madman

Zhou Xun was given a headache by the loud noises of men and women. He raised his head and scanned the people around him, and noticed a little boy behind them. He looked like a small elementary school student. Because of his short stature, Zhou Xun could only see a fluffy head and a pair of round eyes from the crowd, holding a lattice umbrella above his head. Half of the umbrella support on the umbrella surface was broken. He used another Half of the umbrella covered the rain, but it was useless, and the rain was still dripping on him.

Zhou Xun pulled the suitcase to push through the crowd, and propped his umbrella on the little boy, "You belong to the hotel too, so I'll stay at your hotel. How much is it for one night?"

Hearing his question, the child nervously pointed to his mouth, then waved his hand, Zhou Xun realized that the child could not speak.

The little boy raised the sign in his hand again, and Zhou Xun looked at it. The name of the hotel was written on the sign: Lanxin Hotel, and the price was written in charcoal at the bottom, 30/50 per night, just like what others shouted .

"Let's go, you lead the way, stay at your house." Zhou Xun said.

The little boy bent his eyes, pointed in the direction of the dark low building at the southeast corner of the train station, and then wanted to pick up the suitcase in Zhou Xun's hand.

"No, it's quite heavy, I can carry it myself." Zhou Xun said.

The little boy withdrew his hand and got out from under Zhou Xun's umbrella. Because of the rain, he hid under his own broken umbrella and shrank his neck. He led the way and walked quite fast. Zhou Xun followed behind him. , just a few steps away, I heard the sound of discussion behind me.

"Where did that little mute come from? I've never seen it before. It's only been two days since I came here. How many guests have been taken away?"

"It's just that others think he is small and dumb, so they just feel sorry for him."

Zhou Xun walked behind the little boy, listening to other people's comments, suddenly remembered Lin Zhile when he was a child, who was pointed at like this, and then looked at the thin back under the umbrella, feeling a pang of sorrow from the bottom of his heart. He walked two steps faster and covered the little boy with the umbrella.

The little boy still wanted to hide, but Zhou Xun grabbed his arm, "I'm a big umbrella, let's go together."

The little boy put away his umbrella, held an umbrella with Zhou Xun, and walked cautiously. On a rainy day, the ground was obviously covered with puddles of various sizes, but the sound of his feet stepping on the ground could not be heard.

Zhou Xun followed him, thinking that the hotel was in the low building he saw just now, but turned around for a long time, and the two of them didn't talk much along the way, mainly because Zhou Xun was afraid that talking would make him more nervous , people who can't speak, are most afraid of being asked questions, so under the umbrella, only the wheels of the suitcase rubbing against the wet asphalt road make a muffled rumbling sound.

In the end, Zhou Xun saw several dilapidated buildings than the low buildings just now, and several alleys intertwined, not deep, and there were luminous signboards with red lights flashing from the beginning to the end of the alleys, all of which were small hotels.

Finally, he saw the Lanxin Hotel at the end of the alley. Only the top light on the luminous character Xin on the signboard was on. From a distance, it was the Lanjin Hotel.

The little boy stopped at the door and pointed to the door for Zhou Xun, which meant that he had arrived. He put his broken umbrella at the door and opened the door for Zhou Xun.

Zhou Xun put away the umbrella, went in with the suitcase and followed the little boy to the counter. The little boy was not as tall as the counter, so he raised his hand and knocked on the counter.

Sitting behind the counter was the proprietress who was perming her hair. She was watching TV and licking melon seeds. She was a little impatient when she heard the voice, "Is there a guest?"

The proprietress turned her head to see Zhou Xun and spat out the melon seed shells in her mouth, and asked with a smile: "Are you staying in a hotel? 51 nights? There is hot water and a private bath."

"Well, it's fifty, it's better to be quiet, and it's better to have a window." Zhou Xun said.

"Yes, yes, they all have windows. You register your information first, and I'll get you the key," the proprietress said, and took out a thick registration book for him, and gave him a pen, "plus The deposit is a total of 12, and you can check out before [-] o'clock tomorrow. If you exceed the time limit, an additional fee will be charged by the hour, and ten yuan per hour will be deducted from the deposit."

"Okay." Zhou Xun took out 100 yuan and put it on the counter, and then began to check his own information on the plane.

The proprietress found out a house number and a key, "Xiao Man, take the key and take the guests to the second floor, 206."

After Xiaoman took the key, he waited quietly at the side. Zhou Xun followed him up to the second floor after registering the information, and arrived at the door of 206, the penultimate room in the corridor.

"Thank you," Zhou Xun stood at the door and took the key, "Your name is Xiaoman, right?"

The little boy nodded, smiled at him, and then pointed to the innermost room next to him.

"You live next door?"

Xiaoman nodded, then opened the door and entered the next door.

It's quiet, and the people in the next room can't speak, Zhou Xun thought, took out the key and opened the door, and put the suitcase on the bedside after entering the room.

The room was not big, but it was clean. There was a bed and a table. He called Lin Zhile anxiously, found a change of clothes from the suitcase, and went directly to the bathroom. There were disposable things in the bathroom. Wash your hands. There was a pair of slippers under the stage, but they were of different sizes. He pulled on the slippers, took a shower first, and took a shower of cool air on his body. Finally, he felt a little warmer.

After washing, it was already 11:30. He was about to call Lin Zhile when he heard a knock on the door. He pulled the slippers that didn't fit his feet to open the door. Outside the door was Xiaoman, holding a pair of new slippers. Handed it to him.

Zhou Xun took the slippers and smiled at Xiaoman, "Thank you, it just so happens that my slippers don't fit."

