Chapter 7: The Little Thief of Fengtian (2)
In January 1926, due to the Japanese army entering Manchuria to support the Fengtian clique, Guo Songling was executed (note 1). The city of Fengtian was filled with Japanese troops, and everywhere was flying the Japanese flag. On the main streets of Fengtian, Japanese military vehicles were speeding by, and everyone was in a hurry to get out of the way, feeling terrified. As soon as the Japanese military vehicle passed by, people would quickly pull up their collars and sleeves and flee hastily.
A street corner shelter, three tattered thirteen or fourteen year old boys huddled together, crouching in the corner. In Fengtian this season is extremely cold, these three boys are thinly dressed, despite being crowded together, they are all frozen and chattering their teeth.
A chubby little boy in the middle wearing a dog skin hat said: "Geez, when is big brother coming back?"
A thin little boy next to him was blowing on his hands and said, "Brother won't get into trouble, will he? It's so chaotic outside."
Another one who looked the youngest said with certainty: "Big brother won't be in trouble."
Fatty Chong shouted at the thin boy: "Lao Guan, you raven's mouth, can't you say something good for once!" As he spoke, he slapped the thin boy with his hand.
The skinny kid was nicknamed Lao Guan Gun, the fat one in the middle was nicknamed Lang De Ben, and the youngest was nicknamed Bi Hou. These three kids were all vagrants from Fengtian City.
Lao Guan slapped Lang Debao's hand away, rubbing the back of his head and scolding: "Lang Debao, stop hitting people! It hurts to death!"
"You're just asking for a beating with that crow's mouth of yours!"
Lao Guan's face was red with anger, but he didn't dare talk back. He shrank his neck and the three of them continued to squeeze together in a heap.
The three of them crouched for a while, constantly sizing up the intersection. Lang Deben seemed to be getting impatient and muttered: "Big Brother has been gone for so long, why don't we go take a look too."
"Can't go! Can't go!" The little monkey shouted: "Big brother told us to wait here, don't go anywhere."
Lao Guan agreed with Lang Deben's opinion and said, "Wai Hou, if something really happened to Big Brother, we'd be hiding here without any sense of Jianghu righteousness! Old Lang, let's go take a look."
He hastily adjusted his hat, blew his nose hard and shouted: "Let's go!" By the time he finished speaking, he was already standing up.
Lao Guan Gun also stood up, while the slovenly monkey still didn't get up. He was pulled up by Lao Guan Gun and scolded: "You turtle grandson! You have the smallest guts."
The three of them pulled themselves together, and one after another they darted out from the corner of the street, onto the main road. Just as they had taken a few steps along the street, a group of Japanese soldiers suddenly emerged from around the corner, running in formation towards the front. The three of them hastily retreated to the side of the road, watching as the group of Japanese soldiers ran past, and Lang shouted at their backs: "Little Japan! You're so proud, you son of a bitch!"
The thin monkey pulled at the corner of Lang's clothes and said: "Old Lang, hurry up, let's go!"
The three of them continued to move forward cautiously, turned a corner, and entered an alleyway. They crouched down again by the wall, all with tense expressions, looking around in all directions. Lang Dabao looked up and saw that they were leaning against a very high surrounding wall. Lang Dabao said: "Diao Hu, step on my shoulders and take a look at the top of the wall."
The little monkey, now a bit bolder, heard the call of the waves and stood up to climb onto the waves' shoulders. Just as he was standing firm, he heard a great commotion from within the wall, with people shouting loudly: "Catch the thief! Catch the thief! Over there! Over there! Grab him! Beat him to death!"
The dwarf monkey was frightened and stumbled, his feet didn't touch the ground, and he fell straight from Lang De's shoulders. Lao Guan rushed forward to hold him up, but was still dragged down by the dwarf monkey's body, and the three of them tumbled into a heap.
The three of them fell to the ground, and just then a figure flashed across the top of the wall. Someone had already jumped down from the top of the wall and landed right at their feet. The person who jumped down was about fifteen or sixteen years old and wore a tattered dogskin hat. His eyes were not large but very spirited, his face was dirty, and there was still a trace of blood on it. When this youth landed at the feet of Rong Daobin and the others, he fixed them with a stare and cursed: "What are you doing here?"
The three of them shouted in unison: "Big Brother!"
The young man cursed: "Why don't you listen! Run quickly!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than five or six men rushed in from the street corner, each carrying a torch and shouting: "The thieves are here! They're here!" As they spoke, they charged towards the four of them.
The young man pulled up the lame monkey and the four of them ran forward with all their might, with the crowd chasing closely behind.
The young man ran in the front, Old Guan's gun closely followed behind, Lang Deben's body was fat but also gritted his teeth to keep up, only Xiao Hou fell behind. The young man in the front shouted: "Split up and run! Fast! Meet at the old place!" Looking ahead, it was a fork in the road.
Just then, the dwarf monkey let out a loud cry and fell to the ground with a thud. The young man, Old Gun, and Lang Deyi were all stunned, having already run seven or eight steps away. They turned their heads to see the dwarf monkey fall and, without hesitation, rushed back to help him up.
"Damn it! You're a waste of space! Our grandpas are going to die here!"
The three had just pulled the lame monkey up, but its legs were unable to exert any strength and it couldn't run at all. The young man sighed and scolded: "I told you not to come!"
The young man sighed, and the group of thugs behind him had already caught up, pulling them down and beating them with sticks. The four of them huddled together, covering their heads with their hands, shouting loudly: "You're going to kill us! You're going to kill us!"
The gang beat them for a while before stopping, then kicked and trampled on them with their feet, forcing the four people into a corner.
The young man shouted: "We haven't stolen any of your precious things, just return them to you! Don't beat people to death! If we die, our ghosts will haunt you!"
One of the men with a stick cursed: "You little rabbit! You dare to talk back! How dare you steal things from Old Master Zhang's house! Beat you to death, it's all in vain!"
The young man shouted: "Stop fighting, stop fighting, that's all." As he spoke, he pulled out a cloth bag from his bosom and threw it at the feet of this group of men.
A middle-aged man, resembling a steward, panted and rushed in from behind the shop assistant, holding his hat with one hand and staring with wide eyes, unable to speak. The shop assistant reported to the steward-like person: "Liu Steward! It's these few little thieves! Caught them all! Not one missing!"
Liu Guan finally caught his breath, stood up straight and pointed at the four young men, scolding: "You little rascals! You've exhausted me to death! Which one of you is the leader?"
The young man was also stubborn, and with a slight tremble, he crawled up from the ground and replied: "I am!"
Liu Guan sized up the young man from head to toe and scolded, "You've got a lot of nerve! Who told you to come to Zhang Siye's house to steal things?"
The young man said: "It's my own idea! This master of the house, didn't he just steal some snacks from you? Is it worth making such a big fuss?"
Liu Guan's family scolded: "What a big fuss! Does Zhang Siye's family allow you to come and go as you please? Some snacks? Even if you take out a needle, I'll break your legs! Come on, keep hitting me! Break the legs of these four little bastards! Let them dare to steal from Zhang Siye's house again!"
