Stories from Deli

This incident not only happened to Yajiubao alone, but the place where it happened was not only in West Java, North Sumatra or North Sulawesi. This is because since the powerful groups in Indonesia, under the imperialists’ instigation, set off an anti-Chinese and anti-Chinese countercurrent, there has been more than one person like Yajiu being persecuted, and not only in one place.

The protagonist of this story is called Ya Jiubo. As for his original name, he can no longer remember him. People call him Ya Jiu, and he also calls himself Ya Jiu. He has never read a book, does not understand words, and cannot speak Indonesian. He can only speak a simple local dialect, mostly in his hometown dialect-“Teochew”. Sometimes when discussing problems with others, when the local dialect is not enough to express one’s own meaning, some Chaozhou dialect is mixed. Anyway, there are not many such things, so he did not find it particularly difficult to live in this place for decades.

He is more than 70 years old, with large bones and large hands and feet. It can be seen from the appearance that he was a strong laborer in his youth. However, as a result of selling labor and sweat for decades, the body quickly weakened, hunched back, sunken belly, almost no teeth, sunken cheeks and protruding cheekbones. He usually wears only a pair of patched shorts (it is said that they were made 30 years ago), plus a waist cloth, topless, and a bamboo hat and a cane when going out.

10 years ago, when he was declared as a “excess labor force” by the tin mining company, he had to leave the tin mine alone, with a broken vine trunk, three indispensable things in life: a hoe, a hatchet for cutting wood, a dry pipe, walked more than 20 miles away from the mining area, used his own labor to cut wood and grass, set up a small hut, and settled down at home. For 10 years, he has been living here by himself. The good thing is that the place is not bad. The road from the city to the mining area passes in front of his door. People who usually come and go must rest under his hut to escape the heat. Someone suggested to him: Why not sell tea, tobacco, and fruit to increase income? He thought about it, this is a good way, so in addition to planting coarse grains and fruits behind the hut, he also sells tea, tobacco, and fruits. If I earn two or three dongs a day, he can still make ends meet.

Someone said to him again: “How about your shop with a sign?”

Uncle Ya Jiu thought about it, this opinion was pretty good, so he said: “Please give me a name for your husband.” Then the client gave him a shop name “Ya Nong Jiu” and wrote him on red paper. sign. Uncle Ya Jiu didn’t know what was written on the red paper, only that he had opened a shop and had a sign. He usually has nothing to do, sitting under the hut, holding the pipe, and looking at the red sign, smiling from ear to ear: “Whoever wants to get Yajiu will have such a day, open Kia.”

Ya Jiubo has been in Ya Nong for 10 years. The red sign has faded into a white sign, and it has changed from a white sign to a black sign. His situation is still the same as 10 years ago, except that his back is more slumped, and his face has more wrinkles. Many, the eyes began to dim, and the ears were not good. He was still the patched shorts, and the waistband that had become cloth strips. When he came here, he was alone, guarding this exclusive widow house, and it is the same now.

From his life to his 70s, Uncle Ya Jiu lived alone. Someone asked him why he didn’t get married? Ya Jiubo smiled bitterly and said: “In the past, I was suffering, and I couldn’t afford my wife. Now I am old and suffering, and I can’t afford it.”

Speaking of the history of Yajiu Bo, there is also a bitter story. Although Ya Jiubo was old and weak and had no clear memory, he was still sober when talking about the past. Therefore, whenever someone mentioned it to him, he would say with full heart:

“That was a long, long time ago, when I was only 18 years old…”

18 years old is when Ya Jiu was young and strong.

At that time, there was an unprecedented famine in the Chaoshan area of ​​Guangdong. Of course, food is not enough, even the bark and grass roots have been stripped of the many victims. Every day, people starve to death and flee from famine. The wealthy government officials not only failed to save their lives, they also hoarded their grain control.

“…At that time, food was more valuable than gold. Have you ever heard of it?

