Chapter 29 Chapter Twenty-Eight

When I was about to talk about the past of Ouyang Kunlun, I lingered for a while, and turned my head to tell everything that suddenly burned between Honglian and me.I still remember what I wrote at the time: "What the "old man" didn't expect was that Ju Yi would go to Shandong for nothing but the 84 Buddha heads that Xing Fushuang said had sunk in the river. The real story of Ouyang Kunlun rescuing a little girl from the flower thief. Regarding this matter, I have to start with my Mrs. Peng. So I have to go back and talk about Honglian and Sun Xiaoliu first." That’s because what Honglian and Mrs. Peng knew about Ouyang Kunlun was too brief—they had never known Ouyang Kunlun like a civil servant of the Historical and Political Compilation Bureau who specialized in researching the history of Chinese wars in the past dynasties.And as a researcher with a low official position in the Ministry of National Defense History Compilation Bureau, my father has never met Ouyang Kunlun—or it should be put this way: my father has always suspected that he has seen Ouyang Kunlun, but there is no evidence—obviously, to get Clearing up this doubt became a major task that occupied his thinking, emotions and even affected his life goals and attitudes.I can even assert this: I am afraid that it was precisely to find out whether he had a relationship with Ouyang Kunlun that he was introduced in the 42nd year of the Republic of China. Temporary employee somewhere between scribe and coworker.After that, he went through numerous civil service appointments and promotion examinations, from "Hetou Committee" through "Caotou Recommended" to "Zhutoujian", step by step, step by step, climbed up to the "Jianjian Level 1" before his retirement. Editor's job.It is also this old man who is close at hand, who gave birth to me for more than 30 years, and spent most of his life in the pile of old papers leading the soldiers to march on the battlefield. The touching stories that may be unearthed—those secrets scattered in the world full of joys and sorrows.The starting point of this discovery can be recounted from the few days when Sun Xiaoliu set up the "Heavenly Escape Formation" in Youth Park. Sun Xiaoliu and I stayed in that formation for a few days, only when eating and going to the bathroom Stepping on a certain pace, going in and out along a certain route and direction—if it is time for the handover of time, some changes should be made.I only knew to follow Sun Xiaoliu's instructions, and I didn't know the reason for walking on tiptoe like that, and I didn't know what mistakes would happen if I didn't do it.However, I am a person who is very serious about "stories"-although my novels at that time were very artificial and vulgar, it is undeniable that I am easily moved by anyone's words; give me a story.

During those few days, Sun Xiaoliu gave me several stories that can be called "endless".In the first story, there is a grandpa with big teeth——!Let me assume that he is Wang Xunru.The erratic and mysterious old men are also indispensable in the second, third, and fourth stories; it's just that they appeared when Sun Xiao was six or seven years old, ten, one, and seventeen years old respectively—in other words: Xiaoliu was already able to know a little about people, and even a little bit, so the three old men became more sneaky. Not only did they refuse to call each other by their first names in front of Sun Xiaoliu, they were even unwilling to show their true colors. The face is always covered with a veil made of cotton or linen, or a monster mask that is often found on the stalls in the vegetable market.The fourth old man in the 1971 of the Republic of China appeared from the beginning to the end with a newly-launched masked mask, and the masked face was exactly the same as that of US President Reagan at the time.When Sun Xiaoliu described to me how these three people tricked him, abducted him and gave him extraordinary skills, he used the titles: "Second Grandpa" or "Gauze Grandpa", "Third Grandpa" or "Grandpa Mask", and "Grandpa Fourth" or "Grandpa Reagan". "Grandpa Gauze" also imprisoned Sun Xiaoliu in the reconstructed Xinxing Theater—and this time "Grandpa Gauze" set fire to himself, no one was hurt, and the fire was quickly brought under control. put out.But the theater cannot be opened, and "Grandpa Shalian" can safely pass on Sun Xiaoliu's "Qimen Dunjia Technique" in it.

