In the provincial key psychiatric hospital where I work, there are more than 700 patients in the inpatient department all year round, mostly men, and most of them smoke, drink and drink tea. However, for the sake of disease control and safety, alcohol, strong tea, coffee, cigarettes and other items that have a stimulating effect on the nerves are absolutely forbidden to enter the ward during the hospitalization of psychiatric patients.
But there is always a leak, and repeatedly prohibited. The bottle of wine and tea cans target large, strong smell, can not hide, but the cigarette is small, with a hand to cover, no one can see. Some of the family members who came to visit, could not resist the patient’s plea, always secretly stuff a packet and a half packets.
There are many wolves and few meat, and patients who have cigarettes in their hands are like “people in charge” and have great authority among the patients. They can use the good industrial therapy equipment first, and they can get in line for meals first. Even heard from the nurses in the ward that some “old smokers” who did not have cigarettes were folding the quilts and washing clothes for the “person in charge” in order to ask for a cigarette.
Among them, there are two old smokers, Lao Yuan and Lao Zheng, even started gambling on cigarettes for money. My colleague, Lao Wu, was even bent on covering them up ……
1
One morning in early spring 2018, the director crossed his arms, glared at Lao Wu and loudly reprimanded.
“Wu Gang, I will only emphasize once ah, no smoking in the rehabilitation hall!”
He slipped back into the rehabilitation hall and shrunk the window to a crack – to avoid being seen – thinking that it would be time for the patients to return to their wards after smoking one.
Unexpectedly, the director suddenly came to check on him today, and Lao Wu was caught in the act.
“Never again! Director, must not make an exception!” Hearing the director’s voice, Lao Wu “whoosh” scampered up, shivered and poked out the cigarette, shaking his body to apologize. Old Wu is not young, attitude and so “in place”, the director of a breath was disliked in the halfway, the Prime finger across the air fiercely point, a face of indignation turned to go out.
In a side “pretend to be busy” I, stifling laughter almost can not stop. Old Wu gave me a hard white glance, peeked out to see, to confirm that the director has gone, reassured to pick up just poked out half of the cigarette, and ready to light.
“Commander Wu?”
“Hey!”
Two heads suddenly emerged from the window, scaring Lao Wu hurriedly hid the cigarette behind his back, a face of panic. When he came back to his senses, he fixed his eyes: it was Lao Yuan and Lao Zheng – two long-term hospitalized patients – looking out the window at him, full of winks.
“Puff!” Lao Wu frowned down and cursed secretly, raised his head and said without good grace, “What for?”
“Hey …… old Zheng head, you go say.” Lao Yuan laughed awkwardly twice and pushed Lao Zheng.
“Here to harass Commander Wu again.” Old Zheng bowed his head and waist, full of pleasing face, pointing to Old Wu’s hand that hid smoke behind his back, “This betting booker well, hehehe ……”
“Oh!” The old Wu look secretly relaxed some, pretending to suddenly understand the situation, teasing taste is quite strong, “smoke na?”
Old Yuan and Old Zheng smiled more flattering, like two squinting white peach-faced foxes. The old Wu from the cigarette case shake out two cigarettes, like a gesture to look around, handed to the hand of old Yuan, handed halfway, and suddenly the hand back to a clutch, looking at him, a serious look: “Mm-hmm?”
“Absolutely confidential!” Old Yuan “understand” pounded his head, a sworn statement look, the old Wu then opened his palm. The two of them pretended to walk away as if nothing had happened.
To give the patient smoke, this is absolutely not in line with the rules, let alone talk about what “gambling capital”, listen to their conversation, 80% is not good.
“This is not right, ah.” I quietly approached Lao Wu, “Which staff gave the patient cigarettes?”
“What’s so important about the root handle?” Old Wu gripped a cigarette, quite unimpressed, “two old smoking gun, the ward and do not allow smoking, you let them where they can not hold? And not every day to give.”
“Oh no!” I lowly exclaimed, “so, not once or twice, ah, and said what to take to do gambling book, Lao Wu, you can not ……”
“Eh! This is what they said ah.” Old Wu reached out and blocked, “I don’t know what gambling booker ha.”
