day and night

"Next, let's invite colleagues from the personnel department to bring a song and dance performance..."

Scattered applause came from below the stage, and someone behind Ayu spoke in a hurry.

"Shoes! Shanshan! Your shoes!"

"Oh, don't push me."

"Hello, Manager Chu, congratulations."

"Let it go, let it go."

"What is the second half of the sentence? Who has the lyrics? Where are the lyrics?"

A large group of men and women poured out like a tide. They quickly surrounded Ayu and pushed him down the stairs. They shouted and jostled, and Ayu was completely overwhelmed by the flow of people. The men passed by his side, winking with the collars of their suits. The stage lights in front of him were brighter again, and it was shining white. Women and men ran away from Ayu in the face of the dazzling light.

Ayu stood in the background, his tie was crooked, his hairstyle was messed up, two gray footprints were printed on his leather shoes, and he was surrounded by the smell of perfume and powder.

The music started, and Ah Yu turned and walked away.

Holding a glass trophy in his hand, he walked out from the side door of the banquet hall. When he passed the main entrance, there was a line of waiters entering the banquet hall holding high plate, and there were also waiters coming out of the hall, each holding a There were many bone dishes and untouched dishes, and several bone dishes covered with paper towels faintly smelled of alcohol.The waiters walked with small steps and high frequency, all with nervous expressions, staring at the plates in their hands, and followed the foreman downstairs as if facing a big enemy. Ayu walked leisurely behind them for a while and couldn't help speeding up his pace.The waiter walked into the kitchen on the first floor, and Ayu followed. The kitchen was very busy, and the chefs wearing tall hats were sweating profusely. Their hands never stopped, and pots and pans were banging. Fried fish and vegetables, steamed meat and stewed soup, cooking duck and roast chicken, kneading noodles and ordering paste, the kitchen helpers have also become unstoppable spinning tops, choosing vegetables and ingredients, not daring to relax at all.Someone saw Ayu, more than one, but no one spoke. Oily smoke and heat filled the eyes, gradually covering all faces.

Ah Yu walked through the kitchen.

He stopped in an aisle outside the kitchen. He was sweating, and the collar around his neck was dripping wet. Ayu tore off his tie and took off his suit jacket.

Both sides of the aisle were painted with green paint, an incandescent lamp was hung from the ceiling, and no one was seen around. Ayu found a chair from the pile of debris blocking the entrance of the safe passage.He dragged the chair under the fire exit light and sat down.

He put his trophy on the ground. Not far away, there were two stacked signboards with the words "slip carefully", and many cardboard boxes stacked high. On the outer packaging of the boxes, it was written Toilet paper, half a rag fell out of the top box, bright red in color.There are also boxes of beer and wine on the ground.The beer crate contained a mop, and the wooden wine case contained dish soap.

Ayu lit a cigarette.

While he was smoking, his cell phone kept vibrating. He took it out to have a look. Susan invited him to have a drink after the annual meeting.

Xiao Fang asked where the others were, and was about to start drawing tonight's red envelope prize.

Xiao Qi sent a voice saying: Mr. Chu, my wife is about to give birth, I have to leave first, I am really sorry!

There is also the recent situation of his father and mother. They updated their personal status on social accounts one after another. His father was nostalgic for the massage girl skills in Bangkok, and his mother took a photo with a fake painting in Tuscany.

A few red dots stopped on the phone screen, and he had three mobile apps that needed to be updated.

Ah Yu turned off the phone and threw it next to the trophy.

At this time, a young man leaned out half of his body from the kitchen. He was wearing waiter's clothes, a white shirt, a black coat, and a black bow tie on the collar of the shirt. His face was small and his hair was not short. Not long, just covering the eyebrows, his eyes are black and bright.The young man said to Ayu, "Smoking is not allowed here."

Ayu nodded, holding a cigarette in his right hand, and resting his right palm on his knee, without making a sound.

