The layout of hotels in Luzhen is different from other places: they are all large counters in the street, with hot water in them, which can warm wine at any time. People who work leave work in the afternoon and evening, and every time they spend four coppers, they buy a bowl of wine.-This was more than 2 years ago, and now each bowl will rise to ten pence.-They stand outside the cabinet and have a hot drink. If you are willing to spend an extra penny, you can buy a dish of salt-boiled bamboo shoots or fennel beans as a drink. If you spend more than a dozen pence, you can buy a meat dish, but these customers are mostly short-sleeved gangs (2), but they are generally not so rich (3). Only those who wear gowns walk into the house next to the store, ask for wine and vegetables, and sit and drink slowly.

I've been working as a waiter in Xianheng Hotel in Zhenkou since I was twelve years old. The shopkeeper said, I look stupid, and I'm afraid I can't wait on the gown customers, so I'll do something outside. Although the customers of short coats outside are easy to talk, there are also many who are nagging and confusing. They often have to watch the yellow rice wine scooped out of the jar with their own eyes, see if there is water at the bottom of the pot, and put the pot in hot water with their own eyes, and then rest assured: under this serious supervision, it is also very difficult to drink water. So a few days later, the shopkeeper said I couldn't do it. Fortunately, the recommendation head (5) was too generous to be dismissed, so he changed to a boring job specializing in warm wine.

I've been standing at the counter all day, taking charge of my duties. Although there is no dereliction of duty, I always feel a little monotonous and boring. The shopkeeper has a fierce face, and the customer has no good temper (6), which makes people lively. Only Kong Yiji can laugh when he arrives at the store, so he still remembers it.

Kong Yiji is the only one who drinks standing and wears a gown. He is very tall; Blue and white face, often with some scars between wrinkles; A shaggy gray beard. Although I am wearing a gown, it is dirty and worn. It seems that I haven't mended it or washed it for more than ten years. When he talks to people, he is always full of words (7), which makes people half understand. Because his family name is Kong, others took a nickname for him, called Kong Yiji, from the half-understood words of "Shangdaren Kong Yiji (8)" on the red paper. As soon as Kong Yiji arrived at the store, all the drinkers looked at him and smiled. Some shouted, "Kong Yiji, you have added a new scar on your face!" He didn't answer. He said to the cupboard, "Warm two bowls of wine and ask for a plate of fennel beans." I will pay a lot of money. They shouted loudly again on purpose, "You must have stolen from others again!" Kong Yiji opened his eyes and said, "How can you make people innocent out of thin air ..." "What innocence? I saw with my own eyes the day before yesterday that you stole any book and hung it. " Kong Yiji blushed and the veins stood out on his forehead, arguing that "stealing books is not stealing ... stealing books! ..... Can the matter of a scholar be stolen? " It is difficult to understand the words, such as "the gentleman is poor (9)" and "the person is poor", which attracted everyone to laugh: the inside and outside of the store were full of happy air.

Listening to people talk behind their backs, Kong Yiji studied in the past, but finally he didn't go to school (1) and won't make a living (11); So I became poorer and poorer, and I was going to beg. Fortunately, I wrote a good word, so I cashed (12) books for others and exchanged them for a bowl of rice. Unfortunately, he has another bad temper, that is, he is lazy. After sitting for less than a few days, people and books, paper, pens and inkstones disappeared together. If so, several times, no one told him to copy the book. If there is no law in Kong Yiji, it is inevitable to do some stealing occasionally. But in our shop, his conduct is better than others, that is, he never defaults; Although there is no cash occasionally, it is temporarily recorded on the chalk board, but it will be paid off within one month, and Kong Yiji's name will be erased from the chalk board.

After drinking half a bowl of wine, Kong Yiji's red face gradually recovered, and others asked again, "Kong Yiji, do you really know how to read?" Kong Yiji looked at the person who asked him, showing an air of disdain. They went on to say, "Why can't you even get half a scholar?" Kong Yiji immediately looked upset, his face was covered with gray, and he said something. This time, it's all nonsense, and some don't understand. At this time, everyone laughed: the inside and outside of the store were full of happy air.

at these times, I can echo the laughter, and the shopkeeper will never blame me. And when the shopkeeper saw Kong Yiji, he often asked him this way, which made people laugh. Kong Yiji knew he couldn't talk to them, so he had to talk to the children. Once said to me, "Have you read a book?" I nodded briefly. He said, "read the book, ... I will test you. How to write the word fennel for fennel beans? " I think, do people who beg for food deserve to test me? I turned my back and ignored it. Kong Yiji waited for a long time and said earnestly, "Can't you write? ..... I'll teach you, remember! These words should be remembered. When you are a shopkeeper in the future, you should use it to write accounts. " I thought to myself that the level between me and the shopkeeper is still far away, and our shopkeeper never accounts for fennel beans; Funny and impatient, he answered him lazily, "Who wants you to teach? Isn't it a word back and forth under the grass?" Kong Yiji looked extremely happy, knocked on the counter with two fingers' long nails, nodded and said, "Yes, yes! ..... There are four ways to write back words (13), do you know? " The more impatient I became, I walked away with my mouth pressed. Kong Yiji just dipped his nails in wine and wanted to write on the counter. When he saw that I was not enthusiastic, he sighed again and looked very sorry.

