The main content of Martyrdom is written by Lin.

Buried alive with the dead

Embroidery is tight. Every time a needle goes down, there will be a bang, and then the silk thread passes through the soft satin and makes a long sound: "psst-". Embroiderers are useless and focus on embroidery. Because I am too focused, my nostrils are open, my lips are upturned, and my whole face is as tight as embroidered silk.

The last leaf is almost finished, so it will be faster to give it to Xiaoyun and let her aunt use the sewing machine. But what color should I use for the edge? Grandma Fang stopped thinking about it and held the embroidered shirt in front of her eyes. If according to her meaning, the green face of the onion heart, one and a half inches wide, is the most suitable. But who knows if Xiaoyun is willing or not? Nowadays, young people have different brains and strange colors. The child said, "Mom! Come to a gray one! " That's impossible, it's for marriage!

Bang, hiss-,bang, hiss-,Grandma Fang went on to embroider leaves. There are not many stitches and the thread is finished. It is very difficult for her to wear a new thread. An embroidery needle can't be worn near or far, even though you are wearing reading glasses. She had to call Xiaoyun, but her classmates were talking happily in the next room! Grandma Fang was about to shout when she heard Miss Liu talking through the paper door:

"Fang Xiaoyun, are you going or not?"

"Let's go after dinner. Mom said to keep you for dinner, and she went out to add food for you? "

"It's still early, we can go back to dinner. The agency I told you about has many new earrings and gauze gloves, which you need for your wedding. I'll go with you and get a discount. "

"To tell you the truth," Xiao Yun explained gently, "my mother is making me an embroidered pillow. Her eyes are not very good. I have to wear almost every thread for her. The embroidery is almost finished. When I go out, no one will needle her, so the work must stop. Sorry. "

"oh! No wonder Fang Xiaoyun is anxious to wait for this pair of mandarin ducks to enter the bridal chamber! "

"Don't talk nonsense, my mother is not so tacky, why embroider mandarin ducks!"

"So what pattern did Auntie embroider?"

"You guess."

"Kirin sends a child?"

"Bah!"

"Spend a good full moon?"

"Boring!"

"Good morning?"

"This is not an embroidered towel! Let me tell you something. Mother embroidered a pale pink lotus with dew rolling on it and a dragonfly beside it. "

"Good elegant, aunt how to come up with such a clever design? Embroidering by yourself is really troublesome. Why not spend money to find someone to embroider with a machine? "

"Yes, I also said that there is no dowry now, but my mother wants to brush up on my old crafts when I get married. How can I stop her? Didn't I tell you that my mother is still a virgin and she is the purest woman, so her artistic vision is different ... "

-alas! Why does the child talk so much today!

Grandma Fang frowned when she heard this. She doesn't want to hear any more. She really doesn't know how Xiaoyun has been describing her mother to her classmates. What are you going to say? She pinned the embroidery needle on the soft surface, gently put it on the table, got up and crept out of the room. She knew Xiaoyun thought she had gone to Xiamen Street to buy cooked vegetables, so she spoke so impudently about her mother.

When she put on her shoes, she couldn't help thinking of six months ago. She clearly remembers that Xiaoyun proposed to her and married Xiong Min. She knew for a long time that in the pursuit of Xiaoyun, her daughter took a fancy to Liu who flew a jet plane. Jeter! The "brush" flying from the sky always leads to her heart being plucked. But to tell the truth, she really likes Xiong Min. First, he is full of vigor and vitality. However, flying a plane, and flying such a fast jet, everything happens, alas! She is afraid of fighting, hearing death and being quick. So she couldn't help but put the interest to xiao yun said clearly:

"Xiao yun, Xiong Min is good at everything, and he is not picky. Getting married is your own business. Parents can't do anything these days, but-but marry a soldier whose life is in danger at any time, especially Xiong Min who flies a jet. If you want something, you have to accept it! "

She's been through it before, and she knows what it's like to accept her fate. She doesn't want to ask Xiaoyun to go her way one day. But Xiao Yun, the child, turned around, put his hands on her shoulders, stood with his legs tightly wrapped in jeans, dumped a ponytail, cocked his head and smiled like a child.

