This is a quiet courtyard nestled in the old city's ancient alleys, the courtyard is not large, but it contains an old-fashioned brick building crawling with pothos. The brick building is not big, but it retains the wooden eaves and tiles that have lasted for many years, and it looks like it has some origins. Bao Liang does not understand architecture, but he knows that the architecture of the city is the history of the city. From the history of the city, Bao Liang deduced that this old building was probably an official residence of some Japanese devil or Kuomintang official, or the residence of a certain wealthy man who raised his aunt.

Bao Liang remembered that his sister had said in the past that Quan Hu had planned to buy an old building or old courtyard in the provincial capital and open a branch of a million-dollar mansion. Quan Hu and his father were inspired by both Beijing and Shanghai, and found that many of the old buildings in the big cities were used as restaurants and clubs, and those old houses would have a unique style with a little decoration, which appealed to the appetite of foreigners and literati. There are also a lot of such houses and yards in the provincial capital, but most of them are damaged and repaired, if you don't take advantage of the low price to quickly collect them, and wait until the people in the provincial capital learn the customs of Beijing and Shanghai and suddenly realize that they will buy it, it will be too late.

Bao Liang thought, this courtyard, this old building, Bacheng was bought by the Quan family at that time, maybe the name of Quan Hu fell when he bought it, so he was not fined by the court when the million company overturned.

Bao Liang stood at the door of this small courtyard and knocked on the courtyard door. The sound of the wood at the gate was as hoarse and tattered as its tendoned appearance.

There was no response in the courtyard.

Bao Liang pushed the door with his hand, and the door opened crookedly.

Bao Liang crossed the threshold, walked in, walked into the courtyard, and shouted, "Is there anyone?" ”

Still no one answered.

Bao Liang walked to the main entrance of the old building, pushed it with his hand, and the door was locked. Walk along the verandah to the side door, push it with your hand, and the side door suddenly cracks and suddenly opens. Bao Liang tried to enter from this, and it was like a land where no one was there. The corridor in the building is wide, the ceiling is high, the light is dim, most of the rooms are empty, and a few still have some tables, chairs and sofas. The staircase is located in the center of the hall directly opposite the main door, the paint has long since faded, and the handrails are mostly crumbling. The early morning sun shone in through the round window at the corner of the staircase, and it was as brilliant as smoke.

Bao Liang shouted again: "Is there anyone?" ”

I don't know if it's an echo from an empty building, or if there are people in the building, there is a faint noise upstairs. Bao Liang was startled at first, and then he calmed down, and then he heard that the sound was indeed coming from the upper floor, gradually moving from one direction to the staircase, until it became a clear footstep, and the footsteps were very slow and slow, but the whole crumbling staircase made a palpitating vibration.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

As soon as Bao Liang suppressed the wild beating in his chest, he saw the silhouette of a man in the morning light slanting from the round window. The silhouette was a bit of an illusion, forcing Bora to make another sound, trying to confirm:

"Anyone?"

At the corner of the staircase, an echo finally sounded: "Who are you?" The voice sounded familiar to Bao Liang.

"I'm looking for Quan Hu, is he here?"

"Who are you?"

The footsteps sounded again, and the silhouette against the dazzling sunlight began to move downward, and the face entered the darkness that the sunlight did not reach, and the facial features were distinguished.

"You're not...... Right...... Right three shots? ”

"Who are you?"

The face in the shadows asked again, his voice full of surprise and alertness. Bao Liang announced his name loudly as if he had seen a relative, because he knew that Kwon Sam Gun and his brother-in-law Kwon Hu had been like brothers from the same mother since childhood.

"I'm Lu Baozhen's younger brother, I'm Baoliang!"

"Baoliang?"

"Yes, I'm Baoliang, and our family has moved to the provincial capital."

"Ah, you're Baozhen's younger brother!"

Kwon Sangun's voice became enthusiastic, and the original doubts disappeared. He walked down the stairs and stepped forward to take a look at Bao Liang's eyebrows, eyes, and figures, and then smiled to confirm it.

"Yes, you're Baoliang. You've grown so tall, you've become an adult! ”

Bao Liang could hardly find the right words except for his hearty smile, although he had not yet met his sister, but the unexpected encounter with Kwon Sangun made him convinced that he would be reunited with his sister soon.

