withered color

Xu Liangyun was sitting in his car, without turning on the lights or windows, just smoking a cigarette in the darkness.

The car was filled with smoke, and he stared blankly in front of him, not knowing where he was looking or what he was thinking.

After a long time passed like this, the phone in his pocket buzzed and vibrated.

Xu Liangyun didn't look at who it was, and raised his hand to pick it up: "Hello."

Zhong Tang has always been too lazy to feed people, and just opened his mouth to say something: "Are you done?"

"...It's over." Xu Liangyun lowered his head and said, "It's completely over."

"...I'm not talking about you. What are you doing? You said it would be nice if you went back." Zhong Tang couldn't help but said, "Look, you haven't contacted him for five years. You should have broken off completely, but in the end Now that such a case has come out——I mean, it’s God’s will. I can tell at a glance that he still likes you. If you chase after him, you’ll definitely be able to get it back. You tell him about that and let him go. And definitely..."

Xu Liangyun couldn't listen anymore: "Are you talking about God's will?"

"Which law stipulates that psychologists can't talk about God's will? If you want to talk about it with me, I can tell you about God's will from a psychological point of view. Do you listen?"

"……no need."

Zhong Tang laughed, and turned the subject back: "Hey, I'm not joking with you. To be honest, I think you two got back together very well. You can tell him about it. You man, I've been telling you for five years, people have to learn to reconcile with themselves—"

When Zhong Tang said this, he was like the old man whose mother was teaching his grandson downstairs. Xu Liangyun got a headache when he heard him talk about this, and wanted to beat him every time to make him shut up.

So he clicked his tongue impatiently, and forcibly ended the topic: "It's okay, I'll hang up."

"Don't hang up!!" Zhong Tang yelled, "Yang Lu gave a clue!!"

Xu Liangyun was about to hang up, but when he heard this, he had no choice but to put the phone back to his ear: "Speak."

"A painter also painted Fang Yun and liked her very much." Zhong Tang said, "The painting is a half-length portrait with red and white roses in the background. Because the painting has not been exhibited or shown to others, few people know about it. Only two or three friends who are very close to him know about it."

This sounds very suspicious.

Xu Liangyun frowned and asked, "Who?"

"...Wu Xiashu." Zhong Tang said, "The Wu Xiashu who died half a year ago."

Xu Liangyun was silent.

He was silent, and Zhong Tang didn't speak.

After a while, Xu Liangyun raised his head, his voice was hoarse: "Wu Xiashu is indeed dead."

"Dead." Zhong Tang said, "It was burnt to charcoal at the time. In order to confirm the identity, the forensic doctor tested the DNA of the teeth. It is indeed Wu Xiashu himself. He must be dead."

While listening, Xu Liangyun reached out and put out the cigarette in the ashtray on the car.

"Understood." He said, "I'm going back now."

At 10:30 the next morning, Chen Yan was woken up by a rustling conversation outside the door.

As soon as he got up, he realized that he was actually sleeping on the sofa with a thin quilt covering his body. It seemed that Pudding had personally brought him to cover him.

Chen Yan opened his sleepy eyes and was dazed for a long time.

He looked at the seven or eight beer cans on the coffee table, feeling dizzy and throbbing in his head, and couldn't remember what was going on for a while.

He has always been like this. Every time he wakes up, he feels like he has dementia. His brain will not wake up immediately. He has to sit on the bed for two to three minutes before his brain can successfully restart.

As always, after waiting for 2 minutes, the narrator's mind slowly woke up.

Statement Yan finally remembered slowly.

He had a meeting with Xu Liangyun last night - a very unpleasant one.

Then he went home and lost control of his emotions. After a heartbreaking cry, he couldn't recover for a long time, and sat there in a daze after crying without tears.Pudding was so frightened that he circled around him, it was useless to get into his arms and lick his face, Chen Yan couldn't get back to his senses, his mind was full of Xu Liangyun, who seemed to be falling apart in the winter wind, extremely haggard.

and after?

Later, Chen Yan seemed to have gone to get the wine, but this time he didn't even take the glass, and blew it directly to his mouth, blowing eight cans in one breath...

...and fell asleep.

I slept very late, drank too much, my head hurts, I was drowsy and dreamless all night, and now I am still a little sleepy, and the headache after the hangover is bursting.

After recalling, the brain also restarted successfully, and the statement let out a long sigh.

He rubbed his temples and laughed, helpless and chilling.

He turned his head and looked out the door.The policeman outside the door was talking to a man and telling him something.

It was the conversation that woke him up.

"Forgive me, the situation is special now, so I have to investigate." The policeman said outside the door, "It's nothing, nothing, you go in, you can't tell ordinary people about this."

The other voice laughed apologetically, with a crooked smile in his voice—also, when facing the police, most people would do this.

Even if you obviously did nothing wrong.

Statement Yan was a little overwhelmed, and didn't understand who came to his house and would be checked by the police.

The voice sounded familiar, as if I had heard it somewhere before.

Not long after, there was a knock on the door of his house.

"Hello," said the knocker, "Express delivery."

It was only then that Chen Yan remembered that a courier company called him yesterday.

It was this voice that called him.

He responded twice, stood up, supported his drowsy head with pain, reached out and picked up the gloves on the sofa, put them on his hands, pulled on his slippers, and walked slowly to the door and opened it.

Although the courier's voice sounded quite young, he was actually a thin, thin middle-aged man with a beard, who looked to be in his early forties.I don't know if it was because there were policemen behind him, but he looked a little flustered, but he was sweating for no reason in the cold weather.

