sunk into the earth

Chapter 1 Overview of Cloud City

1997? Cloud City

The affiliated courtyard of the third steel factory was built in the 60s. More than a dozen rows of buildings were surrounded by black pine trees. In the private coal mine of Sangang, the family courtyard of Sangang is soaked in the black soot from the chimney of the iron and steel factory every day. The leaves are covered with a layer of gray dust all the year round, and the rough bark is completely blackened by smoke.

But this black is the black of honor.

At that time, it was an honor to be able to work in a steel factory. Steel factory workers would walk with their chins raised when they saw self-employed workers and civil servants. Zhang Shen’s father, Zhang Licheng, was the first batch of Sangang employees. He has been an honorary employee for several years in a row. They must speak on behalf of all workers.The steel factory was extremely rich, and the auditorium was also surprisingly large. Zhang Licheng stood on the auditorium podium, coughed lightly into the microphone, and the black and white employees immediately began to whistle and boo.

Zhang Li grew up ordinary, with a generous face, high cheekbones, and a pair of thick noses and thick eyes. He had the typical appearance of a northern man, but he married a beautiful wife——Li Xiaoyun, a flower in a textile factory.At that time, the female workers in the textile factory were dressed in dusty clothes no matter whether they were on or off work. Only Li Xiaoyun tried her best to dress up every weekend after work. She wore a red skirt and high heels, and took out an outrageously gorgeous lipstick and carefully applied it. Okay, I turned my waist and went to the ballroom to dance ballroom dancing.

There is a large ballroom in the south of the steel factory. Zhang Licheng and Li Xiaoyun met here. The two of them accidentally made a partner in the pitch-black ballroom. Li Xiaoyun's face was seen by the bewitching lights of the dance hall. She had a melon-shaped face with a pointed chin, a straight nose bridge and a small nose, and her big eyes were staring at him.It just so happened that the prelude to the next song sounded at this time, and Teresa Teng's sweet song swayed between the two of them. Zhang Licheng, an excellent employee of the steel factory, was dizzy and smelled the smell of love after a long absence.

Li Xiaoyun used to have a good friend, a handsome man, who drove a big car on the national road for transportation all the year round. Li Xiaoyun was only sixteen or seventeen at that time, and her biggest wish every day was to wait for her good sports car to come back at the intersection, and take her to the road. While eating syrup and jujube, at that time, she temporarily had the mysterious and beautiful thing of love in her heart, but the beautiful things always made God unable to see her, and she had to break them to see people bleed for it to be happy. The last time Li Xiaoyun I saw her friend in 75. A big truck drove on the national highway and never came back. Li Xiaoyun waited eagerly at the intersection, waiting every day, every month, and did not wait until her age began. return.

Later, when she went to work in a textile factory, she overheard people talking about the difficulty of transportation when she was off work. A few female workers stirred the noodles in the bowl with chopsticks, and talked about the bandit chaos on the national highway in recent years as if they were curious. All kinds of crimes happen, robbery and murder are all kinds of crimes. The truck driver loves to intercept people. If they kill people and push them into the deep mountains and old forests, they don't know whether they are people or ghosts.

Li Xiaoyun put down her chopsticks, covered her mouth and ran to the sink to vomit.

It was only by chance that she met Zhang Licheng later. She didn't know much about love. She only knew that Zhang Licheng was an excellent worker of Sangang. A big motorcycle, she carefully weighed the worth of other suitors several times, and weighed her own age, finally gritted her teeth and made a decision, bringing her few luggage, a radio, a few cassettes, and ten Bring a piece of baby clothes and a pack of cosmetics, and marry Zhang Licheng like this.

Zhang Chen was born in the second year of Zhang Licheng and Li Xiaoyun's marriage.Zhang Chen followed Li Xiaoyun's good appearance, a boy born fair and pleasant, with big eyes and high nose bridge, and eyelashes longer than Li Xiaoyun's.Li Xiaoyun loves to take him for a walk in the family yard. The mother-in-law and aunt who are enjoying the shade outside will hold on to the mother and son for a long time when they see Zhang Shen's facial features that are almost the same as Li Xiaoyun's when he was a child. They will be surprised With an envious expression, he exaggeratedly said: "Your doll is carved out of the same mold as yours, so beautiful!"

