After roughly sorting out his thoughts, without thinking too much, Garen took off his clothes, turned off the kerosene lamp, lay down on the bed, covered him gently with the quilt, and slowly calmed down, falling into sleep in the dark.
Clang, clang, morning bell, one after another.
The white light shone on the white bed. Garen, who was sleeping on his back, slowly opened his eyes, looked outside in a daze, took a deep breath, and then slowly lifted the quilt and sat up.
In the light red room, the mahogany boards on the walls and floors were peeled off in some places, exposing the light yellow wood underneath. The silver-bordered oil painting of a wheat field hanging on the wall is a little askew. The window on the right was half opened, gusts of cold wind kept pouring in, and there was a faint whining sound.
thump thump.
The footsteps of her younger sister Yinger could be heard faintly from the living room outside, and the footsteps of her stepping on the floor were very clear.
Garen rubbed his temples, clearing his mind. Get out of bed. He was wearing off-white pajamas, long-sleeved trousers, and his chest looked a little fat and loose. Pulling his clothes on his chest, Garen showed a trace of helplessness on his face.
"I didn't feel it before, but now I still sleep in my mother's pajamas, how weird it feels"
Go to the window and gently close the open window.
Below the window, on the right side is the passing inner street of the community. Several passers-by were wearing thick windbreakers, and one of them was wearing a round hat and scarf. On the open space behind the building on the left, there are several more cars parked than before. They are all black or white, and the two headlights look like antique cars with bulging goldfish eyes.
"This kind of car looks good. In fact, if you drive it for dozens of miles, you have to turn off the engine once and wait for it to cool down." Garen shook his head speechlessly, sniffing his nose. He smelled a mixture of fried eggs and hot milk. fragrant.
Leaving the window, walked to the door of the bedroom and gently opened the doorknob, revealing the spacious red living room. On the right side, the yellow and white curtains were blown continuously by the strong wind outside the window.
On the left side, you can directly see the kitchen at the end, sister Yinger is carefully turning over the fried eggs in the pan with a black spatula in her hand. She changed into a short black dress with a tunic, the bottom skirt had a white lace, and her legs were changed into the thickest black cotton pantyhose that could not see the color of her skin. Her purple-black shawl hair was casually scattered behind her, and her wine-red eyes were focused on the fried eggs in the pan.
"Are you up? Go wash up, and then you can come over for breakfast. I bought fresh white bread, plus fried eggs and hot milk." Ying'er glanced at Garen and said casually.
"Aren't they coming back?" Garen wiped his face with both hands, feeling that his hands were full of oil, walked straight forward a few steps, turned left, entered the bathroom, stood in front of the mirror and turned on the faucet.
Wow.
White water sprayed out from the faucet, and Garen pulled his own red towel to wet it, wrung it dry, and then pressed it on his face.
"Didn't I tell you last time? The company has something to do, so I went on a business trip." Yinger replied casually.
"Do you know where to go?"
"It seems to be Delin City. It takes a long-distance train from us. It takes at least three days to get there. If you go back and forth." Ying'er said as she turned off the fire, poured out the fried eggs, and served them on the table .
"It will take more than a week to come back, so we have to spend this weekend by ourselves again." She sat down and arranged the bread, milk and fried eggs separately. "Okay, you can eat."
Garen quickly finished rinsing his mouth, inserted the wooden toothbrush back into the wash cup, turned around and left the bathroom, and also sat on the seat opposite Ying Er.
On the rectangular mahogany table, the two sat down facing each other. A triangular piece of pale yellow bread was placed on each of the silver metal plates in front of them, with tiny letters written on the bread.
Garen picked up the knife and fork, inserted one hand into the bread, cut off a piece with the knife and stuffed it directly into his mouth. A little firm, a little dry, very lightly sweetened, and quite powdery.
Yinger took a sip of milk first. "Today is Saturday, do you have any plans?"
"Well, I'm going to the old street in the south of the city, Burlington. There's a newly opened antique shop there that I want to visit." Garen lowered his head and ate the fried egg.
"Burnington is very far.. From our Blue Tree Street, we have to go through the city center, and then we have to walk for more than half an hour to get there. It's a diagonal line. What are you going to do in an antique store?" Ying Er doubted, "If there's nothing important, I want to go to the fruit market. I'll take a look at the pet street next to it. Come with me and help me carry things." She glanced at Garen after she finished speaking. A glimmer of anticipation faintly flashed.
"Buy some of my favorite white pears." She hurriedly added.
"White pears?" Garen was slightly taken aback. In the past, Garen's favorite food was also white pears. "Forget it, I have something to go to the antique shop."
"Okay." Ying'er nodded, didn't say any more, just lowered her head and concentrated on eating.
"By the way, it's autumn, pay attention to adding and subtracting clothes, so as not to get sick." Garen added, stuffing the rest into his mouth with a few mouthfuls, and then drank the last bit of milk in the glass in one gulp. "I'm leaving first." He stood up and went back to the bedroom to change clothes.
