midsummer restlessness

To develop new real estate in the suburbs of Chongqing, a large number of old residential buildings were demolished ahead of schedule.

When he got the news, Xia An was looking online for discounted air tickets to Melbourne in the summer.

The old neighbor who used to live next door called and asked her to go to the neighborhood committee to register with the real estate certificate in the next few days.

"Xiao An, come and check when you have time. I see that you have a lot of furniture in your house and it is about to be demolished. Why don't you buy it in the second-hand market? By the way, Auntie will give you the keys to your house. .”

Neighbor Aunt Wang said on the phone.

"Yeah, okay, I'll be there tomorrow, sorry to trouble you, Aunt Wang."

With the phone in between, Xia An turned a page of the calendar, raised her hand and circled the date with a pen, Saturday.

"It's okay, it's okay, we've been neighbors for many years, I should be busy with this little thing, I was worried that I couldn't get in touch with you, I didn't expect you to never change your number."

"Oh, I've been abroad all the time, and I don't use the domestic card very often, so I haven't changed it."

Xia An's eyes darkened imperceptibly, and he responded casually.

"Are you going back to your house to pack your things tomorrow?"

An Hongdou tore open a bag of potato chips, glanced at Xia An who had just hung up the phone, and asked casually.

"Ah."

Xia An sighed weakly, closed the webpage irritably, and casually took a few pieces of pleasure from An Hongdou's hand.

"Douzi, if you have time to go with me tomorrow." Xia An slurred his speech while chewing potato chips.

"No problem." An Hongdou stared at the notebook intently, and agreed happily, "Then you have to go to the movies with me tonight." As he spoke, he turned the screen to Xia An, pointed at the promotional page above, and said with great interest, " My male god's new work, which feels youthful, will premiere tomorrow."

Xia An squinted his eyes and took a closer look at the poster, and said in surprise, "You still watch such small and fresh movies, I thought you were only interested in heavy flavors."

An Hongdou throws a fierce pillow over, Xia An catches it, and puts it behind her, "I like it to be more comfortable, thank you."

Laughing all over his face.

"Damn."

An Hongdou gave her a blank look, raised her foot and kicked her ass, "Hey, let me tell you, have you booked your flight ticket yet?"

"No, what's wrong?"

"Han Han knows that you are going back to China, and Zhang Luo asked us to get together."

An Hongdou lowered her head and fiddled with her nails, pretending to be careless.

"Well, go on."

Xia An didn't even lift her head.

"It's set for the 21st of this month."

In the evening of the next day, the two rushed to the old community on the outskirts of Chongqing by bus.

Some of the surrounding residential buildings have been stripped away, and there are debris all over the place, dilapidated and desolate.

The two took the real estate certificate to the neighborhood committee to register and sign the demolition letter of intent, then went to Aunt Wang's house to pick up the keys, sat for a while and exchanged greetings before leaving.

Xia An's family lives in Building No. 3, an old building with red brick exterior walls, cement balconies, and dilapidated hinged windows with peeling paint.

An Hongdou patted her on the shoulder to signal that he would wait for her downstairs, Xia An nodded and went upstairs alone.

The lighting in the corridor is very poor, and it is dark, and the walls are covered with small advertisements of "cleaning the sewer".

The smell of cooking and the sound of educating children wafted from next door, making me happy and warm.

Xia An was suddenly a little nervous, with a feeling of being close to home and timid, and the palm of the hand holding the key was sweating.

Accompanied by the pace of going up the stairs, the familiar door is gradually and completely presented in front of you from top to bottom.

The blue and blue anti-theft door had a large area of ​​paint peeled off, and the corners were full of spots of rust. Xia An inserted the key into the jerky lockhole and turned it slowly.

With a click, the door opened.

The setting sun rushed towards his face, Xia An stood in the sunlight, stunned.

Opposite the door is an old floor-to-ceiling window. The huge sunset outside the window is slowly falling, and the dim sunlight casts the shadow of the pane on the ground.

This is the first sight I saw when I opened the door when I came home from school every day.

It has been staged countless times in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and I have stopped and watched countless times, deeply in the deepest part of my memory.

