keep you worry-free

How long will it take to find someone who is no longer home?

The elders of An's family deliberately avoided, and every time Lele mentioned the word "Yun", he would immediately change the subject. Everything was so unusual that even Lele had to wonder whether "Sister Yun" was a fantasy of her own. What about too good dreams?Or did it ever exist?But the warmth she had in the past was too deep, and Lele couldn't convince herself that it was an illusion. She realized that something must have happened to her sister Yun, a major event that was so serious that it would kill sister Yun's existence in Dongcheng.

How does this work!

Sister Yun never gave up on her, so how could Lele forget Sister Yun?

If the elders of An's family don't tell Lele what happened, then she will find it by herself.One Wednesday morning, Lele secretly climbed over the fence to skip school. When she jumped off the high wall, she accidentally sprained her foot. Enduring the severe pain, she ran to the park toilet near Dongcheng Junior High School to hide; she took off her cloth shoes , found that the ankle was red and swollen, frowned and pushed it a few times, and put the shoes back on after a little more comfort.

She put down her schoolbag—her schoolbag was particularly bulging today, and her classmates laughed at her for not knowing what she had hidden—and opened it. Inside was another small backpack for money and casual clothes.Playing truant from school should not be done blatantly in a uniform. Residents in rural areas have strong centripetal force, and many of their own children go to school. They are particularly sensitive to such things as uniforms. If they sneak away wearing uniforms, they will definitely be brought back soon.

After Lele changed her clothes and stuffed everything into her backpack, she picked the most deserted path and rushed all the way towards the train station.The bell of Dongcheng Junior High School is already ringing and it is time for class. The teacher must be very nervous when he finds out that he is missing, and grandma, aunt, and uncle... disappearing alone will have a lot of impact, but why are they so indifferent to the disappearance of Sister Yun? Woolen cloth?Lele thought a little bit unjustly, and the pace under her feet also accelerated a lot.

In the shops that are open on the street, most of the business people are uncles and aunts that Lele knows, and they have always been friends with An's elders. Lele hides in several corners, and every sound from the outside makes her terrified and guilty. It seems that if you are not careful, you will be discovered immediately.After a lot of "struggle", when Lele saw the "Dongcheng Station" nailed to the door with wooden strips, tears welled up in his excited eyes.

There was no one at the station on Wednesday morning. The station attendant was a young man. He looked at Lele with eyes full of curiosity and inquiry. How could a little yellow-haired girl come to the station at this time?Lele stared at the map for a long time. She only knew that she was going to T City, but her sister's school was unknown.Only then did she know that there are many stations in T City, she thought that every place was the same as Dongcheng, with only one dilapidated old station.

"Sister, do you want to help?" Seeing her hesitating, the station attendant came over and asked kindly.

"...I want to find someone in T city, but I don't know which station to get off in T city..."

"Ah, so what!" The station attendant thought for a while, "Well, I don't know the situation in T city... How about this, I will help you buy a ticket for the city center, and after you get there, you can ask the person there Station attendants, they must know T city better, and the traffic in the metropolis is very developed, you should be able to go anywhere by bus.”

"Okay, okay. Thank you big brother!"

"You look young, go there alone, be careful!"

Lele bought a ticket and went inside the platform to wait.Dongcheng is a small station, the trains seldom stop, and most of them go straight when they pass by. A gust of wind blows on the face, carrying the hot and humid smell unique to Dongcheng.The car came and went, facing north and south, but it didn't know where the end point was. Lele looked along the railroad track, and the end seemed to be eaten by the sky, and he couldn't see the end.Picking up the kettle and taking a few sips, a few drops of liquid slowly slid down Lele's neck. A sparrow hovered in the sky, casting a shallow shadow and swaying from side to side. The second hand of the old-fashioned round clock on the wall moved one by one One second, two seconds, three seconds...one minute, two minutes...one moment, one moment...After waiting for a long time, an orange Ziqiang finally stopped slowly. Cover your ears with your hands.

It was Lele's first time to take a train, so she should be excited or nervous, not to mention that she was alone, which was akin to an adventure to some extent.But after she got in the car, she didn't look at the equipment on the car, or the scenery outside that was pulled and deformed in the opposite direction. After confirming the location, she sat down and fell asleep on the chair.She is the only one in this carriage, and she is not afraid, nor is she afraid to sleep over the station. The "big escape" in the morning exhausted her mind, and now she can calm down, and her tiredness surges.

