Today, I was watering flowers on the balcony and received a call from a friend, I haven't seen him for a long time, and we haven't spoken to each other during this time, we all know that each other is very busy, and there is nothing important to try not to disturb each other, the only way for us to keep in touch is to give each other a like in the circle of friends, but during this time he didn't even give me a like, I wanted to give him a like, but I found that he didn't even send a circle of friends during this time, I don't know what happened, you know, He's a person who likes to send moments very much, a few days ago, I looked through his circle of friends to see if he cheated me, but no, not as I thought, his last one stayed on the second of last month, the content is a back picture uploaded on the Internet, a person sitting in the sunset, the sunset is so red that this person faces the sunset, leaving a dark and lonely shadow, this look is a type of perception of life, generally with the text expression of his own thoughts, but he didn't say anything, There was only one picture hanging alone. I should have greeted him, but I didn't, and now I am a little ashamed to receive his call.

His voice on the phone is very unenergetic, just listening to the voice knows that he is in a low mood, even depressed, my friend has always been a sentimental person, his hobby is reading, this is not surprising, people who love to read are always particularly prone to sadness. I asked him what had happened, and he said he couldn't talk on the phone, and he wanted to talk to me in person. So, I packed up and went out.

It was the end of autumn, the weather was a little cold, I walked on the road, wrapped my clothes tightly, the autumn wind blew one after another, there were leaves on the trees and kept falling, those leaves were scorched and dried up, rolling down to the asphalt, and were blown for a distance, making a slight "whoop" sound, I looked up at the gray sky, the sky was cloudy, and the branches of the big trees without leaves were clearly exposed, printed in the sky, trembling slightly in the wind. Alas! What a sad season, I can't help but sigh, how many people cry because of it, I think my friend is like this, he must have remembered the sad past in the sad season.

We used to go to the little coffee shop, and he was already waiting there when I pushed the door in, and in a very private corner, I walked over, took off my coat and put it on the back of the sofa.

"Are you alright?"

I asked him as he sat down.

Actually, I don't have to ask to know the answer, the answer is all written on his face. He was originally a person who paid attention to his image, dressed meticulously, and always kept his hair clean, but in front of him, he seemed to have not had a haircut for a while, and his unkempt hair and bloodshot eyes seemed to be a different person.

The friend put his arms on the table, clasped his hands, and said, "You may not believe it, but I have met a ghost." ”

I looked at him in amazement, I didn't know what to say, I suspected that he was not in his right mind.

Then my friend told me about the strange things that happened to him, and he said:

That night, because I had dinner with a few good colleagues, I thought that my wife was waiting for me at home, and I was going to go home directly. But I don't know if it was a coincidence, there were a lot of people at the station that day, so I wanted to walk around the neighborhood, and it was not too late to go back after the rush hour, so I left the station, turned a few corners, and came to the downtown area. I walked aimlessly on the bustling street, and before I knew it, I came to the night market, and then my heart moved, because I saw the bookstall and you know that I am a book lover, and I can't walk when I see a book. I made my way through the crowd to the bookstall and crouched down, scanned the spine to see if there was anything I wanted, disappointed that it didn't, I stood up and wanted to go to the bookstore again, and there were some bookstores on the other side that I had been to.

Because I was too focused on searching for the bookstore opposite, and there were a lot of people crossing the street, I didn't care about the passing vehicles, and I was almost hit by the oncoming bus, and when I heard the horn and shouting, I reacted, and quickly took a step back, I was a few millimeters away from the car, if it weren't for the driver's good skills, I was afraid that I would have been hit and killed, I apologized to the driver with a red face, the driver didn't say anything, just glared at me with extreme anger, and drove the car away. I sighed and looked at the bus that was leaving, and I was scared for a while. I saw the car come to a stop after a short distance, and just as I was puzzled, a large crowd poured out of the car, and I realized that it was a stop sign. Originally, even if this matter was over, I could just turn around and walk away, but I was nailed there, and a woman walked down from the car at the end, and it seemed a little familiar. She got out of the car and walked in my direction, and as she got closer, I could see her face, round white cheeks, peach blossom eyes, and a small mole at the base of her left eyebrow. It's her!

She?

I looked curiously at my friend in front of me, his eyes were a little confused as he looked at the coffee cup in front of him, as if he was still immersed in the confusion of the time.

He continued————

She was a former student of mine.

I used to be a teacher for a few years, but not in the city, but in a primary school in the countryside, which was a comprehensive primary school with children from ten miles and eight villages. She was a child from a neighboring village, and at that time she had a round and white face, and she was also beautiful. But I only taught her for half a semester, and when I came back to the city, I forgot about the student.

