Book of Sins 4

Chapter 15 The Perverted Poet

Liu Ming and Mark are good friends.

They met on the street, surrounded by people, and the two touched each other like duckweed.

On the streets of Yanjing, many people have seen Mark and Liu Ming.When we search our memories, we may recall that we saw these two psychopaths on a certain overpass or underground passage at noon.

Mark sat in a large clear hard plastic ball with some change in it.The plastic ball has a ventilation window, and pedestrians throw money into the ball if they want to give alms.When it rains, the windows can be closed. This big ball stands alone in the street in the rain.If the city management comes, he can stand in the ball, step on the inner wall of the ball to move forward, and even run into the lake in the park. He is inside the ball and the ball is on the water, and the city management can't do anything about him.

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

He is both a performance artist and a beggar. Perhaps there is no difference between a poor artist and a beggar.

Liu Ming set up a stall on the street to sell his autographed books. With a loud voice, he shouted to every passerby, "The great poet Liu Ming sells autographed books."After shouting for 10 minutes, the hawkers closed their stalls one after another.A little brother who sells thermometers and lighters on the right said that the closing of the stall was not because of Liu Ming, but that it was time to close the stall and there were other tasks to be done.

Liu Ming felt guilty and looked around. The peddlers left before the city management arrived, leaving only one ball in place.

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

Liu Ming was taken aback. Then he saw a person sitting in the plastic ball. He passed his poetry collection in through the ventilation window of the ball. Mark flipped through a few pages and found a short poem to read:

The crotch of a beautiful woman is always covered with fog, and after being tamed, it will lead to a good night.

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

The bird stays in the tree by the pool, and the monk digs the door under the moon.

Take off your pants to shoot the future president and prime minister, shoot the county magistrate, and shoot the unchangeable fault.

When the police inter-provincially arrested him, he carried a hoe and supported Maza, and walked into the depths of Baihua.

Liu Ming said: The title of this poem is "I want to make love", and there is a long poem after it called "I want to pee". Please give me a comment. Anyway, I think the writing is very good. When I read it myself, I always feel tears.

Mark said: The writing is really good, how much does this book sell for.

Liu Ming said: Fifty, don't think it's too expensive.

Mark said: I bought it, you should get the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Liu Ming said: I treat you to dinner.

The two found a ramen restaurant, ordered some cold dishes and two bottles of Erguotou, and chatted while drinking.Liu Mingxu talked about the process of making books by hand. He cut A4 paper to make the pages, used kraft paper to make the cover, and then bound, glued and coated the books.

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

Mark said: Art is priceless.

Liu Ming said: I regard you as a friend now, I really want to have a friend, one day I will die, and I will still be alone, you are the first person to say that my poems are well written, I thank you.

Mark said: I was going to die, so I asked someone to make me into amber.

Mark talked about his experience of working in a resin handicraft factory. After he lost his job, he was doing odd jobs in several art studios. During that time, he aspired to be a sculptor, and he often talked about many foreign names: Rodin, Michelangelo, Myron, Praxiteles...these are all famous sculptors.However, he was reduced to begging on the street. It is difficult for people with able-bodied limbs to ask for money. One day, he had a whim and made a plastic ball, which was inspired by the water walking ball in the park lake.His identity has changed from a beggar to a performance artist, and the ideals in his heart have gradually drifted away, but they have never faded away.

Mark said: My best sculpture is myself. When I die, I will find someone to make me into amber, which will 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 and became friends.Both of them are a bit nervous, and both have a strong desire to express their thoughts. The two talk endlessly, thinking that the other is listening, but in fact they are just talking to themselves.From evening to late at night, they talked non-stop in the ramen restaurant.There is a female worker in the ramen restaurant, named Aru, who used to work together with Mark in the resin handicraft factory, so she didn't drive them away because of the affection.The two of them didn't leave the ramen shop drunk until early in the morning. Mark said: When I have money, I will open a pottery shop.

