Chapter 21 light snow morning

(The original title of this article was "Morning of Slight Snow"; when it was first published in "Education Magazine", the title was changed to "Examination"; when it was included in the fourth volume of "The Complete Works of Duff" "Odd Zero Collection" in 1928 , and changed the title to "Before and After the Examination"; when it was included in "Duff's Masterpiece" in the same year, the original title was restored to "Morning of Slight Snow".——Editor's Note) This person is no longer in this world; and the cause of his death has not been understood until now.

His face is very handsome, not like a northerner.When I met him in the classroom for the first time, I always thought he was a student from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces; only after listening to the tone of his conversation with my husband did I realize that he was born in Beizhili.I lived with him in the boarding dormitory of the school for two months, met him many times in the library, and on a Saturday afternoon, I went out with him to ride a mule at West Pianmen. He is the son of a farmer from Yinjiaji, which is only 18 miles away from the capital, in the countryside of Jingzhao. After graduating from Beijing Normal University, he was admitted to this normal university.

Generally, the students who are new to the school are all high-spirited young people. Only he has a soft appearance and a very humble person. He wears a green bamboo cloth coat. On the first day of class, he diligently took a pencil and a notebook. book, and record what the master said there. When I first arrived in Beijing, I had very few friends.When I met ordinary classmates, I was only guilty and timid. I was afraid that my poor condition and lack of knowledge would be seen by them, so I didn't dare to have a word with my classmates during the week after I arrived at school.But for him, I feel a bit of intimacy in my heart, because his seat is in the front row of mine, and I silently watch his every move, so for his kind The humble appearance, and the same silent and shy attitude as mine, have already resonated in my heart.

It was one morning in the second week after I arrived at school. I got up early in the morning and read English alone in the playground.When I finished reading a section and was quietly flipping through the untaught parts at the back, I suddenly felt as if someone was standing behind me.Looking back, I saw him smiling, and also took a book, standing behind me to a place not more than two feet away from the wall, looking at me there.When I turned around to look at him, he said to me at the same time: "You really work hard!" I was blushed by what he said, so I had no choice but to smile and say to him: "You work hard too!"

After this time, the two of us have been talking about the sky.Two months later, because we always read books at the same table in the library, our friendship felt especially close.One Saturday, the weather was particularly good. The rain the night before suppressed the light dust, and the sun in late autumn was warm and pleasant. In addition, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the teacher asked for leave. They met each other in the newspaper reading room, and they said the same thing in unison: "The weather is so nice, let's go for a walk somewhere!" I am not familiar with Beijing's geography, so I don't dare to go out alone.I have lived in Beijing for two months, and the only places I have been to on Sundays and holidays are Sandian and Central Park.Because the weather was so good that day, I really wanted to go for a walk in the suburbs. When I saw him, I made up my mind temporarily and shouted that sentence later.At the same time, he also seemed to want to run outside the city. When he saw me, he made this proposal naturally, so the two of us walked on the stone road leading to the school gate without saying a word.After walking out of the school gate, the second question arises, "Where are we going?"

On the avenue in the middle of Liulichang, walking a few steps towards the south facing the sun, he smiled and asked me: "Li Jun, can you ride a mule?" I lived in middle school in Suzhou for four years, and of course I can ride mules. After hearing his words, I suddenly remembered my interest in riding mules to Tiger Hill in middle school, so I immediately agreed: "Are there mules in Beijing? Let's try riding them!" "There are a lot of mules, as soon as you leave the city gate, I'm afraid you won't know how to ride them." "I can ride."

The two talked about walking around, and when they arrived near the West Bianmen, it was almost two o'clock.After hiring a mule, we rode to Baiyun Temple, our bodies were covered with golden sunlight, and our lungs were filled with the fresh air of Xishan. The two of us felt that being an emperor would not be such a joy. Beijing's climate is best at this time of the year.The weather is neither cold nor hot, and the windy season has not yet come.The clear green sky reflects the dense emerald green of the distant mountains, just like the usual scene of the waves of the sea.What's more, in the afternoon of this day, after the light rain just the night before, there was no dust on the road, and the branches of the locust elm trees on both sides that had not yet shed their leaves were green, which meant the first summer was peaceful.

