The Pentium Era - South to North

Zhang Chen and Xiao Zhao walked to the service desk, where sat a waitress in her thirties, holding a hot water bottle on her chest. Seeing someone coming, she looked up at them.

Zhang Chen asked her if she had any room left?

The waiter swung his chin to the right and told them that there was only one full store.

Zhang Chen and Xiao Zhao looked to the left and saw that in the long corridor, against one wall, there were steel wire beds, taking up two-thirds of the corridor. There were people lying on the wire beds. This is She said it all.

Xiao Zhao took off the scarf covering his head and told the waiter that the two of us couldn't sleep in the same bed.

The waiter rolled his eyes at her: "I won't let you sleep if you want to. Do you have a letter of introduction and marriage certificate?"

Zhang Chen almost laughed, he was sleeping in the corridor and he still needed a marriage certificate?

Xiao Zhao begged: "Sister, can you help us think of a way? We just got off the train."

The waiter looked at Xiao Zhao's face and asked, "What happened to your face? Did he hit it?"

"No, no." Xiao Zhao quickly shook his head, "I accidentally fell down the stairs."

The waiter looked them up and down suspiciously, and finally confirmed that Xiao Zhao was not lying. From the way the two of them were so intimate, it was not obvious that he was beaten by this man.

The waiter thought for a moment, put the hot water bottle on the table in front of her, pointed to a bed behind her, and said to them:

"In this case, the man will sleep on the empty bed at the end, and the woman will come in and sleep with me. It costs twelve yuan a person."

Zhang Chen and Xiao Zhao, please quickly say thank you!

Zhang Chen's bed is at the end of the corridor, and beyond that is the bathroom and public toilet that are connected together. There is a men's toilet outside and a women's toilet inside.

Xiao Zhao took out his wallet from the bag Zhang Chen was carrying. After thinking for a moment, he simply took the entire bag and whispered into his ear, "It's not safe for you to carry it with you."

Zhang Chen nodded, and Xiao Zhao went back to the waiter's duty room. After a while, she came over with a washbasin in one hand and a hot water bottle in the other. There was a towel on her shoulder, and there was something in the washbasin. Toothpaste and toothbrush, Xiao Zhao and Zhang Chen said, let’s go and wash our faces.

The two of them went to the bathroom. After brushing their teeth and washing their faces, Xiao Zhao and Zhang Chen said, there is still hot water in the thermos bottle. You can soak your feet.

Xiao Zhao took some water from the basin and brought it back. She saw that no one was outside, kissed Zhang Chen on the face, and told him, I'm leaving.

Zhang Chen smelled the cool fragrance on her body and really wanted to hug her, but Xiao Zhao smiled and ran away.

Zhang Chen walked back to his bed, bent down, and found a white enamel washbasin from under the bed. The words "Red Flag Hotel" were written on the washbasin in red paint.

Zhang Chen took the washbasin and went to the bathroom to get water. He came back and sat on the bed, pouring half of the hot water in the thermos into the washbasin. The water was so hot that his left foot was frozen due to the water in his shoe. , soaked in hot water, itching for a while, it took a while to get used to it.

After soaking his feet, Zhang Chen felt much more comfortable. He placed the hot water bottle at the head of the bed against the wall. He didn't bother to pour the foot washing water. He pushed the basin under the bed with his feet. He didn't wipe his feet with a cloth, but just put it under his pants. Dry your feet.

He took a look and saw that the person on the bed next to him was sleeping with his feet pointed towards him. If he wanted to sleep without his head facing the toilet, he would have to sleep behind that guy's feet. Zhang Chen thought about it and decided It's better to sleep with the toilet on your head.

He put his military coat on the quilt and got under the quilt. There was a strong smell of cigarette smoke in the quilt. When he fell down, there was an unpleasant smell of clam oil and scalp oil on the pillow. Zhang Chen dropped the pillow. After an interview, the result was the same. He simply folded the military coat that he had covered with the quilt and put it under his head as a pillow, so that he felt more comfortable.

But the quilt on my body seemed thin.

In the toilet above the head, the urinal area is a tiled sink. A water pipe is installed above the sink. A row of small holes are drilled in the pipe, and water is dripping into the toilet tank below. At first glance, Upon hearing this, I thought it was raining outside.

The defecation area is also a tiled sink, but there are small compartments separated by partitions above the sink. Someone squats down to defecate, and the feces accumulates at the bottom of the sink, and waves of stench waft out from it.

