Chapter 15: The Psychopathic Poet

Liu Ming and Mark are a pair of good friends.

They met on the street, surrounded by a stream of people, and the two of them bumped into each other like duckweed.

On the streets of Yanjing, many people have seen Mark and Liu Ming. When we search for our memory, we may remember seeing these two neuropaths on an overpass or underpass at noon.

Mark sits in a large, clear hard plastic ball with some change in it. The plastic balls have a ventilation window, and pedestrians throw money into the ball if they want to give them away. When it rains, the windows can be closed, and this big ball is on the street, standing alone in the rain. If the chengguan comes, he can stand in the ball, step on the inner wall of the ball and move forward, or even run into the lake in the park, he is in the ball, the ball is on the water, and the chengguan can't do anything about him.

He is like a snail, and this ball is his house, his shell.

He is both a performance artist and a beggar, and perhaps a destitute artist is no different from a beggar.

Liu Ming was selling his autographed books on the street, and he shouted "The great poet Liu Ming signed and sold books" to every passer-by, while the woman selling key chains next to him cursed, fearing that he would attract the chengguan. After shouting for ten minutes, the vendors closed their stalls one after another. A little brother on the right who sells thermometers and lighters said that the stall was closed not because of Liu Ming, but because it was time to close the stall, and there was other work to do.

Liu Ming felt guilty and looked around, and the hawkers left one after another before the chengguan arrived, leaving only one ball to stay in place.

The ball suddenly spoke and brought me the book to see.

Liu Ming was startled, only then did he see a person sitting in the plastic ball, he handed his poetry collection through the ventilation window of the ball, Mark flipped through a few pages, found a short poem and read it:

The crotch of a beautiful woman is always foggy, and after taming, she walks into a good night.

The light of freedom shines over the horse's eyes.

The bird stays in the tree by the pool, and the monk picks the moon and goes down the door.

Take off your pants and shoot the future president and prime minister, shoot the county magistrate, shoot the mistakes that can't be changed.

When the police arrested across provinces, he carried a hoe and Ma Zha into the depths of the hundred flowers.

Liu Ming said: The title of this poem is called "I want to **", and there is a long poem behind it, called "I want to pee", you give me a comment, anyway, I think it is very well written, and when I read it myself, I always shed tears.

Mark said: It's really well written, how much does this book sell.

Liu Ming said: Fifty, don't be too expensive.

Mark said: I bought it, you deserve the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Liu Ming said: I invite you to dinner.

The two of them found a ramen restaurant, asked for a few plates of cold dishes, two bottles of Erguotou, and chatted while drinking. Liu Mingxu babbled about the process of making books by hand, cutting A4 paper to make pages, using kraft paper to make the cover, and then binding, gluing, and wrapping.

Liu Ming said that it is not expensive to sell a book for 50 yuan.

Mark said: Art is priceless.

Liu Ming said: I treat you as a friend now, I want to have a friend so much, one day I die, I am still alone, you are the first person to say that my poems are well written, I thank you.

Mark said, "I'm going to die, so find someone to make me amber."

Marc talked about his experience working in a resin craft factory, and after losing his job, he was working for several art studios, and during that time, he aspired to be a master sculptor, and often chattered about many foreign names: Rodin, Michelangelo, Milon, Praxitelles...... These are all famous sculptors. However, he was reduced to begging on the streets, and it was difficult for the able-bodied to get money, so one day on a whim, he made a plastic ball, inspired by the water walking ball in the park lake. His identity changed from a beggar to a performance artist, and his ideals gradually drifted away, but they never faded.

Mark said: My best sculpture is myself, and when I die, I will find someone to make me amber and be immortal forever.

Liu Ming said: Can you make me into amber, I also want to be immortal.

Mark said: No.

Liu Ming and Mark hit it off at first sight and became friends. They are both a little nervous, and they both have a strong desire to express their thoughts, and the two of them talk endlessly, thinking that the other person is listening, but in fact they are just talking to themselves. From late evening until late at night, they kept talking at the ramen restaurant. There is a female worker in the ramen restaurant, named Aru, who used to work in the same resin craft factory as Mark, but because of the situation, he didn't chase them. The two of them didn't leave the ramen shop until the early hours of the morning drunk, and Mark said, "When I have the money, I'll open a pottery shop."

Liu Ming said: It is a matter of time before I win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and I will probably refuse to accept the prize.

