desolate

When I came out of Madame Bridges, it was just getting dark.

The moon is a little fuzzy, a hazy mass in the darkness, and the sound of people's busy life can be heard from the Tongzilou not far away.

Zhou Ze was standing on the steps at the entrance of the clubhouse. A middle-aged man was on the phone in front of him. The caller did not know who it was, but the man's pleading tone was obvious.

The man hurried past Zhou Ze, and glanced at him and the place behind him with the only corner of his eye.

Then, his expression seemed to say: Look, here's a rebellious kid.

Zhou Ze bit his lip, pretended not to notice, and walked down the path.

...

In the private room of Madame Langbridge, Pei Ye sat down in the corner of the sofa exhausted after reminding the gangsters.

Xu Duozhi's throat was dry after howling the last song, and finally let everyone's ears go, and sat down next to Pei Ye with a bottle of wine.

He pushed the wine towards Pei Ye: "Come on, drink some."

Pei Ye frowned and pushed his hand away: "Don't drink."

"Brother Pei, you are too boring." Xu Duozhi poked him with his finger in disappointment.

Pei ignored him, but turned on the phone to glance at the chat history and balance on it, and then turned off the phone screen.

so repeatedly.

He looked around at the people in the private room, and felt that some people were missing: "What about the young master?"

Xu Duozhi just took a sip of wine: "He? I don't know, let's go."

"Are they not on the plane?"

"Oh, they said they were going to buy cigarettes."

Pei also pointed to the table: "Isn't there?"

"Hey, forget about him." Xu Duozhi snatched the mobile phone that was switched on and off in his hand and put it on the table, then pointed in a direction furtively: "Speaking of which, you didn't tell me when Meng Chuyu asked you last time. What did he say?"

Pei took the phone back impatiently: "Who are you talking to?"

Xu Duozhi anxiously pointed at Wen Jialang with his chin: "He—he's been chasing her recently and spent a lot of money, but I think Meng Xiaohua doesn't like him at all."

Pei also pushed his face and asked, "Don't you like him like me?"

Xu Dazhi said, "You think so too, don't you?"

Pei also said lightly: "...is sick."

From the beginning to the end, he never looked back at Meng Chuyu who was being discussed by them.

Although the content of the topic is her and herself.

Moreover, Xu Duozhi seems to like this topic very much, so he insisted on it: "Then why don't you like Meng Chuyu? You see, he is beautiful, has good grades, and his family is quite rich, except he has a little temper... "

Pei also turned on the phone screen again, and the time on the screen reached 07:30 on time.

Then before leaving, he rarely answered Xu Duozhi's question: "... She is like this, she gets tired and flustered just by looking at her."

"...?" Xu Duozhi was stunned,

Tired?

Are you saying she is fat?

He turned his head and glanced at Meng Chuyu who was sitting there—it was late autumn and he was still wearing a knee-length suede skirt, and his pair of white legs were not as thick as his arms—isn't he very thin?

I didn't expect Brother Pei's taste to be light enough.

...

As soon as Pei Ye left the club, Su Ya called.

Recently, she was fighting with her deceased husband's family for the house and the mahjong parlor. In these two places, one wrote the deceased husband's name and the other wrote her name. Originally, you took yours and I took mine, but both parties wanted to grab both. in their own hands.

As soon as Su Ya opened her mouth, she asked, "Where did you go, why haven't you come back yet?"

Pei also said: "Didn't I say, is there something wrong with the car dealership?"

"You go back to the mahjong parlor and watch it now. His sister came to me with an IOU in the past two days. The ghost knows if it's true or not, and she still wants to sue me." Su Ya said, "Just sue—you go to the store to watch it." Now, I see she is going to pry open the door."

Su Ya yelled on the phone.

The ambient sound over there is a bit noisy, it seems that the sister of the deceased husband should be nearby, and the rolling gate of the mahjong parlor is facing the risk of being laid off soon.

Pei also hung up Su Ya's phone without saying a word, and then called the car dealership where he worked part-time.

The owner of the car dealership is a well-behaved old gangster, a northerner, and he has a bad taste in his mouth: "Hey, who is it?"

"Brother Hu, it's me." Pei also said hesitantly, "I may not be able to go today, but I'll be on duty two days after tomorrow."

Pei also heard Brother Hu sigh inaudibly, and his heart tightened.

But soon, another voice came from the other end: "Okay, I'll let Yazi come, and you will take his shift tomorrow."

Pei also breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay, thank you Brother Hu."

Brother Hu responded with a few words and ended the call.

After solving the current problem, Pei also walked in the direction of the mahjong parlor with relief.

Just two steps away, he saw a van at the intersection ahead. He recognized the license plate number, and it was driven by a local ruffian collecting debts.

And it just so happened that that ruffian is Li Hefei's cousin.

The experience of hanging out with this group of people for many years gave Pei Ye a bad feeling. He seemed to be able to guess the meaning of this car appearing here.

There is a main road near the clubhouse, but there are all kinds of narrow paths on the other side.

Pei also sent a message to Xu Duozhi: Has the plane returned?

In less than 1 minute, the other party replied quickly: Not yet.

The non-staple food store that sells cigarettes is located no more than five meters downstairs from the clubhouse. Where did they go?

