Even if you want to pay to rent a house, it is not that easy. Many fellow villagers have to share other people's houses because they gave up their houses to the independent regiment, resulting in a shortage of houses. Ma Liang's long legs walked around the village, asking again and again, and finally found a place. There were broken earth walls all around, two shaky wooden doors, and the yard was large, but unfortunately it was empty and desolate. There was only a tall soapberry tree growing in the corner of the yard. The trunk was strong and it should be many years old. It faced north and south and had two rooms, and a small kitchen at the west end.
The owner of the house was Widow Sun. Her family used to be rich, but her husband died unexpectedly a few years ago and they gradually fell into poverty. When Ma Liang said he wanted to rent the house, he offered one dollar a year. In the remote area of Dabei Village, no one would rent a house. The price was really high, but Ma Liang did not hesitate and bargained down to two dollars a year. Widow Sun almost fainted with joy. She immediately made the deal and returned to her parents' home with two dollars in her pocket.
Ma Liang was not a fool. On the one hand, he did this to maintain a good relationship with the landlord to avoid trouble in the future. On the other hand, since he didn't have to pay for it anyway, he didn't care whether Luo Fugui had fainted in the corner crying.
There was a room right after the entrance, with the kitchen on the left and a door on the right wall with a curtain leading to the inner room. Hu Yi was very satisfied, and he led Ma Liang to simply clean up the house and move in directly. Xiao Hongying led Luo Fugui to carry her belongings back from the kitchen in a low-key manner, and set up her own nest in the inner room. She was so happy that she jumped around like a squirrel that found a tree hole.
After the house was cleaned up, Hu Yi sat at the broken table and placed the machine gun and the Type 38 rifle he brought back from the valley on the table. He disassembled them and began to do maintenance on them, while instructing Ma Liang to find Liu Jianqiang.
Ma Liang wanted to sit down and clean his gun, but when he heard Hu Yi asking him to go find Runny Nose, he didn't want to go: "Brother, why do you want to find him? That idiot doesn't even consider himself a member of our squad nine. We'll have less to worry about without him."
Hu Yi was busy with his work, and said without raising his head: "If he was still the squad leader, I couldn't control him, and he couldn't control me either. Out of sight, out of mind. But now that I'm the squad leader, I can't tolerate him talking nonsense any more! Stop talking nonsense, and go now."
When he was in Wuming Village, this useless guy named Runny Nose was acting unruly and unreasonable. Today at noon, he was disloyal and made a disgrace of himself in the kitchen. Now that he has been forced to become a squad leader, he must teach this heartless recruit a lesson.
Ma Liang had no choice but to get up and go out.
Hu Yi said to Luo Fugui, who was lying on the broken bed and breathing heavily, "Don't just sit there, go find me a rope."
Luo Fugui said to himself: "Ma Liang is a stupid bastard. Widow Sun clearly wanted one dollar, but this prodigal Ma Liang gave her two. How can he not feel bad for selling his father's land? He is deliberately trying to disgust me. Boss Hu, why don't you do anything?"
Hu Yi turned his head and looked at Luo Fugui, who was crying. "Are you done yet? How about I give you a dollar?"
When Luo Fugui heard this, he saw that Hu Yi looked unhappy, so he quickly sat up and said, "I'll go find a rope, I'll go find a rope, isn't that okay?" He muttered to himself: What's the point of finding a rope? Are you going to use a rope to clean your gun? There is no normal person in Class 9 except me!
Liu Jianqiang was leaning against a corner to bask in the sun as usual. He had changed into a new pair of pants, but his heart was cold. This time his pants were torn off and he was naked in public. He would never be able to live as a human being again. He was lamenting the desolation of his life sadly, but was ruthlessly interrupted by the sudden appearance of Ma Liang, who dragged him into a yard without any reason and pushed him into an unfamiliar door.
After entering the door, I realized that this was the nest of Class 9. Liu Jianqiang didn't quite understand what this was for, and Hu Yi, who was sitting at the table and cleaning his gun, ordered without even looking up: "Mule, tie up this bastard!"
Luo Fugui was stunned at first, thinking he had misheard. Why tie him up? He took a closer look at Hu Yi, who looked calm. Ma Liang, who was standing at the door, was also confused.
"What are you looking at? I said tie him up!"
Luo Fugui is timid and afraid of things like fighting and going to the battlefield, because he is an insecure person. If he were in the past, he would definitely not have the confidence to do these things. He is just a big and strong bully. Today at noon, he pulled Liu Jianqiang with the second company in the kitchen squad, making an exception. On the one hand, he was threatened by Xiao Hongying, and on the other hand, he had Hu Yi behind him, so he exerted his strength. During and after the incident, he did not feel panic like in the past. Instead, he felt comfortable all over. He was smug when being looked at by a group of surprised eyes. It seems that it is necessary to show off his strength frequently in safe conditions in the future.
He was still feeling angry about spending an extra dollar on renting a house, and of course he was even more happy to see others get into trouble. Luo Fugui did not hesitate any longer, grabbed Liu Jianqiang, who was also confused, and easily pinned him to the ground and began to tie him up.
