01 "AAA Red Star Gas Deliveryman No. 37"
The blast furnace billowed up layers of black smoke, and molten iron splashed down in huge mouthfuls.
Amidst the crowd of people fleeing in the factory area, howling as if in doomsday, Tao Wanjia was pushed into a long and narrow black alley.
The road became narrower and narrower, and the backpack on my back kept scraping against the walls on both sides.
"Tao Wanjia!"
The way ahead was blocked. She looked up and saw a face covered in blood and flesh in panic.
"Where are you going?"
Huang Zheng stretched out a hand to hold her, and said in a trembling voice: "Mom and Dad are dead. You, you are my sister, how could you leave me alone?"
The rough and hot touch was transmitted to Tao Wanji's hand. She lowered her head and saw the hand on her arm with shrunken flesh and coagulated blood. She quickly shook it away.
His shoulders were shaking uncontrollably, and he leaned against the jagged bricks and stones, trying to speak, but his throat was blocked as if it had been filled with sticky gasoline.
"Are you afraid of me?"
Huang Zheng walked forward, and the loose flesh on her cheeks moved along with it.
She grabbed Tao Wanji tightly, her bulging eyes slightly widening, "I'm your sister! I've been living in my house since you were seven, oh no, you were six. My parents are your parents, you can't leave..."
Thick black smoke drifted into the alleyway. A flickering fire in the distance caught Huang Zheng's eye, perhaps displeased with her current evasion and silence. Huang Zheng rushed forward and embraced Tao Wanjia, her face distorted by the smoke, swaying back and forth.
"I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay in this steel mill with me forever, forever and ever, until you die!"
As soon as she finished speaking, the fire that had torn a hole in the wall outside had already spread over. The bright red flames burned her. Tao Wanji had nowhere to retreat. He clenched his hands in fear, pushed her away with all his strength and ran out.
She didn't want to stay here - the lifeless and colorless sky, the factory area surrounded by barbed wire and several paths covered with black iron powder. There was no sunshine or fresh air here, only the choking smell of burnt smoke.
She should never stay here!
The girl ran through the darkness, throwing off any restraints that slowed her down as she looked back.
Huang Zheng behind him was still chasing him relentlessly. The flames burned through her body and then melted into the rolling red molten iron.
Tao Wanjia was trembling all over. She ran for a long time but couldn't find the exit. The pursuing flames and molten iron were getting closer and closer. She tried to climb the wall several times on tiptoe but couldn't.
Fate torments her in a cycle of reincarnation in the maze, so she will atone for her sins and be buried with them.
I closed my eyes in despair, and suddenly a familiar voice sounded from all directions.
One sound after another penetrated the walls of the maze and hit her ears.
"I'll take you away!"
"Tao Wanjia, I will take you away from Rongcheng."
The boy's voice was clear and he ran towards her in the fire.
"I'm sorry, I'm late." He knelt in front of her, smoothing her messy hair with both hands. "Don't be afraid, since we made an appointment, we will definitely leave together."
The boy reacted quickly, rubbing Tao Wanji's trembling hands and carrying her up the wall as the firelight gradually approached behind them. The wall was high and steep, and even if he lifted her up, there was still a gap in the distance.
Tao Wanji raised his hands to grab the eaves of the wall several times but still slipped down. Looking down in panic, he saw the boy's two arms raised high suddenly became bloody.
He was already starting to lose his balance, and through gritted teeth he yelled at her, "Step on me and climb up!"
Tao Wanjia's heart skipped a beat, and he retreated instead of advancing. In his desperation, he didn't care whether to flee or not. He desperately ripped open his shirt sleeves, squatted down, and staunchly staunchly staunch the bleeding wound.
The fire had rolled to just behind her, and the falling tears were wrapped in the tightly tied cloth and soaked into the blood. The boy held her hand, and a few bright stars flowed in his clear amber eyes.
His voice became hoarse, "Don't worry about me, idiot."
Tao Wanjia still couldn't make any sound, and his trembling hands were always covering his wound.
At the last moment, he held her and climbed up the solid wall. The next second, the flames finally engulfed his body.
She tried to grab his hand, but her red fingertips only managed to hook a bloody strip of cloth.
The boy fell into the flames, and the last bit of his shadow disappeared, leaving only the sound clearly echoing in his ears.
——"Tao Wanjia, come back."
——"You can't be a coward all your life. Come back and take a look."
Amidst the bright red heat, she finally uttered the name she had called countless times.
"He Yu!"
When Tao Wanjia opened his eyes from the nightmare, his master Da Li was standing outside the car with an anxious look on his face.
The man was in his early forties, with a square face and typical northern appearance. His voice was so loud that it reached her ears clearly even through the glass window.
“Wake up, wake up!”
“It’s time to get to work!”
She was still in shock, but she finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the environment she was in.
Fortunately, it was just a dream.
The car has been parked on the roadside for almost two hours.
In the closed carriage, narrow enough to accommodate only two people, she leaned lopsidedly against the soft black leather seat, her legs tucked into the space under the front of the car, her sudden awakening still somewhat strained.
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, got out of the car, and used his numb legs to follow the master's footsteps.
"Who are you, the disciple or am I? It's cold, and I told you to get in the car and wait for a while, not to take a nap."
Big Li walked forward with his back to her, and in front of the workers who were watching the excitement, he started to ramble, "Other people's apprentices have found a helper for themselves, but I have found a ancestor for myself."
Pushing open the iron gate and entering the yard, I saw a row of full gas tanks on the ground in front of the warehouse door.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was as gray and cold as iron, and the sun, covered with a layer of gauze in the winter, was still dazzling.
