05 2.0
The four people reacted and chased after him. For the first time, Li Yaya realized that the back street was so long and so far away from the back door of the bar.
However, the entire alley is actually less than 500 meters.
They ran through the alley, went in through the back door, and walked through the crowd. Without any hesitation, Li Yaya pulled Jiang Yi directly into the staff lounge. The moment the door was closed, Li Yaya leaned against the wall and gasped for breath.
I will never do this kind of thing again next time. It's so scary.
Jiang Yi looked at Li Yaya, who was leaning against the wall and breathing heavily, and couldn't help but feel emotional. This was the first time he saw Li Yaya so lively.
Li Yaya is completely different from usual.
Li Yaya glanced at Jiang Yi. He was still as nonchalant as ever, as if the person who had been nearly beaten up wasn't him at all.
The already dim staff lounge was now shrouded in darkness due to the closed door. Intentionally or not, Jiang Yi took a few steps towards Li Yaya, and unintentionally, he leaned against her.
After Li Yaya calmed down, she asked, "What happened just now?"
"Well, it's just a bar at the front street corner. I went there to sing too. After singing for a few days, the boss fired the group of people who sang there before. They are the ones you just saw. Come here to vent your anger." Jiang Yi's tone was full of indifference.
"So what are you going to do next?" The implication is that you can hide for a while but not forever. If the other party doesn't vent his anger today, he may do it again tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow... at any time.
So, what will you do next time? Get beaten up? Change jobs?
"Are you concerned about me?"
Li Yaya stood up and tidied up her loose hair, "I'm going to work."
In the dim room, Jiang Yi didn't notice that Li Yaya's face had turned red.
Jiang Yi followed Li Yaya out. Since there was no singing to do today, he was bored and wandered off to the bar to chat with the guy.
The young man kindly handed me a glass of wine, and we chatted idly, occasionally glancing at the people coming and going.
Under the alternating effects of alcohol and lights, the hearts of young men and women began to flutter.
A few young girls sat in a booth nearby, their laughter and playfulness rising an octave from time to time, as if they were playing a game. Suddenly, one of the girls stood up, holding a shot glass, and walked towards Jiang Yi, her ear tips flushed against her hair. When she reached Jiang Yi, she leaned in close and said loudly, "Hello, can I add your contact information?"
The other people in the booth followed the girl and stopped at this side, the chatter still coming intermittently. Jiang Yi tilted his head, glanced at the booth, and then straightened his head. He raised his glass, clinked it with the girl in front of him, took a sip, and then said in an embarrassed tone, "Sorry, my girlfriend won't let me."
The girl quickly apologized, saying she'd just lost a game and asking him not to take it too seriously. Then she turned and went back to the booth. Everyone in the booth seemed to be discussing what had just happened. This strategy spreads personal risk into a group joke, allowing people to escape to their safety with a smile even when rejected.
The bartender who witnessed the whole process joked, "How come we never knew when Jiang Ge got a girlfriend?"
"Go, do your work." Jiang Yi didn't explain anything, just looked at Li Yaya in the distance. She always had that same expression when she was working. Her thin body could lift box after box of heavy objects, and her whole body exuded a sense of fatigue yet tenacity.
She moved among the crowd like an elf, and the occasional flash of light shone on her.
The half-lit and half-dark bar made people feel like they were in a hunting game. Jiang Yi, like a hunter, stared at the prey he had chosen long ago, and then made his move at the right moment.
At two o'clock in the morning, Li Yaya finished her work.
I am so tired. I have been working since 8 o'clock in the morning and I am almost exhausted. Fortunately, it is dawn and I don’t have to get up early.
Li Yaya changed back into her own clothes and walked out the back door of the bar, ready to ride her electric bike home. However, as she walked out the door, she ran into Jiang Yi who was smoking at the door.
Why is he everywhere?
"Are you going home? Where do you live?" Jiang Yi quickly put out his unfinished cigarette and walked forward to ask.
What nonsense! Where else would I go if I don't go home at this hour? Li Yaya thought to herself, but then she said, "Okay, bye." She continued walking forward.
She completely ignored Jiang Yi calling her from behind.
Suddenly thinking of something, Li Yaya turned around and walked back. Jiang Yi was delighted, thinking that Li Yaya had decided to come back to take care of him. Before the corners of his mouth could lower, Li Yaya stopped, took out her wallet from her bag, carefully counted out a few coins, and stuffed them into Jiang Yi's hand.
Jiang Yi's mouth froze in place. By the time he realized what had happened, Li Yaya had already gotten on her electric bike and left.
Left.
