After a brave
Zhang Jie stood downstairs at the scene of the crime.
tiger
In the days after receiving the verdict, Zhang Jie's painting of tigers became even crazier. After entering the abbot, the weather in Kaifeng was sultry and hot. The old city where he lived was renovating roads, and the air was mixed with the smell of dust and cement. There is no air conditioning in the living room at home. Sometimes he spends all day painting on the dining table, under his elbows he has collected supermarket promotional pages and male hospital advertisements. These oily papers are soaked in sweat and worn out.
When I first visited his house, it was difficult for me to be sure whether it was a real living room in front of me. Because the house is at the corner of the whole building, the "living room" is in a triangular shape, and apart from a dining table with welded legs and a few simple stools, it can't hold anything else.
He encircled a circle of wire on the wall of the living room to hang pictures. The room is too small and there are too many tigers painted, it can only be hung on top of each other. Occasionally, when a gust of wind blows, the "tiger" floats up and down, horizontal, vertical, fierce, docile, and seemingly "stunned" exercises appear lightly.
On the new painting on the outermost layer, there are two more seals in the lower right corner. After winning the lawsuit, he spent more than 60 yuan to engrave the chapter. He proudly introduced the two seals, one of which is the "righteous person" and the other is his own name.
He waited for 24 years to put the seal of "the one who sees righteousness". According to the facts found by the court, on the afternoon of April 1996, 21-year-old Zhang Jie rode a bicycle to a disco ballroom not far from home and ran into five gangsters bullying two girls. He came forward to persuade him and was retaliated by 4 dollars.
After the incident, the two girls disappeared and the gangster who wounded was not caught. No one believes that Zhang Jie, who is usually nicknamed "Xiao Nier" (Henan dialect, refers to a girl), is so brave. The lack of testimony of "righteousness" has gradually become empty talk, cowhide, becoming more and more ethereal, and finally only existed in the quarrel between him and his father and in his late night dream.
Last year, by chance, he learned the whereabouts of one of the rescued girls. After tossing and searching, he appeared in front of the opponent again. After more than 20 years, the two young people at that time are now in their middle age. Zhang Jie wanted to hear greetings and thanks, but received no response.
The grievance and resentment that had been suppressed in his heart for many years finally broke out. After that, Zhang Jie decided to rectify his name. In October last year, he took the girl who was rescued that year to court, demanding compensation for his economic losses caused by the injuries he saved, in the amount of 10 yuan.
In June of this year, he won the case. In the next few days, he painted tigers day and night, giving them to reporters who interviewed him, entrepreneurs who came to visit him, and those who had helped him. Each painting is stamped with the seal of "He who sees righteousness". He said that he was inspired by his beloved TV series "Water Margin" and "Tiger Fighter Wu Song" is a hero in his heart.
Now, he has almost become a hero. The official recognition of his title of "Courageous Action" is still in the bidding process. The local media has put his photo on the front page, occupying the entire page, and the title is "The Hero Doesn't Cry". During the interview, I came across a company visiting. They were standing in the cramped living room of Zhang Jie's house, constantly emphasizing the purpose of the trip-"Salute to the hero."
I cannot be sure if he can be called a "hero". He lacked self-motivated, even a bit lazy, and liked to blame others, so I once doubted the authenticity of his "righteousness". At least, he is far from what a "hero" in my heart should be.
His shortcomings are so many that it makes me ignore his kindness and ignore that he is more righteous and braver than many people. In the past few days, the most common sentence I heard from him was "It's not easy for me."
Zhang Jie is painting a tiger.
Family
On the first day of Kaifeng, Zhang Jie and I met at the gate of Daxiangguo Temple. In the old city where the roads stretched randomly, he really couldn't provide the specific location of his home. The thousand-year-old monuments in front of these homes are the best signposts.
Zhang Jie's body is considered tall and straight, with a head of over 1.8 meters and thick shoulders. Because his neck was stretched forward, and the slightly fat beige slacks on his lower body, he looked a bit thin and weak. The trousers have elastic bands, but he still tied a belt, and the dark T-shirt tucked into the waistband without too many wrinkles.
As long as he goes out, he will wear a peaked cap to cover up his head. The weather is too hot, and soon he will take out the handkerchief he carries from his trouser pocket, take off his hat, and wipe the sweat from his head.
