In the desolate and abandoned unfinished street, the fierce sun finally faded its scorching glow, slowly sinking below the horizon like a lamp about to go out.
Fang Qiang held his old-fashioned feature phone with a black and white screen and an antenna to his ear.
He was frowning, silent, but had already walked in circles several times.
The dust on the concrete ground had been drawn into a circle by his feet, and a few lost ants scurried under his shoes.
“Okay, I’ll go now. Alright, good, good, I’m leaving immediately.”
“What’s wrong?”
Only after he hung up the phone did An Jing finally break the silence and ask.
“My dad fell off the scaffolding while working at the construction site. He broke a bone and was sent to the hospital, still unconscious. My mom told me to hurry over. An Jing, today…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. My birthday isn’t important, I have one every year. Your dad’s situation is more urgent, go quickly!”
An Jing hastily waved her hands.
“Be careful on the way, don’t let something happen to you too.”
“Damn it, can’t you say something nice?!”
Fang Qiang cursed with a laugh, his tightly furrowed brows relaxing slightly.
“Then I’m off!” “…”
“I have to go too.”
Sun Wei awkwardly scratched his head. “
“My mom said relatives are visiting, and told me to go home for dinner today. If I don’t go back, I might get a beating.”
“Ah… alright.”
Yang Lingfei also showed a somewhat embarrassed smile, “My girlfriend just texted me saying she wants to go to the movies today…”
An Jing licked her lips, wanting to swear a bit, but couldn’t really say anything, and finally just let out a helpless laugh, “Go on, you two!”
The two nodded apologetically, caught up with Fang Qiang’s retreating figure, and walked out of the abandoned street together.
“Ha… now it’s just the three of us. You two aren’t going to…”
She smiled bitterly, pulling at the corners of her mouth.
Before she could finish, she heard a somewhat unpleasant ringing sound.
Zhou Chao expressionlessly pulled out his full-QWERTY BlackBerry phone from his pocket, frowning as he answered the call.
“Hello?”
His tone didn’t sound very good. “
The voice on the other end of the phone was faint, An Jing, standing nearby, couldn’t hear it at all, but she could feel Zhou Chao’s expression growing increasingly impatient.
“Didn’t I say I’m celebrating a brother’s birthday today?”
“Yes, didn’t I say that?”
“Who’s more important? Nonsense, of course, my damn brother is more important!”
“Break up then, don’t you dare bother me again!”
Zhu Ying blinked curiously, tilting her head to look at An Jing.
An Jing, on the other hand, shrank her neck, startled as if she was meeting Zhou Chao for the first time.
“Come on, I’ll go home with you for your birthday. Oh, those guys didn’t seem to give you a birthday present, did they?”
“Ah… it’s fine if they give it to me on Monday, it doesn’t really matter if they give it or not.”
An Jing shook her head, cautiously pointing at the phone he still held in his hand.
“Uh… is everything okay? Your girlfriend?”
“It’s nothing, what’s there to it? Just a woman.”
Zhou Chao paused slightly as he said this, his tightly furrowed brows relaxed, and he smiled suavely.
“Oh, Zhu Ying, I wasn’t referring to you.”
“It’s fine,” Zhu Ying shook her head.
“I’ve heard you often change girlfriends…”
“Haha, women, well… forget it.”
Zhou Chao waved his hand, smiling at An Jing.
“Shouldn’t have said that. What’s wrong? You’re not happy I’m with you?”
“I’m just afraid you, uh, it’ll have a bad influence on your side.”
“It’s nothing.”
Zhou Chao patted An Jing’s shoulder very sincerely and genuinely, then enthusiastically put his arm around her.
“Brothers are the most important.”
“Stop being so damn cheesy. When you’re like this, I actually feel a bit… a bit of that something.”
“Stop with ‘that something.’ Oh—I get it.”
Zhou Chao suddenly burst into laughter.
“Is it because I’m here that I’m bothering you two? Tsk tsk, you two…”
“Holy crap, don’t talk nonsense.”
An Jing’s small face flushed red.
She glanced nervously at Zhu Ying, who only tilted her head to look at the clouds in the sky, seemingly not hearing their conversation at all.
“Well, that settles it then. Let’s go, it’s getting dark early now.”
“Yeah, it’s the beginning of winter after all.”
“The sun’s not as bright now, and the wind actually feels a bit cold.”
“This is what winter feels like!”
“Winter’s pretty good too. No bugs, and the wind is refreshing.”
Zhou Chao walked ahead on his own.
“An Jing, do you prefer winter or summer?!”
“I don’t want to choose either!”
An Jing answered loudly, then looked at Zhu Ying, who was waiting for her to move, and slightly lowered her voice, “Uh, Zhu Ying, don’t mind him, Zhou Chao is just like this… Although, although what… uh… uh… he’s like a scumbag, but…”
“It’s okay. I’m not the one dating him.”
Zhu Ying pursed her lips.
“He actually seems quite respectful of girls normally.”
“Yeah, respectful of girls, but not respectful of girlfriends, nor of feelings.”
An Jing took strides to catch up.
The wind carried her voice far away.
“He’s not a good man, but at least, he’s a good brother.”
Forget it?
