A year and a half later.

January 31, 1970, the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month.

Smoke and snow fell for two days in a row, and the snow particles were mixed in the north wind, and as soon as they went out, they hit their heads and faces, so that they couldn't open their eyes, and their faces hurt hotly.

On the edge of Beishan City, next to the thermal power plant, there is a large residential area of bungalows, almost all of which are two- or three-room single-family residential courtyards, the houses are densely cramped, the alleys are crisscrossed, the decades-old brick walls have turned black and gray, although dilapidated but strong enough, the old wooden doors have turned gray and white, but strong enough, to enclose a quiet and safe courtyard for families on cold winter nights.

The smoke and snow are still falling, the sky is completely dark, this piece is stained with the light of the thermal power plant, the power supply has been very stable, and the dim electric lights are lit up in every house, which looks particularly warm on the winter night when the north wind is howling.

With a squeak, the wooden door of an ordinary resident's courtyard was pushed open, Zhou Lanxiang was wearing a thick cotton coat, wrapped her head and face tightly around a scarf and a big mask, and poked her head out of the door to look left and right, there was no one on the path in front of the door, and no one would go out in this weather.

She carried two large bags of heavy garbage and dragged them out, and an old woman's breathless voice came from the house, "Lan Lan, let it go, don't go out, I'll throw it in the garbage dump tomorrow." ”

In the garbage bag is the garbage that was swept up today and the waste products that were picked up for a whole year, Zhou Lanxiang had to drag it to the garbage dump with great difficulty, a distance of more than 100 meters, and the old man with bad legs and feet in the house would definitely not be able to drag it. She didn't speak, she dragged the garbage out and locked the door, hid the key in the brick crack of the doorway, and dragged the garbage bag by bag to the garbage dump to throw it away.

At seven o'clock in the evening, there was no street light from the small courtyard to the garbage dump, only a street lamp on the small street in the distance shone a little light from afar. The north wind blew through the paths and the old wooden gates of the wall, whining and whining away, making the cold winter night even colder.

As soon as Zhou Lanxiang dragged out fifty or sixty meters, she saw a group of menacing young people running over in the alley opposite, all of them were about twenty years old, and most of them were not wearing big cotton jackets, and several of them were even wearing thin old military uniforms, as if they didn't even wear cotton jackets.

Seeing Zhou Lanxiang dragging the garbage, the leader glanced at her and ran past her, a young man hesitated and stopped, "Sister Lanlan, I'll help you throw it in the garbage dump, it's cold, you go home quickly!" ”

Zhou Lanxiang shook her head and smiled, looked at the people in front of her, and motioned for the young man to hurry up and chase them.

She covered her head and face, only a pair of eyes were exposed, and those eyes were particularly bright under the reflection of the snow light, and when they were bent up, they seemed to be full of starlight, and the young man's heart shook when he saw it, and his face was hot on a cold day, and he ran away after dragging the bag in her hand, ran a few steps and threw away the garbage and ran back, smirking at Zhou Lanxiang who was standing in place.

Someone in the crowd in front of him called him impatiently, "National Day, hurry up!" What are you rubbing! ”

The young man who called Guoqing hurriedly agreed, and turned around and told Zhou Lanxiang while running forward, "Sister Lanlan, go home quickly!" There are enemy elements nearby today, lock the gate, and don't come out at night listening to the movement! Don't be afraid, our neighborhood committee and the Happy Street Security Patrol Team have been patrolling all night during the Chinese New Year, and our worker pickets have also cooperated with the police station to participate in the patrol, and we will definitely be able to find him! Blow the whistle and we'll be there in a minute! ”

The National Day had already caught up with the men of their workers' pickets, and a young man complained to him in a loud voice, "What nonsense are you talking with a dumb man!" Can she understand? ”

Guoqing hurriedly whispered something to his partner, but the man became louder, "What are you afraid of!" She couldn't listen to it! Ten mutes and nine deaf people, my mother said she was deaf, and she had to talk to people by the shape of her mouth! ”

A group of people quickly passed the path to the back street, and Zhou Lanxiang returned to the door and dragged another bag of garbage to the garbage dump.

The north wind was getting stronger and stronger, and on the way back, she hugged her shoulders and ran all the way home, and when she saw that she was about to reach the door, she slipped and fell a big heel.