The young man straightened his face, pointed to the no-smoking sign on the wall, and said solemnly: "Sir, smoking is not allowed here. We have installed smoke detectors, and the fire alarm will go off. Our entire hotel is no-smoking."

Ayu responded, and then stubbed out the cigarette. When he looked out again, the young man had disappeared behind the door.Ayu stretched her neck and looked in the direction of the kitchen. The two thick metal doors were motionless, the surface reflecting green light, the corridor was very quiet and the air was dry.He watched for a long time and waited for a while, but no one opened the door and came out, and no one came to talk to him.

Ayu touched the cigarette case and lighter, he stopped smoking, just sat, sat with his neck up, sat with his head down, sat with two fingers on his lips, sat with his head in his hair with his hands, kept At [-]:[-], he stood up, turned on his phone again, put on his coat, stuffed the trophy into the wooden box, and went back the same way.

The kitchen had already rested, and when Ayu entered, there was only a middle-aged man standing by the sink, staring at a pool of white foam and smoking.Ayu passed by him, the man glanced at him, Ayu also looked at him, and he tied his tie while watching.The middle-aged man turned his head away first, turned on the faucet, the water flowed down, the foam overflowed, and got on his plastic apron. The middle-aged man took the cigarette from his lips and flicked the ash on the ground.

The annual meeting has ended, and there are only dozens of waiters and a person dressed as a foreman in the huge banquet hall cleaning up the mess.Ayu randomly found a seat and sat down. Susan sent a second message, asking where he was, and which suite upstairs he went to spend the spring night with.

Zhen Ni called and left a message, asking him to go to a jazz bar to meet friends for a drink. A friend of hers came back from New York for the New Year. He is very handsome and a painter. He is currently single.Later she sent Ayu a photo of the artist friend.

The painter was indeed good-looking, with bronzed skin and a lively smile.

Ayu searched for his works. The most famous work of the artist is a painting in which many color blocks are bound by several black lines.News writes that the painting is being exhibited in Europe.

The bright color blocks hurt Ayu's eyes. He put down his mobile phone and looked around. Most of the waiters were lowering their heads to clean up the confetti and colored strips on the floor, and some were pushing the dining carts to clean up the dishes.

Ayu lit a cigarette.

A female waitress coughed, she raised her head to look at Ayu, Ayu smiled at her, the waitress' eyes slanted, Ayu followed her line of sight, and he saw a huge no-smoking sign.

He suddenly remembered an incident in middle school.After a gym class one summer, he and a boy hid in a toilet cubicle and smoked.They only had one cigarette. The boy took a puff first and handed him the cigarette. He then took a puff and coughed. The boy smiled, showing his white teeth.Because of the hot weather, the boy's hair was wet with sweat. The boy wiped the sweat with his hands. He was wearing a blue short-sleeved top, white basketball pants, white socks that covered his ankles, and a pair of dirty white sneakers.The boy stood against the door of the cubicle, took off his shirt from the heat, and opened his mouth to breathe in the heat.He snatched the cigarette from Ayu's mouth and took a deep breath as if nothing had happened.

The tobacco was burning, and the smoke drifted past the boy's eyes.His fingers touched Yu's lips.

Ayu couldn't remember what this boy looked like.

Boom.

A balloon was punctured, and Ayu found that the waitress just now was no longer looking at him, she disappeared, all the waiters left, and only the foreman was left looking at him with his head poking around.

Ayu remained silent, he didn't even move, he just stared at the no-smoking sign.

The toilet is very smelly, the smell of cigarettes is very strong, and the boy's right sneaker has a hole in it.

His lips were salty, like sweat.

Then the foreman started to turn off the lights, and Ayu got up. He didn't take a puff of cigarettes, and threw the cigarette butt into a teacup. The sparks suddenly became more intense, but they were quickly extinguished.

The pungent smell of alcohol escaped from the brown tea.