When the phone rang, Lu Yan was taking a shower in the bathroom. It was almost ten o'clock after get off work late today. She was tired and sleepy, and all she could think about was the bed. As soon as she entered the door, she got into the bathroom, just wanting to take a shower and go to bed.
The phone was placed on the bed in the bedroom, some distance from the bathroom door. The thick shower curtain was pulled, blocking everything immediately. The bell rang several times before it penetrated the obstacles and sent it to Lu Yan's ears.
Lu Yan knew better than anyone what a phone call after ten o'clock meant. She panicked, and she couldn't care less about the foam on her head.
But before she ran to the bed, the bell went off.
She wiped her eyes with a bath towel, picked up her phone, and slid the lock screen button.
The long list of unfamiliar numbers on the screen was neither Corey's landline nor the phone number of the colleague on duty tonight, and it was cut off at the right time, showing that it was a liar's trick.
God horse stuff. She pulled the string of numbers into the blacklist and threw the phone back on the bed.
It was the same last night. Near eleven o'clock, she was about to go to bed when she suddenly called.
She thought Corey was looking for something urgent, and hurriedly answered, but before she could speak, the call was hung up.
She secretly greeted the liar on the other end of the phone, and went back to the bathroom to take a shower.
With something in mind, this bath will be faster than usual. When she came out, her body suddenly lost the steamy package. She shivered from the cold. She hurriedly dug out a set of thick pajamas from the closet and put it on, and got into the quilt.
This year's winter in the city of s came very early, and it was surprisingly cold before December. Last week, it rained several times in succession, causing the temperature to approach zero degrees at one point.
There are already many pedestrians on the street who have changed into winter clothes, some of which are slightly thin and weak, and even wrapped in thick down jackets.
Tonight, even she, who has always boasted of good physical fitness, couldn't hold it.
Pulling up the quilt, she yawned and closed her eyes. As usual, drowsiness came very quickly. She was not even qualified for insomnia in her profession.
Consciousness slipped into the abyss, until she was awakened again by the bell.
She was so tired that at first she felt that something was noisy in her ear, and she frowned. By the time it rang, the bell had already sounded like thunder.
Suddenly, as if someone was pulling her in the mud, she suddenly opened her eyes.
On the other end of the phone was the voice of a colleague on the night shift, a little anxious: "Little Lu, you have to come to Corey, and another epidural hematoma comes, so you can't be busy."
For some reason, she was suddenly relieved and remembered the famous joke: the person downstairs waits for the other shoe upstairs that falls to the floor, can't wait for a long time, and dare not sleep all night. For her, the phone wasn't "another shoe."
When the call came, she was more at ease.
"Okay, I'll come." She jumped out of bed, ran to the bathroom, wiped her face, put on her coat and went out the door.
She took shifts tonight. According to the hospital's regulations, as long as Corey had something to do, she would be there in ten minutes.
She wrapped her clothes tightly and strode out of the apartment.
Passing through a long narrow alley, and seeing that you can turn another corner to the east gate of the hospital, a person suddenly came across.
It was one o'clock in the morning, the air was freezing, and there was not even a cat in the alley except her.
The man appeared abruptly and silently, but he was aggressive and bumped into him head-on.
Lu Yan reacted quickly, and hurriedly turned to the side to hide, when she heard a clear sound, something tripped on the ground.
The man lost his balance and fell forward.
"Bang—" I don't know if it was the head or the shoulders, and slammed hard against the wall, making a muffled sound.
In the chaos, Lu Yan leaned against the wall to stabilize her body, feeling very strange. In the middle of the night, why is this person walking in such a hurry.
Thinking of the bad security news in the society, she got on guard and took a step forward.
In this way, she left the narrow alley and turned her head to the right to see the security room at the east gate of the hospital. The distance is only a few hundred meters, and as long as you shout, the security guard can hear the movement and rush over.
After standing up, she turned back vigilantly again, only to find that the person was actually a girl.
She had already planned to leave, but she stopped again.
Just now, the girl hit the wall in a hurry and rushed, and in her opinion, she was seriously injured. If you accidentally hit your head, I am afraid that you will need to be dealt with by the hospital.
"Are you all right?" she said, looking the girl up and down.
The alley was narrow, half of which were dim and scattered shadows of houses. The girl stood close to the wall, not moving.
Lu Yan looked at each other, and a strange feeling gradually emerged in her heart.
