0046 Early Cold (5)
It will rain in City B this evening.
The sky was clear and blue during the day, but by evening it was covered with dark clouds, making the sky gloomy and overcast.
Guan Yue left the restaurant where he worked and ran through the back door into the drizzling rain.
After his release from prison, he lived in a rented house in an old suburban neighborhood.
The surrounding area had long been developed, leaving only that residential area covered in moss and mold. The surrounding walls were broken and dilapidated, gloomy and damp, seemingly out of place in this gleaming city, yet it was still packed with people.
It takes two subway transfers and a two-kilometer walk from the city center to reach my home.
After Guan Yue was released from prison, he spent his days going between a glamorous life and a broken one. He never imagined that one day he would live such a peaceful and ordinary life.
But it seems pretty good.
Despite the freezing weather, he was only wearing an old man's vest, which was stained with oil from cooking in the kitchen, and a pure black patent leather jacket over it to block the wind.
The rain intensified as he got off the bus. He had injuries from fights years ago, and the steel bar slammed into his back with a dull thud. He couldn't remember the excruciating pain that went straight to his bones at that moment.
Because of the many scars left by his youthful recklessness, he had forgotten most of those absurdities, only to be reminded of them by the faint pain caused by the damp weather on rainy days.
He put a cigarette in his mouth; there was a breeze, so he had to use his left hand to shield his eyes from the flame.
In the dim, damp light, the shielded firelight made the scars on his face appear even more grotesque.
That added a touch of the wicked to him.
His phone was still vibrating in his pocket, but he ignored it and kept walking forward with a cigarette in his mouth.
Before he went to prison, these old-fashioned mobile phones weren't completely obsolete. After he got out, not only were the old-fashioned phones obsolete, but he was too.
He thought to himself, "It's so much more convenient to hold in my hand when it's small," and then he thought disdainfully, "There are some more user-friendly designs, like..."
It's a small piece that sticks to your palm and vibrates when you receive a call if your phone is on silent mode.
It was like an endless source of energy, stimulating his calloused skin, making his skin, tendons, and bones, which in turn connected to his heart and blood vessels, come alive.
Even if you don't answer the phone, you can still see the anxious look on the face of the person who made the call.
This is the eighth time.
The small piece settled quietly in his palm, warm from being held for so long.
He continued walking, in the fine rain, waiting for its ninth tremor.
The uncertainty of whether he would call again sent chills down his spine. He thought to himself, "Whatever," but subconsciously he was still counting the seconds between calls.
It's been fifty-eight seconds already, exceeding the previous six longest runs of thirty-two seconds. Tobacco fills my lungs, a light drizzle blurs my vision.
He thought he wouldn't call again.
The bluestone path is covered with moss, and you can easily slip and fall if you're not careful on a rainy day.
But he was already an adult, he told himself.
Adults can't fall, can't cry, and can't be sentimental, because that's fucking pretentious! Utterly pretentious!
He took a deep drag on his cigarette, tossed it into the roadside bushes, ducked for shelter from the rain, and ran toward the dark, doorless stairwell.
The brick in his pocket suddenly started vibrating again, startling him.
It was like being suddenly electrocuted.
Even just a few steps away, the rain was pouring down. Guan Yue felt he was being unusually irritable today and cursed again.
It wasn't because of the rain, but because of the person standing at the top of the stairs.
The man held his smartphone to his ear, watching people run towards him in the rain.
-
The apartment building has five floors in total, with the top floor being the rooftop. Guan Yue lives on the fourth floor.
The girl who came to rent the room with him was a migrant worker in B city. Perhaps thinking the first floor was too damp, she beat Guan Yue to it and said she wanted the fourth floor. But she only stayed for one day and then eagerly came back to Guan Yue with fruit to exchange it.
Nothing else, no elevator is fine, but there are no lights in the stairwell at night.
No one can stand having to imagine a zombie movie every time they go upstairs.
Guan Yue confiscated the fruit and carried his few belongings upstairs.
The girl was deeply moved and thanked him repeatedly. He replied that it was nothing, that he was tough.
He was taken in by the Guan family after his parents were killed. He was beaten with steel bars until he vomited blood, but he was alive and kicking the next day. Even seven years in prison passed in the blink of an eye. He felt that ghosts were not scary. What was scary was the human heart.
I got this shabby refrigerator from a junk dealer. I tidied it up and it's still usable. Inside, there's only leftover soy sauce from yesterday for cooking and some beer.
He grabbed a can and threw it onto the coffee table with its limp leg, without even looking at Guan Kai sitting on the sofa: "Drink it and get out of here."
Guan Kai was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and clean light-colored jeans, and he looked much taller than before he went to prison.
He pulled the tab on the can with a "snap," and a small amount of white foam spilled out.
He drank half a can before daring to speak.
"Brother, I have a way to help you go back to your old life."
The tiny one-bedroom apartment has no living room or kitchen. The only cooking area is a sink and a worn-out high table, which are only two meters away from the sofa.
Guan Yue took off his leather jacket as soon as he entered the room, leaving only his white vest.
From the back, you can just see his well-defined forearm muscles and strong, narrow waist.
His short, close-cropped hair suited his wicked nature better.
“I’m not your brother,” he said as he washed the leftover dishes from yesterday.
Guan Kai slammed a beer can on the table and said sarcastically, "Guan Yue, how come you've become such a wimp?"
He knew that Guan Yue was most vulnerable to provocation.
But the man just continued what he was doing in silence, as if he hadn't heard him.
A coward? A coward can still eat and urinate.
Guan Kai clearly hadn't expected him to be so unmoved; a sense of unfamiliarity emanated from him. This unfamiliarity felt like countless tiny insects gnawing at his heart.
He was no longer sure if the person he missed day and night still missed him as much as before.
This panic and unease caused him to lose control, and he suddenly said in a cold voice, "I will avenge you."
The man smashed it hard, and the white plate in his hand hit the edge of the pool and shattered into pieces.
"Idiot!" he cursed.
That's not a family you can overcome with brute force, nor can you escape forgiveness by taking advantage of others' favors.
Seven years ago, he tried to escape with his cleverness but offended the wrong person. Now, he absolutely cannot let... Xiao Kai be ruined like him.
P.S.: Why do I find Guan Yue and Guan Kai (the "mustard" pairing) so appealing?
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