quail

Li Bai asked, "How many years have passed?"

Yang Jian said: "11 years."

Li Bai asked again: "Why does he look less than twenty?"

"It's 22!" The red mask—let's call him Huapao for now, lowered his voice and yelled, but his voice and tone revealed his childishness even more.

Yang Jian's voice was still calm, just stating the facts: "So he was still a primary school student back then."

Li Bai stared at the pimple marks on that face in a daze, without blinking his eyes, he even picked it up with his hands, and when the blood came out, he was almost bitten by the flower robe, so he withdrew his hand.

"So it wasn't him..." He paused, the word "Brother" stuck in his throat, "We found the wrong person."

Yang Jian glanced at him hastily, and then immediately turned back to Hua Paozi, just now he had to unscrew the man's jaw to prevent him from biting off a piece of Li Bai's finger, and now he had to hold him down again, don't let him He twisted desperately a few times before slipping away from under his hand, Yang Jian looked very busy.But in that glimpse of less than half a second, Li Bai saw the concern, so big and so thick, without any restraint or concealment, it came from a momentary impulse, and it only shone in the dim room.

Li Bai hadn't seen such eyes for a long time.

Yang Jian was worried about him, it was an instinctive reaction that was too late to modify, it wasn't "appearance" or "as if", he finally saw it through once.But what are you worried about?Probably because he was afraid of his emotional collapse, he burst into tears on the spot.

But Li Bai didn't even wrinkle his eyebrows. Du, du, he propped himself up in front of the statue, stared up, and heard Yang Jian ask, "Where did the sculpture come from?"

Sure enough, he didn't even want to call the "God Statue", it really was Yang Jian.

Huapaozi shut her mouth tightly and did not intend to answer.

Yang Jian said again: "You also heard that we found the wrong person. That great immortal has been a miracle doctor for more than ten years. You put on a mask and pretend to be a fart. Fortunately, you discovered it early. If it delays my brother's treatment, I still have to Asking you to settle accounts? Now ask what you ask and answer, it will be easier for both of us."

Li Bai almost forgot the pretense of seeking medical treatment, but Yang Jian didn't reveal it at all, it really sounds like that now.This time Hua Paozi was not quiet, but he didn't say anything useful - at least in Li Bai's ears, the few voices he yelled were full of unintelligible syllables, very fierce, no matter how they sounded, they sounded like curses.

But Yang Jian smiled: "Oh, you're not from here, from Sichuan?"

Huapao froze for a moment, his face was pale, but after hearing this, his face turned pale, "The statue, so it's at the top of this room, it's none of your business!" His neck was stalked high, and his expression was timid. , and exaggerated, "If you find the wrong one, you will find the wrong one. God poked it, and it made me kneel and stretch my muscles. With him as a genius doctor, I am not allowed to have one!"

Yang Jian's smile became stronger, and for a few seconds, Li Bai even felt that he was really amused.He dug out a roll of plastic binding rope from the ground, pressed the flowery robe on the ground, and put his knees against his back. The plastic became brittle after a long time, and the rope was tied up and down, left and right for a dozen times. He jumped over, gave Li Bai a hand, and helped him put the head of the crutch on the back of the waist of the flower robe, and just like that, he was immobilized.

Li Bai performed the task seriously, putting all his body weight on the crutch with great concentration.After so many layers of thick clothes, the flowery robe was still poking and screaming, but Yang Jian continued to chat with him, using Sichuan dialect, which was unbelievably fluent.Li Bai only knew a few Guizhou dialects, and although there were some commonalities, there were still thousands of differences. As a result, he could not fully understand Yang Jian's questions, nor could he understand most of Hua Paozi's answers. Without strength, he babbled so hard that he dared not ignore any question.

About 5 minutes later, Yang Jian looked at the only few pieces of furniture in the room, and also dug out an old plastic folder from the depths of a tattered drawer of a tattered desk. Banknotes, some train tickets, and an ID card.

"It is indeed 22." Yang Jian only took out the latter two for a look, then stuffed them back and put them back in the drawer, "I only came here by train in September of [-]."

These words were obviously addressed to Li Bai, but Hua Paozi started cursing again as if he could make sense of it. Before he could say a few words, Yang Jian patted the ashes on his hands, squatted back behind him, put his elbows on the back of his neck and pressed hard For a moment, he was limp and motionless.

"Dizzy?" Li Bai's armpits hurt, but he still didn't dare to move his crutches.

