Motorcycles circled into abandoned rolling mills, roads were potholes, and green foliage was covered in dust and soot.
During the 1970s and 1980s, steel mills were prosperous and workers had high status. It was best for workers here to seek wives;
It does not take thirty years for Hedong to turn Hexi.
During the transformation and reform in the new century, the rolling mills consume a lot of energy and pollute the environment, so they lay off workers, decline, go bankrupt, and close down. overnight.
No one cares about this land. It has been idle for more than ten years. The factory building is dilapidated and crumbling. Only the staff dormitory building in the innermost part of the factory area is left. The dark walls are smoked by the black smoke of the rolling mill for many years.
The wheels braked suddenly, and Chen Nian bumped into Kitano's back, clutching his helmet and sitting up. Holding his shoulders, she got up and stepped off the motorcycle. In front of an old-fashioned staff dormitory building, it was almost evening, and the smoke from the stove floated out from the door openings, like a huge smoking honeycomb.
Kitano said, "This way."
Chen Nian looked back.
Behind the dense old trees is a two-story building with rolling shutters. It doesn't look like a place for people to live in, but like a distribution or transit station for goods. On the right wall is a hollowed-out iron staircase, stained with rust, leading to the second floor.
The leaves of that tree are very fragrant and the taste is fresh, and there are strings of thin white silk sash hanging in the shade, like a pearl curtain, which is very beautiful; when I approached Chen Nian, I found out that the pearl under the silk thread turned out to be chubby. White bugs.
A shiver ran up his back, Chen Nian avoided it carefully and went up the stairs.
On the second floor, the corridor is full of waste such as coal ash, packaging bags, and old bicycles.
Kitano squatted down to unlock the door, lifted the shutter, and stood up, the iron clattered, and the dust rippled in the dusk; Chen Nian was stunned, the corners of his lips curved slightly.
He looked back and said, "What?"
Chen Nian lowered his head: "This door... it's cool."
Kitano showed no expression or made a sound.
Chen Nian said: "The car... also."
"What is it?"
"Yeah, cool."
He still had no expression, raised the rolling shutter door, walked in, turned his back on her, slightly hooked the corner of his mouth, and quickly closed it again, saying, "Come in."
Chen Nian hesitated for a moment and followed up.
The light is dim, filled with the smell of hot and humid boys' sheets, like mulberry trees outside the house, and like rain and dust, slightly fishy, moist, and vigorous.
Chen Nian looked at him, he raised his hand to pull the shutter, his shoulders touched the hem of the T-shirt, revealing a thin belly with sexy and unfamiliar lines on it. Chen Nian looked away.
He grabbed the edge of the door and pulled it, and the door fell to half his waist. He raised his foot to hook the edge of the door and stepped down, closing it neatly.
He unlocked the door, went to the back room, and pulled the light rope hanging in the air. With a click, the incandescent light was on, and the light was dim and dim, like a glass bulb filled with fireflies.
A red sunset projected from the cracks of the curtains, cutting the room into two halves; one side was a simple bed and wardrobe, while the other corner was littered with many tools and machinery, mixed with a slightly pungent ink smell.
The window was facing the west sun, and the house was extremely hot. The moment he entered the door, sweat steamed out of his skin, like mushrooms emerging from the soil after the rain, shaking his ropes, feeling unhappy all over.
Kitano dragged the floor fan over to the maximum setting, blowing Chen Nian staggered, his hair threw on his neck, and the hair covered his sweaty skin like a spider web.
Seeing her embarrassed appearance, he snorted, "Is it made of paper?" He took the kettle and went to the tap to collect water.
Chen Nian took off the guitar bag and put it on the table, picked the hair on his face, looked around, there were posters on the wall, there were Sakuragi Flower Road, Luffy Zoro, and Jay Chou. The paint on the wall is old, yellow, cracked, and swollen in some places, like the skin of an old man.
He took out a few buckets of instant noodles and asked, "Which one do you eat?"
