11.十六年前的回忆

Memories of sixteen years ago

1. April 28th, 1927, I will never forget that day.

2. It was the day of my father's crucifixion, sixteen years ago now.

3. In the spring of that year, my father came back very late every night.

4. Every morning, I don't know when he went out again.

5. Sometimes he stayed at home, burying his head in books and papers.

6. I squatted next to him and watched him throw books and pieces of paper with words in them into the fireplace.

7. I asked him curiously, "Father, why do you want to burn them?

8. It's a pity."

9. After a while, my father replied, "If you don't want it, burn it.

What do you know?"

11. My father was always kind, never scolded us, and never beat us.

12. I always asked my father many childish and ridiculous questions.

13. No matter how busy he was, he was always interested in my questions and always spoke to me patiently.

14. This time, I don't know why, but my father answered me so vaguely.

15. Later, my mother said that warlord Zhang Zuolin was going to send someone to inspect.

16. In order to avoid the destruction of the Party organization, my father had to burn some books and documents.

17. Only two days later, something really happened.

18. Yan Zhen San, a worker, went to the street to buy something early in the morning and did not return until the night.

19. The next day, my father learned that he had been arrested and sent to the police department.

20. We were all very uneasy and anxious for the worker.

21. The situation was getting more and more serious, and my father's work was getting more and more tense.

22. His friends persuaded him to leave Beijing, and his mother also persuaded him several times.

23. My father said to my mother firmly, "Didn't I always tell you?

24. I can't leave Beijing easily.

25. You must know what time it is and how important the work here is.

26. "How can I leave?" Mother had to say nothing more.

27. A terrible day had indeed come.

28. On the morning of April 6, my sister changed into a new pinafore and my mother took her for a walk to the children's recreation ground.

29. My father was writing in the inner room, and I was sitting on a long wooden chair in the outer room reading the newspaper.

30. No sooner had I finished reading the short paragraph of the news than I heard the snap, snap ...... several sharp shots, followed by a tumultuous shouting.

31. "What? Father!" I asked my father, staring in disbelief.

32. "Nothing, don't be afraid.

33. Xing'er, come outside with me and take a look."

34. My father unhurriedly took a small shiny pistol out of the drawer and headed out.

35. I followed him, out of the yard, temporarily hiding in a secluded hut.

36. A moment later, there was a heavy sound of leather shoes outside.

37. My heart beat violently, and I looked at my father with horror.

38. "Don't let one go!" A rough yell came from outside the window.

39. Gendarmes in gray uniforms and long leather boots, detectives in plain clothes, police in black uniforms, swarmed into the small room and filled it.

40. They surrounded us like a group of devils.

41. They each held a pistol, with its muzzle pointed at my father and me.

42. In the middle of the military police, I found Yan Zhen San, a worker who had been arrested a few days before.

43. He had a rope tied to his arm and was being pulled by a fat plainclothes detective.

44. The plainclothes detective with a fleshy face pointed to his father and asked Yan Zhen San: "Do you know him?"

45. Yan Zhen San shook his head.

46. His long hair in the middle of a pale face, obviously suffering from torture.

47. "Humph! You don't know? I can know him."

48. The detective sneered and instructed the group under him, "Watch out, don't let him kill himself!"

49. They carefully searched the father's whole body.

50. The father maintained his usual grim attitude and did not reason with them.

51. because he understood that there was no reasoning with them.

52. The brutal bandits tied up my father and dragged him away.

53. I was also taken away by them.

54. In the courtyard of the police hall, enclosed by a high brick wall, I saw that both my mother and sister had also been brought in.

55. We were locked up in the women's detention center.

56. Ten days passed, and we never saw my father.

57. One day, we were eating lunch and hadn't finished eating the nest in our hands when we heard the police call our names, saying it was an arraignment.

58. In the courtroom, we met with our father.

59. My father was still wearing his old gray cotton robe, but he wasn't wearing his glasses.

60. I saw his calm, kind face under his long, unkempt hair.

61. "Father!" I couldn't help but shout out.

62. My mother cried, and my sister cried with her.

63. "No shouting!" The judge picked up the wood and slapped it heavily on the table.

64. Father looked at us and didn't say a word to us.

65. The expression on his face was very settled, very composed.

66. His heart was occupied with a great power.

67. This power was what he usually told us - his confidence in the revolutionary cause.

68. "This is my wife."

69. he said, pointing to his mother.

70. Then he pointed to my sister and me, "These are my two girls."

71. "Is she your oldest child?"

72. the judge asked the father, pointing to me.

73. "Yes, I am the oldest."

74. I was afraid that my father would say my brother, so I grabbed it.

75. I don't know where the wit and bravery came from then.

76. "Don't talk too much!" The judge was furious and took the board in front of him again and slapped it hard a few times.

77. The father immediately understood, and then said: "She is my oldest child.

78. My wife is a country girl.

79. My children are still young, they do not know anything.

80. Nothing has anything to do with them."

81. The father finished the sentence and looked at us again.

82. The judge ordered us to be escorted down.

83. We thus met with our father and parted in haste.

84. I never thought that this would be our last meeting.

85. At dusk on the 28th, the police told us to pack our bags and leave the detention center.

86. We returned home, it was already dark.

87. The next day, my maternal uncle went to the street to buy a newspaper.

88. He came back from the street in tears, holding a newspaper helplessly in his hand.

89. When I saw the newspaper with the headline "Li Dazhao and others were hanged yesterday," I immediately felt a cloud in front of my eyes and fainted in bed.

90. My mother was so sad that she fainted three times, and each time she just woke up and passed out again.

91. After a long time, my mother woke up and asked me in a low voice: "What was the date yesterday?

92. Remember, yesterday was the day your father was killed."

93. I cried again, picked up the newspaper from the ground, gritted my teeth, and read it again, barely.

94. whispered to my mother, "Mom, yesterday was April 28th."