He and Manzhen have known each other for many years.It was eighteen years, that was a shock, and it immediately made him feel much older along with him.Life flies so fast—especially for people after middle age, ten or eight years seem to be a matter of fingers.But for young people, three to five years can be a lifetime. He and Manzhen broke up from the time they met, but it was only a few years, but in the past few years, so many things have gone through, as if they have experienced all the joys and sorrows of life, old age, sickness and death. Manzhen once asked him when he started to like her.Of course he replied: "When I saw you for the first time." When he said that, he was in such a state of ecstasy that he could believe anything, and of course he absolutely believed that it was not a lie.In fact, he couldn't remember exactly when he saw her for the first time.

It was Shuhui who first met her.Shu Hui is his best classmate, both of them are engineering students, Shu Hui first graduated and went to work, and after he graduated, Shu Hui introduced him to the same factory as an intern.Manzhen also works in this factory, and her writing desk is next to Shuhui. Shijun went to look for Shuhui several times. He should have seen her, but he didn't remember her.Probably because he had just left school at that time, he was always a little restrained when he saw women, and he felt it was inconvenient to look at them more. He worked as a trainee engineer in the factory and worked with workers in the machine room all day long. After he was familiar with it, he was transferred to another department.That life is very bitter, but that experience cannot be bought with money.The salary is extremely low, but fortunately his family does not rely on him to support the family.His home is not in Shanghai, he lives in Shuhui's home.

This is the first time for him to spend the lunar year outside.In the past, he didn't have a good impression of the New Year, because every New Year's day, there must be some unpleasant things in the family.The family was waiting for his father to come back to worship the ancestors and have a reunion dinner, but the small mansion deliberately detained him.Mother usually doesn't care much about these things, but New Year's Eve is an exception.She said that "a family must be like a family", and for the sake of the ancestors, the master should also go home on time and take care of everything.

In fact, there is still a program of worshiping the ancestors there, because the father, the concubine, has been with him for a long time, and the population is more prosperous than here.Father has been stationed there for many years.It is rare to go home once, and his mother is also polite to him.Only during the Chinese New Year holidays, probably because she couldn't help but feel a sense of family background at this time, she often couldn't help but want to quarrel with him.Even at such an old age, he was still crying.This is the case every year, and Shijun has seen it since he was a child.This year is good, not at home for the New Year, and many troubles will be saved.But I don't know why, when the New Year's Eve comes, many people eat New Year's Eve dinner early, and the scattered sound of firecrackers can be heard everywhere, and an inexplicable sadness oppresses his heart.

On New Year's Eve, Shijun had a New Year's Eve dinner at Shuhui's house, so he invited Shuhui out to watch a movie. He even watched two movies—there was also a movie at midnight that day.Watching such a play at midnight on New Year's Eve seems to have a special flavor, a little bit desolate amidst the excitement. Their factory only had three days off, but the small restaurant they used to eat at noon didn't open until after the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.On the fourth day of the junior high school, they went to eat together, but it was empty.I had to go back again, and the street was covered with little red confetti.Walking past a restaurant, the door was open, Shuhui said: "Let's eat here." This place probably won't open until the God of Wealth is taken over. Into the black hole.During the New Year, there was no business, but a young girl was sitting outside at a table as soon as she entered the door, wearing an old light gray sheepskin coat. There was only a pair of cups and chopsticks in front of her, and the food hadn’t been served yet. As if bored, he wore red wool gloves on his hand, and slowly wiped it down along his fingers, all the way to his palm, clamping one of the two fingers, and just wiped it in turn.As soon as Shuhui saw her, he said, "Miss Gu, you're here too!" As he said that, he was about to sit at her table, when he turned around and saw Shijun who seemed to be hesitating, and said, " They're all colleagues, have you seen them before? This is Shen Shijun, and this is Gu Manzhen." Her round face is square in an oval—it's not square, it just has an outline.Fluffy hair, casually draped over the shoulders.Shijun's judgment of a woman's appearance, body and clothing is not analytical at first, he just thinks she is very good in general.She put both hands in her coat pocket, smiled and nodded to him.At that moment, he and Shu Hui dragged the bench away and sat down. The vermilion lacquer bench was covered with a layer of black oil. Before that, he couldn't help but look at the bench twice.

