The Foothills Department Store is a wonderful place, at least for Xu Le.
In the youthful years full of escape, only this small shop hidden at the end of the stone path adjacent to the city, and the small courtyard in the slum area of the empire's Tianjingxing, can bring him a real sense of relaxation, while the former and the latter The biggest difference is that the kind mother and son in the small courtyard are the source of the feeling of relaxation, while the department store is permeated with relaxation and calmness from the walls and even the air.
He didn't buy energy bars for students' camping today. He took a bottle of inferior liquor and two bags of peanuts from the back of the shelf, walked to the cashier and small dining table at the door, lowered his head silently, took out the change in his pocket, and put it away. In front of the boss, turn around and leave.
The gray-haired male boss put down the instant noodle bowl in his hand and didn't count the banknotes. Looking at Xu Le who was just about to walk out the door, he said mockingly, "It's getting more and more impolite now. At least I knew how to call Boss Xiaoshan before."
Xu Le's back was slightly stiff, he turned his head and took off his hat, looked at him and said, "Why do you recognize me every time?"
"I've been running a store all my life, and I've never met a fugitive who dared to come back to me to buy things like you over and over again. I even recognized you when the president made the announcement. You're a fugitive. Rare, naturally not easy to forget.”
Xu Le was silent for a moment and said, "But this time is different from last time. I am from the Empire now."
"There is a saying that a white head is like a new one, and a piece of paper is like the old one. You may not understand the meaning of this sentence. It probably means that some people are still so unfamiliar with their lives, and some people just stop the car and chat for a few words, and then they can Become a lifelong companion, like an old friend."
Boss Li Xiaoshan looked at him and said blankly, "Of course we don't have this kind of friendship, but in my opinion, you are barely an interesting guy, so I'd like to take your precious time to chat with you."
The owner of a department store, who is over half a hundred years old, looks very ordinary, and his words are very ordinary and simple, but the words he uses occasionally are like these two sentences, but they look unique and interesting.
This department store, far away from the bustling city and in the middle of the forest on the edge of the city, is not doing very well. Even the sparrows in the forest dare to walk proudly at the door, looking at such a small store, every day My life is probably consumed in the boring TV news and the process of instant noodles becoming hard, soft and rotten, how can it be said to be precious
Xu Le scratched his head with his free hand, not knowing what to say: "Then what shall we talk about?"
The boss named Li Xiaoshan tapped the table with his knuckles, frowned at the liquor and peanuts in his hand, and said, "According to the news, you shouldn't have any leisurely desires to use wine to drown your sorrows. It doesn't matter what you talk about, the key is that I don't like to see someone wasting the wine in my store."
"Then why don't you waste it?" Xu Le asked suspiciously.
"If you invite me two drinks, it's not a waste." Boss Li Xiaoshan said.
A bottle of wine quickly entered the belly of two people, and then opened the second bottle. The dishes for the wine were peanuts, a few bags of low-quality snacks for students, and two boxes of instant noodles that were really soaked to the pulp. Xu Le, who is not good at drinking, has a layer of vigorous red on his slightly dark cheeks.
He looked at the afterglow of winter through the high-rise building on the opposite side of the hill, hiccups, squinted and said, "I don't want to get on other people's boats because I know very well that once I get up, I can't get down again, but It's also stupid to stay, and it doesn't make any sense other than to implicate those guys like you who don't care that I'm from the Empire."
Zi Liu took a sip of the low-quality liquor full of burnt taste in his toast. He licked his lips with a painful expression, looked at Boss Li Xiaoshan and said, "From the last time I escaped to this time, I actually escaped many times before. I'm really tired and don't want to run away anymore, but the problem is that I don't want to go on someone else's boat, and it's wrong to stay, I still don't want to die, what do you think about this?"
The so-called asking for advice is actually just a vent for his depressed emotions. Without waiting for the other party to answer, he shook his head and said with a self-deprecating laugh: "In my life, I actually have very few, no, I have never regretted anything, but this time it is really a little bit. Regret, I find this emotion strange and... awkward."
The boss, Li Xiaoshan, brought the rim of the glass to his lips, and slowly and silently sucked the wine in the glass without making a sound. Then he picked up two peanuts and a piece of dried tofu and threw them into his mouth, and chewed hard without being particular about it. , then let out a satisfied sigh.
