The author has something to say: catching insects
At eight o'clock in the morning, Xu Ran stood in the center of the train station square, looking at the floating clouds in the sky.
There were only two suitcases in the luggage, plus a shriveled backpack. He spent fifty yuan to hire someone from the station to help carry it, and he followed behind on crutches. I bought an express train with a soft sleeper, and it took nearly 30 hours to travel.
It's not a holiday, so the compartment is very deserted. The people at the station helped to put the luggage on the shelf and then left. Xu Ran sat on the lower berth to pack his backpack. A computer and a bottle of water, he put his wallet in his close pocket, and then writhed and took out his phone.
A young man next door called his lover, speaking sweet words in a soft voice, which overwhelmed the background music in the car and floated into his ears. Xu Ran was listening to the music, and the tips of his ears were red.
Last night I went home in a hurry to pack my luggage. I was afraid that I would change my mind so I turned off my phone, and now I have time to take it out. The booting process was short and torturous, Xu Ran stared at the memory card reader icon on the top of the interface and his heart pounded, and when the buffering was over, he flipped through the text messages and chat software, and saw the empty screen, he laughed again.
Laughing at myself thinking too much, in fact, I have already expected this result.
Occasionally, people passed by in the corridor outside, and they all looked in to see the seat number, and they would linger for a while when they saw Xu Ran's crooked eyes leaning on the side. Xu Ran didn't care, and calmly let people watch.
He stared at the driving time, and only called He Yuxuan in five minutes.
Before work time, He Yuxuan was still waking up and napping in the tea room. When he saw Xu Ran's call, he immediately regained his energy. When he answered, he asked in panic, "Brother Xu, what's wrong?"
Xu Ran was amused by his guarded tone, and said with a smile, "It's nothing, are you busy?"
"No, tell me." He Yuxuan was so excited that he almost knocked over the coffee in his hand.
Xu Ran opened the curtains, looked at the crowd on the platform, and said, "I'm leaving."
"… what?"
"I didn't have time to meet you yesterday. The key to my house has been sent to you by courier, and it should be delivered today. The conditions in our unit's dormitory are not good. If you don't mind, you can live with me."
Xu Ran's eyes followed a child running past holding a lollipop, until he disappeared from sight, and then said softly, "Your rent will not be charged."
There was a long silence on the phone.
Finally, He Yuxuan realized, "Where are you going?"
"Let's go to City C for now." I don't know where I will go in the future.
"What are you doing there? Have you found a job yet? Or is it a vacation? Actually, I think you should take a break..."
He Yuxuan held back the breath in his chest, and said in a muffled voice, "I'll look after your house for you, but Brother Xu, you have to remember to come back."
He heard someone calling He Yuxuan's name from a distance, Xu Ran looked at his watch and said, "It's time to go to work."
"Brother Xu."
He Yuxuan called him sullenly, Xu Ran replied with a smile, "What?"
"take care."
"… Do not worry."
After hanging up the phone, he sent a text message to the deputy director: Sorry.
Soon, the deputy director came back: It's okay, if you change your mind in the future, come to me anytime.
Xu Ran was holding his mobile phone and laughing, the corners of his eyes were dizzy and moist.
This is the kindness left over from his past life, very little, better than nothing.
The train moved slowly, Xu Ran held on to the crutches to prevent them from slipping. The flight attendant appeared at the door of the carriage, and Xu Ran showed her her ticket.
"Arrive in City C at 2:10 pm tomorrow." The flight attendant glanced at him and asked, "Do you need help with luggage?"
Xu Ran nodded, "I'm sorry to trouble you."
The flight attendant made a note in the notebook and transferred to the next car.
There are four soft sleepers in a small room, and Xu Ran is the only one in this room right now, once the door is closed, it looks like a small prison cell. He struggled to tear off the quilt from the upper bunk, and sat on the bed in a daze.
The scenery outside the window changed rapidly. Gradually, the tall buildings were replaced by bungalows, and the street trees turned into large paddy fields. Only the electric tower stood abruptly in the middle of the field. The ambilight that filled the eyes is gone, replaced by ordinary to somewhat mediocre suburban scenery.
He is driving out of the city where he has lived for ten years, and behind him is the past that he can never go back to. Bit by bit, they were all left behind, unable to turn back.
With a notification sound of ding dong, Xu Ran lowered his head and saw a text message from Bai Jinming.
-Where are you
Xu Ran moved his fingers and replied: Please take good care of him.
Then put the phone on silent and throw it aside.
In fact, he still has a lot of things to say, such as He Cheng's daily life, He Cheng's work frequency, and He Cheng's physical condition, but the more things there are, the more he can't find an entry point. Then Xu Ran understood that no matter how much he exhorted, it would not be enough to cover one ten-thousandth of what he really wanted to say. It was impossible for others to do everything well, so no matter how much he said, it would be useless.
It takes a long, long process to understand He Cheng, and all the hard work has turned into a little red in the heart, so gorgeous to the point of despair.
So Xu Ran didn't think about it at all, He Cheng is a person who won't treat him badly, and he doesn't need to worry about it at all.
With a thirty-hour journey, he needs to make a good plan for his future life.
All the way south.
