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Chapter I

At 4:50 in the morning, Lao Dao walked through the bustling pedestrian street to find Peng Li.

After getting off work from the garbage station, Lao Dao went home to take a shower and change his clothes. White shirt and brown trousers, the only decent outfit he had, the cuffs of the shirt were fried, and he rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. Lao Dao is forty-eight years old, not married, has passed the age of paying attention to appearance, and no one takes care of daily life, this set of clothes has been kept and worn for many years, each time I wear it for a day, and I take it off and fold it when I go home. He works at the garbage station, so he doesn't have to dress decently, and occasionally attends someone's child's wedding before taking it out and wearing it on his body. This time he didn't want to meet strangers dirty. He worked at the garbage station for five hours straight, worried about the smell on his body.

The pedestrian street was crowded with people who had just gotten off work. Crowded men and women gather around small stalls to pick up souvenirs and haggle loudly. Diners gather around plastic tables, burying their heads in the steaming heat of hot and sour noodles, hungry tigers pounced, white steam covering their faces. The aroma of frying fills the air. The sour dates and walnuts on the stalls are piled up, and the bacon sways overhead. This point is the busiest time of the day, when work is basically over, and people who have been busy for several hours rush over to have a full meal, and the crowd is full of people.

The old knife struggled through the crowd. The guy who served the plate shouted for him to let go of the people who were in the way and made a way, with the old knife following behind.

Peng Li's house is deep in the side street. The old knife went upstairs, and Peng Li was not at home. When I asked the neighbor, the neighbor said that he didn't come back until the door closed every day, and the specific point was not clear.

The old knife was a little worried, looked at his watch, and it was 5 o'clock in the morning.

He went back to the door and waited. Hungry teenagers gobbled around him on both sides. He knew two of them, and he had met them once or twice at Peng Li's house. Each of the young men had a plate of fried noodles or fried noodles in front of them, and several people ate two dishes, and the plate was a mess, and the chopsticks were thrown in a hopeless and persistent toggle, looking for the meat star among the chili bushes. The old knife subconsciously sniffed his forearm again, and he didn't know if there was any fishy smell of garbage on his body. Everything around was noisy and banal, as was every morning.

"Hey, do you know how much a plate of meat costs there?" said the young man named Xiao Li.

"Damn, there's sand in the dish. Another fat boy named Xiaoding suddenly covered his mouth and said, his nails still with black mud, "Pit man." Gotta get the boss back!"

"A plate of meat back to the pot is three hundred and four. Xiao Li said, "Three hundred and four! A plate of boiled beef is four hundred and two." ”

"What's that? It's so expensive. Xiao Ding covered his cheeks and muttered.

The other two teenagers were not interested in the conversation and were still eating noodles, Xiao Li looked down at them, his eyes seemed to pass through them, and he saw some unseen place, and there was eagerness in his eyes.

Old Knife's stomach also felt hungry. He quickly turned his eyes away, but it was too late, the feeling quickly swept over him, and the emptiness of his stomach was like an abyss, making his body tremble slightly. He hadn't eaten the morning meal for a month. A meal is almost 100 yuan, 3,000 yuan a month, and saving up for a year is enough for two months of kindergarten expenses.

He looked into the distance, and the vehicles of the city clean-up team were already slowly driving over.

He began to prepare, if Peng Li didn't come back for a while, he would have to think about acting on his own. Although it will bring a lot of difficulties, time waits for no one, and you have to go. The woman selling jujube beside him shouted loudly, interrupting his thoughts from time to time, and the loudness of her voice stabbed him with a headache. The stalls at one end of the pedestrian street began to be cleaned up, and the crowd dispersed like fish in a pond stirred with sticks. No one is going to be going to fight the clean-up team at this time. The stalls were cleaned up more slowly, and the cars of the cleaning team moved patiently. Walking streets are usually just pedestrian streets, with the exception of vehicles for the cleaning team. Whoever walks slowly is forcibly retracted.

At this time, Peng Li appeared. He picked his teeth, unbuttoned his shirt, and paced back unhurriedly, burping from time to time. Peng Li was in his sixties, and he became lazy and unkempt, and his cheeks drooped like a Shar Pei, making the corners of his mouth always look dissatisfied. If you only look at this appearance and don't know what he looked like when he was young, you will think that he is just a coward who has no ambitions and only knows how to eat and drink. But since Lao Dao was very young, he heard his father talk about Peng Li.

The old knife stepped forward. Peng Li saw that he was about to say hello, but the old knife interrupted him: "I don't have time to explain to you." I need to go to the first space, you tell me how to get there. ”

Peng Li was stunned, no one had mentioned the matter of the first space to him for ten years, his toothpick was pinched in his hand, and it was broken unconsciously. He didn't answer for a moment, and when he saw that the old knife was really in a hurry, he dragged him to the building. "Go back to my house and say," Peng Li said, "if you want to go, go from there." ”

Behind them, the clean-up team had slowly driven over, sweeping people home like autumn wind sweeping away leaves. "Home, home. The conversion started right away. Someone in the car shouted.