He looked at Xu Le, whose face was full of sorrow, and said mockingly, "Human is really an animal that is not easy to satisfy. You were just an orphan in the East Forest, but now you have become the prince of the empire, and you can eat meat unscrupulously. What else is there to be uncomfortable about in life? "
"This is very similar to what one of my uncles said." Xu Le filled his glass with wine and said with a smile.
Boss Li Xiaoshan ate a few more peanuts and dried bean curd, chewing hard, the muscles around his jaw were particularly strained, and he said vaguely: "Ancestor once relayed the words of a sage before his death, chewing pickles and beans together, There will be a walnut taste. But I prefer another sentence, peanuts and dried tofu are eaten together, and they have the taste of ham.”
"Before you are executed, you should never forget about this. This is the attitude you should have in life. The meaning of life is to eat meat and drink, eat and wait for death. When you realize this, it will probably not be like this now. It's so tiring to live at such a young age."
Xu Le stared at the wine glass between his fingers and murmured, "How can it be so easy to see through."
The boss devoured the rotten noodles in the bowl and continued to reprimand vaguely: "If you really took the ticket, got on that boat, and continued to develop according to the normal path, will you regret it when you die? "
Xu Le thought about it seriously, and then replied: "Yes, although it hasn't happened yet, at least I will now."
It's a wonderful way for a young man to regret the ending that hasn't happened in his old age before the sunset. The boss laughed and said, "Then what else are you thinking about?"
"I want to leave, I want to have a boat of my own." Xu Le slowly turned the wine glass between his fingers, squinted at the boss, his eyes were very bright, and said sincerely, "Can you help me?"
"This is really not true." The boss waved his chopsticks like a sword, and the soup was splashing. "This is a joke passed down by our ancestors. I have studied it for half my life and don't know what the funny thing is. It is probably due to the serious lack of data."
"As for the ship, I've been here all my life looking at such a shabby store, and I've never even been to the movie theater at the foot of the mountain, let alone any space tourism."
Xu Le heard that the other party was not joking, stared into his eyes in shock and speechless, and asked, "You have been here all your life? You should have gone to school, right?"
"Self taught."
The boss paused, and did not continue to expand the description of the joke related to these four words.
"Then you shouldn't be suffocated to death?" Xu Le looked at him in disbelief.
"Can a living person suffocate urine?" the boss said with a frown. "You can surf the Internet, order takeout over the phone, watch TV, and when you're bored, you can go hunting in the reserve. It's a good day."
"Sanctuary?" Xu Le asked, looking at the man who couldn't see clearly.
The boss stopped the futile attempt to fish out the whole noodles from the batter, pointed the tip of the chopsticks dripping in the direction of the back mountain, and said, "Climb over this mountain, and you can see the wall of the reserve."
"Who the hell are you?"
Xu Le's hand holding the wine glass was a little stiff. In fact, he always felt that the owner of this foothills department store was not an ordinary person, so he tried to inquire about the ship before, but he never thought that this man with gray hair looked extremely Ordinary men can actually ignore the brilliance of the charter and climb over the electronic fence.
"My surname is Li, and my name is Li Xiaoshan. I've said it three times. Can't you remember?"
"Why every time I come to your store, I feel so relaxed, even comfortable?"
The boss looked at the young man's moving face and said, "Because of my small shop, sunlight can enter, wind and rain can enter, and people can enter, but the charter brilliance cannot enter."
Xu Le scratched his head, his expression hard to hide his shock. After being silent for a long time, he suddenly frowned and asked in confusion, "Is there anyone named Li in the Seven Family? You won't tell me that you are from the Li family in Philadelphia. A fierce man?"
"Don't talk about eggs with no nutritional value." The boss wiped the soup from his lips and said, "I have nothing to do with those big men."
Xu Le felt that what he saw and heard today was beyond his imagination. The man in front of him actually said that the brilliance of the Charter that shrouded the universe could not shine into this dilapidated department store. It was really incomprehensible and unimaginable. After drinking it, use that rough spicy feeling to dilute the confusion in my mind.
"Then why can't Charter Glory come in?"
