woman wearing irish linen shirt

I had the flu once in college.

It was the summer vacation before my junior year, and my mother's affair became known, and they wouldn't let me go back to China.The teacher in charge of international students agreed that I would stay in the dormitory, and my local classmates drove me around [-] states in a car.After I came back, I fell ill. People who were rarely sick in the past didn’t know what it was like to get the flu. The most uncomfortable two days were full of sadness and sorrow.In the end, Qu Zhizhi couldn't see it, and dragged me around Massachusetts after recovering from the illness, and did a project, and I was her guinea pig.

That paper didn't get published, and I didn't get what she wanted, so let's take heart.

The earth and the underworld are all similar, only when they are drifting in a foreign land.

My whole body hurts, and I wake up slowly in the chorus.The rear seat of the wide hunting truck smelled of wood, and I was so uncomfortably bumped that I rolled the window to the bottom.

"Yao, close the window!" Lao Bai yelled at me in the rearview mirror.

"No," I firmly refused, "I'm going to throw up."

"I can't hear—"

"No!" Vivian opened her hand that was about to turn up the volume, "Yao, close the window!"

"I'm going to throw you in the car after it's closed." I leaned my arm on the window sill and panted, "I've listened to this song a thousand times, what's so good about it?"

They were singing "Please Read The Letter".Lao Bai is a die-hard fan of the Airship band. On the way, I was forced to listen to the album by former lead singer Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Originally, I was not very interested in male and female chorus singing. Not bad.It's just that Vivienne wants to repeat this song as a single, no matter how good it sounds, it makes her ears callous.

Lao Bai was still singing along tirelessly.She only knows the chorus part, and she's out of tune.I convinced her.

"You don't know anything about bluegrass, you're a fake American," said Bai.

"Fuck you, I'm not an American at all." After I finished speaking, I felt like throwing up again, holding on to the window and retching for a while.When I looked up, I saw a sign and woke up suddenly: "Vivian, how did you get into 407?"

"I rely on."

"Back back, back up!"

"What the hell!" Vivienne slapped Lao Bai's hat brim, "I told you that we set off one day later and let Yao drive. It's all right now, and we're entering the toll road."

My whining has stopped, and I said slowly: "I'm so drunk, you still want me to drive?"

"Ha, it seems that you are the only one who has been drinking!" Vivienne looked at me through the rearview mirror, with some worry in her eyes, "Sleep a little longer, and wake you up when you pass the level."

"Or I'll call you when I get to New York." Old Bai said leisurely, "You hide."

"Get out!" I made a gesture to hit her, but the window was rolled up, leaving only a gap.At this time, the single looped to the thousand and one times. In order to drink a glass of legal wine, on the way back to Northampton from Toronto, Vivienne and Lao Bai began to sing again: "Please read I nailed you The letter on the door, the world is tricky, we want far more than this..."

What a lullaby, my eyelids are getting heavy.Nodding my head down, I jumped up, and Vivienne drove the wrong way again?

I opened my eyes and saw that I was standing on a very high diving platform. The pool was very small, like a private pool of an upper-class family.The two bad friends who traveled around North America together disappeared, only Qu Zhizhi stood far away, wearing a doctor's cap and a Harvard hoodie, shouting: "Li Yao, come down quickly! It's dangerous! You can't stand, come down!"

"No!" My calves were shaking, but I still didn't take a step back and shouted at her, "I'm going to Hamburg!"

"What are you doing in Hamburg!"

"I'm going to save my mother, she won't want me if I don't go to Hamburg!" Thinking of my mother, I immediately made up my mind, took a step forward, and took a deep breath.

I'm going to dance, I'm going to dance, I'm going to dance...

"Oh, your mother is next to me, come down!" Qu Zhizhi greeted me, "Aren't we going to get a doctorate in humanities together? If you jumped from there and broke your leg, then no museum will want you!"

I waved at Qu Zhizhi like a hero, and jumped down.It turned out to be just a three-meter diving platform. I stepped on the water—the water was so slippery that I slipped to the edge of the pool like sitting on jelly.Zhizhi was still watching from the sidelines, and my mother only stayed behind, and she was getting further and further away.I rushed up, but the result was getting slower and slower. My legs were sealed into the concrete floor, but it felt like mud to the touch. I was confident that I could break free, but the result was deeper and deeper.

My mother turned around, she was skinny, how could this be?

I didn't know where the strength came from and struggled to her feet.My mother lowered her head and looked at me tenderly: "Our Yao Yao has really grown up."

The cement floor suddenly turned into a sea of ​​flames. In the sea of ​​flames, my blood and tears were all scorched, and I became a poisonous snake.

The viper rang.

I clamped its head and put it next to my ear: "Here is Li Yao from Boston of Agency A talking. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Snake's silence didn't last long, and he opened his mouth and said, "Which floor do you live on?"

"Fourteenth floor." I recognized her voice and said, "I bought you a very beautiful dress..."

