Chapter 16 Sixteen, Schrödinger's father

I pulled the quilt up over the pillow, and found some clothes from the closet, rolled them up, and stuffed them under the quilt to make it look like someone was sleeping.I know it's useless.Every time I act like this in a TV series, I will scold the screenwriter for being stupid, because it is impossible for Chinese parents to politely knock on the door and leave quietly when they find that the child is still asleep.But when it was my turn, I didn't know what better way to do it. In order to prevent the safety door from rattling when it was opened, I took out soybean oil from the kitchen and scribbled on the exposed metal parts such as the hinge of the door bolt. At this time, I began to regret my ignorance of common sense of housekeeping maintenance.Even if Mr. Wang Shugang didn't care about me sneaking out in the middle of the night, he would beat me to the point of bleeding because of this oily door, and even suspected that I intended to set fire to both of them.

I tiptoed to put the soybean oil back on the kitchen shelf, and I couldn't help sniffing my fingers.The unfamiliar yet familiar taste of bean cakes.When I was in elementary school, I went to visit my distant relatives in the mountains. I saw stacks of big, round pancakes piled up outside the earthen house, which were still steaming and delicious.I reached out to break off a piece, but was stopped by a little girl from a relative, saying, what are you doing, this is bean cake for pigs and donkeys! I said I know.My grandma said that soybean oil is also made in this way. no!The little girl proudly said that there is a soybean oil workshop in the village, which was made by stepping on it!My brother also stepped on it. He said that it was so hot in the room that his feet and body were covered with sweat!

I refused to eat for a week after that, and I would vomit when I saw the oil on the bottom of the fried pork plate with green peppers. Knowing that my dad promised me to buy "expensive and not delicious" salad oil in the supermarket, every time I went to stir-fry and poured oil into the pot It hurts like donating blood. I don’t remember exactly when it started. Most people in the island city are used to going to the supermarket to buy salad oil and rice. The state-run grain, oil and food stores have disappeared. My dad no longer uses a dropper to calculate the amount of oil used, and he is willing to fry crispy meat. .

Although many years later, he would still sigh at the hundreds of dollars in a small bottle of imported olive oil from my family, and would secretly bring a bottle of supermarket salad oil with him every weekend when he came to cook for me. Smell is the horcrux of memory. I greedily sniffed the breath between my fingers, and returned from the dark blue night to the bright summer. In the English supplementary class, all the students around me ate fried vegetables with fishy smell and turbid soybean oil. Only I was learning in the English class. I laughed for a while, then felt a little sad.

There was really no sound when the safety door was opened.I ended up painting one of the parts correctly. The island city in the autumn night was gently wrapped by the cool and clear wind. I took a few deep breaths downstairs and felt much better.I put my hand into my trouser pocket, and I could feel four ten yuan bills. I felt like a rich man—although I was numb these days, I didn’t really become an empty shell of my soul. I keenly observed that Wang Haifeng’s night shift When I came back, I would put the keys and change in the tin box in the innermost drawer of the second drawer of the chest of drawers at the entrance of the restaurant, so I took them all away in one go.

However, in this endless residential area, there are no ghosts of taxis.It’s also understandable, I’m my brother, and I don’t come here to work. The old workers of the railway system live nearby, and their consumption level is similar to that of Wang Pingping’s family. Will go to battle together to discount this luxurious and lustful arm. That's when I thought of the railway.In the dead of night, lying on Wang Pingping's bed, he could occasionally hear the sound of a train rumbling past.The same railway runs through the entire Mingzijian residential area, and I might be able to find a place to take a taxi along it and drive to No. 6 Ming'an Street.

Occasionally, only garbage trucks and pickup trucks of vegetable vendors rushing to the morning market pass by on the road.I adjusted my direction according to the sound of passing trains. I didn't expect to get lost in the shanty town when the railway was close at hand. When I grew up and went back to the island city to open an art gallery, the city built the high-speed railway north station. This small railway has been abandoned, and some sections of the road have been accidentally hit by the island city’s literary youth and tourists to take pictures. must-see attractions.But today, more than ten years ago, this place was still surrounded by shantytowns. When I was a child, I heard that someone built their house too close to the railway. When the train passed by, the antenna was scraped, and the entire roof of the house was blown over. , The windproof strip fell down and pierced the male owner's thigh, and he was sent to the hospital but was not rescued.Later, when we had a chat, Teng Zhen and I were very puzzled when we brought up this rumor. Since we both lived by the railway, why were we so confused when we built the house?

