A Lucky Coin

After winter, people on the street seem to be in hibernation, and after six o'clock in the afternoon, there are not many people.

The shops on the roadside are closed until [-] o'clock. At this time, the most warm and reliable place is the restaurant.

The cotton curtain was lifted, and the warm air was mixed with the fragrance of vegetables, bright lights, voices full of people, and a room full of people who had drunk their faces ruddy.

However, Yan Zhiyuan lifted the curtain from the back kitchen. In comparison, it was a different scene, full of chaos.

The greasy ground, piled up cut vegetables, the flames coming out of the stove, the chef cooking with smoke in his mouth, and the impatient boss.

"Why is it so late today!" The boss came over.

Yan Zhiyuan has been delivering seasonings to the back kitchen of this restaurant for a long time, and he is quite familiar with the boss. The impatience on the boss's face adjusted a little after he walked up to him, and it became less obvious. .

"The car broke down on the road," Yan Zhiyuan handed him a cigarette, "It took a long time to fix it."

"Hey, let's fix it. It's not bad to drive delivery now." The boss took a cigarette and walked to the door. "It's repaired ten times and eight times a day. If you don't have any skills, the goods can't be delivered."

"Last month I was thinking about selling this car. I kept driving it if I couldn't sell it," Yan Zhiyuan said. come over."

"It's not easy." The boss sighed with a deep expression on his face.

"You can settle this monthly bill on time, there are too many debts," Yan Zhiyuan said, "If I can't get the money back, I won't be able to get my salary."

"Here you go," the boss said, "you have to hurry up and urge the other family, the new year will be over soon, take the money so you can go home for the new year."

"I have to remind you." Yan Zhiyuan nodded.

After smoking a cigarette with the boss, he wrapped his scarf and left the restaurant.

After returning to the car, it took 5 minutes to start the car again.

This car is indeed broken, a small bread with all the seats removed, it is just a shell when driving, and it shakes badly, and it feels like the car is about to break when it is jolted over a hurdle.

Air leaks from all sides and no heating.

But this is pretty good. Compared with the time when he had to deliver goods on three wheels, by bicycle, or even by running, this small bread can be regarded as a high-end job in the same conditions. , the point is, this is a matching car.

Yan Zhiyuan wrapped his military overcoat tightly and drove the car out.

There were few people on the street, not only because it was cold, but also because the new year was coming soon, many people had already returned to their hometowns, and in a few days, it is estimated that even human hair would be gone.

He had to pay his wages quickly. It wasn't that he wanted to go home, but that the business was in a downturn. He was afraid that the boss would go home and run away.

He has no home to go back to, so he will take a month off for the Chinese New Year, and just find a new job after the Chinese New Year.

Maybe after the new year, not only a new job, but also a new city waiting for him.

He looked out of the window, and saw the city at a glance. It looked familiar just now. There were many places where he went and left. In the end, he couldn't even remember what the street he once lived in looked like.

Here he can remember a lot.

For example, on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, his car broke down on the road for the eighth time.

He got out of the car and opened the hood to look for a long time, but he couldn't find what was wrong. He returned to the car again, feeling a bit overwhelmed, his fingers were numb from the cold.

But because there was no heat from the engine, he didn't get much warmer in the car.

This section of the road happens to be at the junction of urban and rural areas, beyond the area where the delivery restaurants are located, there are not even any open shops here, only a few dilapidated buildings on both sides that are not even fully lit. The wholesale market where I work.

He fumbled for a broken electronic watch from his pocket and came out to check the time. He still had some goods in the car, which had to be delivered today, and it was not far away. He was a little depressed just thinking about carrying the goods over there.

The electronic watch is dead.

Yan Zhiyuan stared at the blank dial for a while, then opened the car window and threw the watch out.

When rolling up the window, he glanced at the rearview mirror and saw a few people walking behind.

They were all wearing leather monkey hats, Lei Feng caps, and masks on their faces.

Yan Zhiyuan bent over, and pulled out a thick steel rod from under the seat.

This kind of attire was not uncommon in this kind of weather, but for Yan Zhiyuan, he could tell the aura emanating from these people with just a glance from the corner of his eyes.

These few people may just want to find a place to eat or stay, but for these people, his car, which is broken down and pulls goods at first glance, is a job that can be done by hand.

He clicked his tongue, it's cold, and there are so many troubles.

Sure enough, a few people came towards the car, and two people put their hands into their clothes, as if they were digging out something.

Yan Zhiyuan sighed, opened the car door, and jumped out of the car with the steel bar.

The few people probably didn't expect that in this kind of weather, a person could jump out of a car with the engine turned off, and they stopped together immediately, a little surprised.

