Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty

As if walking on thin ice, this is definitely a summary of Zhou Yulou's mood in the past four days. Four days have passed since Xia Churong jumped off the building.During these four days, Zhou Yulou was always ready to hear the piercing sirens, to see the police cars parked downstairs, and to encounter the oncoming policemen. Since the breakup that night, Zhou Yulou had never seen Huang Dasheng again, nor had he spoken on the phone.He didn't know whether Huang Dasheng had told the truth to the police.He picked up the phone several times to contact Huang Dasheng, but finally put it down.And Jiang Dan, Zhou Yulou thought, even if Huang Dasheng didn't say anything, if that policeman went to Jiang Dan to check the situation, his lies would be exposed.Many times, he plucked up his courage and wanted to talk to his wife, at least to unify his views, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and refused to go.

Forget it, he thought.If the police really believed their words, they wouldn't bother Jiang Dan anymore.If they are not reconciled and want to continue the investigation, it will be of no avail even if they can persuade Jiang Dan.As for Huang Dasheng, Zhou Yulou knows him too well, even if he wants to do ten bulls, he won't be able to pull back, so it's better not to add a joke to everyone's 20-year friendship.Resign yourself to fate!Zhou Yulou comforted himself.It's up to man to make things up to God, do what needs to be done, and don't force the rest.What kind of performance God wants to see, only God knows the intention.

In fact, there is one thing Zhou Yulou has in mind - long before the kidnapping happened, the police had identified Xia Churong as the murderer of Tang Kai.In Xia Churong's own words: When she got home, she saw policemen upstairs and downstairs.Zhou Yulou didn't know what evidence the police had, but in short, they must have evidence before arresting people.Zhou Yulou thought, if "Xia Churong is the murderer" had already been concluded by the police, then who would care about a kidnapping case that had no danger at all. It was on Friday evening that Zhou Yulou really understood God's intentions.When he was about to get off work that day, he received a call from Jiang Siye, who invited him to his house for dinner.

As soon as he entered the door, Zhou Yulou smelled a tangy aroma of vegetables.After retirement, Jiang Siye's culinary skills have improved by leaps and bounds.Today he has been busy since noon, cooking a table full of dishes.After Zhou Yulou entered the room, he took out two bottles of Moutai and said with pride that they would all be wiped out tonight.How could Zhou Yulou drink so much?Jiang Siye said, Dasheng is also here, and I invited him too. Zhou Yulou was surprised. His father-in-law told him: "Dasheng has worried a lot about you and Dandan. The day after you quarreled with Dandan, he came to do Dandan's work early in the morning. You have to thank him very much."

Zhou Yulou tentatively asked: "Has anyone else come to Dandan these two days?" Jiang Siye said: "No, I only came here once when I was a college student. Dandan has been suffering from a headache for the past two days, and has been asking for sick leave with the publishing house, and has not gone out. Yesterday, their president called and said that the Beijing Book Festival was about to open, and asked Can she go to participate? She said yes, no, she left at noon today. " "What? Dandan went out? When will you be back?" "The Book Festival ends in ten days, and she said she would stay in Beijing for a few more days to discuss topic selection with some writers." Jiang Siye reassured his son-in-law, "That's fine, it's better than a newlywed, wait for her to come back, you little ones The two will naturally reunite after a broken mirror."

Zhou Yulou secretly breathed a sigh of relief, it seems that the police did not come to trouble Jiang Dan. Huang Dasheng came with Lu Qing. When they entered the room, the moment their eyes met, Zhou Yulou and Huang Dasheng were obviously unnatural.Jiang Siye warmly greeted everyone, and then went to work in the kitchen, Lu Qing also followed in, only Huang Dasheng and Zhou Yulou were left in the living room. After being silent for a while, Zhou Yulou cautiously asked, "Dasheng, how is that case...?" "Very good." Huang Dasheng snorted lightly, turned on the TV, and "Xinjiang Legal News" was broadcasting on the TV, he immediately tuned the channel, and then watched the football game without squinting.

