Chasing stars on a cold night

[Novel Group] 3rd place

The gray sky, the black piles of coal, and the bald mountains not far away stand between the black curtains of the office. Whenever I see busy black figures in the coal field, my mood is also dark. When I walk past them, I always stop and a warm blood rises in my heart, turning the depression in my heart into bright flowers on my face. They always smile naively at me.

These small workers who break and load coal are recruited from nearby villages by coal dealers who come here to do business. They are paid on a daily basis and have their own meals. Usually, when they go out early in the morning, they bring a few steamed buns and a glass of water. During the meal, they find a corner to sit on the floor with a mouthful of steamed buns and a sip of water, and they actually eat with gusto.

When I really can't stand it, I make pots of soup for them and sometimes give them some newly bought fruits. They were always very grateful, pushing and pushing each other, with a bit of flattered embarrassment.

Later, we encountered a trouble. The pile of coal in the coal field was so high and full that it blocked the toilet in the corner. If the workers want to relieve themselves, they have to go to another place more than a mile away from here. As for the toilets we use ourselves, my brother, the leader of the factory, ordered them not to use them because he thought they were too dirty.

Once, one of the young men rolled around on the ground with his belly in his arms, shouting that he needed to go to the toilet. He might have eaten too much. The foreman actually kicked him hard: "You pig, run out if you need to go to the toilet..." "But I can't move..." Seeing this scene, I hesitated for a while as I passed by, and the blood in my heart surged up again:

"Come on, come up here."

Two of them lifted him off the ground. When he came out of the toilet, his expression was much more relaxed. When he saw me, he was respectful, took a breath, stood at attention, bowed... But as soon as he started the action, he immediately fell down, like a bruised reed. I quickly helped him up, who was weak. He was groaning and couldn't utter a few words, and the huge mole on his onion nose was spinning with gratitude.

After some hard talking, my brother finally agreed to let them use our toilet. Later, when I gave them fruits again, I would secretly give the young man an extra one; when they divided their work, I would sometimes go over and help him. Once when I took a short break, I asked: "Are you tired?" "No." "Where is your home?" "..." "How old are you?" "Thank you..." He looked at me with melancholy eyes. There was a glint of starlight.

But from that day on, this young man with a tumor on his onion nose never came again. It was said that he was kicked out by the foreman because he was weak. For this reason, I was sad for many days holding on to the "good news" in my hand.

There are a total of six dogs raised in the coal yard. In addition to my job, feeding the dogs has become my special job, and I never tire of it!

As time went by, I became friends with the dogs, and the ones I liked the most were the pug couple. The "dog wife" was raised in a coal yard, and the "dog husband" came from somewhere else. Attracted by love, he became a "home son-in-law."

Our relationship is so harmonious that the dogs follow me almost wherever I go. Sometimes they chase in the coal field, sometimes they climb high piles of coal. The sun shines on the coal, and the dogs' tails sway in the bright light, emitting the sounds of birds in the primeval forest hundreds of millions of years ago. The ups and downs of chirping... Sometimes, the three of us would sit in the room, and I would tell stories about God, angels, the Garden of Eden, and snakes over and over again in words that the dogs seemed to understand... and they would always He was entranced, his eyes widened and bright.

It's winter in a blink of an eye. I'm afraid of the cold and don't like spending the winter very much. One night, my cabin was robbed, and the box I brought from Beijing was stolen. The most heartbreaking thing is that the life of my dear "dog wife" was also taken away by that thief.

That morning, when I saw the dog lying on the ground 200 meters outside the house, foaming at the mouth, bleeding from the nose, and convulsing in pain, I suddenly felt dizzy. What is puzzling is that the "son-in-law who came to visit" has disappeared, as if he has evaporated. The door was fine, but the small window to the south had been removed. This is where the thief entered, with the small window facing the dark, narrow corridor leading to the toilet.

"I told you a long time ago not to let these people go to the toilet here, but you refused to listen. You kept talking about faith, hope and love, and the God of Zhensun! It's okay now. They must be poor people who come here to use the toilet. What they did..."

My brother puffed out his breath and glared at me! I murmured: "Go to the police..." "What's the use of calling the police?" "Then you still pay so much security fees every time?" "What security fees, they are filial piety fees! It's like paying environmental protection fees, do you think it's true? To manage the environment... idiot!"

I was speechless and didn't dare to tell him that there were valuables such as my rings and necklaces in the box. I quietly wrapped the dog's body on the ground with an old blanket. I burst into tears and choked up my breath. It felt like a hot glutinous rice ball was stuck in my throat, and tears fell down.

