Rust II

The air became extremely quiet in an instant.

Xu Xin turned his face away, a hot current rushed through his chest following the blurting of these words.

Every word Lin An uttered was like hot oil meeting cold water for the first time, setting off layers of shock waves in the bottom of his heart one after another, almost swallowing the remaining rationality.

He tried his best to stay awake and closed his eyes. After a long time, he opened them again. He looked at the shadow cast by the coffee table on the ground expressionlessly, and said in a tone that managed to regain his composure: "...the anti-inflammatory drugs are running out. , I’ll go downstairs to buy some and bring them up.”

After speaking, he got up without hesitation and walked towards the door.

The door was opened behind him, and after a brief pause, it was slammed shut again.

Lin An was awakened by the sound of a tap, his eyes fell on the table with a dazed look, and he just opened the seal and only used less than one-tenth of the ointment, and his eyes gradually dimmed.

The excuses to avoid are too poor, so naturally there is no need to use actions to explain and practice them.

Xu Xin never came back.

Lin An sat blankly on the sofa, and waited for 10 minutes, 10 minutes, until the ringtone set on the mobile phone to remind the inspection of the self-study class in the afternoon suddenly rang, and then moved his somewhat stiff palm, and the next moment, it was the shoulder , Neck, followed by slightly numb back, legs and feet.

He stood up, silently put away the wound medicine and cotton swabs on the coffee table, raised his hand and took a few paper towels to carefully wipe off the water splashed on the glass, and walked into the bathroom with the washbasin.

A distressed face was reflected in the mirror. Lin An looked at the pair of eyes in the mirror that looked abnormally empty due to fatigue and loss for a moment. After a shy smile, he lowered his face and poured all the remaining water in the basin into the pool. middle.

At 4:15 p.m., the elevated section connecting the east and west districts was occupied by a line of vehicles of various colors, and they separated and gathered at different intersections along the way.

The National Day holiday passed by in the blink of an eye, and the tide started quietly.

Xu Xin drove straight forward in the traffic flow of different shapes and colors. The originally sunny sky suddenly turned overcast, and the clouds like lead ash densely pressed down, gathering the sky light bit by bit. Separated, a dazzling light leaked out.

The chilly autumn wind chased the speeding wheels, clung to the window sill, and hit him. The squirming in Xu Xin's heart, which had never been completely extinguished, burned more and more vigorously in this gust of wind, like a wildfire that had gained momentum.

The rain suddenly fell down.

The elevated exit was left behind, the wiper blades were mechanically swinging back and forth, and the street scenes along the road were constantly alternating between clear and blurred.The number of passers-by gradually increased. They either stood under the window to avoid the sudden heavy rain, or rushed to the side of the road with their bags and clothes on their backs, vying for the rental cars that were changing shifts.

The car stuck in the downtown area was struggling to move forward slowly, stop and go, and anxious inquiries came from the ear: "Master, do you want to go to Fudong Road?"

"No, handover."

"Hey, do me a favor, it's raining so hard, and the wind is so strong without an umbrella, my child can't stand it, please help me, I'll pay you more for gas!"

"...Okay, it's blocked horizontally and vertically, and I don't think it will be able to move for a while, so just bring one more."

"Hey thank you thank you!"

The inquirer breathed a sigh of relief, turned around to greet his wife and children who were still waiting under the tree branch, and urged, "Come here, come here, get in the car!" The rushing mother and son swept over, but saw in the rain, a thin boy who was still a teenager was being held by his mother, staggering all the way, probably because he was unwell, the other party lowered his head, his body His clothes and hair were also wet, and he was led by his mother with a worried face, and ran to the taxi with a slight stagger, leaned over and got in.

The door of the car was closed, and another round of green lights happened to be turned on. Amidst the sound of the whistle one after another, the long-lost memories and the traffic flow that finally came alive struggled to wake up in the mind.

