muddy boy

The temperature in the corridor is lower than the outside, and there is a faint smell of damp in old buildings mixed with the smell of summer dust.

The cell phone rang in the narrow old corridor, Chen Linhu picked it up and took a look, Chen Xingye's name was in the caller column.

His desire to speak quickly dropped below the horizon, but he pressed the answer button anyway.

"Are you here?" Chen Xingye's voice came out on the phone, "Will you take the initiative to say something when you arrive? Can you understand something?"

The old family courtyard was relatively quiet at this time, and Zhang Xun could hear the voice on the phone at random. Although Chen Linhu still looked calm, Zhang Xun could still see something from his slightly tensed shoulders. Outcast emotions.

Chen Linhu let his father be there, bent over to lift his suitcase, Zhang Xun took the suitcase off the pedal before him.

"Go and open the door." Zhang Xun whispered.

Chen Linhu glanced at him, while Zhang Xun looked natural, unable to tell if he heard the call.

Opening the anti-theft door with the key he got from Mr. Chen, Chen Linhu nodded to Zhang Xun who helped put the suitcase inside the door: "Thank you."

"Small idea," Zhang Xun turned back to the small tram again, took out two books from the tattered car basket, and waved to Chen Linhu, "I'm back, you should rest too, you look really tired."

After speaking, he took a very healthy step and went upstairs unhurriedly.

"Who are you talking to?" Chen Xingye asked on the phone, "Is it a man or a woman? Let me tell you again, avoid dealing with dubious people. Do you know that you are going to school or not to play?"

Chen Linhu closed the anti-theft door, and twitched the corners of his mouth when he heard the phrase "nothing, nothing".

For so many years, Chen Linhu felt that Chen Xingye had been devoting himself to asking some questions that did not need to be answered, and Chen Linhu could use "um" to make him jump in anger for all these questions.

"Are you dumb? Can you talk?" Chen Xingye said again, "If you dare to talk to you in the third year of high school again... do you know that I will interrupt your dog legs? Do you hear me?"

This time Chen Linhu changed his answer: "Wang."

Chen Xingye was so angry: "Do you think it's interesting?" Thinking of another thing, he said, "By the way, is your mother going to see you off?"

"She's going on a business trip." Chen Linhu pushed the suitcase into the small bedroom and turned on the air conditioner.

The old air conditioner in the house has been in service for nearly ten years, and the "humming" sound during operation seemed to shake the wall off. Chen Xingye's voice was not so harsh amidst the humming.

"Busy, the earth can't turn without her." Chen Xingye said in a cold tone, "Forget it, it's boring to talk too much, you can call yourself, you are an adult, stop messing around all day long , take care of your grandfather."

After a pause, he added: "If you don't have enough money, I'll give you some more."

Chen Linhu waited for a while, but he didn't hear Chen Xingye's solution such as "she won't send me there", but only heard a "click" sound after hanging up the phone.

Now is the era of smart phones, and there is no busy tone even when the phone is hung up.

Humans have evolved to the point where they don't even have to say "I'm busy".

A few minutes later, Chen Linhu received a transfer of 1000 yuan from Chen Xingye on WeChat.

In just one afternoon, Chen Linhu made a net profit of 2000 yuan.

Lying on the bed, he first transferred the money transferred by his parents to a separate card, and then sent a message to block his parents' Moments: Sent.

The circle of friends is filled with the carnival atmosphere after the college entrance examination. Those who are overjoyed sing K and party with wine, and those who are sad are silent.

Only Chen Linhu was mixed in, making a little more noise than the sympathetic ones, and not as enthusiastic as the overjoyed ones, so he was in a very disappointing place.

Several high school classmates swiped the screen with photos of the same scene. Chen Linhu looked at it for a long time before realizing that there was a party organized in the class, and two-thirds of the people had reached the end of the party. I don't know this.

Chen Linhu's senior year in high school was a chaotic life. Apart from the fights, the only thing left was the headache while reading math in the middle of the night, and the smell of instant coffee in the studio that still lingered on his tongue.

The beginning was rushed, the process was chaotic, and the ending... Chen Linhu pondered for a while, but he didn't think of a suitable adjective.