Lele had a dream. In the dream, the familiar little sister smiled and stretched out her hand to her. She ran over happily and excitedly. Just as she was about to pounce on it, she found that what she touched was only a phantom, and she couldn't touch the real thing. And that beautiful face Being eroded, engulfed by nothingness round and round, and finally there is nothing left... She broke out in a cold sweat and woke up from the dream. There were more buildings outside, the sky became dark, and the radio in the car sounded at the right time. Having arrived in T city, Lele no longer sleeps, looking at this complicated city curiously.

After getting out of the car, Lele looked at the station in surprise.The station is divided into several exits, several platforms, and even a shopping street inside. The crowd is bustling, and the electronic billboards emit mechanical special effects.Lele panicked. She was caught in the crowd and didn't know where to turn. She even felt different eyes staring at her from all around. The "kidnapping" and "ticket tearing" that Grandma An often reminded her suddenly came to mind. Le's stomach started to churn.

Fortunately, the kind-hearted elder brother at Dongcheng Station contacted the station attendant in T City for Lele in advance. When Lele walked towards the service counter tremblingly, the attendant at the counter recognized her almost immediately; she gave Lele a map , Asking clearly is to put a relieved smile on the face of M University.

"M University? Sister, you are so lucky! M University is not far from the city center because there is an affiliated hospital next to it. You can take the XX bus to get there soon... Ah, don't you have an Easy Card? How much change do you have on you? ...These tens of dollars, you bring emergency, when you want to go back to Dongcheng, remember to ask me for help again!"

Thanks to the station attendant, Lele followed the direction she pointed to the bus stop.The bus was walking on the avenue, and Lele was surprised to calculate how wide the road in the city center was... Well, that is several times the largest arterial road in Dongcheng!Cars are not common in Dongcheng, but the roads in T City are full of cars of various brands, taxis, and light and heavy motorcycles of all kinds... Lele finds it interesting, but has more fear.

Lele was in the big park opposite M University. After a lot of twists and turns, she finally came to the place where Sister Yun was.She can't remember how many zebra crossings she walked, how many traffic lights she passed, how many shops with neon lights she passed, and how many people passed her by... She was full of sadness because she was going to meet Sister Yun again Happy, she will be very surprised and happy, she will reprimand herself in a helpless but gentle and loving tone, pinch her nose, and then start to worry about how to send her back at night...

Lele walked into the campus and stopped a female student at random. She was lucky, and she met the Chinese medicine department when she asked this question, but the other party shook her head in confusion after hearing the word "Zhao Xiaoyun".

"Little sister, is your sister a double major or a Chinese medicine major? How old is she now?"

"...My sister is a double major, and she just passed the national exam not long ago. Now...she should be a senior, right?"

"Oh!" The other party nodded. "I'm a freshman, and I'm relatively unfamiliar with seniors. Wait a minute and I'll ask my direct senior sister... Is 'Zhao Xiaoyun'..."

The female student made a phone call, laughed and cursed with the person on the other end, and then brought up Lele's question.There was a sudden silence on that side, and the female student on this side was also stunned by the answer after hearing the silence. She hung up the phone and said a few words to Lele hesitantly.

What time did Lele return to Dongcheng in the morning that day, and how did she get back? To be honest, she couldn't remember.As she walked, she was like a wandering ghost floating in the noisy world, and she didn't feel a little real until she went back to Dongcheng.Unsurprisingly, Dongcheng had already turned upside down because of her disappearance. The middle school tutor blamed himself for not being optimistic and his eyes were flushed with guilt. Grandma An passed out when she heard the news.When Lele appeared near the Mazu Temple and was seen by everyone, everyone was taken aback for a moment, and then there was a rush of elder-like admonitions, with aunts touching their hearts and uncles stomping their feet.Furious, Hui Ting rushed forward and raised her hand to hit her. She caught a glimpse of the ticket that Lele was holding in her fist and pulled it out. Seeing Lele's expression, she slowly lowered her hand.

It was night, Lele was leaning on the head of the bed, burying her face between her knees, all she could think about was her aunt and uncle not answering her questions, asking her to leave it alone; and what the sister from the Department of Chinese Medicine said ...

"...Sister, I'm going to tell you directly, senior sister Zhao Xiaoyun, has been 'leaving school' for a while..."

"No, no one knows the reason for her suspension... and no one saw her later at school. No one knows where she went..."

