South of Chutian

Tang Heng said, "Walk casually", Li Yuechi really took him for a casual walk. The two walked around the factory building, came to the edge of the food factory, and walked slowly along the wall.

Li Yuechi walked in front of Tang Heng, keeping a distance of half a step between them. Just when Tang Heng was about to find something to ask, he suddenly said, "How long are you staying here?"

Tang Heng said, "About ten days."

Li Yuechi nodded and said nothing else.He kept his back to Tang Heng, showing the indifference of refusing to talk.

Tang Heng wanted to find another topic, anything, even to talk about the benefits of this food factory—but suddenly, he felt that this was very boring.It was an accident that he and Li Yuechi reunited here, and Li Yuechi was called by the factory leader to get close to him, and he was probably very reluctant. To put it bluntly, he was the one who got Li Yuechi involved.

"Forget it," Tang Heng said in a low voice, "Let's go back, I guess they are almost finished eating."

"Ah."

Li Yuechi finally turned around, his lips were still drawn, his face expressionless.The two soon came to the main entrance of the cafeteria. Before entering, they heard the voices of Lao Huang and Sun Jihao calling each other brothers. Tang Heng couldn't help but stop and asked, "How much is the box of motion sickness stickers?"

Li Yuechi returned with a calm gaze: "14 yuan and [-] cents. And the bottle of mineral water you drank last night, one piece."

Tang Heng: "... Where did you buy the motion sickness stickers?"

"pharmacy."

"Which pharmacy?"

"Teacher Tang," Li Yuechi said impatiently, "Why do you have so many questions?"

Tang Heng froze for a moment: "I'm going to buy motion sickness stickers in a few days."

"No need." Li Yuechi left behind such a nonsensical remark, and pushed the door open first.

The arrangement in the afternoon was tighter than that in the morning. The group visited three food factories, accompanied by Lao Huang and several small leaders, and their attitude was more enthusiastic than in the morning.Surrounded by them, Tang Heng had to observe the situation in the factory and deal with their flattery, and felt that time passed quickly.

When they walked out of the last food factory, it was already dusk, and the high-altitude clouds were as thin as smoke, scattered in the orange-red sky.

They were taken to a two-story restaurant. The students ate buffet on the first floor. Sun Jihao and Tang Heng were invited to a private room on the second floor. Maybe it was because of the noon event. This time, Lao Huang greeted him cleverly: "Hey, Liu Jing, go and call Xiao Li."

"I saw him standing at the door just now, wait a minute, I'll go find him."

Lao Huang handed the two menus to Sun Jihao and Tang Heng: "Teachers, let's see what to eat? This restaurant serves our special dishes, stewed goat meat and mutton powder. They are delicious. What do you want to eat? What haha."

The menu was brand new, and the satin cover reflected a faint white light. Tang Heng turned to the first page and found that there was no price tag on the back of each dish.He suddenly remembered that Director Xu had told him before he left that he must not eat expensive ingredients when eating with local people, otherwise they would become bribes if the other party made up a sky-high price later.

Sun Jihao coughed and put the menu back on the table: "Don't worry, it's because everyone hasn't arrived yet."

"Xiao Li will be here soon, let's light it first." Lao Huang said attentively.

Tang Heng also put down the menu with a little force, and there was a "bang".Then he stood up and said flatly, "I'll go see the students."

Old Huang hurriedly said, "Hey, Teacher Tang..."

Tang Heng ignored him, opened the door and went out.

The students ate at the buffet on the first floor, so Tang Heng went for a stroll, and was a little relieved when he saw that although the dishes were rich, they were only chicken, duck and fish.When he came in, he noticed a small supermarket next door to the hotel, and was about to buy a pack of cigarettes when he saw a tall and thin figure push open the glass door and walk in.

Li Yuechi also saw Tang Heng and stopped.

"I'm going to buy cigarettes," Tang Heng didn't know what he was explaining, "Did Huang call you here?" After he finished speaking, he felt that he was really hypocritical, and he deliberately asked this sentence just to imply that he was not called him. Here comes Huang Dong.But Huang Dong called Li Yuechi to come, after all, it was because of him.

Li Yuechi nodded: "Then let's go."

Tang Heng: "Huh?"

"Aren't you buying cigarettes?"

"……Oh."

The two walked into the supermarket next door. Next to the cash register was a glass counter for cigarettes. The cigarette boxes were next to each other, colorful and dazzling.

Tang Heng lowered his head to choose cigarettes, Yellow Crane Tower, Diamond, Baisha... He has not seen so many domestic cigarettes for a long time. When he was in Macau, the convenience store in front of the teacher's apartment only sold foreign cigarettes. He always bought and smoked randomly.

Li Yuechi stood beside him without saying a word.Tang Heng wandered between Huangguoshu and Hongta Mountain for a moment, and finally said, "Boss, take a box of Zhonghua."

"Yes, 65."

He has no preference for cigarettes, but suddenly remembered that on the New Year's Eve of a certain year, Li Yuechi went to buy cigarettes, he followed, and said casually: "Smoke an expensive one, senior, I invite you—does Zhonghua smoke?" Li Yuechi turned his head. Smiled at him, with a little inadvertent jerky: "That one is too expensive, Hongta Mountain should be it."

Tang Heng took the cigarette and the change, thinking about how to start the conversation—if Li Yuechi still smokes, he hopes he can smoke a Zhonghua.

