Zhou Wenzhong slept very restlessly in the middle of the night, tossing and turning like a pancake, unable to fall asleep. The smell of feet and snoring in the room almost made Zhou Wenzhong almost suffer from insomnia, and he did not fall asleep until about 10 o'clock at night.
Three houses away from Zhou Wenzhong was Yan Bugui's room. At this time, Yan Bugui was holding a basin of hot water with a bleeding nose and gently placed it in front of a certain comrade.
"Hiss... Huh... Shutan, I should say it or not, but this little old man is really good at serving people. Hurry up."
Yan Bugui suppressed his nausea and squatted on the ground to wash the comrade's feet. After washing, he rubbed Yan Bugui's shoulders. Yan Bugui fell in the corner with a wooden basin.
"Aren't you a math teacher? Then put your ear against the door and check the numbers in your mind. You have to wake up one person every hour to pee. Do you understand?"
"Hey, I remember."
Seeing the evil smiles on everyone's faces, Yan Bugui raised his hand to wipe the blood from his nose with the tiger's mouth, put his hands in his sleeves and leaned on the iron door.
"When will this day end? Didn't I just sell couplets a few times? Who did I offend?"
At 11:20 that night, Yan Bugui woke up a prisoner, and in exchange he was pushed to the ground and blasted with a hammer for about 5 minutes.
At 12:47 that night, Yan Bugui woke up another prisoner because the noise this time was too loud. He was kicked hard by seven prisoners and one tooth was knocked out. He suffered severe pain in his waist.
Even the most stupid person realized at this time that he was being persecuted. Yan Bugui bent down and supported the wall to face the urine bucket, making a grunting and gasping sound from his mouth.
Amidst a ticking sound, brown urine with a hint of scarlet dripped onto Yan Bugui's shoes.
Yan Bugui sat on the ground with his hands and knees, his back leaning on the earthen kang. He lowered his head and cried.
"Crying about your grandma's legs, if you dare to make any noise again I will break your ribs!"
Yan Bugui immediately stopped crying and his nose twitched...
At about 4 o'clock in the morning, Zhou Wenzhong only felt dampness and heat on his face, and he woke up from his sleep with a jolt.
"Fuck you!"
He raised his leg and kicked a prisoner in the lower body. Zhou Wenzhong stepped forward, grabbed his hair and pushed him against the wall.
"Dong..."
After a muffled sound, Zhou Wenzhong held his head between his hands and banged the back of his head against the wall. The wall was already a little dark red.
"enough!"
Shen Qingsheng shouted, took out his lighter, lit it and took a look.
"how's it going?"
Zhou Wenzhong squatted on the ground and put his hand under his nose.
"There is still energy."
"I asked how you are?"
Zhou Wenzhong walked up to Shen Qingsheng and pinched the wet spot on his cotton-padded jacket with two fingers to indicate.
"I know, let's talk about it tomorrow. Gag him, tie him up and throw him at the door."
"I understand, Sixth Brother."
Ma Youhe waved his hands to the others, and 4 or 5 people squatted on the ground and started working. They took out his waist rope and tied it up with his backhand. Finally, he lifted the unconscious prisoner and threw him against the door.
"Go to sleep!"
Everyone must carry out Shen Qingsheng's order. Zhou Wenzhong grabbed a handful of dry sand from the ground, rubbed it on his cotton-padded jacket, returned to the earthen kang and lay down. The kang did seem a bit more spacious without one person.
The scene just now was still recalling in his mind. Just now, by the light of the fire, I seemed to have seen a flash of silver in Shen Qingsheng's hand. It was probably not a knife.
At 7 o'clock in the morning, before it was fully light, a staff member opened the iron door and looked inside, selectively ignoring the prisoners tied up on the ground.
10 minutes later, except for Shen Qingsheng, who was still sleeping in the room, all other personnel gathered and went to the equipment office to collect labor tools.
Hammers with wooden handles of different sizes, shoulder poles, bamboo baskets, crowbars, stone openers, wheelbarrows, and pallets.
There are no wind picks, oil picks, or electric picks here, and all mining is done manually.
Ma Youhe picked up the blue record book and took a look at it, while Ji Erliang summoned 20 squad leaders to start arranging the work plan.
"Brother Ji, today is the first day of the Lunar New Year."
"Then work half a day."
"What do you say about writing letters during the New Year?"
"3 jobs."
"Okay, there was a little old man in our cell yesterday, and he didn't even work a day, so what's the point?"
"Then 5 jobs."
"Understood."
"It's gone, it's gone!"
Groups of people walked toward Stone Mountain with tools. Zhou Wenzhong was stopped by Ma Youhe with a flower hammer in his hand.
"Brother Ma, is there something wrong?"
"You haven't finished what you did last night. Just wait here."
"Eh."
Zhou Wenzhong smoked a cigarette and waited for two hours before Shen Qingsheng woke up, put on his shoes, got off the kang and walked out.
"Bring the man from last night over here, and let two people carry him up the mountain."
"knew."
Shen Qingsheng washed his face and walked in front. Ji Erliang and Ma You were holding the prisoners who were unconscious last night on their left and right. Zhou Wenzhong followed them and walked towards the stone mountain.
Stone Mountain is a popular name, but it is actually a pile of large stones transported from various places.
Excavators were already used in the construction of the Paracel Islands in 1950.
Hoists and tower cranes were already used when building department stores in the Republic of China.
The quarry is responsible for rough processing and dividing these stones according to the requirements of 1 finger wide and 2 finger wide. There is also the task of hammering into 1 meter 2 length. To put it bluntly, it is to make semi-finished products of floor tiles or stone strip tiles.
