virus

Chapter 28 February [-]th

Nanhu Middle School is located in the center of a large group of old houses. Looking down from the air, it looks like a piece of low bushes has been destroyed by some kind of animal. The blank piece is the playground of the middle school.

Ye Xiao and I walked into this Soviet-style teaching building built in the 50s. In the empty and tall corridors, we passed the principal here and came to the archives room. The file for 1966 is complete, but it's of no use to us.

The old principal chattered: "The content of the Red Guards will not be included in the files and student status cards. In that year, hundreds of students joined the Red Guards. They were divided into dozens of groups and went to various units to 'make revolution'. Finding out who went to 125 Nanhu Road is like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Then who else here is familiar with the situation at that time?"

"Well, those old teachers in the past have all retired, and now they can't find them for a while. I'm afraid it's a bit difficult."

The middle-aged woman in charge of the archives suddenly interjected: "Principal, isn't Mr. Yu, who teaches history, a graduate of our school's '66 class?"

"Oh, yes, I'll take you to find him."

The principal led us out of the archives room. In an office, the principal said to a middle-aged man who was buried in a book, "Old Yu, aren't you a graduate of our school's 66th class? Comrades from the Municipal Public Security Bureau want to investigate Some information about the Red Guards in our school in 66."

Teacher Yu raised his head, his expression suddenly became tense, he looked at us, then his expression calmed down again, and said lightly: "Principal, I can't remember what happened more than 30 years ago."

The principal shook his head at us, and said to me softly: "Don't mind, he is usually such a person. He is introverted and doesn't like to talk to others."

Ye Xiao nodded to me, and then said, "Mr. Yu, can I take a moment of your time, let's go outside and talk?"

"I'm preparing lessons." He was a little impatient.

"Sorry, I'm working on a case." Ye Xiao looked straight into his eyes.

They looked at each other for a while, and finally, Teacher Yu avoided him: "Okay, let's go out and talk." Then he said to the principal, "Principal, go back and do your work, I will cooperate."

Through the dark corridor, we came to the edge of the playground, the sun lazily shone on my face, and a group of students in physical education were moving freely.Ye Xiao spoke first: "Teacher Yu, were you a Red Guard in 1966?"

"Yes, but does it matter? Almost every student at the time was."

"I'm sorry, you may have misunderstood us, we're just here to investigate something. Do you know the place at No. 125, Nanhu Road?"

"Dark house?" he suddenly whispered, almost to himself.

"What's a black house?" I asked him.

He didn't answer, he let out a long sigh, then looked around, and took us to the quietest corner of the playground, where there were a few large metasequoias and some fig trees, and the ground was covered with weeds.Under the shade of the tree, the sun shines on our foreheads like stars, he said slowly: "Because it is a black building, very special, I lived near it when I was a child, so we used to call that building The place is called the Black House."

"We came here for this house, Mr. Yu, I think you must know something, tell us everything you know, you want everything." Ye Xiao said.

"In the autumn of 1966, I was a graduating student in this school. Most of our classmates became Red Guards, criticized teachers, and debated big-character posters. But many people felt that making noise in school was not enough, so A group of Red Guards went to the black house. And I was one of them.” He paused suddenly, and then resumed after being urged by our eyes, “You young people will not understand the situation at that time. Everyone is crazy, especially the students aged [-] or [-]. There are many things that need time for us to understand. We went to the black house, because there is a public institution with many intellectuals, it is said that they are capitalist roaders We went in and drove out all the staff inside. No one dared to resist. We wrote big-character posters in all the rooms. In the end, only the basement was left. We ordered the gatekeeper to open the basement, and then We went down, the basement was very deep, we walked up the steps for a long time, it was scary in retrospect, but the young people had a strong curiosity, and the Red Guards claimed that they were not afraid of anything, finally, we had the courage to go down to the basement. We found a glass coffin, and inside the glass coffin lay a naked woman."

I gasped, and sure enough, after 1945, the Empress' body remained in the basement.I looked at Teacher Yu's face again, his eyebrows were locked together, and he lowered his head.

"Go on."