"I can wake up in three hours." Yang Jian touched his cuff, opened his fingers, took his watermelon knife, and untied the flower robe. Li Bai was stunned for a moment and then jumped away. Plastic rope, holding the knife in his hand, it seems that he is not going to return it.

"...Don't worry, I won't kill innocent people indiscriminately." Li Bai sniffed.

"Then let's go?" Yang Jian said.

"What did you just say?" Li Bai remained motionless, "Did you learn your Sichuan dialect when you were a volunteer teacher?"

Yang Jian nodded: "I can also speak a little Hakka and a little Yi."

Li Bai still didn't move, he stared at Yang Jian intently, as if he had been stabbed by something, his eyelids blinked up and down, the tears just slid from his eyes to his cheeks, soaking the mask, "Then you all said just now what?"

Yang Jian was startled by these two lines of tears. Li Bai would cry, which is really nothing unexpected, but he was extremely calm and cooperative just now, and suddenly he made such a move, which naturally made Yang Jian disappear suddenly. rut.There were crutches on both sides of his arms taking up space, so it was not easy to pull him out, so he had to stand beside him, like hugging and patting the ground, Yang Jian grabbed Li Bai's shoulders, "I lied to him that I worked in Sichuan. Bing, I know people, if you don’t tell me the truth, someone will settle accounts with him.” His speech speed also slowed down, Yang Jian said softly, “I asked him how he came here. He failed the college entrance examination in [-]. I didn’t have the money to go to college. I heard that there was an uncle from far away who was doing naughty things here, and he didn’t have children, so he ran here to seek refuge. Finally, he found this room with several layers of cobwebs. I don't know where the people in the house went, but there are several red masks hanging on the wall, so he picked one to inherit the mantle."

"Then this house belongs to Red Mask himself?" Li Bai tried hard to swallow his tears, and wiped his eyes on Yang Jian's shoulder, "Is that uncle of his Red Mask?"

"From the description, yes." Yang Jian took him to the door, "I have been in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, and I have also been in Beijing."

Li Bai calmed down and stopped sobbing.He almost didn't notice the tears just now, and what he had been worrying about before was in vain again. The clues he had worked so hard to find in the past two years seemed to be a piece of nonsense. It’s not as effective as Yang Jian’s simple questioning for a few minutes, the incomprehensible conversation also makes his scalp tingle, and the feeling of being excluded is too terrible, but no matter what, he will not cry, nor should he cry, it will only Make him more of a crap.

Not to mention letting Yang Jian support him—it wasn't him who did the hard work just now, and it wasn't him who drove the winding mountain road all day.

"It was my fault for crying just now." He lowered his head and followed behind Yang Jian, propping up the threshold of the courtyard gate, "I have nothing to cry about, it just flowed down inexplicably."

Yang Jian opened the door of the rear compartment of the car, and looked at his pale face under the light in a strange way.

"It's just that I think it's abnormal to cry all the time." Li Bai lowered his head even lower, "It's annoying, I understand, I won't do this in the future."

"Cry if you want to cry," Yang Jian put away the crutches, threw them together with the watermelon knife in the trunk, then stuffed Li Bai, who was standing on one leg, trying to get into the car door, into the back seat, and grabbed the safety lead for him Button it, "After searching for a long time, I also limped my leg, but it turned out to be an oolong, why can't you shed some tears."

"But that makes me look like a dick!" Before Li Bai finished speaking, the car door was closed, and he swallowed the last part of his sentence in the dead silence of the car—you don't even want me to sit next to you, do you? I also find it annoying.

But seeing Yang Jian bypassing the front of the car, the two headlights cast long shadows in the dark woods ahead, and when he sat back in the driver's seat, he brought back his popularity, and the sound echoed his words: "You don't even have to worry about other people crying. People are dicks." Turning on the high beams, he also turned on the stereo in the car, "If I scold you for this, you can also scold me as dicks."

Li Bai calmed down again, Yang Jian's words made sense, even though he always thought so, this time it was true.He put his hands in his pockets, his face was hot and damp from the mask.After listening to the music for a while, the car got down halfway up the mountain, and he suddenly said, "They are all songs I like."

"Only this disc." Yang Jian's gaze briefly flicked across his face in the rearview mirror.

"Fifty golden songs by Faye Wong?"

"Like thirty."

"I like to listen to it very much, I like it very much." Li Bai lowered his head and smiled shyly, "This song, you are happy, so I am happy. It was played by Dou Wei, your idol, didn't you hear it just now?"