On the same rainy day, water droplets hit the empty road, and a light smoke faintly floated up.Under the crumbling bus stop sign, the man was shivering and drenched. The umbrella was clearly in his hand, but he still just hung his head, letting the rain flow down the top of the hole, staining his entire back.

He couldn't see it, holding the other party and running all the way on the deserted road, cold wind, cold rain, only the shoulders and arms of the two of them were hot when they were leaning against each other.

The rapid breathing is still in the ears, and the shy eyes are still in front of the eyes.

Xu Xin grasped the steering wheel and galloped along the gradually wider and smoother outer ring road. A pair of eyes suddenly floated from the bottom of his heart and gradually became clear. They looked at him again and again. In the dark rainy night, in the Under the dim light, while laughing and laughing, and parting in bleakness.Even just over half an hour ago, she was covered in bloodshot eyes, but she still looked at herself tenderly and firmly.

So even the soft voice and expression of the person who belonged to that person were dragged out of the dusty memory together.

A cigarette stick was stuffed into his mouth and his eyes filled with tears, but he endured it for half a month before stammering in fear and asking for his own opinion: Brother Xu, can I, can I stop smoking?

After learning a set of boxing for more than ten days, he was slapped on the back by Chen Jialou's surprise attack. He fell to the ground without the slightest vigilance, and then asked: Fighting, can I... can I not learn?

Ding Hua helped him find a beautiful girl from the workshop next door, and coaxed him to go for a date. He pretended that it would be a shame and a shame if he couldn't get along with them, and he taught him two tricks to strike up a conversation, while he stood aside. Watching the excitement, watching Ding Hua chuckle and pick up the man's chin, he blew a hooligan whistle at him like a bully, yo, where is the girl from, sue brother, which workshop is it?What is your name?Another day, my brother will take you out to have some fun.The man blushed with embarrassment, he waved his hands again and again, and couldn't lift his head after taking a step back. Ding Hua laughed happily, but he couldn't help but look at the other person in a daze.

In the end, of course, he didn't succeed in learning. Even when he was in front of the other girl, he became the most dull and clumsy one, unable to lift his head, open his mouth, and couldn't even pronounce a complete word.

After getting along for more than half a year, all kinds of "bad habits" of my own have not been touched by the other party, but my eyes, since I don't know when, have stuck to that person, and I can't take it back.

When the car drove into the bamboo garden and stopped at the entrance of the villa, the rain had almost stopped, and the two red maple trees outside the courtyard were shaking their heads in the wind. Xu Xin stared at the bright and eye-catching colors for a while, then stretched out his hand and got out of the car.

The wind wrapped in a few sporadic drops of rain was extremely cold, but Xu Xin didn't notice it at all. He stood at the door for a while, stared at the direction of the second floor of the villa in the hospital for a while, and then slammed the car door and walked in.

Xu Yuan was sitting at the dining table in the side hall eating dinner. When she heard the noise, she immediately put down the bowl and chopsticks and rushed out, "Uncle, are you back? How is Mr. Lin?"

Xu Xin stood in front of the sofa with his back to her. Hearing that he was about to take off his coat, he paused, frowned and said in a deep voice, "He's fine."

"Oh..." Xu Yuan agreed, but stood still. Xu Xin noticed it, threw the suit behind the armrest of the sofa and turned around. I couldn't help but wrinkled again, "What's wrong? What else is there?"

Xu Yuan was taken aback by his gloomy face, and quickly closed her eyes that were lingering on the other party, looking around, and said dryly, "No, no!" Her intuition told her that her uncle was in a very bad mood right now. Well, her face is covered with clouds, and her eyes are even more frighteningly bright. In the past, when she came back with a report card full of red lights, she had never seen the other party show such an expression. According to her years of experience, At this time, Xu Xin is better off making little trouble, so he hastened to make a 36 plan, and patted his ass and slipped away.

But the doubts in my heart became deeper and deeper. I could hear Xu Xin's "turn around" on the phone before, but I didn't expect that the direction of this "turn around" was really her. Glory to the injured Mr. Lin.

