This woman is the crazy woman who was chased and beaten by us at Tunzikou during the day.

A sturdy young man was lying on the woman's belly, this young man's name was Zhao Zhuang, and he was the leader of the group of big children in Sanlitun.

"Zhao Zhuang, hurry up, we're all going to freeze to death." A thin teenager urged.

"I'm anxious for your mother's legs." Zhao Zhuang roared quietly, his face flushed.

The other teenagers were even more excited when they saw Zhao Zhuang's movements, and they knelt down one after another, and the woman's cry was faintly heard.

At that time, I didn't know what their actions meant, I just felt scared and wanted to get out of there. I crept up the river slope and came home just in time to see my mother and father coming from Tunzikou.

"Jiang Rong, what are you doing running out in the middle of the night?" My mother scolded me and carried me under the eaves and slapped the snow on my body.

I thought of the women under the bridge and the naked boys, and I didn't know what to say, when my father took out a handful of candy from his pocket and stuffed it into my hand, and I was so happy that I didn't say anything about what was happening under the big stone bridge.

Mother helped my father take off the dirty old cotton jacket and hang it on the kang to dry, next to the stove, at that time there were not many households in Beiping with a kang, one to the firewood is insufficient, the second is not enough coal, fortunately there is an abandoned coal mine near Sanlitun, the mother will often go there to pick up some coal and come back to burn the fire.

That year was the 32nd year of the Republic of China, that is, 1943, when the situation was turbulent and the inner court was troubled outside.

My father's name is Jiang Zhengyang, and when he was young, he learned the craft from the master of the construction team in the village, and in my memory, my father was building a railway on the border of Beiping in his early years, and he could only go home once every few weeks. Later, the police station and the construction team built a house for the Japanese gendarmerie, otherwise if the strong man or the homeless man who generally had no skills was arrested to work as a laborer, there would be no one to collect the body when he died. Even so, every time he saw me, it was like saying goodbye.

I don't know how much my father was paid for working for the Japanese gendarmerie, but I know that sometimes when my father came home, he would bring me a handful of candy, which was very sweet, and my father loved me very much, and he was never willing to beat me, and sometimes he would touch my face while I was asleep. Many times I was awakened and did not dare to open my eyes, his hands were frozen and cracked all the year round, and the wounds were as hard as old tree bark.

At that time, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had reached the late stage, the war was raging outside, the civil war and the foreign war were fought together, and there were dead people everywhere.

While baking a padded jacket for my father, my mother asked, "This snow is getting heavier and heavier, can the house still be built, and won't little Japan give people rest?" ”

The father said: "There is a police station and the construction team to protect it, I can't lose my life, it's good that I can come back at night, let alone rest, those strong men who were arrested have no place to sleep at night, huddled in the bricks of the grass shed, one died of illness this morning, I can't recognize anyone, the body was dried for a day, and everyone helped to bury it at night before coming back late."

When my mother heard that someone was dead, her hand that was roasting the cotton jacket trembled, and she put the cotton jacket on the kang and said, "The rice soup is cold, I'll give you hot water." ”

The father said, "Don't heat it, just drink it, you can sit down and eat." ”

The mother said, "I'll eat it when you're done, I'll boil hot water and I'll wash you and give you medicine." ”

I sat on the kang, looked up at my mother and said, "All the potions have been taken for Niu Aihua, how can there be any potions?" ”

Only then did my mother remember the events of the day, and her face was ugly at the moment, so she got up and said, "I'll go to her house to ask for something." ”

"You don't quarrel with her so late, can you afford to mess with that woman?" My father spoke with a straight face, the chopsticks in his hand clanged the edge of the bowl, and then he looked at me and said, "Jiang Rong, you are causing trouble again, right?" ”

I pouted and muttered in a low voice, "Xiao Wu provoked me first." ”

"I said don't fight with Xiao Wu, I don't know how to be popular, I come to the house again and again to get things, people want you to cause trouble, why don't you have a long memory?" My father glared at me and said, seeing that I lowered my head and stopped talking back, his face softened, and he said to his mother: "Xiumei, you can eat, if your hand is frozen, it is a small injury, and it doesn't matter if your father comes back, just let him dispense some medicine." ”

Mother nodded, and then squatted down to eat.

After eating, my mother boiled water and put up the bath tent, and my father took off his clothes and bathed in the bath tent with his back to me.

My mother wiped my face with a hot towel and asked me if I was sleepy, I shook my head, and she took off my padded jacket and put me to bed without asking my opinion.