"Ah, you, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? I'm going to sue you, I'm going to sue you! I..." Liu Jianqiang panicked and tried to struggle, but it was useless. Luo Fugui's strength was too great, and he was tied up like a dumpling in a moment, lying on the ground unable to move. Hu Yi threw a rag to Luo Fugui and asked him to block Liu Jianqiang's mouth. The room finally became quiet.
No one knew what happened to Hu Yi. Xiao Hongying also ran out from the inner room and looked at the scene in surprise without saying a word.
Hu Yi ignored their inquiring looks, and steadily reassembled the parts he had cleaned, and placed the two guns on the table in a shiny manner. Then he stood up, grabbed a rag and wiped his hands while walking to Liu Jianqiang. He said to Xiao Hongying, "Girl, go stand guard outside the gate. Don't just stand there, go quickly."
What does Hu Yi want to do? He wants to teach Liu Jianqiang a lesson. Hu Yi has been a soldier for eight years, starting as a private, and then working his way up from squad leader to platoon leader and company commander, to the Military Academy, and finally being promoted to major. Is there any need to ask how to teach a new recruit a lesson? The discipline of the Eighth Route Army strictly prohibits such things, but unfortunately Hu Yi is not so conscious, and does not have so much time to talk about it. I am the squad leader of the ninth squad, so I have to make the rules. The army is the army, and after thousands of years of history, the rules have remained the same. This is the unspoken rule of being a soldier. In fact, there is no need to have someone stand guard, but Hu Yi did not want the little girl to see this, so he used the excuse to send her out.
Ma Liang understood what was going on and said anxiously, "Brother, no, no, you can't do this. You will be punished if the regiment finds out. You will definitely be fired as squad leader!"
Hu Yi smiled slightly and punched Ma Liang on the shoulder: "If this runny nose was half as smart as you, I wouldn't bother with this. You're right, I just don't want to be the squad leader."
The little girl went out, but she didn't go outside the main door. After spending so much time together, she had already figured out the fox's temper. Whenever he had a blank expression and dark eyes, he had a tendency to be violent. It seemed that Runny Nose was going to be unlucky again. The little girl crouched under the window and secretly listened to the movements in the room.
Sure enough, soon there were bursts of low whimpering sounds coming from the room. It was Liu Jianqiang whose mouth was blocked, so he could only use his nasal sound to release the painful moans. The dull sound sounded even more miserable and painful than the howling with his mouth open. It continued, and the little girl's heart began to tighten when she heard it, and it became tighter and tighter, until finally the little girl could not help but stretch out her little hands to cover her ears.
Ma Liang sat on the bench, his back to Hu Yi and Liu Jianqiang on the ground, looking at the wall, frowning and forcing himself to divert his attention. Luo Fugui sat on the bed, staring with eyes wide open, not daring to blink, not daring to breathe, and opening his mouth but unable to relieve the difficulty of breathing, as if the rag was blocking him, his whole body numb.
Hu Yi raised his foot and kicked Liu Jianqiang hard, causing him to roll into the corner. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve, took a deep breath, and calmed himself down. He seemed to be really sick, and felt dazed and possessed by a ghost. The beating of Liu Jianqiang seemed to make him feel comfortable, and the more he beat him, the more he didn't want to stop. Since the machine gun company was destroyed, he seemed to have this impulse more and more. Hu Yi forced himself to calm down, walked over to Liu Jianqiang's body, which was curled up in pain, and squatted down.
"Don't be sad, Snotlout. You yellow-mouthed good-for-nothing should feel lucky that your body wasn't burned by the inescapable flames, your body wasn't pierced by the bayonet and then spun inside, your body wasn't torn into pieces by the impact of the explosion, floating all over the ground like autumn leaves, staining your comrades' bodies and faces..." Hu Yi whispered these irrelevant words to Liu Jianqiang on the ground, but it made the listeners inside and outside the room feel numb.
"You are lucky, you are still alive. You always shamelessly say that you want to return your life to the Ninth Company. In fact, you are nothing. Do you think you are a man just because you fired a few shots with a broken gun? I'm going to let you meet the Ninth Company right now and see if you have the face to go!" As Hu Yi spoke, he pinched Liu Jianqiang's nose tightly.
Suffocation, the feeling of despair after the air disappeared slowly enveloped him, followed by nausea, dizziness, loss of light, cramps, convulsions, and even incontinence. Liu Jianqiang's heart suddenly fell into the abyss of extreme fear. He could not make any sound, but his heart was almost torn apart by his own despair, leaving only loneliness and unwillingness.
Slowly, it seemed that there was light and air again. Liu Jianqiang wanted to cough violently, inhale greedily, and use all his strength to fight for vitality and hope. At this moment, he didn't care about anything. As long as he could escape from the endless dark abyss, Liu Jianqiang didn't mind being humble, selling out, betraying, and fighting for everything...
Hu Yi loosened his hand at the last moment and pulled out the rag. "You piece of trash, if you don't feel ashamed to go to the Ninth Company, then go back to the Ninth Class with a shameless face and hold your tail between your legs in front of me from now on, understand?"
Liu Jianqiang cried, but strangely, this time he didn't just cry out of sadness, he also cried out of happiness, his crying was very complicated, and he couldn't be understood by others, not even himself. He answered with two words in his crying: "I understand!"