salt by salt

City S.

"Brother Xu, I'm here to change shifts."

Yan Xiang pushed open the door of the convenience store, jingled the wind chime, and the mechanical female voice said "Welcome" in a flat tone.He put on his work apron with his gloves and asked me while he was belting it: "Your girlfriend hasn't come to pick you up yet?"

"That's not my girlfriend."

I raised my head helplessly, and I didn't know how many times I explained it. This kid didn't believe it: "Yesterday, the cake shop across the street was burglarized. The thief hasn't been caught yet. The police came over this morning and said hello to everyone. Don't worry about it when you're on the night shift." Just focus on playing with your phone, and watch more suspicious people when you see them."

Yan Xiang casually scratched at the yellow hair, and the complicated decorations on his fingers were a bit dazzling: "I know. Anyway, there are surveillance everywhere now, including in the store. It's only a matter of time before people like this are caught, and they can't escape."

"There's nothing wrong with being careful."

I put a tick on the work sign-in sheet, I changed my clothes, took out my phone and saw the message from Sun Ning: The road is blocked, don’t run around, wait for me for 10 minutes.

I replied: Pay attention to safety, I will wait for you in the shop.

"What?" Yan Xiang looked at my screen while arranging the shelves, "Traffic jam? Indeed, it's just about time to get off work. I said Brother Xu, such a beautiful woman who comes around to pick you up every day must be interesting to you. You quickly leave the house."

"We're just friends." I put away my phone, pulled a stool and sat down, and glanced at him, "Don't talk nonsense."

He shook his head and hummed a ditty, and said with a smile: "First a friend, then a sister, and finally a baby. They are all men, I understand. But you can't keep a woman's appetite for too long. If she gets angry, don't you still have to coax her? Okay. Brother Xu, you look good, saying one sentence is more effective than ten sentences from me."

I smiled, and turned my eyes to the street scene shrouded in twilight outside the convenience store.

City S is near the sea, and the climate is warm. Many people still wear short sleeves on the streets at the end of September.There was a high school nearby, and it was the time for evening self-study and get out of class. Students in school uniforms slipped out in twos and threes to buy snacks.

Been here for three years.

Three years ago, I jumped down from the mountain on the outskirts of City B. I didn't fall to the bottom as smoothly as I expected. Instead, I quickly fell on the edge of the mountain and rolled down the mountain.I don't want to think about that kind of pain, I just remember that I strongly regretted why I didn't choose an easier suicide method halfway through.

After rolling for a long time, I landed on the other side of the winding mountain road, almost falling apart, with blood all over my head and face.If no one finds out, I will die silently by the side of the road from ruptured internal organs.

At that time, I vaguely thought that even though I cannot go to heaven by suicide, there is no need to torture me like this.

Maybe it was because I was too unlucky in the past, but God finally took pity on me and sent one after another almost miraculous coincidences.

Almost no one came to Andre's residence, except for one person.

Sun Ning.

The last time I trained my eyes in this villa, Sun Ning came to visit me here, and I asked her to drive me to see Cheng Heyun.She knew where it was, and since I couldn't be reached anywhere, she drove over to try her luck and ask Andre about my whereabouts.

She picked me up, who was dying, and sent me to the hospital, where she met Wu Mian, who was going to a meeting to exchange ideas.Wu Mian recognized me. I had told him a lot of news. Combined with the situation of falling off the cliff, it is not difficult to deduce the bad situation that happened to me.

Out of the delicacy and thoughtfulness of his professional instinct, he chose to send me to the sanatorium quietly first, and inquired about the ins and outs through his contacts, instead of directly handing me over to the "righteous" Andre.

To this day, I am extremely grateful to him for "doing nothing" and earning me a chance to live with dignity.

Most of the time when I was recuperating, I couldn't perceive the outside world, like a walking dead.Wu Mian weighed for a long time, asked my opinion when I was rarely sober, and decided to let me stay away from City B.

At that time, Sun Ning had resigned from the high-level Xu family, and she drove me all the way to S City, which is Wu Mian's hometown.He was so benevolent to me that he lent us the vacant house.

Sun Ning found a job here and started everything again.

Andre organized a lot of manpower and material resources to search the mountain, because all kinds of evidence pointed to my being taken away, and he even called on the relationship to find the vehicle traffic records in the city.Fortunately, the place where the villa was located was really remote, and there was no useful information to be found for a short while, but the noise was so great that Sun Ning was worried all day long, for fear that someone would come to his door.

My mother quickly smoothed over the matter. She announced to the public that I died of a sudden illness and was buried in a cemetery that had been prepared early.Fortunately, the Xu family was in chaos this year, and many major events happened one after another. My sense of existence was deliberately reduced, and even "death" did not cause any waves.

When this news came out, my situation improved slightly, and I learned intermittently from Sun Ning and Wu Mian what happened after leaving.I didn't know that my mother bought me a cemetery, and I was in a complicated mood for a while, and I didn't know what to say.

As a former colleague, Sun Ning also received an invitation to participate in the mourning, but in order to avoid arousing suspicion after she came forward, she refused to go because she was busy with work.

I guess my funeral will be very deserted. After all, the "life" was too bad to deserve a few tears of true emotion.

Andre must have understood that I was not dead, but he did not pursue me.Sun Ning learned from Xu's former colleagues that her mother now holds multiple positions in Xu's, and Andre has stepped down as president and returned to France.