I looked at the small bed by the wall and said, "I'm going to sleep on the kang tonight, and the little bed is cold." ”

"Don't be disobedient, your dad has to rest well after a tired day, if he catches a cold and gets sick, he won't be able to work and make money, and then we will both starve to death." Mother whispered.

"No, I'm going to sleep on the kang." I muttered.

My mother raised her hand to hit me, and I snorted and ran to the cot, feeling sleepy in a few moments.

In a daze, I saw my father walk up to the kang naked, pressing her on the bed, letting out a heavy gasp, and her mother's weeping and whispering, like the frightened cry of the woman in the bridge.

I didn't dare to breathe, and when my father was finished, he lay on the bed and said in a suppressed voice: "Today I heard in the gendarmerie that someone said that Beiping may be going to war, Xiumei, if it really starts, you have to take care of the girl, take all our family's money and let Lao Jiang take you away, he is a military doctor, he has seen so many people, and there is a wide way to live." ”

The mother said, "I know, you didn't say this once or twice, it's almost the New Year, and you don't say bad things." ”

The mother's voice also became low, and she suddenly seemed to remember something, and quickly got up from the bed and got dressed.

"Where are you going so late?" Father asked.

Mother said: "During the day, I saw a foreign elder sister hiding by the earthen wall of Tunzikou, saying that she would give some food to others, but she did not find anyone, she was wearing less clothes at such a late hour, and she had to freeze to death in the winter snow and cold weather outside." ”

The father sighed and said: "A foreigner, what kind of business do you care, there are not a hundred and eighty people who are freezing to death outside this tunli tun, there are still reed mats covered with reeds, and now there are still people who care, it is not bad to take away the wild dogs. ”

The mother hesitated for a moment and said, "I'm afraid that there are no wild dogs now, so I promised someone to bring some food, if she dies, my heart will be difficult." ”

"Let's talk about it tomorrow, where are you going to find it so late?" Father said, a little upset.

The mother hesitated, and lay on the kang with a promise, and the cold wind outside the door whirred, resounding in the night sky of Sanlitun, like waking up some kind of gong hidden in desire.

When I woke up the next day, the snow had stopped outside my window, the house was warm, and the soup was still hot on the stove.

Because my father was working in the Japanese gendarmerie, I had to go to the construction team in the morning to order a mao, so I left very early, otherwise if I suddenly disappeared one day, I didn't have a basis for finding a Japanese theory, and at that time, human life was not more expensive than a dog's life, and people in various urban areas would disappear every day for unknown reasons.

In order to prevent her father from being late, her mother was afraid that her father would go early and be sleepy during the day, so she had to wake up an hour or two early every morning, wash vegetables and rice, cook soup, and pour a pot for the night. After a long time, she formed a fixed biological clock, regardless of cold or heat, she would wake up at about five o'clock every day, and this habit was still maintained until I went to school.

When my mother saw me wake up, she helped me get dressed and took me to the door to wash with steaming well water, after which I hurriedly finished my meal and ran to the big stone bridge behind Sanlitun while my mother was cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks.

There was no one under the bridge except for some fires, but when I came back, I saw Zhao Zhuang lying on the belly of the madwoman last night.

At that time, Zhao Zhuang was talking to a young man in the tunzi in a low voice, looking very obscene, he was holding a cigarette in his hand, and when he saw me coming from the big stone bridge behind the tunzi, he threw the cigarette butt at me and said, "Dirty girl, come here, Lao Tzu has something to ask you." ”

I grabbed a handful of snow on the ground and smashed it at Zhao Zhuang, scolding: "You big villain! ”

After scolding, I ran to the tunzi, Zhao Zhuang heyed, pulled his legs and chased, chased a few steps and saw me running away, stopped and scolded angrily, saying that I would look good in the future.

When I got home, I asked my mother about the whereabouts of the crazy woman, and my mother ignored me, standing in the doorway, distracted, rubbing her frozen hands.

I thought my mother was angry with me, so I honestly sat in the hall and did not dare to run around anymore, and my mother kept being distracted by the door, and from time to time she walked around, as if she had a great deal of concern.

I've never seen my mother like this, so I thought maybe something big was going to happen in the family.

Near noon, a voice calling for her mother suddenly came from outside the door: "Xiumei, Xiumei is not at home, someone is calling to find you!" ”

When my mother heard the voice, she hurriedly walked out of the door, and the person who called her was Liu Lanying in the tunzi, I didn't know her name at that time, I only knew that she was called the eldest lady according to her seniority. As I said before, Sanlitun has not yet been electrified, but Liu Lanying's family is different, her man's name is Zhao Fugui, and he is the landlord of Sanlitun.

