rumor

Jiang Ruo's hometown is located in a coastal city in the east of my country. It takes two hours to take off from Fengcheng to the airport, and then transfer to the bus to the county under its jurisdiction.

In the county, we have to transfer another car to go to the town.The dilapidated bus was rickety, and the nose was filled with the smell of gasoline and a mixture of various foods. Jiang Ruo sat in the back seat by the window, regardless of the cold weather, opened the window a crack, and moved his face to breathe in the fresh air .

In the past, I didn't feel that the car was uncomfortable at all. Sometimes I rushed to the county to learn dancing, and when I found an empty seat, I was so happy that I cheered on the spot.It can be seen from this that it is extremely difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. After taking too much of Xi Yufeng's million-class business car, now I feel uncomfortable and want to vomit when I return to the civilian car. I am so coquettish that even Jiang Ruo himself finds it funny.

Arriving at the door of the house, I received a call from Xi Yufeng.

Looking at the time and guessing that he had just finished his work in the morning, Jiang Ruo naturally asked him if he had eaten.

Xi Yufeng didn't answer, but asked him: "Have you arrived yet?"

When talking about going back to his hometown last night, Xi Yufeng was stunned for a moment, then checked the itinerary, saying that he could be free to take him back.

Jiang Ruo refused, the reason was that it was not far or near, and it would take a whole day to go back and forth on the road, and Mr. Xi was too busy to deal with it, so it was not worth it.

Besides, what is the relationship between Xi Yufeng and him?It is too ignorant of current affairs for a lover to go home for the funeral and let the benefactor pick him up.

Even if Jiang Ruo didn't say the latter reason, Xi Yufeng would probably be aware of it.In short, the final result was as Jiang Ruo wanted, Xi Yufeng asked Xiao Shen to book a plane ticket, and arranged for Lao Liu to send Jiang Ruo to the airport, while he went to work in the company as originally planned.

Now when he received the call, Jiang Ruo cheered up and said, "It's almost there, just turn a corner."

"Take a taxi?"

"No. The transportation in our village is inconvenient, and we usually rely on ox carts." Jiang Ruo said, imitating the sound of a cow, "Moo—"

Xi Yufeng: "..."

Seeing that he was still in the mood to joke around, Xi Yufeng felt relieved and asked him to contact him whenever he needed something.

When the phone was hung up, the bus was turning at the intersection, and the rows of dilapidated tube buildings on the side of the road ahead were getting closer.

Jiang Ruo asked the driver to stop in front of him, stretched himself, and thought what could happen.

The worst thing is to fight, and then you should contact 110, not the benefactor.

Jiang Ruo's home—to be precise, Jiang Ruo's stepfather's home, in a dormitory building for workers of a machinery factory with a history of about 20 years in a small coastal town.

It is said that those who could get this house were the key employees of the factory. Later, I heard that this house was about to be demolished, and each household could get two houses in the county.

The former cannot be verified. After all, Jiang Ruo was already ten years old when he moved here. At that time, his stepfather Zhao Yonggang was an accountant in the factory, but he was laid off from the unit within two years.The latter is even more unreasonable. Ten years ago, they called for demolition, and now there is no sign of an excavator.

Going around the low wall with weeds in the cracks in the bricks, walking through a section of potholed path that no one has repaired for more than ten years, when turning into the corridor, Jiang Ruo glanced at the corner of the wall where debris was piled up, and the paint was peeling off On most of the walls, cartoon villains painted with watercolor strokes can be seen faintly.

Next to it are several lines of different lengths. Jiang Ruo walked over and drew the bottom line with his hand, thinking that the ten-year-old me was only this tall.

In the westernmost room on the second floor, you can see white silk hanging on the door downstairs.

The person had already been cremated, and black and white photos and an urn were placed on the table in the middle of the main room.There were not many people in the room, but Jiang Ruo's appearance still caused quite a commotion. Relatives and neighbors all stared at him, then covered their lips and bit each other's ears, obviously saying something that was not pleasant.

As if Jiang Ruo had never heard of it, she kowtowed three times on the futon in front of the table, stood up, and turned around.

"Is it Xiao Ruo?" A bearded man in his 50s came out from the back room and stopped him, "I finally hoped for you to come back, so I'm leaving now?"

Five minutes later, Jiang Ruo followed Zhao Yong into the back room, and asked straight to the point how much the funeral cost.

Zhao Yonggang sneered: "Xiao Ruo is rich now, no wonder he doesn't care to come back."

Jiang Ruo was too lazy to deal with him, so he picked up a book that looked like an account book from the drawer next to him, turned to the page where the funeral expenses and the expenses for banquets and drinks were recorded, called up the computer on his mobile phone and pressed the button, and transferred the money through online banking on the spot. past.

