Chapter 8 public display

On a road in the west city of Shoushan District [2], there was no disturbance at this time.Although the flaming sun has not yet shined directly, the sand and soil on the road seem to be shining brightly; the heat is full and mixed in the air, exerting the power of midsummer everywhere.Many dogs stick out their tongues, and even the crows in the trees pant with their mouths open—but, of course, there are exceptions.In the distance, there was the faint sound of two copper cups striking each other, reminding people of sour plum soup and feeling a faint chill, but the interlude of lazy and monotonous metallic sounds made the silence even more profound.

There was only the sound of footsteps, and the coachman ran forward silently, as if he wanted to escape the scorching sun quickly. "Hot buns! Just out of the drawer...." A fat boy of eleven or twelve years old, with narrow eyes and cocked mouth, yelled in front of a roadside shop.The voice was already hoarse, and it was still a little drowsy, as if hypnotized by the long summer days. On the dilapidated table next to him, there were twenty or thirty steamed buns, sitting coldly without heat. "Hea! Steamed buns, hot..." Like a ball thrown hard against the wall and bounced back, he suddenly flew across the road.Next to the electric pole, opposite him, facing the road, there were also two people standing there: one was a thin-faced and thin patrolman in a light yellow uniform with a knife, holding a rope in his hand, and the other end of the rope was tied to another On the arm of a man wearing a white vest over a blue blouse.The man was wearing a new straw hat with the brim hanging down on all sides and covering the area around the eyes.But the fat boy was short, and when he looked up, he met this man's eyes.Those eyes also seemed to be looking at his skull.He hurriedly lowered his eyes to look at the white vest, only to see some large and small words written line by line on the vest.

In an instant, most of the circle was filled with spectators.After the addition of the bald old man, there were not many vacancies, and they were immediately filled by a big fat man with a red nose and a shirtless shirt.This fat man was too wide and occupied the position of the two of them, so the one who arrived could only bend down on the second floor, and stretched into his head from between the two necks in front. The bald man stood slightly opposite to the white vest, bent over to study the writing on the vest, and finally read: "Om, all, hum, eight, and..." But the fat boy saw that the white vest was studying the shiny bald head, so he followed suit to study it, only to see that the head was bald, and there was a patch of gray hair near the ear, and there was nothing new about it.But an old woman holding a child in the back wanted to take the opportunity to squeeze in; the bald man stood up straight for fear of losing his position. Although he hadn't finished reading the text, he had no choice but to look at the face in the white vest: half of the straw hat brim A nose, a mouth, and a pointed chin.

Like a ball that bounced back after being thrown hard against the wall, a primary school student galloped up, held down the snow-white cloth cap on his head with one hand, and burrowed straight into the crowd.But when he got to the third—maybe the fourth—floor, he encountered something unshakably great. When he looked up, there was a wide, naked back above the waist of his blue trousers, on which sweat was dripping. Flow down.Knowing that there was nothing he could do by surprise, he had to walk right along the waistband of his trousers, but fortunately he saw an empty space at the end, through which there was light.When he just lowered his head to drill, he only heard a "what", the buttock below the waist of his trousers tilted to the right, the space was immediately blocked, and the light disappeared at the same time.

But not long after, the elementary school student got out from the policeman's knife.He looked around in surprise: there was a circle of people outside, the top was wearing a white vest, the opposite was a fat boy with a shirtless shirt, and behind the fat boy was a big fat man with a red nose and a shirtless shirt.At this moment, he vaguely realized the true nature of the great obstacle before, and he only looked at the red nose in surprise and admiration.The fat boy was originally looking at the pupil's face, so he couldn't help following his gaze and turned his head. There was a very fat breast with a few long hairs around the teat.

"What did he do?..." When everyone looked at it in astonishment, it was a vulgar man like a worker who was humbly asking the bald old man for advice. The bald man didn't make a sound, but just opened his eyes to fix him.He was made to look down, and when he looked again after a while, the bald man opened his eyes and looked at him, and everyone else seemed to open their eyes to look at him.Then he became embarrassed as if he had committed a crime, and finally backed away slowly and slipped out.An eldest son with an umbrella came to fill in the vacancy; the bald man also turned his face to look at the white vest again.

The eldest son bent down, trying to look at the face in the white vest from the brim of the drooping straw hat, but for some reason he suddenly stood up straight again.So the people behind him had to try their best to stretch their necks; one skinny man even opened his mouth wide, like a dead bass. Suddenly, the patrolman raised his feet, everyone was stunned and looked at his feet quickly; but he was steady again, so they looked at the white vest again.The eldest son suddenly bent down again, trying to peek under the brim of the drooping straw hat, but immediately stood upright, raising one hand and desperately scratching his scalp.

