The shade of the trees swept overhead, the cicadas chirped tirelessly, and the sunlight penetrated through the gaps in the leaves, a little dazzling.

The cicadas usually chirp after noon, but it's 8 a.m. and they're already happily courting.

Yes, courtship, cicada chirping is the singing voice of male cicadas, and the louder they sing, the more they can attract the attention of the opposite sex.

Mating is their only purpose, and cicadas only have a lifespan of a few weeks, and if they die without reproducing their genes within these weeks, their life as a cicada will be considered a complete failure.

But will there also be that kind of maverick cicada?

It's not to sing for mating, it's not to sing for the success of your life as a cicada, it's just that you keep singing because you want to.

Singing does not exist to please the female cicada, singing itself is to let it enjoy it.

Among the male cicadas that start singing from 8 a.m., there may be such a existence.

They don't chirp after the sun rises to noon, as is customary, and when they wake up, they shake the eardrum in their abdomen with pleasure.

It's not about courtship, it's about making it happy.

There must be, such a maverick cicada.

Tang Xue looked at the sky, and the broken shadows of the leaves quickly brushed across her face.

A gust of wind blew, the leaves rustled, and as far as the eye could see, they were full of lush green, and on both sides were dense bushes.

Before you know it, it's summer again.

"It's getting hot."

Tang Xue held her forehead, held a small umbrella in front of her forehead, and looked at the mountains in the distance.

The distance between her and the mountain is widening, and the hazy fog on the mountain makes the mountain more and more blurred.

She is sitting on the shelves of the agricultural tricycle, which is loaded with many vegetables, cabbage, cucumbers, eggplants. Fresh vegetables were piled up in bundles, and she sat on the edge of the shelves with a bare puppy lying beside her.

It is for its good to shave its hair, the dog's sweat glands are basically covered by thick hair, almost do not play a role in heat dissipation, they dissipate the heat, usually lying in a cool place, sticking out the tongue to dissipate heat.

Because of the increase in temperature, it has been listless for the past few days, so I helped it shave and cool down.

It seemed to have done something, squinting at the morning breeze and seemingly intending to sleep on the bumpy shelves.

"It's time to get to the newly built road, sit tight and be careful not to fall!"

There was a call ahead.

"Good!"

She turned her head and responded loudly, lest the sound be drowned out by the noise of the diesel engine.

With a noticeable bump, the car is much smoother, but the speed is much faster.

She closed her eyes, one hand gripping the metal frame, the other slowly spreading.

She imagined herself as a free cicada, feeling the wind flowing through her fingertips as if it were the wind passing by her wings.

She wants to sing, but the female cicada can't sing, and it must be much more difficult to be a maverick female cicada than a maverick male cicada.

Because, the female cicada can never express her heart.

The female cicada, by birth, is mute.

In the café, Tang Xue sat alone by the window seat.

The soothing jazz reverberates through this dark-toned space, and she looks sideways out the window, reflecting her face and the chandelier in the hall on the transparent glass window.

Today is a day off, and there is a lot of traffic outside the window, and pedestrians come and go.

Here is a newly renovated pedestrian street, drink shops, chess and card rooms, clothing stores, barber shops, snack shops are all over the road.

She watched through the window the passers-by, all young men and women, some walking in groups and some alone.

There are very few children, most of them can't even walk smoothly, and they are still one or two years old, and they are led by their parents.

The woman in civilian clothes suddenly sat across from her, her eyes shifting to the table, where diamond-patterned cups filled with vanilla-flavored ice cream garnished with mango chunks and nuts.

The woman stuck an iron spoon into the ice cream and looked at her with a smile.

"There are 30,000 people living in this city now, although it is only a small area, but finally, it has been restored to the way I remember."

"It's very good, the newly built pedestrian street, since last month, the food is no longer distributed by the authorities, it took us three years to finally open the food market, and living here is basically the same as before, as if it is back to the past."

The woman put her hands on the table and looked at the city as if she were looking at her own child.

"Isn't the end of the monthly routine testing yet?" Tang Xue looked behind the woman, but didn't see the familiar figure, so she took her eyes back and scooped a bite of ice cream with a spoon to eat.

Surprisingly delicious, she is not a person with a sweet tooth, but the moment this ice cream is in her mouth, she has a sense of amazement, maybe she hasn't tasted it for a long time.

How long ago was the last time you had vanilla ice cream? I'm almost losing my memory.

"It's over, but today is the last eastern suburbs, so we need him to go with us later."

"So, so. Why are you coming to me at such an important time? Is it just to treat me to a cup of ice cream? ”

"I can't help if I go to that kind of place, and besides, I'm also a human being, and I definitely want to relax on a rare day off."

"Yes."

"Don't be so wary of me, it's just a little bit of concern from a friend."

"Concerned about it, I just have a puzzled question that I can't find the answer, I used to take chemistry class and thought, you are studying medicine, chemistry must be very good, I have a question that I want to find the answer no matter what."

"Even if you ask about chemistry, at the junior high level, even if it's the finale of the competition, I can solve it in one minute."

"That's really helpful, teacher, do you say, are terrorists made of two terrorist atoms, or are they made of one terrorist atom and a terrible atom?"

Tang Xue looked at it with a serious expression.

"Please answer this question for me, or I won't be able to sleep tonight."

The atmosphere was silent, and the smile on the woman's face stiffened, like a crow flying overhead.

"What a headache." The woman laughed dryly: "Forget it, I surrendered, I'm really not suitable for this kind of work, I confessed, he came to let me find you, he said that he wants to know your true thoughts, and he doesn't want you to force yourself." ”

"I didn't push myself."

