Tang Long took out the key from his body and gently opened the door. Tang Qiang and Jin Yuhua were sitting on the sofa watching the fight-themed idol drama "Sweet Crit" starring the popular little fresh meat Luhan and his rumored girlfriend Guan Xiaotong, when they heard the sound of the door opening, they turned their heads to look at Tang Long, their faces were pale. Tang Long changed into slippers, walked into the living room, and gently closed the door. He was about to walk to his bedroom when he was stopped by Tang Qiang.

"Why did you come back so late?" Tang Qiang looked at him coldly and said.

"After school, I ...... I went to the fight club for a while......" Tang Long said with his head down.

"If you don't study hard, why do you go to a fight club? Go all the way. Tang Qiang said indignantly.

"Fighting is a sport, not a crooked one." Tang Long said with a frown.

In the TV, Lu Han, who was thin and thin with heavy makeup, pulled onions on a dry land on the grass with the power of a flood that violated the principles of physics, flew dozens of meters into the air, and landed steadily in front of an iron door 100 meters away. Lu Han, with red lips and white face, grease and powder, reminded him of Dongfang Zhou.

"You're still fighting with me! It's a good thing to do at school today, it's crazy on the Internet, and many people know that it is my good son raised by Tang Qiang. You've lost my old face. Tang Qiang yelled at Tang Long, "I don't think it's enough to be embarrassed in my hometown, so I have to go to Shenzhen to embarrass people!! ”

Two lines of hot tears flowed down Tang Long's face, smashing one after another in front of his feet.

"Things haven't been figured out yet, don't blindly scold the child, okay?" Jin Yuhua took out two tissues from the blue Vinda tissue box on the coffee table, walked over and handed them to the sad Tang Long.

"Why isn't it clear?" Tang Qiang pointed to the mobile phone on the coffee table and said, "The article on WeChat is clearly written. ”

"But it was an article written by someone else, and I think it's just making it up and smearing this kid." Jin Yuhua saw that Tang Long turned his head and refused to accept the tissue, so she gently wiped his tears with the tissue, "Tang Long is our own child, how is his temperament, don't you understand?" ”

"Whether or not others smeared him, he has already caused trouble, and my old face has been lost by him. Before I went to Shenzhen University, I told him again and again that I should study hard, don't cause trouble, tolerate everything, endure it, and let it pass. Otherwise, it will affect your studies. Look at it, you see, it's good, it's directly with someone else. Tang Qiang pointed at Tang Long's head with his right index finger and said.

"It's obvious that someone else is beating him, okay? Can you take a break? Jin Yuhua raised her voice and said.

Tang Qiang didn't say anything anymore, he picked up the remote control, stared at the screen, and kept changing the channel.

"Child, can you tell me the ins and outs of the matter, I don't believe rumors, I only believe what comes out of your mouth, because you have always been an honest child since you were a child."

Tang Long twitched his nose and shook his head: "It's nothing...... Nothing to say......"

"Child, I know that you have been wronged, don't hold it in your heart, the more you hold it, the more uncomfortable it becomes, you tell the grievances, and then we will find a way to solve this matter."

"You don't need to worry about this." Tears overflowed again, and Tang Long wiped the tears with the back of his right hand.

"If you don't make things clear, you won't have to deliver beer from tomorrow, I'll fire you. Our company doesn't need employees like you. ”

"This is what you said......" Tang Long glanced at Tang Qiang and suddenly made up his mind, "From tomorrow onwards, I will never send beer again." ”

"Wings are stiff, aren't they? Okay, you are nineteen years old this year, you are already an adult, from now on, you can figure out your own way for living expenses and tuition, don't look for us. ”

"Okay." Tang Long said.

After Tang Long finished speaking, he turned his head, walked into his room quickly, and slammed the door slammed. He turned off the light, put the pillow on his back, and leaned back against the head of the bed in deep thought. That night, destined to be another sleepless night, the white light in the living room seeped through the crack in the door and into the bedroom, and the living room was silent. Suddenly, the phone shook—Bai Sumei's avatar appeared on the phone screen—and she sent a WeChat message.

Bai Sumei: Did you sleep?

Tang Long thought about it and replied to her a few words: I didn't sleep!

Bai Sumei: I'm sorry, the article on WeChat must have caused you a lot of trouble! I am saddened by these tricks of his. At about nine o'clock in the evening, I have already contacted your class teacher through your classmates, and I told your class teacher about the situation, so as not to misunderstand you by the class teacher and the college leaders.