Starting from the entrance of Daxiangguo Temple, passing through a lively alley, turning under a big elm tree, and arriving at Zhang Jie's house. As he walked, he introduced to me that this alley that had to be passed through every day was originally a river. During the Northern Song Dynasty, there were many brothels on both sides of the river. Rouge pink and black dyed the river water, so it was called Rouge River.
Nowadays, this street gathers breakfast shops, butcher shops, and dry vegetable shops. Several bosses lie on their chairs swaying their fans, waiting for customers to come. The tailor moved the sewing machine out of the door directly, rushing to make clothes without raising his eyeglasses.
On the other side of the alley is an archaeological site, and an excavator with a broken hammer is ding-dangling to demolish buildings on the ground.
Zhang Jie’s house is in an old residential building. There are always a few elderly people sitting or lying down next to the small flower bed downstairs. Sometimes when they meet familiar grandpas and aunts, they will take the initiative to say hello to Zhang Jie: " Going to work?"
"Yes, yes." Zhang Jie responded with a smile.
In fact, he does not have a fixed job now. He linked his mobile phone number to the Internet and indicated that he could undertake the "furniture installation and maintenance" business. However, there were very few calls. At least during the four days I interviewed, he did not receive a single business.
His home is full of traces of the life of a man living alone: the whole house has no decoration, except for the living room, there are 3 small rooms, one of which is his bedroom. The balcony was full of debris, blocking most of the sunlight. The light bulb wires on the ceiling were too long, and they were randomly rolled into a ball and hung in the air. The innermost room is considered the "second living room", with a two-seater sofa covered with a thin layer of gray. The other room was used to pile up debris, and there was no place to go.
There are still some traces that have not been erased: behind the door of the living room is a child's height meter, the highest scale is 160 cm. Further up, there is a blue cartoon owl clock, a rare bright color in this room.
The only decent decoration in the home is a calligraphy hanging on the wall of the aisle. That was a gift from Zhang Jie's father when he got married, "specially asked for it". The framed calligraphy and painting are set in a glass frame, half the size of a door, and written in two bold characters: diligence.
"Maybe he thinks I'm not diligent enough," Zhang Jie said while sitting at the dining table in the living room with his back facing those two words.
"that matter"
He blamed his "not diligence" on the accident. In fact, in his opinion, all his failures and dissatisfaction are related to that afternoon in 1996: "There is a word called'butterfly effect', and that thing is the wings of a butterfly fan."
Not only life, but his memory seems to be divided by the accident. The closer that afternoon, the clearer the memory, and he is more willing to mention it. As for the life of "that incident" for more than 20 years, he would rather cover it in one sentence.
"What happened after that? How have you been in these 20 years?" During a conversation, I couldn't help interrupting his description of that afternoon that he had repeated many times.
"It's not important, and it's meaningless." He was pulled out of my agitated state, and his face was sullen for a moment.
From his repeated narratives and the court's judgment, I pieced together what it looked like in the afternoon of 1996. After graduating from vocational high school in 1995, Zhang Jie took over his mother's class and went to work in a printing factory. On the day of the accident, he was on a night shift and was free during the day.
At that time, a cousin of his co-founded a "Disco" ballroom, which was one of the most popular entertainment venues for young people in that era. Zhang Jie said he had been there "four or five times." On the afternoon of the accident, as before, he rode to the dance hall to "listen to songs", ready to pass the boring time.
In another version, the court’s judgment showed that the security guard of the ballroom said that Zhang Jie was “helping” at the ballroom during that time. He did not receive wages and sold tickets when there were too many people, and was responsible for maintaining order when there were few people.
The story behind is the same: the ballroom is on the second floor. After Zhang Jie arrived at the door and just sat down to rest on the chair outside, a panicked girl ran out of the ballroom and urgently asked Zhang Jie for help: there was a gangster bullying the girl. , "Please help us please."
Many years later, Zhang Jie recalled this scene countless times, and tortured him with regret. He once regretted his choice at the time. This "slurred" decision became the starting point of his pain-he couldn't tell why he followed the girl in. "Maybe it was too young and too big to be afraid of Who".
The incident happened at the entrance of the ballroom. As soon as he walked in, Zhang Jie saw a man pinching a girl's neck, slap both left and right, and several young men onlookers were silent. The girl has no resistance, "head droops like a quail".
Seeing that there was only one hooligan, Zhang Jie gained more confidence and came forward to "stop" the ongoing evil.
