Chapter 14 Maple Rain 2

This autumn, people in Yau Ma Tei were a little uneasy. First, they heard rumbling gunfire from the north for several days. Then, they saw many fleeing ships passing by on the river. Young and old, everyone looked shocked.They said that there was a war over there, and it was coming soon.In the middle of the night, people in Yau Ma Tei were awakened by the sound of uniform footsteps, but no one dared to open the door to wait and see. In the dark, they quietly opened the window, or pressed a pair of startled eyes to the crack of the door to suppress the sound of panting. Peeping out: soldiers are passing in the street.A very long team, from late at night until dawn, the sound of powerful footsteps gradually faded away.After dawn, people went to the street, but the soldiers were no longer there, only from the

Pick up a bullet-punctured helmet from the street, or a leaky army canteen, or a few other insignificant things. Some days later, news came that the army had reached the border of Shandong and was fighting a vicious battle, in which tens of thousands of people died in order to fight for some bare hills. Many more ships appeared on the water.But not the fleeing people, but the wounded soldiers.Painful wailing sounded from time to time on the water, which made people feel tense.After some boats passed by, there was a thin line of blood on the surface of the water. The fish in the water smelled the smell of blood and floated to the surface of the water one after another.

Gradually, the sound of guns and guns ceased to be heard, and the surface of the water became quiet.The world, showing a peaceful look.It was at this time that Li Changwang returned to Yau Ma Tei Town with a small team.Along with this team, there is also a land reform working group consisting of five or six people. When Li Changwang walked past the town with a pistol pinned to his waist and several soldiers carrying long guns behind him, the people in Yau Ma Tei couldn't help but backed up, or stuck to the wall or a tree. , eyes full of doubts and astonishment: Is this the Li Changwang who carries a broken fish basket all day long, with a bare back, trousers rolled up to his thighs, and catches fish and shrimps in the ditch of the pond? 1. Is it Li Changwang who sells mixed fish and shrimp in a bucket and smells like fish?

Five years ago, Li Changwang was playing with another young man smashing bricks across the river. He didn't want a corner of a brick to fly over and hit the young man on the other side's forehead. The young man fell down immediately without saying a word.At some point, the young man was awakened by the breeze again, and he slowly stood up while supporting a big tree, and shouted to the other side of the river: "Li Changwang——!" Li Changwang didn't answer—he thought he had been crushed to death. Li Changwang, who lost his life, has since disappeared. Li Changwang was walking in the town, and when he met his fathers and villagers, he nodded dignifiedly but politely to them, and waved his hands in greeting.Sometimes people in the town would overhear him saying: "Wow, the bald man has grown into a big girl!" "Third Grandma, do you still know me? I'm Li Changwang!" "Second Master, you look like you're still in good health! "...

In a secluded place, a young man said: "Didn't it say that Li Chang looked down on the reeds and became a bandit?" At this moment, his father heard him, and hurried over, dragging him to a place where no one was around: "Son of a bitch, don't talk nonsense! He's going to fight guerrillas in the reed marshes, and he's already become a guerrilla leader." Someone who knew the inside story said: "He has been in the regular army for a long time, and he just came down from the front line." Li Changwang kept walking in the town, walking in panic. On the first day, there was no movement; on the second day, there was no movement either.On the third day, the people of the town were summoned to the big yard in the town.

When Li Changwang solemnly announced that we poor people had turned their backs, the crowd seemed a little confused, a little bewildered, and a little bit at a loss. After looking at each other for a while, they showed a bit of anxiety and excitement.When Li Changwang waved his hand and said that everyone was going to share Cheng Yaotian's floating wealth, the noisy crowd was like a group of fish in the water, suddenly startled by a cool wind, and suddenly dived into the bottom of the water, leaving only a suspiciously calm water surface. "Sub! Give me all! Don't leave anything behind! A pot, a bowl, a chopstick, and a spoon in his house belong to us poor people! First, we don't rob, and second, we take Come back! Take back your own things!..." After not seeing him for a few years, Li Changwang has grown into a big man, and he has also become very good at talking.

