Chapter 21 Chapter Eighteen (Continued)

It was only then that K noticed that the corridor had fallen silent.It seemed that this area was the corridor of the guest room, the place where he had stayed with Frieda just now, and not only was it quiet here, but even the long corridor that was noisy with people in the room earlier was quiet.So the lords were asleep after all. K was also very tired, and it was said that he should have fought Jeremiah just now, but maybe it was because of his fatigue that he didn't fight him.Maybe it would be wise to follow Jeremiah's example. When he said that he was terribly cold, he was obviously exaggerating. In fact, he was uncomfortable because of the wind and cold. Be smart, just follow Jeremiah's example, also show that you are really tired, and it will be so much easier to just fall down in the corridor here, and then sleep for a while, maybe it will be too. Someone is coming to watch him.It's just that it won't be as smooth as Jeremiah's. In this competition for sympathy, Jeremiah will definitely win, which is probably a matter of course. In other struggles, he will obviously win back and forth. . K. was so tired that he wondered if he could break into a guest room and sleep in a comfortable bed, there must have been some rooms available.According to him, this sleep can solve many things.He also has a late night drink ready to go.There was a small bottle of rum in the tray that Frieda had just put on the floor. Not afraid of having to run back to where he came from, K drank the small bottle of wine.

Now he at least felt refreshed and could go see Erlanger.He looked around for Erlanger's door, only because he could no longer see the squire and Gestak, and all the doors looked the same, so he couldn't find it after searching.But he thought that he still remembered which section of the corridor that room was in, so he might as well go and push that door open. From his point of view, this was probably the one he was looking for.Try it and you won’t have much trouble; if it’s Erlanger’s room, Erlanger will definitely receive him; It was possible that no one would notice K.'s intrusion now; it would only be a bad thing if there was an empty room, because K could hardly bear to go to bed and sleep for eternity.He looked to the left and right of the corridor again, to see if anyone was coming to give him advice, so as not to take risks in vain, but the corridor was silent, and there was no one there.K. then listened at the door.Nobody here either.He knocked on the door with such a soft voice that it didn't wake anyone up. Since nothing happened so far, he naturally opened the door cautiously.Unexpectedly, at this moment, a soft shout was heard head-on.

This is a small guest room, with a large bed occupying most of the room. There is an electric lamp on the bedside table, and there is a travel bag next to it.On the bed, a man was wrapped in the quilt with his head covered and his face covered, moved uneasily, and asked in a low voice through the gap between the quilt and the sheet: "Who?" He looked dissatisfiedly at the provocative bed where someone else was sleeping, and just remembered what he asked, so he informed him of his name.This statement seemed to have an immediate effect, the person on the bed lifted the quilt a little bit to reveal his face, but he hurriedly made preparations, if something bad happened outside the door, he would immediately cover his head and face again.Unexpectedly, doubts and fears disappeared all of a sudden, and he threw off the quilt and sat up.Needless to say, it will never be Erlanger.This old man is small, not bad in appearance, but the features on his face do not match, his cheeks are chubby like a baby's face, his eyes are smiling like a pair of baby's eyes, but his high forehead, pointed nose, The narrow mouth, the lips that can't be closed, and the chin that is almost invisible, don't look like a doll at all, but they look very smart.Undoubtedly, he was complacent about this, and he was very self-satisfied, which obviously retained a bit of the innocence of a fat baby. "Do you know Friedrich?" he asked. K said he didn't know him. "He does know you," laughed the gentleman. K nodded. Not a few people knew him, and this was indeed a difficulty on his way. "I'm his secretary," said the gentleman, "I'm Bugier." "Excuse me," said K., reaching for the doorknob, "excuse me, I've found the wrong door. Actually I'm Secretary Erlanger Come." "What a pity," said Bugier. "I'm not sorry that you heard from elsewhere, I'm sorry that you found the wrong door. In fact, once I wake up, I can't sleep again. Then again, you don't have to feel sorry, it's my own Well, don't these doors lock anyway, eh? Of course, there's a reason for that. Because there's a saying that the door to a secretary's room should always be left open. You don’t need to press every word.” Bugier looked at K with suspicion and joy, and compared with K’s sad face, he showed an air of resting and sleeping. Needless to say, Bujir’s life Never before had K. been so tired. "Where do you want to go now?" Bugier asked. "It's four o'clock. No matter who you want to go to, they will wake you up. Not everyone is used to being noisy like me, and not everyone is willing to forgive you. Secretaries are neurotic. People. So you stay here for a while. People here don't start to get up until about five o'clock, and it's best for you to answer the call at that time. So please put down the doorknob now and sit wherever you want, even if it's not a big place , it would be best if you sat by the bed. Didn’t you think I don’t even have a table and chairs here? Speaking of which, the choice given to me is to either live in a fully furnished room, sleep in a narrow guest bed, or