Tao Wanjia's reaction was a little slow. The nightmare made her face pale and she looked a little listless.
"Forget it, forget it," Big Li said, soft-hearted and easygoing. Thinking she wasn't feeling well, he stuffed the key from his pocket into hers. "You don't have to move anymore. Just tidy up the car. I'll teach you how to deliver the goods after I'm done."
Tao Wanjia took the key in a daze, and then it seemed like he was back to reality. He stood aside for a moment to calm down, then repeated his master's movements and joined him.
Twenty minutes later, several orange tricycles at the door were all loaded and drove to different locations in an orderly manner in the cold wind.
Tao Wanjia sat in the car and looked out. The withered green belts and rustling fallen leaves on the ground in winter added to the desolation and decay. This small industrial city that was prosperous twenty years ago has now become a backward place that young people are scrambling to get away from.
The gas tanks were distributed to more than a dozen communities across most of the city, and finally arrived at a shantytown with low houses on the edge of the city.
The tricycle stopped at the intersection. Da Li unloaded the last tank of gas from the car and carried it on his shoulder, walking on the bumpy dirt road to inform Tao Wangjia.
"This area is full of old bungalows. A few years ago, it was a large farmers' market. After the market moved away, it became an urban village." He said this and then became thoughtful. "By the way, are you a local?"
Tao Wanjia hesitated for a moment, and her years of work habits made her shake her head warily.
"No wonder you don't know the way," Big Li smiled, "but it's okay, you'll definitely remember it if you give it to them more often."
As he was speaking, the mottled wooden door was opened from the inside, and a cramped and dim room came into view.
"Auntie Sun, I'm here to deliver gas to you!" Big Li demonstrated to Tao Wanjia with a standard smile on his face, and pointed to the ID card on his chest after he finished speaking.
Tao Wanji also subconsciously looked down at the light blue card hanging around her neck. There was no photo, only the conspicuous black words "Red Star Gas Deliveryman No. 37" printed below the company logo.
The old lady looked young, but her hair was very gray. She squinted her eyes and picked up the ID in front of Tao Wanji and took a look at it. In the end, she smiled and welcomed the familiar Da Li into the kitchen.
This is a one-bedroom apartment. There is only an old wooden frame separating the living room and the kitchen. The kitchen is narrow, and after Tao Wanjia and the master went in, there was no room for a third person.
The old lady leaned against the door and said, "Master Li, I felt that I was short of gas when I was cooking a few days ago, and the fire was always suffocating. Can you help me take a look?"
"Okay."
Big Li bent down to connect the pipes, cleaned the black particles blocking the gas stove, and then instructed Tao Wanjia, "Next time you deliver to this household, pay more attention and help check a few times to see if the pressure reducing valve is in compliance."
"Is it because the houses here are too old?" Tao Wanjia looked serious and took out a notebook from his pocket.
Big Li glanced outside at the old lady who was walking back into the living room and lowered his voice slightly, "This old lady lives alone. Her husband and children died in the Ronggang fire. How pitiful."
Tao Wanjia paused with his pen, and was also stunned, staring at the clusters of dancing blue flames at the bottom of the pot in a daze.
Velvet steel, steel mill.
Her childhood, the place where all her laughter and tears were stored, the place she returned to many times in her dreams, but now it has become a huge ruin.
Whenever I think of it, it becomes an indelible nightmare. Like the flame before my eyes, I dare not approach it even though it is so close.
After the installation was completed, Da Li diligently repeated the precautions to the old lady. Tao Wanjia walked out of the kitchen and looked around the house.
A few yellowed old photos hang on the cracked living room TV wall. Behind the portraits, one can vaguely see the steel mill from its early days. Two blast furnaces stand in the small factory area. The youth and memories of a generation have dissipated with the thick smoke...
Tao Wanjia was so absorbed in watching that he didn't hear the phone in his coat pocket ringing again and again.
It was not until she returned to the company after dark and threw her work clothes in the car that she saw the missed message on her phone from an unfamiliar number.
As I walked out the door and prepared to call back, an encrypted file was sent to my mailbox.
The wind grew stronger, and a patter of raindrops drifted down from the darkness that swallowed up all the light. The temperature had dropped below zero, and the raindrops turned to ice when they hit the ground.
The weather is unpredictable, and so is the world.
Tao Wanjia calmed down, closed the message, looked up, saw the lights on at the intersection, and walked in. She was exhausted and ready to grab a quick dinner. Once inside, she smelled the food and realized it was a restaurant specializing in chicken soup.
The warm yellow decoration gave people a special sense of belonging on such a damp and cold day. Tao Wanji looked around and for the first time in his life chose a table in the middle to sit down.
She was the only diner in the restaurant, and within a few minutes the waiter brought a large bowl of steaming chicken soup to the table.
Tao Wanji removed the plastic wrap from her chopsticks and lowered her head to eat. The warm chicken noodle soup she swallowed dispelled the chill and temporarily made her forget the confusion brought on by the sudden incident.
The misty glass door behind was pushed open, and two tall men walked in one after the other.
"It's still the same, boss. My bowl doesn't have vermicelli."
The leading man acted familiarly as he glanced at the injured face of his friend beside him. He paused for a moment, and finally burst into a smile of gloating that he had been suppressing for a long time.
"No need for He Yu's bowl," he said jokingly, his tone changing, "Give him an extra portion of chicken head, he lost his head and didn't bring it back."
Tao Wanjia paused when he heard this.
The name stimulated every cell in my body to stiffen.
Her senses seemed to be magnified infinitely at this moment, and she heard the rustling sound of the stool scraping against the ground.
The voice in the dream gradually fell to the ground, becoming clear and real, "Shut up, you're talking so much just for a meal."
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