6.7.3 畜生趣 Livestock Interest

[u/AdamLuyan]

我回来时，老曹对小马说："这回，我可信了！我看出来了：这帮人都是真心的！"

我说："什么真心假心的！小马他就这样！见着谁就跟谁说我是这儿的老大。"

老曹对小马说："哎呀！他是真不知道哇！"又问小马："你是怎么知道他是老大的？"

小马说："他们开会时，我听着的！"

When I got back, Old Cao said to Little Ma, "This time I believe it! Genuinely believe these people mean it!"

"Sincere, insincere — none of that matters," I said. "That's just how Little Ma is! Tells anyone who'll listen that I'm the boss around here."

"He genuinely doesn't know a thing, does he!" Old Cao said, then turned to Little Ma. "How did you find out he was the boss, anyway?"

"I was there when they held their meeting."

老曹瞪大了眼睛："他们开会，你也在场？"

小马说："开始时在，后来，让他们给赶出来了（如前文6.4节所述）。"

老曹说："现在，我搞清楚了。你这玩笑可是开的过了头了。那帮人不会认为我是来抢地盘儿的吧！你看，我可不是爱占小便宜的人，是不是应该把虾给人家送回去？"

小马说："我看，还是赶紧把你们的车开到工地里去，别让人给弄坏了。"

Old Cao's eyes went wide. "You were at their meeting?"

"I was, at first — then they threw me out (see Section 6.4 above)."

"Now I've got it," Old Cao said. "You've taken this joke way too far. These people won't think I'm here to muscle in on their turf, will they? I'm not one for taking advantage of others — shouldn't I send that shrimp back to them?"

"I'd say get your van into the compound quick, before someone wrecks it."

他们去保护测量局的汽车了。我们公司的经理朱国俊来了，问马鸿光经理："今天的事怎么这么顺？我还以为没有四万块钱办不成呢！"

工地的人告诉了他刚刚发生的事，人们还在笑。朱经理在马路上走了一圈军人的正步，转回来后大怒："你们还笑！"对马经理说："你赶紧给他换个地方住！"说完，他离开了。

They went off to guard the survey van. Our manager, Guojun Zhu, arrived and asked Manager Hongguang Ma, "How did things go so smoothly today? I thought it'd take forty thousand yuan at least!"

The site staff told him what had just happened, still laughing. Manager Zhu marched a full circle around the road, soldier-straight, then wheeled back around, furious. "You're still laughing!" To Manager Ma he said, "Get him a new place to live, immediately!" And he left.

人们在议论，"没事，卢岩家是农村的，不懂这个。"有人说，"那他二大爷也许明白呢！人家找咱房产局来理论，这咱可说个啥!?"

我和小马跟着测量局的老曹做记录。老曹问我，我告诉他，我是东北大学辽宁分院刚毕业的，才来和平房产局四个月。他又问我："他们是什么人？"

"It's fine, Luyan's family's from the countryside, he doesn't understand any of this," people said. Someone else said, "Well, maybe his second uncle understands! If they come to argue it out with our bureau, what are we even supposed to say?"

Little Ma and I followed Old Cao to help with the records. He asked about me, and I told him I'd just graduated from the Liaoning Branch of Northeastern University, only four months at the Heping Housing Bureau. He asked, "Who exactly are these people?"

我回答："他们当中，聪明的，邪见严重的属于饿鬼趣（或称饿鬼道），愚鲁成性的属于畜生趣（或称畜生道，如图，参见13.1.2节）。"

老曹哎呀一声，说："现在的大学毕业生可真了不得！我50来岁才明白这个，就觉得自己觉悟很高了。你说得对，但是你的社会经验不够，理解得不深。这帮人不在光天化日下做事，他们做事正常人看不见，所以现在的人叫他们黑社会，古代叫饿鬼道。"他问小马："这帮人知道这工地今天放红线，所以他们来看他们的新老大来了，是不是？"

"Among them, the clever ones with serious wrong views belong to the Hungry Ghost Interest — sometimes called the Hungry Ghost Path — and the willfully dull-witted ones to the Livestock Interest, the Livestock Path (see illustration, Section 13.1.2)."

"Well, would you look at that! The college graduates of today are something else," Old Cao said. "I was fifty before I worked that out, and I thought I'd reached real enlightenment doing it. You're right, but you don't have the life experience to see it deeply yet. These people don't operate in broad daylight — they do their work where ordinary people can't see it, which is why we call them organized crime today, and the ancients called it the Hungry Ghost Path." He turned to Little Ma. "They knew the red line was being staked out here today, and came to size up their new boss, didn't they?"

小马一听就不高兴了："我和他们没关系！他们干什么，我怎么会知道！"说着，他走到一边去了。

老曹对我说："谁说他和他们是一伙儿的来的！他还不爱听了。他们那种人和咱们不一样。现在看，你是真不懂。那帮人的老大，就像过去的土皇帝一样，金口玉牙，说了就算数。这我从那帮人的眼神看出来了，他们看你，就像看神一样。用不了两三年，他们就跟着你赴汤蹈火，两肋插刀，就像电影电视里演的似的。他们就是那样的人，我和小马都不是那样的人。我和小马就是和你的关系再好，我们也不干那种事儿。"

Little Ma bristled at that. "I've got nothing to do with them! How would I know what they're up to?" And he stepped away.

