shelter

On Qingming Festival, it rained even more.

The sound insulation of the hotel is very good. When Shen Xi got up in the morning and opened the curtains, he saw that it was raining heavily outside. After opening the window, the sound of the rain became louder, waking up Zhou Jingtang who was sleeping.

The hotel attendant sent two umbrellas and introduced the places where you can rent a car nearby.

After Zhou Jingtang and Shen Qi had breakfast, they went to the car rental company according to the address given by the waiter, rented a car for transportation, and drove directly to Liucheng Bus Station, followed Liucheng to the back of the shuttle bus to Tangqin Town, taking it easy Drive to Tangqin Town.

The rain was still heavy, and Shen Qi was prone to sleepiness in the sound of the rain, but now he didn't feel sleepy at all, and chatted with Zhou Jingtang one after another.

"Are you nervous?" Zhou Jingtang asked.

"A little bit," Shen Qi said, "I was a little nervous when I arrived in Liucheng, and even more nervous when I returned to Qinqin."

"Don't be nervous," Zhou Jingtang said, "I'm here."

Shen Qi glanced at Zhou Jingtang who was concentrating on driving, and felt a lot more at ease, then suddenly thought of something else, and chatted with him: "Have you ever been to Tangqin?"

"I've been," Zhou Jingtang said, "I've looked for you, but I couldn't find you. I've been to many villages and towns in Liucheng, including those mountain villages that you've never heard of. Got you."

Thinking of this, Zhou Jingtang suddenly laughed, and continued: "So the fate between people is really a wonderful thing, and love and hate are also very strange things. I tried my best to find it, but I couldn't find it. I met it when I turned around. gone."

Shen Qi also smiled: "It sounds so easy. Did you meet him just by turning around? Think carefully about how many years you have been turning around."

Zhou Jingtang raised the corner of his mouth, and when he was laughing, he turned his head and glanced at Shen Qi, neither of them could hold back their broken laughter.He said, "It's okay, you'll be fine in the end."

After Shen Qi smiled, he turned his head to look at the scenery outside the car window. There were no traces hidden in the heavy rain, and the asphalt road stretched endlessly as if it had no end.The land and crops on both sides in his memory are gone, and it has become a wall with slogans written on it, which looks very strange.

Shen Qi gradually became less nervous.

Before coming to Tangqin, he thought he was going back to his hometown, but the scenes were all strange. He felt that he was going to a place he had never been to, and the nervous feeling had disappeared.

In the past few years, Tangqin Town has engaged in large-scale production, centralized planning of land, and unified planting of carambola trees. Entering the street from the big archway, there are residents on both sides, and endless carambola forests beyond the residents.That was something that Shen Xi didn't have in his memory.

The Qinghe River, which runs through half of the town, has changed its appearance. The willow trees on both sides of the river have been cut down and turned into stone fences.

The car stopped by the Qinghe River, and when we got off the car, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, Shen Xi took Zhou Jingtang back to Shen Qingzhu's old house following the path he remembered.

The old house was locked, and Shen Xi didn't have a key, so he had to knock on the door of Aunt Zhou's house next door.

The door opened, and the person who opened the door was a child who didn't know Shen Qi and called grandma at the top of his voice.Aunt Zhou, whose hair was half white, came out, rubbed her eyes the moment she saw Shen Qi, her eyes were moist after she made sure that she was not mistaken, she came over and held Shen Qi's hand: "Son, child, you are finally back , I said, I said you will definitely come back..."

Shen Qi remembered this aunt who was very kind to him since childhood, and at this moment he also felt a little bit emotional, so he introduced to her after a while: "Auntie, this is my friend, Zhou Jingtang."

Aunt Zhou took a few glances and said, "The young man looks familiar..."

Zhou Jingtang smiled and said, "A few years ago, I came to ask you if you knew about Shen Qi."

"Oh, there is such a thing," Aunt Zhou remembered, and continued to say to Shen Qi: "Son, you are well, so that your mother can feel at ease."

Shen Qi was startled, unable to speak for a long time.

Aunt Zhou originally wanted to invite the two of them to sit at home, but Shen Qi wanted to go home, so she had no choice but to give Shen Qi the key to the old house.

After ten years, the dilapidated wooden door was finally pushed open again.

The yard was full of weeds, covering Shen Qi's feet, and there was no way to get down, and the sweet-scented osmanthus tree in my childhood memory was dead at this moment.

Shen Qi walked in front, stepped on the weeds, took Zhou Jingtang's hand and led him in. When they walked into the house, their shoes were already wet.

