Tentative

Four years later.

This small shop is located in the outskirts of the city, and the storefront is not small, and there are a lot of guests and people coming and going around here every day.But here is really messy and messy, and everyone doesn’t seem to care much about things like food safety or sanitation permits, and the seats outside are diligently cleaned up every day for guests to see; the back kitchen is completely different, everywhere It was covered with grease, and the ground was full of water all year round. The sewer pipes were almost blocked by garbage, and the water could only slowly seep down.But even so, the shop owner didn't intend to hire someone to clean the pipes. Anyway, in his eyes, as long as it can be used, it is good. Anything clean and tidy is bullshit and can't be exchanged for money.

"Hurry up and wash!!!"

"Oh!" He lowered his head, holding the dishcloth which was no longer visible in one hand, and the dishes in the other, quickly wiped it a few times, then flushed it under the faucet for two seconds, vigorously shaking off the water on it , Put it back in the pile of washed dishes.

At the beginning, he would clean every dish carefully, but after being scolded by the shopkeeper with those ugly words every day, he also learned how to do things hastily and how to make the bowl look clean.

"You're a fucking piece of trash. You've been washing the dishes for so long! If you don't want to do it, get out!" But even so, the shopkeeper was still not satisfied, and still stood aside, crossing his arms and cursing dissatisfiedly.

He didn't say anything, just washed mechanically - when doing these things, his mind was actually blank, because he was proficient, he just did it by muscle memory.

"Dish—" The crayfish being stir-fried over there has been finished, and it will be over after a few seconds. The master spoon impatiently knocked on the edge of the iron pot with the spatula, making a clanging sound, "Can you hurry up?" , I am still waiting for four or five big dishes to be fried!"

"Go, send the dishes over there!" The shopkeeper stepped forward dissatisfiedly, and kicked him in the hollow of his knee. Although he didn't have much strength, he kicked his legs so weak that he almost fell down.

There was no time to refute anything, he could only pick up a stack, and hurried over there with seven or eight freshly washed dishes.

There was a sound when his feet stepped on the stagnant water. He stepped on the mouth of the sewer pipe, and the vegetable leaves rotted by the water cannon slid very badly. He was in a hurry and didn't pay attention to what was under his feet.

There was only an exclamation of "Ah--", and then the plate fell, jingling and shattered all over the floor.

The shopkeeper smiled instead of anger, and said coldly: "A plate costs five yuan, deducted from your salary."

The head of the spoon was impatient to wait, seeing this situation, he simply ran to the sink to get a clean plate to put the dishes on, and couldn't help complaining: "Boss, please hire two more dishwashing people, really. Impressed!"

"You all don't pay wages, you hire people, and you don't even look at the store to make more money!"

No one paid attention to him, he got up from the ground by himself, his hands were cut by pieces of the porcelain bowl, and his clothes were also soaked in the sewage. It was November, and he felt cold all of a sudden.But he was still in a hurry, and ran to the corner to get a broom, and cleaned up all the debris on the ground.

"Boss... I'll go back and change," he said.

"That counts as one day of absenteeism!"

"Forget it, I won't change it." He said, ignoring the wound on his hand, and went back to the bowl sink.

The boss sneered: "Hey, you know that too? If you don't work hard, I will replace you here! I have long said that young people are not good at work and are lazy. I really regret letting you come to the store."

"Sorry……"

After eleven o'clock in the evening, the people in the store had a working meal and left one after another.He was still busy cleaning the back kitchen, and he usually took turns to do it, but today he did something, and naturally, the cleaning work was regarded as punishment.He squatted at the mouth of the sewer, wearing plastic gloves, bit by bit to get out the rotten and smelly ingredients stuck in the cracks, and threw them into the trash can.

The so-called gaining wisdom by eating a ditch, this time I was slipped by these things, and I lost 40 yuan, so I had to clean it up by myself, so don't suffer this loss again next time.

By the time he finished this, the work meal had already been eaten, leaving only the dishes.He washed the dishes and put them away again, turned off the electric switch, pulled down the rolling gate, and went to the staff dormitory.

The dormitory here is a self-renovated house, each room is only five square meters, the toilet is shared, and there is almost no room for a bed in the room.When he went back, other employees in the toilet were taking a shower, so he could only stand in the corridor with dirty clothes and smoke, waiting for the toilet to be emptied so that he could take a shower.

The soft-packed black seven stars accounted for a large part of his expenses, but fortunately he smoked less, and he might not be able to finish a pack in two or three days.The thick smoke that is astringent in the throat enters the lungs and circles around, and then exhales deeply, it will always calm him down a lot.

After taking a shower, changing into clean clothes, and washing and drying the dirty clothes, it was already past two o'clock in the night.

