Blood Coconut

Chapter 3: Blood Performance

Scene 1: The taste of "Water Prison"

On the third night when the sewage overflowed his chest, Chen Mo's consciousness began to be confused.

Moldy plastic bags floated in the rotten water, cigarette butts floating on the water, and gray-white link worms - they were like small snakes, digging in along the wound of his calf. Three days ago, the three holes pierced by Zhang Qiang with bamboo sticks were soaked in the sewage at this moment. The carrion was like soft cotton paper. With a slight movement, the fine skin peeled off, and pink ripples were mixed in the water.

He tried to lift his left leg, and the water grass wrapped around the wound, like a cold noose. Chen Mo gritted his teeth and wanted to tear it off. As soon as his fingertips touched his skin, the severe pain made him twitch all over. Cold sweat dripped into the water along the corners of his forehead, stirring up small splashes. The water grass was not torn off, but brought up a milky white pus, floating in a film on the water, attracting more insects.

A ray of light shines through the iron window above the head, slashing through the opposite wall. It is full of crooked names, some of which are deeply carved by nails, and dark red blood dirt is embedded in the strokes; some have been blistered and swollen, leaving only vague outlines. Chen Mo squinted and recognized that the word "Lin Shen" was repeatedly engraved three times. The last stroke was like a knife, deeply wedged into the brick crevice, and the edge was still dark red debris, like unwiped blood.

"Wow--"

A moldy steamed bun fell into the water, and a layer of green hair floated in front of him. Chen Mo's stomach turned upside down, but he rushed over like a hungry wild dog and grabbed his hands in the sewage. The steamed bun had already been soaked and swollen, and the smell of the nasal cavity was sour. He stuffed it into his mouth and chewed hard. The mold stuck to the gums and was bitter and astringent, but the spasm in his throat forced him to swallow it - this was the only food today. If he didn't eat it, he might not have the strength to wait for a piece tomorrow.

"College students also have to eat this meal." Zhang Qiang's face appeared on the iron window, his military boots stepped on the edge of the window, and his heels made a dull sound. He looked at Chen Mo's gulping, and the scar on his face twisted with a smile, like a live insect. "Do you know why I put you here? You have 'value'."

Chen Mo was choked by steamed buns and coughed violently. The sewage poured down the corners of his mouth into his throat. The smell of rust mixed with the smell of rot choked his eyes.

"You can speak Mandarin, and it's best to deceive those old people in the mainland." Zhang Qiang spit into the water and just splashed on the back of Chen Mo's hand. "They have saved a lifetime of coffin money. If you lie to them, your wife can have children and your mother can have chemotherapy - this account is cost-effective."

Chen Mo clenched his fist and pinched his nails deeply into his palm, and the bloody smell mixed with the smell of rosh filled the tip of his tongue. He remembered the words "fetal heart rate is normal" on Lin Wan's pregnancy test form, and the ticking sound of the monitor in his mother's ward. Those numbers were like red soldering iron, which made his heart hurt.

"Not talking?" Zhang Qiang suddenly bent down, and his military boots stepped on the top of Chen Mo's head and pressed it into the water. "Do you think Qu Cai? Don't you think you should lie to those old things?"

The cold sewage filled the nasal cavity in an instant. Chen Mo's lungs seemed to explode, and his eyes turned black. He could feel the worm drilling through his nostrils, sliding through his throat with a cold stickiness, which was more disgusting than suffocation.

"If you want to live, you can trick their coffin book out!" Zhang Qiang's voice came through the water, like a muffled thunder in the skull cavity. "Otherwise, next time, I'll throw you to feed crocodiles - those beasts love to eat meat with bones."

When he moved his feet away, Chen Mo suddenly looked up, lying by the water and coughing violently. The sewage he coughed up was mixed with blood and mold spots. He looked at Zhang Qiang's disappearing back on the iron window, and the wound on his leg suddenly felt a pain, like countless insects gnawing bones. The word "Lin Shen" on the wall was cold in the faint light. He stretched out his hand to touch it, and his fingertips touched the deep mark, as if he had touched a wound that was always flowing pus.

Scene 2: The "metamorphosis" of roommate Ajie

"Auntie, your son was caught for prostitution in Macau, and he can be released by paying a bail of 50,000 yuan - if this matter spreads out, he can't raise his head for the rest of his life."

Ajie's finger joints pinching the phone turned white, and his voice was sweet and greasy, but there was a sneer at the corners of his mouth that did not match his age. The seventeen-year-old boy, with a thin and soft stubble on his chin, spoke like a poisoned needle, which made the old lady on the other end of the receiver tremble.

