Chapter 3 Summer is Collapsing - Section 3: The Crossroads Disappeared (Part 1)

Summer is Collapsing - Section 3: The Crossroads Disappeared (Part 1) At the end of spring, in Xiaoqiao’s dreams, the intersection where Dingcheng City disappeared often appeared. Often the traffic lights had stopped, and only the yellow light was flashing alone. Sometimes there was no one at the intersection, but the lights flashed for a long time , and then Xiaoqiao would wake up suddenly, panting under the damp quilt, staring at the sky that was about to light up outside, the sparrow was chirping, and she felt extremely lost. She always thought repeatedly of those nights when Ding Chengcheng disappeared at the crossroads.

As the evening approached, the sky glowed a dull red color. Ding Chengcheng climbed out of the dormer window, climbed over the tiled roof, sat on the beam, and smoked.Looking out from the roof, there is a stretch of low red brick houses in the distance. The cotton tires that were drying in the afternoon were brought in one after another. Moving around, off-duty people stepped off the bicycle with black plastic bags containing vegetables and fish. The bell of dilingling rang from one end to the other, followed by the sound of rice washing, and fried hairtail after a while. The sweet scent came out of some dimly colored windows.Looking into the distance, the reflection of the glass on the high-rise building becomes soft and pleasant in the evening. A little further away, some unknown birds are singing close to the woods in the dim red sky, and a little further away , blue sky, white clouds, shadows of coconut groves, clear water and young sand, and herbivorous dinosaurs walking slowly.

The houses in this area have been included in the scope of municipal planning, and they are about to be demolished. The notice of demolition has been issued for two years. By this year, it is estimated that it will not be delayed. Those grandmas are sitting in the alley every day. While basking in the sun, talking about where to move, the young people are thinking about leaving this damp, moldy, bug and mouse-prone Shikumen house quickly, while the old people have lived here for more than 10 years. Half a century ago, so when they sat at the door of the room during the day, they were exposed to the sun, and their eye sockets would become moist. The house also showed a state of absent-mindedness. The TV station came to shoot several times, saying that Making a follow-up documentary is also a deceptive thing. The place where Ding Chengcheng's family will move is the last stop of the subway station. When taking the subway, they will pass Jinjiang Park and see the huge Ferris wheel.

"Chengcheng, where did he die, I have a phone call." Ding Chengcheng quickly extinguished a cigarette butt in his hand, stuffed half a pack of deflated peonies into the pocket of his jeans, re-entered his room through the dormer window, and picked up the phone. "Hey, are you coming out tonight?" It was Er Qiao. "Well, the old place." The smell of bacon and winter melon soup overflowed from the pot that was slowly simmering on the gas. Ding Chengcheng pulled out the skateboard from under the bed, wiped it slowly with a cotton cloth, and then took out the wrist and knee pads from the drawer and stuffed them in. Inside the bag, I pulled out a Radiohead record from the shelf and put it in the Walkman, stuffed it into the bag together, with the skateboard in my hand, and stomped down the damp and rotten stairs.Walked into the kitchen, took a bowl of rice casually, poured winter melon soup into the rice, mixed it, finished eating with a few mouthfuls, said: "Go out." and left without making a sound.

The mother's scolding behind her has been completely submerged in the refreshing smell of wax gourd between her lips and teeth. At this moment, the sky is getting dark, and the long alley shows an obscure light, but the air is fresh and humid. Seeing that summer is getting closer, Ding Chengcheng is only wearing a white long-sleeved sweater and a pair of Japanese trousers. , adidas replica sneakers, this is what he wears when he goes out to skateboard.The gathering place for skateboarders is in the central square, where there are steps and railings, which are necessary for practicing tricks, and there are always girls in twos and threes watching there every night. Being someone's girlfriend at night is something that young people are always keen on.

And all Ding Chengcheng wanted to do was to walk, jump, and fall quickly in the square at night. He is familiar with falling. In the dark, his bones collide with the ground quickly. Gradually, he is no longer afraid, and he can fully enjoy the exciting feeling before falling, as if all the tiny blood vessels are broken. ,explode. "Hey, I haven't seen you much recently, what are you doing?" Er Qiao came over and handed a cigarette to Ding Chengcheng who was sitting on the steps. "I'm about to have my final exam." "Cough, can you graduate?" Er Qiao patted him on the shoulder with a smile.

