Chapter 13 little john eleven

"We have to try it," Chuan Qiao said, "I may show you many beauties in a whirl." After they had bid farewell to the Doctor, and agreed to return immediately, he led John around all corners of the great city, and he showed it how the great monster lived, breathed and nourished, how it absorbed itself and grew again from itself. stand up. But he prefers this gloomy and miserable area where people are crowded together, everything is gray and dry, and the air is heavy and humid. He led him into one of the large buildings, from which smoke rose, which John had seen the first day.A deafening noise reigned over the place,-- roaring, rattling, banging, rumbling,--big wheels humming, and long belts snaking past, black walls and The ground, window glass is broken or dusty.Majestic chimneys stretched high, surpassing the black buildings, and ejected thick, swirling columns of smoke.In the clutter of wheels and machines, John saw countless people with pale faces, black hands and clothes, working silently.

"What's up?" he asked. "Wheels are also wheels," Chuan Chiu smiled, "If you want, you can also call them human beings. What they operate, they operate year-round, day after day. In this way, a person can also be a person. " They walked into the dirty alley, the blue strip of sky was as narrow as a finger, and was obscured by the hanging clothes.People were squirming there, jostling each other, shouting, laughing, and sometimes singing.Inside the house was a small room, so small, so dark and drowsy that John hardly dared to breathe.He saw beating children crawling on the bare ground, and a young girl with unkempt hair humming a ditty to her emaciated baby.He heard quarreling and shouting, and all the faces around him seemed tired, dull, or indifferent.

Nameless pain invaded John.This is different from the previous pain that he is now ashamed of. "Piercing," he asked, "are the people living here always so distressed and difficult? They are also more difficult than me..." He didn't dare to continue. "Certainly--and they call it happiness. They don't have a hard time at all, they're used to it, and they know nothing else. That's a muddle-headed brute. Look at those two sitting at her door." They look contentedly at the dirty lane, as you once looked at your sand-hills. You needn't frown for them. Or you'd have to frown for the woodchuck who never sees the light of day."

John didn't know the answer, and he didn't know why he was still crying. And amidst the noisy operations and rotations, he always saw the pale, empty-eyed man walking around with soundless steps. "All in all a good guy, right? He's taking people from here. But here they're just as afraid of him." It was already late at night, and the two sauntered down the silent street when the hundreds of little lights swayed in the wind and cast long undulating images on the dark water.The old tall houses seemed to be leaning against each other due to fatigue, and someone had fallen.Most of them have closed their eyes.In a few places there was a dim yellow light from a window.

Tell John many stories about those who lived there, about the sufferings suffered there, about the hardships and struggles fought there.He did not spare it the gloomiest; preferred to select the meanest and most embarrassing, and when John was silenced by his grim account, he wryly grinned with pleasure. "Piercing," John asked suddenly, "do you know a little bit of that great light?" He thought the question would free him from the gloom that oppressed him so heavy and terribly. "Empty words! Xuan'er's empty words!" Chuanzhuo said, "fantasies and dreams. There is nothing but people and myself. Do you think there is a God or something like that, who is happy to be here on the ground like this, to rule over such waste We? And with such a great light, we will never guard against those who have made so many in this darkness."

"And the stars, the stars?" John asked, as if he hoped that this apparent greatness would exalt the meanness before him. "The stars? Do you know what you said, kid? It's not a little light up there, like the candles you see around here. Those are worlds. The worlds of countless towns are much larger, and we are like a speck of dust, floating among them, and it doesn't matter what is above or what is below, there are worlds everywhere, always worlds, and this It's forever, never ending." "No! No!" cried John in terror. "Don't say that, don't say that! In the great dark field I see little lights above me."

"Yes, you look but little lights. And you stare up all your life, seeing only little lights above you in the dark fields. But you can, and you should know, that are the worlds, both Above, and below, where the ball takes with it nothing, and disappears for nothing, poor wriggling heaps. Then don't tell me 'stars' We're as if there were twenty or thirty, it's unconscious." John was silent.This will raise the greatness of the lowly, and crush the lowly. "Come on," said Chuanzhuo, "we want to see something interesting." There was lovely loud music to them.At one corner of a dark street stood a tall house, from which a light shone brightly through its many tall windows.A row of cars was parked ahead.The stamping of the horses sounds hollowly in the silence of the night, and their heads are still nodding!Oh!Glittering on the silver studs of the shiny car parts and on the varnish of the car.