It was as if he owed Li Yuechi a Zhonghua.

"Have you ever smoked this kind? I haven't—" However, the words that had been brewing for several seconds were interrupted by a coquettish smile, and a female voice speaking the local dialect came from behind the shelf: "Oh, didn't Lao Huang tell you to find the little girl?" Li?"

"What's the rush, he will call me when he arrives—or else he dares to go in?"

"Oh, you underestimate another high-achieving student too! Didn't you say that he knew that leader?"

"Do you believe that too?" The voices of the two were getting closer and closer, "The leader gave him face and said hello to him, what do you think this is, how many people are there in a school, isn't it just familiar!"

Tang Heng was stunned when he heard this, and his wrist hurt, only to realize that Li Yuechi had grabbed him.Before he had time to think about it, he was dragged out of the supermarket by Li Yuechi.

It turned out that two talking women came over to check out.Through the plastic curtain of the supermarket, Tang Heng saw a pair of black round-toed high-heeled shoes. He remembered that this was the female employee who was sent to Li Yuechi by Lao Huang just now. It seemed to be Liu Jing.Without waiting for Tang Heng to think about it, Li Yuechi dragged him forward, and he only vaguely heard the last few words:

"I think Lao Huang is too old to turn a corner—if you want to get close to the leader, you can't find someone who has been in prison!"

"Don't talk about it anymore, lest someone else hear it and stab you twice..."

Li Yuechi didn't let go until he pushed open the door of the restaurant.

He was so strong that he left a red mark on Tang Heng's wrist.Tang Heng lowered his head and stared at the red mark with straight eyes - he thought that Li Yuechi returned to his hometown after he was released from prison, had a girlfriend, contracted a small shop, and lived a peaceful life.When he was insomnia last night, he even thought, maybe this is not bad, at least in this remote small town, Li Yuechi is one of the few college students.

"Does it hurt you?" Li Yuechi was not as cold as before, he lowered his eyes, and his tone became a little more cautious, "If you don't leave just now, they will see you."

"Do they usually say that about you?" Tang Heng raised his face and asked him.

Li Yuechi smiled indifferently: "I will never say it in front of my face."

Tang Heng was silent for a few seconds, then handed the box of red Zhonghua that was deformed by him to Li Yuechi: "Do you want to smoke?"

Li Yuechi took it over without saying anything.

The two of them went upstairs and entered the private room. Tang Heng and Sun Jihao took the seats facing the door, but Li Yuechi came late, so naturally he had to sit next to the door.The menu on the table had been replaced with a price tag. Although Sun Jihao didn't lower his face, his expression was not as friendly as before, while Lao Huang and several other small leaders were smiling nervously.

Lao Huang greeted earnestly: "Xiao Li is here, I just asked Liu Jing to go downstairs to pick you up!"

Li Yuechi nodded and said, "I'm sorry to trouble you."

"Really," Tang Heng at the other end of the round table suddenly said, his voice was a degree higher than usual, and it sounded very loud, "I didn't meet that——Liu Jing?——I brought the senior here."

As soon as these words came out, everyone fell silent.A few people headed by Lao Huang stared at him with round eyes, and even Sun Jihao turned his head, his eyes were blank, as if he was asking: "What do you want to learn?"

Tang Heng got up, and in the stunned silence of the room, he worked tirelessly around half of the round table and came to Li Yuechi.

"Senior," his tone became lower again, so low that it was roundabout and cautious, as if he was afraid of being rejected, "It's not easy to meet again... add a WeChat?"

Li Yuechi wanted to get up, but Tang Heng pressed his shoulders and gently pushed him back into the chair: "You can just sit down." Then he bent down and handed his mobile phone to Li Yuechi.

Li Yuechi glanced sideways at Tang Heng, his eyes dim and unclear.For a second, maybe two, he didn't move.

The next moment, when Tang Heng was about to speak again, Li Yuechi smiled, took out his cell phone from his pocket, and said simply, "Okay, junior."

Then he scanned Tang Heng's QR code.With a clear sound, a friend request popped up. His profile picture was a blurry dark blue, and he couldn't tell what it was. His WeChat name was "Li Yuechi".Through the friend request, Tang Heng saw a dark blue avatar on the message page, with a red dot in the upper right corner, clicked on it, and the chat box displayed: You have added Li Yuechi, and you can start chatting now.

Tang Heng returned to his seat in a daze, Lao Huang came to his senses, and looked at Li Yuechi with a smile: "Xiao Li, you are Mr. Tang's student... the senior?" Although he smiled, it was impossible to hide it Surprised.

Li Yuechi let out a "hmm", as if he didn't want to say more.

Tang Heng said: "Yes, he is my senior." Not an alumni, not an acquaintance, and not a senior brother. He first met Li Yuechi back then, and knew that Li Yuechi was a graduate student of his uncle. At that time, he had just finished his junior year. During the exam, Li Yuechi greeted him first and said, "Are you Tang Heng's junior?" At that time, his hair was half-length but not short, with a low ponytail tied behind his head and a few streaks of arrogant orange-red highlights.He didn't even look at Li Yuechi's face, and responded casually: "It's me." The next second he raised his head and saw Li Yuechi, he was stunned, and then said in a daze: "Senior."

He has been studying for 20 years from elementary school to doctoral degree, although he was called a senior by himself.