Chapter 8 5

In the apartment I lived in as a student, no one had a phone.It's hard to tell whether there is even an eraser.In front of the caretaker's room was a low table knocked out of a nearby elementary school, and on it stood a pink telephone, the only one in the apartment.So no one noticed about the switchboard, it was a peaceful world in a peaceful age. Because experience has proved that the administrators are never guarded in the management room, so every time the phone rings, someone who lives there must grab the receiver and listen, and then run to call someone.Of course, no one will pick you up when you are unhappy (especially at two o'clock in the middle of the night).Like an elephant with a premonition of death, the phone howled frantically several times (thirty-two is the highest number I have counted), and then died.The word die is exactly what it says in the text.The last ring of the bell burst through the long hallway of the apartment, and then was sucked in by the darkness, and suddenly there was a dead silence all around, a strangely eerie silence indeed.Everyone pauses for breath under the quilt, thinking about the dead phone.

The call in the middle of the night is always a call in the dark. Someone picks up the receiver and starts talking in a low voice. Don't mention it again, no, it's not like that, but there's nothing you can do about it, right?I didn't lie to you.Why should I lie?No, I'm just tired Of course I don't think it's right So yeah Okay, I get it, so please let me think about it, please?I can't tell on the phone It seems that everyone is full of troubles.Troubles rain down from the sky, and we frantically collect them and stuff them into our pockets.Why do you do that?I still can't figure it out, is it wrong with something else?

◇ There was also a telegram.A bicycle stopped outside the apartment door at about four o'clock in the middle of the night, and the sound of rough footsteps passing through the hallway loudly, and then banging a fist on someone's door always reminded me of the arrival of death.Boom, boom.Several people's lives are severed, their minds are crazy, they bury their hearts in the precipitation of time, let their bodies be anxious in the endless thoughts, and cause trouble for each other.1970 was that year.If man is indeed a creature born to exalt himself by argument, that year was indeed a year of lessons.

◇ I live in the room next to the administrator's room on the first floor, and the girl with long hair lives next to the stairs on the second floor.The one with the most phone calls, she was the champion of the whole apartment, and I ended up having to walk up and down those slippery fifteen flights of stairs thousands of times.In fact, there were all kinds of phone calls to her.There are polite voices, there are business voices, there are sad voices, there are arrogant voices.And those different voices told me her name, but I have completely forgotten her name, only remembering it is a sadly ordinary name.

She was always talking into the receiver, in a low, tired voice.There were almost inaudible murmurs.The face is full of beauty, but there is always a little gloomy feeling.Sometimes she passed by on the aisle, but she never spoke. It was like riding a white elephant on a path in a deep tropical jungle. She walked by with that expression. ◇ She lived in that apartment for about half the year, the half year from early fall to late winter. I picked up the receiver, walked up the stairs, knocked on her door, and called your phone. After a while, she said thank you.Apart from thank you, I didn't hear any other words.But apart from telling you about your phone number, I didn't say any other words.

It was also a lonely season for me.Every time I take off my clothes at home, the bones in my body feel like they are going to break through the skin and fly out.There is an unknowable force inside me that continues to go in the wrong direction, making me feel like it is taking me into another world where I don't know where. The phone rang, so I thought this way: I don't know who is going to say what to whom.As for calls to me, there were almost none.No one wanted to say anything to me, at least someone thought that I might have something to say and called to ask, and no one. Everyone, more or less, starts living with their own system, and it pisses me off if it's too different from mine, but it's sad to be too much like me, that's all.

◇ The last time I helped her answer the phone was at the end of that winter.A sunny Saturday morning in early March.It is said that it is already around ten o'clock in the morning, and the sunlight is pouring into the transparent winter brightness in every corner of the small room.I listened to the bell ringing in a trance in my head, and looked out of the bedside window at the cabbage garden.On the black soil, the remnants of melting snow, like puddles, glowed white scatteredly, which was the last snow left by the last cold snap. The bell rang about ten times, but no one answered it and it just stopped.However, five minutes later, it started to ring again.Impatiently, I draped a sweater over my pajamas and opened the door to answer the phone.

Are you there?said the man's voice.No inflection, no characteristic sound.After I answered casually, I walked up the stairs slowly and knocked on her door. Oh your phone! Thanks. I went back to the room, lay down on the bed, and looked at the ceiling.Hear her coming down the stairs, and then the usual murmur.It was a very short call for her, about fifteen seconds or so.The sound of putting down the receiver can be heard, and then silence covers the surroundings, not even the sound of footsteps can be heard. After a while, there was a slow sound of footsteps approaching my room, and then the door was knocked twice, with a time for a deep breath in between.