"Yes, I'm all going to ......" Bao Liang wanted to say that I was going to college, but before he could say anything, he fortunately stopped, and cleverly changed, "I finished high school, I graduated from high school for almost a year, and I am nineteen this year." ”

In Bao Liang's impression, Quan Sangun can be regarded as a big man, but now that Bao Liang is standing with him, although he is not as burly as Quan Sangun, he is tall enough to compare with him. Quan Sangun threw his gaze at Baoliang, and had to change from looking down to looking at him, he said: "But isn't it, it's been five or six years." You were so tall then, and now you're taller than me. How did you get here? ”

Bao Liang was so excited that he couldn't help himself, Quan Sangun used to be entrusted by Quan Hu to drive to Bao Liang's house to pick up Bao Liang and his sister to find Quan Hu, either to go for a ride in the suburbs, or to eat in millions of mansions, so Quan San Gun always coexisted with happiness in Bao Liang's memory.

"I've been looking for my sister, and a friend who knows a boss who does business with my brother-in-law told me about this place, and I didn't expect to find you. Are you and my brother-in-law still together, do you know where they are now? ”

"Of course we're still together. Your sister misses you a lot, and she keeps mentioning you. She misses your mom a lot, too, but she's still a little scared of your dad. She has also looked for you, but you seem to have moved away a long time ago, and I don't know where you have moved. ”

Bao Liang smiled on his face, his eyes suddenly became a little sour, and he couldn't help but cry out from his laughter: "...... I've found my sister! My mom is gone, when she died, when she died, let me find my sister no matter what, no matter what, when my mom died, she just wanted to see my sister......"

"Ah, your mother is dead?"

Kwon Sam Gun's face showed surprise. Baoliang's mother was only 52 years old when she died, and she was not yet the age when the oil dried up.

Baoliang's mother, Quan Sangun, also recognized it, and used to come to Baoliang's house and also called aunts and uncles, but now that the Si people have gone, they can't help but sigh a few times. Quan Sangun asked Baoliang's father again, Baoliang's father was kind to Quan Sangun, and his stump leg was lame for Quan Sangun.

Bao Liang briefly talked about his father's situation, saying that his father had retired, and after Bao Liang's mother died, he found a new wife, and now his life is fine. Bao Liang did not say that he was expelled from school, nor did he say that the estrangement between him and his father has not yet been resolved.

Quan Sangun also briefly talked about the situation of Quan Hu and his sister, Quan Hu and his sister were not in the local province for a long time, and they went to the south to do business early. From Quan Sangun's mouth, Baoliang knew that although his sister had also looked for them, his sister didn't know whether her father had accepted her marriage with Quan Hu and whether she could acquiesce, so she had always been worried about reconciling with her family and reuniting with her parents.

Bao Liang didn't dare to say that his father had already forgiven his sister, nor did he dare to say that the marriage that had passed through the times and the grievances between the two families that had become a history had long ceased to be a tooth on his father's side, but when the three guns in power asked if he could meet Bao Liang's father, and told Bao Liang's sister's mood and recent situation in person, Bao Liang immediately subconsciously felt that this was not only a turning point for his father to finally forgive his sister, but also, even, it is likely to be a contract for his father to forgive and tolerate him, and it is a godsend opportunity to restore the relationship between father and daughter and father and son.

Because in the bottom of Bao Liang's heart, he always retains a belief, that is: blood is thicker than water, and love is greater than hate. No matter how many old disagreements there are, my father is actually still in love with my sister, and my sister is actually still in love with my father, but they are each in the way of their own faces, and neither of them will take the lead in bowing their heads and stretching out their arms of reconciliation to each other.

This early morning may not be forgotten by Bao Liang for the rest of his life, he was extremely excited, and he left the old building and this courtyard with Quan Sangun with great excitement, and walked in the direction of his house. Kwon also carried a handbag and packed a bag of Jianning citrus brought from Jianning as a gift to Baoliang's father. Jianning citrus is a local specialty of Jianning, and has always been very famous in the province and the country. Although there are also some sold in the provincial capital, the feeling is of course completely different from the one brought directly from Jianning.

It is only a 20-minute taxi ride from this old alley to the neighborhood where Bao Liang's family lives. On the way, the three guns also talked about this courtyard, and the situation was much the same as what Bao Liang knew. The owner of this courtyard is still Quan Hu, who bought it very cheaply and did plan to open a restaurant, but later delayed it because of the marriage between Quan Hu and Baoliang's sister. The process that dragged on, not to mention that Bao Liang also knew about it - later Quan Hu eloped with his sister, and then something suddenly happened to the Quan family, although Quan Hu was innocent, but the capital had been exhausted, and this promising yard was idle. Quan Sangun came from the south a few days ago to do business, and by the way, he took a look at this house on behalf of Quan Hu, if he could meet a suitable buyer, as long as the price was not lost at the beginning, it was not impossible to sell it by the way. It is not difficult for Baoliang to hear from Quan Sangun's words that business in the south is not easy to do, and Quan Hu and his sister's current life is obviously not as prosperous as in the past.

