Entering the provincial capital, the bright lights came to his face, Wang Qiao's mind was like a movie, flashing the painful wandering experience of the past few years, the past was vivid, and the reality became blurred, as in a dream. When his sister was downstairs, he couldn't help but recall the lifelike voice and smile of his brother-in-law Zhang Xiangyin, who committed suicide by jumping off the building, and he was even more emotional.

In the eldest sister's room, the living room is well furnished, the table top is covered with a thin layer of ash, and there are faint traces of large photos on the front wall.

Pushing open the windows of several rooms, the cold air penetrated the room, and after a while, the stale air was replaced by fresh air, and the atmosphere of the room became lively.

Wang Qiao put the letters he brought into a small cabinet, took out the small bag he had kept from the cabinet, and took out 1,000 yuan in cash. To tell the truth, when he was a medical representative in Quang Nam, although he lived a very displaced, he did not feel too much financial pressure. Now that he has returned to Shannan to study in a repeat class, his financial resources have dried up, and he can only sit on empty food, and his cash is getting less and less, which makes him feel financial pressure again.

After putting the bag back in the cupboard, he felt a little unsafe.

The cash is placed in the cabinet, it doesn't matter if there is a lock or not, but the precious love letter with Lu Qi is placed in the cabinet, and it is best to have a lock. There was no lock found in the house, so he said secretly: "Tomorrow, you must remember to buy a lock and lock the small cabinet, so as not to be seen by my sister Lu Qi's letter." ”

After walking around the living room for a while, he began to worry about his financial situation: "The money I have accumulated in the past two years can still support the repeat class, but what about going to college, do I have to reach out to my parents or sister for money?" According to the Jingzhou tradition, it is natural to reach out to your parents when you are in college, but Wang Qiao has a special experience, and his ideas are different from ordinary students, and he tends to be self-reliant. After thinking for a while, he adjusted his mentality: "There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, can a living person be suffocated by urine?" Now concentrate on the university entrance examination and don't think about these useless things. ”

He called home on a landline, and the person who answered the phone was his mother Du Zongfen, "Mom, I'm the second baby, come to my sister to have a look." ”

Du Zongfen stood in front of the telephone, put the microphone tightly to the root of his ear, and complained: "The Zhang family guards your sister tightly, and I can't go and see it if I want to." ”

Wang Qiao heard the resentment in his mother's mouth and comforted: "The Zhang family's situation is special, they attach great importance to this child, you have to understand this." To tell the truth, the Zhang family is very good to my sister, cares about it, and is more careful than you. And when I was in the detention center, the Zhang family went around and made a lot of efforts. ”

Du Zongfen said: "You father and son wear a pair of pants and help others talk. ”

Wang Qiao said: "We are telling the truth, my mother can actually understand, but I don't feel very comfortable." ”

After talking to his son, Du Zongfen felt comfortable and said with a smile: "It's still the second baby who is the most sensible." How about your studies, don't stay up late often, staying up late is not good for your health. ”

Wang Qiao said: "I don't have time to stay up late, and the lights go out on time at twelve o'clock." ”

After chatting a few words, Du Zongfen urged: "Don't talk about it, the long-distance phone bill is very expensive, your sister's company's business is not good, this is all to blame on that Yang Yan, who gave bad medicine at a critical moment, and it is a loss to your sister to teach her to do things by hand, it is really in response to the old saying, teach the apprentice to starve to death of the master." I don't call anymore, go home early for the Spring Festival, don't play outside. ”

Yang Yan is a neighbor in the same yard, and she can be regarded as the apprentice of the eldest sister Wang Xiao. After her brother-in-law committed suicide, Wang Xiao had no intention of running the company, and the company's main business was handed over to Yang Yan. Who knows, Yang Yan took advantage of the chaos to start a new stove and brought the company's business to her new company.

For this matter, Du Zongfen has a great opinion about Yang Yan, who has grown up watching since childhood.

Hundreds of kilometers away, Wang Qiao can still feel the ambivalence of his mother who wants to chat with her son and is distressed about the phone bill, and his heart is warm.

After talking to his mother on the phone, he called his sister again, and while waiting for a reply, Wang Qiao remembered Lu Qi's figure, and inexplicably melancholy surged into his heart. He lifted the microphone, dialed the unusually familiar and gradually unfamiliar pager, and left a message: "I am Wang Qiao, please reply when you receive a message." ”

In less than a minute, the phone rang suddenly. Stimulated by the ringtone, Wang Qiao's heart almost burst out of his chest, and when he lifted the microphone, his hands couldn't help but tremble.

"Which one are you, what are you looking for me?" A gruff male voice came from the microphone.

Wang Qiao's heart fell from the furnace to the ice cellar, and said: "I am Wang Qiao, I called Lu Qi for the page, who are you?" After checking the pager, the rough man said: "I'm not Lu Qi, this is a new pager, are you mistaken?" ”

Holding the phone, Wang Qiao thought about something in despair: "Lu Qi gave up pagering, she wants to break with me completely." I really lost her. ”

The quality of the rough male voice is not low, and when he heard that the other party had no words, he hung up the phone.

Wang Qiao is like a lonely goose that has lost its flock, trying to flap its wings, but it has never been able to catch up with the flock of geese that have gone away. After waiting in his sister's room for more than an hour, he regained his composure, and after paged his sister, he went to the family home of the Provincial Department of Transportation.

