The famous writer Zhang Jie died of illness in the United States on January 21, 2022.
Zhang Jie is an important representative writer of Chinese literature in the new era, and joined the Chinese Writers Association in 1979. Works such as "Heavy Wings", "Wordless", "Love, Cannot Be Forgotten", "Emerald", "Children from the Forest" and so on have a wide influence. He has won the second and sixth Mao Dun Literature Awards, and has won the National Outstanding Novella Award and the National Outstanding Short Story Award for many times. Some of his works have been translated into many languages and have won the Order of the Italian Knights and the German, Austrian, Dutch and other multi-national literary awards.
Zhang Jie's novels "Fortunately There Is It", "Days", "Emeralds", "Tangrams", "Bohemian Vase", and "The Long Road" were first published in "Flower City", of which "Tangram" won the first Flower City Literature Award in 1984, "Emerald" won the Second Flower City Literature Award and the Third National Excellent Novella Award in 1985. Today, we share these two wonderful contents to readers and friends!
This article is about 8500 words and takes 10 minutes to read.
In 1984, the first "Huacheng Literature Award" won the title of Jie, Fan Hansheng and Zhang Xin
In 1984, after the first "Flower City Literature Award" was awarded, the scene was a corner. From left in the front row: Ye Weilin, Zhang Jie, Zhang Xin, Fan Hansheng, Zhu Shengchang; second from right in the back row: Xie Wangxin
Emerald (excerpt)
Zhang Jie
Dusk is like a huge sponge, slowly sucking the light of the day away. The hustle and bustle of the city gradually fell. The city is like a pot of cold porridge. The room was already too dark to distinguish between the west and the east, only the burning mosquito coil in the corner of the wall, and the signal light was like a dark red light.
The curtains of the light-colored floral cloth are gently blown in the accustomed evening wind, and the glass windows are slightly heard in the swaying of the breeze. Even when it is not windy, whenever someone walks on the floor, these windows will also click and vibrate. This is an old house, the gray-yellow walls are antique; every wooden board on the floor, the middle has long been ground grooves, but it is still polished by Aunt Lu, the oil is polished; the mahogany furniture, and the edges and corners of the furniture, are still hard; the windows are also very similar to the format in the church, narrow and long, and the top is still - a block arch...
In front of the row of south-facing windows on the second floor, there is an old walnut tree with wide leaves, a begonia, and two old Japanese pines that are not long. From the time Lu Beihe stepped into this courtyard once, to now, more than twenty years later, they are still so high. However, it can be seen that they are much older. People will grow old, but why won't trees grow old?
In summer, the thick shade of walnut and begonia trees will not only filter out the heat of the sun, but also obscure the people in the window and what happens in the window. In winter, although the leaves of the begonia tree and the leaves of the walnut tree have fallen out, who will still have an addiction standing in the cold wind and peeping into other people's windows? The green brick walls around the outside of the house are crawling with green vines. The windows that were not open before were deeply sunk into the thick vine leaves, like a thick moss on the edges, an ancient well where very few people came to draw water, such as the family style of the Zuo family with very little contact with people. Before Lu Beihe married Zuo Wei, the Zuo family did not seem to be so cold.
In terms of treating people and things, Lu Beihe adheres to the principle of maintaining a certain distance. At a young age, she watched her own family, how it fell, and the decline of those who were similar to hers. The memories of the early years, the first, and the old world, which were completely reversed, like rings of years, year after year, grew deep into the heart of the tree, never to be separated from the tree again, from the treetops to the roots.
Therefore, Lu Beihe loves the darkness of this old house.
……
What's so bad about gray brick walls?
She never interacted with other nannies, unlike them, holding the children of the master's family, sitting in the shade of a tree, or under the big south-facing wall, shaking off the old bottom of the master's family, and arranging the master's family's not.
If she doesn't say anything to her, she will never inquire. As long as it wasn't addressed to her, it didn't matter what everyone said in front of her, she acted as if she hadn't heard it. If there is an occasional guest, and it happens that the host is not at home, no one should try to find out from her where the family has gone and what to do. Asked what to do, she shook her head expressionlessly and said, "I don't know." Even if this guest was a regular, how many times she had served him tea and prepared meals, she was the same as if she didn't know.
The guests kept telling Lu Beihe about her complaint, and After Lu Beihe listened, he just smiled and smiled.