At this time, the waiter also came over, with two teacups between his fingers, and put them on the table.Seeing this, Shuhui frowned again and said, "This place is not good, it's too dirty!" The waiter poured them two cups of tea, and they each ordered a meal.Shu Hui suddenly remembered, and said again: "Hey, bring me two pieces of paper to wipe your chopsticks!" The waiter had already gone far away, so he didn't hear him.Manzhen said: "Just rinse it in the teacup, I don't think you guys want to eat this tea." After saying that, he took the pair of chopsticks in front of him, washed them in the teacup, and picked them up. Shaking it, draining the water, and then set it on the teacup for him, and brought Shijun's pair of chopsticks over, Shijun hurriedly bowed and smiled, "I'll do it myself, I'll do it myself!" Waiting for her After washing, he stretched out his hand to take it, and said, "Thank you." Manzhen kept his eyelids down, and didn't look at anyone, just smiling.Shijun took the chopsticks and put them on the table.After I put it down, I suddenly had a second thought, the table was so greasy, and I put it down, the chopsticks were washed for nothing. I didn’t seem to care about it. She herself felt that she was being overly courteous.Thinking of this, he quickly picked up the chopsticks again, set them upright on the teacup just like her, and carefully aligned the ends of the two chopsticks.In fact, if the chopsticks are dirty, they are already dirty. Isn't this a deceitful thing?He felt a little embarrassed for no reason, so he accosted him and scoured the spoon in the teacup.At this time, the waiter was serving food, and there was a bowl of clam soup. Shijun took a spoonful to drink it, and then said with a smile: "Eating clams during the Chinese New Year is probably considered a good fortune—it is an ingot." Shuhui said: "Clams are also Ingots, taro are also ingots, dumplings and egg dumplings are ingots, even green fruits and tea eggs are ingots—I said that we Chinese are really obsessed with money, and we can see in our eyes that everything looks like ingots.” Manzhen laughed and said: “ You don't know, there is also a kind of "coir raincoat worm", a kind of caterpillar, which often falls from the roof, and the northerners call it "money string". It can be regarded as crazy about money!" Shi Jun She smiled and said, "Miss Gu is from the north?" Manzhen shook her head with a smile, and said, "My mother is from the north." Shijun said, "Then you are also half from the north." Shuhui said: "We often The small restaurant I went to is a northern restaurant, just across the way, have you been there? It’s not bad.” Manzhen said: “I haven’t been.” Shuhui said: “Tomorrow we will go together. The place is really bad. It's too dirty!"

From this day on, the three of them always eat together; the three of them have a guest meal, and they have three dishes and one soup together, and the eating is not so monotonous.Everyone is familiar to such an extent that there are times when they stand on the street and eat baked yams for a meal.Although they are familiar with each other, their conversation is limited to Shuhui and Manzhen talking about things in the office.The friendship between Shuhui and her seems to be limited to office hours.After leaving the office, not only did Shuhui not look for her, he didn't even mention her name.Once, he and Shijun talked about the personnel disputes in the factory, Shijun said: "You are lucky, at least the two of you in the room get along well." Shuhui just said "huh" indifferently and said: "Manzhen is a nice person. He's very straightforward." Shijun didn't go any further, otherwise, it seemed that he had become interested in Manzhen, and he would give Shuhui a few witty words later.

Another time, Shuhui suddenly said in a casual chat: "Manzhen told me about you today." Shijun was stunned for a moment, and then smiled after a while: "What are you talking about me?" Shuhui smiled Said: "She said why when I was with you, I was always the only one to talk. I told her that everyone said that I bullied you, and even my own mother defended you. In fact, it was just a personality. It doesn’t matter, you happen to be the kind of person who sings funny and acts as a hand.” Shi Jun smiled and said: “How about a hand?” Shuhui said: “Not very good, but people often knock him on the head with a fan bone. Let's go." Having said that, he laughed to himself.He said again: "I know you really don't mind. This is your benefit. I am the same as you in this point. People can make fun of me. I am not the kind who only allows him to make fun of others and does not allow people to make fun of him. It's..." Shu Hui never finished talking about himself anyway.Probably a smart and beautiful person will inevitably have a bit of "narcissism".He just continued to analyze the complex points of his own personality, while Shijun sat aside, but he was still thinking about how Manzhen talked about him.