Yang Jian first glanced at him with an inexplicable expression, and then smiled. Those dark eyebrows were stretched in the mirror, which made Li Bai feel that way again. At the end of the road, there are comfortable warm beds waiting for them, as well as delicious meals, and even a hometown that they left behind in the forest.

This trip is to kill people, and the loss is heavy, and no one has been killed yet, has it?

But Yang Jian was laughing.

Yang Jian smiled and said to him, Dou Wei can't do it, my idol is Planck.

Li Bai could only finish listening to the song about killing people.Where are you going now?Can we find the real Red Mask?Do you still want to stay with me?He had a lot of problems, but he listened to one song after another coherently, and almost every one was looped. At a certain period, he used the cassettes in the tape recorder at that time, the MP3 with harsh sound quality, and noisy shops. The big stereo in the home, the music software that can be adjusted to take effect... The players have been changed one after another, and what Li Bai has been listening to is always these few songs.

I always think of the same person when I listen.

He seems to have the ability to connect every line of the lyrics with his own situation. When he is alone, he hums along with him, as if singing to Yang Jian.

So listening to such a pirated disc is like living his days of crying and laughing again.It only takes a few seconds for him to go from lying on the ground so painful that he can't stand up to throwing himself into Yang Jian's arms. It is also not difficult for Yang to cut vegetables when he just arrived home with a knife.It was so long ago, and it is still so now.

Ridiculous?Li Bai didn't think so at all.

People themselves have sorrows and joys, live for a while, and die for a while, and the song is the same.

He couldn't bear to interrupt.

Yang Jian also listened quietly, not with an absent-minded expression, although most of his seriousness and concentration were facing the ups and downs of the road ahead.They went down the mountain smoothly, passed the sleeping village, and also passed the river that had just been cried... The world was dark, only the moonlight remained, Faye Wong sang to the end, sang it again, and again, they crossed the mountains and ridges, No surprises, no danger, back to the foot of the mountain when I came back.

It should be in the nearby area. There is a factory building for processing Chinese medicinal materials. If you drive further, you will be able to return to the human world. Cut off and feeling drowsy, at this time, the car drove into the concrete road, but he suddenly became serious, not lacking in the momentum after careful consideration, "Mr. Yang," he said, "I think you have been to this place before."

Yang Jian didn't speak, but just turned down the volume of the music.

"I think...it was the two years when you were missing often and we quarreled a lot," Li Bai continued, leaning his head on the car window, looking from this angle, his eyes were on Yang Jian's side face Looking carefully, the street lamps are sparsely installed, and only a thin layer of frost-like moonlight illuminates them at this time, "I think you have actually done a lot of things, but you didn't tell me."

After a while of silence, Yang Jian drove the car into the fork in the road.

"I think you've already seen the end... What will happen in the end, or you don't care at all," Li Bai was still not discouraged, "But you still accompanied me up the mountain just now, and this trip was in vain. You are afraid that I will not see it unless I see it with my own eyes. Are you willing?"

Yang Jian put one hand on the steering wheel and lit the first cigarette of the night.

"I think you care about me, you care about me a lot. You are willing to accompany me to kill people," Li Bai looked at the slow-burning red dot, fascinated by it, and no longer wanted to raise his hand to cover himself mouth, "Although there is a bit of hatred to some extent, but no one can be like me."

"My position in your heart is not low at all. No one is higher than me, but you always don't want to admit it." He laughed.

Yang Jian seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, or took a puff?Or not.

"I still feel..." Li Bai lowered his eyes shyly again, as if grabbing some sweet memories, he seemed a little intoxicated, "Because I am quite contradictory, at one moment I am afraid that you will love me, and at the other I'm afraid you never loved me, sometimes you can laugh it off, but sometimes you really want to grab me and clean me up, and ask me if I'm out of my mind."

After the words were finished, the light on his knee was also bright, and when he looked up again, most of Yang Jian's cigarette was extinguished in the ashtray next to the brake lever, and the car had already parked in the gas station, and the lights were as bright as day.Yang Jian rolled down the window as usual to hand out the card, paid the money, closed the window again, and looked back at him.

"Is there something wrong with what I said just now?" Li Bai stared with dry eyes and asked seriously.

Yang Jian's eyes flickered.

This confused Li Bai. At the moment when he was at a loss for words, the gas had already been filled, but Yang Jian did not rush to drive the car away, but moved to the open space next to the gas station, found a shade with less bright lights, pulled the handbrake, Turn off the ignition and remove the key.

"Which one is wrong?" Li Bai plucked up his courage again, "I have guessed each one for a long time, if there is something wrong, please let me know."

