sunk into the earth

Chapter 34 07

[-]? Beijing

Beijing changed drastically in [-].The number of words for demolition increased rapidly, buildings were built higher and higher, several subway lines were added, and taxi drivers practiced their spoken English.If the scale is once every ten years, the ten years between [-] and [-] can be very different.Cheng Sheng reasonably deduces that it is foolish to measure himself with time, because he obviously feels that time is passing faster and faster in his body, and it is even difficult for him to predict at what speed [-] will fall on him.

The terminal was renovated and moved, and Cheng Sheng came out of the arrival gate. Before the wind from his hometown hit his face, he knew in his heart that this city, like people, was constantly changing in the same dimension.

Cheng Sheng studied and worked abroad for a total of six years, no more, no less, and it was about the same time when he was studying for a Ph. D. and doing projects. The projects were opened and closed, and six years passed in the blink of an eye.He has changed so much that sometimes he doesn't even recognize his own face in the mirror.When I was seventeen or eighteen, I always said that he had a bad temper, and there was a burning Amazon jungle hidden in his eyes, and he was angry when he saw people; now he has vented completely, there is nothing in his eyes, and all his emotions and desires seem to have disappeared with the wind.

Cheng's father, Cheng's mother, and uncle and aunt came to pick him up at the airport, and they almost didn't recognize him. How can this person who looks like a young teacher in front of him be the evil bastard in the past?The aunt ran over to give Cheng Sheng a big hug, looked him up and down and said with emotion: "Staying outside for so many years is really grown up, and the spirit is much better than when I went out."

Old Cheng poked his head in the back, and waited for Aunt Cheng Sheng to let go of the person in the front before going over and rambling: "Take good care of yourself outside? His face looks stronger than before. He used to be white, and others thought he was being abused at home. .”

Cheng's mother went over and put aside Lao Cheng's hand, "Your son is 28 this year, and Lao Qin's son is as old as him and got married last year. How can he live if he can't take care of himself at this age?"

After training Lao Cheng, she turned her head and took Cheng Sheng's arm to look left and right, her cheeks were sore, and she was crying a little: "The face has grown a little flesh, and it was like a skeleton when I left. , I don’t want you to go so far alone.”

The family had a meal, and Cheng Sheng brought a mixed-race boy with thick eyebrows and big eyes. While the family was a little drunk at the dinner table, he stood up and announced to everyone that I was going to start a business. The foreigner who spoke Beijing dialect beside me That's my partner.

Old Cheng's face was flushed from drinking, his nasolabial folds were drooping down, he leaned on the chair and asked him, "Are you using my money or your own money to start a business?"

"Frank and I took out all the money we saved in the past few years, and we came back to rest for two days to find financing. You don't need a penny."

Old Cheng nodded. He was not very happy about Cheng Sheng starting a business with a foreigner, but he still had lingering fears when he remembered what happened in the past few years. He didn't dare to stop him, and let him go with a grunt.

The first thing Cheng Sheng did when he came back was to find a house to live alone.At that time, Zhongguancun Yishui Technology Co., Ltd. was also equipped with a coffee shop downstairs. People often walked into a coffee shop with plaid shirts and black-rimmed glasses to talk about their entrepreneurial ideas with the National People’s Congress.Cheng Sheng and Frank inspected around the city of Beijing, first set the location of the company in Zhongguancun, and then began to look for houses around this area.

The two of them worked hard for a few days, and found two one-bedroom apartments facing each other, a new real estate, [-] square meters, comfortable for one person to live in.Cheng Sheng transferred the luggage stored in the courtyard of the old house to the new home, neatly stacked the medicines that should be taken on the shelf of the computer desk, and after everything was done, he fell contentedly to the bed in the bedroom and had a good night's sleep.

After finding a good place to live, the two of them continued to plan the business of the company non-stop. They first rented the first floor of an office building in Zhongguancun as an office space, followed by various registration procedures, buying computers and office supplies. The starting point is paved.

The big things basically went smoothly. At night, he and Frank were lying together and chatting. The room was a mess, and the luggage and clothes were piled up like a mountain, but neither of them had the energy to clean it up.Cheng Sheng leaned against the bed and pointed out the glass window to Frank, "I grew up in this area since I was a child, and I have never left here in high school and college."