Although Zhao Fugui is a landlord, but he is not arrogant, there was an agrarian revolution in Beiping before, and the slogan of overthrowing the landlord was put forward in various places, at that time, several landlords in Qiantang Town were surrounded by villagers, including Zhao Fugui's family, Sanlitun and other villages planted Zhao Fugui's family field The villagers all carried shovels and hoes to crusade against the landlords, Zhao Fugui was still young at that time, and he didn't know how to deal with the chaos, and he had to fight with people with the shotgun at home.

Zhao Fugui's father, Zhao Fuxi, was a family member, and he and several other landlords bought off the police station, and the police station intervened, and finally decided to open a warehouse to release grain to make the people angry.

Although this matter was finally resolved, Zhao Fuxi was a smart man, he saw that the situation was turbulent, and he was worried about internal and external troubles at the moment, no matter which side won the final land, it was necessary to reform, so he told Zhao Fugui to be humble and gradually sell a lot of farmland in his hands.

Zhao Fugui is not as big as the landlords in other towns, but the family is quite rich, at least in our Sanlitun is the first big family, he married Liu Lanying and gave birth to a son named Zhao Dahai, opened a store to sell some oil, salt and monosodium glutamate is also considered to be a benefit to one party, saving the people in Tunzi to go to the town again. At that time, some wealthy towns had foreign gadgets and telephones that could talk in different places, so Zhao Fugui spent money to buy a telephone.

Although there is only one telephone in Sanlitun and several nearby villages, there are not many people who call, some people in Tunzi go to other places to wander around, and they are willing to make a call home in the New Year, and the telephone bill is very expensive, not ordinary people can afford it, and they can only write letters in ordinary times.

My mother's maiden home is in the town, and she rarely goes home since she married in Sanlitun, and she doesn't have any friends, I thought it was my mother's family who had an urgent matter to find her, but after my mother answered the phone, she didn't rush to the town, but went home first.

She took care of her hair seriously, and took out the brocade blue cotton jacket pressed under the wardrobe, and the dowry given by her mother's family when she got married was in addition to a quilt, which was this cotton jacket and goose down.

"Mom, are you going to town, I'll go with you." I said.

When my mother heard this, she noticed me standing behind her for a long time, and she said, "Jiang Rong, don't go anywhere at home, my mother will come back soon when she arrives in town." ”

After my mother finished speaking, she got up and left, and when she left, she deliberately locked the gate, afraid that I would sneak out.

It was about an hour's walk from Sanlitun to the town, and my mother hurried to the town, and I saw a faint excitement in her eyes.

I thought my mother would come back in the afternoon, but I didn't see her until it was getting late, and when my father came home from the construction site of the Japanese gendarmerie, I never came back.

My father also thought that my mother was going back to her parents' house, and it was natural for me to return to my parents' house near the end of the year, but now there was a shortage of soldiers, and there were still people fleeing from other countries, including some homeless people with evil intentions.

My father trotted to the town and went to my mother's mother's house, and I couldn't understand my father's feelings when he learned that his mother had not returned to his parents' house at all, but I saw that his eyes were red when he came home, and he told me very solemnly: "Jiang Rong, your mother is gone." ”

His father was a man of few words, and he was only twenty-seven or eighteen years old at that time, his expression was like that of a child, and after speaking, he turned around and wiped his tears, and then ran to Zhao Fugui's house, ran to the village chief's house, knocked on the door from door to door and asked the people in Sanlitun to help find his mother.

The villagers of Sanlitun all went out, searched around the village a few times, and searched all the large and small alleys in the town, until they found that they did not see their mother in the middle of the night.

The father asked the landlord's mother-in-law Liu Lanying who called her mother, and Liu Lanying said that she didn't know, only that it was a male voice on the phone.

My father was expressionless, thanked everyone, and then led me home.

"Dad, will Mom come back?" I looked up and asked my father.

My father's lips twitched, and he wanted to speak, and like me, he hoped that his mother would come back, but he didn't know if she would come back.

That night, my father didn't sleep all night, he got up early and went to the town's construction team to order a meal and hurried back to the tunzi, he had no way but to wait for his mother's farewell.

Fortunately, my mother finally returned to Sanlitun at noon the next day, but she did not come back alone, she came with a man in his thirties and forties and a little boy.

That little boy is my later brother, a man who can influence my whole life and affect the lives of all people in Sanlitun.