"There's an owner for this stuff." Yan Zhiyuan walked to the back of the car with the steel bar, and stood face to face with them, "It's cold, so let's find a place to drink comfortably, right?"

The other four were not short, and looked quite strong, but Yan Zhiyuan didn't care.

Even if there are ten more such people, as long as he is willing to do it, he will do it.

As for the consequences, it is out of his consideration. All he considers is whether to do it or not.

The one who looked like the leader on the other side didn't respond to what he said, and couldn't see the expression with the mask covering his face, only the fierceness in his eyes.

After the man glanced at him, he raised his leg and kicked Little Bread's ass.

"Bang" sound.

It's quite loud.

The person next to him raised his hand, holding a stick of unclear quality.

While Yan Zhiyuan swung the stick towards the car door glass, he swung the steel bar in his hand upwards violently.

The sound of impact was carried far away in the cold wind, and then the broken wooden stick flew over the leader's head and flew out.

Once the hands-on matter is started, there is no hesitation, and whoever is in a daze will lose the wind.

Yan Zhiyuan didn't hesitate, he raised his hand to block the stick and swung it down, hitting the man's leg with half of the stick in his hand.

The man groaned suddenly, staggered and hugged his own leg.

When the leader reacted and took out a knife and stabbed him in the face, Yan Zhiyuan had already taken a step back, and then he swung it sideways, and the steel bar hit the man's ribs.

His arm holding the knife went limp.

Yan Zhiyuan was very satisfied with this opening, if it wasn't for the thick clothes, his two strokes would have made these two people unable to stand up immediately.

It can be regarded as God's bias.

What followed was a scuffle. The fighting strength of the four became three because two of them were injured. When they all rushed forward, Yan Zhiyuan felt his body was getting hot. Never mind.

It was quite uncomfortable in the cold in the car, but after doing such activities, I felt warm in a few minutes.

Once the person is warmed up, many movements can be performed quickly. Apart from protecting himself from knives, sticks and bricks hit him, he doesn't care.

The only thing that made him a little depressed was that the other party had no intention of retreating. It was as if everyone hugged and danced together to keep warm in this cold winter night. Special investment refused to retreat.

This kind of melee is afraid that it will take a long time, and if there are few people for a long time, it will definitely suffer.

Yan Zhiyuan had injuries on his head and arms, and he could still feel a warm current on his face, probably from the blood dripping down, but the temperature was not low enough, and it took a while for him to freeze.

The goal of the few people is not entirely the goods on the car. The driver did not walk with the smiley face and handed the cigarettes and begged for mercy. He injured two of them directly, which should make them very angry. For the sake of face, no one will be put down today Already, this matter cannot pass.

Yan Zhiyuan is indeed different from other delivery guys, he has nothing to worry about, no family, no friends, no where to come from, and no where to go, he doesn't care if the cart is really lost, he just throws the cart and leaves.

He fought this fight just because he wanted to.

If this fight goes well, or even ends his life, he doesn't care too much.

It's just that he doesn't know how many years he has lived, which makes him a little regretful, maybe 19 years, maybe 20 years, or maybe 21 years.

Fortunately, he is not obsessive-compulsive disorder.

I don't know how long the scuffle lasted, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes, Yan Zhiyuan felt that the number of people was a bit wrong.

While swinging the steel bar at the figure, he took the time to count.

Indeed, the number of people suddenly changed.

Originally, including him, there should be five people, but now they count to six.

After he realized that there was one more person, the scene of the melee suddenly changed. It was no longer four people fighting around him.

The person who joined the battle out of nowhere copied half of the bricks, and swung each brick to the opposite side.

Yan Zhiyuan didn't have time to ask what was going on with this person, he took advantage of this moment to help him run, jumped up and kicked the leader's back.

"Stop beating!" Someone from an unknown building next to him yelled, "Call the police!"

I don't know if they were really afraid of the police, or if they had already lost the wind and had to go. In short, after the man yelled, several people ran to a side road.

The street became quiet in an instant, except for the wind.

There is also equipment that someone accidentally dropped in the snow water that was trampled into black mud.

Yan Zhiyuan searched the ground carefully, picked up a switchblade, tried it, it was not bad.

"Hey," someone said from behind, "You didn't even say thank you?"

Yan Zhiyuan put the knife in his pocket, turned his head and glanced, and saw a young man who should be dressed in a fashionable way, but his fashion was gone by now, standing there, still holding the half brick in his hand.

"Thank you?" He continued to look down on the ground.

"I didn't fucking help you just now," the man came over, "you have to let them kill you here, believe it or not."

"I don't believe it." Yan Zhiyuan said.

"... Fuck?" The man was stunned, "I should have been watching from the sidelines!"