Frank answered immediately: "Then we are half-citizens. My mother grew up in this area before she went to the United States. It was a chaotic time. She wrote love letters to other boys and was blocked in the alley by a braided elder sister." Cleaned up."

After speaking, the two laughed together, but the room was too quiet, and the sudden laughter was abrupt, and the two of them fell silent with a tacit understanding.

Cheng Sheng held a pillow in his arms, buried his chin in the soft pillow, and said, "It's really different here. It wasn't so modern when I left."

"How different can it be?" Frank got up and went to the refrigerator to find two cans of cold beer, and patted Cheng Sheng who was lying on the bed facing the window, "Drink some, don't be so melancholy all the time, as if I have done something to you .”

Cheng Sheng also got up, flattened his wrinkled short sleeves, took a big gulp of the beer in Frank's hand, and told him the past in a different tone: "I was not depressed before, I guess all my words in this life will be forgotten. The first 18 years were finished, and now it has become like this.”

"Tell me, what were you like before?"

Cheng Sheng really talked about it, but avoided a year that he didn’t want to mention, “I liked rock music when I was in high school, and I ran to the newly opened bar in Wudaokou on weekends to watch performances. The station was shining brightly, and all the girls below were screaming at them. I thought they were so cool at the time, and I wanted to be so cool, so I formed a band with a few of them."

"So are you cool?" Frank asked.

Cheng Sheng glanced at him and drank a cold beer, "What a cool ass, I'm crying."

Frank immediately laughed exaggeratedly, laughing so hard that the beer in his hand spilled on the ground, he ran to the bathroom like a rabbit to find a mop, and when he came back, he still didn't forget to confront Cheng Sheng: "Why are you crying? Hahaha……"

"Because I'm an idiot." Cheng Sheng said, "Because Coldplay rock'n'roll itself isn't rock'n'roll, and I've been complacently talking to others like a big-tailed wolf, and then someone beat me in the head. .”

Frank took a sip of cold beer thoughtfully, something suddenly came to his mind, and then asked him: "That scar on your back is from fighting with that person?"

The matter that was sealed in his heart was suddenly poked on the table, Cheng Sheng froze in place, and only slightly nodded for a long time, and did not continue to say any unnecessary words.

But this budding memory was quickly suppressed by a pile of things.After coming back for a month, Cheng Sheng almost turned into a spinning top, business affairs were intertwined with personal affairs, every day when he opened his eyes, he was smashed by various procedures, and when he closed his eyes, he was still thinking about financing.Fortunately, the government supported entrepreneurship at that time, and the two of them took advantage of the policy.After official business and personal affairs, Cheng Sheng took Frank to a small gathering with the three of them. Except for him, the other two got married early. Chang Xin went to an investment bank and lost a lot of hair because of work every day. Qin Xiao was much more comfortable. I opened a bar at the entrance of Gulou East Street, my wife and children are close friends, and my career and hobbies are mixed together, so I feel uncomfortable.

During the period, several rich second-generation friends I met in high school invited Cheng Sheng to come out to play.Those young masters whose parents went to sea to make a fortune and then went to the north like to cling to Cheng Sheng and the big boys when they were young. Qin Xiao, who was a student, looked down on them very much, and privately called them upstarts.There is a natural chain of contempt in their group. Old Beijing despises foreigners, and officials at home don’t like to deal with businessmen, but Cheng Sheng is outside the chain of contempt. Naturally, he doesn’t have much feeling for other people’s origins, otherwise he would never He tricked himself into what he is now, so those rich second generations made an appointment, and he went to the appointment without thinking much.

Cheng Sheng originally thought that this trip was just for drinking and chatting, but when he opened the door of the restaurant he had agreed with, everyone sat on a lap with a small model whose skirt was open to the thigh, but there was one special person, a boy with a paler face than the girl in his arms.

The rich second generation who invited him over put his arms around a man with heavy makeup and waved to him, "Cheng Sheng is here, you pick a girl."

