作者：次仁罗布,Krysta Close,Dong Rui
出版社：中译出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
Realm 放生羊试读：
A Bull from America
UPON RECEIVING the report, I quickly drove my Jeep to Randui where the case had occured. My jeep, jolting on the rough road left every part of my body waggling. Would my jeep break down halfway to the village? If so, I would have to walk to the village on foot.
Honestly speaking, this could not be regarded as an important case. A bull kept for covering was dead. Its owner believed it had been poisoned by someone. The village officer of Randui insisted that I should deal with it. He said that villagers always had a stubborn belief in the police office and they would have no dissatisfaction to a police officer’s decisions. Bullshit. But I had to jolt more than an hour just for this bullshit.
The road ahead is a sea of buckthorn waiting for me to come through, those taupe branches weaving. I would prefer to come through the forest in spring. Yellow flowers in the sea of buckthorn leaves were like flashy gold under the sun. However, in this early winter, all of the leaves had fallen, leaving me unhappy and disinterested.
The constant jolting made me ill. I stopped the jeep to urinate, then I pissed on the soil bursting out many different sizes of bubbles. As I zipped up, I heard the swishing sound of cattle. After a moment, a peasant woman came out with a cow. On her back, there was a basket full of cow dung.
An elderly rural woman with a face full of wrinkles grinned at me with a piece of lattice headscarf.
“What a harvest! You have got a full basket of cow dung!” I said.
“This cow was just mated and it is said that the bull came from a foreign country which was quite expensive,” she said. The woman stopped talking and got a snuffbox from her pocket while the cow with white and black fur swayed her thin tail back and forth.
“How much is it to mate one time?” I asked, staring blankly at the cow’s ugly backside.
“Well, it is very expensive,” she replied with an evil grin.
“Okay,” I quickly turned my head.
“You come from the county, don’t you?”
“Yes. I am going to Randui. There is a bull dead,” I answered.
“Oh, yeah. That’s Gonpo’s bull. That bull is much more expensive than our village’s. Gonpo owed a heavy debt in order to buy that bull. It is rumored that if mated with that bull, the milk production of the calf would be many times more than ours. Besides, that bull is stronger, bigger and has more meat production than ours. Well, they are done for this time.”
Hearing these words I was finally aware of the gravity of the situation. I had to get to Randui Village in a hurry, as I sensed a furious peasant in front of me.
“I’ve got to go.”
“Help them with a thorough investigation. That bull is the most valuable thing they own.”
I ran away in haste. I had to drive as fast as possible, regardless of the jolting. After passing by many gray and stagnant villages, I finally saw the mountain road to Randui Village.
After a short drive through the ravine, there was a narrow, circling path. To the left of the path were bare stones and withered grass; the right was a deep clough, the mountainside was dotted with scattered houses. In the sloping field downhill were terraced fields at regular intervals. At both the entrance and the end of the village, there were a few huge poplar trees. Yellowed leaves glistened in the sun from a far distance. This place was remote, but quiet.
My jeep drove slowly in this steep mountain road, zigzagging over its numerous turns. There was another corner ahead. It was just as I was turning when I saw the village Committee Director Phuchung standing at the side of road. He waved me down. “Stupid!” I scolded him in mind. How could I stop on such a steep road? The old jeep would slide straight down to the mountain foot if I did as he said. Ignoring him I drove ahead. Glancing from the rearview, I saw Director Phuchung running in a cloud of dust, shouting and waving, but all I could do was just to drive forward.
I stopped my jeep under the poplar at the entrance of the village. After a short while, Phuchung came, frustrated and exhausted. I felt guilty about his appearance “What a steep road! I was afraid of stopping because of the bad brakes,” I explained.
“Well you made it, that’s the important thing,” panting and stooped down, with his hands on his knees, he shook his head.
I passed him a cigarette, but he put it behind his ear, still doubled over. I lit up a cigarette and began smoking.
“Please go to my home first,” Phuchung said.
“No, thanks. When you get enough rest, please briefly tell me what happened.” I hoped to settle this case and get back to the county as fast as I could.