After leaving the West Bianmen, the millet in the wild field has been harvested, and there are places for farmers to hoe and sow, but most of the land is still clearly empty. When we rode the stone bridge and looked at the West Mountain from the back of the Baiyun Temple, the two of them looked at each other unconsciously, each made a knowing smile, and then exclaimed together: "Excellent!" When we left the city, the mule ran very fast, so we walked out of the Baiyun Temple for a while, and the sun was still high.He told me: "This Baiyun Temple is a place where Taoist priests gather. The Empress Dowager Cide of the Qing Dynasty often came here to rest. Every year from the first day of the first lunar month to the eighteenth day, women from Beijing, You Yezi, come here to burn incense and ride horses. The road is full of people. At that time, under the bridge hole, there were old Taoists sitting, who did not speak or eat all day long, saying that they were Taoist. In the hall for the elderly, there were even a row of white-haired Taoist priests, with hundreds of years old and hundreds of years written on their bodies. At the age of 18, he defrauded women of a lot of money. This kind of deceptive behavior should be banned, and the wives of the Beijing authorities even come to worship and praise their wealth. You can't be angry. gas?"

This is also one of the places where I admire him more than once, because I usually see him working hard there blindly, but when he talked about the political and social bad habits at that time, he was impassioned, and every sentence he said was pertinent and powerful , not like a person who reads dead books.Especially with regard to current affairs, his comments were very intense, and he scolded those warlords and bureaucrats incisively and vividly. We walked out of Baiyun Temple, because it was still early, so we ran up to the tower of Tianning Temple in front and went down again.There were soldiers stationed in the monastery, and we were not allowed to go in. He went to negotiate, but it was finally impossible.So on the way back, he gnashed his teeth and cursed again:

"I have to kill these bastards. The sons and daughters of our people have been taken over by them. One day I will take revenge on them." After this outskirts parade, our friendship has taken another step forward.During the class, he sat in front of me, and I sat in the row behind him, and of course the entrance and exit were the same.The dormitories were originally separated from each other, but he negotiated with a roommate of mine and moved here privately.In the library, of course together.But there is no way to move the self-study room together, so the two of us cannot be companions only during self-study.

Daily classes are generally certain.Usually, we all get up at half past six, take books to the playground and read for an hour.After breakfast, I go to class, after lunch, I read the newspaper at half o'clock, and after class at three o'clock in the afternoon, I go to the library to read.I study for two hours at night, wash my face, go to the dormitory to talk for a while, and then go to bed.Since I lived with him, I feel that my interest is much better, and I work harder. But there is one thing that I am often afraid of selfishly, which is the kind of talk among classmates that often occurs in middle school.Although his appearance is very handsome, but with thick eyebrows, extremely thick lips, and a rectangular face that is not very fair, no matter who looks it, he is always a young man with masculine beauty.If there is a wind to talk about it, I, a small southerner, will of course be at a disadvantage.But this selfish fear was not realized in the end, partly because college students are a bit more knowledgeable than middle school students, and partly because his diligent behavior and unassailable prestige can overwhelm everyone. Another two months passed like this, the north wind gradually picked up, and the residents in the capital also felt oppressed by the cold; the exams began in our school, and at the end of December in the lunar calendar, the annual vacation was given. The classmates in the same class, the northerners, probably went home for the New Year; only me, who was poor and homeless, and two or three other southerners, their faces were just getting dull day by day. Traveling in suitcases, my heart is always filled with tears of mourning.The guy in the same room couldn't bear to leave because he saw my situation, so at noon on the day after the exam, he said to me: "During the annual holiday, I don't plan to go back, so I can read more books here." But after the exam, the two majors, the library was also closed, and the only two students in the same room were me and him.In addition, there is no stove in the dormitory and the study room, and the electric lights seem to be out, and the cold ashes are dormant there, and I can't read the book after all.If we go to the games, we don’t have the money; if we go for