Chapter 6 Fives

Xu Qijun followed Ms. Mei's advice and kept everything secret.She doesn't quite agree with Ms. Mei's approach; at least she thinks that Ms. Mei is purely impulsive and has no definite goal.On the first day there was a long argument among them.Ms. Mei's persistent opinion is: "The word divorce must never be said now. When divorce is mentioned, they must be even more panicked and desperately trying to find me. Now they can only run away in such a daze. Please don't worry. Let me quietly Hide for a few days. Think about the future, and think about it in the future."

Xu Qijun closed her eyes and shook her head.After a while, she slowly asked again: "If you ran away in such a daze, wouldn't they come to you?" "Of course I'll look for it, but in another way. Maybe they thought I'd hit a great dick, or fell overboard, or . . . " "Or be lured away!" Xu Qijun rushed forward and said, giggling.Their discussion came to an end. Because she is hiding and does not move around, Ms. Mei spends the long summer time with her daily afternoon nap.It seems that Xu Qijun's bedroom is the place to settle down.On the contrary, Ms. Xu was a little anxious and impatient, running outside all day, spying on the so-called "news".But there is no clue, I only know that Liu Yuchun is in contact with the small leaders of the Hong gang, asking them to help.On the fourth day, I saw an anonymous notice in Xinshu Daily.Xu Qijun happily woke up the sleepy Ms. Mei, handed over the newspaper, and sat beside her, watching her face attentively. The reason was as follows;

Su Jian didn't come back for three days, and was very worried. If there is any difficulty, write to Jinjiang Hotel immediately, and we can discuss it in the long run. spring white. Ms. Mei glanced at it hastily, then unfolded the paper to read the news; she turned it over to read the notice again, smiled faintly, put down the paper, and closed her eyes. "How? Should we write a letter?" Xu Qijun asked impatiently. The answer is to shake your head.But suddenly she jumped up and hugged Xu Qijun's neck again. Ms. Mei said with a silly smile: "It seems that you are Liu Yuchun! Do you feel sorry for him? You don't need to feel sorry for him at all! During the day he posted a notice, 'extremely worried', and at night he slept in a prostitute's house, very happy! Why should I write? Of course I want I wrote to my father. But it will have to wait until the future, when I have a job. Hurry up and try to find a job for me! Liu, let him go. You see, he is tired of wandering around Chongqing, so naturally he wants to go back to Chengdu .”

Laughing again, Ms. Mei suddenly got out of bed, swaying her body, looking very happy. "Everything depends on you. But you also have to depend on me." Xu Qijun looked at Ms. Mei for a long time, then spoke slowly. "What's up?" "No more naps." Ms. Mei's beautiful eyes looked up innocently, and she pursed her lips and smiled.She understood the meaning of Xu Qijun's words.After pondering for a while, she answered with a question: "It's been four days. I should have woken up. Let's play cards tomorrow, shall we?" So another four days passed, and it was stuffy and hot.Xu Qijun often visited Jinjiang Hotel, and always saw the three large characters of Liu Yuchun written in white powder on the tourist board.This made her very uneasy.She felt a great responsibility upon herself.She is Ms. Mei's protector, so even though Ms. Mei can play cards and take a nap without thinking about it, she—Xu Qijun—cannot be so carefree.The maids at home also gradually whispered to each other.Maybe they could hear the news from outside?Perhaps they have become suspicious of this young female guest?Xu Qijun felt very depressed, but it was hard to tell Ms. Mei.She knew that this "presentist" would never bother to think about these "uncertainties".

The mother and sister-in-law also seemed to be infected by the maids, and they asked about Ms. Mei's net worth again.But what embarrassed Xu Qijun the most was her cousin Ziqiang, a seventeen-year-old eccentric middle school student.He smiled and said to Xu Qijun: "Your girlfriend, where did I see it, it seems that her surname is not Zhou!" "Nothing. Don't talk nonsense." Xu Qijun denied it outright, but two blushes had already appeared on her face. "Ha! Tell me straight, I'm not unwilling to keep a secret. Wouldn't it be better to have one more person to help?"

