pedestrian

On the first day of reporting to the new company, Tao Ran got up very early.

Between the two jobs, he gave himself a long vacation.Now that I returned to the bright and clean business building, I felt a strange sense of strangeness in my heart.

One of the benefits of arriving early enough is that there is no one else in the elevator going up.Tao Ran faced the mirror and straightened his tie knot for the last time, then called HR and told him that he had arrived.

The company's glass sliding doors slowly opened to both sides, and a personnel colleague whom he had known during the interview came out to greet him with a smile as bright as a ray of morning light.

A person with good looks is the proof that the company is making money.Beauty is expensive.

Tao Ran smiled and exchanged pleasantries with the girl, which line to take to work, the New Year decorations in the lobby on the first floor have not been removed, the parking space is really expensive, do you want to rent it?

Leading him to the seat counted her completion of the task, Tao Ran thanked her, sat down, and began to arrange personal belongings.He left all the things that Xu Yuan gave him in the past on his desk.The bag he brought today was packed when he left the job, and he realized that there was no cup when he was about to empty it.

It just so happened that the colleague on the opposite seat came, Tao Ran raised his head, and his consulting gaze fell into the smiling eyes of the other party.

"Morning, Tao Ran."

Chang Zheng has always been confident about his face, but unexpectedly, he memorized the name of his new colleague and greeted him with a perfect smile, but the other party just responded calmly: "Morning. Thank you for your attention, what's your name? "

"Chang Zheng."

"Nice to meet you. Where is the company cup, please?"

Chang Zheng raised his hand and pointed to the tea room, and said nothing more.This plain-eyed newcomer inexplicably gave him a feeling that strangers should not get close to him.

The operation on the first day of employment is always like this. After 10 minutes, it was decided to recruit Tao Ran's senior partner to bring him to meet a group of colleagues.This Chang Zheng is currently the youngest partner of the company, just announced a few years ago.Tao Ran came in with the title of project manager. If there is a chance for cooperation, Chang Zheng will be his half-boss.

During the routine handshake, Chang Zheng looked Tao Ran's eyes carefully again without giving up.It clearly says in there that you are no different from others.

He was just a little annoyed, thinking that he and this newcomer probably couldn't get along.

Both of them didn't really want to cooperate with each other, but things backfired. Early the next morning, they were forced to meet downstairs at the client.At about ten o'clock, at nine forty o'clock Tao Ran met Chang Zheng in the queue of a nearby coffee shop.

To show the importance he attaches to the meeting, Chang Zheng wore a complete set of lead gray suit that day, looking like a sharp edge from a distance, but a gentleman from a close look.Tao Ran was not blind, he had to see.

"...Morning, what a coincidence."

Chang Zheng came back from the state of picking up the phone, and when he saw it was him, he immediately put on a smile: "Morning, are you also planning to bring a cup to the customer?"

Tao Ran really didn't want to mention it, but with the attitude of being responsible for the company's business, he decided to tell the truth: "This client is my family."

"Oh? When did you leave your job?"

Tao Ran sighed: "Years ago."

At the end of the conversation, Chang Zheng was still digesting this weird coincidence, so Tao Ran ordered, "A glass of hazelnut latte with half sugar and ice, skim milk. What do you drink?"

The last sentence was addressed to Chang Zheng.

The latter said that his American style is fine, Tao Ran turned his head away, ordered two more glasses of American style, and asked to take them all away.

Asking the senior management who is not a good person, Chang Zheng already understood most of it, and smiled directly at Tao Ran: "You even know people's coffee drinking habits so well, so the person we met today happens to be your acquaintance?"

"Yes, he is the boss of my former boss."

Inquiring about news has become an instinct, Chang Zheng continued smoothly: "Why don't you bring a cup to your former boss."

Tao Ran glanced at him, quickly turned his gaze away, and his tone became indifferent: "She walked with me one after the other, and she is no longer here."

The other party was obviously aware of this subtle, temperature change, and paused slightly, but Tao Ran asked himself that he didn't have enough friendship with Chang Zheng to shut him up.Sure enough, he continued to ask.

"Your personnel changes are not small. As far as you know, does it have anything to do with the project we have accepted this time?"

This is the discomfort of changing jobs. All interpersonal relationships have to be re-established.Tao Ran sighed inwardly, pulled himself together, and gave him a concise version.

"The department I worked in before had two small bosses. The one I reported was in charge of systems, recruitment and employee relations, and the other was in charge of salary, process and training. The two have similar qualifications and have been fighting for the top position for several years. At the end of last year, the meeting Son, the matter has come to an end, the people on the same line as my former boss have left. If the loser still insists on not leaving, it will always be embarrassing."