After that, Liu Ming and Mark met on the street several times, and Liu Ming asked Mark to promise to make him amber every time. Mark refused, saying that he was a man of his word, and he would do it if he agreed, and it was impossible to wait for Liu Ming to die before making it into amber, because that was many years later.

Liu Ming became more and more impoverished, and during that time, he moved several times, and each time he was evicted by the landlord because he had no money to pay the rent.

People were surprised to see Liu Ming on the streets, it was a time when poets were starving to death, and many people couldn't name more than five poets who were still alive. Some of Liu Ming's poems are obscure, some are childish and ridiculous, and some are foul-language...... But those poems that describe spring, love and light are so beautiful and so touching.

He lived like a ghost's fire, but he tried to illuminate all mankind.

A Chinese college student saw the "Nobel Prize winner in literature" painted on his clothes and took a photo with him, but refused to buy the book.

A psychiatrist stopped to read Liu Ming's poem, asked him something, and left a comment: Emergency treatment is urgent.

That year, the Swedish Academy did not announce that he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he cried sadly in his rented house, hugging his poetry collection. Since then, Wangfujing Bookstore has had a sneaky person, who does not steal books, but just sticks a piece of sticker paper in the book while people are not paying attention, between the works of Hemingway and Quasimodo, and Eliho

Between Te and Solzhenitsyn, there is a little poem that he pasted.

The bookstore staff asked him out on the grounds of "littering".

Trash – that's what others call his work.

Liu Ming was so desperate to need the reader's listening, so he kidnapped a girl with a knife at night, forced the girl into a corner, and after reading a poem, he said he was sorry, saying that he really couldn't find a reader. For this, he paid the price of a fine of 500 yuan for a few days of detention.

Liu Ming was penniless and did not find a job for several days, he always worked as a painter or cleaner for a while, and after earning some money, he went to the streets to sign and sell books.

That night, Liu Ming dragged his tired body into a roadside ramen restaurant, where Liu Ming and Mark had eaten. He sat down in the corner, ordered a bowl of noodles, and asked for two beers. There was a illustrated menu on the wall, and the most expensive ones were hand-grabbed mutton and a large plate of chicken, and he didn't have a penny in his pocket, but he said to the shopkeeper:

I want a hand-grabbed lamb and a large plate of chicken, the most expensive dish you have here, what else?

The guy said: hot and sour steak, grilled fish.

Liu Ming said: This is also required.

The shopkeeper was full of doubts and thought: Can you finish eating?

Liu Ming sighed, he didn't have any money, what he wanted was - to eat and talk.

The dishes were quickly served, and the food delivery lady Aru recognized Liu Ming - after all, the denim jacket that Liu Ming wore with slogans was impressive. Aru and Liu Ming chatted a few words, talking about Mark, Aru said that Mark was hit by a car a few days ago while rolling a big ball, and the car ran away, but Mark was not injured.

A little child came over, hugged Liu Ming's thigh, raised his head, looked up at his little face, and shouted in a milky voice: Dad.

Liu Ming smiled, felt a warmth in his heart, and touched the child's head.

Aru said: "Xiaowa'er, call uncle, he is not your father."

Aru told Liu Ming that the baby was an illegitimate child brought from her hometown, and her biological father did not recognize the child, and now she may be planting cotton in Xinjiang, and no one can be found at all. Aru complained that her salary was meager, she couldn't afford to buy milk powder for her son, and sometimes she wanted to find a good family to send her child out.

Outside the store, the night is dark, and the lights are on.

Liu Ming was full of wine and food, and he asked Ah Ru if he could owe the food money first, or hang it on Mark's account.

Aru shook his head and said in surprise: You eat white food.

Liu Ming pressed his finger to his lips and said, shhh He adjusted the tightness of his belt, stood up and walked a few steps slowly, slammed open the plastic curtain of the ramen restaurant, and ran away. Ah Ru shouted, and the shopkeeper and the shopkeeper rushed out of it and chased four streets before panting and pressing Liu Ming to the ground.

The shopkeeper wanted to hit Liu Ming, but the shopkeeper stopped him.

Liu Ming was ashamed to say that he could use his poetry collection to pay off his debts, 50 yuan a book, or work for a ramen restaurant for free.

The shopkeeper said: You are a poet, I won't beat you, you can wash the dishes in my shop, work for a month, and use it as food money.