a walk in the streets, in the cold windy dusty sand, what we see are the scenes of the dying years and the busy pedestrians. On the third day after the holiday, he also became dejected and anxious.That morning, the weather was very cold, we opened our eyes, talked, and slept until more than ten o'clock before getting up.After reading a magazine in the room on a hungry stomach, he suddenly said to me: "Li Jun, let's go, why don't you come to our country to celebrate the New Year?" When he told me not to go home for the New Year, I had already seen his kindness towards me, and I was really sorry. Now that I heard his words again, I felt even more sorry for him, so I said to him: "Go! It's close to home, and you can enjoy the family happiness of the couple when you go home. Why don't you go back?" But no matter what, he always refused to go back alone. From half past ten o'clock until lunch time, he always wanted me to go with him before he would go back.His temper is very strange, he is usually taciturn, and he refuses to change his words when he says everything.I have been with him for half a year, and I know that he has such a stubborn habit, so I finally agreed to him and went to his place to celebrate the New Year with him. That morning was very cold. At noon, the sun was still hiding in the gray clouds. After lunch, I packed up my luggage. When I was about to hire a car to go out, snow flakes like goose feathers fell in the cold sky. Hire a foreign cart to sit outside Yongdingmen, and from Yongdingmen we hire a donkey cart to go to Yinjiaji.There are few pedestrians on the road, and the surrounding fields are vast, with only a few clusters of dead woods embellishing the loneliness of the winter suburbs.The snowflakes grew up one after another, and the surrounding wild scenery was hazy, looking from the gap of the hood, it seemed to be covered with a layer of tulle.Fortunately, our car was heading south, so the north wind couldn't blow it, but the donkey's back had accumulated a lot of snow flakes, and the hot melted air sneaked into the car one by one. It looked like the donkey was sweating there. It was a short day in winter, and it was gloomy and late. Although the donkey cart shook violently, I had already fallen asleep faintly.When he shook me to wake up, I didn't know where my body was like in a dream.When I opened my eyes to take a look, I felt that the hood of the car was frighteningly dark.He smiled and said: "Li Jun! Wake up! Look, don't you see some lights ahead? That's the Yin Family Collection!" After walking for a while, the car arrived at the door of his house. After getting out of the car, my feet were numb from sitting cross-legged.Walk into his home and take a look, but the inside is very spacious.His father and mother loved him very much.We finished dinner under a kerosene lamp, and his wife also came out to spread a quilt for me on a warm kang.Speaking of his daughter-in-law, she was originally a child bride who grew up in his family and just got married last year.Her feet were bound very small, and although Xiang'er wasn't pretty, she wasn't too bad in the countryside.But the clothes look too old-fashioned. From the perspective of us who are used to urbanites, her green cotton padded jacket and tightly bound red cotton trousers are really ugly.This night, I felt a little tired because I was swaying on the donkey cart during the day, so after dinner, I went to bed early in the morning.I didn't know what he talked with his parents in the inner room, and when he and his wife went to bed. After living in his home for a year and nine days, I saw two facts that made me feel sad for him: the first was the unsatisfactory marriage, and the second was the poverty in his family. Farmers in the north are all roughly the same. They work all year round, and the results they earn are not enough to pay the government's exorbitant taxes.Although his family has several tens of mu of land, apart from taxes, the income from these dozens of mu of land cannot provide for the food of his old parents and the clothing of his daughter-in-law.He is an only son, and his father is in his fifties this year.The sons of the farmers around him, who are about the same age as him, can go to work in the fields to help the family; while he is studying at school alone, not only cannot help his father, but also has to ask his family for money from time to time. Pocket money for book shopping.At this point, I saw the reason why he had to save so much in school.Only in this way, I feel pity for him, and feel his noble personality even more. On the fourth day of the first lunar month, the old snow had melted, and he seemed very unhappy to be with the child bride-in-law every day at home, so I advised him to return to Beijing as soon as possible and go back to school. On the morning of the fifth day of the first lunar month, when the weather was fine, his father went to a family named Chen in front of him, borrowed a donkey and a cart, and