winter past

The driver heard the words and made a comparison of six: "Go to the open area, one hundred and sixty, one price."

Xiaoman got into the car, glanced at the amulet and a string of sandalwood beads hanging under the rearview mirror, and whimpered and cried as soon as he buckled up the seat belt: "Brother, if I hadn't met you, I would have I really don't know what to do. In the afternoon, I received a call from the police, saying that my brother jumped out of the window and fell to his death. He was only on the third floor. Do you think jumping from the third floor can kill someone? It's just so unfortunate, it's just so unfortunate, my head Landed on the ground, no one was there. My brother went to the hotel to open a room, and the police cracked down on pornography. He is still underage, 14 years old, and he just went to high school. I haven’t told my mother yet, how should I talk to her? His little girlfriend, It was the girl who had a room with him. When I went to the police station, she was detained. She told the police that she was pregnant and she could not be arrested and sent to jail. Is it a lie to say that she is pregnant? She said, brother, I am not lying to you. It is true. I want to give birth to a child. I said, who will raise you after you give birth? She said, this is your brother’s flesh and blood. Dead, don’t you want this child? Don’t you raise it? Don’t your family raise it?”

The driver was stunned for a while, and then he answered the question in a nonchalant manner: "Young girl is right, your brother is gone, so... the child will be born?"

Xiaoman covered her face and cried bitterly: "What can I support! My dad left early, and my mother hasn't been in a good spirit since my dad left. There is no such condition in my hometown, so I took her here. , I have lived in Hongfeng for more than ten years, and the monthly medical expenses plus nursing expenses cost [-] yuan! Whether you are born a boy or a girl, don’t you have to spend money?”

"What do you mean by the girl's parents?"

"I just couldn't sleep at night. I came out of the house and wanted to find out about her parents?" Xiaoman pointed to the slippers on her feet, "Look, I came out wearing slippers. I was also confused, I didn’t know why I came to the Panshan Highway, if I hadn’t met you, big brother... oh..." Xiao Man was still covering his face, his voice was muffled, "I just worked part-time, In order to save money, I live in an earthen house in the countryside and share the rent with eight people. I originally thought that I would bring my younger brother to Qingshi. University, the way out is definitely better than me..."

The driver said, "You can charge your phone for a while."

Xiao Man responded, wiped his face, plugged in the charging cable for the phone, he tried to turn it on, but still couldn't.The driver sighed and said, "Handsome guy, it's not easy for you. There is no one in Qingshi who can help you?"

Xiaoman said: "After my girlfriend found out about this, she never answered my phone again..."

He tried to turn on the phone again, and now it turned on, and the first thing that popped up were two text messages that the phone number had been recharged to 50.There was also a text message from an unfamiliar number: "I'm Yin Miaozai, Detective Xiao, is your phone shut down? I don't have class tomorrow morning, so I'll go to your place to find you, eight o'clock or nine o'clock?"

The driver glanced at Xiaoman and asked, "What happened again?"

Xiaoman shook his head, clicked into Alipay, and said, "The hotel wanted me to pay for it, saying that my brother smashed their awning on the first floor when he jumped out of the window."

The driver patted the steering wheel and sighed forcefully.Xiaoman showed him his mobile phone: "Master, the Alipay balance is 80, and I have everything."

He also showed the driver his WeChat balance, and there was no money left.With a mournful face, Xiao Man took out the thick stack of coupons for the Yaochi Grand Ballroom, and said, "I usually work part-time to distribute leaflets and coupons to people. Do you want to accept these coupons?"

The driver said: "Handsome guy, we are all people who have to support our families, hey, just treat it as if I did a good deed today, and I will charge you for gas money."

Xiaoman was so grateful that he was about to light a cigarette for the driver, but when he took out the crumpled cigarette case, there was not a single cigarette in it.The driver and Xiao Man gave out wry smiles at the same time.

When the car arrived at Jeni Jewelry Processing Factory, the driver charged Xiaoman 50 and gave him half a pack of cigarettes.Xiaoman got out of the car, lit a cigarette, and sent a text message back to Yin Miaozai: The police are involved, and the person should be found soon. It's nothing to do with us, and I won't charge you this time.

