The dust settles

Chapter 5

5. Flowers on the atrium

The class teacher returned to Guanzhai, and Maiqi's family had a big banquet for three days.

After three days, even the square in front of Guanzhai was filled with fresh beef and sheep bones.The house slaves piled these bones into a small hill.The toast said, burn it.The steward said the smell would attract hungry wolves.The chieftain laughed loudly: "Maiqi's house is not what it used to be. There are so many good guns. The wolves are here to enjoy the gun addiction!"

Chieftain also said to Commissioner Huang, "I ask you to stay for a few more days and beat a few wolves with your own hands before going back."

Commissioner Huang wrinkled his nose and did not answer.Before that, no one had heard from the commissioner that he wanted to go back.

The smell of burnt bones pervaded the early spring weather.At dusk that day, the hungry wolves came down the mountain.They thought that there was a lot of food at the foot of the mountain, but they didn't expect that the fire was waiting for them. The oil in the bones was not left for them to taste, but creaked in the fire and turned into a blazing light.There was still meat on the bones that could not be removed by human teeth, which was also reduced to ashes in the fire.The ruthless group became angry, and the long howl resounded mournfully in the evening air.Bones burn on the right side of the square.On the left side of the square, two sheep were tied to the execution stake, howling mournfully amidst the howling of wolves.In the sound of gunshots, a wolf fell in front of the two sheep.After three days like this, no wolf came down from the mountain again, and the smell of burning bones gradually dissipated.It was time for Commissioner Huang to leave, but he didn't mention anything about leaving.

Father said: "We have to be busy planting seeds, and we can't play with you anymore after a few days."

Commissioner Huang said: "This place is a good place!"

Afterwards, he used the excuse that he was afraid of being disturbed by lamas who asked for rewards, and stayed behind closed doors.Government soldiers also secured the floor leading to his house.Father didn't know what to do with this man.He wanted to ask my brother, but no one knew where my brother was.It was impossible for my father to ask me such a thing, although I might give him some useful advice.So, he asked my mother with resentment: "Of course you know what is going on in the heads of your Han people. What do you think is going on in the heads of that Han people?"

The mother just asked indifferently: "What did I do to you?"

Only then did my father realize how inappropriate his words were.He scratched his head and said, "That man still hasn't left, what the hell is he trying to do to us?"

"Do you think he's here to do something good? It's easier to ask God than to send God away!"

The chieftain discussed with his wife how to send the gods away, and then acted according to the plan.On this day, my father walked in front, and the people behind carried several boxes, which contained [-] oceans.

When they reached the stairs where the special commissioner lived, the soldiers on guard saluted and blocked the stairs with a single shot.The father was about to slap the soldier, when Tong Si came down from the stairs with a smile on his face, and asked someone to collect the silver boxes, but he refused to let the chieftain go to see Commissioner Huang.

Tong Si said: "Wait a while, the commissioner is reciting poems."

"Wait a while, do I have to wait for someone to meet at my own home?"

"Then invite the chieftain to go back. I will invite the commissioner as soon as he is free."

When the chieftain returned to his room, he dropped three wine glasses and poured a bowl of tea on the maid.He stomped his feet and yelled, "See if I don't clean up this guy!"

Throughout history, in chieftain Maiqi's official village, it was always people who came to see him.Now, as a guest of our family, this person lives in a beautiful guest room, but he has shown such prestige, let alone my father, even my head is blown.I bravely stood in front of my father.But he yelled for someone to find his son, as if I wasn't his son.

The servants came back to report that the Eldest Young Master had played a part in a long and sacred drama in the square, and had entered the stage.His father shouted, and told the acting monks to go to play, and told him to come back and learn to be a toast.These words were passed down from floor to floor, and from inside to outside of Fuzhai.After the same sequence, the word came back from the square, saying that yes, the melee of monsters and gods is in full swing, and besides, all the people on the field are wearing costumes and masks, and I can't tell which one is my great brother .

Toast Mai Qi shouted: "Then call the show to stop!"

The lama, who always obeyed the chieftain's will, immediately said: "No, you can't stop, it will go against the will of God!"

"god?"

"Drama is God's creation, it is history and poetry, and it cannot be stopped."