My voice is low, almost coquettish.

"Yao." She called me.She yelled a third time and a fourth time, and it wasn't until I answered that she asked again, "Are you awake?"

I sit up.

Miss Pender.

"Uh—yes, I'm sorry." I held my forehead, but my head didn't hurt anymore, but my body was very soft, "What were we talking about just now?"

"You live on the [-]th floor A, right?" She avoided answering.

I subconsciously responded, and before I had time to ask, I only heard her say "Open the door for me", and the phone was hung up.

She came to my house?I frowned, feeling sour, and took off my T-shirt.But such a simple thing is also very difficult to complete. Every piece of flesh hurts, especially on the back, where the muscles seem to be burning.I leaned against the head of the bed panting, put on a crumpled shirt and took my temperature.

36.2 ℃, the fever subsides.

About Saturday morning, I developed a fever.The past two days have been in a daze, I seldom eat, and maybe I haven't washed much.It's too late to take a shower now, and I'm not sure if I have the strength to take a shower. I hurriedly put on my clothes, cleaned up the mess in the living room, and the doorbell rang.

"I'm Sonia. Are you in there?"

"Yes." I answered her loudly, "Thank you for visiting me, but I can't open the door for you."

The doorbell didn't ring again, and she fell silent.My throat was really sore. I leaned against the wall and walked to the door. Just as I was about to explain, Miss Pan De's voice suddenly sounded: "In the past period of time, have you ever had close contact with anyone without wearing a mask?"

I cleared my throat slowly: "No, not in the past fourteen days."

"Have you been to those places where clustered cases broke out?"

"No."

"Do you feel tightness in your chest or difficulty breathing?"

"No."

"Open the door for me."

"No!" I coughed dryly for a while, barely able to continue talking, "I have fatigue and sore limbs, and I had a fever the day before yesterday, that's why I asked for leave today."

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the door, and Miss Pender's voice sounded again: "Today is Tuesday."

I froze for a moment.Monday is over?Isn't the conference over? Why didn't Lao Huang call me to tell me how to deal with the details of the optimization framework?I touched my pants. Of course I didn't have a mobile phone. I just left it on the bedside and forgot to take it.I said, "I'm feeling better and should be able to work in a moment. Thank you so much for coming to see me—"

"Open the door."

"I can't." I sighed. "I'm not sure if I have the flu or COVID. I'll make an appointment with my doctor for a test later...well, why are you here?"

"At least let me see you." Her tone was gentle and firm, but she ignored my words at all, "I will be very worried if I don't see you, and Rudra also told me to see you in person. You If I don't open the door again, the administrator in the lobby may come to chase me away..."

"Rudra?" My brain seemed to be burning, my thinking was slow, and I couldn't argue with her at all.After a pause, I said, "Wait a minute." Then I put on the mask, buttoned the hat, and hid the garbage in the depths of the kitchen. At this time, I saw the rubber gloves on the counter and put them on too. up.

Pushing all the windows of the living room open one by one, I shouted at the door: "Open it, I didn't lock it."

Really Miss Pender.

I stopped her: "Stop."

"Okay." She stopped walking forward.Miss Pender tilted her head, her expression hesitated for a moment, and she finally smiled and said, "Why are you wearing a hat?"

"I didn't wash my hair." I was a little embarrassed, "Do you mind wearing another mask?"

"That wouldn't help much." She smiled unabated. "Then why are you wearing gloves? Didn't you wash your hands?"

I was amused by her, leaned on the window and coughed twice, barely stood up straight, and said, "I just read that the medical staff in the report are all fully armed, and I think this is better."

She made a gesture: "I still need a pair of sunglasses."

"You're right." I couldn't help but laugh, "I'm so sorry, it's your first time here, but I can't entertain you—you, um, why did you come? I'm quite surprised."

Although the "happy" part is open to question.

"During the meeting, they said that you asked for leave. I asked Rudra privately, and I heard that they haven't contacted you, and they don't know your new address." Miss Pande blinked, "Plus, I want to confirm You're fine. I thought a lot of people knew you lived here."

"I just moved here not long ago, and I haven't had time yet." My feet are a little weak, but my mind has slowly come to my senses, remembering what I said in a daze when I answered her phone before, and now I am standing in front of the window so sloppily, my Toes curled up in embarrassment.

Her style is as usual.Compared with my nondescript wrinkled shirt and pilled sweatpants, Miss Pender is as delicate as the real owner of this apartment.

She was holding a plastic bag with a smiling face in her hand, which didn’t fit into the suit, as if to remind me: this person who was looking at me with worry hidden in his eyebrows was neither a partner of BCG Singapore nor my opponent.She just sticks to the bottom line, and broke into my door involuntarily. One day, when the situation is safe, she will come to me.

Sonia Pender cared about me.

why?

I was very confused and changed the subject: "I'm curious, why did the administrator let you in?"

"I said you are my sister." She had no guilt about lying, her eyes were smiling.