He looked around for a while, and there were many electric tricycles carrying people parked outside the Jenny Jewelry Processing Factory at this time, some tricycle drivers were dozing off on the cars, and some were gathering at a street lamp to play chess.

Xiao Man walked up to a middle-aged driver who was alone and was fighting landlords on his mobile phone, and said hello first, and said politely: "Master, I have a question with you."

The middle-aged driver didn't even raise his eyelids, and focused on playing cards: "Where are you going? Xingfu Street [-], Star Community [-], Great World Entertainment City [-]."

Xiao Man said: "Usually, the workers in this factory go to these places after get off work? They are all high-consumption places. It seems that the treatment in this factory is pretty good."

As soon as it was over, the middle-aged driver raised his head and looked Xiaoman up and down: "Looking for a job?" He clicked his tongue: "Why did you go out wearing a pair of slippers?"

Xiaoman said with a smile: "I have investigated several factories nearby. According to my observation, the workers who come out of here are the most handsome in the surrounding factories. I think the food should be pretty good, and the working schedule seems to be very good. It is more reasonable, and the surrounding sewage is also done well, it seems that the protection against pollutants and poisonous substances should be relatively good, master, is this shift going to be off work now?"

The middle-aged driver sat on the seat and raised his legs, pointing behind Xiaoman: "Yes, I'm off work."

Xiaoman turned around and saw that the electric gate of Jenny Jewelry Processing Factory was opened, a factory car drove out, and it was full of female workers. The factory car drove into the street, and a group of workers came out from behind, both men and women. , some wore factory uniforms, some wore casual clothes, and there were more female workers.

Xiao Man said, "The ratio of men to women is a bit out of balance."

The middle-aged driver ignored him and drove towards the group of male and female workers who walked out of the factory with the electric tricycle.The chess game under the street lights was also closed, and the dozing electric tricycle drivers woke up, surrounded the workers, and shouted "Star District", "Entertainment City", "Happy Street".

The workers also went to those electric tricycles one after another, and surrounded one electric tricycle in groups of three or four, shouting "fifteen", "ten", and "thirty".

Xiaoman squeezed into the crowd, and the male workers around him either chartered a car to the star community, or went to the entertainment city. There were male and female groups, most of them went to the entertainment city, and all female workers basically went to happiness. street.Next to Xiaoman, there were four young female workers with dyed hair and well-dressed clothes who boarded an electric tricycle, and the price was cut down to twelve, three yuan per person.

Xiao Man also found an electric tricycle, got on the car, pointed to the car in which the four female workers were sitting, and said, "Follow the car in front."

The cars of the female workers had already driven away from the crowd.The electric tricycle driver asked Xiaoman, "You two together?"

"Yes, together."

The electric tricycle drove onto the main road, and the driver of the electric tricycle said again: "Go clubbing or go to eat late at night? Do you want coupons? The bars in Xingfu Street and the bars in Foreigner's Wharf can all be discounted. Pearl Have you heard of Hai?"

Xiaoman smiled: "Do you have a discount code or a coupon?"

The driver of the electric tricycle gave him a card with a QR code on it, and he said, "When you enter Pearl Sea, scan this code, and you will get five yuan off immediately!"

Xiao Man said: "Pearl Sea sells [-] yuan for a bottle of mineral water, what can five yuan do?"

The electric tricycle driver turned his face to look at Xiaoman, and whistled: "Hey, handsome guy, have you been there?" He grinned, "Oh, no matter how thin the fly's legs are, they are still meat!"

Xiaoman took the card and asked, "Master, do you have a commission for this? Can you get a commission for how much I spend?"

The driver of the electric tricycle hurriedly said: "The people who open the show get a commission, but we really don't." He smiled at Xiao Man, "Handsome guy, don't you go to the bar less often?"

Xiao Man also smiled, the hot wind blew, and the damp all over his body was blown, making his body sticky, and his shirt stuck to his skin tightly, he said: "I just like places with many people, lively places."

Not long after entering Xingfu Street, the four female workers got off the car at the door of a barbecue supper shop and entered the shop.Xiaoman also got off the car and followed into the barbecue shop.

