In the silent place

This day, Jiang Dong was discussing the recent itinerary and work plan with Bai Yutang at the office, but he didn't expect that everything would be arranged after 2 pm.It was rare to finish work early, so Jiang Dong hurriedly called Zhan Zhao, and the two made an appointment to meet at the gate of the Telegraph Building in four or ten minutes, and then went to buy a mobile phone.The home is far away, Jiang Dong chatted with Bai Yutang first, and then bid farewell after seeing that the time was almost up.Humming a ditty, I came to the underground parking lot. Just as I opened the car door, my phone rang suddenly.

"Hi, hello." Jiang Dong's expression changed after he picked up the phone. "Gao Yue, don't worry, I'll be there right away." After finishing speaking, he hung up the line and hurriedly dialed home.Liu Rong answered the call.

"Mom, where's Zhan Zhao?"

"Didn't you ask him to buy a mobile phone? We've been walking for more than ten minutes."

"Oh." Before Liu Rong could ask any more questions, Jiang Dong hung up.At this moment, he was so anxious that he wanted to scratch the wall. After thinking for a while, he suddenly slapped his forehead, turned his head and ran away.

Bai Yutang was about to leave when Jiang Dong rushed in like a gust of wind as soon as he stood up from his chair.

"What happened?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Bai Shao, are you free now? I... I want to ask you something." Jiang Dong said while panting.

"what's up?"

"I made an appointment with my cousin to take him to buy a mobile phone, but I just received a call from my friend, saying that her mother fell and can't move now, so I have to hurry over to have a look. Zhan Zhao has already left the house. I can't get in touch with him, you know my cousin, please, Young Master Bai, run for me, huh?" Jiang Dong said, clasping his hands together and bowing to each other.

"Okay." Bai Yutang agreed so readily that Jiang Dong was taken aback.But he didn't care about the politeness at this time, he said thank you, turned around and ran away.

"Where?" Bai Yutang quickly called Jiang Dong to stop.

"Telegraph Building." Jiang Dong didn't stop on his feet, and ran away in a hurry.

Bai Yutang stood by the chair for a while, shook the key in his hand, walked to the door, took off the coat from the hanger, opened the door and walked out.

The two haven't spoken to each other since their last lunch together.Bai Yutang wanted to ask Jiang Dong for Zhan Zhao's contact information several times, but he gave up in the end.He felt that he hadn't adjusted his mood yet, at least now, when facing Zhan Zhao, he couldn't be as innocent as Zhan Zhao treated him, blindly treating him as a friend.People say that time is the best medicine, but how long it will take to contact and treat that person with a normal heart, I guess no one can give the answer.

It has been a while since Zhan Zhao arrived at the scheduled location. At first, he waited outside the door, but the door of the building happened to be a vent, so he couldn't stand it after standing for a while.Fortunately, the telegraph building has double doors. Although the foyer is small, it is much better than the outside.That is, there are always people coming in and out, bringing in a gust of cold wind from time to time.

In the corner of the foyer, a middle-aged man set up a small square stool to collect his mobile phone. Seeing a young man standing next to him, he grinned and asked, "Brother, do you sell old mobile phones?" Zhan Zhao smiled and shook his head without saying a word. Li took out a mask and put it on, stood in the corner, watched through the window a few dead leaves on the ground dancing with the howling north wind.

It took Bai Yutang a lot of effort to find a parking space on a small street near the Telegraph Building.I looked at my watch, it was almost 03:30.This area is a gathering area for mobile phone merchants, and most major brands have stores here.In order not to attract too many people's attention, he turned up the collar of his coat to cover most of his face.When he was about twenty meters away from the main entrance, through the glass window, he saw Zhan Zhao wrapped in a thick blue down jacket standing at the entrance hall of the Telegraph Building, looking out.He quickened his pace and walked forward.

When Zhan Zhao saw that it was Bai Yutang, he was slightly taken aback.

"What's that expression on your face?" Bai Yutang felt a little hurt in his heart, and explained: "Your cousin said that your friend's mother fell, and he wanted to rush over to have a look, so I had to come here for him."

"I just didn't expect that it would be you who came."