Inside is bright light.John was half dazed looking at the hundreds of quivering flames, dazzling, colored mirrors and the splendor of flowers.Sliding past the window with bright postures, they all approached each other with smiling appearances and friendly attitudes.Until the end of the hall, people in costumes were turning around, either at slow pace or in swift whirlwind gyrations.The loud uproar and joyous voices, the scuffling footsteps and the ruffled gowns, all intermingled with the melodious melodious music that John had heard in the distance, spread to the street in a tangle.Outside, near the window, were two dark figures, only the faces, unevenly and sharply illuminated by the light they were coveting.

"It's beautiful! It's grand!" cried John.He reveled in the sight of so many colours, brilliance and flowers. "What happened? Can we go in?" "Oh, you call that beautiful? Or maybe you go down a rabbit hole first? But look? How people smile, shine, and bow. Behold, how the men are so respectable and beautiful, the women How flamboyant and well-dressed it is. How solemn it is to dance, as if it were the most important event in the world!" John recalled the dance in the rabbit hole, and saw a few things that reminded him.However, all this is far grander and brighter.If those young women in fine costumes stretched their long white arms and turned their faces sideways while dancing lively, he would look as beautiful as a fairy.The waiters came and went in a solemn manner, and bowed respectfully, offering the expensive drink.

"How gorgeous! How gorgeous!" exclaimed John. "It's beautiful, don't you think so?" Chuan Qiao said. "But you have to look a little farther than what's right next to your nose. You see only lovely smiling faces now, don't you? Well, that smile, for the most part, is deceitful and false. The one sitting under the parlor wall The kind old ladies are like fishermen round the pond; the young women are the bait, the gentlemen the fish. Though they gossiping together so dearly,--they enviously dislike each other's catch. If one of the young women pleases it is because she dresses better than the others, or attracts more gentlemen whose special pleasure is a naked neck and arms. In all smiling eyes and darlings Behind the lips, everything else was hidden. And the respectful servants were thinking irreverently. If they suddenly leaked what they were thinking, it would be over with this beautiful pageant in an instant. "

