Chapter 7 Chapter 6 How I Know

I didn't know much about Caobang.I only heard my father say when he was young: During the Anti-Japanese War, he had a period of wandering away from home; in order to save his life, he had no choice but to join the Qing Gang.I asked him why he was in the gang, but he refused to say more, just told me: when you are away from home, if someone asks your name, you can answer: "Your name is Zhang at home, and the word Pan on your head when you go out." If the other party is also a bachelor in the gang (If you are not in the gang, you can't be called a bachelor, but you should be called an empty child.) In everything, you will take a step back and give up three points, which will naturally save a lot of trouble and add a lot of benefits.Ask him what else to pay attention to, but he refuses to say anything.

In August of the fifty-fourth year of the Republic of China, I just finished the second grade of elementary school.It was summer vacation, and it was the most exciting day at that time: on Thursday, there were national coaches teaching butterfly swimming and back diving in the swimming pool.At noon that day, I was about to practice swimming when my father stopped me suddenly.I was wondering: Why didn't he work in the Ministry of Defense and came home instead?But my father suddenly made a silent gesture and whispered: "Don't go out today, your big brother is coming." My eldest brother is more than ten years older than my father, but he is shorter in generation. He is the nephew of my father's hometown in mainland China. Naturally, his surname is also Zhang, his first name is Shifang, and his name is Hanqing.When she was in her hometown, Zhang Shifang had no contact with her father's house.In the 38th year of the Republic of China, my father brought my mother to Taiwan, and no other relatives of the Zhang family accompanied me.Unexpectedly, Dao suddenly met Zhang Shifang one day, and instead developed some friendship and family affection for each other;Every Chinese New Year, Zhang Shifang must come home to kowtow to the ancestral tablet, and also kowtow to his father who is more than ten years younger than him but older.But that Thursday in August of that year was neither a year nor a holiday, so what did he come for?I didn't ask that, what I asked was: "What is he doing to me? I'm going to go swimming." As soon as the words came out, I was slapped hard on the cheek.

I don't remember what happened next. I only know that after my father locked me in the toilet, my mother told me through the wooden door: "Don't cry or make trouble after the big brother comes. What's wrong with you? Say it again." I don't know how many hours later, I heard the sound of the big brother coming in and calling uncle and auntie.I heard my mother yelling: "Oh, how did you get all of this?"I heard my father tell my mother to lower her voice.I also heard the big brother say: It’s okay, it looks scary, but in fact it’s just two feet that are broken; he also said that he pedaled a scooter all the way and sweated all over.Then there was a long silence.Suddenly my mother came to pull the wooden door, her hands were covered with blood.She rinsed it off with the tap, tore off several towels from the shelf, and went out again like a gust of wind.This time she didn't close the door, but I listened carefully.First, the big brother said: He never fought with anyone; he is already old, why is he still playing with those things.My father didn't seem to believe it, and the eldest brother explained in a low voice for a long time, and finally shouted: "Uncle, if you don't believe me, please invite your ancestors, and I will cast a curse."

"Which ancestor? Is it from the Zhang family or from the Wan family?" My father also yelled, "They are all in their fifties, and they are still bachelors. I can't stop you if you want to die. The sky-high price is so bloody, can I just slap my ass and leave it alone?" "Isn't there a bloody head? It's just two feet—it's dawn, who saw the broken glass of the police car lights? I got seventy or eighty cuts as soon as I got out of the car—" "Why did you violate the police car?" My father seemed to understand, and raised his voice again.This time it was my mother who told him to stop arguing. "How would I know? Dozens of red cars are parked at the gate of the botanical garden, and the ceiling lights are all broken. What am I doing? I'm just sending a stone slab."

Then they quarreled for a while, and the noise got louder and lower, which probably meant that my father was very upset that the big brother called "Jiangsu No. 1" and called him out of the office.He asked Big Brother to make it clear: "Jiangsu No. 1" is the phone number of the Ministry, not the phone number of the Big Brother Gang.Big brother said that he had no choice but to come home without saying hello, but we didn't have a phone at home.My father said that there were thousands of mistakes, and the mistake was that he should not be a bachelor, transporting broken stone slabs for others.Big Brother said: You shouldn't, you shouldn't, you shouldn't go out on a scooter with bare feet.My father said that you should follow other great directors to film and act in a serious manner. You are not afraid of being a decent person, and you are not afraid of being a bachelor. The elder brother provoked someone who shouldn't be provoked outside.Big Brother said that's not the case in the gang.My father told him to shut up.

