The day after Bai Ling returned to the city, he reported to Mr. Huang about the trip to Zishui. This was an agreement she had made with Mr. Huang when she was ordered to go to Zishui, and the location was still her second uncle's leather shop. Bai Ling walked out of Tofu Alley without lunch after class, and met Mr. Huang as scheduled in front of a steamed bun restaurant at the entrance of the alley where his second aunt's house was located, and the two walked into the leather goods store. Bai Ling shouted to his uncle: "Uncle, I will bring you another buyer." The cobbler grinned reverently when he saw the buyer as if he had seen the God of Wealth, and although his wife and niece had not yet been able to climb the high-branched glorious leather store, it was not bad for him to keep bringing in buyers every once in a while, so he earnestly consulted the buyer about the choice of shoe style and leather color, and then measured the length, width, and fat and thinness of the foot. Bai Ling sneered on the side: "This gentleman is a meticulous person, and he is very particular about dressing and wearing shoes, uncle, you have to do a little more detailing." Then he led Mr. Huang to sit in the back room and reported to him in detail the information about the 36th Army that he had obtained from Zishui. Mr. Huang said, "We will meet again on the day when your uncle said to pick up the shoes." ”

Bai Ling hurried back to Tofu Lane Elementary School in the morning, and his heart was as calm as a stream of autumn water, which was the psychological reward after the successful completion of a major and mysterious work. This mood lasted only a while, and when the chattering students left school after school, she sat down in her house and became restless again. A kind of loneliness, a kind of depression, a kind of longing, a kind of hatred and anger are intertwined, so that she cannot calmly review the students' homework, and even suspect that she is not suitable for such an extremely rigorous work. She still can't estimate how many people in this ancient city are fighting secretly for that noble purpose like her, she only knows Lu Zhaopeng and Mr. Huang; She also couldn't estimate how many comrades had been arrested by the authorities, and how many comrades' corpses had been filled with dry wells in the ancient city. "It's hard for me to make a move in front of my eldest uncle!" Bai Ling seemed to hear his brother Xiaowen's professional idiom again-shoot, this is undoubtedly a wonderful phrase. As soon as he made a move, he announced the death of a living man, and added a sack of revolutionaries to the dry well of the ancient city. Xiaowen's smooth tone when he said it was like the pride of the second uncle when he talked about his leather shoes, and it was as natural as a teacher walking up to the pulpit and asking students to open the textbook. Bai Ling really regretted not slapping him in the mouth, so that he could remember that he was not allowed to say anything in front of her, let alone show his pride and regret in such a smooth and natural tone. The whole country is becoming an increasingly complete and powerful killing machine, millions of troops and incalculable military police, police and spies, the primary task is not to deal with the Japanese invading army that has occupied North China but to exterminate the first place, even a small county town like Zishui has also established a special security brigade to deal with the first class, training professional local soldiers like Xiaowen who do not say kill or catch, but are accustomed to saying that they will shoot. When the eagle harrier swoops down like a chicken arrow on the ground in the air, it is called a claw, the wolf is called a tooth when it jumps to a pedestrian in the dark, and Xiaowen, as a security guard, takes out a pistol from his trouser pocket and shoots Lu Zhaopeng when he claims to have shot! The difference between claws and teeth and striking is just one word, but the result is the same, that is, to catch the prey that has been sought for a long time into the center of the claw, or bite into the mouth, or tear it apart and peck it, or throw it into a dry well.

Bai Ling couldn't stand the silence of the night, pacing on the ground between the door and the bed, his heart burning as if eager to see Lu Zhaopeng. It's been half a year! On the last side of the verbose alley, he actually went to the Red Thirty-sixth Army. After the annihilation of the whole army, he fled to the White Deer Plain, and when Xiaowen failed to make a timely move, he narrowly escaped. He's still on the line. She wanted to see him, not only to see him black, thin and healed after half a year, but also to have a heart-wrenching imminent family affection scratching her heart. She has realized a major psychological change, from yesterday to today's two days, Lu Zhaohai has dimmed sharply in her mind, while his brother Lu Zhaopeng has rapidly overflowed in her heart...... "I want to be a real soldier to promote the national revolution!" Zhaohai's ideals and ambitions once evoked her unreserved approval, but when the national revolution was no longer about expelling feudal warlords but massacring the people, Lu Zhaohai's ambitions and aspirations made her more than regret. Lu Zhaopeng narrowly escaped in that huge killing machine, and it was only in Xiaowen's professional habit that she clearly felt that she was inseparably bound to that person. She couldn't predict at all, when she would see Lu Zhaopeng?