Yes, we are often told that drama, history, poetry, and the like are the special powers of the Hate class.This power gives them a sense of being in God's will.Chief Maiqi had no choice but to vent his anger on mortals.He shouted, "Does he think he can govern a country as long as he knows how to fight?"

Note that the word country appears here.But this does not mean that he really can think of himself as the leader of an independent country.It's all because of language.Toast is a foreign language.In our language, the word that roughly corresponds to this word is "Galpo", which is the ancient name for a king.So Maiqi Tusi would not use words like territory, but "country".I think my father at this time is so pitiful.I grabbed his sleeve, which of course meant to tell him not to be too angry.But he threw me away at once, and scolded: "Why don't you go to an opera, don't you know how to govern a country?"

The mother sneered: "I can't see my son in the end."

After speaking, she took me to see Commissioner Huang.My father also said behind his back that he didn't believe that we would have more face than him.Soon we came back to say that Commissioner Huang wanted to see him.The father was taken aback, he saw a fierce light in the mother's eyes.Chief Machi shook his sleeves vigorously and went to see the commissioner; two soldiers saluted him at the stairs.Toast Maiqi snorted in return.In the room, Huang Chumin was sitting upright, his eyes slightly closed, lost in the invisibility of something invisible.

Before the chieftain could speak, the servant put his finger in front of his lips: "Hush—"

The chieftain stood with his hands down for a while, and felt that this posture was too respectful, so he sat down on the carpet angrily.

Commissioner Huang was facing a blank piece of paper, and Toast Maiqi felt that the paper was shaking slightly under the commissioner's breath.Commissioner Huang finally opened his eyes, grabbed a pen and scribbled on the paper as if possessed by a god.Sweat wet the hair on his forehead.He tossed the pen, let out a long breath, and limp on the leopard-skin cushion.After a while, Commissioner Huang smiled weakly at the chieftain and said, "I don't have any money to give you, so I will give you a letter."

He spread the ink-stained paper on the carpet and read aloud:
The spring breeze moves the high flags, and the jade tents are divided into bows to shoot at the barracks.

Mai Qiyun has been collected and garrisoned among the clouds, and the outer city of Wang Bolei has been seized.

Chief Maiqi didn't understand poetry, let alone the poem was written in a foreign language that he didn't understand.But he still bowed, thanked, and immediately thought of hanging this writing paper in this guest room, so that every guest would know that the government supported the Maiqi family just like the previous emperors.There is also an imperial plaque bestowed by the former Qing emperor in the guest room, with four big characters written on it: "Daohua Qunfan".

Now, Commissioner Huang is sitting under those big golden characters.The Indian incense in the stove was strong and dull.

Chieftain Maiqi said, "How can I thank the government and the commissioner?"

Commissioner Huang said: "I personally don't want you for anything, and the government only has a small request." Then he asked someone to fetch a bag.Commissioner Huang is not only thin, but also has hands with small palms and long fingers.It was this hand that reached into the cloth bag and grabbed a handful of tiny gray seeds.Father didn't know what kind of seed it was.As soon as Commissioner Huang let go, the seeds rustled through his fingers and back into his pocket.

Toast asked what it was.Commissioner Huang asked the chieftain, can such a vast land be used to grow food?

When it comes to food, the atmosphere immediately becomes very cordial.My father said that every year a batch of grain rots in the warehouse.

"I know, your village is full of this smell."

Only then did I realize that the sweet smell that permeates the official village every spring is actually the smell of food rotting quietly.

Commissioner Huang asked again: "Do you have as much silver as food?
So much that it slowly rots in the warehouse and no one cares? "

"You can never have too much silver, and it won't rot."

"Then it's easy to handle. We don't want your silver. As long as you plant these things, we will buy them with silver when you harvest them. You just need to use the land as wide as the few villages you just captured to plant them."

It was only then that the chieftain thought of asking, "What is this?"

"It's the opium I often enjoy, and it's very valuable."

Chief Chief Maiqi heaved a sigh of relief and agreed.

Commissioner Huang left.He said to his father, "Let's see you in the autumn."

