Chapter 60 I'm so hungry, I miss your mattress
In the 1940s and 1950s, a type of collective apartment emerged to meet the housing needs of civilians and low-level workers.
It has a simple structure and is small in size but fully equipped. From the outside, the neatly arranged balcony looks like stacked matchboxes. Birds often live in it, so it is named "pigeon box".
Although the buildings from the Isoparaiso era are not very beautiful, their quality is absolutely impeccable.
After experiencing a tsunami, sixteen acid rains, and years of sea breeze, these "pigeon boxes" have been corroded and turned black, but the main body is still standing.
The building that Bai Ling once rented is one of them.
In fact, it was originally the staff dormitory of the [Imperial Interstellar Skybus]. After the establishment of the new empire, it was naturally divided up among private individuals as part of state-owned assets.
It was transferred to the current landlord and I don’t know how many times it has passed through hands.
Walking up the stairs, you can see faint bloody handprints on the ground when you look down.
It is said that there was once a kind old drunkard who drank too much on a cold night and froze to death lying here. When people found it the next day, his palm had been frozen to the terrazzo floor, leaving behind this handprint.
In that story, the old drunk was named George and he lived on the first floor of the apartment. The place where he fell was only a hundred meters away from his warm room.
However, it was these one hundred meters that cost a poor man his life.
Old tenants would avoid that handprint to avoid being contaminated by bad luck.
But Bai Ling would affectionately refer to the handprint as "Old Mr. George." Every time he came back, he would stand on it and take a break, panting.
Maybe Old George was a good man, and he left this handprint to show the direction of the nest to the little birds that returned home at night and had poor eyesight.
Bai Ling firmly believed this.
As I walked into the foyer, I saw something crookedly written in red paint on the glass of the lobby: "Rooms available long term, prices range from 200-900."
This is also a price that most poor people can just barely afford.
Bai Ling used to rent a mid-range single room priced at 500 yuan. He originally wanted to choose a cheaper eight-person room, but a neurological disease was quietly spreading in the empire at that time. He was coughing up blood and taking medicine all day long, so he was refused to live with others.
Therefore, I paid the mere 500 star coins with gritted teeth.
Unlike now, the society’s salary and the bounty won from the bet added up to nearly 600,000. This does not include the sponsorship fee spent by a willful mermaid.
"Is room 04 occupied? If not, I'll rent it for a month." Bai Ling said calmly.
The landlord twenty years ago was not bald yet.
He stared at Bai Ling's cashmere coat, looked it up and down, and picked up a toothpick: "Let me make it clear first, we don't accept refunds for check-outs here. Even if you are caught by the police, you can't expect a refund."
The landlord evidently mistook him for a petty thief who stole clothes from the rich in the area.
Bai Ling directly scanned 500 star coins over, and the landlord slowly took out a brick-thick account book and turned to the last page to make a note.
People who live here are often so poor that they can't even take out 500 yuan.
The tenants were procrastinating, as slippery as watered loaches, and were waging a guerrilla war against the landlords who came to collect the payment. If you are unfortunately blocked, you can just dig out some money from under the mattress, put on a flattering smile, and beg the landlord to give you a few more days.
This kind of "installment payment" breaks 500 yuan into 20 yuan, 10 yuan, or even 5 or 3 yuan...
So whenever someone came to pay, the landlord, the man with thinning hair, Grandet, would simply draw a + sign behind the name and write the corresponding number.
If someone is late...
The landlord went out to inquire about the matter, and came back full of curses, opened the account book, scribbled someone's name in black, and said angrily:
"Damn it, another one died."
The landlord was full of energy, and even in his old age, his swearing was the ugliest and loudest in the area.
Even the flower-selling children learned that phrase, and they followed it with an innocent look on their faces, unconsciously saying:
"Damn it, another one died."
When rent day came, the sound of "fuck" could be heard in droves, down the stairs, through the hallways, and over the puddles by the basement windows.
At this time, the 42-year-old Bai Ling would suddenly wake up and quickly reach for the knife under the pillow.
When his vision gradually became clear and cold sweat completely soaked his vest, he pinched the bed sheet and slowly reacted.
This is not a battlefield...
He wasn't the one who died...
Bai Ling shook his wrist, picked up the cup, and took a sip of the overnight cold boiled water. But the sudden fishy smell made his throat constrict and he almost vomited.
There was blood in his mouth, sticky and dried on his teeth.
Eating only cheap compressed biscuits and not eating vegetables and fruits can cause people to suffer from sepsis.
Bai Ling sat there for a while, cursing to himself: "Damn it, I'd rather die..."