sleep in this big bed , there is nothing long except for the wash stand. I still asked for a big bed. In the bedroom, needless to say, the bed is the main thing after all! Ah, for a person who can sleep soundly when lying flat, that is to say, For a person who sleeps soundly, this bed is indeed the best. Even for a person like me who is tired all year round and can't get any sleep, being able to sleep on this bed is still considered I'm so lucky. I spent most of the day in bed today, and I handled all correspondence in bed. I interviewed the applicant here, and it went very smoothly. Of course, the applicant has no place to sit, but they have dealt with it, not to mention their Standing by yourself makes the recorder feel at ease. After all, it is more comfortable than sitting by yourself, but it is more enjoyable to let others yell at you. So I only have the side of the bed here for you to sit down, but this is not a A formal seat, just for chatting at night. But why don't you say anything, land surveyor?" "I'm very tired," said K., who accepted the invitation and immediately made a fool of himself.He sat down on the bed without any hesitation, leaning his back against the bedpost. "Of course," Bugier said with a smile, "everyone here is not tired. For example, the errands I finished yesterday, or even the errands I finished today, are not small things. If it weren't for this incident Unexpectedly, I should sleep now, of course it is not a problem, even if you are still here, I should sleep too, so please stay and don't make noise or open the door. But don't worry, I may not be asleep I need to sleep for a few minutes at most. I have developed this habit, probably because I am used to dealing with applicants, and I often feel that it is easier to fall asleep when I have a company." "Mr. Secretary, please go to sleep, please," K. Said it pleased him. "If you don't object, I'll sleep for a while." No, no," Bujir laughed again, "Unfortunately, I can't fall asleep just by being asked to sleep. Only during conversations can I fall asleep Most of the opportunities I have are talking about it to make me sleepy.Yes, it's nerve-wracking in our line of business.For example, I am a liaison secretary.You don't know what that is for do you?Well, I'm between Friedrich and the village..." He rubbed his hands hastily with pleasure at this point, "acting as the most important liaison between his castle and the village secretary, although I mostly stay in the village Here, it is not fixed here; you have to be ready to rush to the castle at any time.Look at this travel bag... life is not stable, and this is not for everyone.But then again, it's true that I can't do this kind of work now, and I find any other work boring.How's the land survey thing going? ""I didn't work in that line of work, I didn't become a land surveyor," said K., not thinking about it, really just wishing that Bougil would go to sleep, but that was nothing more than just thinking. Comforting himself, deep down in his heart he was sure that it would be too early for Bujir to fall asleep. "That's very strange," said Bujir, turning his head suddenly, and took out a notebook from under the quilt to take notes. "You are a I am a land surveyor, but there is no land surveying job. K. nodded mechanically. He had already stretched out his left arm to rest on the high end of the bedpost, and rested his head on it. Although he had tried various positions to sit comfortably, this was the most comfortable position, and now Bujir's words can also be heard more clearly. Bujir went on to say: "I am going to pursue this matter further.There is absolutely no such thing as burying professionals like this in our place.It must have caused you pain.Does it bother you? "It annoys me," said K. slowly, laughing to himself, because he was not in the least distressed at the moment. Besides, Bugier's kindness did not touch his heart. It was completely scratching the surface. He was not at all. He knew nothing about the circumstances under which K. had been appointed, what difficulties he had encountered in the village and at the castle, what troubles had arisen while K. was here, and what other troubles had begun to emerge. Well, it is said that a secretary should pretend to know what he knows, but he doesn't even pretend to be so. Instead, he wants to rely on that little notebook and solve everything immediately on the spot." It seems that you are a little disappointed, "Bujier said, this sentence shows that he has some understanding of people after all. In fact, as soon as he entered the room, K always reminded himself not to underestimate Bujir. It is difficult to come up with a fair view of everything." "No," said Bouger, as if answering K.'s thoughts, and kindly spared him the effort to say it. "Don't let disappointment put you off.It seems that there are many things here that scare people away. People who come here for the first time think that these difficulties cannot be overcome.I don't want to find out what's going on in all this, maybe the phenomenon is really in line with the facts, and in my position, without real independent opinion, I can't draw a conclusion on this matter, but please note, after all, sometimes almost Opportunities that are different from ordinary situations, when encountering such opportunities, just relying on a word, a wink, and a gesture of trust can achieve much greater results than a lifetime of hard work.Really, that's what happened.But then again, if you don't take advantage of this kind of opportunity, it's no different from the general situation.But why not take advantage of it?I ask this again and again. "K didn't know why; he naturally understood that what Bugier was talking about probably had something to