When I first heard this story, I would interrupt him from time to time, telling him that "the Qimen Dunjia I know" is just something similar to fortune-telling, divination or astrology, where is there any juice? Supernatural powers.Sun Xiaoliu answered me like this from time to time: "I don't believe it sometimes, and I don't want to believe it now, but we may fall into a formation at any time, but we don't know it. If we don't know which formation we are falling into How can you not believe that there is such a formation?" Regarding the three stories between "Grandpa Gauze", "Grandpa Mask" and "Grandpa Reagan" and Sun Xiaoliu, I must wait until the time when Sun Xiaoliu and I fled.Now I have to skip them and go straight to Mrs. Peng's part.

I don't know how many days I will stay in the formation—at least it will be the morning when I even finished talking about how "Grandpa Reagan" taught Sun Xiaoliu how to train Sun Xiaoliu's fist, palm, waist, and foot skills?We hadn't closed our eyes almost all night, and we were already very sleepy. Suddenly, Sun Xiaoliu stared at a pair of bloodshot eyes and pointed to a mud path in the southeast, and then spoke with a very light and low voice almost breathless. The way of speaking said to me: "Over there, under the tree, then, is that teacher, teacher, master?"

I followed the trend and saw that there were indeed three or four people under the tree, standing with their backs to the two of us at irregular steps. The old man whose heels were on tiptoe and tiptoe from time to time really looked like Master Peng. , but he is much fatter and bigger than Master Peng.The cotton collarless white sweater and woolen vest are not the clothes that Master Peng usually wears.The most unusual thing is that there seems to be a tattoo-like rope tied around the man's neck, which is half black and half blue, half blue and not blue - there is no such mark on Master Peng.However, the empty birdcage in his hand was none other than Master Peng. "He's outside the formation, we're inside," I said, and punched him on the shoulder: "Even Master Peng couldn't see us." Is it? And he is much fatter and bigger than Master Peng. What are you afraid of?"

Sun Xiaoliu shrugged and said, "I can't help it. I'm used to being afraid. I'm afraid of everything. Especially the bird cage. Whenever I saw the bird cage, I would fight." What he said was indeed the truth - I couldn't hear what the big fat man said to those people, but I could clearly hear Sun Xiaoliu's two rows of teeth chattering and chattering.But in less than a second, I too trembled.That's because the person who was standing opposite the big fat man turned away, moved half a step aside, and revealed a face—a face I've seen twice and never forgotten—it was the four Zhu Bajie One of them, the only one who was not knocked down by Sun Xiaoliu that night a few days ago.

But at this moment, Sun Xiaoliu yelled in a low voice: "It's over! It's time, it's too late." After saying that, he grabbed my sleeve and rolled on the spot, and we both prostrated ourselves in a row of short, mounds. Behind the concrete tree stump, the smell of sweat, acid and dirt on his body (or myself) came over my face. Then I remembered: Counting from the day I was hospitalized, I hadn’t showered for more than a week, and even my hands and face were dirty. No more water.Naturally, Sun Xiaoliu did the same, but he didn't forget to exhale: mouthful after mouthful of stench, telling me in a low voice: It's seven o'clock now.The end of the year and the beginning of the day are the transition points of time. If you don’t adjust the positions of a few pine cones immediately, the formation will gradually break down—needless to say: those people under the tree will soon realize that there is a tall and dense forest in front of them. Heisong turned out to be just an illusion, it turned out to be a children's playground, and there were two dirty and embarrassing fugitives.Because there is not enough time to repair this formation, we had to curl up as much as possible, using those terrains and features that are completely designed for children to play, to hide a foot, hide an inch, move east and west, and it is easy to half climb and half Rolling to the bottom of the slide pillars, they breathed a sigh of relief—or should I say: escaped from the bad smell steaming from each other's holes.