This is strange, as far as she knows, her uncle and her teacher Lin only had a meal together, right?Besides, the main purpose of that meal was to attack her.What's more, the only thing left is to sign the home-school contact book or various test papers, big and small. Is it possible that this can also lead to some "deep relationship"?How could she tell her uncle to rush back as soon as he heard the news that the other party was injured?If her uncle had such love, her grandma would have "walked around her knees" with a bunch of younger brothers and sisters!

Xu Yuan chewed her food, sat in a chair and thought hard for a long time, she didn't feel that there was anything wrong with her metaphor, until she faintly heard the sound of the back door of the villa, followed by Aunt Yuan's laughing voice from outside, "Sir, you're back? Have you eaten yet? Would you like to come in and eat some more? I just made your favorite spicy fish head today."

"...No, I'll go up after a while."

"Oh, oh, good. Then I will go to work first."

Xu Yuan listened carefully with her ears pricked up. After a few words, she couldn't help biting her chopsticks and curling her mouth: Right.This is just like the uncle I know on weekdays, who is reticent and unreasonable, no matter how enthusiastic he is, he will basically only have a cool face that is as cold as ice.

After a while, Xu Xin really went upstairs as he said a few minutes ago.

Xu Yuan ate a few mouthfuls casually, greeted Aunt Yuan who was still busy outside, and followed after her.

The door of the study was closed in sight, Xu Yuan walked over lightly, with her ear pressed against the door, trying to find out what was going on inside, but after listening for a long time, she heard nothing except her own panting.

Speechlessly, she stared at the door in front of her for a few moments, turned back to her room depressedly, took out an English paper from her bag, and started copying the answers she asked for from her deskmate.

After copying English and math, after copying math and copying material and life, when the stack of papers piled up like a mountain was copied, the time was almost approaching ten o'clock in the evening.

The holiday homework was finally "completed" as scheduled. Xu Yuan rubbed her sore shoulders and hands. Questions about Xu Xin and Lin An popped up again in her mind. She stared thoughtfully at the textbooks spread out on the table. After a while, there was a flash of light in his eyes, and he turned around and turned out the crumpled home-school contact book from his bag, then held it in his hand and walked to the door of the study at the other end of the corridor.

"Uncle, sign."

Xu Xin was sitting in front of the desk, holding a document and looking at it, without raising his head when he heard the sound, he took the pen and was about to sign his name in the past read column, but just as he was about to write, Xu Yuan suddenly stretched out a finger , pointed to the blank area directly below, "Oh, no, sign here and sign here." As he spoke, he deliberately clicked on a line of handsome handwriting in the upper part of the box, and said: "See, this Our homeroom teacher specially wrote a holiday message before the National Day, didn’t you always teach me to respect teachers, let’s also express our hearts and respond with something, it’s reciprocal.”

After Xu Yuan finished her nonsense in a serious manner, she rolled her eyes and began to secretly observe Xu Xin's expression.

The other party glanced at the line without any reaction, and after a short pause, his eyes really stayed on Lin An's signature at the end.

Xu Yuan smiled from the bottom of her heart, hit the snake with the stick and moved forward a little, pretending to be casual and took the opportunity to ask: "Hey, uncle, you went to see Teacher Lin in the afternoon, did he tell you anything? Well, he Is your injury okay?"

Xu Xin stared at the contact book, but did not answer.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan put her elbows on the table, and continued to inquire: "Uncle cough, why are you so nervous when you hear about Teacher Lin being beaten this afternoon?" She secretly glanced at Xu Xin's face With a glance, "...you two...do you know each other?"

Xu News said that the hand resting on the table moved imperceptibly. Two seconds later, he took a pen and signed his name in the signature column, then closed the book and pushed it back to Xu who was still looking at him curiously. Yuan, said with a cold face: "Go to sleep."

"Damn it, it's only ten o'clock!"

Xu Xin looked up at her.