Teng Zhen raised his eyebrows, as if he remembered something, but he didn't tell me, he just said perfunctorily, "Have you never heard a saying, 'Everyone who drowns can swim'." There was a room at the corner that was still lit, and an old man was sitting at the door smoking a pipe. I walked over to him and asked him how to find the railway crossing through the house.The old man looked up at me, the pale energy-saving lights above the porter shone on his wrinkled face like dried orange peel. "Are you going to sleep on the rails?" This sense of humor is not enough to make me laugh.But immediately afterwards, he knocked on the sliding door behind him with his pipe stick, and said, "Don't worry, first get all the 'old clothes' ready, and then go put them on."

I just looked up and saw a white lantern hanging on the door, with "shroud" written on one side and "paper flower" written on the other.The old man smiled deliberately at me, his eyes narrowed into deep wrinkles. "No need," I sighed, "I didn't pre-order it when I died last time." Before the words were finished, there was a sudden sound of glass shattering at the end of the small street, and the creaking of the door. With the screaming "Get out!" of the female voice inside the door, a figure staggered out and stood alone by the window. In the square light on the ground.

"Are you still arguing so late?" I sighed. The old man knocked on the cigarette bag, put it down, dragged a black plastic bag in the corner between his feet, took out a stack of golden glossy paper, folded a small ingot deftly with his rough hands, and handed it to me.I was also short-circuited in my brain, so I took it obediently-this old man has opened the shop for such a long time, I don't know how to be taboo!Do you really want to send me on my way? ! "Arguing every day," the old man buried his head and continued to repeat, "My mother and I were enemies in our previous life. There was a young daughter who studied well, and her mother flew out a golden phoenix by pointing at her. What a crime. She died five years ago and pretended The old clothes are all done here, and I also tied a computer for them, made a Tsinghua graduation certificate, and burned them together."

