The bus terminal is a white building, not high, and it is crowded on weekdays, but now the cars and horses are neglected. Fluorescence illuminates the green wall, scattered hawkers, stranded travelers, and a pale-haired old man is cleaning up the rubbish on the ground bit by bit. I waited for fifteen minutes, and a black Mercedes-Benz suddenly arrived, the back door opened, and a man in a trench coat stepped out.
In addition to the fact that the manhole cover is not smoking, I suspect that I have walked into a scene in "The Matrix".
I can always recognize Li Chuan in a crowd. He was so extraordinary, so unique, out of this city, and out of the world I live in.
On the night of New Year's Eve, thousands of houses are lit up, and the streets are deserted. We were relatively speechless and hugged tightly. He held my face in his hands, examined it carefully under the light, and said, "Why is your face swollen?"
My dad has very heavy hands. But this is the first time he hit me. He occasionally whipped his younger brother with a belt, which made him howl. If I were a parent, I would consider hitting a child an absolute sin. But everyone I know has been beaten by their parents more or less when they were young. I can only say that this is a kind of culture.
"Is it swollen? It doesn't hurt. Oh, oh, it's like this. There was a kid on the road who wanted to grab my bag. I punched him, and he punched me. Then I ran away on my bike." I Quickly cover your face with your hands.
"It's sunny, what kind of martial arts movie?" Li Chuan snorted, he is not easy to be deceived. Fortunately, he didn't bother with this topic anymore, opened the door, and let me get in the car.
"What about the bicycle? It belongs to my brother." Although my luggage looks too incompatible with the Mercedes-Benz, I can't just throw it away.
"I'll put it away." He put the muddy bike in the trunk of the car. Then he got into the back seat and handed me the mobile phone: "Call your aunt. There must be a lot of people who are worried about you when you run away from home."
I looked at my watch, it was just after seven o'clock, I hesitated, and called my aunt's house.
My aunt was four years older than my mother. She didn't like small places, so she married my uncle through an acquaintance, a worker at the Kunming Machine Tool Factory and a model worker. When my aunt was young, the model workers in the factory were all in demand. In addition to hard work, marrying them also requires some luck. Now that state-owned enterprises are in a downturn, model workers have also been forced to lay off their jobs. My uncle raised foxes for a while, hoping to sell them for some money, but failed. He also set up a street stall to sell belts and magazines, but he didn't succeed. So he simply retired early to work as a security guard in a shopping mall. He is conscientious and learns by doing. During the holidays, he followed a big brother to run clothing and went to Guangzhou to buy goods. After fighting for a while, he finally rented a shop in that mall to sell clothes. Although he did not make a fortune, it is no problem to maintain the food and clothing of the whole family. What's more, the two cousins are both grown up. The eldest cousin, Minmin, married to Shanghai and only came back once or twice a year; the second cousin, Zhuzhu, graduated from high school and went to Ye University, and now works as a sales lady in a real estate company. When I was in Gejiu, my aunt would come back every year to pay New Year's greetings and visit our family, uncle, grandpa, and grandma. Every winter and summer vacation, my brother and I often go to my aunt's house for the weekend. Dad said that my aunt's family is very difficult and the house is small, so we don't want to bother us too much. Every time I go, I send many gifts, and I only stay for one day at most before leaving.
When the phone rang, I heard my aunt's voice.
"Hello, who is it?"
"Auntie, I'm Xiaoqiu."
"Hey! You girl! What are you doing with your dad on New Year's Eve? Your dad has called several times." My aunt scolded me disheveledly, and I could feel her spittle flying wildly.
"I just arrived in Kunming. Sister Minmin is back?" There was a lot of noise on the phone.
"The whole family is here, with Doudou. Zhuzhu and her boyfriend are also here. Come here quickly, the New Year's dinner hasn't started yet."
My aunt's house has one bedroom and one living room, and there are three families, how can I sleep. I said, "Auntie, do you still remember Mingming? Cui Mingming?"
"Why don't you remember, your best friend."
Cui Mingming is my high school classmate and one of my best friends. After her parents divorced, her mother married a businessman in Kunming. Mingming also moved to Kunming. Her house is big, and her stepfather is always away from business. Every time I went to my aunt's house, I would stop by her house for a few days.
"I'm staying at her house these few days, and I'll come tomorrow morning to wish you New Year's greetings." I lied calmly. My aunt didn't know the phone number of Mingming's house, "If Dad wants to ask me, just tell me that everything is fine and I will go back to Beijing on the sixth day of the junior high."
"Go to Mingming's house, live at my aunt's house! Just squeeze with Zhuzhu."
"I've made an agreement with Mingming. I'll come over tomorrow to wish you New Year's greetings. Auntie, I'm dead!"
