old city newcomer

Gu Tong was suffocated awake.

When I woke up, I looked at the time, it was just after six o'clock.It was still pitch black outside the window, and the red lanterns in the yard were still lit by candlelight, but some voices were faintly heard.

Gu Tong changed into her down jacket, put on thick cotton slippers, and went to the toilet in the southwest corner.

When she came out, she saw Qi Xin sitting at the door, raising her head and stretching out her hands as if she was holding something.

Snowing.

Gu Tong looked at the tip of his nose, and a few snowflakes fell down.

He walked up to Qi Xin and said "Morning sister", Qi Xin smiled and handed him the buttoned cloth bag, which contained a small copper stove for warming hands.

Gu Tong took it and covered her hands. Although the cloth surface is rough in texture, the temperature to warm her hands is just right.

"Why don't you sleep more?" Qi Xin looked at him and asked with a smile on her lips.

"I was so excited to play yesterday." Gu Tong stared at Qi Xin's face for a long time before scratching his head in embarrassment. Qi Xin's eyebrows and eyes are a bit like Qi An's. The more you can taste the taste, especially the almond eyes, the corners of the eyes are always curved when you smile.

The skin is still as white as Gu Tong's, and Qi Xin and Gu Tong are like a pair of siblings considering this point.

Qi Xin pinched her chin and thought for a while, then suddenly patted Gu Tong on the stomach, tilted her head into the room, and went back to the room on wheels, Gu Tong followed closely behind her.

"I'll show you when Qi An and Lu Chunze were young." After Qi Xin finished speaking, she took out a large red velvet photo album from the cabinet. It was a thick one, and it was a little heavy. Qi Xin needed to hold it with both hands to hold it steady. .

"Have Chunze and Qi An known each other since childhood?" Gu Tong watched as Qi Xin turned to the first page, took out a photo and handed it to him.

In the photo are two little boys sitting in a popsicle shop at the entrance of the Hutong, eating the same "double sticks". I don't know what interesting things they saw, they looked at each other and smiled happily.

"Lu Chunze used to live in the same area as us, in the alley next door, and moved out last year." Qi Xin took back the photo and replaced it with a new one.

Qi An wears a big-brimmed cap and pretends to be a policeman, and holds a toy/gun in his hand, while Lu Chunze holds a toy gun with his mouth open, facing him.

"Why did you move away?" After reading the photo, Gu Tong took a picture with her mobile phone before returning it to Qi Xin.

"This area needs to be rebuilt and planned, and outsourced to a company. They want to make it a purely tourist-oriented business district, and buy the courtyard house that has not been demolished/relocated to make a hotel." Qi Xin smiled: "The money is for There were quite a lot of them, so Lu Chunze's family moved out."

"Then..." After hearing this, Gu Tong wanted to blurt out his own question, but felt that it would be impolite to ask so boldly.

"You want to ask why we didn't move out?" Qi Xin immediately comprehended and handed him the third picture.

That was Qi An standing at the gate of his own yard when he was young, pointing to the vermilion gate with his right hand, patting his chest with his left hand, with a proud look on his face.

"Maybe...you don't quite understand the old city people's obsession with some old things." Qi Xin simply tied her black and long hair into a ponytail: "Some things are really gone when they are gone. Money can’t buy it back. Grandpa often said that people live with one thought, even though his sons’ ideas are more ‘vanguard’ than him.”

Qi Xin rarely sighed. In Gu Tong's memory, Qi Xin's face was always full of smiles, and this expression was almost invisible.

"Qi An was brought up by his grandfather, and he was deeply influenced by his old man." She turned the photo album to the back, as if she was looking for something, her hands were busy, and she didn't stop talking: "The yard is there, the root is there, a My family's thoughts are there. My father thinks that Qi An has a brain problem, and he has to be 'wronged' to shrink himself into this acre of 'old society' for things that can be exchanged for a lot of money."

"That's not it!" Gu Tong didn't control the volume and shouted loudly, but he didn't care at all, because when he heard this sentence, he was angry in his heart, and he didn't understand why the second uncle said that .

Qi Xin found the photo and showed it to Gu Tong.

In the photo, Qi An was sitting on the roof of the old man in the main house, smiling relievedly at the starry sky, holding a pair of Erwen playing with walnuts in his hand, and a plaster cast on his left leg.

Gu Tong has never seen Qi An who is smiling so happily, as if all his worries have disappeared.

"Do you want to ask why even Brother Qiang calls him 'An Ye'?" Qi Xin patted Gu Tong's hand, wanting to capture his mind wandering away in a daze.

Gu Tong was indeed a little dazed looking at it, unexpectedly being slapped on the back of her hand by Qi Xin, when she raised her head her eyes were wide open.

He slowed down and nodded.

"Because of his 'integrity'. That's what happened last year. I told you just now that the people from that company wanted to buy our courtyard houses that haven't been demolished. If they couldn't agree on a few houses, they wanted to force it." Qi Xin fell into the memory, bent down, propped her head on her elbows and knees, and kept her eyes fixed on the photo in Gu Tong's hand: "Those who came to measure the house, ran to the roof to measure the size, Qi An came back from school I saw those people on the roof of Grandpa’s house, they climbed up the ladder with a rake for weeding weeds, chasing and beating that person desperately.”

Gu Tong opened his mouth and listened carefully, as if there were some pictures in front of his eyes.