Xu Qijun stared at Ziqiang with wide eyes for a long while, then smiled faintly, and turned around.But Xu Ziqiang followed behind and said softly: "Don't you guys go to Jiangbei Zhiben Public School to have fun? It's quieter there, better than here-I'm better." "Thank you for your 'kindness', please don't meddle in your own business!" Just gave such a casual answer.Ziqiang looked at Xu Qijun's back, narrowed his eyes slyly, and suddenly laughed loudly, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and jumped proudly. The next day, Xu Qijun and Ms. Mei went to Jiangbei as expected.Zhiben Public School had already been on summer vacation, and a female teacher surnamed Chen who stayed in school for the summer was an acquaintance, so Xu Qijun and the others stayed here.Here and Chongqing City are only separated by a river, but it is completely rural scenery, and Ms. Mei feels that everything is comfortable, although the female teacher is a bit too sophisticated.This Ms. Chen is about 30 years old. She claims to be celibate, but she also likes to talk about other people's marriage and love. She seems to be very experienced in all kinds of relationships between men and women.Because of Xu Qijun's advice, Ms. Mei didn't get along well with this sophisticated spinster, she just hid in her room and read on the pretext of preparing for the school exam in the second half of the year; but Ms. Chen refused to let go of every opportunity to chat.Watching Xu Qijun go back to Chongqing, she came in.

"Heh, these books are used in the school exams now!" Seeing that Ms. Mei had nothing but novels and magazines on her desk, Ms. Chen said in surprise. Madam May just smiled softly. "I used to like reading novels too. Now, no! Miss Zhou, when you reach my age, you won't want to read them either." Suddenly, the old maid glanced at Ms. Mei, as if she meant: "Don't you believe me? Just wait and see!" Then she went on to say: "A lot of people read novels for leisure, and I don't. I was looking for company in novels; I wanted to find someone who was also a celibate. Guess I found it? No. So I'm not happy to read it again." .Have you seen it? I've seen it twice."

"How about Miaoyu, who is a nun? Isn't she celibate?" Probably because she felt embarrassed to keep her mouth shut, Ms. Mei just said something perfunctory.Unexpectedly, Ms. Chen was stunned, blushing faintly at the brows; she turned her face away and laughed dryly a few times, explaining intentionally or unintentionally: "Why is she mentioned! It's so nondescript. Celibacy is a noble ideal, not a hypocrite. Many people get it wrong." Ms. Mei nodded, pretending to be sincerely convinced.At the same time, a fresh thought passed through her mind: it seemed that everyone's propositions did not come suddenly, and they all had some special experience background.Everyone's life is not as simple as it looks, and everyone has some secrets that they don't want others to know, but other people's words often bump into these private scars, which seems to be deliberately provocative.

But Ms. Chen is again expressing her old-fashioned opinions: "Many people have no choice but to use celibacy as their shelter because of unsatisfactory marriages; some people have too high a vision, but their own qualifications are too low, and they use celibacy to ridicule themselves without success; If you can’t help being entangled by men, then celibacy has become a shield; some people simply use this as a pretense, as if they are waiting for a price! Recently, many celibate women here probably come from such a misunderstanding. The original intention of celibacy!" "Then, Mr. Chen, I think you must have a better reason, so you also embrace celibacy?"

Ms. Mei deliberately modified her tone to be extremely tactful, but she couldn't help but cast a sharp look at Ms. Chen. "Oh? That's nothing more than a noble ideal." This is a straightforward answer that comes out of the mouth; it is a vague answer, but it blocks all paths of inquiry. So the conversation changed direction, and Ms. Chen cursed the educational life she was engaged in.To Ms. Mei, this sounds like an experienced businessman telling a future colleague about the difficulties of his business, and it is a passive threat to prevent business competition.Ms. Mei had no choice but to listen patiently, hoping that something would come out to interrupt this disgusting conversation.