The hospital had a nurse lent a pen to a psychiatric patient, the results were used by the patient to self-harm things, the family was too much, the nurse was fired. This matter or the old Wu told me personally. I said worriedly: “Lao Wu ah, do not remember that self-harm with a pen it? Are you ……”
“Hahaha …… cough cough!” Old Wu suddenly burst into laughter, a mouthful of smoke choked him straight cough. He could not easily catch his breath, patted my shoulder and said: “Don’t worry, kid, I’m here, what eggs have not seen. If you really want to know, you can go and see for yourself.”
He smiled at me after saying that, looking a bit mysterious.
Ho! Those two old boys must be something. Old U is hate I did not remind him that the director came, hanging my appetite to revenge.
2
The old nurses in the inpatient department said that foxes have foxes and mice have mice, and old Yuan and old Zheng are the “hospital spirits” of the inpatient department.
They have lived here for too long. The hospital has had other long-term inpatients, but the longest was only 2 years. But Yuan and Zheng have been here for 10 years, even longer than some staff members. I’ve only been on staff for a year or so, not to mention.
Old Yuan, 60 years old, a short, five big, thick, hair like steel needles messy tied in the top of the head, sick suit always do not like to tie the button, full of pleats belly, walking also like slightly hooked body, back hands slowly swaying forward, a big brother style. His left hand on the small arm, there is a tattoo, cross-shaped, it is not clear what pattern.
I once asked Lao Wu about this issue, he said, “probably a tattoo of a mushroom.”
Old Yuan likes to brag to his patients that he was a big official of a state-owned bank, with a very high rank and in charge of many people. He often has a cigarette in his hand, and I do not know where it came from, was confiscated by the nurses many times. Some “old smokers” in order to ask for a mouth to smoke, in his bragging time, always on the side of the tout.
Old Zheng was the one who blew the most. He is about the same age as old Yuan, tall and thin, wearing a pair of black metal glasses, hair neat and tidy, the sick suit suit. When talking to people, the old Zheng waist is always straight, from time to time to support the glasses, a senior intellectual look.
The first thing you need to do is to ask around and find out what’s going on in the banking system. If the crowd showed doubt or contempt, he said with certainty: “I worked under his hand, the tattoo on the hand of Mr. Yuan, but we went together to tattoo.”
The old Yuan’s flattery of the old Zheng is quite appreciated, when the cigarette, will give the old Zheng a whole, others can only give a “bite”. In the long run, old Yuan became the “prestige” of the highest “talker” in the compound, and old Zheng, is his most loyal “horse boy”.
In fact, patients sneaking around the compound smoking, the staff are aware of.
But they are too “cunning”, most of the places are chosen in the corner of the compound can not be watched, one by one in line to take turns to smoke, look out for each other, and so on staff patrol over, they scattered in a flurry. One time, the nurse pulled a patient, insisted on confiscating cigarettes, he saw that there is no escape, it is like a “righteousness” of the extinguished cigarette swallowed into the stomach, spread hands and said: “Where we have cigarettes, you can tell the evidence ah!
The nurse panicked, not daring to dwell on the cigarette, and hurriedly dragged him to the stomach pump.
These patients, most of whom are schizophrenic, are emotionally unstable and do not know when they will do something out of the ordinary because of any stimulus. For safety reasons, as long as they don’t make trouble, the hospital slowly turns a blind eye to the matter of smoking. The senior nurses said, “It’s not about drinking and being crazy, as long as they don’t smoke in a big way, so be it.”
3
The next day, it was time to “go to the compound” again.
I thought of yesterday’s conversation between Lao Wu and Lao Yuan and Lao Zheng, I was suspicious again, and after doing the work at hand, I took off my white coat and quietly mixed into the crowd with my head down.
I saw Lao Yuan and Zheng, quietly walked to the corner of the compound flowerbeds to sit down, “old smokers” pretending to walk, in twos and threes, slowly moved to their side around – this is to “swallow clouds and spit fog “. They all stared blankly at the crumpled cigarette case in Old Yuan’s hand, not noticing me at all.
Old Yuan sat in the pile, shaking the cigarette case to hook the crowd’s eyes, while Old Zheng carried a square box – a chess set – arrogantly looked around the crowd and said with disdain: “Who’s first? “
“Me first!” A young man sat down and took the chess box from Old Zheng, “I’ll play with you!”
I had a slight impression of this young man, a college student, surnamed Wen, who came to the hospital because of an emotional disorder. A few days ago, he won the first place in the chess competition organized by the compound, and he had two brushes.