Peng Li took the old knife upstairs and entered the house. His small single house is no different from an ordinary public rental house, with a six-square-meter room, a toilet, a corner where you can cook, a table and a chair, a capsule bed, and a pull-out cabinet under the capsule to put clothes and items. There were water stains and shoe prints on the walls, untouched, just a few hooks attached diagonally, and jackets and pants hung. After entering the house, Peng Li took off all the clothes and towels on the wall and stuffed them into the most marginal drawer. When converting, nothing can hang out. Lao Dao used to live in such a single-person public rental house. As soon as he entered the house, he felt a breath of the old days.

Peng Li stared at the old knife bluntly: "If you don't tell me why, I won't tell you how to go." ”

It's half past five, and there's still half an hour.

The old knife briefly talked about the beginning and end of the matter. From the fact that he picked up the paper bottle, to the fact that he sneaked into the garbage chute, to the commission he received in the second space, to his actions. He didn't have time to describe too much, and it was better to leave right away.

"You hid in the garbage chute yesterday?, go to the second space?" Peng Li frowned, "Then you have to wait 24 hours." ”

"Two hundred thousand. The old knife said, "It's worth waiting a week." ”

"You're so short of money to spend?"

The old knife was silent for a moment. "Sugar candy has more than a year to go to kindergarten. He said, "I'm too late." ”

When Lao Dao went to the kindergarten for consultation, he was really scared. Two days before the enrollment of the slightly better kindergarten, there were parents queuing up at the entrance of the kindergarten with a bedding roll, and two parents took turns, one ate and drank Lazar, and the other sat at the entrance of the kindergarten and waited. Just waited for more than 40 hours, and it may not be able to get in. The previous places have long been bought out with money, and only the few remaining places are allocated to parents who are struggling to queue up. It's just a generally good kindergarten, and the better ones can't even line up, and it's an opportunity to buy money from the beginning. Lao Dao didn't have any extravagant hopes, but since Tangtang was one and a half years old, she liked music very much, and every time she heard music outside, her little face lit up, and she writhed and danced. She was particularly good-looking at that time. The old knife had no resistance to this, he seemed to be surrounded by layers of lights on the stage, and he only saw a dazzling light. No matter what the cost, he wants to send Tangtang to a kindergarten where music and dancing can be taught.

Peng Li took off his coat and talked to Lao Dao while washing his face. I said I was washing my face, but I just wiped it with water. The water is about to stop, and the current has become very small. Peng Li dragged a dirty towel from the wall, rubbed it casually, and stuffed the towel into the drawer. His wet hair was greasy.

"You really die," Peng Li said, "and she's not your daughter, can you do it?" ”

"Don't talk about that. Tell me how to go. The old knife said.

Peng Li sighed: "You have to know that if you are caught, it will not only be fined, but will be locked up for several months." ”

"Haven't you been there many times?"

"Only four times. The fifth time he was arrested. ”

"That's enough. If I can go four times, it doesn't matter if I catch one. ”

Lao Dao wanted to go to the first space to send something, and he earned 100,000 yuan when he delivered it, and he earned 200,000 yuan by bringing a reply. This is just a big disapproval of violating the rules, as long as the path and method are right, the chance of being caught is not great, but what you earn is real money. He didn't know what reason to refuse. He knew that when Peng Li was young, he had secretly entered the first space several times for a few risk money, selling moonshine and cigarettes. He knew it was a way to go.

5:45。 He had to leave right away.

Peng Li sighed again, knowing that persuasion was useless. He was old, lazy and tired, but he knew that he would be like the old knife before he was fifty. At that time, he didn't care about going to jail or anything like that. It's just a few months of coming out and being beaten twice, but the money earned is real. As long as you don't talk about the whereabouts of the money, you can always pass in the end. The rules of the Bureau of Order are just routine. He brought the old knife to the window and pointed down to a path covered in shadows.

"Climb down from under my house, down the drain, under the felt cloth there are the pedals that I used to put up, and my body is tight enough to avoid the camera. From there, crawl along the shadows to the edge. You can touch it and see it. Walk north along the slit. Gotta go north. Make no mistake. ”

Peng Li went on to explain the trick of crawling across the land. By virtue of the momentum of the rise, climb fifty meters along the section from the raised side, to the ground on the other side, climb up, and then to the east, where there will be a bush that can be grasped and concealed when the ground is closed. Before the old knife could finish listening, he had already leaned out of the window, ready to climb down.