Where is this babysitter? It's a treasure. Unlike the original nanny of the Zuo family, she loves to talk too much, loves to visit the door too much, and loves to be nosy. Soon after Lu Beihe got married, he found a reason to let Zuo Wei send her away. When the nanny left, she still held Lu Beihe's hand, and tearfully reluctant to break up, which made Lu Beihe feel very uncomfortable, and kept sending her to the long-distance bus station!
Lu Beihe and Zuo Wei are just such a child. The two generations of the Zuo family are single-handed.
The child came late, and he was married for several years before he was married. For the first few years, the mother-in-law's gaze swept over her stomach like a whip whipping her nerves. She longed for her stomach, which bulged like a basin that was clasped overnight.
She even saw a few looks of chagrin in her mother-in-law's eyes. What is the mother-in-law upset about? Is it chafing that Zuo Wei did not marry Zeng Ling'er, but finally married his daughter-in-law?
If this is the case, why use Zeng Ling'er's love for Zuo Wei to imply that she wears the right hat for Zuo Wei? And why did Ren Zeng Ling'er, like an exile, be assigned to the frontier, while Zuo Wei did not go with her? In the Zuo family, it seems that there has never been a zeng Ling'er in the world... The old lady's chagrin, just like Zhou Puyuan in "Thunderstorm", has provided photos of Lu Mama for decades and retained some of Lu Ma's living habits without any deviation... In fact, it is just an incomparably sincere hypocrisy.
To the east was the flesh of their hearts, the beads in their palms. But it hurts the child, it's not such a pain. It is true that he has to practice the hard kung fu that can be invincible in politics since he was a child. Even the matter of naming his son, Lu Beihe looked at it very lightly and was also very attentive. The surname is left, and the first name is to the east. When to think about the name deeper, when a small layer of goosebumps will appear on her. However, in this name, no matter who it was, they could no longer smell the scrolls of the Zuo family for generations, nor could they smell the copper smell of the Lu Beihe family.
……
She gently shook the bride leaning on her, thinking of life and death, an old subject that had existed since the dawn of mankind.
The bride, who was leaning into her arms, was already howling. All her spirit and strength had been exhausted. It seemed that only one pair of eyes was still alive, staring dead at the two speedboats searching the sea.
Zeng Ling'er couldn't bear to tell her that this was really meaningless. For her to accept the meaning that Zeng Ling'er had already appreciated as reasonable, she had to take the road to thoroughness herself. It was the only, yet muddy road.
It's about to light. Gradually, the sea revealed its majestic majesty from the darkness. The light that gives the sea its silhouette does not seem to come from heaven, as if there is a huge dark yellow pillar of light that penetrates from the depths of the sea and reflects the sea into a dusk. Gradually, from the clouds in the east, a magnificent morning glow appeared, and then a golden light shone from the sea. This golden light dyes the surface of the sea golden red, and the fishing boats in the distance shine like a small play of gold leaf folded under the golden light.
The tide is low. The waves were rattling and rattling. With each sound, it takes a step back into the depths of the sea. And the turbidity that was thrown into the sea by last night's torrential rain spat out one mouthful at a time. Those branches, planks, empty wine bottles, can boxes, plastic pockets... Back on the beach, back on land.
The sea, farther and farther away, is getting cleaner and cleaner. Crystal clear, crystal clear and shining quietly under the morning sun.
Zeng Ling'er exhaled in surprise: My sea of wisdom...
Suddenly, the salvaged people sped toward a beach. Zeng Ling'er picked up the bride and ran to the other side.
Sure enough, it was him! Never wake up again. The sea spat out even him, and it refused to accept everything on this land.
The bride is already silent, crying without tears. She just touched him with both hands. From his hair, inch by inch, through his whole body, to his toes. As if to verify, this puffy-faced, scaly man is not her beloved husband? Then she screamed and ran toward the sea. People dragged her and carried her back to the hotel.
Zeng Ling'er took off her dress that had been torn to shreds for her—i don't know if she tore it herself in the madness of last night, or whether she had scratched the bushes on the beach during a run. He put half a pool of hot water in the bath and immersed her in the half pool of hot water. The poor man's blood seemed to have frozen, and his whole body showed a dark purple color. Zeng Ling'er stayed by the bath until her complexion returned to normal.