Later, I crossed paths with her, not because she was my student, but because of a colleague of mine.

This colleague and I were both teachers at that elementary school, and he is still there, and we have a good relationship, and I have been in touch since I returned to the city. Six or seven years later, because I needed to go back to my hometown to go through some formalities, I naturally contacted this colleague and friend. The colleague was married and had children, a three-year-old son and a daughter less than a year old, and her wife, a fish vendor with a voice as loud as a local fisherman. A friend took me to the local port market, which has a kind of vibrancy that the city doesn't have. In the golden sunset in the evening, fishermen come back with boxes of live fish and place them in the market. The fish are still jumping around, accompanied by the shouts of the fishermen, which is very lively. That's how my friend's wife felt to me. That night we bought a few fish to take home for dinner, and his wife made a delicious soup out of the fresh fish. After Meimei's dinner, his wife put the children to bed, and we were chatting, and he suddenly proposed, "Isn't it boring?" Shall we go shopping? ”

The wife, who was originally holding the child, suddenly changed her face and mocked him coldly: "Shopping? Why don't you go to your other home? ”

I was about to get up when I stopped awkwardly when I heard this. Unexpectedly, his wife said to me again, "You don't know, do you? He also played the game of Kanaya Zangjiao. ”

I was a little shocked, knowing that this was just angry talk, and that it would be impossible for an old friend of Kanaya to drink the delicious meal cooked by his wife. I couldn't say anything, so I could only pretend I didn't hear anything. My old friend just got used to it, and smiled bitterly and called me out together.

The night by the sea was really beautiful, we walked under the starry sky, the wind blew on our cheeks with a slight fish, and we talked about books and Chinese paintings as before.

After a long time, the old friend spoke: "There is a person, would you like to meet me with you?" ”

Naturally, I gladly went, but all that came to mind was his wife's words———— Kanaya Zangjiao.

We turned from the open road into a dark path, up a steep slope, and came out to the village ferry. The ferry was crowded with small white houses, and when we walked to the door of one of the old houses, the old friend stopped. I waited for him to knock on the door, but he pushed it open and walked straight inside, familiar as in his own home.

"Swallow 、、、、、、"

Swallow? I heard the name very familiar, maybe there were too many girls called Swallow in the countryside, I remember that there were several students I taught who were called Swallow.

We walked through the small courtyard full of dirt together, came to the door, I followed the footsteps of my old friend into the house, when I saw the woman in front of me, I was speechless in surprise, this is not 、、、、、、 really the student I taught back then, her name is Zhang Yan, she is the most beautiful of all the girls called Yanzi, although it has been many years, but her fair and round face is still rare The appearance of the girl back then. At this time, the swallow was already eighteen or nineteen years old, right? She was sitting in the dim light watching TV.

"Swallow, who do you think I'm bringing here? Remember? Said an old friend.

"Teacher." The swallow recognized me, and she called out to me as she stood up. She is still the same well-behaved as she was back then.

I was filled with emotion and just nodded. In fact, I am a little ashamed of this girl's behavior of destroying other people's families, and the other party is still a teacher who is much older than me.

Swallow made tea for us and served snacks, there was no word of small talk, looking at their intimate behavior, I felt very dazzling, what a shameless girl! The resentment of an old friend's wife is not groundless. During the conversation, I learned that Swallow had a job, working as an accountant in a garment factory in the town.

Since I couldn't see their behavior, I played for a while and then found a reason to leave、、、、、、

I went back to the city and never saw them again, and the old friend was cut off from me. It was only from other colleagues who had intermittently gotten news about them, their affair was discovered, the friend's wife, the neat woman with a loud voice, and finally the villagers and school teachers all knew about their shameless deeds. The old friend and the swallow couldn't stay any longer, so the old friend and his wife divorced, and took the swallow away to fly away, I heard that it was to the northwest, but the conditions in the northwest were difficult, so they went to the north again、、、、、、 anyway, everyone never saw them again.

When I saw Yanzi again this time, I couldn't help but think, did an old friend bring her back? It's not as good as a place you're familiar with. Where are the old friends? Are they still together? A relationship like this starts with a love affair, but after a long time of life in a foreign land, it is difficult to maintain each other's shortcomings for a long time once their shortcomings are exposed.

I watched the swallow get closer and closer to me, my mind was blank, I didn't know how to talk, I was nervous, fortunately the swallow turned a corner, into the alley, she walked fast, I was relaxed and regretted, the vast sea of people, if I missed it, I might never see it again.

