star chaser poem

On Friday, Xiang Shi arrived at the company at [-]:[-] in the morning, two hours earlier than the normal working time.

The maintenance personnel of the office building were pushing a large vacuum cleaner for cleaning, and the hum of the machine was heard regularly in the empty flat floor.

After he finished arranging his things, he went to the vending machine to buy refreshing drinks in a familiar way.

The lighting in the office area only turned on a small part, and the entire floor was shrouded in dull gray, like a sleeping monster.

There was no need to look at the shelves at all, Xiang Shi tapped a button directly, and the aluminum can fell to the pick-up opening, making an abrupt crash in the dead silence.

Probably because he got up too early, when he bent down to open the shutter, he felt a sudden nausea.

Returning to his seat with a drink in his mouth, lack of sleep and long-term accumulated fatigue made him feel as if a string was being tightened continuously in his cranial cavity.

Xiang Shi's consciousness is extremely clear, but the back of her forehead seems to be stuffed with a ball of cotton that has absorbed water.

He raised his head and mechanically injected fuel into his body. The inferior taste of artificial sweeteners could no longer stimulate his dull sense of taste.

It was another morning that was no different from yesterday, but today, Xiang Shi's mind was not on work at all.

·

After nine o'clock, the number of people in the office gradually increased. Colleagues who passed by looked at him curiously and kept coming to talk to him.

"Huh? Why are you a little different today."

"Nice tie."

"Hair is so handsome."

He responded without any waves, but Xiang Shi unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief: It seems that it is right to get up half an hour earlier.

That's right, it's not just that he came to work early, in order to tidy himself up, he also spared no effort to cut off 10 minutes in the already precious sleep time - he deliberately scratched his hair with pomade, and asked out that set only to see The dark gray custom-made suit that only came out when the big client came out, and after a fierce competition, he chose a dark green narrow tie to match it, and even put on the tie clip pretendingly.

In the afternoon, I ran into Shao Ke who joined the company in the same year in the corridor. Seeing that he had dressed up, the other party teased maliciously: "There is something wrong with you, you want a date tonight?"

Faced with the temptation of gossip, the best way to deal with it is to tell the truth, and it's not something that the needy should cover up.

"Correct."

"girlfriend?"

"Boy friend."

"..."

"It's just an ordinary male friend. What's your expression?"

Xiang Shi made a movement of holding his chin with his hand while talking, "Close your mouth quickly, it looks silly."

He and Shao Ke were old acquaintances. They had been at the same table for more than a month during the newcomer training, and sat together in class every day; but after the training was over, they each entered different projects, so they separated completely.

Last month, Xiang Shi was officially transferred to Wu City. Coincidentally, she belongs to the same big project as Shao Ke, but they belong to different teams.

After two o'clock in the afternoon is the most drowsy devil's time, he was a little delirious from exhaustion, so the two went to buy coffee together.

"How are you getting used to it? Recently, you've been leaving very late every day."

Although the qualifications are the same, Shao Ke has been in the current project for more than a year, so he can be called half a senior.

"That's it, it's not later than before."

The person who heard this sentence gave him a hard look, not knowing whether it was helplessness or admiration, "You are here this time, so don't leave."

On the surface, Xiang Shi was noncommittal, but in his heart he complained quite dissatisfied: I didn't want to come here.

When picking up the coffee, the girl in the store smiled at him softly, Xiang Shi didn't know why, so she had to smile back with her tired eyes, and then thanked him.

After graduating from university, Xiang Shi joined a consulting company. This year is her third year of work, and she is mainly responsible for strategic consulting.

This type of case has a high threshold in the entire consulting industry, and newcomers are usually not sent to participate.And because of his outstanding performance during the training period, he was lucky to be directly selected by the partner, which made the people around him envious for a while.

Unexpectedly, after the end of the last project, the situation of the entire industry was not good, and the strategic customer resources were shrinking day by day; so the company sent Xiang Shi, a young employee with relatively low qualifications and undetermined development direction, to the IT category with greater demand. project.

As a result, one can imagine how reluctant the parties who received the transfer order were.The experience accumulated with great difficulty is all zeroed out. What's worse, you have to enter a brand new environment and start from the bottom.