"... Lele, I want to be a great doctor. After that, I can always protect you."

"Yeah, it's an appointment!"

"Big liar... big liar..."

Lele murmured into the air in a daze, without sleep all night.

Sometimes Lele really doesn't understand what he did wrong, so that God will use all kinds of impermanence and accidents to punish him.

One day when Lele was 15 years old, Zhao Dun and An Huiting were out for a walk when they were hit and killed on the sidewalk by a young drunk driver. Helping him to make him pay the price, but no matter what, it can't change the fact that the aunt and uncle who loved him passed away.

Grandma An haggarded a lot overnight, and her eyes no longer had the wisdom and kindness of the past, just like a pool of stagnant water, stagnant in eternal pain.Lele ironically discovered that she is proficient at origami lotus flowers. She used to like the smell of incense sticks and gold paper. The excitement of the Mazu Temple every year is always accompanied by this smell, but now the meaning and death of this smell Connect, and that love is gone.

There are many people who come to worship: the old principal of Dongcheng Primary School, the students who have been taught by Yu Huiting and Zhao Dun, and colleagues and friends who have a good relationship with the two... Every day, Lele is waiting, waiting for someone who should be people who show up.After all, they are my biological parents, sister Yun will definitely come back; when she comes back, I will not be angry with her for not being in touch for so long, and my aunt and uncle passed away, sister Yun must be very sad, she must hold her sister Yun tightly Sister, please comfort her...

One day, two days, the first seven days, every day and night of the vigil, Lele never found anyone, a little sister who would comfort her gently and cover her with a thin quilt.Tired of waiting alone in the mourning hall, she finally closed her eyelids. Excessive thoughts made her hallucinate, as if Sister Yun was sitting next to her, but her outline was blurred and her face was unclear. In the end, there was nothing.The wild dogs in the alley were blowing their conchs, and a few black cats appeared to drive them away to prevent them from entering the mourning hall. It rained in the middle of the night, and the cold wind blew in. The faint sound of chanting made the atmosphere a little gloomy. It's so cold.

Until the funeral, the two columbariums were put into the spiritual bone pagoda, and after all the ceremonies were over, Lele didn't wait for Xiao Yun.

Grandma An was taken home by other people to rest. That poor old man, faced with such changes again and again, has no enthusiasm for the world, is not talkative and gets tired easily.Lele walked alone, and unknowingly came to the bank of the Dongcheng stream. She climbed up, sat on a bench, and stared at the slowly flowing stream.

Lele recalled what Sister Yun told her about "the dead are like this". She used to think that water was fun and beautiful, but she couldn't understand the emotion in it; but now she sees that the stream is like time, passing, running, no return.A line of water separates yin and yang, separates Dongcheng from other places, and so does the railway track that day. The road ahead is vast, and even her favorite sister Yun is separated from her life.

She suddenly wanted to cry, so she cried, ugly and miserable, but this time no one hugged her.

At dusk, she was walking on the path in the field, and the street lamp shone faintly, and she was alone.

"Hey, did you see the sports car at the entrance of the alley? I just caught a glimpse of it, and I always think I saw it wrong!" Lele ran past, happily pushing and teasing each other, but Lele couldn't hear what they said, and walked home in a daze.

Looking down, she suddenly saw the clover necklace around her neck. After wearing it for a long time, she got used to the existence of the necklace, almost as if it had been integrated into her body.At this moment, the blurred face became clear again. She remembered the sister Yun who made an appointment with her, with such a serious expression on her face; the memory began to go back, and the scene of the beautiful face that promised came back again. Lele suddenly felt that , a certain depressed mood dissipated.

Sister Yun has never lied to her, she must trust Sister Yun!

She wants to go to the same school and study the same department as sister Yun.She wants to go to T City and find her.Time flies, she is about to enter high school, and then three years later, she will also go to other places to study.

In the past, Sister Yun was always waiting for her to accompany her, but this time, An Wuyou decided to chase after her.

I must find you, Sister Yun!

The author has something to say:

The first part of "Old Things in the East City" is over!Afterwards is the period of soaring feelings~~~Where is Sister Yun going? <The next chapter will be revealed>

Thank you, little angel, for accompanying me here. I will write more slowly in the future, but I will still try my best to update it at least weekly!I hope the summer vacation is over~~~

Give everyone a point of the nearest little angel!I wish you peace and success~~~

By the way, don't the cute little angels collect comments www(rolling and sapo><)

City of smoke