He was anxiously unpacking the chess box and preparing to set up his position. Old Yuan reached out and stopped him: “What’s the hurry, how many sticks?”
“Four, all bets!” Xiao Wen snapped out a few crumpled cigarettes from his breast pocket and threw them on the board, “Let’s take the big one!”
Old Yuan looked at the cigarettes with a disgusted look on his face and said with a deflated mouth, “The old rules, surrender and lose half ah.”
“Okay, okay, okay, let’s start!” Xiao Wen nodded impatiently.
Old Zheng closed his eyes on the side and looked like he had a deep and confident mind – I could see that they were using chess to bet on cigarettes!
I didn’t expect that Old Zheng, who looked so calm and relaxed, was actually a chess basket, and was killed by Xiao Wen in a short while.
“General!” Xiao Wen ruthlessly pressed a rook, “There is no more play, lose!”
“Lost yo!”
“Checkout, next hand, next hand!”
The crowd of onlookers were cheerfully coaxing, and Old Zheng pulled down his glasses and stared at the handicap in disbelief.
Old Yuan gently nudged Old Zheng in the back, who looked at Old Yuan, shook his head and raised his eyebrows sharply a few times. Old Yuan’s eyes flashed for a moment, his jaw slightly, then he jerked up, his thick and short thighs “just right” to “rub” the chessboard over.
“Oops, this …… tsk tsk tsk.” Old Yuan looked “apologetic”, picked up the chess pieces haphazardly and quickly re-set them, “Sorry, come on, go on, go on.”
“No, I wasn’t here just now!” The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers.
“What is not here, you ask the guys.” The old Yuan “majestic” look at the crowd, “Does anyone remember, in or out of here, hmm?”
Just now the crowd, one by one, lowered their heads, ravens silent. Xiao Wen’s face turned red, but there was nothing he could do. He reached out to Lao Yuan and said with a strained neck, “I’m not playing anymore, okay, give me back my cigarettes.”
“You’re surrendering.” Old Yuan shook the cigarette in his hand, squinting his eyes, like an old rascal, “Surrender and lose half!”
“Half on half, cheating, bring it!” Xiao Wen was so angry that his hand was about to pestle Lao Yuan’s face.
Old Yuan laughed twice in disbelief, picked out two crumpled cigarettes and threw them to Xiao Wen. He said to the crowd: “Who will come next? Winning a cigarette, losing a bill.”
“I’ll do it, I’ll do it!”
The silent crowd is lively again, will play, will not play all enthusiastically to explore the front. There are a few bets, some bets on one, and some bets on the butt of the cigarette left. The actual fact is that the actual people who are in the marketplace are not only the ones who are in the marketplace, but also the ones who are in the marketplace.
Old Zheng is not always win, a few chess basketball than him, no cigarettes in hand, yelling for the account, Old Zheng will deliberately lose a hand, send “a few” cigarettes to smoke. Those who had the “goods” in their hands, seeing that Old Zheng was not “invincible”, have come forward to challenge. But when the stakes are too high, Lao Zheng can’t, Lao Yuan can always “just” find a reason to mess up.
During my “stakeout” days, Lao Yuan used “unintentionally knocking over the board”, “lying about the nurse coming to take the opportunity to move the pieces”, “saying the value of cigarettes is not The board does not count,” and so on, until Zheng won. If you encounter a defiant one like Xiaowen, Yuan and Zheng will “fight” with people until the end, until the other side agrees to “surrender and lose half”.
During the period, there are also patrol nurses to the flower bed here, but most pretend not to see – even if they want to catch the current situation is difficult, these “gambling” patients are very risk-averse, as soon as they see the “white coats” close, they immediately pretend to play the dragon, look like a switch freely – where like a group of psychiatric patients ah?
4
After several days of playing chess to “pull the wool over the eyes”, Lao Yuan and Zheng’s business was getting less and less. So, they moved to the gazebo in the other corner of the compound and changed their project – playing landlord. The old Yuan is quite good at recruiting people, saying that as long as they participate in the sweet – a free smoke.
“Come on, come on! Let’s get it on!” A patient nicknamed “Eye Zhang” – both an old smoker and an old gambler – came again today.
“I’ll come too!” The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers.
The three people are sitting on the ground, officially opened the gong.