The path in front of the door is only enough to push two rack cars side by side, and there are residents in front and behind, even if the snow is heavy this winter, everyone is very diligent in clearing the snow, and after sweeping, they also put soot on the road, even if it snows heavily, it will not be slippery. Zhou Lanxiang found that something was wrong when she fell, there was no road under her, but there was a clangling sound, as if she had fallen on something hard and slippery.

She had just seen a silvery white and hard thing under her feet through the faint light, and according to the sound just now, it should have been a thin piece of iron, which must have not been there when she passed by just now.

Someone deliberately put a thin piece of iron on the road for her to wrestle!

As soon as this thought flashed through her mind, her neck was stuck, and a cold, sharp knife that could make people's scalp tingle even in the dark night had been compared to the position of the artery in her neck.

A hoarse and low voice sounded in her ears, "Don't move, if you dare to make a little movement, I'll slash you!" ”

The voice was very low and steady, with a cold fierceness, and the hairs on the whole body stood up.

Zhou Lanxiang didn't move, her eyes unconsciously drifted towards the snowdrift on the side of the road, where there were a few drops of bright red blood, and now she was about to be covered by the wind blowing snow particles.

The man noticed Zhou Lanxiang's subtle movements, and sneered darkly, "The little dumb heart is quite thin!" ”

Zhou Lanxiang slowly closed her eyes, she only saw these bloodstains when she came back just now, but he should have been here when she first passed by, and he heard what she said to her on National Day.

The man searched Zhou Lanxiang's body and found a tin whistle from her coat pocket, this is the recent public security situation has not been good, it is said that the activities of the underworld forces and enemy special elements lurking before the founding of the People's Republic of China are rampant, and the neighborhood committee gives everyone a whistle, and blows the whistle to call the police when encountering unknown situations.

The man put the whistle in his pocket, and stuffed the few dollars he found back in, but he took Zhou Lanxiang's handkerchief, as if he had wrapped it around himself.

"Take me back to your house, let me avoid it and I'll leave tonight, it won't bother you. If you dare to make a little movement, I can't run away and take you with me before I die! ”

Zhou Lanxiang's hand was twisted behind her, and the man actually took out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed her, then picked up the iron sheet on the ground, clamped it between his arms, and lowered it to take Zhou Lanxiang to the side.

Zhou Lanxiang glanced at it, the iron sheet should be the iron dustpan that someone put outside and forgot to take it back, so that he didn't know how to press it flat and become a piece of iron sheet.

With this force, one hand was enough to strangle her.

The man used an iron sheet to cover the few blood stains he left on the side of the road with some snow, and when he came back, he smoothed out his footprints with an iron sheet, and then took Zhou Lanxiang to step on the messy footprints of their workers' pickets just now, and walked to the door of Zhou Lanxiang's house.

Zhou Lanxiang's heart shrank with nervousness, he really saw her home, if he went in, it would definitely be safer to kill the people in the family than to stay alive before he escaped tonight.

Her heart was cold, the dagger shining with cold light on her neck was no longer so scary, and the most important thing now was not to affect the old man in the house!

Her mind spun quickly, and she slowly raised her hand and began to untie the scarf on her head.

The thick scarf on her head was long, wrapped around her head and face in a circle, and then tied a knot at the back of her neck, she raised her hand to untie the knot at the back of her neck, the man could see clearly behind her, and she was handcuffed, knowing that she would not cause any harm, so she did not stop her strongly.

She untied her scarf, took off her mask first, and without looking back, raised her hand and handed it over.

The man didn't understand what she was going to do, she raised it again, and the man probably didn't want to waste time at the door, so he took the big eight-layer cotton yarn mask.

Then Zhou Lanxiang handed over the scarf again, still in a posture of not looking back.

The man understood this time, and after a few moments of snorting behind him, the man's voice came with some urn sounds, "Okay, it's tight!" ”

Zhou Lanxiang's eyes glanced at the intersection again, and there was no shadow of the workers' pickets and the security patrol of the neighborhood committee.

The dagger in the man's hand pressed down on her neck, "Hurry up and get the key to open the door!" If I kill you again, you can still get in! When the time comes, the whole family will give you a funeral! ”

Zhou Lanxiang didn't dare to delay any longer, opened the door and walked in, the two of them entered the courtyard and plugged in the door, and the old man's voice came from the house, "Lan Lan, come into the house!" Don't clean up, how cold it is! Let's talk about it tomorrow! ”

Zhou Lanxiang glanced back at the man nervously, pointed to the location of the door and asked him not to go in first, raised her hand to signal him to open the handcuffs, she showed her face and comforted the old man and walked away before entering the door.