Their factory is located in the suburbs. Although there are a few dilapidated streets nearby, there are fields within a few steps.Spring is here, and there is already a layer of green in the field, but the weather is still cold.On this day, Shijun got off work at noon, washed his hands hastily as usual, and went to the main office to look for Shuhui.Shuhui happened not to be in the room, and Manzhen was the only one sitting in front of the desk to sort out the documents.Indoors, she also wears a small red and blue checked scarf against a dark blue cloth burqa, which looks like a tall schoolgirl's attire.The blue cloth burqa has been washed so that the velvet turns gray and white, but the color has a gentle feeling, like the dark blue cover of a thread-bound book.

Shijun smiled and said, "Where's Shuhui?" Manzhen tilted his head slightly towards the manager's office, and said in a low voice, "I always like to wait until five minutes before leaving get off work, and suddenly call you over, and I have something important to tell you. I'm afraid all the bosses have this temper." Shijun smiled and nodded.He leaned on Shuhui's writing desk, flipped through the calendar hanging on the wall boredly, and said: "Let me see when the beginning of spring begins." Manzhen said: "Spring has already passed." Shijun said: "Then why?" Is it still so cold?" He still flipped the calendars one by one, and said: "The calendars printed are more frugal now, only Sunday is red. I like the calendars when we were young. Sundays are red. Saturday is green. When I tear it up to Saturday, I feel so happy when I see the green characters.” Manzhen smiled and said, “It’s like this. When I was in school, Saturday was happier than Sunday. .Although it’s red on Sunday, it’s already a little sunset.”