The 3 people appear to be each win or lose, but in a short time, the small box of cigarettes only a few left, and the eyes Zhang has long lost, in the old Zheng to write down several accounts.
The last game of the day, the old Yuan is left with 3 cards, his mouth slit to the back of his head, raised two “king” to smash down.
“Uh-huh!” The first time he came up behind Xiao Wen, his fingers were still poking hard at his glasses, making a “knock knock” sound.
Old Yuan heard the sound, raised his hand as if nothing had happened, his expression relaxed, snorted: “Over – scare you.”
I dumbfounded laugh: so these two old ghosts have been playing secret cheating!
“Haha!” Xiao Wen didn’t notice anything and excitedly held up his cards, “No cards, right? Bomb!” He slapped down four “2s” and stared at old Yuan with a heroic air of “no one can beat him”.
The eyes of Zhang excitedly about to pop up, full of flushed face. The two “kings” were placed on the pile of cards “elegantly”.
The expressions of Xiao Wen and eyes Zhang were instantly fixed. The last “3” in his hand was then thrown away by Lao Yuan, and the game was over. Xiao Wen and Eye Zhang were completely deflated.
I can’t help but admire these two old guys: the seamless cooperation, a loose rhythm, how can you tell that they are mental patients who have been in the hospital for 10 years.
Old Yuan and Zheng know that they can’t “fish by the sea”, and every time they “close”, they will take a few cigarettes out of the handful they won and distribute them to the crowd.
“Take them and smoke them.” The old Yuan smiled like a Maitreya Buddha, “Win or lose, there are cigarettes together to smoke to be comfortable.”
The old smokers are happy, laughing and talking, you have a mouthful and I have a mouthful, the gazebo is a scene of happy guests and hosts. The “compound” time, they will “still want to” urge the old Yuan: “tomorrow early ah, take a good position, we continue to come.”
The gambling game in the mental hospital
The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you’re doing.
One afternoon, the gambling game was in full swing. The cigarettes they won were piled up into a small mountain, which made the crowd salivate and come forward to “fight”.
The scene is smoky, the sound of people boiling, the compound on duty of the chief of nursing Lee could not sit down: “This is not good enough? Also too not take us seriously it!”
The head nurse Li, with a group of nurses, surrounded the “gamblers” from the outside. When Old Yuan and Zheng realized that something was wrong, they were surrounded by nurses.
“Where did they come from?” Li, the head nurse toe kicked away the pile of smoke, narrowed his eyes at the two, “the hospital is strictly prohibited smoking, do not know? You two are leading the trouble, hand it over yourself.”
“Hey …… this …… hey ……” Old Yuan in front of the nurses do not dare to shake the “man in charge” authority, very submissive.
Old Zheng, a tall man, also folded, on the side of the smile: “Li nursing chief, next time absolutely dare not, can ……”
“Cut the crap!” Li nursing chief foot stomped, glaring at Lao Zheng, “I’ll call later and tell your family not to come in the future.”
“Don’t!” Old Zheng hurriedly picked up the cigarette, blowing the ash on it, respectfully put it in the hand of the head nurse Li, “Don’t, head nurse Li, I still want to see my grandson!”
The old Yuan silent, looking at the old Zheng, the eyes are very complex, both like disgust, but also seems to sympathy.
5
Old Zheng has a grandson, everyone in the compound knows. He has a picture of a child in his pocket – it is his precious grandson, from time to time will take out to people blow some.
“Eyes, look, like stars!”
“Size, tsk, I’m afraid it can catch up with Yao Ming!”
If someone praised two words, old Zheng can be happy farts, immediately pull out a cigarette and light up, enthusiastically share with it. But old Yuan was not happy with his “hobby”: “Old Zheng, can you not always show off in front of me, eh?”
“I’m not showing off with you, people want to listen, I’ll talk about it.” Old Zheng did not think so, forgetting that he was the “boy” of old Yuan.
“Well?” Old Yuan plucked up the “man in charge” of the authority, “Zheng old fart, you try to put on a show with me again, I will break up with you believe it? Do your own thing!”
When Yuan became angry, Zheng’s attitude immediately became correct, resentfully put away the photos and stopped showing off.
The old nurse in the ward told me that old Yuan had no children and his hospitalization expenses were all covered by his former unit. After the death of his wife, the house was completely empty, and the hospital became his home in a practical sense.
