rush to score

The rain outside the window was still falling, as if it had paved a layer of noise for the city, swallowing the sound of the traffic on the street.The sky was completely dark, only a white light was still on in Shu Yongfeng's office.

Years are particularly harsh in the two stages of youth and old age, as helpless as locusts passing through, urging people to grow up, and then urging people to age.

Shu Yongfeng is indeed old, white hair has grown on his temples, he shaved it very short, leaving only a layer of gray-white stubble.There is a strong smell of smoke in the room, like tar that has been burned two or three times, mixed with moist water vapor, fermenting together in this small space.

"It's time to play the world championship and you remember me as an old man?" Shu Yongfeng asked him.

Liang Xi is [-] years old this year, and has played a lot of big and small competitions. As he said, he did not miss training and competitions even when he was abroad.Now it's time to go to the World Championships. If he wants to compete as a national of C, he has to go back to his country and either put his name on the provincial team or the club.

Liang Xi chose the latter.

"You said that." He scratched his head, finally showing a childish smile on his face, shy, the same as the eyes when he saw Shu Yongfeng for the first time when he was eight or nine years old, "Even if there is no competition, sooner or later I have to come back, after all, my roots are here."

The roots are here, in this land.For quite a long time when he first arrived abroad, his dreams were always about Boping, and when he woke up, he thought about everything here over and over again.Some are good, some are bad, and some scare him. Every picture is as if engraved on it.

He had been ill for a while, and his mental state was not good. Sometimes he dreamed of Popin and that person in the middle of the night.

These things are still like shadows, as long as he is around, as long as the sun is still rising, they will always follow him, dragging his ankles downward, like a vicious dog in the abyss.

Liang Xi did not learn to forget during these four years, what he learned was to compromise.

He thought that escaping was not the solution, as long as he wanted to stand on the world stage, then sooner or later, he and that person would meet again... Then it would be better to meet him sooner, so as to draw an end to the story of the two people.

Shu Yongfeng snorted, took the file bag from him, opened it one by one, pulled out the documents inside, and read it carefully with a pair of reading glasses.Liang Xi sat across from him, waiting quietly, and the silence surrounded the room. The scene didn't look like a reunion between master and apprentice, but rather like an interviewer and a slightly cramped applicant.

Finally, Shu Yongfeng put down the file and gave a comment: "It's good, there's no delay."

"Well, I'm sure of what I promised you..."

"Don't." Shu Yongfeng interrupted him, "Your own business, don't just promise me, I can't afford it."

Liang Xi had nothing to say, so he could only sit there and wait for Shu Yongfeng to speak.

"They all said that you came back for the gold medal." Shu Yongfeng fumbled for another cigarette from the drawer, failed to smoke it twice, frowned impatiently and lit it a third time, and finally lit it this time .

He stretched his brows, took a long puff of cigarette, and saw Liang Xi here, got up and opened the window again, the rain poured in obliquely, the originally dull sound of the rain changed from the background noise to the main theme, and Liang Xi also felt in his heart when he heard it. follow trouble.

"I am." He admitted.

"Some people say that you came back for Lu Mingchuan."

"...I'm not." He shook his head.

Shu Yongfeng squinted his eyes and looked at him for a while, then stood up and patted him on the shoulder: "Good boy, no matter whether it is true or not, you should be the one you met, and you can't avoid it. People are like this, and things are like this." That's it. I can't count on Lu Mingchuan, a little white-eyed wolf, who would have thought that in the end, you would be left beside me, a bad old man..." He crushed out the cigarette butt in his hand.

"I'm waiting for a gold medal for you."

·

It was Shu Tongying who sent Liang Xi out, and the little girl followed him and told him to walk slowly.

"What's the matter, can't bear to miss you Brother Liang Zi?"

"That's not true." Shu Tongying was bouncing around, and she couldn't tell that there was only one year difference between the two of them beside the young and mature Liang Xi. Wait for a while. Alas, people like you who don’t need the college entrance examination will definitely not understand the pain of ordinary people like us. Every day is papers, and I’m going to throw up.”

"Where?" Liang Xi laughed.

The foreign universities he submitted directly, special enrollment for athletes, means that the school has enough points in the competition, and it is enough to make up the grade points later. It is true that there is no need for the college entrance examination.

The rain in the early summer of Boping continued to fall continuously, and Liang Xi held an umbrella for the little girl. They walked all the way to the gate of the courtyard, and the two of them stopped.Just when Shu Tongying was about to say goodbye to him, he suddenly stopped her: "Tongtong, you know... Lu Mingchuan, where are you going now?"

The word "Lu Mingchuan" became obscure in Liang Xi's mouth, his tongue was tied up, and he was competing with himself.

It was Shu Tongying who answered him with a long "ah", and then the little girl frowned: "He, he has gone to Senhai, and he has not contacted here for a long time."

"When did you leave?"

"Oh, it happened not long after you went abroad." Shu Tongying opened another umbrella by herself and said goodbye to him, "I heard that he took a lot of money from a club in Senhai City and left, and my dad didn't stay he."

A car sped past Liang Xi's side, and the tires rolled over the accumulated water on the side of the road, splashing a splash of water to the side, which wet Liang Xi's trousers.He continued to walk forward as if he didn't notice, the city's light pollution became more serious in the rain, every car light, every neon sign, turned into a blurred halo in the water vapor, followed by no stars The night sky fell into the puddles of the road.