"That's right." Yan Zhiyuan picked up a pack of cigarettes on the ground again, looked at them, took one and put it in his mouth, and glanced at the man while lighting a cigarette, "You can still give me a hand."

"Do you want face?" The man glared at him.

"Yes," Yan Zhiyuan smiled, "Do you have many?"

"Fuck!" The man slammed the brick under his feet, turned and left.

The wine is quite bold.

Yan Zhiyuan looked at the back of the man who was a little wobbly as he walked, and looked at the man who was quite refined, who could get a brick even after drinking a little wine, and he did it bravely.

He walked to the door of the car, wrapped himself with the scarf thrown on the car seat, and was about to carry out the goods behind him. When he turned around, he found that the man came back again.

"I've never seen anyone like you!" The man pointed at him.

"Then you have to thank me, open your eyes." Yan Zhiyuan smiled, opened the trunk, took out a small trailer and put it on the ground. It's not far away, and he plans to drag the goods there.

The man pointed at him without saying a word, then turned and left after pointing for a while.

"Hurry up and go home," Yan Zhiyuan stacked the goods on the trailer, "Don't fall asleep on the road and freeze to death."

"Fuck you!" the man yelled as he walked.

It would be great if we could go, Yan Zhiyuan clicked his tongue.

It's good to be alone, and you can't scold your mother, fuck your uncle, your grandma.

"Fuck you." Yan Zhiyuan said.

Two days before Chinese New Year, the boss took his wife back to his hometown.

Originally, it was normal to go back to my hometown during the Chinese New Year, but it was very abnormal to lose all the goods.

Yan Zhiyuan looked at the mess as if he had been robbed, and felt a little speechless.

In fact, the boss and his wife are not bad. He didn’t find a place to live before, and the boss asked him to sleep on the floor in the store. After knowing that he was alone, the lady boss bought him the military coat he was wearing, and gave it to him. He had raised his salary, although it was only for a meal.

Because of these, he was carrying steel rods to fight against people that day, just to prevent the two boxes of goods from being snatched.

Now the wound on his head is still covered with gauze, but the boss took his two and a half months salary and ran away.

He didn't know how he was feeling right now.

He walked around the store. There were still some cooking utensils and oil, salt, sauce and vinegar in the kitchen that he hadn't taken away. He took a look, took a rice cooker, and put a hanging of sausages that had leaked out of the window into the pot. .

When walking out with the pot, I ran into the landlord.

"Hey!" The landlord pointed to the pot in his hand, "Put it down! Everything in this house belongs to me now!"

"They owe you rent?" Yan Zhiyuan asked.

"The rent is not owed..." The landlord interrupted him before he could finish speaking.

"Get out of the way," Yan Zhiyuan looked at the landlord, "They owe me three months' wages."

His complexion should not be very good-looking, the landlord hesitated for a moment, moved aside, and he walked out with the pot.

After he came back to his senses, he was still quite depressed. He didn't have much money on hand. Even if he had no years to live by himself, he couldn't last for a few days. It was hard to find work during the Chinese New Year.

Yan Zhiyuan sat in his room, looked at the snowflakes falling outside, and sighed.

Anyway, there is still a place to live, although the heating depends on a small stove.

Not bad either.

He stood up and fumbled in the inner pocket of his military coat. This small pile of money was all his belongings now.

He buttoned up his clothes and went out to have a meal to celebrate.

On the street where the rented house is rented, the only two brothers in front are still operating. The boss is an uncle.

Today it counts as having money in hand.

He lifted the cotton curtain that the two brothers were good at.

"Xiao Yan is here." The uncle just came out of the kitchen and greeted him with a smile.

"So many people today?" Yan Zhiyuan took a look, the store was not that big, there were four or five tables, and there were people at every table at the moment.

"It's okay," the uncle pointed to the table in the back, "That young man, I think he's almost done eating, you can join him at a table, he's alone."

"All right." Yan Zhiyuan nodded.

When he got to the table, the man raised his head.

When their eyes met, they both froze.

Yan Zhiyuan remembered that the face was quite strong, and before the head was fully raised, he had already recognized it. This was the one who had acted bravely and hadn't gotten him to thank him before.

"Damn it," the man looked at him, "and it's you?"

"Drink a lot." Yan Zhiyuan sat across from him, looked at the wine bottle on the table, "Did you go to the street to throw bricks again after drinking?"

"Let me tell you," the man pointed at him, "you stay here today and don't leave, or if you go out this door, I'll smash you with a fucking brick."

"Let me tell you," Yan Zhiyuan smiled at him while taking off his hat and scarf, "If you point at me again, I'll break your wrist right now."

The man paused, retracted the hand pointing at him, and put it on the table: "Fuck."

The uncle came over with a pot of hot tea: "What do you want to eat?"

