Chapter 5 Section 4 The Painter Was Beaten

During that time, the real liveliness of the urban village began at midnight.However, this kind of bustling has only action, no sound; only busyness, no hustle and bustle.Even if you live on the upper floor facing the street in an urban village, even if you open the window, you will never know that people are passing by just under your house and in the aisle in front of your door, like crucian carp crossing a river. The painter and I are used to going out at night. The quiet night makes our minds as calm as water and our thoughts fly away, making us feel detached and peaceful, and our spirits are sublimated.

One day, at about two o'clock in the middle of the night, I was tired from reading, so I went to the window, looked down, and suddenly saw a tall figure running along the narrow alleyway, carrying something on his back, walking. Be hasty and brisk.He walked under the street light, and his pace was faster. I saw that the things on his shoulders were still wrapped in black bags.At that moment, my first reaction was that this is a murderer, and he must have taken advantage of midnight to destroy the body and wipe out the traces. The security of urban villages has always been a headache. There are tens of thousands of houses in urban villages, and the residents come from all over the world. No one knows what their neighbors do, what background they have, and what kind of history they have.A few days ago, I heard that when the landlord urged a resident to pay the rent, he could not find the resident. Later, when he opened the door lock, he found that the resident had been dead in the room for a long time, and the door was locked by the murderer.

Looking at the figure who hurried away under the dim street lights, I suddenly thought of reporting the crime.Just as I was about to leave, another figure appeared in the alleyway, also carrying a pack of things wrapped in black bags. The east and west were square, and it should be a box.He followed the same route as the previous one, walked to the streetlight at the entrance of the alley, and then disappeared around the corner. A few minutes later, a third and a fourth person appeared, all carrying those tightly wrapped boxes and walking the same route. I feel very strange. What are they for?I decided to check it out.However, they did not appear in the laneway again for the next hour.Just when I thought they were asleep and I was about to leave the window, they reappeared, this time carrying the same things and walking the same route.

Strange, what are they carrying?Where do they come from and where are they going?There are too many little-known secrets in the village in the city. The spikers at the entrance of the village in the city can’t repair shoes, and the car repairers can’t repair cars; at every intersection in the village, a group of middle-aged and elderly women are sitting around, and the needles and threads in their hands will not move for a long time; No one cares about the cigarette stalls, and the monthly income is not enough to pay the rent, but they are still doing a loss-making business; there is a row of stores in an unusually hidden place in the village, but there are no products in the stores.

There are fake cigarettes at the entrance of the village, but they are only sold to passers-by; high-end cars gather in the village in the middle of the night, but they are orderly; mysterious people carry boxes, and come and go in the lanes in the middle of the night... What secrets does this urban village hide? My doubts continue. That night, on the way home after eating Chongqing hot and sour noodles with the painter, I saw all kinds of high-end cars parked in front of those stores.The driver was chatting with the shopkeeper, and when he saw us, he was silent and full of vigilance.What is the relationship between the owners of high-end cars and the owners of these small shops?Why are there so many high-end cars crowded in this dirty urban village?One owns a car worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, and the other runs a shop in an urban village. Their identities are very different, like Li Shishi, the lover of the Song Emperor, and Xiao Yun, who sells crispy pears in Yanggu County. How are they connected together?

One afternoon, I paid special attention to these storefronts, which only opened after noon.There is only a glass counter in the store, on which there are several packs of chewing gum, rolls of toilet paper, boxes of melon seeds, and cans of Coke Sprite.These stores couldn't be more rudimentary, and the products couldn't be more simple. What do they rely on to make a living, and what do they rely on to pay their rent?The bosses of poorly run stores should be full of sorrow, but the bosses of these shops are full of red faces, smile freely, and are in high spirits. From their well-maintained faces, there is no sign of depression at all.They sat in front of the shop, talking loudly and laughing in a dialect I couldn't understand.They look happy.

Doubts ensued. Once, I was walking in the village in the city. Behind the village in the city was a low hill.When I came to the foot of the mountain, I saw several clean and tidy buildings with tiles.Every window in the building is installed with anti-theft nets, and the windows are tightly closed.Below the building, there are several shops. On the ground in the middle of the shop, there is a huge coffee table carved from tree roots and painted with varnish so that it shines.There are several teacups the same size as wine glasses on the coffee table, and the transparent teapot is filled with bright yellow tea.Several men were drinking tea around the coffee table, and the remaining tea was poured on the coffee table, flowing along the thin pipes into the plastic bucket on the ground.On the coffee table, there was also a shiny black toad with a copper coin in its mouth.Later, I saw such a unique coffee table in many stores opened by people from southern Hokkien.

They are drinking tea, their hands and feet are idle, but their eyes are not idle, they will look out the door from time to time, they are as vigilant as Zhang Ga, a small soldier with a wooden pistol pinned to his waist. There are anti-theft doors in the middle of several shops, and the small door of the anti-theft door is open. I walked towards the small door and wanted to go in. My intuition told me that there must be hidden secrets buried in this building.As soon as I walked to the door of the anti-theft door, two men rushed out of the shop, one was wearing a red jacket and the other was wearing a white jacket.They stopped me and asked viciously, "What are you doing? Where are you going?"

I said, "I'm in a hurry, look for the toilet." The man in the red shirt sneered at me and said, "Run here to find the toilet? Let's go." He stretched out his hands as if pushing me. I turned around and left, turned slowly into an alley, walked out tens of meters, suddenly turned around, and saw a man in a white shirt behind me, the same man in white who blocked me just now.He saw me turn around, and subconsciously dodged to the corner.I pretended not to notice him, and turned around in the cobweb-like alleys. In the end, I probably got rid of the man in white, but I got lost myself.

When I got home that day, it was already eight o'clock in the evening. I walked around the village in the city like a chessboard, and I actually walked around for several hours. As soon as the door was opened, the painter came to the door before he had time to catch his breath.The painter, with a few bruises on his emaciated face and swollen eyes, sat on my bed, panting angrily, swearing through gnashing of teeth.I asked: "What's wrong?" The painter said: "I was beaten just now."