Wangjia Town is a rural town in the north, with a cluster of brand-new buildings scattered on one side of the town, and entertainment venues such as movie theaters and KTVs are not uncommon, and at first glance they seem to be no different from ordinary second-tier cities. There is even a four-star hotel that few people live in, but it doesn't match the style of the town - the one where Xia Beifeng lives.

On the other side of the town, just a hundred meters away from the tall buildings, there are large rice fields.

A large river winds through the rice fields, like a long snake swimming, shining with sparkling waves. Around the farmland, there are many small farmhouse courtyards with different orders. The chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs in the yard ran wildly in groups, shouting. Those who were closer foraged for food in the grass near the yard, and those farther were farther into the river, occasionally screaming at an animal of unknown significance, but they were soon silenced by other sounds, and were lost in the sound of the clanging river.

The modern buildings made of steel and concrete and the original buildings of wood and stone are clearly distinguishing from each other in this small town, but they are miraculously able to get along well, so that newcomers can't help but sigh.

"It's really strange in your hometown, how can I say it?" Xia Beifeng followed behind Xu Tianyang, walked on the wet ridges, looked at the hotel building with more than 20 floors in the distance, and said with great emotion: "I thought it should be a good ...... at first That's the place. ”

"You want to say it's a poor place, right?" Xu Tianyang held a long reed in his hand, and hummed an unknown tune as he walked: "It's okay, most people think so, I won't be angry if you say it." ”

"It's not that I want to say poor." Xia Beifeng dodged the tips of the reeds that swept indiscriminately above his head, looked at the white fluff fluttering in front of him, and blew a breath: "Whew...... It's just quite unexpected, I didn't expect it to have everything. ”

The white fluff was blown into the sky by him in one breath, and drifted away with a slight breeze.

"These are all built in the last few years." Xu Tianyang put his hand above his eyes, built a pergola, and looked at the tallest building: "A few years ago, there was a person who went out of our town and made a lot of money and came back to donate money to build his hometown. He brought people to do all these things, and it is said that no one was willing to contract when he first wanted to build the hotel, because he would definitely lose money. In the end, the big boss took over by himself, saying that he would lose money, at least he would have a good place to live when he went home, and the people in this town went to spend discounts, and few people went, this place was too remote...... It is said that at the beginning it was going to be built as a five-star project, but after a long period of research, it was changed to a four-star one. ”

"Fortunately, it was changed, it's really a five-star hotel, and the owner should now lose money selling pants." Xia Beifeng took a deep breath, didn't know what he thought, and smiled meaninglessly: "It's good now, at least I can find a place without mosquitoes to sleep well while I'm here." ”

"Your request is too low, you don't want to recruit mosquitoes to buy mosquitoes at night, so you can solve it. Has the two-hundred-dollar hotel chain wronged you? You have to live in such a good place, you have to burn so much money! ”

After Xia Beifeng heard this, he actually thought seriously for a moment, then raised his head and nodded very sincerely: "I think this may be the reason." ”

"Rich man!" Xu Tianyang looked at the sky and sighed: "Your thoughts are not something that people like us who have eaten the last meal can understand." ”

"You're not that miserable, are you?" Xia Beifeng looked at him in surprise: "Why do I think that the conditions in your home are not bad." ”

"Hey, times are different! The economic crisis, soaring prices, college students can't find a job after graduation, and it's miserable to do anything! Xu Tianyang counted his hands for a while, continued to raise his head and look at the sky in a daze, chatting with Xia Beifeng with or without a ride: "How much was it when I went out to make a plane or something, but now it's only a few dollars, and there are those ......."

As if he had suddenly thought of something in the middle of his words, the whole person became vigilant, and suddenly turned his head to Xia Beifeng and asked, "Did we know each other before?" ”

"I don't know." Xia Beifeng replied without thinking: "Today is the first time I have seen you in the car." ”

"Then what do you say, we seem to know each other very well, and our family is not bad, do you know what our family does?" Xu Tianyang turned his head, stared at Xia Beifeng's face with a smile, and asked slowly, "Do you know how much money my family earns a year?" ”

Although he had a very sincere smile on his face, the smile did not reach his eyes at all. Not only that, but his eyes were a little chilly when he looked at Xia Beifeng, as if he couldn't hear the answer that satisfied him, he would burst out and hurt people at any time.