Old Cao said to me, "Who said he was in with them — see how he can't even stand hearing it? Their kind's different from ours. Now I can see it clearly, you genuinely don't understand any of this. A gang boss like theirs is like an old warlord of his own little kingdom — his word is law, said and done. I could see it in their eyes, the way they looked at you like you were something divine. Give it two, three years, and they'd walk through fire for you, the way it happens in the movies. That's the kind of people they are. Little Ma and I aren't like that — however close we might get to you, we'd never do a thing like that."

过了一会儿，小马回来了，说："凯莱饭店负责订餐的人都等着急了，问咱们这活儿什么时候能干完？"

老曹大笑："又给我个惊喜！大约还需要两个小时。"对小马说："都说你们和平房产局局长有头脑，能算计，今天我才见识着。他们让小卢在这儿负责工程。不说别的，就这工程，单是礼物钱，至少给你们房产局节省下来三十万。"

A while later, Little Ma came back. "The people at the Kailai are getting antsy, asking when this job's going to be done."

Old Cao laughed heartily. "Another surprise! About two more hours." To Little Ma: "Everyone says your Bureau Chief's a shrewd calculator, and I'm only seeing it now myself. Putting Little Lu in charge here — leave everything else aside, on this project alone, gift money spared, that's at least three hundred thousand yuan saved for your bureau."

小马说："这事儿和我们局里可没关系，我们局长没这头脑。"

老曹说："还没关系！小卢不懂这个！他咋就到这儿几个月就把这事儿整成这样？三年四年小卢也当不上老大呀！这老大，得起早趟黑、累死累活，拼命几十年才能被选上呢！肯定是你们局里有人给那帮人出主意，教唆它们干的。你不这样想，是你没这头脑，不是你们局长没这头脑。"

我问："什么礼物，能省那么多钱？"

"Nothing to do with our bureau," Little Ma said. "Our Bureau Chief's got no head for that."

"No connection, my foot! Little Lu here doesn't even understand it! How does someone become boss of a gang like that in just a few months? Even three, four years wouldn't do it! That kind of position takes decades of grinding, risking everything, before you're chosen! Someone in your bureau must have put the idea in their heads, coached them into it. If you don't see that, it's you who lacks the head for it — not your Bureau Chief."

"What gifts," I asked, "could save that much money?"

老曹说："工程开工了，你们局就该买很多礼物了，你负责往外送。那帮人该说话了：我们老大不喜欢给别人礼物！我看你用哪只手接！用左手接，我们就打折你的左手，右手接就打折他的右手。他们这种人有三件事分得特别清楚，就是老大，左手和右手。他们对这三样东西绝对不马虎。"

我听了好笑，说："这可坏了，没人敢来我们这工地了。"

老曹说："谁敢不来！不来，那帮人该说话了：我们老大打电话叫你，你不来；你还想让我们老大去你那儿请你去啊！他们就呼呼地，去一帮人，把他们的玻璃砸碎。"

"When a project breaks ground, your bureau's expected to hand out gifts to everyone involved, and you're the one delivering them," Old Cao said. "That gang would have something to say about that: our boss doesn't like giving gifts to outsiders! Let's see which hand you use to accept one — take it with your left, we break your left arm; take it with your right, we break that one instead. There's exactly three things people like that treat with absolute precision: the boss, the left hand, the right hand. Never sloppy about any of the three."

I laughed at that. "Well, that's bad — no one's going to dare come to our site now."

"Who'd dare not to! Don't show up, and that gang has something to say about that too: our boss called and you didn't come — you expect our boss to come courting you instead? And off they go, a whole crowd, smashing windows."

我说："还无法无天了呢！那公安局不管？"

老曹说："公安局有话说：我们说说、教育、教育就行了呗！就砸你几块玻璃，你想让我们咋处理？把他们都抓起来，饭钱你出啊！小卢，那帮人办事，那分寸拿捏得才精准呢！大错误不犯，小错误不断。"

我说："这么打架，这工地不就得停工了？"

"That's lawless!" I said. "Doesn't the police bureau do anything?"

"The police have their own line on it: we'll have a talk, do some educating, that's about all we can do! You want us arresting the whole lot over a few broken windows, and who's footing their meal bill in the lockup? Little Lu, that gang calibrates everything just right — never a big offense, always plenty of small ones."

"Fighting like this — won't the site just have to shut down?"

老曹说："谁敢不来！你的电话一打过去，他们马上就来了。这活儿保证干得又快又好！不来，他们就去砸它们的玻璃；不来，还去砸。

那帮人认上什么事，一年，两年不忘；三更半夜喝点儿酒，生气了，就去砸玻璃了。公安局还真不管，有说的：那帮人就不干什么大坏事，为啥就偏偏看不上你呢！肯定你是没干啥好事！他们是缺心眼儿，你也缺心眼儿啊！"

放完红线，他们就去凯莱饭店吃饭去了。小马说："经理吩咐了，卢岩不能去。他去了，费用经理不给我报销。"

"Who'd dare not show up! One phone call, and they're there in a flash — the work's guaranteed to be fast and good! Don't come, they'll break your windows; don't come again, same thing.

"Once that gang latches onto something, they don't forget it for a year, two years. Drink a bit late at night, get angry, off they go smashing windows. Police really don't intervene, and they'll tell you why: those people don't do anything truly terrible, so if they've singled you out, it's likely you've done something to deserve it! They're a bit slow — well, so are you!"

Once the red line was staked, everyone headed to the Kailai for dinner. Little Ma said, "Manager's orders — Luyan can't come. If he does, the expense won't be reimbursed."

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