Songjiang Middle School has a small library, across the flower beds, from the auditorium. Although the sparrows are small and have all the organs, Chen Siping walked around the cramped bookshelves, borrowed a few crumpled old books, and brought them back to the storage room to rummage through them casually to kill time. No one cares, it's alone, and it seems that there is no other pastime.

The first book he read was Wonders of Plants.

It is a popular science book for children and teenagers, and high school students may think it is shallow, but it is just right for Chen Siping. He has a slight dyslexia and can't read esoteric books. Being idle is also idle, pointing to the finger and reading word by word, reading very slowly, a book can be a pastime for a long time.

The world of plants is very interesting, Chen Siping found spiritual sustenance, and for the first time in his life, he felt the joy of reading.

Winter came, the auditorium was very cold, Chen Siping wrapped in an old cotton robe, holding a hot water bottle to read, standing up and walking around from time to time, stomping on the cold soles of his feet.

"Wonders of Plants" is a set of four books, and after reading it, he feels a little empty.

At the end of the year, the school was out for the winter vacation, Chen Siping returned to the deserted home, his mother blindly nagged, picked his nose and raised his eyes, which made people upset, he locked himself in the room, and his imagination was coming.

Staying at home and being too lazy to do anything, Chen Siping was so idle that Chen Siping pondered to find a few books to read. Temporary workers are poorly treated, there is little money in hand, seven things to open the door, money is spent everywhere, the family conditions are not good, he also knows thrift, and he is not willing to buy books.

Chen Siping went to the Xinhua bookstore in the center of the city to open the shelves of books to read.

There are not many books about plants, there are a lot of animals talking, Chen Siping is mixed in the crowd, from morning to night, one station is a day, gnawing two steamed buns at noon to satisfy hunger, lying on the bed at night, with a sore back and weak legs, but he does not think it is bitter at all.

In the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, his mother made a few bowls of New Year's dishes, Chen Siping bought a bottle of rice wine, warmed it in the pot, and drank wine and ate vegetables while watching the Spring Festival Gala. The other people were reunited, Chen Siping only looked at his mother, but he didn't feel desolate at all, watching TV and laughing, getting drunk, falling asleep, and in the sound of firecrackers in the New Year, he was a year older.

In the New Year of the old calendar, it ended after the Lantern Festival, and Songjiang Middle School opened on the day of the Lantern Festival. Chen Siping commuted to and from work normally, staying in the storage room, facing those cold machines alone. Life was a little difficult, so I had to go to the library to find books to read.

The person in charge of the library is an old aunt, surnamed Guan, a few years away from retirement, and she entered the state of retirement early. On this day, Aunt Guan actually tried to introduce him to the object, but she was also entrusted by someone, a salesperson in a shopping mall, Chen Siping instinctively refused, saying that she didn't have the intention of talking about friends, which made her a little stupid. How can there be a young man who is not willing to talk about friends? At the very least, you should see each other and see if you like it...... She was puzzled and felt that Chen Siping was very strange.

Chen Siping has just stepped into the society, has no experience, and refuses others without telling the truth at all, fabricating a non-existent girlfriend, saying that the relationship is very good, which not only achieves the goal, but also does not dampen Aunt Guan's enthusiasm. Afterwards he felt a little embarrassed, as if a pair of invisible eyes were looking at him, stabbing at his back and making him uneasy.

Chen Siping borrowed a book casually and left the library as if he were running away.

The book is very old, I feel older than him, the vellum bound cover, the illustrations are very fine, the author is called Fabre, and the story of the spider is told throughout. In one of the passages, the author used tweezers to clamp a poisonous spider and bit the nose of a mouse, and the injured person seemed to be fine, but only rubbed it with his paws, and then collapsed, and his daughter loved the mouse and blamed him for being cruel.

Chen Siping grinned, feeling a little interesting.

Fabre's book is a little deeper, it's hard to read, it's bumpy, and if you get distracted, you don't know what to say. Chen Siping has a little obsessive-compulsive disorder in his bones, since he has started, he must finish reading it on his knees, otherwise he will be sorry for the time he spent before.

There were many spiders in the corners of the auditorium, large and small, of different shapes, and he grabbed a few of them and kept them in glass bottles, read a few pages, and look at them to encourage himself.

It was a painful challenge. I read at work, read after work, read during the day, read at night, and guess a blind word when I encounter an illiterate word, devour it alive, and actually finish the book.

After turning the last page, Chen Siping sighed with relief.

He felt touched by the experience. It's like having a nightmare that is finally over, like drinking a cup of bitter tea with a sweet aftertaste, like a cow or sheep ruminating and tasting a different taste...... At this moment, he suddenly realized that there is no better pastime in the world than reading, childhood has been missed, and it is still too late to catch the tail of youth.

Fabre had a lot of books, and Chen Siping's life suddenly became compact, and he continued to read "Dung Beetles", "Cicadas", "Crickets", "Grasshoppers", "Praying Mantis", "Ants", and "Pine Caterpillars".

Life is presented in a very different way, flashing with a different kind of charm.