When the taxi took them to the alley of Bao Liang's house, it was already dawn, and the pedestrians and vehicles on the street gradually increased, but the alley still seemed to be hazy, and the whole alley was silent. Bao Liang happily entered his small courtyard with Quan Sangun, and when he opened the door with the key, he heard that Aunt Yang had already gotten up and was boiling water in the kitchen. Dudu also got up and rinsed her mouth loudly in the bathroom and brushed her teeth. The door to his father's bedroom was also open, and Bao Liang couldn't remember how long it had been, and for the first time he called out to his father's door, "Dad! ”

Bao Liang walked to his father's bedroom door and called again: "Dad! There was no answer in the house, and he said, "Dad, Brother Quan Sangun is here, he sees you coming." ”

Before the words fell, Bao Liang suddenly heard Aunt Yang's scream behind him, he was frightened by this sudden scream, and the whole person turned around as if he had jumped, in addition to Aunt Yang's face that was pale with fear, there were yellow citrus scattered all over the ground, and then what hit his eyes was the hideous-looking Quan San Gun and a short-handled rifle that was obviously hidden in a handbag. Before Bao Liang could scream, his ears were deafened by a loud bang, and he saw that Aunt Yang's forehead was bursting with blood, splashing all over the white wall behind him. At the same time that Aunt Yang fell on her back, Bao Liang's hearing was instantly restored, and his paralyzed consciousness was suddenly awakened by the hissing screams at this moment! He stepped back into his father's bedroom, wanting to call his father, but his only thought was to protect him! But my father's bedroom was empty except for the unfolded quilt on the bed. Outside the house, the gunfire rang out again, a hoarse hissing as loud as the first. Bao Liang stumbled out of the bedroom and saw blood on the bathroom door. In the blood-red vision, he saw the muzzle of the black hole of the rifle, and met his gaze from the bottom to the top quickly, Baoliang only relied on his subconscious physical strength, and his feet mechanically fled to the aisle, escaping from his father's bedroom door into the aisle only five steps away, and the short five steps Baoliang actually seemed to have been running for a century. The first room in the hallway was Dudu's room, and Bao Liang jumped into it without hesitation. The only exit in front of him was the closed window in the house, and he used all his strength to soar into the air, and slammed into the half-curtained glass head-on, and at the moment when the glass shattered, the bullet of Kwon Sangun swept through Bao Liang's scalp and hit the aluminum window frame, and the shooting on the window frame was mixed with the cracking of the glass, and I don't know whether it aggravated or diluted the fear of the sound, and Bao Liang flew out of his house almost with the glass and the dust splashed by the bullets, as well as the torn half of the window screen.

This wall with windows is the back wall of the whole house, and on the opposite side of this back wall is the front door of another house. One of the housewives of that house was walking out of the door with a fish tank, and when she saw Bao Liang coming out of the window with blood stains on his body, she was so frightened that she fell into the fish tank. She was horrified to see Bao Liang running in the direction of the alley with the floating water and struggling goldfish, and the unbuttoned red shirt on his body frantically shook its back as it ran, like a flame hunting and burning in the wind......

Behind Bao Liang as he fled, the entire neighborhood suddenly became silent.

Bao Liang ran out of this unawakened block, ran onto the morning sun on the main road, the shops on the side of the road had just opened, the cars on the street began to crowd, and the noise around him became more and more noisy, but in Bao Liang's ear drums, except for the sound of banging gunshots, there was only his own heavy gasp.

Bao Liang wanted to find the police station to report the case, so he picked up his pace again, and halfway through the run, he suddenly remembered that this place seemed to be closer to the Guling Branch, so he turned and ran towards the branch. When he ran to the precinct and saw the first policeman, his chest was so heaving that he couldn't speak.

The police took him into a room, sat him down, gave him water to drink, and tried to calm him down. Someone came to examine the wound on his head, which was still bleeding and stained with glass ballast. He recounted the situation intermittently, and he heard someone beckoning the police who were investigating the scene to hurry up. He heard a jumble of footsteps running through the window, and the roar of cars in the distance. Only then did he find out that the policeman who handed him water and helped him wipe his blood was actually a woman. He froze, staring blankly at her.

The male policeman who inquired about the situation continued to ask: "...... Is this person called Quan Sangun, and is Quan Sangun his name or nickname? ”

Bao Liang's eyes were straight, staring at the back of the policewoman walking out, he didn't call her name, he felt from Xia Xuan's eyes when he turned around, she might not have regarded him as an alumnus of the public academy for a long time, as a classmate who had been friends with each other.

