The Complete Works of Lu Xun's Novels

Chapter 8

He didn't know who was fighting with whom and why.There were scolding and footsteps, and he was dizzy for a long time before he got up. The gambling stall was gone, and the people were gone. There seemed to be pain in several places on his body, as if he had been punched and kicked a few times. He looked at him in surprise.He walked into the Tugu Temple as if he had lost something, and he gathered himself together, knowing that his pile of foreign money was gone.Most of the gambling stalls in the game are not from the village, so where do you go to find the root?
A pile of very white and bright foreign money!And it was his—now it's gone!Saying that he was taken by his son, he was still moody; saying that he was an insect, he was still unhappy: this time he felt the pain of failure.

But he immediately turned the tables.He raised his right hand, and slapped himself twice on the face forcefully, which was so hot and painful; after the beating, he calmed down, as if he was the one who was beating himself, and the one who was being slapped was someone else. As if he had beaten someone else—although it was still a little hot—he lay down contented and victorious.

He fell asleep.

)Chapter 3 Continuation of Winning Stories

However, although Ah Q was very successful, he did not become famous until Mr. Chao slapped him on the mouth.

He had paid two hundred Wen for wine, and lay down angrily. Later, he thought: "The world is too shameful, my son beats me..." Then he suddenly thought of Mr. Zhao's prestige, and now he is his son, so he I also gradually became proud, got up, sang "The Little Orphan Widow Goes to the Grave" and went to the hotel.At this time, he felt that Mr. Zhao was superior again.

Strange to say, since then, everyone seems to respect him very much.Ah Q may have thought that this was because he was Mr. Zhao's father, but it was not the case.As a general rule in Weizhuang, if Ah Qi beats Ah Ba, or Li Si beats Zhang San, it is never considered a big deal, it has to be related to a famous person like Mr. Zhao, and then their reputation will be recorded.As soon as word of mouth comes in, the one who hits is famous, and the one who gets beaten is also famous for taking shelter.As for Ah Q's fault, it goes without saying.So what?Just because Grandpa Zhao is infallible.But since he was wrong, why did everyone seem to respect him so much?This is hard to explain, but if you put it into perspective, perhaps because Ah Q said that he belonged to Mr. Zhao's family, even though he was beaten, everyone was still afraid that it was a bit true, so it would be better to respect something more secure.Otherwise, it would be like the Tailao in the Confucian temple. Although they are animals like pigs and sheep, the Confucians did not dare to act rashly after the sage ordered the chopsticks.

Ah Q was complacent for many years after that.

One spring, when he was drunk walking down the street, under the sunlight at the base of the wall, he saw Wang Hu there with his bare arms catching lice, and suddenly he felt itchy all over his body.This Wang Hu was both skinny and bearded. Others called him Wang Linhu, but Ah Q deleted the word 'leprosy', but he looked down on him very much.What Ah Q meant was that lameness was not surprising, but this beard was so novel that it made people look down on him.So he sat down side by side.If it were other idlers, Ah Q would not have dared to sit down carelessly.But next to Wang Hu, what is he afraid of?To be honest: he was willing to sit down, which is almost flattering him.

Ah Q also took off his torn jacket and searched through it. He didn't know whether it was because of fresh washing or because of carelessness. After a lot of work, only three or four were caught.He looked at the Wang Hu, but it was one after another, two and three, just put it in his mouth and crackled.

Ah Q was disappointed at first, but later he became aggrieved: there are so many Wang Hu who look down upon him, but there are so few of him, what a disgrace!He really wanted to find one or two big ones, but there were none, he finally caught one of the medium ones, stuffed it in his thick lips resentfully, bit it fiercely, and the sound of chopping was not as loud as Wang Hu's.

His skin sores were red all over, he threw his clothes on the ground, spat, and said:
"This caterpillar!"

"Mangy dog, who are you scolding?" Wang Hu raised his eyes contemptuously and said.

Although Ah Q has been more respected recently and he is more proud himself, he is still timid to meet those idlers who are used to fighting, but this time alone he is very brave.Does such a bearded thing dare to speak out?
"Curse whoever recognizes it!" He stood up and said with his hands on his waist.

"Are your bones itchy?" Wang Hu also stood up, put on his clothes and said.

Ah Q thought he was going to run away, so he punched him when he rushed in.Before the fist reached his body, he had already grabbed hold of it, and with a single pull, Ah Q staggered and fell in. Wang Hu immediately grabbed his braid again, and wanted to pull him against the wall to meet him as usual.

"'A gentleman uses his mouth but not his hands'!" Ah Q said, tilting his head.