A prompt appeared on the screen, and someone liked the circle of friends that Chen Linhu had just posted.

Within half a minute, the private chat of the person who liked it was sent over.

[Meeting at the canteen: Where is it Huzi!Will you invite the head teacher to dinner the day after tomorrow? ]

[Meeting at the commissary: ​​Where did you take the exam?Three years before and after the table, never leave a word! ]

Chen Linhu finally showed a little smile. He pointed his finger on the screen and pressed a period in the input field.

The phone vibrated, and a new message came from the desk three years later.

[Meeting at the commissary: ​​I inquired, Zhuo Wenxing's exam is not bad, let's perform normally. ]

[Meeting at the commissary: ​​Someone saw him when he was going back to the dormitory to pack things, and he even said hello. ]

[Meeting at the canteen: Don’t worry about that too much, you’ve all graduated, it’s alright. ]

"Okay" is the catchphrase when we meet at the canteen. Chen Linhu has heard it countless times in the past three years. Just looking at the four words, he seems to have heard the voice from behind.

The back table didn't have much contact with Zhuo Wenxing, it was because of him that the back table made a special trip to inquire.

Chen Linhu hesitated for a second, and sent the period.

[Big bug: . ]

[Big Worm: Thank you. ]

Immediately "Ding Ding Ding" sent several replies over there, so excited that he wanted to jump out from the other side of the screen to catch Chen Linhu for a bite, and asked him where he was and asked him to go out at night to hang out, and he didn't reduce the nonsense just because he graduated quantity.

Chen Linhu read through each item patiently, and there was nothing he wanted to answer, so he simply turned off the screen and threw the phone aside.

The mobile phone was smashed into the air-conditioner quilt on the bed. The air-conditioner quilt that old Chen Tou bought for his grandson was tender and bright yellow. Only then did Chen Linhu realize that there was a cartoon tiger head printed on it that didn't look very smart.

I don't know if the old man bought it on purpose.

He pulled the quilt and looked at it for a while, then turned his head and looked at the furnishings in the house.

The desk in the small bedroom was moved down from the second floor. The old solid wood furniture was bought at the furniture store when Chen Linhu was in the second grade of elementary school and spent the summer vacation here. He wrote two or three winter and summer vacations on it Operation.

The reddish-brown desktop is printed with ink marks that cannot be washed off, and there is a sticker of an orange cat on the corner of the table. On the cat's head, he wrote a big "King" with a pen when he was a child.

Chen Linhu was superstitious about his own name for a time, wishing he could catch a tiger locked in a zoo cage as a relative, and would write his name with the last word enlarged. After the incident of the fall of the beast king in elementary school idiom class, he realized it and began to devote himself to covering up own past.

Unexpectedly, Chen Linhu's "criminal evidence" was still kept in the old Chen's house, and the shame brought about by him was similar to that when he was 30 years old and found out a novel he wrote when he was 13 years old and read it in public.

The furniture in the room was bought by Chen Xingye and Lin Hongyu with him and the old head Chen. The stickers were bought by Lin Hongyu when he coaxed him. It was Chen Xingye who urged him to write Wang on the cat's head.

In this room, a corner of Chen Linhu's memory was archived intact, even though he moved from the second floor to the next floor, all of it could not be wiped out.

Looking back on the past, Chen Linhu decided to look forward.

As soon as I stood in front of the window of the climbing wall tiger, I saw a rope dangling outside, and a small bamboo basket was hanging on the bottom, and it was being pulled up from the small piece of mud under Chen Linhu's window. .

Chen Linhu's "unbearable to look back" was instantly shaken to the back of his head, and he watched the little bamboo basket slowly moving up from his eyes, touching the anti-theft bars on his window from time to time, Chen Linhu could even see Clear some brown particles inside.

He has seen people feeding cats over there in the studio, which is similar to what is in a bamboo basket.

Sticking to the window and looking around, there was no cat hair or dog head, only the bamboo basket was still swinging up, brushing past Chen Linhu's face carelessly.

This lazy speed reveals the meaning of "Jiang Taigong feeds stray animals, whether he likes to eat or not".