He presented Mrs. Tusi with a set of exquisitely carved opium smoking sets.The mother was very disturbed by this, and she asked the maid Dolma, "Why didn't the commissioner give this to the chieftain?"

Dolma said, "Is it because he fell in love with you? After all, my wife is also a Han Chinese."

Mrs. Tusi was not angry at the servant's arrogance.She said worriedly: "I'm just afraid that the toast will think so."

Dolma smiled coldly.

Mrs. Toast is not young anymore.Apart from her gorgeous attire, as a woman, she doesn't have much attractiveness on her body.When people talk about Mrs. Toast, they say that she was very beautiful when she was young, but she is not young anymore.I heard people say that my elder sister is also very beautiful, but I don't even know what she looks like.A long time ago, she followed her uncle to Lhasa.From Lhasa to Calcutta.From Calcutta to England in a beautiful house floating on the sea.Every year we get one or two letters that come and go for months; the letters are written in English, and no one knows the English characters, so all we have to do is look at the one or two photographs that come with them.In the photo, my sister who lives in a foreign country is wearing strange clothes.To be honest, it's hard for me to tell whether she's pretty or not for someone who dresses so differently from us.

I asked my brother: "Is my sister beautiful?"

"Pretty, why isn't it beautiful." Seeing the disbelieving eyes I stared at him, he smiled, "God, I don't know, everyone says so, so I will say so." The two brothers were far away Relatives in foreign countries laugh heartily.

No one knew of her sister's letters, that her long letters were chiefly begging her family to allow her to remain in England.She thought she would be called back suddenly and marry a certain chieftain's son.This person may be a chieftain, or he may be nothing.So, she kept pleading in letters we couldn't read.Each letter is an extension of the previous letter.People from the chieftain's family always regard themselves as very important, and my sister in England is the same, as if the Maggie's family could not exist without her.In Maggie's family, I was the only one who didn't think I was so important in this world.My sister didn't know that her letters were never read, and we just hung up the pictures in her room.After a while, someone came to clean the room.Therefore, my sister's room is not like a house of a living person, but a house of a person who has lived, like a space for the activities of the dead.

Because of the war, the planting was a few days later than usual this year.As a result, when the crops in the field emerged, they escaped a frost.Bad things turned into good things.That said, for as long as I can remember, things have started to go out of their usual ways.In the center of Maiqi chieftain's jurisdiction, all the land surrounding Guanzhai was sown with opium seeds.

When the sowing began, my father, my brother, and I were all on horseback, parading among the plowing people.

Let's take a look at this farming picture.Two oxen are side by side, and a child is pulling a heavy wooden plow with the strength of his forehead and shoulder blades.There is a little bit of precious iron on the top of the wooden plow, and it is this gleaming bit of hard iron that guides the wooden plow deep into the soil layer, making the black soil in spring roll up like water.The man holding the plow is always calling out the name of the ox pulling the plow before him or the woman sowing the seed behind him.The hands of the sowing women were raised high, and the fluttering seeds fell into the soil, and the pleasant rustling sound was like the sound of spring rain.

The moist soil that has just sown the seeds exudes such a strong fragrance.A nap on the ground quickly turned into a frenzied game.The women threw a man to the ground, lifted his robes, stripped off his baggy trousers, and spread cow dung over the restless thing.The men's goal is the girls' clothes, to expose their beautiful breasts under the clear sky.This game of plowing, in addition to being enjoyable, is believed to increase the yield in the field.Chief Maiqi told his two sons that in ancient times, people really wanted to do that kind of thing between men and women on the ground.

My father ordered people to set up a large pot on the ground, boiled hot tea, and put more fat and salt in it, which was very scarce at that time.He said: "Let them drink for a long time."

Two girls screamed and ran past our horses, their breasts fluttering like doves.The chasing men wanted to kneel down in front of our horses, and my brother waved his whip: "Stop saluting, go and chase!"

Once the sowing season is over, people, sunshine, and land all become lazy.The water in the river and the grass on the mountain turn lazily green day by day.

Everyone wants to know what kind of things will grow from the seeds left by Commissioner Huang.

