quail

I ran into it before going out.

At that time Li Bai was tying his shoelaces, Yang Jian had already pushed open the anti-theft door, with a cigarette in his mouth, looking sideways at the descending stairs.The corridor is bustling with people. The neighbors downstairs are going to release the New Year’s cannons early in the morning, moving things around, some children are laughing and calling, and they seem to say "Mom and Dad, hurry up", and there are also women. The old man responded with a smile, and the bouncing footsteps were mixed with slow, probably she was pulling the child, or the child was pulling her.

But the air downstairs drifted upstairs with the sound, it was still icy, Yang Jian bit the cigarette holder in a daze, and didn't light it.

Perhaps it was this bustle that attracted people who were sleeping soundly in the master bedroom. When the door was pushed open, it was the man from last night who came out, wearing a plaid pajamas of just the right size, with his jacket open and his white vest tucked into his trousers, scratching his head. Heading to the bathroom with his hair down, it's as natural as if it's something he does every ordinary morning and the house is his home.

"Where are you going so early?" He stopped by the tea table and looked at Yang Jian behind Li Bai.

"Haidian Park, go find your classmates." Yang Jian took off the cigarette stick and said.

"Girlfriend." The man yawned, and when his expression returned to normal, Li Bai finally tossed his shoelaces, stood up straight, and found that this man was actually good-looking, tall and slender, with good features It's not the middle-aged man with a beer belly who I just figured out based on my vague impressions from last night. He always has an unbearable smell of meat on his body.

To be fair, he is old, and he should have been a handsome guy 20 years ago.

I only heard him teasing Yang Jian again: "Is it still the one with the short hair and baby face last time? How many have you changed since you went to college?"

"It's a long time ago." Yang Jian bit the cigarette back, smiled at him, and fumbled for the lighter in his pocket.

"Okay, let's have fun, don't spoil my brother." The man threw his mouth into the toilet, and Li Bai had already stood beside Yang Jian, feeling a little sorry in his heart. He felt that if he moved quickly, he would be able to emerge from that man. Avoid this awkward meeting by tying your shoelaces beforehand.

Yang Jian still looked as usual, unhurriedly, and stood at the door for a few seconds, because it took a lot of effort to find the lighter.When he finally found it and put the flame beside the cigarette tail, there was another movement at the door of the master bedroom. Yang Yuqiu came out with slippers on, wearing only a pink silk skirt.

With such a bright color and lace sleeves, it looks vulgar on her, but it's not ugly.

"For Chinese New Year, don't run into messy places." She said, and at the same time, her eyes met, Yang Jian's cigarette was still unlit, her arm crossed Li Bai's shoulder, and she slammed the door shut.

The cigarette did not go well, and was finally thrown into the trash can downstairs. Except for a small piece of burnt black, the whole body remained.In fact, Li Bai had already discovered that Yang Jian couldn't smoke half a pack a week, and his addiction to cigarettes was not that great at all.

But just now I was in a hurry to touch it without even eating breakfast.

Li Bai's self-conscious level is low, and he has no reason to talk about life to a famous college student who likes to read "Wuthering Heights" and "White Night Journey" and other novels that he can't stand.But he always wanted Yang Jian to feel better, so he asked someone to eat two baskets of meat buns soaked in water vapor and some side dishes for breakfast, and Yang Jian took him on a bicycle, gliding quickly in the frozen and empty Beijing city , It seems that I really want to take him to the park for a walk.

When he was pushing his bicycle across the overpass in Zhongguancun, Li Bai found that there was a strip of ice on the edge of each step, which was so crispy that it would sink into a small piece when he stepped on it.He stepped on it endlessly, Yang Jian looked at him and talked about the man just now.

"My name is Gao Jie, I'm 50 years old this year." He looked up at the blue sky reflected by the building. "The house belongs to him, and so does the god who worshiped him."

"Very rich?" Li Bai asked.

"Business people are not people's entrepreneurs. They are the kind of people who have killed many younger brothers. I don't know what to sell." The overpass started to go downhill. Yang Jian let go of the handlebars and looked at the bicycle. I slid on the ramp for a while, and held it up before it fell over. The tip of the nose reflected a little sunshine, which was also like a piece of broken snow. "I met him on the train. He said he would help us. My sister followed him when she arrived in Beijing." , from the first board and lodging to the later account registration, he also helped my sister open a beauty salon, although the business is not very good," Yang Jian paused, and then said, "In general, we owe him a lot of money."