Because of this, I forgot about going to the bookstore and went straight home. My wife had just come out of bedtime and sat on the couch with me drinking tea. I told her about it when no one shared it, but my wife was not very interested, and I knew that she didn't know my old friend, nor did she know Swallow, and of course she wasn't interested.

After a moment of silence, we went to bed early. It's just that I've been thinking about it in my heart, and I can't sleep.

"Don't you think that woman might just look like a swallow?" Hearing this, I asked my friend curiously, and secretly thought that he might just be dazzled.

The friend shook his head firmly, took another sip of coffee in front of him, and then continued.

At first, I thought I was just wrong, that the woman might just be like a swallow, but then I met her again.

So the next day, I worked overtime until late to get out of the company, originally because I didn't have a good rest last night, I wanted to go home to rest, but a thought suddenly flashed in my mind: Maybe the swallows are also hanging around here? I walked from the front of the company to the downtown area, a long distance, and suddenly I was shocked by my stubbornness, so I wanted to go home.

When I went out to look for her traces, I couldn't meet her, but I was able to run into her by accident.

It was the weekend after that. I went to meet a friend in Lishan District, had some dinner and some wine with him, and left at about 8 p.m. Because I wanted to blow the wind to sober up, I walked on Luoyuan Street, and I remember how many bookstores there were. I walked along the road, browsing the neon signs above me, and the cool wind blew that night, and my wine quickly sobered up. I visited a few bookstores and walked to the bus stop. At this time, the sidewalk, which had been wide, was crowded with several staff members walking side by side in suits, so I had to move to the side. When they had passed, I saw behind them a woman in a brown vertical striped garment, her long hair flowing away, revealing a fair face, the same as the swallow I had seen that night!

"Huh?"

I tried to stop the woman, but I didn't know how to speak, so I could only let out a short cry. But she seemed to hear my voice, and she looked back, who had already walked some distance.

Looking at her bright eyes and familiar face, I was sure that it was my former schoolgirl Swallow.

I don't know if the cry was too soft, too hesitant, or if it wasn't her at all, she ignored me, turned back and continued on her way. I calmed down and thought, who knows if there are two people in this world who are so similar?

I saw that the woman was about to walk into another path, and I didn't have time to think, so I had to follow up. I thought to myself, it would be better to observe first, if it is a swallow, it is not too late to say hello.

The path that the woman walked into was very dark, I don't know if it was because the sky was gradually fogging, everything was hazy. She walked so fast that I was a little nervous after her, hesitating to come up and greet her.

It didn't take long for her to reach a fork in the road, and without hesitation, she turned directly into an even darker alley, which seemed to have no street lights.

But looking at her familiar appearance, she should have lived here for a long time.

The alley was a concrete road, and I wore leather shoes, and I stepped on it and made a lot of noise, so I had to follow her from a distance so as not to attract her attention. But the woman walking in front of her was so light that she didn't make a sound.

As I walked, I saw a faint glow in the row of houses in front of me, and the woman walked to the last door, opened it directly, and walked in.

I was not far away from him, and when I heard her closing the door, I was a little anxious, thinking about whether to shout directly. But the dim environment around me made me retreat again, what if it wasn't her? It's not good if the shouting causes disgust from the neighbors. Thinking about it, I decided to remember this place first and visit it in the open during the day. Because it's the last one, it's easy to remember without having to look for a special sign to mark it.

"Who's out there? Mom, I just saw a man standing in the doorway upstairs. A childish voice came from inside the door.

My heart tightened, and I hurried away. Returning to the bustling street, I breathed a sigh of relief, confirmed the direction of the path, and hopped on the bus to go home.

When I got home, it was already late, my wife and children were already asleep, and I lay down, turned off the lights, and closed my eyes. The drowsiness refused to come for a long time, and my mind kept on the figure of the woman who swallowed, and the voice of the girl calling for her mother.

I didn't mention it to anyone, even my wife, and I didn't talk to her again, and I even felt embarrassed for fear of being bumped into.

Although I wanted to know about her and her old friend, my gut told me that it was strange and might disrupt my life, and finally I put up with it and decided to forget about it.

As the days passed, I got back to my life and finally stopped thinking about it, it just wasn't my sleep so good.

Another weekend, a colleague and I had dinner at a famous snack bar in Qingshan District, we came all the way to eat delicious snacks, and after eating, we went to the tea room to drink tea to get rid of the greasy, and the tea room was near the bus stop where we went back.

The reason why I made all these details clear only proved that there were no problems with my thinking and memory.

