Swallowing the Seas

"Oh, be careful, be careful not to fall... walk slowly!"

Mr. Chen was supported by students from left to right, and suddenly turned around tremblingly, holding the hand of the trainee policeman: "Comrade Public Security has worked hard, we must solve the case as soon as possible and avenge the people..."

"I know, I know." The trainee policeman couldn't laugh or cry, and said in a voice of relief: "We will work hard, you go slowly!"

The gray-haired old expert was carefully supported by the students and got into the car. No one noticed in the distance. On the [-]th floor of the express hotel opposite the Criminal Investigation Building of the Nancheng Branch, the reflection of the mirror flashed slightly from the gap in the curtains.

The room was small and dark, the sheets were in a mess, and a few black luggage bags were randomly thrown in the corner.A man in his 20s, wearing a baseball cap and an anti-smog mask stood in front of the window, staring at Mr. Chen's car leaving the police station, gritted his teeth and cursed silently: "Fuck!"

What should we do now?

He frowned tightly, turned his head to look at the backpack in the corner, turned back and set up the binoculars again after a while, looked out aimlessly, and suddenly caught a glimpse of something, and his sight was fixed.

"...?"

Wu Yu walked out of the criminal investigation building with his head down, tall and straight but with a loose appearance, lit a cigarette while quickly walking down the stairs, let out a long breath, walked straight through the front yard of the branch office, and walked towards the bus stop across the road.

The gaze behind the high-altitude telescope has been firmly locked on him, from confusion, suspicion, uncertainty, to mixed with unbelievable astonishment-this person is clearly? !

...But how could this person appear here? !

The man remained silent for a long time, his cheek muscles clenched tightly, and he gently put down the binoculars after a while.The hotel room was dead silent, except for the faint sound of vehicle horns coming from the street outside, only his own suppressed breathing echoed. After a few minutes, he pulled off the mask, as if he had finally made up his mind, and took out the mask. The phone quickly dialed a number.

"Hello, Miss Yin?"

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the phone, and the man seemed to realize something, and shouted: "Don't hang up!"

"Don't look for me, I won't help you." A cold female voice sounded from the other end of the call: "The wind is too tight now, and your hands and feet are too unclean..."

"Do you want to see an old friend?"

The voice on the other side stopped abruptly, and it took a long time to utter a word: "Who?"

The man laughed, raised his head and moved the back of his neck.

"I seemed to see a familiar face just now." He said leisurely, "Your...old rival in love."

·

"Sign here, and contact us anytime if the situation is unstable..."

"Okay, got it."

Liu Li was sitting on the hospital bed, when she heard something suddenly, looking back, she saw Wu Yu walking into the ward carrying a bag of fruit, and suddenly said in surprise, "Police Wu——"

Wu Yu raised his hand to stop her.

The number of hospital beds in the city's No. [-] hospital was tight, and it was for the sake of the Nancheng branch that Liu Li could be arranged an indoor bed. The family members of the nurses on the other beds in the ward all looked at her curiously.In front of so many people, Wu Yu didn't say much, just wanted Liu Li to nod her head, and said briefly: "The doctor said you can be discharged from the hospital, let's go."

The night is gradually falling, neon lights sweep the sky, and the long street continues with endless car lights.The snack street was crowded with people, and the hot barbecue aroma wafted all over the streets and alleys. Liu Li threw the iron pick on the greasy disposable plate with a clang, and wiped her mouth contentedly: "It's delicious! I like spicy food , two bottles of Jinwei will be even more powerful!"

Wu Yu exhaled a long puff of smoke and said, "You will start taking medicine when you enter the forced rehabilitation center tomorrow. It's best not to touch alcohol and tobacco."

The night market is noisy and busy, there are garbage mosquitoes floating in the sewer, the dim light bulbs in the food stalls are covered with a layer of dirty grease, and shirtless men are sitting around shouting loudly and pushing drinks.Liu Li glanced sideways at Wu Yu, she had never seen this young police officer in uniform, his unfit large T-shirt was always washed faded, yellowed and wrinkled, and he was wearing cheap flip-flops on the carpet to the plastic chair Sitting down, the shoulders hang down naturally, the right ankle rests on the knee of the left leg, and a pack of cheap cigarettes of more than ten yuan is held in one hand, exactly like the young cement worker at the next table who has just come down from the construction site to drink.

He blended in with this dirty, greasy, vulgar and cheap background, and there was nowhere on his body that could have the word "policeman" attached to it.

But when Liu Li looked at him under the dim light, his plain side face was enveloped in the lingering cigarette, his eyelashes naturally drooped, and his pupils reflected the flickering red light of the cigarette butt. Different from everyone.