While cursing, he continued to break the biscuits into pieces, stuffed the hard-to-swallow stuff into his mouth, and washed it down with water.
My stomach is bloated, but I still feel...hungry.
This extreme feeling of hunger and dissatisfaction usually lasts all day long.
Bai Ling was carrying a heavy bag of mineral water and when he passed by a butcher's shop, he couldn't help but stop in front of the window.
The bright and clean glass reflected his pale, sunken cheeks.
He stared at the meat that was cut into pieces and weighed by grams, and he would always remember how he was ostracized, bumped into, and pushed to the ground by young vendors in the subway station. It took him a long time to get up, his body as empty as a paper bird.
Bai Ling thought bitterly that it was not that he was old, but that he was too hungry and had no strength.
It would be nice to have beef.
Real meat, big chunks of meat, just like the picture on the beef-flavored biscuits package. Eating it will fill you with strength and your illness will slowly get better...
This is not sensational.
Bai Ling had really heard many similar stories.
The sick bird of prey was about to die, so it was picked up and fed with veal for half a month. Then a miracle happened. It grew new claws, a beak, and its flight feathers became beautiful and neat.
He can also...
If someone is willing to feed him, he will try his best to survive and grow new feathers.
There is no need to feed for half a month, even one or two meals will be enough.
But this is just an absurd wish. Who would give a ragged peregrine falcon a helping hand?
Every time this happened, Bai Ling would cover his eyes, quiver his lips, and say in hatred:
"Fuck, I'm so hungry."
·
I put away my chaotic thoughts, opened the door of the basement, and the familiar musty smell hit me in the face.
Bai Ling opened his arms and threw himself into the mattress.
Hmm... it's so hard and prickly, not as comfortable as a heavy down cushion.
He turned sideways, took out his terminal and took a look at Mr. D's interface, but still found that his friend request was not approved.
"Sigh..." Bai Ling sighed, stared at the traces of water leakage on the ceiling for a while, and finally called Yu Chen.
The call was picked up quickly.
The mermaid seemed to be busy with work and had not yet completely switched from her calm state. Her voice was cold and deep:
"What's going on?"
Bai Ling smiled quietly, "I miss your mattress."
Yu Chen leaned back in his chair, brushed back his scattered golden hair, and relaxed his deep brows. "Is there only a mattress?"
Bai Ling bit her lip and said softly, "And you who sleeps so quietly."
Yu Chen heard the noise coming from the background of the conversation, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Where are you? It sounds like a quarrel outside."
Bai Ling subconsciously turned around and glanced at the wall. Next door was a room for six people with thin walls, so the noise from loud drinking and chatting was bound to come through.
But today's commotion seems too big.
There was a loud bang, bang, bang sound from next door. Then the woman screamed, "Who allowed you in? I'm calling the police!"
"Go ahead and report it. We are the investigators. Someone reported you for harboring opposition members. We already have sufficient evidence. Don't try to deny it. Come with us."
Bai Ling's heart was inexplicably shaken, and his vague memory was stirred by this conversation.
The secret police.
He remembered that twenty years later, this group of people would be even more arrogant and would often carry out searches in the name of investigation.
Bai Ling is a registered most wanted criminal. No matter where he lives, he has to live in fear. But he had a good psychological quality. With a sickly face and a fake restriction ring, he lived under the noses of the secret police for more than two years and never had any trouble.
He never took these lackeys seriously.
Bai Ling subconsciously touched his chest.
But where did this sudden tension come from...
The shouting from next door stopped and heavy footsteps came towards this side. Bai Ling quickly said to the terminal: "I'm going back to eat tonight. I want to eat steak. See you later."
Yu Chen seemed to sense something, but out of trust in him, he just said, "Okay."
As soon as the call was disconnected, the door was pounded with fists.
Bai Ling opened the door, and the three alphas looked into the room with unfriendly expressions, "Come out, we want to interrogate you."
Bai Ling was very familiar with similar processes. After the interrogation, they would find an excuse to take them away to collect evidence, and then demand a ransom.
This is how the announcer was captured before.
Bai Ling pulled his turtleneck sweater down to his nose, lowered his head, and blended in with the group of tenants without making a sound.
With his strength, it is not a problem for him to deal with three alphas armed with guns. But the problem is that this place is narrow and crowded, and innocent people may be hurt.
Bai Ling was ready to go to the police station and pay money to redeem himself.
When he arrived at the secret police station, he looked around casually at the colorful posters on the wall with a tourist mentality, and smiled at the tyrant's stupid headshots.
Suddenly, an investigator with thick eyebrows stared at me, narrowed his eyes and said:
"Hey...have I seen you somewhere?"