do with him, but at the moment he hated everything that had to do with him, and turned his head slightly to one side, as if that would avoid Bugier. You can stop letting his words fill your ears. "Secretary," Bougil went on, stretching his arms and yawning in a manner so different from his earnest tone that it was striking. I can't figure it out," the secretary often complained, saying that they were forced to do nothing, and most of the inspection work in the village had to be carried out at night.But why should they complain about this?Because it made them too nervous?Because would they rather sleep at night?No, that's not what they're complaining about.Among the secretaries, of course, some worked hard and some badly, and that was the same everywhere; but none of them complained about their exhaustion, let alone openly.That's definitely not our style.Whether it is normal hours or office hours, we do not treat them differently in this respect.This kind of dichotomy doesn't suit us.So what reason does the secretary have to object to the night trial?Is it to be considerate of the applicant?No, no, not for that reason either.The secretary was always ruthless in all matters concerning the applicant. Although he was not a little more ruthless than treating himself, he was just as ruthless.As long as you think about it, you will understand that this kind of unselfishness is actually just doing things meticulously and strictly adhering to duties. For the applicant, it is really considerate.In fact, this is completely obvious, even if people with shallow eyes can't see it; to be honest, let's take this case for example, the applicant welcomes the night trial, and in principle does not object to the night market.So why does the secretary hate the night trial? "K didn't know that either, he didn't know much, and he couldn't even figure out which of Bugier's words really wanted him to answer, and which was just a superficial question." "You want me to lie on your bed." Now," he thought to himself, "I will answer you all by noon tomorrow, and it would be even better if I could wait until tomorrow night. "Who knows that Bujir doesn't seem to care about him at all, he only thinks about the question he raised." As far as I know, and from my personal experience, the secretary has the following concerns about the night market: It is not suitable to negotiate with the applicant, because it is difficult, or absolutely impossible, to maintain the official character of the negotiations at night.This is not a question of appearance, and of course it can be done day or night if formality is strictly followed.So the problem is not in this, but on the other hand, at night, the official judgment is always affected a little bit.When judging things at night, it is often easy to bring personal opinions unconsciously, and the applicant's defense is much more effective than it should be. It is inevitable that various irrelevant considerations will be mixed in the judgment of the case. Considering the applicant Other circumstances, with their anguish and anxieties, must necessarily weaken the proper wall between the applicant and the official, if it still appears to exist, and where there should be a question and an answer Among them, sometimes it seems unexpectedly that there is an anti-client.At least that's what the secretary said.Due to their professional relationship, people like them are naturally very sensitive to this situation.But even they didn't pay much attention to those adverse effects during the night trial, which is often discussed in our circle; Very good effect.But if you read through the record after the fact, you are often surprised to see the clear and obvious shortcomings in it.These are deficiencies, often an ill-conceived side gain to the applicant, which, according to our regulations, at least cannot be remedied by ordinary positive methods.Of course, these shortcomings will be corrected by the Superintendent after a while, but it is only an improvement of the law, and it will never hurt the applicant again.In this case, shouldn't the secretary have to complain at all? "K. had been half asleep for a while, when he was woken up again. He couldn't help wondering: "What is this for?What is this for? "Judging from the drooping eyelids, he doesn't regard Bujir as an official and is discussing problems with him, but as an annoying thing that disturbs people's dreams. As for the other party's intentions, he can't figure it out But Bugier, with his head full of thoughts, smiled, as if he really confused K. just now, but he was going to enlighten him immediately." Speaking of which," he said, "in On the other hand, no one would be foolish enough to say that such complaints should not be made.It is true that the night trial is not really stipulated in the regulations, so whoever wants to avoid the night trial is not considered a violation of the rules.But look at the situation, look at the overwhelming amount of work, look at the way the officials and lords in the castle handle things, but they really can't do without them, and look at the rules and regulations, only in all other investigation and research work The applicants could not be examined until the final close, and it was immediately apparent that, from all these and many other circumstances, the night market had at last become an indispensable formality.But if the night market has become a necessary procedure nowadays - I said this, - it is also a product of the regulations, at least indirectly, and if you want to find fault with the night trial, it is almost tantamount to saying - of course, I said It has to be a bit exaggerated, and I can say this only because it is an exaggeration--that is really tantamount to faulting the rules.