“In the morning, Gonpo tied his bull to the poplar behind the village, and met Karma Dorje on the way back. An hour later, when Gonpo went to look for his bull, it was gone. He climbed up to the mountain slope and found his bull in the thorn bush behind a stone, foaming at the mouth, dead. Gonpo believed that it was Karma Dorje who pulled the bull away and poisoned it. However, Karma Dorje won’t admit to it, holding that he would never do such a shameful thing. He said he was with Lobsang on the mountain the entire time, and that Lobsang could verify it. That’s all,” Phuchung panted.
“Has the bull been taken back?” I asked.
“Yeah, it was done this morning.”
“Please lead me to Gonpo’s house immediately.”
“You can drive the car directly there.”
“Fine. Get in the car.” We drove into the village. The chickens foraging at the side of road were sacred and flew up to the stone wall. Several sunburnt children with messy hair ran after the jeep. Following the direction that Phuchung pointed to, I turned right onto a lane, stopping in front of a house.
A thin and tall peasant stepped out of the house before I got off. He looked into the window, and seemed to doubt that there were only Phuchung and me in the car. He looked extremely disappointed when he saw there were no others in the car. Those kids with runny noses also arrived loudly, but immediately ran away when they saw this disappointed peasant.
“This is an officer from the Public Security Bureau in the county. Gonpo, invite him in.” Two women and a man came to the gate from the house.
Gonpo turned around, listless and desperate. He stepped over a low threshold, leaving his thin and tall back to me.
“Please come in. Sochu, go and get some buttered tea,” an aged woman said to a middle-age woman standing at the side with a prayer wheel in hand.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You must feel thirsty for such a long journey. How about having some tea before dealing with the case,” Phuchung chimed in.
I crossed over the threshold, and at first glance saw the bull laying in the courtyard. What an enormous bull! I even could not believe my eyes. It took up one corner of the courtyard completely. Its fur was shining in the midday sun. I walked around the bull. The hide rope was hanging down in the front of the bull’s fore hoofs. There was no scar on this side.
“Please help me to turn it over.” We four men heaved with all our might to turn the bull over, but there was no scar on the other side either. I started focusing on the foaming at the mouth. I put forth my strength and forced open its mouth which was full of ropy saliva and chewed grass.
“Please wash your hands,” Phuchung said.
The woman named Sochu had already gotten a full copper ladle of water, and poured it slowly on my hands. By my side, Gonpo put his hands into his sleeves, frustrated and disappointed.
By this time there appeared several sunburnt faces at the gate, discussing privately, ceaselessly. Phuchung scolded them closing the gate.
“Gonpo, please repeat the case to me one more time,” I said, wiping my hands dry.
“There is nothing else to say. How about going and grabbing Karma Dorje up, and letting him pay for what he did?” Gonpo said in a little higher voice, holding his neck stiff.
“That is not right. Each and every case calls for a thorough investigation, and only in this way can you catch the offender. Now, let’s go upstairs and talk about this case to the public security officer in detail.”
What Phuchung said calmed Gonpo slightly, his neck slouched as he went upstairs.
“Please ask these villagers outside to leave, and make this place quiet. I have some questions to ask Gonpo privately.” I said to Phuchung following him up the stairs.
I sat with Gonpo face-to-face, and took out a notebook from my pocket.
“Please tell me the truth of this case. We do not want to wrong anyone.”
“You can grab the horse running wild, but the spoken word cannot be swallowed. How can I tell a lie?”
“Fine. Now please tell me what happened in the morning one more time.”
Charge Sheet (1)
Time: 13:20, October 25, 2006
Place: Randui Village
Reporter: Gonpo, male, forty-six, an illiterate villager in Randui Village
“This morning after sunrise I filled my jute bag with some grass and then took my bull to the poplar tree behind the village. As usual, I tied my bull to the trunk of the poplar and scattered the grass in front of it. My bull started to chew the grass, and its fur shone in the sunlight. I felt so happy that I could not help touching its back. I planned to let it mate with my other two cows sometime. I believed that the newborn calves would be the strongest in our village. I stood by my bull happily for a long time. After eating the grass up, it rubbed its back against the poplar to scratch an itch. I helped it with my hands, and it kept its head down and swayed its tail docilely. After that, the sun had climbed over the mountain, and sunshine covered the whole village. I saw some women going to get water with their buckets. I had stayed there for such a long time and I had to go back home, so I picked up the jute bag on the ground and went back.”