Not only that, but this Jiang Taigong is also very lazy, and he can't go out for feeding, all relying on a rope.

"Painful." Chen Linhu smiled, and sat back on the bed to look at the bamboo basket.

The sky outside the window gradually turned into a warm orange, and he remembered Zhang Xun's words before he left, "Take a rest too, you look so tired", and fell on the bed as if the valve core had been pulled off, falling asleep within two seconds. up.

When I opened my eyes again, it was already dark outside the window.

The lights in the kitchen were on, and the sound of cooking and the smell of rice dispelled Chen Linhu's remaining drowsiness.

Old Mr. Chen was stirring the fried rice in the pot. Seeing Chen Linhu waking up and walking over, he shouted in a rough voice, "Are you awake? It's just right, wash your face and serve the meal!"

"I'm Sheng." Chen Linhu glanced at the iron pot in Old Chen's hand, just looking at it was heavy, "You sit there and wait."

"What? Louder!" Old Chen didn't hear clearly, and patted his grandson's hand away, "It's in the way, let me go."

After finishing speaking, before Chen Linhu took over, he skillfully turned off the fire, lifted the pot, turned around, and put it on the plate. Then he threw the pot into the sink, and while wiping his hands, he turned his head and asked, "What did you just say?"

"..." Chen Linhu gave a thumbs up, "You will always grow stronger."

Old Mr. Chen pushed Chen Linhu to wash his face: "You kid is sleepy. I am middle-aged and healthy, but I look old."

"You're a little 'middle-aged'." Chen Linhu answered in the bathroom, scratching his throat.

"You know what a fart," Old Chen also yelled, "A person is not old until he dies!"

Old Chen's ability to take three points without reason actually did not regress with his age, on the contrary, he became more and more diligent. Chen Linhu was like sawing a gourd, just listening to his grandfather talking about health preservation.

"Take fried rice as an example. If you just scramble eggs, it will not be nutritious or healthy." Old Chen Tou scooped up a spoonful of fried rice and said proudly, "It must be paired with vegetables. Look at this tomato, it is nutritious and delicious. Cut the diced cucumber and fry it together, although the rice is left over from yesterday, it tastes good after frying."

Chen Linhu took a mouthful of rice under the urging eyes of old Chen Tou.

Because the rice was cooked overnight, the grains are distinct, the fried eggs are very tender, the diced cucumbers are chewy and crispy, the tomatoes are fried into a half-sauce, the sweet and sour washes away the greasy fried rice. Two mouthfuls.

"How is it?" Old Chen stretched his neck to look at him.

Chen Linhu gave a "hmm", remembering that old Chen couldn't hear clearly, so he nodded his head buried in his rice bowl.

"It's delicious." Old Chen happily dug a large spoonful of chili peppers into his rice, "I know you like fried tomatoes that are thoroughly fried and soft, so I specially fried them."

Chen Linhu is not picky about his food, he can eat whatever he likes or dislikes, and he doesn't know when the old man will notice his little particulars, neither Lin Hongyu nor Chen Xingye may know.

"Didn't you hire someone to cook and clean?" Chen Linhu picked up a grain of rice that fell on the table and put it back into the bowl, eating more carefully, "Why do you cook it yourself?"

Old Chen was disdainful: "Your father is just wasting money, sweeping the floor and making a meal. Do I need someone to wait on me?"

"It's already 71," Chen Linhu didn't follow the words of the old man this time, and the corners of his mouth drooped, "I can't even hear the sound of the pot when boiling water, do you think it needs to be used?"

Old Chen's head was exposed, and he was about to be in a hurry. When he saw Chen Linhu's expression that he was ready to mess around, he hurriedly said: "I didn't fire him, so I let that person come here one after another. He has to take a rest, right? You need to employ people scientifically!" Besides, I also have to work, how can I be like a local rich and capitalist when I have money?"

Chen Linhu's expression softened a little.

"Look at your expression, it's just like your father's. It changes at will," old Mr. Chen talked too much, "it's all dog face."

Before Chen Linhu replied, he changed his words again: "No, your father has the face of a dog, and you have the face of a tiger!"