She dried her whole body, changed into clean clothes, forced her to take two sleeping pills, and carried her to bed.
She slept, as quiet as death.
Originally published in Flower City, No. 3, 1984
Tangram (excerpt)
The rubber tube was tied to the upper end of the left arm. Xiao Yan, a trainee nurse who brought a smell of alcohol, gently slapped the muscle next to Yin Mei's elbow socket. Yin Mei heard her whispering her mouth, probably her veins were not so clear.
"Didn't you learn when you were studying at nursing school?" The patient's blood vessels should be used sparingly as much as possible. Who knows how many more intravenous injections she will have to give in the future, depending on the progression of her condition, or if she will need to take a long-term drip?"
Who is saying it with such unquestionable authority. Yin Mei couldn't help but open his eyes and look. She had thought it must be a doctor or head nurse standing with her hands behind her back and pointing. No, neither the doctor nor the head nurse, but the patient in the bed opposite. With his feet hanging down, he sat on the edge of a high hospital bed. Those beautiful and plump feet were stuck in a pair of rough, brown-clad plastic slippers worn by men—a pity for those feet.
As she spoke, she slid off the edge of the bed, approached, picked up Yin Mei's hand, and used her fingers—all like those described in "Peacock Southeast Flying": "Ten fingers like onions"—along every blood vessel on the back of Yin Mei's hand. She then said to the little nurse, "You see, this blood vessel on the inside of her little thumb is very superficial and clear. Try it out, you can start from here. A little fine, of course. If you feel difficult, then tie this one on your wrist. ”
Like a teacher in the classroom with a wealth of teaching experience: well-organized, head-headed, forward and backward, well-cared for, low and high, full of pure and extreme enthusiasm for professional knowledge, and because of this excessive extreme of enthusiasm, it shows an absolute indifference to all things other than professional knowledge. Yin Mei felt that his hand was no longer his hand, but a severed limb of a dead man used for internship in physiological anatomy class. Yin Mei couldn't help but pull her hand back from her hand. And she still looked at Yin Mei's arm with such a greedy gaze. Yin Mei was worried, would she suddenly bite into her arm?
Xiao Yan seemed to hear and did not hear, serious and not very serious, took the rubber tube from Yin Mei's elbow and stuck it on the upper end of her wrist.
Why did Xiao Yan treat her with such an attitude? It's like dealing with a burden that can't be bothered or put off.
Isn't she right? Of course it was right, Xiao Yan had already begun to apply iodine to Yin Mei's wrist, and then alcohol.
That face, Yin Mei clearly felt that he had seen it somewhere. Where? Especially those eyes are clear, it's so special. Whoever has seen it once will not forget it. It was so beautiful, though surrounded by a cluster of folds.
Gradually, those eyes swelled up, getting bigger and bigger, and then turning into thousands, flashing in front of Yin Mei's eyes. Yin Mei quickly moved his gaze to the window. Outside is full of green trees. She saw a magnolia tree with large, white flowers and a pine, close to the window of the ward. However, the pine needle seemed to become very long in an instant, and the roots were all stretched out towards Yin Mei, as if they were about to stab into her head. Her eyes turned pitch black, and the golden highlights the size of two pins slid silently and silently like the electrocardiogram on the fluorescent screen. My head began to hurt again, and it hurt as if it were about to split. If it really cracked, it might not hurt so much, so I would like to take a crowbar and pry it open from the temple, and release the force that crushed her head to death.
"Oops," Yin Mei couldn't help but groan loudly.
"Does it hurt?" Xiao Yan quickly pressed the skin around the blood vessels that was already a little red. After concluding that there was nothing unusual, he said to Yin Mei: "This glucose concentration is a little larger, fifty percent, which is a little irritating to blood resources, but it can absorb some of the water in the blood, in order to reduce your cranial pressure, and your head will not hurt so much for a while..." Xiao Yan whispered to comfort Yin Qu.
Yin Mei really hoped that Xiao Yan would say something more, in this case, Xiao Yan's voice seemed so beautiful and soft, it was almost like hearing music from heaven in the torment of hell. No wonder some people used to call nurses "angels in white." That's right! It's really right --
The patient on the opposite bed began to massage Yin Mei's forehead with his palm vigorously, like a sophisticated, computer-controlled instrument, and immediately moved to that area with the message of the slightest discomfort of any nerve.