"mom! It's long past your resignation! I know, it's because of dad that you bear this heart for me. However, a soldier always has the spirit of sacrificing his life in his duties, which is different from dad's situation. If something really happens to Xiong Min, I think I should bear it in this big era. Mom! Don't worry about me. Promise me-marry him. "

Xiaoyun said that it became passionate later. With tears in his eyes, he put his hand on his mother's shoulder, shook it twice and kissed her face with his wet mouth. She didn't recite this sentence clearly, but what she understood best was Xiaoyun's resignation. "Your resignation time has long passed." When did Xiao Yun become so talkative? She only knows that Xiaoyun can be coquettish, deceive people and even tell a great story, but she still refuses to accept fate! She had no idea, so she went to Xiaoyun's aunt and uncle. After relaying her own views and Xiaoyun's words, she came to a conclusion: "Uncle is the master." Waiting for Xiao Yun's uncle Lin to answer. Who knows my uncle is also on Xiao Yun's side.

"Also, this is not an era of resignation. If Xiaoyun really has such a rational opinion, she is not afraid to marry a soldier whose life is in danger at any time. Sister-in-law, just let her go! "

Oh! Uncle is such a stubborn person, so she is the one who should resign. Is it wrong to accept fate? Confused, she waited for a while and watched Jia Lin pacing back and forth in the room. She suddenly found that the hair on the back of Jia Lin's head was much whiter. When you are old, everyone is old and you can't disturb young people. I remember when Lin Jiagang came back from France, wearing a navy uniform, standing on the floor of the main room and calling his sister-in-law. Is he still wearing that suit? I think so, too. The back of the trousers is flat and worn out, that's all. "Sister-in-law, don't hesitate, don't worry, you will marry Xiaoyun!" It was not until her aunt said a word that she woke up from her aimless reverie.

Grandma Fang thought about the past six months ago, but inexplicably came to the backyard kitchen. When she saw Aman cutting beef, she remembered that it was nothing for her to come to the kitchen. She walked around the kitchen, lifted the lid and opened the cupboard. Oman was unhappy, staring at her, his mouth bulging. Then he took the net bag off the nail on the wall and muttered to Aman, "Don't cut the beef into big, straight silk!" " I will buy some more things. Three big girls will be very tasty. "

Originally, it was a two-lane shortcut to Xiamen Street, but Grandma Fang didn't take this road. She was always excited when she left home. On the way to the water source, my eyes immediately brightened, but I was a little breathless and my heart was beating. Looking under the embankment, did the autumn high water also rise? The water seems to flow quickly today. She looked up at the direction of the running water, ah! Chuanduan Bridge is red in the west for a long time! The sun is a big golden wheel, and it is about to sink. Is it bad eyes? The water flows so fast that the golden wheel rolls so fast. She doesn't often see the sunset, but she still remembers that the sunset she saw on the top of the white tower in Beihai was much quieter than this. It is also a golden wheel of Huang Chengcheng, slowly sinking, sinking, and finally sinking into her sight. Her heart is as far away as a golden wheel falling. At that time, it was dusk in the North Sea, and there was a faint golden light on the water. Several boats rowed to Wulong Pavilion. The scene of that moment was deeply imprinted on her mind for more than 20 years, no, more than 30 years! Days are like running water, rushing forward, chasing her old age, chasing Xiaoyun to get married one day, and refusing to accept her fate, this child!

Resignation, it was her second sister who told her to resign for the first time, that is, she came down from the White Tower in the twilight. Perhaps the second sister thought she was sad because of her silence, so she approached her and took her hand to comfort her and said, "Third sister, there is nothing I can do about what is predestined." Your health is very important. You are much thinner. " Embroider and read books when you are idle, and go back to your parents' house to play. Women are born with their destiny. "In fact, she didn't say anything, and her heart was filled with another kind of worry. But after listening to her second sister's words, she couldn't help sighing and said," Second sister, I know everything. "

How can you deny the fate of life! If my father didn't meet Fang Chunnian on the train, how could she and her family get married? Or my father met not Jia's father on the train, but Li Jingming's uncle and Zhang Dongpo's uncle. Maybe she became the housewife of the Li family or the Zhang family. Even if your father meets Jia's father a few years later, the situation will be different. Although she is only a wealthy family now, she is not a big wealthy family, but a second wealthy family! Xiaoyun often says "Time". Isn't her fate caused by her times? Why did father go back to the south that year? It was a civil war in the early years of the Republic of China. My grandfather fell ill in Yangzhou. Father decided to rush home to visit and take care of the salt at home. Her maiden name is Zhu, a big salt merchant in Yangzhou! However, my father was so bookish that he could not inherit his grandfather's salt industry. He went all the way to Beijing to study and be an official, and took his mother over, even if he got married and settled in Beijing. What a coincidence, the old man just went back to the south, and it was also a train.

