The middle-aged woman walked quickly to the door of Fulai Supermarket. She looked at the old man: "Uncle Zhang, why did Qingchen come to you to play chess again."
The two parties also knew each other in the words.
But Uncle Zhang's tone was not so polite: "Your own son, you ask me? He has no living expenses, so he can only earn a little money for himself by playing chess."
Middle-aged woman Zhang Wanfang was stunned for a moment: "But I have to pay Qingchen's living expenses to his father every month."
Uncle Zhang was also stunned by these words: "Then I don’t know what’s going on.”
Uncle Zhang thought, Zhang Wanfang is not a poor person, and it seems that the living expenses given to Qingchen are not small, but why does the young man still live a good life? Tight?
Qingchen doesn’t look like a prodigal son. He spends his days carefully and never takes a sip of drinks.
"But shouldn't he be studying in the evening at this time?" Zhang Wanfang asked.
Uncle Zhang only then remembered: "He seemed to say he was waiting for someone."
"No, I have to go home and take a look," Zhang Wanfang said.
With that said, she was about to leave quickly with the cake, but she heard the man beside her suddenly say: "Wanfang, Haohao's birthday is today. We have already booked a place. I have to take him to the movies!"
Zhang Wanfang looked back at the man: "Qingchen may have skipped class, so I can't just ignore him."
"He's seventeen. You can take care of yourself when you are old. Besides, he still has his biological father." After the man finished speaking, he softened his tone and said, "Actually, we can wait until the weekend to see him. Let's spend time with Haohao today."
Zhang Wanfang frowned after hearing this, but after a few seconds she finally sighed: "Okay, let's celebrate Haohao's birthday today."
......
In the tree-lined path in the west courtyard of the municipal government, Qingchen walked silently under the camphor tree.
Different from the style of high-rise buildings in modern cities, this courtyard is full of small four-story buildings from the 1970s. There is no elevator, no gas, and the sewers are blocked from time to time.
High-power electrical appliances cannot be used at home because they will trip.
Qingchen walked into the dim doorway, ignored the psoriasis-like advertisements for unlocking and selling houses on the wall, took out the key and opened the door to the first floor.
The house is 76 square meters, with two bedrooms and one living room. The lighting on the first floor is very poor.
He took out his mobile phone and opened the address book, then dialed: "Hello, Dad..."
The voice on the other side of the phone had already interrupted him: "I need living expenses." Go to your mother, I don’t have any money, but she is very rich now.” As she spoke, there was the sound of playing mahjong on the other side of the phone.
"I don't want money," Qingchen whispered, "I haven't asked you for money in a long time."
"What is that for?" The man said impatiently: "Going to school for a parent-teacher meeting again? Go to your mother for this kind of thing...…"
Before the other party could finish speaking, Qingchen hung up the phone on his own initiative.
He leaned gently against the closed door of his home and then lifted up his school uniform. The sleeves under the coat.
He looked blankly at the white numbers and symbols on his forearms that looked like LCD screens: Countdown to 5. The white numbers were like fluorescent tattoos embedded in his flesh and skin. , no matter how hard he rubbed it, he couldn't erase it.
Looking closely at them, Qingchen also saw that there were special and fine lines in the numbers, like mechanical parts interlocking with each other. Full of futuristic technology.
The numbers are changing silently.
There are 5 hours, 58 minutes and 11 seconds left in the countdown to 5. All this seems to remind Qingchen. , 5 hours and 58 minutes later, something incredible will happen.
There was no sound, but Qingchen clearly heard the sound of the second hand beating in his heart.
Qingchen glanced at it. He hung up the phone and glanced at the empty room again.
He didn't know what kind of life he would face in 5 hours and 58 minutes. He only knew that the only one he could rely on was himself.
......
Time is a very heavy unit of measurement. The length of life and the breadth of civilization are all used to mark the concept of time. In everyone's life.
So when there is any countdown in your life, no matter what it counts, it will give you a sense of urgency.
For 5 hours, no one knows what the end of this countdown will be.
Could it be danger?
Could it be another life?
There was no way to be sure, so he could only prepare for the worst.
So he had to prepare something before the countdown ended.
If there was any danger, he would do it. Let yourself at least have some ability to resist danger as much as possible.
Qingchen put on a clean gray coat and covered his appearance with the shadow of the hood.
< p>Take advantage of the darkness.He went out and walked towards the farmer's market. It was getting dark very early in October in Luocheng.
There was the sound of cooking in the residential building. The sound, the popping sound of vegetables and oil colliding, followed by the alluring smell wafting out.
The smell of eggs, pork, and mutton poured into Qingchen like pieces of information. When he needs this information one day, he can extract a certain "archive" from his mind.
He bought pliers and shovels at the hardware store, and bought a bag at the grain and oil store. Rice, a bag of noodles, and table salt.
He also bought a few boxes of antibiotics at the drugstore, and bought batteries, flashlights, and compressed biscuits at the supermarket.
He didn't know what he was going to do. When facing something, he can only prepare as much as possible for these things.Xi, almost spent all Qingchen's savings.
After Qingchen carried his things home, he entered the kitchen. He first placed all the available knives on the chopping board in the most convenient place in the house.
The kitchen knife is placed under the pillow, and the boning knife is placed on the bedside table.
Countdown is 2 hours, 43 minutes and 11 seconds.
He made sure that the doors and windows were closed tightly, so he sat by the bed and began to think: Should he find help?
Who are you looking for?
My mother has a new family, and my father is a gambler.
In fact, when Qingchen noticed a countdown on his arm a few hours ago, he was only 17 years old and subconsciously wanted to seek help from his parents.
But he rejected the idea.
Qingchen took out his phone and tried to take a picture of the white countdown on his arm, but found that the white lines that were clearly visible to his naked eye did not appear on the screen of his phone at all.
There were no lights on in the dark room, and the windows were not soundproof. Because it was on the first floor, he could often hear the footsteps of people passing by outside.
The footsteps outside, the breathing inside the house, the dimly lit mobile phone screen, everything is so peaceful and strange.
It’s probably useless to ask ordinary people for help with such a weird and outrageous thing, and I don’t have any particularly close friends in school.
Even if there is, ordinary people shouldn’t be involved in this kind of thing, right?
So, if you want to find help, you can only think of other ways.
Wait a minute, Qingchen seemed to have thought of something, got up and walked into the living room to search.
Two minutes later, he silently looked at the Guanyin Bodhisattva pendant in his hand.
Then he carefully placed it in front of him and bowed nine times.
The last preparation is done.