Chen Nian glanced at it: "Sour and spicy beef."
Kitano stood at the table, skillfully tearing off the packaging and unpacking the seasoning package;
Chen Nian went over to help, and when he squeezed the sauce bag, his fingers were stained with sauce. Kitano glanced at her, wrapped a tissue around her fingers, squeezed and kneaded a few times, and pulled them back along the fingers.
Like stroking a child's hand, the corners and nooks are wiped clean.
Chen Nian looked up at him.
He turned around to get boiling water, soaked the noodles, and found two books and pressed them on the noodles bucket. There is an English book for the first grade of junior high school, the cover is torn off, and there are pictures of Han Meimei and Li Lei in the book, and an old lady is talking,
—How old are you
—It's a secret.
Chen Nian looked at him: "You..." before he started speaking, his dark eyes moved over and placed it on her face, Chen Nian's face froze for a moment, and after looking at each other for two seconds, his mouth responded, "How old is it? "
He didn't move his eyes and asked calmly, "How old are you?"
"Ten… six."
He bent the corners of his lips: "Reading so early?"
Chen Nian nodded, wanting to say that he skipped a level, but he was afraid of stuttering, so he swallowed it back. The sunset shone on the two of them, and she asked, "How about you?"
"Seventeen." He leaned loosely against the table, shaking his T-shirt to fan his chest, and suddenly asked, "Are you studying well?"
Chen Nian said, "Okay."
Kitano paused, looked at her for a while, and asked, "Didn't you tell a lie?"
Chen Nian said, "No."
He was silent, picked up the new cigarette on the table and tore the seal, took out one and put it in his mouth, not knowing what he was thinking, and finally took it down and said, "You look stupid."
"..." Chen Nian said, "You, I said it."
Kitano looked at her: "You've been stupid, it doesn't matter how many times you say it."
Chen Nian: "..."
The young man's heart is sensitive; Chen Nian realized that he had answered a question wrongly, or that he had answered it quickly.
The bright red sunlight on the table on the floor had dimmed. Kitano went over to open the curtains, pushed open the windows, and the voices were loud; the evening wind blew in, bringing a burst of toasted bread; the sun was golden, like icing on bread.
"It smells good." Chen Nian said.
Kitano glanced at his watch: "There are still two minutes."
"Um?"
"In two minutes, the person who collected the used home appliances came by bicycle, and the train to the provincial capital passed by, and the freshly baked coconut shredded bread came out of the pot." He jumped lightly, and turned out of the window, and there was no shadow.
Chen Nian was surprised and chased after him.
A very narrow cement board platform under the window sill is connected to the fire stairway. The stairs are close to the courtyard wall of the rolling mill, and there is an old alley outside the courtyard wall.
Kitano easily jumped off the courtyard wall and disappeared into the bakery across the alley.
The alleys in the evening are busy, tailor shops, canteens, steamed buns, shoe repairers, to name a few. The bicycle bell rang, but I didn't see anyone, so I heard its voice first: "Take it - tattered copper and iron le -"
Not far away, there is a railway leading into the distance.
Chen Nian went back to the table, took down the English book on the noodle bucket, lifted the paper cover, and the heat hit his face. Fortunately, the noodles were not soaked.
Beep, the train whistle sounded in the evening. Chen Nian raised his head and smiled slightly.
Kitano opened the window and paused; Chen Nian stood at the table under the setting sun tore the paper cover on the noodle bucket. The floor fan was swinging her head, and the wind was blowing, causing her skirt to bulge and deflate for a while, and the thin white fabric outlined the contours of her body at every angle.
Outside the window, a fire was burning under the boy's lower abdomen. He turned into the house and closed the curtains, the room was dim for a while;
Chen Nian raised his head and said slowly, "The face is still very hot."
Kitano handed the freshly baked bread to her: "Eat this first. While it's hot."