"This white-haired guy... I remember now, you're the bastard who beat up someone in the square last time. I didn't expect you to drown when you jumped into the sea, huh?"
Bai Ling sneered in response.
The investigator immediately dragged him out of the team, pushed him into the interrogation room, pulled out a gun and pointed it at Bai Ling's head, smiling sinisterly:
"Don't even think about running away this time. Let's see which is faster, your legs or my bullets."
They thought the little white-haired boy would look frightened.
But they didn't expect Bai Ling to walk in familiarly, kick up the chair, sit down with his arms folded, raise his eyelids and give them a cold look.
The cold white color is deep and bright, like frost and snow splashed with blood on the execution ground.
At that glance, all the investigators felt a chill run up their spines.
Bai Ling's lips curled up with a hint of mockery: "If you want to interrogate anything, go ahead. I'm in a hurry."
As soon as he finished speaking, he was stunned for a moment without leaving a trace.
Similar scenes, similar words, I seem to have said them before...?
Bai Ling looked around the interrogation room again, a heavy feeling slowly spreading from the bottom of his heart, and a voice in his head told him:
I seem to have been to this place before.
Cold sweat slowly seeped out of the palms of my hands, my heart rate accelerated, and the blood vessels in my chest seemed to ache slightly.
He suddenly became irritable, unbearable, and worried, and kept looking at the clock hanging on the blue-gray cement wall.
17:49.
While Bai Ling was distracted, the investigator forcibly took away his terminal, inserted the chip, and skillfully cracked the password.
The investigator flipped through the message slowly and read in a drawling tone: "[Big Blue Tail]: Are you awake? Does your stomach still hurt? Do you want me to carry you to dinner? Hahahahaha——"
The other alphas laughed derisively.
There was nothing wrong with these words when Yu Chen said them, but when they came out of the greasy middle-aged man's mouth with a slurred tone, it made people feel sick and want to vomit.
"This guy is a cripple with a broken leg." The investigator glanced at the prosthetic limb under the table.
He turned around and asked the other alphas with malicious intent, "If we remove his legs, will he have no choice but to crawl out of this room like a dog?"
The secret police echoed: "Tsk, tsk, I want to watch it too."
"With such a pretty face, of course we have to let him crawl around the boss's feet a few times, so we can also satisfy our aristocratic addiction!"
Bai Ling's eyes were dazed, and the investigator's face gradually overlapped with an older image somewhere in his memory.
Same bulbous nose, same insult...
The investigator pointed at him and teased, "Look, this guy is so scared that he doesn't dare to speak."
Bai Ling's eyes barely moved, and his expression was terribly numb.
No one knew what bizarre illusions were playing out in his mind at this moment.
In his eyes, these people's mouths were like trash cans blown over by the wind, opening and closing, making harsh and piercing sounds. The ugly, pitted faces were twisted into a ball, fused into strange shapes like plasticine.
Bai Ling was very familiar with this feeling.
Whenever a mental disorder strikes, all the surrounding scenery will be twisted, torn, and tangled in a weird way as if poisoned...
Bai Ling raised his head quietly, and the clock in the room seemed to be melting. The jumping pointer became countless times larger in his field of vision, pressing down on his bloodshot eyeballs, moving forward one tick at a time.
Click, click…
Irreversibly heading towards six o'clock in the afternoon...
The investigator dug up something new: "Who is this Mr. D? Is that your ridiculous big blue tail?"
The beating sound of the pointer gradually matched the intense heartbeat. Bai Ling breathed rapidly and felt his chest was so stuffy that it was about to explode.
For a moment, he felt as if his soul floated out of his seat, shouting that he wanted to run, jump, fly to an unknown place, and...
An unfinished date.
Bai Ling anxiously tugged at the collar of his sweater, subconsciously trying to breathe more easily.
The investigator's peripheral vision caught a pearl from the corner of the turtleneck sweater.
With his many years of experience in accepting bribes, he could tell at a glance that this pearl was of extraordinary quality. If you take it to the black market, it can be sold for at least five figures!
The investigator grinned greedily and waved away the people around him.
"You are lucky today. Pull the pearl down and give it to me, and I will show mercy and let you go."
The white cattail-like head trembled slightly and slowly raised its head.
The investigator thought that his face would be filled with fear, but his expression froze, and he met a pair of eyes filled with blood, as if they had just been fished out of the evil pool of hell.
"…What do you want from me?"
Investigator: "Pearl."
The next second, the investigator's gaze darted sideways.
His head slammed hard against the wall, causing him so much pain that he subconsciously wanted to pull out his gun and shoot the little white-haired guy, but he saw his body still sitting on the chair, with a column of blood spurting out of his aorta floating onto the ceiling.
