9.
It was almost noon, but the street was very quiet—this long alley would only wake up in the evening. Apart from the snoring and snoring of mangy dogs and the barking of wild cats, there is only one woman's shouting and cursing, echoing clearly in the alley.
"...wait a few more days? How many days have you waited? How dare you pretend that you are not at home yesterday? A man who doesn't go to the street every day to find a job, stays in the house and writes a pile of waste paper... etc. You sold it? When did you sell it for half a sheet? The asshole sellers downstairs earn more than you! O’Brien, you’re betting on this box here. If you don’t pay, I’ll burn it all down!”
As soon as the words fell, a young man was staggered and pushed out of the green-painted gate, and then there was a loud bang, and the gate was slammed shut in front of his eyes, not only the birds on the eaves were blown away, but also There are glasses hanging from the bridge of a man's nose.
O'Brien sighed at the closed door, he knelt down to pick up the lens, wiped it with the hem of his clothes, and put it back on again. He and the landlord were exhausted after a day of tossing, trying to find a place to sit and have a rest, but the corners were either piled up with the filth left by the guests who left drunk last night, or the kitchen waste that hadn’t been discarded. It's disgusting, he has no place to stay, he can only stand in a daze under the eaves like a fool.
His stomach was so hungry that he had a fever. The leftovers from yesterday's lunch were already the last food in his throat. If the woman hadn't knocked on the door today, he had planned to go to the theater again, but it turned out to be fine now, and all plans fell through. It was in vain.
"Even if you don't get detained, I don't know if you can pass the manuscript..." O'Brien muttered to himself, touching his pocket, "Money... money... where can I get money..."
In his pocket, except for the cool wind passing through his fingers, there is only one key. This key could not open the door of O'Brien's house, but was entrusted to him by his neighbor who had traveled far and wide all the year round. O'Brien took out the key, and he unconsciously stroked the monotonous convoluted pattern on the key back and forth. Suddenly, a bad idea suddenly came to him.
—He vaguely remembered that there was a secret compartment under the neighbor's bed, and he had seen the neighbor take out coins from it.
Thinking of this, O'Brien shivered violently.
"No, no, no," the man turned his head abruptly, and said decisively to himself, "If I do such a thing, then what is the difference between me and the kind of despicable villain I wrote?" He hurried away After taking two steps, he muttered again, "What if I write an IOU? Just borrow it for one month. I will definitely pay him back within this month. I will put the IOU on his bed, or give it to him personally when he comes back..."
"to whom?"
The sudden question made O'Brien let out a strange cry as if a cat's tail had been stepped on. The young man trembled and looked back at the source of the sound, his face paled instantly—his neighbor was two steps away from him He tilted his head and looked at him.
"... Hai, Hai Lian." O'Brien showed a dry smile.
Because the other party's expression and voice were too weird, Hailian couldn't help but look at him more: "Why are you staring blankly on the street?"
"I..." O'Brien opened his mouth, "I took a walk to find inspiration, and I happened to think of a few lines, so I read them out. But you, why didn't you make any sound, surprised me."
"I've always walked silently, and it's not like you don't know about it." Helian didn't take it seriously, and reached out to O'Brien for the key. "You don't want to walk in the garbage dump, come up."
O'Brien responded in a low voice, walked over and handed the key to Hailian with sweat in her palm. He moved his head closer to one side, only to find that there was another person standing behind Hailian. The other person had obviously noticed him long ago, and even nodded to him in a friendly way.
O'Brien was confused: "This is?"
"He..." Hai Lian got stuck, not knowing how to introduce Fang Tinglan to her nerdy neighbor, and simply said, "My relative."
"Oh!" O'Brien hurriedly saluted this strange Dongzhou man, "My name is O'Brien, I'm a writer, and I'm Hailian's neighbor."
"Fang Tinglan is Hailian's cousin—hiss!"
He was stepped on by Hailian.
After Hailian took the key, she didn't open the door. Instead, she walked around to the side door of the house and lowered the tied ladder, and stepped on the ladder to climb to the roof.
