Chapter 18 A Fu's Chastity

A Fu's Chastity Akutagawa Ryunosuke one What happened on the afternoon of May 14th, the first year of the Meiji era, was the day when the government issued the following notice: "At dawn tomorrow, the government army will attack the bandits of the Zhangyi team in Dongei Mountain. All residents in the Ueno area should immediately evacuate. In the vacant house where Furukawaya Masahei moved out of the 2-chome grocery store in Shitanicho, in front of the kitchen altar, there was a big tabby cat, quietly laying a ton. The doors and windows were closed in the room, and of course it was dark in the afternoon.There was no sound of people at all, and on the invisible roofs, it rained in bursts, sometimes in the distance.When the rain was loud, the cat opened its round amber eyes wide, and in this black kitchen where the stove could not be seen anywhere, it shone with a faint green phosphorescent light.Knowing that there was no movement other than the sound of the rain, the cat closed its eyes motionless again.

After repeating this several times, the cat finally fell asleep and never opened its eyes again.But the sound of rain is still rushing and slowing down.Eight o'clock, half past eight—the time moved to sunset amidst the sound of rain. But when it was nearly seven o'clock, the cat suddenly opened its eyes in a panic, and at the same time pricked up its ears. At that time, the sound of rain was much quieter than before, and there was the sound of sedan chairs passing by on the street—other than that, there was no other sound.But after a few seconds of silence, a ray of light penetrated the dark kitchen, the stove installed in the narrow cubicle, the reflection of the water tank without a lid, the pine branches for the gods and the ropes for the skylight—all one by one can be seen.The cat became uneasy, looked at the bright drain at the door, and immediately stood up its fat body.

At this time, the door of the sink was pushed open from the outside—no, not only the door was pushed open, but also the half-waist-high screen was opened, and it was a beggar who was drenched in water.He poked his head in the rotten kerchief first, and listened to the movement in the empty room for a while. Knowing that there was no one inside, he slipped into the kitchen and wet the new mat on the floor.The cat lowered its pricked ears and took two steps back.But the beggar didn't panic. He closed the screen behind him casually, and slowly took off his turban, revealing a full beard and two or three plasters in the middle. His eyes and nose were dirty, but he still had a normal face.

"Big flower, big flower!" The beggar wiped the water from his hair, then wiped the water from his face, and whispered the cat's name.The cat may have heard the sound familiar, but its ears pricked up again, but it still stood there, gazing suspiciously at the beggar's face.The beggar untied the mat wrapped around his body, revealing two muddy legs that couldn't even be seen, and yawned big at the cat. "Dahua, what's the matter with you... Everyone has left, probably pulling you down." Beggar smiled alone, stretched out his big palm and patted the cat's head.The cat was about to run away, but instead of running away, it squatted down and gradually closed its eyes again.After touching the cat, the beggar took out a shiny pistol from the pocket of the old cloth jacket, and began to fiddle with it in the dim light.A beggar with a gun came in in an empty kitchen surrounded by an atmosphere of "war"... This is indeed a bit like a novel.But the cat who watched coldly, still arched its back, squatting nonchalantly as if it knew all the secrets.

"Dahua, this area will be full of guns and bullets tomorrow. One stray bullet will kill you. You have to be careful. No matter what the noise is outside, hide under the roof and don't go out." The beggar fiddled with the pistol and continued talking to the cat: "We are old friends. We broke up today. You will suffer tomorrow. Maybe I will die tomorrow. If I don't die, I won't be picking up the trash with you in the future." Now, you can enjoy it alone, are you happy?" At this time, there was another torrential rain, and the rain clouds pressed down on the roof, and the roof tiles were covered in mist.It was getting darker in the kitchen.The beggar still buried his head in the pistol, and then carefully loaded the bullet.

"We broke up, will you still miss me in the future? No, people say: "The cat doesn't remember three years", will you be like that... But it doesn't matter if you forget, it's just that once I leave... " Beggar stopped talking suddenly, he heard someone coming in from outside the door, hurriedly put the pistol in his arms, and turned around at the same time.The screen at the door opened with a rattle.Beggar immediately raised his vigilance and turned to face the person who came in. Those who opened the screen and came in were startled when they saw the beggar. "Ouch", this is a barefoot young woman with a big black umbrella.She retreated impulsively into the rain outside the door.Then recovering from the initial panic, he watched Beggar's face through the dim light in the kitchen.