That day, she was writing a big letter in her study, near Liu Gongquan's riddle pile. Second sister pushed the door and came in. First, she called "Third Sister", looked around with her probe and asked, "Are you alone today? What about the teacher and the four brothers and five brothers? "

"The teacher went home to visit his mother, and the four brothers and three brothers went to the land temple to buy crickets." Second sister just took out a letter from her pocket. She knew that her father had just sent it to her mother from Yangzhou, and she wrote several articles layer by layer. Second sister drew one from the middle and handed it to her. She smiled and said, "Look! Don't blush. "

..... Fang Fu is a Jinling family, and Chunnian and I have the same friendship. His eldest son, Qi Jia, is now studying in Imperial College London. He has beautiful hair and a bright future. He is a good match for my daughter. This time, he returned to the south with Spring Year. Because of this discussion, it is almost called a match made in heaven. Where would you like to go？ ...

How could she not be shy and throw the letter to the second sister with a red face? Second sister was ashamed of her: "Don't laugh at me, right?" You too! "She and her second sister are only two years old. Since I got engaged to my family in Kunshan last year, my second sister has stopped studying in the study, rushing to learn embroidery and busy with dowry. At that time, dowry was really an important thing. I don't know how many pieces there were just embroidery. In addition to my own use, I also need to find my husband's family, embroidered shoes for my mother-in-law, my father-in-law's glasses box, my sister-in-law's silk handkerchief, and my aunts and uncles.

At the age of fourteen, she was engaged to Fang, so she went out of the study and returned to the embroidery room. She hasn't finished reading the Book of Filial Piety. At first, it was said that she married her second sister at the same time when she was eighteen, but it was postponed because her family was in poor health and fell ill. After this delay, my second sister gave birth to two children in five years. As for her, the pillows were embroidered in pairs. Later, I don't know who they were embroidered for. One pair is for the second sister and the sister-in-law at home to marry him; A pair sent back to Yangzhou to make up their cousin's makeup; A pair ... she didn't embroider for a while, but soon, because she was bored, she embroidered cross cloth with fashion, counting tiny squares, crosses, crosses, red lines, green lines and purple lines. Suddenly, one day, the news of a major decision reached her ears, saying that Qijia's illness had not improved, and Fang Jia asked for marriage, beaming. Her parents were surprised at first, but after a period of consideration and discussion, they finally agreed. Although she is a little scared, she is more confused. She thought to herself, it's okay to marry in the past, and all four brothers and five brothers are engaged. If she doesn't get married, her brothers can't get close. It's not that her heart is outward, just a person. If she marries her sick husband, she may really be beaming and get better. But just in case-don't want to, don't want to, don't want to.

Multicolored wool, double happiness characters cut from red paper, peanuts, ginkgo biloba and longan dyed red and green were tied and glued and hidden in her first dowry. Everyone, everything they do, everything they say, has auspicious words on their lips. This kind of atmosphere is not easy to remind people of patients. Therefore, the anxiety before marriage just passed by, and it didn't make her very upset.

The day finally arrived. She put on a rockhopper gown and got into a sedan chair. The sedan chair regularly jumps, jumps, jumps, and jumps her to another level like a dream. In a daze, she was helped out of the sedan chair, worshipped the heavens and the earth, and entered the new house until the red veil was lifted and her head was still hanging deeply. After sitting on the bed, when she raised her eyelids slightly and leaned sideways, the first thing she saw was two feet on the ground next to her, wearing blue satin double-sided shoes and white foreign socks. When no one was in the room, she flashed her eyes up again, which startled her-she was a papery person! No, no, it shouldn't be her husband. Except her husband, she is eligible to sit next to her! Except her husband, who will be like her! She just woke up from a dream, her heart sank and she fell into the abyss. She looked down at the embroidered shoes on her feet, which were covered by a pleated skirt embroidered with gold, revealing only one toe. Blink of an eye, raindrops and tears just fell on the handkerchief in her hand. She rubbed it and tried to crush it.