Fortunately, Chen Xingye was not here at the moment, otherwise the two of them would have choked on the spot.

It's not that Chen Xingye and old Chen have a bad relationship, they usually miss each other, but they can't talk to each other, and they can start scolding in two or three sentences. His smoking hands were trembling, and he almost got Parkinson's before Old Chen.

Hearing his grandfather scolding his father, Chen Linhu not only didn't feel uncomfortable, but nodded his head, and put a chopstick of shredded mustard greens in Lao Chen's bowl to show his approval.

"Why didn't your father come this time?" Old Chen asked again, "Your mother didn't come, so you let you come here by yourself?"

Chen Linhu nodded: "Busy."

"Busy?" Old Chen's eyebrows were raised upright, and his tone was out of tune. "I'm busy and I don't see them quarreling, but my son is so busy going to college that he doesn't even have time to send him off? Are they?" Isn't it because of who will give and who won't? "

"No, my mom is going on a business trip," Chen Linhu said calmly, "My dad can't leave, and Chen Tong has caught a cold. He and Aunt Yang took turns taking her to the hospital these days."

Old Chen paused while eating, and then took a quick look at Chen Linhu.

Chen Xingye and Lin Hongyu divorced in Chen Linhu's first year of junior high school, and they remarried two years later. Chen Tong is Chen Linhu's half-brother. Xingye mentioned.

"You have to pay attention to the baby's cold, let your dad go." Old Chen coughed, "otherwise you would think that all the children are like you, strong and strong, what to feed, what to eat when they are young Don't worry."

Chen Linhu smiled and didn't speak, thinking that when I punched the kindergarten, Chen Xingye and Lin Hongyu were also worried.

After finishing the meal, Chen Linhu took out the bluetooth radio that he had bought for Mr. Chen after washing the dishes under the urging of Mr. Mr. Chen.

Old Chen is not young, but his love for fashion has not changed at all. When he was young, he had bell-bottom pants and a leather jacket, and his hair was mossed so that it was as reflective as a dog's lick - this has not changed at all. His head is still reflective.

In the year when the smart phone came out, Old Chen was already keeping up with the pace of the times. He couldn’t play with things that were too difficult. It was still possible to scan videos on WeChat Doudizhu. 》 and other spam messages to Chen Xingye, just to annoy his son for playing.

Chen Linhu explained the usage of the radio to old Chen Tou in detail, and old Chen Tou understood the general idea, and while wearing reading glasses and connected to the bluetooth of his mobile phone, he babbled: "By the way, your dad called me before you came, and said Let me look at you more and say that you are very messy in your third year of high school, let me pay more attention to whether you are talking to someone, and tell him if you talk to him, and don't let me tell you, what's going on?"

Chen Linhu raised his eyebrows: "Didn't you tell me?" Why did you get all shaken out.

"Hey, I'm not on good terms with him," Old Chen waved his hand, "He's not interested, I'm on good terms with you."

Chen Linhu knew what Chen Xingye meant. Ever since Chen Xingye seldom drove him home when he got a slap on the brow in the third year of high school, something stuck in Chen Xingye's throat like a fishbone.

"It's nothing," Chen Linhu said in a flat tone, "It's embarrassing for him not to be able to get into the universities he decided on."

Seeing that old Chen didn't hear clearly, Chen Linhu suddenly yelled loudly: "I failed the exam!"

He wanted to say it as early as when old Chen was bragging about his good grades, but he never said it.

The facts expressed in these four words will make Chen Xingye furious and Lin Hongyu anxious. Chen Linhu hasn't figured out what will happen to him.

It was only when he got the admission letter that he realized that it seemed to be his summary of his ten years of studies.

To sum it up, he made Chen Xingye furious and Lin Hongyu anxious, and he didn't know what he would do to old Chen.

Old Chen froze for a moment, then slapped Chen Linhu on the back: "I'm not deaf yet!"

Chen Linhu opened his mouth, and it took him a long time to choke out a few words: "Then let me keep my voice down."

Before grasping the subtleties of the emotions that had just brewed in my heart, Old Chen slapped him and made him run away.

