four year itch

Recently, when Xu Ruibai goes to set up a stall, he always brings an extra stack of magazines, and distributes a copy to every customer who comes.After closing the stall, use the money earned to go to the bookstore to buy another stack, and take it to give away the next day.In such a simple cycle, I spent two weeks.

Wednesday afternoon was Moon’s routine rehearsal day, and Xu Ruibai was coerced by Cheng Jun to participate several times, and this time was no exception. After Cheng Jun sent him three text messages and made a phone call, he slowed down He quickly closed the booth, and went directly to the rehearsal warehouse with the drawing board and easel.

But what I didn't expect was that the warehouse door, which was usually wide open, was closed tightly today, and there was no sound of rehearsal at the door. Xu Ruibai pushed the door open with doubts.The moment the door was opened, harsh guitar sounds and violent drum sounds came from inside. Xu Ruibai didn't react for a while, and froze in place.

"Welcome to our god-level keyboard player—Xiaobai!" The bass player roared, and then made a solo that he thought was cool with a pose he thought was cool.

Xu Ruibai's expression seemed to twitch slightly, and then he calmly walked to his usual rehearsal seat, the atmosphere was slightly awkward for a moment.

Just as everyone was looking at each other, Xu Ruibai suddenly pressed both hands on the keys, making a loud noise in the quiet space, swept all the keys under the startled eyes of the other three, scratched back and forth twice, and then turned around , a little smug in the smile: "Is it fun?"

When the three reacted, Bess punched him on the shoulder and said with a smile, "How dare you take revenge!"

After playing around for a while, Cheng Jun finally got down to business: "There is a performance at 19-livehouse this weekend, Xiaobai can skip this one, Mr. Luo said he can make it."

Xu Ruibai asked uncharacteristically, "Are you rich?"

"Uh... yes."

"How many?"

"If it's shared equally, it's about a thousand per person."

"I'll go." Xu Rui looked at the score without raising his head, and his tone was normal.

Cheng Jun's expression froze, and he asked, "Xiaobai, are you short of money recently?"

Xu Ruibai was very calm: "When have I never been short of money?"

That's right.

It's just that Xu Ruibai has an energy that is not short of money, that is, even though you know he is a beggar, his whole body gives people a feeling that I am not a beggar, I just came to visit incognito, and he can spend a lot of money casually.

So Cheng Jun never thought that such things as band performance fees could tempt him.

Now Mr. Cheng is like doing a math problem, thinking about it, using countless sheets of draft paper, what limit, matrix, expected variance, all used over and over again, the result is the answer: 1+1 is equal to 2

It's pretty broken.

The weekend show went very well, the scene was very high, and the bassist and drummer finally came to a group diving.But Xu Ruibai seemed to be very good at controlling the madness freely, no matter how enthusiastic the atmosphere seemed, he couldn't shake him even a bit, and he quietly packed his things in the background after the scene.During the period, I only said one sentence, which was to ask Cheng Jun, "Has the money arrived?"

Under such silent urging, the boss of the livehouse transferred the money to Cheng Jun's account, Cheng Jun didn't dare to keep more money for a second, and immediately transferred it to several other people.Xu Ruibai didn't have a bank account, and Cheng Jun took cash from the ATM and handed it to him non-stop.

I don't know why, the moment Cheng Jun handed over the money, Cheng Jun actually felt relieved, so she said in a relaxed tone, "Let's go out and celebrate together?"

Xu Ruibai counted the money, and after confirming that it was correct, he stuffed it into his pocket and said, "You guys go, I won't go."

This action surprised Cheng Jun again, she watched Xu Ruibai turn around and disappear into the darkness without blinking.

"Miss Jun, are you leaving?" the bass player asked.

Cheng Jun waved his hand, "Wait a minute, I'll be right back."

After speaking, Cheng Jun followed in the direction Xu Ruibai left.

