In August, Haicheng was hot and stuffy, and the white afternoon sun shone on the road, causing layers of heat waves to distort, distorting the contours of passing vehicles.
The orange sports car drove across the newly paved road, turned right at the intersection, and drove towards Hanbei District, the most remote area of Haicheng.
In the sports car, Shen Jia in the driver's seat took off the Bluetooth headset, and looked at Qi Cong who was always frowning at the passenger seat, looking out of the car window, his eyes swept across Qi Cong's pale lips and too thin face, thinking that his friend was on the phone just now. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Brother Cong."
Qi Cong immediately looked away from the car window and looked at Shen Jia: "Have you heard?".
"There is some news." Shen Jia thought about his words, "I asked a friend who grew up in Wenhua District, and he said that three years ago, there was indeed a person named Gu Xun in a coffee shop on Huaibei Street. I used to work, but right before and after your accident, that person resigned, and it is said that he went abroad."
Qi Cong was stunned, then frowned: "Going abroad?"
"Well. After the completion of the demolition and renovation of Wenhua District, some of the original shop owners have come back to open their stores again. This news came from the two old shop owners, so it shouldn't be wrong."
go abroad.
Qi Cong slowly leaned back into the chair.
Gu Xun, a poor child who came up from the countryside, worked part-time while applying to adult universities, and worked hard to improve himself. Where did the money come from to go abroad? What does he do abroad, can't he learn
"Brother Cong, can I ask, who is Gu Xun?"
Qi Cong returned to her senses, looked at Shen Jia with a cautious face, opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say.
In fact, his mind is still in chaos, and he has no real sense of everything around him.
Two days ago, he woke up in the single ward of the city hospital, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he was scolded by Xiao Shenjia, who grabbed his collar and scolded him with red eyes.
Confused, he talked with Shen Jiaji for a long time, and then both of them were stunned. Both of them found that something was wrong with each other, and they calmed down and chatted with each other. Then he was even more confused, and Shen Jia immediately called the doctor.
After a messy examination and communication, he learned three things from Shen Jia and the doctor.
It was 2020, not the 2017 he remembered.
He had just been rescued from gas poisoning.
He lost his memory for three years.
As far as he knows, he just went to bed normally last night and woke up normally this morning. But in fact, three years have passed, and many, many things happened during this period, but he forgot.
Forgot one sentence and stole three years of his time.
He wanted to convince himself that all this was just a joke, a prank, or an illusion, but the emaciated self in the mirror, a certain number that had become an empty number, and the living Shen Jia, whose temperament, body shape, and dress had changed drastically, let him He couldn't fool himself at all.
He really "slept" from the late spring of 2017 to the midsummer of 2020.
"Brother Gong?"
Qi Cong pulled back his thoughts and didn't want to answer Shen Jia's question. He simply changed the subject, looked at the increasingly unfamiliar scene outside the car, and asked, "Where is this place? Didn't you say you wanted to take me home?"
Shen Jia's reaction was very strange after hearing this. He avoided sight, tightened the steering wheel, and when an old community appeared in front of him, he suddenly turned the steering wheel and parked the car on the side of the street.
Qi Cong frowned and looked at Shen Jia: "Jia Jia?"
"Brother Cong, in fact, I have something else to confess to you... You kept asking my uncle and aunt how well the past three years were, but I was afraid of irritating you, so I lied."
Qi Cong had never seen Shen Jia show such a heavy and embarrassed expression. The slightest sense of wrong that he had faintly noticed before was infinitely magnified, making his heart sink.
He sat up unconsciously and asked, "What lie?"
Shen Jia took a deep breath and spit it out, glanced at Qi Cong quickly, and said quickly with an attitude of early death and early life: "It is true that you were hospitalized because of gas poisoning, but you opened the gas yourself. When I came to the door, there was still a With a suicide note."
"Brother Cong, you did not have accidental gas poisoning, but suicide."
"You killed yourself for a man."
"For him, you gave up the postgraduate entrance examination, lost your major, and worked as a cheap laborer for that man for three years, and secretly dug up the resources at home to feed him."
