Chapter 19 Chapter 17 The Lightning in the Black Pupil

That may be the last batch of educated youths who went to the mountains and went to the countryside.Before this, there had never been educated youths in Quliu Village.The three educated youths in Quliu Village were brought back from the town commune by the branch secretary of the brigade.As soon as they entered the village, they were warmly welcomed by the villagers of Quliu Village. The villagers beat gongs and drums to welcome the three babies from Xiamen.The three educated youths looked at the disheveled faces and felt at a loss as to what to do. Widow Qiu Lingdi huddled in the crowd and said, "Young men in big cities are fair-looking."

Heizi was also in the crowd. When he saw the educated youth, he felt his head and face burn.The title of educated youth is brilliant in his heart, and he doesn't know whether he is considered an educated youth. Party secretary Qiu Huomu said loudly in front of the welcoming crowd: "Our brigade finally has educated young people, and we want to learn from them." There was warm applause from the crowd. The people of Quliu Village always responded enthusiastically to new things. Although their enthusiasm would quickly cool down after three days, the applause now was full of sincerity.Party Secretary Qiu Huomu publicly announced that the three educated youths would live in three households, and that they would join up with the hostess, because the brigade could not find a decent vacant house, and it would be difficult for them to eat alone, Qiu Huomu It's quite thoughtful.

To Heizi's excitement, one of the educated youths with a very pale face and glasses was assigned to their house, because there was still a side room vacant in the boatman's house.After the announcement, the party secretary asked the relevant people to take the educated youth home, and Heizi brought the educated youth home.After being settled, Heizi took him to dinner at the branch secretary's house, and the branch secretary wanted to entertain them. That night, Heizi waited until very late before the educated youth came home.As soon as the educated youth entered the door, he walked towards the side room. Heizi heard him yelling why there was no electric light, and this broken kerosene lamp was so dark.In fact, Heizi's mother specially turned on the lamp to turn it on very brightly, and turned it on when it was dark. Usually, there was no one in the house, so who would still light the kerosene lamp? A catty of kerosene costs a few cents.Heizi's mother said to Heizi, "Give the footwashing water to the guests." Heizi brought the footwashing water in front of the educated youth, who was already lying on the bed, and said angrily, "Leave it alone, I will wash it later. . ” Heizi went out, feeling very uncomfortable.The initial excitement evaporated.In his imagination and memory, people with knowledge should be like Zhu Bitao and Cheng Huixian. This educated youth is a bit like Zhu Bitao, that is, he also wears a pair of myopia glasses, but nothing else.Heizi thought, he won't bring him water to wash his feet anymore, and the original idea of ​​wanting to be close to him is gone.

The boatman didn't like that educated youth.The educated youth named Dong Chunshui was very picky when eating. At one moment he felt that there was too little oil, and at another moment he felt that the vegetables were too old and the cattle would not eat them.One of the biggest problems is leftovers. Every meal has a bowl of rice left over.Heizi's mother was very distressed when she saw it.The boatman went home for dinner, and when he saw Dong Chunshui throwing down the bowl with rice left, his face became gloomy. Dong Chunshui threw down the bowl and went back to the side room.After they heard Dong Chunshui slam the door shut, the boatman said, "What kind of talk is this? I've never seen such a prodigal." The boatman poured the rice left in Dong Chunshui's bowl into his own bowl. , eating hard.

Heizi also couldn't understand Dong Chunshui's leftovers. He thought, maybe he had never experienced hunger, and he didn't know what it was like to be hungry in those years.But he also can't understand the punters. For some reason, he always has a feeling of dislike for the punters. The boatman finished his meal and sighed, "Well, I think it's better to find a branch secretary and take him to someone else's house. I don't care about the extra catties of food. There is such a young master living in the house." , I feel really uncomfortable." My mother said: "He is from a big city, so he must behave differently from our country people. If you have any leftovers, you can leave some. There is no need to argue with him. You must not go to the party secretary and tell him to get rid of him. That much is not good, people think that our family doesn’t welcome people, and others will point at our spine and scold us.”

The boatman fell silent. There was something hidden in Dong Chunshui's gaze that sunspots could not understand.He would stand under a neem tree and look thoughtfully at the finely crumbled leaves of the neem tree.The wind blew the leaves of the neem tree.Dong Chunshui climbed up the tree, picked a bunch of neem seeds that looked like jujubes, and played with them all the way home. Seeing the bunch of neem seeds in his hand, Heizi hurriedly said, "Dong Chunshui, you can't eat these neem seeds!" Dong Chunshui stared at him, "I know, don't be so long-winded." Heizi's worries were obviously unnecessary.Early the next morning, as soon as Dong Chunshui opened the door, he threw out the bunch of neem seeds that he had played with all night, with a strange expression on his face.

