【Mi Ying】that side

I thought that the experience of the first day in the town was ridiculous enough, but it was still too naive.

Arthur Kirkland stood in front of the gate of the police station. Facing the two "kind" colleagues who sprinkled his head and body with colorful fireworks and confetti, he looked embarrassed and remained silent.

His new job, to be precise, his first job after leaving the police academy, is the policeman of this small town.

In order to make a good impression on his colleagues, Arthur got up early in the morning to wash and get ready.When he was going out, he met the apartment manager who was walking at the door early in the morning, and the other party carefully drew a simple map for him, so Arthur was able to come to the police station smoothly, and also included the iconic places on the road record.

To his surprise, this small town is indeed a small town worthy of the name.He deliberately went out an hour earlier, but arrived at the new work site in only about 20 minutes on foot.

He waited and watched at the door for a while, straightened his appearance, showed an elegant and decent smile, and then strode into the police station.As he approached the door, he vaguely heard the voices of men and women talking, and when he was about to greet the people inside with a smile, he was greeted with a warm baptism of colorful fireworks and confetti: "Welcome new colleague Arthur Kirkland!"

Arthur's face seemed to be covered with a layer of frost, and his heart fell into a state of shouting again: What is going on with the people in this small town!

This new workplace fit the small town's specifications.The facade of the police station is not big, and the tiled space can almost see the whole pattern at a glance: the service desk, several desks for police officers, a captain's office, an interrogation room and two detention rooms. See more settings.

His boisterous fellow police officers include Elizabeth Hedrewig, a Hungarian woman, Matthew Williams from Canada, and the only Swiss here not involved in the farce, Vaciu Zwingli, who is also a member of the police department. Responsible and Captain.

After Elizabeth briefly introduced him to the internal structure of the police station, she handed Arthur's uniform to him, and added: "We also have colleagues on the night shift, a German police officer Ludwig, and another Turkish police officer. Sadiq Adnan. You can usually see them before you leave at night. If there is a special emergency during the day, you can also call them for reinforcements."

Arthur couldn't help being taken aback, the composition of the police station is quite diverse.The Swiss captain looked very serious and capable, but the other personnel gave people a feeling of insufficient deterrence. He couldn't help asking: "What is a special emergency?"

"It's when there are security disputes that we can't mediate." Matthew answered while handing Arthur a cup of black tea, and stretched out his hand to sweep away some colored paper scraps on his body.

Arthur smiled gratefully at him, only feeling that the gentleness of the Canadian in front of him was very comfortable and strangely familiar.It even resembles that American—Alfred F. Jones.

But at this moment, he has something more to care about than this sense of familiarity: "Our duty is to resolve all security disputes, right?"

Elizabeth held her chin and looked at him: "So you are really an outsider, Arthur." The sassy young woman called the British by his first name, "The security of this town is very good. Especially in the area we are in charge of. , the population is small, and the residents get along very well. Our usual work is mostly to manage traffic and protect the safety of shops, and there are very few major cases.”

Arthur felt that the ordinary desire to "make a good impression on his colleagues and become a police officer with heavy responsibilities" that he had instilled in the morning seemed to be shattered in an instant.

His expression became sluggish: "I remember when I was assigned here by the police academy, I mentioned that the shooting skills of police officers were very high. I thought it should be a position in the detective department." He even envisioned a job in the criminal department. possible.

"Our police station does not have a detective department, but we do have a requirement for guns. There are two types of 45M1911A1 automatic pistols and Colt combat commander pistols." Haven't driven once since being assigned to this town." He laid the gun and handcuffs side by side on the desk in front of Arthur.

"Also, if you need to use a gun in a special situation, you must first seek the consent of Captain Waxiu. This is a rule. If you encounter a difficult situation, it is best to call the captain or ask your colleagues to help." The smiling face of the Canadian youth Gentle as a spring breeze, but the words made Arthur fall into a difficult process of digesting information.

Colleagues who are easier to get along with than expected, work that is more comfortable than expected, and a living environment with good law and order.Arthur felt as if his life had been stripped of many potential risks at once.

Ordinary and peaceful, should it be considered luck or misfortune?

Arthur changed into the police uniform in the locker room. The shoulders and waist of the light blue uniform jacket were just right. Unfortunately, the waist of the black trousers was too wide. He had to make a temporary buttonhole on the belt to solve the problem. Put on black police boots.After pinning the walkie-talkie and the police badge, he looked at himself in the mirror, and silently said a few words "to adapt, to adapt" to cheer himself up.

