Tropical Highway

The weather is unpredictable. A hundred kilometers away, the sun is shining brightly, and the snow is dazzling. Now it seems to be snowing again.The blue sky is dim, thick clouds cover all the blue, and the vast land is foggy.

You Zhen went back and forth with the charger, and brought Zhai Lan's mobile phone in the middle shop, and handed it to him together.

"...thank you," he said.

You Zhen twitched the corners of his mouth, showing an emotionless, alienated smile.

After charging the cell phone that had been turned off, Zhai Lan continued to lie on his stomach, this time he did not use the zombie posture with his hands drooping, and propped his arms neatly on his pillow.But there was fog on the window, and there was also fog outside the window. He couldn't even see the outline of the mountains now, but the lingering buzzing in his ears got better at some point.

Occasionally, the eyeballs rolled, sneaking a sneaky glance at the man opposite, and then quickly moved away.

Zhai Lan thought about the last time we met.

At that time, Youzhen's hair was black and shorter, and the store's business was not good on rainy days, so he squatted patiently at the door to study a broken folding chair, with the same serious expression as now.

But they didn't talk that day.

Zhai Lan was slightly lost in thought, and his eyes turned to You Zhen again, and he was a little dazed.

You Zhen peeled the apple with a small knife, the peel was evenly thick, and a long and narrow strip fell from between his fingers on the paper towel, and it didn't break until he finished peeling.Picking up the whole apple peel and looking at it for a while, You Zhen relaxed his tense shoulders and raised his eyebrows slightly, as if he was very satisfied with the result, and then cut it in half.

He put half of it on a piece of paper and pushed it in front of Zhai Lan: "Here."

"...Me?" Zhai Lan's tone was unbelievable.

You Zhen nodded.

The two halves of the table board and You Zhen's hand are almost even in size, without any pits or residual peels on the surface, and even the apple core has been neatly cut out of it, which is simply a gospel for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Zhai Lan was shocked by this skill, he sat up straight, almost holding half an apple in both hands, and said "thank you" in a low voice.

The overly pious movements made You Zhen unable to stretch his lips and raised his lips: "Eat."

It's not too sweet, but a little sour, and the sound is crisp when you take a bite, combined with the small animal-like micro-expression of the other person, Zhai Lan's mood, which has been bored all day, has somehow improved.He ate the apples carefully, but he didn't realize that the temperature in the car was gradually heating up, and the windows that had been fogged by him were blurred again.

He ate half an apple quickly, Zhai Lan had only drank some water since he got on the train, and now his stomach was sour and sweet, and he suddenly felt hungry, thinking about going to the dining car or buying a box of instant noodles later.

He wasn't embarrassed, but he always tossed himself out of shape.

It was at this moment that You Zhen called out to him: "Well, have we met somewhere?"

Zhai Lan didn't answer directly: "I'm also from Chengdu."

Hearing what he said, You Zhen was stunned for a moment and then laughed wantonly: "What! So you were listening just now."

It was different from the expression he saw at any time after getting in the car, his coldness was swept away, and he was closer to the appearance Zhai Lan hid in his mobile phone, joking Zhai Lan: "I thought you ran away because the voice was too loud. Great wake up."

Zhai Lan was suddenly not so afraid of him.

"Not entirely..." After whispering, Zhai Lan rubbed his dry eyes.

You Zhen continued to carve the apple peel with a knife: "I think I saw you on the platform before getting on the train."

He really had no impression.

Zhai Lan did not deny that the platform might pass by, and said, "I... have seen your performance before."

You Zhen smiled.

Zhai Lan added: "In Zone, in winter."

"Oh..." You Zhen tilted his head slightly, thinking about how many times they performed in winter, and which time they happened to be seen by Zhai Lan, but he couldn't remember and refused to give up searching for the answer, so he continued persistently, "There weren't many people coming during that time, but the venue was ok. You can buy performance tickets at Zone and get free drinks."

"I seem to remember."

You Zhen looked straight at him: "What did you drink that time?"

Zhai Lan was caught off guard that he would bring up the details, and it took him a while to answer: "It's Baileys."

You Zhen showed a "get it" expression: "January 1th."

The apple skin is oxidized, the inside is yellow, and the sweet and greasy taste is lingering on the tip of the nose with the coldness of ice and snow.

The first winter after Dad left was hard, and Zhai Lan didn't go to school after taking a leave of absence, and of course he didn't take the exam.He rejected his aunt's suggestion that he live there, and still stayed at home every day.

Apart from his family members and counselors, the only person who knew what he had encountered was his high school friend Yue Chao.But he didn't go to university in the local area. He usually kept in touch online, and often sent jokes and all kinds of mentally handicapped jokes to Zhai Lan. He didn't return to Chengdu until the winter vacation.

Zhai Lan still remembered that the temperature had dropped that day, but when the sun cleared, the sun in the basin was extravagant, and his mood brightened up a little.Yue Chao asked him to go to a coffee shop for self-study, and Zhai Lan arrived at the agreed place with a book in his arms, but his attention was drawn away by the changes next to him.

They have been to the coffee shop several times, Zhai Lan has a good memory and is familiar with that area.

There used to be a wholesale clothing store next to the small store called "Holiday". It has been closed for renovation since November last year, and it just reopened that day.

The entrance is low-key, with a "sleeping" sign on the plain wooden door.

A window was cut out of the white exterior wall, and only the various wine bottles filled half the wall could be seen inside.The horizontal signboard next to it is embedded in a neon tube, and four crooked letters hang out——

"Zone?" The coffee shop clerk laughed when he heard him chatting with Yue Chao, "It was opened by a friend of our boss."

Yue Chao took advantage of the situation and asked, "What store, bar?"