Li Bai took a breath of cool air, he was undoubtedly surprised, thinking "so that's how it is", he finally understood how the two penniless children got a foothold in this city back then, which he couldn't imitate.But it was not because of this that he was sad. His heart was like a leaf, as if it had a hole in it, and around the hole, it also withered around.

At the same time, he also understood why Yang Jian would rather have a lot of jobs and get a scholarship even if he doesn't sleep at night, not because Yang Yuqiu would boast to others at the dinner table, but because he didn't want to spend Yang Yuqiu's money.

"Does sister like him?" Li Bai waited for 2 minutes, then asked carefully.

"She? Don't like it." Yang Jian's expression seemed to have heard some strange news, "I like a classmate of mine. Once she had an accident while riding a motorcycle. She was calling Gao Jie. It happened that my classmate happened to meet him. I knew her, so I rode her on the subway to the hospital, and then she started to give up, it's amazing. But it's nothing, Gao Jie is not bad to my sister, she just wants to do it herself."

With that said, the two of them also walked to the flat ground under the bridge.

Li Bai really felt miraculous, or rather, puzzled.Can you still willingly sleep with another person if you are so devoted to one person?Maybe Yang Jian has a very unique understanding of desperation.But this seemed to be helpless, Yang Yuqiu was indeed gentle and dependent on that Gao Jie, without any resistance.If he asked Yang Jian what was going on, it would be too cruel.

So he asked another question that he was more concerned about: "Is Gao treating you well?"

Yang Jian raised his right hand and rolled down his sleeve, exposing a section of his wrist.Li Bai hurriedly supported the car, he knew that with this hand, it seemed that it was difficult to turn the wrist, and the thumb could not be bent, and Yang Jian's demonstration action at this time was also confirming his observation.

"I was not left-handed before." Yang Jian said.

"He made it for you." Li Bai felt that his hand was hurting too, and he was about to lose his mind.

"I ran into him when I got home, and thought he was bullying my sister. I was a no-brainer junior high school student at the time, so I went up and beat him up." Yang Jian pulled back his sleeves again, cashmere sweater, sweater, down jacket, one layer after another, "Who knew they would have started long ago."

Li Bai lowered his head, his nasal cavity and chest were stuffy, he was extremely sad.So Yang Jian, who was in junior high school, couldn't beat him, and also suffered from old injuries... Is there any other place?A dishonest younger brother who breaks good deeds and beats up people, will Gao Jie, who has a lot of money and many younger brothers, teach him only once?

So, Yang Jian left the village, but he still couldn't really escape. Could it be that children are born to be beaten?Could it be that the whole world is like this, other people were beaten to death at home before they grow up, but they just don’t cry out to others, and those parents who drag their children on the street are all lies, pretending to be kind .

Just like the little girl in the corridor in the morning, I didn't see her face, maybe her face was swollen, and before she went out to set off the cannon, she was pressed to the ground by her parents and whipped with a broom!

Li Bai couldn't figure out whether this was true or not.

Yang Jian didn't say any more, stepped on the car seat nonchalantly, and asked him to sit behind him.

After rushing for more than ten minutes without knowing it, the destination finally arrived. It was not a park but a pink outpatient building. Li Bai looked up from the front of the building. The red letter hanging on the roof said "Haidian Hospital" .Well, two words short, he thought.And there were not many friends to visit in this hospital, and there were not many registered people at the moment, and the two of them didn't wait long, and then Yang Jian took Li Bai to the pharmacy and asked him to wait, and went upstairs by himself.

About 10 minutes later, Yang Jian came down with a form, and the money had already been paid. He was obviously very skilled in all the procedures, so he stood in front of the window and took a big bag of medicines.

"My sister has asthma and has been seeing it in this hospital. It is very convenient to prescribe medicine." He stuffed the medicine and medical records into his backpack. "She doesn't take medicine very much recently, maybe it's because she finished it."

"Just ask her directly."

"I don't want to ask."

"Then let me ask for you."

