Adventures of a middle-aged uncle

Click, click.

After two sounds, my three best buddies and I took a group photo next to the beautiful Xiangyun Reservoir.

"Wang Bing, how long do you plan to stay when you come back this time?" I raised my wine glass to toast him.

"One and a half months, I will go back after I deal with some things." Wang Bing smiled and clinked glasses with me and replied succinctly.

"Your grandson, you stayed for such a short time, and you didn't get together with your buddies. You haven't come back for almost ten years, and the brothers thought you died outside." Cheng Li on the other side continued.

"It's just that you don't treat us as brothers at all, and you haven't contacted us for a long time after you go abroad. It's just that you haven't even answered your phone calls in the past two years. Is it because overseas calls are too expensive and you don't want to make them? By the way, when you come back this time, you look like The change is too big. When the airport was waiting for you, I almost didn’t recognize it.” It was Zhang Xiong who said this, and he always liked to go along with Cheng Li, when Cheng Li was his elder brother.

It was the same when he was a child, when Cheng Li asked him to do something, he usually did it without thinking about it.

Wang Bing laughed twice.

To be honest, not only Wang Bing has changed, but we have all changed too. No one is the young boy 20 years ago.

"Old and fat, you don't recognize normal at first glance. I brought you some gifts. I apologize for not being in touch with you often."

"What a good thing." When Cheng Li heard the word gift, a flower-like smile appeared on Cheng Li's fat face.

"It's not expensive, but some skin care products I bought abroad." Wang Bing stood up, walked to the suitcases in the corner, and opened one of the suitcases, which contained some bottles and jars.

Wang Bing gave us a few bottles, and I took a look at them, and managed to understand a few words in half-baked English, which were probably deep-sea fish balls, vitamins and so on.

Cheng Li's heart is not very good, and he has high blood pressure.When Wang Bing called me to confirm his return, I mentioned it casually.Unexpectedly, Wang Bing really took it to heart, and specially bought Cheng Li some medicine for health care.

Zhang Xiong's gift was an Apple mobile phone. Among the few of us, Zhang Xiong had the worst conditions. He loved racing cars a few years ago, and had an accident and paid the other party one hundred thousand.All of a sudden, the family lost everything.The object of the investigation also ran away, and he remained in prison for two years.

Living in such a tight environment, I really don’t have enough money to buy a good mobile phone. I have been using the old Nokia that was popular a few years ago, and I have never replaced it.Seeing this brand new apple, Le couldn't close his mouth, pretended to decline a few times, and got it in his pocket.

What Wang Bing gave me was a bottle of fine French red wine.I can’t buy genuine products in China. I have never mentioned to Wang Bing that I love red wine. The gift he brought me this time really surprised me, but he said that he heard that I often suffer from insomnia, and that red wine can effectively promote sleep. The quality will give me the choice of red wine, which really hits my heart and I am very moved.

I am the only one in my family who likes to drink red wine, and I would have a few drinks when I am free on weekdays.

The place to welcome Wang Bing who just got off the plane is the farmhouse I specially reserved, which is built next to the Xiangyun Reservoir.This Xiangyun Reservoir has been a signature tourism project in our place for the past few years, and the greening and construction have been done very well.

After drinking and eating, it was already evening, the sun was setting, and the restless full moon had quietly emerged. At this time, it was hanging faintly in the sky, waiting for the sun to fade away, and her soft light would appear little by little. .

Everyone was a little drunk.

I suggest going to the lakeside to sober up and take a walk.When the four of us were young, we often came to this Xiangyun Reservoir to play in the water, but at that time, the infrastructure was not so good. Xiangyun Reservoir was still called Xiangyun Lake, and there were often wild children swimming by the lake. There are dense aquatic plants, so every year the reservoir will die a few children who love to play with water.But this is a common occurrence, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The fate is all determined by God.

Seeing that the scenery and light in the evening were just right, I took a few pictures of the scenery with an old-fashioned film camera.