Wang Hu didn't seem to be a gentleman, so he ignored him. He bumped him five times in a row and then gave him a hard push. As for Ah Q's fall of more than six feet, he was satisfied.

In Ah Q's memory, this was probably the first humiliation in his life, because Wang Hu had always been only ridiculed by him for his shortcoming of a beard, and never taunted him, let alone made a move.And now he is doing it now, very surprised, is it true that as the market said, the emperor has stopped taking the exams and no longer wants to be a scholar or a scholar, so the Zhao family has lost their prestige, so they have underestimated him?

Ah Q stood at a loss as to what to do.

A man came from afar, and his enemy arrived again.This was also the person Ah Q hated the most, the eldest son of Mr. Qian.He ran to the city to go to a foreign school before, and somehow went to the East again. After half a year, when he came home, his legs were straight and his braids were gone. His mother cried a dozen times, and his The wife jumped into the well three times.Later, his mother said everywhere, "This braid was cut off by bad guys who got drunk. He could have been a high-ranking official, but now he has to wait until he grows it." But Ah Q refused to believe it, and called him "a fake foreign devil." ", also known as "a person who understands foreign countries". When seeing him, he must be cursing secretly in his stomach.

What Ah Q especially "hated and detested" was his fake braid.Braids are false, but they are not qualified to be a human being; his wife is not a good woman if she does not jump into the fourth well.

This "fake foreign devil" is coming.

"Baldy, donkey..." Ah Q had always cursed inwardly and never uttered a word, but this time he couldn't help but whispered out because he was angry and wanted revenge.

Unexpectedly, the bald boy came striding forward with a yellow-lacquered stick—what Ah Q called a mourning stick.At this moment, Ah Q knew that he was about to be hit, so he tensed his muscles, shrugged his shoulders and waited. Sure enough, there was a slap, as if he had been hit on the head.

"I say him!" Ah Q argued, pointing to a child nearby.

shoot!pat!

In Ah Q's memory, this was probably the second humiliation in his life.Fortunately, after the pat sounded, he seemed to have finished one thing, and felt more relaxed, and the ancestral treasure of "forgetting" also took effect. He walked slowly, and he was about to reach the hotel entrance. I'm a little happy.

But on the opposite side came the little nun in the retreat nunnery.Even in normal times, Ah Q must scold Yi when he sees Yi, but what about after being humiliated?Then he had a memory, and an enmity.

"I don't know why I'm so unlucky today, it's because I met you!" he thought.

He went up and spit loudly:
"Cough, bah!"

The little nun didn't pay any attention, just walked away with her head down.Ah Q approached Yi, and suddenly stretched out his hand to rub Yi's newly shaved scalp, with a dull smile, he said:

"Baldy! Go back, the monk is waiting for you..."

"How can you move your hands and feet..." the nun said with a flushed face, and hurried away.

The people in the hotel laughed.Seeing that his meritorious deeds were appreciated, Ah Q became even more elated:
"The monk can move, but I can't?" He twisted Yi's cheek.

The people in the hotel laughed.Ah Q was even more complacent, and in order to satisfy those connoisseurs, he twisted harder before letting go.

In this battle, he had long forgotten Wang Hu and the fake foreign devils, and he seemed to have avenged all the "bad luck" of today; and strangely, it seemed that his whole body was more relaxed than after the slapping sound, and he seemed to be floating in the air. flew away.

"This Ah Q who has lost all children and grandchildren!" The little nun's crying voice was heard from afar.

"Hahaha!" Ah Q smiled triumphantly.

"Hahaha!" The people in the hotel also smiled smugly.

)Chapter 4 The Tragedy of Love

Some people say: Some victors prefer that their opponents be like tigers or eagles, so that they can feel the joy of victory; if they are like sheep or chickens, they will feel that victory is boring.There are also some victors, after overcoming everything, seeing that the dead are dead, and those who surrendered are surrendered. On the other hand, being desolate and lonely makes me feel the sadness of victory.However, our Ah Q is not so lacking, he is always proud: this may also be a proof that Chinese spiritual civilization is the best in the world.

Look, he seems to be flying away!

However, this victory made him a little strange.He flew high and low for most of the day, and floated into the Tugu Temple, where he should lie down and snore as usual.Who knew that this night, it was difficult for him to close his eyes, and he felt that his thumb and second finger were a little weird: they seemed to be smoother than usual.I don't know if there is something greasy on the little nun's face sticking to his fingers, or if his fingers are greasy on the little nun's face? ...

"Ah Q who has no descendants!"

Ah Q heard these words again.He thought: Yes, there should be a woman, no one will provide a bowl of rice if the offspring are cut off,... there should be a woman.Husband "there are three things that are unfilial and having no offspring is the greatest", and "Ruo Ao's ghost is discouraged" is also a great tragedy in life, so his thoughts are actually in line with the biblical sages, but it is a pity that later some "can't Take it at ease."