took us into the city. Speaking of this family surnamed Chen, I still suspect that their daughter is the biggest cause of my classmate's death.The Chen family is a wealthy farmer in the Yin family, with more than 200 hectares of land.The houses are also tile-roofed, and the walls in front and behind the house are very large.They had three sons, but the eldest was a daughter.She is nineteen years old this year, two years younger than my classmate.I stayed with him at his house for nine days, but half of the time was spent in Chen Jiafei.The old man of the Chen family was about the same age as my classmate's father, but he married twice, and both of them died.The first wife gave birth to a daughter, and the second wife gave birth to three boys, the oldest was only eleven years old. My classmate and Huiying from the Chen family—this is her name—studied in a private school when she was young; when she grew up, he went to the elementary school in Shiguantun.This historian's village is located seven or eight miles north of Yinjiaji, and it is the first large village south of Yongdingmen.He lived in Shiguantun Elementary School for four years and had the best grades, ranking first in the general examination every time. So after graduation, his husband enrolled him in Beijing Normal University and asked him to continue his studies.This gentleman has passed away now, and my classmates still shed tears when they mention him, and they are so grateful.Since then, he has lived in Beijing Normal University for four years, but now he has entered Zizi University safely.In this village where there are few scholars, everyone respects his diligence and thrift.Especially the old man of the Chen family, every time he said to his father: "This kid, Yaru, must be very promising. You must cultivate him. If you need money, I will do my best to help you." After talking for a long time, I forgot his name and haven't told him yet.His surname is Zhu, and his first name is "Yaru".We used to call him by first name and surname at school, and everyone called him "Zhu Yaru" and "Zhu Yaru"; but when he called people, he always didn't put his name in, he just called him a surname with a Junyu underneath.Therefore, he never called me "Li Jueming" by his first name, but called me "Li Jun".At first I couldn't get used to it, and felt a little embarrassed; then I imitated him and called him "Zhu Jun" and "Zhu Jun". Since the old man of the Chen family valued him so much, of course he would never reject the loan question raised by his father.So I think their family owes the Chen family a lot of money. On that first day, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, his father borrowed a donkey cart from the Chen family to take us into the city. I had nothing to say on the way, so I said to him: "It's a pity that Huiying of the Chen family didn't study, she is really smart!" When he heard my words at first, his face blushed suddenly, but later he felt that there was no malice in what I said, so he sighed for a day and said: "Alas! There are so many hateful things in the world!" I saw his expression, it seemed that he didn't want me to talk about these girls, so I kept silent. After arriving at the school that day, none of the classmates came back. He and I went shopping in Changdian, listened to operas, and passed the winter vacation just like cats and dogs.After school started, it was a rigid life again, with class and get out of class, eating and sleeping, until the summer vacation. During the summer vacation, because I was homesick, I didn't go with him and went back to my home in the south for two months.When we got on the train, he escorted me to the station and said a lot of words of encouragement to each other. He asked me to write a letter to him every day when I got home, reporting the scenery in the south.As for my own family, I said that I would like to be a tutor for two months during the summer vacation, so that I can get some pocket money and buy some books. After I arrived in the south, although I didn't write letters every day, I had to communicate with him five or six letters in total in a month.From the news in the letter, I know that he doesn't go home during the summer vacation, but still lives in Beijing with a family surnamed Huang teaching, and he still gets a salary of 20 yuan a month. At the end of August in the Gregorian calendar, he wrote to urge me to return to Beijing, and said that he went back to Yinjiaji on the previous Saturday, and Huiying from the Chen family was still asking about me. Because he mentioned Huiying, I remembered the Chinese New Year at Yinjiaji that day.Huiying's appearance is not beautiful, but the fine white skin is really rare among northern women.A pair of big eyes, when looking at people, make people afraid; because her eyes seem to be able to see everything.She is neither short nor tall, and her round face makes people feel that she is a loyal person at first sight.But she is very capable. Since her