Mending the Fire
补火
2003
There was no wind, only cold. And the cold cut deeper than any wind ever could. When the wind came, a man could still stamp his feet or swing his arms to keep himself warm. But once the cold settled in, the body simply went numb. To move was misery; to stand still was no better. The slightest shift—a shoulder, a knee, the turn of a neck—felt as though a bone might snap.
The harvest had long been finished. The frozen earth had split into hard, jagged plates, as though it might burst apart at any moment. Frost settled over the salt-white clods and blanketed the roots of the reeds, driving the cold deeper into a man's heart.
It was before dawn in early winter on a farm in the Gobi. Looking ahead between the shafts of the ox cart, everything dissolved into a dim wash of black and grey. The workers' houses seemed to grow lower and smaller until even the nearest lamp disappeared. Man, oxen, and cart were swallowed by the same heavy darkness.
没风，只是寒气，寒气比风更利。风来了，人还能动动，可寒气一来，人就麻木了，动也不是，不动又不是，随哪处一动，骨头会断似的。
庄稼早收完了，地冻得裂裂壳壳，随时要炸开。霜落在盐碱土疙瘩上，蒙在芦苇根上，刺得人心更寒。
这是戈壁农场初冬的凌晨。从牛车辕杆望去，迷朦黑灰的一片，队上的房子在矮下去，小下去，最近的灯火也消失了。人、牛、车全陷在昏沉里。
Read / 阅读 →The Waning Moon
月缺
1992
Every shepherd in the Tianshan knew the way. From Ku'erchu it crossed nineteen kilometers of gravel plain, climbed over the Tianshan Pass, followed a scrub-lined river for another thirty kilometers, then crossed seven barren ridges where not a blade of grass would grow. Beyond them lay a rich grassland.
From Yazhilike to Shenggou, from Shenggou to Luzhida, across two hundred and twenty kilometers of pasturelands, two hundred and twenty shepherds tended twenty-two thousand sheep.
All of it belonged to a single wolf.
牧人们都知道，那时的天山，从库尔楚往上，穿十九公里戈壁，过天山垭口，沿着灌木丛生的河道走三十公里，再翻过七座寸草不生的山梁，就能见到一片肥沃草场。从雅志里克、到深沟、到鲁之达，方圆二百二十公里，有二百二十个牧羊人，放二万二千只羊，所有这些，都归一只狼管。在度日如年的日子里，它如幽灵般随时闪现在牧区的任何角落，又如幽灵般消失，几乎所有人、畜全被它搞得惶恐不安，疲于奔命，无数精明强悍的牧人，经过无数次失手，总算将它诱入陷阱。
直到许多年后，每当牧人们谈及那天捕狼后的情景，还在感叹不已，他们十分肯定地说：就在当天，几乎所有的羊，一下子膘肥八两，连驴叫都精神多了。整片牧区风和日丽，羊欢驴叫，牧人们如释重负般个个喜形于色，奔走相告，围在陷阱边，棒打石砸。老队长发话：别让他死了，送动物园，让人看看狼。即砍了些松木杆，钉只笼子，斗胆装狼进笼——塞进笼里，钉了笼口，仔细打量起来，这才真让他们惊诧不解了；这只狼其实比一条普通的饿狗瘦弱多了，牙也普通，毛不过是杂毛，只是那双狼眼，冷漠阴郁得让他们浑身不自在。好在他们很快就把它忘了，应该庆幸才是，牧人们从此可以高枕无忧，羊群也能放心吃草了。
只有一个牧人例外，那天晚上，其他牧人们都安心睡了，他却三番五次从牧羊屋里走了出来，长久地徘徊在狼笼边。数年间让他惊魂不定刻骨铭心的场景一一浮现，这一切，都结束了，那么快，快得让他不可思议。尽管，狼是被关着，每颗钉子，每条铁丝，都实实在在，不可能破笼而出，这更让他惴惴不安，他觉得事情不会如此简单了结。
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