"Guess, you see that although you don't look very good, the price of things should be quite expensive, so you can make money at home?" Xia Beifeng stared at Xu Tianyang's eyes fearlessly, pointed to the earphone cable that he extended from his trouser pocket, and said suspiciously: "My brother also has a pair of earphones, and they don't have to be sold in China, so I feel that the conditions at your home should not be bad." Am I guessing wrong? ”

"It's okay, it's not too wrong." Xu Tianyang nodded indifferently, turned around, and continued to walk towards the other end of the ridge: "I don't have much money in my own family, my uncle is quite rich, and my uncle pays for going to school after my dad is gone, and he has no children himself, and he has always treated me as his own son." ”

Generally speaking, when two people start talking about family, it means that the relationship between the two people is already relatively close. But when Xu Tianyang talked about his uncle, he seemed to have intentionally or unintentionally distanced himself from Xia Beifeng.

It seems that the temptation is a little obvious, and it has been discovered?

Xia Beifeng yawned, looked at the clouds in the distance, and secretly looked at Xu Tianyang's back.

Failure!

I didn't sleep well, and sure enough, my IQ is easy to drop, and it's such a failure to be so easy to startle the snake!

"Oh yes, I'm curious." Xia Beifeng waited for a while, and once again took the initiative to throw out the topic: "What is the name of the boss who is building his hometown here, what are you doing, so rich." ”

"Engaged in real estate." Xu Tianyang turned his head, pointed to the tip of his nose, and said in a calm tone: "My name is Xu He, and it is my uncle." ”

"Oh, I can't see it!" Xia Beifeng took a step back in shock and almost fell off the ridge. He hugged his fist at Xu Tianyang: "It turns out that Comrade Xiao Xu is the second generation of the rich, you are disrespectful and disrespectful, please be sure to take care of it in the future." ”

"Well, my uncle isn't that rich, but he looks pretty powerful in this small place." Xu Tianyang stretched out his hand as he spoke, drew a circle in mid-air, and stomped his feet again: "This place is remote, and it is rural, the land is cheap, and it actually didn't cost much to build so many things." In fact, more than half of those shops and residences have been sold, and now except for the hotel that is losing money, the others are almost good. ”

"It's pretty good to get back to basics! After all, it's such a big piece. ”

"There are a lot of government-supported projects or something, and there are really not many places to pay for themselves." Xu Tianyang smiled modestly, jumped to the ground from the end of the ridge, pointed to a noisy market in front of him and said, "It's here, the morning market is in front, I'll take you to eat steamed buns." “

"Great, I'm almost too hungry to walk." Xia Beifeng nodded, also walked down the ridge, and followed Xu Tianyang to the lively crowd.

It was eight or nine o'clock in the morning, and the smell of grass wafted through the cool air, and occasionally a rooster cried at the top of his throat. People at the morning market greet each other with a smile or chat, while others haggle around their necks to give this town, far from the city, with a kind of rural vibrancy.

It's a pity that it's cloudy today and there is no sun, otherwise it would be even more lively to watch!

Xia Beifeng looked at the dark and heavy rain clouds overhead with disappointment and sighed.

"Brother Xia, you go quickly, people will close the stall in a while." Xu Tianyang turned his head and pointed to a breakfast stall not far away and urged Xia Beifeng: "Do you see that stall, do you smell the fragrance of steamed buns?" ”

Xia Beifeng withdrew his gaze from the sky and turned to the breakfast stall pointed by Xu Tianyang.

The owner of the stall, a man in his fifties, wearing an oil-stained white apron and blue sleeves on his arm, was opening a basket of buns that happened to be just right.

White steam slowly drifted upwards from the steamer, spreading the aroma of meat buns to the noses of everyone nearby.

In just the blink of an eye, Xu Tianyang was already sitting at the table of the breakfast stall, beckoning to Xia Beifeng, and excitedly said to the breakfast stall owner: "Uncle Liu, I'm back." I also brought a friend to take care of your business, and I was thinking about your buns in the car last night, so hurry up and give me a few first. ”

"Okay." Uncle Liu agreed loudly. He followed Xu Tianyang's gaze and glanced at Xia Beifeng, who was walking slowly, and asked Xu Tianyang: "I remember that you can eat a lot in one meal, now there are eight, you and your friends eat first, what if it's not enough?" ”

"Okay, okay." Xu Tianyang nodded quickly, and said to Uncle Liu with a smile: "Hurry up, I'm about to starve to death." ”

Uncle Liu quickly picked up eight buns in the steamer, turned around and prepared to send them to Xu Tianyang.

