quail

In the early morning of November [-], [-], Xinjiang Altay Airport.

There were only five or six people in the waiting room, and they all sat quite far from each other. Li Bai was nestled in the corner farthest from the boarding gate. His luggage was only a medium-sized suitcase, wrapped around him by an army coat, covering his chest. calves.He half-closed his eyes, nodded his head for a while, and was about to fall asleep.

The surrounding area has been quiet for a long time, even the attendant is listless, only the strong wind is whistling outside a wall.The perennial indicator lights at the airport were blurred and submerged in a thick fog of large particles. To be precise, the fog was the snow beating on the windows. Although it was manic and noisy, it made people feel their own tranquility and innocence. , the kind of gentle waiting that may be buried by wind and snow at any time has no end.So, when the music suddenly started, everyone in the room jumped up.

"It's hot and fast, vigorous and vigorous, our love is like a war..."

Low quality, high volume, this libretto is like a war.Li Bai inserted his hand into the gap between the two buttons of his coat, took out his mobile phone from the denim pocket inside, and glanced at the color screen flashing blue light.

"Sister Linda," he answered the channel, "It's 12:30, and you're still up."

"Aren't we worried about you?" Linda was still noisy, "Are you about to take off?"

"It's still early, there's a lot of snow here." Li Bai's ears were stuffy, and he had to press down the fake mink fur collar that surrounded him, revealing half of his face and ears from his comfort zone.

"Find a hotel to live in?"

"It's good for me to stay in the waiting room. The snow is so heavy and it will waste time tossing back and forth."

"Hey, your air ticket—I remember it was ten o'clock in the evening on the [-]th, right? It's been delayed for more than a day. If I knew you would have stayed on the set for a few more days, my brothers and sisters in the hair and makeup team could have given you a treat. For your birthday, Sasha will get you a roast leg of lamb!" Sometimes Linda's speech speed is so fast that it makes people headache, "Siberian cold current, blame it!"

"Siberia." Li Bai repeated, he didn't know where it was.Perhaps it is a place that is colder and has clearer scenery than northern Xinjiang.

Will there be maple groves?Before the red leaves had time to fall into the lake, they were frozen and brittle in the ice and snow.

"Although we didn't cooperate to the end this time, something happened to your family, but we all think you're pretty good," Linda said again, "At such a young age, I went to the border line alone to work with the crew and do all kinds of chores. You are diligent and quick-handed, and you can do makeup and hairdos, so I really hate you to leave. We will have a heavy workload in the future!"

"It should." Li Bai smiled, "I quit temporarily to cause trouble for everyone."

"Deputy Director Cao is really good. You have been working for almost two months, and you don't pay [-]% of the money. The airfare alone is almost spent." Linda sighed, "The style of iron cock will not change."

"No, no, Director Cao is very good, and he also acts according to the rules." Li Bai said, and suddenly lowered his voice, "Sister, take a look around, don't offend Lao Cao because of me!"

"You little guy, you are a genius! By the way, how many crews have you run before?"

"two."

"I will introduce you later," Linda said with a smile. "Don't worry, your name will still be on the credits list when the movie comes out."

"Thank you, Sister Linda," Li Bai also smiled, "The audience will see, oh, why did the great poet change his career!"

After a few more pleasantries, the signal was intermittent, and both parties hung up the phone.Li Bai's smile faded as the screen was turned off, and the hand holding the phone dropped to the seat, as if completely lost in interest, he fell to the hard back of the chair.The back of his head was resting on the upper edge of the pillow, and it hurt a little. He suddenly stood up again, and went to the toilet with his pocket in his pocket.

This was sent to him by the martial arts film crew on his first day in the group. Together with the enamel basin washbasin, the staff had one piece, and he stuffed every pocket with strange-looking things, which his colleagues called "trash". Son", the pockets were torn and worn out, so they were sewed up with patches.Maybe it was because he was dressed too shabby and old in a short period of time, and later he resigned temporarily before completing the work period, and the clothes were not taken away by him.

Now, Li Bai stood upright in the small cubicle, with his head lowered deeply, looking at the cracked ceramic pit between his feet.He took out a pebble picked up on the river beach from one pocket and stuffed it back, took out the pencil end and word book and stuffed it back, took out his ID card, stopped his hand, and stared at the date of birth.

Of course, Linda was not talking nonsense. She said that it was indeed his 20th birthday in a few days, and the make-up artist named Sasha was going to make him roast leg of lamb, probably to make sure that he would not come back after leaving, so she dared to boast.In fact, this date was just randomly filled in by Li Bai when he applied for a replacement certificate in Nanjing. He could only confirm when the parents who died early dragged him into this world. It's also possible that No. 11 was reported just because he thought it was easy to remember.