Xu Ruibai carried a stack of magazines into the front desk, piled them on the table, and said, "Sister Ziwen, these few magazines will trouble you."

Tomorrow is the last day of popularity statistics, and he plans to go to the square early tomorrow morning to see if he can distribute all these magazines.

Fang Ziwen poked his head out from behind the cash register, gestured to the shadow in the corner with his eyes, and smiled innocently: "But I already have a stack."

Before Xu Ruibai had time to be surprised, he heard a whistle coming from behind him.Xu Ruibai turned his head and saw Cheng Jun leaning against the wall, standing next to the bass player and drummer who just said they were going out to celebrate.

"Friendly sponsorship." Cheng Jun pointed to the table, where Yunhai's magazines were neatly placed, "Let's go and distribute these together tomorrow morning."

Xu Ruibai looked at them silently, and found that he didn't seem to be able to say anything except "thank you".

Cheng Jun snapped his fingers: "Don't be hypocritical, we agreed to help you find your partner."

-----

The bassist and drummer had already gone back, and the old custom was to turn off the lights at [-] o'clock. Cheng Jun wanted to smoke a cigarette, but Fang Fangwen drove him to the garden steps, and Cheng Jun forced Xu Ruibai to join him.

Xu Ruibai was somehow dragged to smoke second-hand smoke, the two of them sat on the steps without saying a word, the moonlight was shining brightly, the evening wind was bleak, autumn was deep, everything was quiet, only a few cicadas were tireless Noisy.

Cheng Jun was smoking a cigarette, and asked casually, "Did you spend all your money on this magazine?"

"En." Xu Ruibai picked up a fallen leaf and played with it in his hands.

"It's not a long-term solution to set up a painting booth all the time. The band can't make a lot of money running the venue. You are so good at painting, and you can receive business drafts online. You can definitely earn more than you do now."

"I'm a person with no status, and I can't accept the business draft." Xu Ruibai's tone was not complaining at all, he had accepted such a fate without any waves.

Cheng Jun smiled, and suddenly asked suspiciously: "Hey, why have you never asked why Ziwen and I are willing to take in a person without identity to live here?"

"Why?" Xu Ruibai folded and tore up the fallen leaves in his hand, but his face remained expressionless.

"Actually, when I was running with the band, I have seen all kinds of people. We have long been familiar with black households, smugglers, homeless people, and fringe characters. They obviously exist, but they are all people in the city. regarded as heterogeneous."

Cheng Jun chuckled, her smile was a bit bitter, she exhaled the smoke ring, and then gently blew the smoke away: "I was actually quite miserable at that time, the band didn't make much money, and there was no one to rely on , living day after day, all relying on one breath, every time I see these people, I feel that there are people in this world who have a worse life than me. Happiness is actually a comparison. Later , until I met Ziwen, life was a bit easier, so I thought about opening such a youth hostel. If you can help, try to help, right, who doesn’t come here like that.”

Cheng Jun suddenly changed the subject and clicked his tongue: "But it's really the first time I've seen someone like you."

"What kind?" Xu Ruibai asked.

Cheng Jun joked: "There is no sense of humanity in your body, plus your useless ID card. After a while, I really thought I had run into a ghost. I really wanted to call the police. Then I thought, you It’s probably useless to call the police, you have to ask a Taoist priest to come.”

Xu Ruibai lowered his head and smiled.

Cheng Jun looked at him: "Well, it's a bit popular now."

Probably because of running in the field in the early years, Cheng Jun has a strong quack air, which has nothing to do with her appearance, but has something to do with her behavior.For example, if she really wants to know a story, she will not directly ask what the story is, but will first tell a story of her own in exchange for equivalent value.

Xu Ruibai understood the principle of reciprocity, and was ready to exchange the moment he asked "why".

"I'm a southwest wind, or rather, I was a southwest wind," he said.

After Xu Ruibai's story was finished, the cigarette in Cheng Jun's hand was almost ignited. Cheng Jun was silent for a while, crushed the cigarette butt on the steps, and then aimed at the trash can with one eye closed and threw it into it.

