Including Cheng Ming himself, we think he is luckier than Luo Xiaosong. There is nothing wrong with the words, Cheng Ming is injured in the palm and arm, and if he wears long sleeves in the future, it will not be visible to outsiders.
In our courtyard, everyone talked about the most things about the carpentry house fire in private, except for the animal miracle created by Nana, which showed the greatness of maternal love, and no one cared too much about Cheng Ming's small injury. Everyone took it for granted that Luo Xiaosong was more seriously injured, and on the fourth day after entering the field hospital, the labor camp sent him to the provincial public security hospital in a special car. The treatment conditions are so much better over there. It is said that there is also a hospital in the provincial capital that specializes in the treatment of burns and scalds. If necessary, the government can refer Luo Xiaosong to that specialized hospital for treatment. I wondered if he would recover soon.
Cheng Ming said a few comforting words to me very kindly, and he knew that I had a different relationship with Luo Xiaosong. I don't think Cheng Ming's injury looks like much of a problem, although the wound has signs of infection and the weather is hot, it is normal. "That's what the doctor said." Cheng Ming told me in the woods outside the hospital that I advised him to pay attention to hygiene.
"Be careful, you don't need to wash your face, don't get wet. Infection is particularly troublesome. Then you can sit down for a while and go in, so you don't catch a cold. I'm going to see Yang Sheng, he's my classmate. ”
"Oh, really?" Cheng Ming knew that I didn't mean my classmates in the labor camp. "Yang Sheng has three injuries, and it seems to look heavier than mine. But it is indeed much lighter than Luo Xiaosong. ”
"I thank you for Yang Sheng! Cheng Ming. I said.
"He himself thanked him seven or eight times." Cheng Ming laughed.
Cheng Ming stood up and accompanied me to see him, and Yang Sheng was sad in the ward. But he and Cheng Ming repeatedly emphasized that they were luckier than Luo Xiaosong, and it was difficult to say whether Brother Song could save his life. They were honest with me, and they didn't care much about not being able to see the wound when they were dressed. "It's just a little bit of injury to my waist, my hands and my calves." Yang Sheng showed me where he wrapped gauze.
Cheng Ming also sat with Yang Sheng in his hospital room, chatting for about two hours, while mentioning some of the things that happened on the dam. I inadvertently talked about Zhong Zheng's frozen mushrooms and the increasingly rampant fake kraft paper, and I couldn't guess who was so bold and dared to print fake money privately. We rarely mention fires, not even the Nana being burned to death. I know very well that most people in the courtyard and Mafang Street talk about the brave dog after dinner. To be honest, I think Yang Sheng should be grateful to the female dog Nana, it is the dog's behavior that reminds everyone that there are still people trapped in the carpentry room. I estimate that after Luo Xiaosong's injury is healed, most of them will not return to the farm, and he only has less than a year left. I heard that the labor camp had reported to the labor camp and was going to give him a one-time reduction in his term, so that Luo Xiaosong would be able to get through.
I listened to the cadres who sent him back to the Longkou brigade that Luo Xiaosong brought me a message (he couldn't write a letter with his hands wrapped in gauze), and he originally planned to see me again before leaving, but he suddenly called for transfer to the hospital before he arrived at the scene. His face was destroyed by a fire that no one expected, and his mood must have been complicated. Luo Xiaosong must have something to say to me. I firmly believe that in the near future, as long as Luo Xiaosong can move his hands, he will definitely write to Longkou.
Old classmate Yang Sheng was discharged from the hospital 20 days later and returned to Longkou with team doctor Yao Jie in charge of continuing observation and treatment. But according to him, Cheng Ming's injury was a bit weird, and he had a bad premonition.
With the consent of the captain, I went to the field hospital to interview and fight the fire under the pretext that I planned to publish a blackboard newspaper. It just coincides with Director Zhou's thoughts. The second time, I walked 35 kilometers to visit Cheng Ming at the Changbu Hospital. He was the only one left in the room, and I was relieved that he could still get out of bed and walk and sit for a while.
He seemed happier than last time, and he was in good spirits. The two of us came out of the dead room and sat on a cement stool closer to the grove. Then, after the interview in a few words, I began to talk about some gossip related to the courtyard. There were several mentions of the dead Shi Wei and Xie Zhengxiong, although they were both in the Third Squadron and were indeed the ones who stood at both ends of the seesaw.
Cheng Ming told me the most about his big stone, Luo Xiaosong once told me that it might be called Warring States Red. His two little eyes were fixed, they shouldn't have looked at me very much, and Cheng Ming didn't even look up at the tree where the flowers had been gone. His gaze was particularly distracted. It seems that Cheng Ming had a premonition that he would die, so he talked a lot, and several times he talked about his mother for no reason. Cheng Ming repeatedly emphasized that the big stone was cursed. I was shocked.
"The fire was so fierce that the house could collapse at any moment," I asked, "Are you afraid to go in through the window?" ”
"Of course I'm scared in hindsight." Cheng Ming smiled bitterly and replied, "At that time, everyone probably didn't think about it, and they didn't have time to think too widely. My mind was almost blank, just listening to the people's babbling and whether there was any way to escape, knowing that the roof would burn down half a step later, and that person would die. I don't count, you should report Brother Song. ”
"But I couldn't interview him. The Songgo people are gone. ”
"Then I'll speak for Brother Song." Cheng Ming said suddenly.
"Yang Sheng should indeed thank you two for saving your life."
