The phone call interrupted Foley's thoughts, it was Belus.

In order not to disturb the other customers, Foley can only go to the corner, and he reluctantly looks away from Ephia and answers the phone.

"Hey."

"Can you come to my house once now, I have something to talk to you about."

"What's so in a hurry, I also have something to say to you, what do you think of the evening? I'm near the Central Library right now, and it's going to take a while to get to you. ”

"Then I'll see you at dinner, try to be as early as Forlì, I'm worried..."

"Worried? What the hell is going on? ”

"Nothing special, just wanted to talk to you."

Representative Foley felt that Berus on the other end of the phone was a little strange, and he didn't remember seeing him stop talking, but they just met last week, and they couldn't see anything special, except for ...... The car accident he talks about is something that Foley can't forget, and beyond that, Belus's home is a little too clean, but it's conceivable that a doctor has a bit of a cleanliness fetish.

Thinking of this, Representative suddenly remembered that he hadn't asked why Berus was in the company, why he was arguing with Rhodes, and he had forgotten to ask, inquired, which was really not a polite word.

But the afternoon had been enjoyable after all, and Representative Foley walked over to the science fiction area, quickly focusing his gaze on where Ephia had just stood.

What about people. A tremor, as if he had been stabbed in the chest, inevitably reminded him of the smell of the hospital and the atmosphere when José spoke.

"Hell, Ephia, did you do it on purpose? I shouldn't have done this to me. Representative Foley was a little angry and couldn't help muttering to himself, "Why do you say that you just disappear and disappear, how can there be such a person." ”

He walked over to the stack, where Lem's "Robot Master" was at the top of the stack, apparently having just been discarded in that spot.

Discard. Was he the one who was discarded back then? First Ephia, then Mother; Maybe first the mother, then Ephia.

Thinking of his mother, Foley feels even more dull in his chest, she may have abandoned herself a long time ago, from the time she was born, otherwise, why did her mother always nag before she died, "If it weren't for you", "If it weren't for you...", as if birth was something that Forlì Soder could decide.

Representative Foley picks up the book, which is only 8 percent new, and in the lower right corner of page 151 has been folded into a triangle, a well-measured isosceles right triangle.

This triangle of Forlì is simply too familiar, who else but her?

"Lots of them, huh?"

"Yes!!" They shouted and shouted proudly, "We are countless." ”

Others shouted:

"We are like fish in the sea!"

"Like pebbles on the beach!"

"Like the stars in the sky! Like atoms!! ”

After reading the words next to the folded corner, Foley felt a burst of anger again, countless, yes, but one of the countless, a fish, a pebble, no one took you in their eyes, didn't take you in their hearts, Shamer, Ephia, father, even mother, no one cared at all.

Even if it is a star, it is only a tiny one of the stars, and even if it is as indispensable as an atom, it is only one of the many that no one remembers.

Nobody cares about you, you think you can do a lot of things, you think that there are many responsibilities in this world that you can only face, you work hard, you work hard, but your wife never asks you about your work, whether you are in trouble, whether you feel powerless, no, never.

Why ask of a wife, even a mother takes it for granted that she does a good job, she was a hard-working woman when she was young, excellent and beautiful, she found her father when she was blind, her temper is always forgivable, because she is excellent, she can be like this; It's the same with Sammel, her father is rich, and the property in New York is enough for Sammel to have a carefree life, and even if she can't get these inheritances, even if Samel doesn't do anything, her father can't watch her starve to death.

As for herself, her mother didn't like it, and her father-in-law thought that he had used some trick to deceive her daughter and trap her in Los Angeles.

It was as if someone had deliberately told Forlì that not only would he not be able to continue enjoying the otherwise beautiful and even blessed afternoon, but would instead put him in a sack of intolerable painful memories and cruel realities, and he would have to leave the bookstore, go out to take a breath, and perhaps go to the Bunker Hill Steps to rest for a while, and bask in the sun for his own health.

He was about to put the book back in its place, but after hesitating for a long time at the corner, he tucked the novel between his left thigh and walked towards the counter.

"Like Stanislav Lem?" The clerk looks at Forley with a friendly smile.

"It's... I used to like it. ”

"It's not easy to buy this book, a few days ago a customer came to ask for his book, I can only tell him that there are too many books in the store and it is better to try your luck myself."

"You can refer him to buy the electronic version."

"Electronic version." The girl put away her smile, her cheeks glittered and looked like she was only in her early twenties, and it was the time of her youth. "Anyway, I always feel that the electronic version of the book can't talk to the author." The girl said solemnly that this seriousness and her makeup were so incongruous.

"You've been using a reader since you were born." Representative Foley asks.

"You don't look much older than me, sir."

"Or a reading robot, you should have a learning robot to help you find all kinds of books when you are reading."

"Of course, but compared to holding a book, the knowledge of robots can only be regarded as profound, but it does not move me, the kind of mind, in the middle of the night against the dark night sky, to feel the imagination of those late writers about the present era, or even beyond. Some of them have long since become a reality, both good and bad, and we are still far behind and even detoured compared to the whims of those authors. ”

The girl deliberately lowered her voice by deliberately taking a detour.

"You have a data meter in your pocket, but why do you still come to buy books? Why are there still so many people in our bookstore? ”

"Of course, there are still a lot of people who like paper books."

Speaking of this, Representative unconsciously thinks of José's writing with pen and paper. He subconsciously shook his head, trying to throw it into the corner of the basement.

"12 yuan, sir, this is the total price, and it has been discounted by 20% for you."

"This book is only eighty percent new."

The girl shrugged as if to say, "So what, you can not buy it." ”

Representative Foley stretches out his right hand, and the girl quickly completes the toll and bill transfer.

"See you next time."

"See you next time."

Why didn't she look around, maybe Ephia just went to another area, maybe the literature section. But Foley felt that if Ephia disappeared from her eyes, he couldn't find her, and he forgot that he had never looked for her.

With three hours to go before dinner, maybe he could go to Belus's house sooner, and the old classmate on the phone was a little strange, and before that he had better get himself a cup of coffee, sugar and ice, so that he could calm down and convince himself that maybe he had just recognized the wrong person.