The clerk brought the Basque cakes they ordered: "It's... a livehouse? But you have to make it clear, the bar is also right, it sells bartenders, and occasionally invites familiar small bands to perform. It just opened yesterday, and it has been busy for the past week. It's selling tickets and giving drinks, you can listen to it when you have time, maybe you can see our boss!"

Zhai Lan: "Your boss?"

"Well, he also has a small band called 'Green Wind', which can be found on music software. It's just a matter of opinion. Anyway, I don't understand it very well."

Maybe the taste of Basque was just right that day, maybe the clerk had already regarded them as half friends after drinking too many coffees, and what they said was true and false mixed with sincerity.After dinner, when Yue Chao urged him to give it a try when he walked around Fangcao Road twice and passed Zone again, Zhai Lan agreed in a strange way.

At seven o'clock in the evening, the small wooden door opened, and the words on the sign changed to "Come in for a drink".

Several men and women dressed in fashionable, even a little bit weird, gathered in the hallway, chatting happily.When passing them, Zhai Lan turned sideways, and then found the billboard against the wall on the other side.

Zhai Lan really forgot what the names of the two bands were, he only remembered the last abstract leaf.

22:00-23:00, Green Wind.

Style: Post-Rock.

That night, blue and green light occupied the grotesque new world that Zhai Lan had just stepped into.

He was squeezed to the farthest corner by the crowd, far away from the stage, and saw in the shadows created by the lights, a man with an electric guitar focused on playing notes that were too difficult for Zhai Lan to understand.The drums are quiet, the bass frequencies resonate with the samples played by the synth, and the electric guitar replaces the vocals, telling a story.

It was only in the third song that he realized that this band has no lead singer, and the instrumental music has become the absolute protagonist.Those melancholy or soft melodies and beats gradually turned into an expanding cloud.

He thought of the many nights when the rain was coming, the street lights flickered and the leaves fell.

The mood that has been depressed for a long time found a vague crack, approaching the exit, surging and rising.The winter night became sultry, he was almost infected by the sound of the guitar, and the clouds rolled over him--

Then, there was a thunder.

Zhai Lan hadn’t heard of the so-called “post-rock” before, but that day, he had listened to the whole show, stood outside the dance floor of Zone after listening to the song, turned his head and found himself in tears in a distorted mirror .

After returning home, Zhai Lan went to search for this band, and also found the song that seemed to grow out of his heart.

Its name is "Monsoon".

In the comment area, I scribbled a few creative thoughts with the account number certified by the musician. When I mentioned the spring and autumn rainy nights in the basin, it seemed that my already soft heart collapsed again.

Zhai Lan clicked on that profile picture.

He was eager to express his depressed mood, mixed those tears and heartbeats into a simple but touching melody, and wrote hundreds of words eloquently, filling the private chat box until the number of words reached the upper limit.

Come to think of it, it has already been sent.

There is no undo button in the chat box, and the words he wrote are messed up and don't express his meaning.

The next day, Zhai Lan's eyes were swollen, and he found that the guitarist named "Real's Digital World" replied to him: "It's good that you can relax a little after listening, I hope you have a happy day. [Smiling face]"

Later, because he was too decadent, and because Yue Chao had no one to distract him after school started.Zhai Lan went to "Holiday" alone again, and would glance at the billboard next door every day, but never met the Green Wind performance again.

He cycled the singles on the band's homepage over and over again, and occasionally wrote small essays for someone named "Real".

Real will reply him, but it always takes several days.Sometimes Zhai Lan's bad mood fills the lines between the lines, and the other party may see it, and sometimes send him two photos he took.

Sometimes it's the reeds by the lake, sometimes it's birds, or a puppy lying on the street.

But seeing it made him feel better for a while.

One night, he half-jokingly left a message "Is your name Real?", and got an answer after waking up——

"My name is You Zhen."

"It's such a coincidence that I can also meet people who have seen the performance here." The person in the private message box was sitting by the train window at this moment, and the smile returned to the corner of his eyes, as if he had added a voice to the simple words, "My name is You Zhen."

"I know." Zhai Lan said softly.

"What about you?"

He opened the memo on the phone that was charged a little, and wrote those two words to You Zhen to read.

"The name is very special." You Zhen sighed.

Zhai Lan was embarrassed: "... always being mispronounced."

"Not zhai?"

"Di." Zhai Lan said, "Reading it too fast is a bit like a delay."

Occasionally, a musician has a flash of inspiration, or he encounters someone who used to be close to him in the same space in a really strange environment. Even if he didn't know him before, You Zhen feels that Zhai Lan is close for no reason.He stared at the other party's name, and suddenly looked at the boy in front of him in a whimsical way, with a light like a bean of fire leaking out of his eyes.

"Have you noticed? Our two names together will look like a movie."

"what?"

""Swim Until the Sea Turns Blue", by Jia Zhangke. It's not very good, but I like the name." After You Zhen finished speaking, he seemed to feel that he was being rude, smiled at him, and turned away with his face in embarrassment. out the window.

The snow-capped mountains are gray, the sky is also gray, and the train seems to have broken through the thick fog.

There may have been a sea on the plateau tens of billions of years ago.

Half a year later, Zhai Lan felt for the first time that maybe fate still favored him.

The author says:

*Zhái and Dí are two surnames.I checked the Kangxi dictionary.

Di (dí) is another surname. "Jijiu Pian" note: Zhai's family, originally Qi Zhai's new successor. (zhái) Also "Guang Yun": also a surname.In the Tang Dynasty, there was Zhai Zhang, the governor of Shanzhou. "Surname Compilation": The surname is Yuan, originally pronounced Zhai, and later changed to house.

It means that Xiaolan must use a more special one as the protagonist of the paper man, I don’t care (rolling