ring the bell

12.

Xu sniffled, and he was about to sneeze again, blaming the stale air that had rotted for hundreds of years in the suffocating old building, "But you will disappear." He didn't want to say more, buried his head and walked down .

Zhong Linyang hurriedly followed, "It doesn't necessarily mean disappearing."

"What's that?" Li Ke looked at him sideways.

"Reincarnation? Achieving Taoism and ascending to immortality? Maybe I can fly to the sky."

"You can't be sure." Ke Xu rubbed his face, his hands were still hurting, he got out of the doorway wearily, and the last little bit of the sunset shone on him wearily.

"You have to try." Zhong Linyang still said the same thing.

Xu Xu walked quickly, and there was a street next to the clock tower, a group of low houses spread out beside him, separated by a greenery, the voices of people living before dinner were always very noisy, "Do you just want to take this risk?" He asked asked again.

"At least I don't have to jump off the building every day, and I am willing to lose my soul."

"No, what's so good about losing your soul?"

"Do you think you can't do without me?" Zhong Linyang stopped.

Xu was stunned, turned his head, and stared at him blankly, "We've only been together, three days."

"Then you want to live forever?" Zhong Linyang lowered his eyes and rubbed the center of his brows, "OK, you said that you are a living person, and you don't have any mortal diseases, so why would you want to spend your whole life with a ghost. The idea itself is ridiculous."

Xu Xu was even more astonished, "But I am real."

"Really what?"

I really like you.Xu Xu said this sentence silently, but couldn't read its weight.

But Zhong Linyang said firmly: "You are really selfish." He has always been articulate, and this time he did not give Lian any chance to breathe: "I come here every day, do you look happy? Anyway, I am in pain. , I live every day, just waiting for the second to jump down, or the few 10 minutes of hanging on it to die. It seems that I have no other meaning. It is also meaningless for you to wait with me. So I want to Say goodbye to it. If you keep me, over time, you will also have guilt, the big kind, and if the guilt is too big, it will turn into boredom, and I will become your drag, the bigger kind, Don't deny it."

"Also, have you always felt very tired these two days, and your head hurts from time to time? You had a lot of nosebleeds last night, and I cleaned them up. You don't even know it." He continued like a cannonball, "You sooner or later To be led to death by me."

What is it all about.Permission to think.But he couldn't say a word of rebuttal.

"So you mean...you don't have to stay in this world." He wanted to say "by my side".This probably doesn't need an answer.What kind of unrealistic imagination did he have before?

"I shouldn't have." Zhong Linyang frowned, "I was forced."

Xu seemed to be digesting it for a while, and suddenly, he looked around, "Who was at the bottom, who scolded you? Who scolded you while thinking about sex?" The question was too urgent, and the speed of speech was too fast. Zhong Linyang also Unable to understand the meaning of these words, Xu Xu picked up a brick and walked straight to a bungalow, "Oh, by the way, there is our English teacher, who stares at you every day, and follows us home every now and then... Is there him? Is there him?"

He has come to the front of the bungalow.This is the home of the English teacher.There are only so many places in Liucheng.

"Yes." Zhong Linyang followed behind him, stopping at a distance of one or two meters.The one-word response was also trembling.

Xu didn't say anything more, the brick hit the window, the glass shattered into particles, his hands were covered with blood, he continued to smash, the screaming in the room had already started, women and children, and a man cursed, Lian didn't care about it at all, just a few times, the window was completely shattered, and he leaned on the window sill, stretched his body around, and flipped in deftly.

The cries and screams became more piercing. The women and children huddled in the corner, and the man's struggle and counterattack soon stopped. On one side, it was replaced by fists, while Zhong Linyang witnessed the angry beating outside the window.

It wasn't until he saw the woman picking up the kitchen knife that Zhong Linyang regained his composure. Was he afraid of this couple before?He forgot.Were he arguing with Xu Xu just now?He forgot too.He just wants to fight with Licensing now.So the fight escalated, no matter how you looked at it, it looked like Xu Xu was cheating, but he was indeed smiling triumphantly, his face was scratched with blood, and his smile was extraordinarily bright.

The smile was directed at Zhong Linyang.Zhong Linyang lowered his face, concentrated his whole body, and hit the middle-aged man's eyes with invisible strength.These eyes that used to sweep over him every day.

Suddenly the alarm bells rang in Xu Xu's heart.He held the kitchen knife he snatched from the "teacher's wife" and supervised everything, and found that he loved Zhong Linyang so much, even though he was thinking about hate just now.