"Is Kwon Sam Gun a name or a nickname?"

Bao Liang woke up like a dream, quickly retracted his gaze, and said, "Nickname, ah no, name, Quan Sangun is his name." ”

At this time, Baoliang was still breathless, and all he could think about was his father, whose life and death were uncertain.

Soon, Xia Xuan returned to this room and brought a doctor. The doctor cleaned Bao Liang's wound and made a simple and practical bandage. Half an hour later, they, including Xia Xuan, took him out of the precinct and drove in a car in the direction of the crime scene, that is, Baoliang's house.

As the car drove towards his house, Bao Liang really calmed down, and the retrieval of his memories gradually returned to normal. Memories made him basically confirm that his father must not be at home at the moment of the murder. Bao Liang remembers that when he passed by the kitchen, he saw Aunt Yang cooking breakfast inside, and the bathroom in his house was very small, the door was ajar, and it was impossible for his father and Dudu to crowd inside. His own bedroom was the first room he passed through as soon as he entered, and the door was closed, and his father would certainly not enter. The living room and dining room have an unobstructed view. He ended up breaking out of the window of Dudu's room, which was small and there was no one at the time.

The policemen in the same car may be able to see that Baoliang's face began to recover, from pale to normal, slowly became bloody, and his breathing became much more stable. It's just that his eyes are still a little uncertain, in this six-person police car, Bao Liang's gaze always seems to avoid Xia Xuan on the other side.

By the time they arrived at the site, the survey had been largely completed. The bodies of Aunt Yang and Dudu have been carried away, and the house looks in a mess, still retaining the real mess at the time of the crime. The police have not dispersed yet, some are packing up the investigation equipment, and some are reporting on the scene. From the few words in the report, Bao Liang heard that Quan only fired three shots in total, and one of the two shots missed. The manhunt for Kwon has been launched, and the case has been reported to the city bureau and the provincial department. Next, we need to find the person concerned, that is, the survivor of the murder, to further check the details of the crime process and the scene...... Bao Liang didn't listen to the next report, and by this time he had already followed the police officers who had come with him through the corridor and into the living room. He could see the door of the bathroom here, the blood stains were still touching, and on the floor outside the kitchen, Aunt Yang's figure when she died was drawn with a thick white pen, and it can be seen from the drawn graphics that Aunt Yang was still holding a spoon for stir-frying when she died, one leg stretched straight, and the other leg was very awkwardly bent outward.

Bao Liang saw his father.

With tears on his face, his father knelt on the side of "Aunt Yang", as if he wanted to pick up his lover with both hands. Several policemen were pushing him up, but they couldn't hold his father's heavy body. Bao Liang only saw his father trembling all over, but he couldn't hear a trace of his father's crying, and his father's face was distorted and deformed, so that Bao Liang could see what kind of expression a strong man had when his heart collapsed......

Bao's conscience was broken, and he choked up with a broken sob: "Dad......"

Father heard Bao Liang's voice, this one, "Dad! "It seems to have injected strength into my father's body. He stood up on his own and pushed away the policemen who were supporting him with both arms, and he suddenly became like a majestic lion, and his round eyes pounced on Baoliang. Bao Liang's throat was choked by his father's giant palm, and his gauze-wrapped head was then hit hard. Blood seeped through the gauze and poured out, and the white gauze was large and red.

"You thing, you killed them! You've killed them! I'm fighting with you! ”

The father's roar was hoarse, overpowering all the voices of dissuasion, and almost all the police in the house rushed up, grabbed the crazy father, helped Baoliang who fell, and separated their father and son...... All kinds of voices and all kinds of actions are here to explain, comfort and persuade.

The father went crazy and tried again and again to break free from the obstacles of the crowd and tried to pounce on Bao Liang, who cried and shouted: "Dad! Father! "The nerves are also in disarray. His father waved his arms across the crowd, kicked him with his feet across the crowd, and the roar in his mouth was incoherent, just to vent his irrepressible grief and anger.

"I'll kill you, I'll kill you, you go and die! I don't have your son, what did I do in my last life! Gave birth to you this thing, you and your sister, you are not a thing! I raised you so big just to let you kill me! Get out! Get lost! Get lost! ”

The policeman who helped Bao Liang pushed Bao Liang to the door and motioned for him to go out and avoid it. After Bao Liang was pushed out of the house, he still heard his father's scolding, and he saw the entrance of the alley, full of onlookers. He pushed through the wall and ran down the street, feeling a bit like his sister's elopement. He completely understood his sister's pathos and despair at that moment, and he also wanted to be like his sister back then, vowing never to return here again!