Zhou Yulou wanted to continue asking, but hesitated for a while, and still didn't open his mouth.He went to the window, stood down, folded his arms, and looked out of the window without moving.Huang Dasheng glanced at him. Before he resigned that day, he had stood in front of the window of the editorial department in the same posture and looked at it for a long time. Huang Dasheng still walked over and stood side by side with Zhou Yulou. "The case is closed." Huang Dasheng said softly, his eyes following a group of returning pigeons. Zhou Yulou turned his head towards Huang Dasheng.The movement of turning the head is very interesting. It starts slowly and is a bit mechanical, and then turns around suddenly and tremblingly in the middle of the turn.

"They... believed it? Didn't pursue it anymore?" He suppressed his excitement. Huang Dasheng shook his head, as if he was talking to himself: "I didn't pursue it, it's over...it's all over." Zhou Yulou looked at Huang Dasheng with complicated expressions: joy, gratitude, unprepared relief, and weakness after the robbing waves... Huang Dasheng put his eyes on the window, trying his best to find the pigeon's way back. "The fish are coming!" With a yell, Lu Qing walked out of the kitchen with a large plate in his hand.There is a big fish weighing more than three catties on the plate.That was Jiang Siye's finale tonight-sweet and sour sea bass, but it failed, it was mushy, and it was soggy and black.The sea bass curled up on the plate in pain, as if it had suffered all the suffering in the world, much like Zhou Yulou's spiritual selfies these days.

The atmosphere during the banquet was quite good, and everyone chatted freely.Jiang Siye has a common language with young people. He has always paid attention to new things with enthusiasm.So at the dinner table this weekend, Jiang Siye naturally became the center of everyone's conversation, which covered up the estrangement between Huang Dasheng and Zhou Yulou very well. Xie Lan came back when the first bottle of Moutai bottomed out. She went to the Education Committee for a meeting, which was very successful. She was beaming when she entered the house, and she was even more excited when she saw the atmosphere at home.She greeted everyone with a smile, appreciating each dish with great interest, and praised Jiang Siye as a "hero who is old and capable".Lu Qing frantically poured wine for her, but she declined and handed over the wine glass.

Xie Lan never talked about work at home, but today she was so happy that she just sat down for a while, and began to convey the spirit of the education committee to Zhou Yulou. Xie Lan said that the leaders of the Education Committee attach great importance to the promotion of young professors in art colleges. The expert review team will be established next week. In addition to experts from the province, they also specially invited prestigious authorities from Beijing. "This is the most important task for our province's education system this year." Xie Lan mistook the dining room for the dean's office, and spoke to the crowd heavily, "The leader of the education committee said that we must let a group of students who are capable, accomplished, and have the spirit of research Young people with excellent ideological quality rushed to the front line of art teaching to promote the development of art work in the province." Then, she took a sip of Moutai and said to Zhou Yulou mysteriously, "After the meeting, Director Gao still You deliberately left me here and talked with me alone for a while, do you know what we talked about?"