Bai Ling wiped the knife in his hand silently.
Then, he took back the terminal and reconnected with [Big Blue Tail].
"Hello. I have some splashing problems here. There are surveillance cameras in the house. Do you have any channels to help me cover it up?"
"Splash" is a slang word.
Yu Chen listened to his mechanical voice, remained silent for two seconds, and then asked, "Do you know the way home?"
"Know."
Yu Chen: "Wait a moment, I'll transfer you to the person in charge. From now on, follow its instructions every step of the way."
"yes."
Hearing the straightforward answer, Yu Chen's heart moved.
This was the first time they had had such a businesslike conversation, and it was also the first time Bai Ling took the initiative to find him to resolve a problem.
His and Bai Ling's paths of action in foreign affairs seemed to intersect at this moment.
A good start.
At the same time, there was a beep on Bai Ling's terminal, and the conversation was cut to other tracks.
Bai Ling calmed down and prepared to exchange a few polite words with the "person in charge", but the voice coming from the news channel was -
"Mechanical bird? Who bullied you? Tell me your coordinates immediately!"
Your protective AI is now online. He began to hack into surveillance cameras, modify video content, lurk in the network cables in a high-profile manner, and personally escort the mechanical bird with an overloaded movement back to its nest.
·
Bai Ling returned with a bloody smell. He ate a few mouthfuls of rice, washed his body, wrapped himself in the quilt, and fell asleep with a dizzy head.
In a daze, someone touched his forehead, and the fingertips were stained with the warm scent of algae, like the sea water flooded by a red tide.
Bai Ling opened his eyes in confusion and vaguely saw a handsome figure, gentle and deep, sitting quietly beside the bed, as if frozen in time.
Fragments floated dully in my mind, sometimes it was the black portrait of Mr. D, sometimes it was the brilliant face of the mermaid. The two were completely different, but strangely blended to create a similar temperament.
...Who is it?
Bai Ling sat up from the bed with sleepy eyes, and unconsciously rubbed over there. Not knowing who it was, he tried to bump into him.
As expected, she put her arms around him, pulled him in, and accepted it without any questions or hesitation.
It's a mermaid.
My mind immediately became clearer. Come to think of it, how could Mr. D, such a dignified and polite man, be confused with this mermaid who has no bottom line?
"You went out to fight again." It was the kind of parental blaming tone.
"Yeah, I won." Bai Ling yawned, stretched his body and curled up.
Suddenly, a hand reached into his clothes and touched his back, causing him to shrink in excitement. He immediately frowned and couldn't help but complain in his voice:
"You have to be responsible if you touch me in the middle of the night."
Yu Chen had already figured out his routine, so he didn't respond at this moment. He just looked down and asked, "Did they hurt you?"
Bai Ling hesitated: "No..."
"Then why are you so angry?"
Bai Ling's face turned cold instantly, with a sharp look in his eyes: "They want to snatch what's around my neck. If I can still give them a good face, it will be a waste of my bad reputation."
Yu Chen caught the key words and raised his eyelids: "What bad reputation? You didn't tell me."
Bai Ling lazily grabbed the hand that was exploring downwards, held it in his arms, used it as a pillow, and said perfunctorily:
"I'm an interstellar pirate, specializing in occupying the nests of empty-nest old fish like you."
He talks tough but his body is quite honest. Yu Chen laughed softly, "Don't you know that my nest also has four words written on it?"
Bai Ling looked up at him: "Which four words?"
"Welcome."
Bai Ling pursed her lips for a while, but finally couldn't help but smiled comfortably.
The old guy just knows how to talk, and when you want to coax him, every word he says touches his heart. Involuntarily touching the pearl nestled in his collarbone, he called out casually:
"Small pearl supplier..."
Yu Chen said "hmm" softly, which was considered as an admission.
Bai Ling's eyes were tinged with warmth, "How much goods do you have left in your factory? I want to buy them all."
"You are so rich." Yu Chen teased him, which was rare for him, and then flicked his forehead gently. "But I have to remind you, Captain, my mermaid has a very low yield. In a hundred years, I have only collected six pearls. Even if I bought them all, I still can't string them into a string."
Six pearls correspond to six tears.
Bai Ling recalled an anecdote he had heard before. It was said that mermaids would only produce round pearl-like substances when they were extremely excited and the levels of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate in their bodies suddenly increased.
Isoparaiso cried six times in his life, which is consistent with his inhumane trait.
"I heard that pure-blooded mermaids number their pearls and give them names. Does mine have those, too?"