A young girl can only change for a catty and a half? “

At this time of despair, some people are saying that it is time to recruit workers to go to Nanyang. It has been said that Nanyang does not need to pay for its own offerings, and has 10 ocean wages every year. After contracting for 3 years, will be free after the contract is over. Seeing such a glimmer of life, Ya Jiubo sees such a ray of life. With his strong body, why not do it? After discussing with his family, he decided to apply.

From then on, he stayed away from his homeland and relatives, and went abroad with his bare hands as a “piggy”.

“…The ocean liner at that time was not as good as it is now,” said Ya Jiu. “More than 3,000 people were crowded on a small boat, the place was dark and dirty, airtight, unable to lie down, and could only sit back to back. Eat badly, drink less water, the weather is hot, the wind and waves are heavy, and the turbulence is severe. It looks like a human, and it is like a livestock! After half a month of walking on the boat, some people carry it down to the sea to feed the sharks…”

With the capital given to him by his parents, Uncle Yajiu finally did not leave the sea to feed the sharks. They drew the boat and landed on land. But freedom was lost again. They shaved their heads, and each put a wooden sign on their chests and numbered them. Ya Jiubo was the 9th. Therefore, they later called him Ya Jiu. In the house, a thick hemp rope is tied together when going out. The “piggy head” is both fierce and spicy, and can beat and kill people at every turn. When they caught up to the mountain field, another group of people died.

Ya Jiubao and more than 300 “pig heads” who came with them were weaved together and assigned to a field to open a forest to grow tobacco. They cut down big trees during the day, plowed the land, weeded and planted cigarettes, and rushed them together at night. They live in a “house” with thatch as the tile and bark as the wall. They sleep on rugged bamboo beds. They eat two meals of brown rice a day, and dried fish, but they need to dry for 12 to 16 hours. Hours of hard work. “Litou” is also extremely vicious. The whip does not leave the hand, and it is a whip at every move. After a boxing kick, many people can no longer crawl under the “strength” boxing whip, and bid farewell to the world. As for saying that the monthly salary of 1 Yuan Dayang is even more deceptive, no one gets the money during the “contract is valid” period.

After working in the tobacco garden for 20 years, Uncle Yajiu could no longer do heavy work, so he rolled up two pieces of torn clothes and was kicked out of the tobacco garden with a sad heart. He wandered outside for a while and was taken care of by his friends before joining the dock as a porter. After two years of work, I heard that the tin mine would recruit new workers and the pay was better, so I took a boat to Tin Island and became a small worker. He worked in the tin mine until 10 years ago. He had a hunchback and lost his teeth. He could no longer squeeze out much blood and sweat before he was driven out as “excess labor.”

In this secluded place, the usual news is very blocked. No one knows or cares about what upside-down event is happening outside. Life is like a pool of muddy sewage without ripples.

However, after the influential group reportedly wanted to ban small foreign merchants outside of the capital of the state and county in order to “eliminate the remnants of colonialism,” news came here very quickly.

Ya Jiubao, who has lived in this dilapidated hut for 10 years, has suddenly become the target of eliminating the “remnants of colonialism.” The first person who brought this news to him was a regular customer who often cycles and often rests in his hut and drinks tea. The person accidentally asked him what he planned to do in the future? Uncle Ajiu took the dry pipe, exposed his toothless mouth, and answered with a smile:

“What am I?”

He feels comfortable and safe. Even if he has earned a little money from his hard work in the past 10 years, it is not worth three or two thousand dong at best, which is not enough to feed the rich. Then, he added another sentence: “If you want to ban it, it won’t be my part.”

However, after a while, another passing guest told him: “No one who is an alien is allowed to live here.”

This time Uncle Ya Jiu was a little nervous, he opened his mouth and asked, “Then why?”

The passerby took out the newspaper and shook him and said: “What the newspaper said is for national security.”