My aunt belongs to this kind of person, she is very confused at the time, you just need to give her five more seconds to think, and she will become extraordinarily smart. I know that if I say one more word, my aunt will ask Mingming's phone number, and then I will be in trouble.
Then, I called Mingming. Hearing the voice of his old friend, Ming Ming screamed. I gave the opportunity face-to-face, and begged her to help me lie with a few words. After explaining everything, I took up the line and turned to look at Li Chuan.
"Maybe you should have New Year's dinner at your aunt's house." He said, with a dull expression, "If your dad calls, at least you can relax with him."
"Li Chuan," I gently stroked his face, "this is New Year's Eve. My father doesn't want me, my aunt doesn't want me, and you, alone in a foreign land, fly from Xiamen to Beijing, from Beijing to Kunming, for me, The person I should be with the most is you! Tonight, even if my dad finds me here and cuts me to pieces, I will be with you. You, understand? "
He smiled quietly, leaned over and kissed my face and forehead.
"Well, have you been drinking?" I smelled a trace of alcohol, and his always cold hands were hot.
"A little bit, beer."
I touched his forehead, it was hot.
"Are you running a fever? How many degrees?"
"Maybe a little, I haven't measured it." He took my hand away.
I was about to speak when the car drove past a small moon-shaped lake and slowly stopped in front of a brightly lit building. There are four big characters on the signboard: Cuihu Hotel.
The lobby of the hotel is the size of a football field, surrounded by elegant sofas with bamboo planted behind them. I followed him up the elevator and into his room. It was a suite, a combination of Chinese and Western, extremely luxurious and comfortable. He took off my coat and hung it in the closet.
"The secretary booked this hotel for you?" I asked.
"She ordered it. However, I also came here because of the reputation. I heard that the suite design here is from IMei."
"I Mei?"
"Old I.M. Pei," he said, "I especially like the lighting of his inner courtyard, and I also like glass."
Apparently, I didn’t quite understand this sentence. He smiled and explained: “The skyscrapers in the city are like space behemoths, and only glass can hide them.”
His office is lined with three 21-inch Apple monitors, and a large design sketch sits on another table next to empty beer bottles. Under the table is his wheelchair, with a carbon fiber frame, so light it weighs less than thirteen pounds when folded. Sometimes Li Chuan needs to sit for a long time for drawing, but only in this wheelchair will he not be too tired.
I can't help but wonder, every time he travels, it's hard enough for him to walk alone, and it's extra inconvenient to have to carry these things to and from the airport.
"Isn't your laptop not enough?" I asked. "Why do you need so many monitors? Even hotels provide that?"
"No," he said, "I don't like looking at small displays, and I bought them here."
"But, wouldn't it be very troublesome if you take it away?"
"Don't take it away, donate it to the hotel when it's used up."
I was dumbfounded: "This...isn't it too wasteful?"
"It's not a waste, if you can use it to make a good rendering." He blinked, "There is a saying, what is the work, what is the device."
"If a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools."
"That's it." He leaned against the wall and looked at me.
"When did you arrive in Kunming?"
"As soon as your father scolded me, it sounded like you were in trouble, and I came the next day."
"So," I said, "you've been here alone, all alone, for a fortnight?"
"Anyway, I have a lot of things to do, and a lot of pictures to draw. It's the same wherever I live." He shrugged and said it was no big deal.
I went to shower and came out with nothing to change but his shirt and shorts. At this moment he went to order a dinner, and I devoured it without knowing what it was.
"What do you usually do at thirty nights? Huh?" He circled his hands from behind and kissed me.
"After the New Year's dinner, go to my grandmother's house to watch "Spring Festival Gala"."
"I don't like watching TV, it's too noisy. Let's read together, shall we?" He said politely, "I have a copy of "Hamlet" in my bag."
Li Chuan has never been so sour. What's going on here. I felt his face was hot, his breath was hot, and his hands were even hotter. So I said, "What about Hamlet? You're talking nonsense. You must have a fever. I'll take you to the doctor."
"If you don't see a doctor, what's the doctor's point of view? You smell so good after taking a bath, so I want to see you." He sat me on the bed, took a towel by himself, and dried my hair strand by strand.
I raised my hand to unbutton his clothes: "Are you tired after standing for so long? Sit down."
He held my hand.
"What's wrong?"
"I have allergies on my body, and I have grown a lot of big bumps. Don't look at it." He finally said.
I was taken aback: "Allergy?"
I pushed his hand away and opened the shirt. Then, I took a deep breath. He has many red bumps on his body, each of them is as big as a copper coin. In addition to the upper body, there are also arms and legs.
"So many! Have you seen a doctor? Have you taken any medicine?" I was anxious.
