Chapter 18 18. Happiness Street

Like a red-eye hunter in the jungle, I wish I could fly across the street like a bullet.Lao He's hands were entangled like vines, breaking one and climbing up another, I was so angry that I yelled, "let me go!" My mother turned her head in shock and saw me across the narrow road. She originally had a pair of shy and timid eyes, but she flickered in fright at my fierce and urgent look, took half a step back, then turned around and left quickly, and in the blink of an eye, only the corner of the cardigan was left floating like a fish's tail With a light swing, it disappeared at the corner of the old building.

I finally broke free from Lao He, staggered and fell to the ground, my palms were scorchingly painful from rubbing against the asphalt road, and I scrambled and scrambled to catch up. Turning off Ming'an Street is the morning market street.There were already quite a few people scattered here and there, and the back of the gray cardigan could not be found in the faint morning light.A stall owner was bagging fresh milk from a huge iron bucket, and the spilled liquid threw me in the face. The hot life spread out in front of me, stretching all the way to an invisible end. I didn't continue to sit on the side of the road on Ming'an Street and wait.There are more and more pedestrians, and everyone has to glance at me and Lao He several times, even if they pass by, they keep looking back, which makes people feel annoyed.My courage is like buckling in the lid of a pot, and the lid is lifted, and the day is bright, and they all slip away.

"Go back." I stood up. Ever since Lao He saw me run wildly, he didn't say a word, but he didn't abandon me either. Instead, he waited for me to come back, and sat with me in a daze.Seeing that I was about to leave at this time, she squeezed my wrist silently, went to the tree alone and started her "BMW", turned around, turned around and pouted towards the back seat. I reported the street name of Wang Pingping's house.Lao He was very familiar with the old town of Daocheng, so he drove away firmly without asking any further questions.I sat sideways, leaning on her back, looking down at the scratched palms.

The exposed pink and tender palm has fine lines and wrinkles. In fact, we are all wrinkled people, all covered by a layer of smooth skin.To be a human being is to be tight all the time, tight, and never break. The car crossed the morning market stalls, turned around Santiao Street, and passed Mingfeng Shopping Mall.Its side runs through the entire street, and Lao He's car drives from the end of the street to the street. The windows of the shopping mall are pasted with red slogans such as "non-staple food", "textile" and "culture and education". The old movies that kept freezing, flashed before my eyes frame by frame.

Mingfeng Shopping Center is an old state-owned store, not too big, with only one floor.Together with the state-run Mingyi Store four or five kilometers away, it supports the entire Mingzidian Old Street.When I returned to Daocheng more than ten years later, it had been rebuilt into a nondescript low-end business district. The billboards of fake fast food restaurants and fake foreign-brand women's clothing stores were scattered high and low, squeezing out a whole new and brand-new failure. Once upon a time, Mingfeng Store and Mingyi Store were the temples in the hearts of all of us.Daily fruits and vegetables can be bought at the vegetable market, and they only walk into these two state-owned stores with their chests up and their heads up during the holidays.I was six or seven years old at the time, and I wore the padded jacket with my arms open, revealing the ginger-yellow sweater I had changed for the New Year underneath. On the chest of the sweater was a big-eared white rabbit that my mother woven by herself, named Xiaoxue (made by me).As soon as I entered the mall, I ran happily, ignoring the usual cold eyes of the state-run counter staff.I put my face on the water tank in the fresh fish department to observe the shrimps, crabs, koi carps, and then rushed to the non-staple food department to stand on tiptoe and look eagerly at the assortment of loose chocolates and nougats in the glass box; the area selling toys is only It was only open to me on my birthday, and between an electric parrot that can say "Hello" and a whole set of spatulas and buckets for playing with sand, I finally chose the "Contractor Five-Piece Set", and I didn't see it again for the next year Passing that colorful parrot has become an eternal regret in my childhood.