Those who reacted quickly, such as Zhu Xiaolou and Zhu Diwa, were standing in the center of the courtyard, but before Li Changwang could finish speaking, they turned around and ran out.The other people suddenly understood what they were thinking, they were a little stunned, and they all turned their heads and ran out of the yard. For a while, people were crowded, bumped into, trampled on, and someone was in pain, yelling ouch.I don't know whose child was stepped on and burst into tears. Li Changwang stood on the stage: "Where are you going? Where are you going? Come back! Come back!..."

Can't come back, the crowd is rolling, straight to the outside of the courtyard. After leaving the courtyard, people went straight to Cheng's compound.The chaotic footsteps made the whole town of Yau Ma Tei tremble. In the crowd, someone suddenly stopped: "Why only run to Cheng Yaotian's family, and Qiu Bancun's family!" The one running next to this man was still righteous and took his hand: "You are a fucking idiot, what else does Qiu Bancun's family have? You don't even have a hair on your penis!" After hearing this, the man slapped his forehead: "Damn, I'm confused!"

The two thick and tall doors of Cheng's compound have been closed tightly for the past few days. People gathered at the gate of the compound, but did not rush into the compound at once.Facing these two majestic gates, the menace on the road just now disappeared for a while.People hesitated and hesitated.In broad daylight, looting all the wealth of a family, after all, this matter is too important and too bizarre.The people behind shouted: "Damn, why don't you do it?!"The people behind looked like they were going forward bravely, but when they reached the gate, they couldn't help stopping their steps, and even took a few steps back.

The Cheng family compound was silent. It was raining again.There is a maple tree in the rain. The leaves become bigger, thicker and darker. After being washed by the rain, they shine with a faint luster.Maybe it was the wind blowing, maybe it was the result of the rain, Kazuki's leaves rustled. Many people didn't seem to be coming for Cheng's compound, but put on a leisurely look, raised their heads to look at the maple tree - the leaves of that tree swayed gently in the wind and rain, like a tree green pocket fan. A few people approached the gate and slowly wandered around the gate.Behind them, the crowd stood as a thick wall.