The pampered chieftain family has also become very concerned about farming.Every day, our family patrols far away with a long team consisting of maids, grooms, servants, butlers, and headmen on duty from each village who come to wait for calls at any time.Before the poppy grows up, it attracts people deeply with its boundless magic power.I pouted my butt countless times, and dug up the floating soil to see how the seeds germinated.Only then, no one calls me a fool.People in their right minds are curious, but they want to hide it.This kind of thing had to be done by me.

I dug the seeds out of the soil, and they couldn't wait to take the thin seeds from my hands, marveling countless times that such thick and fat tender stems could sprout from small seeds.One day, thick shoots emerged from the soil.As soon as it was unearthed, the buds unfolded into a pair of plump leaves, like a pair of immature palms of a baby.

Two or three months passed quickly.

Poppies are blooming.The large red flowers make the territory of Maiqitusi splendid and magnificent.We've all been fascinated by this plant that first appeared on our soil.Poppies are so beautiful!
Mother said she had a headache and had garlic patches all over her temples.Garlic is an effective medicine for us. Burning it and eating it can stop diarrhea. Cut it into slices and stick it on the temple. It has a good effect on migraine.Mrs. Toast had a habit of making it known that she was in pain, by her nostalgia, by her migraines, and smelling unwelcome acridity from head to toe.

In the beautiful summer, the whole family is happily preparing to go hiking.But she stuck white garlic slices on her forehead and stood alone behind the winding railing upstairs.The groom, the maid, and even the executioner happily went forward.

Their laughter and laughter came from outside the tall walled village.Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, my mother groaned upstairs, "Tell Zhuoma to come back and accompany me!"

But I shouted: "Dolma, get on your horse and help me."

Sangji Dolma looked at the chieftain's face.

Father said: "The young master told you to go up, so you can go up."

Dolma got on the horse with a scent all over her body, and hugged me tightly from behind.In a sea of ​​fiery poppies, I rest my head on her full breasts.And what a field of blooming flowers and the stench of horses everywhere.My lust for women keeps growing.The beautiful maid pressed her plump body against my back, and the hot and humid breath she exhaled made my heart itch unbearably.I only feel that poppies, like wildfire all over the mountains, are blooming warmly into my heart.

A few ostentatious girls appeared among the flowers in the distance.The elder brother took the rein and was about to take another fork.His father stopped him: "We are about to reach Chacha Village, and the headman will come to welcome us."

The elder brother took down the gun and shot at the birds in the sky.In the empty river valley, the sound of gunfire disappeared far away.The sky above was a deep blue, with only a few white clouds hanging lazily on the trees by the mountain.The posture of my brother raising his gun and shooting is really graceful.Once he fired, he couldn't hold back.The echo of the first shot had not died away. The shot was fired again.Bullet casings popped out, dancing on the dirt road, reflecting the sun.

From afar, I saw the leader of Chacha Village leading a group of people out of the gate of the village.When we were approaching the tethering post in front of the headman's stockade, the servants bowed and stretched out their hands, ready to take the reins from us.At this moment, the elder brother suddenly turned his gun and fired a shot at the leader's feet.Bullets screamed through the mud and under the headman's handsome boots.The momentum of the bullet made the headman jump high.I am sure that the head man has never jumped so high and so lightly in his life.Rising lightly, falling lightly again.

The elder brother got off the horse, patted the horse's neck and said, "My gun went off, and the leader was frightened."

Head Chacha looked at his feet, they were still intact, supporting his fat body, but the beautiful boots were covered with dust.The headman wiped the sweat off his brow.He tried to smile at us, but his unconcealed annoyed smile got uglier and uglier.He also knew that he couldn't make a smile, so he didn't stop doing anything, and suddenly knelt down in front of his father: "I'll find out what king's law I violated, the young chieftain treated me like this, master, tell him to kill me!" Shoot me dead!"

The headman's beautiful wife, Yang Zong, didn't know that this was a performance for both parties, and fell to the ground with a scream.This woman, the frightened expression made her even more beautiful.

This beauty immediately attracted Maiqi Toast.Toast Maggie walked up to her and said, "Don't be afraid, they are just joking." As if to prove the correctness of this statement, he laughed out loud after saying this.Amid the laughter, the stagnant air loosened a little bit.

(End of this chapter)