But when Zhang Chen grew up and went to kindergarten and elementary school, Li Xiaoyun gradually felt that something was wrong. Zhang Chen lived in his own world and seemed to never pay attention to the voices of the outside world. His emotions were always between the calm sea level and He wandered back and forth among the volcanoes that were about to erupt, most of the time he was like an ordinary child, except that he was not very talkative, but occasionally, such as when Li Xiaoyun and Zhang Licheng were arguing, Zhang Chen would lie on the table in the bedroom alone, Accompanied by the fierce quarrel in the living room, he pursed his lips and gritted his teeth, and scratched the corner of the table and the edge of the textbook with his nails so hard that his fingers would convulse.

From the beginning of school, every time Li Xiaoyun’s parents were invited to the office alone by the head teacher, the head teacher seemed to be more worried about her son than the parent Li Xiaoyun. Every time, she would frown and pinch the report card to remind Li Xiaoyun: “It’s needless to say about Zhang Chen’s grades. , but parents must pay more attention to the child's mental health problems. This child is cold. He doesn't answer every time he is asked questions in class, and he doesn't participate in group activities. He runs to the window after class and looks out. I asked him what he was watching, and he said he was watching the world, where boys of this age compete one by one to make trouble, how can there be such a thing?"

Li Xiaoyun was startled when she heard this, and when she got home, she pressed her son for questions, but she couldn't ask any questions. The mother and son stared at each other, and Zhang Licheng insisted on yelling at them in the living room: "Dinner, what's the matter after dinner?" !"

Li Xiaoyun gave up with a sigh.

But Zhang Chen still has the habit of looking out of the window, watching it at school and at home, even to the point of obsession.

Looking out from the family courtyard of Sangang, you can just see the huge chimney of the steel factory. The black smoke is like the turbid gas exhaled by a sea monster, sending it out endlessly. Zhang Chen is in a daze at the thick smoke. Among the workers who had just returned home from work, Zhang Licheng was among them, carrying a freshly bought roast chicken and a bottle of white wine. Zhang Chen couldn't find his father in the dark crowd, and his eyes always flickered at this moment. Out of focus, all the eyes can see is black, and the black waves of people's heads turn over one after another, crowding from the factory to the home.

After lying on the window sill for a long time, Zhang Chen felt a numbness in his arms. Looking at the thick smoke and the black sea, his heart was full of despair. He opened his eyes hard, and those dark factories and thick smoke were like a soft knife. The wind rushed into his eyes.Zhang Chen felt that something was wrong with his body, and his whole body gradually developed dull pain. He called Li Xiaoyun hoarsely: "Mom, I have a stomachache."

Li Xiaoyun took him to see the doctor several times, the best hospital in the city, but he couldn't find anything. The last time he went to the hospital, the old doctor sighed heavily, helped the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and said to Li Xiaoyun: "Hang on." Let's have a look at the psychiatric number."

Li Xiaoyun was so angry that she almost overturned the whole hospital. She was not convinced. How could her beautiful and excellent son see a psychiatrist?

But being angry, Li Xiaoyun hesitated for several days, and took Zhang Chen to the mental health department.But the doctor checked inside and out, and there was nothing wrong at all.The big stone in Li Xiaoyun's heart fell down, but at the same time, it was blocked by a ball of soft cotton, which made her feel uneasy-if there is a disease, it can be cured anyway, but if there is no disease, there is no cure at all?

However, Li Xiaoyun was soon overwhelmed by the never-ending black smoke from the city. The steel mill was not profitable and had not paid wages for several months. There were still two mouths at home. The former honorary worker Zhang Licheng No way, in order to support a family of three, Qu Zunxin picked up the skills he had learned from his parents, and made extra money by repairing household appliances, hydroelectric motorcycles and the like whenever he could.Men in ordinary families can do some repair work. Zhang Licheng specializes in selling to the old people who have no children and no daughters. Telephone.

And Li Xiaoyun, who has been laid off for a long time, has nothing to do after wiping sweat and wheezing after work. She originally wanted to eat melon seeds and chat with other women in the courtyard, but the other women in the family courtyard didn't like her and avoided her on purpose. When she mentioned Li Xiaoyun, she wanted eight wives to gather together, fanning the bamboo fan, pouted, with a sour tone, "That woman Zhang Licheng, do you know how she and her man met? Good guy! Ballroom dancing They met each other and looked like a vixen. I wonder how many men I have had before! Look at his family, Zhang Chen, who is not at all like his father, maybe..."

