migratory birds do not return

After finishing the last English test on Friday, Hou Xiao walked to the classroom with his bag on his back, but Bai Song cut off the English test paper on the way.When he walked back to the class, many people were already moving the desks and chairs. The desks and chairs in his place were still there, but the place in front of him was empty.

Hou Xiao's heart sank, and then he hung the schoolbag aside in silence.Bai Song ran over with the English test paper and smiled at him: "The chemistry lab is open, go get the books?"

"Hold it for me, I guess Lao Bai is looking for me."

"Well, you are asking for good luck, if he gives you more vacation homework, it will be over."

As soon as Hou Xiao tore off the white strip on the table, Lao Bai entered the classroom with the paper in his hands, glanced at him, and Hou Xiao tilted his head a little guilty.

Lao Bai walked to the podium and waited for the class to calm down before asking the class representative to distribute the papers.Not long after, the people who went to get the books came back one after another, and Lao Bai started the first step of his long speech.

"Something happened to me in this exam that surprised me. I hope other students don't learn from this classmate." Lao Bai said and looked at Hou Xiao, who lowered his head to study the paper and automatically blocked his eyes knife attack.

"Hou Xiao! Don't hide for me. I'll know where you are even if you go underground. Come here to get your papers after school!" Lao Bai knocked on the table, "I know many of you want to go out to play, that's fine, But it should be moderate, it’s useless to regret it if you overplay it and you can’t take it back. After you understand it, you will leave school, and the other group will stay for cleaning.”

"Old Hou, I knew he was going to add papers for you." Bai Song looked at the extra papers in Hou Xiao's hand and shook his head, "Please call me a prophet."

"...Can I call you a prophet differently? It sounds like a monkey to me." Hou Xiao patted the back of his head with the paper, glanced at Du Baigong's vacant spot from the corner of his eye, and sighed inaudibly .

Bai Song also turned his head to take a look, patted him on the shoulder and shook his head, saying: "Old Bai only talked about you, which means that Du Baigong didn't come for a valid reason. Quickly put away the things! You must not return all night tonight!"

"Fuck you for not coming back all night, Daxia Bai, look at the homework later, Hou Xiao has an extra set of papers, do you have the nerve to say that?" The squad leader threw the broom in front of Bai Song, "Clean it up for me!"

Bai Song was taken to do the cleaning, and Hou Xiao, who had nothing to do, waited for them to go out to play while doing the papers.The papers pasted on the windows have been torn clean, and the mild winter sun shines in.

Hou Xiao recalled the unanswered inquiry on the phone again.He thought that Du Baigong would never leave without saying goodbye, no matter what, he had been friends for more than a year, would it cost half his life to say where he went?

But what if he really disappeared without saying anything?

Hou Xiao's pen paused, and he just finished reading the whole article, but he forgot it all in an instant, so he couldn't remember what the article said.

Hou Xiao stuffed the papers into his schoolbag a little irritably, and walked slowly to the door of the liberal arts experimental class seven or eight classes away, watching Ruan Tang dawdling in there for a long time, his patience was almost exhausted, this guy It's swaying out.

"Hou Xiao? What's the matter with you, come back to class for the first time in three years and look for me."

"Lend me a cigarette."

"……what?"

"I said," Hou Xiao raised his eyelids, "Lend me a cigarette and a lighter."

"Are you stimulated, or can't think about it?" Ruan Tang took a step back and pulled him to a place where there were few people. "Sister Hou Yu strictly forbids you to be contaminated with tobacco and alcohol. She has such a good nose. Are you crazy?"

"She went back to the studio in the morning, and my aunt won't pay attention to this." Hou Xiao stretched out his hand to him, "You can say whether you will give it or not, but you have to give it if you give it, or you have to give it if you don't, or I will inform you Mom, she asked me about your performance in school some time ago."

"Damn it, you fucking robber and rascal!"

"Thank you for the compliment."

Ruan Tang rolled his eyes at him, reluctantly took out the lighter and patted his hand, then looked back and forth, left and right, carefully pulled out a cigarette and handed it over.

"You can draw on the roof, but be careful in other positions. Be careful if you get caught. I just finished the test today, and the teacher is rushing to approve the papers. I think he should be a little more relaxed. You hurry up and finish this madness, I'm leaving."

When Hou Xiao went up to the rooftop, the sky was already overcast, the entire rooftop was dark and without light, and the tables, chairs and benches discarded on it became ghost-like existences in the dark night, a large black area, like a hollow that would swallow people up at any time.

A thin beam of light from the corridor illuminates the floating dust particles in the air, and they are connected together like a galaxy covered with shattered planetesimals.

He leaned against the railing and tried to light a cigarette, but the wind blew it twice.Hou Xiao turned around, sideways to block, pointed carefully, put the lighter in his pocket, and took a breath hesitantly.