Chen Mo sat in the corner of Datong's shop and looked at Ajie flipping through the book. The "pain points" circled by the red pen are dazzling: "The elderly living alone are afraid that their children will have an accident", "face is important" and "the savings are hidden deeply". Half a year ago, when the child was first tricked by his fellow villagers, he called to deceive people for the first time. After hanging up the phone, he squatted in the toilet and cried, and his tears swelled his trouser leg. Now he can laugh and cheat other people's pension money into the wolf's nest, as if he was not holding a phone, but a knife.

"It's done." When Ajie hung up the phone, the cold sweat on his forehead ran down his cheeks, but he excitedly rushed to Chen Moyang's mobile phone, "Brother Mo, it's done! The old lady said to transfer the money in the afternoon. He took out half a pack of Chinese cigarettes from his pocket - the "performance award" given by Zhang Qiang, and handed one to him. "Have a taste?"

Chen Mo didn't answer. The words "smoking is harmful to health" on the cigarette box are as bright as the eyes on Zhou Meng's ID photo.

Ajie lit the cigarette by himself, sucked it so quickly that he coughed, and his tears came out. He squatted on the ground, turned his back to the crowd, and secretly took out a photo from the cigarette box: the five- or six-year-old boy grinned, with a crescent-shaped birthmark on his left cheek, exactly the same as Ajie's face.

"This is my brother, Li Hao." Ajie's voice was as low as a mosquito humming, rubbing the birthmark on the photo with his fingers, "Leukemia, bone marrow transplant, 300,000 yuan." He pinched his nails into the edge of the photo and wrinkled the corners of the paper. "My mother said that he didn't have enough money. This winter, he..."

The following words were swallowed into sobs, the throat knot rolled, and the phlegm coughed up was bloody.

Chen Mo remembered that three days ago, Ajie was hit by Zhang Qiang with a belt because of his "performance not up to standard". The blood stains on the back are staggered, like a broken net. The child gritted his teeth and didn't cry until Zhang Qiang kicked his knee: "If you can't complete the task again, post your brother's medical record on the Internet and let him see how you 'make money' here!" Ajie suddenly knelt down, and his forehead thumped on the concrete floor, as if he was ringing the death bell.

"Brother Mo, I don't have to choose." Ajie put the photo back in the cigarette box and wiped his face with his sleeve. The smile just now faded completely, and there was only fatigue that did not match his age in his eyes. "If my brother dies, my mother will not live... I have to earn money, even if it is cheated."

He suddenly grabbed the phone on the table. His fingers trembled when dialing. After connecting, he immediately laughed: "Mom, I'm fine here. The boss bought me new clothes..."

Chen Mo looked at the bleeding bandage on his back - that was what he said "new clothes".

After hanging up the phone, Ajie squatted on the ground with his shoulders shaking violently. He didn't dare to cry. He could only bite his fists, pick his nails into his palms, and drop blood on the ground and be sucked dry by the dirt. The snoring of the big shop, the scolding of Zhang Qiang's performance next door, and the bang of the empty wine bottle being kicked in the corner of the wall covered the teenager's repressed sobs.

Chen Mo handed over a wrinkled paper towel. Ajie took it and didn't wipe his face. He stuffed it into the cigarette box and pasted it with his brother's photo.

"Brother Mo, are all people like this?" When Ajie looked up, his eyes were as red as a rabbit. "In order to live for yourself, do you have to push others into the fire pit?"

Chen Mo looked at the birthmark on his face and thought of the child in Lin Wan's belly. If the child is born, will it also have such a mark? Will one day, in order to survive, I have to learn from Ajie and tell the cruelest lie to strangers?

He touched the wound on his leg. The carrion was soaked in water and smelled like a rotten rag.

Scene 3: The crying of college students

When Zhou Meng's voice came out of the handset, Chen Mo's hands trembled so that he could not hold his mobile phone.

"Hello, I want to consult about the scholarship..." The girl's voice was timid, with the greenness of a newly graduated. "My sister went to high school in the mountainous area. She is seriously ill and needs to have surgery. I saved some money by working during the summer vacation, but it's not enough..."

Chen Mo stared at the red words on the speech book: "Public Welfare Foundation", "A deposit of 5,000 yuan" and "20,000 yuan scholarship". These words are like a red soldering iron, which is so hot that the fingertips are numb. He remembered that when he graduated from college, in order to pay for his mother's chemotherapy, he washed dishes in the restaurant for three months. His fingers were covered with blisters by hot water, but he didn't even save enough for a month's medicine.

"Wait a minute, I'll check the information." Chen Mo's throat was like a ball of cotton, and he looked up at Zhang Qiang. The other party held his arm against the wall, turning the electric stick in his hand, and the threat in his eyes was like an ice cone.

"Speak quickly!" Zhang Qiang used his mouth to command.

