deep in time

Chapter 17 (2)
This man has been around for several days, and he appears at the school gate every day during school and school hours. Because of the recent school violence, the teacher on duty felt that this man was suspicious, so he couldn't help but be more vigilant. After observing for a few days, he found I didn't see any movement from the man, I just stood there well-behaved, and it was not easy to chase him away.

But today, the man who had been standing in the corner suddenly squeezed out, quickly walked to Cheng Lichen's side, and grabbed Cheng Lichen's handlebar with one hand.

Cheng Lichen felt resistance, turned his head to look, but it was a strange man.

The man smiled obsequiously, his swollen eyes made people feel a little disgusted.He stared at Cheng Lichen's school badge for a long time, as if confirming something, put his hand on Cheng Lichen's shoulder enthusiastically, and tentatively said, "Are you...A Chen?"

The teacher on duty had already separated from the crowd and walked over, looking at the man: "Excuse me, are you—"

"I'm Ah Chen's relative, relative." The man was tall, but his waist seemed to never be straight. He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and handed one to the teacher on duty flatteringly.

Cheng Lichen tilted his head and thought for a while, but he had no impression of this man at all: "I don't know you."

"You know it! You know it!" The man stopped passing the cigarette, his eyes narrowed into a smile, and his voice became even lower, "I'm Xu Meifeng's husband, the current husband."

[six]
There was a suffocating smell in the air.

A street 50 meters away from the school gate.

Cheng Lichen looked at the greasy middle-aged man in front of him who was hard to be liked, his eyes were tingling.

——This is the person who tricked Mommy away.

——This is the person who failed to give mother a good life.

Every thought is like a dagger with green light, piercing into Cheng Lichen's flesh and blood, quickly transmitting the poison of hatred to the nerve endings.

"What's the matter?" A blunt, suppressed disgusted voice.

"It's all right." The man bent down and took out a silver-white MP3 from his trouser pocket. "You accidentally dropped this last time. I've been looking for you for a long time, and I can finally return it to you today."

I went to see my mother in Ping An Hutong that day, and when I got home, I found that the MP3 was lost. I didn’t expect this man to pick it up, and the boys ignored the man. I'm waiting at the gate of X Central, to see if I can meet you" and the like, the desperate and sad face of the woman selling vegetables at the entrance of the alley came to mind over and over again.

"You should... let my mother live better." The boy said jerkyly, "You are a man."

"Yes yes yes." The man repeated obsequiously, obviously without sincerity.He rubbed his hands and said suddenly, "Your mother, she went to the hospital yesterday."

"Hospital?" The boy's breathing seemed to stop at this moment, "What's wrong with her?"

"She won't let me tell you." The man shrugged exaggeratedly, "It seems that there is something wrong with the uterus. The doctor said that we need to be hospitalized, but we have no money."

"How much?"

A bright light flashed across the man's eyes, and he spoke quickly: "I don't know, the more the better."

[seven]
How much can you find out?
For the change in the wallet, four-digit Arabic numerals were displayed on the ATM machine of the bank, but it still felt far from enough.But he would never open his mouth to Cheng Huihuang, the boy's stubbornness climbed to the peak at this moment.

On the grass behind the school library, the fluffy reeds flew up, dyeing the whole body white.

Ji Nan broke off a piece of grass and casually put it in his mouth. The sun reflected on him, and his surroundings seemed to be glowing.

"Do you really trust that person?" Ji Nan asked with his head tilted.

"Do you have any money to lend me?" Cheng Lichen's tone seemed stiffer than usual.

"Yes, yes." Ji Nan showed a wry smile of "I'm afraid of you", and said jokingly, "If I don't have money to lend you, will you slap me to death?"

"Thank you." Cheng Lichen took Ji Nan's bank card and wallet, and turned around without looking back.

"Hey, my robot battleship model is gone!" The boy raised his head in pain and howled, and when Cheng Lichen was about to disappear behind the reed grass, the boy couldn't help calling Cheng Lichen, "Ah Chen, have you thought about it?" But..." He hesitated and continued, "Maybe that man is just lying to you."

Cheng Lichen's body stiffened for a while, but he didn't stop and walked straight away.

——Do you really trust that person?
——Maybe that man is simply lying to you!
——Ji Nan, you know, I'm not so stupid that I can't distinguish between lies and truth, but I dare not pursue the truth, I am so cowardly, I am afraid that the cruel truth will smell like blood.

——On a rainy day not long ago, I was stopped by a middle-aged woman on the road. The wet woman pulled a little boy who was only four or five years old and begged me: "I lost my wallet." , please give us mother and child 50 yuan, so that we can have a meal and go home by car." Very lame scam, very clichéd!I turned away contemptuously.But since then, every rainy day, I will think of the wet mother and child.If the mother and son really need the money to fill their empty stomachs and get home in a warm car, then have I made a big mistake? It's only 50 yuan, so what's the point of being cheated?
——I'd rather be lied to, I'm just afraid that it's not a lie, it's the truth.