Yang Jian got out of the car, then opened the door behind the driver's seat, and sat beside Li Bai.

"If it's not wrong, do I still need to let you know?" he said.

Li Bai was stunned for a moment, and at the same time he heard the answering sound of locking the car, and the door couldn't be opened, so he and Yang Jian were locked in the car together, as if it was safe.

"What you said is correct." Yang Jian repeated it again, leaned back in the chair a little tiredly, and looked sideways at him with bright eyes.

You read that right.Did you hear me right?

No!

Li Bai pinched the back of his hand fiercely, the corners of his eyes were sour, and his vision was a little blurred again: "One hundred points?"

"99." Yang Jian sat up again, stretched his long legs even more straight, and closed his eyes comfortably, "Because I have already admitted it."

After that, Yang Jian refused to speak, did not talk to Li Bai, did not explain his previous whereabouts, and what kind of thoughts he had on how to go next.He was probably exhausted to the limit, and Li Bai grabbed his hand and stroked his eyebrows, and he quickly fell asleep.But Li Bai was still in a kind of bewildered excitement, touching here and touching there, like being stuffed with a priceless treasure, he didn't know how to hold it.

Care, status, hate, love...these words.

It's not that Yang Jian admitted them to him.

What's more, he has always understood it, but only now did he really have the confidence to believe it.do you want to go backYou'd better go, I'll stay here for a while until I find him—he can't say anything like that again.

It suddenly occurred to him that Yang Jian had stuffed himself into this seat earlier, instead of the co-pilot in front. He might have decided to find a safe place to park at that time, and then sit in the back and sleep with him. long night.It's just that the man is one step ahead of himself now, and fell asleep deeply.Then let me help you, Li Bai thought, now I feel like I’m dreaming but it’s not a dream, then I’ll make another one, I’ll help you raise your hand, put your arms around my shoulders, put my arms around me, I’ll help you Cover me with a jacket, and cover you with mine. It's too much trouble. I feel like I'm going to wake you up. Let's cover it together.

I'll help you sleep with me, we'll get closer together, stay with me better, and sleep more soundly.

Li Bai felt satisfied, hugely satisfied, contented.He got into Yang Jian's arms, and the two of them covered their coats and slept until dawn.

This time Yang Jian woke up much earlier. At seven o'clock, he had already bought new bread and vacuum-packed side dishes from the gas station's canteen, as well as a lot of mineral water, toothpaste, toothbrush, and wet paper towels, and sat back at his original seat. Let Li Bai continue to lean on.He had finished washing himself, and he was not at all embarrassed by his confession the night before. He still had the self-confidence that should be taken for granted, and the calmness in facing the facts. Seeing that Li Bai finally woke up, he supervised him to brush his teeth properly, and simply said: After wiping his face, he let him have breakfast.

"Eat more," he said, "and take the boat today."

"Boat?" Li Bai stuffed a chicken foot with pickled peppers.

Yang Jian pinched it with his fingertips. He actually didn't like to eat this kind of troublesome food with many bones and shells that would get his hands dirty. For example, if there was no crabs in this season of the year, he would rather not eat them if Li Bai didn't help him clean them up. There is nothing to clean up the chicken feet, but it is still troublesome to eat.

It's not too much trouble, is it?

"The terrain over there is low," Yang Jian finally took the first bite, "the car should not be able to go."

Li Bai nodded, expressing his understanding. Yang Jian wanted him to eat more, so he ate three pieces of bread without saying a word.And Yang Jian's deduction was indeed accurate. On the way to the southeast of the Dejiang River, the disaster situation became more visible to the naked eye. Finally, when driving to the section of the Wujiang River where the embankment burst, all roads were blocked, and the car really couldn't move an inch.

There are many boatmen soliciting business on the shore.

Yang Jian took out the folding crutches from the trunk, helped Li Bai to brace himself, opened the toolbox and picked out a few pieces which he put into his backpack. He also took water, food, and medicine, but he didn’t bring a knife. He left it on the shore with the knife.While tidying up, he still had a cute smile on his face while discussing the itinerary with the ferryman in a local accent.

In the end, it was decided that from here to a place called "Jade Man Valley", it took more than an hour by water, two people, 300 yuan.What are you going to do in that place!That's probably what the boatman asked, but Li Bai couldn't answer it, and he didn't know what the "geom and water treasure land" of Yuren Valley was. Fortunately, Yang Jian was always an expert in prevaricating people.

"Look at an old friend," he said.

After stepping off the temporary pier, they set off smoothly.

