migratory birds do not return

During the summer vacation after the college entrance examination, Hou Xiao often dreamed and his sleep quality was unstable. He would often wake up suddenly in the middle of the night and be thrown into the unfathomable dark net by surprise. Untouchable loneliness and coldness.

He struggled to breathe, breathing the turbid and dirty air, his chest was stuffy, as if a ball of cotton was stuffed inside, sucking the blood for his survival.

As a last resort, Hou Xiao could only turn on the desk lamp, forced to accept the dazzling and bright light, and forcibly made the room clear. At this time, he could clearly see the fine dust particles floating in the air.

He felt a kind of powerlessness for no reason, it went deep into the marrow of his bones like a drug, and it was hard to get rid of it. He tried to expel that feeling of insecurity, but soon he found that he couldn't do it, it was too difficult.

Probably because of the recognition of the bed, he only fell asleep for less than half an hour on the bed in Hou Yu's studio, and experienced this feeling again.It was still dark when he woke up, and the open curtains allowed him to clearly see the scene outside the window.

Hou Xiao got out of bed in the dark, opened the curtains and sat on the bay window. In the bright lights, he was leaning against the cold and unreal glass window, feeling as if he was hanging in mid-air, weightless when looking down feeling is particularly evident.

He vaguely remembered what happened last year.

After the long autumn, Hou Xiao climbed the mountain with Du Baigong for the last time, standing on the commanding heights to look at the entire harbor, it was at the end of December, winter had already entered.

The winter in the harbor is not obvious. Except for the extremely low temperature and the occasional snowflakes, people can hardly feel the existence of winter. But on that midwinter night, Hou Xiao really tasted the winter. coolness.

He found that he was still afraid of the cold, so he ran home in an extremely embarrassing situation, locked the door behind him, and shivered under the quilt with the warm wind blowing until his frozen body gradually warmed up before he could move his fingers. Looking through the chat records with Du Baigong, the other party sent him a message an hour ago, Hou Xiao was wrapped in a quilt, returned an emoticon, and then slammed the phone upside down on the table.

A young man's mind is always sensitive and restless. When he sat down on the grass with Du Baigong, he could feel that Du Baigong's mood was not right. He was very annoyed by what happened or what was going to happen, but Du Baigong tried his best to control it.

He hugged his knees, rested his chin on his arms, and reflected the fiery trees and silver flowers in the distance in his eyes.

Hou Xiao propped his hands on the ground, with a lot of dirt on his palms, and his fingertips were frozen. He shrank his fingers into his sleeves subconsciously, while Du Baigong, who claimed to be afraid of the cold, remained motionless in his knitted sweater. Occasionally, I will move my legs and arms to avoid sitting numbness.Hou Xiao secretly pinched the knuckles of his fingers, and let out a slow breath.

"Don't forget to wait for me at the hillside at 08:30 tomorrow." Du Baigong stretched his arms twice and stood up, "Okay, let's go back."

Hou Xiao stood up on the ground, and his legs were sitting unconscious.He looked at Du Baigong's back step by step, and blurted out: "Wait a minute."

"what happened?"

"……nothing."

Fu Xi lowered his head, followed quickly, and said nonsense, "Just now there was dirt on your clothes."

"This kind of thing is harmless." Du Baigong laughed, "Go back quickly, I feel like you are going to freeze to death."

It started to rain lightly the next morning, the sky was gray, and there was a heavy damp breath in the air. The coolness penetrated into the collar of the shirt, making people shiver with the cold, and the whole street was covered with a gray layer. mist.

The continuous drizzle weaves a dense long net in the air that wraps the fragrance of plants and trees and the sound of cold wind. It hangs in mid-air like a wave rolling ashore, and everyone who walks in a hurry becomes an under net. prey.

"Where is the old man, have you gone out?"