But in the evening of this day, after all, the eldest brother and my father were still chatting and laughing about the daily life, most of the conversations were about the little things about our old home in Shandong.My mother let me out of the toilet, but they didn't say a word about what I wanted to hear.After holding it in for a long time, I finally couldn't bear it anymore. I found a gap and asked, "Why are all the lights on the police car broken?" Before the big brother could answer, my father threw me into the toilet again. At that time, I had no other thoughts. I just squatted in the damp and dark toilet and memorized every sentence I heard this afternoon, trying to remember which one or two sentences I accidentally missed.What's annoying is that I didn't miss anything, and they never mentioned it: Why did the little red lights that whine like cakes on the roofs of dozens of police cars shatter all over the place?But unexpectedly, I firmly remembered (or imagined out of thin air) the scene of Big Brother trampling a pair of stinky feet at the gate of the botanical garden.

Until a few years later (I may have already entered junior high school), one day, after the Lunar New Year, the eldest brother came home to kowtow as usual, just as my father had not returned from the family worship.I took the time to ask him what happened that summer.Big Brother's expression changed, and a pair of gray old eyes shot crystal light: "You still remember! Brother." Then he took me to the backyard and mysteriously asked me to swear to God: no matter what I heard, I was not allowed to say it.Of course I swear, it's the easiest thing to swear--it doesn't matter if you're not sure you can keep your oath, just sneak your second thumb on your thumb in your shoe, and the oath will be considered a failure.I don't know if it's true or not, but that's what I did anyway.

That’s why Big Brother told me: On the night of August 11th in the fifty-fourth year of the Republic of China, he received a task from the gang, asking him to try to get a six-foot-long, three-foot-wide, and eight-cent-thick piece within two or three hours. The bluestone slabs were sent to the pavilion of the lotus pond in the botanical garden for installation before dawn. "It's not easy for the gang to explain anything. Once you do, you must do it." The eldest brother said, looking furtively in the direction of the front room.I told him my father wasn't coming back so soon—because there was a lottery after the party.In the village, only generals and high-ranking officers can get special prizes and other prizes; my father is a low-ranking official, and his luck is only enough to get six prizes of soap and seven prizes of towels. Lost grace and face.The big brother felt relieved, and started from the beginning: "But you think: where can I get such a big stone?" The big brother was complacent before saying anything, and laughed to himself, saying: "I just have a way—then It was just in time for Li Hanxiang to leave Shaw Brothers and come to Taiwan to make a blockbuster film called "Beauty."

Because Li Hanxiang pays attention to details in filming, the set props must be real materials.That "Xi Shi" is the first large-scale film that he has cooperated with Taiwan Film Studio since he formed Guolian Company. The palace, city, grass and tree on the screen are all trying to be realistic.The eldest brother hurriedly found out where the props warehouse for the play had not been shipped to the south, sneaked in at night, and stole a bluestone slab—unfortunately the size was slightly different—it was six feet long and three feet wide, but But there is an inch thick stone slab.It was supposed to appear on the steps in front of the "Ring Walking Corridor" in the film.Without this stone slab, it is said that Li Hanxiang was so angry that he fired a theater director.

The big brother was busy all night, and at dawn he stole another pulley and rode all the way from Beitou to the botanical garden.But they acted aboveboard in the gang, even if they were sneaky, they had no choice but to leave a message for others.So according to the rules of the gang, the eldest brother took off a rubber-soled black gang cotton shoe and left it where the cart was parked—the toe of the shoe faced due east, and four small stones were placed in the shoe to form a cross, which meant It is to help the bachelor borrow it, and it can be returned on the same day.After such a toss, how can the other shoe be worn on the foot again?The eldest brother simply hit his bare feet and went on the road, but he stepped on the ground and was bleeding profusely.

