Chapter 19 Chapter Four (4)

The key turned smoothly in the lock.How many people besides me know these secrets?The key to my cell was also the key to the great cupboard in the barracks hall; the keys to the suites above the kitchen were copies of the keys to the armory; door; the smaller cupboard in the synagogue has a passage in it, and the exit is just above the water pipe in the courtyard.A man who for thirty years devotes himself to attention to the many details of everyday affairs will not be in vain. Stars twinkled in the dark sky.Through the iron fence of the courtyard gate, you can see the flickering fire on the other side of the square.Leaning against the door, I stared hard enough to make out the black figure, someone sitting against the wall, or curled up and asleep.Did he see me at the cell door?I stood alert for several minutes.He didn't move.I walked close to the base of the wall, stepping on the gravel on the road with my bare feet, making a slight rustling sound.

I turned the corner and went through the kitchen door.The next door leads upstairs to my former apartment.It's locked now.The third and last door were both open, and the little room was sometimes left open for the wounded or sick, but sometimes only for the convenience of the natives.I squatted down, with my hands hanging on my chest, and crawled towards the blue window with the bars in the dark, for fear of bumping into someone, whose breathing I could hear clearly. A vague dream came out from a series of snores: the sleeping guy quickened his breathing following my steps, and every breath was accompanied by a slight moan.Is he dreaming?I moved a few inches to stop, like a machine, he was still moaning and panting in the dark, I crawled past.

I stood at the window and surveyed the town square, wondering if I might see bonfires, teams of horses tied together, guns erected, rows of tents.But there was almost nothing: there was only a little embers of light, perhaps from the two white tents under the trees in the distance.So it seems that the expeditionary force has not returned!Could the few people here be survivors?My heart stopped beating at the thought.But it's impossible!These men did not go to war: at worst they had but to sweep up the river, robbing the unarmed shepherds, raping their wives, plundering their houses, and driving their cattle into flight; Best of all, they didn't run into anyone at all—certainly not any of the barbarian tribes they were guarding against in Game 3.

Fingers brushed my ankles like butterfly wings.I bend my knees. "I'm thirsty." A voice uttered the words.It was a man who was panting.So it looked like he wasn't asleep. "Be quiet, my child," I whispered.Looking up, he noticed his eyeballs rolled upwards.I touch my forehead: he has a fever.His hand reached out and took mine. "I'm so thirsty!" he said. "I'll get you water," I whispered in his ear, "but you have to promise to keep quiet. There are sick people here, and they want to sleep." The shadow by the door didn't move, maybe there was nothing there, maybe it was just a big sack or a pile of firewood.I tiptoed across the gravel to fetch water from the flume where the soldiers washed.The water wasn't clean but I couldn't turn on the pipe, and a frying pan was hanging over the edge of the sink, and I came back on tiptoe with a full pan.

The boy tried to sit up but was too weak.I helped him to drink water. "What happened?" I asked softly.Another sleeping person moves. "Are you injured or sick?" "I'm so hot!" He hummed, trying to throw off the blanket covering him.I stop him. "You need to sweat a little to let the heat go," I whispered.He shook his head slowly from side to side.I held his wrist until he fell asleep again. There are three bars on the window frames: all downstairs window frames in the barracks have bars installed.I put my foot against the window frame, grabbed one of the middle bars and tugged.I was so nervous that I was sweating profusely, and there was a stabbing pain in my back, and the bars didn't move.There was a sudden rattling sound from the window frame. I was afraid of falling on my back and quickly grabbed the bars and dared not let go.The boy moaned again, and another throat was cleared by the sleeping fellow.I almost cried out in pain because my whole body weight was on my right leg.

The window was open, and I pushed the bars aside, and squeezed my head and shoulders through the cracks, squeezed my whole body, and landed in a row of trimmed bushes under the northern wall of the barracks.At this time, all the thoughts in my mind were pain, and what I wanted most was to pick up a random place and lie on my side, with my bent knees touching my chin.It had been at least an hour now since I started running away, and I lay there hearing the sleepy sighs of people through the open window, and the boy muttering to himself.The last embers were extinguished across the square.Both people and animals fell asleep.This is the hour before dawn, the coldest hour.I feel the cold air from the ground penetrating into my bone marrow.If I lay here any longer, I should freeze and be thrown into a wheelbarrow and wheeled back to my cell at dawn.I crawled like a snail along the wall towards the first dark street leading to the square.