How long has it been? Aren't her hands tired? It must have been a long time. Think about it, Xiao Yan has already finished pushing that big tube of glucose.
"Thank you." Yin Mei squeezed these two words out of the gap between his clenched teeth.
"Don't talk, rest!" The patient on the opposite bed said.
Yin Mei's heart was full of gratitude, after all, Pingshui had met! But what Yin Mei longed to massage on his forehead was her husband's big hands. Reckless, unsure, big hands with a strong smell of tobacco. Her husband could smoke any cigarette, and Yin Mei believed that if there was nothing to smoke, he would definitely be able to use even the leaves as cigarettes, like those croppers with excellent appetites, even if they were dipped in scallions every day, they would eat with relish. For that reason, he didn't look like a deputy director of the Health Bureau. How can things in the world be so strange, this person who has no official addiction at all, but he has become an official. Of course, this is the result of advocating the knowledge and specialization of cadres in recent years. Yin Mei often said to her husband in a mocking tone, "You official is a bit like the colored ball that the lady of the embroidery building threw, how did it fall on your head?!"
As for him, he did not know how to joke at all, and said rigidly: "Throwing a colorful ball is always more free than the order of his parents and the words of a matchmaker, but it is inevitable that he will not have great blindness." There is also a sentence below, "Besides, people are the ladies of the eunuchs' families, and they don't obey orders, okay?"
Yuan Jialuo said no more. He was an open-minded and calm man who looked down on everything. How long did it take to go from ape to man? Tens of millions of years, right? The teasing of Yin Mei was just a thick smile, like an older person, with a generous smile, looking at those naughty children.
For more than a year, Yin Mei's head often hurt, and the pain was getting worse and worse. Last night, Yin Dun's head suddenly hurt severely, with jet vomiting, almost spitting out the stomach, convulsing, shivering, teeth rattling, clicking, clicking, had to be sent to the hospital emergency department, the doctor on duty immediately accepted her hospitalization.
After arranging for Yin Mei to be admitted to the ward, Yuan Jialuo was locked outside the ward. Despite the headache, before the nurse closed the door of the ward, Yin Mei struggled to lift her head from the pillow and looked at her husband for the last time. Of course, she wouldn't die. However, for people who are usually not very sick, there is always a kind of confusion and loss of autonomy in the hospital.
It is not so much that Yin Mei loves Yuan Jialuo, but that she is attached to him. The feelings between them are not much the same as those of the average couple of the same age. Maybe it was because Yuan Jialuo was a few years older than Yin Mei. Yin Mei often asked, "Do you love me?"
"Love." It's so simple that it doesn't even add a definite word that indicates the degree.
"Love to death?" Yin Mei was really unwilling.
"..."Yuan Jialuo thought about it, very seriously. Then say, "Death is a physical phenomenon, love is a psychological phenomenon." How can this be compared?"
Angry, Yin Mei slammed his fist on his chest. Yuan Jiaxiao grabbed her two small fists, kissed each of them in turn, and said, "That's right."
"You mean 'vulgar sociology'?" Yin Mei was convinced that he was only interested in the flash of wit that was as dazzling as lightning in her words, fleeting, and would not leave any trace. Then she asked kindly, "Are you also a philosophy graduate?"
"No, I'm from the Biology Department."
Yin Mei's father said: "The beginning of love is often inexplicable. For example, smile when you shouldn't, or look twice when you should. ”
When Pei Jiaqiu proposed to her, she remembered what her father had said, and realized that she had both. So she felt that marrying Yuan Jialuo was well-founded. She is a graduate of the Department of Philosophy, a sociologist, and likes to have a basis and cite scriptures. Don't look at her playing with her poor mouth, but when she really wants to do something, she is dead on the tip of the bull's horn.
Here it was again, that kind of chill, half a minute. In the interval between half a minute, it is a terrible wait that knows that the pain cannot be avoided.
"Thanks, please don't get it again." Yin Mei felt irritable.
"You'll be better that way." The patient on the opposite bed said convincedly. Still stubbornly and unswervingly massaging Yin Mei's forehead again and again.
"No, I don't want to—"
"Yes, you need it."