Yang Jian didn't speak, and with a half-smile, he dragged Li Bai up and walked out of the outpatient clinic instead of riding a bicycle, but walked to the inpatient building.They all looked like students. They didn't arouse any suspicion. They went directly upstairs to the intensive care unit, the oncology department, and the first floor was full of cancer patients.

"If you want to see people, should we buy some fruit?" Li Bai said in a low voice.

"Who said I have to look at people."

"Then what are you doing here?" The door of the passing ward was half open, and heart-piercing cries came from inside. There were also nurses in the aisle pushing patients who hadn't woken up after the operation, and Li Bai subconsciously approached Yang Jian. some.

"I like to stay in the hospital. If I'm in a bad mood, I'll come and walk around." Yang Jian glanced at the couple who had laid a quilt in the corner of the wall and were huddled together on top of the bill and pressing the calculator.Their eyes are all red.

Li Bai suddenly realized: "I know this. This is the so-called 'eccentricity'. I like people who can't explain the reason. People with eccentricities are very special."

"Really?" Yang Jian said seriously, "But I don't like it if I can't tell the reason. Looking at other people's life and death, I will feel that my little shit is nothing, and I will even suddenly feel happy, such as now. This That's why."

"But I feel even worse when I see them crying." Li Bai moved closer and his voice became softer. He didn't want the group of people to notice him, he wanted to become invisible in this thick despair , "It's the 'breath of death' mentioned in the book, it will haunt me!"

"What are you afraid of?" Yang Jian seemed to be in a better mood, inserted his fingers into the scarf, and pinched the back of his neck, "You are so young, you don't have to think about death."

"Are you old?"

"So I didn't think about it either."

The two had already reached the end of this corridor. There was a large window, and the sun filtered through the dead branches of the poplar tree and leaked in. Then there was a cry from behind. An old woman hit her head against the wall and fell to the ground again. Kneel towards the ward.

Until a week later, after the end of the year, and looking back to this day, Li Bai still couldn't understand Yang Jian's hobby.Looking at the misery of others, he can only think that his own life is also bad.

However, during this period of borrowing, he and Yang Jian got along very smoothly. When he came out of the hospital that day, Yang Jian really took him to Haidian Park, which was only two streets away from the hospital.The inside of the park was empty like the main road. They walked on the ice, which was not too cold, so they walked very carefully. Yang Jian told him that rice was planted in the lake when there was no food in the 60s. The tone is as real as if you have experienced it yourself.They also bought candied haws and a bubble machine at the entrance of the park. Li Bai wished he could finish blowing up a big bottle of soapy water in the morning. His hands were red from the cold and he refused to stop. , colorful, he fancied that they would be frozen instantly and could survive the winter forever.He felt that this was really happy, but Yang Jian used his candied haws to pop his bubbles one by one, and watched him yell with a smile, as if he was having a lot of fun.

In the end, Li Bai ate up the bunch of candied haws. The hawthorn was very sour, and the sugar pierced his mouth. It didn't seem to have the bitter taste of soapy water.

When I returned home that afternoon, Gao Jie had already left, and Yang Yuqiu seemed to be in a bad mood. Yang Jian put the medicine on the dining table and refused to give it to her face to face, and she refused to take it by herself. In the end, Li Bai knocked on her door and put The medicine was handed to her.There is such an inexplicable cold war now, and the jokes and fun a few days ago, Li Bai doesn't know which is the normal state of this pair of siblings.Occasionally when he was alone, he would hear quarrels outside a few walls. Yang Yuqiu's voice was too high-pitched and sharp for people to recognize clearly, but Yang Jian's pronunciation was clear, and he always said "it's none of your business" or It's "mind yourself".

The longer the holiday, the more frequent such quarrels became, and gradually evolved into more than one day.On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Li Bai was planning to stay for two more days before going out to look for a job. He couldn't help but want to persuade him to have a fight. As soon as he got to the kitchen, he heard a "pop".

Walking in, I saw the red marks on Yang Jian's left face, Yang Yuqiu's hands stiff in mid-air, and the tears that fell suddenly after taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was wrong," Yang Jian seemed bored, raised his hands, wiped Li Bai's shoulders and left the kitchen without even looking at him, "I'm not sensible."

On the day when he returned to the rental house, Li Bai had an extra pile of rice, flour, oil and odd daily necessities stuffed by Yang Yuqiu, which were given to him by Yang Jian.

