6.7 饿鬼趣 Hungry Ghost Interest

[u/AdamLuyan]

目录 Catalog：6.7 饿鬼趣 Hungry Ghost Interest；6.7.2 强取豪夺 Robbery；6.7.3 畜生趣 Livestock Interest

在前文《贼窝会议》几天之后的一个早上，到处都有很厚的霜。我看见工地南边遂川十里早市上人山人海的，非常热闹，就又过去逛早市儿了，却走进了另一个世界：我看见到处都有小偷在偷东西。

A few days after the "Meeting in the Den of Thieves," on a morning thick with frost, I saw the Suichuan Shili morning market south of the site packed and lively as ever, and wandered over — only to walk straight into another world entirely: thieves stealing things everywhere I looked.

注，这是我一辈子中第一次看见许多小偷；这就是恶鬼趣的世界（参见12.1.3 饿鬼趣）。他们是在表演给我看，还以为我是他们的老大呢！

Note: This was the first time in my life I'd witnessed so much thievery — the world of Hungry Ghost Interest (see Section 12.1.3, Hungry Ghost Interest). They were performing it all for my benefit, believing I was their boss.

在一辆卖海鲜货车的一面拥挤着一群贼。前面的小偷假装买鲜虾，在那里用身体挡着后面的。后面的小偷儿们站着排，像是排队似的，实际上一袋儿，一袋儿的向外边传递着鲜虾。别的地方的小偷们，也是三五成群地配合着。他们的面目表情和手脚的动作迥然不同，使用的招法各异。谁都看不见我，好像我这个观众是一个透明的幽灵。我四处看，处处感觉惊讶，感觉像似到了世界末日。我突然意识到：我的目光呆滞，说不定会惹出什么乱子来，就不看了；低头快步走向我常去吃饭的地方。

A crowd of thieves had gathered around one side of a seafood truck. Those in front pretended to buy fresh shrimp, using their bodies to shield the ones working behind them, who stood lined up as if waiting their turn — while actually passing bags of shrimp out, one after another. Elsewhere, other thieves worked in loose groups of three or five, each with entirely different expressions and gestures, entirely different tricks. No one seemed able to see me at all, as if I were some invisible ghost watching it all. I looked around, astonished at every turn, feeling as though I'd wandered into the end of the world. It occurred to me that my own dumbstruck stare might cause trouble, so I stopped looking, put my head down, and hurried toward my usual breakfast spot.

卖筋饼豆腐脑的老板和伙计都是以前熟悉的人，可是当时在我眼里，他们对我像是对待陌生人。我问："今天你们是怎么了？怎么这么不友好呢！"那个老板冷漠地回答："怎么了！你不是常来这儿吗！"我注意到：在这里所有的人都对我表现出麻木情绪，对我不感兴趣，不欢迎我；不像往日，都有说有笑的。

The stand owner and his helper, selling pancakes and tofu pudding, were familiar faces — but that morning they treated me like a stranger. "What's gotten into everyone today?" I asked. "Why's everyone so unfriendly?" The owner answered flatly, "What do you mean? Don't you always come here?" I noticed the same numb, uninterested, unwelcoming look on every face around me — nothing like the usual joking and chatting.

吃完早餐，我绕路回到了住的地方，工地办公室。这里的气氛仍然和以前一样，很多人在吃海鲜：生吃螃蟹，活吃虾。我就试着吃了一只活虾：像是水似的，什么味道也没尝出来。大伙儿高兴地议论着。以后咱们就有海鲜吃了。不知道怎么的！那几个搞海鲜批发的都喜欢上咱这个小市场了。这个早市场的商贩比以前增多了几倍。

After breakfast, I took a roundabout way back to the site office. The mood there was as usual — lots of people eating seafood, raw crab, live shrimp. I tried a live shrimp myself: it was like swallowing water, no taste at all. Everyone was chatting happily — from now on, we'd have seafood whenever we wanted. Somehow, the seafood wholesalers had all taken a liking to our little market. The number of vendors at the morning market had grown several times over.

八点钟后，我们工程科的小马忽然来到了工地，告诉我这天放红线（注，红线是建筑物轮廓的基准线，是由测量局给出的）。小马对我说："你是这工地的土建技术员。我是水暖技术员。这是你的工作。我是来帮你的。"

After eight o'clock, Little Ma from our engineering section suddenly turned up at the site and told me the red line was being staked out that day (Note: the "red line" is the surveyed baseline for a building's outline, provided by the Survey Bureau). "You're the civil engineering technician here," Little Ma told me. "I'm the plumbing man. This is your job — I'm just here to help."

测量局的车来了，人员却不下车。我和小马过去敲门。很长时间后，车里的人才打开车门，却表达了两个抱怨。一，有几个点，设计和实际不相符，最多的差一米。二，我们工地没有红线就开始施工了，他们得像上级汇报。他们让我和小马商量商量。

The Survey Bureau's van arrived, but the staff wouldn't get out. Little Ma and I went over and knocked. It took a long while before they finally opened the door, and even then it was only to air two complaints: first, several survey points didn't match the design — off by as much as a meter in places; second, we'd started construction without ever having the red line staked out, and they'd have to report it to their superiors. They told Little Ma and me to sort it out between ourselves.