There are also alarm bells in my ears.A neighbor called the police, and Xu Xu was taken to the police station, his mother's old unit.

Of course Zhong Linyang didn't use it.Xu kept his neck on his neck and stared straight behind him. He was afraid that Zhong Linyang would take the opportunity to leave, but Zhong Linyang didn't. Before the car door closed, he squeezed into the police car, sat on his lap, and hooked him face to face. neck.

"What's the matter, Xiao Xu?" Mrs. Xu's old colleague was frowning.

"What should I do?" Zhong Linyang also frowned, and lightly touched the corner of Xu Xu's eyes, "I don't even want to say goodbye."

Xu Xu closed his eyes. He didn't say a word to these two people, only his eyelashes trembled slightly under the touch.

It's crazy to be alive.he thinks.

Xu Xu was very cooperative during the interrogation, "I hate him, and I will avenge my friend." He said it clearly, without any intention of defending himself, which caused headaches for the police comrades who cared about him, so they could only get rid of him first. He is detained.

"Are we sitting here all the time?" Zhong Linyang accompanied him.

"Do you really want to go?" Ke Xu sat cross-legged, leaning against the cool wall, staring at his knees, "Can't I go?"

"Hateful people can't be beaten, let alone killed. We can't be serial killers." Zhong Linyang answered irrelevantly.

"You've said a lot of truths, and they're all right." Xu Xu's voice became hoarse, reminiscent of the pain of inflammation, and he began to stare at the light cast by the small street lamp on the ground again, "Zhong Linyang, you are in pain , I know. I suffer too. You know it too."

He found himself rarely so reserved.

"Humans and ghosts have different paths." Zhong Linyang smiled, soaking in the dark shadows, he had light, which made people feel that the black clouds blocking the moon in the sky were suddenly thin and light.

Xu also laughed, "Are you going to give an example of Liaozhai?"

"I just want to say that even so, we can find freedom for ourselves. Now it's like a fucking dog," Zhong Linyang said peacefully, "It's a pity that our freedom is not the same. If we don't feel If you really want to die, I will always be trapped in the clock tower, never thinking about going out. This step of freedom is given to me by you."

"But I don't know what I showed you, what this incident gave you. Whether it is good or bad." Zhong Linyang said again, "But I am very happy, you didn't blame me, and I didn't blame you. We... still Like each other, OK, I'm really happy."

Li Xu took a long breath, he only felt that in an instant, all his thoughts were involved in these few short sentences.What a joy it is to like each other.What do these days count as?Day like a dog?It's a good day.It was given to him by Zhong Linyang, and it was an extra.Perhaps it could be said that this in itself was an overly grand farewell.Did he dare to think four days ago?

"Well, I'll sneak out tomorrow morning, and you help me open the door from the outside," Xu Xu took two steps forward on his knees, wrapping his hands around Zhong Linyang's shoulders, the bandages were so dry itchy, his eyelids were unconsciously Fight, "Let's go to the movies."

"Okay." Zhong Linyang leaned on his neck obediently.

"You can teleport, right?" Xu Xu asked again in a daze.

"……almost."

"Can you take me? I want to go to see the sea with you, roll on the beach," Xu Ke suppressed the wet nasal voice, "Let's just watch for a while."

"Haha, okay." Zhong Linyang stroked the back of his neck, "Isn't it going to be very early?"

"Ah."

"You go to sleep early."

Go to sleep, go to sleep.Xu Xu was already in a daze, and at some point, he was hanging by a thin rope, precariously.It was the same voice in his dream.

It was dusk when I woke up.

It took a while for Xu to recognize and accept the fact that it was like waking up to find himself in the Antarctic, in the Great Trench.But he will take a while longer to think through some things that only he finds incomprehensible.At [-]:[-] p.m., the sky was covered with a gray sunset, and he knew that Zhong Linyang had already stood up.

Permission was taken out of the police station by pretending to be seriously ill.

On the way to the hospital, Xu Ke quietly opened the door at an intersection where cars were coming and going, and rolled heavily out of the car.The alarm bells started to go off behind him. Fortunately, it was a time of congestion. The cars couldn't run past his legs, and neither could the middle-aged policemen. He was running like he was about to die, his mind was full of flying lines Fortunately, the bell tower was also in this busy city, so he ran below and rushed upstairs.

Zhong Linyang looked back at him from the edge of the wall, "You will be recorded like this!"