Cheng Sheng bit the bullet and sat down, a small sling with light makeup was forced into his arms by his old classmate.

Before Cheng Sheng came, the little sling heard the two rich second generations brag about their family background. He heard that Cheng Sheng was single and devoted himself to his career.

Cheng Sheng's upper body was almost numb, and the strong smell of perfume in front of his nose made him dizzy. He thought that if he stayed for another two hours, the team would be broken up, but he didn't expect that the game would suddenly break out. The models were fed wine mouth to mouth.The little models were all obedient, they poured wine on themselves with a smile, and then turned to feed the slightly fat men next to them.

This was not enough, someone suddenly untied his belt and took off his pants halfway, and the little model in his arms immediately knelt on the ground to serve him.

Cheng Sheng was so shocked by the battle that his face turned pale, and the slender arm with a small sling beside him was already on his belt. Just as he was about to pull down his nail-painted hand, Cheng Sheng stood up awkwardly, not even saying hello. He didn't fight, and rushed out the door with a sullen face.

In the sweltering summer night, Cheng Sheng escaped from the sixth floor of the hotel in one breath, his heart beating like a machine gun.It was only when he ran along the main road to the gate of a residential area and saw a few aunts in pajamas walking their dogs leisurely that he suddenly returned to the normal world.

The clothes smelled of perfume, and Cheng Sheng felt a little nauseous, so he knelt down on the curb to blow the evening breeze, trying to let the smell go away before going home.

A few people were arguing under a street lamp not far from him.With his back facing Cheng Sheng was a thin and tall figure with a pure black piano bag hanging behind him, and he was scolded by the people opposite him under the street lamp.

On the opposite side, a drunken girl wobbled with her legs on her legs, and slammed down the piano on another man's body and yelled at him, cursing: "You bastard, how many years have you been friends with, because you are rehearsing a little thing in front of the backstage!" So many people scold me, you can show a blind child's care every day, and put on a dead face to me, who will you show? If you don't want to play with my old lady, why did you ask me to form a band?"

Seeing that the person under the light was about to be smashed right on, the man who was caught by the piano hurriedly hugged the girl from behind and persuaded the fight: "Grandma, forget it, don't turn over old scores every time you quarrel, turn over endlessly I've been here for so many years, you still don't know his temper?"

This person looked like a peacemaker who likes to serve water on weekdays. He winked at the person under the lamp and said, "Xiao Zhang, Qiyuan is a girl. You are a man and apologize quickly, and this matter will be over."

Unexpectedly, that person didn't like this, and said to the girl in front: "Northwest and Southwest tour, I live in the car with Lao Liu, and let you stay in a hotel with a girl, because we are men, we must ensure your safety. But the rehearsal I can't treat you as a girl, if you feel that you are busy with work and don't have time to rehearse, we will break up, and if the music can't make up the work, I will find another drum."

The girl named Qiyuan was stunned for a moment, as if she didn't expect that this man would break up with her so cruelly, she threw the piano to the ground, and threw herself into the arms of the man who wanted to break up with her, crying loudly, her neck trembling on his chest Trembling, still not forgetting to swear: "Fuck your mother Zhang, we used to rehearse in the basement when we were poor, and we gritted our teeth and didn't break up. How can we break up now? You careless bastard... "

The tall, thin man faced the street lamp and said, "Do you have to endure it together after we survived together before? You don't care about it. If this continues, it will ruin the song."

Cheng Sheng squatted on the curb and listened to other people's quarrel with relish. When he heard this sentence, he was a little dazed. The tone was so familiar that he couldn't help thinking of someone, but Cheng Sheng felt that he had drunk too much tonight, and his brain was not obedient. disperse at will.He touched his kneecaps and barely stood up.

The girl under the street lamp sat down on the ground, crying out of breath, and pointed her hand blankly at the tall and thin man, "Fuck you, I'm quitting, you can spend the rest of your life with that blind child, Let her play the drums for you with her eyes closed."

The good old man who dropped the piano pulled her arm, trying to pull her up, and muttered: "Sister, I call you sister, don't be arrogant, we have a performance next week."

Cheng Sheng stopped looking at them, and staggered slowly towards his home.