There were more cars on the highway than I expected, I drove for five hours in a row, I felt a little dizzy, my waist and legs were sore, and I looked at the time, it was already more than one o'clock in the afternoon.

Passing by a service area, I saw that the parking lot was empty, and after inquiring, I realized that it was not open, so I had to keep going, looking for a place to fill my stomach.

The farther north you go, the more depressed the scenery becomes, and as you drive on the wide highway, you can hear the rustling sound of the cold wind whistling and lapping on the body.

The temperature was getting lower and lower, and a layer of fog had condensed on the car window, I turned on the warm air, whirring, and within a moment, the temperature in the car skyrocketed, and my forehead was covered with a trace of fine sweat.

I don't know how many toll booths I passed, I felt very tired, I couldn't listen to any programs on the FM radio, and even the signal of my mobile phone came and went, as if the world had become a fantasy of nothingness, only the tireless car, running and roaring in the wind, with no end in sight, no hope.

Winter days in the north, the days are short and the nights are long, and as evening approaches, the night sweeps in, swallowing up the whole day, and I feel that in addition to tiredness, I also have the fear of the darkness, so I navigated to the nearest hotel and drove straight over.

It is said to be a hotel, but in fact it is more like a men's dormitory, which is crowded with stranded travelers from all over the country, some of them have not bought a return ticket, some are waiting for someone to carpool, and some are like me, purely passing by, staying overnight and resting.

A guest room of more than 60 square meters, with seven iron beds, the smell in the room is unpleasant, unusually noisy, there is an old man of fifty or sixty years old, sitting at the head of the bed and pouring himself a drink, his face is engraved with very deep wrinkles, I once suspected that he was not at this age, but he was too worried, haggard, and could not withstand the baptism of the years.

My bed was right next to him, and when the old man saw me walking in with my bag, he raised his cloudy eyes, looked me up and down, and then took a sip of his cup leisurely.

I smiled at him, I really wanted to talk to someone along the way, but he didn't seem to be that interested, just drank without raising his head, as if he had countless sorrows hidden in his heart, and wanted to vent his anger, but he couldn't speak.

Wang Ling sent me more than 20 WeChat messages, most of them are where you are, I miss you, have you eaten, do you miss me, I smiled bitterly, and just about to reply to her, I saw a man in his thirties on the opposite bunk, scolding like thunder.

"Fuck, who got my bed wet, how the fuck is this going to make people sleep."

Next to his bed was a boy in his early twenties, like a student who had not yet graduated, he was holding a bottle of mineral water in his hand, and he had just unscrewed the cap of the bottle.

The man glanced around, and finally stopped his gaze on the boy's mineral water bottle, the boy instinctively took a step back, but it was too late, the man grabbed his collar, grabbed the bottle and poured it on his bed, and said as he poured: "Little milk baby, you really don't have long eyes, you wet Lao Tzu's bed, won't you even say sorry?" ”

The boy's face turned pale with fright, his whole body trembled, and he trembled and said, "No, I didn't do it." ”

The man saw that the boy had been frightened, so he fueled his arrogance, he picked up the empty bottle after pouring water, and smashed it on the boy's head, although it did not constitute harm, but the loud noise made the whole room gasp.

The boy was short in stature, thin in stature, and had a kind of weak bookish anger, but the man was five big and three thick, and he was extremely strong, and he felt that it was very enjoyable to beat people like this, and it could have a deterrent effect if it was not broken.

The boy held his head in his hands and sat on the wet bed, the man happily threw the mineral water bottle on his head, and said vigorously: "Today my uncle will teach you how to be a person, and the little boy will learn to respect his elders when he goes out in the future, and I will educate you for your parents during the New Year, understand?" ”

The boy had been numb from the beating, his eyes were closed, and there was no blood on his thin cheeks.

At this time, the door of the room was pushed open, and two children of seven or eight years old ran in, holding toy water guns in their hands, playing loudly while running, and the already noisy guest room only added a lot of noise.

I hurriedly stopped a child, pointed to the bed over there, and asked in a low voice, "Uncle asked you, did you two sprinkle water on the bed over there?" ”

The little boy shook his head with an innocent face, I sniffed and said, "Little friend, if you tell the truth, how about Uncle give you a bigger and better toy water gun?" ”

The little boy blinked his clear eyes, looked down at the shabby water gun in his hand, and whispered, "I accidentally threw it just now." ”

I nodded in satisfaction, and then shouted to the abusive man, "Hey, man, wait a minute. ”

The man was stunned for a moment, squinted his eyes and looked at me, and I said with a smile: "You are mistaken, your bed was accidentally wet by this child." ”

The child pouted, lowered his head in panic, and looked at the tips of his shoes.

The boy spat and strode over, staring at me for a moment, then unceremoniously grabbed the little boy's collar and asked viciously, "Whose bear child are you?" ”

The little boy was so frightened that he cried, the man frowned, raised his arm and slapped him, only to hear the snap, the air in the room seemed to freeze, and even a shivering passenger in the corner of the wall held his breath.

I stood up, blocked the little boy behind me, and said coldly: "Are you a mad dog who saw who bites whom, you also fight such a young child, in case it breaks, are you responsible?" ”

The man snorted and said with disdain: "Where did you get the green onions, you are really broad enough, how much do I educate children to become talents, and how much does it have to do with you?" ”

He spoke in a shrill voice, like a girl with a duck's voice, and I laughed out loud and rubbed the little boy's hair, not wanting to entangle with him.

The man seemed to be enraged by my contempt, and he said angrily, "What the are you happy about? ”

I ignored him, just squatted down, looked at the little boy and said, "What about your parents?" ”

The little boy whispered, "My dad is playing mahjong." ”

I instantly remembered that when I first checked in, near the bar, there was a mahjong table, which the boss used for entertainment, I pursed my lips and said with a smile: "Go and your father called." ”

The little boy looked up, glanced at the man behind me, and ran out without looking back.