Liu Ming said: It will be a matter of time before I win the Nobel Prize for Literature. I may refuse to accept the award. If I have money, I will still write poetry.

After that, Liu Ming and Mark met several times on the street, and each time Liu Ming asked Mark to promise to make him amber.Mark refused. He said that he was a man of his promise, and he would do what he promised. It was impossible to wait for Liu Ming to die of old age before making it into amber, because that would be many years later.

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

People are surprised to see Liu Ming on the street. This is an era of starving poets, and many people can't name more than five poets who are still alive.Some of Liu Ming's poems are difficult to understand, some are childish and ridiculous, and some are obscene... But those poems describing spring, love and light are so beautiful and touching.

He lived like a will-o'-the-wisp trying to illuminate all mankind.

A Chinese college student saw the "Nobel Prize Winner" painted on his clothes and approached him to take a photo with him, but refused to buy the book.

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

That year, the Swedish Academy of Letters did not announce that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He cried sadly while holding his collection of poems in the rented house.Since then, Wangfujing Bookstore has added a sneaky person. He does not steal books, but sticks a piece of self-adhesive sticky paper in the book when people are not paying attention, between the works of Hemingway and Quasimodo, and Between Eliot and Solzhenitsyn, there is a little poem he posted.

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

Garbage - that's what others call his work.

Liu Ming desperately needed readers to listen to him, so he hijacked a girl at night with a knife and threatened the girl to a corner. After reading a poem, he expressed his apology and said that he really couldn't find a reader.For this, he paid the price of being detained for several days and fined [-] yuan.

Liu Ming is penniless and has not found a job for several days. He always works as a painter or cleaner for a while, and after earning some money, he goes to the street to sign books.

That night, Liu Ming dragged his tired body into a ramen restaurant on the side of the road. Liu Ming and Mark had eaten in this noodle restaurant.He sat down in the corner, ordered a bowl of noodles, and ordered two more bottles of beer.There is a menu full of pictures and texts on the wall. The most expensive ones are hand-caught mutton and large plate chicken. He didn't have a penny in his pocket, but he said to the shop assistant:
I want a hand-caught mutton, and a large plate of chicken, the most expensive dish here, what else?
The shop assistant said: hot and sour steak, grilled fish.

Liu Ming said: I want this too.

The store clerk was full of suspicion and thought: Can you finish eating?

Liu Ming sighed, he didn't have any money, what he was thinking about was - let's wait until we are full.

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

A child came over, hugged Liu Ming's thigh, raised his head, raised his face, and shouted in a childish voice: Dad.

Liu Ming smiled, feeling warm in his heart, and patted the child's head.

Aru said: Baby, call me Uncle, he is not your father.

Aru told Liu Ming that Xiwaer was an illegitimate child brought from his hometown, and his biological father did not recognize this child. Now he might be growing cotton in Xinjiang, and there is no one to find.Aru complains that her salary is meager and she can't afford to buy milk powder for her son. Sometimes she really wants to find a good family to send her child out.

The night outside the shop was dim, and the lights were just coming on.

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

Aru shook his head, and said in surprise: You eat for free.

Liu Ming put his finger on his lips and said, Shhh.He adjusted the tightness of his belt, stood up and took a few steps slowly, then slammed open the plastic curtain of the ramen restaurant, and ran away.Aru shouted, the shop assistant and shop owner rushed out, chased for four streets, and finally pinned Liu Ming to the ground out of breath.

The shop assistant wanted to beat Liu Ming, but the shop owner stopped him.

Liu Ming said in shame that he could use his collection of poems to pay off the debt, a copy of 50 yuan, or work for a ramen restaurant for free.

The shop owner said: You are a poet, I will not beat you, you can wash the dishes in my shop, and if you work for a month, it will be considered as food.