On several occasions, the children in the neighborhood listened to the laughter, but also rushed to the scene and surrounded Kong Yiji. He gave them fennel beans, one for each person. After eating the beans, the child still lingered, with his eyes fixed on the plate. Kong Yiji panicked, stretched out his five fingers to cover the plate, bent down and said, "Not much, I don't have much." Straighten up and have a look at the beans, shake your head and say, "no more, no more!" How much? Not much (14). " So this group of children got separated in laughter.

Kong Yiji is such a joy, but without him, others will live like this.

One day, about two or three days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the shopkeeper was slowly checking out, taking off the pink board, and suddenly said, "Kong Yiji hasn't come for a long time. I still owe nineteen dollars! " I also think he hasn't come for a long time. A drinker said, "why did he come?" ..... He broke his leg. " The shopkeeper said, "Oh!" "He is still stealing. This time, I lost my mind and stole it to Ding Juren's house. Did you steal something from his family? " "What happened later?" "how about it? Write a defense (15) first, then fight, fight for the middle of the night, and then break your leg. " "What happened later?" "I broke my leg later." "How about a discount?" "how? ..... Who knows? Maybe it's dead. " The shopkeeper no longer asks, but still slowly calculates his account.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the autumn wind is getting colder every day. Look at the early winter. I've been on fire all day, so I have to put on a cotton-padded jacket. In the second half of the day, there was no customer, and I was sitting with my eyes closed. Suddenly I heard a voice, "Warm a bowl of wine." Although the voice is extremely low, it is familiar. No one was there when I looked at it. Standing up and looking out, Kong Yiji sat at the threshold under the counter. His face was black and thin, and he was out of shape; Wear a ragged jacket, cross your legs, put a cattail bag under it, and hang it on your shoulders with a straw rope; When he saw me, he said, "Warm a bowl of wine." The shopkeeper also put her head out and said, "Kong Yiji? You still owe nineteen dollars! " Kong Yiji was very upset and replied on his back, "This ... pay it off next time. This time it's cash, and wine is better. " The shopkeeper still smiled and said to him as usual, "Kong Yiji, you stole something again!" But this time, he didn't quite argue, just saying, "Don't make fun!" "Make fun of? If you don't steal, how can you break your leg? " Kong Yiji whispered, "Break, fall, fall ..." His eyes, much like pleading with the shopkeeper, don't mention it again. At this time, a few people have gathered, and the shopkeeper laughed. I warmed the wine, took it out and put it on the threshold. He took out four pence from his tattered pocket and put it in my hand. When he saw that his hand was covered with mud, it turned out that he had come with this hand. Soon, after he finished drinking, he sat and walked slowly with this hand in the laughter of others.

Since then, I haven't seen Kong Yiji for a long time. At the end of the year (16), the shopkeeper took off the powder board and said, "Kong Yiji still owes nineteen dollars!" On the Dragon Boat Festival the following year, he said, "Kong Yiji still owes nineteen dollars!" I didn't say anything until the Mid-Autumn Festival, and I didn't see him at the end of the year.

I haven't seen him until now-maybe Kong Yiji is really dead.

March 1919. (17)

Notes to the article

(1) Selected from Scream [1] (The Complete Works of Lu Xun, Volume I, People's Literature Publishing House, 1981). Kong Yiji is the second vernacular novel written by Lu Xun after Diary of a Madman on the eve of the May 4th Movement. This novel describes a scholar who has not been admitted to a scholar. He loses his dignity as a man and becomes the object of ridicule in a pub, thus exposing the social problems at that time.

(2) Short coat gang: refers to the working people.

(3) chuò: lavish.

(4) chàn: mixing and doping.

(5) recommendation: in the old society, people who introduced domestic helpers also generally referred to people who introduced occupations.

(6) vocal qi: this refers to attitude.

(7) A person who is full of words means full of words in classical Chinese. This place is used to show Kong Yiji's bookworm.

(8) Master Kong Yiji: In the old days, the red-painted paper was printed with some relatively simple words including "Master Kong Yiji", three words and one sentence.

(9) The gentleman is poor: The Analects of Confucius means that a gentleman can be content with poverty. Solid and safe.

(1) entering the school: in the imperial examination, children's voices should take the age test and be admitted to the county school, which is called "entering the school", that is, winning the scholar. The scholar went to the provincial capital to participate in the triennial unified examination, and the one in the examination was "Juren"!