Several children got out of the crowd, tiptoed to the gate, leaned on the crack of the door and looked in, saying from time to time: "The yard It's empty. "In the yard, there is a big rooster crawling on a hen." "Climb up, climb up..." An adult in the crowd asked the child, "Did your father crawl on your mother?" Everyone laughed. "Stop laughing! What the hell are you all here for?!" Zhu Xiaolou yelled, "I'm afraid he's a bird, the world belongs to my father!" He slapped the door with a broad and thick slap. People stood in the rain, their clothes were wet and their hair was sticking to their scalps. They all looked skinny, but their eyes were very bright, as if they had been polished. A few more people went up and slammed on the door.The sound of thumping was like a war drum, encouraging the poor people with yellow and thin faces, black lips, shoulders and cheeks, and they shouted: "Open the door! Open the door!" Cheng Yaotian was sitting on a red sandalwood armchair with book-like scrolls, completely motionless.He couldn't open the door, and the family had shrunk together in fright, and no one dared to open the door. The banging on the door finally turned into a rumbling knock on the door. Caiqin tightened her body, trembling in her mother's arms, not daring to look outside. Someone behind the crowd shouted: "Come on!——" The crowd responded, and immediately, the crowd rushed towards the gate like a mountain, and the gate rushed open. Caiqin has been shivering in her mother's embrace.She heard the sound of vases being smashed, cabinets overturned, cloth being torn, footsteps running, wheezing, quarreling for each other for a piece of furniture... She felt that the house was falling apart. Hollowed out, shaking. Mother sat motionless in the chair, hugging her tightly. People "take it back" indiscriminately, because they have no time to choose, and if they hesitate for a moment, the chair or stool in front of them will be snatched away by a person with quick eyes and hands, and they can only hurry when they see something. Go up and occupy it first.People hold, carry, hug, carry, drag, push, long, short, big, small, hard, soft, edible, inedible, usable, The ones that couldn't be used were all moved to the outside of the courtyard door. Cheng Yaotian sat on the chair with his eyes closed, his face was pale, he looked like a dead person. Children and the elderly also participated in this rare looting in the history of Yau Ma Tei.When they occasionally raised their heads to see Cheng Yaotian, they would look a little embarrassed.But then he lowered his head and hurriedly searched for the things that hadn't been taken away. Bowl, please; plate, please; ivory chopsticks, please; pot, please; shoes, please; socks, please; rolling pin, please; smoking gun, please; With the head on the head, and the mouth in the mouth... It's so fucking happy--so fucking happy! Those who have strong children in the family will of course take advantage of it.Even in the midst of chaos, they will quickly make a clear division of labor. Whoever moves things and who looks after things will be assigned in a short while.Weak and weak, he was jealous and searched desperately, trying his best to find some balance.There are also those who moved things out of the compound but were taken away by others in a blink of an eye, so they went to look for them, and if they found them, they would snatch them back. An old woman quarreled with another old woman over a pot lid: "I put it here after I got it!" "Who saw it?" "People have to be reasonable, and being unreasonable is worse than eating shit!" "By the way, if you are unreasonable, you might as well eat shit!" Everyone is very busy, no one pays attention to their quarrel. The second idiot from the willow strip maker's house in the west of the town ran around in the crowd, smiling foolishly.The section of his crotch, which seemed to perpetually hold up like a carrot, pushed up his thin, dirty shorts.Because the shorts had been through the rain, it made his part appear half-dark.He swayed, jumped, and rubbed against wherever there were many girls.When the girls saw him, they cursed: "Shameless!" and avoided him. The second fool found a small wooden basin with a copper hoop from nowhere, and hugged it tightly in his arms. The willowmaker, who was running out with a pot on his head, saw it and shouted, "Put it down! Put that thing down!" The second idiot not only refused to put it down, but hugged the small wooden basin even tighter. The willow stripper shouted, "That's what Cheng Yaotian's wife used to urinate at night!" The second idiot hugged the small wooden basin, got out of the crowd, and ran towards the courtyard gate. Zhou Tongjiang said to the willow stripper: "Can your wife use such a good and high-quality urinal in this lifetime?" He smiled and walked into the house quickly. In the yard, Zhu Xiaolou and a man named Zhu Liancheng fought over a shiny bench.They each held on to one end of the bench, refusing to let go, and confronted each other in the yard without yielding to the other. "I caught it first!" Zhu Xiaolou said. "I caught it first!" Zhu Liancheng said. Then, the two leaned down and pulled the bench in their respective directions.The two were about the same strength, and the bench faced east and west for a while, and the people coming and going avoided them, fearing that it would delay their "getting back" things, and no one would bother to mediate or dissuade them. After all, Zhu Xiaolou is a butcher, so he has a more brutal temper.At this time, he saw a person grabbing a sharp ax "retrieved" from the utility room of