The winter rain is dense and cold.

Chen Chi saw Lin Yu walking out of the building, holding up a gray and yellow checkered umbrella and crossing the street through the window glass.

He started the car, followed, looked sideways at the small Shaoxing restaurant that Lin Yu pushed away, and sped away.

This night, he still waited downstairs in the Xu family until eleven o'clock, and saw with his own eyes that all the windows of his father-in-law's house had turned black, and then he opened out of the Xu family community.

The rain kept falling. It was close to midnight, and there were very few cars on the street, and a car came by in the distance, and the high beams were scattered dazzlingly in the raindrops, and when it passed, the eyes reflected a momentary darkness.

The wipers shook continuously.

Chen Chi stopped at the intersection where no one was around, and the red light counted down second by second.

It suddenly seemed to him that the place was as strange as a shadow around his car, that none of the buildings with one or two windows lit, the street trees that stood silently with their black canopies, the yellow street lamps that kept winding down, were not real, warm, or kind, and there was nothing associated with him, which could hold him like an anchor and let him know where he was settled.

She's no longer in the city.

Chen Chi thought that hating a person, or feeling sorry for a person, was to know that she was starting a new life dozens of kilometers away, that is, to pretend to be very generous and must be very generous to allow her to leave there, allow time to fill the space between them with all kinds of trivial things in life, not approaching or dodging, and in the end, the secret conjecture of how she was living naturally sank down.

It is to keep the noble silence of men from the day she left, that is, the past that they are entangled with and the future that she chooses freely alone.

But she's no longer in the city.

It took him two weeks to dismiss the suspicion, but he grew more and more affirmative.

Her boudoir was never lit at night, and he logged into Xu's LAN downstairs and never saw her computer or mobile phone surfing the Internet. If she moved to be with Lin Yu, he would never see Lin Yu visit the Xu family on weekends.

So where did she go?

His heart was poked by Xu Shuang, and after poking her away, she walked dozens of kilometers away, and his pit seemed to have a boundary. From the beginning to the end, they have been together for more than seven years and less than eight years, and the time dimension of entanglement is limited. This pit was fixed, and every day he ate, slept, worked, and dealt with others, and life was like trying to shovel the soil, and he was digging his own foundation day by day, and the soil was just filling the pit she poked.

One day, he will be able to build another home, and his heart will be peaceful.

But she disappeared silently, and the pit that was dozens of kilometers away suddenly disappeared.

Chen Chi really gritted his teeth with hatred for Xu Shuang, and his heart was so empty that he felt that he couldn't fill it.

In the middle of the night, Chen Chi returned to his residence, washed off his dampness, lay on his back on the bed, looked at the ceiling in the dark, thinking about him walking around the city, it turned out that whether he was basking in the sun or wearing neon lights, how many people he would meet when he went out every day, and how many people he would meet, there was no trace of her smell in these huge crowds.

It's a kind of barrenness that can't find the edge.

The sky was bright, and Xu Shuang woke up on time without an alarm clock. The first thing she did when she opened her eyes was to look overhead, and through the mesh of the white gauze tent, her eyes turned in circles to look at the wooden rafters. Although the lime mortar of the roof has an old yellow color, it still contrasts sharply with the black-painted wooden beams, and if there is anything, it is more eye-catching.

Xu Shuangchuan looked carefully along the rafters, and then scanned the walls back and forth, and was greatly relieved that he didn't see the little guy. It's cold, and it's supposed to hibernate too, at least for a good winter.

She stretched and sat up.

The down jacket was covered with her three-pound silk quilt, and it also reached half of the quilt. Her ten-pound cotton quilt purchase plan has not been launched for a long time. Xu Shuangchuan got dressed and got out of bed, hung up the mosquito net, and carefully opened the gray cloth curtains.

This room has not been occupied for a long time, and after she came, Aunt Guo helped her clean it up together. The window was originally pasted with New Year's picture wall calendar paper, and the corners were dry. Teacher Miao helped her knock two long nails above the window lintel, and found a thin bamboo branch, she went to buy a piece of cloth, and used the hand-held sewing machine she brought to barely sew a curtain, so that her room was hung with curtains. It's all good, but it's important to be gentle every time you retract or lower the curtains.

Outside the window, the gravel-covered playground has become clear in the morning light, and on the periphery, where the children do not usually move, the green and yellow dwarf grass is still bubbling like needles between the small stones, and it has not completely died. The flat tile house opposite has already opened its door, and the forty-eight-year-old teacher Miao and the forty-six-year-old Aunt Guo must have gotten up.