The interview transcript of the victim girl confirmed this scene. She treated Zhang Jie as a ballroom security guard. In her confession, it was a short process.
"What are you doing?" Zhang Jie asked.
"Nothing." The beater said.
"Why did she cry if she didn't do anything?"
During the conversation, the beater released the hand holding the girl's neck. Only then did Zhang Jie discover that the surrounding "onlookers" were in the same group as the beaters, but it was too late. Several people rushed up and punched and kicked him.
The girl who had been terrified took advantage of the chaos and escaped from the ballroom. Zhang Jie also wanted to escape. He rushed out of the door, but was hugged from behind. He saw someone hacking at his head with a kitchen knife, and subconsciously dodge, the kitchen knife fell on his right shoulder. Before he could react, another person held a dagger and thrust at him. Later he learned that the dagger stabbed him 3 times, all on his left leg. The hospital's surgical records showed that the deepest stab wound reached 8 cm.
The strong desire to survive made him forget the pain and even temporarily lost all feelings. He broke free of the murderer and ran out desperately. The police booth 300 meters away from the ballroom was the shelter he desperately wanted to reach.
In high school, he was the runner-up in the school's track and field competition, but the 300 meters in his memory is extremely long. He ran down the stairs, crossed a road, and bypassed a river. When he reached the finish line, he reached out to hold the door handle of the police booth, but his eyes went dark and the world was quiet.
Tiger painted by Zhang Jie.
Honest man
The pain came after 17 hours. Due to excessive blood loss, he was in a coma and did not wake up until the next morning.
The wound healed quickly, but he said the pain in his body never disappeared. Entering middle age, his left calf was often swollen for no reason, so he refused to do all hard work.
The efficiency of the printing plant is not good, and Zhang Jie has been half laid-off since 2000. He took a job in the traffic police team, responsible for the maintenance and installation of signal equipment. Two years later, because "the body can't stand it", I resigned.
"On this day, let me dig pits and wipe cement, who can bear it." One day he was sitting in a taxi with me, and the air-conditioning in the car was full. He suddenly pointed to the traffic lights on the roadside and complained.
After leaving the traffic police team, he got married and worked in a furniture business with his wife. "With an annual income of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan, let's get a salary." He didn't want to talk about this more than 10 years of experience. From his brief description, I probably understand that this should be a relatively peaceful past-with a family, the daughter quacked and "that incident" seemed to be forgotten.
I went to his mother. The old man told me that Zhang Jie had never been in a furniture business, but delivered goods in a furniture store. After not doing it for a long time, he stopped because of "backache". He even sold pork in the supermarket, but he gave up because he thought it was too fishy.
Zhang Jie's mother is 74 years old, but she looks older than her actual age. Her back was bent almost parallel to the ground, and she had to hold the cart when walking.
When I found her in the community, it was an afternoon when it was about to rain. She sat alone on the bench in the courtyard of the community. She was a little weak in speaking because of a cerebral infarction. She has two children, Zhang Jie is the eldest, and a 40-year-old son, unmarried. The house is the demolition resettlement house of the old family yard, and she lives with her youngest son.
We both sat in silence most of the time. She always looked forward, looking melancholy. Regarding the lawsuit that Zhang Jie just won, the old man didn't seem to care about the outcome: "What did you say he fought in the lawsuit and what he was fighting with others."
Talking about living conditions, she sighed and said that she still has to buy vegetables and cook, and she always doesn't operate the elevator well. The youngest son often loses his temper at her. She complained that although Zhang Jie came to see her every three weeks, he always "leaves after eating".
"When will I get to the end?" She looked back at me and asked slowly.
I comforted her, Zhang Jie now has nothing to worry about, he will definitely get better, and will slowly step into... "What can he do? He can't do anything." The old man interrupted me with disappointment in his tone. She said that she now has a pension of more than 2,000 yuan a month, and she also has to give out part of her eldest son who has no job.
After a while of silence, she felt sorry for her son again. She didn't care if Zhang Jie acted bravely, just because he thought it was worthless. "Why bother with me, I was beaten like that and I almost died."
"He was just too honest." In the end, she gave her own answer. Zhang Jie's failure, downfall, and the original "nosy" were all attributed to this.
After a few days of interviews, "honest" is indeed the best adjective I can think of. In his middle school student handbook, the head teacher once wrote a comment: "Introverted personality, it is recommended to participate in useful social activities." In his second year of high school, he was rated as a discipline model.