"Whether he thanks him or not, we didn't have a plan at the time, and we were happier than anything else to be able to save people's lives. For example, Luo Xiaosong, his life may be ruined, and he is mostly disabled. When he hadn't sent it to the provincial capital, I asked if he regretted it, and he said he didn't regret it. ”
"You're definitely going to get a reduction too." I comforted Cheng Ming.
"My injury is not as serious as Luo Xiaosong's, and I don't think I can lose him so much. In the end, it's all from the heart, and I hope that's how it will be fair. He said, "When I left, Luo Xiaosong kept frowning and sad face, I felt it, his face was wrapped in gauze, and he couldn't see me." Several times Luo Xiaosong cried and told me that he only wanted to see you. He has something to say to you, and he's afraid he'll never see you again. Later, it hurt, and he didn't mention it when he shouted it. ”
Immediately afterwards, Cheng Ming still told me the secrets of the Warring States Red Stone, the spell, and the power. Cheng Ming invited me this time to go to his hometown for a few days if I had the opportunity to do so.
"I love to make friends, don't dislike me for being a countryman."
"How is that possible! We have been through hardships together in the courtyard. ”
"When the time comes, we will go and pick up the red stones of the Warring States." He said with the shrewdness of a rural person, "I promised Luo Xiaosong." ”
"Do you mean that I will bring it back for him?" I asked.
"That's what I meant." Cheng Ming said with a wry smile.
Cheng Ming also drew a map for me, which was actually drawn in advance, with the detailed address of his house marked in black and white. I could only pretend to be confused, humming and agreeing to him.
"I'm honest and diligent, and you died of illness in the solitary room, and that co-defendant knows me better than Brother Hua. Of course, I already knew that he had a throat disease, so I thought Xie Zhengxiong was still sick and dead. I never believed anyone would find a chance to murder him, because it wasn't worth it. Cheng Ming said, "If you want to make friends, you must find a down-to-earth and honest one." I know that Xie Zhengxiong's body can't fight with people, unless it's an outlaw, and I'm not afraid of death. In the courtyard, he didn't even use a knife, and he didn't have a sharpened stick. The stone was smashing to death, and he didn't have enough strength. Staying out of the courtyard was also to live a good life in the future, but he didn't listen. ”
Cheng Ming thought about the arrangements after going out one day. He said that the best thing is to find a wife immediately, and he has to find the kind that can do housework, and his mother is getting older and older. Cheng Ming said that if there is a good-looking girl in the light picture, it is better to buy a flower to insert and see enough every day. He is talking such nonsense, as if he ignores his family background, who wants to marry in such a remote rural area. Cheng Ming became a bit like the detailed sister-in-law in the text.
"Brother Hua, do you think I hate it?" He asked.
"Absolutely not!" I almost swore to him.
The story about firefighting on the blackboard newspaper was not interesting at all, and it was not my intention. It was definitely Director Zhou's instructions to exaggerate the role of transformation. My heart rejects him.
"I don't want to write like that." I told Zhong Zheng.
I know very well that whether it is Luo Xiaosong or Cheng Ming, they definitely didn't think like that at that time. To tell the truth, they actually don't have such a high level of consciousness, the time is too short, they don't have time to think about it at all, and no one will forcibly link simple firefighting with the help and education of the government and cadres, and the reality is not so thrilling. The situation was critical, and I was stupid enough to be so precise and complex. All the plots seem to have been carefully laid out by someone.
At the moment when the two of them rushed to the sea of fire, they basically didn't have time to consider the gains and losses. Saving people is just fulfilling the innate duty of the same kind, driven by the most primitive instinct of kindness.
"If we don't mention Cheng Ming's death, we will forget about the carpentry room fire sooner or later. He's a hillbilly. ”
"They couldn't find a reason to look back." Zhong Zheng said.
When I interviewed Yang Sheng, my old classmate sat opposite me and cried, which was also an omen. When I went to the hospital for the third time to see Cheng Ming, he couldn't get out of bed. The wounds on his hands were blackened, and the rotten flesh was bleeding pus. Muscle necrosis, maggots crawl out. He didn't cry and told me that he missed his mother.
His sad look has been engraved in my mind for the rest of my life.
Chapter X
Many years later, I can't help but recall that the two of us happened to be in the same prisoner car, and it was fate that we were escorted to Mabu River Farm in the same batch. A total of 23 people were escorted in that prison car, and some of us were in the car, and some people liked to sigh that their lives were bad. I remember that the people who came on the same day were Li Linyan, me, and two of my co-defendants, Cheng Ming, Zhao Yunqian, Yang Jun, and Ding Yanlin, including Zheng Lasheng, who was captured by the pursuit team.
At the beginning of May 1984, the prisoner truck was on its way to the plateau in bad conditions. At that time, where was the last time we saw a free man crowded together? In the town, we were going to call them normal.
"Now, I see that people are free to live, move, and go wherever they want. I was really surprised. ”
It was almost noon, and everyone was starving. I was handcuffed to the back of my chair and pretending to doze off. I was even insatiable, thinking, "If I can find a place to eat a mouthful of hot food, even if I drink sauerkraut and artichoke soup, it seems to be an unrealistic luxury." ”
"That's what I think, too." Xie Zhengxiong said.
That's what most of the people in the prison cart thought. From the time he left the county detention center, he left before dawn, handcuffed, basically unable to move, and was not allowed to stand up and move his legs and lumbar spine.
![Feng Jicai's short story: Beard[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)