Ying'er sat at the table, looked at Garen who got up, and suddenly became listless. The bread cubes on the plate were inserted one after another.
Garen changed into a thick black coat and blue and black trousers and came out, with a black and white square scarf around his neck. His whole body is no longer as thin and thin as before, and he looks like a slender and beautiful boy. It's just that his eyes are a little too deep, like two dark red and black pure gemstones, which connect to the infinite abyss. It's completely different from before.
The change in eyes made Garen's temperament suddenly much more stable and thicker.
Ying'er raised her head and looked up, her eyes lit up slightly. "How long are you going to go? When will you be back?"
Garen pulled the scarf around his neck. "I'll definitely be back for lunch in the afternoon, so I'll go out first."
He went to the door and put on black leather boots, opened the door with a click and walked out.
The stairwell outside the door is opposite the door, and the door of the opposite house is just open. A middle-aged man wearing glasses looked back at him with a black bag in his hand. Without saying anything, he closed the door gently without saying hello.
Gallon remembered this neighbor. The owner was a middle-aged man wearing glasses named Polis. There was no hostess, only a seven or eight-year-old boy living with him. Both of them were taciturn, and they never greeted each other when they met. Only Garen and the others greeted a little when they went up and down the stairs when they first moved here, and introduced themselves. They usually didn't say hello when they saw each other. This impolite quality impressed the Garen family.
Holding the cold metal door with his backhand and pressing it lightly, Garen rubbed his hands. Feeling the warmth of the palms and backs of the hands, he walked down the stairs.
Go down to the stairs, turn left along the gray and white checkered ground, and walk into the gray and black road between the black street lights.
Walking out of the community along the road, there are streets and roads surrounded by khaki buildings on both sides. There are sidewalks protected by black railings on the side of the road, and there are few pedestrians on it.
On the street, an antique car was slowly passing by emitting white smoke, followed by a yellow ox cart carrying fruit, the driver yelled and whipped his whip from time to time.
Garen walked on the sidewalk surrounded by black railings, looking at the khaki buildings around him.
The buildings along the street are all about seven stories high. Some of the square windows are open, and some are closed and barbed wire is repaired. The edges of the building are arc-shaped, without sharp corners.
The cold autumn wind blew Garen's hair back and forth, he couldn't help but lower his head, feeling his skin was stiff, hard and numb. There are also small trees planted in the black railings. There are no leaves on the branches, just bare forks, and there are one at a certain distance.
Garen walked along the sidewalk. For about twenty minutes, there were more cars and people on the street. A brass nameplate passing by is engraved with the letters of Huayuan Street.
Walking into a crossroad and turning left again, the houses on both sides of the street have turned into gorgeous buildings with complex gray and white patterns, and there are tall columns and some exquisite reliefs on the surface of the houses. The black street lamps on both sides of the road also have some white balls on the top as decoration.
On the cold sidewalk, a woman in a thick white dress with silver trim was walking her dog. On the black metal bench for decoration, two old men with crutches were sitting and chatting in a low voice.
Garen tightened his scarf, raised his head and looked upstairs to the left. The fifth floor of the gray building on the left is where his uncle lives. They were able to enter St. Oriole College, largely because of their uncle's relationship.
This uncle started from scratch and built a large and powerful business. He is also one of the largest wealthy businessmen in the entire Huaishan City. What's rare is that he has always been very kind to Garen. Yinger was relatively indifferent.
"I'll go see my uncle when I get back later." Garen lowered his head and quickened his pace, walking towards the end of the street with gray and white buildings.
A brass square nameplate passed by was erected on the sidewalk, engraved on it: Burlington.
At the end of the street is a rounded corner. Just at the corner, there is a small shop with a round arch. The door of the shop is open, and there is a light yellow light inside. An old man wearing glasses is sitting in front of an ancient yellow bookshelf, concentrating on his work. Hold a magnifying glass and look at something small in your hand.
Garen glanced at the upper right. On the gray wall was a triangular black nameplate with white letters engraved on it: Dolphin Antique Store.
He strode over directly, entered the store door and looked left and right.
Under the dim yellow light, there was no customer in this small antique shop.
The whole shop was dark red, and the shop was full of tables, with more than a dozen tables, large and small. The walls and tables were all covered with thick crimson cloth, and there were some strange things on them.
Garen stepped on the dark yellow wooden plank, making the sound of his footsteps. As soon as he entered the door, he found someone on the right side of him. He was taken aback. Looking carefully, there was a white half-length sculpture on the right side of the door. The sculpture was a curly-haired child, with only the shoulders and head, and the bottom was made of cuboid stone pillars.
"What do you need?" The old man's skin was sallow, with black age spots and wrinkles on his face. When he saw Garen enter the door, he put down the magnifying glass in his hand and asked in a low voice.
"Let me take a look." Garen was startled for a moment, calmed down and replied quickly, "You don't need to call me, I'll just take a look."
(end of this chapter)