Zhao Yonggang looked at his phone and smiled after receiving the text message that he had entered the account, "Sure enough, he is rich. Which dance troupe leader's son is next to him this time?"

Jiang Ruo ignored it, and put the ledger back with a cold face.

The movement was a little slower, but Zhao Yonggang grabbed his hand and squeezed it very charmingly: "Why is Xiao Ruo ignoring uncle? You really became a star, and your temper has become stronger. You used to be very obedient."

Before the words fell, there was a "pa", Jiang Ruo used too much force when he pulled back his hand, and slapped Zhao Yonggang directly.

Fortunately, this person's skin was dark and wrinkled, his face was numb from the beating, but there was no mark left, only a pair of cloudy eyes were rounded, and he stood up abruptly: "You stinky bitch, you became a bitch just like your mother!" You have to set up a memorial arch, if I hadn't taught you how to dance back then, how could you have had the chance—"

Jiang Ruo heard his own voice trembling: "Yes, if it weren't for you, how would I have the chance to meet Peng Weibin, and how would I have the chance to meet someone dirtier than you?"

Zhao Yonggang's face was even more hostile, and his tone was mocking: "What is dirty? When you were 13 years old, your mother sent you to my room in exchange for a fee to learn dancing. You were called dirty by that surname Peng. Sending out your kid to curry favor with others, to seek a better future... Is it dirty to exchange at equal value? How dare you say that you don't take any advantage from it?"

Halfway through hearing this, Jiang Ruo's face was as pale as paper.

Holding his breath, he pulled out the transfer records of the previous two years from his mobile phone: "I have already paid off the money I owe you, and the matter with Peng Weibin has nothing to do with you."

Seeing him showing cowardice similar to his childhood, Zhao Yong just showed a triumphant smile: "Yes, it has been paid off. Uncle just likes you and wants to kiss you and hug you... Uncle has been thinking about you for so many years, you said you Should I..."

The unfinished words disappeared in the dazzling light reflected by the blade.

Jiang Ruo took out a fruit knife from his pocket. The point of the knife was aimed at Zhao Yonggang's abdomen. If he took a step forward, he could open his stomach.

Zhao Yong was too frightened to move for a moment, but Jiang Ruo laughed, matching his pale complexion, it was a bit weird and gloomy.

The voice was also cold: "Say, should I call the police and sue you for obscenity?"

Zhao Yonggang stammered: "You, you have no evidence!"

"Who said no?" Jiang Ruo raised his eyebrows without emotion, "Back then you asked me to use my legs to help you out, and I saved the dirty things on my legs. Now that criminal investigation technology is so developed, I believe It should be no problem to accuse you of child molestation and sentence you to ten or eight years."

Zhao Yonggang's face turned pale immediately.

This kind of person has lived most of his life shameless and skinless, and what he fears most in the end is losing his life at the end of the year.

Going to jail is a trivial matter. If people know that the image of a "normal person" he has painstakingly maintained for many years is all a fabrication, and marrying two wives is just to cover up his sexuality, he may not be able to sleep peacefully until his death.

Thinking of this, Jiang Ruo felt both ridiculous and pitiful.

In fact, there is no evidence, just talking nonsense to scare him.

"I don't want to end up in the same fate as Peng Weibin. I suggest you do less evil and accumulate more virtue for yourself."

Backed away while talking, and threw the knife in his hand on the ground at the door, Jiang Ruo said: "I have settled with you, I will not come back in the future, and please don't come to me for any reason."

"Otherwise, you will do so at your own peril."

Back in the main room, Jiang Ruo sat for a while, and then walked out after recovering.

He knew that his return this time would cause some discussions, but he didn't expect that these nonchalant neighbors could not bear it so much, and they chatted in full swing while they were still in front of their houses.

It is nothing more than lamenting that the life of the woman in the urn is not good. She got cancer in her forties, and it is said that she lost her appearance when she died.

Then he simply used the name of Jiang Ruo's mother, Wu Ping, and said that she was such a coquettish woman when she was alive. After killing her ex-husband, with such a big son, she could marry another man who is an accountant. It can be seen that God is fair. She deserved it for not living long.

He also said that Jiang Ruo is a little vixen born of a big vixen, shameless in the same strain, and learning to dance is just a way to seduce men by posing.

But now he is promising and has become a star, and I saw him on TV a while ago.

Heh, so what, I don't know who is stupid and has a lot of money, and the rich are not afraid of wearing broken shoes and smelling fishy.

…………

Jiang Ruo has heard this kind of talk a lot, and when he was a child, he swallowed Wu Ping's words, but now thinking about it, he just feels that he was wrong.

He turned around in a big stride, and slapped the yellow and rusty iron door at the entrance of the corridor with his palm. There was a loud "bang", which scared the few people around and almost jumped up.

