Assef’s brow twitched¹. “Like pride in your people, your customs, your language. Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion² littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage.”

阿塞夫眉头一锁：“比如为你的人民、你的习俗、你的语言骄傲。阿富汗就像一座到处扔着垃圾的美丽大厦，得有人把垃圾清走。”

“That’s what you were doing in Mazar, going door-to-door? Taking out the garbage?”

“那就是你在马扎挨门挨户所做的？清走垃圾？”

“Precisely³.”

“准确无误。”

“In the west, they have an expression for that,” I said. “They call it ethnic⁴ cleansing⁵.”

“在西方，人们有另外一个说法，”我说，“他们管这个叫种族清洗。”

“Do they?” Assef’s face brightened. “Ethnic cleansing. I like it. I like the sound of it.”

“真的吗？”阿塞夫神色一亮，“种族清洗。我喜欢它。我喜欢它的发音。”

“All I want is the boy.”

“我只想要这个男孩。”

“Ethnic cleansing,” Assef murmured, tasting the words.

“种族清洗。”阿塞夫喃喃自语，品味着这个词组。

“I want the boy,” I said again. Sohrab’s eyes flicked⁶ to me. They were slaughter⁷ sheep’s eyes. They even had the mascara--I remembered how, on the day of Eid of qorban, the mullah in our backyard used to apply mascara to the eyes of the sheep and feed it a cube of sugar before slicing its throat. I thought I saw pleading in Sohrab’s eyes.

“我要这个男孩。”我又说了一遍。索拉博的眼睛望着我，那是一双任人宰杀的羔羊的眼睛，甚至还有眼影——我记得，宰牲节那天，我家院子里面，毛拉在割断绵羊的喉咙之前，涂黑它的眼睛，给它吃一块糖。我认为我从索拉博眼中看到了哀求。

“Tell me why,” Assef said. He pinched Sohrab’s earlobe between his teeth. Let go. Sweat beads⁸ rolled down his brow.

“告诉我为什么。”阿塞夫说。他的牙齿轻轻咬着索拉博的耳垂，在上面游走。他的额头流出汗珠。

“That’s my business.”

“那是我的事情。”

“What do you want to do with him?” he said. Then a coy smile. “Or to him.”

“你想要他干什么呢？”他说，然后露出猥亵的微笑，“或者，想要对他做什么？”

“That’s disgusting,” I said.

“真恶心。”我说。

“How would you know? Have you tried it?”

“你怎么知道？你试过了吗？”

“I want to take him to a better place.”

“我会带他到一个更好的地方去。”

“Tell me why.”

“告诉我为什么。”

“That’s my business,” I said. I didn’t know what had emboldened⁹ me to be so curt¹⁰, maybe the fact that I thought I was going to die anyway.

“那是我的事情。”我说。我不知道自己何以变得如此强硬，也许是临死一搏吧。

“I wonder,” Assef said. “I wonder why you’ve come all this way, Amir, come all this way for a Hazara? Why are you here? Why are you really here?”

“我真奇怪，”阿塞夫说，“我真的很奇怪，为何你那么老远来？阿米尔，为什么你那么老远来，就为了一个哈扎拉人？你为什么来这儿？你来这里的真正原因是什么？”

“I have my reasons,” I said.

“我有我的理由。”我说。