Tang Long: Thank you.

Bai Sumei: Don't say thank you, I feel even more guilty when you say that, because of me.

Tang Long: I don't blame you.

Bai Sumei: Without me, Dongfang Zhou would not have found you.

Tang Long: It's okay, it's over.

Bai Sumei: Rest early, I'll contact you tomorrow.

Tang Long: Okay, good night.

He clicked on Bai Sumei's WeChat profile picture, Bai Sumei was wearing a white dress, standing on the golden beach, her long hair fluttering in the wind, and smiling happily. The waves rolled in and seemed to snatch her away, swallow her, pull her to the bottom of the sea. The beach is littered with messy footprints of various shades.

Her photos are so beautiful, but his reputation has already stinked, and he doesn't know how to face Dongfang Zhou when he goes back to school, how to face Bai Sumei, and how to face all the classmates and teachers of Shenzhen University who know him. He didn't dare to imagine that endless eyes of ridicule and contempt lapping his life like waves, he had such a heart-wrenching experience, he had thought that bad luck would not torment the same person repeatedly, but he was wrong, how cruel this world was, and how evil life was! Doom seems to favor the weak. If you don't want to be tormented by fate, you have to make yourself tough and strong.

Thinking of this, he clicked on Coach Liu's WeChat, he looked at the time, twelve forty-three, he hesitated, and still sent a text message to Coach Liu:

Coach Liu, I'm so late, I want to know, how does your club charge?

Soon, Coach Liu replied with a message to him:

The part-time class is 6,800 yuan a year, and the professional class is 12,000 yuan a year. I am doing an event in the near future, and I will get a 20% discount, and if I miss this event, there will be no discount.

Tang Long: I'll sign up.

Coach Liu: Welcome.

Tang Long: I have to apply for professional classes, so that I can learn faster and better.

Coach Liu: Okay.

Tang Long: Can I pay in installments?

Coach Liu: Students can pay the fee once every six months, and you can bring your student ID.

Tang Long: Okay, I'll start signing up tomorrow morning.

Coach Liu: Okay, I'll see you tomorrow morning.

Tang Long: Good night.

Coach Liu: Good night.

Putting down his phone, he lay on the bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep, and after about an hour, the light that seeped into the bedroom from the living room finally went out, and he pricked up his ears to hear the soft whispering and closing of the door, and then silence all around. Only the lonely stray cats outside the community cried a few times from time to time like babies, and the sharp cries were like knives, cutting deep holes in the night.

He remembered that unforgettable night many years ago, he heard the three evil laughs again, he saw the hands and feet that were constantly struggling and thrashing, the face towards him was a little blurred in the hazy night, but he could still feel how the eyes for help from that face were burning, how painful, how frightened, how desperate. The thought of this made his heart twist like a knife. But he couldn't cut off the scenes of the past, creeping them along the channel of memory, mending the atrium of his heart, which had been scarred since childhood.

He didn't want to think about it, but he always couldn't help but think of how he escaped from Wuyou Lake in the hazy twilight and stumbled back to the warm time. When he stood in the courtyard of the warm time in despair, crying loudly, it frightened all the people inside, and the travelers who lived in the warm time poked their heads out of the window to look at him.

Tang Qiang and Jin Yuhua rushed out of the kitchen, followed by Xiao Qing and Lin Tian also walked quickly to the courtyard. Xiao Qing wore a pair of sleeves on her hands, holding a pair of palms in front of her chest, and the thick oil stain made her hands sparkle in the light.

"What's wrong, little dragon?" Tang Qiang asked in a deep voice.

He still cried.

"Xiaolong, where's Lili?" Xiaoqing asked him.

He didn't know how to answer these questions, so he could only raise his hand and point upward. But the adults obviously didn't understand that he was referring to Sanssouci Lake, which made it even more and more anxious.

"What are you crying about, Lili? Where is she? Tang Qiang scolded.

"In ...... At...... Lakeside. It took him a long time to get these words out.

After hearing this, Lin Tian howled "hurry up", and immediately rushed out of the courtyard and plunged into the night. He was followed by his pale-faced wife. Tang Qiang asked Jin Yuhua to get a flashlight, Tang Qiang squatted down and said to his tearful son:

"Stay with my mother, I'll go to the mountains to find Xiaoli, I'll be back soon, ask you again, is Xiaoli by the lake?"

Tang Long nodded.