He stood on a few steps, looking down at them, as if saying with his eyes—get out of the way.

The few people hurriedly retreated to the two sides, and spontaneously moved out of the way.

Jiang Ruo took two steps, stopped again, and turned around.

"If I remember correctly, the last one who scolded me for broken shoes was lying in the hospital for several days, and now his wife and children are scattered and the whole family is in ruins." He smiled with a smile on his lips, "If you don't believe me, you can try it yourself. Try it."

After leaving Tongzilou, Jiang Ruo didn't go back to Fengcheng immediately, but wandered around the town alone.

Passing by the town center elementary school, he stood outside the fence and watched a group of children running wildly chasing each other on the playground, and the laughter resounded through the sky.The middle school next to it is much quieter. Occasionally, students come in and out, and they all hurry with their books in their hands. Maybe they are rushing back to the classroom to study in the room, and they can't bear to waste time.

The teaching building has been repaired several times, and it is no longer what it was when Jiang Ruo was there.He also made a detour to the back door to see if the prefabricated room that was originally used as a dance studio in the morning and turned into a studio in the afternoon was still there.

Perhaps his behavior was too suspicious, and the uncle guard called him as a criminal.

Jiang Ruo had no choice but to tell him that he used to study here, and wanted to know if the school still had a dance club.

"The dance club? It was canceled two years ago." The uncle thought about it and said, "There was a person who went out from here and was admitted to the Fengcheng Dance Academy with the best grades in the country. Hang on the wall of honor together."

"……yes?"

"Yeah, what an honor. But later I heard that the student dropped out of school, because of some disgraceful things, he seemed to be involved in the bureau, the name on the honor wall was withdrawn, and the dance club also declined, and gradually no one cared about it. Slightly."

Didn't sleep well last night, Jiang Ruo dozed off for a while on the return bus.

In such a short time, I had a dream.

In the empty room, Wu Ping sat on a chair in the middle and covered her face and wept bitterly.

When asked why she was crying, she sobbed and said that her life was miserable. Her first husband was an alcoholic and domestic violence man, and her second husband was a perverted homosexual.

Since she was a child, she was the most beautiful girl in their area. Everyone said that she would marry a good man and have a good home. Who would have thought that her life would be so miserable.

Jiang Ruo in the dream, just like when she was a child, stepped forward to hold her mother's hand and told her, then you still have me.

Unexpectedly, the woman who was still crying one second suddenly raised her head the next second, and said with a ferocious face: "What are you? You even snatched a man from me. If I knew how cheap you are, I would rather never have given birth to you! "

When Jiang Ruo backed away in fear, the woman put away her fury again, put on a pitiful look, and gently took his hand.

The tone was so low that it was almost begging: "Be good, baby, Uncle Zhao likes you, he will give you money to learn to dance... As long as you go to his place tonight and play with him for a while, we mother and son will have a good life."

When he woke up, his back was covered in cold sweat, Jiang Ruo gasped for breath, and it took him a long time to calm down the fear brought about by a nightmare.

This is also the reason why he didn't even want to take a second look at the photos of his mother before he left.When he was young and weak and needed shelter, he was pushed into the abyss by his close relatives, so what he did for her now was considered as benevolent and righteous.

After all, Wu Ping has been bedridden for more than four years, and Jiang Ruo paid almost all the medical expenses.The last large loan on his back was paid off only one month before An He's heart surgery.

Jiang Ruo has a clear conscience, so there is no need to look back.

Even if the one who died was his only relative in this world.

But, but... After all, the one who died was his only family member, even though he always told others half-truth, his family members were all dead long ago.

Jiang Ruo couldn't forget how bad she was to him, and he couldn't forget those soft hands that belonged to his mother.

Those hands once supported him, helped him learn to walk, and also led him to carve the scale of his height on the wall, rejoicing for every inch of his growth.

So until he returned to Fengcheng, Jiang Ruo was still at a loss, as if the love and hate that supported him to live, like a big dream, disappeared without a trace when he opened his eyes, as if they had never existed.

This is Jiang Ruo that Xi Yufeng saw.

He was wearing a mask, with a pair of big, lifeless eyes exposed, giving him a feeling of loneliness.

When he came out of the terminal, Xi Yufeng strode forward.

But Jiang Ruo was so slow that it took him some time to figure out who the person standing in front of him was.

Then he bent his eyes and smiled: "You are here."

No one can tell who brought whom into his arms first.Jiang Ruo just felt strange, such a cold person, but his embrace was so warm.

So the person in his arms moved, as if trying to break free, Jiang Ruo clasped his fingers and hugged him even tighter.

"Wait a minute." He sniffed, "Let me hug you for a while."

He was afraid that if he didn't hold her tightly, even this warmth that didn't belong to him would soon leave him.