At ten o'clock the next day, my father drove back to Qingdao. At first, he was worried that his grandfather and Chen Feng would have a problem eating, but he didn't expect that the current countryside was very different from the original. There are five or six supermarkets of all sizes in the village, and like the city, there are also mobile payments, which is completely different from the impression of the countryside. Although grandpa is old, he is still tough and does not need to be protected. He has a lot of old friends in the village, and even if he eats at home, he can't get back in a week.

On the contrary, it is Chen Feng, the partners who grew up together since childhood have all married and had children, and he has been going to school, and the people in the village will be restrained when they see him, and they have nothing to talk about when they sit together. Moreover, he has nothing to talk about.

The afternoon at the end of July was always unbearably hot, and Chen Feng poured his body through the yard with a scoop and cold water over and over again. If it weren't for the low faucet, he would have been sitting down and wouldn't have gotten up. The sun was hot and poisonous, Chen Feng stood under the sun and washed and rubbed, trying his best to cool himself down, and his dark and red skin shone brightly in the sun.

The old jujube tree in the yard doesn't seem to have changed at all over the years, it has been so thick since he was a child, and it is still so thick now. Standing in the shade of the trees, a little bit of jujube flowers moistened the heart and lungs, and the oily green leaves shone brightly, sleeping motionless under the sun. Except for the cicadas, it's really quiet here.

Grandpa fell asleep in the house, and a slight snoring sound came from the open window. Sleepiness suddenly hit Chen Feng's eyes, he yawned, stretched tiredly, and prepared to go back to the house to sleep for a while. He himself knew that he would sleep for a while, and when he opened his eyes, it would be estimated that it would be four or five o'clock. Eat, sleep, bathe, eat, sleep, and bathe. Just like when he was a child, living in this small courtyard, time is going to slip away silently. Perhaps, what grandpa misses is such monotony.

There was a sudden movement in the white iron gate that was hidden, who would run to this courtyard at this time?

Turning around, I saw the iron door slowly open, and a figure flashed in through the crack in the door, it was the uncle from yesterday. Seeing Chen Feng standing in the courtyard, his uncle looked a little cramped, rubbed his hands and walked up to him, hesitantly asked if there was anything missing at home, and told Chen Feng to go to him if he lacked anything. Knowing that his grandfather was taking a nap, he didn't enter the house and left in a panic.

Chen Feng didn't send it far, and when he arrived at the door, he turned around and came back, thinking about a lawsuit.

He slept until dusk, and when he opened his eyes, his grandfather had already walked around the village, and he also bought a few baked cakes with vegetables for dinner. Chen Feng ate four in one go, but he still didn't feel full in his stomach. Before the sun went down, he staggered out of the yard, wanting to find something to eat.

He liked the fire that his grandfather had just brought back, and every time he went back to his hometown, he had to eat it for a few days. When I go out and walk around, I actually want to find a place to sell fire, where I can cook and eat. However, he was really not familiar with the village, and turned left and right but could not find a place.

History is always strikingly similar. Just as he was worried, a black Passat suddenly stopped in front of him. The window rolled down, and the woman in the passenger seat seemed to see a savior, and hurriedly asked the shirtless man in front of her: "Brother, let me ask how to leave ×× house?" The silly boy said in an authentic hometown accent: "I don't know, I'm not local." ”

The moment the window was raised, the husband and wife in the car clearly cast incredible eyes - this kid is a fool, right?

"Little wind?"

Hearing someone call him, Chen Feng didn't feel very strange. Although he doesn't live in this village, he comes back every year for a few days, and someone will always know him.

Following the sound, I didn't find a familiar figure in the darkening street. Under the dusk filled with the smell of rice, there are a few bouncing children, and a few grandmothers who call the children home for dinner. There was only one fat black shadow that stood out in the twilight.

The dark shadow was not shirtless, or simply short, as many people do, but dark trousers with a white shirt. The pants seem to have been around for some years, and they have been stretched out of unnatural folds on such a body. The owner of the clothes carefully fastened every button on the shirt, except for the one on the neckline, probably because the neck was too thick, it really couldn't be buttoned. The corners of the shirt were also carefully tucked into the waistband of the trousers, and the fat belly was shy outward, and a large black belly button was seen through the middle of the button.

The waistband of the pants is really thin, and the belly of a pregnant woman is forced into the middle with a slit. A skinned belt was tied around the waist, and every card hole on the belt seemed to have undergone terrible ravage. An old iron clip tried his best to bind his waist to the widest part, as if it would break open at any moment.

"Is it Xiaofeng?"

The chubby figure timidly walked up to Chen Feng, and a white face gradually became clear in front of him.

"Haizi?"

"It's really you, I haven't seen you for several years, and I don't dare to admit it." Haizi said, there seemed to be a hint of temptation in his tone. "Now they're taller than me. Still in Qingdao? Married, right? ”

"Not yet, I'm in Bei× Beijing." Chen Feng hesitated, not daring to continue. This strangeness made him very embarrassed, and his feet in the slippers unconsciously moved back.

"Went to work in Beijing ×?" There seemed to be a little light in those godless eyes, and as when he was a child, Haizi still had a strong sense of mystery about the place name "Bei × Beijing". "I haven't been to Bei× Beijing yet."

Chen Feng didn't answer, smiled and made a movement to wipe his sweat, and shook his arm fiercely, leaving a trace of being drenched in water on the ground.

