The night is getting darker and darker, but the tulip road has not been quieted down by this, almost every plane tree has a few old people with a pampas fan chatting in the parents, and this is a characteristic of the summer tulip road, most of the excitement here does not begin to subside until after 11 o'clock.

I drank the rest of the beer on the table, and after a few visits to the bathroom, I asked for two more beers, and the summer beer seemed to be intoxicating, and the neon that swirled around Xiao Ai and me was like carmine pink, covering up the many bitterness between us who were unwilling to investigate deeply at this moment.

Yes, no matter what we do or choose in the end, we must have a hard time, because we are not people who will actively attack and hurt, and even do sloppy passive defense. We always feel that if we keep that little bit of pure fantasy in our hearts, the world will give us the best protection, but as time goes by, everything seems to be less right. In fact, many things have collapsed little by little in the protection we rely on, such as the textile factory will become a five-star hotel; For example, the houses around the old alley will also be submerged in the tide of commerce and become an ecological science and technology city.

I don't know when, Wang Ruolin's version of "iLoveYou" sounded in my ears again, I'm afraid that people who often stay in the "Wutong Hotel" until late at night will know that whenever this song is played, it means that the hotel is closing, and these changes are due to the boss's daughter who came back from studying abroad last year, and I only recently learned why this year's "Wutong Hotel" will change.

In this way, there is really nothing that will stagnate, even the cells in our body are metabolizing all the time, and you are not the same as you were a few years ago from a biological point of view.

Xiao Ai picked up her pouch before me, and she said to me in the sound of elegant and somewhat sad music: "I have to go back to rest, and I have to go to the piano shop at eight o'clock tomorrow morning." ”

"Why are the classes so densely arranged?"

"I want to make a little more time to teach Xiaofang...... I hope she can win the award in the piano competition of the Xinghai Cup, otherwise our piano shop will not be particularly convincing compared to other piano shops! ”

Seeing that she was more energetic than me, I gradually didn't care about what Yuan Zhen said to me before the night, I said to Xiao Ai: "You work so hard, then I must do a good job of logistics, if you want to eat something at noon tomorrow, I will make it for you." ”

Xiao Ai thought for a while and replied, "It's a little lighter, and then make me sweet and sour pork ribs." ”

I answered, and then Xiao Ai took his handbag and walked in the direction where he lived. She looks a little bored, and has been deliberately stepping on the shadows of the lights that have fallen to the ground with her own feet, so I think she hasn't changed much, she is still a girl who will be active because of boredom, but these don't mean that her heart will be simple and simple, it's just that sometimes she doesn't want to show me her sad side.

……

When I returned to my residence, I had just finished taking a shower, and there was a sharp knock on the door, I put down the hair dryer in my hand, opened the courtyard door, and standing in front of me was Qiao Ye, who looked anxious, and he said to me: "Jiang Qiao, I just had a dream...... I dreamed that Su Han was also pregnant with my child......"

Qiao Ye is really a person with "great powers", he actually saw the truth of the matter in the dream, which made me a little weak and a little caught off guard, so that I replied after a while: "You are just idle......"

"Why the am I idle? …… When Su Han left, I felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't figure it out, and now this dream really gave me a hint, she must have a hard time leaving Nanjing, and my mother and Qin Miao must have played some tricks to force her! ”

"Mr. Qiao, you haven't had a few days of stable life here, I beg you not to do it, okay?"

"I have the right to doubt."

I concealed my impatience: "I'm not a court here, what right do you have to talk to me...... Let me tell you clearly, the nature of this matter is that an unreliable person has an even more unreliable dream...... I think you really should find something serious to do, so as not to be so cranky all the time, and make others uneasy. ”

Qiao Ye was silent, and after a long time, he said to me in a hoarse voice: "Yes, I admit that I am just full of food, but I can't figure it out, obviously we have all said that we have agreed, why did she say that she would leave again, and there was no room for me at all...... My heart was broken by her, but I just couldn't forget her, and I didn't want to hate her...... I hope she will come back, and don't let me always fall into the pain of reality and not find myself! ”

"Reality is an eraser, erased is the good things of the past, so don't live in those memories from a long time ago, you look up and look forward, or you will be a father in a few months, try to live in a different mood."