Zheng was lucky enough to have a son, who also got married and gave birth to a child. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers.
After the birth of his grandson, Zheng’s hospital life seemed to have a hope, and the nurses and doctors in the ward said that Zheng’s performance was getting better and better, so he might be discharged one day.
After being caught in flagrante delicto last time, Lao Zheng and Yuan did not wash their hands of the problem, but acted more cautiously.
The daily gambling game has become a “capital verification” entry – only those who have cigarettes can participate. The old Yuan and Zheng did not drive away, but let them patrol around the wind, expanding the “scouting area”, against a few mouthfuls of cigarettes for pay. If someone “intelligence” timely, can stop the problem before it happens, can get a whole cigarette extra reward.
This way I can’t get in, but the number of inpatients is increasing, and I can’t find time to “spy” on them because of my busy schedule.
There’s just one thing I haven’t understood: these two old smokers are so good at “tactics” that they can almost never lose money on gambling, so why do they have to go to Lao Wu to “ask for gambling money”? They both win every time a large amount of cigarettes, in the end where to go?
I have repeatedly asked Lao Wu to prove, he always talk about him, ask also equal to not ask. Asked more, he became anxious: “You see how, the truth is how, always come to ask me why?”
The compound is running as usual, people are discharged and admitted every day, busy. Old Yuan and Old Zheng continued their “business” in the hidden corners of the compound, Old Wu occasionally “gave” them a little gambling money, and Li, the head nurse and a group of nurses went to knock on the side of the drum from time to time.
The day passes in the “tacit understanding” of the people, old Yuan old Zheng “gambling money” flow of the problem, I have not had time to find the answer.
6
The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming. In accordance with the usual practice, the hospital to organize the patients rehearsal programs, held a party. The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. The old Yuan was dragged with a reluctant face: “I’m busy every day, I don’t have time to fool around with you!”
Old Zheng didn’t dare to persuade him again, with a regretful face.
The daily rehearsal in the compound is in full swing, the crowd is boiling. The people, the staff on duty patrol more and more frequently, Lao Yuan and Lao Zheng’s gambling business is getting worse and worse, in addition to the eyes Zhang, Xiaowen and a few old customers, there is nothing to go.
One day, near the end of the rehearsal, outside suddenly noisy.
“Rob ah!”
“It’s all smoke!”
The sound came from the gazebo, and I rushed over with Lao Wu and the nurses on duty.
I saw the eye Zhang yanking the collar of the old Zheng yelling, spittle flying: “cheating is not, damn it, bring me the cigarettes!”
Old Yuan was slumped by the pavilion column, full of pain, his stomach was kicked with a footprint, a pile of cigarettes scattered around, several patients were fiercely coaxing, yellow and orange tobacco leaves were trampled everywhere.
“Let go!” Lao Wu shouted, “all give me to stop, do not want to come down later?”
A few people grabbing cigarettes closed their hands, eyes Zhang full of indignation: “Wu Commander, not I provoked ah, these two old things, every time cheating at cards, put my cigarettes ……”
“Shut up!” Old Wu yelled, the veins on the neck are floating out, eyes glazed round, there is a live tear each other’s ruthlessness, “What cigarette? Play poker, what nonsense!”
Eyes Zhang timid, muttering to stop the hand.
“Old Wu, there are some things we know in our hearts.” Li, the head nurse who came with the nurses, frowned and said, “But the hospital has assigned the hospital to your rehabilitation department, so if something happens, you will be responsible.”
Eye Zhang seems to have found “reliance” and said loudly, “Chief nursing officer Li, they gather gambling, I want to report to the director!”
Old Wu’s face is gloomy, no longer say anything.
The patient wanted to report, and the ward could not hide it. Eye Zhang told everything, and when the dean heard it, he handed it over to the medical department and ordered strict handling.
The director of the medical department and the old Wu considered old acquaintances, but due to the dean’s orders, can only be handled impartially. He found Lao Wu privately and said, “Brother Wu, there are some things in the unit, do not say out what did not, say out, it is really a matter.”
“OK, I’ve been remiss.” Lao Wu did not argue, “the penalty on the penalty, you do not embarrass.”
The hospital fined and deducted 1,000 yuan bonus for Lao Wu, but also on the LAN hospital-wide notification. Some of the guys in the hospital were indignant for Lao Wu: “The patient smokes, who does not know in his heart, the labor division.”