But can you unknowingly fall into that situation that only you don't know? Look outside, now this place has returned to this state, you haven't been to college yet, we have set up a new comprehensive university, the venue, the faculty are all ready, next month after the textbooks are printed, we will start open enrollment, you are 21 years old this year, there is still time. ”

"Moreover, I am also one of the teachers, if you are not used to living in the dormitory, you can move in with me, it doesn't mean that you want to stay here all the time, there will be a rest day like today every week, when the time comes, you can spend your time freely, the road has been repaired, if you want to see him, I can lend you the car."

"Think about it, it's different now than three years ago, your life, there are still many possibilities, in the future, it will become more and more prosperous, schools, hospitals, factories, entertainment facilities, many projects have been approved smoothly, two or three years will be established one after another, have you ever thought about what you want to be? For example, scientists, doctors, teachers, flower shop owners, etc., have you ever thought about it? You can tell me any dreams you have. ”

"What conditions did he give you?"

"There is not only interest between adults, I said it, I am concerned about you as a friend, no matter what, you are a human being, a young woman, a young, beautiful, intelligent woman, people have a way of life, it is very difficult and hard to go against this way of life."

"People, if you don't live according to the established way of life and the prescribed way, you will fail, Mr. Su, do you think so?"

"No, it's not like this, failure or not, it's not for others to say, I'm just, I'm afraid that you will regret it, and when you regret it, some things can't be recovered."

"For example? Do you want to say that it will be too late to regret it when I am old? ”

"I'm seriously talking to you, he's no longer human, theoretically, he won't change for another 100 years, but what about you? Now you are 21 years old, you have the capital to do whatever you want, but in another ten years, your face will start to wrinkle, in another twenty years, there will be gray hair in your hair, and then thirty years, another forty years, have you ever thought about it? You become an old lady with all your teeth gone, and she's still the same as he was back then, can you accept it? This sense of disparity"

"He's a creature, no one should have desires, you can't even have a child with him, your world is different, the human world is your world, when you are young, you will feel that it is good to have love, but now three years have passed, you have lived with him in that state for three years, so, I want to hear your true thoughts."

"Are you listening? Hey, don't ignore me and look out the window! ”

Tang Xue held the cup of ice cream and took another bite of ice cream.

It's so cold, the temperature from the palm of your hand, after all, it's ice, even in such a hot summer, holding a cup with ice in it, you still feel cold.

"I'm listening, listening very carefully."

She turned her head and put the cup down.

"But no matter what I say, you'll think I'm reluctant, that I'm not expressing my true heart to you."

"People can't really understand each other, and I learned this a long time ago."

"A woman who is willing to sleep with a man for money will feel that there is no virgin in the world, and a man who thinks with his lower body will feel that other men are the same as him."

"People have limitations, so I learned a long time ago not to try to change other people's perceptions, to try to see the world from the other person's perspective, and then put on a mask that he likes."

"Is that what you think," the woman sighed, "but. . . You haven't answered my question yet, at least let me hear what you really think of him. ”

"It's really difficult" Tang Xue rubbed her temples: "Because you are more reasonable than others, and you can be regarded as my friend, I will make an exception to tell you a story, originally I didn't plan to tell it to anyone." ”

"история. Is there a story about your encounter with him? ”

"No, it's a secret in my heart before I met him, a story that even he hadn't heard."

"Why not? Is it something that's hard to talk about? ”

"No, it's not, it's just that every time I think about it, I feel very cold, it was really a very cold winter, I buried my sister alone, I spent the whole night burying her frozen body in the snow, I shouldn't have just left her in the snow like that, but my hands were frozen and stiff, I couldn't dig through the snow, I couldn't even hold the shovel."

Tang Xue gripped the cup hard, and made a palm print on the wall of the cup, and the cold white gas came out from the vanilla mango ice cream lid.

It was so cold, as cold as the old shovel she was holding that night.

"Every time he's not around me, I think about that night, as if I froze there"

Her hands were trembling, and the temperature was as high as 34 degrees, but she couldn't help but shiver, and pulled the neckline of her clothes tighter.

Four years ago, in winter, the gathering place.

The campfire burned at the camp whistle to dispel the darkness a little, and Tang Xue put a paper bag on her head and draped a stinking and dirty old fishing net over a cloak made of straw, and walked alone in the snow.

Behind her was a cloth bag, as if it were carrying some weight, dragging a trail through the snow.

She was hunched over, staggering, walking slowly, her bare hands covered in mud, and anyone who looked at her would think she was an old woman with a short life.

The paper bag on her head terrified everyone who saw her, it was a sign of the Death Worship, a bunch of madmen who gouged out their eyes with iron spoons, twisted their tongues with wires, and pierced their eardrums with wooden sticks.

They don't listen, they don't look or talk, they just want to die.

They would even smear the blood of living corpses on their skin so that no one would desecrate their corpses.

There is an unwritten rule in the gathering that anyone who wants to leave the camp with a paper bag on his head will not be stopped.

They are acquiesced to being a dead man, so let the dead go out of sight and die, no one wants to dispose of the corpses of a group of crazy people, it is worthless, and maybe they will get sick.

Tang Xue held an old shovel in her right hand, as if it was her crutches and a guide cane, and the rope of the cloth bag was tied to her neck and strangled her shoulders.

She walked slowly because it was too heavy for her.

She walked along the fence to the exit, where the guards wrapped up their clothes and opened the door far away from her.

Someone poked her far away with a stick, poking her out the door, and she fell into the snow, and the stick was thrown on top of her.

After a long time, she struggled to stand up with the shovel, dragged the cloth bag behind her, and walked forward in the dark and cold wind and snow, gradually disappearing around the camp.

(End of chapter)