When Hou Xiao said this, Du Baigong was sitting side by side with him. The clear air was filled with a crisp smell. It was the scent of evergreen bushes mixed with pink and white petals. The corners of the walls were covered with dirt. With a small bud.Du Baigong's eyes fell on it, and he quickly moved away.

He didn't answer Hou Xiao, nor did he speak, he just reached out and took out the lighter from the pocket of the heavy down jacket.Hou Xiao quickly realized what he was going to do next, and quickly opened his mouth to dissuade him, but just as the words came to his lips, sparks shot up from the cigarette end, and he slowly exhaled the faint white smoke.

This is the second time Hou Xiao sees him actually lighting a cigarette.

When Du Baigong turned his head, the smoke from his mouth lightly spit on Hou Xiao's face. Hou Xiao was choked by surprise and coughed several times.

Du Baigong grinned sullenly while biting his cigarette, and patted him on the back to comfort him.Hou Xiao rolled his eyes at him, and poked the man with his elbow.

"I'm asking you."

"out."

Du Baigong only said three words very miserly, and looked away to stare at the messy color on the wall, which was extremely muddy like countless messy colors mixed together.He turned over and jumped off the wall, stepping firmly on the soft snow.

He put out the cigarette, exhaled into the palm of his hand, squatted down and rolled a snowball, and when Hou Xiao jumped down, he stuffed it into the back of his neck, and Hou Xiao was so cold that he jumped instantly Get up, regardless of the fortress back.

"Okay, okay, I admit defeat. How old I am, I still have to come back from the fortress. Hey, I'm going to fall down! Hou Xiao!" Du Baigong stepped back while reaching out to block, suddenly stepped on the empty space, and slid to the ground all of a sudden.

Hou Xiao's half body weight was on him, and he fell down along with him, his chin hit Du Baigong's shoulder hard, and he was forced to choke on the snow.

Du Baigong stretched out his arms to hug him almost reflexively, and it didn't feel real through the thick down jacket, as if he was hugging a huge inflated balloon.

Du Baigong took a deep breath, pushed Hou Xiao and turned over to the side, simply lying down with his arms behind his head, glanced at the English letters on Hou Xiao's clothes, then wandered elsewhere, raised his eyebrows and asked Hou Xiao : "How is it, have you eaten a mouthful of snow?"

"You also said that it was so cold that I didn't feel it in my mouth." Hou Xiao squatted several times to clean the snow, and then patted the snow on his body. Seeing that Du Baigong was still lying on the snow in a relaxed manner, Get out and pull him. "Come on, you, aren't you afraid of the cold? What are you doing lying here? You'll be in trouble when it rains heavily."

Du Baigong laughed twice, let him pull himself up, and shook the snow on the hem of his clothes.The water vapor in the air became thicker at some point, like a heavy and icy piece of iron, capable of beating a person to the point of bleeding at any time.

Du Baigong suddenly asked: "When will the school's graduation photo be taken?"

Hou Xiao was taken aback, and glanced at him out of the corner of his eye: "I don't know, maybe May or June, it's still early. What's wrong?"

"May and June." Du Baigong lowered his head and laughed twice, "That's really early."

Hou Xiao was not knowing what to say, when Du Baigong suddenly patted his shoulder and pulled him back, his feet staggered and almost another dog gnawed on the snow.He turned his head angrily, and saw Du Baigong smiling playfully.

"Let's go to the night market tonight."

"Did the old man not let you go?"

"He's not coming back today, go, isn't it fun? I haven't been there for so long."

"Okay, I'll take you there when the time comes."

There was no one in Du Baigong's house, so he simply followed Hou Xiao to Hou Xiao's house for dinner. Auntie Hou had just started cooking when they entered the door, so she invited them to play outside for a while.

"The key is in the study drawer upstairs. If you want to go to the wooden house, go there." Hou Xiao flipped through the unread messages on his phone while talking, and accidentally saw Ruan Tang's message lying at the bottom, it was early morning sent it to him.