The two big men stood at the entrance of the hall, feeling a bit depressed.Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao out of the gate, and asked as he walked, "Jiang Dong said you want to buy a mobile phone?"

"En." Zhan Zhao said, reaching out to take off the mask.

"It's cold today, take it with you."

After hearing this, Zhan Zhao slowly put down his hand.The atmosphere was a little awkward for a while, and the two walked in silence without speaking.

"Have you decided what model to buy?" Bai Yutang was the first to break the silence.

"No, but I want to buy the one with buttons."

"What about the price?"

"It shouldn't be too expensive. A mobile phone is just a tool for me to make calls and send text messages."

Bai Yutang led Zhan Zhao into a Nokia store first.There are not many people in the store, only a few scattered customers.The two started to look at the counter on the left. Seeing that the two seemed to be sincere, the salesperson quickly took out several new prototypes from the booth and highly recommended them. As a result, Zhan Zhao didn’t like any of them. After seeing the two of them for themselves, they turned to serve other customers.

"Actually, those phones just now are all good. I just found out today that you are still so picky?" Bai Yutang turned his head and leaned on the counter, resting his chin in one hand, squinting his eyes and smiling at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao ignored him, and continued to look at the phone on the counter with his head down. "This, this is good." Zhan Zhao said, pointing to a rather simple button phone.

Bai Yutang followed Zhan Zhao's fingers and looked over. "This mobile phone model is too old, basically no one uses it." Now that electronic technology is developing so fast, and mobile phones are being eliminated even faster, Bai Yutang really doesn't understand why Zhan Zhao chose such an unremarkable one.

"I'm nostalgic, can't I?"

"Okay, why not?" Bai Yutang saw that Zhan Zhao was stubborn, so he didn't talk back to him.After a pause, he deliberately teased him: "Excuse me, Gui Geng?"

Zhan Zhao rolled his eyes at him, then turned to call the salesperson.Bai Yutang lay on the counter and laughed sullenly.

In the end, I really bought the one chosen by Zhan Zhao, and bought a phone card by the way.When checking out, the salesperson’s eyeballs almost didn’t fall out. Yesterday, I saw an old hat who bought the most expensive mobile phone in the store. Today, I saw two handsome and fashionable people, but bought the most old-fashioned one. 'A person cannot be judged by his appearance' ah.

The two walked out of the mobile phone shop, Zhan Zhao fiddled with the mobile phone with his head down.Bai Yutang walked beside him holding the cardboard box of the phone, taking a closer look from time to time.

"Okay." After finally inserting the phone card, Zhan Zhao felt that his fingers were a little stiff from the cold.

"Where's the calling card just now? Give it to me, I'll try to call you." Bai Yutang put the phone case under his arm, and took out the phone from his coat pocket.Taking the card handed over by Zhan Zhao, he tapped the screen according to the number on it.

As soon as Zhan Zhao heard the phone rang, he clicked the red button, and the phone was disconnected.

...Bai Yutang was speechless for a while. "Pick it up and listen. What if there is something wrong with the call?"

"Oh, then type it again." Zhan Zhao rubbed his nose and smiled.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao helplessly, how could he be so stupid now, who is usually very smart.But looking at his appearance, I feel helpless, but also feel a little cute, and I can't help but want to hold him in my arms and pamper and knead him.

"You wait here, I'll go further away." Said Bai Yutang walked about ten meters and stopped, and pressed the redial button.

This time Zhan Zhao pressed the green answer button.

"Hello?" Bai Yutang's magnetic voice came from the other end of the phone. "Zhan Zhao, can you hear me?"

"Well, I can hear you."

Zhan Zhao's soft and clear voice came from the other end of the microphone.Four years apart across oceans, I always imagined that one day I could hear the voice of the other party on the phone.At this moment, Bai Yutang couldn't fathom Zhan Zhao's mood, but at the same time he was excited, he couldn't help but feel sour in his heart.

All these years, he really wanted to kill him.