Yin Mei almost wanted to be angry, she needed to be quiet. She couldn't figure out why the patient on the bed opposite had to impose her concern on her. Was this coercive concern meant to alleviate Yin Mei's pain, or was it for some sort of creed of her own?
"No—" Yin Mei shouted almost pleadingly.
"You need it, you absolutely need it." In the tone of the flatbed, there was a tenacity that refused to give up, and it was not affected in the slightest by Yin Mei's resistance.
In the unbearable pain of her head, she still had to endure this interference of not letting her be alone, hindering her from mobilizing her will, and adjusting her adaptability, Yin Mei was angry. She remembered that when she was the secretary of the regiment branch in high school, there was a female classmate in the class, who also did good things so forcefully, knowing that others could do things themselves, and did not need anyone's help at all, and the guy was desperate to do it. To the point of being obnoxious, unpalatable, and making one wonder about her motives—really to help others, or for something else? None of the classmates said she was good, but they all treated her with an attitude of contempt and pity. Moreover, for three whole years, Yin Mei's branch did not develop her into the regiment, and everyone did not pass, what can you do? How can I meet such a person here who is obsessed with people, and illness does not make people feel at peace, ah?! She was so angry that she pushed away her hand on her forehead and looked at her almost with a hateful look. Yin Mei saw that those beautiful eyes were astonished, round and round, two black seeds, like mysterious and unknowable caves that had never been explored before. You don't know what's there, or if there's nothing at all. But the surprise was sincere, not a pretense. Yin Mei couldn't help but think: With these beautiful eyes, what else does she want?
But this familiar eye... Where exactly have you seen it?
"Oops—" She was in pain, she couldn't recall. So he closed his eyes tightly and groaned weakly.
Even with her eyes closed, Yin Mei felt that the patient on the opposite bed was still staring at her tightly, and maybe he would pounce on her and massage her forehead in a moment. She felt a tingling in her forehead tighten. As a target for being chased, she felt a sense of imprisonment. She began to hate this hospital, this ward, this place that made her feel harsh and hard white. She turned over angrily and demonstratively, no longer facing the sick person on the opposite bed. The blanket lifted, and she felt that immediately someone had come up and tucked her in. That's right, it's still her. Yin Dun stomped her leg hard again, and she felt stomping on something, soft, probably her hand. But Yin Mei did not intend to apologize, but just pretended not to know, still closed his eyes, and cried fiercely: "Ouch-"
What kind of disease did this person on the other side have? How long will she be in the hospital herself? If you lay face to face with her for a few months, not only will her illness not get better, but she may have to add something to it. How did this come about, can you change the ward?
"Oops—"
Yin Mei felt that he was unlucky. The headache became even more unbearable.
"Rice, rice!" Breakfast was delivered. The delivery man spoke with a Hunan accent and refused to wait for a minute in the corridor to bark.
The ward was immediately in a hurry, with the plates slamming and the bowls pounding on the floor.
Yin Mei was hungry, and since yesterday afternoon, she had not dripped water, and the contents of her stomach had already been vomited out. But she couldn't get up to go to dinner, and she couldn't ask anyone in the ward—a newcomer. I had to listen to the urgent shouts of the delivery man. But she was really afraid that the patients across from her would give her food.
No, not only did she not go to cook for Yin Mei, she did not go herself. Yin Mei didn't look back at her, she didn't move at all anyway. What's wrong with her? Was she angry and unhappy, because Yin Mei had just treated her like that?
Xiao Yan came and put a bowl of milk and two oil and salt rolls on Yin Mei's bedside table. "I got you a bowl of chopsticks, rice, you didn't order it yesterday, I got you two things at random." Then he whispered in Yin Mei's ear, "There is a poached egg under the milk, you can eat it quickly, save a while to send food to find out that there is a missing egg." She chuckled softly, and her boyish face looked rounder.
"So, is it appropriate?"
"It's all right." Xiao Yan lay down on Yin Mei's ear again, "You don't eat it and waste it." She mouthed to Nunu on the opposite bed, "It was she booked. ”
"So how do you do it?" This—this isn't— Yin Mei wanted to say, Isn't that? I was afraid that this would be too heavy. And Xiao Yan was with obvious kindness to her.
"She doesn't eat the food that this Hunan man sent."
"Oops—" My head still hurt a little.
"What, don't you think it's better?"
