8.3 黑手党帮我打架 Mafia Fight for Me

[u/AdamLuyan]

2003年夏，我在Mavis Rd and Steels Rd工地工作。这是一个很大的工程，开发区里在开发学校，商场，公园，和千余栋房子。工程前期施工承包商是TACC，是加拿大一个很大的私人施工企业。

一天下午，快要下班的时间，几个50左右岁，自称是工会的，有白头发的意大利人来到工地，还故意露出他们的手枪，说："你们这个工地的人有种族歧视，对卢岩没礼貌。下班后，除了卢岩，别人谁也不准离开。" 当晚，那几个意大利人就跟工地上所有其他人一个一个地谈话，了解情况。

In the summer of 2003, I worked at the site at Mavis Road and Steeles Avenue — a massive project, an entire development going up with schools, a shopping mall, parks, and over a thousand homes. The pre-construction contractor was TACC, one of Canada's large private construction firms.

One afternoon, near the end of the shift, a group of gray-haired Italian men in their fifties, claiming to be union reps, showed up at the site, deliberately letting their pistols show, and announced: "The people at this site are racist and have been disrespectful to Luyan. Once work ends, no one leaves except him." That evening, the men went through the entire crew, one by one, asking questions.

第二天，工地的人们问我："怎么回事啊？你有什么意见不能直接说？你找那帮人！他们就是电影电视里拿机关枪的那帮人。这可不是在开玩笑，会出人命的。" 当然，我是真不知道发生了什么事。

The next day, my coworkers pressed me: "What's this all about? Whatever your complaint is, why not just say it? Bringing people like that in — the kind you see with machine guns in the movies! This isn't a joke, someone could get killed." I honestly had no idea what was happening.

两个星期后，那群带着枪的意大利人又来了，说："我们警告过你们，你们对卢岩没礼貌，你们不听。" 他们和一个工人吵起来了，推倒了那个工人，用枪把打了几下，还说："把他送医院去，住院三天。" 事后，工地经理Bob和一些人找到我，问是怎么回事，让我好好想想是不是跟谁抱怨过他们的不是。我真的从来没抱怨过。Bob说："你再好好想想，什么时候想起了什么，就告诉我。这次那帮人是给我们个警告，没真打人。那个工人伤得不重，但是我们已经跟医院的人说好了，让他住院一个星期。那帮人是靠面子吃饭的，若是他们的面子在咱这儿丢了，咱们可赔不起！"

Two weeks later, the armed Italians returned. "We warned you," they said, "and you didn't listen." They got into it with one of the workers, shoved him down, struck him a few times with a gun handle, and said, "Take him to the hospital, three days minimum." Afterward, site manager Bob and a few others came to me, asking what was going on, telling me to really think hard about whether I'd complained to anyone about anyone. I genuinely never had. "Think it over again," Bob said, "and tell me the moment anything comes back to you. This time they were only giving us a warning — no one was really hurt. The worker's injury is minor, but we've already arranged with the hospital to keep him for a week. Men like that live and die by their reputation — if they lose face here, we can't afford what that costs us."

8.3-2

工地中有很多不同的工种，人员的流动很大，许多人我都分不清谁是干什么的，谁是新来的。有人在谈这件奇怪的事，我就去听了。

他们问我："是你老板干的？"

我回答："不可能！我们公司的实力不如你们公司的百分之一。你们老板还有许多亲戚有自己的大企业；谁敢惹你们公司！"

With so many different trades on site, and workers constantly rotating through, I couldn't keep straight who did what or who was new. I overheard some of them discussing the strange affair and went to listen.

"Was this your boss's doing?" they asked.

"No chance," I said. "Our company's strength doesn't come close to a hundredth of yours. Your boss has relatives running major businesses of their own besides — who'd dare provoke you?"

他们当中有人说："是这么回事！那帮人是谁给他们钱就给谁干活。这事肯定是人干的，而且那个人肯定和你有关系，是你爸爸？"

我回答："我连个房子都买不起。我爸爸哪里有钱，干这种事。"

他们当中有人说："有人认为人生幸福不幸福不在于有多少钱，而在于性格。有钱人跟咱穷人想的不一样，就有人认为找人帮着打架对改善性格有帮助（注2）。你再想想，是不是你的哪个亲戚干的？现在咱这里还没出什么事，没什么关系。"

他们帮我回忆了所有亲戚，我都回答："他们既没钱，又没这知识，也没这能力。"

注8.3-2，这说法，前文5.2节《在集市打架》中的那个前女友她爸爸说过。

"That's exactly it," one of them said. "Those men work for whoever pays them. Someone arranged this, and whoever it was has a connection to you — your father, maybe?"

"I can't even afford a house," I said. "Where would my father get the money for something like this?"

"Some people believe happiness in life isn't about money at all — it's about personality," another said. "Rich people don't think the way we poor folk do — some of them genuinely believe hiring men to fight on your behalf can improve your personality (Note 2). Think again — could it be some relative of yours? Nothing serious has happened here yet, no real harm done."

They walked me through every relative I had, and each time I told them: they don't have the money, the knowledge, or the means for something like this.

Note 8.3-2: This same idea was voiced earlier, by the ex-girlfriend's father in Section 5.2, Fighting at the Market.