Going for a walk in the fields outside the school became a good way for Mrs. May to avoid the naughty spinster.Whenever Xu Qijun wanted to go home, Ms. Mei would follow her out; she could spend half a day sitting in the shade of the yellow jue tree next to the small stone bridge with a book.She watched those mud-faced and bare-chested country children wearing hats made of huge palm-shaped yellow jujube leaves, imitating the "long-haired" fighting.They rolled the leaves into tubes, held them in their mouths, and blew; sometimes three tubes lined up and blew at the same time, and the flat, wide and shrill sound was like the howling of wolves.It was only then that Ms. Mei realized that the leaves of the Jujube tree had so many uses, and she thought it was very interesting, so she made it into a whistle and blew it gently while reading a book. The weather is getting hotter.Even morning and evening there was no sign of the wind.Xu Qijun was sick at home because of the heat, and did not go to Zhiben for three or four days.Ms. Mei felt bored, so she ran to the big yellow june tree by the small river early in the morning to enjoy the shade; she made a soft seat with the leaves, and leaned on the trunk to watch the fish swimming in the water.Near the shore, there is a group of fish lined up neatly, like the ranks of troops participating in a military parade floating on the water, wriggling.All of a sudden a willow-leaf fish jumped over from the middle of the river and scattered the group of fish; but in an instant they gathered again, almost as neatly as before. Ms. Mei looked at it with interest, and suddenly a high-pitched sound came from her head, which startled her.She turned her head and saw a young man squatting behind her, with a whistle of a yellow jujube leaf in his mouth, and he was grinning.It turned out to be Xu Qijun's cousin Ziqiang. Neither of them spoke, and an uncomfortable air was exchanged between them. "Qijun can't come today, I'll take her place." When Ms. Mei straightened her waist and stood up, Xu Ziqiang introduced herself with a smile. The answer was a slight nod. "The person from Jinjiang Hotel has already left." Xu Ziqiang added another sentence softly.His triangular face showed a look of great relief, and the pair of slender eyes under his broad hat were fixed on Ms. Mei, as if to see how his powerful words had an effect.However, Ms. Mei only gave a faint rhetorical question: "Is that the thing?" Xu Ziqiang's joy shrank suddenly; the words he had prepared were useless, so he had to improvise.He raised the back of his hand, repeatedly wiped the sweat from his forehead, fiddled with the fine grass on the ground with his toes, and spying on Ms. Mei's face. "Perhaps sister Qi has something else to say?" Ms. Mei asked again, with a warm smile. This brought out Xu Ziqiang's courage and words.He took a step forward and said messily and excitedly: "Sister Qi didn't send me here. She refused to say anything. She didn't say anything. I said, I will keep a secret, but she didn't believe it. But now I have also found out. I knew everything four or five days ago. "Sister Qi just visits the gate of the Jinjiang Hotel every day. I often go there, and I have seen that person. You see, can I keep a secret? I found out this morning that he has indeed gone back, so I will Hurry up and tell you. Sister Qi hasn't heard the news yet!" Ms. Mei pursed her lips and smiled again.For the boy's self-professed loyalty and credit-taking attitude, she felt a refreshing sweetness from the bottom of her heart.Never before had a man who had just met her cared so much for her, been so enthusiastic, and tried so hard to win her favor.In a hurry, she couldn't think of any words to thank for this kindness, so she could only cast her soft eyes on Xu Ziqiang's sweaty face. "He went back, it is said that because a relative just died of illness in Chengdu." Xu Ziqiang made up his report, and leaned leisurely on the tree trunk, as if a petty official had sold a job in front of his boss, waiting for a reward. "What relative? Is the surname Wei?" Ms. Mei hurriedly asked, as if she already knew about this incident, and now she just needs to confirm it. "It seems that the surname is Wei. I thought it was irrelevant, but I didn't inquire carefully. Do you want to know the details? I will definitely tell you in detail tomorrow." Ms. Mei let out a cry, lowered her head, and seemed to say softly to herself: "Dead at last! Why did he rush back? But, Mistesu, don't ask any more. Qi Jun is well, please come here!" The tone of the second half of the sentence is serious, and now the tip of the long eyebrows is slightly frown, and the smile has disappeared beside the lovely red lips.Xu Ziqiang felt surprised, and then shrank the words that had been waiting in his throat; but after hesitating for a moment, he finally said boldly: "Maybe she won't be able to come tomorrow. What's the matter? Can I do it? Can you trust me? I have a lot to say to you. It was Qi Jun who stopped me from coming to see you. She took me Treat her like an ignorant child. Heaven has eyes, and she will be sick for a few days. If you are happy, let's sit here and talk. I have a lot to say." no answer.Some mixed feelings about Wei Yu, Liu Yuchun, and her own father were flooding into Madam Mei's mind, preventing her from consciously pondering Xu Ziqiang's