"Then why are the lights on the roof of the police car broken?" I'm still the same old question. The eldest brother blinked and said, "I don't know either. I heard from the two guards that they taught me to whistle. I said that's nonsense." No one knows: Does Big Brother himself have any bullshit?Not long after, our dependent village moved to near the intersection of Zhonghua Road and Tibet Road, commonly known as the South Airport—this place is very close to the Botanical Garden. I often go to practice boxing, sketch, and peek at couples stretching their hands into each other’s. He fumbled and squeezed in the clothes and skirt pants.Once, I suddenly remembered what the big brother said about the past, so I went to the small pavilion in the lotus pond to confirm it.Sure enough, there is indeed a stone slab on the west side of the pavilion that is a full two points higher than the rest of the ground. At that time, I not only believed that Big Brother didn't fool me, but I also broke my own oath - I told Sun Xiaoliu about Big Brother's gang.Of course, it's not just "telling", I also added a lot of condiments.I said: My eldest brother killed a person in that pavilion, using a kind of kung fu called "thunderbolt feet".Those "thunderbolt feet" can't be used in shoes, so they have to be bare feet.Bare feet make "thunderbolt feet", under a kick, thousands of sharp needle-like things grow out of the soles of the feet, through which the internal force penetrates, like an electric current, one blow is enough to kill.I said that my eldest brother kicked a gangster brother to death, thinking that he would cause big trouble. He was going to throw the man's body into the lotus pond, but he was afraid that he would float up in two days, so he simply pried the man's body on the ground of the small pavilion. A big stone slab was buried under the gangster brother, and the excess earth was swept into the lotus pond, and the stone slab was inserted back, but it was still a little higher; and the stone slab was under Sun Xiaoliu's feet. At that time, Sun Xiaoliu was only eight years old. After listening to the story I made up, he lowered his head and glanced at it, and immediately yelled and cried wildly.I was actually very, very happy.The reason why bullying Sun Xiaoliu makes me very, very happy is because of his sister Xiaowu.His sister, Xiaowu, was the same age as me. She was born beautiful and was an excellent female celebrity. After graduating from junior high school, she knits wool, crochets tablecloths, and does housework at home.I asked her to go to the botanical garden several times, and wanted to put my hand under her skirt to touch a few times, but she refused.But she is willing to hang out with me, walk around, very boring.Once when I touched her nipples, she caught me with her backhand, broke my little finger on the spot, and then put it back immediately, saying: "I'll break your little bird with your hands and feet." After that, I never He didn't ask her out, but he started to torture Sun Xiaoliu. Of course, I was only fifteen or six years old at that time, and I never imagined that: timid and crying, short and thin, unable to run far and jump high, dripping a string of yellow and green snot all day long, I became a useless person In the days to come, Sun Xiaoliu actually practiced supernatural martial arts, as well as various seemingly heretical strange abilities.If I had known that there were so many abilities waiting for him and finding him on the road of life, I would definitely not dare to frighten and tease him like that. The one time I frightened him in the lotus pond kiosk in the botanical garden left a deep impression on me.Because just later that day, Sun Xiaoliu and I both became "convicted" people - we were each riding a bicycle that day, and we really wanted to try the taste of winding and galloping on the corridor of the lotus pond ; So he forcibly dragged the bicycle through the gap next to the revolving door.Sure enough, turning left and right on the Jiuqu Embankment Corridor is really enjoyable.Unexpectedly, a policeman stationed in the botanical garden suddenly appeared and summoned us from a distance, and asked sharply: "What is the revolving door for?" We shook our heads and pretended not to know.Pretending to be ignorant is useless, the person arrested is the active criminal who violated the police and punishment law-running a motorcycle in a place where motorcycles are prohibited.I don't know until today: What kind of punishment should we actually be punished that day.But we all stayed in the garden police's garrison room for an hour, wrote a letter of repentance, and took tattoos of our left and right thumbs and index fingers.The park policeman also told us: "You have criminal records now." After I was finally released, I sternly threatened Sun Xiaoliu not to tell his family about it, otherwise—"You know: my big brother is a bachelor!" I still remember that Sun Xiaoliu cried again on the spot. In fact, before I really realized the fact that the old Cao Gang and my big brother were messing around, all I could do and say was nothing more than bluffing.As for Sun Xiaoliu—to use a blunt saying—he was frightened; but I wasn't the only one who frightened him.But all of this was done very, very late, before I sketched out an outline like putting together a large drawing board: the back of this outline is indeed related to the old Cao Gang, and it is also related to more than 30 years ( Even many of these clues can be traced back to seventy or eighty years) and are related to the underground society that has been lurking, spreading, expanding, and deteriorating in our country since then.But we never know that the real society we think we live in is just a dark corner of the underground society, and it is just a tragic result of its influence, guidance, manipulation and domination. How do I know this?This still has to start with my big brother.He also occupies a small piece of the big puzzle of the underworld.