"You have been making trouble for two years, and your company is in a critical period of transformation. How can it stand up to your consumption and tossing."
"At the beginning of this year, your furniture company... officially declared bankruptcy."
"Brother Cong, my uncle and aunt have not been doing well in the past six months. After your family went bankrupt, my aunt was sick for two months, and it wasn't until last month that she got better."
"They live in the community in front, and they make a living by selling small furniture. The community is very old and the lighting is poor. The uncle and aunt still live on the first floor, even more - Brother Cong?"
Qi Cong didn't finish listening to Shen Jia's words. When Shen Jia said "they live in the community in front", he couldn't help pushing the door and got out of the car, strode towards the community in front of him. past.
The heat wave of midsummer swept over, but Qi Cong's palm broke out with cold sweat. My heart was beating very fast, and my brain was buzzing, and I didn't know if it was from anger or from being exposed to the sun.
He and Qi Cong, because of a man, made his parents bankrupt in middle age, and his mother was still sick
And suicide
A huge sense of absurdity rose from the bottom of his heart, Qi Cong bit his mouth tightly and looked at the community in front of him.
The seventh floor is a typical old residential building in the 1980s, with mottled gray and black walls and narrow and broken windows. There should not be many households in it. After a rough scan, only a few households were drying their clothes on their balconies.
It was a world apart from the small villa where the Qi family had lived for more than ten years.
Qi Cong remembered that her mother was afraid of heat and cold, and couldn't stand the torment at all, so she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.
Seeing is believing, seeing is believing.
He ran into the gate of the open iron courtyard in the community at the fastest speed. During the period, because of his anxiety, he almost hit an electric tricycle driving out of the community.
"Brother Gong!"
Shen Jia drove after him.
Qi Cong ignored it, glanced at the two adjacent old residential buildings, and ran towards the first floor of one of the buildings.
Seeing this, Shen Jia hurriedly shouted, "It's another building, 102!"
Qi Cong braked suddenly, turned and ran towards the other building.
Shen Jia was in a hurry. After the electric tricycle passed by, he immediately drove the car into the community, found an open space to stop the car, got out of the car and chased towards Qi Cong.
The residential building is too old, and there is not even a security door at the entrance of the corridor. Qi Cong entered the building unimpeded, went up a few steps, found 102 through the damaged and mottled signs on the wall, and wanted to knock on the door.
"I heard that Xiao Cong's credit card owed nearly 800,000 yuan."
Qi Cong's raised arm froze, looking up at the wooden door in front of him, which was not soundproof at all, frowning fiercely.
This voice... Little cousin
"Fourth sister, it's not that I want to take advantage of the fire, I'm also thinking of Xiao Cong. He is still young. If he is on the list of dishonest because he still has no money, his life will be ruined. Which unit will dare to ask him in the future?"
Shen Jia ran in, saw Qi Cong still at the door, and asked in confusion, "Brother Cong, how are you—"
Qi Cong reached out to stop Shen Jia, motioned him not to speak, and looked at the door again, her brows sunk.
A female voice answered, but because the voice was too low, the specific content could not be heard outside the house.
"Fourth sister, don't be angry, you are just such a child, can you really let him fend for himself? If you can really do it, you won't be living here. We are all relatives, and you don't need to be with me anymore. Be brave in front of you. Fourth sister, Sanmu has gone bankrupt. You and Lao Lin don’t have the capital to make a comeback. What’s the use of holding on to this trademark? Why don’t you sell it and help Xiao Cong pay the debt, so that your family can live in peace live."
This time, it was a gentle male voice, with a hint of anger in his tone: "But 600,000 is really too little. The initial estimate of this trademark is 1.5 million. If it goes to auction, it will still be worth it. higher."
"That's a lot. I'm cash and I can give it to you right away. Xiao Cong can't wait for anyone to pay the bill. And I'm the Qi family. It's more appropriate to sell the brand that our Qi family put together to our own family, you said. Woolen cloth?"
