In 1944, the city of Beiping was like dusk before a storm, everything seemed peaceful and quiet, but in fact it was just waiting for the opportunity when night was approaching, lightning and thunder.

That year, there were wars all over the country, and there were occasional gunshots in the city.

Several of the Japanese gendarmerie's strongholds outside the city were once attacked by the underground national army, and it was in broad daylight when the Japanese gendarmerie was slacking off in defense. At that time, my father was building a house in the gendarmerie, and he heard the subtle sound of a bullet cutting through the air, like a whistle for a cow in a tun, which was very powerful.

The workers fled in a panic, looking for a place to hide, when my father was hiding at the foot of a wall, a bullet hit his ear, the wall cracked, and the stone chips broke half of his face and bleed, and my father kept covering his head and cowering in the corner of the wall until the gunfire died down and the sound of troops gathering was heard.

A Japanese soldier shot and killed a worker who had run to the Gendarmerie office in the chaos, and then a large group of Japanese soldiers surrounded the workers, saying that among them were comrades of the underground Nationalist Army.

Since his father was an old worker in the construction team, he usually handed cigarettes to the Japanese soldiers who were guarding them for work in the list of the construction team, and a Japanese soldier recognized him, and when he saw that his face was still bleeding, he released him and asked him to go home first.

The gendarmerie went more than 20 miles to Sanlitun, and his father ran frantically all the way to the house, and by the time he arrived at the house, the wound on his face had scabbed over and the blood had dried up on his face.

The mother, who was feeding the chickens in the yard, was frightened when she saw her father like this, and the father hugged her and cried, "I thought I would never see you and the girl again." ”

For a few days after that, my father did not go to work in the gendarmerie again, although the people from the construction team had come to inform me that the Japanese soldiers had shot and killed the workers by accident, and that they would not do anything to the honest people, but my father was still afraid, because he was afraid that one day he would be shot by the national army as a traitor who worked for the Japanese, and second, he was afraid that the Japanese soldiers would one day block them all together and shoot them.

My father said that he was not afraid of death, but he was afraid of dying in vain.

And in that era, many people died in an unknown situation.

The war has led to chaos in law and order, and I don't know how many people who secretly have evil thoughts because of big or small things to take the lives of others, as I said before, many people will disappear every day in the city of Beiping for various reasons, and there are few people in Sanlitun, but there are people missing in the surrounding villages, especially young girls who have not yet married.

Sometimes, when I was in the tunzi, I would occasionally see a person from another village knocking on the door of the house, describing a person's appearance and characteristics to the villagers, and asking if they had seen such a person, but they got no answer.

After the Japanese gendarmerie at various bases in Beiping City was attacked, the Japanese army strengthened its patrols and guards in Beiping City, and at that time, we often saw Japanese soldiers carrying guns passing by on the way to school, and occasionally saw a few green cars pulling a group of Japanese soldiers to a certain place.

One night, there was a sudden sound of a gong in Sanlitun, and my father and mother hurriedly got up to wake me up and Jiang Sheng.

The village chief shouted loudly for all the villagers to gather at the head of the village, the Japanese army came to search for the underground national army, Tunzi has been surrounded, if there is a harbor of the underground national army, it should be reported to the imperial army immediately, if not, do not stay at home, otherwise they will be taken away.

Originally, my father wanted to escape from the back of Sanlitun with our family, but as soon as he heard this, he ran out of the door to look around Sanlitun, and when he saw the lights in a circle, he couldn't run at all, so he had to lead us to gather in the middle of the tunzi.

At that time, Xiao Wu was so frightened that his face was pale, he was held in his hand by Niu Aihua, and he was naked, and he deliberately leaned over when he saw Jiang Sheng.

The Japanese soldiers did not find the underground national army in Sanlitun, and they told the villagers that if they found the underground national army, they would report it immediately and there would be a big reward, and if they did not report it, they would be connected to the whole village.

