Chapter 35 Chapter 15 Basement (1)

It snowed heavily at night.As soon as he went out, the dazzling white made him dizzy for a while.He stopped, his body bent, and he felt his whole body spinning, not from left to right, but from top to bottom.If he moved, he felt that he would fall out immediately and fall over. This could only be the prelude to a seizure.Over the past few days, he has experienced dizziness, palpitations, fatigue and getting angry, and epilepsy has shown signs of epilepsy unconsciously.If not illness, then his whole present state of life was an epileptic seizure. He stood at the door of No. 63, concentrating on the onset of the pain inside his body.No sound could be heard in the ear, until the arm was grasped tightly.He opened his eyes, startled, and Nechayev was face to face with him.

Nechayev grinned, showing a row of teeth, the wine on his face was red in the cold weather.He tried to break free, but Nechayev held him tighter. "Stupid," he said. "You can go, you should have left Petersburg long ago. If you don't go, they will definitely catch you." Nechayev grabbed his upper arm with one hand and his wrist with the other, pulling him up.Side by side, the two walked down Candle Street, like a reluctant dog with its master. "You probably want to be caught by them in your heart." Nechayev wore a black hat with the brim drooping, as if shaking his head.He spoke patiently, his voice was like singing. "You always think people's motives are bad, Fyodor Mikhailovich. The people are not so bad, why do I want them to catch me and lock me up? Also, if the two of us go out for a walk like a father and son, who will look at us more?" Nechayev retorted, giving him a visibly happy smile.

They came to the end of Candle Street.Nechayev led him easily to the right of the street. "Your friend was arrested, what do you think?" "My friend? You mean the Finn girl? She won't tell. I believe her." "If you see her, you won't say that." "Have you seen her?" "The police took her into the building to identify me." "It's all right. I'm not afraid of her at all. She's brave. She'll do her job. Did she get a chance to talk to your landlady's little girl?" "With Matrona? Why should it be her?"

"No reason, nothing. She likes children. She's a child herself, very simple, very upright." "The police have questioned me. They will continue to question me. I have not hidden anything. I will not hide anything in the future. I want to warn you, you cannot use Pavel to blackmail me." "I don't need to use Pavel to blackmail you. I just need to use you to blackmail yourself." They walked to Sadovoy Street, to the center of the Haymarket district.He stopped and did not move forward. "You once gave Pavel a list, a list of people you wanted to assassinate," he said.

"We've talked about that list—remember? One of many lists, copies of many lists." "That's not what I asked. I want to know—" Nechayev threw back his head and smiled.A puff of hot air came out of his mouth. "You want to know if you are among them!" "I wonder if this is why Pavel and you are arguing—because he saw that you included me in it, and he refused you to do so." "You're thinking too much, Fyodor Mikhailovich! Of course you're not on the list! You're a man of great value. Anyway, between us, what's on the list Doesn't make any sense. The point is, the people on the list should know that vengeance is waiting for them, they should be trembling on their feet. The people will understand such a thing and approve it with both hands. The people will not care about individual people Interested. People have been suffering since time immemorial, and now, the people demand it, and they have to stand up. So don't worry. Your time is not up yet. In fact, we are happy to be with someone like you cooperating with people.”

"A man like me? A man like me? Do you expect me to write you pamphlets?" "Of course not. Your talent isn't for pamphlets. You're too honest for that. Come on, let's go. I want to take you somewhere. I want to plant a seed in your heart." .” Nechayev took his arm.The two walked along Candle Street again.Two policemen in olive green coats rode up.Nechayev stepped aside, cheerfully raising his hand in salute.The two policemen nodded at him. "I've seen yours," he resumed. "That was the book that gave me this idea. It was a great book. I've never read anything like it. I was overwhelmed many times, Raskolnikov's illness etc. Wait. You must have heard that the book is very popular. Also, I want to tell you—” He slapped his chest with one hand, then raised it forward, as if trying to take his heart out .The odd gesture seemed to have impressed him.His face was flushed.

This was the first time he had seen Nechayev act so impulsively, and he was secretly surprised.A simple heart, he thought, turmoiled with excitement, as if Dr. Frankenstein's monster had come to life.For the first time he felt some pity for Nechayev, for this unlovable dull man. Now, they went deep into the Haymarket area.On both sides of the narrow street, vendors' tables and carts are crowded.Nechayev led him through the streets, through the stinking crowds. They stopped at a door.Nechayev pulled a blue woolen scarf from his pocket. "I must wrong you and blindfold you," he said.

