I was kicked awake, "Get up and be on duty!" ”

As soon as I got out of the bed, I saw a military coat flying towards me, "It's your turn!" "The man who threw me his coat squeezed into the gap I had left when I got up, and fell asleep.

Duty? How to be on duty? I looked at the person who was being called out of bed with me, "How are you on duty?" ”

"Put on your coat, sit on a stool, and wait for two hours for the militia to come and call for a shift." Later, I learned that duty is a kind of behavior in the detention center to let the people in the cell manage themselves, and if there is an emergency such as a prison escape or a fight during the duty period, the alarm should be pressed in time. In fact, from the time I entered the detention center to the time I left it, I had never heard of a cell with an alarm pressed at night.

This year's winter was particularly cold, so I sat down on a stool with my coat wrapped up and slowly waited for the two hours to pass. The clothes on the body have not been changed for more than ten days, the thermal underwear feels a bit like a layer of pulp on it, it is not warm at all, and it is a pair of plastic slippers on the feet, and the body that has just felt the warmth is constantly trembling in the military coat.

"Where are you from?" The man moved the stool to me and sat down next to me and whispered, "What did you do?" ”

After I answered the questions I had answered countless times these days, he handed me a cigarette: "We are fellow villagers, I am also from XX City, I am from XX County, I have been there with you, I have been to you in 95 years to do business." ”

The cigarette was a red plum brand, and I lit it with the flame he handed over, and took a deep breath, and my head was dizzy.

"You haven't smoked in a long time, have you? Isn't it on top? The fellow smiled and asked me, "Don't look at this cigarette, it costs 10 yuan a pack to buy here." ”

Anyone who smokes should have this experience, the first puff of cigarettes after not smoking for a long time can make them feel the lack of oxygen in the brain, and they can only take the second puff after slowly coming back to their senses. And as long as it can be lit and burned to smoke, it can breathe out the most wonderful smoke smell.

"What did you do to get in?" I asked him after a cigarette burned out.

"Intentional injury."

The countryman's surname is Liu, and he is thirty-seven years old. I work for one of the more well-known aluminum companies in our province. When cutting aluminum in the workshop, I accidentally bumped into someone else with aluminum, and the two had a quarrel and then pushed each other a few times. This benevolent brother really lived up to the bandit habits of our citizens, returned to the dormitory after work to find a short steel drill, and then beat his colleague at the door of the company.

"If there wasn't a pregnant woman among the people who came up to fight, I might have beaten him to death." This is what Lao Liu said when he told me, "Actually, you don't need to get involved in the fight, you can solve it at the police station, and you can compensate him for medical expenses, lost work expenses, nutrition expenses, and other miscellaneous things." Anyway, if you want money, at most you will be administratively detained for half a month. ”

"Then why don't you lose money? It's a fact that you hurt him anyway. I asked, puzzled.

"Lao Tzu just doesn't lose money, he provoked the matter, if he doesn't beat me first, I won't hurt him, and I won't be fired from the company, I also read the law book when I come in, and I will be sentenced to two years at most for this matter. I'd rather go to jail for two years than pay him money. "Lao Liu said that there are two law books in every cell, the criminal law and the criminal procedure law. I guess it's a simplified version of these two laws.

Many days later, I spoke to him again about his case.

I said, "Look, you have to use so much money in this, if you are sentenced to two years, you will still have to use the money during the prison period, why don't you lose the money to him, at least you can earn this money back in two years, and you don't have to go to jail." ”

"I just earn 100,000 yuan in two years, and I only need to pay him 20,000 yuan, and I won't do it. If you go to jail, you will go to jail, and if you want me to pay money, there is no door. ”

Lao Liu's wife wrote to him saying that he was going to lose money to that person, but Lao Liu refused.

The defense lawyer invited by Lao Liu came over and said that as long as Lao Liu promised to pay money, he would be able to go home for the New Year immediately, but Lao Liu refused.

The police officer from the police station who handled the case of Lao Liu's intentional injury came over and said that the man promised to mediate, and as long as he could lose money, he would not be prosecuted, but Lao Liu refused.