Cheng Yaotian's house, threw down the bench, and snatched the ax from the person. Terrified, he let go and put down the bench: "You... What are you going to do?" Zhu Xiaolou picked up the ax and walked towards the bench. Before everyone could react, he raised the ax and dropped it, cutting down the middle of the hardwood bench, and immediately splashed a piece of fresh sawdust.Those who watched it were so distressed to death. The butcher Zhu Xiaolou suddenly turned into a lumberjack, hacking at the bench with an axe.Zhu Liancheng stood aside: "Chop it, you have the strength, you can chop it." Another blow of the axe, and a bench broke in two. Zhu Xiaolou threw down the axe, clapped his hands, and said to Zhu Liancheng, "No one will ever succeed if forced to soak in shit!" The rich and rich Cheng family compound suddenly became desolate and empty. Men, women and children in Yau Ma Tei Town were walking around excitedly, and no one was empty-handed. In the entire Yau Ma Tei, there were only two families who did not participate in this unprecedented and passionate "take back". One was Qiu Bancun's family, and the other was Du Shaoyan and Du Yuanchao's father and son. Qiu Bancun went bankrupt two months ago, leaving only a large empty house.These days, he and his family seldom show up in the town, just shut the door tightly, hide behind the door, and listen nervously to the movement outside.When Qiu Zidong was struggling to run outside, Qiu Bancun blocked the door with his already paralyzed body, and ordered Qiu Zidong to stay at home obediently with vague words. Du Shaoyan and Du Yuanchao were holding hands and standing silently under a maple tree not far away when people were rushing in and out of Cheng's compound like tigers and tigers. People who pass by their father and son will be reminded by one or two people: "A pile! What are you doing here? Why don't you rush to get one or two things!" Du Shaoyan and Du Yuanchao still stood still. The yellow pear wood six-poster canopy bed was carried away, and the mahogany chuck tenon long table was carried away... Du Yuanchao wanted to rush up to do something several times, but Du Shaoyan grabbed him tightly with his powerful hands. Du Yuanchao stood beside his father, thinking about going to the family compound.Since he and his father left Cheng's compound, he never stepped into the gate of this compound again.He didn't want to see the yard, nor did he want to see how those people grabbed the things from the Cheng family's compound into his hands. He wanted to know where Caiqin was and what happened to Caiqin at this moment.He seemed to see her trembling in fear, like a pigeon struggling out of icy water. Du Shaoyan seemed to see his son's thoughts, and patted his head to comfort him: "No one would bully a child." There were tears in Du Yuanchao's eyes. Men, women and children in Yau Ma Tei are still walking around, all beaming. This is a festival in Yau Ma Tei --- not a festival, a grand festival. However, Li Changwang was furious. When he led his team and working group members from the yard to the Cheng family compound, the Cheng family compound was already empty. "It's the floating money, it's the fucking money, it's not the fucking robbery!" He climbed up the high tower in the town and shouted to the surroundings with a tin horn: "Give me all the things that were taken out of the Cheng family's compound!" Whoever dares to disobey Lao Tzu's order, whoever dares to hide privately, will not be forgiven if found!" After speaking, he took out a pistol from his waist and shot it into the air. bullet.The soldiers standing under the tower also raised their guns, echoed, and fired shocking bullets into the air. People muttered, but obediently moved those things from their homes to the large yard in the center of the town. These things, big and small, stayed in their respective places in the Cheng family's courtyard, but it didn't seem that there were so many of them. Now, once they were scattered and spread out, they almost filled a courtyard. There is an endless feeling. Allocations are fair and reasonable, well-founded, and can be convincingly explained. It was the turn of Du Shaoyan and Du Yuanchao."You can choose first," the task force said. Du Yuanchao's eyes kept staring at the bed. Du Shaoyan understood his son's thoughts from his eyes: "That bed is not for people like us to sleep in. It's better to have a bucket for water and a small table for eating." But Du Yuanchao only had that bed in his eyes.It was a little ridiculous that a child should be blind to so many things except the bed.But for some reason, Du Yuanchao only wanted that bed. Du Shaoyan sighed, decided to satisfy Du Yuanchao's wish, and pointed to the working group, "This child wants that bed." The leader of the working group pulled Du Shaoyan aside, and muttered with Du Shaoyan for a while, Du Shaoyan nodded repeatedly, turned to Du Yuanchao, and said: "The bed is going to be taken by someone else, you can choose another one." "Who...who wants it?" "Don't ask, tell me quickly, besides that bed, which one do you want to choose?" "I don't want any of them either!" Du Yuanchao said, turned his head and left. Du Shaoyan grabbed Du Yuanchao's arm: "Son, let's choose one." When Du Yuanchao looked at the things in the courtyard, he found that the long table where he and Caiqin read and wrote together was still there, and there was a smiling face again: "I want... that long... long table." .” "Choose some useless things." Du Shaoyan complained, walked over, and pulled up the long table that was washed by the rain and was as bright as a mirror...