"Everybody heard that." After the Japanese soldiers left, the village chief wanted to say something, but he wanted to say something, and finally had to wave his hand and say, "It's all gone." ”

No one wants to be a traitor, but everyone wants to live, and the village chief can't say it clearly, so he can only let the villagers think about it.

Some old shops in Qiantang Town closed their doors ahead of schedule, for fear that they would rob all the money and goods in the shops when the Japanese soldiers attacked Beiping before.

And Mr. Zhang also told us at the school assembly that we would not be used for classes recently, that we would have a two-week holiday, and that we would arrive at school on Monday two weeks later, so that we could not run around at home, so that we all previewed the contents of the books in advance, and he would check them himself.

In the days of the holiday, Xiao Wu would come to Jiang Sheng to play every day, and they would call out all the children in the tunzi to go to the wheat field to play kidnapping, and they had a lot of fun every day.

In the past, when everyone played, they would run to the north slope of the mountain behind Sanlitun, but since Zhang Guangzhu was shot there, no one dared to go there, and the adults in the family said that there was a ghost of Zhang Guangshan there.

Father and mother naturally don't talk about these gods and ghosts, but Jiang Sheng remembered that the last time he went fishing with Xiao Wu, Xiao Wu was almost dragged into it by the aquatic plants or something at the bottom of the water, and he was afraid for a while.

Because of the turmoil in Beiping and the previous rumors about Shen A-Niang in Sanlitun, Shen A-Niang did not appear again for a long time, and no one knew anything about her and Zhao Fugui anymore.

Half a month later, when the school year started again, it was already May, and the wheat in the field had already set ears, and in a few days the wheat would be harvested.

On our way to school, we sometimes saw pheasants and hares scurrying around in the fields, and some children would often chase after them, and catch one for a good dinner, or sell it to a restaurant in the town, enough to pay for a few days' food.

On one occasion a child threw a stone at a hare, hit it in the head, and smashed the hare so that it was bleeding from the nose and mouth and lying on the ground. Xiao Wu was greedy, and every time he saw a hare, he would throw a stone and then pull out his legs to chase it.

Jiang Sheng never chased after the other children, and was afraid that the ears of wheat in the field would tie his skin, and once when he was about to arrive in the town, he saw a farmer's house full of pomegranate flowers, he stopped at the door of the house and was stunned, and muttered: "The pomegranate flowers are blooming." ”

Jiang Sheng's words are so profound in my memory for some reason, so that every time I see pomegranate flowers in the years to come, I will say to the people around me, you see, the pomegranate flowers are blooming.

Beiping seems to have gradually returned to calm in a turmoil, at least on the surface it seems calm, we have returned to the happy days when we went to school before, Jiang Sheng is still so popular, Xiao Wu is still the little bully in the lower grades, Qin Fei still likes to bully people in the class, and Wang Wei is as sloppy as ever.

As I said before, there are two fat people in the class, one is Xiao Wu, and the other is called Wang Hu, Wang Hu's personality is very cowardly, and many boys in the class bully him, and even some of the bullied people will bully Wang Hu to vent their anger.

Wang Hu is very inferior, his grades have been following Xiao Wu in the penultimate place, Xiao Wu does not study, but he can't learn at all, his textbooks are always open on the first page, and he will only memorize the first four sentences of the "Three Character Classic" in a semester. Sometimes when Wang Hu was bullied, he cried on the desk when he was wronged, and he couldn't stop crying after class, even the girls in the class looked down on him and thought he was a fake woman.

People's fate is never immutable, including Wang Hu, maybe it's because Wang Hu is always bullied and Xiao Wu loves to bully people, maybe it's because both of them are the bottom of the class, and Mr. Zhang feels hopeless, so once when changing seats, Mr. Zhang transferred Wang Hu next to Xiao Wu.