After many more days, his verdict was finally confirmed: two years in prison. However, he also had to compensate the person who was injured by him, and the expenses totaled more than 20,000 yuan.

"You see, you are now in prison, and you have to pay for it. Is it a good deal? I asked him.

"Lao Tzu will give him an egg!" This is what Lao Liu said when he left the detention center to go to the labor camp.

I don't know whether Lao Liu paid any money to the person who was injured by him, but as far as I know, the general judgment of a case like his will carry civil compensation, and it seems that it can be enforced by the court.

The two hours passed quickly in our conversation, and the militia on duty knocked on the small window of the cell to signal that we could change shifts.

Lao Liu woke up two of them in the middle of a group of "below" to take over our duty.

I slipped into the gap vacated by the person on duty behind me, closed my eyes, and quickly fell asleep.

That night, I dreamed that I would come home and roast around the fire, on which was dripping with oil.

When I got up in the morning, I was called up by Liang Fang.

I don't know if it's dawn, because the lights in the cell are always on. Liang Fang's voice carried the strong local accent of their hometown: "Get up and make trouble!" ”

Except for the two people who slept in the two bunks in front of the "top" who did not get up, the others got out of the quilt as fast as they could, put on their clothes, and stood at the wind gate, waiting for the wind door to open. Leave two people to fold the quilts into strips, and then fold the beds on the innermost part of the cell against the wall, and then use a large cloth cover to cover the quilts stacked together.

The militia on duty came and opened the damper in the corridor outside, and the people in the cell squeezed out one by one. I saw a picture that I couldn't imagine at first: Liang Fang was holding a white jade toothpaste and leaning on the top of the cabinet hanging on the wall in the air room, and the other people in the cell each held a toothbrush and lined up to wait for Liang Fang to squeeze the toothpaste. He kept yelling: "Hurry up, hurry up!" Don't be so tight that it grinds. ”

When I rushed to cell 7, there was nothing left except two shabby quilts and a rice bowl and a rice spoon, so I approached Lao Liu and asked him where he got his toothbrush.

"Xinkouzi, come and get a toothbrush and a cup." Liang Fang shouted.

The cups are old and the toothbrushes are old. It is estimated that it has been used by previous people.

I frowned and said, "This is someone else's use, right?" Nothing new? ”

What answered me was a slap on the back of the head, "Little JB, it's good to have it for you, you still talk about conditions?" This is a prison sentence! Go back to your house with good fortune. Depend on! ”

I didn't brush my teeth, I washed the toothbrush with the toothpaste he squeezed, then rinsed my mouth with some water. Lao Liu gave me a towel, the polyester kind, which is already thin enough to be worn on the stage, and it is almost comparable to the see-through outfits worn by some actresses on stage today.

After I finished washing, I saw a busy scene: someone opened the plastic bucket placed on the wall, scooped out the betel nut inside in a rice bowl, and poured it into a sieve, which was basically about the same amount in each sieve. Then someone took it away and spread the betel nut evenly one by one, and then someone took away the evenly spread sieve, took a bowl of very viscous liquid thing called "brine" that resembled cough syrup from the iron door with a small plastic bowl, and used a thin bamboo skewer to dot the brine to each betel nut in the sieve, and then someone took away the sieve of the betel nut with the brine, and put a raisin in each betel nut to stick to the brine. A proper assembly line.

A dozen people in the cell were divided into four groups, and after pouring the betel nuts into the sieve, one person in each group was responsible for spreading the bella, one person was responsible for ordering brine, and two people were responsible for ordering grapes. Because I am a "newcomer", I am not familiar with these workflows, so I was assigned to the work of ordering grapes.

After about an hour of busyness, I heard someone in the corridor shouting, "Boss Tail has entered the station!" So everyone stopped what they were doing, went into the cell, and stood waiting. In the same process, Liang Fang first set up the tables and chairs for the "above", put the dishes, then laid the "tablecloth" on the ground inside, set up the rice basin, and then took the two boxes of rice and two pots of vegetable soup handed in from the small opening under the iron door, and then put the rice for the "above" and asked Du Ge and them to eat. And then he himself, and then we can go to that tablecloth and get a pot of rice each.