Some also gloated: “Oh, Lao Wu himself is also an old smoker, planted it?”
7
Dealing with Lao Wu is easy, but how to deal with the “culprit” Lao Yuan and Lao Zheng, so the hospital is in a difficult position.
In the past, such “disruptive” patients are mostly notified family members to take back. The old Yuan was alone and had no place to go except the hospital. The director thought about it and asked Zheng’s son to come first. When Zheng’s son came, Director Dian called Lao Wu and me, after all, we are responsible for the compound.
In the reception room of the ward, Old Zheng was writhing around in his chair, quite uneasy. His son, also wearing a pair of glasses, had his hands gripping his knees, somewhat angrily.
“I’m not short of money.” Old Zheng’s son said, “I can’t live at home either, so he has to stay here.”
“It’s not about the money.” Director Deng’s tone was kind, “He’s always making trouble with another patient, it’s not good for his condition either, you take him back first, maybe it will be better for your father’s recovery.”
“Then you find another one to go!” Old Zheng’s son waved his hand and stood up, “This is our family’s problem again?”
“He’s not your father? You weren’t born to him? He didn’t raise you? Huh?” Old Wu was suddenly furious, asking several questions in a row.
“He raised me?” Old Zheng’s son pounded the metal chair, exploding the room with a buzzing sound as he stared at Old Zheng, “Once hospitalized for over 20 years, did you raise me or did my mother raise me, you tell me!”
Old Wu was stunned, Director Dian and I looked at each other, embarrassed to know what to answer.
Indeed, as Lao Zheng’s son said, he had been hospitalized in various places since he became ill when he was young, and all the family responsibilities had fallen on his wife. His wife has not only had to bear his hospital expenses over the years, but also to bring up his son, hard work, and fell some labor disease, the son so resentful, he has his reasons.
Old Zheng was glared at by his son, cowardly shrink into a ball. A long time, he carefully and tentatively muttered: “I am wrong …… Doudou (grandson) where, how not to bring over? I miss him.”
The son was suddenly stunned.
Old Zheng’s words seemed to have triggered a switch in his son. The previous anger quickly melted away and a wave of mourning flowed out of him. He slowly slumped down the chair, lifeless, and murmured hollowly, “It’s gone …… Doudou has long been gone.”
“Blah blah blah! Nonsense!” Old Zheng’s face lit up for a moment, seemed to think that his son was joking with him, “My grandson is strong, little brat, go home and bring him, Dad promise to listen here.”
Old Zheng’s son squatted beside the chair, tears like rain: “Doudou has long been gone, you do not say.”
Old Zheng seems not to know his son’s sorrow, his face is full of hope smile: “Impossible, Doudou will soon go to school, I gambled with old Yuan, earned a lot of money, can buy him school bags, buy stationery, buy ……”
His smile slowly froze, his eyes were lost in thought, muttering to himself, “Yes, last time it was not said that he was ill, Doudou so strong, now it must be well.”
Chattering, his face again flushed with weakness: “Surely well! You blame me for not taking care of my family, but you are all lying to me. You have hidden Doudou away, haven’t you?” Old Zheng squatted down next to his son and gently shook his pant leg, begging, “Bring Doudou quickly, huh? Dad is obedient here and has earned a lot of money.”
“Dad!” The son hugged him, crying uncontrollably, “Doudou is long gone, come home with me …… I’ll take you home.”
Old Wu don’t look away and touched the corner of his eyes.
The director of the canon to the father and son to explore the hand, want to say but do not know how to persuade.
My emotions are complicated. Both sad, and at the same time overwhelmed. The money, the dead grandson, the previous lingering, what was going on here?
8
Back to the compound’s office, old Wu a strong smoke, heavy heart, do not know what is thinking.
“Lao Wu, this ……” I just opened my mouth, and then stopped. Because I do not know whether to ask, and do not know where to start.
Old Wu put out his cigarette, turned around and walked to the front of the cabinet, took out a cardboard box and put it in front of me: “See for yourself.”
The box was scattered with a damp musty smell, choking people dizzy. I opened it and it was full of cigarettes, various brands, crumpled together haphazardly.
I stared in disbelief.
“It’s all they won.” Old U closed the lid, “Every time I won, they were sold to me, 20 cents a piece.”