It was chilly in the barbecue restaurant, the air conditioner was turned on, and the fan was turned on. The restaurant is not big, and you can see it all at a glance. There are people sitting on all nine square tables.A group of people wearing black T-shirts and black caps occupied four tables near the kitchen; a group of people wearing yellow T-shirts and yellow caps occupied three tables near the toilet.The two groups were silent, eating the skewers on the table quietly, drinking beer silently, lighting cigarettes, and smoking. Several young men in black took off their black T-shirts and were shirtless. , showing gaudy tattoos, a few people in yellow T-shirts rolled up their sleeves, drinking and eating skewers, and they were all dragons, tigers and leopards with arms full.

There were two tables left, one of which was sitting with four female workers, all of them clutched their purses tightly, a waiter went to greet them, and they ordered in soft voices.The other table was just behind the table of the female workers, in front of the counter, and a man sat alone, with his back to Xiaoman, wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans, and very black hair.His desk was covered with glass bottles of Coke.The atmosphere inside is cold.

"Handsome guy, how many people are there? Dine in or take out?" A middle-aged woman who looked like a proprietress standing at the counter greeted Xiaoman with a smile, "Dine in and wait."

The proprietress handed him a menu.Xiaoman opened the menu, and while looking at the menu, he peeked at the four female workers from the corner of his eye.After they finished ordering, a blond-haired female worker carefully unpacked the tableware, as if she didn't dare to make too much noise, a brown-haired female worker stopped her and talked next to the wine-red long-haired female worker , the two looked back at the counter from time to time.

The proprietress said to Xiao Man, "Look slowly."

She walked over to the table where the working girls sat.The proprietress and the female workers were talking about something, the voice was still very soft, Xiaoman could only vaguely hear words like "package" and "take away", but the specific content could not be heard clearly at all.He looked at the square table in front of the counter again, walked over with the menu, opened a chair opposite the man in the white T-shirt, and asked, "Do you mind setting up a table?"

He also looked back at the proprietress, and motioned to her: "I'll set up a stage here."

The proprietress smiled and said, "This handsome guy is fine, so I'm fine too."

Xiao Man looked at the man in the white t-shirt. The man was about 27 or [-]. He was not bad looking. There were no patterns on the front of the white t-shirt. His hands were folded on the table, and there were only a dozen bottles of Coke in front of him.His eyes were dark and bright, but he was very listless, as if he had just woken up, but at the same time he seemed very tired and was about to fall asleep.He cast two casual glances in his eyes, lightly passed over Xiaoman, and landed on the proprietress.He smiled and said, "It's okay, I'm fine."

He smiled like a character who would appear in a carbonated drink advertisement, the corners of his mouth were perfectly curved, and his exposed teeth were also very white.When he laughed, every muscle in his body seemed to be trying to play the happy sunshine required by the commercial director, carefree.

Xiaoman sat down opposite the man in the white t-shirt, and continued to look at the menu. Now he heard clearly what the female workers at the table were saying.

"Does the disassembled tableware count as money? We haven't used it yet."

"Can I get a discount by scanning this QR code for takeout?"

"Don't you want drinks? There is something to drink in the dormitory."

The proprietress said: "It's okay, the tableware is not your money, add a member of our store, you can get a discount for the takeaway, and it will be ready in 10 minutes. How about some peanuts and edamame?"

The proprietress patted Xiao Man and asked him, "Do you want peanuts or edamame?"

Xiao Man nodded, took out a few paper towels placed on the table to wipe off his sweat, pulled his collar and said, "It's quite hot."

The man in the white t-shirt didn't answer.Xiao Man scratched the bridge of his nose uncomfortably, and sat on his side.He could feel that the man was watching him.With his casual eyes, he observed him carefully and intensively.He has probably seen him from head to toe several times.

Xiao Man shook the menu to fan the wind. The proprietress brought over a plate of braised peanuts and a plate of braised edamame. Xiao Man returned the menu to her and said, "Twenty skewers of mutton skewers first, and two bottles of snowflakes."

As soon as he finished speaking, another customer came outside the barbecue restaurant. This was a young man with a greasy hair and a powdered face. He brought in a gust of hot air and a strong smell of perfume.The young man took a look around the store with his mobile phone and said, "Miss Boss, it's for takeaway."

He glanced at Xiaoman, smiled, and waved to him.The proprietress went to check the young man's cell phone, and then went to the back kitchen.The young man walked up to Xiaoman's side, stretched out his hand to rub his face, rubbed some white paper towel foam off his fingertips, showed it to Xiaoman, and said, "Something stuck to his face."