By the time I got it, there was still one pot left as it was yesterday. Half a bowl of soup was soaked in some loose rice - that was the layer that was shoveled down when they were serving the rice "above", and it was certain that the rice was not very clean, and there was a lot of chaff mixed in the rice grains, and there were some black spots that I don't know what they were.

Here I want to explain the nouns: head - rice, tail - dish. This is what I learned later in the future, and as for the reason, there is no way to know. But that's what the entire detention center calls it, from the detainees to the convicts who have already been sentenced, to the correctional cadres.

After breakfast, we will continue to work. No one spoke, everyone was nervously busy. Occasionally, the "above" people sat down to help this one order grapes or the other one to the door to get the brine, except for Dugo. Du Ge moved a stool and sat at the iron door alone, chatting with the blue vests who operated the vacuum machine outside, occasionally handing out a cigarette and occasionally taking a cigarette from the blue vest and lighting it.

The division of labor and cooperation was quickly completed, and the betel nuts divided into each group were soon ordered with grapes. Team leader, each group has a team leader, counted how many betel nuts were sieved, and then said to me: "Xinkouzi, you will divide a little less today, and I will divide 6 trays and bags for you later." Others 11 plates per person. Then he counted 6, sieveed the grapes, lit the betel nut of the grapes, threw it in front of me, and gave me a small plastic bag.

How do you describe this bag? I remembered something that I could illustrate.

In 2004, a friend of mine from Guangdong came to my city to play, and two days after I had finished swimming with him, he said to me: "When I first came, I saw small bags of betel nuts everywhere on the ground, and I thought they were condom packaging!" I wonder you're too open here! "His doubts were relieved after I taught him to eat betel nut. Actually, my friend's description is not very accurate, as far as I know, the small packaging bag of betel nut is rectangular, not close to square like a condom. But it's about the same.

"Cover the bag before shipping! Otherwise, I'll open the board. The team leader said this to me and went to do his own thing.

Shipping? Open the board? It's a new term again. I don't understand, but I didn't ask, I'll know later.

The thing is very simple, rub open the mouth of the plastic bag with one hand and stuff the betel nut with the other hand, the size of the bag and the betel nut are very close. I'm not very slow.

"Brother Chang, do you want to eat cigarettes? Help me make 4 plates of goods, and I'll give you a red plum stick. Someone in the cell shouted.

"Two plates, I'll make you two plates of goods for a cigarette." The answer was a young man named Zhao Changping. He stretched out two fingers and gestured in the air, "Four sets are too many, just two sets!" ”

"Count! If you don't do it, even if you don't do it, you will change the two plates of goods, you are afraid that my cigarettes will have! The man lit a cigarette, spat out a string of smoke rings, and said disdainfully.

"Brother Chang, make me three plates and I'll give you a hibiscus stick. The monkey is too cunning, just change one of the four plates, and you can't do it if I have one less plate? ”

"Damn, Lao Tzu is out of Hongmei, Hebei Yankee, you can get a fucking hibiscus stick and exchange it for three plates, can't Lao Tzu's red plum be exchanged for six plates?" The monkey raised his head and cursed with his teeth biting his cigarette.

"Then I missed two hibiscus sticks? Brother Chang? Hebei Yan looked at Zhao Changping with a smile and said.

"I'll make you a plate and a half, and you give me one." It is estimated that he is afraid that he will not be able to finish it, Zhao Changping said after calculating the account.

"If you have one, you can make two plates. Is it a deal? Hebei Yan took out a hibiscus cigarette and handed it over.

Zhao Changping hesitated for about half a minute, it should be regarded as Tianyi fighting for a while, and still took the cigarette. Along with the cigarettes, two sieves of betel nuts waiting to be bagged were handed over.

I roughly estimated that a hibiscus cigarette is worth one cent, and it takes at least 40 minutes to bag two sieves of betel nuts, so if Zhao Changping helps others make goods 24 hours a day, he can earn 36 cigarettes, which is 3.6 yuan. However, this was only a theoretical calculation, and it was later learned that the cost of a cigarette is much more than an hour of bagging work.