Shen Jia also heard the words in the house, and her eyes widened: "Trademark? That was bought by my aunt when your family went bankrupt, and she said she would leave it to you—"
Qi Cong suddenly raised his hand and slapped the door.
Seeing that Qi Cong's expression was wrong, Shen Jia shut up.
The knock on the door interrupted the conversation in the house, and after a few seconds, a gentle male voice approached with the footsteps: "Come here, where is it—"
The door opened, and a gentle and elegant middle-aged man appeared behind the door.
Qi Cong looked at his stepfather who appeared behind the door, his eyes touched his gray hair and his face that was at least five years older than "yesterday". With a smile, he said, "Dad, it's me, I'm back."
Lin Hui in the door stared blankly at Qi Cong and didn't answer.
"Dad, what about mom?"
Lin Hui returned to his senses and stepped aside. Instead of being happy, he seemed a little cautious: "Your mother is here, you... Your mother hasn't rested well for the past two days, don't... "
Qi Cong felt like a stone was stuck in his heart. How absurd he must have been in the past three years to allow his stepfather to show such an attitude.
He secretly clenched his palm tightly, let his nails dig deep into the flesh, suppressed his emotions with pain, then reached out and pulled Shen Jia next to him, and continued: "Dad, I even called Jiajialai. A few years ago, it was I'm ignorant, I know I'm wrong, this time I'm here to tell you that the money I owe has been paid off, and I'm going to do business with Jiajia, starting from scratch. Dad, I will work hard this time to let you and mom Have a good time again."
Shen Jia was stunned and turned to look at Qi Cong.
Qi Cong pinched Shen Jia's arm by holding onto Shen Jia.
Shen Jia reacted, quickly turned to look at Lin Hui, and agreed: "Yes, yes, uncle, Brother Cong really knew he was wrong this time. We also agreed that he will follow me... go... "
Shen Jia hesitated, and then aimed at Qi Cong.
Qi Cong's hand pinching Shen Jia's arm increased her strength.
"...Go make a lot of money!" Shen Jia looked at Lin Hui again, "Uncle, you also know that if you do my job well, if you do well, you can easily earn seven figures a year! Brother Cong will definitely be able to make you and Auntie is living a good life again."
Qi Cong frowned without a trace.
Seven figures? Didn't Shen Jia study interior design? What design jobs now make seven figures a year
A thin figure appeared behind Lin Hui. She reached out and opened the half-open door completely, glanced at Qi Cong, and said, "Come in first, what does it look like to stand at the door and talk."
Qi Cong's attention immediately fell after Qi Yin appeared. His gaze swept from Qi Yin's hastily tied hair, to her yellowed and thin face, and finally fixed his gaze on the corners of her fine lines.
Is this still his mother who is always well-dressed, plump and well-maintained
The camouflage that he could still make in the face of Lin Hui was easily broken. Qi Cong bit her lip to suppress the sound she almost lost. She quickly rolled her Adam's apple a few times and whispered, "Mom."
Qi Yin glanced at Qi Cong again, didn't answer, turned and walked into the room.
However, Lin Hui took the initiative to step forward and patted Qi Cong's shoulder lightly: "Just come back... Come in, Jiajia will come in too."
"Thank you Dad." Qi Cong sorted out his emotions, and followed Lin Hui's greeting obediently into the door.
In the narrow and old living room, a tall and fat middle-aged man sat on the wooden sofa in the middle. Seeing Qi Cong entering the door, he immediately put on a disapproving look and said, "Xiao Cong, you can't always be so ignorant, come back and pretend to apologize when you have no money, and cheat your parents' pension money, your parents won't either. easy."
Qi Yin, who was about to sit on the sofa, stopped.
Qi Cong's tumultuous emotions cooled down instantly, looked at the other party and said coldly: "Uncle, so you are also there. You are right, it's not easy for my parents, then you took it out of my mother's hands on the grounds of repairing ancestral tombs. Can you give back the 500,000 you defrauded to my mother?"
Qi Yin was stunned for a moment, then suddenly turned her head to look at Qi Cong.