"Is it Gao Zhanming?" Jiang Siye asked. "Yes." Xie Lan gave her husband a blank look. "That Gao Zhanming always keeps you after the meeting, isn't he tired? The Academy of Fine Arts is in chaos, why doesn't he keep Chen Tieyong? He keeps you 'specially' every now and then, and...' Let's talk alone for a while, is there something wrong with him?" Jiang Siye imitated his wife's tone decently.Gao Zhanming pursued Xie Lan when he was young, but failed because of Jiang Siye's appearance, so whenever Xie Lan mentioned Gao Zhanming, Jiang Siye would take him out, full of anger on the surface, but actually implied a faint pride. Xie Lan ignored him, and continued to ask Zhou Yulou in the tone just now: "Do you know what we talked about?" "What?" Zhou Yulou expressed concern. "Talking about you." Xie Lan said, and then turned to tell Jiang Siye, "The fish is overcooked!... Yulou, Director Gao specially asked me to pass on his greetings to you. He also said that Yulou has always been the youth of our province. The vanguard of the teaching team, even I have become his student, Xue Ge's fan, must let Yu Lou fully prepare for this professor's application, and write a good thesis. In addition, Director Gao also said, the head of your vocal music department The position has been vacant all the time, go back and tell Yulou, let him continue to work hard, we all have high hopes for him, hope that he can become the leader of our provincial vocal music stage." As if Maotai can soothe the throat, Xie Lan took another big gulp, Encouraging his son-in-law, "Look at Yulou, you hold a lot of weight in the hearts of the leaders of the Education Committee. Even I, an elder, feel honored. Ordinarily, I shouldn't have said this to you, but in fact, with Feng Tai Compared with the teacher, I have always thought that you should be a more suitable candidate for the head of the department. Of course, the more capable a person is, the higher the requirements are for him, such as your management of students..." "Hey, hey... Come on," Jiang Siye interrupted his wife, "I said, why are you getting too much as a petty official? You even held the meeting at home. I think Yulou manages the students very well. , how could there be Xue Ge who won every game?" "What do you know?" Xie Lan turned her head and stared at her husband, "As a person who has been abandoned by society, just concentrate on doing your housework well, don't always point fingers at those who work outside, I'm talking about serious business with Yulou. " "What!" Jiang Siye blushed and stiffened his neck, "Who do you say is an outcast by society?" "Of course it's you." "Why am I abandoned by society?" "You haven't been abandoned, so why do you stay at home every day?" "I……" "Oh... Auntie Xie," Lu Qing had burst into tears a long time ago, she pressed the quarrel button, and said to Xie Lan, "Please, don't keep staring at your director Zhou, and come to train him too. Let’s train our college students. He has also been abandoned by the society. He just lost his job in the newspaper office a few days ago and is preparing to concentrate on housework. See if there are any other jobs like boilers and warehouses in your place? Introduce to college students, send newspapers..." Lu Qing suddenly stopped talking.She looked at everyone and realized something in the surprised eyes.In fact, as soon as she said "lost the newspaper job", the dinner table was already quiet. Of course everyone was surprised.Huang Dasheng went to the Evening News after graduating from university. In everyone's mind, he has always been equated with interviews, overtime, cases, reports... these words.He used to be one of the top ten well-known reporters in Xinjiang City, and his future was limitless.Now that they suddenly heard that he lost his job in the newspaper office, the shock of everyone can be imagined. Zhou Yulou immediately thought of the reason.He knew Huang Dasheng well, and he immediately realized that Huang Dasheng must have left the newspaper because he had concealed the truth for him.He looked at his old friend, unable to hide the guilt on his face. Under the attention of everyone, Huang Dasheng smiled awkwardly, raised his glass and said to Jiang Siye: "Are you surprised? Come, Uncle Jiang, have a drink." Jiang Siye picked up the wine glass, touched Huang Dasheng lightly, and asked him, "Dasheng, what happened? Why did you lose your job at the newspaper?" Huang Dasheng tried his best to relax his tone. "It's not as complicated as you think, but I just feel tired. I have been in this industry for ten years, and I have never had a stable life in the wind and rain all day long. I proposed to resign myself. Isn't there a Neet family that is popular now? I also rushed back to the trend, changed my way of life, and became an unemployed group comfortably. People have to experience a little different life in this life to be interesting. I don’t want to tie myself to death in an environment. Legal journalists are nothing. It means, to put it bluntly, it is like a person who exposes scars. After exposing this and that, all the large and small scars are peeled off for others to see. You need to have a pair of strong arms to do this job, so that the scars can be peeled off. Everyone can see clearly. But after a long time, these hands will inevitably become a little tired, weak, and not as strong as before..." While saying this, he secretly glanced at Zhou Yulou. There was a moment of silence. Huang Dasheng then adjusted his mood and said loudly: "Besides, I am preparing to marry Lu Qing, and we plan to enjoy family life." "Really? You and Xiao Lu, when? Congratulations!" Xie Lan picked up the wine glass... That night, the matter of Huang Dasheng's resignation was quickly replaced by topics related to the new marriage.Everyone chatted happily for a while, until it was very late at night, and the two bottles of Moutai were all drunk before they left.Before going out, Xie Lan suddenly remembered something, she called Huang Dasheng to stop. "Hey Dasheng, if you feel that being a reporter at the Evening News is too tiring, do you want to take a job that is relatively leisurely, with a decent salary, and at the same time, you can be with young people every day?" "What job?" "Ms. Cui, the editor of our academy newspaper, retired a few days ago. Now the school is short of manpower, and there is no one to take over Lao Cui's job. If you are interested, how about going to the music academy to edit the academy newspaper? I'm afraid it's a bit overkill." "I... can I?" Huang Dasheng hesitated. Xie Lan's eyes lit up, "Okay, definitely!" After she finished speaking, she patted Huang Dasheng's shoulder heavily like a bold old lady, making everyone think of what Huang Dasheng said just now, "Strong arm ".