Siheyuan, integrating everything, cultivating the city

He walked aimlessly on the street, his mind still reverberating with those vague memories and uneasy thoughts. Cabbage is an extremely simple and common thing, but now it seems to have become extremely important, becoming a kind of sustenance for his lost heart. Perhaps this is the only thing he can grasp at this moment, something familiar that he can control.

When Li Xiangqian walked into the market, he suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of oppression. The hustle and bustle of the market and the voices of people did not comfort him at all, but made him feel more depressed. He looked down at the ground and found some scattered dirt on the ground. The road surface under his feet was uneven. The marks of the wheels and the footprints of people were intertwined, like some complex symbols, telling the traces left by this city in the long river of time.

He gently pushed open a stall. The cabbage vendor was a thin old lady wearing a gray hat, with traces of time on her face. Bundles of fresh cabbage were piled on the stall, and the green leaves looked particularly bright under the light. Li Xiangqian suddenly felt a strange warmth, as if these cabbages were some kind of familiarity he had never met, and his eyes unconsciously stayed on the pile of green cabbages.

The old lady saw Li Xiangqian stop and smiled: "Young man, buy some fresh cabbage, one yuan a head, just picked from the field."

Li Xiangqian was stunned for a moment, with a complicated expression on his face. He whispered, "Can you give me two?" Although he felt that he didn't need to explain it in such detail, he inexplicably wanted to express it as concisely as possible.

The old lady nodded and handed him two cabbages. Li Xiangqian reached out to take them, but the moment he touched the cabbages, he suddenly felt a chill. His fingers trembled slightly, and he quickly withdrew his hand, puzzled. This cold feeling made his heart tighten, and he almost subconsciously raised his head and looked into the old lady's eyes.

The old lady's eyes seemed to be nothing special, she just looked at him gently, as if waiting for him to pay. Li Xiangqian forced himself to calm down, touched his pocket, took out a few coins and handed them to her.

"Thank you." He forced a smile, but his tone was a little stiff.

The old lady took the coin and said nothing more. She just lowered her head and sorted out the things in the stall. Li Xiangqian took the cabbage and turned to leave, but he always felt that there was a gaze following him from behind. He didn't dare to look back, nor did he dare to think about why he had this feeling. Every time he walked on the street, he felt like he was being watched by some invisible force. That feeling was like something deeply embedded in his bones and could not be ignored.

After returning home, Li Xiangqian placed the cabbage on the dining table and was stunned for a moment. His mood gradually calmed down a little. The smell of cabbage made him feel familiar, yet a little strange. He sat down, looked down at the cabbage on the table, and his eyes gradually became empty.

He was in no mood to cook, and he wasn't even sure if he could continue. He didn't know why he felt so empty, as if the two cabbages didn't bring him the comfort he expected. Or maybe he had never wanted to find answers from these trivialities of life, but had been avoiding something he couldn't face.

He reached out his hand and slowly touched the leaves of the cabbage. The cold feeling made him tremble slightly. The unfamiliar chill surged into his heart again. He lowered his head and tried to suppress his inner restlessness.

The moment Li Xiangqian opened the door, the haze in the air seemed to have thinned a little. The room was still dark, but a barely perceptible light flashed in his eyes. He looked down at the dog in his arms, and suddenly an inexplicable emotion rose in his heart - this dog, like a heavy stone, slowly pressed down on a corner deep in his heart. There was a deep calmness in its eyes, as if carrying a kind of loneliness similar to his own.

He adopted the dog randomly on the street. At first, he just saw it was homeless, curled up alone on the street corner, with its eyes revealing vigilance and fear of the world, as if waiting for some kind of salvation. Li Xiangqian didn't think too much, but subconsciously bent down and called it over softly. The dog hesitated for a moment, walked to his feet, and slowly wagged its tail. At that moment, Li Xiangqian's heart seemed to be moved by some force. He reached out and gently touched the dog's head, feeling its slight warmth.

"What's your name?" Li Xiangqian asked to himself, but he obviously didn't expect the dog to answer. The dog just looked up at him, and there was no excessive emotion in its eyes, just staring at him indifferently. That look made Li Xiangqian feel strange, as if the dog was also staring at him, and he could see himself in its eyes.

He sighed and decided to take it home. Perhaps it was a sudden desire for companionship in his heart, or perhaps it was an impulse that was suffocated by invisible loneliness. He stopped thinking too much and just followed his intuition.

Back home, Li Xiangqian put the dog on the ground. The dog stood there, sniffed around the house, and then slowly lay down. Li Xiangqian picked up a piece of leftovers from the table and called it softly: "Come here, have something to eat."

The dog's ears moved, as if it understood his voice, but it still didn't move immediately. Li Xiangqian's heart tightened slightly, and he called again: "Come on, have something to eat." His tone became low, as if there was a desire rising from deep in his heart, wanting the dog to feel his presence and wanting it to respond to him.

The dog didn't seem to be interested in the food. It just sat there quietly, staring at Li Xiangqian. Li Xiangqian suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. He smiled awkwardly: "Aren't you hungry?" But the smile seemed so far-fetched, as if he was looking at himself in the mirror and embarrassing himself.

Silence returned to the room, and Li Xiangqian felt a sense of oppression in his heart, as if every inch of the air was filled with gravity, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

He walked to the window, opened the curtains, and looked at the street outside gradually sinking into the night. Suddenly, a strange urge emerged in his mind - he wanted to leave, to go to a place far away from all this. But then he realized that he had nowhere to go and didn't want to go.

"What's wrong?" Li Xiangqian asked himself softly, his tone full of helplessness and confusion. Why did he always feel this strange, inexplicable sense of oppression? He had tried hard to adapt to this kind of life and to take on some responsibilities, but he always felt that he was trapped in an unsolvable puzzle.