Disgusted

Chapter 5 Smoke and Books

Qing Kong sometimes jokes that he smokes because of Sanmao.

"I wrote it in a certain essay, how can I perceive the beauty of life? Give yourself a cigarette every day, and you don't want to do anything in this cigarette, just focus on enjoying the taste of tobacco-something like this. Listen Makes sense, doesn't it?"

When he said this, Aozora was always serious.

The truth is, Aozora started smoking when he was about 15 years old.Adolescence is the stage when you are dissatisfied with the whole world and want to smash everything and rebuild it with your hands.She went to a Christian girls' school, and the classmates around her were all three-good products with the label of Guaiguai, so she couldn't be called being instigated by others, but just agitated. The commotion was hidden under the surface, and she didn't even know how to control it. good.

Later, in the street fights, three-on-three, they were impromptu teammates, but the strength of both sides was equal, so it was rare to have intense fun.After dark, the others dispersed, leaving only her and the opponent's main player, a tall, fat man who played center forward and basically blocked all rebounds.

The fat man lit a cigarette in the twilight and the slowly turning on of the street lamps.Qing Kong sat on the ground, drank water and watched him swallowing clouds with his hands on his hips.

"Can I have one?" Aozora asked, resting his chin on his raised right knee.

"Underage, right?" The fat man pouted slightly, and spit out two or three round smoke rings.

Qingkong thinks his pout looks ugly, but the smoke ring is beautiful.

At this time, the sky was completely dark, like the color of ink precipitated in the water and finally became uniform.The wind blew over my body, sweating profusely, and my T-shirt stuck to my back.Aozora stood up, patted his buttocks to get the sports bag on the ground.

"Here." A big hand reached out to her, holding a cigarette case with red stripes and a white background, with "Marlboro" written in black English.

"I couldn't buy cigarettes when I was young." The fat man smiled, showing his two front teeth. "Run to the store to steal the bag, and was caught and beaten. Take it, don't smoke."

Qing Kong subconsciously took the pack of Marlboro, looked up again and the fat man had already turned around and left, and turned back after taking two steps. "You played well. Come on!" he said, and then he really left with a tall figure.

Qingkong stared at the street corner where the fat man disappeared for a while, then lowered his head to look at the cigarette in his hand.Suddenly there was a subtle throbbing in my heart, like a soft place being gently touched.In the middle of the chest cavity to the right of the heart.I can’t say it, it seems that it’s not because of a pack of cigarettes, but like walking in a deserted mountain and seeing the darkness oppressing me, I’m running around without direction or aim, feeling a little bit of despair, when I suddenly see the opposite side. There was a person standing on the top of the mountain, far away, without saying anything, and without giving a map, she couldn't guide the direction, but the "same existence" made her feel at ease, as if saying that he also walked this way.

It wasn't until two years later that Aozora began to read a lot that he realized that the slightly sour emotions at that time should be similar to resonance.Because of the resemblance, when one rings, the other trembles.It has nothing to do with appearance, height, weight, occupational interests, or even with time and space. It is just a moment when a certain thread of the core of the body happens to be printed on each other. Because of the loneliness before and after, when the joy reaches a certain level, it becomes sad again.

This is why Aozora fell in love with books.When she was smoking, she didn't know whether Sanmao was round or flat, she didn't know her Sahara and Jose with a big beard, and she didn't know that she was weak and sick and occasionally wrote songs and scripts.

At that time, Aozora knew nothing about the world, hadn't hated oranges yet, and hadn't met anyone yet.

Who would have thought that more than ten years later, he would go to a small southern town and open a small bookstore.

Qing Kong stood at the door of the bookstore, looking sideways at the new edition of San Mao's Complete Works in the window, and the smoke from his fingers floated upwards.Sure enough, when it comes to the taste of smoke, the thick and strong camel is still more to my taste than Marlboro.Thinking this way, Aozora finished his last puff, threw the cigarette butt into the small tin can in the corner, and took out the key from his pocket.

"Sister, do you want to open the door?"

A thin voice came from behind.

Qing Kong turned his head and saw a slender girl wearing a middle school uniform, standing there leisurely, looking at him for some time.

"Hmm." Aozora turned back and opened the door, and turned the small wooden sign on the door that said "Closing" to the "Business" side. "Need something?"

It was only past seven in the morning.The business hours of the bookstore are from [-]:[-] to [-]:[-] pm on weekdays. If it wasn't for Saori's business, Qing Kong wouldn't get up so early and come to the store early if he has nothing to do.Should this be the time for early self-study?There should be some urgently needed books when you come to the bookstore, right?

"I need a reference book for the next class, but I can't find it anyway." The girl smiled sweetly, but there was no sign of worry on her face. "Come and try your luck."

"The reference books are gathered there, see if there is anything you want." Qing Kong turned on the lights in the store one by one, and pointed to the right corner.

"Oh."

Qing Kong took off his coat, put it on the armchair behind the counter, untied the scarf around his neck with both hands, and looked up only to find that the girl was still standing on the side and staring at him.This child, are your ears bad?Qingkong raised her eyebrows and was about to say it again, when the girl met her gaze, she smiled before saying anything, with a small dimple on her right cheek.

"I'm sorry," said the girl.

"Um?"

"Sorry, it's Monday."

"..." Aozora paused, not understanding the logical relationship between "I'm sorry" and "Today's Monday".

"The school stipulates that formal school uniforms must be worn on Mondays." The girl smiled apologetically, "It would look better in normal clothes."

"Ah...really?" After a long time, Qing Kong choked out a sentence, feeling as if he had forcibly found out some useless things from the corner of his head and packed them for emergency gifts at will.In fact, Aozora didn't understand the meaning of that conversation at all.

But the girl didn't seem to want to continue the conversation, and turned around to look for the book she wanted in the corner.

Qingkong breathed a sigh of relief, opened the drawer, put on astigmatism glasses, and turned on the computer.While waiting for the computer to turn on, she took out her wallet and mobile phone from her pocket, along with the crumpled note.She froze for a moment, then pressed the paper on the counter, flattened it slightly, and the line of words in the middle was twisted, as if it meant something else - please don't look for me.Next time we meet, tell me if you're of mixed race——Aozora feels his throat is itchy, and he wants to smoke again.

"elder sister."

Qingkong raised his head, and the girl handed over the book, her eyes were warm and moist, and she looked a little naive and a little shy.

"I like you," she said.

"...Thank you." Qing Kong took the book without expression, swiped the phone, and put it in the pocket. "A total of 36.8 yuan."