At the entrance of village, I met Karma Dorje. He held an axslasher in the right hand, and a piece of hide rope in the left. I didn’t greet him. I mean, he is a bad guy who can’t tell right from wrong. He is even worse than a dog, isn’t he?
When I bought my bull, everyone in our village was jealous, but only he got a bad plan from then on.
In this late summer, I took out a loan for 5,000 yuan from the credit bank, and borrowed another 3,000 yuan from my friends and relatives. Adding in my savings I had 10,000 yuan. I used the 10,000 yuan to buy a bull from Lhasa. I took it by truck to the county, and then by tractor to our village. I arrived at the village at noon and everyone in our village came to see the bull. They were jealous, envious, but the sounds of the tractor drowned out their voices.
I made my bull get off the tractor and planned to drag it to my home. At this time, Karma Dorje came and patted on my bull’s rear. I felt unhappy, and shouted at him, “This is not your bull! How dare you pat it so heavily?” He laughed, “Well, you cannot tell smoke from vapor if you don’t see it by yourself. What a beautiful bull!” Hearing that, my anger subsided. The whole village followed the bull to my gate. Some even came into my courtyard, and some climbed up on my wall to look inside. The only thing I could hear was their surprise and admiration. I felt happy and believed that I made the right decision. That afternoon, villagers came into my house and asked me endless questions. I told them the bull came from America. It took it three days to come here. A technician said its milk production would be twice as much as other cows, and I just needed feed it with grass or other normal fodder. The technician also said that I would be the first one in our village who became rich by a bull.
Evening came, and the villagers still had no intention of leaving. I was so tired and hungry that I asked them to go. They looked unhappy all of a sudden, and left my home one by one. My mom came and told me things would develop in the opposite direction once they became extreme. She told me to be more kind to the villagers, and in this way, I would offend less people. Then she started to spin her prayer wheel. I ignored her, for I knew how to get along with others. I felt so tired and hoped to go to sleep as soon as possible. I asked my wife to get me a drink. She got me some highland barley wine. I mixed the wine together with tsampa, and ate them up. After dinner I told my younger brother to feed the bull with some fodder, and keep it away from the other cows. Afterwards, I went directly to sleep.
Before the noon the next day, many villagers had come to my house and asked to mate my bull with their cows. Oh, what a whimsical idea! More than forty cows in the village wanted to mate with my bull. What a heavy “job” for it! I immediately used the credibility of the technician to refuse them. I said, “The technician said that the bull has just come over here. We should not let it mate with cows until it adapts to our village.” I borrowed money to buy the bull, and I did not dare to take a risk. With nothing to retort, the villagers had no choice but to leave, but before leaving they asked me not to break my promise. Promise? I had given them no promise. Their words indeed left me stressed. I thought, there were so many cows waiting to mate, but mating is not eating. Who could do that three times in one day?
I sat on my balcony to bask silently when all of a sudden the bell on the gate rang. I saw Karma Dorje’s dirty hand and round head come inside my courtyard. My face clouded. Karma Dorje stood in the courtyard and smiled at me. Do you think a piece of charcoal could be washed and rubbed white? A bad man is always a bad man. He went upstairs and sat beside me. “There are so many people coming to your house, right?” He passed me a cigarette. “Several,” I answered. More than half of the villagers had come, and the rest of them were just hesitating. “I am a forthright man. Well, what’s the price of mating once?” Karma Dorje asked. I used the technician again to refuse. To my surprise, he told me that was a lie. “As we all know, the Americans are very strong. I heard that as soon as they came to the foot of Mount Everest, men and women slept together. Women would scream when they were excited, which made the nearby villagers think that a she wolf had come. When they were planning to drive away that she wolf with flashlights and sticks, the translators came out of the tent in a hurry. He stopped the villagers and told them the Americans were making love. But the villagers doubted it and asked why they screamed like wolves when making love? The translator had nothing to say. Think about it. These Americans are so strong, let alone their bulls.” I was speechless, and only said, “You are a liar.” My bull had to mate with my own cows first, then others’ cows could be taken into consideration. Karma Dorje exposed my lie and sneered at me. He passed me another cigarette, but I didn’t take it. “Please think about what I said. You decide the price,” he stood up and not waiting for my answer, went downstairs and left.