He looked at the man in the white t-shirt opposite Xiaoman again, winked and asked, "New friend?"

Xiao Man said, "I took the stage."

He lit a cigarette, and the young man pinched his right shoulder. He looked at the man in the white T-shirt, but he talked to Xiaoman: "Charlie still misses you today, why didn't you come today?"

Xiao Man smoked a cigarette and said lightly, "That's right..."

The young man patted him, looked at him and said, "I knew you must be around here at this point, where did you go today?"

His hand touched Xiaoman's neck, his palm was sweaty, and the smell of perfume on his wrist was almost pungent.Xiao Man took a deep breath of the cigarette, raised his face, raised the corners of his mouth, and said to him: "I didn't go anywhere, I'm here waiting to meet you by chance."

The young man squeezed Xiao Man's shoulders hard, and said with a smile: "Glib tongue, is it disgusting?" He raised his head and said, "I'm going first."

The proprietress came over with a take-out bag, and the young man took the take-out, looked at the store, and told Xiaoman: "Hey Yuyan Yuyan, you should go back early too."

He asked him: "Tomorrow Ah Zhan is having a birthday party at the wealthy family, will you come?"

Xiaoman waved to him.

"Are you coming? That's a deal." The young man stepped back out of the barbecue restaurant, and waved to Xiao Man outside the door.He ran to a gray sports car parked on the side of the road, got into the car, and the sports car drove out.Suddenly there was the sound of the car alarm being triggered outside, and the sound of Didi beeping, urgent and loud.Passers-by stopped and looked around, and a group of people in yellow clothes poured out from the side of the road, each with a gun and a stick, and they came towards the barbecue restaurant with a murderous look.Xiaoman looked at the four tables dressed in black in the store, several of them were talking on the phone at the same time, and stared at the tables dressed in yellow at the same time.

Xiaoman looked outside again, and a yellow-haired man in a black short-sleeved T-shirt rushed into the barbecue restaurant with a crowbar. He had a lot of blood on his head, and his eyes were blood red. Opening a table, holding a crowbar and cursing: "Fuck you! Do you know whose territory this is?!"

The group of men in yellow overturned two tables and rushed towards the group of men in black while cursing. The voices rose and fell, and there was chaos.The female workers were so frightened that they screamed and ran towards the door with their purses in their arms. Beer bottles and chairs flew around the room. Seeing that a chair was about to hit them, Xiaoman yelled, "Get down!" !"

The female workers quickly lay down on the ground, trembling, not daring to move.The chair smashed against the glass door, shattered in two, and fell beside them.

Xiaoman stooped over, grabbed two female workers and hid under the table in front of the counter.The man in the white T-shirt went to arrest the other two female workers, and also hid under this table.

"Let me out, let me out..." The short brown-haired female worker cried out in fright. She was about to crawl to the door, when the glass door was pushed open, and a dozen pairs of shoes stepped in, shouting to kill. There are voices everywhere.

Xiao Man said, "Let's hide here first."

The man in the white T-shirt said, "I'm calling the police."

The female worker with long wine-red hair said: "I said earlier that I would stop sitting and take a takeaway!"

Xiaoman said: "You guys work in Jenny, right? I seem to have seen you."

The female worker with yellow hair asked him, "Are you also working in the factory?"

Xiao Man shook hands with her, and said: "I just came here and finished the training, I didn't expect to meet you here." He asked again: "Hey, do you know someone named Xiaoqin? She is my cousin from my hometown My classmate from primary school, when I came to Qingshi, my cousin said he could come to see her."

Several female workers looked at each other, and the female worker with blue hair and coiled hair said, "Xiaoqin has long since stopped working."

The rest of the female workers lowered their heads, some swiped their mobile phones, some hugged their knees, and said nothing.

Xiaoman blinked his eyes and said, "Oh, that's it." He took out the coupon of Yaochi, "I usually work here part-time, and I'm looking for waiters and singers here. The boss is looking for it very urgently. If you are interested, you can go and have a look. For the waiter, the salary is good. It is definitely a serious place. It works in the city center, two shifts, no dancing, no singing, there is a commission for the wine and fruit plate, and the resident singer , customers will get red envelopes when they order songs.”