Beggar was also taken aback for a moment, lifted his knee wrapped in the old gown, stared at the other person's face, and his eyes became less nervous.The two faced each other silently for a while, and then their eyes met. "Oh, aren't you old and new?" She calmed down and called out to the beggar.The beggar smiled awkwardly and nodded to her again and again: "I'm sorry, it's raining too much, so I came in to hide from the rain... I didn't steal things because no one was at home." "Scared me so much, you bastard... you can't break in without stealing!"

She shook off the water from the umbrella, and said angrily again: "Come out, I'm going into the house." "Okay, I'll go, I'll go if you tell me to go, Sister, haven't you retreated yet?" "Retreat, but...you don't have to worry about it." "Maybe I pulled something... Ouch, come in, you'll be drenched in the rain standing there." Still angry, she didn't answer the beggar's words, so she sat down between the door panels, put her two muddy feet into the sink, and scooped up water with a spoon to wash her feet.The beggar was still crossing his knees safely, wiping his bearded face and watching the woman's actions.She is a country girl with a dark complexion and a few freckles around the bridge of her nose. She is wearing a homemade single coat that maids often wear, with a small belt around her waist.Big eyes, Zhou Zheng's bridge of nose, smart eyebrows, strong muscles, looks reminiscent of fresh peaches and pears, very beautiful.

"The sound of the wind is so tight, you still run back, what kind of treasure did you pull, what did you pull. Hey hey, Sister... Sister Fu." Laoxin asked again. "What do you care about this? Let's go." Ah Fu said angrily, thought for a while, looked up at Lao Xin, and asked seriously: "Lao Xin, have you seen my big flower?" "Dahua? Dahua was still here just now... ouch, where did you go?" The beggar looked around, and at some point, the cat had already run between the mortar and the iron pot on the kitchen shelf, and was dozing off again.Lao Xin and Ah Fu discovered the cat at the same time.Ah Fu put down the water spoon and hurriedly stood up between the boards, ignoring Lao Xin beside him, smiled happily, and called the cat on the shelf with a meow.

Lao Xin didn't look at the cat on the shelf, but moved his eyes to Ah Fu in surprise. "Is it a cat? Sister, you said you pulled something down, so it turned out to be a cat?" "What if it's a cat... Da Hua, Da Hua, come down quickly!" Old and new laughed.In the sound of rain, this laughter seemed particularly ugly.Ah Fu blushed with anger, and cursed loudly: "What are you laughing at? The proprietress found out that the big flower had been pulled down, and was afraid that it would be beaten to death. You ran back!" "Okay, I won't laugh anymore."