He lay on the bed, turned on a desk lamp that flickered from time to time, and lit the second cigarette of the day.The smoke floats up in the cramped room, which looks very beautiful under the light.There are many old books piled up next to the pillow, the covers are wrapped in newspapers, and there are many damages at the corners.There is nothing written on the casing, but he can still tell which one is which - he has read every book here countless times, and he can immediately recite the words and sentences in it as soon as he hears the last sentence. Come up with the next sentence.

He bit the cigarette holder and opened it. As usual, he read slowly. He might not read a few pages in the time of one cigarette.

These are all collected by him at the second-hand bookstall, one by one, slowly collecting, as long as he passes by the second-hand bookstall, he will definitely stop to see if there is anything he needs.

This kind of life has been going on for half a year.

He had worked in a fried chicken restaurant for the past three years, and resigned because he was going to a new city, but he could only find this restaurant that met his needs—food and housing included, far away from the urban area, low consumption, and no diploma required.Living the same life day after day can be numb, he knows it all too well.

The next day, he walked into the store on time, went to the back kitchen, took his apron and tied it.The shopkeeper walked in suddenly and yelled at him, "What, come here!"

He walked over as he said, only to find that there was still someone standing behind the shopkeeper.The man looked about forty years old, with sallow skin and sunken eye sockets, and he could tell from long-term labor.The shop owner was not embarrassed to speak, and said directly: "You have been fired, I will pay you later, this is the new dishwashing."

"Can you..." he begged with some difficulty, "Can you not fire me, I can work for an extra hour every day, is that okay?"

"Your hands and feet are too slow, it's really not suitable!"

"Please, I really need this job..." "Hey, why are there so many words? If you talk about it again, I won't even give you the salary!"

He can only keep his mouth shut.

The shopkeeper took out a drab envelope from the counter and handed it to him. Inside was 660 yuan. The shopkeeper continued: "This is the half month's wages and this month's money you deposited before, and 40 yuan was deducted from the bowl." Money, you will move out of the dormitory today, and the new dishwasher will live there."

He took the envelope with great difficulty, counted the money inside, and finally turned and left without saying anything.He also heard the shopkeeper sneer: "It's like collecting beggars here. If he didn't ask for less wages, I wouldn't want to do things that are not easy to do!"

A good waiter, seeing this scene, came up to him and whispered a few words of comfort in his ear: "Hey, this boss seems crazy... that is his distant relative. Originally, one person is not enough to wash the dishes, and he is so stingy." !"

He smiled and said gently, "Thank you."

Two sets of winter clothes, two sets of summer clothes, and more than a dozen books are already his entire luggage.He stuffed everything into the hiking bag, left the dormitory key on the table and left.

It was still early, and it was still four o'clock in the afternoon. He carried his bag and arrived at a nearby bank.He stood in the small compartment of the ATM machine, took out a palm-sized notepad from his pocket, entered the ATM according to the number on it, put 25 bills in it, and pressed the confirmation button.

He spit out the receipt from the ATM, and he also carefully put it in the notepad.

He got on the bus, staggered for more than an hour, and got off near the most famous university in the city. University A is not only the number one university in the city, but also a well-known institution of higher learning in the whole country. The school occupies a large area, and the buildings are very simple and elegant, full of scholars.

He walked in anxiously, surrounded by students around his age who were holding books, basketballs, or lunch boxes.Everyone is full of vigor, like a young tree growing under the abundant sunshine and rain, which makes him envious.He was wandering around in A, the time passed quickly, and it was night before he knew it.

"Open the card for me."

"ID card."

He took out his ID card and money, and handed them to the network administrator.This is the Internet cafe near University A that seems to have the worst business. After he came out of University A, he found this Internet cafe nearby.This is also his only hobby, which is surfing the Internet in Internet cafes from time to time.

He doesn't play games or use communication software. He just clicks on Weibo and logs in to an account with a default user name of a string of numbers.This account only follows one person, and apart from advertising push, there is only news about this person.

@小宇爱吃肉: Started working at the milk tea shop today! 【Photo.jpg】

@小宇爱吃肉: Is there any cutie who can’t sleep come out for supper——【Photo.jpg】

@小宇爱吃肉: I’m practicing the piano! [web link: video]

He read these recent photos and short sentences of her many times.This is like his regular job, every other week he will spend an hour in the Internet cafe, doing nothing, just looking at her Weibo.

After looking at it for a long time, he slowly entered keywords in the search bar.

Still nothing.He has searched many times and tried several keywords, but he has never found any news about that person.

But he still does it every time, like a devout believer.

His hands trembled slightly, looking at the "no search results" displayed on the screen, he took out a cigarette from his trouser pocket.The soft shell was crumpled in his pocket, but he didn't care, and skillfully took one out and put it into his mouth.After lighting up a cigarette, he recalled the other party's expression when he smoked, and unconsciously showed the same expression, feeling in a trance that he was still Qu Zhe from four years ago.