"We were very surprised at the time, partly because we were young and didn't understand women, and seeing such a beautiful woman lying naked in a glass coffin was not so much fear as surprise. Yes, she is so beautiful , I have never seen such a beautiful woman in my life. She looks like she is in her early 20s. She is covered in white, with her eyes closed, and she is sleeping peacefully. At first we really thought she was sleeping, so we couldn't help but feel a little shy and wanted to hide. Get out. Then someone said that a woman sleeping here with her clothes off must be a female hooligan, and the dictatorship of the proletariat is going to be imposed on her. So we opened the glass coffin and woke her up, but she didn't respond, one of us People dared to touch her, but found that her body was cold, and felt for the pulse, and found out that she was dead. Suddenly we became frightened, and began to wonder if she might have been murdered , but we really can’t think of any results. We dare not tell this matter, because we may be considered hooligans when we see naked women. We can only paint big-character posters on the wall as a matter of routine. sign, and left the basement."

"It's that simple?" I wondered what else he was hiding.

"No, we were making so-called revolutions in the black house during the day, and we went home to sleep at night. After all, we were still children. The next morning after entering the basement, we gathered at the door of the black house as usual, but we found that there were fewer There was a man named Liu Weizhong, so we went to his house to look for him. Only when we arrived at his house did we know that Liu Weizhong committed suicide by drinking a bottle of rat poison last night. And yesterday, he was the only one who touched the woman in the basement. For some reason, I Suddenly I felt very scared, so I hurriedly left them and ran back home. I never dared to go to the dark house again. Zhang Hongjun came to my house. He is also a Red Guard. He went to the basement with us yesterday. He said he was very scared and couldn’t sleep because of nightmares at night, so he came to see me. He told me one thing: Last night, he He and Liu Weizhong went to the dark house secretly. They found that the gatekeeper had escaped and the door was open, so they went in and went down to the basement. Zhang Hongjun said that he went to the basement just to touch the woman, because Liu Weizhong said that This feeling is very comfortable, he went there at the instigation of Liu Weizhong, he said that in the basement, they touched the woman's body."

"Just touching?" Ye Xiao suddenly interrupted him.

"I know what you're thinking of. Young people nowadays like to think wildly. Back then we were very innocent, and it was already considered treasonous to touch a woman."

"I'm sorry, please continue."

"That night, Zhang Hongjun said that he did not expect Liu Weizhong to commit suicide, and there was no sign at all. I asked him who else had told this matter, and he refused to tell me at first, but he told me later that in the afternoon, he had already told me about this incident. I told the Red Guards who went to the basement. People at that time went to bed very early, but it was too late, and Zhang Hongjun was driven away by my father. The next day, I still didn’t go to the black house, because I didn’t know where the house was. Deep fear arose, and I went to school. There was no one on the campus in the early morning. I walked around the playground to get some fresh air. However, I found Zhang Hongjun on the playground. Yes, right here, right now The place where we were standing. He was lying at our feet, foaming at the mouth, holding a bottle of pesticide in his hand." Teacher Yu lowered his head in pain, looking at the weedy ground, "At that time The autopsy report said that he committed suicide by drinking pesticide at about 3 o'clock in the morning that day. Maybe I will never understand the reason why he and Liu Weizhong committed suicide."

There was a sudden cold feeling under my feet, and I stepped back hastily. Unexpectedly, in 1966, people died in the area under my shoes.

"Then what about the others?" Ye Xiao continued to ask.

"I don't know anything about them in the future. After Zhang Hongjun died, I never participated in any activities of the Red Guards. Not long after, I left Shanghai and went to the mountains and countryside in Yunnan. After smashing the Gang of Four and resuming the college entrance examination, I was admitted to university, became a teacher after graduation, and was assigned to teach at my alma mater, until now."

"are these all?"

"That's all I know. For so many years, every time I want to pass by a black house, I always take a detour and try not to see it. It is a nightmare. I have been living in this shadow." From him From the pained facial expression, I could tell he wasn't lying.

"Thanks. Can you tell me the names of other people who were in the basement at that time."

"Fortunately, I always remember them." He took out a pen and paper, wrote down a dozen names, and handed the paper to Ye Xiao.

"Very good, thank you for your cooperation, goodbye."

Just as we were about to leave, Teacher Yu suddenly stopped us: "I'm sorry, I want to know, have you ever been to that basement?"

"I've been there."

"Is that woman still there? It should have become a pile of dead bones." Teacher Yu said.

"No, she is no longer here, but she will not become a dry bone, she will always be her." I replied.

I could see the horror in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)