"I haven't thought about it." "You're still thinking about motorcycles, don't be your driver's daydream." Er Qiao lay down, leaning on the steps and playing with a disposable lighter. "Fuck you!" Ding Chengcheng was a little excited.He stood up, stepped on the skateboard, accelerated the speed, and jumped up the steps. The sound of the wheels rubbing against the concrete in the night was lonely and fragile.He knew that feeling. On the road at night, the ears could not hear the roaring sound in the helmet. The body and the speed were one, the body was the speed, completely integrated into one.

Mizi has already bought two bottles of mineral water and is sitting on the side steps waiting for Ding Chengcheng. She is just like the girl sitting here, with long curly hair dyed light yellow, blue eye shadow and a huge pimple on her index finger. Sunflower ring, she unscrewed the lid of the water bottle, sat quietly on the side, and looked at her boyfriend on the skateboard contentedly.They met here, and they fell in love soon after they got acquainted. Mizi would sit here with a bottle of mineral water every day, waiting for him to come over for a drink when he was thirsty. And when Ding Chengcheng walked home on the wide night road with his arms around Slim's waist as usual, and the street lights were dimly turned on, he felt bored again. He was so bored. There was nothing to excite him except When he was moving forward at high speed, in fact, he felt bored at times, and love was also boring, some mechanical words to make girls happy, some farewell kisses or occasional touches, or those things.

When breaking up with Mizi, Mizi said: "Will you come to my house tomorrow?" "let's talk tomorrow." While embracing, he heard the sound of a group of birds beeping in the distance, so harsh and so far away. When I got home at night, it was past ten o'clock, and the ticking sound of a 35-style clock rang in the mother's room below. Sometimes Ding Chengcheng didn't quite understand that his mother was sleeping alone in the empty room, with What is it like to spend the night with this clock. His mother had already washed off the jeans he had changed out of. Half a pack of Peony cigarettes was taken out of the trousers pocket, and now it was placed under the lamp, and the remaining cigarettes inside had all been snapped off.

Ding Chengcheng connected the computer to the Internet, went to a few frequently visited websites indiscriminately, and checked that the online friend list on msn was empty, all the people showed the status of away, and the smoke was gone. He felt a little uncomfortable, and habitually connected to the pornographic websites in his favorites, casually played some small clips, turned off the sound in the speaker, and played it slowly and repeatedly, looking at the blurry woman's body inside, he He started to masturbate. During the masturbation, he lay quietly on his bed, looking out at the dull sky through the dormer window. It was so quiet at this time, he could hear the tiny leaves of the camphor tree and privet blowing in the wind outside the window. The sound it made when it was shaking was extremely beautiful. He seemed to be in a very distant place, and he arrived there again. The wind was clear and the clouds were calm. Then he fell asleep. I went to the faucet on the balcony to wash my underwear. I saw the street lights slowly go out in the sound of water splashing. The sky was getting brighter. The street sweepers swept the fallen leaves and flowers into the garbage truck at night. The old lady came out to brush her teeth and made a gurgling sound of gargling. Ding Chengcheng hung his underwear on the wire on the balcony, climbed back into the bed with his bare buttocks, fell asleep as soon as he tried, and even began to dream.