It does not belong to the neon lights of the huge city that is like day and night, nor does it belong to the sewer where fish and dragons are mixed up in the dark side.

Like an abrupt, tired outsider.

"Let's go," Wu Yu put out his cigarette, threw a few banknotes on the table, got up and said, "I'll take you home, you clean up yourself, and people from the police station will come to pick you up tomorrow."

This meal was very cheap, because neither of them ordered beer, and there were very few iron signs in front of Wu Yu.For some reason, Liu Li was embarrassed to see a man spending money for the first time in her life, and she thought about what to say, but she was really not very good at talking, so she followed him closely for a long while, and suddenly asked rashly: "Hey, don't you like me?" Eat these things, right?"

Wu Yu said, "I can't eat too spicy."

"Then are you full?"

"I'll go back to the bureau in the middle of the night and eat some more."

Liu Li followed him through the crowd, looked at his two slender fingers holding the fruit, swallowed, and asked nonchalantly, "Hey, do you get paid well when you are a policeman? I always listen to People say that being a policeman is not enough these days, you are poor, you don’t have much salary..."

"Who did you hear that from?"

"When I was arrested before." Liu Li scratched her hair nonchalantly: "The co-op scolded us, saying that he worked hard for a month and didn't make as much money as we did—hey, but who doesn't work hard these days? Well, he can't do our job!"

Wu Yu glanced back at her, his eyes were funny and helpless, he swallowed what he wanted to say, and sighed: "...the detachment is okay."

"Yes! Your leader looks like a corrupt person!" Liu Li suddenly remembered Bu Chonghua, and suddenly a wave of evil fire rushed into her head: "The tone of your words, the way you speak, and the way you hang your face. It’s so long, it’s disgusting! Why doesn’t he act in a TV series, he’s a villain without makeup, red bag!”

The bus stopped slowly, the door opened, and a wave of people poured out and another wave of people squeezed onto it.Wu Yu voted one yuan for Liu Li, swiping his bus card and said, "He will be happy if you praise him for looking like an actor."

Liu Li: "..."

The air in Jinhai City is varied: walking in places like the Central Business District and Yunlu Road, the high-end luxury stores lined up on both sides of the street are shining brightly, and the expensive and reserved fragrance permeates the night breeze, as if you have to pay for an extra breath; In a place like Wynn Street where there are many KTV nightclubs, the feasting lights, the wine and the meat are fragrant, and the silver bell-like laughter follows the BMW cars to and fro, scratching people's apex everywhere.

But if you cross the Sili River, which passes through the port and crosses the urban area, and come to the other side of the city, the lights in Changping District will gradually disappear with the depth, and countless shantytowns, low walls, urban villages to be demolished and unfinished buildings without glass will disappear. In the increasingly deserted night; further down Caiying District and Xiaogang Village, the clotheslines pulled up by each household from the criss-crossing narrow alleys, yellowed diapers, greasy aprons, paint Spotted work clothes and colorful bed sheets and quilt covers mixed with thousands of smells, separated into honeycomb-like dwellings, and laid horizontally under the city sky.

I don't know which baby cried loudly, echoing in the dark and rugged alley.In front was Liu Li's house. She jumped over the puddle skillfully and asked with a smile, "Then how long will I stay in the forced rehabilitation center? Will I be released if I don't smoke?"

There was no sound behind her, she turned her head and looked at Wu Yu with bright eyes: "—Huh?"

"..." Wu Yu stopped under the streetlight, his face seemed a little sad: "No."

"Ah?" Liu Li didn't react: "How long will it be locked up? Is it okay if I stop smoking?"

Wu Yu looked at her, and said slowly after a long time: "There won't be a day when you don't want to smoke anymore."

Liu Li stood blankly on the stone slab, not understanding what he was talking about, and rubbed the bloody scab on her dark and thin cheek.

"After you enter the drug rehab center, they will give you medicine, and you will be groggy for the first few days and just want to sleep. After a few days, they will let you have regular work and rest, exercise labor, adapt to military management with other people, and recite behaviors. Standardize housekeeping and sanitation. If you can pass the housekeeping assessment, then you can enter the rehabilitation area to work in the workshop, and occasionally plant flowers and fruit trees, but most of the time you do clothes embroidery on the sewing machine, and you have tasks to complete every day If you fail to complete it, you may be fined to copy the code of conduct, or write an ideological report.”

"A first-tier city like Jinhai should have an eight-person room or even a four-person room. You are a female prisoner. Bu Chonghua said hello again, and you will be given more preferential treatment in terms of food and accommodation. There are instructors in the medical office who chat with you on a regular basis to guide you. Watching TV and playing ping-pong games are organized every day during the breeze, and rehearsals and entertainment parties may be rehearsed during the holidays... This kind of assembly-line collective life only takes a few months and you will no longer be addicted to drugs, let alone drug addiction , Forgot even the idea of ​​taking drugs, after the [-]-month rehab period expires, you will feel that you have been reborn, and your whole person has gained a new life."