"Do you think Master saw me, Brother Zhang?" Sun Xiaoliu was still trembling: "Did he see me?" I thought about it, and another thought popped into my head—if what Honglian said is correct: Master Peng is the "knowledgeable" "Yue Zipeng" in the crossword puzzle I solved, and I was talking to him. The talking Zhu Bajie stared at me like this, and what he drew was also related to the crossword puzzle, so Master Peng might be the key figure who hides his head and shows his tail. What do I have to be afraid of?Furthermore: Looking from behind, the big fat man carrying the birdcage was at least twice as wide as Master Peng. The reason why Sun Xiaoliu always recognized him as Master Peng was only because of long-term excessive fear, and a dog. Maybe it looks a bit like a broken birdcage.In this way, if I can't overcome Sun Xiaoliu's fear, I can only nestle under this short and small slide like a shrinking turtle, holding back urine and enduring the smell, and I don't know how long it will take.However, if Sun Xiaoliu can be calmed down and braved, with that Zhu Bajie, the two old and thin men beside him who look like consumptive ghosts, and the big fat man with the birdcage, they should not belong to Sun Xiaoliu. opponent.So I pretended to poke my probe, glanced carefully under the tree, and said, "That's just a fat man, not Master Peng at all."

"Impossible——I know Master's birdcage, and it never leaves my hand. You can see Brother Zhang clearly." This time I had to slightly tilt my wide-eyed face, and suddenly thought of a tricky idea, so While looking at it, he yelled: "Yue Zipeng!" Before I yelled that voice, I didn't think about it carefully, what would be the consequences after I yelled like that?A simple assumption is: Master Peng is not "Yue Zipeng" as Honglian said, and the fat man under the tree is not Master Peng.Then, to the few people in front of them, that roar is just like a hawker yelling from the street, or a burst of emergency brakes that are shrill but far away, and it may be meaningless to hear.Furthermore, if the fat man under the tree is Master Peng, and Master Peng is not Yue Zipeng, then logically it shouldn't cause any reaction.It can even be said: I yelled so loudly, but I didn't expect what the other party would do.However, a strange thing happened——

All the people under the tree changed their original posture slightly, and stopped the previous conversation; but it was only two or three seconds (or even less).The fat man didn't turn his head back, but Zhu Bajie and the other two skinny monkeys who were already too old seemed to look away slightly with firm strength - it could be seen that there was a very skillful tacit understanding between them; Although the line of sight is only a glance, it covers a 360-degree radius.It's just that my sideways angle was too low, and my roar was sudden and hasty, without revealing my exact location.After scanning around like that, they actually walked towards the direction behind Zhu Bajie without saying a word.In other words, !The big fat man walked forward, the two skinny monkeys turned to the left and right, and Zhu Bajie turned his head and walked quickly. The four of them never looked back.