Yang Jian took the bus with him, walked slowly with him on the gravel road that had not yet been paved with asphalt, and sent him directly to the house.

Then drank a cup of tea in the house, ate half an apple, and stayed a while longer.

Sitting side by side on the edge of the bed, Li Bai held the other half of the apple and quietly looked at the people around him.The glass ceiling penetrated very bright light, shining on the man's temples and eyelashes, he suddenly said coldly: "I've always wanted to say, you have a little gray hair."

"I know."

"Let me dye it for you." Li Bai got up and put the oxidized reddish-brown apple into Yang Jian's hands, "You eat it for me."

Yang Jian obviously didn't take it seriously, but Li Bai really found out the hair dye cream, brushes, and pads from his luggage, and explained quite complacently that they were all brought from Nanjing, and he was very good at stuffing luggage. .He put the only armchair in the room in the sunlight in the center of the room, let Yang Jian sit on it, wrapped him with a towel and a cloth, and the hair dye cream in the small bowl had already been mixed.

"Then leave it to Master Li."

"It's guaranteed to be natural, not dead black." Li Bai rolled up his sleeves and smiled.

The legs of the chair were made very high, and Yang Jian was not short either. Li Bai didn't have to bend down too much, and the words he said seemed to stick directly to Yang Jian's ears.

"Stop quarreling when you go back," he said, "I'm really worried that you two will fight if there is no outsider like me."

"No. I'll start working right away, and I'll leave when school starts." Yang Jian spread his five fingers and looked at the distinct shadow on the ground.

"Avoid conflict by not meeting? You are like a rebellious child in front of your sister."

Yang Jian seemed to have nothing to say.

"Sometimes it makes her cry." Li Bai said again.

"whatever."

Li Bai pursed his lips and was blocked by Yang Jian, but he still decided to finish what he couldn't hold back.Applying a piece of hair dye evenly on the top of Yang Jian's disobedient hair, and the hard ends pricked his fingertips, Li Bai said: "I just want to say, you can look like a child in front of me. I won't crying."

Yang Jian laughed out loud.

Li Bai's technique is really good, and maybe it's because the hair dye is of good quality, the effect is very natural, and it doesn't get dark, even if it is in a dilapidated rental house, wash it with hot water that you have prepared.Yang Jian thanked him and said that he could go to him when he was free, even if he couldn't find a job, and Li Bai gave him a key to this rental house.

He still insisted on the original idea, at the part-time job, at school, at home, when Yang Jian was very tired, he could come to his little corner to stay, whether it was rebellious or naive, it didn't matter.If he is not there, Yang Jian can also come in by himself, rest on his bed, and look at that beautiful piece of glass.For this reason, Li Bai also bought several mattresses to make the bed very soft, but if you ask yourself how much you expected, you can only say a little bit.

It's okay if Yang Jian can't come.

Anyway, disappointing expectations is not a big deal for him.

This time, however, something is different.In early spring and April, Li Bai finally received a casual job. He was a barber shop owner who couldn’t bear his harassment and felt sorry for him. He introduced him to an art troupe and worked as a temporary styling assistant. He started doing hair and make-up for people at noon every day. They are also responsible for tidying up the costumes and props. The stylists on top of their heads are all wearing military uniforms, and they are very convincing. Li Bai always obediently calls them "chiefs", and every performance runs in different military compound compounds. Li Bai returns home It was often midnight.

The car heading this way was long gone, so he could only find a route in the same direction and sit until the end, and walk the rest of the way by himself.

That day he was still the same, running from one streetlight to the next, trying to pass through the darkness in the middle, thinking about buying an old bicycle for the whole journey, the cheaper the better, the broken ones are fine, he Please ask Yang Jian to help me fix it.

Inserting the key with soreness all over his body, he found that the door was unlocked, and when he opened the door, he saw Yang Jian lying on the bed, hugging the quilt uncovered, his clothes still on, his body huddled like a shrimp.

There is a Band-Aid on the bridge of the nose, which looks aggrieved.

Li Bai took off his coat, got into the inner side of the single bed and lay down, imagining himself as seaweed, hugging the sleeping Xiami.

From then on, Yang Jian often appeared suddenly like this, as if he really regarded his hut as a rock crevice to live in.