He hasn't been home for half a year. It is said to be a home, but it is actually just a storage room opened on the roof of this two-story building. The moment Hailian pushed open the door, he sneezed several times. A musty smell rushed out from the room, forcing him to wave his hands to push away the smoke. He hurried to the middle of the room and opened the window above his head to ventilate. .
Fang Tinglan also climbed up to the roof at this time. The man looked at the place in front of him that could hardly be called a residence, and after a while he said in surprise, "You... live here?"
"Otherwise? Where do you think I should live? The palace?" Hailian replied angrily.
As soon as he left Hongliu Port, his employer laughed like a rascal, and confidently stated that what was stolen by the thief was all his accommodation expenses, and he was penniless now, and the rest of his property was planned expenses. Even if he doesn't help him find his wallet back, he doesn't mind sharing the same bed with Hailian.
I hope he quickly gives up his mind after seeing this crappy place. Hailian thought amidst a series of sneezes.
The room was low and cramped, and there was almost no room left after the three men were stuffed in. Fang Tinglan even had to cover his head with his hands a little to ensure that his head would not hit the beams of the room. He wiped the ashes from the chair beside him, and the original skin color could not be seen immediately on his fingertips. Fang Tinglan shook his head, not daring to sit down. On the other side, Hailian found out from nowhere a dishcloth that was almost hardened into an iron plate and an empty basin. He went to the corner of the room and pushed aside a wooden board, revealing a staircase leading directly to the downstairs. After going upstairs, he brought up a basin of water after a while, and started cleaning in a hurry.
The remaining two looked at each other awkwardly. O'Brien shrank in the corner and secretly looked at this "relative" that Hai Lian called, feeling a little suspicious in his heart.
This person is as good-looking as Hai Lian, but not in one direction. When Hailian first moved here three years ago, O'Brien almost thought that this young man was doing the same business as the men and women downstairs, but one night the other party was sitting on the roof sharpening his knife without saying a word, O'Brien, who got up at night, was so scared that he lost the urge to urinate in an instant.
"I'm a thug," said his neighbor, and pointed at him a knife with a blade rounder than the moon above his head.
How could such a poor thug have a relative who was dressed so exquisitely and was as handsome as a leading actor in a theater? And this cousin didn't show any sign when he saw his younger brother living in such a place, wouldn't he usually feel distressed? Or is it that he doesn't actually want to come to see his younger brother, but is just forced by the family's request? The low-level writer O'Brien thought about it, and almost wanted to describe in his heart a bloody mystery involving love murder, conspiracy, inheritance, intricate and ups and downs.
Hai Lian didn't know that he was about to become "the illegitimate son of a wandering foreign nobleman" in the mind of his neighbors. He pushed O'Brien away and wiped the door frame twice: "How are you doing recently?" ?”
"Huh? Me, me?" The script was interrupted, and O'Brien came back to his senses, "It's not very good, I lost my job."
"How to say?"
"Their daughter is going to get married, so there is no need for a teacher." Referring to his recent unemployment, O'Brien's expression was a little depressed, "I think girls still need to learn something after they get married, but they said Husband education is enough."
"Hmm..." Hailian responded vaguely, wrung out the rag and began to wipe the bed board, "Now? What are you going to do?"
O'Brien remembered the woman's scolding half an hour ago again, and he swallowed his saliva: "Now...it depends on the situation, take one step at a time."
"Why don't you try to plan for a merchant ship? I can introduce you."
"No, no, no, those who dare to take merchant ships are desperate, I don't have the guts." O'Brien quickly waved his hand, "I heard that the pirates on Sixteen Islands have been more rampant than ever in the past two years, Hailian you Be careful when going out to sea recently."
Hailian's movements paused, but he didn't respond. On the contrary, Fang Tinglan smiled as he looked at the back of this little pirate who roamed the sixteen islands.
"Can you find a job yourself? No problem?" Hai Lian asked again.
O'Brien hesitated for a moment: "...no problem."