Three years ago, when the list of job assignments was announced, they were so proud, and now they are so frustrated.However, the reason why he chose to go to the strategic system at the beginning was not just because of the favor of the partners.

On the day when all the newcomers submitted their letters of intent, Shao Ke once asked rather puzzled: "Why do you have to go back to Songshi? It would be nice to stay in Wushi, and there are many opportunities for development."

The company's headquarters is set up in Wu City, but they will be assigned to various cities according to the specific projects; in most cases, they need to stay directly at the client company's office.

And Xiang Shi's hometown is Songshi—although he hasn't gone back much since he went to other places to go to university.

"It's nothing, I just don't like Wu City."

Yes, he hates it very much.

It's just three years later, no matter how forced it is, the one who should come still can't hide.

An irresistible force pushed Xiang Shi all the way through the fork in the dilemma, and forcibly made a judgment for him.

On the way back to the office, Shao Ke accidentally caught a glimpse of the paper cup in his hand, and immediately yelled, "Huh? Why is there a flower in your cup? And it's so full?"

Both of them ordered the most common latte, one cup filled with the most common white milk foam, while the top of the other cup had a chubby bear pattern floating on it.

Recalling the smile just now, Xiang Shi was very calm, and said flatly, "Maybe it was a mistake because of the crowd. This little bear is so cute, it should be for girls."

"Fuck you." Shao Ke rolled his eyes and teased: "It must be because you cleaned up like a dog today, the little girl saw you fainted."

Facing the flattering words, he neither reacted redundantly nor tried to defend himself, but picked up the paper cup in Shao Ke's hand and quickly exchanged it with him.

"Hurry up, I can't work overtime today."

There are less than three hours left before the end of get off work, but Xiang Shi's heart has already flown to things other than work.

·

The agreed place that night was a Japanese-style izakaya located near Xiangshi's company.

Originally, he invited this meal as a thank you, so the choice of which restaurant to choose was entirely up to another person to decide freely—but to his surprise, the other party actually chose it at his own company. The business district where it is located.

It was obviously a good thing, but a kind of uneasiness to be compared quietly sprouted in his heart.

From one to six o'clock, ignoring the surprised eyes around her, Xiang Shi took off her employee card and rushed out of the company's territory without looking back.

The city center on Friday night was much more lively than usual. His dark gray figure shuttled through the hurried flow of people and colorful street scenes, as if splitting a tunnel from the past to the future.

It might be because he was walking too fast, or he might be uneasy, but as the destination got closer, he could feel the beating of his heart gradually becoming more intense, hitting his chest forcefully, again and again.

After doing the math, I haven't seen him for about six years.

Xiang Shi has almost forgotten about the things in her youth.Although he has a good memory, when some memories are deliberately avoided, his brain will put a hidden lock on the drawer with interest, and he will no longer open it easily.

Times have changed, and if he were to face the same predicament again, his reaction might be completely different.Those vague and intense emotions slowly weathered under the alteration of time, and finally disintegrated into pieces of fragmented rock, which fell mercilessly at his feet.

Now, Xiang Shi is standing at the door of the store, just storing her shoes in the shoe cabinet, holding a key in her hand.

"There is an appointment, the surname is Fu."

Opening the door, he was led by the waiter into the depths of the store.The booths are separately separated by plain warm curtains, and the log-colored hollow grille divides the open space into a quiet small world.

He saw a figure from afar who didn't know whether to call it familiar or unfamiliar.

It's just that back figure, but it has a different shape from the remaining fragments in his memory.Xiang Shi wasn't even sure if he was right, because the other person had bleached hair and earrings, and he wasn't the kind of person who would appear in his daily life at all.

As if a mysterious button was pressed, the dark amusement park became brightly lit in an instant, the music of the carousel sounded, and the Ferris wheel, which had been frozen for a long time, restarted at this moment.

He sat alone in the rickety box, looking at the increasingly smaller streets outside the glass window: there was an unchanging sea level, a high breakwater, the elementary school and junior high school he had attended, and two parked cars. bikes together.

Xiang Shi took a few steps forward tentatively and walked to the side of that person.The Adam's apple moved, but after all, no sound came out.

As if aware of something, the person in front of him turned around, raised his head slightly and gave him a bright smile.That smile injected aura into the empty skin of his memories, and the past began to ferment, out of control.

"Xiang Shi, long time no see."