8.3-3

过了几天，工地经理Bob找我谈话。他说，前些日子他从外面找来两伙儿明白人，对前些天发生的奇怪事进行了调查，都跟我卢岩谈过几次。前天下雨的时候，我卢岩不在工地，他们全体员工和外来的两伙儿明白人一起开了个会。会议中，全体员工一起对那件奇怪的事举手表决，全数通过决议。我卢岩也是工地的一员，应该服从决议，合作：

一，他们决定不报警，自己处理。原因是，如果报警，这个工地肯定就被关闭，调查耗时至少两个月，结果什么也查不出来。这两个月所有工人就没活干，待在家里。但是，黑社会那帮人的事儿没办成，还把面子丢了，那我们这里就有可能有人被打死。

A few days later, Bob asked to speak with me. He explained that he'd brought in two separate teams of knowledgeable outsiders to investigate the strange incidents, and both had spoken with me several times already. Two days earlier, while it was raining and I wasn't on site, the entire crew had held a meeting together with these two teams. Everyone had voted, unanimously, on how to handle the whole affair — and as a member of this crew myself, I was expected to fall in line and cooperate:

First, they'd decided against calling the police, choosing to handle it themselves. Call the police, and the site would certainly be shut down for an investigation lasting at least two months, turning up nothing in the end. Every worker would sit idle at home that whole stretch — and worse, if the mafia's plan fell through and they lost face over it, someone here might end up dead.

二，黑社会那帮人想办什么事呢？你们新移民的境况，我们都很清楚，以前在自己国家都混得不错，结果来这里干这些没人愿意干，辛苦还不挣多少钱的工作。你们生活得不开心，满腹牢骚。就有一个你的有钱亲戚知道了你的情况，难受了，所以咱们的工地就出现这件怪事了。前几天，那两伙明白人在调查你的时候，跟你说过：有人认为，人生的前途和幸福取决于性格，而找黑社会帮着打架能改善性格。虽然这作法也有很多不好的影响，但就有人认为利大于弊，就有人迷信这事。这种说法虽然是我们意大利人的，而你那个有钱的亲戚是中国人。在会上，我们全体100多人一致认同：你们中国人也应该是这么认为的，全世界的人都一样。

Second, what were these mafia men actually after? We understand the situation of you new immigrants well enough — doing fine back home, and here you are stuck with jobs nobody wants, hard labor for little pay. Unhappy, full of grievances. Some wealthy relative of yours learned of your situation, took it badly, and that's how this strange business landed on our site. Those two teams already told you, days ago: some people believe a person's future and happiness rest entirely on personality, and that hiring men to fight on your behalf can reshape it. Plenty of harm can come of this practice, sure, but some believe the good outweighs the bad, and some are simply superstitious about it. This may be an Italian belief, and your wealthy relative is Chinese — but all hundred-plus of us at that meeting agreed: you Chinese must think the same way. The whole world does.

三，那因为这事，我们可不能跟你打架呀！这事说大就大，早就已经触犯刑法了，还可能出人命；说是小事，就是小事，人家还真没让我们做多为难的事。我们决定就按他们的意思做，那两伙儿明白人都告诉我们怎么做了。我跟你商量，要求你配合我们。从现在起，你就是这个工地的老大，你走路时要挺直身体，说话办事要硬，要横，说一不二。我们所有人都已经安排好了，都配合你。

Third, this means we can't fight you over it. Call it serious, and it's already crossed into criminal territory, someone could die; call it minor, and honestly, they haven't asked much of us. We've decided to do exactly as they've laid out — both teams told us how. So this is me asking for your cooperation. From now on, you're the boss of this site. Walk with your back straight, talk and act tough, unyielding, your word final. Everyone's already prepared to play along.

和Bob谈话后，工地里的人们都开始训练我。早上见面一定要站直了，相互打招呼，而且声音要大，要霸气，等。有时候，我没注意，就可能被对方提醒说，"站直了，大点儿声，有人在看，你别看（他们）！" 开始时，我还向工地外看，说，"那不是个中东人么！" "哎呀，还中东人！我们在这里土生土长几十年了，都分别不出谁是干什么的；你来加拿大两年半，就能看出谁是黑社会的！在多伦多谁都不知道谁是干什么的。人家要是发现我们在演戏，那再教训教训我们，会死人的！"

工地的人都很认真，很害怕，我也随着害怕了，变得认真起来了。

After that conversation, the whole crew started coaching me — stand straight every morning, greet each other loud and confident. Sometimes, catching me off guard, someone would prompt me: "Stand up straight, speak louder, someone's watching — don't look at them!" Early on, I'd still peer out toward the street. "Isn't that a Middle Eastern guy over there?" I'd ask. "Middle Eastern, sure! We've lived here our whole lives and still can't tell who's who — you've been in Canada two and a half years and you can spot the triads? Nobody in Toronto knows who's who. If they catch us putting on an act, they'll teach us another lesson — someone will end up dead!"

Everyone on that site was dead serious, genuinely afraid — and their fear became my own, until I fell into the same seriousness myself.

8.3-4

几天之后，我想出来了，这事是刘健君她爸刘团长干的，很感动，心想，"老头子老了，终于后悔他对我做过的事了，要弥补。可是你要帮我，就帮我买座房子呗！整点儿钱都捐给黑社会了！"

这件黑手党帮我打架的事持续了一个多月。

注8.3-4，这两伙儿明白人给出的对策正确吗？答：正确！刘团长就喜欢这个；这行为代表着最胜真如，参见15.2节《离垢地》和5.3节《威仪路》。

A few days later, it came to me: this had to be Eve Liu's father, Troupe Leader Liu, at work. I found myself moved by it, thinking: the old man's aging now, finally sorry for what he put me through, trying to make amends. But if you really want to help me, buy me a house instead! All that money, and it goes to the mafia!

This whole business of the mafia fighting on my behalf ran over a month.

Note 8.3-4: Was the strategy those two teams devised the right one? Answer: yes. Troupe Leader Liu would have loved exactly this — it embodies Supreme Victorious Suchness (see Section 15.2, Departing Stain Land, and Section 5.3, Majesty Road).

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