Xu opened his mouth and suddenly realized that facing Zhong Linyang, he would always be empty-handed.There is nothing left of those questions and confusions, and everything is going too fast.

"Still hugging?" he asked.

"what?"

"I've made up my mind." Xu Xu raised his head calmly and looked over.

"There are still a few minutes."

"Yes." Xu also climbed up the wall, pushed Zhong Linyang to the side, and shouted at the crowd that gradually gathered downstairs: "Who the hell dares to come up, I will jump down!"

Several police officers gathered downstairs immediately took a few steps back, Xu Xu saw them, and Zhong Linyang's family members, aunt, uncle, and sister, standing beside the police car.The matter of jumping down has been repeated countless times, but it is the first time Xu Xu is in this position, completely occupying Zhong Linyang's perspective.

However, the haze started today, and the sky was a little less real.

"Listen up, listen to me," Xu Xu let go of his voice again, "Why did I stand up? I like a person, his name is Zhong Linyang, I ran away before, and he died, he didn't want to Die," Unknowingly, Xu Xu's tears flowed one after another, "Now, I'm back...I'm back."

"...don't be slippery." Zhong Linyang was in a daze. He really didn't expect what was happening now. Now that he was in ecstasy and grief, he could only pull Xu Xu's hand fiercely.

As a ghost, as a wandering soul who still has nostalgia for this world, Zhong Linyang understands that this time is indeed different from any previous evening that was smashed to pieces.

"No, I'm standing very firmly." Xu Xu suddenly regained his senses, squeezed it back comfortingly, and asked again, "By the way, can that bell ring?"

"Try it." Zhong Linyang wiped away his tears.

As if waiting for no one, the two immediately jumped back inside, facing the old piece of metal, a kind of jumping excitement floated everywhere.Zhong Linyang pushed the edge of the clock hard, it was shaking, and the smell of rust was oozing out. In the days when he hid underneath to watch "movies", he flew back, circling around them non-stop.Xu silently raised the tail of the bell pestle, and Zhong Linyang went to support the middle of it, and together they slammed into the rusty clock face.

It really rings.

No one has touched it for many years, but it does not mean that the bell will not ring.Its voice is real, so loud that it may float to the west, east, north and south of the city, just like it did hundreds of years ago.As for the present, there is no answer for more than ten years, and there is a reason to tie the knot today.

A long, gloomy, huge group of voices, bored in the head and in the heart.

The iron filings were also falling down, and the years of decay fell, and the two bumped into each other a few times, as if they thought it was very funny, it turned out that the scream with tightly closed lips could be made like this.

"Okay, there's no time." Zhong Linyang interrupted suddenly.

Xu Kuangdang put down the bell and pestle, "I said—" He hesitated a little.

"What?" Amidst the dense buzzing in his ears, Ke Xu could clearly hear Zhong Linyang asking himself.

what you want to say?Too much.I can talk nonsense with you for three days and three nights.Xu Xu looked at all the blurred mess in front of him, thinking like this, he kept rolling his Adam's apple, he felt that he was swallowing something, what it was, he couldn't say it well.

But he could list a long list of nonsense—

I want to say that you haven't learned how to skateboard with me yet. You'll love it. It's so cool. I want to say that if I want to make a movie for you, I don't care whoever plays me. Will there be more than ten years after the performance? I want to say that I will take you home. My dad in Beijing will not beat me now. We play games and eat apples in my room**. I want to say that there are still many more in two days Let’s go to the movie theater and eat a bucket of popcorn when the big movie is released. I want to say that you are still listening. I want to say that the weather today is really bad. The pollution is heavier than Beijing. I really want to go to the sea with you, and I want to say Did you know that the name Liucheng is particularly bad? Zheliu means farewell. I haven’t mentioned the allusion of Zheliu in Baqiao, but you have heard it, so why are we born here?

But in the end he just said, "I'll miss you so much."

"Zhong Linyang, I miss you very much." He said it again, and he could see Zhong Linyang clearly again.

I don't know when it started, Zhong Linyang's eyes opened wide, looking very sad.

"Before, we were all too small and too fragile," he said softly, "but OK, you can't do this anymore. Don't regret it like I did. You have to grow up."

Licensing was speechless.

"It's like a farewell, you know I will disappear later? I don't even have the guts to cry like a potato," Zhong Linyang said with a smile, "Besides, even if I disappear, that's because I'm finally free , when you become a well-known director in the future, I might be a non-graduating extra, remember not to make yourself bald and potbellied."

Xu Xu cried even harder.