The hinges of the gate at the back of the inn were corroded.The place smelled of decay.Vegetable leaves, rotten fruit peels, meat bones, etc. are all thrown here. The dust from the kitchen is shoveled here to bury the garbage, but the garbage on the ground is piled up higher and higher. Rubbish.Flies hover here all day long, and cockroaches, big and small, crawl all over the place. The place under the wooden stairs leading to the balcony and the servants' quarters is a dark corner where sundries are piled up, where wood is piled up, and it is a place for cats to shelter from the rain when it rains.I climbed in and curled up on an old bag.It smelled like urine, it must have been infested with fleas, and my teeth were chattering from the cold, but right now I was just thinking about how to ease the pain in my back.

I was woken up by footsteps going up and down the stairs.It's broad daylight: my head is dizzy and shivering in its den.Someone opened the kitchen door.Chickens were chirping in all directions.Only then would it be possible for me not to be discovered. Despite my fear and hesitation, I bravely climbed the stairs.My dirty clothes, my bare feet, and my stubbled beard must look very strange to others, and I pray that I will be regarded as a dirty servant, a guest at a banquet. The groom at home. The passage was deserted, and the doors of the girls' rooms were open.The room was as neat and tidy as ever: a wool rug on the floor beside the bed, red checkered curtains hanging in front of the windows, and a clothes rack in the cabinet against the wall.I buried my face in her scented clothes, thinking of the boy who brought me food, when I put my hand on his shoulder, due to being alone for a long time, I suddenly felt an unnatural desire to touch A strong urge of the body.

The bed is made.I imagined myself feeling the warmth of her body as I ran my hands through the sheets.There's nothing I'd love more than curling up on her bed, laying my head on her pillow, forgetting all my aches and pains; Also fell into a coma.What a luscious luxury I feel with this soft warm and morning fragrance!I sighed and knelt down and got under the bed.Face down against the floor, but I pushed the bed up as I moved my shoulders.I want to calm myself down and hide here for a day. I was waking and sleeping, drifting from one elusive dream to another from time to time.It was too hot to sleep by noon.But I still huddled in my hiding place, sweating profusely, not daring to come out.After suffering and suffering, I finally couldn't help but climbed out.Humming and chirping, I moved out and squatted on the toilet. There was another tearing pain on my back. I wiped it with the handkerchief I brought by hand, and the white handkerchief was full of blood.The stench immediately filled the whole room, even for a person like me who eats and sleeps by the toilet bucket overflowing with filth in the corner all day, I feel sick.I opened the door and limped down the hall.Rows of eaves can be seen from the balcony. Looking along the eaves on the south wall, you can see the endless desert stretching straight to the blue sky.There was no one around at the moment, only a woman was sweeping the floor step by step across the alley.A child was crawling behind her on hands and knees, pushing something in the dust that I couldn't see.The woman turned around just as I stepped out of the shadows and lifted the commode to dump it on the trash pile below.She didn't pay attention.

In the nearly noon sun, the town began to feel dazed.The morning activities are over, and the temperature will rise sharply near noon, and people will return to their shady yards or rooms with green shaded windows.The gurgling sound of the gutters on the side of the street disappeared.The only sounds that could be heard were the clinking of horseshoes on the anvil, the cooing of turtledoves, and somewhere in the distance a child was crying. I sighed and let myself fall into the familiar scent of flowers on her bed.How beautiful it would be to take a nap with the people of the town!Such a weather, such a hot spring has begun to turn into summer - it is so pleasant to be able to melt into their lazy dreams!Why should I suffer such a disaster when the world is still running peacefully on its own track?The scene came naturally to me: as the sun's shadows lengthened and the first breeze stirred the leaves, I woke up, thought for a while in bed, then dressed and walked down the stairs across the square to my Go to the office, nod and say hello to friends and neighbors while walking, and then spend an hour or two sorting out the materials on the desk, filing and locking them.Then, what to do and what to do.But I'm lying here now as a hunted man, and I shake my head and blink my eyes to realize this: the soldiers on the search mission will come here soon, and they will drag me into the cell again and lock me up. Separated from the sky and from the sight of others. "Why?" I buried myself in the pillow and moaned, "Why me?" No one in this world is more innocent and wronged than me.I'm a total kid!But they will definitely lock me up until the oil is exhausted and the lamps go out, and make my body submit to their despicable means.Then one day they would take me out without warning and wheel me into a closed emergency court where a stiff little colonel presides while his aide reads my indictment to me and two juniors The officers were jury judges, and to make the whole trick look like a legal procedure, it was transferred to another empty courtroom.Next, if they suffered repeated setbacks in the field, especially when the savages disgraced them, they would charge me with "treason"—how could I doubt that?From the court sentence to the execution, they will toss me to cry and scream, confused like a newborn baby, and finally believe that I deserve what I deserve. "You're in a dream!" I said to myself: I said the words aloud, pondering over the words, trying to grasp their meaning: "You have to wake up!" Thoughts lead to "innocent" (this is a fact that I have long understood).The boy lying naked in the light had his hands to his groin; the savage prisoners crouched in the dust, their hands shielding their eyes, waiting for the inevitable to happen next.Why should this incredible beast that trampled and trampled them trample on me now?I'm really not afraid of death.What I'm afraid of is dying in humiliation in a muddle like this.

