Qinghong

What happened yesterday made me quite uneasy. At [-] o'clock in the morning, the sky was dim, and I sat on the head of the bed, holding a glass of warm water.

"Ding dong dong dong dong—"

The phone rang out of nowhere, I shook, half a glass of water splashed on the hem of my pajamas and the quilt, I put the glass on the bedside table, and got out of bed to get the phone next to the pillow: "Hello?"

"Ms. Zou, I'm sorry." Gao Huiya, the class monitor of Class 2 of the sophomore mathematics department of the Faculty of Science, said anxiously, "Can you come to the school? Building No. [-] of the West Campus, Xiao Ke is going to jump off the building."

Xiao Ke?I was stunned, then reacted, and immediately agreed: "Okay, 5 minutes." I hung up the phone, changed into going out clothes, put on a long coat with my gloves, grabbed my phone and ran out of the house.

In my impression, Xiao Ke is a thin and fair boy who always sits in the corner in class, not daring to look up at me, and occasionally walks to the podium clutching his book tightly and asks me some questions in a low voice.He is like a timid rabbit, about 1.7 meters tall, with shrunken shoulders and pitted edges of his nails. He lowered his eyes and stared at the book unnaturally, quickly describing the problem, biting his chapped and bleeding lips with his teeth.

Hurry up and rush to Building No. [-] of the male dormitory area of ​​the West Campus. Some students have already gathered downstairs. Some of them looked up worriedly at the figure on the roof, some took out their mobile phones to take pictures, and some chatted to share their knowledge with their companions.Gao Huiya saw me coming, trotted over and said to me: "Mr. Zou, I'm sorry."

I waved: "No trouble, have you called the police?"

"The police were on the roof, and the stalemate for an hour was useless," she said.

I said, "I'll go up and have a look."

"The door is over there." Gao Huiya pointed to the door, "I'll go with you."

"Thank you." I said, followed her to the sixth floor, and followed her to the roof along the fire shaft.

The first thing that caught my eye was the police uniform. Ning Qing looked very handsome in the police uniform. I was lucky enough to meet him once, and he proudly showed it to me on the way back from the award ceremony.Three policemen stood in front of me, an older male policeman, a young man and a young female policeman.

"Hello, I'm Xiao Ke's teacher." I said.

The middle-aged policeman glanced at me, his eyes slightly tired. It seemed that he had run out of good and bad words, and he was at the end of his wits. I said, "I want to chat with him."

He nodded: "I just happened to be thirsty." He handed me the loudspeaker, took the mineral water handed by the policewoman, unscrewed the bottle cap, and poured it into his stomach.

"Xiao Ke." I said, the voice through the loudspeaker was distorted, "I'm Teacher Zou, remember me?"

The thin figure sitting on the edge of the roof moved and turned to look at me with difficulty.

"Go on," said the young male policeman.

"Can you tell me, why did you go to the roof to blow air?" I asked.

Xiao Ke looked at me, and I felt his gaze was very vigilant, like a frightened rabbit with its ears behind.

The spring breeze was cold, and he wore a thin cotton shirt. He sat on the roof for an hour or two, and he must have been freezing through. I said, "I can't hear you clearly from such a distance. Let me bring you a blanket. The two of us How about sitting down and talking?"

He nodded, and I looked at the young male policeman beside me: "Give me a blanket."

"No." He shook his head, "I can't let ordinary citizens take risks."

"I'm not afraid of heights." I said, "Don't worry."

"That's not okay, there are regulations in the bureau, what if he pulls you to jump off the building together?" The female policeman said, "Teacher, you have done enough."

"You fill up an air mattress downstairs, even if he tries to drag me down, he won't die," I said.

"If he said he would jump off the inflatable mattress," the policewoman said.

"I have a rope tied around my waist. If he pulls me down, I can hold him and you can pull us up." I said, "Is that all right?"

The middle-aged male policeman finished drinking the water in the bottle, squeezed the plastic bottle, and said, "He's not blind. If you tie a rope, he can let you pass?"

"Try it. He hasn't jumped for so long, which means he doesn't really want to die." I said, "He's asking for help. I can't let him die."

After going back and forth for several rounds, I finally persuaded the police to tie a thick hemp rope around my waist. They were afraid that the tie would not be tight enough, so they tied two more on my shoulders. I felt like a crab about to be steamed .

Xiao Ke looked at me who was tied up and walked over, and sat quietly on the edge of the building, motionless, with a conflicted and struggling emotion in his eyes.I draped the thin blanket over his shoulders, sat down without getting too dirty, and circled my feet leisurely in the air: "What do you want to talk about?"

"I'm gay," he said. "I'm afraid to go home. My dad will kill me."

I looked at him in astonishment, he actually revealed his inner secret so easily, his voice was like a mosquito: "Teacher, am I particularly disgusting?"

"No, how could it be." I denied it. If I thought homosexuality was disgusting, then what was it about me who liked Ning Qing?

"My neighbor is gay, and my dad said he is not worthy of being a human being." He said, his tone was so light that he couldn't hear the emotion, "I'm so sad."

I asked, "Are you a single-parent family?"

