Sir, what if it's too cold?

On the way back, Xu Muran remained sleepy.

Song Xin noticed that she was different from when she came here, and asked her worriedly: "What's the matter, are you okay?"

"It's okay." She looked up at the twilight in the sky, the sun was bending over and digging hard towards the horizon, and it would be night soon, "I'm just...a little tired."

"Exercise more," Song Xin taught her, "Look at your face, it's as white as paper."

Xu Muran smiled: "Understood."

Song Xin and Uncle Song sent her home and left without staying for long.After Xu Muran took photos of his grandparents, he went into the house to find a bag of melon seeds and kowtowed, and asked his father while kowtowing, "When shall we leave?"

"09:30," Xu's father said, "accompany your grandma and your mother to finish watching the TV series and leave."

"Oh." She nodded, and sprinkled the melon seeds in her hand into the trash can: "I'll go out for a while."

Father Xu frowned and looked at her: "What are you doing out so late? It's windy and cold outside, so wear more clothes."

"it is good."

Walking on the criss-crossing paths, Xu Muran's mood did not relax much because he came out.

She wants to check out the grocery store again.

With a lot of preoccupations, she unknowingly arrived at the door of the small grocery store.To Xu Muran's surprise, the door of the shop was closed, and the lights were not turned on in the room, as if it were an empty room that no one lived in.

She walked around the door for a while, and finally walked back slowly.

There was a very festive cross talk in the car, and Xu's father laughed straight after hearing it, not noticing the difference between his daughter and the past at all.

Xu Muran leaned against the window to look at the street lights outside, and suddenly asked without thinking: "Dad, where's Brother Xiaoyu? I wanted to go to the grocery store to buy a bag of potato chips, but I didn't expect it to close so early."

"That boy from the Wang family?" Papa Xu replied, "I saw him in the afternoon and said he was bringing his wife back to her mother's house."

"Understood." She replied, and then stopped answering.

11:30 in the evening.

Xu Muran put down his phone and waited downstairs for a while with his pocket in his pocket.There was a sound of kicking, she raised her eyes, and saw Zhou Qing walking towards her.

Even though it was a sudden invitation in the middle of the night, the other party was full of sincerity: a black and white high-waisted striped T-shirt, loose black wide-leg pants, brown loafers, eyebrows, eyeliner and lipstick. It looked like it had been packed for a while.

She smiled: "It's the same way in the middle of the night."

Zhou Qing walked to her side, and bent the corners of his lips: "You asked me out, so naturally you can't neglect."

Back in time to 10 minutes ago, she had just finished reading a few papers that needed to be peer-reviewed, and was about to drink a glass of water to sleep, when she suddenly received a call from Xu Muran: "Are you asleep?"

"no, what happened?"

The other party's voice sounded a little low: "I'm hungry, come out with me for a late-night snack."

"Okay." Zhou Qing didn't ask why, and got up to change clothes neatly.

"What to eat?" Zhou Qing took Xu Muran to the underground garage, and thoughtfully turned on the switch of the voice-activated light for her: "Be careful, watch the road."

After fastening her seat belt, Xu Muran gave an address, she thought for a while, and nodded: "Yes."

She once heard Lan Fu say that place is a paradise for young people, a paradise for barbecue stalls and food stalls, and it can still be overcrowded in the early hours of the morning.

I don't know if An is safe, Zhou Qing turned and thought while turning.

If something happened, she would definitely protect Xu Muran and run away first.

However, Xu Muran's next behavior made her dumbfounded: After stopping in the parking lot, Xu Muran took her straight to a 24-hour teahouse, chose a private room and sat down, opened the screen saver of her phone, and started Order takeout.

Zhou Qing glanced at the waiter's face, which turned blue and white, and laughed to himself: It's not my fault that she was at a loss, such customers are indeed rare.

She took out 50 yuan and put it on the table, then gently raised her finger and tapped the plastic stand on the table that said "Bring your own alcohol is prohibited".

The waiter immediately understood, took the stand away with a smile on his face, put the money in his pocket, and closed the door for them very graciously.

There were only the two of them left in the private room, Zhou Qing raised his eyes to look at the long string of small characters on the screen of Xu Muran's mobile phone, and couldn't help but remind him: "It's so late, just mean it."

At this point, it is easy to accumulate food after eating.

"Yeah." Xu Muran nodded absently, and after submitting the order, he rang the service bell for someone to come in: "A pot of honey red date tea."

After the person went out, she looked at Zhou Qing: "You have a bad stomach, drink something to warm you up."

Zhou Qing raised his eyebrows slightly: "I order so many things at once, didn't you eat tonight?"

"No." Xu Muran shook his head, "I ate some, but I don't have much appetite."

"Ah."