There was a commotion in the courtyard downstairs, men and women.I hurried into the hiding place, and soon heard footsteps stepping up the stairs.They first walked to the end of the balcony, then slowly backed away, pausing before each door.Upstairs were the cubicles where the servants slept and where the soldiers came in for their snacks at night, and the bars of the doors were pasted with paper.I could clearly hear the searchers opening each door in turn.I pressed against the wall, hoping the man didn't smell me. Footsteps turned the corner and went downstairs to the aisle.The door to my room was opened, opened for a few seconds, then closed again.I escaped. There was a sound of light and swift footsteps, and someone entered the room through the corridor.I was facing inside so I couldn't even see her feet, but I knew it was the girl.Maybe I should show up now and beg her to hide me so I can sneak out of town to the lake at night.But will it work?When the bed shook and I appeared in front of her, she would have screamed for help.Who's to say she'd help a notorious outlaw escape?This man is just one of the many men who come to this room to seek sex. She associates with them just to earn some living expenses from them.Whether she recognizes me at this moment is a question.Her feet walked up and down the room, stopping here and there.I lay motionless, holding my breath, and sweating profusely.Suddenly she was out again.There was a noise on the stairs, and then it was silent again. I was relieved for a while, and when my mind cleared up, I suddenly felt that hiding here is extremely absurd, so I hide here and there, hide under the bed in the hot afternoon and wait for the opportunity to sneak into the reeds, and eat bird eggs and fish to satisfy my hunger. Sleeping in a hole in the ground, slogging through this time waiting for the frontier to return to peace—that's a stupid idea.In fact, I was not myself anymore, and I realized that I had become frightened when the soldier put his hand on the boy's shoulder to imply that he must not reveal anything to me. When I walked into the cell, I was a sane person, and I was very clear about the legitimacy of my actions. Although the cause of the incident was not very clear, in the past two months, there were only inexplicable stains on the four walls and cockroaches all over the place. I can't see either; I can't smell anything except the stench of my own body; there's no one to talk to except in my dream with the ghost whose lips seem to be sealed. I don't know who I am anymore.The desire to touch and be touched was so strong that I moaned.I was only looking forward to the brief contact with that boy morning and night!I just want to lie in a woman's arms in a comfortable bed; I just want to have food; I want to walk in the sun - these are not the right of the police to decide who is my enemy and who is my friend much more important!If everyone in this town despises what I have done to the barbarian girl, and the young men here are killed by my barbarian disciples, and I am deserted, how can I be at peace?What would the men in the blue uniforms have done to me if I hadn't been so obstinate?No matter how much I tell the truth to these interrogators, repeating everything I have said to the savages, even if they almost believe me, they will still deal with me cruelly, because their belief is that only the most extreme Only in this way can we get the most thorough truth.I was fleeing pain and death, but I had no plan of flight, for I would be starved or smoked out after hiding in the reeds for a week.To be honest, I just want to be safe, I just want to climb into a soft bed and get into a pair of friendly arms. There was another sound of footsteps.I recognized the girl's quick steps, and this time she was not alone but brought a man in.They enter the room.By the sound of his voice, he is no longer a teenager. "You shouldn't let them treat you like this! You're not their slave!" he said fiercely. "You don't understand," she replied, "I don't want to talk about it now anyway." There was a silence, then a more intimate voice. I'm terribly embarrassed, it's really inappropriate to be here.Boots hit the floor and clothes fell.The two bodies were only an inch away from me.The bed board was lowered, onto my back.I covered my ears, ashamed to hear the words between them, but the rolling and moaning still came in, and I knew very well that the girl was immersed in joy—that was what I had given.