"The tiled roofs in this area are connected into one piece. The man was crying and ran around on all fours, stepping on the roof. Qi An chased him, and someone behind him chased Qi An. He ran several houses and finally came back. Qi An was killed by someone. Pushed it, fell off the roof and broke her leg." Qi Xin's eyes darkened.

Seeing her touching her leg, Gu Tong fell into deep thought.

"My legs are already like this. Grandpa is very worried that his legs are also disabled." Qi Xin probably felt that she didn't want her mood to affect Gu Tong, so she smiled at him and continued: "Guess what? Qi An insisted on dragging his broken leg and carrying a rake to continue chasing those people in the yard. Originally, they felt a little guilty about getting Qi An injured, and they didn't dare to do it again. They, they yelled 'crazy', and were immediately kicked out by Qi An."

"I never came here again after that." After Qi Xin finished speaking, she stretched her waist and looked at the brightening sky outside the house.

Gu Tong's eyes were a little red.

half an hour.

"But." Qi Xin opened her mouth again: "Qi An didn't expect that outsiders had the same idea about this house, and so did the family members. Both my uncle and my father blamed Qi An for not selling the house. If it weren't for Grandpa's protection, this house might It’s really gone. The uncle was so angry that he started to steal those literary toys from Qi An’s room and sell them cheaply. And my dad has been missing since then.”

Gu Tong took another look at Qi An's smile in the photo, thinking that Qi Xin might have secretly captured it after these things happened, so Qi An's eyes are so bright, just like the stars in the sky.But thinking about the matter of the uncle and the second uncle, Gu Tong felt a little worried.

After that, he met Qi An.

He was suddenly a little lost why he didn't return home earlier.

"Little Tong." Qi Xin called him.

Gu Tong looked at her blankly.

"Qi An is lucky to meet you." Qi Xin smiled, raised her hand and pinched his face.

Gu Tong took her hand off and held it with his own, just like the photo in Qi An's circle of friends, then put the hot little copper pot into her hand, and held it together with her.

"Sister, you've got it wrong." Gu Tong said with a smile, "It's my good fortune to meet Qi An."

"I can feel his 'paranoia', maybe I will be like him in the future." Gu Tong said: "Here makes me feel at ease, staying with Qi An makes me feel at ease, I don't do big things like my parents, brothers and sister-in-law My son’s determination, I just want to live this life according to my own will.”

"You speak so profoundly, as if you have already penetrated life." Qi Xin bent her index finger and lightly stroked his tall nose bridge.

Gu Tong rubbed her nose in embarrassment: "My mind is too small, and I can't let go of too many things."

"When you meet Qi An, you will be full." Gu Tong said.

The yard is already bright.

The candlelight in the red lantern was a little dim.

Little Dian was jubilant in the yard, while the eldest sister continued to doze off beside the chair, as if she hadn't woken up.

There was a person standing beside the red pillar at the door of Qi Xinfang.

Listening to the conversation between the two people inside, he raised his hand to take down the cigarette dangling from his mouth, and let out a long breath.

Early in the morning, Pan Yang was clamoring for fried liver.

Lu Chunze was made one head and two big by him, rolled up his sleeves and went to the kitchen to get seasoning.

The old man was the first to get up, paced around the room, smoking a pipe, shouting from time to time.

Gu Tong was chatting with his eldest sister, who kept her eyes downcast and didn't look at him, but when she heard the old man singing, she also called out twice.

"Ow-"

The last long sound sounds like the full moon is about to transform.

Pan Yang Ge You was lying on the wooden chair at the door of their room, holding the big bowl with his stomach, it was black, Gu Tong frowned and approached, but he didn't dare to smell it.

Pan Yang picked up the enema and coaxed Gu Tong to eat it. He gloated and waited for the petrified expression on Gu Tong's face.

Gu Tong chewed twice, first looked at him suspiciously, then hesitantly lowered his head in thought, and finally his expression turned a little surprised.

Pan Yang immediately turned his face to the elder, and shouted like a god of plague, "Go away! This is mine!"

In the end, Gu Tong and Ge You lay holding the big bowl, and sat on the wooden chair comfortably eating fried liver.

Pan Yang was carried back to the kitchen by Lu Chunze, staring at the cauldron and waiting for the second bowl.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the people in Bell and Drum Alley were bustling, not tourists, but mostly residents living in this area.

Qi An wrapped up the scarf and wore the gray woolen hat he bought together with Gu Tong. When Gu Tong saw that he was holding the bowl excitedly, he ran into the house, took out his own hat from the suitcase and put it on his ears. Pulled.

"What are you going to do?" Gu Tong asked Qi An excitedly, stepping on the threshold, at eye level with Qi An, shaking his body.Gu Tong feels that every day here is full of freshness, but this is just the tip of the iceberg of the smell of the New Year.

Qi An stood facing him, with his right hand hidden behind his back, for fear that he would fall over.Sure enough, it finally swayed into his arms, and the big bowl landed on the back of his head.

"There is a temple fair in Shinahai, I'll take you to see it." Qi An carried him off the ground with one hand, took his bowl and said, "Go and wash your hands, I'll leave in a while."

"Okay!" It was Pan Yang who answered the words: "Little Mei Tong, come and wash your hands with me, I'll get you hot water."

Gu Tong hopped on his heels and ran into the toilet one after the other. The two fought and pushed each other. They washed their hands for almost 10 minutes.

At most, there are large classes in kindergartens who have not yet graduated.

The old man followed in and joined in the fun.

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