He walked out the door, and Matthew was standing at the door waiting for him.Looking at Arthur's police uniform, the Canadian youth in the same uniform looked very happy: "This uniform suits you too, Mr. Arthur." After learning that Arthur was older than himself, His Canadian colleagues insisted on calling him that.

Matthew Williams is a very approachable person. His gentleness and politeness are different from Honda's style full of distance. It is an aura that makes Arthur inexplicably at ease.But as a colleague, that kind of excessive respect made him uncomfortable.But Elizabeth told him very frankly: "This is Matthew's style of politeness, Arthur, you can accept it calmly. We have been working together for so long, and he keeps calling me 'Miss Elizabeth'."

After the basic preparations were completed, Waxiu briefly introduced the daily work content to Arthur.Indeed, as his colleagues said, it is mainly patrolling on a fixed route, usually driving a police car in the morning, walking in the afternoon, and dealing with paperwork in the evening, and temporarily deploying in case of special circumstances.Vasio told him apologetically that because of limited resources, new police officers did not have additional training courses.

Arthur had begun to develop immunity to the condition.He sighed, reluctantly accepting the status quo.After briefly reading through the recent thin files and basic personnel files, he applied to Waxiu to go out to familiarize himself with the road conditions, and the other party readily agreed.

He left the police station and walked along the main road.It is said that it is a main road, but it is just a relatively spacious two-way asphalt road.On the contrary, most of the shops on both sides are exquisitely decorated and neatly laid out.

As he walked, he memorized the signboards of those shops. When he was about to turn a corner, his eyes fell on the coffee house named "Rendezvous (encounter)" at the corner.This coffee house occupies three shop fronts, with a white-dominated exterior, with well-lit floor-to-ceiling windows, dotted with many conventional green plants.The interior of the house is dominated by coffee-colored wooden furniture, and there are also elegant snack cabinets and wine cabinets. There are simple open-air tea seats outside the house, which is pleasing to the eye.Occasionally, residents come in and out, and more guests stay in every corner of the house, reading quietly or talking in low voices.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, Arthur could also see that this was a place favored by the residents of the town.Whether it was out of work or personal curiosity, he thought it necessary to go in and have a look.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the owner of the coffee shop who was arranging the snack cabinet stood up straight and said hello: "Welcome! Oh..." His eyes met Arthur, who was wearing a police uniform. He had half-blond curly hair and a thin beard on his chin. The man paused, "This police officer looks familiar."

The man's tone of voice made Arthur uncomfortable, and he replied hesitantly, "It's an illusion. I only recently moved here for work."

"Um...not right," the store owner patted his apron, crossed his arms and looked at Arthur, and after a few tens of seconds, he suddenly raised his voice, "Ah! I remembered, this pair of thick eyebrows! You are Arthur. Kirkland?"

"Who are you, please?" Arthur rolled his eyes in displeasure at the shopkeeper who seemed to be well-dressed, but called his full name without any scruples.

"It's the look of rolling your eyes, you haven't changed at all! Ah, you really are that stinky British young master!" The shopkeeper patted the table with his palm, with a complicated expression on his face, "I'm Francis Bonover W. I used to be in the same middle school as you, and when I transferred from my hometown in France, I was a famous person who caused a sensation in the school!" Seeing that Arthur still had a look of disdain, the Frenchman shook his hair and found for himself tactfully. Stepping down a step, "It's fine if you don't remember. It's been so many years anyway, and we are also in different grades."

Although I don't want to admit it, the person in front of me seems to have a feeling of deja vu.In other words, everyone who Arthur has met since he came to this small town has more or less given him this sense of familiarity—there is only a difference in degree.

After experiencing the first day of moving into the new home and the morning of adapting to the new job, he has been constantly building himself a strong mentality, and has gradually defined this "familiarity" as the residents of this small town. Style it.

Francis handed him the menu of the coffee shop: "I didn't expect to meet you here after so many years, and you became a policeman? It's really surprising." The Frenchman covered his mouth with his palm and smiled When he got up, his eyes were almost malicious.

Arthur ticked black tea and lemon tart on the menu, ignoring his teasing.He squeezed the pen tightly with his hands, only to feel that the other party's smiling face was very...unworthy of beating.

"You must know that you were a standard punk in middle school." Francis poured black tea for this first-time guest, and turned to get some snacks.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Arthur sat on the high stool in front of the counter, took a sip of black tea.Theanine has a soothing effect, and his expression relaxes a little, but he tenses up immediately when he senses someone approaching him.

The young man with silver hair and blue eyes sat down directly beside him, and greeted him with a smile: "Hello, Mr. New Policeman!"

"Hello." It's this kind of seemingly harmless familiarity. Arthur is not good at dealing with this kind of people, so he chooses to answer cautiously.