Shen Qingsheng stood on the top of a stone mountain more than 60 meters high, stepping on a protruding rock under his feet. He leaned down and looked down at the pointed rocks and a group of prisoners.
"If you don't take my words seriously, then just jump off yourself. Whether you can survive or not depends on your luck."
"Brother Six, he peed"
Shen Qingsheng frowned and looked impatient. He looked at Zhou Wenzhong and tilted his head towards the prisoner.
Zhou Wenzhong nodded, walked over, and suddenly kicked the prisoner in the back.
The prisoner who peed in the wrong bucket last night dropped it without even making a sound.
"boom!"
"Someone fell!"
"Come and take a look! Someone fell from above!"
Shen Qingsheng saw blood slowly flowing out from where he fell, and patted Zhou Wenzhong on the shoulder with satisfaction. Zhou Wenzhong knew in his heart that he had passed his test.
"Yes, let's go back."
"Eh."
The screams of the prisoners attracted the security personnel, and Captain Wu quickly ran over with a team of people. He did not even check the prisoners' injuries, nor did he pay attention to the rope on the deceased's body and the cloth stuffed in his mouth. He walked with a big step. Bu walked towards Shen Qingsheng.
"What are you making a fuss about again?"
Shen Qingsheng shrugged nonchalantly and replied: "It's none of my business that he fell from above."
Captain Wu glanced at Zhou Wenzhong first, and then said to Shen Qingsheng, "Come here with me."
"No need, we are all brothers. If you have anything to say, just say it here."
"This is what you said. If anything happens, you are responsible."
"Say it."
"Is this the fifth one? No matter how much I am the captain, there are targets for this!"
"You said what are you afraid of? If you die, just die. What farm doesn't kill people? Just report him and he accidentally slipped and fell to death from a high place while escaping. That's all. It's such a small thing. Find it on my head."
"If things are as simple as you say, then why should I ask you? He has family members."
"Then let them make trouble. If you can't even solve this problem, I think you, the captain, should stop doing it."
Noticing the change in Captain Wu's expression, Shen Qingsheng walked over with a smile, put his arm around his shoulders and said, "Don't be afraid, just say he slipped into the horse camp and the horses were frightened and trampled him to death. "
Shen Qingsheng clapped his hands and said excitedly: "Isn't this going smoothly? Do you think this trick I thought of for you will work?"
"What do you think?"
"Ha ha……"
Shen Qingsheng rubbed Captain Wu's chest from top to bottom.
"My Captain Wu, you know very well why I came in. You also know that I won't be able to stay here for long. Let's talk about the one who fell to death. You should suppress and delay this matter first. The family of the deceased will not be notified for the time being.
After a while, I will have someone dig a hole for him and bury him. After two months, you can directly arrange for someone to burn him and send his ashes home. Then won’t you just let your pen write whatever you want? Let his family members find any place to test the cause of death. I don’t believe what results they can get from the ashes! Don’t be anxious or afraid. This god can’t collapse.”
Seeing that Captain Wu never expressed his stance, Shen Qingsheng took out a box of Handshake cigarettes from his trouser pocket, took one out and put it into his mouth, then took out a lighter and lit it for him.
"Look, why are you so intolerable? Okay, okay, don't be angry anymore. I heard that a new batch of radios and bicycles have arrived outside. When you are free, go to the farm outside the farm. Tell me Shen Liu's name from Shengli Supply and Marketing Cooperative. They will definitely give you a big, big discount. Don't worry."
Captain Wu held it in for a long time before he said: "This is the last one."
"Yes, yes, the last one. There's no need to say anything. I'm going to make a phone call first. During this Chinese New Year, I also have to call home to make sure I'm safe. I'll ask you later, let's go..."
Shen Qingsheng waved his hands to the three of them and pulled Captain Wu away from Stone Mountain.
Ma Youhe ran out and called a dozen people to start digging holes to bury people.
Ji Erliang left holding a cardboard box filled with envelopes.
Zhou Wenzhong looked at the others and then at the flower hammer in his hand.
"What about me? What do I do? No one cares about me?"
After waiting for a long time and seeing no one paying attention to him, Zhou Wenzhong started walking around the farm with a flower hammer on his shoulder, hitting him hard whenever he saw anything that didn't suit his eyes.
"Ouch~ Isn't this Teacher Yan? What's wrong with you?"
Yan Bugui put down the bamboo basket in his hand, breathing heavily with trembling hands.
"Wenzhong, are you okay?"
"Teacher Yan, why can't I understand what you are saying? What can happen to me? Why has your accent changed? It's like your voice is leaking."
"You weren't beaten?"
Zhou Wenzhong looked at his clothes with confusion on his face.
"Why are they beating me? I didn't provoke them. No one here beats me."
"Cough...cough...bah!"
Yan Bugui spit out a mouthful of bloody phlegm and took two more deep breaths.
"Stop talking, I have to work quickly. Otherwise, they will burn me with cigarette butts."
Zhou Wenzhong took Yan Bugui's arm and asked: "Teacher Yan, if you encounter something unfair or are bullied, you have to find the organization for help! Just go to Captain Wu and tell you about the bullying and unfairness you have suffered."
Tell him everything about your treatment."
Yan Bugui shook his head, pulled up the hemp rope on the bamboo basket and hung it around his neck.
"Alas...tell me how you have ever suffered this crime!"
Yan Bugui sniffed, held the bamboo basket on his chest with both hands, and walked out.