Chapter 34 Part One - Thirty One

There was a clang of the iron lock, and Maslova was thrown back into the cell.Everyone in the cell turned to her.Even the chanter's daughter stopped, raised her eyebrows, and looked at the intruder, but she said nothing, and went on again with her powerful stride.Kolabreva stuck a needle into the burlap and gazed questioningly at Maslova over her spectacles. "Oh, my God! You're back. I thought they'd set you free," she said in a husky, manly voice. "Looks like they want you in jail." She took off her glasses and put her sewing on the bed beside her. "Good girl, I told my aunt just now that maybe I will release you on the spot. It is said that such things often happen. I will give you some money, it all depends on your luck," the road worker immediately sang Said in a generally pleasant voice. "Alas, the Linchuan School is represented by Wang Anshi in the Northern Song Dynasty. Because Wang Anshi is from Jiangxi, I really didn't expect it. It seems that our hexagrams are not working. Good girl, it seems that God has God's arrangement," she said in one breath. Come with kind words.

"Is it really a sentence?" asked Fedosya, looking at Maslova with her clear blue eyes like a child's, sympathetically.Her happy, young face was transformed, as if she was about to cry. Maslova made no answer, went silently to her bunk and sat down. Her bed was the second against the wall, next to Korabreva. "Perhaps you haven't eaten yet?" said Fedosya, getting up and going up to Maslova. Maslova made no answer, but put the two white rolls on the head of the bed and began to undress.She took off her dusty prison robe and the kerchief from her curly black hair and sat down.

The stooped old woman who was playing with the little boy at the other end of the bunk also came over and stood in front of Maslova. "Tut, tsk, tsk!" she said, shaking her head pityingly, licking her tongue. The boy followed the old woman, his eyes wide open, his upper lip raised, and he stared at the white bread Maslova had brought.After the troubled day, Maslova felt like crying when she saw the sympathetic faces, her lips trembled.But she tried to hold back until the old woman and the boy came towards her.When she heard the old woman's sympathetic clicks, and saw the boy's eyes fixed intently on the white bread and then back at her, she could bear it no longer.Her whole face trembled, and then she burst into tears.

“As I said earlier, you need to find a good lawyer,” Kolabreva said. "What, are you going to be exiled?" she asked. Maslova wanted to answer, but could not speak.While weeping, she dug the pack of cigarettes out of the bread.On the cigarette case was a lady with a ruddy complexion, her hair combed high, and her open collar revealing a triangular chest.Maslova gave Kolabreva the pack of cigarettes.Korabreva looked at the picture on the cigarette case and shook her head disapprovingly, mainly blaming Maslova for spending money like this.She took out a cigarette, lit it by the lamp, took a puff herself, and then gave it to Maslova.Maslova did not stop crying, smoked one puff after another with all her might, and then exhaled the smoke.

"Hard labor," she whimpered. "These bullies, bloody vampires, don't fear God," Korabreva said. "The other girl was sentenced for no reason." At that moment there was a burst of laughter from the women who had remained at the window.The little girl laughed too.Her thin child's laughter merged with the hoarse and harsh laughter of the three adults.A male prisoner in the yard made some strange movements, which made the spectators at the window couldn't help laughing. "Bah, this shaven-headed male dog! What's he doing!" said the red-haired woman, laughing so that her fat body quivered.She pressed her face against the iron fence, babbling obscenities.

"Hey, what a shameless thing! What's so funny!" said Korabreva, shaking her head at the red-haired woman.Then she asked Maslova: "How many years?" "Four years," said Maslova, with tears in her eyes, one of which fell on the cigarette. Maslova crumpled up the cigarette angrily, threw it away, and took another. Although the crossing worker didn't smoke, he quickly picked up the cigarette butt, straightened it, and kept talking. "That's all right, my girl," she said. "The truth has been eaten by the pigs. They can do what they want. Aunt Korableva says they'll let you go, and I say no. I said, good man, my heart feels, they won't let her go. Poor girl, sure enough," she said, listening to her own voice triumphantly.

By this time all the male prisoners had left the yard, and all the women who had spoken to them left the windows and came to Maslova.The first one to come was the bootleg bootlegger with the girl. "Why is the sentence so severe?" she asked, sitting down next to Maslova, and continued knitting the stocking rapidly. "The sentence was so severe because I didn't have money. If I had money, I would hire a competent lawyer and make sure everything would be fine," said Korabreva. "That guy... what's his name... disheveled hair, big nose... Hey, my wife, if I could just get him, he'd get you out of the water so you wouldn't get any Drip."

"Hmph, how can you afford it?" the pretty girls sneered, baring their teeth, and sat down next to them. "You can't even hire him without a thousand rubles." "It looks like you were born that way," interposed the old woman, who was in prison for arson. "My life is really hard. They took my daughter-in-law away, and put my son in prison to feed lice. Even a man of my age was imprisoned," she said again. Lived hundreds of times. "It seems that whether you go to jail or beg for food, you don't want to avoid it. Either beg for food or go to jail."

"They're all the same," said the bootlegger woman, and examining the girl's head carefully, she put down her stocking and pulled the girl between her legs while her fingers deftly searched for lice. "They said to me, 'Why are you bootlegging?' Please, what do I have to support my children?" she said, doing her usual chores deftly. The bootlegger's words reminded Maslova of wine. "Better get some wine to drink," she said to Korabreva, wiping her tears on her shirtsleeve and making only occasional sobs. "Want a drink? All right, take the money," said Korabreva.