Qiao Ye was already a little nervous, he stood at the door of the small courtyard and smoked a cigarette, and then left without saying a word, and he found me in the middle of the night, just for such a dream.

I can't help but think of Su Han, who has no news of her, and I don't know what kind of life she is living now, will she have found a man who doesn't mind her past to marry?

This is the best, so that there is still room for the revival of the old relationship between her and Qiao Ye, and life has long been unable to withstand their repeated tosses.

……

Early the next morning, I went to the vegetable market to buy the vegetables that Xiao Ai wanted to eat, and then went back to the alley to pick up edamame, this was the first piano lesson in his life, the tutor was Xiao Ai, and I don't know if he was coaxed into learning piano, whether he would treat this instrument as a dream in his life to continue to pursue.

This morning, I didn't go out for activities, but studied the WeChat public account that Yuan Zhen gave me, and I edited the first investigation-based message after I took over. In just half a day, the number of readers reached 10,000, and the number of people who participated in the poll was close to 3,000, which proves that more than 60,000 fans are very active real fans, and the results of the survey make me more confident to open a musical instrument store under the piano store. Because among Yuan Zhen's fans, a considerable number of them are engaged in music-related work, so it is conceivable that they will also have a lot of friends around them who have a demand for musical instruments, and if the products I provide are good enough, it will easily form a snowball effect.

I plan to hold an offline event on the first day of the opening of the musical instrument store, not only to sell musical instruments, but also to make this official account a paradise for music fans, as long as there are more and more fans on this platform, there will be more and more room for operation in the future.

Towards noon, I made an appointment with the landlord and proposed to rent the next floor, and after some haggling, I rented the first floor with an area of 200 square meters for 36,000 yuan a year.

……

After lunch with Xiao Aiyuxin, I ran outside all afternoon, but I still couldn't convince some of the big musical instrument shops to put a batch of goods in our place for free. Thereinto. One or two of them were a little interested in the pre-roll ads I got at the cinema, but considering the value of many imported instruments, they wavered again, and I was left in a dilemma of having no rice to cook.

On the way back, I kept thinking about whether I should be ruthless and represent a few musical instrument brands by myself. The advantage of this is that you can save a lot of channel costs, but money is always an issue. According to my preliminary estimates, to make a 200-square-meter musical instrument store look like that, it would require at least a million or more distribution costs, which is not something I can afford now.

Fortunately, it's not a very urgent thing to do, and I can think about it in the long run.

At dusk, I returned to Tulip Road, passing by the "Wutong Hotel", it happened that Chen Yi was drinking, I carried a briefcase, sat down opposite her, because I had been thinking about it, so I asked with great concern: "About our alley, have you consulted with a friend who understands?" ”

Chen Yi nodded and replied: "Well, they have come to see it, and the answer they gave is that although there are no historical relics in this alley, it is very well planned, and the building structure is also very characteristic of the times." In Nanjing, there are no more than 10 alleys like this that have survived, but the scale is not as large as here, so it is still very valuable for preservation and tourism development...... I asked them for help, and within three days I sorted out a document that could stop the demolition and gave it to me, and then I asked someone to send it to the Housing Authority, the Land Management Bureau, and the Tourism Bureau, hoping that they would pay attention to it. ”

I didn't expect Chen Yi's efficiency in doing this to be so high, and I couldn't help but sway left and right again in my heart, so I asked again: "Is it possible that these departments will intervene?" ”

"It's hard to say, but I'll ask my media friends to expose it and put pressure on them."

I looked at Chen Yi, and finally held back everything I wanted to say back into my stomach, and Chen Yi seemed to only be willing to talk to me about this matter, and after saying this, she paid and left.

However, I don't know why, I looked at her back, and gradually felt a strange feeling, in the more than 20 years we have known each other, we have never been so unfamiliar as now. Perhaps, no matter how intimate the time, there will be a day when it will be lost.