Xiaoman was a little embarrassed when he heard him thank you, waved to him, and ran back to his room.

—

—

"Lele, haven't you slept yet? It's so late, are you sleepy?" Zhou Xun put on slippers that fit his feet, talked to Lin Zhile with a phone in his hand, and plugged in the water with the electric kettle Electricity burning, he didn't eat much on the train all day, he was really hungry, there were several barrels of instant noodles on the table, and it was raining outside, so he didn't bother to go down and buy more.

"I'm not sleepy. I finished two sets of test papers. Tomorrow is Sunday. I have a day off. I can sleep late. I just lay down and I'm waiting for your call. Have you found a place to live? Have you eaten yet?"

"It's boiling water, and I'll make a bowl of noodles later."

"Why do you eat instant noodles?"

"It's raining heavily outside. I just took a shower, so I don't want to get in the rain anymore," Zhou Xun boiled less water, and he heard the sound of water gurgling after a while. He soaked the noodles, put the fork on the lid, and then concentrated on Talk to Lin Zhile, "The air in Nancheng is much more humid, and the humidity in the room is also heavy. There is mold on the walls of the hotel, but it is still comfortable at home."

Lin Zhile was lying on the bed, under the quilt, her hand holding the phone was hot, "Brother Xun, I miss you."

"I miss you too..." Through the phone, Zhou Xun blushed.

Lin Zhile turned over in the quilt, "You're not here, I've been lying down for a long time, and the quilt is still cold."

Zhou Xun knew that he was afraid of the cold, "You need to add more quilts."

"I don't want a quilt, I want you, you come back early."

Zhou Xun hummed, "I will try to go back as soon as possible."

Afterwards, he talked about Xiao Man with Lin Zhile, and they naturally talked about their childhood, avoiding those unhappiness, and talking about the funny and embarrassing things between the two of them.

Zhou Xun forgot all the soaked noodles, and it was Lin Zhile who urged him to eat quickly, so he slurped the noodles while talking to Lin Zhile. There was a knock at the door, and then he said to the phone, "Lele, someone is knocking on the door, I'll go and have a look, and I'll tell you later, if you're sleepy, go to bed early."

—

—

The person who knocked on the door was still Xiaoman, this time his face was full of anxiety, his eyes turned anxiously, he held a piece of paper in his hand, and handed it to Zhou Xun, Zhou Xun looked at it, and there was a line of words on the paper , crooked, big, and there are typos and pinyin.

——I called Mingyou, but he disappeared.

Zhou Xun read it again, and realized that what he originally wanted to write was: I had an argument with my friend, and he disappeared.

"Is your friend missing?"

Xiaoman nodded vigorously, and grabbed Zhou Xun's wrist without caring about anything else.

"I'll go in and get the umbrella, and then I'll go find your friend with you. What's your friend's name?" Zhou Xun took the umbrella with him and locked the door again.

Xiaoman wrote the word Li on the paper, and showed him a photo.

"Your friend's surname is Li? Is it the boy in the photo?" The person in the photo is not very big, about the same size as Xiao Man, with a childish face and a little baby fat on his cheeks.

Xiaoman nodded again.

The two searched all the alleys together, and then expanded to the surrounding areas, but they still couldn't find anyone. In the end, the two searched separately. Zhou Xun was confused in the alleys, and finally returned to the hotel entrance, looking at him from afar. In front of the door stood a little boy with a hood on his head. He recognized from the profile that it was the person in the photo Xiao Man showed him.

Zhou Xun stepped forward: "Little brother, is your surname Li?"

The child frowned and looked up at Zhou Xun vigilantly, but said nothing.

Zhou Xun thought that he could not speak, "Your friend Xiao Man has been looking for you, and now he is still looking outside."

The little boy heard Zhou Xun talking about Xiaoman, and then he said, "That dumb guy went looking for me? Why did he look for me? I don't need him to look for..."

Zhou Xun became angry when he heard what the bear said, "What do you say, you brat? Are you his friend? How can you say that about a friend? Xiao Man is still looking for you outside."

Finally, the child who was dragging his hands showed a bit of worry, "Give me the umbrella, and I'll go find him."

"You just wait here honestly, you look for him, he looks for you, when will it be..." Zhou Xun opened the umbrella and went out again, "I'll look for him."

But Zhou searched for a long time but couldn't find it. When he wanted to go back to the hotel to see if he had come back, he found a little boy surnamed Li still standing at the door. Seeing Zhou Xun, he hurriedly asked, "Where's Xiaoman?"

"Haven't come back yet?" Zhou Xun had been out for at least an hour.

"Xiao Man, where did you die, you little mute?" The proprietress at the front desk shouted from inside, "If you bring back five customers in one night, you will know you are lazy."

Zhou Xun pushed the door open and went in, "Xiaoman just went to look for someone across the street, and he hasn't come back yet."

The proprietress' face changed after hearing this, "Where did you say he went? In the dilapidated building across the street? The one that is going to be demolished?"

"That's right, I just searched around, but I couldn't find anyone."

The proprietress slapped her thigh, "It's broken, can't it be kidnapped?"

"Abducted?" The boy who had been standing next to Zhou Xun said, "Abducted what? Who abducted?"

"I also heard from others that there used to be a lot of handicapped beggars with missing arms and legs near the train station, blind people playing erhu and so on. At night, they basically spend the night in the dilapidated buildings that are about to be demolished. Wind and rain."

The proprietress lowered her voice as she spoke, "However, in the past two months, several familiar beggars have suddenly disappeared. At first, others didn't take this seriously, and then there was one less every now and then, and after that, many people went out to beggars in private. Li said—those beggars may have been abducted..."