Chapter 13 cool afternoon

The sky full of dark clouds weighed on the heads of thousands of people for several days, and finally it began to snow. In the last ten days of December, when the year is coming to an end, if in previous years, the shops on the street are always full of vitality , was extremely crowded, and this year's market conditions were as sluggish as cold water springs. After noon, there were still very few pedestrians on the street. The owner of Jufang, like a pigeon after a meal, was alone on the counter, staring blankly at the snowflakes on the street outside the store.In this small shop with a facade less than ten feet wide, there are delicate-looking women who earn twenty or thirty yuan a day when it is busy.Seeing her lively appearance and plump body, no one knew that she was the new bride of the boss.What can make people feel that this speculation is true is the smile on her face when she walked in front of the boss.

"Yunfang! You stay here to look at the store for a while, and I'll go out to check out with Zhenda Company. In case Lao Li comes, you can ask him how the business entrusted to him yesterday is going?" He took off a black velvet hat from the coat hook on the wall beside the counter, took a step forward, stood in front of him, and put it on.He took a look in a small mirror standing on the table under the counter, turned up the collar of his coat again, and nodded to Yunfang—his bride—and walked through a small door on the side of the counter. Walked out the door. This owner was originally the small owner of Zheng Jufang's shop. After he got married, his father, because he lived in the shop with his bride, didn't know the hardships of rice, so six months ago, he specially set up a branch shop for him in this new shop. Trillium Road in the market, taught him to make a living independently.

When he first opened a new store, because of the exquisite layout, fair price, and the excitement of the incense market, he actually made sales of less than a thousand yuan a month.Two months later, the pilgrims also disappeared, and the number of people visiting the West Lake also decreased. At the same time, the war broke out, and people were panicked. This month, money has been extremely tight, and his small shop has plummeted.In the recent stores, at most, they can sell for less than five or six yuan, and this winter is approaching, and it is time to settle accounts in the year. In the past few days, he has really spent a lot of worry about financial problems.

"You shouldn't, you shouldn't, you shouldn't have brought the little heavenly king into the city!" He bowed his head on the street in the snow and went to Qinghefang, complaining to himself at home. His regretful thoughts moved, and he continued to think of Little Heavenly King's smiling face and lips, and remembered last year's night when it snowed like this, he and Little Heavenly King were warming wine and eating pork head meat in her room at Gongchen Bridge. fun.He raised his head, looked forward, backward, left, and right, and wiped the snow flakes off his sleeves. His feet, which were originally going towards Qinghefang, changed direction unknowingly.First, he walked from the right side of the road to the left side of the road, and after a few more steps, he walked into an alley.

Not far from the new market, on the second floor of a house in an alley along the river, he rented two rooms for Little Heavenly King to live in. After he and his bride Yun Fang moved to the new market, he told Yun Fang The place where Fang often comes to stay. He met Little Heavenly King two years ago, one day when his friend invited him to dinner with flowers and wine.That day, his middle school friend Li Zhichun treated him to a treat and forced him to go up the Gongchen Bridge with him.He was usually a very cautious person, and he never went to Gongchen Bridge to play once.Ever since Li Zhichun called Little Heavenly Queen for him that day, he felt that the wine and food in the store had become bland.In particular, what made him dissatisfied was his father's bitter appearance of getting up early and setting down at night, calculating money.In the tense atmosphere in the store, when he thought of the warm and delicate air in the Little Heavenly King's room, his eyes would become dizzy, his nose would smell a special fragrance, and his ears would also feel the smell. The strings of the huqin and the singing of ditties sounded.If he squinted his eyes, he could see a very bright copper bed covered with a snow-white felt blanket and crimson silk quilt.On the five-barrel cabinet in front of the bed, the small gold-painted clock, the vase and the incense box, etc., also vividly spun in his mind.