Not all gone, Xu Yuan is still there.

Taking advantage of the moment of his silence, Chang Zheng took a clear look at the expression that was too calm and obviously trying to hide it.Men with stories have indescribable charms. What can't be said, can't be said, and unwilling to be said, is the indescribable interest.

Tao Ran has no time to take care of this sudden overly bright gaze right now, because the tall building in front of him has really carried too many memories in the past seven years.There was a lot of people around me, but it was like entering a land of no one.The wind in the streets and alleys quietly rolled up the past, passing by the thin years in his heart, as light as nothing, but heavy in his heart.

In seven years, a person can have several seven years in the prime of life.

The smart Chang Zheng was silent for a full three minutes, thinking that he had really given Tao Ran a lot of face.Do good deeds every day and live a long life.

"The scenery here is indeed much better than that of our company... You just said halfway, and then, after you left, the big boss thought of asking a consulting company to do a project?"

The huge city is like a vibrant beast, gradually crawling under their feet as the transparent elevator rises.Anyway, the official is one level higher, and people ask for inquiries, so it's not a problem for me to lose my mind repeatedly.Tao Ran speeded up his speech before entering the meeting room.

"I don't know what's new recently, and I haven't had much contact with them recently. I'm going to be here today, and I didn't know until I got off work yesterday. It's too deliberate to inquire now, so I simply didn't ask. But Based on what I know about the big boss, he probably realized that the winning party will dominate the whole company, and now we are asking our company to help him draft some checks and balances, so we can’t really let the whole department get out of his control.”

As soon as the words fell, the "Big Boss" had already appeared gracefully.It was an old, but still very handsome man, with a pink and white shirt painted with a luxuriant peach blossom tree, which burned Chang Zheng's retinas.

Surprise is too impolite, he can only force a normal handshake and greeting.Taking advantage of his master's turning sideways, Tao Ran met Chang Zheng's terrified eyes, suddenly smiled unkindly, and nodded slightly.

——Yes, he is an old monster who makes no secret of his sexuality.

The meeting went well, and the old monster really asked the consulting work to be his raft.He had already thought of a so-called solution, implying Chang Zheng and Tao Ran inside and out, and he hoped that they would collect evidence carefully, investigate carefully, and finally come to the conclusion he wanted.

Tao Ran had almost become instinctive to deal with the big boss, he was familiar with the whole process, smiling and nodding with admiration.But no matter how normal he behaved, he couldn't stop the old monster from being abnormal——

In the middle of the talk, someone pushed the door to ask him to say something, and he said "out" in a high-pitched voice.When the two stood up to say goodbye, without warning, he gave Chang Zheng a solid wink.

After finally comprehending the spirit of the meeting, Tao Ran turned around, put away his smile, and hurried out.Chang Zheng followed closely behind him and heaved a sigh of relief.

"This one... is simple."

Tao Ran pressed the elevator button a few more times irritably, and replied, "He has always been like this. But as a male, no matter what orientation he is, he is not stingy with his enthusiasm."

These words were really interesting, and Chang Zheng couldn't help repeating in a low voice, "No matter what the orientation is."What a new colleague who rejects people thousands of miles away. Is this warning myself not to talk too much, or is it warning myself not to talk too much.

The elevator came at a leisurely pace, Tao Ran was too lazy to pay attention to what was going on with the sudden silence beside him, the most important thing right now was to leave the place of right and wrong as quickly as possible.Sure enough, as the elevator door slowly closed, there was a sound of hurried footsteps from far to near. Tao Ran firmly pressed the closed door while looking at his toes expressionlessly, but unfortunately, he was caught in the crack in the door Trouser legs and shoes of the visitor.

Familiar with all of them, he said to himself in his heart, I bought them all.

The two walked side by side, one was really in a hurry to leave, and the other had to cooperate.The weirdness of this situation made Chang Zheng smell a little unusual, and he looked back when he walked out of the gate of this building like a ghost.

The person who pushed the door just now was in a hurry to chase them out. Seeing that they had gone too far, he called out "Tao Ran" without giving up.Just by looking at that expression, one can tell that there must be a story between the two of them.

Or, it was an accident.

Of course Tao Ran pretended not to hear anything.

You can hide from the first day of junior high school, but you can't hide from the fifteenth day.At this time, Tao Ran was far from understanding Xu Yuan's determination this time.