After "that incident" happened, his father had suggested to find an acquaintance to investigate the case, but Zhang Jie refused. He often went to the police station to inquire about the progress of the case, and almost all the replies he got were "you will be notified if there is news."
Because of being "honest", no one in the printing factory believed that he would "do what is right." He tried to explain to others that the girl who was helplessly rescued seemed to have disappeared, and none of the assailants came to justice. The darker and darker he was, people were more willing to believe that the scar on his body was caused by "fighting with gangsters."
Work in the factory requires frequent contact with ink, and workers are used to returning home after taking a shower after work. Zhang Jie was afraid that people would see the scars on his body, and aroused discussion, so he waited for everyone to go to wash it. As a result, there was a rumor that "Zhang Jie has a physical defect and was afraid of being seen." He went to the bathhouse outside, and was told that the free bathhouse was not used. He went outside to spend money to take a bath. "There is a brain problem."
Zhang Jie said that he had never hated the two girls, but at least when he was misunderstood and unrecognized and "depressed", he once "complained" why the two rescued girls didn't testify to himself and why Don't know how to be grateful.
On Thanksgiving Day last year, he posted a Weibo: "I am very sad when I see the word Thanksgiving."
He has emphasized in different reports that because of these two girls, he no longer believes in others and no longer wants to contact outsiders.
When he was in vocational high school, he studied cooking. Before the accident, he was the "head" of his relatives and friends in weddings and funerals, or family gatherings. After the accident, every New Year's Day, in order to avoid relatives who came to visit his home, he would ride out on time before 9 am, walk under the old city wall, or go to the bookstore.
Over time, even his father began to doubt him. "Did you save anyone?" Father's question often appeared in the quarrel between the two.
Such doubts made him unbearable. His father is the person he admires most: when he was young, he was an Air Force fighter, with a flight record of thousands of hours. He said that was an achievement he would never achieve.
In the old photos, the young father wore a leather flight jacket and was brave. He wrote his expectations for his son into his son's name-there was a combat hero in the army called Wang Jie, and Zhang Jie's name came from this.
Fiction
Later, Zhang Jie's isolation gradually turned into an inferiority complex, "I don't have much abilities, and others look down on it, so what to do."
"How many friends do you have now?" I asked him.
He thought for a while, and calculated one by one with his fingers, the final answer was "three or four". In his WeChat registered in 2017, there are only more than 10 friends, most of whom are journalists.
Inferiority complex and depressed emotions finally broke out 5 years ago. The mother had a cerebral infarction that year, and the family went wrong again. In one person's house, he thought of the end countless times.
Later he found an outlet-writing. He wrote an "autobiographical novel" called "My Look". Unfortunately, in this 20,000-character "novel", his appearance is not clear. He left half of the space in his high school days, won the sports teacher with his wrist, was followed by a girl who had a crush on him, and got the first place in the math test-this is the brilliant he thinks is worth talking about.
Although I have only been in contact with him for 4 days, I have heard him tell these stories many times. Most of the time, I couldn't bear to interrupt him. He was always excited and proud when he said this.
I like his smile at this time. He looks naive. He grinned and showed his white teeth. There was less anger and sadness in his eyes.
The remaining half of the "novel" is the ins and outs of "that incident".
There are still some brilliances that are not written in the "novel". During his internship in vocational high school, he worked as an assistant chef in a famous restaurant in Kaifeng. One day, two generous guests came to the restaurant and asked for some "special dishes". Most of the chefs went to Zhengzhou for the grade test that day, and Zhang Jie had to "catch the ducks to the shelves" to demonstrate his skills.
As a result, the guest returned with satisfaction, and the hotel manager gave him a thumbs up. I can't confirm the authenticity of this incident, but he can still fluently name the three dishes he cooked at that time: Longjing abalone, pan-long eel with kueh sauce, and crucian carp.
Zhang Jie was sitting in his living room telling me this story, his arms were in the air and his eyes were wide. The door of the kitchen on the side is open, and the "stove" is an old school desk with an induction cooker on it, stained with grease.
Obviously, his cooking skills lack the conditions for display. Nowadays, instant noodles, steamed buns and pickles are his main recipes.
Seeing that I was interested in the kitchen and his diet, Zhang Jie seemed to understand something.