Wang Hu is very unhappy to be at the same table with Xiao Wu, in the class, Xiao Wu often cleans up some students, everyone is afraid when they see Xiao Wu, Wang Hu feels that Xiao Wu is too fierce, for fear that Xiao Wu will beat him by Xiao Wu's side. That is, on the afternoon after changing seats, when writing pencil stickers, Xiao Wu snatched the eraser from Wang Hu's hand without asking, Wang Hu pouted and didn't dare to ask Xiao Wu, the words were written wrong, and he would rather squat on the seat and sit dry than ask Xiao Wu to ask for an eraser, and tears fell on the notebook.

"What are you crying about?" Xiao Wu saw Wang Hu crying so much, soaked the book, and slammed his fist on Wang Hu's thigh.

Wang Hu's cry came without warning, crying so much that the whole class felt inexplicable, and Xiao Wu was also confused.

Wang Hu didn't ask Xiao Wu to ask for an eraser in the end, and the next day he bought another piece, Xiao Wu didn't mean to grab Wang Hu's eraser, and when he saw Wang Hu buy a new one, he realized that the reason why Wang Hu cried yesterday may be because he took Wang Hu's eraser.

So Xiao Wu lay on Wang Hu's seat and stared at Wang Hu with a curious expression: "You cried so much yesterday, I thought someone in your family had braided their hair, and they got it for a long time, because of this eraser?" ”

When Wang Hu saw Xiao Wu say this, his jaw moved, he was very aggrieved, he didn't dare to talk to Xiao Wu at all, Xiao Wuyi punched Wang Hu's thigh and said, "You speak!" ”

So Wang Hu was beaten and cried again.

"Grandma's, this is crying too." Xiao Wu looked depressed. "Are you a man or a woman?"

Wang Hu was even more crying when he was asked such a question, lying on the seat and crying that it was a pear blossom with rain, and Xiao Wu was inevitably reprimanded by Mr. Zhang again.

After class, Xiao Wu dragged Wang Hu to the toilet together, and when he got to the toilet, Wang Hu kept standing and didn't dare to move, Xiao Wu said: "Take off your pants." ”

Wang Hu wanted to cry again when he saw Xiao Wu say this, Xiao Wu pointed at him and said: "If you cry again, believe it or not, I will kick you into the dung pit, and you will cry again?" ”

Wang Hu couldn't help crying, and took off his pants in front of Xiao Wu, Xiao Wu was relieved to see Wang Hu's little finch and said: "Scared me, I thought you were a eunuch, I heard my mother say that a few years ago, a child was bitten off by a local dog when he pooped, it seems that it's not you, what are you still standing here, pee!" ”

Wang Hu whispered: "You can't tell me when you look at me." ”

"Cut." Xiao Wu cut disapprovingly, turned around and walked out of the toilet. "Don't cry in front of me in the future, if my husband comes to discipline me again, be careful that I beat you eight times a day."

After Wang Hu and Xiao Wu sat at the same table for two weeks, Wang Hu found that Xiao Wu did not bully him like others, on the contrary, others did not dare to bully him in his seat when they saw him and Xiao Wu at the same table. Once, a student ran to the front of the classroom and slapped Wang Hu for no reason, and after the fan, he ran away giggling, and was chased to the seat by Xiao Wu and beat him so hard that he called Mom.

No one knows whether Wang Hu's family has money, only that his family also lives in the town, Wang Hu will occasionally bring some delicious snacks to the classroom, and will secretly eat a bite during class, and Xiao Wu will snatch it from his hand and eat it himself.

Although Wang Hu was temporarily protected by Xiao Wu, he still had to be bullied when Xiao Wu was away, and he would be pushed around during playground activities and play as a fool.

Some days after that, Wang Hu would bring two servings when he brought snacks again, one for himself to eat and the other for secretly stuffed in Xiao Wu's table, Xiao Wu gladly accepted it, and didn't take it seriously, and said: "Whoever bullies you in the future will tell me." ”

The speaker was unintentional, the listener was intentional, Xiao Wu didn't expect how his words affected Wang Hu, that is, from that day on, Wang Hu often brought things to Xiao Wu to eat, until one day he said to Xiao Wu: "Xiao Wu, there is someone who always bullies me." ”