After a long quarrel, it seems that an elderly woman is asking the guests to leave the new house so that the groom can rest early. As expected, the people dispersed, and then she heard some voices: he was coughing and panting, the spittoon was brought, and the big mouth of blood gushed out-someone said, "Master, let's lie down." So the blue satin double-sided shoes moved, and he was helped to the bed, brushed past her, struggled to lie down, and then heaved a relaxed breath. Others said, "Let's rest in the old lady's room tonight!" So she was helped out of bed, her legs were a little numb and she almost lost her footing. Outside the beaded tent, the candle shadow is red, and the red satin quilt is layered. On the box painted with red paint and gold, the brass lock reflects the golden red light. Red, red candles, red quilts, red boxes and red blood are everywhere! But she was kicked out of this new red house. This is her wedding night.

In her lifetime, at home, she did her duty as a wife, and her family was really grateful to her. After three newly married dynasties, she took over the responsibility of serving her husband from her mother-in-law and old servants. He changed his clothes, cooked lotus seed soup, served soup and medicine, and wiped the scarlet blood from his mouth. When he feels better, he can sit up in bed and let her take this book and that book from the shelf. At this time, her mood will be cheerful and she thinks that he will get better slowly.

One day, he asked her to open the drawer in the middle of the desk and take out a stack of his manuscripts. He took out a card and showed it to her, which read:

I was engaged to Ms. Zhu in Yangzhou for eight years, and the fish garden made many mistakes. Because I have been ill for a long time, my lungs have not recovered. Therefore, whenever I recite the sentence "Out of date, I will wither with autumn grass", I will feel deeply sorry for Ms. Shu Yun. Try to write a new style poem today, sending a bitter cloud of acacia:

Ah! Fang Shu, my love!

The torture of disease,

Day after day, year after year,

Missed our moment.

Makes me sad!

Ah! Shu Yun, my love!

Long white clouds and blue sky,

Send me a piece of acacia,

Float to the side of my love.

……………………

……………………

She is not used to this vernacular style, too bold and plain, without the elegance and sonority of old poems, and feels a little funny. But the meaning in that poem really touched her. It's finally a love poem! Finally, a man wrote a love poem for her! She couldn't help laughing and giving it back to her family. Put took the paper home, held out his hand to hold her, the hand is not like Du Wen's hand, soft bag on the back of her hand. Her heart was numb and she couldn't help pulling her hand back and waiting for him to lie down. Seeing his rosy cheeks, she thought: He won't always be so weak. When he gets fat, he will be like his younger brother Jia Lin, because she has seen photos of him in tune with his younger brother when he is healthy, and the two brothers are very similar. Jia Lin lives in Tsinghua University and came back to see her brother twice. She has seen both, so she thinks so.

But it's rare to feel happy like this. Since Qijia fainted twice, she knew how sick he was, and she couldn't deceive herself any more. One day, before the Korean ginseng and Ejiao she had just bought from the Senate were unpacked, Qi family called her to the bed and said weakly to her, "Shu Yun, I can't come, I wronged you!" He didn't even have the strength to stretch out his soft hand, so he fainted. This time, he never woke up.

"One day, the husband and wife are grateful for a hundred days." She and Jia have been doing it for more than one day, for a whole month, but are they husband and wife? She cried sadly, and others were sad to see her, but what was she crying about?