"There is a doctor in the hotel, and he is a famous doctor. I am allergic to many medicines, and I dare not take medicine casually. He gave me an ointment and asked me to rub it three times a day. At first, I thought it was bugs in the bed. They gave me an ointment. I changed a room, and it was still a long bag. I think the bedding in this five-star hotel should have been strictly disinfected. So I don’t want to argue with them anymore, maybe it’s just acclimatization.”
"Have you ever grown such a bag before?"
"I have allergic skin. However," he said, "once, I had similar big bumps. Suddenly, I grew a whole body overnight, and lasted for a few days, and suddenly disappeared without a single one. At that time I'm still in college, too lazy to see a doctor."
I asked him to sit down and sit under the quilt: "So, do you still remember what you did that time to cause such an allergy?"
He thought for a while and shook his head: "That time I participated in a Shakespeare reading club. Several of our classmates often recited poems together. Later, the school held a cultural festival, and people in the club enthusiastically signed up to perform a play. That day I No, they also put my name on it. Later I found out that it was a big student cultural festival, and the theater performance was scheduled to be held in the school auditorium. I played Hamlet, and there were more than a thousand people in the audience. I was so nervous, On the second day, I grew such a big bag."
I couldn't help laughing: "Li Chuan, from the first day I knew you, you are a very confident person. You are good-looking and have a nice voice. I don't believe you will be nervous."
After saying this, I remembered something, and asked quickly: "By the way, did you have one leg or two legs at that time?"
He looked at me and was furious: "I have to ask, would I still be nervous if I had two legs? At that time, I was not used to walking with prosthetics. They said, I can ski with one leg, The balance is definitely fine."
"hat! You... you can ski?"
"Trust me," he said, "Dancing may require two legs, but one leg is enough for skiing. I used to go back to Switzerland to ski every winter. I did it last year. The mountains and snowy slopes feel very unrestrained."
"Student Li Chuan, you...you don't want to die!" I heard my heart pounding, envious and adored at the same time.
"How about you come back to Switzerland with me, and I will teach you to ski." He put his arms around me tightly, "Here, I have to wait until you are twenty before you can get married. OK."
He was talking to himself, and laughed happily.
I twisted his hand and said, "Understood. My dad scolded you, and when you got nervous, you got big bumps all over your body. This is stress. Li Chuan, I'll make lemon tea for you, and I'll give you lemon tea." You apply the medicine, I'll give you a massage, and I'll decompress you, okay?"
He whispered, "Let's get down to something substantial."
Li Chuan refused to take off his shirt, saying that wearing a red envelope would affect his aesthetics, so why would I mind it. We embrace each other tightly, writing ourselves in each other's bodies with an almost pious attitude...
We took a shower, Li Chuan obediently lay on the bed, and asked me to apply medicine to him. After all the paint was finished, I reported the results: "Thirteen on the front, fifteen on the back. A total of twenty-eight large bags. Also," I looked at the ear thermometer, "you have a fever, thirty-nine degrees five." Mr. Wang, you are really lustful."
I went to the medical room downstairs alone and got him fever-reducing tablets and a pack of cotton swabs for disinfection. After taking the medicine, he fell into a deep sleep, and in the middle of the night, he wanted to get up. I held him down, "I'll get it."
I find the fridge, pull out a bottle of milk, check the expiration date on it, it's past its expiration date. I had to put on my own clothes and go to the information desk on the first floor to find out where I could buy milk.
"Miss, what can I do for you?" The waiter was busy answering the phone, and a security guard came over and said with a serious and vigilant expression.
It occurred to me that I was still wearing the clothes I wore during the day when I rode my bike. A pair of jeans stained yellow by dust, and a tight black cardigan. Hair uncombed, messy. Looks like a lost girl. Against the backdrop of this resplendent hall, in the eyes of the security guard, he looked like a dingy street mouse.
But who am I? I love studying, labor, life, and Lichuan. I am a beautiful flower of the motherland! Thinking of this, my chest straightened up, and I looked at him with a look of "pointing to the country's exciting words" and said, "Excuse me, where can I buy skim milk?"
The security guard ignored this at all, and instead asked, "Which room does Miss live in?"
"709."
"The hotel provides 24-hour full-time service. If you want anything, just a phone call away." He looked at me with a trace of suspicion in his tone. The guests who live here don't even know this.
"Really? Then I'll go back and make a call." I turned around and wanted to leave, but he stopped me.
"Miss, can I see your ID card?"
"Did not bring."
"Come with me." He stopped being polite, and didn't even say "please".
I was secretly nervous. I am under the age of marriage, and I am not married to Li Chuan, so how can I live in the same room? If someone catches you, you can't explain it clearly. I had to follow him to the front desk.