The light in the room shone on Zhou Lanxiang's face through the glass, and the man suddenly stopped moving, turned her around, and looked at the lights in the room like a searchlight on her face.

Zhou Lanxiang lowered her eyelashes and didn't look at him, and gestured with her hands, although it was not formal sign language, it was very easy for people to understand:

I didn't see your face, I didn't recognize you out of this door, and I would never say it to anyone. I'll try to help you tonight, there's alcohol and bandages in the house, I'll bandage it a little, and I'll let you into the house when the old lady falls asleep, and now don't scare my aunt, she has bad legs and feet, and her heart is not good, and if something happens, she will definitely alarm the neighbors.

The man's gaze swept over Zhou Lanxiang's face like a searchlight, and then he untied the handcuffs without saying a word, opened the door and let her enter the house by herself.

In fact, there is no need for Zhou Lanxiang to say that both sides also know that as long as he is caught in this courtyard, their family will not be able to get out of it, even if there is no actual evidence, they will be investigated endlessly, and the neighborhood committee will always list their family as a key target of supervision, and there will be a lot of trouble in the future.

So if it weren't for the danger to her life, she shouldn't have let him get caught in her yard.

Zhou Lanxiang entered the door, which was the most ordinary red brick bungalow, with a living room behind the living room, separated by a wall with glass windows. There is a bedroom on the left and right, the old lady lives in the east room, and she lives in the west room.

The old lady sat by the coal stove in the living room and waited for her while roasting her hands, and when she saw that he was back, she hurriedly handed over the hot enamel tea jar on the stove, "You kid, why don't you wear a scarf when you go out!" How cold it is today! Come and bake hot hot hot roast! Why are you in a hurry to throw away the garbage, I'll throw it out tomorrow when the weather is fine! ”

This child is inconvenient to go out, although he has met with a few neighbors, but usually he does not go out if he can, if it is not for the fear of slipping on the road in the snow and falling her lame old lady, she can not take a step out of the door for a month.

The old lady chattered for a while, Zhou Lanxiang held the teapot and listened patiently, she occasionally bent her eyes and smiled, the old lady was very happy, and felt that it was really good to have a beautiful, capable and good-tempered girl to accompany her!

The old lady went to bed early, talked for a while and went to sleep, Zhou Lanxiang had already scalded her feet before going out to take out the garbage, and now helped her to go in and lie down, and stuffed a hot water bottle into her bed, and came out to press the stove with wet coal and seal the fire, so that it can always maintain a little heat at night, and tomorrow morning take the stove hook bucket a few times and get up again.

After sealing the furnace, I checked the vent on the window, burning coal in winter is easy to be poisoned by carbon monoxide, this vent must be watched frequently, especially at night.

After finishing all the work that usually needs to be busy, Zhou Lanxiang opened the door and let the person in.

In fact, the man could see her every move clearly through the glass outside the door, so he didn't worry about what tricks she would play, she opened the door and the person went directly to the West House where she lived, and closed the curtains first, and didn't let her turn on the light, "Bring the alcohol, and then bring me gauze, take as much as you want." ”

At this time, it was good to have some alcohol at home, and he didn't expect any other medicine, and by the light of the living room, he took off his coat, and a strong smell of blood filled the whole room.

Zhou Lanxiang fumbled and took out a small medicine box, which turned out to be a very formal small box with a red cross printed on it, which contained alcohol, iodine wine, two tubes of daily erythromycin ointment, peppermint paste and other household medicines, as well as gauze, tweezers, and even a small bottle of paracetamol.

The man only took alcohol and poured it on his body, and then a small roll of gauze was pressed directly on his waist and abdomen.

Zhou Lanxiang took a sheet from the table next to her that had just been washed yesterday and hadn't had time to put it away, and began to tear the strips of cloth as bandages with her hands.

The cotton sheets were very soft after washing a few times, and it was easy for people with strength to tear them, she tore them twice without tearing them, and only tore them with her teeth before tearing them open, and then stabbed and tore several long strips of wide cloth and handed them over.

The man must have shed a lot of blood, and the smell of blood in the room was getting stronger and stronger, but I don't know if it was her delusion, he seemed to laugh when she tore the sheets with her teeth, low and dull like a night owl at midnight, and it sounded particularly terrible.