Chapter 9 Chapter Four (4)

Later I questioned two guards who had been on duty in the yard. "Tell me exactly what happened when the prisoner was tried. Tell me what you saw for yourselves." The taller, long-chinned, anxious-looking boy, a guard I've always liked, replied, "The officer..." "The officer?" "Yes . . . The police officer has been in the synagogue where the prisoners are held, and we will take the prisoner out for trial at whomever he chooses. Bring them back afterward." "One at a time?" "Not necessarily. Sometimes both." "You know a prisoner who died later. Remember that prisoner? Do you know what they did to him?"

"We heard he was out of his mind attacking the interrogators." "yes?" "That's what we heard. I helped bring him back. The prisoners were all asleep. He was panting strangely, short and deep. That's how I last saw him. The next day, he die." "Go on, I'm listening. I want you to tell me everything you remember." The boy's face was flushed, and I'm sure he had been told not to speak out. "That man has been on trial longer than anyone else. I saw him sitting alone in a corner, holding his head when he was first brought in."

He blinked his eyes at his companion. "He doesn't eat anything. He doesn't want to. His daughter is with him: she tries to persuade him to eat, but he just won't." "What's the matter with his daughter?" "She was also arraigned, but not for as long." "Go on." But he stopped talking. "Listen," I said, "we both know who his daughter is. It's the girl I'm staying with now. It's no secret. Now, go ahead and tell me what happened." "I don't know, sir! I'm not there most of the time." He begged for help from his companion, who was silent. "Sometimes there was screaming and I thought they were beating her, but I wasn't there. I left after work."

"You know she can't walk to this day. They broke her foot. Those guys tortured her like this in front of other people. Was her father there?" "Yes, I think so." "You know she can't see clearly anymore. When did they do it?" "Sir, there were many prisoners in charge at that time, and some were sick! I heard that her feet were broken, but it was a long time before I found out that she was also blinded. I don't know about these things. What can I do, I don't want to get involved in something I don't understand." His companion had nothing to say.I sent them away. "Don't be afraid, don't let anything happen just because of what you said to me." At night, that dream came again.I trudged through an endless expanse of white snow, towards a group of small figures who were playing a game of building snow castles.When they approached, those children scattered and disappeared without a trace.There was only one left, the kid in the hood sitting with his back turned to me.The child kept his head buried in patting the side of the castle with snow, and I walked around the child, spying on the face under the hood.The face I saw was blank, without features; like an embryonic face or a small whale; in short, it was not a human face at all, but a certain part of the human body bulged out from under the skin—that It is white, that is Baixue.Between numb fingers, I have been holding a coin tightly.

* * Winter stays down.The cold wind blowing from the north will intensify in the next four months.I stood in front of the window, with my forehead pressed against the cold glass, listening to the whistling of the eaves, and the loose tiles on the roof were blown up and down.A cloud of dust rolled across the square, beating the window panes.The air was full of dust, and the sun stirred into the orange sky, casting a piece of copper.After this season, one after another snowstorm will decorate the earth with white.The earth fell into the depths of winter. The fields were so deserted that no one but those who lived by hunting had to go out of town.The twice-weekly general inspection of the garrison was also temporarily suspended, and the soldiers were allowed to leave the camp and live in the town if they wanted to, because there was nothing else for them to do in the barracks except sleep and drink.When I walked past the battlement wall in the early morning, I saw that half of the lookout posts were empty, and only a few guards were still on the post. They were wrapped in layers of fur, and they struggled to raise their hands in salute.Ordinarily they can quite well stay in bed.For the Empire is safe in winter: from us far away savages are huddling around their fires, gritting their teeth against the cold.

There are no barbarians coming this year.After winter in previous years, nomadic tribes usually come to settlements in groups, set up tents outside the city walls to exchange goods with residents, and exchange their wool, animal skins, felts and leather products for us. Cotton products, tea, sugar, soybeans and flour here.We all like the leather goods of the barbarians, especially their well-sewn boots.I have also encouraged this form of barter in the past, only prohibiting monetary transactions.I tried to ban barbarians from the tavern.Most of all, I don't want to see a parasitic town on the frontier, full of drunken beggars and vagrants.In the past, it has grieved me that many of them were ruined at the hands of cunning shopkeepers, who traded their wares for wine, and lay unconscious in the gutter, thus exacerbating the native population's hatred of them. Savages echo their prejudices: a savage is lazy, immoral, dirty, stupid.In this part of the world, civilization is to degrade the savages, to breed a people who can only rely on others, so I have made up my mind to oppose this so-called civilization, and based on this determination, I have determined my basic administrative methods. (This is the man, I must say, who now keeps that barbarian girl in his bed!)

However, this year all borders have been closed with quarantine curtains.From our walls we may look across the wastes; and know eyes more eager than our own are looking on our side.Business activities are completely over.The news from the capital said that as long as it is for the defense and safety of the empire, no matter what action may be taken, it will be regardless of all costs.Since this news came, we have returned to the age of armed raids and fortification everywhere.Nothing but one thing to do: sharpen your sword, stay alert, and be ready to strike. I spend my time in leisurely pastimes, reading the classics; continuing to catalog my collection; checking those maps of the Southern Desert that I use; The diggers were out clearing the quicksand from the underground cache; two or three times a week, I went out early in the morning to hunt antelope along the lake.

Twenty years ago, there were so many antelopes and hares that the crop guards had to take hunting dogs to patrol at night to prevent these animals from gnawing on the young crops.However, with the development and expansion of settlements, especially after groups of dogs were released to hunt, the antelope withdrew to the east and north, and rarely visited the riverside or the far bank.Now hunters have to prepare their horses and run for more than an hour before they can start hunting.