As long as the thick curtain is opened, a strange smell of cheap saccharin, egg milk cake, seafood and meat, and knitted wool moth balls will rush into the nostrils.On the way home from elementary school, I would take a detour to this road every day, entering through the main entrance and exiting through the back door, just walking the entire street. Mingfeng store is my road to happiness.It was all my imagination of the word happiness when I was a child.I told my mother that if I have money one day, I will live in Mingfeng store until I die. As I say this, I'm torn between the electric parrot and the Contractor's five-piece suit.After disassembling the five-piece suit once, I turned my head and said "hello" to the parrot, and when the parrot replied "hello" slowly, I turned around and assembled the five-piece suit again.

The salesman's face was stretched longer than the donkey's.I sensed my mother's cramps and impatience again—that was my worst fear growing up.I can't tell exactly which expression I sensed from that sigh, but I just know. It can lead to rage, crying. Or, leave without saying goodbye. So I immediately picked up the contractor's five-piece suit and said I had chosen it.When the salesperson was billing, I said loudly, Mingfeng Store is so good, Mom, I will move in and live there until I die! The grown-ups nearby laughed, including the salesperson who was drawing out tickets with drooping eyelids, and my mother who frowned slightly.

Zhang Xiaoman, you are awesome, you can make so many people happy. Perhaps it was this day that completely set the tone of Comrade Zhang Xiaoman's sensational life. But at least on this day, my mother is holding a cream cake in her left hand, and gently holding me in her right hand. I hold a brand new toy with a charming plastic smell in my arms, and walk step by step through my happy street. When I first got to know Teng Zhen, I liked talking about my childhood with him.I don’t remember anything about high school, my college boyfriend talked too much to mention, after work I love money like my life, I don’t know anything about the international and domestic political and economic situation, and I’m shy when I talk about it... When I was young, what else could I say.The two people searched out from the corners of memory any childhood snacks that they liked in common and were actually not uncommon, which could become an opportunity to smile at each other.

Teng Zhen has lived in the southern coast of the island city where colleges and universities gather since he was a child, and he is very interested in the old streets criss-crossed by Ming characters.He took me to eat at his favorite bun shop in elementary school. In return, I also told him about the electronic parrot and how tempting the loose chocolates my parents refused to buy on the grounds of tooth decay looked so tempting. As for staring at the boxy sidewalk tiles under my feet while walking, I want to dig out a piece and taste it. But when we drove to the road of Mingfeng store, we saw the extremely gaudy knockoff Wanda in front of us.I said with regret, forget it, the bulk chocolate is blended with saccharin, I know it won’t taste good, now there are so many Belgian imported chocolates, why eat floor tiles.

However, before going to Shanghai, at the airport, he suddenly and mysteriously took out a kraft paper bag and said, try it. I tentatively reached into the paper bag and pulled out a few loose chocolates.It was hard and thick, like broken floor tiles, with light brown bits cut out on the edges. "I couldn't find it anywhere. Then I called a buddy in our company who was born in a very remote place. There is still a state-run supply and marketing cooperative in his hometown. His mother bought it for me, sent it to the company, and then forwarded it to my home. You try Taste it, be careful, it might be 30 years past its expiration date."

