thirty

Seeing that it is already October, N City is still as hot as a furnace. Shi Lei arrived at the West Railway Station in the afternoon, and the train was late. Standing in the bustling crowd, he felt that it was getting hotter. There were children like mud eels crowded around the station. He tore open the collar of his shirt irritably, wishing he could undo all the buttons.

The phone rang suddenly, Shi Lei walked a little away from the crowd, "Hello, Uncle Xian?"

Shen Xian's voice was lifeless, "Come to my house and bring some food, it should be light."

Shi Lei looked distressed, "I'm sorry, Uncle Xian, my junior high school English teacher came to N City for medical treatment, and I'm still waiting to be picked up at the station, you can cook some porridge yourself first."

Shen Xian suddenly became vicious, "What English teacher? The junior high school teacher is still in touch, isn't your nostalgia too much?"

The crowd suddenly became noisy, Shi Lei hurriedly turned his head to look at the exit, and quickly said to the phone, "The train is here, I'll hang up first, you cook porridge yourself."

Crowds poured out, Shi Lei squeezed in the crowd, unable to move an inch, looking around anxiously, the train arrived more than an hour later than the scheduled time, and the scene was in chaos.

"Brother!" A young male voice sounded.

Shi Lei turned his head and saw a young man pushing a wheelchair out of the crowd with difficulty, he quickly strode forward, protecting the wheelchair, "Teacher Li!"

The woman in the wheelchair was pale and weak, she managed to pull herself together and smiled, "Shi Lei, have you been waiting for a long time?"

"No," Shi Lei shook his head, looked down at her, frowned slightly, held back when he wanted to say something, turned to look at the young man pushing the wheelchair, and said with a smile, "Li Huang is here too?"

"Well," Li Huang nodded vigorously, "I'll take care of my sister."

Shi Lei took a taxi, carried Li Hong into the car, folded the wheelchair, put it in the trunk, and Li Huang carried the luggage into the car, and went directly to the No.1 civilian hospital.

Running up and down to arrange for Li Hong to live in the ward, Shi Lei went outside to buy a boxed lunch, and when they returned to the ward, the three of them finished eating, and Li Huang went to clean the lunch box.

Shi Lei sat by the bed, looked at the drowsy teacher on the bed, "Go to sleep when you're tired, and leave everything to me."

"Not tired," Li Hong smiled lightly, with some slurred speech, "Shi Lei, I'm sorry to trouble you."

"What did you say?" Shi Lei frowned. Uremia had tortured her for five years and sucked away all her vital energy. She looked like a decaying leaf. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that she hadn't lived long.

He tucked the quilt for Li Hong, and said in a low voice, "Teacher, what are your plans for the future?"

"Where is there any future?" Li Hong smiled weakly, "It stands to reason that in my role, I should wait at home to die, but I still want to come to N City, I want to be in the same city as Tongtong... ..."

Shi Lei panicked in his heart, took a deep breath calmly, and smiled gently, "Don't always think of the bad, maybe after Tongtong lost, he was adopted by a good family, and now he is living well."

"Yeah," Li Hong said with tears streaming from the corners of her eyes, but forced a smile and bit her lips.

Shi Lei stood up, clutching the cigarette case tightly, "Teacher, I'm going out for a cigarette."

As he spoke, he walked out of the ward, leaned against the wall, and looked at the white ceiling of the hospital. He took out a cigarette, and after seeing the big "No Smoking" sign on the opposite wall, he put it back into the cigarette case, with his hands in his trouser pockets go outside.

Li Huang just walked in with a washed lunch box, "Hey, brother, are you leaving?"

"No, I'll go down and smoke a cigarette, I'll be right back," Shi Lei walked outside the inpatient department, stood in the garden downstairs, lit a cigarette, looked at the leisurely headshot on the phone screen, his cold expression softened.

It's past nine o'clock in the evening, I don't know if the old guy has gone out to fool around again.

After waiting for a long time, Shen Xian's impatient voice came from the phone, Shi Lei felt his heart soften suddenly, "Uncle Xian?"

"Nonsense, who else could it be but me? Where are you sleepwalking?" Shen Xian was typing with both hands on the keyboard while plugging in the earphones to make a phone call.

Shi Lei couldn't help laughing, "Are you at home?"

"I have something to talk about," Shen Xian was very irritable, "Shu Ming has to hand in the manuscript by eight o'clock in the morning, so I don't have time to chatter with you!"

Thinking of this person's virtue of forgetting to eat and sleep when rushing to finish the manuscript, Shi Lei asked with a smile, "Have you eaten yet?"

It was the voice of Shen Xian hanging up the phone that answered him.

Uh... Shi Lei looked at the hung up phone, rubbed his chin and raised the corners of his mouth: so irritable, could it be that the old man is jealous that he didn't bring him food?

After smoking a cigarette, he returned to the ward, saw that Li Hong had fallen asleep, and Li Huang was sitting on the empty bed in the ward playing with his mobile phone. When he came in, a big smile appeared on his face, "Brother!"

"Well," Shi Lei rubbed his hair, "I have something to go out tonight, so you can take care of my sister here, okay?"

Li Huang's eyes widened, "Brother, where are you going?"

"Go find your sister-in-law." Shi Lei said maliciously.

The light in Li Huang's eyes dimmed instantly, "Oh."

Shi Lei went to the supermarket outside to buy toiletries, filled a pot of hot water, and asked Li Huang to make the bed by himself, and leaned against the wall to watch him pack his luggage, "Then I'll go first, come back at noon tomorrow, and you can go to the cafeteria for breakfast Call here, I have already processed the meal card and put it on the bedside table, did you see it?"