Uncle Ya Jiu was relieved when he heard that, he said: “I have sold my life here for more than 50 years. Who dares to say anything about me!”

The kind passer-by advised him to prepare early before leaving. However, Yajiu Uncle firmly believed: People always have to be reasonable, and he did not do anything to be sorry for others, so there is no need to be afraid. As the saying goes: Don’t do anything wrong in your life, and you won’t be surprised if you knock on the door in the middle of the night. As usual, he wakes up in the dark and greets the passing guests with a dry chimney.

But what’s coming will come all the time. On a clear morning, Uncle Yajiu opened the door as usual, cleaned the “shop head”, and prepared tea to receive the passing guests. However, there was a police uniform who was wearing a police uniform. “Bicycle” guests. The man stopped at the entrance of Ya Nong’s “Ya Nong” and looked around. Ya Jiu thought he was a normal passing visitor. He smiled, brought tea and moved a chair: “Please sit down, please drink… “The guest didn’t make a sound. The chair he moved was taken and the tea was drunk, but he didn’t ask anything but reached out for a “resident card” from Uncle Ya Jiu.

Uncle Ya Jiu’s eyes widened in amazement, and he couldn’t figure out what he meant for a long time. This is really big news. Uncle Ya Jiu has lived here for 10 years and never knew there was any “resident certificate”. He shook his head.

The customer in uniform was a little annoyed, and he asked loudly:

“You don’t have a resident card? What other documents are there?”

Uncle Ya Jiu had nothing except the two torn clothes on him. However, when he was a piglet back then, he still kept the wooden plaque that was the symbol of Yajiu on his neck. He asked with fear, “Are you going to look at that wooden plaque? The number is nine, so people call me Yajiu…” He hurriedly walked into the “inner room”, took out the polished wooden sign, and sent it to the guests. The guest flipped the card casually and threw it aside, feeling impatient:

“I don’t want this, I want to check your credentials!”

Ya Jiubo stood aside and shook his head blankly.

“You have no documents?”

Ya Jiubo smiled bitterly.

“Then how did you come?”

“When the’piggy’ came, sir…”

“Is it an alien?”

“It’s from Tangshan, sir…”

This is enough. The guest in uniform felt the need to give him an order, so he stood up and announced to him majesticly:

“As a local policeman, I declare to you that according to Decree No. XX of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, all foreigners are not allowed to conduct business in areas other than the capital of the state or county. According to the order of the local military power holder No. XX, everything Aliens are not allowed to live outside of the capital of the state or county. This order will be executed within 3 days… Did you hear it, old man?”

Ya Jiubo turned out to have a low level of language skills. In addition to Article X and Article X of the Act, he was confused a long time ago, so when the police asked him if he “heard”, he was still inexplicable.

“Don’t you understand? I’ll tell you again: Old man, you are not allowed to live here, and move out within 3 days!”

This time, Uncle Ya Jiu could understand. He was shaking like a thunderbolt on a sunny day and said:

“Sir, I have lived here for 10 years!”

“I can’t control it.”

“Where do I go?”

“I can’t control either.”

The police issued an order and walked out of the hut. Ya Jiubo entangled behind him, trying to beg him to do good deeds, but the man had already stepped on the “motorcycle” and left.

Uncle Ya Jiu was as dark as he was driven out of the smoking garden, and he didn’t know what to do. However, he was still young and strong, and he had the courage to “break”. There are no people here, but there is a place to keep them. Now he is a person waiting to die. After “breaking” for decades, he can only “break”. In this way, if he “breaks” further, he can’t show any courage. He was anxious and upset, thinking hard for a whole day, didn’t eat anything, and didn’t want to do anything. The acquaintances in the past felt strange, afraid that Ya Jiu was sick?

At night, he had more thoughts, and he remembered things he hadn’t thought of for decades; tears he hadn’t shed for a long time also overflowed. He didn’t fall asleep one night before he came up with a way: go to Zhu Yasi.