[Eight]
The weather forecast received on the mobile phone was "Sunny and cloudy, with local showers". However, in the early morning, the sun was shining, and Ji Nan despised the observatory, but in the evening, the weather changed suddenly, and half of the city was completely covered with white. It rained heavily.

The heavy rain came suddenly, but fortunately it was only 100 meters away from home.The two boys said goodbye to each other in the rain, their eyes were blinded by the rain, Ji Nan glanced back before leaving, a little surprised, Cheng Lichen didn't seem to be heading to the right of the intersection, but Straight across the street with a green light.

"That's not the way for Cheng Lichen to go home, maybe I read it wrong", the next thought was "Fortunately, today's training is late, Baili went home first, so he won't be caught in the heavy rain".

Shaking his head, the raindrops merged into a stream and flowed down from his forehead.

The street was so plain that it was almost impossible to see anything a meter away.

Cheng Lichen held the handlebar tightly with both hands, the wheels splashed clusters of water, and the shoes, sleeves, and schoolbag were full of rain.After Xu Meifeng told him "Don't come to me again", every morning when he got up, he had to face himself in the mirror and clench his fists, silently saying "She won't let you go to her", but he couldn't wait to put this thought in his heart. He pulled it out and pressed it to death like a mosquito. Even though he was suffering like this, he never forgot that day after a long silence, he replied "You said it, don't regret it", and then ran away in a fit of anger He came out looking embarrassed.

"Jinan, do you know the feeling of heartache?"

The friend smiled and said, "You have a fever? Why do you ask such a strange question? This should be the line of those innocent girls who were ruthlessly rejected after confessing to you."

"..." His eyes must have been full of murderous intent at that time.

"Okay, okay. If I really have to describe it, then..." Someone with a stinky fart snapped his fingers, "Then use 'what a painful word' to describe it."

——If heartache can be described in words, then the real heartache cannot be described in all the words in the world: Japanese, Italian, English, French...

I can't stand this kind of torture any longer, I desperately want to see if my mother is really sick as the man said, if it is not confirmed, then I will never feel at ease.

The narrow alleys, the dirty drainage channels full of plastic bags, vegetables, leaves, paper, and bones were flooded by the heavy rain, and there was no time to drain them. The alleys were full of dirty water that could drown the soles of your feet.

Cheng Lichen smelled a disgusting stench.

In the pouring rain, the small bungalows in the alley looked so pitiful, like small animals trembling under the pressure of giant beasts.

Xu Meifeng looked at her son standing by the door in disbelief: the blue school uniform was splashed with filthy black spots, her soft black hair was dripping water, tightly pressed against the boy's handsome face, and her wet and heavy schoolbag The water that flowed down quickly gathered on the ground into a pool of bright water stains.

"You... why are you here? It's raining so hard." Xu Meifeng's face was ashen, her lips were a little pale.She rummaged through the cabinet with trembling hands, trying to find a big clean and white towel for her son.

Now she seldom thinks of the past, she has to struggle to live, she has to raise the wrong, she has to survive, she has no leisure and elegance to drink coffee and sit leisurely in front of the stove, recalling the past in a tone full of melancholy.

But the old days are sometimes like an old movie with the replay button pressed, like an old love song that I thought I had forgotten but rang in my mind.

At that time, the son was only as high as her shoulders. He was a beautiful child with pure eyes and often smiled. He was not as cold as he is now. As a mother, she always proud Watching other mothers cast envious eyes on their sons.

It was also a rainy evening like now, and I went to pick up my son with an umbrella. At the entrance of the alley, I saw my son happily playing water fights with his classmates. He didn't show his face to criticize, but just retreated and retreated, quietly returned home, put hot water and prepared clean clothes, and waited for half an hour before his son returned home, soaked all over, and dared not call her, probably Fear of being criticized.She smiled, pointed to the bathroom, and pushed her son in.

Everything seems like yesterday.

After so much time, it only took a few seconds to replay it. Xu Meifeng turned around and went into the back room. No matter how she found out the big towel and a change of dry clothes, she was stopped by Cheng Lichen's words.

"Mom, are you... sick? What kind of disease?"

"Which one is the one who chews his tongue so badly?" The woman's face suddenly turned ferocious, "I'm not sick, what's wrong with me!"

Xu Meifeng trembled with anger as if she had been touched by some bad luck. She suddenly became unreasonable, like a string of firecrackers being lit, she turned around, faced Cheng Lichen, and pointed at the door gloomily: "You curse!" Am I sick? Go away, I don't want to see you!"

"Mom—" the boy hurried forward a few steps, trying to grab his mother's sleeve.

"Let's go!" The middle-aged woman, who seemed to be experiencing menopausal symptoms, cut off his words rudely, avoiding the boy's hand, and spat out the most vicious words from her pale lips, "You don't have me as a mother, I don't have your son either!"

Then, Xu Meifeng clearly saw the anger, sorrow, and despair in her son's eyes like circles of light that grew from small to large, intense to the extreme, and then slowly dimmed and extinguished bit by bit.