Life gradually depends on passing away. During the day, she can flirt with her mother-in-law all day. In the morning, I helped my mother-in-law comb her hair, from shredding cotton into a grate to combing her hair, tying a rope, sipping shavings, tying a bun, tying her hair and inserting a nine-ring gold tube. It took more than half a morning. Keep doing this and that. The sun has risen to the sky. Watch the humpback Pharaoh pull up the ceiling. It was quiet in the afternoon, and lazy maids were hiding in the next room. Only the old Yuma washed the old lady's hookah under the eaves, quack quack quack quack quack quack, so quack quack rhythmically, because the old Yuma dozed off at work. She came out of the wing and went to the old lady's room. When she passed old Yuma, she always patted her on the shoulder and coughed. Old Yuma opened his eyes and giggled at the wealthy family. The curtain of Dazhu is very heavy. When it was opened, the steel sheet on the curtain knocked on the door frame, and there was another loud noise, which woke up the mother-in-law who was dozing off in the plush chair. She came in to pack cigarettes for her mother-in-law, and took out a pack of Fujian cigarettes with double lion brand from the big elm cupboard. Tobacco is really thin and soft. There are three steps to listening to your mother-in-law smoking, namely, "Hudu", blowing paper media and "Gollum", and then lifting the small chair and blowing it upside down into the spittoon. Hot ash fell into the water, hissed and went out. While smoking a hookah, my mother-in-law talked about trivial matters at home. She stood at the hardwood square table, listened attentively, rubbed the paper media, cut the yellow watch core paper into more than an inch wide, rubbed it one by one on the smooth desktop with her palm, rubbed a lot, and put it in a long hat tube. In the middle of the clock, the golden hammer swings every second. "It's past five!" Whoever it is will remind me like this. The ceiling opened and the sunset shone under the eaves. Old Yuma has a toothache again. She picked a leaf of oleander and chewed it in her mouth, saying it was for toothache. At this time, the flower sender may have come. A basket of tuberose and jasmine are strung together with a few red hydrangeas inserted in the middle. She chose one, gave it to Zhang Ma, gave it as a dowry, and sent it back to her room. She followed. When I went to Zhangjia to see the flower basket put into the pearl account, the house was filled with flowers at once. Bright kerosene lamps were brought into the house, and the day was over.

She is most afraid of the lighting time after supper. She lit a kerosene lamp and the light bounced and lit up. She immediately projected her shadow on the curtain, which startled her every time she turned around. She doesn't like her big black shadow following her around the room. She put the lamp on the short side of the big elm cabinet and the shadow disappeared. In this way, smelling the mixed aroma of tuberose and jasmine, she coldly sent herself into the account. Lying down, the first thing I saw from the curtain was that there were sixteen satin quilts on the box. She thinks about it almost every day. She is only twenty-three years old this year. When will she finish covering the sixteen quilts? It's nice to have someone, even if she is so sick all her life, let her serve endlessly, at least someone! Or-go back to his room once, leave her a son and a half, and let her live a promising life!

She has been a widow for almost a year since Tomb-Sweeping Day last year. That morning, she got up early, because she was going to burn paper at home. All the women in the family are busy in Yuanbao, and she also took a stack of tin foil to fold in her room. As she folded it, she thought about the scene where her father-in-law personally wrote the names of her ancestors on a white paper bag with silver ingots. When the old ghost finished writing the name of the new ghost family Qijia, his father-in-law sighed deeply. Yes, what is more painful than losing a child when you are old? But isn't it sadder for her to stand by and be widowed? The father-in-law has a second son to look forward to. Jia Lin is as strong as iron, smart and filial. Both foreign and old can come to study, and they have already graduated from college. How is she? How can she be a loser? They are also brothers, why don't their families have the same physique as Jia Lin? The same sister, why can't she be as blessed as her husband and children as her second sister?

Thinking about it, she absently stopped her work and thought for a while while waiting. Suddenly there was a sound of leather shoes outside. She suddenly looked up at the window. It turned out that Jia Lin came in and called out "Sister-in-law!"

"Oh, it's my second brother. When did you go to town? "

"I have been back for a while. Dad wrote to tell me not to forget to go home and salute today. "

"Yes, there are too few people, and confession is also deserted."

"Sister-in-law, I'm looking for a book about evolution. I remember my brother did. "

"There is such a book, I will find it for you."

She turned inside out for a while, but she couldn't find it. "It may be on the shelf." She said to Jia Lin, and then stepped onto the footstool of the bookshelf. Looking back, I was shocked. Why do Jia Lin's eyes look at her like this? She was in such a hurry that she almost fell down while taking the book. "I'll do it, sister-in-law." Jia Lin said, and came quickly, just between her first and second time, he held her, she held out her hand, and he held it tightly. She was even more panicked and had a fever on her face. She gently pulled her hand back. How long did that strange grip last? Just a moment, for her, it is eternal. In this life, she has the most incomprehensible thing, that is, why does Lin Jia look at her like that and hold her hand like that? She knew that he was not frivolous. So he's sorry about what happened to her? Or is it her fault to reach out? She couldn't understand why she couldn't help reaching out in such a hurry. She doesn't hate Jia Lin. She always portrays her husband in a healthy period, which she has never seen before. Is this the root of that petty crime? How he got out of her house at that time, she hardly remembers. But what she remembers clearly is that soon after, she stood in the yard and watched her luggage burn. The fire blew westward along the spring breeze, and the paper ash floated up. Father-in-law libation, very seriously end a glass of wine, sprinkled around the luggage. Her heart is a mess, but it floats around with the scraps of paper.