stepmother died, all the family finances have been in her hands.Her home is very clean.The west wing is her sitting room, and all account books and documents are stored in this wing.It is also in this room that Zhu Jun and I often go to sit and talk in the days before and after the Chinese New Year.Her father likes to drink some wine, so he is always outside for a few days in the first month.When Zhu Jun and I went to her house, we would not joke or tell stories with her younger brothers, but we would tell her some trivial things about Beijing schools.Zhu Jun treated her rigorously and silently, just as he treated our classmates.She didn't show any special affection to Zhu Junyi. Only one day, on the evening of the fourth day of the first lunar month, after dinner, Zhu Jun suddenly walked out of the house.I chatted with his father for a while, took some free time, and walked out to the front Chen's house, thinking that Zhu Jun must be sitting with her.But when I got to the wing, after talking with her little brother for a few words, I asked them, "Has Mr. Zhu been here?" They all shook their heads and said, "No."Asked their sister, "Where is my sister?" They replied, "Sick and sleeping." I came back to Zhu's house, and when I was about to go to bed on the kang, Zhu Jun walked in quickly from the front door.Under the kerosene lamp, I couldn't see his face clearly, but from the way he spoke to me and his red and swollen eyes, it seemed that he had just gone somewhere and had a bitter cry. After I received his letter urging me to return to Beijing, I thought about these details for a while, and felt a little funny in my heart, so I said to myself: "Old Zhu! You probably fell in love too, right?" At the beginning of September in the Gregorian calendar, when I arrived in Beijing, Zhu Jun had already returned to school, and he had already arranged for me the bed and meal plans, so that I could be with him.The results of the summer exams have also been announced, he is ranked second, but I am ranked fifth in the bottom three, so the self-study room is also grouped together. After school started, everything was the same as in previous years, and our life was rigid and stable for more than a month.The weather in Beijing, the newly admitted students, our classmates, and everything else are the same as last semester, but Zhu Jun's personality is a little different than before. He was usually silent, but after October in the Gregorian calendar, he became even more silent.Originally, he was very economical in spending money, but after the new semester started, he always dragged me to the hotel to drink.After drinking a few cups desperately, he blatantly criticized the bad social system, the unequal economic distribution, the warlords, and the bureaucrats. In the end, he especially attacked the ignorance of the peasant class in the north, and he was meticulous.I saw his grief and indignation, and I was really moved by him, but in the end I had no choice but to persuade him with the old-fashioned saying of obeying the sky. He was originally diligent, but he has worked even harder this semester.After the lights were turned off at night and the bell was ringing, he was still alone in the study room lighting wax wax and reading books in English by Ellen Kay, Bebel, Sudina and others.I have also persuaded him several times, teaching him to recuperate in time and take care of his health.He said to me boldly: "In a world like this, in a society like this, what's the use of us living in secret? What do you mean by taking care of your body? Go to sleep first!" On Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, we originally agreed to go for a walk in the countryside every week; but since he entered October in the Gregorian calendar, he did not excuse himself by saying that he had not finished reading the book, but that he was not in good health. A person stays in the dormitory and does not go out.In fact, I can see that his body is losing weight day by day.Two thick eyebrows cast two layers of shadows, and his eye sockets were deeply sunken, which made him look a bit scary, but his family was still reading books advocating social reform.I watched him carefully and felt that his appetite was gradually decreasing. One day the cold wind was blowing very cold and the sky was covered with gray clouds, as if it was about to snow heavily in the morning, the concierge suddenly came to our dormitory and said that a female guest was looking for Mr. Zhu there.At that time, Zhu Jun had already gone out to the playground to take a walk and read a book.I went to the playground, found him, and after I told him, his face suddenly turned pale, he stared twice, and asked me like an idiot: "Is she here? Is she really here?" I made him startled, and said to him seriously: "Who is going to lie to you, just run out and have a look." He went out for half a day, and didn't come into the classroom when class was in session. After one o'clock in the afternoon, I ran into