This winter was extraordinarily cold, the two of them were walking on the road so cold, Bai Yutang suggested to have a cup of hot drink to keep warm, Zhan Zhao didn't refuse.On the way, Zhan Zhao called Jiang Dong and learned that Gao Yue's mother fell while riding a bicycle and broke her coccyx. Fortunately, the doctor said that the problem was not serious, and she would recover after a month of bed rest.Jiang Dong said I'm sorry several times on the phone, which made Zhan Zhao feel uneasy, and hurriedly told his cousin that he was with Bai Yutang, and he also bought a mobile phone, and he was very satisfied, so Jiang Dong was relieved.

The two found a nearby coffee shop, ordered a pot of hot milk tea, sat by the window, drank and chatted, and their bodies gradually warmed up.Outside the window, the sky was gloomy and gloomy, and the wind was cold and whistling.After a while, a small snowflake floated up.

"Mom, Mom, it's snowing." The clear and excited voice of the little girl came from the next table.

Zhan Zhao looked out the window, and saw the pure white snowflakes falling from the sky to the mortal world without a sound.When he was young, he lived with Bai Yutang in the southern city, and he had never seen snow since he was a child.One winter, the two of them stayed at Zhan Zhao’s house and watched TV. The news reported heavy snowfall in northern cities. Looking at the silver-white world and the various cute snowmen people piled up on the TV, he spoke enviously. Yutang said that it would be great if it snowed here too.Now that the two of them are in the north, when they really see the heavy snow, they feel another feeling in their hearts.But he still likes to watch the snowflakes dance, covering the sky and covering the earth, it seems that his whole heart becomes pure with this whiteness.

Seeing that Zhan Zhao was fascinated, Bai Yutang didn't bother him.For a while, the two sat in silence with their own thoughts.

"Bai Yutang?"

Hearing the call, the two came back to their senses at the same time and looked at the reputation.

"Sister Liu, what a coincidence." Bai Yutang stood up to say hello, and Zhan Zhao also got up and stood aside quietly.It was Liu Xian who came, and she was accompanied by a female companion who was about her age, around forty years old.

"That's right, my sister and I went out for a stroll, who is this?" Liu Xian looked at Zhan Zhao and asked.

"My friend, Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao, this is Liu Xian, an internet writer." Bai Yutang introduced.

Zhan Zhao nodded with a smile, stretched out his right hand and politely said "Hello." Liu Xian sized up Zhan Zhao, and gracefully shook Zhan Zhao's hand back.

"Okay, let's talk, let's go first. Hurry up and go home while the snow is not heavy, otherwise there will be traffic jams later." Liu Xian didn't plan to have a long chat, and said hello to Bai Yutang and said goodbye to her sister first up.

In winter, the days are short and the nights are long. Just after five o'clock, the sky has slowly turned dark.The milk tea on the table was already cold, and the snow outside was getting bigger and bigger. "Let's go too." Zhan Zhao said.

"Well, I'll see you off." Bai Yutang picked up the coat on the back of the chair.

"No, I'll take a taxi and go back."

"It's rush hour soon, you can't take a taxi, I'll take you there."

"My aunt's house is quite far from here. It will be dark after you finish sending me off. It's not safe. I'll go to the Telegraph Building to take a taxi. There are many taxis there." The two walked out Cafe.Zhan Zhao put on a mask, and pulled up the hood of his down jacket to cover his head. Only two eyes were exposed on his fair face, which looked even more black and translucent.

Bai Yutang accompanied Zhan Zhao to the Telegraph Building. The two waited on the side of the road for a while, and stopped an empty car. Zhan Zhao got into the car and waved goodbye to him.At that moment, Zhan Zhao's eyes were surprisingly bright, and there seemed to be flashes of water in his eyes, which even gave Bai Yutang the illusion that he would shed tears the next moment, but he was always smiling.It wasn't until the car drove away that Bai Yutang turned and left.

Sitting alone in the car, Bai Yutang leaned against the back of the chair motionless.Street lights have been lit on the road, and snowflakes are flying and falling under the street lights, like a dream.Thinking of the party at night, he got up and sat up straight, started the engine well, turned on the lights and turned on the wipers, stepped on the gas pedal, and the car disappeared into the snowstorm in the street after a while.

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