After eating the head and tail at noon, I still have two unloaded plates. Zhao Changping still has six plates of betel nut waiting for him.

I was the third to last to finish the bag, Lao Liu came to help me after completing his task, and behind me were the Northeast and Zhao Changping, who rushed down with me. The monkey and the Hebei Yankee and two other people kicked next to Zhao Changping and kept urging him: "Hurry up, Brother Chang, it's about to be shipped, don't wait for the new opening to open the board, you will open the board!" There was more schadenfreude in the tone. No, it should be said that it's all schadenfreude.

"Ship!" The iron door opened, and the correctional cadres on duty shouted outside.

Du Ge put on a yellow vest and walked out of the iron gate, and asked inside, "What are the first groups shipped today?" Put on the yellow vest and ship, hurry up! ”

Today, it was not our group that was responsible for the shipment, but the people in the other group each put on a dirty vest and could still see the yellow vest, and took out a plate of betel nuts with bags and placed them next to the vacuum machine at the door, in an orderly manner.

Then the empty plastic buckets of betel nuts were moved out and twelve buckets full of betel nuts were brought in—this is tomorrow's task.

The iron door shut. Zhao Changping was still bagging in the entire number.

"Yi Jiugao, when the cadres return to the office, they will open the board for Brother Chang! I can't finish it when I ship it every day, what JB stuff! Du Ge said.

If I know what "shipping" is, I will immediately know what "open board" is.

After the ten cells were shipped, the correctional cadres left, and Du Ge, who was looking at the door, snapped his fingers, "Start work!" ”

Zhao Changping slowly stood up, walked to the corner of the corridor near the end of the cell, slowly unbuttoned his pants, pulled them to his knees, exposed his buttocks, and then bent over, his hands supporting the wall. I could see that he was scared in his heart, and his legs trembled slightly.

Yi Jiu is not tall at all, about 1.55 to 1.6 meters. Holding a plastic slipper jointly produced by NKIE and BNA, he walked over.

"Brother Du, how many boards?"

"There is still a plate of goods that has not been finished today, so I will open ten boards! Remember, later, a plate of goods ten boards. ”

Smack, smack, smack......

Yi Jiugao's height determines that his way of "opening the board" can only be to draw Zhao Changping's two-petal white flower butt flat. He struck harder with each blow, as if there was an unsolvable hatred between them.

During the whole process, Zhao Changping did not make a single sound. And some of the cells were laughing wildly, some were sneering, and I was smiling bitterly. I couldn't see the expression on Zhao Changping's face with his back to everyone, but when he turned around and lifted his pants after ten boards, his face returned to his usual smirk.

"Brother Chang, will you still do business tomorrow? A cigarette! You only need to make two plates and ten boards, good JB cheaply! The monkey asked with a wild laugh.

"I'm afraid of eggs, as long as you have smoke, I'll do it."

Zhao Changping used two plates of goods and ten plates to exchange for cigarettes after he finished dinner, he took out the wrinkled hibiscus stick from the bag inside his coat and walked to Du Ge: "Du Ge, borrow a fire." He clicked on it and walked over to the corner where he was next to the board and crouched down. Close your eyes and take small sips until the filter is burning.

Later, Zhao Changping and I had a chat and asked why he would pay so much for a cigarette at that time. He said that when he was outside, he smoked Liqun's cigarettes at worst, and he was very addicted to smoking, and this time he came in with a cigarette that he usually wouldn't look at, and paying such a big price would make him remember not to make mistakes again. I didn't believe it when he said it, but I didn't denounce that he was trying to find a high-sounding reason for himself. Later it turned out that my disbelief at the time was completely correct, and he was released from prison at the end of my half-year prison life, but he was free outside for no more than an hour - after walking out of the detention center gate, he got on the bus, where Zhao Changping took a fancy to a mobile phone, and then he reached out, and then he was arrested. After spending more than 10 hours at the police station, he was sent to the detention center in the middle of the night, nearly 20 hours after he left the detention center, and three days later, he was rushed to the South 47th Prison, less than 80 hours after he walked out of the iron gate of the 7th Prison.