"Come on." Zhong Linyang raised his arms with difficulty, and there was less than a minute left.He knew that after these few days, Xu Xu was not far from collapse, but they always had to try, and perhaps it was commendable courage at this moment.

That hug was also brave. During the short countdown, they hugged each other with all their strength, as if overcoming the weird gravity coming from all directions.Zhong Linyang counted to the last 20 seconds and stopped. He concentrated on feeling the shape of Xu Xu's arms and the temperature of his chest. He had never been so clear, and he himself was cold, so he could only use his palm to wipe Xu Xu's hot skin. After wiping away his tears, he suddenly noticed a strangeness from his eye sockets to his cheeks.

is liquid.Heavy, soft, warm liquid.

Zhong Linyang almost jumped up, grabbed Xu Xu and touched it, "Look, look!" He raised the corner of his mouth, "Is it true?"

Xu Ben didn't want to move. There were less than five seconds left. He counted and didn't want to miss half a second, but he felt wet and looked up in surprise. He saw Zhong Linyang's face that was becoming transparent and full of energy.

"it is true!"

When he shouted, the lines in front of his eyes were already dimmed.

I don't know if Zhong Linyang heard it.

However, at least, he can confirm that at 34:[-] on this day, Zhong Linyang was not smashed to pieces.

There were noises behind him, local accents, chaotic footsteps, and the police finally came up.Li Ke lowered his head, blinked, and blinked again.Tears are still in the hand, wet a small puddle, the bell seems to be singing back to the ear, and it has not dissipated.His messily bandaged arm remained the same, carefully looped in an arc.

He opened his five fingers and felt the wind. The feeling of liquid evaporating on the skin was as soft as a handful of hair, and there was nothing left in his arms.

end

end

Casting is rarely a headache for Xu.After all, movies are a profitable business. Generally speaking, he is willing to cater to the needs of investors within a certain range. He has become famous in the past few years, and the other party will not give him any problems. If he stuffs his characters indiscriminately, he will not be able to win. newcomer.

This time, however, something is different.The young actor who is held in the hands of the big investment boss, made his debut in a blockbuster film before graduation, and has been in the limelight recently. The producer Qian Dingwan asked to introduce him, and he fell in love with him as the second male lead, but Xu Xu killed him Do not agree.

"It doesn't taste right," he said.

"The budget is easy to talk about, and Longbiao promises to approve it for you."

"It doesn't smell right. It looks like a fake." Ke Xu shook his head with a cigarette in his mouth, and impatiently sent the producer and the young actors away.

Sure enough, the investment was ruined, and the real little canary, how could he have suffered such grievances, Xu Xu's reputation as a human being knows how to be dragged has spread in the circle again.But he was also ready to pay for it himself.In any case, this film must be shot. I made this decision at the age of 20, and now another 20 years have passed, and Lian thinks this is the right year.

However, the submitted resumes were collected one after another, and the children who came to audition bowed and bowed in frustration one by one. The final role was still in the foreseeable future. It was rumored that the name of the movie was unlucky. Hitting the clock, Xu Xu often hears it, but he can't get angry at all-it's not unreasonable, the first male has been reading the script for two months, where is the second male?

He himself was the most uneasy.

This day, after chatting with the first man about a crying scene, he was allowed to smoke a cigarette in the innermost room of the studio, drowsy, when there was a knock on the door, and before he could agree, the assistant poked his head in.

"Beef powder is fine." Xu Xu didn't bother to take off the blindfold.He hasn't changed his takeout menu for two weeks.

"No, brother, someone is looking for it." The assistant paused, "It's an audition."

"Which one? Only photos for registration in the past two days are not enough."

The assistant showed embarrassment, "...I didn't sign up."

"Hi, I've been a group performer for you, and I really like watching you give operas. I want to try it during the summer vacation." A young voice said.

Xu Xu threw away his cigarette butt and took off his blindfold, rubbing his brows impatiently. He was really tired, and besides, he didn't even know how to register in advance when he came out to audition.

"Come here and read this paragraph." Without looking up at all, Xu Ke nestled on the sofa and tore out a few pages from the script.

The man ran over happily, "Thank you!"

"Oh, that's right, I forgot to tell you, my surname is Zhong. Coincidentally, my name was not changed temporarily!" He said again.

Xu Xin said that this kid is not in awe, but he does have some preference for the person surnamed Zhong. He looked away from the pair of sneakers in front of him, and subconsciously raised his head.

"How is my image?" The man looked confident.

Xu immediately stood up.