Chapter 5 "New Villa" IV

Four The engineer became visibly irritable and fussy, seeing every little thing as an act of theft or embezzlement.His gate was locked even during the day, and at night two watchmen walked the garden, knocking on iron plates, and he no longer employed anyone from Obruchanovo as a day laborer.As if on purpose, someone (either a farmer or a tramp, I don't know) unloaded new wheels from a cart and replaced them with old ones, and then, after a while, two bridles and a pair of pliers were given to After taking it away, even the people in the village began to complain.It was said that Rychkov's house and Volodka's should be searched, but at this moment the pliers and the bridle were found under the hedge in the engineer's garden, where someone had left them secretly.

Once the peasants came out of the woods in groups and met the engineer again on the road.He stopped, did not greet everyone, but looked angrily at this person, then at that person, and said: "I beg you not to pick mushrooms in my garden and near the yard, and leave it to my wife and children." We went to pick them, but your girls came at dawn, and there was not even a single fungus left. It doesn't matter whether you ask or don't ask, it's the same anyway. Begging, making out, or advising, I don't see any use for it." He rested his angry eyes on Rodion, and went on: "My wife and I treat you as human beings, just like us, but what about you? Well, what's the use of talking about it! It's probably going to happen in the end." Until we look down on you, that's the only way to go!"

He tried his best to control himself, to suppress the anger in his heart, so as not to say anything inappropriate, he turned and left. Rodion went home, prayed, took off his boots, and sat down on a bench next to his wife. "Yeah,..." He sighed and spoke. "Just now we were walking and walking, and met Master Kucherov head-on. . . . Yes. . . . He saw some girls at dawn. . '...he said: "Why not give it to my wife and children?" Then he looked at me and said: "I and my wife want to give alms to you. 'I wanted to kneel down to him, but I was too timid. . . . Ask God to give him health. . . . May the Lord bless him. . . . " Stepanida, crossing herself, sighed.

"This is a kind and generous gentleman..." continued Rodion. "'We will give you alms,' he promised in the presence of all. . . . We are old. . . . It is good to do so. . . . I will pray to God for him for all eternity. ... ask the Holy Mother to bless him. ..." The Feast of the Holy Cross on September 14 is a local church holiday.The Rychkovs had gone to the opposite bank early in the morning, and by the time they returned for lunch they were quite drunk.They wandered about the village for a long time, singing and cursing each other, and when they got into a fight, they went to the manor to complain.First old Rychkov came into the yard with a long aspen stick in his hand.He stopped hesitantly and took off his hat.Meanwhile the engineer and his family were sitting on the verandah drinking tea.

"What's your business?" the engineer called. "My lord, your excellency . . . " began Rychkov, weeping. "Be merciful and let me decide. . . . My son has made it impossible for me to live. . . . My son spends my money and beats me... Your Excellency. . . . " Little Rychkov also walk in.He didn't wear a hat, and he also carried a stick in his hand.He stopped, raised his drunken eyes and stared blankly at the balcony. "I don't care about your quarrel," said the engineer. "Go to the Zemstvo or the police." "I've been everywhere, and I've been handed the papers..." said old Rychkov, weeping loudly. "Where can I go now? Can he kill me now?

Could it be that he can do anything?Can you treat your father like this?own father? " He raised the club and hit his son on the head, and the other one also raised the club and hit it on the old man's bald head so hard that the club even buckled.Old Rychkov, without even shaking his body, beat his son again, on the head.They just stood there and beat each other's heads, and it wasn't like a fight, it was like a game.There are some peasants and village women around the gate, silently looking into the yard, everyone's faces are quite serious.The peasants had come to pay their respects, but they were ashamed to see the Rychkovs and their sons, and they did not come into the yard.

The next morning Elena Ivanovna left for Moscow with the children.Legend has it that the engineer is selling his estate. ... The five of you have long been accustomed to seeing that bridge, and it is hard to imagine that there is no bridge for the river in that place. Grass had long grown on the rubble left by the bridge-building project, and as for the tramps, they were forgotten.Now you don't hear "Dubinushka" anymore, but you can hear the rumble of passing trains almost every hour. The new villa has long been sold.It was now owned by a civil servant who brought his whole family here from the city on holidays to drink tea on the veranda and then return to the city again.There was a cap badge on his hat, and when he talked and cleared his throat, he seemed to be a high-ranking official, but in fact he was only a civil servant of the tenth rank in terms of official position.Whenever the peasants bowed to him, he ignored them.

Everyone in Obruchanovo was old; Kozov was dead, there were more children in Rodion's hut, and Volodka had grown a long, fiery red beard.They are still as poor as before. In the early spring of this year, people from the village of Obruchanovo were sawing firewood near the railway station.By this time they had finished their work and were walking home, one after the other, without haste; the broad saw bowed across their shoulders and gleamed in the sun.Nightingales were singing in the bushes along the bank, and larks in the sky issued a series of crisp calls.The new villa was quiet and there was no one there, only some golden pigeons were flying over the house, saying that they were golden because they were illuminated by the sun.Everyone, including Rodion, the Rychkovs, and Volodka, remembered the white horses, the pony, the fireworks, the lighted boat, the engineer's wife, that beautiful, well-dressed woman, how Come to the village and speak to them very kindly.It's as if it never happened at all.All this is like a dream or a fairy tale.

Weary, they walked step by step, thinking to themselves. . . . They thought: the people in their village are kind, quiet, reasonable, and God-fearing, and Yelena Ivanovna is also quiet, kind-hearted, and gentle, and anyone who sees her will feel sorry for her, but why are they in such a state? Don't come, like an enemy when we parted?What kind of fog was it that blinded their eyes from the most important things, and only saw trampled grass, bridles, pincers, and all sorts of little things that now seem so insignificant in retrospect?Why did they get along so well with the new owner but not with the engineer?

Everyone didn't know how to answer these questions, and everyone was silent, except Volodka who was muttering to himself. "What did you say?" Rodion asked. "We crossed without a bridge..." said Volodka grimly. "We survived without a bridge, and we didn't ask for a bridge, . . . we didn't need it." No one answered him, everyone shook their heads and walked forward in silence. "Notes" ① That is Kucherov's wife, with a playful meaning, the same below. ②In Russian, the transliteration of Voronov can be used as a person's surname, and it can also be interpreted as "crow's"

③In Russian, the words "look down on" and "Zhou Ji" are similar in shape, only one letter is different.