……

After dinner and taking a shower, I wore a sleeveless vest that had been washed and was about to tear out, drinking tea while looking up the brand information of various musical instruments on the Internet, and after a while, the half-hidden courtyard door was pushed open by Zhao Mu.

He stood in front of me with his briefcase, looked into the room slightly, and then asked me, "Brother Qiao, did you start to decorate the house when I asked you to decorate the house?" ”

I shook my head, and there was a very difficult trade-off in my heart, I didn't know whether to tell him what Chen Yi was doing. Also, from my heart, I don't want the house I have lived in for so long to be demolished, because many feelings are not something that can be exchanged for a few commercial houses.

Zhao Mu misunderstood my silence, maybe he had already made preparations before he came, I saw him take out 100,000 yuan from his bag, then put it on the stone table in front of me, smiled and said to me: "I know you just opened a piano shop, and you don't have much money on hand, you can take the 100,000 yuan to decorate, the sooner the better...... If you wait for the project to be approved before decorating, not only will it fall into the mouth, but the group may not recognize it, can you understand what I mean? ”

"I can understand...... But ......"

Zhao Mu interrupted me, he looked longing on his face, and said to me, "Brother Qiao, do you know? …… I actually initiated this project! I am honored that the senior management of the group has given me support and trust, the whole project plans to invest 40 billion, I never thought that I have the ability to leverage so much money, if this project can be done, enough to change my life, let me in Jinding Real Estate completely gain a firm foothold, and enter the core management. ”

I rarely saw such an excited expression on Zhao Mu's face, which had always been calm, so I felt even more uncomfortable. I lit a cigarette and took a heavy puff before I asked him, "Why did you choose this road for the project?" ”

"Because there is no industrial pollution here, it has not been overdeveloped, and it is suitable for the construction of high-quality communities and comprehensive commercial bodies, our group very much needs such a project to get rid of the previous predicament, and the next door to Tulip Road is the software park, the overall atmosphere is in line with our main technology slogan, and at the same time, it also gathers a lot of white-collar and gold-collar workers of our real estate target consumer groups, so there is no more suitable place than here."

I nodded, squinted again, took a puff on my cigarette, and asked, "I'd love to ask you a question, do you really want to see countless bulldozers in the future turn this place you grew up in beyond recognition?" …… When I think about it, I think it's cruel. ”

My words seemed to touch Zhao Mu's feelings, he subconsciously loosened his tie, then raised his head and smiled, and replied, "Is it cruel?" …… I don't think at all. On the contrary, there will be a lot of people who thank me for bringing this project here...... After all, those good things in the past can't be eaten, and there is no way to bring us food and clothing! Therefore, being able to live in a commercial house is in line with the mainstream values of this society, although the property right is only 70 years, there are still a lot of people who will regard this as the basis for talking about marriage, rather than these small tiled houses that often can't even shine in the sun! ”

I couldn't answer for a while, but my heart was full of loss!

I don't know when my values deviated so much from Zhao Mu, and whether to agree to the demolition or not is an extremely difficult choice......

Zhao Mu's time was very limited, and after he reminded me to finish the decoration, he left my small courtyard again, but my love was indulged in the 100,000 yuan he left behind.

Why, human beings have the natural instinct to advocate freedom, but they like to use a set of commercial houses to imprison their own lives?

I really couldn't figure out what we should really be after. I can't help but think of Xiao Ai at this time, and I think of the picture I have dreamed of countless times.

In this picture, I have a wife, and we walk through this old alley every day, going to the alley to buy soy milk fritters, firewood, rice, oil and salt. The house is still the same old house, just renovated, but there is still a stove in the winter, there is air conditioning in the summer, and we have a good night's sleep every night, and our children live in the next room, enjoying the fun of planting flowers and grass with us.

But why do so many people scoff at such a life?

Is your current life more fulfilling and interesting than this? Or behind the crazy pursuit of materialism, you only dare to hide in the most secret corners, to dream of a city, a sky, a small courtyard with interest, but your mouth is still living in the real competition for fame and fortune and hypocrisy?