"Big plate chicken, the big one." Yan Zhiyuan said.

"Okay," the uncle nodded, "would you like to drink, too?"

"Well," Yan Zhiyuan thought for a while, "it's the rice bar in your house."

"Wait." The uncle patted him on the shoulder, turned and left.

"Does he still have rice wine at home?" The person opposite looked at him, "Is it good?"

"It doesn't taste good," Yan Zhiyuan said, "but I don't charge for it."

The person on the other side clicked his tongue, leaned back in the chair and stopped talking.

This person should be the owner of the family with a good life. You can tell by looking at the clothes and the wine he drinks. Brothers, there is no one here. The uncle must have bought it for him in a nearby store.

It's just that I don't know how such a person who looks like a good family and looks like a college student would drink here, and the two times I met him, he was rushing to get drunk.

So, everyone in this world only reads the cover, and there is no introduction on the back cover, so you have to open it to know what the story is.

The uncle brought a bottle of rice wine and a large plate of chicken and put them on the table. Yan Zhiyuan took a cup and was about to pour the wine, when the person opposite put his own cup in front of him: "I'll take a sip."

"Who are you? May I let you have a drink?" Yan Zhiyuan looked at him.

"My name is Cui Yi," said the person opposite, "Pour wine."

Yan Zhiyuan stared at Cui Yi for a while, then poured a glass of rice wine into the cup he stretched out.

"Thank you." Cui Yi took a sip from the glass, half of the glass was gone.

"Are you thirsty?" Yan Zhiyuan said.

"Thirsty." Cui Yi said.

"Then are you hungry?" Yan Zhiyuan said, "If you're still hungry, just eat a few more bites."

Cui Yi raised his head, looked at him for a while, then passed the cup forward: "Knock one."

Yan Zhiyuan clinked glasses with him and took a sip of rice wine.

"It's really bad." Cui Yi drank up a glass of rice wine, "This poor wine... let's have another glass."

Yan Zhiyuan poured him another cup.

Every time Cui Yi took a sip, he would lament that the rice wine was bad, but he did not miss a sip. The boss brought over two bottles, at least let him drink one bottle.

He also ate a lot of big plate chicken, as if the two plates he ate empty on the table before were an illusion.

Yan Zhiyuan didn't say anything, he ordered a big plate for the two of them to eat together.

This Cui Yi must have encountered some serious matter, someone who has something on his mind, especially this kind of innocent child who was raised in a good family with no discernment, basically wrote "I have something on his mind" on the face.

After dinner, Yan Zhiyuan called the uncle over to settle the bill.

"Look, it's good to share a table," the uncle said with a smile, "I also made a friend after having a meal."

Yan Zhiyuan smiled and said nothing, got up and walked out of the two brothers, ignoring Cui Yi who was still lying on the table and didn't know whether he was awake or asleep.

But after walking a few steps, footsteps came from behind.

He turned his head and saw Cui Yi staggeringly following.

"Why?" he asked.

"Supposedly I should have paid some money just now," Cui Yi said, "but I really have no money with me."

"It's okay." Yan Zhiyuan waved his hand, "Not much."

"Leave me an address," Cui Yi said, "I'll bring you the money in two days. You don't seem to be a rich person, and this meal is quite a lot."

"I'll pretend to be aggressive," Yan Zhiyuan said, "Okay, you go, don't be polite to me."

"Thank you." Cui Yi said.

Yan Zhiyuan ignored him, turned around and left.

Thank you.

For this meal, Cui Yi thanked him twice.

To be honest, in the world where he dawdled around every day, he might not be able to hear thank you twice if he joined him all year round.

After walking for a while, he couldn't help but look back.

Cui Yi had disappeared.

He sighed, turned around and continued to walk forward, stopped abruptly after taking two steps, then turned his head, staring at the shadow at the corner ahead for a long time.

Then turned and ran over.

Sure enough, he saw Cui Yi face down on the snowdrift in the corner.

"Hey!" Yan Zhiyuan tugged at his arm and turned him over.

Cui Yi snorted and fell silent.

Rice wine has a strong aftertaste, for a person like Cui Yi who is not used to drinking it, if he pours it down after one bottle, he will pour it as soon as he says it, without talking about the price at all.

Yan Zhiyuan felt that he was generally a pretty good person.

He could have just carried Cui Yi to the nearby police station and dropped him off, but instead he carried the dead man home and threw him on his broken bed.

Cui Yi slept until midnight before waking up, and stared at him after opening his eyes, as if he couldn't recover for a long time.

"Not even a word of thanks?" Yan Zhiyuan said.

"Thank you for what?" Cui Yi said.

"Fuck you." Yan Zhiyuan laughed.

The author has something to say: the uncle and the second uncle are just friends.