Xu Yuan curled her lips, and put away the contact book, "Okay, I'll sleep." After saying that, she turned her back and reluctantly walked out the door, muttering: "I don't think it's strange I asked a few more questions, what is there to hide, cut, I will ask Brother Ding later..."

Xu Yuan's figure finally disappeared behind the door. Xu Xin sat quietly for a while facing the direction she left, and suddenly raised his wrist, and the pen between his fingers fell on the table in response, and the black pen body rolled forward along the inertia After a few clicks, it finally stopped next to the mobile phone on the right side of the file bag.

Xu Xin's eyes fell on the pitch-black screen. After a while, his eyes moved slightly, and he hesitated and stretched out a hand.

The inbox was displayed in front of my eyes again, the person's name was still hanging on the top of the screen, and the time of the latest letter was still at [-]:[-] am.Xu Xin stared at the notification prompt for a while, then pressed the confirmation button and clicked in.

Every word and sentence from the other party spread out in sight again.He slowly looked at one message after another, and finally his eyes stayed on the last message he received in the middle of the night last night for a long time in silence.

Time passed minute by minute in this gaze, Xu Xin looked at it, the indifference on his face gradually broke, and then it was quickly restrained.

Occasionally, there was the sound of rain outside the window, loud and small.

Occasionally, there are car lights passing by outside the courtyard wall, suddenly far away and now near.

The long and silent night just passed away in a restless restlessness.

The first working day after the holidays comes quickly and quietly.

After the alarm clock rang beside her pillow for the third time, Xu Yuan finally lifted the quilt sleepily and sat up on the bed.

After simply dressing and washing, she went downstairs in desperation and despair.

The clock in the living room on the first floor is showing the current time. It’s not even six o’clock, and the sky is still dark. It’s so gray that people feel paralyzed when they look at it. They wish they could just jump back on the bed and continue to sleep soundly. .

As if she had understood her inner thoughts, a few faint sounds came from the kitchen. Xu Yuan stared in that direction, pressed the headlight switch at hand, pulled her shoes and walked around the stairs. past.

Unexpectedly, before they reached the place, they heard Aunt Yuan's extraordinarily energetic voice coming from inside.

"Sir, do you want to fry a few pieces of this cake for you too? Kexiang, I went to the vegetable market to buy it early in the morning. Miss usually likes it best."

"No need." Xu Xin's voice of refusal followed closely.

When Xu Yuan heard it, she became sober. She couldn't help but glanced back at the time to confirm that she was right. Then she quickly smoothed out two messy hairs, and walked into the small kitchen pretending to be obedient. sat down.

"Morning, uncle."

She took the porridge that had been put aside and waited for it to cool, and after glancing at Xu Xin's face, she greeted with a smile: "Why do you get up so early today? Didn't you always wait for Uncle Wang to deliver me back before?" Why don't you go out again?"

Xu Xin glanced at her, didn't respond, just lowered his head and took another sip of porridge.

Xu Yuan suddenly felt a little nervous, and quickly turned her head to look at Aunt Yuan with a questioning look, but saw that the other party was also confused, so she had to turn her face away, silently picked up the bowl, and secretly observed the strangely silent person sitting across from her. Xu Xinlai.

Unexpectedly, when she cast her eyes furtively for the nth time, the other party suddenly put down the bowl and chopsticks, raised his eyes to look at her, and said a few words that were as effective as a thunderbolt from the blue: "Today I will take you to School."

Xu Yuan almost choked on her trachea after taking a mouthful of porridge, she stared at Xu Xin who looked normal in disbelief, "Ah? Why, why..."

Xu Xin only glanced at her, didn't answer, quickly settled the rest of the breakfast and left.

Xu Yuan was heartbroken, and hurriedly stuffed a few mouthfuls of porridge into her mouth, took a piece of cake from the table, and went out obediently. Xu Xin had already picked up the car from the garage and was parked. Waiting for her outside the courtyard gate, saw her come out of the gate looking around, lowered the window and said, "Get in the car."