"On the other hand, let the secretary, within the terms of the statute, try to avoid the night market as much as possible, and avoid perhaps the only obvious disadvantage. That's what they actually do, and naturally do their best. They put the negotiation Confined to topics that are as unscary as possible, before negotiating, they carefully test themselves, and if the results of the test require it, even at the last moment, they will cancel all investigations, before formally dealing with the applicant, He often summons him ten or so times to strengthen his reputation, and he also likes to hand things over to colleagues who are not qualified to handle the case, so it is more free to handle, and the negotiation time is at least arranged at dusk or soon At that time, try not to arrange it in the middle period. There are many other measures. It is not easy for people like secretaries to be subdued all at once. He could hear Bujir's words, perhaps even more clearly than in the sober state where he was exhausted to death just now, every word and every word was transmitted to his ears, but the annoying ideology disappeared, he felt free, Bujir was no longer I couldn't catch him anymore, but he was still groping beside Bujir from time to time, although he was not asleep yet, he was indeed asleep.No one would wake him up now.He seemed to feel that this was a big victory. There was already a group of people celebrating there, whether it was him or someone else.Champagne is being raised to congratulate this victory, so everyone should know the whole story of this struggle, this is another victory, maybe not another one at all, only now, celebrated before and never Stopped it, because fortunately the ending is a sure victory.A secretary, naked and resembling a Greek god, was cornered by K. in this struggle.This was so amusing, K. laughed in his sleep, laughing at the fact that under his beatings again and again, the secretary was so frightened that he forgot his original arrogance, raised his arms hastily from time to time, and clenched his fists to cover his unprotected body. part, but it is always too late.The struggle did not last long; K. was advancing with every step, and with great strides.Is this even a fight?There is no major difficulty in front of me, only the secretary chirps from time to time.The Greek god barks like a girl to tickle.At last he disappeared, and K was left alone in the big room. He turned around to look for his opponent, and was about to fight again; on the ground. K. trampled on the glass to pieces, only to be stung by the shards, and woke up in a fright, feeling sick, like a doll woken up.That being said, as soon as he saw Bugier's bare chest, he couldn't help but recall part of the dream: This is your Greek god!Do it, drag him out of bed! "But then again," said Bugier, tilting his head thoughtfully to the ceiling, as if trying to find an example from memory, but couldn't find one. "But, then again, in spite of all precautions, there is a loophole for the applicant to take advantage of the secretary's night-time weakness, which has generally been considered a weakness. Needless to say, this may be very rare, or Rather, it is almost once in a thousand years. The applicant took advantage of this loophole by showing up unannounced in the middle of the night. Maybe you will be surprised. It seems that everyone knows this kind of thing, so how can it be so rare? Well, yes, you I am still not familiar with the situation here. However, you must have been surprised by the simplicity of the government agencies. Now let me talk about the results of this simplicity. Anyone who has any request, or for other reasons People who have something to review are often summoned before they have raised the issue, or even before they have really figured out the matter, and they pass it on immediately. He hadn't asked him anything at the time, often he hadn't asked, and the matter hadn't come to the point of questioning, but he had been summoned, and from then on he couldn't come without a summons, at least if he wasn't summoned. Now, he can only concentrate on remembering the date and time of the summons. If he comes again at the appointed time, he will be sent out again as usual, and that will cause no difficulty; yes, there is an application. Although the subpoenas held by people and the cases recorded in the files are not the most complete defensive weapons of the secretary, they are still powerful. Of course, this only refers to the secretary in charge of this matter; but, who wants to It is of course easy to break in unexpectedly at night to meet people. But almost no one wants to do such a thing, and it is almost pointless to do so. First of all, the secretary in charge will be greatly offended. Never suspect each other at work, because everyone's work load is too heavy, and the burden on the shoulders is indeed too heavy. However, we absolutely do not allow any infringement of the authority in dealing with applicants. Yes. Many people have failed in the past because they thought they would get nowhere with executives, so they tried to sneak past them by contacting other non-executives. Besides, this attempt was bound to fail because a non-executive The secretary, even if he is disturbed in the middle of the night, is sincerely willing to help people, but precisely because he is not a person in charge, the intervention is not much more effective than a second-rate lawyer, and it is indeed