"Where are you taking me?" "I'll take you there." "But where are you taking me?" "Take you where I live now, take you among the people. It's easy for the two of us to do. You can report later with a clear head that you don't know where to find me." The eyes are blindfolded.He was back in that daze again.Nechayev led him away.He stumbled and was constantly bumped by passers-by.At one point he couldn't find his way and had to turn to Nechayev for help. They turned from the street into a courtyard.In a tavern came singing, guitar jingling, merry shouting.He smelled sewer and fish scum.

He was led, his hands touching a railing. "Be careful where you step," Nechayev's voice rang in his ear. "It's very dark here, and you can't see it without your eyes." He shuffled like an old man.The air was damp and cold, and there was silence in my ears.Somewhere slowly dripping water.They seem to walk into a hole. "Here," Nechayev said. "Be careful." They stopped.Nechayev lifted his blindfold.They were standing in front of a staircase with no lights.Ahead is a door, which is closed.Nechayev knocked four times, then three times.They wait.Nothing could be heard but the sound of dripping water.Nechayev repeated the procedure of knocking on the door just now, but there was still no response. "We'll have to wait," he said. "follow me."

He knocked on another door on the opposite side of the stairs.Push the door open and step aside. They went into a basement.The basement roof was so low that he had to bend over.The only light in the room was a small window, level with the overhead, papered over.The floor was bare stone, and even standing he could feel the chill coming through his boots.The corners of the floor were covered with pipes, and there was a smell of damp mud and bricks.Not only that, there are patches of water stains on the wall, and it seems that water is still flowing down. There was a rope running from one end to the other across the basement.The things hanging on the line were as dusty and damp as the house.There is a bed under the clothesline.On the bed were three children, sitting in exactly the same posture.Knees to chins, arms to knees, bare feet in linen smocks.The oldest was a girl with greasy, unkempt hair and a cloud of snot hanging from her upper lip, which she was licking at the moment.Of the other two children, one was just walking.The three children were motionless and silent.Curious eyes stared at the two intruders through the cold air.

Nechayev lit a candle and put it in the alcove. "Is this where you live?" "No. But it doesn't matter." Nechayev began pacing up and down, giving the impression of a caged animal.He pictured Pavel standing shoulder to shoulder with him.Pavel would not be forced into this.It didn't seem difficult for him to understand why Pavel wanted Nechayev to be his guide. "Tell you why you have been brought here, Fyodor Mikhailovich," began Nechayev. "In the next room, we have a printing shop—printing by hand. It's illegal, of course. Pity the idiot with the key is out, and he said he'd stay home. I want to give you the printing house. , before you leave Petersburg. No matter what you say, we can distribute it in a few hours, there are thousands of copies. Such a fast speed, when we are doing something urgent, your help will be amazing Well, you are a famous man, especially among the students. If you want to write, write the story of your step-son's death in your name, and the students will definitely riot in the streets out of righteous anger. Yes." Nechayev stopped and looked at him eagerly. "I am sorry that Pavel Isaev is dead. He was a good comrade. However, we cannot always look back. We must use his death to kindle a fire. Pavel will allow me to do so. He also I will ask you to put your temper to good use." Speaking of this, he seemed to realize that he had gone a little too far, and quickly corrected him insincerely: "I mean use your temper and sadness where they should be used. In this way, he will die worthwhile." Light a fire: asking too much!He turned to leave.But Nechayev grabbed him and dragged him back, "You can't go yet!" Nechayev gritted his teeth. "How can you abandon Russia and go back to that contemptible bourgeois world? How can you ignore such a spectacle"—Nechayev waved his hand above the basement—"burning through the country The spectacular scene of sparks starting a prairie fire? Can you not be moved by it? Is there no spark in your heart? Don’t you turn a blind eye to everything in front of you? " He turned his head and scanned the dark and damp basement with his eyes.What did he see?Three hungry and cold children are waiting for death. "What you saw, I saw," he said. "Sees better than you." "No! You thought you saw it, but you didn't! Sight doesn't depend on the eyes alone, it has to depend on the right understanding. You see this miserable scene in this basement, a place where not even rats or cockroaches are alive. Where would you visit; you saw three hungry children mourning; and if you waited till their mother came back, you'd see her crumbs from the street. You saw Peter How the poor at the bottom of the fort live, but you still don't see it, it's just a part! You don't recognize the violence, the violence that determines the life of these people! Violence: this is what you don't see !"