Pei also hesitated for a while, and wanted to leave, but after some tangling, he turned around and went to the path with no light.

As for the medicine that Chong Zhou chose to buy for him last time, he had to go this time too.

The street lights on the small road are good and bad, often bright and dark, and some roads are unrepaired yellow land, and the stones protruding from the ground occasionally bring unexpected surprises to passers-by.

However, Pei Ye walked inside like walking on the ground.

He walked quickly—worried that the teenagers from the big cities would be frightened by their rascals if they had never seen the local snakes in the small county.

About to walk to an unfinished building that was being demolished, he finally heard the sound.

It was Zhou Ze's voice.

Indifferently, without any tone, he said to someone: "...can you return it to me?"

Pei Ye immediately followed the sound to find them, and soon saw them under the half-demolished wall.

About seven or eight people surrounded the wall, including Li Hefei and Guo Chao, and surrounded by them was Zhou Ze who had just spoken.

Pei also walked out, knowingly asking, "What are you doing?"

A group of gangsters looked back at him, and the scene was even a little weird.

Li Hefei said first, "Why are you here?"

Pei also walked up to a few people, and the people on the outermost layer automatically gave way.

"Why are you here?" He didn't reply to Li Hefei, but asked his cousin—the yellow-haired one in the leather jacket.

"Yo, isn't this Pei Ye?" Huang Mao carefully recognized the person who came, "Why did you wander here?"

Pei Ye looked down his face, and he was playing with a bunch of familiar bracelets in his hands.

"Why are you still meddling with the students?"

"Isn't this my cousin?" Huang Mao smiled, then looked at Zhou Ze again, "Why, do you know him?"

Pei also glanced at him calmly: "Well, my friend."

"Is it your classmate?" Huang Mao said inexplicably, "You don't have the time to make friends."

Pei also called his name again: "Ju Haonan."

Both of them were silent for a moment, Ju Haonan turned around again, looked at Zhou Ze earnestly, and finally said with some reluctance: "All right, for your sake, let him apologize today, they It's all about the two of you."

Pei Ye hummed, then walked to Zhou Ze's side.

But he hadn't had time to say anything yet.

Zhou Ze glanced at him, then looked at Li Hefei and Guo Chao, with a straight back, and said word by word: "I'm sorry."

Originally, because of Pei Ye's intervention, both Li Hefei and Guo Chao felt a little disappointed, but after seeing Zhou Ze's merciless apology, their expressions improved a little.

Anyway, they just wanted to warn the transfer student, Li Liwei.

Pei also walked past Ju Haonan, and the gangsters who were surrounding him slowly dispersed.

"Let's go." He said to Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze remained silent, glanced at everyone around him, and followed Pei Ye out of the demolition area of ​​the unfinished building.

Two people, one behind the other.

After walking about a dozen steps, before reaching the next streetlight, Pei Ye finally heard the thank you from the people behind him.

The transfer students in big cities didn't seem to be frightened as expected, but they didn't show any unexpected behavior either.

"Next time you meet them, go around." Pei also suggested.

Zhou Ze hummed, not sure if he listened.

He may be struggling, should he talk to his parents or the teacher?Pei also guessed.

So he suggested again: "Don't tell others about this."

I don't know if it was Pei Ye who slowed down his pace or Zhou Ze who quickened his pace, the two of them came together unknowingly.

Zhou Ze snorted and didn't ask why, but said, "They robbed me."

Pei Ye gave him a sideways glance: "That bracelet?"

"Ah."

"Just treat it as a waste of money to eliminate disasters."

He and Ju Haonan are also half-acquainted friends, they hang out for a while, and the behavior of the other party, one can tell at a glance that they have fallen in love with the bracelet.

It is also estimated that it is impossible to pay back.

But the original owner is definitely not happy.

Pei also glanced at Zhou Ze's face, as if he was worried about something.So he asked, "What? Something important?"

Zhou Ze nodded first, then shook his head quickly, and said, "I like it very much."

Pei also didn't know how to comfort him, so he could only say dryly, "Forget it."

After finishing speaking, he felt a little inappropriate, and added: "... I will help you get back if there is a chance, but I can't guarantee success."

Zhou Ze shook his head.

It doesn't matter anymore.

"I'm here, thank you for today."

They had already walked a long way together, and after another traffic light, they were at the gate of No. [-] Middle School.

Pei didn't feel that he was helping, so he said, "It's easy."

Zhou Ze raised the corner of his mouth.

It's not too late for him to fail to see if it's just a matter of convenience.

Before entering the school, Zhou Ze suddenly stopped Pei Ye and asked, "By the way, do you know them?"

Pei Ye was stunned for a moment, and then said truthfully: "I know."

Zhou Ze continued to ask: "The one with the yellow hair, what does he do?"

Pei Ye gave a brief answer while being puzzled: "Apprentice in a hair salon, network administrator...everything."

Of course, I won't tell him everything in detail—it's not because it's a secret, but because I'm worried that the well-behaved students will look surprised when they hear about those gray industries.

Pei also wanted him to stop inquiring.

But when the words came to his lips, he stopped talking.

Fortunately, Zhou Ze did not continue to ask about Ju Haonan, but walked into the school after a brief farewell.

The stainless steel retractable gate separates the inside and outside of the school into two worlds. Two teenagers who are about the same height seem to be entering different futures.