"Give it to me, let's take it ourselves, you get busy first." Xia Beifeng happened to walk to Uncle Liu's side, took the plate full of buns, and asked him at the same time, "What kind of porridge are there?" ”

"It's all over there, just go to Sheng whatever you want." Uncle Liu glanced at Xia Beifeng gratefully, turned around and continued to be busy loading buns for other guests: "Be careful of hot hands, just out of the cage." ”

"I see, thank you." Xia Beifeng put the buns in front of Xu Tianyang, walked to the rice cookers that Uncle Liu had just pointed to, turned his back to Xu Tianyang and asked, "What porridge do you want to drink?" ”

"Whatever you want, I just have buns." Xu Tianyang bit a bun and said vaguely: "You look at what you want to drink, just bring me a bowl of the same." ”

"Where's the pickles? Do you want? ”

"No need, if you don't come back to the bun, the bun will be gone!"

"If it's gone so quickly, then I admire you." Xia Beifeng sat opposite Xu Tianyang with two bowls of porridge.

He broke open a pair of handy chopsticks, picked up a bun, and took a bite.

"It's really delicious." Xia Beifeng looked down at the oily meat filling in the bun, and couldn't help but bow his head and take a sip of porridge: "However, this stuffing is so fragrant, can you eat five or six at a time?" Aren't you tired? ”

"I'm not tired." Xu Tianyang replied without thinking.

"Then you're amazing, I can't stand eating something so oily."

"It's much better to eat meat than to gnaw on biscuits......" Xu Tianyang said for a while, paused again, as if he had thought of something, he looked down at the white porridge in the bowl, and sighed: "Although I have a lot of living expenses, I often spend them in half a month when I am in school, and I am embarrassed to ask my uncle." Sometimes I live with instant noodles, boiling water, biscuits, bread or something, and every time I get to that time, I miss the meat buns in my hometown. ”

"yes, I see." Xia Beifeng squinted his eyes and smiled: "Compressed biscuits are indeed quite unpalatable." ”

The two of them glanced at each other, not knowing what they saw in each other's eyes, and suddenly showed a meaningful smile in unison, and then each lowered his head and began to eat his own food, no longer communicating.

These two people have been trying back and forth for a few rounds, and each has some small calculations in their hearts. I don't know who was treated as a fox by whom, and who thought of himself as a hunter.

"Hey, have you heard, there was a ghost fire on the mountain last night." A middle-aged woman's shrill voice came from the vegetable market on one side.

Xia Beifeng pricked up his ears, turned his head slightly, and glanced behind him.

Behind him was a vegetable stall, on which was a row of bright red tomatoes, and the tomatoes were still stained with a little crystal water, which looked exceptionally fresh.

"Really? What's going on during this time, the fire in the mountains for three days can still make people live in peace. Aunt Sun, have you heard about it too? ”

Another woman's slightly hoarse voice also came from behind Xia Beifeng.

"Alas! I heard that my son saw it when he got up last night. Aunt Sun sighed and said, "You didn't see how scared my child was, ran all the way home, hugged me directly and started crying, crying for half a night, and now I am lying in bed with a high fever." I'm going to go over there and ask a gentleman to show him when I'm done shopping, but I hope nothing happens. ”

"That's what your son saw! Then hurry up and ask Mr. to take a look, this matter is not sloppy, and it may not become what it will become after a long time! ”

"Yes, yes, Aunt Sun, hurry up and finish buying vegetables and go back to watch the children. It's not been peaceful these days, the mountains are on fire at every turn, and I don't know whose little ghosts have run out to arrest people. ”

"But you have found no ......" The woman who spoke at the beginning spoke again, this time she lowered her voice and whispered mysteriously, "Although the mountains have been burning at every turn these days, I have not seen anyone die, isn't it strange?" ”

"Could it be said that this time it's just a fire that doesn't die? It doesn't make sense! The other woman asked, confused.