Among them, what made him ecstasy was the one night when the little king stayed with him after he had gone with Li Zhichun three or five times. At that time, he was only twenty-one years old.Although Little Heavenly King is younger than him, he knows more about the world and human relationships than he does.So as soon as she saw him, she tried her best to drink ecstasy soup, which made him, who had never been in contact with women at that time, almost forget everything in the world. On that night two years ago, about half a month after Li Zhichun took him for a stroll, he took the night train at 5:10 to go to the Little Heavenly King on Gongchen Bridge by himself.That night, for unknown reasons, the weather was very cold.He remembered clearly that that day was only a few miles away in August, just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, but for some reason, a few cool winds suddenly blew, which made a group of Hangzhou citizens who had not yet made winter clothes feel a little cold. It looks cooler than before and after the great cold.He sat in the little king's room, drank wine, ate dinner, listened to her singing ditties, and passed the middle of the night unconsciously.At twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, he wanted to go out, but he couldn't do it anymore, so he just stayed with her overnight.

Only after that night did he know what it was like to be a woman.Little Heavenly King's lips, her shy look when she took off her clothes, her pale red undershirt under the electric light coming in from outside the curtain, her pale breasts after the top half of the button was unbuttoned .The tactile sensation after being hugged tightly by him, the ecstasy that was like being stripped of flesh and blood in the end.All these situations have been in his mind for more than half a month.No matter when and where, just teach him to think of the feeling before and after, and his ears will ring. His whole body seems to be sitting on the peak of the flame; It will become sore and swollen like touching a piece of soft meat.During the next two years, he spent more than five thousand yuan on Little Heavenly King.

In April of this year, his father couldn't resist his wandering, so he finally followed his uncle's plan and married Yunfang for him, and wanted to teach Yunfang to advise and restrain him. He and Yunfang were originally the middle cousins ​​of my uncle's family, and they were very close since childhood.On the first night of the wedding, after all the noisy guests had gone out, he and Yunfang talked in the middle of the night.With tears in his eyes, he told Yunfang about Little Heavenly King's life experience, about the friendship that Little Heavenly King had treated him, and even said that although his family had great love for Yunfang, he couldn't stop being infatuated with Little Heavenly King.In the end, he said that if he wanted to break up with Little Heavenly King, he could only do so after sending him to the coffin first.The wise and virtuous Yun Fang certainly didn't want to use brutal methods to deal with his determination. After three dynasties, she came out to intercede with his parents.Sure enough, he fell into Yunfang's trick, and during the two months after his marriage, he never went to Gongchen Bridge once.

About a month after his father opened a branch in the new market for him, one afternoon he went to see off passengers at the city station, and suddenly met Little Heavenly King at the station. It was the middle of June when the sun was very hot.At the station, he saw the light attire of the little heavenly king whom he hadn't seen for two months, and his old memories were revived.That night, he really did not hide the truth from Yunfang, and went to Gongchen Bridge to spend the night.The little heavenly king who is famous for being good at socializing on the port of Gongchen Bridge certainly knows how to win him over from Yunfang.That night, after the little heavenly king cried and scolded him for being ruthless, he actually picked up a small knife and wanted to commit suicide.Later, after listening to his many oaths and words of comfort, the two held back their tears and fell asleep hugging each other.During the next two or three months, he took advantage of the generous income from the branch store, secretly redeemed Little Heavenly King, and hid her upstairs in this alley.

Speaking of Little Heavenly King's appearance, he was not much more beautiful than Yunfang.But her petite figure, flexible eyes, and red lips are especially able to seduce men, so that those who have had sex with her once or twice will never forget it. As he walked in the alley in the snow, he bowed his head, thinking about the lips of the little heavenly king.He remembered the incident of spending the night with her three days ago, and he also remembered what Yunfang asked him with a smile when he returned to the store the next morning: "How is little Tianwang? You won't go for a few days." You may have fallen asleep last night?"