He asked a staff member: "Xiao Qin, who lives in Room 709?"
The man checked the computer, and the answer was beyond my expectation: "It's a young lady, Xie Xiaoqiu."
The security guard looked at me: "You, are you Xie Xiaoqiu?"
"yes."
Another person was on the phone next to me, and upon hearing my name, he hurriedly came over to round things up: "Don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong. Miss, I'm sorry. Lao Cai, let me explain. That's right, a few hours ago, Wang from Room 709 The husband called and said that his girlfriend would move in tonight. He moved to No. 708 next door. The formalities have been completed."
The security guard was stunned for a moment, wondering: "Why do you want to live in the old room instead of a new guest?"
The staff said: "That's right. Mr. Wang said that he hopes to give up the room near the lake to his girlfriend."
"I'm sorry, Miss Xie." The security guard apologized to me very stiffly. Then he asked me to wait, and ran to the restaurant on the second floor to bring me a large box of skimmed fresh milk.
I went back to the room, and the floor lamp was dimly on. Li Chuan stared at me in the dark.
"Why have you been here for so long?" He said, "I forgot to tell you, just make a phone call."
After drinking the milk, I continued to take his ear temperature. Thirty-nine degrees five, the fever has not subsided at all. The sheets and clothes were sweaty.
I helped him change his clothes and sheets, then went to the refrigerator to get some ice cubes wrapped in a towel to cool him down.
"Go to sleep, I'm fine." He said in the dark, his voice hoarse. But his hand held me tightly, for fear that I would slip away.
"Li Chuan, don't get sick. It lasts for a month and a half." I sat on the bedside and pressed his forehead with a towel. He tossed and turned on the bed, raving again and again.
I don't know how long it took, but he asked me in a daze, "Why didn't you hear the New Year's bell?"
"It's already four o'clock in the morning!"
"Then let me wish you an early year first, classmate Xiaoqiu." After saying this, he turned over again, and I quickly put a pillow around his waist. He finally fell asleep.
Li Chuan slept until ten o'clock before opening his eyes. And I, after his temperature dropped, slept for three hours. During the three hours, I dreamed randomly, dreaming of Li Chuan again and again. This man is sleeping next to me, and I still dream of him, so that I wonder if I am too horny.
Finally, I woke up completely, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Li Chuan had taken a shower, and was sitting on the bed in his bathrobe, looking at me.
"What did you dream about, your face is smiling like a bunch of flowers?" He said with a smile, "Two pieces of good news for you: first, my fever has completely subsided, and my body temperature is normal. Second, those terrible big The bag disappeared, came and went without a trace, as if it had never grown."
I also used him as a report. I checked his whole body before going to bed. I sat up and added: "Third, to prevent infection, I suggest you not use prosthetics today."
"Don't leave any pot unopened, okay?" He said softly, "I'm sorry for keeping you up all night. I swear, I pay great attention to maintenance and exercise. In fact, I seldom get sick."
"Me too." I said triumphantly, "I can eat, drink, sleep, play, and live every day to the fullest and happily."
After breakfast, Li Chuan accompanied me to a nearby shopping mall to buy a change of clothes and shoes. I bought glutinous rice tea for my uncle and aunt, their favorite drink, toys for Doudou, and cosmetics for Sister Zhuzhu. Li Chuan sent me to the door of the dormitory area of my uncle's factory. He jumped out of the car and opened the door for me, leaning on his crutches.
I held his hand tightly: "Come with me to see my aunt, my aunt is easier to talk to than my dad. She will definitely like you."
He thought for a while and said, "Next time."
Li Chuan has always been very concerned about his own image, I think he doesn't want his aunt to see the appearance of his leg. He sent me to the gate, stood under a tree, and handed me the gifts I bought: "Don't stay too long, come back after dinner, okay? I'll take you around Kunming."
"Hey, am I going to show you around, or are you taking me around? I'm from Yunnan!"
"Of course I'll take you. It's in vain to call you a native of Yunnan. When you arrive in Kunming, I ask you to show the driver the way. You can't tell the difference between the south, the south, and the north." He said.
I snuggled into his arms, buried my face in his chest, and was reluctant to leave for a long time.
"Let's go, go early and come back early." He reached out and helped me fasten the belt of the windbreaker.
"Okay." I reluctantly raised my head, still lingering in his arms. He leaned down and kissed me lightly on the forehead. Then he pushed me and said, "I feel like we're being watched."
I turned my head and saw seven people standing neatly not far from the gate and staring at us with wide eyes. The leader is a middle-aged woman, holding a large vegetable basket with a big fish in it.
Li Chuan's car was parked beside them.
I raised my hand, said "Hi" to everyone, and shouted, "Auntie!"