don't talk to aliens

Longjiang Eighth Steel Factory.

6: 35AM

At the entrance of the slightly darkened alley, a few "beeps" of the horn came from the opposite bicycle lane.

A few nearby children stepped on one-size-up slippers and ran quickly in front of the lime wall with the words 'Steel Factory Boiler Room' holding a plastic washbasin.

The fluttering bird squatted on the low wall of the factory and looked around, and from time to time ran into the network cable above the crowded residential area in front of it.

The old steel factory has kept the practice for so many years. Every Thursday, the residents of the surrounding family buildings will have no water in their homes.

So on any day, people from several old workers’ units nearby would send their children to the boiler room to fetch boiling water for bathing, washing feet, washing dishes and cooking at night.

These ready-made boiled water have to be lined up in order at the door of the boiler room in the opposite factory.

One call is [-] cents. In recent years, prices have risen and there has been no price increase. It can be regarded as the most conscientious place to open water around the steel factory.

The No. [-] Steel Factory is an old city with the most frequent floating population in and out of the city since the last century.

It is different from the rapidly developing and prosperous commercial city center that is separated by a bridge and overlooked across the river.

Every old house is close to the factory building, and there are retired factory workers, ordinary migrant workers who come to work locally, and all kinds of poor people who can't even afford normal food, clothing, housing and transportation.

The water and electricity in the unit building stop once every three days without warning.

Because of the low prices and the low income of the residents, the convenience facilities are still at the level of four or five years ago. There are not even large supermarkets and gas stations around, only a few scattered small supermarkets and an extremely remote one. The old bus terminal.

Fu Bailong was born in Longjiang, and his parents were also natives.

But since he was a child, he has never been to such a place at close range.

For him, he has never seriously understood what the daily life of this group of ordinary people who are not in the same world as him is.

Incomplete medical care, frequent respiratory infections, and various difficulties in the bottom society all have a sense of distance for him.

Therefore, when the temporary driver sent by Rachel Zhang went around and followed the electronic navigation to send him to a certain address that he only left in his memory.

Sitting in the car, he looked at the messy bicycles parked outside the car window, the illegal wires everywhere, and the Sanwu food stalls blocking the driveway, and his brows became more and more wrinkled.

"President Fu? The person you're looking for really lives here? But I see it's a mess inside, and I don't know who lives there. Secretary Zhang told me several times before that I have to be careful, and I can't let you If a person encounters any danger in this kind of place, shall we...should we drive forward?"

"..."

When the driver sitting in the front row asked him this question cautiously, Fu Bailong who was looking out the window thoughtfully didn't know the answer for a while.

He came to look for Li Xie today.

But he didn't know whether that person was at home today, or where his home was nearby.

This is because he is not familiar with someone at all in terms of friendship, otherwise he would not even know the address of a specific home, and the second is that he has not actually had a phone number that the two parties can use to contact so far.

Even before he came, he could have asked Chen Zhen alone for the other party's contact information.

But because he didn't want to expose his purpose and cause more misunderstandings that couldn't be explained at all, he still gave up the obvious and most convenient choice.

After all, Chen Zhen and Lu Yiming didn't know that Li Xie was actually the one who sent them to the hospital that night.

Although Fu Bailong didn't think it was necessary for him to thank him face to face just because of a small favor from the other party, but he never liked to owe others, so he had to pay it back clearly.

But this also made his trip to 'return the lunch box' on a whim today seem inexplicably a bit sloppy.

It happened that it was impossible for him to just give up looking for someone for a while, and it was impossible to go back home directly, so after a long silence, our stubborn Mr. Fu himself replied with a cold face,

"Well, keep driving in and have a look. Ask other people on the way. That person lives nearby. There are so many people living here, there will always be someone who knows him."

"...Okay, okay, then, then I will continue to drive forward."

Hearing what my boss said, the driver who worked hard and drove in on the uneven trail couldn't say anything, so he continued to drive into the alley.

Along the way, many men, women and children with water bottles in their hands deliberately bypassed his car curiously and carefully.

Judging by the look, they must be surprised why such a luxury car that doesn't fit here would deliberately drive to such a place where only poor people live.

Just turning around in the front, there is a convenience supermarket with a small facade and several boxes of drinks piled up at the door. I saw that this store with a lot of traffic is open around here.

As a subordinate, the driver went down to ask Fu Bailong himself, and incidentally described Li Xie's situation.

In his thirties, he lives alone all year round.

Talking to people, he looks listless all day with drooping eyes, and his looks are ordinary, usually very inconspicuous.

Once such a few characteristics are so general that they cannot be more generalized, it is really impossible for ordinary people to say who they will think of for a while.

Because there are many people like this all over the street, Fu Bailong couldn't think of any specific and impressive characteristics of a person like Li Xie for a while.