Everything has two sides. Originally, I hoped to be respected by the villagers after buying this bull, but unexpectedly I was hated by them. They alienated us on purpose, saying some irresponsible and sarcastic words. I could understand them. I mean people usually cannot accept a person who is too sharp. In common sense, when everyone is paying attention to you, something unlucky can easily happen. I tried to avoid it. Furtively, I prepared candle light offerings, khata and twenty yuan. Then I crossed a mountain and went to Chiwu Temple in the early morning. I asked the monks to recite scriptures which could help me remove ill fortune. I felt no more repression and pressure afterwards, and believed Buddha would protect me forever. I raised my head again and didn’t feel afraid of the other villagers’ whisperings. I usually led my bull into the village. Although the villagers pretended not to see me, I found they still split their gaze to glance upon my bull. This cold war lasted for about ten days, and ended in failure for the other villagers. Their attitude toward me eventually changed and returned to that of before. When I passed by them with my bull, they usually said hello to me and gave me a cigarette or a pinch of snuff, but their topics still went to mating naturally. For fear of losing face, I had to promise them vaguely. We were integrated into a community again, and the reproach and complaint from my mom became less and less. Otherwise she would criticize me for making the whole village jittery. “You have isolated our family. We would be still happy even without that bull …” Her nagging upset me.
I believed everything would go well, and the villagers would accept my bull gradually. Pooh! Karma Dorje brought me back to trouble again, just as an old saying goes “Good men have no happiness without the bad being punished.” At that noon, my bull was tied to the poplar behind the village. Karma Dorje led his cow furtively there and forced my bull to mate. How could my strong bull like that thin cow? Karma Dorje pulled my bull to mate with his cow. As soon as my bull put its fore hoof on the cow, the cow fell down. This bad man still didn’t stop his behavior, and kept provoking the desire of the bull. My bull finally couldn’t help itself. Being afraid that his cow might be unable to withstand the bull, Karma Dorje helped his cow under the belly. At that time, I was mending my farming tools at home, and suddenly I felt a sense of misfortune. I stopped the mending work and ran to my bull. When I arrived there, Karma Dorje was still under the belly and his friend Chophel was helping him. Chophel was directing my bull to mate. I felt furious as soon as I saw what was happening. I kicked Chophel’s ass and knocked him to the ground. Not realizing my arrival, Karma Dorje shouted, “Help it get up!”I kicked heavily on the cow’s back, making Karma Dorje and the cow fall to the ground. Although seeing that I was extremely angry, instead of apologizing, Karma Dorje argued, “We had made a deal, Gonpo. I would pay you for this mating, but it is still not completed. Now you come, give me a hand.” I looked around, but couldn’t find a stone or a stick. I hit him heavily right in his face, knocking him down. I rode on him and grabbed his hair. Chophel came and tried to drag my hand, which only further infuriated me. I stopped grabbing Karma Dorje’s hair, and stood up to punch Chophel. Scared, Chophel started to run towards the village. I shouted at him while throwing stones, which attracted other villagers’ attention. They stopped me and asked me to calm down. In front of the villagers, I swore to Triratna that I was sure to kill Karma Dorje and Chophel. My oath frightened the other villagers. Phuchung and the village secretary were asked to mediate between us which upset me. I asked for mating fee from Karma Dorje, but Phuchung did not agree because of the unsuccessful mating. They scolded severely Karma Dorje behavior, and asked him to apologize to me. Karma Dorje did, but I insisted on demanding compensation. Some villagers started changing their attitude toward me, from sympathy to antipathy. “Are you crazy about money? Nothing bad happened. There is no need to force a man in the same village …” These discussions only upset me further. I thought, “I bought a bull using borrowed money, but offended all villagers. Why can’t they stand a bull?” I felt angry and wronged. Then my mom came in the crowd and asked me to come home. I said, “We haven’t settled it justly.” She said, “It has been solved by Mr. Phuchung and the village secretary justly. Why are you still dissatisfied?” I was still angry, but I could not break my mom’s heart. Anyhow, she was already more than seventy years old. I had to obey my mom, and left the crowd with curses.
From then on, I became very wary. Over twenty days later, my bull became stronger and stronger. I thought it was the time for the bull
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