Liu Ming was a blessing in disguise. During the month of washing dishes in the ramen restaurant, although he had no salary, at least he could eat enough to fill his stomach.He likes children very much, and he gets to know Xiwaer very well. When Xiwaer calls him daddy, his heart is full of love.Aru said that Liu Ming and Xi Wa'er were destined, and Xi Wa'er never called anyone else's father.

A month later, Liu Ming left the ramen shop and went back to his hometown. He asked his parents for money and wanted to publish his second collection of poems at his own expense.

Liu Ming said: Without a book number, it is an illegal publication. The books I made before cannot be sold.With a book number and a formal publishing house, it will be easy to sell.Publishing editors said that there is no market for poetry anthologies now, and no one will read them, unless I publish and sell them at my own expense... I need 1 yuan.

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

The mother said: We don't have your son. After so many years, why can't you act like a normal person.I have been telling my neighbors that you work at the Railway Bureau, you are not crazy.At this age, he even reached out to ask his parents for money.

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

Father snatched the manuscript, threw it into the briquette stove and burned it.

It was too late for Liu Ming to save the poem manuscript, and his years of painstaking efforts were turned into ashes. He stared at a wall in a daze, then roared angrily, rounded his fists and hit himself on the head fiercely. In the end, he left home in a daze.

At that moment, he had the idea of ​​suicide.

Liu Ming set up a stall on the streets of Yanjing to sell pirated books, and by the way sold his collection of poems. He was numb all day long, and he no longer peddled like usual.

One day, Aru found Liu Ming. She pretended to be passing by and chatted for a while. Aru said, "help me hold my little baby, and I'll go to the bathroom to relieve myself."

Aru never came back. Later, Liu Ming asked the owner of the ramen restaurant and learned that Aru had eloped with the shop assistant.

That day, the cultural law enforcement officers confiscated the pirated books that Liu Ming was selling. Liu Ming held the little baby in his right hand, and fought desperately with his left hand, but he didn't get a single book back.This made Liu Ming even worse. He still borrowed money from Mark for selling pirated books, and now he lost all his money, and he also had an extra child who could not support him.

Liu Ming lost all thoughts and thought of death.

As Mark told the police, Liu Ming committed suicide.

Before committing suicide, he sold all his belongings and confessed his funeral to Mark.

In the basement where Liu Ming rented, the old waste collector negotiated a price with him, and loaded everything on the tricycle, leaving only a cardboard box in the corner, which contained Liu Ming's poetry collection.The old waste collector spread the woven bags on the ground, took out a steelyard and said: Two cents a catty.

The collection of poems that Liu Ming devoted his entire life to writing was actually sold by the catty for [-] cents per catty.He had mixed feelings, despair, distress, sadness, sorrow, all kinds of emotions came out of his heart at once.

In the end, he became more determined to die.

Before dying, Xiwaer was sitting on Liu Ming’s bed, playing with a balloon. Liu Ming and Mark had this conversation:
Mark said: Brother, you are going to commit suicide, you are not joking, are you?
Liu Ming said: I can't live anymore, you see I sold all my poetry collections as scraps, and I came to you because you are the only friend I have.

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

Liu Ming said: You don't need to persuade me, the money I owe you is not enough, I have already written an agreement and I will give it to you.

Mark said: What agreement?
Liu Ming said: I donate my body voluntarily, dedicating my life and art, please make me into amber.When I was alive, I was a poet, but I am not as good as a dog. After I die, I hope that countless people will look up to me.

Mark said: Well, I don't think you are joking, die early and be reborn early, don't be a human in your next life.

Liu Ming said: Yes, being a tree or a cloud is better than being a human being.

Mark said: This child, what should I do?
Liu Ming said: "Little baby has a hard life, his father doesn't want him, his mother eloped with someone, and threw the child to me. I originally wanted to train him to be a successor and teach him to write poetry...you can help find someone home." , send the little baby to someone else, try not to send it to the orphanage.