The lights of the city are too bright to see the stars.This day when he walked downstairs to his house, Tao Ran had a rare literary experience. He looked up to look at the sky, but he didn't see anything.On the contrary, his neck bone clicked crisply, reminding him that this boring middle-aged man is not qualified and necessary to hurt the spring and autumn, so it is more practical to go upstairs and make an appointment for a shoulder and neck massage.

Everything was not going well, Tao Ran stared at his mobile phone screen to check the call records when he entered the door, and sank on the sofa in a daze, the big glutinous rice yellow cat with a flat face and round eyes screamed and jumped up, angrily slapped on the back of his hand paw.

The cat is an exotic shorthair named Caesar, who is almost a year old and recently became a father-in-law.

Fortunately, the claws have been repaired, leaving at most a few scratch marks, which will definitely disappear overnight.Tao Ran looked at his injury against the light, and it seemed that it was not worth making a fuss about, but it was the remaining power of the phone that surprised him a bit.This afternoon and half of the night I threw it in the bag and didn't use it, so it dropped to 5.00%.

Turning over again, there are dozens of calls from Xu Yuan.

No wonder so many colleagues were looking for someone whose phone was vibrating all afternoon, but they couldn't find it.Tao Ran subconsciously thought that he had to answer the unimportant phone calls just after work, and he didn't think about himself at all.

Xu, far.

When we first met, Tao Ran also had a working relationship with him.So when saving this mobile phone number, he entered the first and last names separately according to the format of his work contacts.Now it shows that there is a serious space between the two words.

One space, four years, from stranger to stranger.

Caesar suddenly yelled, and it was very scary in the middle of the night, which interrupted Tao Ran's silence alone.Master Mao's patience has a limit, you can wait in an educated way, but you can't wait endlessly.

"To shut up."

In the empty room, the low voice was pitifully lonely.

Caesar continued to howl, the cat's mouth opened wide with two rows of fangs.

"... Well, good ancestor, I'll give it to you right now, okay? Shut up."

"Meow."

The cat litter needs to be changed, then wash hands, add water, and add cat food.After raising it for several months, Tao Ran was already familiar with these things. Caesar sat in a dignified posture and watched the humans finish their work for him. Shi Shiran jumped off the sofa and landed on the ground with a plop.Anyway, enshrining Lord Cat is what small human beings should do, just give them food, who cares whether human beings are in a good mood today.

At this moment, amidst the sound of Caesar eating, Tao Ran indifferently looked at the phone on the coffee table that started buzzing again, and remained motionless.

It seemed that the mobile phone was confronting him fiercely with some sharp-toothed animal.

After four years of turmoil, Tao Ran originally thought that only he had changed, but now he suddenly realized that Xu Yuan had also changed.If he followed his old master's temper and avoided seeing him in the morning, how could he call him again in the afternoon and evening.

Perhaps what he learned was to compromise, but what Tao Ran learned was not to soften his heart.Indecisiveness leads to disaster.Now that he has left, he doesn't want to be disconnected again.

In the silence of the night, even Caesar thought the endless vibrations were very annoying, and after a while, he leaned over against its arrogant and stupid face, looked at the vibrating mobile phone contemptuously, and meowed softly.

It seldom utters the standard meow that a cat should have, unless it is expressing its solemn appeal or taking a firm stand.

Tao Ran stroked Caesar thoughtfully: "It seems that you don't like him either."

In fact, if Caesar has a little memory, maybe Xu Yuan should be thanked.After all, his cat was a gift specially sent by Xu Yuan when he first noticed Tao Ran's estrangement.

Xu Yuan had never been a patient person before, but tonight he seemed to be at odds with Tao Ran, calling his cell phone again and again, persistently, begging for nothing.Later, between two phone calls, he sent another text message, saying that he just wanted to meet and chat with Tao Ran.If Tao Ran is willing, he can come here immediately.Then came another endless phone call.

Why send this text message, it seems that if he doesn't mention this, Tao Ran will forget that they actually live very similarly.

Caesar was furious from the noise, and stood on the sofa angrily, even though it was already time for him to return to his nest, he did not move.Tao Ran also stayed on the sofa like it, with his head down, wondering what he was thinking.

The phone vibrated like that, and it didn't get turned off until the battery was exhausted and turned off.

Xu Yuan was willing to keep calling, and Tao Ran was willing to sit and listen.It's just that there is a similarity in everything, it's okay to remember, but it's really unnecessary to reminisce about the old days.

Willfulness is sometimes invincible, but once it fails, it will never be effective again.

The author has something to say: The "goodbye Jianghu" I said when I was young and ignorant, I almost couldn't do it.Fortunately, if you never forget, there will be echoes.

Thanksgiving gift for all of you.