"I really didn't mix well. I didn't accomplish anything when I was in my 40s." He was depressed, and then came up again. "It was all that harmed. Nothing. My life is definitely not like this."
His understanding of his life puzzled me. He is inferior, closed, and unwilling to endure hardship. The 45-year-old man has to feed his weak mother. Even like those who didn't believe him, I began to wonder if the "that thing" he kept repeating was true, and whether he was looking for an excuse for his failure and despair?
How could a true "just brave man" be like this?
hero
I went to the police station that undertook the case and heard that I came for Zhang Jie. A policeman immediately opened the conversation.
"I know him, everyone in our sub-bureau knows him." The policeman said that Zhang Jie had searched for the chief, the instructor, and the grassroots police for his own case. He was "very paranoid."
She turned on the computer, and there was a folder in it, dedicated to storing information about Zhang Jie, including the investigation of the case that year, and the declaration of justice...
She confirmed to me the authenticity of the case that year, “it was basically certain that he was the one who saved the life”, but “the case is too long and it is difficult to detect.”
Zhang Jie said that like a curse, the two policemen who had undertaken his case left the police force for some reason. He himself "investigated" the case. After the incident, he couldn't wait for news from the police, so he began to find the murderer. He often rode his bicycle downstairs to the scene of the incident, looking forward to encountering a clue that he didn't know what it would be.
Fortunately, he did not patronize him, and the scene of the crime quickly returned to daily peace. Half a year later, he was discouraged, accepted the reality, and went to work and live honestly.
It was not until 2018, 22 years of luck that he was late to find him. He finally learned the name of the girl who was rescued that year. This time, the desire to find the murderer was stronger than before.
He quickly took action. After hearing about a suspicious person, he boarded a bus and went to Zhengzhou to find out.
Halfway through the journey, two young men got into the car, walked to the last row, and sat beside Zhang Jie. The air in the closed bus was muddy, some people were leaning on their seats with their earphones closed and some were drowsy. One of the men who had just got in the car leaned out and slowly reached out his hand in the pocket of the front passenger.
Zhang Jie saw this scene earnestly.
The other man's leather bag was open, as if it was intentional to let people see the contents. Zhang Jie also saw it, it was a dagger.
Zhang Jie said that at that moment, he thought of his "righteousness" 20 years ago. In countless depressing nights, he vowed that he would never do such a fool again. He took his daughter to learn taekwondo when she was 6 years old, "let her protect herself when she is in danger."
But he still couldn't help being "nosy." In the stagnant carriage, Zhang Jie picked up his mobile phone and spoke loudly into the microphone.
"Team Li, did anyone catch the case you mentioned? I went to Zhengzhou right away, and I will look for you in the bureau in a moment."
The thief withdrew his hand, then called the driver to stop and hurried away with his accomplice.
Zhang Jie put down the phone and let out a sigh of relief—he didn't dial any number.
He always wanted to prove that he was a "good guy." When I was interviewed, he tried hard to think about the "good things" he had done.
Last year, he found a wallet on the street that contained the owner's ID card, 1,600 yuan in cash, and several anonymous shopping cards. For Zhang Jie, who has no formal job and often eats instant noodles and steamed buns, this is no small "pie".
The wallet was bulging, and he carefully packed it into his shoulder bag. On the way home, he struggled and "nearly hit a telephone pole" when he walked. Finally, when he was approaching his doorstep, he lost to his "honesty".
"1600 yuan is the basic salary in Kaifeng. This person may have just received his salary. He earned it all hard work. I can't swallow it." Zhang Jie said while showing me a picture of his wallet.
"Good things" are rare. Some time ago, he picked up a college student’s student ID, and later contacted the owner, added WeChat, and sent it to the other party.
The college student expressed his gratitude, and then said that he had seen Zhang Jie's deeds on the Internet, and he "saluted the hero."
Later, some media interviewed Zhang Jie. After the report came out, he said that he couldn't find anyone to share with, so he sent the link to the college student.
Zhang Jie has always told me that he is not a hero. Although this statement may be humble, when I left Kaifeng, I no longer cared whether he was a hero. He is a "righteous man", even if it is sometimes annoying.
When we parted, I, like all reporters, got a picture of his tiger. He said that the tiger represents courage and courage, and that is what he most wants to have-his courage to go out and stand up again.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Yang Haiwen and photo Source: China Youth Daily