“Oh!” I suddenly realized, “You are the ‘mastermind’ ah.”
Old U pulled the corner of his mouth in response to my joke. I realized that at this time it seems a bit inappropriate to tease, closed his mouth, the atmosphere is a bit awkward.
Old Wu looked at me fixedly, suddenly extended two fingers, grin, said: “Want to know?” I hurriedly “smart” from the box to take a cigarette, and diligently help him to light up.
Old U.S. beauty a mouthful, and a deep sigh: “They can hide from me? I knew it when it first appeared.”
The rehabilitation compound, Lao Wu guarded for more than ten years, the grass and trees withered, people came and went, he had seen too much. He has been ignoring and listening to the patients smoking in the compound. This is also the common “tacit” understanding of the staff in the compound, after all, can not control, hard control is also easy to get into trouble.
“Men do not smoke, the sky is half collapsed.” Old Wu said here, narrowed his eyes and made a joke, and then his eyes stern up, “gambling? That’s another thing, this is a hospital, can be the same as a gambling stall?”
In early 2016, Lao Wu was quite angry when he found out that Lao Yuan and Lao Zheng were gambling together. He called the two old smokers to his office and scolded them head to head, but did not report to the hospital.
“I said to the two old guys: ‘You two do not give me trouble, smoking I do not care, but then gambling on cigarettes, do not want to leave the ward door! After all, we’ve known each other for more than ten years, and we’re considered old buddies, report up to …… Hi! I really can’t do it.”
Old Yuan and old Zheng then nodded like garlic, full of promise. But after a few days, the two old boys and pressed on, avoiding the old U, sneakily continue to bet on cigarettes.
Old Yuan and Zheng’s “stubbornness” made Lao Wu angry. He deliberately picked two gambling “high” when he rushed over and kicked over the stall, in front of a crowd of patients, the cigarette stomped to pieces, pointing at the two scolded: “When I’m kidding with you? Go back to the ward, none of you will come down again!”
Unexpectedly, the old Zheng actually cried out, lying on the ground, like the “old dog picking up bones” general, trying to pick up the broken cigarette.
Lao Wu did not expect Lao Zheng to react so violently, but he was halfway to the fire, could not be stopped.
“Pick it up?” He took his foot and ruffled it on the ground, “Old thing, pick it up again for me to see!”
Old Yuan dragged Lao Wu, said sharply, “Commander Wu, don’t get angry ah, you listen to me ……”
“Say a fart!” Lao Wu a flip off Lao Yuan, pick up the flower bed on the side of the broom, indignantly sweep the smoke away, “Come, I see you still pick up!”
Looking at the sweeping smoke flying in the sky, old Zheng expression dumbfounded, and harshly howled “Oh my God!” Hit the ground with his head, thud, mouth crying out: “Gone, Doudou ah, grandpa’s cigarettes are gone ah!”
Old Wu froze in place with his broomstick – Old Zheng was crying out to the sky, and was obviously sick again.
The nurses on duty had rushed over, and Lao Wu did not dare to get angry again, and hurriedly assisted the nurses to send Lao Zheng back to the ward. Listen to the ward nurses said, old Zheng back, day after day lying on the floor of the ward, crazy like looking around, mouth kept saying: “My cigarettes, where did they go, that I won to exchange for money to buy stationery for Doudou ah, where did they go ah?”
In fact, Zheng’s grandson was known to the staff at the time, and Lao Wu was no exception.
After Doudou was born, the whole family had taken him to visit Lao Zheng, his own grandfather. Old Zheng liked his grandson so much that he kissed and hugged him, and promised his son, “Dad must be treated well here and discharged early, I want to see my grandson grow up.”
But when Doudou was 3 years old, he died prematurely due to the disease. When his son told Lao Zheng the news, Lao Zheng didn’t believe it at all. He even thought that his son lied because he still resented him and did not want Doudou to recognize him as a “crazy” grandfather. Old Zheng kept begging his son: “Dad is wrong, Dad wants to go home, Dad will treat the disease well, don’t hide Doudou, OK?”
Son red eyes, tone cold: “Doudou no more, you …… you treat well here, you live a day I feed you a day, do not come back.”
Lao Wu listened to the nurses about the situation of Lao Zheng in the ward, the heart of guilt.
“What have I done ah, put away the cigarette is not enough, and stimulate him to do what.” Old Wu said here, the cigarette heavily poked out.