The radio is small and small, but it has a loud voice. After the old Chen took the filming, his grandson pressed the play button, and the roof of the house was almost toppled with a voice of "Blue-faced Doulton Stealing the Royal Horse". The grandpa and grandson hurriedly shut it down Misfiring.

"It's loud, don't play it publicly at night." Chen Linhu said.

"This movement is enough for me to hear," Old Chen said from ear to ear, "I use it when I listen to songs during the day! I don't just listen to operas, I'm much more fashionable than the old man in the courtyard next door, listening to pop songs! "

Chen Linhu really didn't think of it: "What pop song?"

"Anyway, you all listen." Old Chen took the radio like a baby, patted his legs and stood up, "I won't talk to you anymore, I made an appointment with someone to fight the landlord at night, take a look at your mess, clean it up. "

The suitcase was open, and the clothes and pants, a few books and a laptop inside were scattered aside.

Old Chen looked at it twice, bent down and picked up a thick sweater: "Why do you have all kinds of seasonal clothes in this box, and this one, you wore it for the New Year when you came here in the third year of junior high school. Can you wear it?"

He took the clothes and gestured in front of Chen Linhu, and the bare sleeves were a lot shorter.

"Children's innocence is still there? Why didn't you bring a pacifier?" Old Chen said happily, "Is that how you pack your luggage?"

Chen Linhu sat on the bed without making a sound, picked out two worn shirts and put them aside, took out a bottle of toilet water, and finally found a can of prickly heat powder at the bottom of the box.

Looking at the prickly heat powder in his hand, Chen Linhu was surprised that Lin Hongyu still remembered that someone in his family had sweat rash, but he remembered the wrong person. Chen Linhu had never been troubled by sweat rash. .

"What are you bringing here?" Old Chen also saw that something was wrong, "Who cleaned it up for you? If my place is a labor reform farm, you have to bring your own toilet water."

"Here," Chen Linhu stuffed toilet water into old Chen's hand, "I'll use it as your perfume."

"Get out." Old Chen slapped him on the forehead.

Chen Linhu turned his head so that he didn't touch his forehead, and slapped his shoulder.

"Use it," Chen Linhu continued to pack his luggage with no expression on his face, "Spray while dancing in the square, old ladies like it."

"The old lady has better aesthetics than you." Old Chen walked out of the small bedroom with his precious radio, stood at the door and looked at Chen Linhu for a while, and then said, "Huzi, you have to be happy, you have been admitted to college. "

Chen Linhu didn't know what expression he should have, so he just let out a "huh".

"Don't sleep in late tomorrow, I've ordered breakfast, and someone will deliver it," Old Chen happily held the radio and said, "If you dare to stay in bed, I'll hit you with an electric horn."

After taking a shower, Chen Linhu lay back on the bed, only to realize that the "electric horn" was referring to the radio.

Old Chen was indeed the most difficult person in his family.

This day was a mess. The wound Chen Linhu rubbed off when he caught the pickpocket was swollen in the bath, and he started to throb and hurt. He couldn't sleep. He took the laptop and wanted to play games online. He didn't remember until he turned it on. Old Chen didn't pull the network cable here.

The old air conditioner above his head was humming like a broken gong, but the temperature couldn't drop much. Chen Linhu flicked around casually and subconsciously searched for the surrounding WIFI.

The first one to jump out, the name is in big characters: Brother Hu doesn't take a bath.

Shocked, Chen Linhu touched his hair that was still dripping after washing.

Nonsense.

"Stop talking nonsense," Duan Qiao's voice came from the phone, yelling, "How can such a coincidence happen!"

Zhang Xun tilted his head and put the phone between his shoulders, and kept making coffee with his hands, and said with a smile: "It's just a coincidence, I'm stomping upstairs now, and your little benefactor's head will fall on the ceiling." Go to the wall."

"No, that would be a lack of morality." Duan Qiao hurriedly stopped, and said with emotion, "Yuan is so damn wonderful, you said that Xiao Engong and Uncle Chen grew up independently, and they have nothing to do with each other. Why are they grandpa and grandson?"

Zhang Xun thought about it, Chen Linhu really didn't look like old Chen Tou.