Teacher Miao and Aunt Guo are a husband and wife, Teacher Miao is a teacher of Lianjiagou Central Primary School, and has been stationed in this Changping Village teaching point for ten years. After his son was admitted to university, Principal Miao called Aunt Guo to live in the school and help make lunch for the children.

Xu Shuangchuan saw Principal Miao turn out of the teaching building and walk to the playground. Principal Miao's habit is that the first thing he does when he gets up every day is to go around the teaching point in front of and back, rain or shine, which is considered to be an inspection and exercise.

Principal Miao wore his thick sweater with black and yellow stripes, and as he walked, he bent down and reached out to pull something. Xu Shuangchuan guessed that it must be cow tendon grass, this kind of turf is solid, and it can grow in the cracks of stone grains, and if it is cold, it will rise high in their playground. When Principal Miao sees it, he will always pull it out.

Principal Miao, who is also the person in charge of the teaching site, a janitor, a cleaner, and a repairman, is of medium height, with a bald head, but excellent eyesight, and has never had to wear glasses to correct students' homework for so many years. In the early years, the conditions were more difficult, he said that he lit candles at night to prepare for class and homework, but the results did not affect his good eyesight, he could see clearly the small wooden boat supported by the fourth grandfather on the lake from a distance at the school gate, if any child did not come, he would have already distinguished, the boat did not dock, he ran to the shore and asked loudly.

Principal Miao's high-pitched and loud voice is a style of the entire teaching point.

When Xu Shuangchuan first came, he humbly asked Principal Miao for experience, sat at the back of the classroom and listened to Principal Miao's lecture.

Xu Shuangchuan secretly thought that with only a piece of shocking wood, Principal Miao would be comparable to the storytellers in the Chinese Studies Lecture Hall on TV.

She went to the nylon rope in the corner of the house and took a towel from the wooden shelf, and opened the door and went out.

Principal Miao, who had sharp eyes and a big voice, turned around on the basketball hoop, saw her, and greeted her from afar: "Teacher Xu, are you up?" ”

"Hey, Principal Miao is early." Xu Shuang lowered his head to the side and smiled, echoing, feeling that he was ringing like a magpie on a branch, and his chest cavity opened with the first sound of this morning, and he was replaced by a breath of early winter clear air, and he suddenly felt refreshed.

The kitchen stove next door was swirling with steam.

"Aunt Guo is early."

"Teacher Xu, you're early." Aunt Guo, who was holding tongs to pull firewood behind the stove, poked her head out, although she was more than ten years younger than Xu Shuangxia's mother Xuan Chunhua, her face was darker and older, maybe because she had been cooking for the child for a long time, her face was always happy, and she spoke very kindly, "Today is Sunday, why don't you sleep for a while?" ”

"Enough sleep." Xu Shuangchuan smiled softly.

"The water in the eyes can be used, and this morning we will eat steamed red roots."

"Hey, sweet potatoes are delicious." Xu Shuangchuan said happily, stood in front of the stove familiarly, opened the lid of the eye, picked up the big red plastic spoon, scooped a spoonful of warm water into the basin that had not yet boiled, and said diligently, "Aunt Guo, aren't you and Principal Miao going home, I'll fill the hot water bottle later." ”

Aunt Guo laughed and advised: "Teacher Xu, if you want to make your own lunch and dinner today, you will use an induction cooker, which is troublesome to use." ”

"I can use it," Xu Shuangchuan moved to the side of the long pool, squeezed the toothpaste, and took a glass of tap water, "The stove is actually very warm, but it's too late to add firewood and stir-fry for a while." ”

Aunt Guo saved, cooking and boiling water were on the stove, after Xu Shuang came, she took out the induction cooker left by a volunteer teacher a few years ago, and Xu Shuangchuan studied it for a while, and after checking that it was functional, she put it in the kitchen, high on the top of the wooden cabinet, every week when she and Principal Miao went back to their village to visit the elderly at home, they enthusiastically reminded Xu Shuangchuan to use the induction cooker to cook.

"Teacher Xu, your stove is already very decent." Aunt Guo boasted and added two small branches to the stove, "It's just that the pot on the stove is too big, and it's not easy for one person to cook." ”

"yes." Xu Shuang's mouth was full of toothpaste foam, her voice was in her cheeks, and she nodded in agreement, "You can only cover the bottom of the pot." ”