"I'm Gilbert Beerschmidt. My brother and you are colleagues. Your name is Arthur, right?" The well-built young man moved closer to him.

The British moved to the side unobtrusively, and asked, "Your brother?"

"Ludwig! Ah, but he's usually on the night shift, so you probably haven't seen him yet." Gilbert replied as he took the coffee from the Frenchman.

Before he came out of the police station, Arthur briefly looked through the basic files of other colleagues in the police station. He asked casually, "So you are German?" He thought back to the blond, blue-eyed, muscular guy in the file, and thought about the two brothers. It really doesn't look like it.

"Not exactly, I was born in East Germany."

The country that has been merged?Arthur looked at the silver-haired youth in surprise.

The other party grinned: "But Luther is a pure German."

"Is that so?" Arthur didn't mind other people's family backgrounds, and his tone was a little indifferent.On the contrary, the former East German continued to explain positively: "Although the reasons are a bit complicated, we are brothers."

Arthur nodded, not wanting to chat too much.Just as Francis put the lemon tart he ordered on the table, he stood up and walked towards the dessert counter, and when he came back, he ticked off cherry pie, rye bread and chocolate croissant, and a bottle of applesauce on the menu, and then Tell the coffee shop owner to pack these up and take them away.

Seeing Arthur get up to go, Gilbert yelled at him, "Come on, Arthur!" Another loud guy.Arthur nodded to him reluctantly.When he walked out the door and looked back, he found that Gilbert had already started chatting with other guests, with a very happy expression on his face.

It seems that this is indeed a resting place that the residents of the small town often come to, and it is also a place where they can integrate into the community more quickly.

After turning around the roads and shops near the police station, Arthur slowly returned to the police station with a snack box.

As Matthew said, the work of the police officers is not busy: patrolling, managing the already well-ordered traffic, responding to inquiries from residents and tourists, and some clerical work, basically leisure - even drinking afternoon tea The leisure - it can be said that Arthur was completely unexpected when he was studying in the police academy.

He even doubted himself a little, why he didn't conduct an in-depth investigation of the small town and the police station that was about to start a new life beforehand, and because of this, he exposed his wrong expectations and judgments in front of outsiders.Ah, all the immature, disgraceful things.

He changed out of his uniform after work in the evening and met his German colleague Ludwig before leaving the police station.The muscular German youths looked serious and serious, and they simply introduced themselves and talked.

The German looked like a policeman, both in appearance and character.

Arthur walked slowly back to the apartment, with complicated thoughts along the way.In short, this is the crowd and life we ​​will face for a long time in the future.

He pushed open the door, and saw Alfred standing at the stairs waiting for someone with a supermarket plastic bag in his hand.

He nodded friendly when he approached the other party, and was about to go up the fire escape stairs when Alfred stopped him: "Hey, don't go!"

Arthur felt puzzled: "Are you waiting for me?" The American nodded, stretched out his hand and made a gesture of "go upstairs together" to him, and walked upstairs directly in front of Arthur.

Arthur followed behind, looking at the pocket in Alfred's hand, but didn't ask.When he walked to the door of Room 203, the British youth finally couldn't help but said, "Well... what do you want from me?"

The American stood still, turned around, and handed the pocket directly to Arthur, "This is for you! A gift to celebrate your move in." He smiled with relief.

Arthur took the supermarket shopping bag suspiciously and opened it. It was a bag full of green apples, and there were twenty of them by visual inspection.He found it inexplicably funny: "Thank you. But with so many apples, how long will I have to eat..." He has never eaten much, and he is not addicted to eating fruits.

Alfred smiled and took a green apple from his pocket, biting it nonchalantly, making a crisp sound while chewing: "The fruit in this supermarket is very good, maybe you will like it."

This self-assertive American.Arthur thought to himself, but he also knew that the other party's behavior was out of friendliness: "You waited for me downstairs just because of this?"

The other party has wiped out half of the apple in his hand: "It's not special. I just came back from school, and I have nothing else to do after shopping at the supermarket."

"After class... are you a college student?" Arthur couldn't help being curious. He looked at Alfred's outfit today: a thin gray hoodie over a black vest, well-fitting camouflage pants, broad shoulders, full muscles, and still confident in his speech full.The jewelry he always wears around his neck looks like an army soldier's name tag.Arthur had secretly speculated whether the other party might be a young soldier in service.

Noticing his sizing eyes, Alfred didn't mind, he introduced himself generously: "I'm a college student majoring in aerospace!" He showed his neat teeth when he smiled, "As for this 'dog tag', It’s because I enlisted in the army for a year after graduating from high school, and then I was admitted to the university here.”