"Your complexion doesn't look like you're okay." Fang Tinglan, who had been silent all this time, said suddenly.
Hailian stopped what she was doing and looked back at O'Brien.
Fang Tinglan punctured the other party's mind, his face flushed immediately, his hands were unconsciously stiff, he didn't know where to put them, and he simply put them behind his back. The man defended weakly: "I'm really fine..."
"Is there any difficulty?" Hailian got straight to the point.
O'Brien was speechless.
Under the direct gaze of the two, the young writer almost wanted to run away, but Hailian blocked the door.
The man who had nowhere to hide had no choice but to stammer: "... I owe Mrs. Jin Linghua three months' rent, I want to pay, as long as I pass the contribution to the Grand Theater, I can get it immediately." A sum of money, but she didn't listen to my explanation at all today, and withheld my manuscript; I wanted to find some emergency work, but a scholar living in the mud area couldn't find any work related to writing; I stayed at the pier for another five days, and ended up hurting my foot while carrying sandbags, and all the money I earned went to the doctor... "
O'Brien felt like a buffoon who was forced onto the stage before he had memorized all his lines. Every syllable he uttered was ridiculous, and his narration was confusing. He panicked and even wanted to show Helian There was a light white needlework mark on his ankle.
"I've tried, I've tried a lot." O'Brien said the last words in a frustrated, almost nasal voice.
"How much do you want."
It wasn't Hailian who asked this question. O'Brien looked at the handsome and unfamiliar Dongzhou native in surprise, who still had that gentle smile on his face.
Fang Tinglan repeated: "How much do you need?"
Perhaps it was the silver thread on Fang Tinglan's skirt and the gem on the sword hilt at his waist that caught O'Brien's eyes. With his hands behind his back, he pinched the tiger's mouth forcefully, and then he mustered up his courage and said, "Six... Six Thirteen silver coins."
"It's just a trifle, there's no need to pay it back." Fang Tinglan took out a gold coin from his waist pocket and wanted to throw it to him, but O'Brien quickly stopped him: "How can I do it! Let me borrow it from you, You say interest, and I'll write an IOU right now."
Fang Tinglan thought for a while, put his palms together and said, "Forget it, since you are my brother's neighbor, you must have taken care of him a lot, so the interest will be waived. The loan period... is set to half a year, and you won't have to wait until then." Give it back to me, give it directly to my brother, and what’s mine is his.”
"Wait..." Hailian wanted to stop it, but it was too late.
"—Thank you, Mr. Fang!"
O'Brien didn't expect the other party to be so generous, his eyes lit up with excitement, he thanked him again and again and assured him that he would pay back the money as soon as possible, then hurriedly rushed out to get a pen and paper, and when he bypassed Hailian, he was almost Tripped over the door frame.
Hearing the sound of the man stepping on the tiles and leaving, Fang Tinglan smiled: "Your neighbor is really interesting."
"Is it."
Before the end was finished, Hai Lian threw the rag, rushed over and grabbed Fang Tinglan by the collar. The other party was a little caught off guard, and was pushed back a few steps by him, and hit the wall with a bang, dust fell on both of them.
"You clearly said before that you have no money." Hai Lian gritted his teeth.
"I lied to you." Fang Tinglan said, "Besides, I just said that I didn't have the accommodation fee."
"You also said before that you have a plan for every money, and you will never spend beyond the budget."
"This is also a planned expense." Fang Tinglan was half a head taller than Hailian, and he had to lower his eyes to meet the angry pupils of the other party, "I'll buy your loyalty with favors, isn't that good?"
"Fang Tinglan, I will help my friends myself, I don't need you to intervene, and I hate it even more when you plot against me like this."
"If I really schemed against you, you would never have the chance to grab my collar like this now, Hailian." Fang Tinglan said, and gently blew on Hailian, "...you have dust on your eyelashes."
"Don't call me by my name. I won't believe any of your nonsense anymore." Hai Lian's eyes were aroused by the other party's coaxing tone and molesting gestures. He said word by word, "Get out now." Go to a hotel."