9
Soon after the onset of Zheng’s illness, Lao Yuan took the opportunity to come to Lao Wu: “Commander Wu, Zheng and I are not making trouble, in fact ……”
“It’s for Doudou, right?” The old Wu heart has been guessed at that time, but still some doubts, “his grandson is not long gone?”
“But the old Zheng killed to believe na! He thinks his son is still resentful, deliberately lying to him, to let him die to go home.” Old Yuan looked helpless, “He is not like my lonely family. He wants to go home and be a good father, a good grandfather. The son is big, by old Zheng, this grandson, is not his biggest thought?
“Zheng old fart is now recurrent, sometimes sober, sometimes crazy. When sober, follow the nurse doctor’s ass every day, shy old face and borrow the phone, trying to beg his son to ‘change his mind’. When crazy, picking on the iron door of the ward to shake hard, mouth shouting: ‘Doudou is still small, I want to go back to take the grandson, stop me why!
Seeing this look of Zheng, Yuan said his heart did not fall: “I’ve been with him for more than ten years, I had to tell him, Doudou is still small, there are many opportunities to make up for it.”
Old Zheng heard his words, face a rare happy, full of mouth chanting “yes, yes”. But after a while, his face was full of pity again, recalling that he had lived in the hospital for more than ten years and had nothing to leave to his grandchildren, so he turned to the “knowledgeable” old Yuan.
“The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services. He and I are both half buried in the earth, so we may die in the hospital that day. We put our hearts into it, even if it is a dream, I have to help my old buddy to go on. I promised him: ‘Old man, don’t worry, I’ll come up with an idea for you!'”
“So you came up with such a ‘bad idea’?” Old Wu shook his head and laughed helplessly, “You can really …… ugh, say what you good.”
Old Yuan is worthy of being a big official, pulling up the calf “to the point”, he said to Lao Wu: “Old Zheng out and out, that can only leave something for his grandson, we do not have valuable things all over the body, so I had to think of a way on the patient.”
“That gambling on cigarettes for what, this is in the hospital but ‘contraband’.” Lao Wu said, “is not often family members to patients to send fruit and milk, gambling this bad?”
“Hey!” The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you’re getting into. The actual fact is that you’ll be able to get a lot more than just a few of the most popular and popular items. It’s not like you’re eating it, you can change it into money. The same is not true for cigarettes, a small one, well protected from moisture, easy to preserve. Besides, the patients smoke, the staff also smoke, why not ……”
“Hey, stop!” Lao Wu heard this, alerted, “You are planning to sell to the staff? The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you are doing.
“Hey? I did not think of this layer.” Old Yuan seemed to understand, but only a moment, he was “quick to hand” to the old Wu bowed, “or Wu Commander far-sighted, then you see this matter ……”
“Don’t be afraid of horse’s ass!” Lao Wu interrupted Lao Yuan, “I still don’t know you? I receive, 20 cents a piece. But there is one thing, the winnings, you smoke on the smoke, the rest all bring, not allowed to hide, I provide ‘gambling book’. No problem, right?”
“No problem!” Old Yuan hurriedly nodded his head, “Commander Wu said it.”
Speaking of which, Lao Wu waved his hand, refused the cigarettes I handed over, and said, “I’m not trying to take advantage of it either. After all, it is not in order, it is better to put it all here with me than to put it with them and be found. I can’t be unrighteous if Old Yuan is so kind to Old Zheng.”
“So you are righteous, when the ‘behind the scenes’ cluck.” I finally dared to joke with him safely.
“And what else?” Old Wu gripped a cigarette, “I’m not hard-hearted, a 20 cents, and not give can not afford, ha!”
Postscript
Last year, after the National Day, Lao Zheng was finally led back by his son. I have no way of knowing how he lived after that.
Since the absence of Lao Zheng as a partner, Lao Yuan has no desire to set up a stall. But he is still the only one in the compound to enforce the cigarette “talker”. The answer to the question of where the cigarettes come from is obvious.
I wanted to know what Old Yuan was doing with a mushroom tattoo on his hand. I couldn’t resist my curiosity, so one day I pulled him up and asked, “Lao Yuan, the mushroom on your hand, what does it mean?”
Old Yuan jerked his hand over and said angrily, “This is not a mushroom? It’s a cross!”
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