I just opened my eyes from the fog of thick dreams, my throat was like a dry ground where rain had not fallen for a long time, and the pain spread through my mouth to the top of my head, I opened the duffel bag in front of my seat and took out a bottle, unscrewed the lid and gulped water, but just like the soil in the desert, it was difficult for the rain to soak into it, and although the pain was reduced, it was not cured.

Leave it alone—the flame-like heat still hiding in my throat, and look up at the stop sign, "I think I'll be home in another half an hour or so," I muttered to myself. Looking out the window again, I realized that the sky had changed from the haze when I came from the capital to a blue color, "This is the authentic sky." "I leaned over and took out my phone from the left pocket of my jeans, and the glass screen showed that the music playing was John Prine's "Slow Boat to China", which cannot be called a proper coincidence, as if a movie that had just started played the ending song at the beginning, but the tune itself gave me a sense of homecoming that I didn't have when I boarded the train, or maybe the seed buried somewhere in my heart just sprouted at this time.

The train slowed down to the station, and a long-lost cold air enveloped the whole body unhurriedly and squeezed through the nasal cavity into the lobes of the lungs. I let out a mouthful of white mist and took a deep breath of air, completely immersing myself in the snow and ice. But the flame in his throat was not extinguished by the cold air, and he still felt a faint pain with his breathing. I dragged a lightweight suitcase with a handful of changes of clothes, books and computers to read on the road, and was almost negligible. I stopped a taxi at the station gate and told me the address, and the driver smiled and said, "Are you going home?" and I nodded.

The driver looked to be in his forties, dark-skinned, flat-headed, and well-rounded, like a war veteran. Because it was very warm in the car, I only wore a polo shirt and a pair of slacks. "Where did you come from?" the driver asked, turning his head.

"BJ," because his throat was uncomfortable, so it didn't seem like a superfluous answer, but the driver didn't seem to care about this, and continued to ask: "That's a great place, I also went there once a few years ago, my daughter studied there, studied foreign trade, the campus is very large, the food in the canteen is not bad, we also went to Xidan Street and Tiananmen Square to go around, I really think it's quite magnificent, seeing that you are not very old, you must also study there, right?"

"Work," my throat had turned from sore to itchy, and I coughed dryly twice, trying to remind the driver that it was inconvenient to speak.

"Hey, that's really amazing, the people who can live there must be very powerful, right? Seeing that you wear so little, the temperature here is not the same as there, if you are not careful, the cold will rush into the body, and you will feel uncomfortable, do you want me to turn on the air conditioner a little more, you are so warm," the driver said.

I waved my hand and said, "It's okay, it's already warm, thank you." ”

"Young people always wear very little clothes, and my daughter too, I don't listen to what I say, I always think that the disease that looks good and does not consider the precipitation will suddenly appear at the inappropriate time, which catches people off guard and makes a mess of life, this is experience, after all, I was once young. ”

I nodded.

"It's past the traffic light ahead, do you remember the road?" the driver teased with a smile.

"Turn right in the second alley, and then I see a bungalow with a black gate surrounded by concrete walls," I said, coughing a little down, "There should be a row of elm trees at the door, but it must be full of snowflakes this season." ”

"It's not bad, if you ask my daughter, even if you can answer the approximate location, you can't describe it in such detail. ”

When the car drove to the entrance of the alley, the mobile phone in the trouser pocket suddenly vibrate, I took out the mobile phone, the screen showed that the caller number was not displayed, I hung up the phone casually, the driver looked at me from the rearview mirror and said, "I guess the family is in a hurry, right? ”

I shook my head.

"Every time my daughter comes back, my time is calculated by the second, for fear that I will be late when I pick her up, or I won't be able to find her in the first place. Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

I was still shaking my head.

"This is my daughter," said the driver, holding the phone wake-up screen from the passenger seat with one hand and handing it to me, "I can't call it a beauty, but it's beautiful, right?"

I looked at the picture of the delicate girl and her father on the screen, her fair skin, which was different from her father's, exuding a youthful glaze like porcelain. Two slender arms were wrapped around her father's strong arms, her delicate face rested on her father's shoulders, her medium-length hair poured down on her slightly raised chest, her white shirt and blue denim shorts showed her straight legs.

"Indeed," I nodded.

"Forgive me for taking the liberty of taking care of my daughter after I go back, without affecting your normal work and life, after all, I am not around, there are very few things that can be assured, if there is a trustworthy boy next to her, I think my heart is much calmer. ”

"But you don't even know my name, and besides, it's the first time we've met, how can you trust me so much?" I wondered.

"To be honest, I don't know why, when I first saw you, I felt very down-to-earth, I want to say a lot to you, of course, I pick up so many passengers every day that I can't remember how many, or dozens, but this feeling has only appeared this once, this is not flattery, but from the heart, so please agree," the driver said sincerely, "If you can say yes - it will be a very lucky thing, I will come to pick you up before you leave, and there are some things I hope you can bring to my daughter." If this bothers you, forget what I just said. ”

"It's not hard to carry something, of course, but when it comes to taking care of it, it's a big responsibility, so I can only promise you to bring something, and as for the other thing, it's really beyond my reach. ”

When the driver heard this, he immediately burst out laughing and said, "It's okay, it's okay, it's already a great pleasure to be able to help, how can you be cheeky and ask for more things." ”

The car stopped at the door of the black iron gate, I exchanged mobile phone numbers with the driver, and the driver waved at me, and the car turned into the street from another alley.

I put my hand through the door opening and pulled the deadbolt, then pushed the door open, walked in and turned around to close the door, this is a habit that I have developed in my twenties, in the early days there would always be thieves sneaking into the unsuspecting courtyard quietly, stealing some food or tools to dry outside, although it will not cause much property damage, but it will be a headache, because some usually inconspicuous things always disappear when needed. Through the insulated plastic sheeting and glass, you can see my mother and grandmother hurriedly preparing dinner in the kitchen, while my grandfather sits upright on the sofa in the living room, wearing silver-framed reading glasses and reading the newspaper.