She didn't drink, but she felt drunk. I only gave her this feeling once in my life. That afternoon, the second sister sent a car to pick her up to play in Beihai. When she walked to the top of Baitou Tower, she looked at the most beautiful sunset glow, and her slightly intoxicated mood fell with that sunset glow, and she could never find it again. The sun is still the same. Every day at sunrise and sunset, people's situation is different.

Ah! Why are you so confused, going to Xiamen Street, chasing the sunset overhead and running to Chuanduan Bridge? Grandma Fang came back from the bridge and blamed herself. She is really old, and her spirit is always in such a trance. In the morning, the embroidery needle was pinned to the chest, but it was thrown everywhere. Or Xiaoyun saw it: "Hey, hey, don't take it to heart!"

"I have a bad memory and always forget."

"But there's one thing you haven't forgotten, that little photo buried in the left upper pocket of Dad's silk jacket!"

Xiaoyun is so naughty and lovely. His small mouth is honey for a while and needle for a while.

Buried, maybe Xiaoyun's metaphor is good. She married Jia Wei and was buried. That night, when she came back from Beihai, she went to bed a long time ago. She thought for a long time, and the second sister was right. She has to accept her fate because she is a woman. No matter how much she doesn't hate Jia Lin, this is an unforgivable thing. She must avoid him. When she is joking, the reputations of both families are very important. The names of her father and father-in-law are jingling. They are not casual families! She pulled up the quilt, covered her head and shed tears. The cock crowed in the distance, and she fell asleep in a daze. When I wake up, the pane of Dongchang paper is full of sunshine. She stood up, her hair thick, and the poem "I woke up easily on this spring morning, and birds were singing all around" embroidered on the cross pillow was covered with yellow tears.

She only told Xiaoyun once about the photos buried with him, and the children still remember them and often say them to make fun of her! She likes the pose of that photo very much. This was taken when she was sixteen. The collar of the ingot is open and high. The bangs in front of her hair were cut in a personal shape. She stood at the door of the study with a handful of peony on her chest. It was her father's birthday, and she called Zhuxin photo studio in the factory to take it home. This photo is on the pillow of Qi Jia, so that he can see it. After he died, he changed clothes and wrapped them, so she took them and stuffed them into the pocket of the dead fool's close-fitting silk jacket. Alas! Let him go! In the early years, women had to die alive. Although she didn't do this, since two small photos accompanied him into the nanmu coffin, what's the difference between her life and martyrdom!

She listened to the second sister's words and picked up the embroidery needle in loneliness. Her eyesight was really good at that time. She remembers that she embroidered a parrot with sixteen colors of silk thread. It's hard for her to die now. At night, she can't even tell blue from green. When it comes to embroidery thread, what she misses most is Third Aunt. Was her second aunt so old then? But she is blind and deaf, and she likes sewing and embroidery. They often go to Ruiyuxing in Maozi Hutong to buy embroidery thread, sit by the glass counter, the waiter brings tea and cigarettes, and takes a lot of embroidery thread from upstairs for them to choose slowly.

Embroidery under bright glass windows is the main content of her life. The color separation of embroidery thread is sandwiched in a thick foreign book, pulled out one by one and tied on satin, cross cloth and white poplin. Once, she sat under the window and embroidered, looking forward to a strange day-Saturday. Often when Pharaoh camel opens the ceiling, she throws her work on the table, stretches and stands up, unable to speak through the hollow gauze curtain. The outer court rang with the sound of leather shoes. Jia Lin came back from a suburban university. When the tall and strong figure walks into the hanging flower door, it will make her heart surge like waves. Like a big boy, he bowed his head and counted the generous bricks in the yard with his feet and walked to his in-laws room. My mother-in-law may have been waiting lovingly in the yard. He looked very happy, greeted him, called "Mommy", and was pushed into the hall by her mother-in-law. Feeling lonely and uncertain, she looked for a long time at the four big scarlet letters "Purple gas comes from the east" on the four green gauze doors opposite the yard.