The house where no one lived was lifeless, with a gloomy feeling, and everywhere he touched was mud or ash. When he walked to the door, Shen Qi had no intention of going in.

He thought that he must take a good look around when he came back, but now there is no need for this.

Shen Qi and Zhou Jingtang stood under the eaves for a long time until the rain stopped.

The yard after the rain was wet, overgrown with weeds, and extremely muddy. Shen Xi and Zhou Jingtang didn't push the door, but stood under the eaves for a while. When they left, they turned around and took a photo with their mobile phones. The color was gentle.

Shen Qingzhu's cemetery is on the east side of the town, where the first ray of sunlight rises in the morning.The original intention of Shen Qi to bury her here was to hope that he could see her again when he saw the sun rising from the door of his house. At that time, he didn't know that he would leave for more than ten years.

The town of Tangqin after the rain seems to have been washed, clean and bright. Standing on the hillside of the cemetery, you can overlook the whole town.

Zhou Jingtang and Shen Qi walked side by side, talking and laughing along the way, chatting about the fun things they encountered in Liucheng.

There are quite a lot of people in the cemetery, walking in twos and threes, some children are playing and playing, and after being scolded by adults, they kowtow reverently in front of the graves of their ancestors.Shen Qi was amused, and pulled Zhou Jingtang's sleeve, motioning him to look over.

After laughing, his expression froze in vain, Zhou Jingtang followed his line of sight, and Shen Qingzhu's tombstone appeared in front of him.

In the black and two-color photo on the tombstone, the gentle and calm woman is the same as before, with gentle colors in her eyebrows and eyes, and she has a kind-hearted appearance no matter how you look at it.Shen Qi is still a little surprised now, how can such a Shen Qingzhu, who has been kind to others all his life, be so cruel to himself.

Shen Qi took Zhou Jingtang's hand and stood in front of the tombstone for a long time. After a long time, Zhou Jingtang heard a soft sigh.

Shen Qi said: "Mom, I came back to see you. These years, I... actually missed you."

He smiled wryly, and said, "You probably haven't thought about me, have you been with your real daughter in another world? I'm very sad, but even so, I still want to be your daughter in my next life."

"However, you are even more pathetic."

"The person you dragged your last breath to see for the last time, never came to see you after you left. The person standing in front of you now is the person you deliberately hurt."

"Why?"

When Shen Qi said this, there was always a faint smile on his face. He held Zhou Jingtang's hand tightly, smiled and said: "Mom, this is Zhou Jingtang, do you remember him? We are together now , will you bless us?"

Zhou Jingtang said: "Hello, Aunt Shen, long time no see, I came to see you."

Shen Qi forgave Shen Qingzhu.

From that mouthful of steamed cake, he no longer hated her.

In the past, his feelings for Shen Qingzhu were very complicated. She was his only relative in his lonely growth, and she was also an existence that he could not let go of. The first wish she made was to ask her to complete her merits and virtues in this life and to have a smooth future.

The sky gradually darkened, and the night breeze was refreshing.

On the way back, Shen Qi asked Zhou Jingtang: "Are you afraid? The cemetery!"

"Not afraid," Zhou Jingtang said.

Shen Qi stopped suddenly, and when Zhou Jingtang looked back at him, he smiled and said, "Can you carry me back?"

Zhou Jingtang walked up to him and squatted down, and stood up steadily after the people behind him lay down like koalas.His back is very hard, and it doesn't feel comfortable to lie on it, and it is precisely because of that hardness that it makes people feel safe.

Zhou Jingtang weighed it and said, "I found that you seem to have meat."

"Is it heavy?" Shen Xi knew that he was not fat, but a young man with a height of 1.7 meters would not be so thin no matter how thin he was.

"Not heavy." Zhou Jingtang said, "You can eat more."

The road down the mountain is a long stone step, winding and winding until the exit of the cemetery at the foot of the mountain. There are warm yellow street lights along the way, bright and gentle.

When Zhou Jingtang put Shen Qi down at the foot of the mountain, his breath was still steady, and he said with a smile, "Why didn't you have such awareness when you were in high school?"

"What consciousness?"

"Let me carry you on my back."

Shen Qi thought about it carefully, and really couldn't remember how he was in high school. If he knew that they would get together in the end, they should have treated him better then.

It was completely dark, Aunt Zhou came to invite them to spend the night at her house, but both Shen Qi and Zhou Jingtang refused.They drove to the gas station in the town to refuel, and returned to the hotel in Liucheng overnight.

On the second day after returning to the hotel, Zhou Jingtang received a call from Mo Tian.