Liu Ming was a blessing in disguise, and during the month he was washing dishes at the ramen restaurant, although he was not paid, at least he was able to eat a full stomach. He likes children very much, and he is familiar with the fine baby, and when the little baby calls him father, his heart is full of love. Aru said that Liu Ming and the fine baby are fated, and the little baby never calls other people's fathers.

A month later, Liu Ming left the ramen restaurant and returned to his hometown, where he asked his parents for money to publish a second book of poetry at his own expense.

Liu Ming said: If you don't have a book number, it's an illegal publication, and the books I used to make can't be sold. With a book number and a regular publishing house, it is easy to sell. The publishing editor said that there is no market for the current poetry collections, and no one will read them, unless I take the money to publish them at my own expense and sell them myself...... I need 10,000 dollars.

The father said, "Get out, go away, your brother will beat you if he sees you coming."

The mother said: We don't have you as a son, after so many years, why can't you be like a normal person. I've always told my neighbors that you work at the railroad bureau and you're not insane. It's so big, and they still reach out to their parents to ask for money.

Liu Ming took out his handwritten poem manuscript and said that the second poem manuscript was better than the first one, and if it was published as a book, it would definitely sell well.

My father snatched the manuscript of the poem and threw it into the honeycomb coal stove and burned it.

It was too late for Liu Ming to rescue the manuscript of the poem, and his years of hard work turned to ashes, he stared at a wall in a daze, and then roared angrily and slapped his head with a round fist, and finally, he left home in a daze.

At that moment, he had suicidal thoughts.

Liu Ming set up a stall on the streets of Yanjing to sell pirated books, and by the way, he sold his poetry collections, and he was stiff all day long, no longer selling as usual.

One day, Aru found Liu Ming, she pretended to pass by, chatted for a while, Aru said: You help me hold the little baby, I'll go to the toilet to relieve my hands.

Ah Ru never returned, and Liu Ming later asked the owner of the ramen restaurant to learn that Ah Ru eloped with the shop guy.

On that day, the cultural law enforcement officers confiscated the pirated books sold by Liu Ming, Liu Ming held the baby in his right hand, and desperately fought with his left hand, but did not grab a single book. This made Liu Mingxue even worse, the capital for selling pirated books was still borrowed from Mark, and he had no return, and he also had an additional child who could not be supported.

Liu Ming was discouraged and thought of death.

As Mark told the police, Liu Ming committed suicide.

Before committing suicide, he sold everything he had and explained what had happened to Mark.

In the basement where Liu Ming lived, the old man who collected the scrap negotiated a price with him and loaded everything onto the tricycle, leaving only a cardboard box in the corner of the wall containing Liu Ming's poetry collection. The old man who collected waste spread the woven bag on the ground, took out a scale and said: Two cents a pound.

Liu Ming spent his whole life writing a collection of poems, but he sold them for two cents a catty. He had mixed feelings, despair, distress, sadness, and sorrow, all kinds of emotions suddenly welled up from the bottom of his heart.

Eventually, he became even more determined to die.

Before dying, the fine baby sat on Liu Ming's bed, playing with one

Balloon, Liu Ming and Mark had this conversation:

Mark said: "Brother, you're going to kill yourself, it's not a joke, is it?

Liu Ming said: I can't live anymore, you see that I sold all my poetry collections as scrap, and I came to you because I was just a friend of yours.

Mark said, "It's better to die than to live, you have to think about it, brother."

Liu Ming said: You don't have to persuade me, I owe you money, I can't pay it back, I have already written an agreement for you.

Mark said: What agreement?

Liu Ming said: I voluntarily donate my corpse, dedication and art, you make me amber. When I was alive, I was a poet, but I was not as good as a dog, and when I died, I wanted to be admired by countless people.

Mark said: Okay, I don't think you're joking, die early and live early, don't be a man in the next life.

Liu Ming said: Yes, being a tree and a cloud is better than being a person.

Mark said: This child, what should I do?

Liu Ming said: The little baby has a hard life, his father doesn't want him, his mother eloped with someone, and threw this child to me, I originally wanted to train him as a successor and teach him to write poetry...... You help find someone to give the baby away, and try not to send it to an orphanage.

Mark said: My brother and sister-in-law are not childless, and they have always wanted to adopt a child, so I can give them a small baby.

The little baby shouted: Daddy.

Liu Ming said: Sleep, child, alas, don't write poetry when you grow up, don't engage in art.