words.She instinctively glanced at Xu Ziqiang, then sat on the thick vine of the original yellow jue leaves. Naturally, this was an expression of willingness to talk. Xu Ziqiang couldn't help his heartbeat and blushed; his inexperienced mouth suddenly spit out three clumsy but naive words: "I love you!" Ms. Mei's eyes widened in astonishment.The boy of medium build standing in front of him suddenly enlarged, and he was as strong as the Juanjuan tree; the blushing face of the triangle revealed an expression of innocence and fear. "I love you!" The three abrupt words finally echoed in Ms. Mei's ear canal, and it seemed that her heart was a little shaken by the shock.But only for a moment.Ms. Mei's own greasy long smile dispelled all illusions.She stared at Xu Ziqiang's face and asked earnestly: "Since when? Why? Have you ever loved? Do you know what love feels like? You have only seen the face of love in novels, right? " This series of questions confused Xu Ziqiang.In other matters, this seventeen-year-old middle school student is indeed very sophisticated, but when it comes to the relationship between men and women, he can't even be called "childish"; he is just a crude "inexperienced".He could hardly have dreamed of the depths of a woman's heart.Madam Mei laughed again.She subconsciously grabbed the palm of the flushed and embarrassed young man, and continued frankly: "You almost made a joke. I don't blame you. I also understand your sincerity. You are smart and capable, and I love you, but you are just a little brother after all. Probably you haven't thought about it, even if I Is it good for you to love you? Naturally, I have never considered my interests. In the future, you will have a lot of time to fall in love, and you will meet many lovely women. At that time, you will remember my today Words.—” Ms. Mei suddenly stopped talking; he saw Xu Ziqiang's eyes staring curiously and greedily at her breasts covered only by a layer of tulle, and she felt a fingertip timidly touching her. wrist.And at about the same time, she heard footsteps on the left again.Instinctively, she freed Xu Ziqiang's hand, jumped up, and saw that Ms. Chen was within ten steps. A few seconds of awkward silence.Then Ms. Mei smiled and said, "Qijun's cold is not healed yet!" But before Ms. Chen could answer, Ms. Mei turned her head and told Xu Ziqiang solemnly: "If she still has a fever tomorrow, please come and pick me up!" The three left the river.Ms. Chen was exceptionally silent, and deliberately walked in the last place. It wasn't until Xu Ziqiang parted ways with them that the "old maid" rushed up to Ms. Mei's shoulder, smiled slyly, and made a detour to criticize Xu Ziqiang. Ziqiang is a "monster", and Ms. Mei just pursed her lips and smiled. It rained in the afternoon, and Ms. Mei couldn't go out, so she slept in her room.In the dream, she was under the tree by the river again, and Xu Ziqiang was squatting opposite, with a row of whistles of five or six jujube leaves in his mouth, whistling like crazy; , It was dark in front of my eyes.Suddenly she was hugged, she struggled, the water soaked her clothes, and then she heard a loud shout, just like Wei Yu's tone: "You said we would meet again in Chongqing, but you lied to me!" Ms. Mei opened her eyes, and saw Wei Yu's blood-sucking face covered her face like a big white paper.It was raining torrentially outside the window, and the water from the eaves sounded like firecrackers.She lay there in a daze, thinking about things here and there, until the sweaty gauze was dry again. That evening, she left school and went back to Xu Qijun's home.When crossing the river in the crimson sunset, she looked at the purple river and said in her heart: "Beautiful mountains and rivers, but only gray life; is this destiny? Go forward with this destiny!" Xu Qijun's illness was protracted, but she never fully recovered.Ms. Mei Quan acted as a caregiver and lived in seclusion in the bedroom all day. Although she felt quite exhausted, she endured it day by day.She has no worries or anxieties.However, it cannot be excited and lively.The sour tears of sentimental past have long been dried up by her fire-like resentment. Even if she touches the scenery and objects, there will be occasional ripples of old regret in the depths of her heart, which are immediately suppressed by her cold reason.She has severed the entanglement of the past with the sword of will.What about the future?Future fantasies are always light, and present are almost non-existent; so she can't laugh at herself in vain.She only has a monotonous gray present, she can only blankly let the present become the past, and throw it into oblivion forever. Xu Ziqiang also came to tease her heart from time to time.How much has he poured out of his "many, many words".But for this "now", Ms. Mei also feels the same monotony.What love!Didn't she have experienced it before?And have seen many?And she hasn't forgotten the bad lessons Liu Yuchun taught her.It seemed to her that people who ate fish for the first time never tasted the real taste of fish, but their appetite was spoiled by the stench; she came to this understanding in a daze: the reason why love is different from friendship is because of the relationship between meat and fish. And the relationship with flesh is equal to Liu Yuchun's unilateral catharsis.This is what she