He said: "Well, my mother had a difficult labor when she gave birth to me and died." He covered his cheeks with his hands and said in a dull voice, "I am a disaster."

I was silent for a moment, not knowing how to comfort him, so I simply kept silent, and stretched out my hand to help him wrap up the thin blanket.

"Teacher, isn't your family very happy?" He turned his head to look at me, his eyes sparkling with curiosity like a small flame.

"I have a younger brother, and my parents pay more attention to him." I said, "It can't be called happiness, and every family has its own hard-to-recite scriptures."

"Oh." He lowered his head, pinched the corner of the blanket with his thin white fingers, and shrank in, "I don't want to go home."

"Then I won't return it." I said, "I'll lend you 3000 yuan. You go out and find a part-time job. When you make money, pay me back."

He stared at me incredulously, "Really?"

I took out my mobile phone: "Alipay, I will transfer money to you now."

"...Teacher, there is one more question." He said, "Can I go to your place to sleep for one night, I don't want to go back to the dormitory."

This request is reasonable. If he makes such a fuss, he will definitely not be able to sleep well when he returns to the dormitory. I nodded: "Okay."

He held my wrist firmly, like grabbing a life-saving straw: "Mr. Zou, thank you."

"Let's go, it's almost dawn." I pulled him up, "Or you want to sit here and watch the sunrise."

"I want to see it," he said. "I want to see the sunrise."

I sat down and said, "Then leave after watching."

The white sky in the east gradually brightens, as if an incandescent lamp is lit, and the golden-red brilliance strokes the bottom of the thick clouds.I think of Ning Qing, he asked me, have you watched the sunrise with others?I said no.He asked me why, and I couldn't tell.He said that he watched the sunrise countless times during his mission, and each time he was shocked in a different way.

He said that he had the opportunity to watch the sunrise with me.

I watched the round sun glide across the sky lightly, like a bowling ball, instantly shining brightly, illuminating the tall buildings on the ground and the clear river not far away.

Xiao Ke looked back at me, her brown eyes were like translucent amber: "It's good to be alive."

Yes, it's good to be alive, I nodded slightly, watching the morning glow in the sky without making a sound.

"They went back to sleep." Xiao Ke said, the corners of his lips curled up a little, sarcastically, "Maybe I'm tired from standing."

I bowed my head, and the crowd downstairs scattered and left in twos and threes.My eyes stayed on a person, he was dressed in black and black trousers, wearing a peaked cap, his standing posture was very similar to Ning Qing's, tall and straight, like a javelin.

I was in a trance, and stood up hastily when I came back to my senses: "Let's go, go back."

Xiao Ke stood up obediently, and I grabbed his wrist and led him away from the edge of the building.The three policemen who had been waiting for a long time came around, and the middle-aged male policeman said: "Come with us to the office to make a record."

"Is it okay to go again tomorrow morning?" I said, "He's temporarily staying with me and hasn't slept all night. He's too tired."

The middle-aged male policeman handed me a business card: "Xinmin Road Police Station, ten o'clock in the morning."

"Okay." I took the business card and glanced at it. Zhou Jiangyong said, "Officer Zhou."

"I'm sorry." Xiao Ke whispered, "I'm sorry to trouble you."

"Don't carry it by yourself, talk to your teacher." Zhou Jiangyong said, speaking standard Tianjin mandarin, "Whether you like men or women, aren't they all human? You just don't like people who like others. Species, as long as they are not protected animals and do not break the law, what can they do to lock you up? Think about it, young man, and you will have no chance of regretting jumping off."

"En, um." Xiao Ke responded again and again, moved to hide behind me, and I said helplessly: "The child knows, I will watch him and not let him jump to the roof of the building."

Zhou Jiangyong glanced at Xiao Ke worriedly, and said, "If you think you can't make sense with the teacher, call me."

"Then I would like to thank Officer Zhou." I said.

Xiao Ke tiptoed over my shoulder and said to Zhou Jiangyong, "Thank you uncle."

Saying goodbye to the police, Xiao Ke and I walked back to my house, all the way quietly.

Pushing open the door and entering the living room, Xiao Ke put on slippers and sat on the sofa cautiously. I said, "Go to the bedroom and sleep, I'm not sleepy."

"No, it's not good," he said.

"What's wrong with it, the house is small, just make do with it." I said.

He smiled embarrassedly: "It's bigger than the dormitory."

"That's true." I said, hugging a new quilt and putting it on the bed, "What do you want to eat in the morning? There are finger cakes, pancakes and hot dry noodles downstairs."

"Pancake fruit," he said.

"Okay, no problem." I urged, "Lie down on the bed, I'll close the curtains, you have a good rest."

"My pajamas are in the dormitory..." he hesitated.

I dug out a set of old pajamas from the closet, cleaned them, and said, "This is my friend's. He often comes to live with me. You can wear it if you don't mind."

"Does your friend mind?" he asked.

I was silent for a moment: "He doesn't mind."

The pajamas belonged to Ning Qing.

He wore it a few times, washed it and returned it to me before leaving for the last mission, and told me to wait for him to come back.