Chapter 18 Nanjing Library and the Temple of Doom
It rained heavily all night last night. When Banxia woke up from bed, there was a sound of rain outside the window.
The rain in Nanjing came quickly and violently. At first, I could only hear a popping sound, falling on the window frames once a second. Within half a minute, the frequency suddenly increased, and it poured down in an instant. In the end, I could no longer hear the sound of raindrops. I just felt like a high-pressure water tap was turned on in the sky.
Normally, this kind of weather condition is not suitable for going out, but today I want to go to Nanjing Library.
Banxia carried two white plastic buckets downstairs and placed them in the heavy rain in front of the apartment building. She placed two open black umbrellas upside down on the mouths of the buckets. With the amount of rainfall today, when she came back, the two buckets were already full.
This is how Banxia gets her daily water. Rainwater is cleaner than lake water, but it still needs to be purified. Her general practice is to put some alum in the bucket.
Next, I carried my backpack, put on a raincoat, changed into sandals, held an umbrella, and set off pushing my bicycle.
"Love is deep and rainy, how many towers are in the mist and rain!"
"I remember the days when you and I loved each other so much, and the cars flowed like water and the horses were as fast as dragons!"
You have to change the songs on rainy days, switch to different songs according to different weather.
Banxia sang very loudly, a sad, gentle and tender love song in a soul-stirring way.
You must sing. If you don't sing out loud, your voice will be suppressed by the world. The teacher once said that everyone has an AT force field - Banxia didn't understand what the AT force field was. She understood it as yang energy. Everyone has yang energy. Some people have strong yang energy and some people have weak yang energy. Those with strong yang energy are not afraid of the erosion of evil spirits.
For a while, Banxia firmly believed in this theory, so she looked everywhere for food that could enhance sexual function.
The heavy rain was causing white smoke to rise. I was walking on Alfalfa Garden Street and looking into the distance. I saw tall buildings standing under the dark rain clouds, but there were no lights anywhere. It was as if everyone had left overnight, but the city was still there.
"Love is deep and rainy, the world is only in your eyes..."
Banxia gradually couldn't sing anymore because it became increasingly difficult for her to walk.
The city was soon flooded. The water on the road was up to the ankles. Muddy water rushed through the streets. The girl stepped into the water in her sandals. The water mixed with mud and sand washed over her toes. She could only walk for a distance before stopping to shake her shoes to wash off the mud.
When the wind got strong, the umbrella could no longer be opened, so Banxia folded the umbrella and clipped it to the luggage rack of the bicycle, relying on the plastic raincoat to block the heavy rain. The raincoat was of limited effect, and it was soon soaked by the rain and stuck to her arms and thighs. Fortunately, she wore a short-sleeved shirt and shorts before going out to prevent this situation.
In fact, it’s better to run naked on a rainy day.
Banxia thought silently.
If you go out naked, you don't have to worry about your clothes getting wet by the rain.
She even seriously considered the feasibility of doing so. Could she stop and take off her clothes now? Wrap the clothes in waterproof plastic and stuff them into her backpack, so that she wouldn't have to worry about the rain.
As long as I'm not wearing any clothes, I don't have to worry about getting wet, I can even lie on my stomach on the pavement and swim!
Forget it, it's stupid.
The girl shook her head.
Nanjing Library is about five kilometers away from Meihua Villa, which takes an hour to walk. In bad weather conditions, the time may be extended or even doubled.
The teacher said that you should stay at home less in bad weather. If you can avoid going out, then don’t go out. If you catch a cold, you will have a cold. If you have a cold, you will have a fever. If the fever is severe, it will cause pneumonia, and pneumonia is incurable!
Banxia suddenly stepped on empty air.
Before she could react to what was happening, her body tilted and sank suddenly. One of Banxia's feet was still on the solid road, and the next foot was in the bottomless water. Before she could even scream, the girl's waist hit the hard edge of the well hard. The intense pain radiated from the impact point to all sides, and she whimpered weakly in pain, and her whole body curled up reflexively.
pain!
But she still couldn't utter a moan, and the muddy dirty water flooded her mouth and nose. Most of the girl's body sank into the water with a "bang". She swallowed several big mouthfuls of dirty water unexpectedly, and then she realized that she had stepped into a manhole.