I don't know if Yang Chen and Song Cheng are aware of the truth of this matter. Since I have lived undisturbed in S City for three years, I guess I was deceived.

This is very good, I don't want to have anything to do with them, I just want to spend the rest of my life in peace.

I spent a very long time recovering from my injuries - both physically and mentally - and ended up with a lot of big and small after-effects all over my body.

I can't face the computer for a long time, otherwise I will have a splitting headache; I can't read a lot of text, I can only process short content; I can't be in a high-pressure working environment, and I will vomit and dizzy once I get anxious.

The pelvis was not fully healed and I suffered another severe fall, and even with strenuous rehabilitation, my left leg was still irreparably disabled.When walking slowly, there is no abnormality for a while, but when walking fast, the limp is extremely obvious, and he cannot run at all.

And since "Xu Junyan" is dead, I can't use my bank card and identity card, and I have no chance of normal social life.Especially in recent years, with the popularization of information management and control technology, identity binding is required in almost every place, which makes it even more difficult for me to move forward.

The knowledge and skills he had learned were useless, and he couldn't even do ordinary clerical work, so he could only work in this convenience store run by Wu Mian's relatives.I would have felt sorry for myself before, but now I don't care.

These three years have been my hard practice, and I finally got this hard-won new life.

"welcome."

The mechanical female voice sounded again, the door of the convenience store was pushed open, and Sun Ning appeared in the store in a flashy red dress.She took off her sunglasses, combed her curly hair casually, and wore a delicate watch on her white wrist, looking like an urban beauty.

Yan Xiang winked at me: "Brother Xu, the beauty is here to pick you up, hurry home."

I was bored of waiting, and I was carrying the drink box to be replenished on the stocking shelf. Hearing this, I shook my sore wrist and walked out with her slowly.

The car was parked on the side of the road. Sun Ning had a strong working ability and a glorious resume in Xu's. He bought a famous brand car after staying in S city for three years.

"Don't do this kind of manual work in the future." She started the car and said with a frown, "Let that young man help you."

"It's just moving a box. It's not heavy. I can do it."

"Not heavy?" Sun Ning honked the horn irritably as the car in front lingered.

I paused and said softly, "Be careful next time."

She glanced at me sideways, pursed her red lips a little annoyed, and softened her tone: "Are you still going there on Saturday? I'll see you off."

"No, I'll take the subway." I smiled, "You should take a break once in a while, don't work too hard, you work late every day, and you have dark circles under your eyes. Don't frown, it doesn't look good."

"The subway is crowded and sitting is uncomfortable. The medicine prescribed by Dr. Wu is almost finished. I will go get new medicine next week." Sun Ning rubbed the center of his brows, picked up his phone and glanced, "I have an appointment for a review the day after tomorrow. I forgot to remind you."

I sighed and thumped my left leg: "There's no need to investigate. Didn't the expert say it last time? It's irreversible, and it will never recover."

"What does that person know? You are so young, why can't you get better?" She snorted, "Don't slacken your usual exercise, you know?"

I nodded, the atmosphere in the car was silent for a while, Sun Ning changed the subject: "Rui Rui has been arguing with Sister Yan, saying that she will go to the amusement park with her brother Jun Yan, who promised her, when will you go play with her?"

Wu Yanrui is Wu Mian's daughter. She is seven years old and has just entered the second grade of primary school. She is a cute little girl with big and round eyes.

Wu Mian works in City B all year round. Wu Yanrui stays with her mother on her days off, and lives at her grandparents' house during the rest of the time. She often only sees her father during winter and summer vacations.

When we first came to this city, Sun Ning and I lived in Wu Mian's house, which was in a different building in the same community as his ex-wife's.One time Sun Ning met Wu Yanrui who was standing at the door with her hips akimbo when she went out. The little girl thought we occupied her father's room, so she cried and made a fuss.

After receiving Wu Mian's strong guarantee and explanation on the phone, she reluctantly accepted the existence of the two of us, and became our little guest logically.

At that time, I needed to take a lot of drugs to suppress the disease, and my speech was often slow and ambiguous.Wu Yanrui felt that she could be my teacher because she could speak clearly, and she has been passionately attached to me ever since.

Wu Mian's ex-wife, Ms. Yan, is an executive of a company. She looks gentle and reasonable. After learning about the situation, she allowed her daughter to visit me as a patient often.

Although Sun Ning and I moved out after half a year, Wu Yanrui still came to chat with me every week.She thinks she has the responsibility to teach me, and I am happy to coax her for fear that I will go back to drooling when I speak.

"She wanted to play on her own, and she made me an excuse." I looked at the timetable on my phone a little funny. After all, my memory is not as good as before. I have to write down the daily chores one by one, otherwise it is easy to forget, "Help me tell Wu Yan Little friend Rui, this Sunday is off, I can go."

"it is good."

Sun Ning turned a corner and drove on a different road from home. I turned to look at her suspiciously: "Where are you going?"

"I've booked a restaurant." She didn't look at me, her face was a little nervous and stiff, "To commemorate an important date."

I froze for a moment, and unconsciously scanned the calendar again to confirm that today is not a holiday.Seeing that she didn't intend to bring it up, she couldn't help but ask, "What is it?"

She was silent for a long time, then said in a low voice, "...my birthday."