When Chuan Chuan showed him all, John clearly saw the falsehood in appearance and manner, and how vanity, jealousy and boredom showed from the mask of smiling, or if the mask was put aside for a moment, Then suddenly saw the difference. "Well," said Chuan Chiu, "they should be allowed to do as they please. People should be happy too. In any other way, they don't understand it at all." John felt as if someone was standing behind him.He looks back.It was the familiar, long form.The pale face was illuminated by dazzling brilliance, so that two large black spots formed in the eyes.He murmured to himself in a low voice, and pointed his finger straight at the gorgeous hall. "Look!" Chuanzhuo said, "He's looking for it again." John looked where the finger pointed.He saw how an old lady suddenly closed her eyes in the midst of a conversation, and how a beautiful young girl shuddered, and stopped and stared ahead. "When will it be?" Chuan Zhuo asked. "It's my business," said Death. "I want to show John this same society again," Chuan Zhuo said.Then he grinned and rolled his eyes. "Can you?" "Tonight?" Death asked. "Why not?" Chuanzhuo said. "There was no time in that place, and there was no time. Now is, and what ever was, and what ever will be, has always been there." "I cannot go with you," said Death, "I have too much work. But by that name, call the one we both know, and you can find your way without me." So they walked for a while through the lonely street, the gas lamps flickering in the night wind, and the dark cold water lapped the river bank.The soft music gradually became weaker, and finally ceased to sound in the great silence that stretched across the metropolis. Suddenly, from a high place, there was a sound full of metal, a clear and serious song. It was all falling suddenly from the high tower to the sleeping city--to the brooding and dark soul of Little John.He looked up in amazement.The bell rose up with cheers, and powerfully tore through the dead silence, and the loud tone drifted away leisurely.The joyful voice, the ceremonial song, in the midst of silent sleep and dark sorrow, was strange to him. "This is the clock," Chuan Chuan said, "it's always so happy, year after year. Every hour, he always uses the same energy and enthusiasm to sing the same song. At night, it is louder than in the day." It is more interesting,--it seems that the clock is cheering that it has no need to sleep, and there are thousands of sorrows and cries below it, and it can continue to sing with the same happiness. But if anyone dies, it is even more interesting. Sounds funny." There was another cheer. "One day, John," continued Piercing, "behind a window in a silent room will shine a tiny little light. A brooding, trembling light that makes shadows dance on the wall. Little light. Apart from a low, suffocated whimper, there was no sound in the room. In it stood a bed with white curtains, and wrinkled shadows. On the bed lay something, also white and still. It would be Xiao John.—Oh, so the song came loud and joyful into the house, and in it saluted in the first hours of his death."— Twelve heavy beatings roared in the air with delay.When the final blow was struck, John seemed to be in a dream, he stopped moving, and floated for a while on the street, carried by piercing hands.Houses and streetlights slid past in rapid flight.Death is gone.Now the houses are sparser.They are arranged in simple rows, and between them are dark caverns full of secrets, ditches, puddles, ruins and logs, occasionally lit by gas lights.At last came a large gate with heavy pillars and a high fence.In a split second they floated past and landed on the wet grass beside the big sand pile.John thought he was in a garden because he heard trees rustling all around him. "Then, watch out, John! Still think I know more than Xuan'er." So Chuan Chuan shouted out a short, dark name that made John shudder.Darkness echoes the sound from all sides, and the wind lifts it up in whirling whirls—until it dies high in the sky. John saw how the weeds reached his head, and how the pebbles that were just under his feet covered his view.Chuanzhu, who was next to him, was also as small as him. He grabbed the small stone with both hands and turned it with all his strength.A chaotic cry of thin, high voices rises from the barren ground. "Hey, who's here? What's the meaning of this? Wild thing!" It was immediate. John saw black figures scurrying through and through.He knew the nimble black millipede, the glowing brown earwig with its delicate pincers, the mouse woman with its rounded spine, and the snakelike centipede.Among them was a long earthworm, which seemed to retreat into its hole as quickly as electricity. Cut through the noisy swarm of activity, towards the mouth of the earthworm's burrow. "Hey, you long naked bastard! Come out, with your red pointed nose," cried Chuck. "How is it going?" the worm asked from the depths. "You gotta come out because I'm going in, you know, naked Sandchewer!" The earthworm looked around and stretched out its pointed tip from the hole, and probed everywhere again, and then slowly pulled the long naked body a little closer to the ground. Look around for other animals that flock out of curiosity. "One of you must go with us, and shine a light in front of us. No, Black Maru, you're too fat, and you'll make me dizzy with your thousand claws. Hey, you, earwig! Your appearance is what I want. Go together, and bring light on your clip! Malu, run, go find a stray light, or bring me a small lamp made of rotten wood!" The sound of his command moved the animals, and they obeyed. They went down the worm road.Ahead of them are earwigs with glowing wood, so piercing, so John.Down there it was narrow and dark.John saw the grains of sand shone faintly in a thin blue twilight.The sand grains are as large as stones, translucent, and have been ground into tight smooth walls by the bodies of earthworms.Earthworms are following curiously.John looked back and saw that sometimes its pointed head was stretched forward, and sometimes it was waiting for its body to draw closer. They went down in silence—long and deep.On John's path that was too steep, Chu Chuan supported him.It seemed endless; always a new grain of sand, always the earwig crawling down, turning and turning as the road turned.At last the road was wider and the walls moved away from each other.The sand grains are black and damp, forming a hole on the surface, with water spots on the surface of the hole forming bright streaks, and tree roots penetrate into the hole like a dead snake. Then suddenly a straight wall stood before John's eyes, black and high, blocking the entire space before them.The earwig turned around. "Okay! Then we'll go to the back. The earthworm already knows it. This is its home." "Come on, show us the way!" Chuan Qiao said. The earthworm slowly dragged the link's body to the base of the black wall, and touched it.John saw that the wall was wood.Light brown dust was scattered everywhere.The worm burrowed in and slid its long, soft body through the hole. "You, then," said Chuanzhuo, pushing John into the small damp hole.For a split second he was so terrified in the soft wet mustard that he felt his head free, and with all his might he was able to get himself out of the hole.There seems to be a large space around.The ground was hard and damp, the air thick and unbearably oppressive.John barely dared to breathe, which awaited in nameless terror.He heard the piercing sound hollow, as in a cellar. "Here, John, follow me!"