When he returned to the company the next day, Qi Lu found Ding Xiaolan walking in with a bunch of things, he turned his head to look and found that the bag was full of food and daily necessities, and couldn't help but ask strangely: "What are you buying these for?" ”

"Condolences, wait for me and Lao Wu to offer love."

"Give love, when did you care about charity?"

"That lonely old man is quite pitiful, I will buy some things to visit him."

Only then did Qi Lu understand that it was Lao Wu who told Ding Xiaolan about last night, which caused her to overflow with love and want to care for the lonely and widowed elderly.

Qi Lu frowned and said: "You are fooling around, Lao Wu's job now is to monitor Hu Lingyun, you are swaggering to visit the old man like this, it is likely to arouse Hu Lingyun's vigilance, thus interrupting our clues." ”

Ding Xiaolan said indifferently: "You think too much, Miss Hu No, Fairy Hu is not a murderer, and it has nothing to do with the murder, I think you are nervous and everyone is suspicious, so let Lao Wu spy on good people." ”

"But her motive for returning to the city this time is a mystery, and besides, she has a broken relationship with the Semitic people, so I can't help but guard against it."

"Then you can't let me return what I bought to the supermarket!" Ding Xiaolan angrily threw things on the ground, then sat on the chair and ignored him with a stinky face.

"Okay, don't waste things since you bought them, but this is the only time to do it." Qi Lu didn't want to make her angry.

Ding Xiaolan hurriedly jumped up from the chair and beckoned Lao Wu to prepare to leave.

"Don't worry!" Qi Lu stopped her actions and said, "Let me accompany you, you can't let Lao Wu be exposed in front of Hu Lingyun soon." ”

Qi Lu drove her to the village where the old man lived, and when she entered the archway in front of the village, Qi Lu smiled and said, "This village is a bit old." ”

"yes." Ding Xiaolan saw that the architectural style of the village was quite similar to the Qing Dynasty, and the towering ancient trees on the side of the road, as well as the green vine and dwarf trees on the walls of the houses, all showed that the village had a history of at least 100 years.

After only walking about ten meters along the gravel road, Ding Xiaolan stopped.

Qi Lu asked: "What's the matter, did you regret it?" ”

"It's not." Ding Xiaolan whispered to him, "Don't you think this village is too quiet? It's eerily quiet. ”

Indeed, as Ding Xiaolan said, the houses along the street are closed doors, and the door locks are covered with dust, and it looks like no one has lived in them for a long time. There were no villagers on the road, let alone the barking of dogs in ordinary villages, everything was so dead and silent, it was like a lifeless world.

Qi Lu laughed and said, "Didn't you listen to what Lao Wu told you? The traffic here is inconvenient, since more than ten years ago, the rich villagers have moved to live in the city one after another, and the remaining young and middle-aged people from some poor families go to the coastal cities to work all the year round, and now there are several elderly families living in the village, of course, a bit desolate and quiet. ”

"I see." Ding Xiaolan was relieved, but she still clearly felt the depression coming from the air, so she followed Qi Lu closely and did not leave an inch.

Qi Lu found the blue brick house where the old man lived according to the address provided by Lao Wu, and he was a little hesitant when he came to the door, not knowing if there was anyone in the house.

Ding Xiaolan looked boredly at the old murals depicted on the door eyebrows, and found that the ghosts and gods in the paintings were all lifelike, and couldn't help but immediately think of the fierce gods or evil spirits in the ghost films, and suddenly didn't dare to look at it again.

"Anyone?" Qi Lu knocked on the door where the paint was peeling.

"Who are you?" The sudden sound behind him startled Qi Lu, but he soon heard that it was the old man's voice.

"It's Uncle Li, we are from the neighborhood committee, come and send you condolences." Qi Lu's face was not red and his heart was not beating.

"Alas, I didn't expect anyone to remember me as an old man, thank you for the government's concern. There are still a lot of good people in the world, and yesterday a girl came to the house to send me money. Old man Li shuddered and took out the key, opened the door, and invited them in. Emperor of the Waste

The interior of the house is a little dilapidated, perhaps because of the lack of sunlight and the frequent piling of garbage, and the air is accompanied by a damp and unpleasant smell.

Ding Xiaolan walked into the house, and suddenly smelled an even more unpleasant musty smell, which made her breathless a little, and subconsciously reached out to cover her nose. But then I thought that this action was not very polite, so I had to put my hand down.

Qi Lu put the condolences on the old table, smiled and took the hot water poured by Old Man Li for him and asked, "Uncle Li, how are you doing lately?" ”

"What else, the people who are about to enter the loess mound, and when I die, the government can help me get to the crematorium, thank God."

The old man's helpless words suddenly made Qi Lu feel a little sad to hear, and he didn't know what to say for a while.

Old man Li didn't care, and said while coughing: "But I still have a request before I die, I hope that the little comrade can help me reflect it to the leaders and see if it can be solved." ”

"What's the matter, Uncle Li, please say." Qi Lu suddenly felt sympathy for the old man in front of him, thinking that if it wasn't a big deal, the government would not care if I could solve it for him.

"Recently, there was an orphan living in my house, and I wondered if the government could find a good family to adopt him after I died, and if I really couldn't send him to an orphanage, I could close my eyes when I died."

"It's easy to say, I'll report your situation to my superiors when I go back." Qi Lu was full of promises.

Old man Li invited them to sit down and went to the back room, and when he came out, he was still holding a black wooden box in his hand, and when he trembled and opened the box with a key, Qi Lu was surprised to find that it was full of 100 yuan bills, not to mention 20,000 or 30,000 yuan.