It was just dawn, and the disheveled look was exactly the same as that of Xu Yuan who was sitting in the back seat silently. Xu Xin was as silent as before at the dinner table. But every time, he was silently blocked by the other party's cold breath.

The moment in the carriage was so quiet that people felt extremely uncomfortable. Xu Yuan played with her mobile phone boredly for a while, then turned her head to look at the unclear street scene outside the car window, and suddenly turned the corner and passed Yongning intersection. Shouted: "Hey, stop!"

Xu Xin stopped the car according to his words, Xu Yuan realized that she was not in Xiao Wang's or Ding Hua's car today, and she was a little embarrassed, so she immediately returned to a gentle and obedient smile, and pointed towards the corner of the street. He said, "I'll go down and buy a steamed stuffed bun..."

Xu Xin glanced in the direction of the earlier shop, and parked the car on the side of the road.

Xu Yuan got off the car with a smile on her face, and came back 2 minutes later with a lot of things in her hand, a piece of glutinous rice cake, a bun, and a peeled meat dumpling. Seeing Xu Xin looking back at her, she handed a bun with a smile In the past, please say: "Uncle, I can't eat it, it's still hot."

Xu Xin was startled, staring at the slightly steaming steamed stuffed bun that was handed to him, and shook his head.

Xu Yuan withdrew her hand, stuffed the glutinous rice cake into the bag, opened her mouth and took a bite of the bun, took two bites, then opened the bag and took a bite of the zongzi.

Xu Xin waited for her to finish eating, and asked, "Are you full at home?"

Xu Yuan took out a tissue to wipe her mouth, and said contentedly, "It's okay, the food at the stall at this intersection is very delicious. I used to come down here every day to buy something to satisfy my hunger. I'm used to it. By the way, Uncle Ding and Uncle Xiao Wang also like it very much, Uncle, it would be a pity if you didn't try it just now."

Xu Xin fell silent again for a while, Xu Yuan quickly shut up, rolled her eyes at herself who couldn't help talking too much, silently found a bottle of water from her bag, took a couple of sips of water for herself, took out her mobile phone and started playing Tetris.

It wasn't until we were approaching Fudong Road that Xu Xin's voice came from the front again, asking: "What classes do you have this morning?"

Xu Yuan was playing vigorously. At first, she thought it was her hallucination. After a few seconds, she replied: "Well, this morning, it seems that there is nothing interesting. There are two math lessons and one English lesson. Oh yes, there should be a Chinese lesson at the end. " Actually Xu Yuan would not remember the daily class schedule, but at this moment she was asked out of the blue, just to pretend to be good and make nonsense.

Unexpectedly, Xu Xin's question didn't stop there. After a pause, he said again: "Your teacher Lin..."

When Xu Yuan heard that it was about Lin An, she finally raised her head from the game, sat up straight and leaned forward, "What?"

Xu Xin paused again, until he stopped the car in front of the traffic light, coughed and continued to ask; "... When do your homeroom teachers usually arrive at school?"

Xu Yuan was taken aback, "No, I don't know... He was usually there when I got to work, but today we go out early, maybe... we can run into each other?"

As Xu Yuan spoke, she secretly glanced at Xu Xin's expression.The other party's brows were tightly furrowed, and it took a long time before he let out a low "hmm", and then started the car again during the change of the indicator light, and drove towards the Bo'ai Road in front of X Zhongmen's gate.

Xu Yuan was puzzled by Xu Xin's reaction. She felt that Xu Xin had been very weird for the past two days, but the reason was something that Monk Zhang Er couldn't figure out.

The car soon stopped opposite the main entrance of X Middle School. It was less than 7 o'clock, and there were almost no people at the school gate except for the pancake stand in the alley.Xu Yuan got out of the car, walked slowly into the majestic gate of X Central, bypassed the bulletin board, and went up to one of the teaching buildings. After climbing up to the fourth floor and walking to the place where her class was, suddenly something happened. Turning his head, he leaned on the railing of the corridor and looked towards the school gate not far away.