It was seven o'clock in the evening, the weather was cold, the night was early, and there was fog, so there were not many pedestrians outside. When my colleagues and I were about to walk into the tea room, a wave of guests came out of it, and I hurriedly turned sideways to make way for them. Just as we wanted to go in, another guest came out, it was a woman, and because of the light on her back, it was impossible to see her appearance, and I didn't want to look at it. I turned sideways again, trying to let her go first, she went down the steps, and gradually I saw the top of her head, she had thick hair, and there was a big clip pinned to it, maybe because the hair was too smooth, the clip fell off, and there was a "click" on the concrete floor, but the woman didn't seem to hear it, and continued to walk. I hurriedly picked up the clip and gave it to her.

"Hey."

I shouted and ran to her.

The woman lowered her head slightly, and because there was no clip, her hair slipped down, covering half of her face, and because the street lights in this position were so small, I couldn't see her face clearly. She took the card from my hand and said, "Thank you." "I said nothing. The woman hurried away, clutching the clip in her hand and not putting it back on her head.

I was shocked by the sound of her voice, it was the voice of a swallow, although it had been many years, I still remember her voice, that soft and beautiful timbre, I stared at her back, saw her walking posture, exactly the same as the woman that night, and the clothes seemed to be the same, brown vertical striped clothes, could it be her again?

"Come on in! What are you doing standing there stupidly? ”

My colleagues started urging me, so I had to go into the tea room.

The waitress led us to a spot, and I began to ask her if there was a beautiful woman in a tan vertical stripe dress who had had tea here.

"How old is she?"

The waiter asked me.

I said, "Twenty-three-four." ”

The waiter furrowed her brows and said that there were no such guests, since the dark time until now, she has not seen a young woman come here, but she has received a few elderly wives, how can young women like to drink tea, they all like to drink milk tea.

I was so confused that I couldn't stop all night, if it wasn't something wrong with my eyes, it must have been something wrong with my brain.

When I got home, I couldn't help but rummage through the contact information of my old friend, I remember writing down his phone number in a small book, there was no WeChat in those years, he didn't play QQ, we only contacted by phone, originally his number was recorded on the phone card by me, but after that incident, I was very unaccustomed to him, so I deleted him, fortunately, there is a bottom, that is the small book, but, I rummaged for a long time, and I didn't find it.

Alas! Forget it, why be so persistent. I admonished myself.

After another week, my wife and I were a little tired from receiving visits from relatives and friends these days, so I politely declined my colleague's invitation on the weekend and sat in the study to read. It was raining outside, and it was a good day to read a book, and I felt very comfortable. Seeing that I was a little sleepy at noon, I lay down on the sofa and squinted for a while.

I was awakened by the cry of my son downstairs, and the cry of my wife: "There is a man named Swallow who is coming for you." "She seemed to be standing on the steps of a staircase and talking to me.

As soon as I heard that it was a swallow, I came to my senses, got up from the sofa, and wanted to go downstairs at once, but I realized that I must have messy hair, a greasy face, and traces of saliva at the corners of my mouth. So I opened a small mirror on the table, smoothed my hair with my hands, and then wiped the oil and saliva off my face with blotting paper. After I was satisfied, I went downstairs.

Downstairs, the living room was empty and there was no one, and then my wife pushed the door open from the outside, looking at me with the same puzzled expression.

"Where's she?" I asked.

"Gone." The wife replied.

"Gone?" I'm even more confused.

"yes." The wife said, "It's very rude for a strange person to leave without even saying goodbye." When you didn't come down, I went to the kitchen to cut fruit for her, and when I cut the fruit and brought it out, she walked in front of me and walked straight out of the door, and she walked very fast, and when I chased it out, she was gone, how could she walk so fast, there was an avenue outside the door, and there was no place to turn the corner, why did she disappear all of a sudden? It can't be a ghost, right? ”

I said, "You can't be looking for the wrong door, are you?" ”

The wife said, "No, when I came out of the kitchen, I saw her go up several stairs, and when I wanted to go upstairs to the study, it seemed that she suddenly changed her attention and left." ”

I nodded thoughtfully, and then asked, "Her name is Swallow?" ”

The wife nodded, "She said her name is Swallow." ”

Since this woman was so eccentric, my wife didn't suspect me. Looking at the vast rain and fog outside the window, I decided to go to Luoyuan Street in Lishan District another day.

The next day, the weather cleared, and after work, I got on the bus to Tateyama District, and I was thinking about it all day today. After getting out of the car, I quickly found the path from memory, and at the fork in the deep path, I walked up the concrete alley to the last of the row of houses.