"This is the money that the kind girl gave me yesterday, and I refused to accept it, so she put down the money and left. Alas, I didn't have any names, and I didn't even know how to thank them. ”

"Uncle, since it was given to you by someone, you can use it and buy some delicious food to replenish your body." Qi Lu knew that this was the money given to her by Hu Lingyun, and couldn't help but feel a little good about her.

"I'm dying, and it's a waste to use it, so it's better to leave the money to that orphan." Old man Li said intermittently: "But I'm afraid that he will spend money indiscriminately when he is young, so he should keep the money in the bank first." ”

"Well, that's as it should be."

"I'm dizzy and illiterate, and I can't even write my own name, comrade, do you have time to accompany me to the bank to deposit money?"

Qi Lu was happy when he heard it, and thought to himself that this uncle was really simple, in case it was a bad person who entered the house, wouldn't this money be deceived and run away for him in a blink of an eye? He looked at the dim sky outside the house and said, "Uncle, it's not early today, the banks are closed, why don't I pick you up tomorrow to take you to the bank?" ”

"Well, thank you then." Old man Li carefully locked the wooden box and put it back in the back room.

At this moment, there was a screeching sound outside the house, like the noise of someone dragging something heavy on the ground. A moment later, the door was pushed open, and a thin figure appeared in front of them, dragging a large garbage bag behind him.

"Little friend, do you still recognize Auntie?" As soon as Ding Xiaolan saw the child entering the door, a warm smile immediately appeared on her face.

Qi Lu raised his eyes and found that this child was the disabled little boy he met that day picking up garbage, and Ding Xiaolan gave him a hundred yuan at that time.

When the boy saw the stranger suddenly appearing in the house, he was immediately frightened, and his body shrank back, as if he was ready to run away at any moment.

"Xiao Shu, these are aunts and uncles from the neighborhood committee, they came to visit me." The old man pulled the boy into the house and caressed his head lovingly with his hand.

"Your name is Xiao Shu, come, Auntie will give you something delicious." Ding Xiaolan hurriedly took out snacks from the bag and stuffed them into his hands.

Old man Li said in a hoarse voice: "I don't know what his name is, so I temporarily gave him this name, because my son's nickname is also called Xiao Shu." ”

Qi Lu had already learned from Lao Wu that the old man's son had died for many years, and he was afraid of arousing his sadness, so he quickly changed the topic and pointed at Ding Xiaolan and said, "Little friend, don't call her aunt in the future, otherwise she will be angry." ”

"Why?" The hostility in the boy's eyes had vanished by this time, replaced by innocent eyes.

"She is most afraid that others will say that she is old, and you will call her sister in the future, or a beautiful big sister!"

"What nonsense are you talking about! If you don't take it seriously all day long, you know how to teach bad children. Ding Xiaolan replied shyly, her hand pinching Qi Lu's shoulder.

"Eat slowly, don't choke." Watching the boy gulp down the snacks he gave him, Ding Xiaolan knew that he hadn't eaten these things for a long time.

Qi Lu half-squatted and asked the boy, "Little friend, what are your parents?" ”

The boy shook his head blankly.

"Do you want them?"

The boy shook his head blankly.

"Have you ever read a book?"

"No, I can't read." The boy answered his question in a whisper, his head bowed.

"Why are you talking so fiercely, you want to scare people!" Ding Xiaolan complained about Qi Lu, pulled the boy to the side and sat down, and then played some small games with him.

"Little comrade, you drink tea first, I'll cook, and eat at my house in the evening." Old man Li stayed diligently.

"How can this work, I'll pick you up by car and take you to a restaurant outside for dinner, I'll treat you."

The two were polite to each other, Qi Lu grinded his lips for a long time, and finally asked the old man to promise to invite him to a restaurant for a meal after depositing money in the bank tomorrow.

Qi Lu saw that it was not early, and was worried that Hu Lingyun would suddenly come to the door to let him wear a gang, so he took this opportunity to say goodbye to Old Man Li and go home. Before leaving, Ding Xiaolan gave the boy a few hundred yuan, but this time the boy refused to accept the money.

Qi Lu whispered in her ear: "I think this kid has a lot of backbone, don't hurt his self-esteem." If you are full of love, you can visit them often in the future. ”

Ding Xiaolan took the money back, and went out with Qi Lu with a slightly disappointed expression.

Although it was a little difficult for the boy to walk, he limped them to the entrance of the village, and it was not until they got into the car that he slowly walked back with heavy steps.

Qi Lu started the engine, but then turned off the engine again, rolled the window, and stuck his head out to look.

For at this moment he heard a song escaping from the silence of the night, and the song was so ethereal that it was impossible to tell the direction, perhaps a lovelorn woman walking alone, and when she saw that the night was dark and there was no one left or right, she remembered the sad past and began to sing.

"Once the sea was difficult to water, except for Wushan, it is not a cloud. Take the second flower bush lazy review, half of the edge of the cultivation and half of the king. ”

"She sang a poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Zhen." The first two sentences of this poem are very famous, of course Ding Xiaolan has an impression in her mind, but her own language and literature are not very good, and she has long forgotten the name of the poem.

The singer's magnetic voice is full of antiquity, which makes Qi Lu listen to it into a bleak artistic conception. He couldn't help but revel in the singing and listened quietly for a long time.

It wasn't until the singing stopped that Qi Lu came back to his senses, and with a sigh, he heard the words "thank you" in the night breeze and then didn't move.

Ding Xiaolan asked: "Thank you, who is she thanking?" ”

"Let's go, I'll take you home." The corners of Qi Lu's mouth hooked up a light smile, and he drove the car into the boundless night.