The male voice on the other end of the phone was very steady, with a strong Liucheng accent, much more generous than many years ago, calling him an old classmate on the phone.

Zhou Jingtang had some impressions of Mo Tian. He was a typical good guy in his high school class. He didn't have a strong sense of existence, but he was an existence that no one would hate.

Mo Tian was coaxed by several classmates to ask him to organize a class reunion. He would not refuse, so he really contacted all the old classmates who worked in Liucheng one by one.Zhou Jingtang and Shen Qi came by coincidence, and were met by Chen Hao.

Mo Tian said that the venue is a high-end western restaurant in Liucheng, and he has already booked a seafood feast in advance. The time is [-] o'clock tomorrow night, and there will be about [-] people there.

Zhou Jingtang agreed.

There was one day before the party, Zhou Jingtang didn't want to sleep in the hotel, so he took Shen Qi out at some noon, planning to stroll around Liucheng.

Their first stop was Liucheng No. [-] Middle School.The century-old school has been expanded and merged with the No. [-] Middle School on the outskirts of the city. The number of students has more than doubled. When school is over at noon, it is very crowded, and it is difficult to walk against the flow of people.

Zhou Jingtang and Shen Qi bought lo mei at the snack bar on the side street of the school. They leaned against the door and watched the students rushing out like crucian carp crossing the river. They were speechless in amazement.

Zhou Jingtang said with a smile: "I found that their school uniforms look better than ours before."

Shen Qi didn't look at him, but looked at the crowd who were feeling emotional, and said to him: "If I remember correctly, you never wore a school uniform before."

"So I regret it."

Shen Qi was puzzled: "What do you regret?"

Zhou Jingtang said: "I regret that I had so many opportunities to wear couple outfits with you, I missed them all."

Shen Qi wanted to laugh: "Who thought so much at that time."

Zhou Jingtang chatted with the owner of the snack shop, talking nonsense, so that the boss gave him several chicken feet, but when he turned around to hand them to Shen Qi, he found that the person had disappeared, and after waiting for a long time, he saw Shen Qi coming in from the door of the shop.

With a smile on his face, Shen Qi took out his mobile phone from his coat pocket, and put two mobile phone cases of the same model on them respectively.

"It's so ugly," Zhou Jingtang said.

Shen Qi shook the back of the phone case and said, "It's for couples."

Behind his phone case is SpongeBob SquarePants, with the words I love you the most in the world.On the back of Zhou Jingtang's phone case is Pai Daxing, with the words thank you.

Zhou Jingtang looked at it and said with a smile, "Thank you."

Zhou Jingtang knew that Shen Qi was trying his best to make up for their past shortcomings.

In the afternoon, Zhou Jingtang and Shen Qi went to the place where they used to live.

The administrative district compound is still the administrative district compound, but the small alley next to it is gone, replaced by towering tall buildings, and the entire city has lost the shadow of the old houses.Shen Qi was actually very regretful, he really wanted to see that landlady with a southern Hokkien accent again, that gentle woman whom he met by chance gave him a lot of warmth, but he never reciprocated.

Zhou Jingtang and Shen Qi walked through the streets of Liucheng holding hands. This city has changed a lot. It seems that everything has changed, but you can often see the shadows of old things many years ago.

Zhou Jingtang went to several stores and bought old glutinous rice popsicles for Shen Qi. The price doubled, but the packaging did not change at all. When he ate it, he still had the same taste as before.

The cold and sweet taste stretches from the taste buds to the heart, which is a very healing feeling.When Shen Qi raised his head, he saw Zhou Jingtang looking at him and smiling gently. At that moment, he suddenly felt that he had reconciled with this world.

Shen Qi suddenly asked Zhou Jingtang to squat down and carry himself on the back again.

He purposely put a popsicle on his neck so that he shivered from the cold and smiled like a child who succeeded in a prank.

He looked at the tree on the back of his neck, his eyes were serious and pious as if he had knelt in front of the ancient Buddha in Lingshan Temple many years ago, and finally he put a light kiss on that piece of skin.

Shen Qi thought, time is drifting like the sea, after swimming once, it is already half a lifetime, God probably still pity him, let Zhou Jingtang reach out to him on the shore, he grasped this love and fell on the shore, nothing in the past can compare to this moment The temperature in the palm.

Liucheng is still Liucheng, and Liucheng is no longer Liucheng.After more than ten years, Shen Qi has become a tourist in Liucheng, this place is no longer his hometown, and everything here is no longer hideous.

Everything about this place will eventually be forgotten in other places.