Peng Li helped the old knife climb out of the window and helped him step on his feet under the window. Peng Li stopped suddenly. "To put it mildly," he said, "I advise you not to go." It's not a good place over there, and there's nothing else to do after I go, but I can only feel how fucked up my days are. Boring. ”

The old knife's feet were dipping downward, and his body was still holding on to the windowsill. "It's fine. He said with a bit of a struggle, "I don't go and I know how fucked up my days are." ”

"Do it yourself. Peng Li finally said.

The old knife quickly climbed down the path pointed out by Peng Li. The position of the footpegs is very comfortable. He saw Peng Li's figure at the window, lit a cigarette, took a few quick puffs very loudly, and pinched it again. Peng Li leaned out of the window for a while, as if he wanted to say something, but finally shrank back. The window was closed, glowing faintly. The old knife knew that Peng Li would get into the capsule at the last minute before the conversion, and like tens of millions of people in the entire city, he was hypnotized by the gas released by the capsule at regular intervals, and fell into a deep sleep, his body turned upside down with the world, but his mind knew nothing, and he slept for a full 40 hours, and opened his eyes again the next night. Peng Li is already old, and he is finally like the other 50 million people in this world.

The old knife used his fastest speed to go down, jumping and jumping, and when he was close enough to the ground, he jumped and crawled on the ground. Peng Li's house is on the fourth floor, not far from the ground. Get up and run along the shadows cast by the tall buildings on the lake. He could see the cracks in the grass, where they were flipped. Before he could get there, he heard the rumbling and occasional crisp rattle behind him that was depressing. The old knife turned his head, and the tall building was cut off, and the upper half was falling from the sky, slowly but undoubtedly pressing over.

The old knife was shocked and looked at it in a daze for a while. He ran to the gap and fell to the ground.

The conversion began. This is the moment of separation of the 24-hour cycle. The whole world began to flip. The sound of steel bricks collapsing together is like a malfunctioning assembly line. The high-rise buildings are retracted and merged, and folded into cubes. Neon signs, shop signs, balconies and additional structures are all absorbed into the walls and pasted to the skin of the building. The structure is seamed, and every inch of space is occupied.

The earth is rising. The old knife observed the movement of the ground, came to the edge of the gap, and continued to climb up as the gap rose. He used his hands and feet together, starting from the edge of the marble floor, following the section of the earth, grasping at the metal stubble buried in the earth, at first downward, and tentatively retreating with his feet, and soon, as the whole earth was flipped, he was carried into the air.

Old Knife thought about what the city looked like the night before.

He raised his eyes from the garbage heap and listened alertly to the sounds outside the door. The surrounding fermented and rotten garbage exudes a pungent smell with a fishy, sweet and greasy smell. He leaned against the door. The world outside the Iron Gate is waking up.

When the crack in the iron door let in the yellow glow of the first streetlamp, he leaned down and peeked through the slowly widening gap. The street is deserted, the lights of the high-rise buildings are lit up layer by floor, the additional structures poke out from the sides of the building, stretching out on both sides, the porch extends from the building, the eaves rotate and fall slowly, and the staircase descends to the horse lost road. On both sides of the pedestrian street, one black cube after another breaks from the middle and opens to the sides, revealing the structure of the shelves within. Signboards protrude from the top of the cube to form a corridor of shops, and plastic sheds on both sides extend and close overhead. The streets were empty like a dream.

The neon lights are on, and the small lights flashing at the top of the shops show Xinjiang jujubes, Northeast Lapi, Shanghai roast bran and Hunan bacon.

For a whole day, the old knife couldn't forget this scene in his mind. He's lived here for forty-eight years, and he's never seen it all. His days always start in the capsule and end in the capsule, moving between the dirty dining table and the stalls haunted by quarrels. It was the first time he had seen the world as it was.

Every morning, if someone looks from afar – like a truck driver waiting at the entrance to Beijing on a highway – he sees the city stretch and fold.

At six o'clock in the morning, the drivers would always get out of the car and stand on the side of the highway, rubbing their eyes that had been drowsy after a night of sloppy sleep, yawning, and pointing to each other to look into the middle of the city in the distance. The high-speed truncation is outside the 7th Ring Road, and all flips occur within the 6th Ring Road. The distance is not far away, just like looking at the western mountains or an island on the sea.

In the faint morning light, a city folds itself and closes towards the ground. Like the humblest servant, Gao Lou bent down and let himself cut off his body in a low voice, his head touching his feet, clinging to each other, and then breaking and bending again, twisting and bending his arms above his head and inserting them into the gap. The tall buildings bent and reassembled, curled up into a dense giant Rubik's Cube, densely gathered together, and fell into a deep sleep. The ground is then flipped over and small pieces of land are flipped around its axis at 180 degrees to the other side, exposing the building on the other side. The building stood up from its folding, like an awakened beast in the gray-blue sky. The islands of the city settle in the orange morning light, unfold, stand still, and rise up with gray clouds.

Drivers enjoy this endless cycle of urban drama in the midst of sleepiness and hunger.