Behind him, someone called him, and he heard that it was Xia Xuan's voice, concerned and anxious. But he didn't look back, there was only one nerve in his brain that was moving, and that was running! Run ahead, try to shake off those surprised and curious eyes on the side of the road! He didn't know where he was going, he only knew that in this city, in this world, there was no one to go to, no place to call home!

The provincial capital is really big.

Bao Liang ran from block to block, from crowd to out-of-the-road. He didn't know the direction, he didn't have a purpose, and he didn't slow down until he saw the wide Jianhe River suddenly spanning the field of vision in front of him. He found that Jianhe's embrace was so open, attracting him to move forward step by step, intending to plunge into it. Walking to the shore, he finally restrained the breath in his chest, and the quiet blue sky and the flexible river made him realize the impermanence of life and the preciousness of life.

He realized that he was dead; He realized that he had been born again, that he had become a fatherless and motherless man, as if he had always been like this, not knowing where he came from and where he was going......

He originally wanted to go to Li Chen, but he suddenly changed his mind halfway, and that feeling he had never felt before, that is, he suddenly wanted to see Fei Fei.

Fei Fei's uncle's snack bar was deserted as usual, and Fei Fei seemed to have just woken up at this time. She was amazed to see Bao Liang walking into the store covered in blood, stuffed with a mouth full of toothpaste, and forgot to rinse it for a long time.

In the cramped back room of this snack bar, on a makeshift bed made of wooden planks, Baoliang let Fei Fei gently hug and cry silently. He had never felt a woman's arms so wide and so soft, and he had never thought that he needed a woman so much, to listen to his whimpering quietly.

From that day on, the three heroes of Jianning seemed to have really formed a family. Bao Liang's official entry made Li Chen's residence a veritable Juyi Hall. Li Chen and Liu Cunliang brought back a few bottles of liquor that day to shock Baoliang, and the three of them were all drunk.

The drunk Li Chen laughed and made trouble as usual, talking crazy, and Liu Cunliang was still crying darkly. Only Fei Fei is not drunk, and the purpose of her coming here is to take care of Bao Liang wholeheartedly. Bao Liang was already drunk after three cups, so he forced Fei Fei to drag him to the hut where Liu Cunliang lived, took off his clothes for him, and watched him fall asleep.

From that day on, Fei Fei lived with Baoliang, and they lived in Liu Cunliang's hut and squeezed Liu Cunliang to Li Chen. Liu Cunliang has always been very afraid of Fei Fei, Fei Fei ordered him to move the land, but he had to move away angrily. Li Chen didn't want to squeeze together with Liu Cunliang, but he saw Fei Fei's meaning to Baoliang, and he only had good things to do. What's more, Baoliang's family is ruined and in trouble, giving him more care, from the perspective of buddy righteousness, it is also natural.

Fei Fei lives with Bao Liang and does not ask to share a bed with Bao Liang. Bao Liang is physically injured, and he has lost the love of his family and father, which can be described as physically and mentally exhausted, and he needs time to slowly recuperate. At that time, Bao Liang wanted to stay with Fei Fei, but he was only looking for a kind of spiritual comfort, and at that time he was desperate for someone to love him, someone to care for him, someone to think about him, someone to feel sorry for him, someone to gently caress his earlobe, and gently plucked the diamond-encrusted earring. And this person, of course, has to be a woman.

He still misses his sister, misses his mother, and even sometimes misses Aunt Yang, but they are too far away from him, so far away that they can never be touched. The only one who can hold him in his arms, listen to him whisper, listen to him sob, and let him vent his grievances, is now only one Fei Fei.

This desire may inadvertently obscure a certain truth and make him ignore a certain question, that is: Does he love Fei Fei or not?

This desire makes all the words that come out of Fei Fei's mouth soft and sweet, and makes all of Fei Fei's expressions to him of great significance, so when the pain is settled, he does not refuse Fei Fei's personal promise, and in the middle of a muttering night, they naturally become one, and when Bao Liang reaches the peak of pleasure for the first time in his life, his passion for Fei Fei is indescribably true love or just gratitude.

One night, he relived the dream that he had repeated as a teenager, and he dreamed again of the heroic fire-breathing girl, and when he woke up from the dream, what suddenly came to his mind was not Fei Fei sleeping beside him, but the young policewoman who had only a few face-to-face friends.

Xia Xuan?

Bao Liang turned to his side, his back to Fei Fei. He was a little ashamed, but fortunately it was dark in the room, and he was thinking about another woman on the couch of a woman who loved him deeply.

Compared with Fei Fei, Xia Xuan is more solemn, more heroic, and more lofty, and exudes an indescribable magnetic field.