Yang Zheng's house is in a dilapidated community.

Why do you want to add the word broken, because this broken place can be called a community, and it is a bit of a lift.

It is in the middle of the city, leaning against the side of the road, but it has no courtyard walls and no iron gates.

It is also famous, at least twenty years ago, a neighborhood without courtyard walls and iron gates means that architects and designers reflect on the tension between neighbors at that time, and also mean the yearning for freedom of all people in the world.

This was not made up by Yang Zheng, but published in the newspaper.

The newspaper Yang Zheng's father still kept, and the architect and designer were two amiable-looking fat men who held aloft the first prize in the urban design competition and smiled like children.

However, looking back now, the design of these buildings without courtyard walls and iron gates, coupled with the smiles of the two fat men in the photo, is more like mocking fools.

In previous years, when the police station on the street had not been moved across the street, almost all the residents in the community were patronized by thieves.

Whether it is clothes, pants, shoes and socks drying outside the window, or color TV and refrigerator in the window, in the eyes of those inhuman thieves, it will be their own thing in the end.

Yang Zheng's family was no exception, Yang Zheng was still young at the time, he followed the old Yang Tou to worship his mother on the Qingming Festival, and when he first arrived home, he only saw a ridiculous place.

Not only have all the valuable things in the house been moved, but those that can't be moved have almost been smashed into desolation.

He will always remember that after the only photo of the family of three in the family was torn to pieces by the inhuman thief, Lao Yangtou, who seemed to always bow his head, finally raised his head and rushed into the kitchen, lifted the rusty kitchen knife that even the thief couldn't look down on, and chased him out with red eyes.

That is the most desperate life of Lao Yang Tou in his life, and it may also be the only life that Lao Yang Tou has lived in his life.

That night, Lao Yang's eyes were bright red, his face was flushed, and his neck was frighteningly red. He looked out at the people outside who saw the kitchen knife in his hand and hurriedly dodged, his eyes were white, his face was pale, and even his neck was finally pale.

He leaned against the white wall, clenched the white-shiny kitchen knife in his hand, and the white-washed short-sleeved dress that shone on him with a dim and white light on the side of the road. He stared at Yang Zheng numbly and said to Yang Zheng that he should not learn from him, and he would rise once in his life, but in the end, he was still cowardly.

He also said something about designers and architects who can't die well, and why he was still so unproductive in his forties, and why he might as well die. He also said that the belongings he had worked so hard to save for his son in his life were gone, and even the photo of his only wife was gone. Finally he said that he was tired, and sat down weakly on the ground, closed his eyes with the last of his strength, and hid his head deep in his knees in exhaustion.

That was the first time Yang Zheng saw Lao Yang Tou crying, and it was also the last time he saw Lao Yang Tou crying in his life.

Even if Lao Yang Tou was on his deathbed, his whole body was as scary as the red and white of that night, and he didn't cry. He just grabbed his hand tightly and asked him to be an iron-clad man.

Today, there is still no fence or wall in the community, but there is a large rusty iron gate.

This iron door was installed by Lao Yang Tou before he died, and since this iron door was installed, not only can the thieves be trapped outside, but even many residents of this building are often trapped outside because they don't have a key.

It seems that sometimes freedom does not necessarily mean beauty.

Just like this iron door, although the appearance is cold, it can protect many kind, honest, and fanatical ordinary people like Lao Yang Tou inside.

……

When Yang Zheng was about to return to the community, it was almost seven o'clock in the evening. The street is gradually lively, hundreds of pedestrians are playing with their mobile phones, thousands of people are walking on the street with plain faces, the streets are also quiet and terrible, only those loudspeakers placed in the door of the merchants are singing popular songs.

This popular song and the indifferent pedestrians passing by made Yang Zheng panic inexplicably. As soon as he crossed the street with his front foot, he couldn't help but take out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and gently pop a cigarette from the bottom of the cigarette case with his index finger and thumb.

His technique of playing cigarettes is very skillful, and it is also very desirable, two slender fingers gently flicked into the soft pack cigarette box, and a white and yellow cigarette flew out of the cigarette case with a "pop".

He leaned up again and opened his mouth gently, and the cigarette was "squeaked" in his mouth again, accompanied by a "click" lighter sound, and a white mist emerged from his mouth.

This way of playing cigarettes is that he practiced hard for ten years to practice so well, I think that in college, there were many big and small smokers who pestered him and wanted to learn this trick.

However, Yang Zheng did not teach.

Because he knows that smoking is not good, it hurts his body and costs money, although everyone understands this truth, there are still many people who still smoke. He doesn't want to teach people this, he wants them to quit smoking.

Therefore, he often tells those people that smoking is not good, and instead of learning how to smoke to become more handsome, it is better to learn a skill that can really be used.

His words made people feel uninteresting, and his conscience was also called hypocritical, and finally ended up with a sentence, since you know that smoking is not good, why not quit?

Whenever this happens, Yang Zheng always half-opens his mouth and talks for a long time, and finally sighs helplessly.

He also wanted to quit, quit many times, but finally picked it up.

Sometimes he feels that he can't quit smoking, but because sometimes smoking is like a lonely man's companion, like a friend when lonely, people can't help but want to rely on.

Especially for people like Yang Zheng who are not good at socializing, smoke may be his most loyal friend, and it is also the only means he is good at making friends.

But it's a pity that even if there is smoke, even if he has this amazing skill of playing cigarettes, he still has very few friends.

Yang Zheng smoked quickly, a cigarette the length of an index finger was finished in two or three minutes, he wrung out the cigarette butt, and looked at the iron door only two or three steps away with some melancholy.

After a while, he sighed and muttered, "It seems that it is better to find a class." ”

Indeed, he should also find a class.

Otherwise, if you do this every day, you may be like Lao Yang Tou after doing it for a long time.

The hope of the whole life can only count on his future children to be the opposite of himself.

……

The iron gate is painted with green paint, but because of the passage of time and the poor material, the whole iron gate is now half green and white, and the white and green are mixed with rust, yellow and black, and they are like scattered weeds on the turquoise lawn.

No one wants to pull out these weeds, maybe because if they are pulled out, new weeds will appear, or perhaps, weeds are also grasses and have their own value.

The crisp sound skipped over the weeds, and with a loud bang, the weeds were still the same as before, straightening their backs again to guard the green lawn.

There was another thud, a green shoot, delicately pushed down, accompanied by a gentle ding, as if nothing had just happened after being lifted up.

It seems that even if the weeds have been trampled on by thousands of people, after they get up again, they are still stronger than the shoots that have just been raised.