Cheng Lichen turned around and ran into the rain.

The rain has diminished.

The world is big, but the boy who is riding a bicycle and running desperately on the street doesn't know where he is going.

At the same moment, in the small bungalow, a gray-faced middle-aged woman sat slumped on the wet floor. She slapped herself vigorously, blood dripped from the corners of her lips, but she didn't seem to be Feeling, in the drawer of the wooden cabinet with black spots on the right hand side, the little daughter was pulling out a stack of sixteen-money paper by mistake, and the faintly visible characters were-"There is a shadow in the uterus... Sampling Send for inspection..."

Xu Meifeng didn't know how long she had been sitting, but suddenly stood up like crazy, rushed to the phone and dialed Chi Wu's number.

This time, there was no mechanical female voice saying "the number you dialed has been turned off" or "out of service area". Xu Meifeng had not heard what Chi Wu said, but she had already scolded sharply: "You scum who kills thousands of knives! Die badly! Did you go to find Ah Chen?" ? How did you tell him!"

Chi Wu won the money, and holding the banknotes in his hand, he was in a good mood: "It's only natural for a son to care about his mother. He should be filial at this age. Don't say it, don't say it, it's a disappointment."

The man hung up the phone, quickly pressed the power off button on the phone in the turbid air of the casino, and squeezed into the crowd in front of the gaming table.

"If you dare to look for Ah Chen again and hurt Ah Chen, I will definitely let you die!" Xu Meifeng's pupils lost focus, staring blankly at the empty wall in front of her, she didn't seem to hear the busy tone from the phone , but continued gritting his teeth like a curse.

If she knew that Chi Wu was taking the money Cheng Lichen gave him, how could she make that man die?In the dark bungalow, the middle-aged woman who was tormented by life cried and cursed until her voice became hoarse, until her young daughter timidly said:
"Mom, I'm hungry."

[Nine]
After the heavy rain, red clouds floated in the sky of the city again.Only in summer can you see such beautiful scenery, maybe you can also see a rainbow, unlike other seasons, the sky will always be gloomy after it rains.

Baili stood on the viewing balcony on the 22nd floor and looked down. The door lock clicked, and the door opened.

Cheng Lichen was dripping all over his body as if he had been picked up from the water, looking at her with pale lips.

"What's the matter?" A slightly trembling tone.

A string that had been tense in Cheng Lichen's heart was interrupted when he made eye contact with Baili. He slowly closed his eyes, leaned against the door frame, and fell limply.Baili rushed over and supported the boy's body.

"Baili..." The boy's consciousness was thin and his voice was hoarse.

"Yeah." The girl replied subconsciously.

"It's so hot... so uncomfortable."

The boy leaned almost all his weight on Baili's body, and Baili, who suddenly heard this sentence, stroked the boy's forehead with his other free hand.

An astonishing heat came from the fingertips. "You have a fever?"

"I'm not sick, it's just that it's uncomfortable here." The boy covered his chest and looked at her with wet eyes.

In all fairness, Baili doesn't like boys like Cheng Lichen, who live a carefree life and put on an expression that deserves to be trampled under the feet of the whole world.In the beginning, the two of them were always confronting each other, but after returning from Yilang Island, this boy seemed to be changing quietly, and maybe sometimes he would speak sarcasticly, but gradually, after school, he would wait for her to go home together, and he would go up the stairs naturally. Take the dishes in her hand, and occasionally take the initiative to wash the dishes after meals. These are small changes, but their relationship has gradually become harmonious. In Ji Nan's words—" Ah Chen is actually a contradictory body that looks like an ice brick and has a heart like a volcano." Her evaluation of Cheng Lichen is "he seems indifferent to others and has heavy negative emotions, but in fact he looks forward to being intimate with others".

a lonely child.

But Baili still can't really agree with Cheng Lichen, what right does he have to be rebellious and arrogant, what right does he have to dismiss Cheng Bobo and Auntie Song's devotion, what right does he have to always immerse himself in a world where everyone owes him?In this world, there are people whose fate is more tragic than his. She admires Ji Nan's optimistic, humorous, and sunny character even more.

Subconsciously, she has a sense of rejection towards Cheng Lichen that she doesn't even know about.

"Stop making trouble." After a slight pause, the girl went to tug on the boy's sleeve, "You still have a fever, hurry up and change your clothes."

In fact, the boy's consciousness has long been blurred, as if a sharp awl was knocking intensively in his brain, he felt a soft body under his shoulders, and a pair of soft hands supporting him.

——The warm feeling like a mother.

The boy said something in a daze, and Baili, who was helping Cheng Lichen into the living room, became stiff all of a sudden.The girl's gesture changed from supporting to retreating, and the boy's body, who lost his support, fell limply like a collapsed line.

In the extremely quiet space, only the boy's last words were left——

"You are obviously my own mother, why don't you want me?"

(End of this chapter)