Tang Qiang took the flashlight handed over by Jin Yuhua, stood up and rushed into the vast night. He looked up and saw that the scimitar-like moon had now become round, and the stars were dripping from the moon's pale face like countless teardrops. The Gusan, clad in the black veil of the night, shook his head on the roof and sighed.

After Tang Long followed his mother into the house, more than an hour later, he heard a rush and messy footsteps, accompanied by heavy panting. He heard Jin Yuhua whispering to Tang Qiang in the courtyard. He wanted to run out of the room to see if the adults had found Lin Jiali, to see what Lin Jiali was doing now, to see if she was still crying, he wanted to comfort her, he wanted to apologize to her, and ask for her forgiveness.

However, his courage had been completely lost on the shores of Wuyou Lake, and the fear that drove him to flee from the shores of Wuyou Lake now sealed him tightly in his room. Although he had moved away from the three teenagers and returned to the protective circle of the adults, never to be violently attacked by them again, his hands and feet trembled as the adults returned from the shores of Wuyou Lake, and he heard his upper and lower rows of teeth smash against each other as if seeking revenge. This slight knocking sound, like a prelude to a sad song, caused a buzzing sound in the brain after a while, like an invisible hand knocking on the brain drum, and the brain was empty, filled with a white mist, and only a dull and oppressive hum echoed in the brain.

In this way, because he didn't dare to go out of the room on that night that he didn't want to talk about again, he never saw Lin Jiali and her parents again.

More than ten years have passed, the world is constantly changing, changing with each passing day, only he, except for the body is constantly growing, the others seem to be the same, he is still so cowardly, so timid, so shy, so cowardly. Yes, Stone and Dongfang Zhou may be right, he is a scrap wood, a waste wood, a real fucking scrap wood.

He has long begun to hate himself, this boredom has continued to the present, and it has become a pain in his skin, he hates himself, hates the world, hates his hometown, hates the memories of the past, hates Tang Qiang, and hates all the people who cause him trouble. Hate had turned into a dark depth, holding him in lock.

A month after Lin Jiali's misfortune, she disappeared from the village with her parents. The whole town is spreading the changes of the Lin family, people are talking about it, and various versions are emerging one after another. In the end, there is a version that seems to have been approved by most of the villagers who have nothing to do: after the Lin family's daughter was raped by three teenagers, Lin's father went to the town police station to report the case, but the case was suppressed and there was no progress for a long time. Later, it was discovered that the three teenagers who raped his daughter were from Wuhan City, Hubei, one was a rich second generation, and the other two were second generation officials, and their family couldn't afford to mess with them at all. In the end, under the mediation of some prominent figures in Xianning City, Guihua Town, and Dawulei Village, the Lin family and the families of the three teenagers held several secret consultations in a hot spring hotel at the foot of Qianshan Mountain in Xianning City, and reached a settlement. The Lin family received three large amounts of compensation and went to live in a distant city. Before leaving Dawulei Village, some villagers saw Lin's father rent a van, return home to pack his bags, then close the windows, lock the door, and leave Dawulei Village forever, leave Osmanthus Town, and leave Xianning, Hubei, and never returned.

After Lin Jiali's family disappeared from the village, the adults in the village never said anything in front of their family, however, they often poked him in the backbone behind his back to criticize him, ridicule him, sarcastically mock him, and scold him, except for his Tang Qiang and Jin Yuhua, no one wanted to pity him. They think that Lili has an accident, he should be mainly responsible, it is he who took a girl to the silent lake at dusk, and after meeting a bad boy, he left the little girl and fled home alone, leaving a soft little girl alone to face six pairs of devil's claws, his cowardice and incompetence, destroyed this girl as brilliant as osmanthus.

These rumors would always blow at their doors from different directions, and these rumors affected the children in the village, and his former friends no longer played with him, and sometimes they would throw wild on his head, laugh at him, tease him, scold him, beat him, and spit saliva in his face. And he can only silently let them be humiliated, he is so unbearable in their eyes, as humble as dust on the ground, he has long lost the courage, confidence and right to resist. The girls in the village, perhaps under the admonition of their parents, would hide away when they saw him, and simply regarded him as a devil.

He can only walk in loneliness and sorrow, he can only close his mind in the damp shadow without a trace of light, he can only carry the weight like a stone, his heart grows heavier with the passage of time every year, every month, every day.

Many years later, when he grew up, he finally understood that that night changed his life and Lin Jiali's life, and the chain of fate had been around his and Lin Jiali's necks from that moment on.