Under the gradually rising sun, Xu Xin's silver-gray car was still parked in the same place without moving at all.

Why don't you go...

Xu Yuan muttered, then thought of the other party's inexplicable question before, and couldn't help but tremble in her heart: Damn, I couldn't be waiting for Teacher Lin, no, I haven't done anything recently, behave well , It is simply the representative of outstanding students, and it can be called a model in X!

She glanced in the direction of Xu Xinche in doubt, and walked into the gate of Class 7 full of apprehension. Ten minutes later, students came in one after another. Twenty minutes later, the English teacher also came to the class to watch the morning reading .

Xu Yuan played with the textbook on her seat for a while, got up halfway and went out to the bathroom through the back door, and when she came back, she took a look out of the corridor, but she didn't expect that this look almost made her feel weak That's it - Xu Xin's car is still parked at the door!

What's happening here?

Xu Yuan hurried back to the classroom, took out the mobile phone hidden in the desk, and quietly sent a text message to the other party: Uncle, why didn't you leave?

A few seconds later, I asked again: Don't you go to work today? ?

Xu Xin did not return.

So Xu Yuan's right eyelid began to twitch wildly.

After more than 40 minutes of morning reading in such a state of anxiety, the music of the flag-raising ceremony rang on the radio.She tremblingly followed the team downstairs, turned her head and looked towards the school gate when she walked around the bulletin board, and when she saw Xu Xin's car finally disappeared, she breathed a sigh of relief and resumed her swaggering and loose posture.

But not long after being happy, the mood that had just been relieved was crushed by a "bad news" in the Chinese class half an hour later. Jiang Yuefang, who was wearing a pair of glasses and looked serious, stood on the podium, puzzled by the following The students in Class 7 announced: Your Teacher Lin is sick and has a high fever, so you cannot attend classes at school, so I will temporarily take over the Chinese class and the head teacher of Class 7 today.

Without the restraint of Lin An, the "Ding Hai Shen Zhen", Xu Yuan began to regard all kinds of rules as air again. From sleeping in the sun to sunset in the west mountain, the whole person was in awe, even though she was always sitting in the seat, it was not bad. He was safe and didn't cause any trouble, but his real state was no different from skipping class.Fortunately, all the teachers and students of X Middle School have long been accustomed to her state. After spending the first working day after the long vacation in peace, they left X Middle School after school and work.

The person who was picked up by Xiao Wang at night, Xu Yuan had a deep memory of Xu Xin's strange behavior in the morning, felt a little strange not seeing him at this time, and asked after getting in the car, "Where's my uncle?"

Xiao Wang replied: "Sir is still in the company."

"Oh." Xu Yuan responded, and after waiting, she couldn't help leaning on the back of the front seat, lowered her voice and asked mysteriously: "Hey, Uncle Wang, has my uncle recently... been stimulated by something? Have you I don't think he... tsk, what should I say, is there something wrong with him?"

Xiao Wang was amused by her dignified expression, and asked her while paying attention to the road conditions: "Why do you ask so suddenly?"

Xu Yuan waved her hand, put on a gesture of "you don't understand" and said: "Let's just say this morning, my uncle actually sent me to class in person. Damn, I was scared. You said that although I was absent from work since I was a child Great, but at least I went to school a thousand or eight hundred times. Have you ever seen him send me off? It made me feel terrified to this day. Forget it, but he still refused to leave at the school gate in the morning... I'll go, no Bewitched? Or is the company about to go bankrupt due to the recent downturn? Or is it just falling in love!"

Xu Yuan patted her thigh and guessed wildly.Xiao Wang finally couldn't help laughing out loud, glanced at her in the rearview mirror, and said, "Sir, I just want to care about you more."

Xu Yuan curled her lips full of disdain, "Puuu, if you really care about me, it would be true to return the pocket money that was deducted from me a few days ago. Hmph, my uncle, there must be something on my mind this time!"

Xu Yuan's words were quickly verified at night.