For some reason, Jiang Yi suddenly started to play background music in his mind and hummed a song, "He left you with only his back/never mentioned a word about love/made you cry until your eyes turned red..."
He just silently took out another cigarette, took a few puffs, and just sat there in a daze, not knowing what he was thinking. When the cigarette in his hand burned out, he patted his butt and walked into the night.
There are many nights like this.
When Jiang Yi returned home, he thought about it and decided to send a WeChat message to Li Yaya. There was no other meaning, he just wanted to thank her for helping him. He didn't have time to thank her at that time.
I waited and waited, but there was no reply. Maybe he fell asleep.
Not feeling sleepy, I sat down at the workbench and started writing songs.
After taking a shower, Li Yaya looked at her phone. All the messages were unimportant, including Jiang Yi's message.
Tired but not sleepy, Li Yaya began to stare at the wall. The densely packed stickers were the traces of her quiet study in the gaps between breaths over the past few years.
Although life is a bit stressful now, Li Yaya is still a child with dreams.
I was admitted to university but didn’t go. It’s a pity but I don’t regret it.
Although she doesn’t go to school, she still has to read. In her spare time, Li Yaya tries her best to read and think so that her thinking will not become rigid due to long-term physical labor.
The thing I persisted in the most was learning English.
Li Yaya's dream is to go to school and visit Barcelona. As for why Barcelona, Li Yaya couldn't explain it clearly. Perhaps it was because of Lee Kin Yan that some casual jokes became an obsession.
That was his final time. Li Jianren had been in the hospital for two full months. He had emaciated to the point of being skin and bones, his consciousness slipping in and out of focus. Sometimes he would mutter about his mother, and sometimes about Li Yaya's mother.
Apart from blurry old photos, Li Yaya has no memory of her mother.
Li Jianren always said that they looked very similar, and that his mother was a very good person, gentle and kind. However, God did not allow such a good person to stay in this world for a long time.
Li Jianren kept muttering these things over and over again, and Li Yaya listened patiently, but she also thought in her heart that Li Jianren was also a very good person, and didn't God want him to stay in this world for a while longer?
At that time, the internet wasn't widely available, and Li Yaya didn't know how Li Jianren had heard about Barcelona. That day, he was in high spirits and pulled Li Yaya aside to chat. He seemed to know he couldn't hold on much longer, and in every moment he was awake, he told Li Yaya everything about his future life.
He said, Yaya, go to school and then find a stable job. Maybe the money you earn won't be much, but a stable life is enough.
He said, Yaya, the world outside is very exciting, you should go out and see it more often. It is better to read thousands of books than to travel thousands of miles.
He said, Yaya, there is a place called Barcelona, can you go take a look at it for me?
OK?
OK?
Li Yaya specifically searched Baidu. Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city, is located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean Sea. Its strategic location makes it a dazzling emerald on the Mediterranean's tranquil, lake-like coastline...
It takes a very long flight, something that neither Li Yaya nor Li Jianren has ever taken.
Li Yaya said, okay, when you get better, we will take a plane together and go take a look.
He just smiled and didn't agree.
Sleepiness came over her and Li Yaya fell asleep.
Tonight, there is no Lee Kin-yan in my dream either.
When Jiang Yi fell asleep, the sky was already turning white. The light shone through the gaps in the curtains, not glaring, but with a kind of hesitant gentleness. The world opened its eyes with sleepiness.
Inspiration surged. Jiang Yi had always considered himself a mediocre writer, and he'd always considered those sour lyrics pretentious and contrived, simply because he couldn't write them. But this time, with Li Yaya constantly flashing through his mind, he actually managed to come up with some words that even he found strange, yet he couldn't quite put into words.
Yes, he thought it could be called rhetoric.
He was a little satisfied. After he finished composing the music, he wanted to sing it to Li Yaya. He wanted Li Yaya to be his first audience.
Sing to his inspiration, his muse, come and listen.
Then he fell into a deep sleep with a smile on his face.
Time goes on and on, and Li Yaya's uneventful life begins to ripple the moment Jiang Yi decides to break in.
Like a stagnant pool of water with a gap opened, she began to flow out and he began to flow in.
The dusty heart begins to dissolve.
In 2016, Li Yaya and Jiang Yi met in the southern summer, during the humid rainy season. It seemed like a long-planned encounter, or perhaps a casual glance.
In the bar's aisles, under the stage lights, in the cramped lounge. The ends of her hair still held beads of sweat from running, while his shoulders bore dark marks of rain. They counted each other's breaths, waiting for the wind to calm, only to discover that this rain seemed to be continuing for an entire season.
The whole world is slowly getting moldy, but they are still growing wildly.
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