Li Huang glanced at the brand new meal card, listlessly, "I see it."

"Go to bed early if you're sleepy, be alert at night, and ring the bell if something unusual happens to my sister," Shi Lei patted him on the shoulder, straightened his clothes, and walked out of the ward.

The wind at night was fresh and cool, Shi Lei was not in a hurry to take a taxi, and walked slowly along the main road. Li Hong's sick appearance made him feel very sad. The English teacher in his memory was lively and charming, with dynamic short hair. The melodious and ups and downs of his voice was once his most vivid memory of junior high school.

His childhood crush was innocent and innocent, and he once thought Teacher Li Hong was the most beautiful person in the world.

It was already 10:30 p.m. when he arrived at Yihe Community. He took out his key and opened the door. The whole apartment was brightly lit, and a bowl of instant noodles that had been soaked to pulp was placed on the dining room table.

Shi Lei went upstairs, and sure enough, he heard fast typing on the keyboard outside the study door.He turned and went downstairs, looked around in the kitchen, but couldn't find any usable ingredients, so he simply cooked a pot of oatmeal with milk.

He didn't come for a few days, obviously Shen Xian didn't ask the housekeeper to tidy up, even the sofa was still the same as he slept on that day, Shi Lei was speechless, rolled up his sleeves resignedly and started cleaning the room.

The sound of turning on the vacuum cleaner was a bit loud, and Shen Xian was alarmed. He stomped down from upstairs, stood on the stairs and looked down, and asked angrily, "What are you doing here? Go back and accompany your English teacher!"

"Come here to see if you have eaten. Are you tired? How long have you been coding?" Shi Lei automatically filtered his eviction order, straightened up and looked up at him, couldn't help laughing, Mr. Shen is very sloppy today, An extremely bulky old T-shirt, unkempt, with a sunflower barrette on the forehead indiscriminately, the mess is too horrible to look at.

"Forgot," Shen Xian walked down, "What time is it?"

"It's eleven o'clock." Shi Lei put down the vacuum cleaner, went to wash his hands and walked into the kitchen, "Sit down and rest for a while, the porridge will be ready soon."

The moment Shen Xian sat on the sofa, he was paralyzed like a dead body, and he didn't even want to lift his eyelids. He typed words for five hours in a row, and his brain was in a state of extreme excitement. Even with his eyes closed, countless chaotic sentences were still in his mind spinning rapidly.

Sensing Shi Lei coming out of the kitchen, the air was filled with the sweet smell of milk, and then a warm breath appeared on his lips, he lazily opened his eyes, and saw Shi Lei standing in front of him with a spoonful of milk The porridge was brought to his lips.

He opened his mouth obediently and swallowed it, the smooth porridge slid down the esophagus, very warm and comfortable.

The old man was not aggressive when he was being fed, Shi Lei watched him lick his lips, showing a cat-like laziness, laughed silently, sat beside him, and continued to feed him spoonful after spoonful.

After slowly eating the whole bowl, Shi Lei touched Shen Xian's head, "Don't work so hard, you have dark circles under your eyes, go to sleep for a while."

Shen Xian woke up suddenly, pushed him away and walked upstairs, shaking his head nervously while walking, "No, no, eight o'clock in the morning is the last delivery time, and the editor in charge said that if I don't submit the manuscript again, he will come to my door to fuck. The young master is an innocent family and cannot afford to offend such a desperado."

Shi Lei smiled unkindly, this old guy always pushes the column to the end, so he deserves to spend all night rushing to draft it.

Went to grind a cup of coffee, added a lot of milk and sugar, took it upstairs, Shen Xian's two chicken feet were ruining the keyboard like chopping vegetables, Shi Lei walked over, put the coffee by the computer desk, leaned over his shoulder to look at him written articles.

"Go, go, don't hinder me," Shen Xian twitched his shoulders and shook him off, "If you have nothing to do, go to sleep."

"Uncle Xian," Shi Lei chuckled, "What are your plans for the National Day holiday?"

Shen Xian squinted, "I have a long vacation every day, what are you doing?"

"It's nothing, just ask," Shi Lei casually took a book from his bookshelf, "Lady Chatterley's Lover"?Speechlessly, he stuffed the book back, and picked up another one, "Women's Ten Days Talk". Shi Lei glanced at the man sitting in front of the computer typing, and sneered: As for virtue, how can you still be a woman?

After changing several times in a row, Shi Lei lay down on the camp bed in the study with a time-traveling novel and flipped through it. Hmm, this one is not bad. , this thick daffodil-like arrogance and narcissism between the lines is really a bit too much, who is the author?

He closed the book and looked at the cover, and immediately burst into tears: "Battle Flag", author Gong Zixian.

"I'm talking, did you hear me?" A leisurely and displeased voice came from beside my ear.

Shi Lei reacted quickly, "What did you say?"

Shen Xian's voice was a bit muffled, and he hummed vaguely, "If you want to go out to play, after I hand in the manuscript, I will take you to Daocheng Yading for a self-driving tour."

"You can go out if you want to play," Shi Lei said with a smile, "but I have to wait for Teacher Li to settle down, she just came to N City, and she is not used to it yet."

Shen Xian paused for a moment, and said in a stiff and cold voice, "Whether you want to go or not, there are many people who want to accompany me, and you are not missing."

Shi Lei's smile grew wider, this old man, he grew taller because he made a little money?But you can't say this, the old guy will turn his face if you say it.

He smiled softly, "There are too many outings during the National Day, so be careful not to squeeze you. How about we go after the National Day is over? My tutor and I will take half a month off, so we can have a good time."

Shen Xian grunted irresolutely, and finally looked less majestic.