During that time, Dong Chunshui always brought some wild plants back to the hut for research.Heizi can often see Dong Chunshui throwing dogtail grass, grapefruit leaves, rice ears, sweet potato flowers and other things in the morning.Dong Chunshui seems to have developed a strong interest in these things. Dong Chunshui's actions made Heizi puzzled.He may have been infected by Dong Chunshui, and sometimes he would bring home a bunch of neem seeds, or bring back a sweet potato flower and put it on the table, but no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see anything special.He thought that Dong Chunshui was from a big city, and he was different from himself. Maybe the people in the big city had different ideas from the people in Quliu Village from birth.

No matter what, Dong Chunshui influenced Heizi invisibly. Heizi sometimes thinks that it would be nice to have a pair of glasses for himself, and he will take off his glasses to wipe them before eating like Dong Chunshui, and take them off to wipe them again after eating.Dong Chunshui's slender fingers resembled a girl's hand.Those hands actually looked like those of Cheng Huixian who had passed away.Heizi's heart fluttered inexplicably. Heizi wished he could have an old army jacket and a white vest.Dong Chunshui has a white vest and an old military jacket.It seemed that his military jacket was never buttoned up, and with his arms open, Heizi could clearly see Dong Chunshui's white vest underneath.Dong Chunshui walked on the country road with his arms open, walking neither fast nor slow, maintaining the same speed and posture, which had a charming charm in Heizi's eyes.Sometimes, Heizi would walk like Dong Chunshui in his bedroom, with his arms open, but he couldn't imitate it anyway, because there was no white vest in his coarse clothes.

Heizi still wants to get close to Dong Chunshui. Although he is not used to certain behaviors of Dong Chunshui, there is indeed something about Dong Chunshui that attracts him.Dong Chunshui turned a blind eye to Heizi, he didn't bother to talk to Heizi, and he never had to look at this country boy. Heizi knew that, in a sense, Dong Chunshui looked down on him.Similarly, Dong Chunshui looked down on all the people in Quliu Village. He seldom talked to the people in the village, let alone played with them.Dong Chunshui seldom even talked to Heizi's family. Even with the other two educated youths, Dong Chunshui seldom gets together.Those two educated youths are inseparable every day, and they especially like to visit, and they have a hot fight with the villagers, and their hearty laughter can be heard everywhere.

Dong Chunshui lives in his own wordless world.Dong Chunshui went to work in the fields with the villagers every day, and then went back to Heizi's house for dinner, and hid in the hut after eating.Sometimes, Heizi would quietly go to the door of the hut, look in through the crack of the door, and he would see Dong Chunshui writing something in a notebook.Heizi didn't know what he was writing. He didn't need to do homework or write an essay, so what was he writing?Heizi's curiosity could not be satisfied.Sometimes, he wanted to enter the room when Dong Chunshui was not paying attention, and see Dong Chunshui's secrets, but the door was locked.There wouldn't be something shady hidden in his room, would there?Heizi thought foolishly.