His whole lungs seemed to be scorched, he coughed for a long time, his hands trembling so that the cigarette butt almost hit his palm.Hou Xiao sighed, pressed the cigarette butt on the ground and stamped it out, crushed it and threw it into the trash can in the corner, squatted behind the railing for a while, and waited for Bai Song to call before going downstairs.

"There's something wrong with you recently. The number of times you go to the rooftop has doubled." Bai Song nodded his shoulder, his face full of doubts, "Tell me, is there a bottleneck in your studies? Or is your relationship frustrated? It shouldn't be, and I haven't seen you in love."

"Take back your gossip, it's about to fly to the sky." Hou Xiaopa pulled his paws away, and followed the others with his bag on his shoulders. "So much nonsense, why don't you play?"

The people in the class didn't dare to play too much, and they didn't go to any smoky place. The class leader decided to lead a cleanup bar. A group of people stored their schoolbags in the cabinet outside. Fortunately, no one wore school uniforms, and the group went smoothly. Into the bar.

"I'll go over there to play." Bai Song said, "You just sit here at the bar?"

"Hmm." Hou Xiao held a glass of light blue wine in his hand, with some orange halos and two or three ice cubes in it, and one or two bubbles would float on the water when it was shaken slightly.Its taste is stronger than expected, impacting the mouth, like popping candy mixed with coke, he feels a strange pleasure in his mouth, such pleasure makes him sink, and makes him forget for a short time Certain unpleasant facts.

In less than a day, he broke all the habits he had insisted on for the past ten years.

"You can't drink too much of this wine." Hou Xiao still wanted to have another glass, but suddenly he stretched out a hand to hold his wrist, he frowned, and shrank back unaccustomedly, that person was tactful Withdrew his hand and shrugged at him.

"This wine is nothing to drink, it feels like soda, but it has a strong aftertaste. You should be a high school student, a prospective college entrance examination? That one glass is too much, save it."

Hou Xiao glanced at him, his gaze swept over the mole on the man's face, and he let go of the cup: "How did you see that?"

"It's too clean." The man propped his chin, "Your eyes are too clean, you still don't understand anything, come and play with your classmates, I wish you a good time."

The man quickly blended into the crowd and disappeared.Hou Xiao lowered his head and stared at the little liquid left in the glass, staring blankly for a while, without thinking about anything, completely in a state of emptiness, when Bai Song came to push him, he suddenly came back to his senses, and he didn't hear them clearly Said what to do, nodded directly.

They transferred to a KTV, and the squad leader paid half of the fee directly, and the rest was shared equally by the others. It was only after they pushed each other into the box that Hou Xiao realized what he had just promised.

"If you don't want to answer, you or the other party can set an unreasonable punishment. If you don't give a lot of punishment, you won't be able to get up after tossing. Just make up your mind." A slender stick, "Okay, let's start."

Anyone who turns around has to go up, so Hou Xiao squeezed himself into the corner as much as possible. His rejection of this kind of luck and sports is equal. He always hides when he can, but cannot hide. just run.Bai Song ran to ask him and probably didn't expect that he would agree, but Hou Xiao gave him a pleasant surprise.

"Stop, stop." Qin Ran clapped his hands suddenly, "Hou Xiao! It's your turn!"

Hou Xiao retracted the arm holding the pillow, and moved back to the original position from the corner as if accepting his fate, and said helplessly, "Okay, come on."

"Three years in high school, so far I haven't seen you talking about friends with little girls." Qin Ran smiled, taking on the image of a wolf with a big tail. "Why, is it a secret love affair or is it not interested in girls?"

At their age, they don’t feel awkward or blush when talking about this kind of problem. Although there are a few who can’t stand it, most of them can bear it, and the acceptance is quite high. As a rare species in the class, girls often use materials from anywhere If you tease them, you won't be too reserved with each other.

Hou Xiao didn't expect such a question to come up, he hesitated for a moment, and took an ambiguous answer: "Study is the most important thing."

"Who will believe you!" Bai Song yelled directly, "Again, Hou Xiao, you will not be authentic if you make detours after the end of the game."

Hou Xiao learned to be clever this time, so he didn't agree easily, and ended up blocking his way out.He hugged the pillow and leaned on the sofa, watching the slender stick turn and turn, it was almost pointing to Qin Ran, but it just kept on turning to himself.

"Fate, Hou Xiao." Bai Song's eyes almost brightened, "Let me ask you, is there anyone you like?"

The squad leader laughed and scolded: "No, it's already counting down and you are still full of pink bubbles. What kind of stuff are all the engineering men in our class? There is no future at first sight!"

A group of people huddled together to discuss this issue for a while, and finally returned their attention to Hou Xiao.Hou Xiao threw the pillow aside and picked up a glass of wine on the table.