The incense sticks on the mahogany coffee table are burning with curling smoke. The fragrance is light but lingering for a long time, which makes people feel very happy.

Zhou Qing was looking down at her email when she heard Xu Muran gently calling her name: "Zhou Qing."

"Heart is higher than the sky, and life is thinner than paper."

"You said, why are some people's lives so cheap?"

Zhou Qing's thoughts were still deep in the data sent by his colleagues, and he didn't turn the corner for a while: "...huh?"

Xu Muran didn't wait for her response, and just continued on his own: "I went back to my hometown today to see my grandparents. On the way back, my car broke down, so my dad called and called a young man, who drove a tractor to pick him up." We went back to the village. We chatted happily on the way, and he answered everything I asked. He was two months older than me and asked me to call him brother.

"I haven't been back for a long time. I didn't expect my hometown to develop so fast. The houses and roads are all newly built. They are so beautiful that they are almost the same as the city.

"At noon, my mother asked me to go to the grocery store to buy cooking wine, so I went. A woman was in charge of the store. She asked me which village I was from. I said I was not from the village. I lived in Haicheng. She Suddenly I was very excited, and before I figured out why, her husband came back, the one who took us to the village."

Zhou Qing listened quietly to her nonsensical words without making a sound.

"When he saw me coming, he was terrified, and kept pushing me out. I thought it was a young couple arguing, so I didn't care. Later...

"Later, I met a child. I couldn't hold back my curiosity. I asked him, did that elder brother have a bad relationship with his wife? He said no, that daughter-in-law was bought. How could the bought daughter-in-law get any good looks?" ?

"He said it to me with no expression on his face, like it's something you see every day.

"I asked him again, who else in the village bought a daughter-in-law, and he gave me four or five houses without thinking. I asked him what these people do, and he said that there are all kinds of people, vegetable sellers, blacksmiths Yes, there is another person who raises pigs, his father is from the police station, and he is very familiar with the 'mother-in-law' who came in as a seller.

"I didn't know what to say at the time. What could I say? He took these things for granted. If he didn't have a wife, he just went outside and bought one. It was the same as going to the grocery store to buy a bottle when he ran out of cooking wine.

"On the way home, I felt cold all over my body. You were not there at the time, and you didn't see the woman's eyes. I don't think I will forget it in my life.

"It's like being cut by a blunt knife, and then there will be dense pain, but her, her heart is dead, and she can't feel the pain anymore.

"I thought about whether I could do something for her, even if I could help her send a message, her parents must miss her very much, and their tears may have been shed because of their daughter's departure.

"And when I went to the grocery store again, there was no one in the store, and they had already left. I asked my dad, and he said that he had seen the two of them in the afternoon, and said that the elder brother took his wife back to his mother's house. I guess he He took that woman out to avoid the limelight, he probably didn't even know where her mother's family was.

"I stayed outside for a long time before going back. I felt that this was not the place I grew up in. Everything became strange in an instant. The houses were strange, the roads were strange, and the people were strange.

"I was walking on the way back and thinking, those houses are not houses, they are hells that can eat people.

"I also thought about saving her, but I haven't been back for so long. I am already an outsider to the village. My grandparents still live there. Even if I rescue her, how can my grandparents live?" manage?

"What should I do with the ones I don't know and can't save?"

"Brother Xiaoyu—" Xu Muran paused, "It's that husband, he is obviously so good, he will deliberately drive the car slower because he wants to take care of me, and he will help me out of the car, how could he be such a person?"

She stared blankly at the burning incense on the table, completely oblivious to her hoarse voice and slightly trembling voice: "Am I very useless?"

"I knew she was there, and I had a chance, but I didn't do anything, and I just watched her go."

"I clearly... I should be able to think of..."

Zhou Qing suddenly got up, walked around to Xu Muran, and stretched out her hand to wrap her in his arms: "Don't think too much."

"I'm still a reporter, what did I write with the pen in my hand?" She was almost insane, Zhou Qing let go of her, pulled her shoulders, forced her to look at him, and said in a deep voice: "Xu Muran , look at me."

The girl in front of her had a pale complexion and was as weak as a doll that would collapse in the wind, her lips were trembling incoherently, making her want to kiss her very much.

But no, now is not the time.

She looked directly at Xu Muran, and said word by word: "This is not your fault, you are fine, you are not at fault."

Xu Muran stared blankly at her without speaking.

"They..." At this time, the words were already pale, Zhou Qing was silent for a while, then slowly hugged her again: "Probably true, everyone has their own destiny."

"You're right, some people's lives are just so unpleasant."

After a period of unbearable silence, Zhou Qing felt a sudden tightening around her waist, and a pair of delicate hands gently hugged her back.

The T-shirt on the chest was also soaked.