At this moment, Sun Xiaoliu pressed his ears to the ground, startled suddenly, smiled, and said, "Why are you leaving? Brother Zhang, can you recite mantras? What did you recite just now?" I pushed him away a few feet, and said: "Not only do you know some heretic stuff, but your brother Zhang is not a fuel-efficient lamp, let me tell you! Let's go." "Where are you going?" "Where are you going?" I stood up, patted the dust, and said, "Go wash your sour skin and smelly flesh." We're not far from home, but I don't think it's safe to go home—at least there's a Zhu Bajie who made my birth date very clear nearby—as for this "Heavenly Dungeon" No, I don't want to stay in it and get moldy anymore.In addition, I still have a great doubt in my heart: What is the relationship between the fat man under the tree, Master Peng, and even Yue Zipeng?Not understanding this is more uncomfortable than going without a shower for a week.So I pulled up Sun Xiaoliu's sleeves, and in an almost threatening tone, I gritted my teeth and said to him: "If you don't come with me, if you are wandering around outside, if you actually meet Master Peng, you will have to take a beating." Beat it badly. Why don't you follow me for a while." "Brother Zhang, where are you going?" Sun Xiaoliu hesitated, pulling his elbow back twice."The safest place is the most dangerous place," I said. We lingered in the already disfigured Tiandun Formation for an unknown amount of time, until Sun Xiaoliu finally mustered up the courage to leave the Youth Park hesitantly, and came to the home of Master Peng and Master Peng, which is also the children's association in our village. Come and receive training and beating for a while, but you can't learn anything, and in the end you can only squat in a martial arts gym.Sneaking in through the back door is the bathroom.Usually, the boys from nearby houses often pry open the clasp from the screen door, close the curtain, and take a bath by turning on the faucet without saying hello.Master Peng and Mrs. Peng usually don't ask, because tap water is not worth any money, and most people who can bear to bathe in cold water are not afraid of anyone watching;Taking a bath while practicing boxing is justified, and those who don’t practice boxing often come in to make trouble—it is said that it is to save a few pennies for water at home.In short, if you meet someone with a towel around their neck on the road, it must be a jerk from a martial arts gym, you can't go wrong. So this bathroom, which covers an area of ​​several square meters, has become an indispensable memory scene in my growing years - the concrete floor, which has been wet and slippery for many years, reflects pale fluorescent tubes like silkworm maggots, lingering and seeping all the time. The heart-warming Majestic smell evaporates from the drain up to the roof bracket without a ceiling. Two small square transom windows are opened to the west and south. Walking across the wall and between the beams and columns, water-stained and rusty water pipes are everywhere. They belonged to my depressed youth between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. At that time, it seemed lifeless and suffocating. The refuge between the school and the school is barely enough for people to linger for a short time, which means that people have nowhere to escape under the cover of the huge fate between heaven and earth, a small breathing corner.Dozens of my brothers and sisters are here to learn how to smoke, swear, take off their foreskins, and discuss how to avoid being pinched or pinched by a woman's two labia in the first night. There are no less than dozens of people entering and leaving this bathroom, and if calculated by the number of people, it may not be less than tens of thousands of times. The water used by everyone can fill several swimming pools, and the sludge and dirt washed away should be able to grow Mrs. Peng alive. Several rows of vegetables in the front yard.But once a certain age has passed, or a certain stage has been mentioned, when the so-called brothers and sisters meet unexpectedly in the streets or farther away, no one will mention this place—even if we occasionally think of "more "The hero who lives and goes back" and his wife who lives and goes back, the topic is always wandering around about Master Peng not allowing others to reveal his kung fu, and stopping at the old saying "actually he didn't teach us anything".When Sun Xiaoliu and Sun Xiaoliu stood under the two tubes of gray iron shower head to wash cold water, I felt for the first time at the age of twenty-five: We probably all forgot about this place.At the moment when we hurriedly escaped from adolescence and had no time to look back, we were still like a group of children playing hide-and-seek, turning our backs on the little corner that had hidden us for more than a moment in less than a moment. "How long has it been since you've been back?" I said to myself emotionally, and used Maggie's medicinal soap again: "It's been more than seven or eight years?" "I'm fine." Sun Xiaoliu said this. "What?" I glanced at him—this kid has indeed grown very big.Surprisingly strange. "I often come back to take a bath, in fact." Sun Xiaoliu flushed with eyes closed, and put a piece of medicated soap back into the old-fashioned plastic net dish one foot apart, and continued with a smile: "Brother Zhang, you just said Note: The most dangerous place is the safest place—I know this truth too well; Master never comes here, I know it.” "You're saying that even when you're 'disappeared', you actually come back to take a shower?" "Of course." Sun Xiaoliu reluctantly opened his eyes from the water curtain; he stared at me as if very confused, and said, "Where else do you teach me to wash? Those grandpas who sent me to learn crafts all went to Shanghai bathhouses. I can't make it—do you know how stinky the bathhouse is, brother Zhang? Once you go in, it's like being soaked in a stinky tofu vat, buried under the feet of a million Hong Kong. You'd better come back and wash it. If the master is not at home by chance, you can still There are stories to hear." "Story?" I also squinted at him from the water curtain. "That's right!" Sun Xiaoliu turned off his faucet, and the muscles all over his body seemed to inadvertently bulge in all directions, and suddenly a white mist of steam gushed out from the billions of pores, and when the steam dissipated, he The water on my body also dried up.While putting on his clothes and trousers, he asked very suspiciously: "Have you never heard the story told by the teacher's wife, Brother Zhang? I'm sorry! It's great!"