Text: Episode 4

1.

Cao Chengrui remembered watching Haruki Murakami's "Let's Listen to the Wind" before.

Haruki Murakami sits at the kitchen table, sipping beer while writing a novel on manuscript paper. He probably didn't think that his work would win an award when he wrote it, he just wrote what he liked while drinking.

Looking at the beer bottle on the computer desk, Cao Chengrui had already drunk three bottles of beer unconsciously.

I didn't eat at noon, and my mind was all on "Untitled" written by Tao Qiwu. At this point he was going to go downstairs to get some food and some beer.

14:13。

The eastern sky was gloomy, but the sky above Cao Chengrui's head was still shining.

He was carrying a plastic bag with empty beer bottles, and as soon as he walked out of the hallway, he slipped and fell on his "butt pier". The beer bottle was also shattered, and there was a small cut in the palm of his right hand.

"."

Cao Chengrui gritted his teeth and stood up, looked back and saw that there was nothing on the steps, and his feet slipped out of thin air. He threw the plastic bag into the garbage can, pouted the wound with his mouth, and spat blood on the ground.

There was a muffled "boom", and when I looked up again, there were dark clouds.

It was just a matter of a moment, and the rain changed from small to heavy.

2.

"Boss, let's have an eighteen rice noodles, fish balls and bacon in the clear soup."

Cao Chengrui hurriedly finished eating rice noodles, and took advantage of the rain to trot to the supermarket downstairs to buy ten bottles of beer and a few packets of peanuts.

Rushing into the unit door with a jolt, his body was already soaked. Cao Chengrui stomped his feet vigorously, but the voice-activated lights in the corridor did not turn on.

"In disrepair," he thought to himself, he walked cautiously up the steps, the wound on his right hand itching a little.

Opening the door with the key and putting down the bag of wine, Cao Chengrui let out a long sigh.

He put the beer in the fridge, took off his wet clothes, and went to turn on the light.

With a "pop", the light in the living room did not turn on. Cao Chengrui frowned slightly, walked to the bedroom and pressed the switch, but the light was still not on. This is true for the bathroom, as well as for the kitchen.

Just when he thought of the word "power outage", the whole person froze suddenly.

Just now he opened the door with the key, put down the bag containing the wine, took off his shoes, picked up the bag and walked to the refrigerator, opened the refrigerator and put a bottle of beer in it, he could see clearly, the refrigerator was lit. That's right, he clearly remembered that the refrigerator light was on, and he thought about walking over to the refrigerator and opening it gently.

A light peeked through the crack in the door.

That's right, the fridge has electricity. Cao Chengrui then checked the computer and the socket, all of which were electric.

The whole room can be used except for the lights that are not good.

Cao Chengrui walked to the balcony in a few steps, he wanted to see if there were any lights on the opposite building.

He leaned on the windowsill and looked into the distance, when suddenly a burst of white light flashed, followed by an earth-shattering thunderclap across the sky. He was startled and couldn't help but close his eyes. The moment he opened his eyes again, a shadow of a white flower fell from above in front of him.

There was a muffled "bang", and something fell heavily on the ground downstairs.

Cao Chengrui was curious, and hurriedly looked downstairs. But at first glance, there was nothing on the ground. His hair was drenched in the rain, and a spirit retracted its head to poke out, and in the midst of the lightning, a black shadow fell upstairs, almost grazing his scalp and falling downstairs. He could really feel the wind above his head.

"Boom" was another thunderclap.

Cao Chengrui wiped the rain from his face and looked downstairs cautiously.

The black plastic bag fell to the ground from a height and exploded, scattering pieces of garbage on the ground.

"Who upstairs is so lacking in virtue?" Cao Chengrui shouted upstairs, his voice muffled by the sound of rain.

Cao Chengrui angrily closed the balcony window, scolded and turned back to the living room. He did not notice that the time of the electronic clock jumped from 14:55 to 14:56 and the time passed.

3.

Although it was still daytime, the sky was dressed up as if it were night.