I knocked on the door and asked, "Is anyone home?" ”

"Who?"

The door was opened by a woman of about fifty years of age, she was short, stocky, very rich person, this was obviously not a swallow.

"Is there a woman named Swallow here?" I asked, a little embarrassed.

"No, who is the swallow? It's just me and my daughter. The woman looked at me strangely and said.

"Have any of your young woman relatives visited recently?" I asked.

The woman said, "None of my relatives and friends have a name for swallows, are you in the wrong place?" ”

I explained: "I saw a friend of mine come into your house that night, but it was too late to disturb me, so I came to visit during the day today. However, if you are not here, it may be that I am mistaken! ”

Behind the woman appeared a girl of fifteen or sixteen, probably her daughter.

"Mom, who is it?" The girl also looked at me strangely.

"Oh, the gentleman asked if any young woman had ever been in our house, and that night he saw his friend come into our house." She turned back and explained to her daughter.

"Was it half a month ago?" The girl thought about it for a moment and asked me.

"yes, do you have any impressions?"

"Mom, didn't you say it looked like there was someone in the kitchen that day?"

The woman said, "I didn't see anyone, I just felt like someone had come into the kitchen, and then you said it looked like someone was outside the door、、、、、、"

"But we didn't see anyone come in、、、、、、"

Both mother and daughter looked horrified. I looked at them and made sure that the swallow was not here, and I comforted them and said, "I'm the one out there, did it scare you?" I'm really sorry. ”

After I said goodbye to them, I went back listlessly, wondering what the hell was going on, and I was sure I saw the swallow go in. Could it be that I have a mental problem? I've heard that the precursor to madness is to see all kinds of things that others can't. I used to have a friend who was originally a very normal and lively person, but later because his friends who lived with him spread his private affairs at home, which made everyone known, he couldn't stand the ridicule and discussion of others, and began to live alone, not socializing, and had obvious mental problems. Later, his family sent him to a psychiatric hospital, but before the treatment was successful, he committed suicide.

Thinking of what happened to this friend, I didn't dare to cling to it anymore, and I decided to forget it completely and never set foot in this place again.

When my friend said this, he lowered his head and began to weep.

I put my hand on his hand, comforted him, and asked if what had happened.

The friend stopped crying and continued————

Yes, something very bad happened, not long after I came back from that alley, my children and wife were sick, and the doctors could not detect this strange disease, and my children and wife seemed to be enchanted by something, and suddenly they could not speak, and they became mute for some reason.

Looking at this collapsed family, I no longer had the intention of working, so I quit my job and now live on my savings.

One day, wandering through the streets in a daze, I staggered to the river and walked onto the bridge. There was also a man walking on the other side of the bridge, still walking in my direction, I stared at him, he stared at me, I saw him first, it turned out to be my old friend! I think he must have seen me, but he just didn't want to pay attention to me. My old friend's hair turned white and his face was haggard. He seems to be wandering around with nothing to do.

"Guangzu!" I greeted him, his name was Guangzu.

By this time we were very close. I saw his dead fish-like double eyelid eyes look at me and say, "Oh. It's you. ”

"You recognize me." I said happily that I wanted to take his hand, but he dodged it, but fortunately I didn't feel too embarrassed.

He had nothing more to say, and moved to leave. I said, "Don't go, how have you been in the past few years?" What to do? ”

"Not good." He said coldly.

"What about the swallows? What about that girl swallow? Aren't you guys together? "I finally asked the question I wanted to know.

There was not the slightest fluctuation on the face of the old friend Nene, and he said: "I died, I committed suicide, and after a year, I have long become a handful of ashes." His tone was also emotionless, as if he were talking about an irrelevant person, which might be the numbness of grief.

After he finished speaking, he continued to walk forward, slowly, slowly, step by step, half of his body was almost out of sight, and he didn't look back or pay attention to anything I said.

When he had only one head left in my sight, I saw the old head turn around and say, "If you hadn't told my wife, we wouldn't have ended up like this." ”

I bowed my head in shame and did not dare to look at him, but I suddenly remembered my wife and children, who must have been the result of the swallow's resentment, and I became angry and said to him, "You! Deserve! It's a big rebellion, I'm doing the right thing for heaven! ”

But the head had already fallen, and I don't know if he heard it.

My friend touched the tears on his face, stood up and said goodbye to me, saying, "Goodbye, friend." Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to listen to me. ”

Looking at his distant back, I was very helpless and melancholy, is there really a soul in the world? I thought. At this time, the wind is stronger, and the leaves fall like rain、、、、、、