uncut

In all the years the two men and women had been neighbors, they had never done anything together.Women always love to look down on and compare each other.But Song Manzhi held Zhao Fengqiu's hand without hesitation at this moment.She said, "Go, look for it."

So the two women supported each other and walked into the dark outside.They played flashlights and called the girl's name everywhere——

"Shao Zhenzhen, Shao Zhenzhen...really..."

The light from the flashlight shone on the black water, making it impossible to see the bottom.There was no one around, and the whole city was paralyzed because of this huge disaster.

They were exhausted and thought they had walked for a long time, but how far could they go? A little further away, the water was waist-deep, and they could only walk back and forth on this high ground.

All in vain, no one responded to them at all.

The two women stood in the water with cold hands and feet.In order to ensure that they do not fall, they held tightly.

If they had looked around carefully at that time, they would have found that the night when the flood broke out was actually so quiet.

On the day Ji Jian returned to his hometown, it didn't rain, but the sky was cloudy and gray.The flood has not completely receded. When he left, he left by train. When he came back again, he also took the train first. Ji Jian looked out the window, and there was water on both sides. Only this car was walking alone on the raised railroad tracks. .Then he actually took the boat again.

The fishermen who fished by the river had stopped fishing for a long time, and their range of activities suddenly became wider, from a narrow river to a large flooded city.The transportation track of the city has been changed long ago, and these boats have become the means of transportation connecting buildings and buildings.So in the days when it stopped raining, they wandered in every corner of the city all day long.The nets on the boat were not collected, and what they caught was no longer fish, but anything that could come up—bicycles, manhole covers, soaked fruit, or a red rain boot.Of course, the most important thing is that they are looking for those who disappeared in the flood - they did find some, but they have already been soaked in the water so that they can't recognize their faces, and the family members can only recognize them by their clothes Among them, some are soldiers in military uniforms, and some are workers in blue uniforms.So these fishermen carried the corpses and yelled from door to door: "Come, come." Over time, it was like a secret signal. Once they heard such a voice, the families with missing people became frightened.If not, naturally breathe a sigh of relief.But every now and then, a few mournful cries would erupt from a certain corner of the city.

Ji Jian took such a boat back to the textile factory compound.He once swore that he never wanted to come back here again, but he didn't expect to come back in this way.

In the city where he studied, people paid more attention to the coming of the flood. The water level of the Wusong River was broadcast on the radio every day, or experts predicted that a certain river in a certain city might burst its embankment on a certain day in a certain month.

Most of the students in the Faculty of Arts wear thick wine bottle bottom glasses.They all listened to "experts say" as a joke, and stretched out their hands to push their glasses: "Listen to these experts farting here." At that time, a buddy in Ji Jian's dormitory was obsessed with Wang Xiaobo. Everything, when we fight against eternity, you are my unfailing banner..." "Shh, keep your voice down." Another buddy who likes aestheticism annoys him the most when he reads these.As soon as the dormitory became quiet, the sound of the radio became obvious.

Ji Jian is reading a tattered book, an absurd drama, borrowed from the library, the book cover is yellow and old.Several buddies in his dormitory laughed at him more than once, could it be possible that he still wants to be a screenwriter?

"Hey, Ji Jian, listen, isn't this about your hometown?" He kicked the bed frame on the lower bunk.

They took it as a joke and laughed it off, but Ji Jian had to think about it seriously. He went downstairs to call the public phone at the gate of the textile factory that night, but the phone was disconnected and he couldn't get through at all.So he still decided to go home. He really couldn't bear to think about what Song Manzhi would do if the flood really broke the embankment, because she was only alone.

It was too quiet, that was his first thought when he came back.No one spoke, and there were no people on the street, only occasional shouts from far away.Ji Jian listened carefully, and he called "Come on".When he walked in, the uncle who always sat in front of the grocery store in the textile factory's area was not there, nor did he see the old man who looked at the bicycle garage.

The first acquaintance he saw when he returned home was Shao Youguang's mother.Aunt Zhao, who was always well-dressed, was standing blankly at the door of her house, wondering what she was thinking. A nail on the No. 101 house plate fell off, and it was hanging there, precariously.

Zhao Fengqiu was still in a daze as if he hadn't seen him, so Ji Jian had no choice but to call softly: "Aunt Zhao?"

"Ah," Zhao Fengqiu rolled his eyes, and then he saw Ji Jian and smiled slowly, "It's Ji Jian, he's back."

"Well, come back and have a look, Auntie, you..."

Zhao Fengqiu suddenly grabbed Ji Jian's arm as if she had returned to her soul. She seemed to be holding on to the only straw that could survive. Tears finally scrambled to stay. She said, "Xiao Ji, Auntie, please do me a favor. , you help auntie to call Shao Youguang, auntie knows you have a good relationship with him, auntie please..." She almost knelt down, Ji Jian quickly reached out to hold her arms, such a skeleton is too thin, Ji Jian Jian recalled those teenage years, and he thought, how come he never noticed it.

"Auntie, tell me what happened first, don't worry, speak slowly."

Zhao Fengqiu pushed the door lightly, but it was not locked, and it was pushed open with a light touch.

So Ji Jian was able to see the situation inside through a crack in the door.The living room is empty, the windows are fully open, and the wind blows through the hall from both sides, lifting a corner of the white bed sheet.

Few households had telephones, and the flood broke all telephone lines.Ji Jian traveled to many places, and finally made this call in the office of the director of the fertilizer factory.

It took a long time for the call to be answered.

Ji Jian and Shao Youguang don't have much contact.There were only a few correspondences, and neither of them responded diligently.That was the way it was in those days, sometimes once you parted with someone, you really lost all the news.So Ji Jian once thought that when they meet again, maybe he will be able to hug him and talk about his love.

It's just that now it seems that these are all nonsense.

"Shao Youguang, Shao Youguang! I have your call downstairs, hurry up!"

When Ji Jian called, Shao Youguang was arguing with his classmate Lao Ma because of "Hamlet" to be rehearsed at the end of the semester.

"Hamlet is a man, he is not a vengeful prince, nor is he a hero of bullshit humanism, he is a man! He is us!"

When he was interrupted suddenly, Shao You's anger was still there, and he called out impatiently after hearing the words: "I know, I know."

"Which girl is calling you?" the cheap-mouthed person laughed and yelled, "It can't be my sister Xiaohong again."

"It can't be a girlfriend, right? When are you going to take me, sister Xiaohong?"

A group of men from the north were talking nonsense, Shao Youguang walked out and slammed the door of the rehearsal room: "Don't worry about it, stop fucking nonsense."

The housekeeper's aunt got impatient and didn't give him a good face.Therefore, when Shao Youguang answered the phone, he was full of anger.

He asked aggressively, "Who!?"

There was a moment of silence over there, and at this stall, Shao Youguang asked again: "Who is it?"

"Shao Youguang," Ji Jian called him softly, and he said, "You must come back."

The author says:

The words of Hamlet were inspired by the preface written by Lin Zhaohua when he was arranging Hamlet in 1990