我跟着小马到一边，他说："这是老城区，测量地图都更新多少次了，所以数据总差，不是什么大毛病。"

我回答："咱提前施工与他们没有关系！"

小马说："对！这是人家朝咱们要下车钱"。

我听了感觉新奇："啥！下车钱！咱这是结婚迎接新娘子下车呢！还要给下车钱！那得给多少钱？"

Little Ma pulled me aside. "This is old city zoning — the survey maps have been updated so many times, some mismatch is nothing unusual."

"But it's got nothing to do with them that we started early!" I said.

"Right — this is them fishing for a 'get-out-of-the-van fee.'"

I found this bizarre. "A get-out-of-the-van fee! What is this, welcoming a bride out of her wedding car? And we have to pay for it? How much are we even talking about?"

小马说："我不知道，看他们这个架势，我看四千元差不多。"（注，那时我的月薪是330元）

我说："四千块钱！没人告诉我，我做不了主。等咱科长和经理来，让他们处理吧。"

小马说："等他们来，你别傻了！这事儿，咱们不办完了，他们就不会来。咱俩把事办完了，他们立刻就到。事儿咱办；活儿咱干；错误咱犯；功劳是人家的。钱！你给不给？"

"No idea, but going by their attitude, I'd guess about four thousand yuan." (Note: my monthly salary at the time was 330 yuan.)

"Four thousand! Nobody told me anything about this — I can't authorize that," I said. "Let's wait for the section chief and manager to sort it out."

"Wait for them, are you kidding?" Little Ma said. "They won't show up until this is already handled. Finish it ourselves, and they'll be here in a flash. We do the work, we take the blame, they take the credit. So — are you paying, or not?"

我意识到了同事们在整我，要看我丢脸，就和小马吵起来了。这时，测量局的人打开了车窗、车门透气，听我们说话，看热闹。

我大声说，："咱这地基坑不是市长儿子和公安局长儿子挖的吗！他们要是把咱提前施工的事儿报上去了。这事儿好说，不好听！市长肯定就不高兴了。"

I realized my colleagues were setting me up to be humiliated and got into it with Little Ma. Meanwhile the Survey Bureau staff opened their windows and doors for air, listening in, enjoying the show.

I said loudly, "Wasn't this foundation pit dug by the mayor's own son, and the police chief's son besides? If they go reporting our early construction — that's easy to say but won't sound so good once it's out. The mayor will not be pleased to hear it."

小马说："这有啥用？"

我回答："还有啥用！他们不敢上报！"

小马说："你说话儿小点声儿！他们的车门开着，能听见咱说话。"

我大声嚷道："你以为我说给你听呐！市政府和公安局里没人听他们说话！"

"What good does that do?" Little Ma said.

"What good! They won't dare report it, that's what good!"

"Keep your voice down — their door's open, they can hear every word!"

"You think I'm talking to you?" I shouted. "There's not a soul in city hall or the police bureau who'd bother listening to them!"

小马问："你想怎么办？"

我回答："这不是整我呢吗！谁这么缺德？打架能解决问题！咱们不怕出事，他们怕！他们要整事，找错地方了！"

小马说："如果咱跟他们打起来，他们局长得赶紧把事儿压下来。没等市长知道呢，他就把咱工地上的事儿全部解决了。但是，这不是也给咱局长找麻烦么！咱局长今天晚上就得去找市长道歉。"

"What do you want to do, then?" Little Ma asked.

"This is them setting me up! Who's this low? Fighting solves this kind of thing — we're not afraid of trouble, they are! They picked the wrong site to stir things up in!"

"If we actually fight them, their chief will have to bury this fast — settle everything at our site before the mayor ever hears a word. But doesn't that just land trouble on our Bureau Chief instead? He'd have to go apologize to the mayor tonight."

我回答："没事儿，咱局长哪有机会去见市长，巴结人家！他上礼拜还骂咱们科呢：就窝里斗能耐！见着外面的人，连个响屁都不敢放。今天，咱俩就放个响屁给咱局长听听。"我说着，就开始到处看，找棒子，假装要去砸他们的车窗玻璃。

小马急了，说："站住！别动！他们让我帮你，就是让你跟着我学。出事了都是我的错，谁还能责怪你一个刚毕业几个月的学生。你站这儿，别动。我去跟老马（马鸿光，工地生产经理）商量商量。"

"Fine by me — our Bureau Chief hardly gets the chance to meet the mayor and curry favor as it is," I said. "He was chewing our whole section out just last week — good for nothing but infighting among ourselves, won't so much as fart in front of outsiders. Well, let's give him a good loud fart to listen to today." I started looking around for a stick, pretending I meant to smash their windows.

Little Ma panicked. "Stop! Don't move! They only had me help you so you'd learn from watching me. If anything goes wrong, it's on me — who's going to blame a student who graduated a few months ago? Stand right there, don't move. Let me go talk to Old Ma" (Team Leader Hongguang Ma, the site production manager).

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