Chen Nian took a bite, fluffy and soft, and the milky fragrance overflowed. Her body froze suddenly, and Kitano's hand reached under the hem of her skirt and touched the skin along the inner thigh.
Chen Nian turned his head and met Kitano's eyes. His hand was under her skirt, and he asked in a low voice, "Are you afraid?"
Chen Nian avoided and stood on tiptoe, and his hand followed. She was trembling, her eyes fixed on him, ignorant and bewildered.
Outside the window, the train rattled, the air trembled, and the sky shook.
"Why come back with me?" He used a little force, almost holding her up with one hand; she groaned, leaning on the table with her hands and trying to stand on tiptoe.
He said, "Come back with me when you figure it out?"
Chen Nian shook his head, sweat dripped from his forehead, and his wet forehead was tied into thin curls.
She hoped for protection, but apparently did not predict what he would ask for in exchange.
Her toes were trembling and shaky. The moment she fell, he let go of her.
Chen Nian stood there for a while, feeling that it was meaningless. She was annoyed by her cowardice and recklessness, felt ashamed, and figured it out clearly, so she whispered, "I'm leaving."
Kitano narrowed his eyes and tapped the noodle bucket with a fork: "Let's go after eating."
"No... use..." Chen Nian saw that his face couldn't be refuted, and sat down at the table.
She ate slowly, he finished eating first and sat on the windowsill to smoke.
After Chen Nian finished eating, he packed up and said to him, "Okay."
He threw the cigarette butt, jumped off the windowsill, and took her out.
After exiting the rolling gate, Chen Nian said with the last trace of self-esteem, "I've already gone back..."
Kitano laughed, but did not smile: "Really?"
That smile was a bit cruel, and Chen Nian was silent. He and she both knew that the sky was dark and she didn't even dare to leave this factory area.
It seemed that the weather was about to change, and the evening wind was unexpectedly cold.
Chen Nian sat on the motorcycle and shivered a few times. The road was extraordinarily long, neither of them spoke, nor did Kitano look back at her when they crossed the red light.
At the door of the house, the wind was blowing and the leaves were rustling. Chen Nian took off his helmet and returned it to Kitano.
Kitano said, "It's even."
Affirmative sentence, but there is a hint of questioning tone that is not easily discernible.
Chen Nian pursed his lips and nodded.
Kitano: "Speak."
Chen Nian: "It's long been... it's been... flat."
He looked at her, and there was a sense of desert in his eyes; he looked forward again, the world was transparent, and a second later, the motorcycle started.
It was also at that moment that raindrops the size of peas smashed down densely and hit Chen Nian's head, causing some pain. It's raining. And his black figure could not be seen clearly, and the red taillights quickly disappeared around the corner.
The rain was getting bigger and bigger in an instant, unstoppable, and the ground was splashing with dust.
Ah, the rainy season is coming.
Chen Nian ran to the stairs, the phone rang, it was Zeng Hao. She should have gotten out of the toilet, but Chen Nian picked it up, but her footsteps stopped. The rain fell on the eaves, and the mud splashed on her calf. The chill swept up from the soles of the feet.
"You...you said it was me... who said it?" She gritted her teeth in the gust of wind, angry and panicked, her tongue knotted, "how did you answer... answer me? Did you promise... not to drag me... into it?" !"
Putting down the phone, there was a chill behind him.
She turned back with a guilty conscience, the alley was pitch-dark, only a huge rain curtain.
She rushed up the stairs, not knowing what she was afraid of. She quickly took out the key to unlock it. She couldn't see clearly in the dark. The key could not be inserted into the keyhole for a long time, and the inexplicable fear was even worse.
With a shake of his hand, the key fell to the ground.
Chen Nian squatted down to pick it up, and out of the corner of his eye caught a flash of light in the dark corner, it was a cigarette butt.
She turned back with a stiff neck, and met a pair of cold, shining eyes.
Wei Lai flicked the ash and stood up from the ground.