has learned too much.She hated thinking about it. However, in the depths of her heart, under this monotonous and blank hard shell, there is still a fire lurking, and a ray of light blue flame will emerge from time to time; , and finally a question condensed into reality appeared in her consciousness: How will life be like in the future?But only for a moment.The cheerfulness, courage, and self-confidence in her nature immediately wiped away these useless mediocrity. Gradually, it came to mid-August.Xu Qijun struggled out of the lingering malaria.Before that, she wrote several letters to her brother, looking for work on behalf of Ms. Mei; she also wrote back twice, but there was no definite answer.Maybe it won't work?Xu Qijun often thinks so anxiously, and feels that Ms. Mei's indifferent attitude is too irritating and irresponsible.Because of this, they sometimes have quarrels; like a strict father scolding his tired son, Xu Qijun asked in a pompous manner: "Why don't you take it to heart? It doesn't seem to be your business! In case of despair, what are you going to do?" Madam Mei just pursed her lips and smiled.She understood the enthusiasm of this good friend.Grabbing Xu Qijun's hand gently, she said in a manly voice: "It's useless to be anxious. There is no unparalleled road, and the world is very vast after all!" "You still have that old temper! When you were in Yizhou, you said that there would be no accidents on Wei Yu's side, and you said that you were afraid of the wicker cage, but how is it now? You are smart and bold, and you don't care about anything. ,—but everything is harming yourself! Now I believe in God, and I believe in the vast world after all, you—— It really makes me look angry! " Xu Qijun shook her head angrily, and said sharply.But there was still only a silly answer.After several seconds, Ms. Mei stopped her laughter, stood up solemnly, and burst out a sentence between her teeth: "I only trust myself!" The last word "myself" was spoken in a particularly high-pitched and stern voice. Xu Qijun couldn't help but her heart skipped a beat, but Ms. Mei rushed over and hugged Xu Qijun with a grinning grin, and put her lips next to her ear and said softly: "What are you going to do? Going to find a lover!" Xu Qijun couldn't help laughing either.It was a disbelieving smile, and maybe it contained some meaning of "how can you be so depraved"; but at the same time, she remembered something, she turned her face to fix Ms. Mei's eyes and asked: "The target is Xu Ziqiang?" "What! Absolutely not! Why should I spoil this child? Besides, why do I have to have a partner first? Do you still have beautiful dreams when you are alone? But I decided not to turn back!" There was a momentary silence.Finally it was Xu Qijun who pondered and said: "Why complain so much, the world is still vast after all!" Although she was calm in words, she was doubly anxious in her heart. Xu Qijun almost imagined the worst outcome.Now she feels that Ms. Mei's superficial composure is not laziness or irresponsibility, but that she deliberately "takes risks".This "discovery" made Xu Qijun shudder, and he also doubted the new ideas that he usually believed in; people were awakened, they were called out, and they were moving forward, not to the light, but to the Darkness; the patriots who shouted to wake up the youth are not ready for a bright and happy society to accommodate those fugitives! The end of August is also approaching.A large advertisement for missing persons suddenly appeared in the "Xinshu Daily", and it also included a photo of Ms. Mei.When Xu Ziqiang jumped in and unfolded the newspaper panting, the faces of the two ladies changed color.The three exchanged glances several times, but couldn't say a word. "If you stay any longer, it will drag you down. I'll go back to Chengdu to negotiate in person! Otherwise, I'll go out: Hankou, Nanjing, Shanghai. If you don't believe me, I'll starve to death!" Madam Mei said calmly.But Xu Qijun's sisters shook their heads.The muffled, but heated debate began.Ms. Mei's final proposition was that as long as Xu Qijun collected one hundred yuan for her, she would leave Sichuan immediately.However, Xu Qijun felt that there was no need to take such a risk, and one hundred yuan could not be done right away; she said that her family would not notice this advertisement, and the matter was not very urgent, and she would work hard to do some activities, or she could buy it locally. At that time, he used the pretext of "I'm bored at home, I want to go out and do something", and honestly revealed it to Liu Yuchun, and it was not always a perfunctory way. Hearing that Ms. Mei could live in Chongqing for a long time, Xu Ziqiang naturally agreed very much, and Xu Qijun was so persistent, so Ms. Mei stopped talking and smiled as usual. Two days, three days, unexpectedly passed quickly, Xu Qijun went to several places and looked for many people, but there was no result.She was desperate, and was about to ask for money, but suddenly got a piece of news.The new headmaster of Luzhou Normal School turned out to be Lu X who he knew a little bit. I heard that he replaced all the old teachers. Maybe there are still vacancies for female teachers in his affiliated primary school? After some discussions, Ms. Mei decided to go to Luzhou to try her luck, and Xu Qijun also accompanied her.