"It seems to be better." Strange. Yin Mei couldn't help it
Then he asked, "Why didn't she eat the food that this Hunan man had given her?"
"She said the Hunan man would poison her dishes." After saying that, Xiao Yan straightened up from Yin Mei's ear and opened her mouth, as if she had told someone else that she had found someone who suddenly had a horn on her head, or who suddenly had a tail on her ass.
"How is that possible, and how could she know this Hunan man who delivered the meal?"
"Of course I know. She's the doctor of our department!"
There was movement on the opposite bed. Xiao Yan changed the subject: "Can you eat it yourself?"
Yin Mei raised his body and tried it, and his head really didn't hurt so much. "Yes." He sat up on the head of the bed. Xiao Yan pulled up a pillow and put it on Yin Mei's back.
The person on the opposite bed obviously no longer paid attention to Yin Mei, her attention seemed to be occupied by a non-trivial matter, she solemnly opened the small door on her bedside table, and like a religious communion, she took out a very exquisite biscuit holder from it, took out a bottle of malt milk, put it on the small cabinet, and then picked up the thermos and went out to open the water.
Seeing her walk out of the ward, Yin Mei asked again, "Does she have a vendetta against that Hunan person?"
"Nothing! Because the Hunan people are very familiar with her lover, and her lover is also a doctor in this hospital. Xiao Yan said as he looked back frequently.
"I don't understand, what's going on?"
"She's sick, mentally ill—"
The one on the opposite bed came back. She walked back to her bed, dragged a small white square stool from under the bed, sat down upright, and began to adjust the malted milk.
Xiao Yan smiled and said, "I should leave work, you can eat slowly." With that, he walked out of the ward.
She's sick?!
Why don't you go to a mental hospital if you are sick? Is Xiao Yan telling the truth, or is it a kind of derogatory term for people with a perverse temperament in the general sense?
Yin Mei couldn't see that she was sick. She didn't look like a psychopath in Yin Mei's mind at all. Don't cry, don't make trouble, don't tear clothes, bedding, don't drop pots and bowls, and don't speak incoherently. Moreover, judging from the opinions she made in the morning when Xiao Yan injected Yin Mei with glucose, her thinking logic was quite clear. Thinking of this, Yin Mei couldn't help but turn his head sideways to look at her. She was quietly eating a cookie, with a thoughtful look. Of course, from time to time, I don't forget to dust the cookie residue off my knees and stir the malted milk in the cup with a small spoon.
"Whoops—" The patient's lunch box on bed forty-three was knocked out. Yin Mei saw that the person on the opposite bed seemed to be frightened, and immediately closed the lid on her biscuit box and teacup, looked back at the forty-third bed, and found that there was nothing. So I smiled happily. But this fright woke her up from her thoughtful, confused state, and she ate her breakfast at a faster pace. She picked up her cup, walked over and picked up the chopsticks that Yin Mei had used, and said, "I'll take care of it for you."
Yin Mei didn't have the strength to fight, so she had to go. When she returned from shabu-shabu, she found a broom and began sweeping the floor. Curiously, the patients in Bed Forty-Three and Bed Forty-Four, instead of having the slightest sense of uneasiness, pulled the fruit peels, egg shells, sugar paper, and medicine boxes on their respective cabinets to the floor as soon as possible. On the other side of the bed, it seemed that the more dirty things they threw on the floor, the happier she became, and her hard work was finally rewarded, as if it was a bit of a martial arts. Yin Mei didn't know whether to sympathize with her, pity her, or respect her! However, how could Yin Mei think of martial arts? What does this person in front of you have to do with martial arts?!
Yin Mei took turns searching the faces of the other two patients, searching for their expressions. None of them reacted, as if nian was a natural and commonplace thing.
Forty-three beds were holding toothpicks between their teeth while watching a popular movie. Her appetite was so good, Yin Mei couldn't imagine how such a small mouth could eat so many things. One breakfast will eat two tea eggs, a bag of beef, jerky, a bowl of milk, a flower roll, and a cake. Her bedside table was like a pocket food store with everything she needed. It was hard for her to put so many cans, boxes, and bottles of food into such a small cabinet.
Originally published in Flower City, No. 1, 1983
Illustration: Lin Yong
EDIT: Anran
Review: Du Xiaoye
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