"Still in school?" The little light just now suddenly disappeared, and with a soft sigh, a pair of worn cloth shoes rubbed on the ground.

He really didn't know how to continue this conversation, Chen Feng just wanted to escape home as soon as possible, and even the hunger had been forgotten. Unexpectedly, the boy who grew up with him back then, the boy who was taller and stronger than himself, and whose grades always overpowered him, became like a walking corpse. Haizi was brave and sunny when he was a child, and he had a crazy energy for learning. But in the end, he fell under this momentum - I heard my father say that Haizi was too stressed when she was in high school and had mental problems. They haven't seen each other since.

"Iron Bull! What are you hanging around here? Your lord told you to go back quickly. ”

No matter who it was, no matter whether his grandfather was really calling him home and helping him at this embarrassing moment, Chen Feng felt that he should thank him well. But when he found out that it was the uncle who was passing by on a motorcycle, he was still uncomfortable.

Along the way, his head was full of images from his childhood. At that time, Haizi had always been a role model for him to work hard, he was taller than himself, stronger than himself, smarter than himself, and teachers and adults liked him more. What's more, his parents have been with him all the time.

They were always together, doing their homework together, swimming in the river together, catching fish together, burning grasshoppers together, catching monkeys together, chasing rabbits with dogs, digging rat nests with shovels together...... Haizi also said that they would go to high school and college together......

But when Haizi was in high school, Chen Feng went to Qingdao. When Chen Feng was in college, Haizi went where he shouldn't be......

The night sky of my hometown is really beautiful, and the small crescent moon looms among the branches of the jujube tree, bright but not as gloomy as the full moon. It was playfully quiet, curiously looking at the lights on the ground, and from time to time comparing them with the stars in the sky to see which one was brighter and brighter.

This is where he was born, and he spent the first ten years of his life here. But his connection to this place seems to be very long, at least seven hundred years ago, he had been here, and he sat in a small courtyard and drank a bowl of mush.

In order to take Hong Liang back from the hands of Lord Yama, he spent too much strength. Although he doesn't show anything on weekdays, he hasn't been able to use his mana to go back to the past these days. Actually, he was in a hurry, he needed to know too many things. How many Celestials are still alive after the Protoss War? Is the Golden Crow dead or not? Where did Thor go? Why does the current sun god look so much like him? Could it be that he has a twin brother? Why didn't Mom and Dad tell him? What else are they hiding from themselves?

Having said that, if anyone is secretly staring at him and wants his life, it is estimated that everyone will be in a hurry.

This is where the story begins, and it's here that the ins and outs are traced.

Under this starry sky, the faint moonlight shone through the branches of the jujube tree and shone on Chen Feng's body. He lay in his grandfather's rocking chair as if he were sitting on a crooked moon. Close your eyes and trace the thread of time, open your hands to grasp it, and take a deep breath......

When I opened my eyes again, I found that it was still night. He hesitated for a moment, and after a moment he was convinced that he had really come to the time he wanted to go.

The night was as long as the night he came. There was no moon in the sky, but the stars were brighter than any time he had ever seen. The familiar jujube tree was missing from the yard, and there was a faint fragrance of Tsubaki in the air.

"It's Mom and Dad's yard." Chen Feng was secretly convinced.

This was really quiet, even more completely quieter than the night he came. There was no noise, no distant roar of cars, no music from televisions and cell phones. All I could hear was the chirping of insects and the sound of frogs drifting in the distance.

Looking around, low adobe walls surround three equally low bungalows. A faint light came from the bungalow, accompanied by the occasional cough of the woman. Take two steps and stop, adjust your breathing, and rehearse all kinds of possible scenarios in your head. Perhaps, at this time, he was not yet born. Perhaps, only one child will be born. Perhaps, that is just my own foolish speculation......

Taking two more steps forward, the woman in the room coughed twice. He paused again, and noticed that the cough looked old. My heart was pounding, it wasn't my mother's cough, maybe I was born in this time and space.

"Shall I go in now? Will they find me like my grandfather? What should I say to them......"

When I came to the door, the faint Tsubaki fragrance in the air was gone, as if it was separated by something. Reaching for the dark brown bamboo curtain, the big hand passed through like a shadow, hidden in the old elm door frame.

The stone in my heart fell quietly, but there was a trace of loss in an instant. They don't see themselves, they don't change them......

Ghostly through the bamboo curtain, he happened to collide with a short woman. As if through a bamboo curtain, the short old woman passed through his body unconsciously, and did not dodge in panic like Chen Feng at all. Holding a large glass basin filled with water in his hand, he clumsily lifted the curtain with his shoulder and walked out of the door. At this time, I found out that the woman who had just walked out was actually the old lady of the neighbor's house, the first person in the world to hug him. And he was also the last baby that the old lady delivered in this world.

(On January 25, 2023, I have quit smoking for more than eight years, and I surprisingly want to smoke tonight.) Walking in the cold wind of the night in Beijing ×, looking at the empty streets, there is no sign of the New Year. I can't help but ask myself, is this a human world? Yes, or maybe not.

When he came to a tobacco and alcohol store that had not yet closed, the bald owner was equally surprised that there were still people hanging out at this time. A box of Tarzan and a lighter, we simply completed the transaction of twenty yuan.

The cigarette burned in the cold wind, and I suddenly felt very pathetic. This is the first time in five years that I have bought myself something that has nothing to do with life.

A married man has no ego, just like in this empty street, walking is never a living person, but a soul that is no longer alive. ）