"—doesn't that sound easy, even comfortable?"

"..." Liu Li stared blankly at him, her chapped lips moved slightly.

The howling of the babies stopped at some point, moths fluttered above their heads and bumped against the street lamps, and the occasional barking of wild dogs echoed in the distance.

"But almost everyone will relapse." Wu Yu's voice was low and hoarse, and she said to her word by word: "No one can quit. I have never seen anyone who can quit."

"Meth addiction is a mental addiction. Unless you completely break with the past, you can relapse in a few days. However, even if you leave the past life circle, there are still countless people hidden behind the walls of every public toilet, in the corner of the construction site, and in the corner of the vegetable market in this city. Even if you leave this city, there may still be one or two sellers selling 'meat' or 'sugar' behind station squares, shopping malls, Internet cafes, and telephone poles in other cities Number."

"For a drug addict, their sense of smell and speed in searching for drugs in a strange city are unmatched by ten anti-drug policemen. Even if you really have the hard work and perseverance to stay away from all possible channels for obtaining drugs, after 20 years of marriage and childbearing , this addiction is still deeply hidden in your bones. Any child playing with a straw in front of you, a friend who rolls tobacco with tin foil, or even a flashing scene in a TV movie may make you in the future. Sudden relapse one day. Detoxification is not a matter of eighteen months, but a torment that must be endured for the rest of my life, every moment of every day, every minute and every second."

The halo of the street lamp spread on the winding stone road, Wu Yu lowered his head, flicked the cigarette ash, and looked up at her sadly again.

"There will be a day when you don't want to stop smoking. There is only one way to prove the success of drug rehab, and that is to die."

Liu Li opened her mouth and managed to squeeze out a few words: "But... I..."

She seemed to be walking towards the sea step by step on the beach at night, until her chest was submerged in the sea, and she suddenly woke up and realized something, a trace of fear spontaneously arose, but even her trembling was suppressed by the pressure of the cold sea water:

"I, I'm still young... I still have many years to... to live..."

Wu Yu's hand stopped in mid-air, as if he wanted to give her trembling body a hug, but after a long time, he only patted her hair lightly: "From now on, I have to live well every day. Drug rehabilitation is the same as anti-drug treatment. Hugh's War."

They stood facing each other, Wu Yu handed her the bag of fruit, and whispered: "Go in."

Liu Li's mind was buzzing, as if she had been stunned by a sap, and her mind was blank.She mechanically turned around with the bag of fruit, not remembering how she opened the door and entered the house, her whole body seemed to be immersed in the noisy and suffocating deep sea, and countless words and phrases deep in her memory rolled into a cold vortex:

"Just take a sip, you won't be addicted, how will you know if you don't try it?" "Who in this business doesn't smoke, you will get more business if you smoke, and customers will like you more!" "The government is lying to you , Flying leaves can cure diseases, do you know that flying leaves are legal in foreign countries?" "It's fashionable to smoke this now, if you don't smoke, you will be old-fashioned!"...

With a soft snap, she turned on the bedroom light and sat down slowly on the floor.

Those gossips gradually faded away, leaving her in the boundless sea of ​​ice, in the bottomless darkness at the bottom of her feet, gradually clearer and clearer roars sounded, like a death knell, every sound was enlightening:

"There's never a day when you don't want to smoke—"

"There is only one way to prove the success of detoxification, and that is to die!"

Liu Li buried her face in the crook of her arms, but she couldn't block the chills that came one after another from nowhere, goose bumps all over her body, and it took some time before she dullly felt the dampness and coldness of her arms.

It was tears all over her face.

The ticking of the clock on the wall was especially clear in the quiet room.After a long time, she finally stood up with the help of the wall behind her, stretched her numb legs, and walked slowly to pack the things she would bring tomorrow.

If it wasn't for Wu Yu's security at the Heyun Road Police Station, she would have spent tonight by the radiator in the police station, and she wouldn't even be able to bring a toothbrush into the forced rehabilitation center.But even so, she didn't have much luggage to pack, and she couldn't even find a few serious clothes. It was impossible to bring those revealing lace underwear and cheap plastic jewelry, and they would definitely be confiscated when they entered.

Liu Li felt numb and dazed after exhaustion, put her toothbrush into a small bag, found a few pairs of thick socks, and wanted to go to the closet to look for thick winter coats.

call--

The closet door opened, and a man appeared in front of her.

He stared at her from among the clothes hangers, with a skeleton face with bones on his neck.