The person in the small square frame is smiling, and the more you look at it, the more fake it seems, as if conceiving some conspiracy. Li Bai flicked his 13-year-old photo with his fingernail, flicked it on his eyes, smiled at him, and pressed it back into his pocket.The next thing he took out was the cigarette case and lighter. Liqun still had six cigarettes left. He smoked them all in one go, his hands trembling with cold, the ash was shaking all over the pit, and some of them were floating on the water. As soon as the switch was pressed, the water tank made a shocking sound, and all the dirty things were swept away, and the bottom of the pit was washed away. Li Bai suddenly felt a long-lost relief.

He returned to the dead and silent waiting room, sat back in the chair that had become cold, and hung one leg through two tie rods on top of the box, dangling lazily. Someone was snoring, and the wind was still blowing.

He stuffed another piece of ice-like bubble gum into his mouth, chewed it hard, deleted the sentence "Go to hell" in the draft box, and typed out a sentence "Already at the airport, but the plane is delayed. As soon as possible", hit send.

The small circle went around for a long time, and a cantaloupe bubble was blown and popped before the "sent successfully" and the checkmark popped out.The signal is really bad.

At noon of the next day, Li Bai finally boarded the small plane that had been parked in the snow for most of his life, and waited for a transfer in Xi'an. It was already the morning of the [-]th when he finally returned to Beijing.He was still bored, but he couldn't deny that, due to emotion and reason, the unsent words were indeed too much for a woman who was about to kill her first child.

It can't be said that Li Bai uttered bad words casually. He shot more than ten scenes in a row that day. He, a low-level miscellaneous shrimp who can be used by anyone, was finally able to lie back on his hard bed, turn on his mobile phone, etc. After receiving a signal for a long time, I received such a long text message.Like a serialized article in a magazine, it's so long that people can't bear to read the middle, just want to read the beginning and the end, and the sender is Yang Yuqiu.Li Bai pressed the up and down buttons, read a few sentences casually, realized that the situation was wrong, and bravely read the middle, and the final thing to say in this long series of foreshadowing was also clear in his mind—— Yang Yuqiu is pregnant and wants to have an abortion, but her uterus is ectopic or something, and the fetus is also older. In short, it is very risky and difficult to do, and someone needs to sign on various forms.

Yang Yuqiu cannot be called Gao Jie, because once Gao Jie knows, he will force her to give birth to the child.

She can't be called a friend, probably because she doesn't have any friends at all.

Can't be called Yang Jian, the reason - what she wrote to Li Bai was, "You understand too".

So she called Li Bai.

She also knew that Li Bai didn't stay in the Oriental hairdressing shop in order to make quick money, but was far away in the north and south.She said, please, if this child grows up, I will go crazy.

So Li Bai thought to himself that if you are crazy, you might as well go to hell. He turned down his job, was questioned and insulted coldly, his wages were deducted, and he rushed back to the city from the outer suburbs to buy a plane ticket.He returned to the capital from a place more northwest than northwest, more specifically, the Haidian District Maternal and Child Health Hospital.

Can't tell Yang Jian yet.

The exterior walls of several buildings in this hospital are painted in pink, which looks very caring.The crowds inside were also women and children, as well as the old men and mature men who surrounded them, so Li Bai, a bewildered and dusty young man, attracted a lot of attention.He knew that he was disheveled, and that the army coat and the suitcase that was too late to put back in the rental house were also suspicious, but he was a little happy. He found Yang Yuqiu's ward, looking forward to the moment when she would show embarrassment because of her weirdness.

But he didn't see that Yang Yuqiu was very weak and was sleeping. The area around the hospital bed and the bedside table were all empty, nothing.The nurse chased after him, and after Li Bai explained his intentions and asked him to fill out the form, Yang Yuqiu woke up only when Li Bai corrected "I am her friend, not her boyfriend". It's my brother."

The nurse took the form away to register.

"When will you have the operation?" Li Bai still kept a distance from the hospital bed.

"You're like a little shepherd now," Yang Yuqiu cheered at him, his gums were still a little bloody, "With you here, I can be on the operating table tomorrow."

"How big is the risk?"

"The doctor will tell you before signing."

Li Bai was quiet for a while, then said: "I regret it, I have to tell Yang Jian."

Before Yang Yuqiu could reply, he said again: "If you die in the operating room, I signed it, and he and I—"

Yang Yuqiu interrupted, "I've thought about that."

She sat on the edge of the bed, stepped on her slippers, walked slowly to Li Bai, and brushed off the ragged fur from his fake mink collar, "Before I go in, I will write a piece of paper to explain the situation. Show him, and he won't blame you."

"It's not my fault," Li Bai paused, "It's not just. I don't want to lie to him, this is something I don't want to do. I also don't want you to have an accident and make everyone sad, this is something I don't want to happen.