***
(2)
Her thoughts somewhat scattered, An Jing felt as if she had returned to that day two or three years ago.
Back then, Zhou Chao still had the fuzz of youth on his lips, and always wore his stories of love and hate on his face.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
He shook his head.
“Are you really fine?”
“I’m fine.”
He gritted his teeth.
“Are you really, really fine?”
“I’m fine!”
He covered his eyes with his arm, his voice a sob.
“Sigh, crying?”
“No…………………………..”
He lifted his head and hugged An Jing, who was still a boy back then.
“Let’s go buy cigarettes and smoke!”
“Buy… buy cigarettes? Isn’t that a bad idea…?”
“Then let’s go buy alcohol! Let’s go drink!”
“Drink… uh… is beer okay?”
“Any alcohol is fine!”
So, An Jing, telling Zhou Chao to wait at the door for a bit, ran into that small shop and bought a large bottle of alcohol.
Yellow wine.
Huadiao wine.
The kind used for cooking.
And it was five years aged.
But at a time like that, any alcohol was fine.
The two poured the wine into disposable cups.
Zhou Chao tilted his head back and drank.
“I’m telling you, I started drinking in elementary school, and I drank hard liquor! This kind of wine is nothing, you can just drink it casually!”
“So amazing…”
“Damn it!”
“Then I’ll damn with you.”
“Brother, no woman is better than you.”
“Holy crap, what are you saying?”
Zhou Chao didn’t answer him.
Because he had already passed out on the park bench.
Actually, Zhou Chao couldn’t hold his liquor at all.
***
(3)
The setting sun cast long shadows of the three.
As they passed the small shop that was still open, An Jing stopped in a daze.
“What’s up?”
Zhou Chao looked back at her.
An Jing smoothed her hair, which was almost covering her ears, put her hands in her pockets, and struck a pose she thought was cool, “Ha, you little punk…”
“Huh?”
“I want to buy a bottle of Huadiao wine.”
“Damn it!”
Memories from the past immediately flooded his mind.
“Huadiao wine?”
Zhu Ying was puzzled.
“Yeah, you know, just in case we need rice wine for cooking tonight. I’ll buy a bottle to save myself from running out to buy it later.”
An Jing deliberately avoided mentioning their past.
But Zhou Chao became even more embarrassed and annoyed.
Zhu Ying tilted her head to look at Zhou Chao, then suddenly burst into a giggle, “I know! It’s about that day.”
“Huh—How do you know?!”
Zhou Chao was greatly surprised.
“I saw it that day.”
“How did I not know…?”
An Jing blinked blankly.
“Uh… was it because my attention was all on this guy, so I didn’t notice?”
“I also know he broke up at that time.”
“Such good intel?”
“Damn it.”
Zhou Chao looked at An Jing helplessly.
“What happened that day, people from several classes knew about it, alright?”
“Is that so? I thought not that many people knew…”
An Jing scratched her head, puzzled.
Zhu Ying winked playfully, “Remember how you found out she had a new boyfriend?”
“A friend told me… huh?”
“I told your friend.”
“So that’s how it was…”
Zhou Chao suddenly understood.
“Haha, thanks. Otherwise, I don’t know how long it would have been kept a secret.”
Zhu Ying didn’t push away the thanks; instead, she accepted it openly.
She smiled radiantly, “The girlfriends you find are always the kind who frequently change boyfriends. Is that intentional?”
“It’s just that those kinds of girls are easy to get.”
An Jing blinked, looking back and forth between the two, a hint of envy and jealousy suddenly welling up in her heart.
Because in that instant, she actually thought these two seemed quite compatible…
***
(4)
Passing through the somewhat desolate and chilly road, the small square was ahead.
The lively atmosphere, with a comforting warmth, returned once again.
Today, there were not only street vendors but also street performers.
A man in an ill-fitting suit, with a bulky speaker beside him, connected by an old-fashioned wired microphone.
On top of the speaker was a very cheap-looking CD player.
The dusty power strip stretched far away, connected to an adult store that also sold pirated books.
(Early autumn sky, cold night, memories slowly rush in…)
His singing wasn’t particularly good, but his voice was full of stories, attracting many people to stop and listen.
Zhou Chao also hummed along to this song, which had become particularly popular in recent years.
He suddenly fumbled in his pocket, pulled out three coins, and quickly walked to the young man, carefully placing them in the shallow fedora.
The young man smiled and nodded at him, the melancholy on his face not fading.
Just a junior high student, yet he smiled as if finally letting go of something, “Future life, keep up the good work!”
The young man continued singing his song, looking somewhat dazed at the receding back of the teenager.
(Grey sky, wandering alone, old place in the city, want to put a coat on you, it’s getting cold, take care of yourself…)
“So generous today?”
“Holy crap, I’ve always been very generous, alright!”
(No one loves you more than me, telling you that every night I miss you, I cry so helplessly…)
“Enough, when have you ever given money to a beggar?”
“Those freeloaders are the ones I despise the most. They should at least earn a living with their own talents.”
“I heard those are usually fake.”
“Yeah, see, Zhu Ying knows more than you do.”
“You little brat…”
(Let the autumn wind take away my longing, take away my tears…)
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