Just as we were talking, Shuhui came in, and as soon as he came in, he yelled at Manzhen, "Didn't I tell you to go first?" Manzhen smiled and said, "What are you busy with?" I want to pick a place with a better view to take two photos, I borrowed a camera here." Manzhen said: "It's such a cold day, it doesn't look good to take photos with red nose and red eyes." Shuhui Xiang Shijun She pouted and said: "Here, it's all for him. Their old lady wrote and asked him to send a photo. I said someone must be a matchmaker for him." Shi Jun blushed and said: "What? I know my mother has nothing else but keeps muttering that I must have lost weight, and she won’t believe what I say, so there must be a photo to prove it.” Shuhui looked at him and said, “You’re so skinny. Not skinny, it seems a little too dirty. The old lady still thinks you are digging a coal mine when she sees it, and she still feels distressed." Shijun lowered his head and looked at the workman's suit on his body.Manzhen smiled and said: "Take a towel and wipe it, I have it here." Shijun hurriedly said: "No, no, no need, my black stains are oil from the machine, wipe it on the towel It won’t drop.” He bent down, picked out a bunch of waste paper from the wastebasket, and wiped it vigorously on his trouser legs twice.Manzhen said, "Where can I do this?" She still took out a neatly folded towel from the drawer, dipped it in the cup of boiled water that Shuhui had left, and handed it over.Shijun had no choice but to hold it, and when he wiped it, there was a large piece of black on the snow-white towel, and he felt really sorry. Shuhui stood at the window and looked at the sky, and said, "The sun is a little unreliable today. I don't know if the photo will be successful or not." As he spoke, he took out a comb from his trouser pocket, He combed his hair against the glass window, pulled his tie, and stretched his neck.Seeing his self-pitying look, Manzhen couldn't help but pursed his lips and smiled.Shuhui turned his face and glanced slightly at his half side, but he kept urging Shijun: "Are you ready?" Manzhen said to Shijun: "You still have a black spot on your face. No , here——" She made a gesture on her face, and then said: "There is more." She found the small mirror in her purse again, and handed it to him to look at it.Shuhui smiled and said, "Hey, Manzhen, do you have any lipstick? Lend him some." While talking and laughing, he took the mirror from Shijun's hand and took a picture himself. The three of them went out to eat together. To save time, one of them ordered a bowl of noodles, ate it hastily, and then walked to the suburbs.Shuhui said that this area is full of barren fields, which is too plain, and he remembered that there were two big willow trees in the past, which was very interesting.But walking, walking, always can not go.Seeing that Manzhen seemed to be a bit behind, Shijun said, "Aren't we walking too fast?" Shuhui slowed down after hearing this, but this weather is really not the weather for walking.Driven by the cold, they unconsciously picked up their pace again.And go faster and faster.Everyone was panting, facing the wind, talking intermittently.Manzhen tried her best to hold down her flying hair, glanced at their heads, and said with a smile: "Isn't it cold with your ears exposed?" Shu Hui said: "Why not?" Manzhen laughed and said: "I often think that if I become a man, I will definitely catch a cold all the time in winter." The two willow trees have already sprouted tender golden buds.They took several pictures under the tree.There is a picture of Shuhui and Manzhen standing together, and Shijun took it for them.The light gray sheepskin coat she was wearing was rolled up by the strong wind, and she covered her mouth with one hand, and the red velvet glove lined her face, making her look very pale. The sun was always thin that day.Before a roll of film was finished, the sky changed.Hurry up, halfway to the road, the spring snow has already started falling.When it rained, it turned into rain again.Walking past a small shop, Manzhen saw many oil-paper umbrellas hanging inside, and she wanted to buy one.When it is stretched out, there are blue and green colors, and there is also a kind of painted flowers.There was a bunch of purple grapes painted on one of them, she held it to look at it, and then looked at the other one without flowers, always unable to make a decision, Shu Hui said that women always shop like this.Shijun later said with a smile, "The one without flowers is better", and she immediately bought the one without flowers.Shuhui said: "The price doesn't seem to be cheaper than in the urban area. Could it be a scam?" Manzhen pointed the tip of the umbrella at the signboard hanging on it, and said with a smile, "It doesn't say 'Children, old men, no deception' 'Really?" Shuhui said with a smile, "You're neither a child nor an old man, so it wouldn't be a crime to bully you once." Walking to the street, Manzhen suddenly smiled and said, "Oh, I lost a glove." Shuhui said, "It must have been lost in that shop." He went back to the shop and asked about it. , The shopkeeper said he didn't see it.Manzhen said: "I didn't wear gloves when I counted the money just now. ——That's because I lost it when I took a photo." Shi Jun said: "Go back and look for it." Actually, it was almost time to go to work at this time, and everyone was eager to go back to the factory, so Manzhen said: "Forget it, forget it, because of such a glove !” She said so, but she was somewhat disappointed.Things like Manzhen are close to trivial and stingy, but when Shijun thinks back many years later, things like her are still very memorable.Manzhen has such a temper, once something belongs to her, she always looks better and better, thinking it is the best in the world. ...he knew, because he once belonged to her. That day, when I returned to the factory from the suburbs, it rained non-stop. When I got off work in the afternoon, it was only five o'clock, and the sky was already dark.I don't know what kind of hazy state of mind caused him to walk to the suburbs again in the rain.It is very difficult to walk on the muddy field ridges, and every step is slippery.There is also the small tile house for coffins, like a dog house, lying low in the field ridges, I didn’t notice it when I came during the day, but I saw it in this dim rainy night, but I had a strange feeling.It was quiet all around, only the barking of the barking dog was heard.He didn't meet a single person along the way, only once, he saw someone holding a lantern and holding a big apricot umbrella