"Then what should I do? Shall I give birth to this child?" Yang Yuqiu laughed loudly, "It's already like this, as long as you do it, there will be risks. Whether you tell him or not, the risks will not increase or decrease."

Li Bai once again felt that strong feeling that he was kidnapped.

Yang Yuqiu went on to say: "Bringing this up to your brother now can only have one effect, which is to upset him. It's the same with anyone. He's already in a state of distress. Can the classmate afford a 15 yuan box lunch in Zhongguancun? My sister doesn’t want to affect his work, and neither do you.”

These words made Li Bai shut his mouth tightly, and he no longer wanted to speak.He hesitated.Seeing that Yang Yuqiu was so confident and persuasive, he was powerless to resist. All he remembered was a Mercedes Benz car that was kicked loudly by his family members downstairs on a rainy night two years ago.At that time, he came to the conclusion that if Yang Jian wanted to cry, he would definitely choose a rainy day that was enough to drown out his tears.But in the dry and late autumn without thunderstorms in the North China Plain, Li Bai still didn't want to make Yang Jian sad.

He finally asked Yang Yuqiu: "What about in the future? Are you still going to follow Gao Jie?"

Yang Yuqiu cursed at the air, and went back to bed to sleep.

Li Bai often feels that it is his own stupidity that leads to the absurdity of life.

Once again, he was running around thinking, "Go to hell."He thought this kind of behavior was ridiculous, but he did it one by one. He went to the supermarket to buy a bunch of supplements and flowers, filled the bedside table and the bottom of the wall, went to find a nurse for Yang Yuqiu's temperature, and asked a doctor for surgery. I didn’t even have time to go back. I smelled the aroma of instant noodles in the lobby and remembered that I hadn’t eaten hot meals for a few days, and I only had naan and pickled vegetables to fill my stomach.He immediately ran to the Shaxian Snack next to the hospital, which was open until late at night, and had a luxurious meal, including steamed dumplings, wontons, soup in a crock pot, rice noodles with duck legs, and two bottles of soda.

This is just like a Zhuang Xing meal, it is for people to recall and comfort themselves. The next day, he was guarding outside the operating room, feeling tense for fear of receiving a critical illness notice. He was very thankful that he had a good meal the day before.

Fortunately, God was kind and accommodating at last, and the notice did not come down. After a smooth operation, an unformed child died, and Yang Yuqiu regained his life.

The operation was not under general anesthesia. She lay on the bed pushed by the nurse and blinked at Li Bai. She couldn't lift her hand, so she wiped the bed sheet and shook it slightly, as if waving in victory.A few hours later, in the middle of the night, she sent a text message to Li Bai: "I'm alive and kicking, and I'll be discharged from the hospital in a few days. I'll treat you to dinner."

A few seconds later, another added: "Xiaobai is so kind."

At this time, Li Bai was collapsing. He scanned these few lines expressionlessly, squatted in the corner of his rental house, leaned against the door panel, and deleted all the text messages he had with her these days. Do a good job of erasing the evidence, and then continue to collapse.

In such a short period of time, something else happened.Just now the landlord called and said that he could not be reached during the day, and then told him with regret that this land has been included in the government's key rectification scope, and the nearby steel factory will also be withdrawn from the Beijing city at that time. Green city unified planning.

In other words, this row of dilapidated rental houses lying among the ruins can no longer escape the fate of being demolished.

There were not many households left, and Li Bai should be the only one who was crying. The owl was jumping in the cage, watching him cry with yellow eyes, and the little mice that were used as feed were also crawling around in the sawdust box. , rustling.Where can I go in the future?Why can't I think of it.Just before Yang Yuqiu, at midnight, he also received another text message. He hung up the landlord's phone to see it. It was 5 minutes late, and it was from Yang Jian.

Yang Jian said: Happy birthday, I will buy you a cake when I come back.

This is why Li Bai is crying at the moment.

He and Yang Jian have not seen each other for 56 days. Two months ago, on the afternoon of September NO.15, it was Yang Jian who took his suitcase to the airport, checked the one-way ticket reimbursed by his crew, and hugged him , sneaked a few kisses in the toilet cubicle, asking him to be careful not to be eaten by wolves.

Then there are 56 days.Li Bai is counting.On the word book he handwritten the calendar.After counting 56 seconds, Li Bai still couldn't shake the thought in his mind, so he drank a few mouthfuls of boiled water that hadn't cooled down, suppressed the confusion in his breathing, and finally dialed the phone as he wanted to do.

I just want to hear Yang Jian's voice.

After counting three times, the person answered, "The signal is not bad." The voice was smiling.

"Brother," Li Bai sniffed, but said, "Where are you, I want to find you."