Chen Mo took a deep breath and suppressed the choking in his throat: "We are the Sunshine Public Welfare Foundation, which specializes in supporting poor students. If you pay a deposit of 5,000 yuan first, you can apply for a scholarship of 20,000 yuan, which will be credited soon.

"5,000 yuan..." Zhou Meng's voice hesitated, "This is all the money I saved for my summer vacation... Can you pay half of it first? Wait for the scholarship to make up for it?"

"No." Chen Mo's voice trembled violently. He could imagine the girl hugging the bank card. His fingers must have been the same as him back then. Because of nervousness, "The regulations are like this, otherwise the system will not be able to pass. Think about it, 20,000 yuan is enough for your sister's surgery, and 5,000 yuan is only temporary..."

There was a sniffing sound from the handset, followed by the rustling of paper - probably looking at the pay slip of summer workers. After a long time, Zhou Meng's voice was as light as a feather: "Then I'll transfer the money now. Do you promise... can you help my sister?"

"I promise." When Chen Mo said these three words, he felt that his soul was torn open and the cold wind poured in.

When he hung up the phone, his whole body was drained. Zhou Meng's 5,000 yuan arrival prompt popped up. Zhang Qiang clapped his hands and came over, and the scar twitched with a smile: "That's good. Soft-hearted people are the best at lying - knowing how to poke other people's weaknesses."

He threw a photo of his ID card in front of Chen Mo. Zhou Meng was wearing a bachelor's uniform, smiling cleanly, and her eyes were as bright as stars. I have all her home address," Zhang Qiang stepped on the photo with military boots, and his heels ran over Zhou Meng's face. "This girl is good-looking. Next time I cheat her for a 'naked loan', the interest will be higher. If you can't do it, let Ajie do it - he is good at it now.

"You are not human!" Chen Mo stood up suddenly and hit the wall with his fist, and his finger bones hurt like cracking. Blood flowed down the wall, dyeing the smiling face of last week's cute photo red.

"I'm not human?" Zhang Qiang smiled more fiercely, grabbed Chen Mo's hand and pressed against the wall, "Then what are you? Who do you want to spend with her sister's life-saving money? Give you a wife who is about to give birth? Or is it your mother lying in the hospital bed?"

Chen Mo's nails were deep into the wall, and the blood mixed with wall dust stuck between his fingers, like a sin that can't be washed away. He remembered Zhou Meng's words, "My sister is waiting for money for surgery", the monitor in his mother's ward, and Lin Wan's gentle eyes when he touched his stomach. These pictures circled in his mind, and finally turned into Zhou Meng's cry, which was as sharp as a needle, which made his temples jump.

"This is fate." Zhang Qiang shook off his hand and wiped the blood on his hand with a paper towel. "Here, you can either step on other people's bones or become bones under other people's feet."

Chen Mo looked at the blood handprint on the wall, which looked like an ugly medal. He rushed to the trash can and vomited violently. The sour water made his throat hurt, but he couldn't spit out anything - his stomach was empty for a long time, leaving only filth and despair.

Scene 4: "Doctor"'s operating room

Zhang Qiang asked Chen Mo to deliver documents to the "doctor" seemed to be endless.

The leaves of the rubber tree block the sunlight, and the shade floats with a mixture of disinfectant and blood, like some kind of rotten flower. Before we arrived at the tin room, the "sizzling" sound of the chainsaw cutting bones penetrated into the eardrum, which was dull and sticky, which made people's scalps tingle.

Chen Mo walked against the wall. When he passed by the hidden door, he couldn't help but glance at it.

At this glance, the acid water in his stomach rushed to his throat in an instant.

There was a person lying on the stainless steel platform. His face was covered with blood and could not be seen clearly. His stomach was cut open. His intestines and internal organs were piled up in the iron plate next to him. The blood dripped down the edge of the platform and accumulated into black and red puddles on the ground. The man known as the "doctor" was wearing a blood-stained white coat, the mask was pulled up to his chin, revealing his yellow teeth, and he was wearing rubber gloves to stuff a bloody kidney into a plastic bag.

There is a printed label on the freezer next to it, and the words written by the marker are stained with blood: "Kidney, type A, 500,000; liver, type O, 800,000; cornea, unlimited, 300,000/pair".

"Have you seen enough?" A cold voice exploded from behind.

Chen Mo was so scared that the documents were scattered all over the place. The doctor stood behind him at some point, holding a plastic bag with kidneys in his hand, and the blood dripped down the mouth of the bag on his shoes, like a blooming red poppy.

"No... I didn't see anything." Chen Mo's teeth trembled. When he bent down to pick up the document, his fingers trembled so that he couldn't even catch the paper.