The crowd is crowded, bustling, how many ideals are quietly silent, and they persist until the end only to find that this is a dead end.

The little baby fell asleep after a while. Liu Ming looked for a lighter and wanted to smoke, but he took out two stickers from his pocket, on which were poems he wrote. He looked at it, sighed deeply, uncovered the sticker, snapped, and pasted it on himself. He pressed his brainchild to his chest, and the action was like a slap in the face. The little baby who was asleep on the bed turned over, revealing her belly, and Liu Ming casually pasted the last sticker on the belly of the little baby.

Liu Ming said: After calling so many dads, I didn't leave you anything except a poem.

At that time, Liu Ming was wearing plastic gloves, which were given by a small restaurant to facilitate diners to nibble on sauce bones and eat small sesame shrimp, so the police did not find fingerprints on the stickers.

Liu Ming pinched the deflated cigarette case, which was empty.

He said, I have quit smoking for several years, I have no money to buy cigarettes, and before I die, I want to smoke a cigarette, but I can't smoke it.

Mark said, "I have to fulfill your dying wishes, and I will buy it for you."

Liu Ming said: It's dark in the middle of the night, and it's not for sale.

Mark said, "What about your next-door neighbor?"

Liu Ming said: She is an actress and does not smoke.

Mark said: I haven't met an actress yet.

Liu Ming said: Okay, I'm full, I've drunk enough, it's time for me to go on the road, you go out for a while, help me collect the body in ten minutes, don't look at me, commit suicide...... Blame the embarrassment.

Mark said, "I can't move you either."

Liu Ming said: My bicycle is not sold, I keep it for you, and I also prepared a knife for you, I have sharpened it.

Half an hour later, Mark returned to the basement and saw Liu Ming hanging himself on the iron frame bed with his belt, and the little baby was still sleeping. This shows that the whole process of self-hanging was silent, and Liu Ming tried his best to keep himself from making a sound, as the poor poet said, suicide is a very embarrassing thing. His corpse was creepy, his belt was tied to the railing of the upper bunk of the iron-framed bed, and he was taller than the guardrail, that is, he was probably curled up and shrunk - holding this strange position until hanging.

The pose is poetic, he can save himself by simply straightening his legs, however, he doesn't.

Mark took a deep breath, calmed down, and began to dismember, cutting off Liu Ming's head and limbs with a knife.

At this moment, his friend's corpse turned into money in his eyes, and he realized that the amber corpse could be sold for a good price.

Dismemberment of corpses requires good psychological qualities. Mark was calm, and he went next door to borrow a snakeskin bag, only to find some foam paper in the aisle. Mark wraps up the body, loads his bicycle, wakes up the baby, and returns to the dormitory of the defunct resin craft factory. At that time, it was not as speculated by the special case team, the little baby was not dead, he was sitting on a bicycle with a red balloon in his hand.

The workshop of the handicraft factory was dusty, but the equipment was still functional, and there were still raw materials of resin in the warehouse, which had been sealed by the court.

The little boy released the balloon, touched Liu Ming's hair with his hand, and called out to Dad.

Liu Ming can no longer see the world.

The little baby looked up with tears in her eyes as Mark was busy in the abandoned workshop, he used an electric stove to melt the resin, fix the mold, and put some additives on the lathe.

The little baby stood up, staggered over, hugged Mark's legs, looked at Liu Ming's head, and called out to Dad.

Mark said: He's dead.

The little baby walked over and looked at Liu Ming, this ignorant child didn't know what life and death were, he cried loudly.

Mark was worried that the crying would be heard, and the cry of a child coming from the empty workshop might make people call the police, plus he didn't know what to do, so he simply strangled the child to death, and made it into amber, planning to sell it in the future.

Although Mark denied it in every possible way, the special case team compared his finger marks and trace objects in the nail dirt, and the police in the same state took great pains to find Aru, and both human and physical evidence exposed Mark's lies.

The truth of the Amber Child Corpse Case is revealed!

No one knew what Liu Ming was thinking of the moment when he hung himself on the iron frame bed with his belt and was on the verge of death.

He may think of his youth, when the snow was heavy and the world was frozen, and he used a wooden stick to write poems on the snow. The entire hillside is covered with pure snow, and the entire hillside has poems written by him. Those past years, those dreams, like poems written on the snow, the sun rises and disappears.