On a certain occasion, two other educated youths talked about the happy life of city people.There are many people around them, including adults, children, offspring, and daughters-in-law.The villagers’ eyes widen as the pair spit and exaggerate their expressions, and they describe a life in unmistakable paradise.The villagers listened with great interest, as if that kind of life was right in front of them, and they could touch the beautiful life of upstairs and downstairs, electric lights and telephones as soon as they stretched out their hands. After they finished speaking, a little daughter-in-law asked, "When will you go back to Xiamen to visit relatives?" "What's the matter?" they asked. The little daughter-in-law said, "Can you buy us some khaki cloth?" They said: "Okay, what's the difficulty, it's easy!" The little daughter-in-law smiled shyly.Everyone was vying to let them bring this and that, as if those fresh and wonderful commodities could immediately fall from the sky through their magical power. The villagers were also very surprised why Dong Chunshui didn't give a speech to the villagers with them.Someone asked: "Why doesn't Dong Chunshui like to talk?" They said in unison: "Dong Chunshui is a psychopath!" The statement that Dong Chunshui was mentally ill quickly spread effectively in Quliu Village. A man would say to a woman: "Dong Chunshui is crazy, stay away from him and don't provoke him." A woman would say to her child: "Dong Chunshui is crazy, stay away from him and don't provoke him." People in Quliu Village are searching for evidence that Dong Chunshui is a psychopath. For example, Dong Chunshui sometimes stays alone under a tree, watching two sparrows play for a long time. People who see this situation will think, Dong Chunshui probably fell into a mental illness again; for another example, Dong Chunshui was always out of company when he was working. He weeded the sweet potatoes by himself, and accidentally got rid of the sweet potato seedlings. People would whisper, and Dong Chunshui should It's crazy.He didn't treat all the sweet potato seedlings as weeds, but the production team leader would pick up those sweet potato seedlings afterwards and say with heartache, "What a wonderful seedling!" At first the production team leader wanted to say something to him, but he endured Stop it, because everyone says Dong Chunshui is crazy. Heizi never believed that Dong Chunshui was insane. He couldn't see where Dong Chunshui's nerves were, or where his illness was. He thought Dong Chunshui was a normal person.He felt that Dong Chunshui was just like when he first arrived in Quliu Village. He was alone and helpless, and he had to endure the eyes of the villagers and the bullying of the fourth child.Unlike Heizi back then, Dong Chunshui was an educated youth from Xiamen. At dusk, Dong Chunshui sat alone on the embankment, watching the smooth river, listening to the evening singing of the birds.Heizi walked towards him.In the setting sun, he suddenly found that Dong Chunshui's eyes were so black and so bright, as if his eyes were inlaid with two shining black gold. Sitting next to him, Heizi smelled the urban atmosphere of Dong Chunshui, he wanted to say something, but couldn't say anything.Dong Chunshui ignored him. They don't communicate. They sat until the sun went down, and then went home for dinner one after the other.At that time, the twilight contained a strong aroma of cooking smoke, which was the pine aroma emitted by the burning dead wood.Large chunks of clouds drifted from one sky to another. It was a silent drift, with a sense of movement, but no subtle noise. Heizi didn't expect that Dong Chunshui and the other two educated youths who huddled together would have such deep grievances. He felt that Dong Chunshui did not pose a threat or harm to them at all, and Dong Chunshui seldom got close to them.Perhaps it was Dong Chunshui's indifference and inner arrogance that hurt them. At some point, they retaliated against Dong Chunshui for no reason. Dong Chunshui is afraid of snakes, as soon as he sees a snake, he can't walk anymore, and there will be a trace of cold air rising from the soles of his feet, reaching the top of the skull, and then rising out from the top of the skull.A look of fear flashed in those black pupils.In the fields of Quliu Village, there are all kinds of snakes, some are poisonous, some are not, but most of them are non-venomous water snakes.Sometimes Dong Chunshui would tremble with fright when he saw a water snake swimming in the pond.A villager smiled and said, "Dong Chunshui, are you a man? You are afraid of water snakes." Dong Chunshui's face immediately burned into a red cloth. One night, Heizi heard Dong Chunshui's scream. Mother said to Heizi, "Quick, go and see what happened to Dong Chunshui." Heizi went out and saw that Dong Chunshui was already standing in the yard.He stood there panting heavily, as if he was about to suffocate. Heizi walked up to him and asked him, "Dong Chunshui, what happened?" Dong Chunshui said hurriedly: "Snake, snake!" Heizi hurriedly took a stick and went into the side room, looking around, where is there a snake? Did Dong Chunshui have a nightmare?No, he just went back to the side room after dinner, so he couldn't have fallen asleep so quickly. Heizi went back to the yard and asked, "Where is the snake?" Dong Chunshui said, "It's... on the window." Heizi entered the house again, and sure enough, he saw a dead snake on the windowsill.It was a water snake that had been beaten to death. Someone must have put it here deliberately to scare Dong Chunshui.Heizi comforted, "Dong Chunshui, it's okay, it's a dead snake." Dong Chunshui still didn't dare to go in, there was a cold snake crawling slowly in his heart.Heizi picked up the dead snake with a stick, walked out of the house, and threw it into the latrine. That night, Dong Chunshui was too late to enter the house. What made Dong Chunshui sad was not the fear of snakes, but the heavy and shameful feeling of that false charge. That was also one night, he heard a rustling outside the window, and he closed the window and door tightly.The next morning, he heard a woman outside the window scolding in a low voice: "Those who have lost their