In the partition at the top, there is an iron water tank installed on the wall two meters above the ground. In order to save water, the faucet on the water tank is turned to the minimum, dripping into the water tank like a hanging needle. It will take more than an hour to drip water to fill the water tank.

After it is full, the water tank will make a loud "squeaking" sound, and the water in the tank will spurt out from the water pipe, flushing the entire sink. Only then will the smell go away, and the water tank will start dripping again. Water is stored drop by drop.

Zhang Chen would be startled every time there was a "wow" sound.

He lay there, staring blankly at the ceiling above his head. The bathroom connected to the toilet had no door, and the light inside fell down like a picture frame, which just happened to frame Zhang Chen in the bright light.

If anyone passes by at this time and sees a person lying there motionless with his eyes wide open, he will probably be startled.

Zhang Chen was very sleepy and tired, but he was not sleepy at all. He was going back to Yongcheng tomorrow, but he suddenly felt scared. He traveled from Haicheng to Zhanjiang, from Zhanjiang to Guangzhou, and from Guangzhou to Hangcheng. Going all the way north, he seemed to have no hesitation in going home, but when he arrived in Hangzhou, lying in this small hotel, he suddenly felt scared.

Maybe it's not fear, but timidity. Zhang Chen feels that there is a difference between fear and timidity. Fear means feeling that danger is coming, while timidity means not knowing what's going on in your heart.

Zhang Chen felt that this kind of fear or timidity, and even a little bit of shyness, was in it. Which "timidness" is more timid when it comes to nostalgia?

Zhang Chen thinks both.

He felt that the shyness and timidity of being close to hometown and the heroism of returning home in fine clothes were exactly two extremes. To put it this way, it was vanity again.

Yes, if you live well outside and have an eight-carriage sedan to carry you back to your hometown, you will be even more timid when approaching your hometown. Those who are timid are those who are shy to meet others.

Zhang Chen sighed. He felt that now he was too shy to meet people and felt very shameless. When he went back and met acquaintances, he didn't know what to say or how to face their questioning eyes.

He knew that he was now a celebrity in the Yongcheng cultural system, the kind of celebrity who lived well outside. He used to look down on him, but now he feels ashamed of himself. Zhang Chen had received a few calls in Haicheng, and they were all people with whom he had not had a good relationship before. It was called by someone who is close to him but not very familiar with him. From the phone call, he could tell that the other person was trying his best to please him and almost said that he wanted to join you.

This made Zhang Chen feel a little carried away unconsciously.

What should I do when I meet these people when I go back?

There is also a very practical question, that is, what can I do when I return to Yongcheng?

He didn't know if the troupe could go back. He never asked Feng Laogui. Even if Xiao Wu went back, he didn't ask them for it, because in Xiao Wu's view, it was just a joke and there was no need to ask. He With Liu Ligan, it has long been impossible to return to the troupe.

If he returned to Yongcheng and asked himself to nod and bow to Ding Baigou or even Feng Laogui in order to return to the troupe, then he would never be able to do it.

Or he would go to an advertising company to do odd jobs and stand on the scaffolding to draw advertisements every day. Zhang Chen was not willing to do that. He felt that if he stood on the scaffolding to draw advertisements now, the people watching below would not be looking at his paintings. Painting, but pointing and talking about him.

Apart from these two, what else can I do when I return to Yongcheng?

Zhang Chen has never told his family that he is going back to Yongcheng. His family must still think that he is still working as his general manager and cannot return home because he is too busy. They saw him come back suddenly and with him. It was not Jin Lili who came back, but another woman. The family would definitely feel that something big had happened, and they would be annoyed to death by asking questions.

He even vaguely felt that Jin Lili must not have told her mother the news that they had broken up. If so, Jin Lili's mother would definitely run to their house and ask questions about this and that, which would be annoying to death.

Zhang Chen thought about it all night without thinking clearly. When people started to get up in the corridor, Zhang Chen made up his mind. He decided not to go back to Yongcheng first, but to see if there were any opportunities in Hangzhou.

But now everyone is on vacation, and even if you want to find a job, there is no place to look for it.

Zhang Chen's heart skipped a beat and he cursed secretly, "Ignore him, let's spend a few days in Hangzhou first. Anyway, I still have money in my pocket. It's still early for that remittance note to arrive in Yongcheng. It might not be there yet." Leave Guangzhou.

Zhang Chen turned over, turned his back to the corridor outside, and fell asleep.