The Provincial Department of Transportation's Family Courtyard is like a satellite town, close to the Provincial Government's Family Hospital, and there is a bus stop between the two family homes, and several buses pass through here. After getting off the bus, Wang Qiao stopped a little in the family home of the provincial government, looked inside, and then accelerated his pace and came to the family home of the provincial transportation department.

There was an old doorman in the family courtyard of the Provincial Department of Transportation, he didn't speak, he just stretched out his hand to block the comers.

Wang Qiao asked politely, "May I ask where is Chen Qiang's home?" The old doorman rolled his eyes and said, "Who are you, where are you from, and what are you doing?" ”

These three questions involved the oldest and most profound questions in philosophy, which made Wang Qiao's mind a little messy, and said, "I'm looking for Chen Qiang's family." ”

The old doorman said, "Is it a relative?" ”

Wang Qiao was noncommittal and nodded.

The old doorman muttered to himself: "Why do Chen Qiang's family have so many relatives. "Chen Qiang used to be the head of the Department of Transportation, and visitors looking for Chen Qiang had to register and call to confirm. Now that Chen Qiang has become a dead tiger, presumably no one will come to pretend to be a relative, the old doorman pointed to a dense forest in the distance, and said: "Turn the blue brick building, and the left hand on the second floor is." ”

Wang Qiao walked towards the blue brick building and said secretly: "Chen Qiang has other relatives today?" Ringing the doorbell, Wang Qiao felt that someone was peeking out in the cat's eye of the anti-theft door. Then a female voice sounded: "Who are you looking for?" ”

Wang Qiao said: "I am a friend of Chen Qiang, and he asked me to bring a message. ”

The young woman behind the security eye was startled, and then her face was full of doubts, and she said, "You wait a minute." When I returned home, I whispered a few words in my mother's ear, and both mother and daughter were full of suspicion.

Meng Hui didn't talk much, and his ability to observe words and emotions was very strong, seeing the expressions of the mother and daughter, he knew that there was another guest, and said, "Bring the message, I'll leave." ”

Li Molin said: "There is a person at the door, saying that there is a message from Chen Qiang, Officer Meng, who else can see my old Chen?" ”

Meng Hui said: "Is it a tall and thin young man, he doesn't report his home?" Meng Hui is the eyes and ears of cell 209 of the Guangnan No. 3 Detention Center, and when he heard that someone had brought Chen Qiang's message, he guessed who the person who came.

"It's a young man, I haven't asked for a name yet."

Meng Hui said: "If it is called Wang Qiao, there is indeed this person." ”

Chen Xiuya came to the door and asked, "What is your name?" ”

"Wang Qiao." Wang Qiao can understand the cautiousness of the Chen family, when Lu Zhongyong was shuanggui, Lu Qi behaved more extremely, preferring to flee Jingzhou rather than stay in Jingzhou to face former acquaintances.

After the security door opened, it was Wang Qiao's turn to drop his jaw in shock, and behind the two women, there was actually a familiar and strange person standing - the official eyes and ears of room 209.

"Wood, why are you here?" Wang Qiao subconsciously took a step back, keeping his guard. In his heart, he subconsciously thought that Mu Tou had escaped from the detention center and found the Chen family to cheat and eat and drink.

Meng Hui smiled and stretched out his hand and said, "Brother Man, it's really you." ”

Wang Qiao didn't stretch out his hand, he looked at Meng Hui with suspicious eyes, his acquittal from Shannan No. 3 Detention Center is a special case, and it is quite abnormal for two criminal suspects in a prison to swagger out of "Shannan to see".

Meng Hui took out a police officer card from his pocket, handed it to Wang Qiao, and laughed at himself: "I didn't dare to take a police officer card for ten years, but now I hand over the police officer card to everyone." ”

Wang Qiao looked carefully at the photo on the police officer's card, and was shocked by this kind of plot that can only appear in movies, and said, "How is Chen Qiang now?" ”

Meng Hui didn't answer Wang Qiao's question, turned his head to Li Molin and said, "I was just a spectator in the prison at the time, and Lao Chen was in the detention center thanks to Wang Qiao. At that time, Wang Qiao was majestic in the prison house, and everyone respected him as a barbarian brother. Brother Man took great care of Lao Chen and let Lao Chen sleep next to him, and he was not beaten since then. ”

Li Molin tightened in her heart and said, "How many times has Lao Chen been beaten?" I heard that there are a lot of beatings inside. ”

Meng Hui said: "Anyone who goes in will be beaten, I was also beaten when I first went in, and Brother Man almost had an accident in Room 102." ”

Li Molin remembered that her polite husband was tortured in prison, and her heart was like a knife. Chen Xiuya reminded beside her: "Mom, don't stand at the door, let the guests come to the house to sit." ”

After sitting down, Li Molin peeled apples for Wang Qiao, and Chen Xiuya took a teacup to make tea. The Chen family is an intellectual family with a cultural atmosphere, similar to Yang Lian's family, the teacup is an ordinary white porcelain cup, washed cleanly, without a trace of tea dirt. The white porcelain cup floats with green tea leaves, plain and elegant, harmonious.

After Chen Xiuya put the teacup on the table, she returned to her bedroom and quietly looked at the visitors. She always felt that the people from the detention center were like visitors from outside the world, and she couldn't overlap the calm and handsome young man in front of her with the "brute brother" in the detention center.

(Chapter 34)