This emotion continued unabated for three or four days, and formed a regular cycle, during the day she was with the students, whose innocence constantly diluted or cut off her thoughts; At night, the mood is like a tidal wave, and it is difficult to sleep. Just after the fourth day, the old man Zhou, the school worker in the communication room at the door, handed her a book, saying that it was brought by a gentleman surnamed Huang. Bai Ling glanced at a copy of "Guwen Guan Zhi", walked back to his house, and immediately sat down and flipped it up. The cover of the book is wrapped in a layer of brown paper with a pencil line written on the cover:

I've got to get my shoes back tonight.

Bai Ling returned to his second aunt's house after school and waited for Mr. Huang. She couldn't wait to go in and out between the back room and the cabinet room, and finally sat next to her second uncle and chatted about family life. Bai Ling said: "Uncle, you don't have to work from morning to night with knives, scissors, and awls!" The second uncle made a helpless smug tone and said, "Hey, there's no way!" Those acquaintances come to order, and they have to ask me to make it myself!" The second uncle once again recounted the legacy left to him by the old leatherman when he died, even if the leather shop made a fortune, he should make at least one pair of leather shoes every month. The second uncle smiled peacefully and said, "I haven't started it yet, and I dare to put down the knife, scissors, and awl?" At this moment, Bai Ling saw Mr. Huang walking in wearing a top hat.

When Mr. Huang entered the door, he said to his second uncle, "I am going to Shanghai for office work, and my shoes must be picked up in advance." The second uncle asked, "How many days do you have to leave?" Mr. Huang said: "The day after tomorrow." The second uncle said, "It's too late, it's too late." Mr. Huang said, "What can I do?" That ghost place in Shanghai uses clothes and hats to kill people, and I'm going to be embarrassed. The second uncle said with a sneer: "You come to pick it up tomorrow night." I want your husband to take a ride in the scenery of Shanghai. Bai Ling smiled and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Huang, you can rest assured with my uncle's words!" As he spoke, he led Mr. Huang into the back room.

Mr. Huang sat down and said, "I'm here to convey a new mission." Bai Ling was looking forward to it. Mr. Huang said, "You go and make a fake wife for a comrade." Bai Ling's eyes widened in a daze and shouted, "What are you talking about?" Mr. Huang emphasized: "It's fake. Bai Ling said, "But I'm not married at all." I don't know how to be a wife, and I can't pretend to be a fake!" Mr. Huang said, "Of course you have to start from scratch. Besides, you have to be like a real husband and wife to make people see the flaws. Bai Ling exclaimed: "Mom, what kind of task is this?" Mr. Huang said: "A kind of cover. Bai Ling asked again, "Who is that comrade?" Mr. Huang said, "I don't know. Mr. Huang then made specific arrangements for this matter.

Bai Ling resigned from his position as a teacher at Tofu Lane Primary School, and walked out of the school gate with a small brown box, and a foreign car was waiting at the door. The young coachman, wearing a thin straw hat that turned yellow and discolored, did not say a word, pulled up the car and gradually accelerated to a trot. Bai Ling couldn't tell what kind of mood it was when she sat in the car, and she couldn't guess what the life of a fake couple would be like, and she didn't experience the real husband and wife life. She is a little novel, even a little funny, and carries out the sacred work mission with a cold heart. The car went around and around seven or eight wide and narrow alleys, and stopped in front of a blue-brick gatehouse, which looked old and old, although imposing. The coachman tapped a rusty iron ring on the gate, and there was a sound of light footsteps in the courtyard. Bai Ling's heart suddenly jumped, as if he really wanted to see his son-in-law. The street door creaked open, and Bai Ling almost screamed when she saw the person who came to greet her, it turned out to be Lu Zhaopeng. She opened her mouth in surprise and pursed her lips again, and her heart fluttered in her chest; Her legs seemed to have been drained and her bones were weak, and she couldn't move when she sat in the car; She was dizzy and watched Lu Zhaopeng stack the copper for the coachman, who seemed to have a few more coppers and was very grateful to help deliver the box. Lu Zhaopeng took the box, then raised his head and said to her, "Get off when you get home!" Bai Ling's heart pounded again, the blood seemed to rush to the top of his head all of a sudden, his cheeks suddenly burned and spicy, his eyes were blurred, and his feet on the ground when he got out of the car were like stepping on cotton, and he almost didn't dare to look at Lu Zhaopeng's eyes. Walk into the street door and cross the aisle into a building. Before Bai Ling could speak, Lu Zhaopeng turned around abruptly before he could put down the brown box in his hand, his face became embarrassed and nervous: "Bai Ling, I didn't expect it to be you!"