much less effective, because of course he What is lacking, for things that are not within his jurisdiction, what he lacks is time, and he can't even spare a little time, otherwise, he has a way, because of legal secrets, he is better than those lawyers after all. How much you know. Since the prospects are so slim, who would make fun of non-competent secretaries night after night? Seriously, if the applicant wants to obey the summons and instructions of the competent authority in addition to conducting daily business, it is anyway Very busy, very busy in the sense of the applicant, of course it has a very different meaning from the meaning of very busy in the case of the secretary." K. nodded, smiled, He thinks it's all clear now; not because it matters to him , but because now he is sure that he will fall asleep in a few minutes. A busy applicant is going to sink into a dream in no time, and now he can leave everything alone.Bujir's calm, conceited voice was clearly trying to lull Bujir himself to sleep. Now he was used to this kind of voice, and it would no longer disturb him, but would lull him to sleep. "Just nagging, just grinding your teeth and talking," he thought, "you're just nagging for me." "Well, then," said Bugier, rubbing his lower lip with two fingers, his eyes wide open, Stretching the neck, it seems that after a long and tense trek, the beautiful scenery is in sight. "Well, then, where is the almost once-in-a-lifetime possibility mentioned just now? The secret lies in the regulations on the authority of the supervisor. In fact, the regulations do not stipulate that only one secretary is allowed to handle each case. In such an angry There are no such rules in a large and prosperous organization. It is more appropriate to say that one person has power over everything, but many other people have power in some respects, but the power is less. Who is on the case, even sesame seeds Even if he is the hardest-working person, he can cover every aspect of every little thing, right? What I just said about the overriding power has gone too far. Because the smallest power also contains The whole power? Is it not the zeal of the case that is decisive in this? Is not this zeal consistent and plentiful? Secretaries may differ in every way, and this There are too many differences to count, but there is no difference in enthusiasm; no one can restrain their enthusiasm if they are required to handle a case with even the lowest level of authority. Yes. On the surface, it is indeed necessary to establish a formula for dealing with negotiations. In this way, each applicant has a special secretary to deal with it, and they each have their own parties in charge. However, this person does not need to It was the chief executive of the case, and it was the agency and the particular needs of the time that were decisive. That was the general situation. Well, land surveyor, think about it, because of these or other circumstances, although I have told you Difficulties have been said, and generally speaking enough of them, but it is still possible for an applicant to appear unexpectedly in the middle of the night with the secretary who has considerable authority over the case. It never occurred to you, I suppose. Is there such a possibility? I would like to believe it. But there is no need to entertain such a thought, because after all, it has never happened in fact. If you want to slip through this extremely tight sieve, Such an applicant must be a kind of small grain with wonderful structure, unique organization, exquisite and flexible? You think that such a thing will never happen? You are right, it will never happen. But who dares to do everything Are you guaranteed? One night, this kind of thing actually happened. Needless to say, I don’t know who among my acquaintances has encountered this kind of thing. Speaking of it, it really doesn’t count as much evidence. There are only a few here, not to mention that a secretary would never admit to such a thing, because it is a completely private matter after all, and in a sense, it seriously offends the official's sense of shame. Even so, based on My experience may prove that what we do is so rare that it really exists only as a rumour, nothing else can prove it, so there is really nothing to be afraid of. Even if it does happen, People can't help but think: It doesn't take much effort to prove that such a thing is impossible in the world, and then turn the big thing into a small thing, and make a small thing into nothing. No matter what, if you encounter this kind of thing, you will be scared and hide somewhere, for example Said, hiding under the covers, not even daring to look around, that's not normal. Even if thisThe impossibility suddenly became a reality. Is it all over?Quite the opposite.There will be no such thing as impossible, let alone such a thing as the end of everything.Of course, if the applicant was actually in the room, things would go very wrong.It makes people's hearts tighten.No wonder: how long can you resist?But I don't know it in my heart, and I don't have any resistance at all.You have to imagine the situation exactly.The longing applicant we'd never seen--so tantalizingly longing and supposedly never to be seen--sat there.As long as he sat silently before us, we couldn't help but want to see through his poor life, look around as if we were at home, suffer with him, and worry about his unnecessary demands.In the silent night, his