She turned her head, as if she saw the girl pushing the door behind her, carrying a schoolbag, walking around her, changing her shoes, and shouting into the room: "Mom, I'm back."

The woman smiled and sat on the sofa knitting a sweater, a soap opera was playing on the TV, and the smell of food wafted from the kitchen.

An indescribable feeling bubbled up from the bottom of her heart, she reached out to touch it, and the picture shattered in the air.

When I came back to my senses, the moment I flicked my fingers, there was no one in the room.

The sycamore tree exposed a part of its luxuriant branches in front of the window, and the fine dust floating in the air could be clearly seen.

Xia An walked into the room, the old wooden floor was a little loose and creaked when stepped on, and the furniture and furnishings remained the same as in memory.

She found her previous room. The familiar single bed was covered with cloth, and there was a thick layer of dust on the writing desk by the window.

His fingers slid across the neatly arranged books on the shelf, and finally stopped on the "Muslim's Funeral".

She pulled it out of it, bringing out a cloud of dust.

Flicking through her fingers, she turned to the last page, and a photo came out. She picked it up, put it in her hand, and stroked it carefully and slowly.

In the photo, the color scale of the blue sky contrasts abruptly with the background of the setting sun outside the window.

The young smiling faces above looked in the same direction.

The yellowed lower corner is marked with a red date.

2007.6.3.

This is the only photo of Xia An and Wang Junkai - the graduation photo of Class 05 and Class 03.

On the morning of the three days before the college entrance examination, the school organized all the graduates to take pictures in the playground.

The whole grade gathered on the playground, standing under the hot summer sun as a class, waiting anxiously.

It was at noon when it was Xia An's turn to be in class—when the sun was at its worst, everyone couldn't keep their eyes open when looking at the camera. The head teacher, Lao Yin, who had always pursued perfection, waved dissatisfiedly and called the head teacher to ask him to ask the grade teacher. Can you let their class change to a shaded place to take pictures.

The grade director is an old bald head, and he and Lao Yin often drink together, watch football games and have a good conversation. After hearing the monitor's report that his family is in the third class, he agrees without hesitation.

So Lao Yin took the whole class and swaggered away, leaving behind the envy and hatred of all the classes on the playground.

In the end, the graduation photos of their class were changed to the steps at the entrance of the teaching building.

Not to mention cool, it also comes with a background light, and the effect of the photo is excellent. It is the only photo in the entire alumni record where the whole class is smiling brightly instead of squinting and grinning.

This is all due to Lao Yin's wise and decisive.An Hongdou later flipped through the alumni record and sighed earnestly.

The school was cleaned up that day to prepare the examination room for the college entrance examination three days later.

In each class, except for the students on duty to clean the class, everyone else packed up their own things and moved them home.

When Xia An was thinking about whether to toss home the exercise book that she had flipped through N times, a hand appeared in front of her and snapped her fingers arrogantly.

Wang Junkai threw on his schoolbag and said, "Why don't you pack it up quickly."

"Why are you so fast?" Xia An looked at Wang Junkai with his schoolbag slung across his body and his hands empty, "Where are your books?"

"It's in the schoolbag." Wang Junkai shrugged, "I almost took all the books to the dormitory the day before yesterday."

"It's good to be close. I knew I would be sleeping too." Xia An muttered, looking at the books stacked on his desk with a headache.

Wang Junkai smiled and rubbed her head, "Isn't there me—" the phone rang suddenly and interrupted him, Wang Junkai gestured for her to talk later, then walked out of the classroom quickly while staring at the phone.

"You have to go out and say what you want. I'm afraid that no one will listen and don't understand."

Qiu Hanhan pursed her lips and muttered casually, patted her bulging schoolbag, "Oh, Wang Yuaner, help me move the books to the door later, I can't move them by myself."

"Yeah." Wang Yuan answered without raising his head, busy.

Speaking without intention, the listener intended, Qiu Hanhan's unintentional words were like a stone hitting a calm lake, causing small ripples.

Xia An's eyes flickered, she pursed her lips in silence, lowered her head and continued to pack her things.

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