After that, Ding Chengcheng did not go to Mizi’s house for a whole week. During the day, Mizi sent short messages to Ding Chengcheng and he did not reply. He often wished that he would disappear, no one could see him, and become an invisible person. people.He hated being inside, and his mother always confiscated his cigarettes and lighters, so he hid them on the tiles under the eaves.It was raining now, and the pack of red-shelled Marlboro that he finally made up his mind to buy was completely soaked.Ding Chengcheng was in a bad mood, he couldn't go out to skateboard, and he couldn't read books.The rain falls on the ground, and the stone road in the alley is as lifeless as a fish with a white belly. All the people in the alley seem to hide away when it rains. From a certain room opposite, there is intermittent piano sound, The electric fan was also spinning monotonously.The sky has become dark and gloomy, this is the appearance of countless springs he is familiar with, dull and infinitely long, there are always some past things blowing into the house along with the warm wind, and he wants to catch them but can't catch them in vain. Ding Chengcheng was lying on the bed bored, listening to the grunting sound of two pigeons sheltering from the rain on the eaves. At this time, the phone rang suddenly. It must have been squinted. He was too lazy to answer it, but the bell rang three times persistently Later, when he heard the sound of his mother downstairs getting up and putting on slippers, he immediately answered the phone, and when he heard the sound of squinting, he still couldn't become an invisible person in the end. "Why have you been avoiding me like this for the past few days?" Mizi was a little aggrieved. "No, I've been very busy recently, it's true." Ding Chengcheng lay back on the bed again. "Come to my place." It took a lot of courage for Mizi to say this sentence again. "It's raining heavily outside." Ding Chengcheng hesitated. But in the end he went anyway, he groped down the stairs with his shoes in his hands, covered the door secretly, and went out.The wet road reflects people's shadows.Mizi doesn't live with her parents. She dropped out of school a year ago, and together with two girls, she rented a small shop in the subway mall to sell clothes and various jewelry for export. Half an hour later, Ding Chengcheng rang the doorbell. Mizi came to open the door wearing doll-head slippers. The heavy makeup from the day had been removed from his face, revealing a little freckles on the bridge of his nose and two slender arms in his pajamas. .She opened the door for Ding Chengcheng in silence, then took out a bowl of frozen sugar tomatoes from the refrigerator and put it on the tea table to watch him eat it, just like sitting on the steps holding a mineral water bottle and waiting for him to come over focus.Then the two of them didn't know what to do, Mizi kept drawing the wood pattern on the coffee table with his fingernails, and Ding Chengcheng sat on the ground with his legs stretched out, his mouth tightly closed, a horrible feeling Silence spread between the two of them.Finally, Ding Chengcheng felt that he should do something. He moved to Mizi's side, stroked her back as usual, kissed her familiarly, unbuttoned her pajamas, entered her body step by step, and then Halfway through, I suddenly remembered something and asked, "Are you about to have your period?" "Hmm." Mizi suddenly felt desolate, she half-closed her eyes, looking at Ding Chengcheng's head tilted to one side.Until finally he finally lay panting on the carpet beside Mizi, watching the slowly moving dark clouds outside the window. "What do you think we are like now?" Mitsu finally couldn't help asking a stupid question, "Am I still your girlfriend now, or is it just your one-night stand?" "Ah?" Ding Chengcheng pretended not to hear what she was saying clearly.In fact, he was too lazy to talk. He was so quiet at the moment, he just wanted to lie down and look at the clouds outside the window, but Mizi started talking non-stop: "What are you doing like this? You haven't called me for two weeks, I sent You never reply to my messages, you still don’t want to touch me, if you don’t like me, just say it, and I won’t pester you, but what are you doing like this? You talk.” See Ding Chengcheng still didn't speak, she shrunk her shoulders into a small ball and began to cry. At first, she cried very quietly, but then she couldn't help sobbing violently, and her body curled up.Ding Chengcheng could no longer pretend not to hear, he patted her shoulder lightly and hugged her from behind. "Don't think about it, don't think about it." He was afraid of girls crying, and he was the most afraid. Ding Chengcheng just feels bored, he doesn't have much interest in anything, he doesn't want to go to college, he doesn't want to fall in love, he just wants to buy a motorcycle, become a racing driver, and then be able to drive fast on the wide night streets every day, what? Don't even think about it.Regarding girlfriends, he officially had his first girlfriend since he was fourteen, and slept with the first girl when he was sixteen, who was older than him, and he remembered the two of them in the classroom at night After tossing and tossing for a long time, he finally knocked over a desk, and there was a big bruise on his leg.He just needs a girlfriend vainly and doesn't know why. He is still so young and doesn't know what love is. He just likes them very purely, but soon gets tired of them, and he likes others, There are too many of them, short-haired ones, braided ones, smooth-skinned ones, freckled ones, plump breasts, and slender thighs, and in the end, Ding Chengcheng didn't know what he needed. Now he thinks he doesn't like squinting anymore, he's tired of it again. Ding Chengcheng fell asleep after thinking about it. When he woke up, it was half daylight, his back was facing him, and he kept the same posture as when he was sobbing last night. He carefully moved his hands away, then got up and put on his clothes. Clothes, wrapped the condom on the floor with a napkin and threw it into the trash can, walked out the door, and he wanted to lie back on the bed before his mother woke up. The street in the early morning always exudes a smell of burning garbage, flat and anxious, some fine dust floating in the clear air, Ding Chengcheng is like those mornings when he walked out of Mizi’s house in the past, at the corner of the road I bought a bag of warm sweet milk from the milk stall just opened, bit it open with the corner of my mouth, and turned into the alley.The people on the morning shift had already pushed their squeaking bicycles outside.Ding Chengcheng took off his shoes at the door of the house and carried them in his hands. He climbed up the stairs carefully with his bare feet. There was still no sound in his mother's room downstairs. He didn't cry until he lay back on the bed. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked at his watch. It was a quarter past five and he could still sleep for more than an hour. He closed his eyes fiercely, but his ears were buzzing non-stop.