"Who knows? Maybe if you count it first, you will die all at once. ”

"No, don't scare me!" The grandmother's voice trembled a little: "My son has a fever at home, don't talk nonsense!" ”

"Bah, my crow's mouth, you just treat me as nonsense, it's best if you don't die at all." The person who spoke before hurriedly changed his words: "Aunt Sun, your son has been in good health, and he must not be fine, maybe it is cold at night, and he caught a cold when he went out and was blown by the wind, so it would be good to sleep." ”

"It's nice to get some sleep, that's the best." Aunt Sun sighed again, and it sounded like she had gone farther: "You go slowly, I'll go first." I still have to go and ask the gentleman, and I don't know if the gentleman is not at home......"

Although the position where these women spoke was not far behind Xia Beifeng, the market was too noisy, and their voices were sometimes loud and sometimes small, so it was still a little difficult to distinguish.

While eating breakfast, Xia Beifeng tried his best to make up what the women said, and at the same time, his mind kept wandering around with all kinds of speculations, trying to get some useful clues from the conversations of several women such as "ghostly fire", "dead man", "child fever", "please sir", etc., so the result of multitasking was that the speed of eating was getting slower and slower.

It wasn't until the "Aunt Sun" left first, and the remaining three women each sighed a few times and began to talk about the fees of the child's school, that he came back to his senses.

As soon as I looked down, I saw the empty plate in front of me.

I seem to have only eaten two, and the remaining six were given to this guy......

No, you can really eat that much?

Xia Beifeng looked up at Xu Tianyang, who was drinking porridge in small sips in front of him, and was in awe.

"What's wrong?" Xu Tianyang looked at Xia Beifeng suspiciously, and pointed to the bun in his hand: "I'm almost done, are you eating enough of this, do you want no more two?" ”

"Okay." Xia Beifeng ate the buns in his hand in two bites, and shouted at Uncle Liu: "Let's ask for two more buns, hurry up." ”

"Okay, here we go!" Uncle Liu shouted loudly, and put the plate containing the two buns on the dining table behind him: "I can't do it, please take it yourself, okay?" ”

Xia Beifeng didn't speak, took two steps forward, brought the two buns back to their own table, and continued to eat his breakfast.

Xu Tianyang finished eating, asked for a toothpick, and looked at Xia Beifeng leisurely on the stool, waiting for him to finish eating.

As a result, these two steamed buns and a bowl of porridge were eaten for nearly an hour, and when Xu Tianyang broke the third toothpick, he received a call from his uncle Xu He, said hello to Xia Beifeng and left first.

So the man ate more slowly.

I ate until Uncle Liu's breakfast stall closed.

Because of the cloudy day, even though it was close to 10 o'clock in the morning, the surrounding light was still a little dark, as if the sky had not yet brightened.

The clouds in the sky seemed to be thicker again, as if they could fall at any moment. The air was filled with a damp and dreary atmosphere, which made people breathless.

"Alas, it's been cloudy for days, and I don't know when the rain will fall." Uncle Liu complained while cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks on the dining table, and when he walked to Xia Beifeng's side, he took away the empty bowls and plates in front of him.

"Come on, look at the color of this cloud, it will fall in a while." Xia Beifeng looked up at the sky, raised his hand to unbutton a button on his neckline, took a few breaths, and asked Uncle Liu: "Tian'er is too stuffy, I don't want to move, can you sit here for a while?" ”

"No problem, you can sit down, don't delay things, you can go again when I put away the stool later." Uncle Liu turned his back to Xia Beifeng, put the dishes and chopsticks into a plastic bucket, and wiped the sweat on his forehead: "If I don't work, I don't want to move, I will sweat all over my body when I move, and it will be disgusting to stick to my body." ”

"yes!" Xia Beifeng subconsciously replied. He looked up at the sky in a daze, and it wasn't until Uncle Liu began to clean up the stools that he came back to his senses, stood up and helped Uncle Liu clean up the tables and stools that had been placed on the ground.

"Well, thank you." Uncle Liu took the stool he handed over and looked at him a little strangely: "Young man, you have been staying here, is there something wrong?" ”

"Ah, you can see it." Xia Beifeng lowered his head and smiled, and generously admitted: "I actually want to ask you about a person, okay?" ”

(To be continued.) )