Zhang Chen, who had just finished school, listened to these words. He was wearing a blue school uniform with a pure white T-shirt, the neckline was pulled too far, and a black backpack was hanging loosely on one shoulder. Stretch into a line.He walked towards his apartment building with a sullen face, and when he passed by these women with bad mouths, he gave them a sideways glance. Those women immediately stood up in fright and fell silent, and waited until Zhang Chen's figure completely disappeared at the entrance of the corridor before covering their chests He whispered: "Did you hear us talking about his mother..."

Holding his breath, Zhang Chen returned home and threw his schoolbag on the sofa. Li Xiaoyun, who was drinking from a cup next to him, shook his hand in fright and spilled water all over the floor.She raised her head inexplicably and looked at Zhang Chen, "What's wrong with my son? You're so grand when you come back."

"Don't get along with those people in the yard."

"Why?" Li Xiaoyun found a rag, was kneeling on the ground, and wiped the water that had just been spilled.

Zhang Chen looked at the figure of Li Xiaoyun wiping the floor, his back twisted into a strange shape like a deformed iron plate with pliers. He couldn't see it, so he walked over and took the rag from Li Xiaoyun's hand, and knelt on the ground to help her wipe it. , Squeezed out a sentence from the chest: "People don't want to see us, let's not rush to post."

Li Xiaoyun turned her head in amazement, it was the first time he discovered that her son would take the initiative to care about others, bit her lower lip excitedly, barely restrained her trembling voice, and said intermittently: "Okay, okay, Mom won't be with them anymore."

Zhang Chen said "hmm", picked up the rag on the floor, went to the bathroom to rinse it several times, and then shook off the water drops on his hands and went back to the house to do his homework.

Li Xiaoyun walked to the door of her son's bedroom lightly, and heard the voice of reciting English words coming from inside, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, she thought proudly, my son is really good, but she and Zhang Licheng can't even know a little bit of foreign language .

Thinking of Zhang Licheng, her mood plummeted. After being laid off from the textile factory, Zhang Licheng didn't give her a lot of good looks. Not only that, but he always spent money on unnecessary things. The more I want to go out and have fun.

At around seven o'clock that night, Zhang Licheng returned home with two bottles of liquor. As soon as he entered the door, Li Xiaoyun saw the two bottles of wine sharply. She couldn't hold back the dissatisfaction accumulated in her heart and frowned. Why are you still wasting money?"

Zhang Licheng was humming a little song and walking towards the kitchen. When he heard this, the fire in his heart came up. He turned his head and cursed at Li Xiaoyun in the living room: "The family depends on me for support. What did you woman do? I bought two A bottle of wine is not enough? Did I stop you when you go to the ballroom to dance every now and then?"

Isn't housework counted as work?Li Xiaoyun froze, thinking aggrievedly, but she didn't dare to disobey her angry husband, she just lowered her head and didn't speak.

The man Zhang Licheng became more and more noisy when he got angry, but Li Xiaoyun didn't say anything, he had a good time with his anger, he changed to a new target and shouted at Zhang Chen who was doing his homework in the bedroom: "Is your father or your mother in charge at home? "

The bedroom was so quiet that there was only the rustling sound of the pen scratching the paper. Zhang Licheng, who did not get a response, was lit again, stepped on the floor with a loud noise, walked quickly to the door of Zhang Chen's bedroom, and knocked The fragile wooden door, he spoke the voice of a middle-aged man, as if he had been pickled in the smoke and dust all day long, and yelled inside: "Zhang Chen, you are already in high school, it's time to learn to share the burden for your family." !"

It was still quiet inside, only the soft sound of pages being turned. This light quietness seemed to be a provocation. Zhang Licheng suddenly felt that his authority as Lao Tzu was being challenged—the woman in the family dared to criticize him, and his son was disobedient. He slammed his fist at the wooden door several times, and continued to shout into the room: "You dare to contradict your old man now, don't you? You follow the example of Yang Mingming, who graduated from junior high school and went to the mine to earn money! You read those broken How useful is the book? Your father has to go to work and repair things for this grandma and that grandpa, can't you share the burden with your parents?"

Zhang Licheng was talking about Xingtou, when there was a loud bang in the room.

Li Xiaoyun ran over in a panic, stopped Zhang Licheng, and said in a rambling voice: "Don't talk about him! This is when you are just in high school. When it is critical, you will be tired when you are old. He will be admitted to university in the big city. Finding a good job is not as popular as you? Don't delay the child!"