He was also holding a big cardboard box, which was ridiculously big.

The statement frowned.He remembered that when he sent his paintings, he didn't use this kind of big box. He used a flat, long box that looked like a big cardboard box.

As if he could see what he was thinking, the courier hurriedly explained: "Your one is broken, and there will be a lot of couriers in the next year, and we don't have that kind of box anymore, so I have to put it here for you to take a look at." look."

"……yes."

Chen Yan drank alcohol last night, his head was hurting, and he didn't bother to think about it, so he stepped back and said, "Then come in."

Pudding was on the other side of the living room, hiding behind the huge avocado, carefully watching who came.

It is very shy.

The courier came in, closed the door, and finally let out a long sigh of relief.

Then he turned his head and saw Pudding poking his head over there, and laughed again: "Do you have a dog at home?"

"En." Chen Yan answered absently, then pointed to an open space next to him, and said, "Put the things down, I'll take a look first, just put them here."

"No rush, no rush."

While talking, the courier slowly put the box on the ground where the statement pointed, straightened up again, turned around and took out a piece of paper folded two or three times from his pocket, and said, "You fill this up first." Well, then I'll take the box apart, and you'll have a look at what's inside."

Chen Yan took the paper he handed over, unfolded it, and saw that it was a compensation guarantee agreement.

There are a series of terms and conditions on it, as well as a small form, which requires him to write down the items and time of delivery, as well as the estimated price of the damaged items, and he needs to sign in the lower right corner.

"For the estimated price, you can just write down the price of the picture frame. If you are really worried, leave it blank first, and then fill it up after I open the box and you have a look inside. Anyway, I still have a few minutes to open the box, so I have to open it at the same time." While taking pictures to record - the above stipulates that the process must be taken to go through the process. Anyway, you are watching, so it is better to fill out the form first, and save time."

Chen Yan rested his head on his head for a while, and felt that the words made sense, so he answered twice, turned his head and walked into the study, looking for a pen to fill out the form.

As soon as he picked up the pen, he heard a slurping sound coming from outside. It should be the courier teasing the dog.

The statement was disgusting and helpless, smiled lightly, said nothing, pushed out the refill of the ballpoint pen, and began to fill in the form.

After a while, the courier outside stopped teasing the dog. Instead, there was a sound of tape being torn, which should be unpacking the box.

After the box was unpacked, the outside became quiet, presumably they were waiting outside for him to come out.

The surroundings are very quiet, only the sound of writing is rustling.

Statement Yan rubbed his head lightly while writing.The aftermath of drinking in the middle of the night was too strong, and his head always felt dizzy and painful.

After the thing was written, he put down the pen, turned around and planned to go out, and handed the things to the courier.

But when he turned his head, he saw that the courier who was supposed to be waiting for him outside was standing behind him.

The courier was too close to him, feeling oppressive like a mountain.There was no longer a smile on his face, it was gloomy and terrifying, his breathing was extremely heavy, cold sweat was pouring down like rain, and his pupils were trembling in his eyes.

Chen Yan was so frightened that he immediately took two steps back and bumped into the table behind him. The things on the table were shaken and there was a loud clatter.

The next moment, he heard the sound of the current being connected.

The statement was all too familiar with the voice.Countless times in his dreams at midnight, he could hear this voice in his nightmares.

With a thud in his heart, he subconsciously raised his hand to block it.

But the courier is stronger than him.He immediately pulled off the hand that was covering his face and neck, and unceremoniously pressed the stun gun on his neck.

Statement Yan felt a pain in his neck, his vision went dark, and he lost consciousness on the spot.

-

In the police station a few streets away.

Xu Liangyun suddenly shook his hand, and the coffee cup was separated from the handle without any warning, and fell to the ground with a slap, blasting the ceramic shards all over the place.

Almost everyone was busy investigating or thinking, and most of them were shocked by this shock.

Zhong Tang was lying on his seat and squinting, and sat up in a dream when he was so blown up and dying, his face was full of dazedness, his hair was blown up from sleep, and his face was full of marks , glowing red like just came out of the steam room.

The old detective next to him, Xiang Yao, couldn't help laughing when he saw his explosive chicken-like appearance.

Zhong Tang ignored him, he took a deep breath, wiped his face, shook his head again, and chased away the remaining drowsiness, and said, "What the fuck, you scared me."

"Xu Liangyun." Xiang Xuan pointed to the back and said, "He took the cup."

Zhong Tang couldn't understand the dialect at all: "?? What??"

"... Broken." Xiang Xuan had no choice but to cut his language system into Mandarin and said, "He broke the cup."

Zhong Tang looked back.

Holding the handle of the pitiful cup in his hand, Xu Liangyun looked down at the shattered cup at his feet. Coffee was splashed even on the legs of his trousers, and some was spilled on his white shirt. He just froze in place, speechless Looking at everything in front of him, he seemed to be speechless.

Xu Liangyun remained motionless.He looked down at the shattered ceramic fragments and was silent for a long time.

Zhong Tang rubbed his eyes, stood up while yawning, stretched his arms, walked over, and said, "What are you doing? It's like standing for punishment. If it's broken, ask someone to clean it up. Did it spill on the documents? "

Zhong Tang glanced at the documents on Xu Liangyun's desk while talking.

It's okay, it didn't sprinkle, and basically all went to Xu Liangyun.

"No."

Xu Liangyun spoke slowly, then gently put the surviving cup on the table, and then stopped talking.

He was still looking down at the shattered pieces.For some reason, he suddenly had some unusually bad premonitions.

very bad.

It was as if something irreversible was happening.