Mark said: My brother and sister-in-law are barren and have always wanted to adopt a child, so I can give them the baby.

Xiwaer shouted: Dad.

Liu Ming said: Go to sleep, child, alas, when you grow up, you should stop writing poetry, and don't engage in art.

Crowds of people, bustling and bustling, how many ideal hearts are quietly silent, and persist until the end before discovering that this is a dead end.

The little boy fell asleep in no time.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, peeled off the sticker, and stuck it on himself with a snap.He pressed his hard work to his chest, and this action seemed to slap himself.Xiwaer who was sleeping on the bed turned over, exposing her belly, Liu Ming casually pasted the last sticker on Xiwaer's stomach.

Liu Ming said: After calling so many times, Dad, I left you with nothing but a poem.

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

Liu Ming squeezed the cigarette case, but it was empty.

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

Mark said: This is what I said, I have to satisfy your dying wish, and I will buy it for you.

Liu Ming said: "It's dark and midnight, and they are not sold anymore."

Mark said: What about your next door neighbor?
Liu Ming said: She is an actress and does not smoke.

Mark said: "I haven't seen the actress yet.

Liu Ming said: "Okay, I've eaten and drank enough, I should be on my way, go out for a while, collect my body in 10 minutes, don't look at me, commit suicide... I'm sorry."

Mark said: I can't move you either.

Liu Ming said: I didn't sell my bicycle, I kept it for you, and I prepared a knife for you, which I sharpened.

Half an hour later, Mark returned to the basement and saw Liu Ming hanged on the iron bed with his own belt, and Xiwaer was still sleeping.This shows that the whole process of hanging himself was silent, and Liu Ming tried his best not to make a sound. As the poor poet said, suicide is an embarrassing thing.His body is gruesome, the belt is tied to the railing of the upper bunk of the iron frame bed, and his height is higher than the railing, which means that he may have curled up his legs and feet - maintaining this strange position until he hanged .

The pose is poetic, and he could save himself simply by straightening his legs, yet, he doesn't.

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

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

Dismembering a dead body requires a good mental quality.Mark was very calm. He went next door to borrow a snakeskin bag, but found some foam paper in the aisle.Mark wrapped up the body, loaded it on the bicycle, woke up Xiwaer, and then returned to the dormitory of the closed resin handicraft factory.At that time, Xiwaer was not dead as the special case team had speculated. 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 usable, and there were resin raw materials sealed by the court in the warehouse.

Xiwaer was sitting on the workshop floor, with Liu Ming's head in front of him. The little boy let go of the balloon, stroked Liu Ming's hair, and called out to his father.

Liu Ming could no longer see the world.

Xiwaer raised his head, with tears in his eyes, and looked at Mark busy in the abandoned workshop. He melted the resin with an electric stove, fixed the mold, and put some additives on the lathe.

Xi Wa'er stood up, staggered over, hugged Mark's leg, looked at Liu Ming's head, and called out to her father.

Mark said: "He died.

Xi Wa'er walked over and looked at Liu Ming, this ignorant child didn't know what life and death were, so he burst into tears.

Mark was worried that people would hear the crying, and that the crying of a child in the empty workshop might cause people to call the police. In addition, he didn't know how to deal with it, so he strangled the child cruelly and made it together. I bought amber and plan to sell it in the future.

Although Mark denied it in every possible way, the special case team compared his finger marks and traces of nail stains, and the police from the same state tried their best to find Aru. Both the witness and physical evidence exposed Mark's lies.

The truth about the Amber child corpse case revealed!
No one knows what Liu Ming was thinking at the moment when he hung himself on the iron bed with his belt and was dying.

He may think of his youth, the heavy snow all over the sky, the frozen world, and he wrote poems on the snow with wooden sticks.The entire hillside is covered with pure white snow, and there are poems written by him on the entire hillside.Those past years and those dreams are like poems written on the snow. When the sun rises, they disappear.

(End of this chapter)