Zhu Yasi was the only one he knew in the mining area, and he was also the son of a friend who was sold piglets back then. The old friend died. With the support of some friends, his son Yasi moved out of the mining area and opened a relatively decent Yalong home in the town. Over the years, the business has been quite developed, and the family has lived well. When Ya Jiubo had nothing to do, he went to town to sit down at Zhu Yasi’s Ya Nong and eat a meal. They all regarded him as his family, and he also regarded Zhu’s family as his only support in his old age. Soon, it dawned, and he hurriedly got up and ate the leftover meals from yesterday. With a bamboo hat on his back and crutches, he closed the shop door and walked along the road.

There are 20 miles of land from the place where Yajiu Uncle lives to the town. To him, this way is nothing. But now, he has something to worry about. He hasn’t rested all night, and his feet are sore and weak. The more he walks, the longer he feels. He started early in the morning but didn’t walk until noon.

On this day, something major seemed to have happened in the town. It’s usually bustling and popular, and the shops are open. What you want. Now they are all sparsely populated, and the doors are closed, as if they had just encountered a military plague.

“Why is that?”

Uncle Yajiu hurriedly stepped on the street.

He met some armed soldiers, which was not common in normal times. They held their guns horizontally and stared with shining angry eyes, as if they were struggling with anyone, they would shoot at any time. On the street, many military vehicles were parked again. The vehicles were full of people, all Chinese. They were huddled together, and the hot sun tormented them like the tongue of a poisonous snake.

Uncle Ya Jiu had something in his heart, and he couldn’t control anything. He kept walking towards Zhu Yasi’s Ya. However, just like all the shops of the Chinese that he saw, the Yalong of Zhu Yasi was also closed. He knocked on the door, no one, no one when he knocked hard, and no one when he yelled loudly. He was anxious and screamed with all his energy…

An armed soldier rushed towards him and shouted, “What are you doing?”

Uncle Ya Jiu couldn’t care that the muzzle of his muzzle was almost touching his chest. He said, “I’m looking for Zhu Yasi.”

“What Zhu Yasi, there is no one, go away!”

“Don’t they live here?”

“Shoot all away, old man!”

“Ah!” There was a moment of darkness in front of Uncle Ya Jiu, and he fell to the ground.

What the soldier said was honest. From late last night to the present, this town, which was opened up with the blood and sweat of the Chinese people and prospered due to the painstaking efforts of the Chinese, has 80 or 90 Chinese people, under the new regulations. Was driven away in three batches. Now, these powerful groups are forcing the fourth and last group of people to go to concentration camps door by door.

Ya Jiubo was panting in front of Zhu Ya’s fourth shop. He wanted to go but couldn’t walk, and he was afraid that people would hit him with the butt of his rifle. A month ago, he had been here. Zhu Ya’s four smiled and greeted him. The four women of Zhu Ya made him hometown dishes, saying, “My old man, if you can, eat more.” A glance is so short, but the outside world has become so big, who wants it? He looked at the other side of the street with dim eyes.

…In the deadly quiet street, a new incident happened again: some Chinese were driven out of the homes where they lived for generations. There were men, women, and children, and armed soldiers wanted to catch them onto military trucks. There was a woman with disheveled hair, crying to run back to her home, she cried hoarsely: “I will die in my own home too!” But her attempt was unsuccessful, she caught the armed soldiers. She beat her with her hand, bit her with her mouth, rolled around, cried, and screamed hoarsely: “I can’t leave here!” Others who were forced to get in the car also refused to get in. The officer overseeing the armed evictions was in a hurry. He gave an order to severely “punish” this “intentionally resisting” woman. As a result, the attack began. Someone grabbed her by the hair and dragged it into the car. Someone raised her hands and feet and threw them into the car like a bag of something. She screamed, trying to get up from the car and jump off, but the car was already driving. …

Uncle Ya Jiu was blindfolded with his hands, and it was wet with tears. He thought of Zhu Yasi and his woman, maybe they were forced away by the same method. He sadly picked up the crutches and walked out of the town with a heavy step.