The bald man was not happy, because he first felt that his back was a bit unbalanced, and then there was a gurgling sound in his ears.He furrowed his brows, and when he looked back, there was a black hand holding half a steamed bun on his right, and was stuffing it into the mouth of a man with a cat face.He didn't say anything, and went to look at the new straw hat on the white vest. Suddenly, there was a blow like a thunderstorm, and even the tall and fat man couldn't help but staggered forward.At the same time, an arm that was as fat as it was stretched out from his shoulder, spread five fingers, and hit the fat boy's cheek with a slap.

"So happy! Your mother..." At the same time, behind the big fat man, there was a rounder fat face like a Maitreya Buddha [4] saying so. The fat boy also staggered four or five steps, but he didn't fall down. He pressed his cheek with one hand and turned around, trying to get out of the gap next to the fat man's legs.The fat man hurriedly stood firm, and tilted his buttocks to block the gap, and asked bitterly: "what?" The fat boy, like a mouse caught in a trap, panicked for a while, then suddenly ran towards the elementary school student, pushed him away, and rushed out.The elementary school students also turned around and followed out.

"Scary, this child..." There are always five or six people saying this. When he regained his composure, when the big fat man looked at the face of the white vest again, he saw that the white vest was looking up at his chest; There was sweat, and he wiped it away with the palm of his hand. However, the situation does not always seem to be quite peaceful.The old woman with the child in her arms didn't pay attention because she was looking around during the harassment, and the "Suzhou Qiao" with a magpie tail combed on her hair touched the bridge of the nose of the driver standing next to her.The coachman pushed, but he was pushing on the child; the child turned around, turned to the outside of the circle, and shouted to go back.The old lady staggered a little at first, but she stood still, turned the child so that he was facing the white vest, pointed with one finger, and said:

"Ah, ah, look! How beautiful! . . . " A student-like head wearing a straw hat suddenly poked into the gap, put a melon seed or something similar in his mouth, knocked his jaw upwards, bit it open, and withdrew.This place was filled with an oval face covered with oil, sweat and dust. The eldest son with the umbrella was already angry, and he slanted one shoulder, frowning and staring at the dead bass behind his shoulder.Probably the hot air exhaled from such a big mouth is not easy to resist, let alone in the middle of summer.The bald man was looking up at the four white letters on the red plate nailed to the electric pole, as if he found it very interesting.Both the fat man and the patrolman squinted at the old woman's hook-knife-like toe. "it is good!" Somewhere suddenly several people cheered together.Knowing that something should happen, all heads turned around.Even the patrolman and the prisoner he led were a little shaken. "The steamed stuffed bun just out of the drawer! Oh, it's hot...." On the opposite side of the road are fat kids tilting their heads and shouting like they are dozing off; on the road are coachmen running silently, as if they want to escape the scorching sun.Everyone was almost disappointed, but fortunately, they searched around, and finally found a foreign car parked on the road more than ten miles away, and a driver was getting up. The circle spread out immediately, and they all walked over in random order.The big fat man rested under a locust tree by the side of the road less than halfway through; the eldest son walked faster than the bald man with the oval face and approached.The passengers in the car are still sitting, and the driver has fully climbed up, but he is still rubbing his knee condyle.There were five or six people watching them with smiles. "Is it done?" the passenger asked when the coachman was about to pull the cart. He just nodded, pulled the cart and left; everyone watched him bewilderedly.At first, I knew which car was the one that fell down, but later it was confused by other cars, so I couldn't figure it out. The road was very leisurely, and a few dogs stuck out their tongues and gasped; the fat man was watching the dog's belly rising and falling quickly under the shade of Huaihuai trees. The old woman hugged the child and walked past under the shade of the eaves.The fat boy tilted his head, squinted his eyes, dragged his voice, and yelled sleepily—"Hot buns! Huh!...Just out of the box...." March 18, 1925 [1] This article was originally published in the twenty-second issue of the Beijing "Yusi" weekly magazine on April 13, 1925. 〔2〕The area of ​​Shoushan refers to the capital. "Hanshu Rulin Biography" contains: "The practice of enlightenment is also the beginning of the establishment of goodness, starting from the capital." This refers to Beijing, the capital of the Beiyang warlord era. 〔3〕Bronze cup is a small cup-shaped copper vessel.In the old days, vendors selling sour plum soup in Beijing often used two copper cups to strike each other and make rhythmic sounds to attract customers. [4] Maitreya Buddha is one of the Buddhist Bodhisattvas. The Buddhist scriptures say that he inherited Sakyamuni's Buddha position and became a Buddha.The common statue of him is a fat, round smiling face, with a bare chest and belly exposed, commonly known as Maitreya Buddha with a big belly.