After the “shore”, “jangling chicken” often said: “or before simple, now where there is the boss, money is the boss.”
1
“Jang-chi” is a mixed name for a person. In Liuyang dialect, this mixed name means careless and mute.
He was a classmate of my brother Hua Pi, who often took him out to play after he graduated from gymnastics school. Like Hua Pi, jangling chicken is my first loyal readers, often bragging to people: “My brother, is writing articles ah.” And then pull out the phone, turning out the stories I wrote to show everyone, in return for most of the polite praise from others.
“When will you write about me, too.” One time, jangling chicken said to me.
“Write about you what?” I laughed and teased, “Lots of girlfriends?”
“My wife will kill me,” he shouted, “the old calendar do not turn over, OK!”
Hua Pi is my brother in martial arts training, started earlier than me, is my senior brother. At that time and my good brothers, there are flower skin, Chen fat, small Zhu and small Qi, after leaving the division, also did not break contact, years of support, mutual brotherhood.
Jang chicken and flower skin, the same, are 80 years later, a few years younger than me. His complexion is naturally black, strong, simple face, only a pair of eyes, often dishonestly glancing left and right, showing some shrewd and cunning. His family lives in the east of the city, when studying is a horizontal role, not much reading, but developed a fighting skills, full of experience in combat. After graduating from junior high school, he abandoned his studies and started to mix in society, helping people with difficulties (Changsha, later Liu Yang also said so, similar to helping people level things).
But this, he also do not do well – he is simple, good rules, morality, do not know how to get money, there are not many minions under him, the fight, always a man in the front.
The years of social mixing, jangling chicken but made a lot of girlfriends. Then there was a few people drinking, he was drunk, breaking his fingers to me to count his ex-girlfriend: “Ping sister, Xia sister …… Jie sister with me for quite a long time, quite good to me. Hong sister is not good, always ask me for money.” The number later, drunken confused, can not count, he shook his head hard, as if this can shake off the alcohol, suddenly wide-eyed asked me, “Feng sister I said no?”
“There’s also the one from Wulong (a township in Liuyang) that you didn’t say.” Hua Pi laughed at him from the sidelines.
2
When Jang Chicken really played with us, he had already withdrawn from the jungle, he called it going ashore, “I’m afraid of dying.” He said.
At that time, Hua Pi graduated from the gymnasium back, did a township high school physical education teacher, slightly with the hands of jang chicken from the road of social pull back, the two of them in partnership with a flower store, to jang chicken to take care of.
I, Hua Pi, Chen fat three people often get together on weekends, there is nothing to do, go to the jangling chicken store to sit, one way or another, they got to know each other. At first, Hua Pi always introduced me like this: “This is my big brother.” Jang chicken will be a little restrained, tea and water, attentive as a foot. Later, when he became familiar, Hua Pi said, “He is actually my senior brother.” Jang chicken then let go.
Jang chicken hired a helper, is a young girl, very diligent. Sitting behind the counter as a shopkeeper, but the cash register is not always fresh, do not like to use the calculator, ten fingers break half a day, often miscalculated, and love to give people to erase the change. The clerk girl could not stand it, simply part of the cashier’s work, jangling chicken became a hands-off boss.
Open flower store days, jang chicken rest and recuperation, but also happy, occasionally recalled the former days of social mixing, he always said: “people in front of the boss, to help people a difficult, they really do not have a little sense of security, and then able to fight, to fight a few win? When I think about it, I can’t sleep well.” Jang chicken tsk mouth, as if the past is unbearable to look back on, “good thing Hua Pi saved me, and then mix, will die.”
He stretched out his hand to show me a striking scar above the tiger’s mouth, and lifted up his shirt, the stomach is also a, longer and more eye-catching.
“It turns out that just a year ago, when he was helping someone in an armed fight with the other side, a sharp knife passed through his palm and stabbed into his stomach.” (Special Identities stills) “It turns out that just a year ago, when he was helping someone in an armed fight with the other side, a sharp knife passed through his palm and stabbed into his stomach.” (“Special Identities” stills)
A year ago, when he was helping someone in an armed fight, a kid of 15 or 16 years old stabbed him straight in the face with a sharp knife.
During the operation, the doctor opened his abdominal cavity along with the wound and turned out the intestines to examine the wound. Outside the operating room, his mother cried all night, and his father, after smoking two packs of cigarettes, suddenly stepped to the corridor window and threw his knees to the ground, kowtowing to the window and bruising his forehead.
After being discharged from the hospital, the stabber has gone out of hiding, the parents of the child sent medical expenses and condolences.
The youngsters of the jangling chicken are in an uproar, clamoring for revenge. When Hua Pi went to see him, there was a room full of brothers, jang chicken sitting in the middle, listening to the brothers full of righteous anger, you say a word and I say, silent, expression embarrassed.
Hua Pi drove the little guys out like flies, turned around and scolded the jangling chicken: “revenge a ghost, advise you a word, do not engage. If you do not listen, after killing people, killing people is not my business, off to Baiyi pit (Liu Yang old detention center location), I will not visit you.”
“No longer mixed, now the children do not rule,” jang chicken a pat leg, on the slope of the donkey, “cut flesh, stabbed to death, my little brother only issued a stick, is to know the fine sae no light weight grin.”
That night, I was swindled out by Hua Pi, “Please buy me a midnight snack, I have no money na.” He shouted heartlessly over the phone. We met at a late-night snack stall next to the old Friendship (the old mall in Liuyang), and when we went there, we found that Hua Pi had already set up a table and called Chen Fat.
From then on, I got to know the jangling chicken.
3
When I saw Jang Chicken again, he had already dispensed with his boys and opened a flower store with Hua Pi.
