒风刺骨，他在自己的家中第一次听到离姑娘敲门的情景。这是不久前的事，然而对于此刻的他来说，却像隔了一个世纪。他痴痴地想着这件事，眼泪不由得涌出了眼眶，是奇怪的眼泪，完全莫名其妙的。两个老头看着他，他觉得怪不好意思的。 "我们刚才又翻阅了你的档案，"那老头说，"你的历史并非无懈可击。我们三人都是离家的女婿，就这一点来说我们起码是平起平坐的，况且我们对于那只猫的事还比你知道得多。你可能还注意到了，我们可以随便去老王的博物馆，你却不能。为什么你要自命清高呢？不错，我们也不能与离姑娘见面，因为我们也和你一样，做了离家的女婿，可是对于这一点，我们从来不埋怨，而是安于自身的地位。现在你去离姑娘家吃午饭吧，等你吃完回来我们再去吃，我们不能同时出现在他们家，这你已经知道了，因为这我们才躲在浴室里的。在你去离姑娘家之前，我们俩一直睡在他家门外，后来你占了我们的位置，我们才搬到你这里来，这也是离姑娘的旨意。" 他去吃饭时，离姑娘的父母就像没看见他似的。他吃饭便吃饭、念杂志便念杂志，两位老人根本不用正眼看他一下，那只猫也变得分外安静，任凭他们在它身上抓来抓去的，一声不响。皮普准觉得很没趣，又怀疑他们已经不把他当女婿看了。不过要是真不把他当女婿看的话，他们又怎么还让他在家中吃饭、停留呢？这件事成了一个大疑问。他又觉得自己不应该在此地久留，但又没地方可去。闲得无聊，他便一次又一次地走进浴室，查看他和离姑娘呆过的地方，回忆那些细节。在他那衰退的记忆中，似乎只有这一件事是可以回忆的。其他的事，比如说，他怎样出生，怎样长到了五十二岁之类，全都在脑子里成了纠缠不清的乱麻。 有人敲门了，又是那谨慎的三下。离姑娘的母亲便来通知皮普准离开，说因为有客人要来，客人又不愿意看见他。皮普准走到门外，却看见门外空无一人。他糊里糊涂地又到了老王家，老王已经醒来了，正坐在竹靠椅上做眼保健操，足足让皮普准等了十分钟才开口说话： "在你念小学三年级的时候，丢失过一只文具盒，对不对？" "这件事我还记得。" "是我提起这件事你才记起它，要是不提，便没这回事了。文具盒在我的博物馆里，这事你那本杂志上也作了记录，可惜你读它时太不认真，至今也没有找到那一段。你要静下心来细细地读。" "我尽量做到这一点。" "每一件小事都在杂志上有记载，只可惜你读的时候都放过去了。你把自己的历史全部丢掉，但那些杂志却于不知不觉中将它记录了下来，现在你一点也看不懂了。" "也不是完全不懂，比如最近我有种感觉，觉得自己正走进一片空旷的原野。" "这就好。你在这里等一下，我帮你换一本杂志，另外我还要给你看一样东西。"他消失在暗门那边，一会儿又回来了，手里拿着一本杂志和一支被踩扁了的手电。 "你看，这就是我们相识的纪念，"他举起那支烂手电，"当时你是那样的莽撞冲动，你破门而入，闯进了我的家，难道不是吗？" "当时我只想照一照楼梯间。" "只想照一照楼梯！何等的异想天开！就为这个我们才得以相识啊！要不是你搜集了那么多的杂志，又四处宣讲，离姑娘会去你家吗？你当然是无心的，我们可是有心人啊!所有的事都发生得如此突然，宛如在梦中。" 皮普准回想那天晚上的事，觉得开始的时候，每一个细节都是如此的平凡，实在没有什么出奇的地方，那不过是一个老单身汉的日常生活的典型例子，然而一旦老王打开他自己的房门，看见了站在门口的皮普准，皮普准的命运就发生了奇迹般的转折。他也可以设想是另外一个人被老王喊进了屋里，那么他自己到今天仍然是住在八楼的老单身汉，而不是离家的女婿，这种情况完全可能成立。他认识过一些人，那些人也收集五花八门的杂志，也失眠，为什么老王没去找他们呢？老王说他那天晚上闯进他的家只是一件偶然的事，而皮普准的家和他家早就有暗道相通。 "这可是你不曾预料到的吧？"老王说，"我以前没告诉你，这种事怎么好随便告诉人呢？你只要想一想那个晚上的事就明白了。" "哪个晚上呢？" "我给你的这本新杂志上写得有答案。当然这是一本旧杂志，原来是你的。我现在称它为新杂志，因为你的眼光不同了。可惜你还没有懂得午夜的登陆者的深奥含义，不过不要紧，可以慢慢来。你现在就读一读这篇文章吧。" 那是一篇皮普准十分熟悉的文章，是关于养猫的。老王指着中间的一段，让皮普准大声朗读。 "……一连三个小时，黑猫端坐在高楼的屋顶上，心不在焉地转动着灵活的脖子，也许它在俯视下面的芸芸众生，也许它只是在想它自己的心事，人类无法弄清这高深莫测的动物的内心。这是最为宁静的时刻，猫的一生中很大一部分都处在这样的时刻。 "谁又能料到，我们平时所见到的嚎春恶斗，追击老鼠，只不过是它的一场游戏，一个幌子呢？人们从高楼下面经过，向这高傲的家伙挥手致意，它转动着它的脖子，根本没看见……" "这只猫，"老王兴奋地说，"正是离姑娘家的那只猫，你没看出来吗？" "我一点也没看出来。离家的猫从来不到屋顶上去，只是死守在家里，一副奴才相。它不过是老两口的出气筒。"皮普准提起那只猫就有气。 "你这个人太俗气了，完全缺乏联想的能力，实用主义毁掉了你的想像力。离姑娘已经出走好多天了，我真想念她啊。"老王说。 "我也想念她。" "但你却仇视她的猫!你知道那只猫，她倾注了多少心血吗？离姑娘在那个下雨的夜晚，走进了你的家门，她就是打算将她亲爱的小猫托付给你的，可你竟然嫌恶起它来。我不愿意与你谈论这个问题了，这不是一个谈得清的问题。今天我要做一件异想天开的事，带你去参观一下博物馆，请随我来。" 老王打开那扇暗门，皮普准跟了进去。他们走在黑乎乎的阶梯上，什么也看不见，皮普准感到他们在一直往下走。老王在黑暗中指点着，兴致勃勃地介绍着，他说脚下到处埋着宝藏，每一处宝藏都有一个故事，这些故事有的是关于皮普准过去的生活的，有的是关于别人的。当皮普准问他故事的内容，他又不说了。走了好久，皮普准眼前什么都看不见，就烦躁起来，问老王还有多远才到博物馆。