him on my way to the study room after class.His face was grayer and more gloomy than when I had spoken to him this morning, and the shadows widened from the thick eyebrows that were drawn in, and a dead color lay over his whole face.I met him and asked him who it was that morning, but he smiled wryly and said: "It's Huiying! She came to Beijing to buy goods, and now she lives with her father in the Gaosheng shop of the polishing factory. Are you going to see her? Let's go together at night! Go and listen to a play with them." After hearing what he said, I liked it very much in my heart, because he wanted to listen to what the old man of the Chen family had to say.So I wanted to go to the Gaosheng store with him after dinner, first to see Huiying who I hadn't seen for more than half a year, and second, to ask the old man of the Chen family to persuade Zhu Jun to work less. After dinner, the wind was so strong that he and I had to take a rickshaw to the grinding factory.I went to the Gaosheng store to see that the father and daughter were having dinner, and the old man Chen was still drinking Baigan. There was a mutton hot pot on the table that filled the room with the smell of hot pot.The electric light was enveloped by the heat from the hot pot, making the room hazy.Huiying wore a black cloth gown, and when she stood up for us to sit down and drink, I thought her appearance was much more beautiful than when she was in the Yin family gathering. Old man Chen insisted that we sit down and drink, so we sat down and had a few drinks as a last resort.While drinking and talking, I told about Zhu Jun's work too hard recently.Old man Chen heard what I said, and he really said to Zhu Jun: "Yaru! Your grades are not bad in college, why do you do this again? I heard that you are already in second place in the exam, and you are already good. Do you still want to take the first place?... In short, yes Your health is important... Your family is all hoping that you will earn money to support the family after you graduate from college. If your health is not good, no matter how good your knowledge is, it will be useless." After Zhu Jun heard these words, he was completely silent, drinking with his head bowed cup after cup.I also had morning dizziness and pain from drinking a little wine, so I couldn't see his expression.Looking back at Huiying, she seemed to be bowing her head, shedding tears. That night, because we had been chatting for a long time, we finally didn't go to the play.By the time we returned to school by rickshaw, the hour of self-study had already passed.The second oldest, the father and daughter of the Chen family have gone home, and we have returned to our usual rigid life.Zhu Jun's hardworking, silent, complaining and depressed attitude are still the same as before, and they are not relieved by the advice of the old man of the Chen family. Time passed day by day, and the winter that was coming to the end of the year came again.The north wind then blew a few people, and the cold in the morning and evening suddenly increased. One week before the annual holiday exam, everyone became nervous. Zhu Jun also read too many extracurricular books this semester and threw away the school textbooks. He stayed up for three nights and reviewed his homework for three nights. . The morning before the exam, Zhu Jun suddenly got up early in the morning, without socks, and ran out unkempt.When he ran to the porter, he grabbed the porter and asked him to hand over that person.The concierge was puzzled, and asked him who the person he was talking about was. He just stopped the concierge from making noise, but refused to say the name of that person.The noise got louder, we all went out to look, and seeing that it was Zhu Jun who was arguing with the porter, I caught him in.At this time, when I saw Weijun's expression, I was also taken aback. His eyes were swollen red with blood, his two eyebrows stood upright, his face was a dull blue-gray, and his forehead and neck were covered with many blue veins.As soon as he saw us, he showed two rows of white teeth, smiled as if weeping and said: "Okay, you are all here, you guard this little warlord, let me take out a pistol and shoot him." As he said that, he pushed the porter onto me and the other two classmates. Everyone didn't pay attention to him, and when he pushed like this, the four of them fell to the ground together.But he laughed ferociously a few times, and ran straight in. We have seen his behavior, and everyone knows that he is insane.They discussed asking the school staff to keep him in the convalescent room, and at the same time inform the school authorities, asking the school to send a doctor to treat him. He was impatient sitting alone in the sick room, and insisted on coming out to beat and scold the school officer.He also pointed out that the school guard guarding him was a small warlord, cursing and saying: "Bastard, does a little warlord like you dare to take someone else's daughter