The flood washed away the manhole cover, and the turbid water on the road covered the manhole mouth. The space under the manhole was filled with water, which was a death trap.
Banxia almost drowned in the well. She subconsciously grabbed the wellhead, struggled to climb out, and collapsed on the road, coughing violently.
Now I was covered in mud and water, and both I and my bag were soaked.
Banxia covered her waist and smiled bitterly. The pain distorted her smile and the rain poured down her face.
After sitting in the heavy rain for a while in despair, the girl got up to pick up her bicycle and found that the umbrella was gone.
"Where's my umbrella? Where's my umbrella?"
Banxia was stunned for a moment.
Could it be that he fell into the well?
She bent down and looked at the wellhead. It was pitch black and bottomless.
At this moment, there was a sudden "squeaking" sound above her head. Banxia looked up and saw that the lush crown of the plane tree was full of monkeys!
A large group of monkeys took shelter under the tree canopy, fighting over a blue folding umbrella.
"Give me back my umbrella!"
Banxia shouted angrily and drew his bow and arrow.
"Don't tear it! Don't bite it! Don't bite it--!"
The umbrella was passed back and forth, and Banxia didn't know which one to shoot. Finally, the umbrella was snatched away by a little gray monkey. As it was playing with the umbrella, an arrow suddenly hit the tree trunk under its butt.
This scared the monkey, and the umbrella fell from its hand and landed in the green belt.
Banxia went over to pick up the umbrella, and watched sadly as it broke into rags.
The monkeys were running around overhead, making a lot of noise and making faces at the girl under the tree, but Banxia couldn't understand what they were saying.
The joys and sorrows of humans and monkeys are incommensurate. I just feel that the world is noisy.
Whatever.
She was too lazy to argue with a group of monkeys, so the girl silently picked up the bicycle, clamped the broken umbrella on the bicycle, put on her wet backpack, and walked away in the heavy rain with mud all over her body.
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Nanjing Library is located at No. 189, Zhongshan East Road. It is one of the largest libraries in China. Its main body is a seven-story glass curtain wall building. If this building were placed in some religious world that worships knowledge, it would definitely be a temple.
Banxia pushed her bicycle across the square in front of the temple. There was a huge marble block under the steps of the library with large gold-plated characters on it. No one had cleaned it, and it was covered with dry bird droppings.
The girl looked up at the dark blue glass curtain wall and climbed up the stairs step by step, like the last pilgrim to visit the temple.
The main door of the library was still open and the revolving door was smashed, but people could enter and exit the library freely through the side door. The last person to leave the library certainly had no intention of locking it. Banxia walked through the glass door and entered the hall, only to find that this former library had long been deserted and only garbage was left on the ground.
The newspaper and magazine area is on the south side of the third floor of the library, but Banxia found nothing. She walked alone through the dim hall, leaving dripping mud and water along the way. The rows of bookshelves were covered with dust, and all she could find was some waste paper.
The sixth and seventh floors of the library are the document storage rooms, which are still empty.
Banxia spent three hours searching the building and finally came to the conclusion that her trip was in vain.
The library was emptied. In the most turbulent years of the early years, books, newspapers and magazines became fuel and were carried back in bundles to be burned. Nothing was left.
The girl stopped in front of the bookshelf. She finally found two books in the huge library, forgotten in the corner. She stood on tiptoe to take them down, brushed off the thick dust, and could barely see the covers of the books.
"Died... on Mars?"
"Titan has no...voice."
Banxia didn’t know why they escaped, maybe it was because these two books were non-combustible garbage.
She went downstairs silently, built a fire in the lounge area, and burned the two books she had just found as kindling. She then took off all her clothes that were soaked in mud and water and hung them on a chair next to her to dry.
The girl was warming herself by the fire, which was crackling on the floor. Outside the transparent glass curtain wall was a torrential rain. Listening to the sound of the rain, she buried her head in her knees, and drops of mud and water fell from her wet hair.
A deep fatigue welled up in my heart.
Pinellia is very tired.
Too tired to say a word.
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(Author’s idle words: I didn’t make it to the Southern Library.)
(End of this chapter)
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