It was not Li Bai's first time on a boat, but it must have been the most beautiful. He had never seen such a river. The boat was like a willow leaf cutting through the landscape and entering the folds of ink.Sitting on the bow of the boat, with his back facing the direction of the broken water, listening to the rough voice of the boatman yelling "be careful", he can also forget his injured leg that was put aside.The Yangtze River and the [-] mountains, when he passed by, turned into fog, ripples, and everything floating in turmoil. Only Yang Jian was in the middle of the boat, smoking a cigarette in the blue fog and water waves, looking into the distance A hill in the sky, a shadow that stands forever.

"If you look so far away, you will turn into a stone," Li Bai teased him, "Look at me."

Unexpectedly, Yang Jian really looked over, and after seeing him, he didn't look away, until he turned his head away, trying to cover up his infidelity under the watchful eyes of the boatman.Yang Jian just laughed, two pear dimples were formed shallowly, and a layer of clear water was formed in his eyes by the green Jiang Run, his face was full of innocence.And the boatman behind him also laughed out loud for some reason, far less restrained, and even sang two Miao songs loudly after laughing, wiping the sweat off his face.

"This section of water has three bends, six dangers and seven peaks!" They heard such reminders.

Two bends have been passed, as are four dangerous shoals with undercurrents. The boatman's water quality is really good. He is familiar with the water section and knows how to avoid danger. Holding the pole in the current, the boat slowed down.

"What's there?" Li Bai also noticed the clue, pointing to a pile of rocks near the east bank of the river. They seemed to have been peeled off from the nearby cliff in the last second, but something else was still stuck. Something, "It's white, it's reflective. Brother, did you see it?"

"Go and have a look, sorry for your trouble." Yang Jian said.

"Okay—" The boatman had been watching for a long time, and agreed happily.

However, after crossing the water, at a distance of more than two meters, what they saw was something that none of them expected.Li Bai rubbed his eyes. He couldn't believe that he could see a bamboo raft here, a paper man tied to it with red thread, whose face had been beaten beyond recognition by the waves, and his silver and black ornaments that had never been lost. hair.

The silver jewelry fits right into the bamboo frame inside the paper case, and the hair is caught in the middle, so there's not much left.

"Is it possible?" Li Bai asked.

"There's no need to detour around the waterway," Yang Jian put down his cigarette, "It's certainly possible to go down the river."

The conversation was murky, but the enthusiasm remained the same, probably because he understood the custom. He explained to the two that this was a bridal boat for ghost marriages. Somebody’s young man died, but the girl couldn’t let it go, so she just put her own Be tied to him for a lifetime, and the souls of the two can float from the Wujiang River to the hometown where the ancestors recuperated.And Li Bai listened silently, as quiet as Yang Jian, he only felt that the cigarette butt from the man's lips had already spread, and in his eyes, the setting sun and the torch of last night floated up.

"Master," Li Bai said, seeing that the boat was about to be pushed away, "They are stuck here, so they will go to the ancestors."

"Closer, I'll use the prop to smash it away, but there's a vortex, and the water is rushing," the boatman said cheerfully, "You two landlubbers are children in the city, are you afraid?"

"I can swim, and so can my brother!" Li Bai raised his face.

The boatman laughed.

Li Bai dragged his injured leg and moved to Yang Jian's side in the turbulent water, his voice became softer, "I always feel that they are waiting for us, they knew us last night, and now they are waiting for us to save them. "

"Hush." ​​Yang Jian snuffed out the cigarette.

"What?" Li Bai was shocked.

"Thank you." Yang Jian lifted his earlobe and rubbed it lightly. The bamboo raft was pulled off by the boat pole, and they drifted into the turbulent water one step ahead.Li Bai's ears were scalded by rubbing, he and Yang Jian looked into the distance together, saw that piece of silver light drifting far away, drifting down a slope of water and disappearing, thank you, you're welcome, I wish you all well.There is the smell of dry tobacco in my ears, as well as the long tune sung by the boatman.The Miao language is sonorous and melodious, like a song, and it looks ancient and lonely under the blue sky. It is not the same as the farewell in Tongzhai last night, but it is like different paragraphs of a long song, which can be connected in the ears.

Connect, connect, connect even further.Li Bai kept thinking, looking further afield, it is their hometown, where is their soul?What about further?Until the end of the Yangtze River?until the end of the sea.My hometown, our hometown...

Have it?where.

He wanted to look up at the sun, but felt that there was no need, so he tilted his head and leaned on Yang Jian's shoulder.