So it went. As usual, the days were torn off the wall page by page, and my cloudy thoughts seemed to fly out from the photo of me and my dog. They were pasted back piece by piece, sticking to that day in my memory: The fourteenth day of the month.

The dog was poisoned to death by the thief that night. It must have been bravely "defending the home and the country" and was brutally murdered. But where is the "son-in-law who comes to visit"? ...I turned my head and looked at the bare mountain between the curtains, hiding my speculation in a deep cave in the mountain. Many imaginations in the world are poisonous. I hid my imagination about dogs deep in the cave, as if a blood-sucking demon was summoned from inside, licking its red tongue and sucking out the hot blood in my heart.

From then on, no one brought them a hot pot of green onion and egg soup while they were nibbling on dry steamed buns. My ears only heard the squeaking sound of green onion and egg soup being splashed on the frozen ground.

Click! The door of the toilet was locked by his brother again, and the door of rough and vulgar love in his heart was also closed tightly. I no longer objected, but I felt a little guilty, hiding the pleasure of revenge.

This winter, every night seems to be extremely dark and cold, and the only thing that shines is the bright star in the sky. I often stand by the window and look at the stars. It seems that only when I look at the bright star in the sky, I feel the heat in my heart.

"Child, as long as you look at the stars and walk north, keep walking, keep walking... you will definitely be able to walk into a warm palace. Remember, this palace is built in heaven, not on earth..."

In my childhood memories, my grandma’s gentle advice rang in my ears.

So, I started chasing the star in the sky every cold night, and kept walking, and kept walking...

Winter passes and spring comes. One morning, I was woken up by a familiar scratching on the door outside. The door opened a crack, and my God, it turned out to be the "son-in-law" who jumped into the room and became very affectionate to me... Looking at it, my heart was beating wildly. It seemed to be covered with unsolvable codes. .

After that, the dog behaved mysteriously, often staying at home for a few days and suddenly disappearing for a few more days; sometimes it was at home during the day, but suddenly disappeared at night, and came back the next morning wagging its tail. Could it be that it has a new love? I decided to find out.

At three o'clock in the afternoon on April 11, a spy war started between me and my "son-in-law." The "son-in-law" was one hundred and fifty meters in front of me. It walked fast and I walked fast, it jogged and I jogged, it turned and I turned. In this way, I followed him for two miles without realizing it.

On the bumpy cobblestone road, a man sat on the smelly open pit beside the road, exposing half of his white buttocks. I quickened my pace, feeling that Bai was a ferocious white wolf about to pounce on me. There are a few old poplar trees at the corner, and a few dark green branches hang stubbornly on the rickety body. Suddenly, the "son-in-law" disappeared in front of the ajar door in the alley.

The yard was very messy. A thin wire was held high in the middle, and a piece of clothing that looked particularly glamorous was hung, proudly overlooking the dilapidated yard. Isn't this the cloak I brought from Beijing?

Why are you here? Wasn't it stolen in that box? ...My head suddenly swelled. I lay on the low mud wall and looked in, but I accidentally pulled down the porcelain basin on the window sill, and it hit my instep with a clang!

After finally holding on to the mud wall, a thin man got into the gap between my painful and squinting eyes: a small crew cut, an onion nose, and a huge round mole on the nose!

"is you……"

"It's you……!"

It was really a narrow road for enemies, and our four eyes used all the strength of our lives to catch up with each other, and the mountains and seas were like pieces of paper on a calendar that flew backwards and stuck to the day of January 14th again.

His name is Li Yong, a local farmer. Their family had an apple orchard, right in front of our coal yard. Although life was not rich at that time, after all, I had food to eat and a house to live in. I sold the apples when they were ripe, and ate the ones that couldn't be sold. I made some jam, and my life was pretty good.

More than ten years ago, a large coal mine was discovered under the Bald Mountain behind the village. First, their house was demolished, and then their orchard was expropriated at a low price. They went to the town leader, but the leader replied: "You must actively cooperate with the party's policies, contribute to the strength of the motherland, and build this place into the largest coal base in the country..."