— He felt how the ground in front of him swelled into mountains—guided by piercing, he stepped on this ground in the dense darkness.He appears to be walking on a garment, which rises and falls with the steps.He bumped over ditches and hills as he followed the chisel until he reached a level ground, holding on to a long stalk like a pliable tube. "It's good for us to stand here! Come on!" Chuanzhu shouted. Then a faint light appeared in the distance, and it hung up together with the worm it was holding.The closer the light moved, the more it filled the space with its bleak light, and the greater John's embarrassment. The mountain he stepped on was long and white, and the tube in his hand was brown, and it led down into brilliant waves. He made out the tall, rigid body of a man, and the cold place on which he stood, was the forehead. In front of him there appeared two deep black holes, sunken eyes, and the bluish light still showed the thin nose and the gray lips that were parted in a terrible dead smile. A sharp laugh came from the chiseled mouth, which died again in an instant on the damp wooden wall. "It's a surprise, John!" The long worm crawled out from the folds of the shroud; it looked around, dragged itself over the lower jaw, passed the stiff lips, and slid into the black mouth hole. "This is the fairest of the balls,—you think more beautiful than a goblin. Then her dress and curls smelled sweet, and then her eyes were wistful and her lips were a smile,—now she is certainly changed. It's a little bit worse." Amidst all his awe, John's eyes hid unbelief.Is it fast? ——It was so gorgeous just now, but now...? "Don't you believe me?" Chuan Chiu said with a smile. "Between then and now, half a century has passed. There is neither time nor time. What has passed shall be eternal, and what shall come shall have passed. You cannot think of that, but you should Believe me. Everything here is true, everything I have shown you is true, true! This is something that Xuan'er cannot claim!" Chuanzhu jumped to the face of the dead body with a giggle, and made a very nasty joke.He sat on the eyebrows, pulled the long eyelashes and opened the eyelids.The eye, which John had seen gleaming with joy, was tiredly fixed, and wrinkled and white in the dim yellow light. "Then, go on!" Chuan Zhuo shouted, "There is something else to see!" The worm slowly crawled out from between the corner of the right mouth, and the ghastly procession continued. Not a return,—but a new, also so long and dark way. "Here comes an old one," said the worm, when another black wall blocked the way. "He's been here for a long time!" This is a little less annoying than the previous one.John could see nothing but a shapeless heap with bones sticking out of it.Hundreds of gnats and insects are silently busy at work.The light caused a stir. "Where did you come from? Who brought the light here? We don't need this!" They also quickly burrowed into the hole in the ditch.But they recognized a species. "Have you ever been here?" asked the worms. "The wood is still hard." The first worm denied it. They went farther, and Chuck acted as an interpreter, pointing out to little John what he knew.There came a disfigured face with glaring round eyes, swollen black lips and face. "He was a fine gentleman," he said cheerfully. "You may have seen him. So rich, so rich, and so proud. He has retained his dignity." Proceed in this way.There are also emaciated and eroded figures, among the white hair shining light blue in the shimmering light, there are also children with big heads, and there are also middle-aged contemplative faces. "Behold, it grows old after they die," Chuan Chiu said. They approached a bearded man with high lips and gleaming white teeth.In the middle of the forehead, there is a round, black hole. "The man's been sloppily handcrafted for eternity. Why don't you bear with it? He probably got to be here anyway." And the road again, and the new road again, and again the outstretched body with the stiff ugly face, and the motionless, folded hands. "I won't go down," said the earwig, "I don't know much about this place." "Let us turn back," said the worm. "Go, just go!" Chuan Zhuo shouted. The line moves on again. "Everything that you see exists," continued the piercer, "and it's all real. There's only one thing that's not real. That's yourself, John. You're not here, and you can't it's here." Seeing John's frightened and frozen eyes at his words, he laughed loudly. "This is a dead end, I'm not going any further," Earwig said irritably. "But I want to go on," Chuanzhuo said, and as soon as he reached the end of the road, he dug with both hands. "Help me, John!" John, in his misery, obeyed involuntarily, and dug away the wet fine dirt. Sweating and silent, they continued to work until they hit the black wood. The earthworm retracted the link's head, and disappeared backwards.The earwig also lowered its light and walked back. "You can't get in, the wood is too new," it said before leaving. "I want it!" said Chuu Chiuu, and with his claws he tore off the long, white chips from the wood. A terrible embarrassment seized John.Yet he must have it, and he can do nothing else. The dark void finally opened.Chuanchi took the light and hurriedly climbed in. "Here, here!" he cried, running to the head. But when John got to the silently folded hands on his chest, he had to rest.He saw thin, pale, half-dark fingers by the ear, right in front of him.He recognized it suddenly, he recognized the cuts and folds of the fingers, the long, now dark blue-dyed shapes of the nails.He saw a small brown dot on his index finger.This is his own hand. "Here, here!" A piercing voice shouted from the other side. "Just take a look, do you know him?" Poor John wanted to get up again, and go to the light that was shining toward him.Yet he no longer could.The little light disappeared into complete darkness, and he also fell down in a daze.