thirteen letters

The sun is venomous, cicadas are screaming tiredly, and the wind blowing brings waves of heat.

He raised his hand to wipe off the sweat, carrying a bulging hiking bag, walked to the mailbox and pulled out a stack of advertisements that had been stuffed for an unknown amount of time, and a pale pink envelope fell down as he moved, he hesitated for a while with his head bowed, I still picked it up, stared at the sender's name for a long time, and finally threw it into the trash can beside me.

——"Since we are old and dead, we don't need to communicate with each other anymore."

The room wasn't much cooler, and the cold wind from the air conditioner barely cleared his mind.The phone indicator light on the coffee table flickered, reminding the owner that there was a phone message to be saved during the absence. He pressed a button casually and walked into the kitchen.

"Beep—a total of 3 phone messages."

He took out a warm orange mug, frowned and thought for a while, then threw it into the kitchen waste bin beside it.

"The messages will be played in order, please press 1 to skip, press 2 to listen again, press 3 to reply, and press pound key to finish."

After groping in the cupboard for a while, he took out another ice blue cup of the same style, and poured a cup of cold white tea that had been aged in this house for an unknown amount of time.

"First message, beep—"

"I'm Kuang Xia, call me when you come back, and make an appointment to get together." Listening to the capable female voice, she paused for a few seconds, then continued, "That... I have received it."

After that, there was another long silence, which was cut off with only the sentence "Let's talk again at that time".

"Second message, beep—"

"Master Fu, Master Fu, I'm Tuza. The manuscript you submitted to us last time has passed the review. Please contact us as soon as possible to discuss. My number is 158xxxxxxxx. I'm waiting for the good news. Goodbye!"

After drinking the cup of cold water, he picked up the kettle and wanted to pour the boiled water into the cup.

"Third message, beep—"

"Rui Bai... I'm getting married..."

"Pa——" the cup in his hand shattered on the ground, and his left hand holding the cup was flushed. After putting the kettle back to its original position, he quickly turned on the faucet to the maximum, letting cold water pour on his red left hand. The third message was overwritten, and when the left hand finally got better, the message had already been posted.

He lowered his eyes and stood in front of the sink for a long time before remembering to sweep away the debris and water stains, without taking another look at the warm orange mug in the kitchen waste bin and the ice blue mug covering it debris.

——"It's over, it's over."

The whole bedroom has a deserted atmosphere. The walls are clean and milky white. There is a double bed with dark blue and light blue sheets. One side of the bed is a white geometric floor lamp, and the other side is a pile of draft paper and books on the floor. It is a white bookshelf full of books and notebooks. There is a notebook with a boot interface on the desk. There is a withered blue rose in a white vase. The curtains are dark blue. Looking through the open cabinet door, there are only a few clothes inside.

He wore a bath towel around his waist, wiped his wet hair with the towel in his hand, sat on the double bed, took out his mobile phone, pressed a series of numbers, and turned on the speakerphone.

"Are you back?" It was Kuang Xia.

He responded briefly, allowing Kuang Xia to change his image of a capable elite and babble like an old lady.

"I'll go to your house tomorrow, get together, chat, I'll buy vegetables, and you cook."

"Last week, Tu Za, the editor in charge of your notebook, called me, and tomorrow we will have a detailed chat and finalize it with there."

"I feel that there are signs of illness recently, so take advantage of these two days to do everything that needs to be done."

He finally responded: "Forgot to take medicine again?"

"No..." Kuang Xia was silent for a moment, "That person sent me a wedding invitation last time, you should have seen it too. Are you going when the time comes? If so..."

"No, I didn't see it," he answered quickly.

The two sides fell silent.

"Don't mention any news about that person."

"it is good."

—— "Please, don't haunt me anymore."

The sun had already set, and the room was dark except for the light from the computer screen.

He was sitting in front of the desk, and there was a stack of hospital checklists on the desk. It was not clear what was written on it, but he looked a little sad.

The picture that stopped at that action was broken by the sudden ringtone of the mobile phone.

"Hello."

"Yes, I'm Fu Ruibai."

It was a vague phone call, but after he clarified his identity, the other person suddenly shouted excitedly: "Ah, Mr. Fu! Hello, Mr. Fu, I am one of your little fans!"

"Well, I just came back today and heard your message."

"It's all right, last time I contacted Teacher Lie, the teacher told me about your situation, and our publishing house also listed some conditions in a small way, just waiting to show the teacher to you."

"Thank you, you can send it to my email, and I'll check it out tonight."

"Okay, Mr. Fu. Then please give us a reply within these two days, so that we can make revisions. There is still a lot of work to do later."

"Well, thank you."

"You're welcome, teacher, can you give me an autograph? Haha, I really like you, teacher."

"no problem."

"Okay, then the teacher will say goodbye first, remember to check the mailbox."

——"As Kuang Xia said, do everything that needs to be done."