Yu Chen smiled helplessly: "Yes, it is No. 2. As for the name, maybe it can be called 'jealousy'."
"Jealousy..." Bai Ling recited the word, "Are the other ones greed, arrogance, and the seven deadly sins? Oh, that's not right, you only have six, so you're still missing one."
Bai Ling suddenly became very interested and leaned forward with bright eyes, "Which one is missing? Maybe I can fill it for you."
Yu Chen ruffled his hair in amusement, "How do you fix it?"
Bai Ling was confident of victory: "Tempt you into committing a crime."
"It would be too easy for me to just lead me to commit a crime. At least you have to make me cry hysterically."
Bai Ling immediately became listless and pursed his lips, "Then let's not do that. Tears hurt the liver, and old fish liver will not work."
Holding Bird's hot wrist, Yu Chen leaned forward and approached, his lips slightly raised: "Can't you say one more?"
Bai Ling took advantage of the situation and hooked him upside down with one arm, knocking him down in the fur pile, and rolled halfway, boldly picking up the guardian's steep chin:
"Honestly, if I can collect all seven little pearls one day, can you cast a spell for me?"
Yu Chen was happy to spoil the child, and could even continue with such an inappropriate remark, "It depends on the situation. What kind of magic effect do you want?"
"Hmm, I haven't figured it out yet. Let's go back 70 years?"
Bai Ling said something casually, but Yu Chen's body froze, a hint of deepness spread across his eyes, and he said:
"Going back in time would open the gates of hell and release the devil."
Going back 70 years, it was the prime of Isuparezo's rule.
"That's even better." Bai Ling buried his head in the mermaid's chest. His nasal voice from the cold had not yet subsided, and it sounded a little soft. "At least if I follow the devil, I will have milk to drink."
A sincere and sweet little bird.
Yu Chen pushed the person back onto the pillow and coaxed her to sleep without saying anything. He quietly closed the bedroom door, then came back to his senses and thought of Pearl's story.
Perhaps, he really has seven pearls.
The missing pearl was lost in the dream. It was raining heavily and the pearl fell into the sewer and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The lost pearl is called...
indifferent.
·
For no reason, I feel depressed and confused tonight.
He wanted to find something to fill the gap, so after thinking it over, he went to the living room and told the AI to open the rarely used curtain.
AI: "What channel do you want to listen to? It's late at night, and usually there are only live broadcasts and replays."
Yu Chen lazily propped up his cheek and said, "Then let's watch the replay."
No one knows his mind better than AI. The AI directly switched the screen to Bai Ling’s game recording.
Since it has purchased the platform, Gorgon Design Bureau will of course add advertisements before and after the video. The announcer's clear pronunciation and decent demeanor fit in perfectly with Gorgon's rigorous, old-fashioned style.
Yu Chen did not skip the advertisement. Instead, he listened carefully and repeated it in his mind.
This is one of his ways to empty his mind.
When reading the last part, the announcer's tone changed and became slightly more cheerful: "In addition to the above exclusive sponsorship, this channel is also looking for a Mr. D who is good at chess."
"...Mr. D..." Yu Chen said aloud unconsciously.
"Mr. D, if you are reading this message, I want to tell you something: your friend is not dead. He has opened a new account. The number is the movement code of the tenth chess game you played."
Before he finished speaking, Yu Chen's mind had already automatically converted the number, 3486091... His fingers entered the account number faster than his brain, and the first thing that popped up was a friend request.
After clicking through, messages flooded the screen like edelweiss, making one's pupils swell slightly.
[New Compass]: I want to meet you.
[New Compass]: If you are willing, I will wait for you at the bus stop in front of the Central Bus Station at 6pm tomorrow.
Yu Chen's heart began to beat irregularly, and his first reaction was not to reply. Instead, he turned his head towards the bedroom with a complicated look in his eyes.
He has been off the medication for almost a day.
My vision was blurry and I could barely make out the shape of the door frame. The bedroom door was not closed, and the light from the living room was pouring diagonally into the bedroom door, creating a clear boundary between light and dark on the floor.
It seems to foreshadow some kind of choice.
The raised finger slowly fell down, and finally did not land on the input box. Yu Chen rubbed his brows and told the AI indifferently:
"Go find out who posted the missing person notice."
He picked up a glass of scarlet wine and sipped it slowly, feeling the fermented sour taste spreading through his throat with a hint of blood-like sweetness.
Woodpile Bird...
"It's a mechanical bird." The AI checked the data and gave the answer almost instantly.
The pale finger bones loosened slightly, and the crystal cup suddenly fell, shattering into countless tiny, crystal fragments.
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