"Hey, fuck you, who let him go?"

The man scolded, he seemed to lose his mind, and pounced directly on me, I was quick to move, one sideways, dodged his sneak attack, and saw the old man's bedside, there was half a bottle of liquor, I held it in my hand, and took the initiative to attack, the man's eyes widened, and before he could curse, the glass bottle burst on his head.

"Whoa..."

The man slumped to the ground, his hands clutching his open forehead, and the cold alcohol spilled into the wound, causing him to let out a wail and abuse that he had never felt before.

A man ran into the house naked, and the little boy glanced at me, pointed to the man curled up on the ground, and said indignantly, "He just hit me." ”

I glanced at the naked man, who was thin, sallow-complexion, and had big eyes, as if he had been malnourished for a long time, and as if he had overdosed on drugs, with a languishing expression.

He looked at me and said, "What's going on?" ”

I lit a cigarette and said nonchalantly, "Ask your son." ”

After speaking, I took my luggage, came to the bar, checked out, and the boss looked at me with a surprised face: "Brother, you have just checked in less than an hour, are you in a hurry to leave?" ”

I took a puff of cigarette and said lightly, "You have too many lice, I can't get used to sleeping." ”

The boss refunded me a deposit of 100 yuan, and I couldn't understand what was the use of charging this 100 yuan deposit in such a smoky miasma with no public facilities.

As soon as I reached the door, the boss shouted, "Brother, this is my hotel around here." ”

"Thanks for the reminder."

Out of the hotel, a cold wind rushed in my face, raised my hair, stirred my nostalgia, hometown every year during the Spring Festival, it is estimated that it is several times colder than this, I have been in the south for too long, I am a little not resistant to the cold, I tightened my coat, into the car.

The phone rang a series of prompts, I took it out to check, it was a video call from Wang Ling, I frowned, and connected the video.

"Where are you, so dark? Are you rolling the sheets with other girls? ”

She was in a golden living room, and through the screen I saw an old man in his sixties not far from her, wearing a pair of reading glasses, and there was something amiable in his unsmiling expression, he was sitting at his desk, holding a book, and he was very fascinated.

I pursed my lips and smiled, and whispered, "You guessed right, haha." ”

After Wang Ling heard this, her delicate cheeks were suddenly cloudy, and she said gloomily: "What? I'll kill you. ”

"Lingling, Hugh is messing around, be quiet."

The old man behind her raised his head and glared at Wang Ling with a serious face, sweeping away the kind and kind face just now.

I turned on the lights in the car and whispered, "Are you home?" ”

Wang Ling nodded, then turned around and stuck out her tongue.

"It's good to go home, you can have a lively reunion year."

I sighed, my voice a little hoarse.

Wang Ling grimaced at me and said with a puzzled face, "Why are you still in the car, haven't you arrived home?" ”

"In the wilderness, there is no grass, there are a lot of black shops, I guess I can get home tomorrow, you rest early, I'm in a hurry."

I started the car, the water temperature was very low, and the wind was cold and biting.

Wang Ling reluctantly hung up the call, and I typed in the chat box again: In the past few days when I'm at home, don't send me a video call yet, it will be difficult to end up being seen by your family.

I just wanted to send it, and I felt that it was inappropriate, so I hurriedly deleted it and re-edited: take care of yourself and wait for me to come back.

As the car drove into the highway, the water temperature spiked rapidly, and I drove very slowly, driving at night, and the visibility was very low, so there was absolutely no ambiguity.

This twist and turn experience reminds me of Xu Zheng's "People in Embarrassment", who is also going home for the New Year, but I am much happier than him, but only I know the bitterness and sourness in my heart.

Thousands of mountains and birds flew away, thousands of people disappeared, the surroundings were dark, silent all around, only the stars on the horizon and the roar of the engine, accompanied my homecoming journey, just like most travelers, they all returned to their hometown with a heart of longing, and my heart was full of melancholy and guilt.

I have to say that I am an extremely selfish person, when I left my hometown, I just wanted to find a place of stability outside, I know that I have no ink, short-sighted, and staggered to the present, only to find that the helplessness and hardship of life, the sinister and complex society, the fickleness and hypocrisy of the human heart, I am sure that I have achieved nothing, I am ruined, and I will also be a loser in the search for flowers and willows, and a hypocrite who betrays feelings.

Brother scumbag once asked me, what kind of life do you want to live with Xinyan in the future, at that time, I would definitely open my mouth and say, plain, a tea and a meal, picking chrysanthemums under the east fence, leisurely seeing all kinds of nonsense in Nanshan, but I don't dare to say it now, and I don't want to say it, Wang Ling's appearance completely disrupted the track of my previous life, she was like an angel falling from the sky, illuminating my heart and removing my haze.

The charm and unbridled laughter of the eyebrows, like an invisible carving knife, in the depths of my heart, marked a mark, I tried all kinds of methods, but could not smooth it, she seems to have a kind of magic that binds people's souls, the smiling cheeks like flowers, always lingering in my mind, the more I want to shake it off, the more clear her face becomes, I am sure that I am crazy, like losing an extremely precious treasure, I can't remember what I lost, it is a kind of powerless to panic emptiness.

The night will turn white, the sky will dawn, and a few morning stars will hang in the sky, as if guiding the confused people, and darkness and light coexist.

In the winter of the northern country, thousands of miles of ice, thousands of miles of snow drifting, the fluttering snowflakes, the whole land is covered tightly, like a white carpet that stretches, giving people a sense of loss, quiet and peaceful.

At about five o'clock in the morning, I finally got home.