Ruan Tang was his deskmate in junior high school. The two families had a deep relationship, and sometimes they would send gifts to each other. Hou Xiao didn't need to read the whole message to know what he was doing, so he got up and went to the back door of the house. Ruan Tang, who was wrapped in a down jacket, rushed in when the door lock popped open, and stood beside a pot of green plants, stamping his feet, as if he was freezing outside.

If it weren't for his oily face and good spirits, blowing on his palms while sweeping the entire living room with his peripheral vision, Hou Xiao would have been moved by his fearless spirit—by the orders of his family In order to deliver something to his former classmate Hou Xiao, he was locked up in the ice and snow for an unknown period of time, and it was a story that made people cry when it was written in the news.

But Hou Xiao didn't like this, he just poured a glass of water for Ruan Tang symbolically, it was still cold, drinking it at this room temperature was no different from swallowing an ice cube.

Perhaps Ruan Tang didn't pay attention, he breathed a sigh of relief, and suddenly coughed a piercing cough, his whole face turned pale and blue, as ugly as it could be.Only then did he dig out the shattered conscience in Hou Xiao's heart, and he took a glass of warm water and handed it over.

Ruan Tang didn't dare to drink anymore, he turned around slowly after he circled the arc of reflection around the earth, and realized what kind of person Hou Xiao was, expecting him to warm him up with a cup of hot water was just a daydream.

He held the cup of warm water in his hand to warm his hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he fell on the shopping bags at his feet. One of the shopping bags was filled with winter clothes. His amiable and respectable mother worried about Hou. Xiaohui would freeze to death in this shabby room, so he picked it out himself and entrusted him to deliver it.

"I'm almost frozen into a sculpture." He blew on the water in the glass and kicked the bag next to his feet: "My mother gave it to you, and asked if you want to go to her place for dinner during the New Year. You know, she will I haven't given me so many things before, it's obvious who the son is. Why does she like you so much?"

"You're an idiot, waiting at the back door in the middle of winter, will you die if you walk a few more steps around to the front door?"

"I was playing games and forgot that I was waiting for the back door... Hey, that's Du Baigong, isn't he? He went to your golden house? Oh my god, why are you hiding a man?"

Hou Xiao picked up the magazine at hand and tapped him on the shoulder involuntarily: "How many times have I said it's not a golden house!"

When Du Baigong unlocked the wooden house, he just heard Hou Xiao's words. He smiled softly, pushed the door open and went in.

The furnishings in the house were still in summer, and it seemed that Hou Xiao hadn't come to change things here for a long time, so he probably ran here by himself.

Du Baigong sat on the chair by the window sill, took out the mobile phone in his pocket and clicked into the photo album. There was only one photo in the photo album, lying quietly on the top, which was too abrupt.

It was a family portrait. There were four people in the photo, all wearing dresses of similar styles. On the right stood a boy with a slightly cautious smile, holding an orange cat in his hand, with neat short hair covered He wore a hat and had a very pale mole at the corner of his eye.Behind him stands a woman, who puts her hand on the boy's shoulder and smiles at the camera.

He exhaled against the window glass, stretched out his hand to draw a word four, and wiped it off vigorously.

It was snowing again outside.

Ruan Tang stayed at Hou Xiao's house for a meal and then left. Hou Xiao finally sent a troublesome man away, and his lazy bones began to fall ill again. The fact that Du Baigong was going to the night market was like a dose of stimulant shot into his blood, and those lazy thoughts disappeared in an instant.

He ran upstairs to change his coat, and when he came downstairs, Du Baigong was still sitting on the sofa with an apple in his mouth, helping his grandma pick the vegetables for tomorrow, laughing and saying a few words from time to time, Grandma loves to speak the local dialect, but Du Baigong doesn't know how to communicate without barriers.

Hou Xiao took a deep breath, walked down the stairs, and stood on the last step: "Du Baigong, let's go."