I turned on the faucet, took off my glasses, rinsed my hair, and washed my face.

Wipe it with a towel and walk out of the bathroom.

All of a sudden, the lighting in the house didn't work, and I guess it was probably the electrical fault. It's no wonder that other electrical appliances are good, only the lighting is not good. Looking out of the window, other people's houses are brightly lit.

I'm not an electrician, so I don't know what's wrong with this.

In fact, it doesn't matter if the lights are on or not, I now think to myself that if that bag of garbage just fell on my head, I will have to find out the family, and I will never give up without paying 18,000 yuan.

I am happy to think of this, and I can think of the way I knocked on someone's door and lay down on the ground.

Drying my hair and sitting in front of the computer, I thought of beer and got up to grab another bottle from the fridge.

took out her mobile phone, but there was still no message from Li Ling. I was conflicted and didn't know if I should give her a call and ask her what she was doing.

This should be the so-called "Cold War".

Men and women don't contact each other because of quarrels, they persist, stubborn, and finally separate.

I sighed, put down the phone, and continued to revise the plot in Untitled.

4.

Tao Qiwu raised his eyes and looked at Zhao Shutong, and then looked at the two words on the paper: Untitled.

He only felt that his legs and stomach were twisting, and it was not an exaggeration to say that his heart was beating to his throat.

"What, what do you mean?"

Tao Qiwu swallowed and foamed.

"You can't read?"

"I, I recognize, I know words." Tao Qiwu leaned against the wall and said, "Are you a human or a ghost?" ”

Zhao Shutong hugged his shoulders and smiled and said, "I'm not a human or a ghost now......"

Tao Qiwu didn't speak, but continued to swallow his saliva, he felt his throat dry and sweaty.

"I really don't understand? Dizzy? ”

Tao Qiwu shook his head.

"Someone wants to kill you."

A bolt of lightning illuminated the corridor, and Zhao Shutong's face turned pale.

"Sister, eldest sister...... Don't scare me. Tao Qiwu sat on the steps with a limp of his legs, and time seemed to be frozen at this moment: "Who wants to kill me?" ”。

5.

Cao Chengrui took a sip of beer and picked up his phone again.

Now his heart is very chaotic, his mind is full of Li Ling, and he really can't focus on words.

The light in the living room flickered and then lit up.

At the moment when the lights were on, Cao Chengrui made up his mind to call Li Ling.

"Dut...... Toot ......"

It rang for a long time before the other end of the phone was connected.

"Hello?" Cao Chengrui spoke first.

The other party did not respond.

"Hello? Can you hear it? Cao Chengrui asked again.

"Yes."

Li Ling's voice was lukewarm.

"What about going to work?"

"Yes."

"Still angry?"

"Nope."

"It's all my fault."

"You're all right."

Cao Chengrui said in a deep voice: "I miss you." ”

"Hmmm......"

Li Ling let out a "hmm", and her voice sounded strange.

"Ling?" Cao Chengrui found that he was extremely concerned and asked, "What's wrong with you?" It doesn't seem comfortable listening to your voice. ”

"I'm fine...... the last word "thing" pulled a long tone, Li Ling paused for a few seconds and said: "If you want nothing to do, I'll hang up." ”

Before Cao Chengrui could answer, Li Ling hung up the phone.

Cao Chengrui, who was staring at the phone screen, was stunned for a long time and slowly put down the phone.

He sat in front of the computer in a daze, quietly looking at the computer screen.

Time slipped away from his ears again, minute by minute.

I don't know how long it took, Cao Chengrui licked his lips, picked up the beer bottle and took a sip.

6.

My mind is messed up right now.

Speculation was running around in my head, and I don't know if it was inspiration or a hunch.

"Inspiration" and "hunch" are just one word.

I think about Li Ling's company, the office, the pantry, the manager's office, and the bathroom. The male colleagues around her, her boss, and the female colleagues around her.

Will Li Ling come to Songbai to find me?

I don't think so.

7.

The rain kept falling, big and small, and there was no thunder.