After dinner as usual, after quickly copying homework for each subject, she took the home-school contact book and knocked on the door of the study room at the end of the corridor.Xu Xin was standing in front of the window, looking at something out of the dark window.After hearing the voice, he only answered absent-mindedly: "Come in."

Xu Yuan consciously turned to the latest page of the contact book, handed it along with a pen, and said with a smile like every night before: "Uncle, please sign."

Xu Xin let out a "hmm", reached out to take it, then turned and returned to the desk.However, just as he was about to write, his eyes suddenly stopped on the reply column of the last homeroom teacher's review.

There, for some reason, the character "Lin" that was supposed to appear in elegant handwriting was replaced by another vigorous and powerful character "Jiang".

Xu Xin stared at this word for a while, and gradually frowned.

Xu Yuan stood beside him, observing him all the time, seeing that he didn't move at this moment, she took the initiative to explain: "Mr. Lin didn't come today, it was Jiang Yuefang who took over the class."

Xu Xin still didn't move, he fixedly looked at the contact book spread out in front of him, his whole body seemed to be frozen, until Xu Yuan couldn't help but waved his hand in front of his eyes, and called him, "Uncle, what's the matter with you? Then he suddenly came back to his senses, quickly signed the read column, and asked pretending to be meaningless: "...why didn't you come?"

Xu Yuan put away the notebook, sighed and replied, "It is said that she is sick and has a fever, so she asked for leave."

Xu Xinxu's body leaning against the back of the chair stiffened slightly, and then forced himself to relax.

Xu Yuan didn't notice it, and then said: "I sent him a message at noon to express my condolences, but I haven't received a reply. I guess I didn't see it. Uncle, do you think Mr. Lin is like yesterday? The beating I received was related to it... You don’t know, I was so angry at the time, I kindly asked you to help him find out which grandson did it, but he still refused to let me tell you, you said Counseling or not? If it wasn't for his good eyesight, I would..."

Xu Yuan was talking excitedly, but the words hadn't finished yet, the unusually quiet Xu Xin suddenly stood up from the table, then took the car keys from the side, and walked out the door.

Xu Yuan was startled, and hurriedly followed her and asked, "Hey, uncle, where are you going so late?"

Xu Xin's figure stopped at the stairs, and after a few seconds, Fang whispered two words: "Company."

The sound of a car starting soon came from the yard. Under the bright moonlight, the wheels rolled over the fallen leaves blown by the wind, and they galloped towards the gate of the bamboo garden.

Almost as soon as Xu Xin drove the car onto Yongning Road, he began to regret that he lost control again.

Xu Yuan's words kept circling in her mind, intertwined with the pale face of the man she saw the day before, and flashed before her eyes.

The car was running on the outer ring road, but in the end it did not enter the Feilong Road where the elevated crossing was located. Just like my own increasingly weak rationality, I still did not give up and struggled in vain, unwilling to enter the involuntary, so-called A vortex of desire.

More than ten minutes later, Xu Xin parked the car at the door of the early shop that he passed by when he sent Xu Yuan to school in the morning. Every day that I walked, laughed, and ran on this road years ago also faded away from the old dust and was stained with new colors.

Xu Xin looked at the already unrecognizable intersection through the window for a while, and suddenly smiled briefly. The next second, he lowered the window again, and took a deep breath facing the cold night outside.

A familiar yet inexplicable emotion entangled him again.

Xu Xin didn't even know when cracks appeared in the shell of his armor that he thought was cold enough, so that his gaze, mind, and even the long-lost and should-be throbbing were also gone. Breaking out of the ground again, it is difficult to stop.

Maybe it started from the man's red-eyed confession, maybe it started from the small but steamy kitchen, or maybe it was by the lake in the abandoned garden, on a drunken night, when I accidentally picked up the man's left behind. The moment of the key in the car seat.

More likely, since I said that sentence to Chen Jianliang at the dinner half a year ago, moved that idea, and tried my best to transfer him back to City C, everything has already been doomed. It is nothing more than throwing oneself into the trap and repeating the same mistakes.