children and grandchildren, those who were shot to death, those who received a thousand knives, even the old hen that laid eggs will be stolen and eaten. Sin, I am an old hen!" An egg can be laid every day! My family’s salt and kerosene are bought with the money from selling eggs, God damn it..." Both Heizi and Dong Chunshui went out. Under the window of the side room where Dong Chunshui lived, there were chicken feathers all over the floor, and a pile of chicken bones that had been gnawed clean, and there were still some chicken feathers and bone fines on the window sill.This gives the impression that Dong Chunshui threw the feathers and bones out of the window after stealing the chicken. Because Dong Chunshui was an educated youth, the woman scolded him without naming him.Dong Chunshui didn't say a word, he knew that the woman's angry and resentful gaze had pierced countless bloody holes in his body. Dong Chunshui murmured: "I didn't, I didn't steal your hen!" Heizi also said, "That's impossible. Dong Chunshui is not that kind of person. How could he steal your hen?" Someone said: "That's not necessarily true. If a person is insane, he can do anything." Dong Chunshui's face turned red and white. At this time, the two educated youths came laughing and laughing.They said: "The hen chicken must be delicious, but we don't have that kind of food." Dong Chunshui's black pupils were soaked in a layer of water. One of the spectators walked out, and she said to the woman who lost the chicken at home: "You are too serious, I don't think Dong Chunshui is like a chicken stealer, you are so stupid, if you steal someone else's chicken , would you put chicken feathers and chicken bones outside your window, someone must have planted it!" The person who said this was the widow Qiu Lingdi. Dong Chunshui glanced at Qiu Lingdi gratefully, and the woman suddenly burst into tears, "What the hell, what a good thing you have done, the old hen is my lifeblood!" anxious. Dong Chunshui lowered his head silently, went back to the house, took ten yuan, came to the woman, and said sincerely to the woman: "Sister-in-law, I really didn't steal the chicken, but I want to show my heart. Ten yuan is considered a little compensation for you. Close the door tightly in the future, and don’t let people steal your things.” The woman snatched the ten yuan and said, “You didn’t steal it, give it to me. What are you doing with the money, you sound so nice, go!" After she finished speaking, she stopped crying and crying, and walked away quickly, the old hen didn't lay eggs every day as she said, the old hen didn't lay eggs every day at all. It's not worth ten yuan. The widow Qiu Lingdi looked at the bewildered Dong Chunshui with a strange look on her face. Heizi felt that Dong Chunshui should not have given the woman ten yuan. This was undoubtedly an admission in front of the villagers that Dong Chunshui was a chicken thief. The two educated youths gloated and said, "The son of a capitalist is still rich, the difference is the difference!" When they said this, they winked at each other, as if they were acting. Heizi never expected that Dong Chunshui would walk into the widow Qiu Lingdi's house at night.Dong Chunshui was a child in front of Qiu Lingdi, and he threw himself into Qiu Lingdi's arms, crying like a child.Qiu Lingdi was also full of tears. She patted him on the back as if coaxing a child, and said softly, "Son, don't cry, good boy, don't cry." That night was full of the smell of tuberose. On a June day, the face of a child. Heizi had a full meal that day, so he went to the field with his mother to cut rice.After the summer vacation, he has been working in the fields with his mother.When Heizi was cutting rice, he was very close to educated youth Dong Chunshui. Dong Chunshui cut rice very slowly, he was clumsy.Heizi cut the rice quickly, and soon left Dong Chunshui behind. As he was cutting, he heard Dong Chunshui exclaim softly in surprise: "Ah——" Heizi looked back and saw Dong Chunshui's eyes shining beautifully. He picked up a field pigeon egg, held it between his index finger and thumb, and carefully examined it in the sunlight, looking obsessed.It turned out that Dong Chunshui caught a nest of pigeon eggs while cutting rice. When Dong Chunshui was inspecting the pigeon eggs in the field, Heizi saw a large group of dark clouds in the sky not far away, overwhelmingly pressing towards this side. No, it's going to rain. However, Heizi knew that the rain came and went quickly.There was a thunderbolt among the dark clouds, and a flash of lightning flashed across Dong Chunshui's black pupils.He put the field pigeon eggs back into the nest.He looked at the mysterious and ever-changing sky with a dazed look.The rain fell with a patter, and people flocked to a grass hut to hide from the rain. Heizi said to Dong Chunshui, "Dong Chunshui, go to the cottage!" Dong Chunshui didn't seem to hear Heizi's cry, so he took off his military jacket and put it on the field pigeon eggs. He hesitated. He saw Heizi waving at him in the cottage. There was a smile on his face, that smile was rare to see, it was deeply imprinted in Heizi's mind. Heizi didn't see Dong Chunshui walking towards the cottage, but walked under a giant camphor tree in the heavy rain.Heizi said loudly: "Dong Chunshui, come here, there is thunder and lightning, you can't stand under a tree to shelter from the rain!" Someone said: "Dong Chunshui's insanity has struck again." Suddenly, there was a loud noise. A bolt of lightning hit the camphor tree like a mad dragon, and Heizi and the others saw a flash of fire. The tree was struck by lightning. A mass of burnt smell permeated the fields in June. Heizi watched Dong Chunshui, who was wearing a white vest, burn to charcoal in an instant. Heizi entered the side room. He opened Dong Chunshui's thick notebook. "Heizi is a boy from the countryside. He is simple and sincere. For some reason, I don't want to get in touch with him, or maybe I have a feeling of contempt for farmers in my heart. However, I believe that one day I will reveal my heart to him. , it will take time, I can't do it all at once..." This passage, like Dong Chunshui's rare smile in the rain, was deeply imprinted in Heizi's mind.