Shaking his head with a disdainful smile: "I didn't see it, you are really an asshole."

"I know." Xu Ruibai laughed at himself.

Cheng Jun stood up, patted the non-existent dust on his body and said, "Tomorrow pick two works that you think are not bad, frame them, and I'll take them to my friend's gallery to see if I can sell them for you."

"I can't register." There are also procedures for consignment sales in galleries, and painters without identity cannot register, so naturally they cannot sign consignment contracts.

"I'll just give you a guarantee." Cheng Jun stretched his back to Xu Ruibai, "It's just a commission of [-] to [-] cents, and you can't help in vain."

Xu Ruibai was stunned for a moment, then remembered to say, "Thank you, Miss Jun."

"You paint, I make money, what's there to thank, sleep!" Cheng Jun walked into the room while talking.

Xu Ruibai rubbed the fallen leaves that had become crumbs in his hands, and felt for the first time that the real meaning of wandering might not be to resist anything.

The mid-term exam was coming up soon, and the whole organization was so busy that they kept their feet on the ground, all kinds of mock papers, summary questions one after another, and the white paper flying around made Ye Jia's eyes hurt.He stood in front of the printer and printed out the courseware for the students. His phone vibrated three times in his pocket, and he took it out to read.

"Hello, Teacher Ye Jia, do you have time recently~ The 2020th issue of Yunhai Magazine in 11 has set the theme of 'Autumn', and I hope to ask you for an article on the theme. The manuscript fee has been paid to your account, please remember to check it~"

Ye Jia almost thought that he was hallucinating, and read the message twice before he was sure that it was really Yun Hai's request.Exclamation hit his throat twice, but still let out a little sound, Ye Jia looked around in fright, making sure no one was paying attention to him, and then took the printed document and ran to his office.

Just sitting in the seat, the first thing that comes to mind is to share the joy with CX330: "Yunhai asked me for a draft!"

CX330, who was waiting at any time, immediately sent back a message: "Great, great! I remember that only the champion of the submission month can be invited to submit a manuscript, right?"

"Yes, about three issues in a row, comprehensive review, signed a contract to be able to serialize the novel!" Ye Jia couldn't help but use an exclamation point.

"Oh my god, Ah Cha, you are so amazing, stand out!"

Ye Jia typed quickly, "I thought I would definitely not be able to do it. I only found out later that the data of the original submitted articles can be refreshed by myself, and I feel like a celebrity."

"Didn't Ah Cha ask her friends to canvass for votes?"

"No, none of my friends know that I have contributed." Ye Jia said.

"Why didn't you tell them?"

"Because becoming a signed writer sounds very unrealistic hahaha." Ye Jia said in relief, "Only you know."

CX330 still cheered as always: "It will definitely work! Ah Cha's article is so well written. This time is the best proof! As long as you write well, you don't have to worry about the rest."

"Yeah, the subsequent drafts will depend entirely on your strength, even if you get rejected, you won't have any regrets."

"Why haven't you started yet? It's like preparing to lose the battle! Keep writing, I will do my best to support it!" CX330's tone seemed to be that he was the one going to fight.

Ye Jia said with a smile: "Then thank you first. Didn't you say that you also want to contribute? Is there any result?"

"There is no more text."

"It doesn't matter. The painting you are drawing now has improved a lot from the one you showed me the first time. Take your time and don't worry."

"Ah Cha, did I tell you what CX330 means?" CX330 asked suddenly.

"No."

"CX330 is a star, born only 100 million years ago, younger than humans."

"He exists in the desert space of the Milky Way, far from any other known celestial body, with neither stars nor planets as companions."

"It's been called the loneliest star in the universe," says CX330.

They are all CX330, they are distant little lights in the dark, they obviously cannot feel each other, but they become more powerful because they know that there is such a faint existence of each other.