Cheng Li drunkenly said to me, "Hey, Li Ming, don't just take pictures of the scenery, take a group photo for our brothers." As he spoke, he pulled Zhang Xiong into a pose.

I looked around and saw an old man in a gray long-sleeved cotton linen jacket sitting on a small horse fishing in the front left.He just sat there quietly, like a lifeless stone sculpture, one couldn't bear to be disturbed.

But I didn't see anyone else in these four rounds, so I could only go up to the old man and say, "Uncle, I'm sorry, can you take a picture of the four of us?"

The old man waved his hand and said, "I don't know that kind of foreign stuff."

Seeing the old man's refusal, I said again, "I use an old-fashioned film camera. You just need to press this button for the four of us. Please, there is no one else around here. My brother finally came from abroad. Come back."

"Okay, okay, go after the filming, don't disturb my fish."

"Thank you."

So, after 20 years, the four of us took a group photo again.

I'm an avid photographer who loves to take pictures with an old fashioned film camera.

The small bedroom at home was converted into a dark room by me.After saying goodbye to them, as soon as I got home at night, I couldn't wait to go into the darkroom to develop the landscape photos I took that afternoon.

The next day, the photos were developed one by one. I took them out of the darkroom and drank red wine to appreciate and watch them carefully until the photo of the four of us.I found that between Cheng Li and Zhang Xiong there was a vague shadow like a person's head.Thinking of this, I couldn't help being taken aback by my own thoughts.

Cheng Li is fat and tall, while Zhang Xiong is the opposite, thin but strong and not tall.The two stood next to me, and Wang Bing stood on the other side of me.I looked at the vague shadow again carefully, and I couldn't see the shape clearly. The color was gray and dark like a large stain.Could it be that I didn't rinse it off?

Went to the darkroom, looked at the film, found the one with the four of us, looked at it again with a magnifying glass, there was nothing wrong with it.Could it be that something went wrong when I washed this piece?

Try washing it again.

This one is to be washed for the three of them as a souvenir.I was very careful in the process of washing it out, without touching it, it was all done with tweezers.

After developing the photos, it was already from daytime to evening, and I realized that I hadn't eaten until my stomach kept growling, so I went downstairs to the restaurant outside the community and ordered an egg fried rice.

I usually go to this small shop to eat egg fried rice, and I have a good relationship with the boss He Hao.After chatting casually for a few words, he asked me, "Hey, Lao Li, I think you're very listless."

I laughed and said, "Hey, last night I spent a whole night developing photos, and I didn't sleep for a few hours. I saw a picture this morning and it was ruined. I still want to give it to a friend. I was busy all afternoon. I just finished it."

He Hao smoked a cigarette and said with a smile, "Let me tell you, your eyes are black and blue, and Yintang is also a little gray. Don't tire yourself out. At our age, maintenance is very important."

"You look younger than me by a few years, and you say that we are at this age, and you like to say that you are old. I will go back to sleep after I go back." I said goodbye to him with a huff.

As soon as I entered the house, I felt a chill running down my neck and down my back.She shivered suddenly, turned on the light, and suddenly found a hazy black figure standing beside the curtain.

"Who?" I shouted.

There was no sound at all in the living room. I took a closer look and saw that there was nothing beside the curtains. The windows were tightly closed, except for a pot of money tree placed over there.

My eyes are dazzled, it seems that I have to rest well tonight.

Without going into the darkroom, I took a shower and went to bed.In order to help me sleep well all the time, I drank the red wine brought to me by Wang Bing before going to bed and stared at the ceiling with my eyes open. I was very tired and didn't feel sleepy at all.My wife and children have gone to her natal home for the summer vacation.

I am the only one in the family.

It was quiet all around, and I could only hear the sound of the alarm clock's hands "tick, tick".

My thoughts slowly drifted back to junior high school.

Cheng Li, Zhang Xiong, Wang Bing and I have a very good relationship.Cheng Li is the boss, Wang Bing is the dog-headed army division, and Zhang Xiong and I are the lead soldiers in the charge.