He distributed the coupons to the four female workers and sent them to the man in the white T-shirt, and the man in the white T-shirt stretched out his hand towards him.Xiaoman looked at him, the man smiled at him, and Xiaoman also gave him a coupon.

"Hey, have you been beating in the back?" The yellow-haired female worker glanced out, waved to the people under the table, pointed to the door and said, "Being in the back all the time, let's go!"

She crawled out first, and the other three female workers also climbed outside.The female worker with long wine-red hair asked Xiaoman, "Aren't you leaving?"

Xiao Man said, "The skewers I ordered haven't been served yet."

The female worker with long wine-red hair stared, shook her head, and ran away scrambling.

The man in the white T-shirt didn't leave either, and sat on the ground. He was so tall that he had to bend his waist, his back, and his head down.He had an extra bottle of Coke in his hand, and the Coke bottle was already sweating, with a straw stuck in the mouth of the bottle.

The man in the white T-shirt handed the Coke to Xiaoman and said, "You've been staring at it for a long time."

Xiao Man also sat down, he is not short, in order not to bump his head, he had to sit with his head bowed like the man in the white T-shirt.Xiao Man lit a cigarette and asked the man in the white T-shirt, "Aren't you going to drink?"

The man in the white t-shirt shook his head.Xiaoman pointed to the outside, where there was still shouting for beating and killing, and they came from the back to the front, the men in black and the men in yellow came back and forth, wielding sticks and machetes, the metal collided , clattering loudly.

Xiao Man raised his eyebrows and looked at the man in the white T-shirt: "Aren't you running?"

"You didn't run away either?"

Xiao Man shook some cigarette ash, and asked again: "Do you like to watch the excitement?"

The man in the white T-shirt looked out, Xiaoman followed, and suddenly a man in black lay on the ground, making painful noises from his mouth.A round stainless steel plate with vegetables landed on his chest, and there were a few skewers and some grilled leeks in the plate.

Xiao Man crawled out, took the plate and came in, drank a big mouthful of Coke, grabbed a skewer and bit into it.He raised his head slightly and pushed the plate towards the man in the white t-shirt.The man also took one, and the two each ate two skewers, using bamboo sticks as chopsticks, and eating with leeks.

After eating all the meat and vegetables on the plate, Xiaoman became more and more hungry, and couldn't help saying: "I'm starving to death."

The man in the white T-shirt made a gesture, took out a pack of fruit jelly from his trouser pocket, opened it, and put it in Xiaoman's hand.

Xiao Man took a soft candy, chewed it a few times, and said, "This candy is hot."

The man in the white t-shirt pointed to the packaging: "Yes, tropical fruit flavor."

Xiao Man laughed loudly, and the beating outside became more intense. It seemed that some glass product was smashed, and some glass shards flew under their table.Xiao Man shrinks back to the wall, getting a lot closer to the man in the white T-shirt.He smelled the faint scent of soap locust, took a sip of Coke, and asked, "Did you really call the police?"

The man in the white t-shirt glanced at his phone: "The call I made 9 minutes ago should arrive in 1 minute."

He ate the fudge and said, "The mango flavor is the best."

Xiaoman glanced into the packaging bag: "What color is it?"

"Yellow."

It was dark under the table, and the fudge in the bag looked the same, Xiaoman pointed to one and asked, "This one?"

"No, this one is pineapple-flavored, this one, and this one too..." The man in the white T-shirt picked out the remaining two mango-flavored ones and gave them to Xiaoman.

"Here comes the note!" Someone shouted.

The sharp sirens sounded from far to near.

"Back door! Back door! Get out of the kitchen! Go!"

The sound of chaotic footsteps gradually faded away.Xiao Man stuffed the two mango-flavored jelly candies into his mouth, crawled outside with the Coke, looked back at the man in the white T-shirt who was still under the table, and said, "Let's go first, thank you for the Coke. "

The man in the white T-shirt waved to him, Xiaoman stood up, wiped his mouth, looked back and forth, there were two police cars parked outside, and the special police car could be seen, the heavily armed special police were coming here.The barbecue restaurant was in a mess, and the glass door of the back kitchen was broken.

Xiaoman also took the kitchen and left through the back door.