It turned out that the man had already left Boping.But it shouldn't be for money - Lu Mingchuan's family conditions don't require him to make any choices against his will.

He should really want to go... I think so, Boping has nothing to miss, that person once told him that his favorite place is the seaside, if given the chance, he would like to take Liang Xi to go surfing on the seaside .

But after all, there is no sea in Boping, and the two of them couldn't wait until the day when they went to the beach together.

·

When Liang Xi stepped into the apartment, it was already ten twenty in the evening.The wind blew in the second half of the road, and the umbrella could not cover the slanting rain. The clothes were already wet and sticky to the skin, reminiscent of fresh plastic sheets just wrapped, with a smell of dirt Fishy.

There was no one at home, and the apartment had just been rented, so it was empty, with little furniture.

Liang Xi took off his clothes in the living room and stepped into the bathroom with bare feet. He didn't feel alive until his skin touched the clean and warm running water.

Not long after being happy in the bathroom, the phone rang outside like a reminder.At first Liang Xi didn't intend to pay attention to the noisy and clean ringtone, but the ringtone was urgent, as if it was urging his life.

Who will contact him at this time?

Liang Xi opened his eyes and got up suddenly from the bathtub. The water in the bathtub shook violently a few times with his movements.Liang Xi walked the bird to the living room, grabbed the phone, put it to his ear, and said in a serious voice, "Hi, hello."

There was a rattling sound on the other end of the phone, followed by a few unintelligible human voices.

Liang Xi had just changed his phone after returning to China, and the address book hadn't been updated in time. He had no contacts, so he couldn't guess who was on the other side, so he immediately frowned and asked, "Who is it?"

"It's me." A crisp male voice mixed with panting voice, "Brother Liang Zi, it's me, Bai Xuzhou."

Bai Xuzhou?Liang Xi was taken aback for a moment.

This was his childhood playmate, and the only person he still had contact with after going abroad.But I don't know why, it was about a year ago, when he called Bai Xuzhou again, there was already a busy tone, and Liang Xi happened to have some disputes with his parents at that time, and he had no time to take care of other things. Abroad... He thought that the relationship between the two families would be broken, and he gave up after trying to contact them several times to no avail.

"Xiaobai..." He murmured, and then he didn't know what to say. The contact between the two was cut off so suddenly that Liang Xi felt a little dazed when he heard his voice again. What happened?

It seemed that the signal was not very good, Liang Xi heard a noise like electric shock coming from the phone, followed by Bai Xuzhou's trembling voice: "Brother Liang Zi, you, can you lend me some money."

"...how much?" Liang Xi knew that he might not be able to take a shower, so he clamped his phone between his face and shoulders, went back to the bathroom and tore off the towel from the shelf. The house is small and there are only a few steps. No more than ten seconds before and after.Liang Xi tied the towel around his waist, and then heard Bai Xuzhou's cautious questioning on the phone.

"Twenty thousand, no, fifteen thousand, okay?"

Liang Xi didn't give an answer right away, he scratched his hair irritably.

"Brother, I also know that you just returned to China, but I can't help it." Bai Xuzhou said with a hoarse voice, "It's Xiao Liu, she's sick. Let's go tomorrow. I'll go find you tomorrow. Let's talk about it after we meet."

"Okay." Liang Xi said dully, "Send me the card number."

The phone was hung up, and the lights were not turned on in the empty room. Liang Xi stared blankly at the string of numbers on the glaring phone screen.At the same time, the e-commerce company also sent a text message with insufficient balance at a very inappropriate time, which looked particularly eye-catching. Liang Xi moved his fingers and quickly deleted the text message, as if this would reduce the bill.

If it was in the past, asking for 2 yuan from his family would not be a big deal, but now that he and his family have broken up, and he returns to the country alone, the total amount of money he has with him is that much—you can’t expect one to return it. How much money can a child who has not reached the age of 20 have? Besides, although playing games in country A earns a lot, training is also a big part of it.

Just paid the rent again...

Liang Xi resigned to his fate and opened the text message notification, looking at the message from the bank, the balance in the card was still more than 3000.He gritted his teeth and directly transferred 2 yuan to Bai Xuzhou. He didn't throw his phone on the sofa beside him until a message popped up on the notification bar that the transfer was successful.

Liang Xi rested his cheeks and stared at the window in a daze.

It never occurred to him that he would be troubled by money one day. This was Liang Xi's first time living independently. He originally thought that he could be free for a while, but he didn't expect the financial problem to come so suddenly.Going out to work is obviously not a good choice. Firstly, part-time work and training cannot be combined. Secondly, it is difficult to make up for the shortfall of 2 yuan in a short period of time by working for others.

Liang Xi searched again in his mind, and finally came up with a secret plan...

Next to the apartment are the still-used railroad tracks, and the train pierces the silent night with a piercing whistle. Liang Xi is half lying by the window, with a little orange burning quietly between his fingers, he takes a deep breath into his lungs with a cigarette in his mouth, And slowly spit out a mouthful of white smoke.

He only took one puff, then crushed the cigarette butt and quietly closed the window.

The rain stopped, and the moon in Boping City finally appeared from behind the clouds. It was as bright and clear as before, casting a beam of light on the dreams of every sleeper without distinction. The moonlight shone on Liang Xi's face, reflecting The sleeping face of the young man frowning.