"I... didn't even notice that there was a university nearby."

"It's just in the suburbs to the north of the town. It's in a different direction from the road you came from. However, the surrounding area of ​​our university is quite deserted, surrounded by high walls, and the building structure is a bit messy. Many people passing by will not notice it." With a teasing tone, he steadily threw the apple core into the trash can next to him.

"You look more mature than your actual age." Arthur commented.

Alfred shrugged his shoulders: "Thank you. You are just the opposite. You say you are 23 years old, but you look younger than your actual age. I don't think so from the photos, but when I saw you in person yesterday, I thought I would become classmates with you Well." There was some sarcasm in his tone, but it caught Arthur's attention, he frowned unhappily: "I'm much older than you, anyway, I'm a police officer who has completed his studies and training normally."

"It's only a 4-year-old difference." The American, who knew Arthur's tenant information like the back of his hand, disapproved, "But why did you come to work in this small town? Transferring to the police is rare."

"I am not reassigned, but directly assigned."

"That's it..." Alfred rested his chin on his hand, and swept Arthur from head to toe, "I still think that your body doesn't look like a policeman."

Arthur wanted to refute, but compared to Alfred's physique and recalling the strength he showed when he helped him carry his luggage, he seemed somewhat lacking in confidence: "Not everyone has the strange power like you."

"Haha, I don't mean to compare with you." Alfred laughed, "I just think, Arthur, you are a bit too thin. You should eat more."

Alfred smiled and called his name, and his tone was inexplicably gentle and concerned.

Realizing these two points at the same time, Arthur couldn't help feeling shy.He avoided the other party's unabashed gaze, and muttered in a low voice, "Anyway... don't underestimate me, I've also received professional training."

"How could it be! I won't question Vashiu's vision in selecting candidates."

What the American said made Arthur very happy, and his eyebrows stretched: "Then, as a police officer, I will not let you down."

The other party's expression also became cheerful: "As a neighbor, I hope you are doing well here." He reached out his hand as if to pat Arthur on the shoulder, but quickly put it down, just staring at the British with a smile.

Arthur felt that the atmosphere was a little strange. He raised his eyes to look at the American, and suddenly raised the back of his hand to cover his mouth, but he still couldn't help laughing, which made the American who was rarely quiet feel puzzled.

Arthur pointed to the small piece of apple residue at the corner of the other's mouth, and Alfred rubbed it with his hand reflexively, and the debris fell off, and then he also smiled: "Thanks."

"It's okay." Arthur waved his hand, his mood was much brighter.The American said goodbye quite bluntly: "The meeting gift is also given, I should go."

Arthur nodded to him in thanks, and suddenly turned around when he saw the American college student walking to the stairs: "Actually, I wanted to come to you in the morning, but you seem to have left early in the morning."

"After all, it's a new job, so of course we have to take it seriously." Arthur replied truthfully.

"Do you know why I gave you green apples?"

"Uh... seasonal fruit?"

Alfred raised the corner of his mouth: "Because the color is very similar to your eyes, very beautiful!" The voice echoed on the stairs, and then he strode downstairs, leaving Arthur with the bag of "beautiful" fruit, I froze in place.

This is... what do you mean?

The new visitor to the town suddenly felt overwhelmed. He took out the key from his pocket and went straight to his own small space, thinking that he should wash his face immediately to cool down the temperature rising on his cheeks.

Afterwards, he began to tidy up the room, emptied the messy suitcases, sorted personal sundries and books, and placed them in various cabinets and drawers.Then, after carrying all the suitcases to the top of the closet and putting them away, I took out the mugs and teddy bears that always follow me.

The whole small apartment instantly adds a lot of life and comfort.

It will be more comfortable to go shopping nearby on weekends and add some items.He thought, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Then he went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water, and ate the chocolate croissants left by his colleagues after afternoon tea; then he took another apple from the apple Alfred gave him, rinsed it with water and put it directly into his mouth.

The crisp taste is accompanied by the unique fragrance of green apples, which really makes people feel good.Arthur held the apple in his hand and gnawed slowly, his eyes fell outside the window in the night.

New life, new job, new relationship, this is a brand new environment.

After washing up, he wrapped himself tightly in the blanket as he did on the first day.

"I hope you are doing well here." Alfred's words echoed in his ears again.That American is really... hard to hate.

The blue eyes stared at him earnestly, and he could feel the sincerity and warmth even through the lenses.

Arthur's consciousness became a little fuzzy, and he felt as if he had felt such a sight somewhere before, so familiar.

It's like... a clear and wide sky.