The corners of my eyes were a little sore, I didn't know what to say, so I had to lower my head to eat chocolate.The loose chocolate was as hard as a floor tile. I couldn't bite a corner of my front teeth. I held on for too long, and accidentally dripped my saliva on my shoes.Just as I was feeling embarrassed, a warm hand fell on the top of my head, stroking my hair affectionately. I looked up with red eyes.But he didn't look at me, he stared at the boarding gate at the end of the track and said, let's go. Lao He's "BMW" drove to the intersection and turned right.I was face to face with the main entrance of Ming An store, and I saw the huge words "Closed" posted on the closed door. It turned out that in 2003, Mingfeng Shopping Center closed down. Happiness Avenue is surrounded by talking parrots, bittersweet chocolates, a mother I have never seen again, and Teng Zhen who rubs my hair but looks into the distance...they left me together. The island city is located in the east, and it always dawns earlier.Lao He drove the car back to the vicinity of the old railway, and the morning light had already illuminated everything clearly. Lao He accelerated all the way, but still failed to cross the railway crossing before the pole fell.The jingling warning bell rang, and she stopped on one foot and cursed. "The woman just now...is my mother." She has been fooling around with me all night, so I should explain to her again. "If you don't want to say it, then don't say it." Old He interrupted me. Because my ear was attached to her back, the voice came in through the resonance of her body, which was kind of earthy and earthy. Lao He yawned: "I've only seen the same expression on Zuo Yan's face as you did just now. It scared me to death." "Who?" "Tell Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here." Lao He waved to the right, and three small motorcycles drove towards us from the fork in the road. Four men and two women, including Pang Haihai and Xiaoyan, were drinking at Old Man Gao's house. seen. "Why did you go? You didn't come when Zuo Yan told you!" Pang Dahai yelled before the car stabilized. "You're still talking about me, you guys have been brushing for a few days, can you bear it, don't you go to work?" Old He turned his head and asked the leading boys, "Zuo Yan, are you going to Night Spider again?" Only then did I notice Zuo Yan who was covered by the huge body of the sea.He was about the same age as Lao He, his complexion was pale because he was drunk or stayed up all night, but his appearance was not bad, a bit like Edison Chen.It's just that the trousers and clothes are the same as Shamat Lao He, with chains of unknown meaning wrapped around them. "He Tieshou, you are really a fucking female King Kong, you can carry such a fat girl?" The strange thing is that when these words came out of his mouth, I didn't hear any malice, but thought it was normal.As expected, he smiled crookedly after speaking—I am afraid that he knew that he was very similar to Edison Chen, so he doubled his imitation—then he took out two cigarettes from behind his ears and handed them to Lao He and me respectively.I waved my hand to refuse, he smiled again, and picked up the cigarette by himself. Old He took it over and lit it up: "How many times have I said this, I changed my name. Call me Old He!" There was a girl with yellow hair in the back seat of Zuo Yan's car, she was already in a deep sleep, she leaned on his back, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, following his movements, her head was tilted from side to side, and finally squinted He squinted his eyes and looked out the window and asked, why don't you leave? Zuo Yan turned his head and kissed the girl.The train rumbled past, drowning out their voices.The sun shone through the gaps in the train carriages, and with the rhythm of the train passing by, Lao He's colorful hair flashed like neon lights. The gentle dark blue night passed. 2003 was once again my colorful and unreal nightmare. Lao He put me on the street corner and left with Zuo Yan and the others.The sun rises, but my heart sinks—if Wang Shugang, a berserker, finds out that I have escaped all night, he may sacrifice me to the Stove Lord.Look, this is how people succumb to fate step by step. Whether I want to be Wang Pingping or not, I feel like a 17-year-old teenager who is afraid of being beaten. Then I turned a corner and saw Wang Shugang. I quickly retracted my head, waited anxiously for a while, and finally made sure that he didn't notice me.Coincidentally, Lao He turned back on his motorcycle, waved at me from afar, and opened his mouth to shout—— No!I am devastated. "Zhang Xiaoman!" I was taken aback. "Zhang Xiaoman, this is for you. I didn't know which one was too drunk at Night Spider last night. I didn't even know that my mobile phone was dropped under the card holder. Zuo Yan and the others picked it up. The broken PHS is about to collapse. You can use it Come on, save us from finding you if we want to go out and play." I took the phone, afraid that Wang Shu would not even fart when he heard my voice, so I could only silently nod and smile to express my gratitude.Old He laughed at me for pretending to be a lady, twisted the handle and galloped away. She called me Zhang Xiaoman, and I kept telling her my name was Zhang Xiaoman.I am indeed Zhang Xiaoman. At that moment, I completely forgot.