mayfly era

"That's why you followed the boss so easily." Smoker's voice was hoarse.

"I think he is good." Chen Li did not refute.

"Old men just lie to children."

Chen Yue didn't speak, he put his hand into the equipment bag, stroked those slender and cold steel bones inch by inch, gradually calming his heart, his ribs were also hidden in it, shining coldly.

"Let's make a bet," said Smoker.

"What are you gambling?"

"Bet on whether the merchant will show up tonight."

"I bet, yes." Chen Li said.

Smoking Gun looked up at the night sky, his eyes were the same color as the rainbow at this time, and his silver-white hair and overly pale skin were also painted in this dazzling color.

"My gut tells me no."

The two were like two beasts cuddling each other for warmth, cuddling each other in the dark, lonely vastness of the night sky.

I don't know how long it took, the rainbow light belt dutifully flashed endlessly, but the city under my feet gradually fell silent.

The traffic on the street became thinner, and some advertising stereoscopic projections were turned off. "Central City Princess" has entered her midnight show, wearing only a red and black vertical stripe three-point style, swaying her beautiful and plump body in front of tall buildings.

"It's four o'clock in the morning, Boss Chen, the cost of my date is high enough." Smoker yawned and joked.

"Tell me, what do you want?"

"I owe."

Chen Li stood up and stretched his stiff hands and feet. Just as he was about to ask Smoker to go back together, the rainbow light belt suddenly went out—this also meant that the idle clerk had finally reached his off-duty time. The air slide, whose business was sluggish, was closed.

"Tsk, I can't leave now even if I want to." Smoker yawned again, waiting for the real grind.

Chen Li suddenly showed a meaningful smile, he turned his head and asked the pipe, "Do you want to play something interesting?"

Smoker immediately understood what he meant, and the alarm bells rang in his heart.

"Afraid?"

"Nonsense, I have nothing to fear." The pipe stuck to his neck.

The gust of wind poured into the opened glass window, blowing the hair of the two into a mess, cutting their faces like knives.

Chen Li climbed onto the window frame first, and his quick actions revealed a bit of child-like excitement.I saw him jumping back from the glass window without hesitation. Before the smoking gun had time to startle, he heard a "bang" when the wind wings spread out. After a while, Chen Li's figure floated up to the window. The safety cord in the bong was buckled in the safety belt of the bong, and motioned for him to jump out.

Smoker's heart was beating so fast that it was about to pop out of his throat, he pretended to be calm, and grabbed the lock on the top of the window with one hand, at this moment he was already sitting outside the window with his legs dangling in the air.

He saw Chen Li's mouth move, but he couldn't hear anything except the sound of the wind and the whistling of the wind wings.

He thought that if he backed down now, he would not be ridiculed by Chen Li in the future.

A big man can lose his head, but not his face.

Immediately, he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet. While jumping out, he exerted force with his arms and slammed the window shut—the wind pressure faced at high altitude was different from that on the ground. If the windows were open and blown all night, how many glass windows would be broken? They didn’t want to Ruined people's business.

Chen Yue held the waist belt of the bong with his right hand, and controlled the wind wing with his left hand. The two of them were riding the hovering wing. It didn't look fast to the naked eye, but in fact they fell back to the ground at a speed that almost scratched their faces.

"How are you doing?"

"..." The bong was leaning on the mottled paint shell of the charging station on the street, his legs were weak, and he was out of breath.

"Do you know why I am so sure that merchants will appear?"

The smoking gun looked at him suspiciously.

"Lin Zhitao, he is a lover who lacks lotus," Chen Li said, "Unexpectedly, he didn't sell us out."

"Maybe he didn't know about it."

"He knows, since we came in, his expression tells me that he knows."

"I didn't expect Captain Lin to be as affectionate and righteous as before." Smoker said with emotion.

"Most people with love and righteousness will live a very difficult life." Chen Li said in a flat tone while looking at the night in the distance.

***

At noon the next day, Snow Palm Tea House.

The number of teahouses in Central City is in single digits.

This kind of entertainment place with a long history that cannot appear in people's minds at once is now declining and dying at a rapid rate.Decades ago, there was a short period of prosperity due to the ancient cultural revival movement, but it has never been high-end from the civilian field.

The entertainment provided to ordinary people in this era always goes bankrupt very quickly.

Located between Fourth Street and 37th Avenue, a group of small buildings surrounded by two skyscrapers - small buildings mean buildings with a height of less than [-] stories.

There is one of the oldest teahouses in the central city in the complex, called "Snow Palm".

"Snow Palm" is famous not because of how well the tea is brewed and how delicious the refreshments are, but because of the strong privacy and transparency of its boxes, which are its only selling points.

Therefore, the lobby of "Snow Palm" has always been sparsely populated. In order to increase their popularity, they hired "storytellers" and "readers" to perform at four time slots: [-]:[-] am, [-]:[-] pm, [-]:[-] pm and [-]:[-] pm.

"Storyteller" is different from "reader". The former tells stories, usually some best-selling novels and biographies in the market, while the latter mainly reads poetry and prose.

It was past one o'clock in the afternoon, there were only two tea customers in the lobby, and the storyteller hadn't gone to work yet, so the huge hall looked deserted.

A woman of some age was slowly smoking a thin cigar, and gray smoke kept gushing from her mouth and nose.

Her figure is slightly plump, so there are no wrinkles on her exposed neck, only some fine lines at the corners of her eyes. She has a square jaw, which looks very heroic.