However, he was still laughing, laughing, and interrupted Ah Fu: "I won't laugh anymore, well, think about it. We will start firing here tomorrow, but we are just cats... You think, this is not ridiculous Is it? The proprietress of this shop is too ignorant and unreasonable, even if she is looking for a cat, she shouldn't..." "Stop talking nonsense! I don't want to hear bad things about the proprietress!" Ah Fu stomped his feet angrily, but Beggar was not afraid of her, and kept watching her attack unceremoniously. It turned out that her appearance at that time showed her rough beauty.Clothes and underwear that were soaked by the rain clung tightly to her body, revealing the muscles inside, revealing the flesh of a young virgin.Lao Xin looked at her without blinking, and said with a smile: "Even if you want to find a cat, you shouldn't be called here, right? Now all the people in the Ueno area have moved away, and there is no one on the street. Of course Well, wolves won't come, but it's hard to say that there will be no danger... Isn't it so?" "You don't need to worry about me, just catch the cat for me..." "This is not a joke, young girl. At this time, it is not dangerous to run alone. For example, here now, there are only you and me. If I have a bad idea, sister, I What do you do?" Lao Xin seemed to be joking, and also seemed to be serious about saying obscene words, but there was still no trace of fear in Ah Fu's bright eyes.Only her face flushed redder. "What, Laoxin... are you trying to scare me?" On the other hand, Ah Fu seemed to want to scare Lao Xin, so he rushed up to him. "Scare? It's not just scare. There are a lot of villains with epaulets at the moment, not to mention I'm a beggar, not only scare, if I really have a bad idea..." Before Lao Xin finished speaking, he ate an umbrella on his head. At this time, Ah Fu jumped to his side and held up the umbrella: "How dare you talk nonsense!" Ah Fu beat Lao Xin hard with an umbrella.Lao Xin ducked back, the umbrella hit his shoulder in the old coat.The noise disturbed the cat, and it overturned an iron pot, jumped onto the shed for the god, knocked down the pine branches and the ever-burning lamp for the god, and rolled on Laoxin's head. Foo punched some umbrellas. "You bastard, you bastard!" After being beaten, Lao Xin finally grabbed the umbrella, threw it on the ground, and threw himself on Ah Fu, and the two of them twisted into a ball in the narrow room.At this time, the sound of the rain outside became more urgent, and as the sound of the rain increased, the light became darker.Lao Xin was beaten and scratched in the face, and tried to push her down to the ground, but for some reason, he let go of his hand, and just as he was about to hold her down, he suddenly let her escape to the drain like a bullet up. "This witch..." Lao Xin stared at Ah Fu with the screen on his back.Ah Fu had loosened his hair and was sitting on the floor. He took out a razor from his belt and held it tightly behind his back. His face showed a murderous look, and at the same time, he looked particularly gorgeous, like the one with its back bent on the shed. cat.The two of you looked at me and I looked at you for a while.Lao Xin snorted and sneered, then took out a pistol from his pocket. "Hmph, look at how powerful you are, look at this thing!" The muzzle of the gun was slowly aimed at Ah Fu's chest.She froze for a moment, stared at Lao Xin's face closely, and was speechless.Seeing that she had stopped making trouble, Lao Xin somehow changed his mind and aimed his gun at the cat who was opening its green eyes wide open in the dark. "I'll just shoot, Ah Fu, okay?" Lao Xin deliberately made her anxious, and said with a smile: "The pistol slammed, and the cat rolled to the ground. Let me set an example for you, okay?" He was going to pull the gun. "Old Xin!" Ah Fu yelled, "No, no, no guns!" Lao Xin looked back at Ah Fu again, and the gun was still aimed at the cat. "No? I know no." "It's too pitiful to kill it, spare Dahua's life!" Ah Fu completely changed his appearance, his eyes were melancholy, his lips quivered slightly, revealing his fine white teeth.Old Xin looked at her face half teasingly and half surprised, and then put down the muzzle of the gun, only then did Ah Fu's expression soften. "Then I spared the cat's life, you have to repay me..." Lao Xin said forcefully: "Let me use your body." Ah Fu turned his face away, hatred, anger, sadness, and all kinds of complicated emotions welled up in his heart.Lao Xin paid close attention to her emotional changes, strode up behind her, and opened the door to the tea room.Of course, the tea room is darker than the kitchen. After the owner moved away, the tea cabinet and long fire bowl left behind can still be clearly seen.Lao Xin stood there, his eyes fell on the protruding chest of Ah Fu who was sweating slightly.Ah Fu seemed to have sensed it, turned around to look at Lao Xin, his face had returned to the same flexible expression as before, but Lao Xin was rather embarrassed, blinked strangely, and immediately pointed his gun at the cat again. "No, don't shoot..." While Ah Fu stopped, he dropped the razor in his hand. Lao Xin smiled coldly: "If you don't shoot, you have to obey me!" Ah Fu muttered helplessly, but suddenly stood up, as if making up his mind, and took a few steps into the tea room.Lao Xin was a little surprised to see her so refreshed.At this time, the sound of rain had stopped, the sun was