like electricity

14.

On the day of the holiday, Jiang Shou got up from the bed at 04:30 in the morning.

The pale light in the bathroom illuminated the pale, bloodless face in the mirror.In the blink of an eye, he took a handful of cold water and poured it on his face, driving away the last bit of stubborn drowsiness.

He prepared all the things to be used for grave sweeping the night before, and put them in his schoolbag, which looked bulging from the outside, but it was not heavy in his hand, at least lighter than textbooks.

At 05:30, the city has not woken up from its lethargy, the streets are deserted, and even the street lights are still on.There were not many people on the first bus, so he picked a single seat by the window, leaned back, and stared blankly for half an hour with his eyes open.

He checked the route on his mobile phone, and he had to transfer two buses in the middle, across the entire city A.Except for the first bus where he was lucky enough to be able to sit, he had to stand for the rest of the trips, especially on the last section of the D28 road. He had to change his schoolbag to the front to avoid the things inside being crushed.

When we arrived at the destination, the sky outside was finally completely bright.Today's weather is not too good, it's almost nine o'clock and the sky is still gloomy. There are no shops in front of the cemetery, and there are not many people coming to the cemetery, but once it comes to Qingming Festival, many people will compete Great place to go.

Everyone else went with their families and companions, but he was the only one who looked very lonely.

The mountain road is still damp in the middle of the night, and the pines and cypresses along the way, which have been persecuted by the smoke and fire all the year round, are so thin that they seem to break if a strong wind blows.He found the familiar tombstone by memory and stopped.

"Grandpa, grandma, here I come."

The two old men in the black and white posthumous photos looked back at him quietly, with extremely serene expressions.

Knowing that it was impossible to get a response, he sighed, put down his schoolbag and started to take things out.

No one came for more than half a year, and the surrounding area of ​​the tomb was deserted.He swept away the accumulated dead branches and fallen leaves and floating dust, went to the side to fetch some water, and wiped the dusty tombstone clean.

After he finished these things, a dark-skinned man came up with a bucket.

The man pointed to the gold paint and brush in the bucket, and then pointed to the dim inscription on the tombstone, "Do you want to trace?"

"how much is it?"

After all, he was still a student and had no income of his own, and the pocket money he had saved was not much, and he spent more than half of it on shopping alone. If it was too expensive, he had no choice but to find another way.

The man looked him up and down, seeing that he didn't look rich, he grinned and showed a mouthful of smoky yellow teeth, "40, don't bargain."

He thought for a few seconds, then picked out two banknotes from his wallet and handed them over, "Excuse me."

"Got it."

After receiving the money, the man picked up the brush in the bucket and dipped it in paint, and traced all the big and small characters on the tombstone for him.

"Thank you."

After sending the man away, he bent down and placed the bought apples and biscuits on small plates.

His grandfather has bad teeth, so he likes to eat this kind of noodle apples, while his grandmother has high blood sugar, and was ordered by the doctor to avoid it. Usually, the most craving is this plain milk biscuit.

"I'm sorry, she has to work overtime temporarily today, and said that she will come over when she has time. I have no time except for the holiday, so I can only come here by myself."

He squatted in front of the tombstone, took out a large stack of yellow paper from his schoolbag, unwound the bundled strings, and stroked them through his hands.

"I'm living like that now, neither good nor bad. The school has started, and I just finished the exam the day before yesterday... Well, that's what you've been talking about. The best high school attached to University A in the province. I got admitted, and now I'm in The best class, if there are no accidents, Tsinghua University and Peking University will probably be fine. Thinking about it this way, I should be considered the kind of kid you can be proud of."

The lighter clicked, the fluffy yellow paper was licked by the tongue of flame, and it burned quickly.

He lowered his head, his long hair hanging down, unable to see the expression on his face clearly, "Grandpa, grandma, I still think from time to time, why did she give birth to me? If she hurts, I won't be in pain? I'm alive that is

If you want to drag all of you down, why don't you leave me outside to fend for myself, so that I don't have to think so much, and she and you can live a lot better. "

When he was young, other children called him a bastard and a motherless thing. He cried and went back to tell his grandparents that it was the first time that his grandma lost her temper so much and took him to the homes of those classmates to ask for explanations.

It was said that he got it, but no one wanted to approach him since that day. They all said quietly, your grandma is really scary, and I will get in trouble if I play with you.It would be a lie to say that he didn't feel uncomfortable, but when he thought of his grandparents wiping tears secretly, he told himself over and over again that he had grandparents and he didn't need these people to play with him.

Childhood was a relatively carefree period in his short life, but he always had to grow up and face reality.When he was twelve or thirteen years old, he overheard his relatives chatting in private. They said with sarcasm and pity that without him, his mother would not have found a divorced child like Xie Shun. Men, grandparents and grandparents don't spend most of their pensions on him. They live frugally and pick up other people's old clothes to wear. The house is so dilapidated that even they feel shabby.

In order to raise him, it is not easy for everyone, their lives are dragged down by him, so he is still not satisfied, always wanting something unrealistic - it is obvious that a child like him is very happy as long as he can live alright.