"Because this store and the mountain behind it all belong to my family's territory. When the electronic surveillance network was built, this place was excluded. I don't have the eyes of a central computer here. As for those historical stories, next time there are I'll tell you when I get a chance."
Xu Le covered his forehead and sighed: "You are too suspenseful about this, and you don't understand it clearly. It's really uncomfortable. Speaking of next time, after I walk out of your place today, I don't think there will be another time."
"You can stay."
The boss looked at him and said lightly: "If you really don't have a place to go, just stay, and no one can find you."
Xu Le shook his head and said with a smile, "I have already implicated a lot of people. Although I know you are not an ordinary person and what you said may be true, I still can't stay."
"It's okay, your first-order protection authority has been stripped away. It just so happens that I still have the first-order protection authority. That broken computer will not allow federal armed personnel to deal with me."
said the boss.
Today, I was shocked so much in this foothill department store that after hearing the first sequence of protected permissions, Xu Le calmed down quickly, and after a long silence, Wei Shi said, "You are too young here. , and I still have a lot to do.”
"This place is really too small."
The boss's smile suddenly became a little desolate, and he said with emotion: "In the countless years of family inheritance, countless children because they couldn't stand this kind of loneliness, chose to implant chips into the brilliance of the charter, and in the end, I was the only one who could persevere. One. It's hard to come across a guy like me who doesn't have a chip in the back of his neck, thinking he can have a company."
"If I can't figure it out, I'll come back to you. I know it's a bit shameless to say that, but if I can find my own ticket, I'll definitely see you when I get a chance."
"Go." The boss waved his hand.
Xu Le packed his bags and walked out the door. He suddenly stopped and asked, "Can you tell me who your ancestor is?"
The boss threw the instant noodle bowl into the cardboard box under his feet, lowered his head and said, "My ancestor is still standing on a tree in Charter Square. Of course, I have never had the opportunity to visit his old man's house, but I think that he has been dead for so many years and was forced to stand. To be looked at there, to be exposed to the wind, rain and sun and washed with pigeon dung, it might be better not to look at it.”
Xu Le's face was very exciting. He thought about the Seven Great Families and the Li Family in Philadelphia, but he didn't expect the answer to be the five-member group that was about to become a myth.
"My ancestors liked to eat meat, like to hunt, and didn't like to have chips."
The boss raised his head, looked at him blankly, and said, "Although he has a boat ticket in hand, it is a five-person boat, so he alone said it doesn't count. When voting, he initially decided to support him. The guy with big eyebrows and big eyes, after the regulations were revised to allow eating fish, actually betrayed the revolution, so the vote was three to two."
The gray-haired man shrugged and said mockingly, "Democracy, you know."
Xu Le didn't know what to say.
"One last word for you." The boss looked at him and said with a smile: "After the catastrophe, the five-person team came to this star field by spaceship. There is no federation in the universe. Similarly, I believe that the Zuotian star field is over there. The situation is similar, there were no empires before."
"In the beginning, there were no federations and no imperialists, only people. So you don't have to struggle with whether you are a federation or an imperialist, just be an individual."
Hearing the last sentence, Xu Le was silent for a long time, bowed deeply to the boss in the twilight, and said, "Thank you for your care these days, those nutrition bars and wine, and today's wonderful story and This passage."
As soon as the sun set halfway down, lead clouds and snowflakes could not wait to cover the city, and began to impatiently drive the winter wind howling through the streets. After drinking nearly a bottle of baijiu, he had already passed Xu Le, who was intoxicated, but he could not feel a little cold. The conversation in the foothills department store finally lifted the deepest knot in his heart, his mind was chaotic, and his mind was clear. .
Federal people, people from Donglin, people from Shanglin, people from Xilin, people from Nanke, people from Qixia, people from Daxi, people from Sunset, people from Libanxing, people from Mohuaxing, people from Tianjingxing, men, women, old people, good people, people before and after, Xu Lezai It seems that Magnolia is best at and only good at simplifying complicated things, so he decided to simply divide people into bad people and good people in the future.
Wanting to understand this, he called Madman Li through his drunkenness, hiccups, and said, "Let Laobai go... Don't force a good person to go crazy."