When he reached the door of that house, he opened the door and went in. He walked all the way to the escalator in the dark back hall, but he didn't meet anyone. "Our old landlady, are you afraid of talking to Little Heavenly King upstairs again today? Let me go up quietly and scare them." With such thoughts in his heart, his footsteps naturally lightened.He walked up the stairs with quiet feet and hands, and when he reached the door, he raised his hands lightly, but the door was locked there.He stood still, held his breath, and listened carefully, but there was no voice in the room.He just wanted to reach out and knock on the door to go in, but when he thought about it again, he felt that this was a bit strange.Because usually when he comes, the old woman always sits downstairs in front of the hall pasting matchboxes.As long as he went upstairs, he had never once encountered the latch of Little Heavenly King's room door.He held his breath and stood still for a few minutes, when he suddenly heard a man's accent whispering on the bed where he and Little Heavenly King used to sleep by the wall: "Little Heavenly King! Little Heavenly King! Wake up! It's getting late, are you afraid that Old Zheng is coming?" The blood all over his body immediately froze, and his hair stood on end one by one.With his eyes wide open and his fists clenched, he wanted to kick him into the room.But before he made this iron determination, he heard Little Heavenly King say in a sleepy state: "He won't come when it snows like this." Hearing Little Heavenly King's voice, at the same time he thought of her lips like lightning, his throat became even more dry, and the murderous aura in his chest rushed up even more violently.Raising his clenched fist, the moment he was about to hit the door, he heard the man say: "I'm going, Lao Zheng asked me to borrow money yesterday, and I promised him to answer the call today. Let me go and have a look, if he is in the shop, I'll come tonight." "Ah! This man turned out to be Li Zhichun!" He recognized Li Zhichun's voice, and retracted a raised hand.Taking a step back, he walked downstairs in one breath.Fortunately, the old woman hadn't come home yet. As soon as he walked out, he still closed the door softly, and ran like a crazy person in the alley slippery under the snow.He couldn't even breathe out, and he couldn't see clearly what was in front of his eyes. Under his head, he only felt that there was a fire burning there.He couldn't tell the direction, his thoughts stopped completely, and he couldn't feel the cold wind and snowflakes blowing in his face. He just switched his feet as if they were electrocuted, and he didn't know how many ways he ran and how many places he walked. , When he regained his consciousness a little, he looked around and it was already dark.In this gray air, there are still flakes of snow flying.He raised his head and saw that there was a black lake in front of his eyes.When I raised my eyes to look into the distance again, I saw a few lights shining through the blurred snowflakes.At the same time, the blurred lights reflected on the lake and the gray and cold mountain shadows also fell into his eyes.He raised his hand to touch the sleeve, the snow flakes accumulated there were hard and cold, stimulating his tactile nerves.He fully regained consciousness, stood still quietly, and when he took off the black velvet hat that was soaked by the snow, a burst of evaporating heat radiated from his head.Looking at the air in front of him, he could only see a few bursts of white air coming out of his own mouth in a hurry, fighting with the snowflakes. There is already a thin layer of pale white snow on the mountain.He took out a handkerchief from his coat pocket and wiped the sweat off his head. He stood still in the dark cold air for a while, and looked around for a few weeks before he recognized the direction and knew his own body. Standing on the wild road on the lakeside not far from Qianwang Temple. He opened and closed his eyes a few times, swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva, and calmly adjusted his panting, before he remembered what happened this afternoon. "Ah! How can I be sorry for Yunfang! How can I be sorry for Yunfang!" "Her gentle and considerate look when I went out today!" "Ah! What kind of face do I have?" When he thought of this, two big, cold tears flowed down his fiery cheeks.From his throat, gradually, a terrifying cry came out, like a beast that was wounded and dying.The sound was very quiet and heavy at first, but gradually increased, and finally ended with the sound of the trumpet; after the sound was over, there was another sound, and the silent mountains and rivers, as well as the dry and cold woods, all seemed to respond. A terrible whining sound could be heard in his ears; a few drops of snow fell from the branches behind him, and when he looked back, he seemed to see a huge bird in the white night. The huge black hand seemed to be rushing towards him; he was anxious, regardless of east, west, north and south, he just ran and jumped forward with all his strength, and with the sound of "plop", he felt his limbs and half of his body condense coldly at the same time. close up.His mind cleared up again, he knew that his body had fallen into the lake.He wanted to yell out the word "help" in his throat, but he couldn't yell out more and more anxiously. He only felt that there was an iron ring tightening around his neck.He kicked his feet wildly for a while, and stroked the lake with his hands a few times, and his body was completely submerged in the bottom of the water. January 18, 1927 in Shanghai Originally published on February 1, 1927, "Flood" semi-monthly magazine, Volume 3, Issue 26, "Duff's Short Stories Collection" Volume 1