As you can imagine, the entire city is now paralyzed. Severe waterlogging, broken down vehicles, traffic jams everywhere, people who can't go home are anxiously waiting.

Cao Chengrui put down the wine bottle only to find that the light didn't know when it went out again.

Darkness enveloped him, only the computer screen in front of him lit up.

The word flashed, and the last line of words: Someone is going to kill me.

"Knock knock" on the door.

Cao Chengrui helped his glasses and got up and walked to the door.

"Who?"

"I'm looking for Tao Qiwu."

It's a woman's voice.

"He's not here, why don't you call him directly?" After Cao Chengrui finished speaking, he thought about it and opened the door.

There was no light in the room, and there was no light outside the door, and Cao Chengrui's eyes widened by the dim light of the computer screen.

The door was empty.

But there was a faint trail of water on the ground at the doorway, reflecting a faint light.

"What about people? That Tao Qiwu is really not at home! You can call him directly! Cao Chengrui shouted at the bottom of the stairs. In his mind, the woman must have gone downstairs.

Closing the door, Cao Chengrui touched his chin, thinking that he was going to call Lao Tao and tell him that someone was looking for him.

Pick up the phone and call, the other party is busy.

He looked at the time on his phone: 19:11.

"Let's fight later." Cao Chengrui muttered and threw the phone on the sofa. For a moment, Cao Chengrui seemed to be frozen, and his hair stood on end from head to toe. The screen of the phone he threw on the couch was still on, and the shadow was shining on a person sitting on the couch.

The sudden panic made his blood clot, unable to breathe, his mind blank, unable to scream or shout, and the tense muscles kept him from moving.

Now a second feels like a century.

Cao Chengrui's eyes couldn't move, so he could only stare at the people on the sofa.

It seems that this person is not tall, but his shoulders are very broad, like the kind of "tiger with a bear waist and a swarthy and fierce man" as described in the commentary.

can only be called a man for the time being, because Cao Chengrui can't see clearly whether this person is a man or a woman.

Suddenly, Cao Chengrui was blind for a short time and couldn't adapt to the light.

But the light dispelled the extreme fear of his place, and his brain regained its function, and he inhaled heavily, and a large amount of oxygen entered his lungs, and his whole body became relaxed because of the oxygen.

Cao Chengrui sat on the ground all of a sudden, covered in sweat and trembling all over his body.

When he got used to the light, he found that the light in the living room was on again, and there was no one on the sofa, just the clothes he had taken off on the back of the sofa.

"Hmm" Cao Chengrui felt sick to his stomach, stumbled up, walked to the toilet, squatted down and vomited.

He had a lot of tears and snot, and just then his phone rang again.

Cao Chengrui wiped his mouth with toilet paper and walked to the sofa, he looked at the sofa and hesitated for a short time before picking up his mobile phone.

It's Li Ling's number.

"Hello?" It was indeed Li Ling's voice, a normal voice.

"Off work?"

"Hmm."

"I'm sorry for the afternoon, did I bother you?"

Li Ling didn't speak.

Cao Chengrui continued: "I just miss you, will you come to Songbai to find me?" ”

"Maybe."

"Then take care of yourself! I'm waiting for you to come. ”

"So are you."

Cao Chengrui wanted to say something, but he only heard Li Ling say: "The subway is coming, I won't tell you first, let's send a message later." ”

8.

The rain outside the window kept falling, and there was no intention of stopping.

With the windows open, the rain will be blown into the house, and when the windows are closed, the house will be wet and stuffy.

I walked up to the light switch, reached out and pressed it, and with a "pop", the light in the living room went out, and then I pressed it again, and the light came on again.

I tried it a few times and there was nothing wrong with it.

When the lights went out, it did look like a person was sitting on the couch, but it wasn't.

I sat back at my computer, took a deep breath, pushed my glasses, and tapped on my keyboard.

9.

I do feel like someone is going to kill me.

It's a feeling of being manipulated.

This is no coincidence.

There are no absolute coincidences.

Text: Episode 4 -End-