It's a coincidence that the boss who was lying in front of the tobacco and alcohol cabinet and watching TV when he heard that it was someone who lived in the old employee's apartment building, immediately let out a clear oh, and opened his mouth as soon as he slapped the cabinet Sentence said,

"Oh, oh, I know who you are talking about! Yes, this person lives near here, he is about this tall, and he lives alone. Li, Li, Li, what is his name? He will My son is definitely not there, the lights at home are turned off, and people are secretive all day long, look, in that apartment building over there, the only one with the windows locked all day is where he lives."

"Hey, no, where did he go? When will he come back?"

"I don't know, there are too many people coming and going every day, and it's impossible for me to remember everyone's affairs, but he has lived here for several years and never talked to others. He probably will come back in a while. ? You can wait at the door, eh, by the way, how about a pack of cigarettes? I have a lot of good cigarettes, all of which are directly given by my acquaintances in the tobacco company..."

"..."

The boss, who was quite talkative, finished talking about this matter, and by the way, he opened the hidden small drawer and sold it by himself.

The driver who got out of the car to inquire about the matter reluctantly shook his hand and rejected the "good cigarettes" of unknown origin, turned around and went back to the car and told his boss about it.

After sitting in the car and silently digesting the fact that someone really lives in this 'slum', Fu Bailong looked down at his watch and confirmed that it was still early, after thinking about it, he frowned and replied,

"Did he say when someone would be back?"

"No, people can't tell exactly when, but they live in the opposite building, and the window is locked outward like a prison. I heard that this person still owes a lot of messy debts. He deliberately played a rogue and owed half a year's rent. Hand it over, the landlady is about to drive her away with a broom."

The driver answered.

Hearing what he said, Fu Bailong, who had doubts in his eyes, also looked out.

In the row of old residential buildings not far away, there is really a dilapidated house with two windows locked from the outside, which is different from ordinary houses.

For a while, he couldn't tell what was wrong with the rental house.

If you insist on finding a description, maybe it is just like what the driver said, like a cage where a person who is about to be locked up is locked alive, and can only escape from the cage waiting to die in despair.

This description is really weird, so Fu Bailong frowned and looked away for a while, and then listened to the driver continue to say,

"Mr. Fu, look, what are we going to do next? It's okay to continue waiting, but I'm afraid it will delay your time, and I don't know when this person will come back here at night, so you don't have to waste it for such a trivial matter." wait that long."

"..."

The driver's words sounded right at first glance.

But thinking that if he really made a trip today, he would have to come back the same way to find this person next time, Fu Bailong immediately refused from the bottom of his heart.

Because his original purpose of coming here today was to draw a line with Li Xie, an unknown name, after this time.

So no matter what, he paid back what he owed today, and he will never have anything to do with this kind of person from now on.

Because of this thought, Fu Bailong also made a decision in his heart at the moment, and when he thought about it, he simply glanced at the thing in the back seat that he brought all the way, and he still said,

"... No need, just park your car beside me, don't block the normal walking of people nearby, I'll wait downstairs, you wait for me outside the alley."

This attitude of Fu Bailong has to be said to be the core of an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist.

So even though he was very impatient to sit in this kind of place and wait for someone aimlessly, he asked the driver to drive the car nearby and parked it, and got off alone to the dilapidated and messy apartment building in front of him.

In this regard, he still has to listen to his driver for everything, and it is hard to say anything.

Seeing his own boss, the young richest man who everyone in Longjiang City is eager to curry favor with, he coldly picked up the white paper bag that he didn't know what it contained in the back seat, and left like this, so he had to leave first. Went out to the alley and waited.

As far as Fu Bailong was concerned, it was quite strange to wait for someone downstairs in such a dirty and messy old resident.

Because compared to usual, this is the first time he has been so close to the lives of ordinary people.

It looked really messy outside the corridor.

There was the sound of frying vegetables in oil pans from the unit buildings on both sides, and there were quite elderly women arguing loudly with their family members in the residential buildings.

He himself has a cleanliness habit, and has a "princess disease" that occurs regardless of the occasion and does not consider other people's emotions at all. For a while, he only feels that every trace of delicate-smelling air around him makes him feel uncomfortable.

But today, this matter was completely self-inflicted, and he couldn't blame others anyway, so it is conceivable that Mr. Fu, who was completely whim, felt so upset and regretful.

At the moment, the ground under my feet is really slippery and dirty.

The stench coming from the garbage disposal station opposite also tormented him bit by bit from unknown places.

It was late at night, the corridor was pitch black, and there were noises coming from unknown places.

In addition, he ran to find someone this time without having dinner, so it is conceivable that so many things come together so ingeniously.

And it feels like time is passing by, and the paper bag that I carried all the way in my hand is almost deformed by myself.

It was getting dark in the corridor outside, but there was an unemployed vagrant who didn't know what to do outside in the middle of the night, but he still didn't go back to his home.

Watching the time on the watch move from six o'clock to seven o'clock with my own eyes, and then began to advance endlessly towards eight o'clock.

Fu Bailong, whose patience had been worn down a little bit, was about to get angry on the spot, dropped the things in his hand and left without hesitation.

——The person he was waiting for just happened to come back.