The girl was tied with double ponytails and wore an A-line short jacket with a dim red and black plaid, a rather cramped style. If this dress was put on ten or eight years ago, it might have been fashionable, but now, it is a bit too outdated.
What's even more strange is that as soon as her eyes touched the girl, she seemed to have a glimpse of light in front of her, and she always felt that she had seen each other somewhere.
Is it a colleague in the hospital? She couldn't help but want to take a closer look, but unfortunately the street lamp above her head was too dim to illuminate the girl's lowered profile face.
At this moment, the girl suddenly moved. One arm was still leaning against the wall, but the other arm was slowly raised. He patted his shoulders like he was slapping dust.
Lu Yan was stunned, and then heaved a sigh of relief. It looked like it didn't hurt the head or face.
She was in a hurry, and since the other party was fine, she didn't plan to stay any longer.
Just as she was about to turn to leave, the girl suddenly shook her head slowly as if checking her neck injury. With this movement, the hairpin on her ponytail was refracted by the light of the street lamp, and her outline suddenly became strangely clear.
Blood flowed in Lu Yan's brain, and her heart beat violently, so fast, so fast, as if she could jump out of her chest at any time.
It was a crystal butterfly hairpin, very tacky and outdated. It may have disappeared from the market today, but just a few years ago, it was everywhere on the street.
She clearly remembered how the butterfly's wings spread gracefully to both sides, and how the wings were densely covered with rhinestones. As long as there was light, when it was worn on the head, the butterfly would send out fine stars.
At the age of seventeen, she bought three pairs of such cards, one for herself, and the other two for her two best friends at the time. One of them, for their friendship, once Wear it every day.
The night wind was blowing on her face, as cold as a knife, her brain became blank, she looked straight ahead, only to feel something in the darkness hugging her tightly and wrapping her tightly.
She finally understood where the weird feeling just now came from. The girl in front of her was highly identical to the person in her memory, no matter what she was wearing or how she walked.
But—no, that's impossible.
She was unprecedentedly helpless, and at the same time, a certain piece of long-lasting pain in her heart, like being pryed by a ruthless shovel, showed signs of breaking out of the ground.
The girl also seemed to have noticed Lu Yan's strangeness, and her whole body was still in the darkness.
A disturbing stillness crept through the alley.
It was only a few meters apart, but there seemed to be a boundary between the two. As long as Lu Yan took one step forward, she would step into an unknowable world.
Unconsciously, in the darkness, the girl moved. When she turned around, the red coat brushed against the wall, making a rustling sound.
When Lu Yan realized that the other party had turned to face her, her breathing became steep and heavy.
Reason told her that the girl could never be that person, but seeing the girl approaching her step by step with quiet steps, her teeth still trembled uncontrollably.
At this moment, a sharp bell pierced the silence in the alley.
Lu Yan was stunned for a while, and when she realized that it was Corey calling, she immediately grabbed a life-saving straw like a drowning person, and lowered her head to look for the phone without thinking.
But who knows, the more anxious you are, the more you can't find it.
She was desperately rummaging for her phone, but the girl stopped, as if waiting quietly for something.
The bells were high-pitched, one after another, stubbornly shaking the surrounding air.
Lu Yan held her breath and searched for a long time, and finally found the phone.
Before she could pick it up, a colleague heard a voice that was doubled, with a smile: "Little Lu, the emergency room didn't come again just now. If you haven't gone out yet, don't rush over here."
It turned out that she was too busy just now and accidentally pressed the speakerphone button.
Her heart skipped a beat, and then she calmed down strangely. The voice of my colleague is familiar and real, and it is completely distinct from the world in the alley.
Reason immediately returned to her cage, she was silent, turned off the speakerphone, and changed the phone to the earphone answering state.
"It's okay, I'm downstairs, I'll be there soon."
As soon as she opened her mouth, she realized that her voice had become extremely hoarse as if it had been polished with sandpaper.
When she answered the phone, the girl turned around silently and walked deep into the alley.
Of course Lu Yan noticed it and hurriedly put down the phone.
The alley is narrow and long, and there are street lamps every few meters to illuminate the road under the feet of pedestrians.
The girl was walking in the alley, the red coat on her body was illuminated by the street lamps one after another, the light and shadow flowed, flickering, looking from a distance, like a red flower floating in the black waves.
Lu Yan stared at the girl's back tightly, until she walked far, far away, and the red dot in the alley was still immortal.