from a distance, passing by the opposite bank of the river.After walking for a long time, I found the two big willow trees.He shone it with a flashlight from a long distance, and as soon as he shone it, he caught the red glove under the tree.I was happy first.Walking up to him, he bent down to pick it up, shone it with a flashlight, held it in his hand and looked at it, but hesitated again.Take it to her tomorrow, how should I say it?Isn't it obviously strange to walk such a long way in the rain just to find such a glove for her.His original meaning was just because he was sorry, and it was all because he wanted to take pictures, otherwise people would not lose things.But even he himself felt that this reason was not sufficient.So how to say?He really regretted coming here, but since he came here and found the thing, he might not be able to throw it in the ground again?He brushed the dirt off it a little and stuffed it into the bag.Now that you have taken it, you have to return it to others.It's even more a joke to keep it by yourself. At noon the next day, he went upstairs to his office.Fortunately, Shu Hui happened to be called inside again by the manager.Shijun took out the muddy glove from his pocket. He could have said this or that, but in the end he didn't say a word, just put it in front of her.If there was any expression on his face, it was one of aggrievedness, for he hadn't thought of it at first, or he wouldn't have asked himself to be so embarrassed. Manzhen was startled for a moment, took a look at the glove, and said, "Huh?...Ah, you went again after yesterday? It was such a long way—it was still raining—" At this point, Shuhui came in.Seeing Shijun's expression as if she didn't want to mention this matter, she mechanically kneaded the red glove into a ball, held it in her palm, and then stuffed it into the coat pocket while chatting up.Although her movements were calm, her face gradually turned red, she felt that something was wrong, her face was hot, which showed how hot she was just now.If you can't see it yourself, everyone must have seen it.Thinking of this, I felt anxious, and my face turned red again. Although they were so embarrassed for no reason at the time, it was okay afterwards. When eating together, her and Shijun's attitudes were the same as usual.The weather in spring fluctuates from hot to cold, and many people suffer from colds. Manzhen also fell ill one day, so she called the factory to ask Shuhui to take a day off for her.That afternoon, when Shuhui and Shijun returned home, Shijun asked, "Should we go and see her?" Shuhui said, "Well, it seems that she may be seriously ill. I was holding on yesterday. Here." Shijun said: "Do you know the address of her home?" Shuhui showed a hesitant look, and said: "I know, but I have never been there. You have known her these days, and you have never been there." Didn't you hear her talk about the situation at home? You can say that she has no mystery at all, only this, it seems a bit mysterious." Hearing these words to Shijun, he felt a little disgusted.Is it because he said she is too ordinary and has no mystery, or is it because he suspects that she has some ulterior secrets?That's not clear, but in short, it makes people feel doubly disgusted.Shijun said at the time: "That's not a mystery. Maybe her family has a lot of people and there is no place to entertain guests; maybe her family is still old-fashioned and doesn't approve of her making friends outside, so it is inconvenient for her to invite people to her house." Go." Shuhui nodded, and said, "Whether they welcome you or not, I have to go. I'm going to ask her for the key, because there are two letters that I need to check the manuscript, and she locked them in a drawer " Shijun said: "Then let's go. But... it's too late to go to someone's house at this time?" The kitchen was already cooking dinner, and there was a loud "chi la la, chi la la" The sound of cooking vegetables being put into the pot came up upstairs.Shuhui raised his hand to look at his watch, and suddenly heard his mother shouting in the kitchen: "Shuhui! Someone is looking for you!" Shuhui ran downstairs to have a look, but it was a baby born in the face.He was just feeling surprised, but the child held up a bunch of keys and handed them over, saying: "My sister asked me to send them, and these are the keys on her desk." Shuhui smiled and said: "Oh, you Is Manzhen's younger brother? How is she? Is she better?" The child replied: "She said she is better, and she can come tomorrow." Seeing that he is only seven or eight years old, he is very tactful. After explaining, he turned around and left. Shuhui's mother asked him to eat candy, but he refused to eat it. Shu Hui shook the bunch of keys in his palm, looked up and saw Shi Jun standing at the stairs, and said with a smile: "She must be afraid of us going, so she sent the keys in advance." Shi Jun smiled and said: "Why are you so neurotic today?" Shu Hui said, "It's not that I'm hypersensitive, the child's expression just now seems to have been trained, telling him not to talk too much to outsiders. ——Could it be her younger brother? Shijun couldn't help getting a little impatient, and said with a smile, "It looks a lot like her!" Shuhui said with a smile, "Maybe it's her son?" Nothing to answer.Seeing that he was silent, Shuhui said again: "Women who come out to work are always called 'Miss X' regardless of whether they have been married or not." Shijun laughed: "That's the case, but, At least...she's very young, that's obvious." Shu Hui shook his head and said, "A woman's age—it's hard to say!" Shuhui usually talks about "women" as if he has a lot of experience.In fact, when he first entered university, Shijun had heard his argument. At that time, Shijun knew that he had a girlfriend and a classmate named Yao Peizhen.He said "women" so-and-so, so-called "women" are synonymous with Yao Peizhen.There may be more than one Yao Peizhen now, but he still has more theory than practice.Shi Jun knew very well what he was like.What he said about Manzhen today was nothing more than what he thought of and what he said, there was absolutely no malice in it, and Shijun was not unaware of it, but he still felt it was very harsh.In all the years I've been with him, I've never been angry with him like this. That night, Shijun tweeted that he was writing a letter home, and he avoided talking to Shuhui all the time.Seeing that he was always sitting under the lamp, staring at the paper in a daze, Shu Hui thought it was because of family disputes that he was very preoccupied.