Later, his eldest brother and some villagers went to Beijing to appeal, but never looked back. He had no choice but to earn some living expenses by working as a coal loader, but due to his weak constitution since childhood, he had to rest for two days after working one day. Half a year ago, my wife was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. The doctor said that she would not be allowed to enter the hospital unless she paid a hospitalization deposit of more than 20,000 yuan. There was no money, and after procrastinating at home for a period of time, his wife's condition worsened. To make matters worse, the foreman stopped giving him any work at that time. He thought of stealing and forcing his wife to go to the hospital no matter what. She was only twenty years old and had two children. She lived at her grandmother's house and the two old people were also frail and sick...

He discovered that the small window in the room next to him could be removed when I asked him to go to the toilet and walk through the corridor. On the first night, he climbed over the low wall of the coal yard. Before he could get close to the room, two pugs jumped out of the kennel next to him and barked at him. He felt guilty and left in a hurry.

The next night he thought of a way, bought a few ham sausages, mixed them with rat poison, and when he was approaching the house, he threw the ham sausages on the ground... He successfully stole the box from the house and was about to leave. At that time, he found a dog lying limply at the foot of the fence that was not dead yet. When he shined a flashlight, the dog spat and half-opened its eyes, looking at him pitifully. It reminded him of memories from eight years ago, and he thought of his mother who was knocked to the ground and unable to struggle when her hometown was demolished. His mother died within a few days... He cried thinking about it, and determined to save the dog, he jumped out of the short fence with the box in one hand and the half-dead dog in the other.

His wife was finally hospitalized, and he revived the dog with mung bean soup. Unfortunately, the money was quickly spent, and he moved his wife home from the hospital. She died soon after. From then on, the dog became his only companion. He was afraid that the dog would run away, so he kept it in the yard at first, and then let it out again because he was afraid that the dog would be suffocated... A few days ago, the mother-in-law called to say that the child was sick, and he was going to put the box in the box. Wash and dry the clothes inside, then sell them...

As he spoke, he whimpered and my head buzzed. I pinched my own wrist. Is this reality or fiction? It’s reality, and the pain is crisp; in fiction, the pain is cold, but my wrist was both crisp and cold at the time! In the novel, I was face to face with a poor man and a thief; in reality, I was standing in front of the judgment seat of the Creator, carrying my light soul.

I felt suffocated, scared and cold! I don’t want to see this person anymore, not even for a minute. He was leaning against the dark yellow mud wall in fear, with his thin black torso, sluggish black head, and a lifelike big hammer that wanted to completely smash the kindness in my soul that I was proud of but did not actually exist. , just like smashing ancient trees that are hundreds of millions of years old, making me shocked...

Who can help me escape this embarrassment?

The man on the roadside lattice was putting half of his white buttocks into a black bag. He was walking towards me like a black bear, holding a bright dagger in his hand. Hey hey hey... He suddenly smiled evilly at me, raised the dagger and wiped his neck gracefully. One head fell to the ground, and another head sprouted out. He kept wiping it, and more and more heads rolled on the ground. In the blink of an eye, the road was full of heads, and he was getting closer and closer to me...

I suddenly woke up from my trance...I have to go back!

Bang, bang, bang... open the door! Hey, open the door, okay? But the door seemed to have been gritted by a dead person... Suddenly it opened again, and the man came out with red eyes: "Forget it, just take me away!"

I couldn't help but laugh. He leaned against the black door awkwardly, then suddenly squatted down and curled up into a ball, like a lump of coal waiting to be struck with a hammer.

I took out a stack of things from my pocket and handed it to him. It was my just-paid salary and a business card. "Call me if you need anything... I might give you... a little help when you need it..." Before I could finish the words, the blood in my heart surged up again.

A crack opened in the deep underworld, and someone escaped from it... The man finally stretched out his black chicken claw-like hands, and the huge mole on his onion nose turned gratefully, in his melancholy eyes. , I saw the twinkling stars again...

Award speechI am very grateful to all the colleagues of "Kingdom of God" magazine for their hard work and dedication in writing ministry, and thank them for providing a platform for mainland writers to publish their works. The most important thing for me about such a competition is that it once again stimulated my unknowingly lazy writing passion. I hope that I can continue to work hard on the path of Christian literature creation in the future. Thanks again to all the colleagues of Kingdom of God magazine.

About the Author

Chen Weizhen, whose pen name is Pinuyil, is from Tiantai, Zhejiang. He was baptized as a Christian in 2002 and grew up in Shouwang Church in Beijing. He began writing about Christianity in 2004, covering novels, medium and short stories, essays, poetry, reviews, theological discussions, etc. Currently, he is working with some co-workers to create "On the Road" magazine, which is open to non-believers and seekers in China.