As she was speaking, the door in front of her slammed open, and Zhang Chen was already two heads taller than her. Seeing her son struggling to raise his head, she wrinkled her nose and squinted her eyes and winked at him, telling him not to get angry with Zhang Licheng.But Zhang Chen was very stubborn, his body was made of steel, and when he got angry, he became straight and frightening.Different from his father's middle-aged hoarse voice pickled in tobacco and alcohol, Zhang Chen spoke lightly, neither anger nor impatience, he patted Li Xiaoyun on the shoulder soothingly, turned his head and said to his father: "In the future, I will do the work of repairing things for you after school, so you don't have to worry about it."

Zhang Licheng didn't expect that his son, who wished he could get into the eyes of the book, would take the initiative to do all these miscellaneous jobs for him. He subconsciously looked into his son's eyes, but suddenly found that his son was already a bit taller than him, and he had to look up a little. The head can meet the son's eyes.

Zhang Chen's pupils are slightly larger than ordinary people's, and they are pitch black, giving people an illusion of provocation when staring at people.The moment Zhang Licheng and his son's eyes collided, he suddenly realized that the past ten years had passed, and there was a muffled sound somewhere in his heart—he was slowly getting old.This realization caused Zhang Licheng's originally tense shoulders to collapse suddenly. He held his breath and said, "It's not too bad, read less books, and finish high school with enough time. A breadwinner is better than anything!"

Zhang Shen was silent, and Zhang Licheng's cabinet repair tools kept flashing in his mind - there were screwdrivers, pliers, screwdrivers, electric soldering iron...

Zhang Licheng wished for his son to take the initiative to take the extra money for him. He has recently become obsessed with playing cards. Occasionally, he would play mahjong with a few steel factory colleagues. I don't want to pick it up when I get home.With his son's seamless connection, Zhang Licheng was happy to go along with it. As for Zhang Chen's taking care of his studies, Zhang Licheng didn't worry about it. Who doesn't know that his son has a bright mind?Zhang Licheng even secretly hoped that his son would be more stupid, so that he could give up the idea of ​​getting out of the exam, stay honest in Yuncheng, find a job with similar physical labor, marry a solid wife, and the couple will do their best to serve his father together. .

Since Zhang Chen took over the burden for him, Zhang Licheng's motorcycle that has been with him for decades has followed his son. Zhang Chen is used to stuffing the toolbox into his backpack and leaving the city with heavy tools on his back. At the end of the boom, Zhang Licheng was very proud of seeing such a son, what is studying?The ability to make money early on is the hard currency in Yuncheng.

Zhang Chen has been working for a long time, so he naturally met some interesting grandparents, and Grandma Li is the most special one among these old people.

Grandma Li's home is in the family building of the design institute in the west of the city. She originally lived in the courtyard of her eldest son's house in Beijing.The old man didn't have much research on water, electricity and home appliances, and the old things in the house had problems every few days. After living in Yuncheng for a few days, he found Zhang Chen who posted small advertisements for repairing home appliances.

Other old people are willing to find a professional repairman only when a big one breaks, but Grandma Li seems to have a lot of money, and she doesn't even bother her neighbors with trivial things like repairing light bulbs, so she insists on paying for repairs.Among the repair calls received at home, grandma Li called seven out of ten times. From small things like light bulb downpipes to big things like installing radiators and repainting, whenever there is a need, no matter how big or small, I will find a repair call as soon as possible. Shen.After coming and going, the old grandson became familiar with each other.

Grandma Li is Zhang Chen's favorite old man and knows him better than his parents.She spoke with a Beijing accent, talked about books and movies, and gave Zhang Chen foreign translations that he had never heard of. From time to time, she would tell Zhang Chen about her grandson in Beijing-a bastard with a bright head, more than He is only one year older, and there is no harm in heaven or earth. He just entered Tsinghua University last year.

Grandma Li stopped at this point. She looked at Zhang Chen's fluctuating eyes when he heard about Tsinghua University, sighed slightly, and took out a piece of imported chocolate printed with foreign characters from the coffee table drawer, and stuffed it into Zhang Chen's palm.

Zhang Chen peeled off the piece of imported chocolate in his hand and put it in his mouth. He stared at the English on the wrapping paper for a long time, and his heart suddenly ached, because he memorized English books every day but only knew the word "chocote" on it. .