Jang chicken never bragged about his social affairs, someone talking to him, he always smiled nervously, not at all as the boss of the model. Talking, always like to touch the mouth, the most common mantra is: “animals cheat you.” When he said this, he would look at you with wide eyes, a face of sincerity.
I occasionally ask him about his past, he is also incoherent, as if the days when he was a big brother is not as deep, one time forced him to drink, drunk, only to say two sentences, he said: “The brothers are good, no need to bring, occasionally eat a meal, sing a song with me.” He did not want to say more, and changed the subject: “I can sing, will sing Adu it.”
Later to sing, he gave us to learn Adu, really have a few charm, but repeatedly, will be that one, tired of singing, they made up their own words to sing: “You sit in the car, I hide under the car, a step on the gas pedal press past.”
The jangling chicken always said that the flower skin is his nobleman, let him go ashore, he also want their brothers to go ashore, but do not have that ability. Some brothers, the jungle has been mixed for a long time, already do not want to return, “I want them not to engage, shouting should not it,” jangling chicken said seriously, “I did not advise, the animal cheat you.”
When the lease of the flower store expired, jangling chicken but did not renew. He found a girlfriend, has been talking about marriage, want to earn more money.
By then, Hua Pi had already made it to the director of teaching at the township high school, and was in charge of the entire central school’s food intake. Jang chicken wanted to contract the central school’s vegetable delivery business, and Hua Pi agreed. He only told him two things: “The food should be sanitary, and the price follows the line price.” Hua Pi said, “I will do the work of the school leaders, I do not want a penny rebate.”
“The profit of vegetables is less, my family does not plant, to the children to eat, can not be messed with, looking for several, always trustworthy to buy it. Fire baked fish can earn, pond fish as river fish sales, profits. Bacon profits are even greater, do not dare to enter. The meat that is made has money to earn, I can not earn anyway. My father said, “People are doing, the sky is watching, the old class (Liuyang language, the meaning of the elders) virtue, the descendants to enjoy the blessing.” Jangji said later.
Jang chicken rented a small truck and started a vegetable delivery business, but not for long. The city’s Education Department soon issued a document that food delivery units must have a front, which Jang Chicken did not, so Hua Pi could not help.
4
Later, Jang Chicken got married, had a daughter, and lived a stable life.
At first, he planted trees at home and did some flower and wood business. Liuyang is a mountain city, flower and wood bosses, jang chicken’s business can not be on the table, operating in a miserable way, jang chicken’s wife also took a job, in a clothing store stand counter. Although life is poor, but the two have not red face, in front of the brothers, his wife repeatedly instructed: “You help me to monitor ah, his girlfriend called him, you have to tell me ah.”
The woman wondered, asked me privately: “His stomach a shy, black ghost-like, stammering speech, what girlfriend?”
I replied seriously, “Even if a rooster is ugly, he has many girlfriends, and only those who are castrated are called “wire chickens” (in Liuyang), but not those who are castrated.”
Hua Pi slapped the table, “One day I’ll take him to get tied!”
Jang chicken finally found a suitable job, to drive a truck at a construction site in Huaihua, he has an A license, it is not a problem to play this job. Before leaving, we were invited to his home for dinner, his father cooked, a bowl of braised beef tendons to remember.
“Don’t worry about your work, leave your sister-in-law to our care.” At that meal, Hua Pi teased him.
Jang chicken heckled, took his wife with him when he left, and went away for three years.
5
“Brother Zhang, do you know anyone at the cancer hospital?” One day, three years later, I received a phone call from jangling chicken.
“You’re back?” I asked.
“My father is sick, so I have to come back.” Jang-chi said, “The People’s Hospital said it was lung cancer, and I wanted to come to Changsha for a review.” I helped him find someone, and the review confirmed that it had spread.
Jang chicken quit his job and went home, not going anywhere. Ask around for prescriptions, fishy grass, ganoderma lucidum are bought, wormwood eaten for two months, can not afford to eat.
If you continue to mix, you will die!
Two years later in the spring, a steady rain. A working day, a full day of meetings, I adjusted the phone silent. At noon, I pulled out my phone, a dozen missed calls, all from Hua Pi, rushed back to the past.
“Jang chicken his father passed away, you have to come back ah.” The woman said.
When I called again, he gasped loudly at the other end, unable to speak.
The next day, I returned to Liuyang, Hua Pi accompanied me to his home, jang chicken sitting next to the spirit case, I went up to kowtow, jang chicken kneeling back to salute, after the ritual, he pulled me to drink tea.
The funeral hall was located in the living room of Jangji’s house, with three or four round tables on the side, and some people sitting scatteredly, with young faces, none of which I knew. Jang chicken told me that those are his former brothers, a rare heart, to accompany the vigil.
“They all went ashore, quite good.” Jang chicken said, “I advised, and thought it was useless. Now open carton factories, clothing stores, the least of which have a steamed vegetable stall.”
Soon, jangling chicken and back to the old business, to a fireworks company drive, received the task of burning, on the country around the run, often in the WeChat circle of friends to send some landscape photos, are the places he has been.
The brothers built a WeChat group named “Liuyang Brothers”, and when they were bored, they talked to each other in the group, but the most talked about jangling chickens, probably because of the loneliness of the journey.
One time, I teased him in the group: “Jang chicken, you are running around, have you made a new girlfriend?”
He laughed, about driving with the window open, the sound of wind in the background, just do not know where the end of this time will be.
But you can imagine, he is driving on a strange highway in a foreign country, listening to the familiar country voice in the headphones, the dark face will not help but smile. A voice message popped up in the group, and the jangling chicken responded cheerfully on the other end of the phone: “No grin, don’t dare ah. The beast cheated you!”
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