It is even more difficult for him to finish this period of turning back. He moved step by step, as if to move two mountains. In one day, he seemed to be 10 years and 20 years old, deaf and completely dim in his eyes. Several times he was about to collide with a truck running on the highway. The car came and he couldn’t see it, the siren screamed, and he couldn’t hear it. The driver stopped the car and stretched out his head and cursed: “Old man, I want to die! “He is equally ignorant.

Tropical wind and rain are as erratic as conjures. They come and go without a trace. For a while, the sun is bright, and the other is dark clouds. The heavy rain hits like a thousand horses.

A torrential rain came!

Uncle Yajiu didn’t feel it, he still walked hard and staggering. It’s getting darker and deeper. The wilderness is a large area of ​​blackness, but Uncle Ya Jiu walked like this. He didn’t need lights to guide him, and he didn’t need to recognize the direction. He walked this road for decades, and his thick feet almost touched every pinch of mud on the ground. , Every stone has been rubbed. Let’s go, let’s go, maybe this is the last time, maybe…

In the middle of the night, Uncle Ya Jiu touched his hut. He pushed the door and went in. Without lighting up the lamp and without eating, he climbed onto the bed made of two broken wooden boards that had accompanied him for decades. He lay down. Next, he sighed in contemplation, he opened his eyes, but he saw nothing, just darkness, darkness!

The next day, in front of Ya Jiubo’s hut, there were still pedestrians who stopped to rest, but Ya Nong’s door was closed tightly. Someone was talking quietly: Ya Jiubo was also forced to move? It doesn’t look like it again.

On the third day, the policeman who rode a “motorcycle” came again. He took his mission and gave the last order to Ya Jiubo to move immediately, otherwise he would be dealt with by force, but he was the same as all pedestrians in the past. The “Yalong Nine” that I saw was closed. He suspected that maybe he had moved away as ordered, and it didn’t look like it, so he knocked on the door with his hand and didn’t agree. He thought again: Maybe he was pretending to be dead and wanted to spend the day. Okay, let me show you some color! He lifted his foot and kicked hard, the door opened in response, and he rushed into the dark, damp cabin angrily.

Everything in the room is the same as before, but Uncle Ajiu is gone, where can he go? He was waiting to find, and accidentally bumped his head with something. He raised his head. Ya Jiubo was hanging on the roof beam, staring at him, spitting out a long tongue, hanging that on his shriveled chest. A small wooden sign.

He exclaimed, and ran away without his soul.

Ya Jiubao, the old man who was wiped out by the powerful Indonesian group as a “remnant of colonialism” was indeed wiped out. On the night he returned from the town, he used a twine to end his miserable life.

March 19, 1960
(In “New Observation” No. 12, 1960)

About the Author

Sima Wensen (1916～1968), formerly known as He Yingquan, was from Quanzhou Dongjie, a famous Chinese writer. In 1933, he joined the Communist Party of China. In 1934, he joined the Chinese Left-wing Writers’ League. He published many short stories exposing reality in newspapers such as Shen Bao and The Writer.

During the Anti-Japanese War, Sima Wensen successively engaged in salvation propaganda work in Shanghai and Guangzhou. During the civil war, he invested in the struggle against the civil war, united the progressive youths who love literature and art in Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia around the Communist Party of China, and sent new forces to the liberated areas. In the meantime, Sima Wensen wrote and published a large number of critical articles and novels.

In the summer of 1955, Sima Wensen was sent as the Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia. After returning home at the end of 1962, he served as the Director of the West Asia and Africa Department of the National Foreign Cultural Liaison Committee. In 1964, Sima Wensen served as Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in France.

In May 1968, Sima Wensen passed away at the age of 53.

Rehabilitated in August 1970, the ashes were moved to the Beijing Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.