by force? Quickly bring the pistol, quickly bring the pistol!" When the school doctor came to see his illness, he also beat him a few times, and tore off a pair of school doctor's glasses and broke them.I stood at the door and cried out in tears: "Zhu Jun! Zhu Jun! Can't you even recognize me?" He looked at me with bare eyes, then laughed again and said: "You little bastard, you are here to cheat money!" As we said that, he hit me again. We had no choice but to lock the door of the sick room, and at the same time sent someone to his home to report that his parents came out to take care of his illness. When it was late, his father came, and the old man of the Chen family came with him.I went out with Zhu Jun that night and rented a room in an apartment.Zhu Jun's illness became more and more serious, and the three of us finally didn't sleep all night because we wanted to stop his atrocities. The next morning, I went back to school early in the morning to take the exam. In the afternoon, when I went to see him in the apartment, I knew that they had already rented another hut and tied Zhu Jun up. I took the exams in school for three days, and on the morning of the day when I finished the exams, I received an urgent letter saying that Zhu Jun was dying, and I was urgently waiting for me to go there to see him.When I went there to have a look, I saw that in a dark room, he was still tied to a plank bed like a ghost.The air in the room was extremely filthy, and in this black and smelly air, only the slight sound of panting and diarrhea could be heard.I stood quietly at the door for a while, I couldn't bear it anymore, so I raised my voice, "Zhu Jun" and "Zhu Jun" called twice.His old father, who was sitting behind his feet, immediately raised his hand to stop me from speaking.Zhu Jun heard my call, and when he turned his head to look at me, I only saw a head as black as a skull and two very black eyes. I stepped into the small room and looked at him for a while, and saw that his hands and feet were still bound, but his head was leaning softly on the pillow.Sitting behind his father's feet, there was also Zhu Jun's daughter-in-law, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and she shrank her head in a daze, watching over her dying man. I looked back and forth, tears came out suddenly, I walked up to his pillow, bent down, and asked him softly, "Zhu Jun! Do you still recognize me?" Then I couldn't continue.He turned his head and looked at me again, with no expression on his face, but looking from my tearful eyes, it seemed that tears were also flowing from the corners of his eyes. I approached his father and asked old man Chen where he was.His father said: "They, Huiying, are going to marry an officer today, so he has already gone back to make arrangements for the wedding." I asked Zhu Jun what kind of medicine he was taking. His father just shook his head and said, "I don't know. But after taking the medicine, he has had diarrhea to this day. It seems that he is no longer able to die." I thought to myself, this must be the wrong medicine, otherwise, why would he become like this within three days?When I was about to speak, I heard another sound of diarrhea. Zhu Jun shook his head on the pillow a few times, and his throat gurgled.My hair stood on end, and at the same time his father and his daughter-in-law also stood up and ran over to his pillow.I saw his head twitched up a few times, his throat twitched a few times, and after a quarter of an hour of twitching, all movements stopped.His daughter-in-law burst into tears, and his father was also dazed with anxiety, but just stood there silently.But I couldn't bear it any longer, and I lowered my head and whispered "Zhu Jun! Zhu Jun!" two or three times in his ear. The next morning, it began to snow again.Zhu Jun's father and his wife and I took Zhu Jun's coffin out of the city early in the morning in a cart.At this time, the residents inside and outside the city hadn't woken up yet, and the long street was very cold.A large cart, carrying Zhu Jun's coffin in the front, and the three of us sitting in the back, slowly turned around in the snow.The snow flakes accumulated on the red felt that covered the coffin in front, but Zhu Jun's father and I were wrapped in a ragged quilt to avoid the north wind blowing from behind.There were few pedestrians on the street, and the voice of Zhu Jun's daughter-in-law crying was even more sad. When the cart got out of Yongding Gate, the yellow-gray sun came out, and the snow seemed to be a little less.I remembered the time when I went to his house with Zhu Jun during the winter vacation last year, so I unconsciously called out to the coffin in front of me twice, and suddenly burst into tears with a "wow" uncontrollably. July 16, 1927 (Originally published in the "Educational Literature and Art" column of Volume 19, No. 7, "Education Magazine" monthly magazine, July 20, 1927, according to the second volume of "Duff's Short Stories Collection")