When the "doctor" picked up the documents, Chen Mo caught a glimpse of the work card on his chest: the person in the photo was ten years younger than him, with similar eyebrows and eyes, and his name was written "Liu Zhiqiang, a retired doctor in a hospital in northern Myanmar". But the man's right little finger was missing, but the person in the photo was intact.

"It's very careful." The doctor sneered and put the work permit in his pocket. "Look again, dig out your eyes and distribute them to Mr. Kun's dog." He patted the freezer and made a dull sound. "There are still two empty seats in it. Do you want to try it?"

Chen Mo's back was covered with cold sweat, and he bit his lips so hard that he didn't dare to speak.

The "doctor" weighed the plastic bag, and the kidney swayed inside, like a piece of raw meat. Do you know how these 'deeds' came from?" When he approached, the smell of blood mixed with the smell of disinfectant came to his face. "They are all disobedient - those with the bottom performance and want to escape. It's better to keep it and waste food. It's better to exchange some money.

He suddenly patted Chen Mo's face with his gloved hand. The blood stains rubbed against his cheeks, which were sticky and hot: "If you work hard, you don't have to come here. Play tricks..." He pointed to the corpse on the stainless steel table, "That's the end of you."

Chen Mo suddenly turned around and vomited violently against the wall. The sour water mixed with the moldy steamed buns eaten in the morning were all spit under the roots of the rubber tree, causing several flies to buzz and circle.

"Waste." The doctor cursed in disgust and turned into the operating room. The tin door "banged" shut, locking the sound of the chainsaw and the smell of blood inside.

Chen Mo sat on the ground, and his strength was drained. The sunlight shines down through the cracks of the rubber trees, casting mottled light and shadow on the ground, but it can't dispel the cold that goes deep into the bone marrow. He touched his waist, and there was an inexplicable colic.

Scene 5: Late-night secret talk

In the middle of the night, the snoring in the dormitory was like a huge beast panting. Chen Mo tossed and turned, the wound on his leg was faintly painful, and the picture of the operating room was always shaking in front of him.

"Can't sleep?" Brother Wang's voice came out of the darkness with the sound of alcohol.

Chen Mo was shocked and turned his head to see Brother Wang smoking a cigarette, and the cigarette butts lit up in the dark. Qiangzi asked you to see a doctor?" Brother Wang moved to his side with a low voice.

Chen Mo nodded and his throat tightened.

"That old thing is not a doctor." Brother Wang spit out a smoke ring, and the smoke scattered into a ball in the moonlight. "I used to be a driver of Mr. Kun. I blocked the knife for Mr. Kun and knew how to bandage a little, so I was sent to do this 'dealing' job."

Chen Mo's back felt a chill: "Do it...what?"

"What else can it be?" Brother Wang sneered and lowered his voice, "The lowest performance, the one who wants to escape, the one who is disobedient. Master Kun was sent here with a word. It is said that it is 'processing', but in fact it is..." He wiped his neck, and the light of the cigarette butts reflected his mouth with missing front teeth, like a ghost. "This is how the 'things' you see today."

Chen Mo thought of the label on the freezer, and his stomach thudled again.

"Do you think Mr. Kun is a good man?" Brother Wang spit on the ground and said, "Every day, he wears a cassope and recites scriptures. The incense in the Buddhist hall is continuous, and there is more blood on his hands than anyone else." He approached Chen Mo in a low voice like a whisper, "Every time he 'deals' in front of people, he will burn three sticks of incense in the Buddhist hall, kowtow to the Guanyin statue, and say 'this is their life'."

Chen Mo's heart sank to the bottom. He thought of Zhang Qiang's "this is fate", the indifferent face of the "doctor", and Ajie's tearful eyes. In this place, is human life really like an ant?

"No one can escape?" Chen Mo's voice trembled.

Brother Wang was silent for a long time, and the light of the cigarette butt was clearly extinguished in the dark. There has been." He finally opened his mouth with a trace of longing in his voice, "Three years ago, a woman escaped and took Mr. Kun's account book. Later... there was no news.

He extinguished the cigarette butt and pressed it on the ground: "If you want to live, you have to be more cruel than them. Either be a wolf or a sheep - you saw the end of the sheep today.

Chen Mo didn't say anything and touched the wound on his leg. The blood there had solidified into a hard scab, like an ugly seal, on his heart.

The moonlight shone in through the iron window, illuminating the empty wine bottles and cigarette butts on the ground, and also illuminating the numb faces of Datong. Chen Mo looked at these sleeping or awake people and suddenly felt that they were all like lambs to be slaughtered, but he didn't know who would be the next one to be dragged to "deal with".

He closed his eyes, and Lin Wan's face appeared in the darkness. She stroked her stomach and said with a smile, "Chen Mo, our child will be born safely."

Tears suddenly flowed down the corners of the eyes and dripped silently on the moldy mattress.