Since we were in junior high school, the four of us have been smoking together, drinking and doing some bad things.A lot of criticism.But at that age, that boy doesn't like to play crazy, we just have more tricks than others.

Extorting pocket money from elementary school students, stealing bicycles to sell scrap iron, and pouring cold water on the teacher's door at night in winter.The most unpleasant-looking one in the bullying class.In short, we do all kinds of evil. We are notorious at an age and even the whole school, but there are things we dare not do.

At that time, the four of us fell in love with a beautiful girl named Qi Qi.She has an apple face, big eyes, and two thick black whips tied with red-headed ropes resting on her plump chest.

But none of the four of us dared to confess to that girl.

It is said that we are overlords, but in that era, precocious children were demonized, so I dared to hold her hand in my dream.Usually when I see this girl, I can only sneak a few glances at her out of the corner of my eye.Don't dare to look more, for fear that the three of them will laugh at me.

I still remember that time, Qi Qi was wearing a white dress, with a slender waist and slender legs. She walked towards me step by step, smiling slightly, her eyes were like autumn water, and her hair was flying in the wind.

"Qiqi." I called out in a low voice.She reached out to touch her face, but at that moment, her face suddenly became bloody, and an eyeball popped out, and there was still a smile on the corner of her mouth, "Li Ming"

Her mouth began to deform until the lower part became a big black hole, and a large number of nameless white worms gushed out of her mouth.

"Ah." I yelled and sat up directly from the bed.

When did I fall asleep, and I had such a strange dream again, touching my beating heart, I got up and prepared to go to the living room to drink a glass of water to calm my shock.

Opening the bedroom door, I vaguely saw a figure sitting on the sofa. I was still immersed in the nightmare just now. Seeing the scene in front of me, I hurriedly pressed the switch of the living room light by instinct.But I touched something soft and very fragrant, just like Qi Qi's smell. I slowly turned my head to look at the position of the switch, and Qi Qi's rotten face suddenly appeared in front of me.

"What are you doing, don't come here." I was so frightened that my legs trembled, and I watched that rotten face slowly approaching, and she was still smiling. "Li Ming, I'm here."

"No, please let me go." After regaining consciousness, I lay on the bed, my eyelids seemed to be stuck by something, and I couldn't open them tightly.It was like a heavy stone was being pressed on my body, and I felt like I couldn't breathe.Time passed by little by little in the darkness, and my life seemed to be washed away.

Ding... Ding, the sound of the alarm clock woke me up from an inescapable hell.

"Damn." This turned out to be a dream within a dream.Looking at the bright morning, I got up quickly.

The self in the mirror seemed to be 10 years older, with an unshaven beard, dark bags under the eyes, and white hair protruding from the temples.

"I'm old, I'm old, it seems that I can't stay up late anymore."

I went into the darkroom, took out the photo I had washed yesterday, and put it in the sun. There was still a black shadow on the group photo of the four of us that I couldn't get rid of, but why is this black shadow a little different from yesterday.

After taking a closer look, I gasped, the black shadow became a little clearer, and a blurry human face appeared.

My hands began to tremble unconsciously, I grabbed my bag and ran out the door.

Cheng Li's home is the nearest place to me, and it takes less than 10 minutes to get to his community by taxi.Anxiously ringing the doorbell downstairs of his house, over and over again.No one answered.

Only then did I realize that I had to call him first, and after looking through my bag, I found that I hadn't put my phone in my bag in a hurry, so I went out.

Realizing this, I stroked my swollen brain and walked back, at this moment.

"Bang", the loud noise made me look towards the source of the sound.

The white sheet wrapped a body, to be precise, a corpse, and the blood on the sheet was constantly oozing out.

I licked my dry lips and froze on the spot. The wind lifted the white sheet, and I saw half of my face. It was Cheng Li's face. His eyes were staring at me like a dead fish. A penetrating smile.

After a scream, I fainted in front of Cheng Li's body.

The author has something to say:

Ahhh, this is the first time I write an article, I have a strong and invincible heart!