"Forget it, I shouldn't say such things, you will be upset."

He picked up the yellow paper, folded it from the middle, and threw it into the fire in front of him.

"Let's talk about something good. I have made friends. They are my deskmates. Don't worry. It should be true this time. After suffering a loss, I can tell whether they have good intentions. He helped me solve the problem of bullying me all the time. He even introduced me to his friends... They didn't dislike me, even I thought it was incredible, and many times I felt that I was out of place with them."

Thinking of Zhuo Shuang's unreasonable actions at that time, the corners of his mouth raised unconsciously—although this person did whatever he wanted, but in retrospect, this person has never done anything that would make him unhappy.

He stirred the fire, and the flames shot up half a person's height, the fire light illuminated his face, and it also scorched his forehead with a thin layer of beads of sweat.

The wind suddenly changed direction, blowing the smoke to where he was standing. He coughed twice, moved his feet, and switched to the other side.

"His name is also Zhuo Shuang, but I think it should be the same name. After all, how can there be such a coincidence in this world. And you said, that person is almost a year older than me, so it is impossible for him to be in the first year of high school now. "

He burned the yellow paper one by one and wiped off the scraps of paper on his hands, but he didn't stand up in a hurry.

There are often people wandering around the cemetery area stealing offerings during the peak period of this kind of tomb sweeping. A woman with a hat came to him and reached out to take the offerings in front of the tombstone, but was stopped when she reached out. .

"Don't move." Jiang Shou only said these two words, her black and white eyes coldly reflected the appearance of a woman.

The woman tried to quibble, "Everyone, leave it alone..."

"do not move."

Probably because she was still a little bit ashamed, knowing that it was not good to do such a thing in front of her family members, she withdrew her hand sullenly, and muttered a curse at him in a dialect he didn't understand, as if it was "crazy" or something bad words.

He ignored her and continued to tell the two old people in the photo about his life during this time.His life is actually very lackluster, with two points and one line, there is not much left except for study, but he still searches for the part that can be used to talk about it.

Speaking of which, he suddenly discovered that most of these were related to that guy named Zhuo Shuang.

The appearance of Zhuo Shuang was like a bright color that did not belong to this place suddenly appeared in a silent black and white silent film. No matter how long it lasted, at least this moment existed.

He stayed for a long time, and at noon he ate some discounted bread bought last night with mineral water—he didn't have high requirements for filling his stomach, he just ate whatever he wanted, as long as he wasn't hungry.

Seeing that it was getting late, he reluctantly stood up and patted

Dust on his pants, one last look back at the tombstone before heading down the hill.

"I'll come to see you next time during the holidays. If I don't go back, I won't be able to catch the last bus."

·

It was difficult to wait for the return bus. He waited at the station for almost half an hour before seeing the shadow of the D28 road.

It was already four or five o'clock in the afternoon when he returned to the urban area. When he was changing cars, he suddenly remembered to take a look at his mobile phone which was turned into silent mode.

It's okay if you don't look at it, but when you look at it, you find that there are seven or eight missed calls, all from the same person.

Does Zhuo Shuang have anything to do with him?What should we do at this time?He thought for a while, then called back hesitantly.

The call was connected quickly, and he called out tentatively, "Hello? Brother Zhuo, do you have anything to do with me?"

"You finally answered the phone."

I don't know if it was because of the bad signal, but Zhuo Shuang's voice was a little distorted, and her tone was more urgent than usual.

Thinking of those seven or eight missed calls, he didn't know what to say for a while, "I'm sorry, I was on the mountain just now, so I didn't pay attention."

Zhuo Shuang smiled shortly, "I guessed it, you don't look like the type who looks at your phone all the time. Are you still on silent?"

"...Yes." He said a little shyly, "What do you want?"

"Nothing. Where are you now?"

"I'm on Zhenhua Road."

Jiang Shou reported a place name, and Zhuo Shuang seemed to have said something to the voice next to him.

"Are you free later?"

Do you want to go back?His mother went out to work overtime today, Xie Shun seemed to be at home, thinking of what he would face when he went back, he instinctively resisted.

He can stay outside for a while, as long as he is not allowed to go back to do anything, so even if Zhuo Shuang doesn't call, he will find a place to kill some time.

"Yes." This time he answered quickly, "What are you going to do?"

Zhuo Shuang was very satisfied with his answer, "You said you were on Zhenhua Road, see if there are any landmarks nearby, and tell me if there are any. Oh yes, tell me what color you are wearing today clothing."

"Black down jacket, carrying a schoolbag."

"I can probably imagine. What else?"

Jiang Mou looked around and saw a shopping plaza, and said to Zhuo Shuang uncertainly, "Jiangtai Department Store, do you know? I'm right here in the plaza."

"let me see."

"it is good."

After a few seconds, Zhuo Shuang said, "I know where it is. You just stand there and wait for me. I will come to you in three to ten minutes at most."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Miao squeezed the phone, and it took a few minutes to digest Zhuo Shuang's last words.

Zhuo Shuang said he would come right away?Why?