"Well, who doesn't suffer in this world, who can say for sure what will happen tomorrow?" I scratched my ears, "Then, can you tell which way the railway crossing will go?" "Over there." The old man pouted towards the mother and daughter's house where they had just quarreled. When I approached the dejected "unfilial son", I immediately slipped away and disappeared in the shadow cast by the eaves. The "unfilial son" took out a cigarette and a match from his pocket, struck a match against the wind, and by the light of the moon and the fire, I saw Lao He's black eyes. "Zhang Xiaoman?" She saw me too. At the beginning, Lao He insulted me for wandering around in the middle of the night purely looking for death, until the lights in her house were turned on again, and a slightly hunched back of a woman appeared by the window, hoarsely yelling at He Ling, if you want to get out, get away and never come back This family simply died in the detention center and no one will take you—Old He was quiet for a while, and said, let's go, go out and hang around. Lao He and I walked on the rails, one on the left and the other on the right, wobbling because we lost our balance repeatedly.I think of the countless nights when I was drunk and said bold words such as "I am the light of mankind" and so on. I hung my left arm on Lao He's body and held a half bottle of dark beer in my right hand. Two slender figures on the ground said, the four of us have a last drink. At this moment, the moon is also behind us, and two deformed shadows are seen in front of us, cut to pieces by the rails and sleepers, so we can’t see that Lao He’s shadow has a red exploding head, and the 16-year-old fat shadow, named Called Wang Pingping. Maybe the wind was too intoxicating, I forgot that I had only met Lao He four times, and asked very familiarly: "Old He, do you have a younger sister?" Old He didn't answer: "Where are you going?" "No. 6 Ming'an Street." "What are you doing there?" "It's not fair," I interrupted her. "Anyway, there is still a long way to go. Let's ask a question, and the other party must finish answering before we can continue to ask." "Why should I play this with you?" Old He was a little annoyed. "Forget it, I'll teach you how to play," I grabbed old He Ping's right hand that was raised in the air, and both of them reached a balance, "I'll come first—my real parents live in No. 6 Ming'an Street." Old He was stunned, his footsteps stopped, he lost his balance and fell off the rails.She stepped up again, and this time took the initiative to hold my left hand. "Are your current parents...adopted you? Or the traffickers who kidnapped you? Did the maternity hospital hold the wrong child?" "It's not your turn to ask questions yet. I should!—You have a sister?" "That stupid old man told you just now?" "Do you know how to follow the rules?!" "Okay, okay." The 21-year-old Lao He is still a very simple person. Once I got mixed up, he forgot to ask me why I want to play games. "My sister is one year younger than me. Oh, my name is He Ling. You just heard my mother yelling. My sister is He Long. My mother's illnesses are all because she just gave birth to me and she has not had a good rest. I gave birth to my younger sister again. I was forced by my grandma to give birth to a grandson. The second is also a daughter, and I want to have another one. The family planning officials are eyeing our family, and I want to have a third grandson. Fortunately , my sister was born half a year ago, and my father died." The use of "fortunately" is really particular. "I lost some money, not too much. My grandma has been wondering whether my dad's pension was cheated back then, or is it going to be less? I have been talking about it for almost twenty years. But my dad's death is really true. I can’t blame anyone else—say, what kind of heartless person can repair the roof and crash it into a train?” It turned out to be your home! ! I held back my words and listened to Lao He's continuation.She seemed to have forgotten that rule, and put everything she wanted to say into the answer to "Do you have a sister?"And these words, I have never heard of her friends for nearly ten years, and I feel a little sour. "Later I saw my sister and I understood. They all said that my sister is like my father. My father is also a serious college student who passed the exam in a shed. He entered a public institution. After a few years, he might be really promising. Repairing the house, isn’t this just a show of strength and repairing yourself to death? My grandma kept saying that my dad was about to solve the problem of the house, and he died at such a stall. It seems that the family is There is no life to enjoy life. Anyway, I grew up, and I have been hearing various people say that if my father was alive, our family would have moved into the tallest building by the Mingzi River. When he died, I When I was less than two years old, I thought it would make no difference if I had him or not. In the end, I hated him when I thought of that house, my mother, and my mother serving my grandma, that old hag. My sister said, If they talk about 'if your dad is here', he will become 'Schrödinger's dad'. Hey, have you heard of Schrödinger? I still don't quite understand it. My sister is smart, right? At that time she was In junior high school, I heard that she studied physics, which is a course for senior high school students. Oh, yes, she has also been admitted to your No. 1 middle school. If she is not too partial, she will definitely be able to pass the experiment. " I recalled the first time I met young Lao He more than a week ago and told her that I was studying in No. 1 Middle School. When she looked at the plaque, she was stunned for a moment. Lao He let go of my hand and lit a cigarette. "Later my sister died too." I moved my lips, but I didn't dare to ask; this question is not easy to ask, and I was even more afraid that as soon as I opened my mouth, she would say, according to the rules of the game, it's my turn to answer. Fortunately not.The smoke ring that Lao He spit out was like a drop of milk falling into the sea, and quickly dissipated into the night sky. "I still don't know who that little bastard is. He Long doesn't say anything. Who knows where she got the medicine, she just dumped the child in the school toilet." I managed to hold myself steady without falling off the rails. Lao He is simply a fucking legend!It was her sister who gave birth in the toilet, and her family was the one who hit the house with the train! Lao He's tone was still steady: "There must be something wrong with her medicine. She fainted from the pain in the toilet, and was discovered by her classmates after class, so she couldn't hide it. She almost bleeds at the hospital, but she was rescued anyway. The doctor said that in the future How about it, it’s hard to say. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now that I think about it, it probably implies that He Long will not be able to have children in the future. After my father died, my grandma raised He Long as a grandson, and he might be able to pass the Tsinghua University exam in the future Peking University, but isn’t a girl going to Tsinghua University and Peking University just to marry a good son-in-law? If she can’t have children, what’s the use of being admitted to the State Council? Anyway, my grandma thinks so. Hearing what the doctor said, I know I couldn't move into the building in my life, so I passed out on the spot." "No one knows that my sister is in a relationship. She looks better than me, but she is just an ordinary person. She is busy studying every day. We don't even know who that little bastard is. My mother slapped her five times. She had a nosebleed, and I took care of her, and stayed with her day and night, teasing her to talk, but she didn't say who it was. She was sick for almost three months, but she was still not well. During these three months, my grandma and I stared intently, but I didn’t see a man who came to see her. I think this incident hit her. No. 1 Middle School felt that the influence was not good, so I wanted to persuade her to quit. My mother and my grandma held Wangyuezhai I went to the school leader to plead for the snacks. Who the hell would like those catties of white sugar cakes, so I sent her back. It was raining heavily, and I went to the station to pick them up. On the way back, I just heard them cry , if your father is still alive, if your father is still alive... I think of what my sister said, Schrödinger's father." This sentence is like a curse, as long as Lao He says it, he will laugh. "The three of us came home and found her strangling herself to death with a sheet tied to the railing of the top bunk."