"Woman, woman! . . . " he thought.

"... the monk moves... woman, woman! ... woman!" he thought again.

We cannot know when Ah Q snored that night.But maybe he always felt his fingers were a little slippery from then on, so he always felt a little smug from then on; "Female..." he thought.

At this point, we can know that women are harmful things.

Most Chinese men could have been sages, but unfortunately they were all ruined by women.Shang was killed by Daji; Zhou was ruined by Baosi; Qin... Although there is no clear history, we can assume that he was because of a woman, so it may not be very wrong; Dong Zhuo was indeed killed by Diao Chan.

Ah Q was originally a gentleman. Although we don't know what kind of master he has taught him, he has always been very strict about "defense between men and women"; - righteousness.His theory is: every nun must have an affair with a monk; a woman walking outside must want to seduce a wild man; a man and a woman talking there must be an affair.In order to punish them, he often glared at them, or said a few words of "criticism" aloud, or threw a small stone from behind in a lonely place.

Who knew that when he was about to reach the year of "Standing", he would be made ecstatic by the little nun.This high-spirited spirit should not be possessed in terms of etiquette—that’s why women are really abominable. If the little nun’s face was not greasy, Ah Q would not be bewitched, and if the little nun’s face was covered with a cloth, Ah Q would not have been bewitched anymore. Five or six years ago, he pinched a woman's thigh in the crowd under the stage, but because of the layer of trousers, he didn't feel complacent after that. This is not the case with nuns, which also shows how hateful heresy is.

"Female..." Ah Q thought.

He often pays attention to women who think they "must want to seduce wild men", but Yi doesn't smile at him.He also often listened carefully to the woman he was talking to, but he never mentioned anything about the affair.Oh, and that's one of the hateful things about women: we all have to pretend to be "prudes".

On this day, Ah Q was pounding rice at Mr. Zhao's house, and after supper, he sat in the kitchen smoking a pipe.If we were in another house, we could have gone back after dinner, but the Zhao family had dinner early, and although it was a rule not to light the lamps and go to bed after eating, there were occasional exceptions: first, when Uncle Zhao was not a scholar, He was allowed to light a lamp to read articles; second, when Ah Q came to do part-time work, he was allowed to light a lamp to pound rice.Because of this exception, Ah Q sat in the kitchen smoking a pipe before he began to pound the rice.

Wu Ma, the only maid in Mr. Zhao's house, sat down on the bench after washing the dishes, and chatted with Ah Q:
"My wife hasn't eaten for two days, because the master wants to buy a small one..."

"Woman... Mama Wu... this little widow..." thought Ah Q.

"Our young mistress is going to have a baby in August..."

Women..." thought Ah Q.

Ah Q put down his pipe and stood up.

"Our young mistress..." Wu Ma continued nagging.

"I sleep with you, I sleep with you!" Ah Q suddenly rushed forward and knelt down to Yi.

For a moment, there was silence.

"Ah!" Wu Ma paused for a moment, then suddenly trembled, and ran out yelling, running and yelling, as if she was crying later.

Ah Q was dazed even when he was kneeling against the wall, so he stood up slowly, leaning on the empty bench with both hands, as if feeling a little bad.He was indeed a little apprehensive at this moment, he put the cigarette pipe in his belt in a panic, and wanted to pound rice.With a bang and a rough bump on the head, he hurriedly turned around, and the scholar stood in front of him with a big bamboo stick.

"You're wrong,...you..."

The big bamboo stick fell towards him again.Ah Q clasped his head with both hands, and the slap hit his knuckles, which was quite painful.He rushed out the kitchen door as if he had been hit on the back again.

"Forget the bastard!" Xiucai scolded later in Mandarin.

Ah Q ran into the rice-threshing ground and stood alone, still feeling a headache in his fingers, and remembered "forget the bastard", because this phrase was never used by the country people in Weizhuang, and it was only used by rich people who had seen the government, so it was especially special. Scared, but the impression is also very deep.But at this time, his "female..." thoughts disappeared.And after the beating and scolding, it seemed that one thing was over, but he felt that there was nothing wrong with it, so he started to pound the rice.After pounding for a while, he became hot and took a rest to take off his clothes.

While taking off his clothes, he could hear the commotion outside. Ah Q loved to watch the commotion most in his life, so he went out in search of the sound.Xunsheng gradually found Mr. Zhao's inner courtyard, although in the twilight, he could distinguish many people, Zhao's family including his wife who hadn't eaten for two days, Mrs. Zou Qisao from the next wall, and Zhao Baiyan from the real family , Zhao Sichen.