He drank half a glass at once, wiped the corners of his lips, and knocked the glass heavily on the table: "Okay, the fine is over."

Bai Song turned his gaze around, and finally sensed something was wrong, so he stopped Qin Ran, who was still not enjoying himself, and asked someone to order a song.

Hou Xiao pulled the clothes, the zipper was pulled all the way, the collar was turned up high, covering most of his face, looking at the position of the karaoke stand through the dim light in the box.

Hou Xiao didn't want to move when he was a little drunk after drinking, and everyone in the class knew his temper quite well after being with him for so long, and no one came over to try to drag him away by force. Order songs.

It didn't take long for the players who played Truth or Dare to break up. Hou Xiao stretched his arms and opened the door with the excuse of being dizzy.

The corridor was no better than the box, Hou Xiao walked all the way to the door, the cold winter wind made him three points clearer, seven points still in chaos.

He slowly took out his phone, stared at a name in the contact list, until his eyes were a little sore, and then reached out to press the green dial button, just after the call interface popped up, he hurriedly deleted it, staggering in place After a while, he sat down on the steps directly.

The aftertaste of drinking is really strong, he feels a severe headache now, his whole brain is like a paste, and he can't stroke it clearly.

Hou Xiao breathed out a mouthful of white mist, thinking vaguely in his heart that this winter will only look like winter when it is almost over.

Before Hou Xiao had time to return to the box, he saw a few people who had drunk too much being helped out, their feet were unsteady, and they almost fell to the ground. He secretly rejoiced that he was not like this, and greeted Bai Song, back home.

My aunt has been working a lot of overtime these days, and my grandma went to stay with a friend for a while. There was no one at home, and it was dark when the lights were off. Hou Xiao almost tripped over the carpet.He felt for the light switch on the wall and bent down to change his shoes.

Hou Xiao threw his schoolbag on the sofa, and with the last of his wits, he unlocked the cabin.The inside was unexpectedly tidy, and he didn't come here much later, and it was Du Baigong who was always in charge of the sanitation.

The things on the desk were neatly arranged, the windows were drawn, the two pots of cacti were not dead, the curtains were tied with ropes and set aside, and there were no cigarettes or lighters left on the ground.It seems that Du Baigong has never been here.

Alcohol hit Hou Xiao's nerves.He climbed onto the bed and lay down facing the window. The softness of the bed made him feel drowsy even more. Hou Xiao looked at the spot that was particularly bright because of the reflection of the light, and slept in the wooden house all night.

When I woke up again, the clothes on my body looked as if they had been washed in a washing machine. There were too many wrinkles, and my head hurt badly.Fortunately, I don't have to go to class today, otherwise Hou Xiao wouldn't know what state he would be in.

My aunt was making breakfast in the kitchen without even changing her clothes. She must have been busy all night. Hou Xiao couldn't bear it. He had been living under the fence for more than ten years. My aunt had always treated him very well.Hou Xiao threw his coat into the washing machine, pushed his aunt back to sleep, and stared at the fire by himself.

Ruan Tang was worried yesterday, and sent several text messages to warn him not to sell himself. Hou Xiao was too lazy to return to this kid, so he dropped his phone and squatted on the side of the cooking table, and took two disposable chopsticks to hook him. The oil stain stuck in the crevice of the cabinet, when he remembered to turn off the fire, one end of the chopsticks had turned black, and the other end was soaked in sweat by him.

Hou Xiao threw the chopsticks into the trash can, filled the porridge, put it in a thermos bucket, left a note on it, ran to the bathroom, took a shower, wrapped himself in a cotton jacket and went out again.

He walked downstairs to the old man's house as if unwilling to give up. He couldn't see anything from a long distance, but he had an intuition that no one lived in this room.I don't know if the old man's dog was also taken away.

Hou Xiao turned around and got into the bushes, covered in dew, he patted twice, walked to a winding stone path, and walked up along the road.The higher you go, the more branches and stones are piled up on the stone slabs, and the more difficult it is to walk. Hou Xiao opened them up more and panted to the top of the mountain.

This mountain is not high, and he and Du Baigong often come here when they are free, and it was a long time ago when he and Du Baigong came last time, and Du Baigong has never mentioned climbing the mountain since then.

Hou Xiao picked up a branch, shook off the snow on it, wrote and drew on the muddy ground, then erased it vigorously, found a piece that was not tossed and continued to repeat the action just now, after a long time, the ground on the top of the mountain was ruined by him It's a mess.

He dropped the branch and squatted on the ground with his head buried in his arms.After a while, his shoulders trembled.

The author has something to say:

Every time I finish writing a chapter or an article, I will fall into self-doubt of "what am I writing" (...)