still shining through the clouds, and the dark kitchen gradually brightened.Lao Xin stood outside the tea room, listening attentively to the movement in the tea room, and only heard the sound of Ah Fu undoing the small storage belt on his body and lying down on the mat—then there was no more sound. Lao Xin hesitated for a moment, then walked into the twilight tea room, and saw Ah Fu lying on his back alone on the tea room mat, covering his face with his sleeve... Seeing this situation, Lao Xin hurriedly retreated to the kitchen as if fleeing Li, with an indescribable expression of disgust and shyness on his face, once he got to the board room, he turned his back to the tea room, and suddenly smiled wryly: "I'm just kidding you, Sister Fu, just kidding!" Yes, please come out..." After a while, Ah Fu hugged the cat in his arms and held an umbrella in his hand, chatting casually with Lao Xin who was spreading out the mat. "Sister, I want to ask you..." Lao Xin was so embarrassed that he didn't even dare to look at Ah Fu's face. "what?" "Don't ask about anything else... It's a big deal for a woman to lose her virginity, but you, Sister Ah Fu, just agreed casually in order to save a cat, isn't that so?" Only after Lao Xin stopped talking, Ah Fu smiled lightly and stroked the cat in his arms. "Do you love cats that much?" "But Dahua, Dahua is so cute..." Ah Fu replied ambiguously. "In this area, you are famous for being loyal to your master. If you kill the cat, do you feel sorry for the master-maybe you think so?" Ah Fu tilted his head and looked into the distance: "I don't know what to say... At that time, I didn't feel like that, so I didn't feel at ease!" ——After some time, only Lao Xin stayed here alone.He hugged his knees wrapped in the old coat, and sat in the kitchen blankly. Amidst the sound of dredging, the dusk was gradually approaching the house, the rope for the skylight, the water tank next to the drain...had disappeared one by one in the darkness.Suddenly, Ueno's bell rang again and again, and there was a heavy reverberation in the rainy sky.Lao Xin woke up with a start, glanced around, then groped to the drain, scooped up the water in the tank with a spoon, and drank. "Murakami Shinsaburo, Fanguang of the Genji family, let's have a good drink today." ①The meaning of this sentence means that this beggar named Shinsaburo Murakami, Lao Xin, was born in the Genji clan. He muttered in his mouth, drinking the cold water at dusk with great taste... On March 26, the 23rd year of Meiji, Ah Fu, her husband and three children walked through the wide and small roads of Ueno. On that day, the opening ceremony of the 3rd National Exposition was held in Zhutai, and most of the cherry blossoms in the Kuromon area were in bloom.Pedestrians on Guangxiao Road were so crowded that they couldn't be pushed away.Horse-drawn carriages and rickshaws returning from a meeting in Ueno were lined up and overcrowded.Maeda Masana, Taguchi Uyoshi, Shibusawa Eiichi, Tsuji Shinji, Okakura Kakuzo, Shimojo Masao②... this group takes a carriage.The distinguished guests of rickshaws are also among these people. ②This string of names are all celebrities during the Meiji Restoration period. The husband is holding his five-year-old son, and the big boy is still hanging on the corner of his clothes. He is crowded in the flow of people, and he always looks back to take care of Ah Fu behind him.Ah Fu took the oldest girl by the arm, and when he saw her husband turn around, he smiled at him.After twenty years, of course he has shown a little old appearance, but his watery eyes are still the same as before.She married the nephew of Furukawaya's owner, Zhenghei, and his current husband in the 45th year of the Meiji era.My husband was in Yokohama at that time, and now he runs a small watch shop in a certain street in Ginza. Ah Fu occasionally raised his head, and it happened that a two-horse carriage ran past in front of him, and it was Lao Xin who was sitting peacefully in the carriage... Today, Lao Xin's status is very different from what it used to be, with a tuft of ostrich feathers on his hat , trimmed with embroidered gold borders, large and small medals and various honor marks, hung all over his chest, but his purple face with a gray beard was still the one he used to beg for food on the street.Ah Fu was startled and slowed down.It turned out that she had felt... Lao Xin was not an ordinary beggar.Is it because of his appearance, is it because of his voice, or is it because of the pistol in his hand at that time?In short, it was already a bit of a feeling at that time.Ah Fu stared at Lao Xin's face without moving his eyebrows.Whether it was on purpose or by accident, Lao Xin was also looking at her face.The memory of the rainy day twenty years ago appeared clearly in front of her eyes, as if she couldn't breathe at once.At that time, in order to save a cat's life, she planned to obey the old and the new.What is the motive, I can't say it myself.But at that time, Lao Xin didn't even touch her lying body with his finger, so why? ... She didn't know either, and even though she didn't know, she still felt that these were all natural things.As the carriage brushed past her, her heart skipped a beat. After the carriage passed, the husband turned his head back from the crowd to look at Ah Fu. When Ah Fu saw her husband's face, he smiled again, feeling peaceful in his heart. Made in January 1922 Translated by Lou Shiyi April 1976