When I opened the door, she was standing in the doorway wearing a thick white pullover and blue jeans. At that moment, I felt that I probably helped her answer a wrong call that should not have been answered, but she didn't say anything.Both hands were clasped tightly on his chest, trembling slightly while staring at me.It was like looking at a ship that was about to sink from a lifeboat.No, maybe the opposite. Can I come in?It's freezing cold. Before I could figure out what was going on, I let her in and closed the door.She was sitting in front of the gas stove, warming her hands, and looking around the room.

There is nothing in your room! I nodded, nothing at all.Just a bed by the window.The single bed is too big, and the medium double bed is too small.Anyway, I didn't buy that bed, it was given by a friend.It's not a very close friend, why would you give me the bed, it's really unimaginable.Someone who hardly ever spoke.He was a rich man's son who got beaten up by guys from the other team in the college courtyard, got kicked in the face with his work shoes, got his eye out and got dropped out.When I took him to the University Infirmary, he kept weeping and pulling his shoulders, so it annoyed me.A few days later, he said: I am going back to the countryside, so he gave me the bed.

Is there anything hot to drink?she says.I shook my head: nothing.There is no coffee, black tea, fancha, not even a kettle.There is only one small pot, and I use that boiling water every morning to shave.She sighed and stood up, said to wait a minute, and walked out of the room, and came back five minutes later with a cardboard box in her hands.The box contained half-year-old black tea bags and green tea, two bags of biscuits, sugar, a teapot, a set of cutlery, and two tumblers with Snoopy cartoons on them.She put the heavy cardboard box on the bed and boiled water with a teapot. How on earth do you live?Is it like Robinson Crusoe? It's not that pleasant. I think so too. We drank black tea in silence. These are all for you. I was startled and choked on the black tea.Why give it to me? Thank you for answering so many calls for me. But you have to use it yourself. She shook her head several times.I'm moving tomorrow so I don't need anything. I thought about the turn of events in silence, but I couldn't imagine what happened to her. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? It should be considered not very good, because I am going to leave school and go back to the countryside. The winter sun that filled the room dimmed and then brightened again. As for what, I don't think you want to ask, do you?If I don't ask, because if it leaves bad memories, I don't want to use that person's tableware. The next day it started to rain coldly from early morning.Although it was a light rain, it soaked through my raincoat and wet the sweater.The large suitcase in my hand, the suitcase in her hand, and the leather bag on her shoulder were all black and wet.The taxi driver said unhappily: Don't put it on the chair, please.The air in the car was stuffy with the heater and the cigarettes, and the car radio was blaring old porn songs.A song almost as old as a jump-on direction indicator.The miscellaneous woods with fallen leaves are like corals on the bottom of the sea, with wet branches stretching on both sides of the road. From the first time I saw it until now, the scenery of Tokyo has never been able to please me. oh? The soil is too black, the river is too dirty, and there are no mountains, what do you think? I've never paid attention to the scenery yet. She sighed and said with a smile: Then you can definitely stay and live a good life. When I put my luggage on the platform at the station, she said to me: Thank you for helping me a lot. From here I can go back alone. where are you going back Very far north. It must be cold, right? It's okay, I'm used to it. She waved from the window when the tram started to move.I also raised my hands to my ears, and when the tram disappeared, I was confused as to where to put my hands, so I just put them in the pocket of my raincoat. The rain continued until dark. I bought two bottles of beer at a nearby hotel and poured them into the glasses she gave me.The whole body is as cold as frozen into the bone marrow.The glass depicts a caricature of Snoopy and Dodgy Tuck happily playing on the puppy house, and there is a sentence on it Happiness is having a warm partner. ◇ After the twins had fallen asleep, I woke up.Three o'clock in the morning.The somewhat unnaturally bright Qiuyue can be seen from the toilet window.I sat at the kitchen counter, drank two glasses of tap water, and lit a cigarette on the gas stove.On the lawn of the golf course illuminated by the bright moon, thousands of autumn insects are continuously chirping in layers. I casually picked up the switchboard standing next to the sink and inspected it frequently.No matter how you turn it over and over again, it is just a dirty and meaningless board.I simply put it back to its original place, brushed off the dust from my hands, and took another drag on the cigarette.Everything looked blue in the moonlight, and everything seemed worthless, meaningless, and directionless.Not even a shadow.I put out the cigarette on the sink and immediately lit a second one. Where must I go so that I can find my own place?eg where?The double torpedo bomber was the only place I could think of after spending a long time thinking about it.But that was also a silly idea. First of all, the torpedo bomber has become an old antique that was outdated thirty years ago. I went back to bed and slipped between the twins.The twins curled up their bodies and turned their heads to the outside of the bed, snorting in sleep. I covered myself with a blanket and looked at the ceiling.