Bai Ling took the opportunity to sit down on a chair, her mood was much calmer, and when she saw Lu Zhaopeng's embarrassed and nervous look on her face, she calmed down herself. She still didn't speak, and when she saw that embarrassed and cramped face, she suddenly felt that he was pitiful. In fact, the moment she saw his eyes through the crack in the door, she had accurately judged that he and she did not know each other in advance. She lost count of the number of times she had seen him, and his sophistication, his quickness, the general impression he had left on her, there was never panic, crampedness, embarrassment, such a look; She even thought that he would never show these looks, and even if he was rounded up, wanted, and stuffed into a dry well, he would not be embarrassed, he would not panic, he would not be embarrassed; In fact, he was embarrassed, embarrassed, and cramped in front of her like an ordinary person. As her heart calmed down, she realized that she couldn't reproduce the panic, embarrassment, and crampedness. After Lu Zhaopeng put down the box, he rubbed his hands and turned around at the foot of the building, and then turned around and explained again: "I really didn't expect to send you in advance!" Bai Ling saw that a layer of fine sweat had appeared on Lu Zhaopeng's face, and said calmly, "What if you knew in advance that you would have sent me?" Lu Zhaopeng said without thinking: "I will resolutely oppose it." Bai Ling said, "Do you hate me or do you think I'm not insured?" Lu Zhaopeng was even more embarrassed, and hurriedly explained: "No, no, no, I didn't mean that." Bai Ling said, "You repeatedly explain that you didn't know what it meant to send me in advance?" Lu Zhaopeng was even more embarrassed, and his language was also divided: "I'm afraid that you will misunderstand and think that I did it on purpose...... ...... arrangement," Bai Ling further asked: "Even if you know in advance, even if you have an intentional arrangement, what about it?" Lu Zhaopeng turned his head abruptly and said, "In that case, I'm too despicable!" Bai Ling asked quietly, "Who would say that about you?" Who knows if it's true or not?" Lu Zhaopeng blushed and said, "Zhaohai." Bai Linglang laughed: "You want to prove that you are a gentleman!" Actually, mean, everyone has a little bit of it to a greater or lesser extent. A little meanness can also be forgiven, just not too much. Lu Zhaopeng was so choked that he couldn't speak: "What are you ......" Bai Ling said: "When you explained again and again, you didn't think of my situation?" Did I know beforehand that I was sent to you? Am I thicker than you? What you explain repeatedly is a bit despicable in itself. Lu Zhaopeng raised his head even more embarrassedly, and sighed softly: "God! In your eyes, no one can hide even a trace of dirt in their hearts. Bai Ling said seriously: "Comrade Lu Zhaopeng, Bai Ling was sent by the party to be a fake wife for you, you can give the task!" Don't explain anything more. Lu Zhaopeng muttered: "Such a powerful wife, who can support it!" Bai Ling smiled mischievously: "You teach me how to be a fake wife!" Lu Zhaopeng said disappreciatively: "The right to act!" Aren't you doing a good job?" Bai Ling shook his head and said, "A play will be over in two hours, and I will still be me when I get off the stage." This...... After years of fake acting, how can people stand it?" Lu Zhaopeng began to return to his normal mood, and said indifferently: "When no outsiders come, you and I are comrades and brother and sister, just do what you want; When someone comes in, you start acting and continue to act until you see the guests out. Bai Ling said, "What if I forget?" Lu Zhaopeng said calmly and solemnly: "You can't forget. Bai Ling asked worriedly, "What if I forget it?" Lu Zhaopeng breathed a sigh of relief, made a helpless gesture and said: "That kind of result - you and I have to fill the well." ”