Chen Linhu was downright handsome, but old Chen was smiling and had a round face.

"Who can say for sure about appearance," Zhang Xun's ankles were rubbed against furry objects, and he looked down. His orange cat with a considerable tonnage was impatiently kicking him with its spherical body, " Hang up, if you don’t feed Brother Hu, it will bite my feet.”

On the other end of the phone, Qiao Duan said "Don't, don't, don't" a few times, stammered for a long time, and then hesitantly said: "Have you contacted your family?"

Zhang Xun stopped touching the orange cat's head: "What's wrong?"

"Then what, I don't know where Zhang Cheng got my phone number." Duan Qiao was a little embarrassed, but insisted that he obeyed, "I didn't say anything, I didn't say you were here, he thought I knew You just asked me. Isn’t this asking about your situation?”

It has been more than half a year since Zhang Xun moved to Baoxiang City, and Duan Qiao never asked him the reason for coming here as if he was fleeing.

The two have been buddies since they played in junior high school. Peeing and mud can't be said, but "smells like each other" can describe the revolutionary friendship between the two. For this, Duan Qiao took in the troubled dog Zhang Xun and never asked him to let him go. Where did you get all this mud.

"Is he busy?" Zhang Xun came out of the kitchen, squatted in front of the cat food bucket and dug a spoonful of cat food for the orange cat, and the latter jumped to the rice bowl like a steel egg.

"Didn't you go back last year for Chinese New Year?" Duan Qiao whispered, "Knowing that we had a good time, I thought you were here with me, so I asked you if you would go back this year... said your father said, as long as you are willing to Once the problem has been corrected, you will be welcome at home.”

Zhang Xun took the lighter from the table, pressed it on and lit a cigarette, and said vaguely, "Okay, I get it, just ignore it, just say you don't know where I am."

"I'm a tight-lipped guy!" Duan Qiao made sure, didn't ask what the "problem" refers to, but hesitated for a moment, "Old Zhang, just say hello if you have something to do, don't hold it back, hold it back, I have to feed shit anyway The piss-feeding waiter for you...Stop smoking a cigarette, why do you smoke at home when your brother is mentioned, is that a fun thing? Look at you, if you say a few more words, you don’t say a word, non-violent non-cooperation is Not advisable--"

Zhang Xun smiled and took down the cigarette he had smoked twice and held it between his fingertips, interrupting Duan Qiao's meaningless speech to ease his embarrassment: "Can I explain to you another day? I have to catch up with the manuscript."

Duan Qiao's chatter stopped, and after a few seconds, he said firmly, "Success." He added, "Speak up in advance, let me see whether to talk about it while eating barbecue or boiling mutton."

"You feel idle if you don't eat, right?" Zhang Xun was quite convinced.

He knew that Duan Qiao was worried about him, but he was afraid of his embarrassment and discomfort, so he held back and didn't ask questions. He held back for more than half a year.

Zhang Xun grinned: "Okay, Brother Hu is almost done with dinner, I'm going to die."

"Help me get along with your young landlord," Duan Qiao heard "Brother Tiger", thinking of the young man with a tiger's vigor in the afternoon, "I'll come to the door later to thank you."

Zhang Xun's mind recalled Chen Linhu's face with scars at the end of his brows, and remembered that he listened to the reprimand from the person on the other end of the phone with a face that was impatient with everyone, but he didn't explain a word, and he didn't complain.Calm and indifferent, unlike a person of his age.

"Forget it," Zhang Xun said, "I can't handle people like your little benefactor."

Duan Qiao was curious: "What's the matter? What kind of people?"

"Young and mature," Zhang Xun said, remembering Chen Linhu's tense face when he was slapped on the back by the old head Chen, he was amused, and added maliciously, "Little old man."

"Fart, he looks like a starlet," Duan Qiao resolutely forbade Zhang Xun to use this kind of description to himself, "Remember to take care of yourself."

"I'll bring it to you tomorrow." Zhang Xun stood up and put the cigarette out in the ashtray. "Tomorrow I have to be willing to give up the bet and make a confession to the landlord."

The author has something to say:

"My Good Brother Duan Qiao".