"Wait a minute, I'll finish picking this." Du Baigong took out a hand to nibble the apples, then quickly finished picking the vegetables, bent over and said something to Grandma, then put on the down jacket and walked to Hou Xiao's side Come on, reach out and fiddle with the camera that Hou Xiao hangs around his neck twice.

"You still have a camera?"

"I usually take it."

"Hey." Du Baigong hooked his shoulder, "Then remember to take a picture for me later."

The location where the night market was held was originally an uninhabited area with mixed fish and dragons. Fights and fights continued.Later, many people gradually moved away, and life became peaceful.

A few years ago, a family member was on the spur of the moment, and couldn't bear to see such a large area of ​​land abandoned like this. He organized manpower to rebuild it once, cleared away all the garbage that had been piled up together, and put it on the wall again. Lacquer, a night market is held every night to attract people to come and consume, and it has become an established activity here after a long time.

It was the busiest time when Hou Xiao arrived, and there were quite a lot of people lining up from the entrance of the alley.

Light and shadow floated on the wall, and the sky was filled with boiling. I don’t know who lit a small firework. There was a slight smell of gunpowder smoke in the air. There were some barbecue stalls on the side of the road, and there were plastic chairs beside the wooden tables. They are all full of people.

Hou Xiao bought two bottles of orange soda in glass bottles, and handed one to Du Baigong. Before he could take a sip, Ruan Tang, who suddenly appeared, shook his hands in fright, and the glass bottles fell to the ground and shattered into pieces. , the clear liquid spilled all over the floor.

He gritted his teeth and pointed at Ruan Tang: "Why did I meet you again!"

Ruan Tang had a lot of drinks splashed on his body, and now he was also angry. He pursed his lips and asked the stall owner to buy another bottle and put it in Hou Xiao's hand. "Okay, I'll pay you off. You came to the night market alone? Taking pictures again? I came with my mother."

Ruan Tang's mother was standing in front of a stall not far behind him picking things up. Hou Xiao frowned and retorted without hesitation: "No, I came with Du Baigong."

"Where is it?" Ruan Tang turned his head and looked around, "Don't you get lost, there are so many people here."

Hou Xiao was startled, only to realize that Du Baigong who was following behind him had gone somewhere, and there was only an aunt who was picking things behind him. He stuffed the camera into Ruan Tang's hand, and brought the bottle of soda with him. handed over to him.

"I'm going to find someone, you can keep it for me."

"I'm not you moving the suitcase... Wait a minute, how did you find it. Hou Xiao! Mobile phone!"

There are many people in the night market, and there are many people with malicious intentions who wait for an opportunity to attack them. The head teacher has warned them more than once not to go to the night market alone, and Hou Xiao will still take this kind of words to heart. Unexpectedly One inadvertently got lost with Du Baigong.

He struggled to weave through the crowd, sweating himself out in the winter. The night market was too wide, and he walked around half the street without finding anyone.Hou Xiao leaned against the street lamp and supported his knees to pant for breath. Sweat fell into his eyes along the lines of his cheeks, causing a tingling pain.

"Hou Xiao, why did you come here... hey."

The moment he heard Du Baigong's voice, Hou Xiao's reaction mechanism suddenly became surprisingly sensitive, he took a step forward at once, and suddenly hugged him into his arms.This action was obviously beyond Du Baigong's expectation. He was still holding the things he just bought in his hand, so he could only hold them up to the side of his head in a weird way.

"I'm not lost, so I just need to make a phone call. I'm running around, are you afraid that the old man will scold you?"

After gradually regaining his sanity, Hou Xiao belatedly found that his IQ kept dropping.He silently took two steps back, and said wrongly: "Yeah, he didn't agree in the first place, but you know I abducted his grandson so he can't curse me to death."

"Then how could it be?" Du Baigong smiled, "He will definitely wish you a long life and a happy and healthy life."

"I promise."