The train finally arrived in City C on time the next afternoon. For the past two days, Xu Ran only ate instant noodles and bread, and he was so dizzy that he felt like vomiting. He waited in the bathroom for a long time before queuing up at the taxi point to board the car.
He showed the address of the landlord's house to the taxi driver, and the driver looked at it for a long time before speaking in nice southern dialect, "I'll start a navigation later."
Xu Ran was having fun there.
Xu Ran didn't have any idea about the urban planning of City C. He only remembered that the old lady of the landlady wrote in her profile that this place was not considered a suburb, but when she got to the place, she realized that it was not only a suburb, but the city center was two stops away. The low houses in the small alleys are the only buildings in the neighborhood that have not been demolished.
When carrying the suitcase down, the driver was still puzzled, "I have been running a sports car for three years, why don't I remember that there is such a place?"
"I often walk but don't know the house number," Xu Ran said looking at the unremarkable small building, "it's hard to find here."
In fact, Xu Ran liked this place quite a lot. He felt happy when he saw it at the first sight. Later, thinking about it, maybe it was because it, like himself, had no sense of existence but did exist. If you will be ignored by others, you can only live quietly on your own one-third of an acre of land.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the landlord was still basking in the sun in the small yard, and didn't move when he heard a car coming in. He waited for Xu Ran to approach before he lifted his straw hat, revealing a wrinkled but not old face.
"Auntie." Xu Ran bowed politely, "I am Xu Ran."
He had sent her a text message the night before, but Xu Ran wasn't sure if the old man had seen it.
Instead, the old lady got up indifferently and beckoned him into the house for tea.
"I'm going to a nursing home at the end of this month, and you can watch and move in," the old lady said.
Xu Ran sat at the dining table and looked around. The decoration is more atmospheric than it looks in the photos, quite old-fashioned, and the melodious tea fragrance wafts from the small teapot, filling the lonely stomach and nasal cavity.
Seeing that the old lady wanted to get some snacks from the cabinet above her head, Xu Ran quickly stood up, "I'll do it."
During this period of time, he had gotten used to using crutches, and he walked as if he was not using crutches, but the old lady took a look at him and asked, "Is your leg hurt?"
"Ah? Hmm." Xu Ran was stunned for a moment, then smiled, "I'm injured."
"How long will it take?"
"This?" Xu Ran looked down at his legs, "Maybe it won't get better."
"Really." The old lady didn't respond, neither sympathized nor surprised.
Xu Ran suddenly fell in love with this landlord.
The room was not as messy as imagined, Xu Ran looked around and felt quite satisfied.
The landlord asked him, "How long do you want to rent?"
Xu Ran was taken aback. There are short-term leases for short-term and long-term leases for long-term. The old lady must want to rent to the end, but Xu Ran is not sure if she is determined and will not go back.
At this moment, he suddenly spurned this hesitant self.
The landlord has a pair of sharp eyes that have accumulated over the years, shook his head and said, "Just tell the truth."
"... Three months?" Xu Ran asked tentatively.
"Can."
The old lady's straightforwardness surprised Xu Ran. She said nothing, and went on with her work in the kitchen.
After a while, she asked again, "I'm still here until the end of the month. If you want to live, you have to sleep on the sofa for a few days, okay?"
"Okay." This time, Xu Ran answered readily.
Received a call from Bai Jinming before dinner, at this time Xu Ran had already packed his poor luggage. As soon as the call was connected, Bai Jinming immediately asked, "Where are you now?"
Xu Ran looked up at the setting sun and said, "South."
"... South?"
"Ok."
"...you're really good at it." Bai Jinming gritted his teeth and said.
Xu Ran came to the yard, found a quiet corner, and asked, "Is he okay?"
Bai Jinming glanced at the messy scene in the meeting room, and said bravely, "It's okay."
"Have you lost your temper again, I don't know him yet?" Xu Ran lowered his head and fiddled with the dog's tail grass at the base of the wall, "It's hard for you."
"He's angry with his family, I don't care about his bad temper." Bai Jinming sighed, "When are you coming back?"
After ten days and half a month of vacation, I guess I can come back.
"Should... not come back."
Xu Ran smiled, his eyes full of streamers.
"..."
Bai Jinming muttered something in a low voice, his tone was not very good, and he asked after a while, "Which city are you in now, and have you found a place to live?"
"Looked it up online."
"Is the landlord a decent person? Don't get sold out, we can't save you there."
"Bai Jinming," Xu Ran called him, "Why do you look like an old lady?"
Bai Jinming laughed angrily, "I've known you for so many years, don't you worry too much?"
The acquaintance is the acquaintance, and it was only during this period of time that I really had close contact with them, and Bai Jinming felt that he was good at talking and worrying. Thinking that this is someone else's business and has nothing to do with me, but I gradually got used to it.
Finally he said, "Okay, if the outside is better than here, you can live there. People always think for themselves, if you think it's good, no one can force you to come back."
After a long time, Xu Ran replied with a "hmm", softly, scattered in the breeze under the warm southern sun.
As soon as the phone was hung up, the landlord greeted him for dinner in the house. Xu Ran picked up the crutches and walked towards this dilapidated but old-fashioned house step by step.
This is his new life. Although it is a bit dilapidated, it stands upright in an unfamiliar environment and will not fall down easily.
In the twenty-eighth year of his life, Xu Ran chose a new life for himself for the first time.