Suddenly a whistle sounded from behind the car, and someone poked his face out of the window and yelled at the car blocking the alley in front: "Hey, the one in front, can you go? If you don't go, go aside, don't block the road."

Xu Xin rose to the car window, turned around, and drove towards the brightly lit Yongning Avenue not far away.

Five minutes later, the elevated entrance appeared far away in sight.

After getting off the elevated road, we drove for less than 10 minutes to Fudong Road, and another 10 minutes, we entered the quiet Huaide Road in front of Cuifangyuan.

By the time I stopped in front of the familiar apartment building, it was almost 11 o'clock in the evening.

Xu Xin turned off the engine, sat in the car for a while, took the mobile phone and found the person's number in the address book, stared at the name of the person that appeared on the screen for a while, and sent a message.

Lin An didn't reply, Xu Xin waited, remembered what Xu Yuan said earlier, exited the mailbox again, and directly dialed the other party's number, but even after calling several times, he was not connected.

A faint doubt floated in Xu Xin's heart. He opened the car door and got out of the car. He looked up at the window where Lin An lived. He saw that it was pitch black behind the closed curtains, and there was no light shining through it.

Xu Xin frowned, closed the car door and went upstairs.

The doorbell rang, once, with no response, and again, still nothing.One after another, there is no answer in it.

Doubts and worries lurking in his heart gradually emerged from the eyebrows that were getting closer and closer together. Xu Xin dialed Lin An's number again. While waiting, the notification tone in the receiver changed from no answer to shutdown.He hung up immediately, and dialed the landline again. There was a faint ringtone of a call in the living room, but it was also hung up automatically, and no one picked it up.

It was already past 11 o'clock. Although the corridor was brightly lit, the night outside the building was so heavy that it seemed to swallow people up at any time.

Lin An's sudden lack of response amplified Xu Xin's anxiety virtually. He walked back and forth in the aisle for two steps, then took out his cell phone and dialed Chen Jianliang's number.

"Did Lin An contact you today?"

Chen Jianliang heard Xu Xinxin's urgent voice from the other end, he was stunned for a moment, and asked inexplicably, "Oh... oh, Mr. Xu, what's the matter?"

Xu Xin pinched the bridge of his nose, tried his best to suppress the irritability in his heart, frowned and said, "Is there?"

Chen Jianliang obviously just fell asleep, and his voice was still nasal. He seemed to realize something because of the faint anger in Xu Xinyu's voice, so he quickly got up quietly, avoided the balcony and whispered back: "He asked for leave this morning. He said he was not feeling well and had a fever, so he had to go to the hospital for a check-up, and I approved it, what's the matter, did something happen?"

The uneasiness and anxiety surging in Xu Xin's heart completely burst after hearing these words.

"What hospital? Do you know?"

"People, People's Hospital."

Xu Xin didn't ask any more questions, hung up the phone, turned around and went downstairs.

The man had a fever and wounds on his body, but he didn't return late at night, and there was no news. All these abnormal phenomena seemed to be ominous signs. They each pulled the thread to weave a huge but invisible net. , tightly covering every nerve in Xu Xin's body.

So all the hesitation and resentment disappeared, and everything seemed to return to the original point in an instant. In the silent corridor, there were only hurried footsteps that could not be concealed, and in the chest, there was only one heart that was beating crazily. .

"Ding Hua, contact Wang Ke and ask him to find a way to find out if there was anything on Huaide Road at the gate of X Central between 12:1 and [-]:[-] yesterday..."

After going down two flights of stairs, Xu Xin called Xiao Ding again, but before the voice finished, he saw a familiar thin figure at the exit of the corridor facing away from him, standing blankly at the place where he stopped. Before getting off the car.

Xu Xin paused. He looked at the person in front of him who turned around after hearing the noise. The boulder in his heart fell to the ground, but immediately afterward, he was overwhelmed by another burst of anger.