The young mistress was dragging Mama Wu out of the servant's room, saying:

"Come outside... don't hide in your room thinking..."

"Who doesn't know that you are serious,...short-sightedness is never to be found." Mrs. Zou Qi also said from the side.

Mama Wu just cried and interjected some words, but she couldn't hear them clearly.

Ah Q thought: "Hmph, interesting, what is this little widow up to?" He wanted to inquire, so he approached Zhao Sichen.At this moment, he suddenly saw Uncle Zhao running towards him with a big bamboo stick in his hand.When he saw this big bamboo stick, he suddenly realized that he had been beaten, which seemed to be related to this commotion.He turned over and left, wanting to escape back to the rice pounding field, but he didn't think the bamboo pole blocked his way, so he turned over and left, naturally walked out the back door, and within a short time, he was already in the Tugu Temple.

After sitting for a while, Ah Q's skin felt a little tingly, and he felt cold, because although it was spring, the nights were quite chilly, and it was not yet suitable for him to go bare-chested.He also remembered that the cloth shirt was left at Zhao's house, but if he went to get it, he was afraid of being taken advantage of by a scholar.However, Dibao came in.

"Ah Q, it's your mother's! You even molested the servants of the Zhao family. It's a rebellion. I can't sleep at night, your mother's!  …"

After such a lesson, Ah Q naturally had no words.At the end of the day, because at night, the landlord should be given four hundred cash for double wine, and Q had no cash, so he used a felt hat as collateral, and set five conditions:
One day, use red candles—one that weighs a catty—a pair, and a letter of incense, and go to Zhao’s mansion to make amends.

Erzhao's residence asked Taoist priests to exorcise the hanged ghosts, and Ah Q paid for the expenses.

From then on, San Ah Q was not allowed to step into the Zhao family's threshold.

If something unexpected happens to Si Wu's mother in the future, Ah Q is the only one to ask.

Five Ah Q is not allowed to ask for wages and shirts.

Ah Q naturally agreed, but unfortunately he had no money.Fortunately, it was already spring, and the quilt was useless, so I pledged two thousand dollars to fulfill the contract.After kowtowing naked, he still had a few pennies left, and he didn't redeem his felt hat any more, and drank all of it.But the Zhao family didn't burn incense and candles, because the wife could use it when she worshiped Buddha, so she kept it.Most of the rags were used as diapers for the child born in August of the young mistress, and the other half of the rags were used as the soles of Mama Wu's shoes.

)Chapter 5 Livelihood Issues
After Ah Q finished his ceremony, he still returned to the Tugu Temple. As the sun went down, he gradually felt that the world was a little strange.After thinking about it carefully, he finally came to his senses: the reason lies in his own shirtlessness.He remembered that the torn jacket was still there, so he put it on and lay down. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the sun was shining on the west wall again.He sat up and said, "Mom's..."

After he got up, he was still walking in the street. Although it was not as painful as when he was naked, he gradually felt that the world was a little weird.It seemed that from that day on, the women in Weichuang suddenly felt ashamed. When they saw Ah Q approaching, they all hid in the door.Even Mrs. Zou Qi, who was nearly 50 years old, followed others and called her 11-year-old daughter into it.Ah Q was very surprised, and thought: "These things suddenly look like young ladies. These whores..."

But he felt that there was something strange in the world, but it was many days later.Firstly, the hotel refused to pay on credit; secondly, the old man in charge of Tugu Temple talked nonsense and seemed to tell him to go away; thirdly, although he couldn't remember how many days, there were indeed many days when no one came to ask him to do it. day labor.The hotel didn’t accept credit, so it was fine to stay on; the old man urged him to leave, and even trivial matters were fine; it’s just that no one came to ask him to do part-time work, but it made Ah Q hungry: this was indeed a very “mother’s” thing.

Ah Q couldn't bear it any longer, so he had to go to the home of his regular client to inquire about it—but he was not allowed to step into the threshold of Zhao's house—but the situation was also the same: a man must have walked out with a very annoying appearance. He waved his hand like replying to a beggar:
"No! You go out!"

Ah Q felt more and more strange.He thought, these people have always needed help, so they are not suddenly all right now, there must be something strange in it.He inquired carefully, only to find out that they would call Little Don① if they needed anything.This little D was a poor boy, thin and weary, and in Ah Q's eyes, his position was below Wang Hu's. Who would have thought that this boy would take his job.So Ah Q's anger was even more different from usual. When he was walking angrily, he suddenly raised his hand and sang:

"I will beat you with a steel whip!..."

(End of this chapter)