seductiveness is really charming.We can't help this temptation, in fact we are no longer qualified to be officials.In this situation, it immediately became necessary to take care of it.Rather, we gave it all, or rather, we were very happy.We say go all out because we sit here helpless, waiting for the applicant to make a request, knowing that when the request is made, it must be granted, even if the request will bring down the government. Let's have a count: come to think of it, in the performance of duties, this is the worst thing that happens to you.Apart from everything else, the main reason is that we have temporarily overstepped our authority on this issue, and we have been promoted, and we have been promoted for no reason.Because according to our position, we are not qualified to agree to the kind of request we are involved in here. However, because we are close to the applicant who came at night, we can say that our authority is greater, so we vowed to do things beyond our authority; Seriously, we said we would do it.The applicant is like a robber in the forest, forcing us to make sacrifices in the middle of the night, otherwise we would not be able to make such a sacrifice; well, speaking of it, the applicant is still there, encouraging us, forcing us, Urges us, while everything is going on half-knowingly, that's all; What would happen if he was accused of abuse of power and had no room to parry--this is really unimaginable!That being said, we had a good time.Is not this pleasure tantamount to suicide!Of course, we can try our best to hide our true identity from the applicant.How could he see anything automatically?In the end, according to his own opinion, it was probably only because of some irrelevant accident--exhaustion, disappointment, carelessness caused by exhaustion and disappointment--he should have gone to the wrong room, he was confused. Sitting there, when it comes to talking, he just thinks about his own worries, his own mistakes, his own fatigue.Can't we just let him go?cannot.We can only babble like a man in a good mood and explain everything to him.Since you have to talk about trivial things, you must tell him in detail, what happened, why it happened, how rare this opportunity is, and how important it is, you must tell him in detail. I understand that although the applicant came across this opportunity by chance, and no one else can do such a thing, only the applicant can do it, but now, the land surveyor, he can manipulate everything as he pleases, for the sake of To that end, all he had to do was try to make a request, because people have been waiting for this kind of request, and they have been waiting for such a request for a long time, and all these things have to be made clear, and it is the official's job. hard time.But when we've done even that, land surveyor, then everything that needs to be done has been done, then we'll have to wait. "

K. was asleep, not knowing what was going on.At first his head was resting on the left arm at the top of the bedpost, but when he fell asleep he slid down, and now he was hanging in limbo, and then slowly pulled down again; seeing that the upper arm couldn't support it anymore, K couldn't help but squeeze his right hand tightly. Pushing against the quilt, and looking for a place to support it, it happened that Bujir's feet were raised under the quilt, and he accidentally grabbed him.Bujir looked down, and he caught the foot. Although it was annoying, he let it go. Just at this moment, someone slammed into the partition a few times. K. jumped up in shock and looked at the wall. "Is the land surveyor there?" only one voice asked. "Yes," said Bugier, and the foot slipped out of K.'s hand, and he lay down on his back, as impudently as a child. "Then tell him it's time to come here," the voice went on, not thinking about Bugier or whether he still wanted to have K. in his tone. "It's Erlanger," Bugier whispered, not at all surprised that Erlanger was in the next room. "Go and see him, he's angry, try to calm him down. He's a good sleeper; but we were talking too loudly; You can't control yourself, and you can't control your voice. Well, go, it seems that you can't wake up. Go, what are you still doing here? No, you don't need to apologize to me if you are sleepy, why bother? There is always a limit. In fact, this limit is also important in other aspects. What can be done about it? No, no one can do anything about it. This is how the world corrects biases and maintains balance. This arrangement is really wonderful, after thinking about it Can't think of anything as good as this, even if it's a disappointment in other ways. Well, go ahead, I don't know why you're looking at me like that. Erlanger's going to take it out on me if you procrastinate. Well, I don't want to get into that kind of trouble for anything. Go ahead. Who knows what's waiting for you there? After all, there are many opportunities here. Of course, there are only some opportunities, which are too big to take advantage of. No, some things are as bad as they are. Yes, that's astonishing. As for the rest, I wish I could get some sleep right now. Of course, it's five o'clock, and there's going to be noise soon. As long as you go away!"

Ｋ在沉睡中突然给惊醒，弄得直发愣，还需要睡个不休，刚才又是坐得那么不舒服，浑身上下都在酸痛，好久他都站不起身，只是托住额角，朝膝下看着。就是布吉尔一次次撵都撵不走他，只有心里感到再在这间房间里呆下去也没用，他才慢慢挪动了腿。照他看，这间房间说不出有多沉寂。是变得这样的呢，还是一直如此，他不知道。这下子他再要睡也睡不着了。这种信念确实是决定性的动力；他对此淡淡一笑，撑起身，找到什么地方就往什么地方上靠，床上也好，墙上也好，门上也好，好像他老早就向布吉尔告辞过，不道个别就走了。