Sitting opposite her was a man with gray curly hair, wearing a pair of glasses and a light robe. He was the leader of RC, and this woman was Song Zan, the manager of the product development department of the energy company.

Fange was making tea, and a small aluminum pot was steaming on the old electromagnetic stove. He rinsed the tea leaves first, then added a small pot of new water and put them on the stove together with the moist tea leaves.

Song Zan on the side was always smoking a cigarette calmly, showing no intention of helping.

Fan Ge was obviously happy to serve her, and he boiled the tea neatly.

This is a kind of scented tea, the tea soup is originally brown, and gradually turns orange red as the temperature rises.When the color stopped changing, he put some brown sugar into it, and a bitter-sweet taste overflowed.

"I don't eat sweets." Song Zan said bluntly.

Don't be annoyed by rebellion, pour the clear dark black tea soup in the small aluminum pot into the cup on the side, wipe the teapot with a clean paper towel, and then repeat the previous steps to boil a pot again.

"It seems that you have something to ask of me, old friend." Song Zan lit the cigarette ash into the saucer in front of him - it was originally used for tea.

"Isn't it because I've always treated ladies and gentlemen?" Fan Ge laughed, his handsome and mature face looked even more romantic. He didn't tie his hair up today, and it hung on his shoulders, looking a bit lazy.

Song Zan ignored it, continued to smoke half of the cigar, and wiped out the cigarette butt in the saucer.Her fingertips are a little yellow, and she should also be an old smoker who likes to smoke combustible cigarettes.

At this time, the water boiled, and large bubbles floated up, bringing camellia blossoms to the surface of the water.The tea soup is dark red, but the camellia has turned white.

"It's called Xikushui Rose." Fan Ge put a cloth towel on it, picked up the small aluminum pot, and poured a cup for Song Zan. "If you don't put sugar, it will be very bitter, but it will return to sweetness."

"Since returning sweets, why put sugar?" Song Zan asked.

Fan Ge smiled, "I don't like suffering, not at all."

"It's up to you." Song Zan's tone was exceptionally tough. Even among high-ranking rulers, there were very few such straightforward people.

"How is it? Is everything going well?" Fan Ge took a piece of green pastry from the refreshment tray and put it in his own saucer.

"It's not going well." Song Zan took a sip of tea, but her expression didn't change at all.

"As for refreshments, there seems to be no non-sweet ones." Fan Ge flipped through the electronic menu on the side.

"I only eat puff pastry, not stuffing."

Hearing her unreasonable request, Fan Ge smiled even brighter. He used the waterless hand sanitizer on the side to wash his hands again, and then peeled off the tea. each other.

"Do you experience being a teahouse worker?" Song Zan raised his thin eyebrows.

"I'm here to listen to the book."

"Then I'll take my leave first." Song Zan got up to leave.

Fan Ge quickly stopped him, with an aggrieved expression on his face, "Mr. Song can't be so ruthless, I've boiled the tea for you, and stripped the refreshments for you, at least sit down for a while."

"I don't have time to play a sitcom with you," Song Zan sat back in his seat again, "I have received your things, don't need to be so troublesome next time, just mail them to me."

"No way, it's an antique, and the logistics company won't compensate you according to the price."

"Antiques are nothing more than things that drink water, nothing can drink water."

"Of course everything can be used to drink water, but some things have added value, and some things don't." Fan Ge said with a smile.

"Just tell me what you want me to do."

"When do you plan to go back to take office?" Fan Ge asked.

"Go back when you're in a good mood." Song Zan ate the puff pastry for tea, this scene was somewhat strange.

"It's nothing serious, I just hope you will take care of me when you go back."

Song Zan nodded without hesitation, "It's easy to say."

"Thank you."

"But you have to know, among the thirteen bureaus, my words don't carry that much weight, so be on guard and be careful." Song Zan's tone became less arrogant, and he warned seriously.

"I won't trouble you if it's not necessary." Fan Ge said.

"I heard that the old man surnamed Cong asked you to cooperate?" Song Zan said "the old man surnamed Cong" was none other than the current head of the military department, the big hand that turned clouds and rain.

"One of them is going to be a bodyguard. It's rare, in this day and age, such a big man still wants to go abroad for vacation."

"You know it's not a vacation." Song Zan said.

"He just needs to send my people back wholeheartedly, whether he is on vacation or collaborating with the enemy."

"It's not just those bureaucrats who are afraid of you, you should understand."

"I never tremble with fear because I didn't come. A mediocre person is afraid, but an accomplished person is fearless."

Song Zan gave a rare smile, "That's why I like you."

"Don't, Mr. Song, you are a man with a family, and I don't want to destroy other people's happy families."

"Don't mention that." Song Zan frowned and lit a thin cigar again, "I've been tossing about it every day."

"Isn't it good to pester people?" Fan Ge laughed.

"That depends on where it's entangled," Song Zan said, "The bedroom or the study."

When the time came to two o'clock, a young man walked onto the stage set up in the center of the hall with a heavy old-fashioned music synthesizer in his arms.

He was wearing the uniform of an ordinary service member, with a small black badge pinned to his collar, in the shape of a very ordinary five-pointed star, not inconspicuous.

Song Zan looked at his collar and frowned.

"Youth Independence Group." The counter-revolutionary said in a low voice.

Song Zan knocked on the cigarette ash and looked back, "Is this also one of your goals today?"