The pedestrian street at night is like an enchanting beauty. People coming from the south and north will be attracted by its atmosphere as soon as they enter the pedestrian street. Although they all wear masks on their faces, they still can't hide the feeling in their hearts that is inspired by the pedestrian street.
There was a commotion. The young lovers held their arms around their waists, and the old partners held hands, walking from one shop to another, searching for everyone's preferences in the blur of light and ghosts.
Xu Feng's mood was obviously different from that of the people strolling around the street. He stood in front of the Hongqu Dumpling House and dialed the phone anxiously:
"Sorry, the number you dialed is temporarily unavailable..."
It was the same beautiful female voice that said these desperate words. Xu Feng almost wanted to throw his cell phone against the closed rolling shutter door.
Why was Uncle Zhang gone? Why couldn't he get through the phone? Xu Feng was lingering in front of the door. The key in his hand was sweating. He didn't know whether he should open the door and go in to take a look.
Xu Feng is a senior at Zhongjiang University and is about to graduate. Xu Feng passed the interviews of three companies on his own ability and is currently hesitating to sign a contract with that company. He originally made an appointment to come to the store to meet Uncle Zhang the night before.
Let’s discuss this matter carefully. Unexpectedly, because of my girlfriend’s petty behavior, I delayed the time to come to the store to find Uncle Zhang. I could only call Uncle Zhang at around 10 o’clock in the evening and said that it would be the next day.
Come here early in the morning.
Early the next morning, Xu Feng came to Hongqu Dumpling House but found that the door of the store was tightly closed, and he could not get through the call to Uncle Zhang. He thought that Uncle Zhang had gone out to buy vegetables, so he waited at the door of the store for a while.
But he didn't wait until Uncle Zhang came back, and the phone still couldn't be connected.
Since yesterday morning, Xu Feng has been calling Uncle Zhang's number, but he has been unable to get through temporarily. Xu Feng thought something might have happened, so tonight he specially dug out the store key that Uncle Zhang gave him and prepared it.
Go into the store and check out the situation.
Xu Feng's hometown is in the suburbs of Gui'an City, another prefecture-level city in Jiangnan Province. His father died early, and his mother raised him alone. When Xu Feng was very young, he knew that Uncle Zhang was a great person to him.
A very important person. My mother works in a restaurant and her income is very meager. She cannot afford the daily life of the two of them and the expenses for Xu Feng’s schooling at the same time.
When Xu Feng was in the second grade of elementary school, Uncle Zhang took the initiative to contact the school and said that he wanted to sponsor a child to go to school. The school provided introductions to the three most difficult families, and finally Uncle Zhang chose Xu Feng. Since then, Uncle Zhang has not only taken on the responsibility of Xu Feng
He paid for all the study expenses, and also sent money to Xu Feng’s mother every month to supplement the family income.
Xu Feng hesitated for a moment at the door of the dumpling restaurant, and finally took out the key and opened the rolling shutter door.
Just when Xu Feng opened the rolling shutter door, in a shop across the pedestrian street, a woman was looking this way alertly.
Xu Feng walked into the store and found the switch on the wall to turn on the light. He looked at the half-open rolling shutter door behind him and thought it would be better to close it, otherwise it would be difficult to explain when customers came in.
Xu Feng closed the door and stared blankly at the empty shop for a while, remembering the first time he met Uncle Zhang.
It was the night before he left home to go to college in Zhongjiang. His mother gave him this address and told him that Uncle Zhang, who had been helping their family, was in Zhongjiang City. Her mother said that she had never seen Uncle Zhang, nor had she written
They didn’t send a letter, let alone a phone call. This was the address that my mother asked the school teacher for when she was applying for the financial aid. She didn’t know if their benefactor could still be found after so many years.
The mother heard from the teacher that Uncle Zhang was also a person without a family or children. The mother asked him to kowtow to Uncle Zhang after finding him and recognize him as his godfather. She also said that she did not need to be filial to herself in the future, and that it was enough to remember to be filial to Uncle Zhang.
The day after reporting to school, Xu Feng eagerly searched for the address. In Xu Feng's imagination, the address should be a company or a beautiful house. Uncle Zhang should be the boss of a company, or
An elderly, wealthy man. Such a small dumpling restaurant had never appeared in Xu Feng's alternative answers. He also hesitated for a long time before entering the store that day.
"Hello." He timidly greeted a middle-aged man who was busy in front of the panel.
The middle-aged man wore a white short-sleeved shirt on his upper body, black shorts that reached his knees, and an apron stained with flour. His hair was a little sparse, and he should have a beard on his round and fair face.
I haven’t shaved for several days. A pair of small eyes were narrowing and smiling at me:
"Brother, please sit down first. What kind of stuffing do you want to eat?"
"I, I'm looking for Zhang Guifu. Oh, I, I'm Xu Feng." Xu Feng was nervous and stuttered a bit.
Xu Feng still clearly remembers the changes in the expression on Uncle Zhang's face. His narrowed eyes slowly became rounder, and his mouth slowly opened and became rounder.
"Xu Feng! You are Xu Feng! Hahaha!" Uncle Zhang excitedly hugged Xu Feng's shoulders, and the flour in his hands covered Xu Feng's body.
After learning that the ordinary middle-aged man in front of him was really Zhang Guifu, whom he had admired for a long time, Xu Feng ignored the customers who were eating dumplings in the store and knelt down on the ground with a plop, and knocked three times.
Ring your head.
Xu Feng knew that there was a staircase leading to the second floor behind the stove, where Uncle Zhang slept. In the past four years, Xu Feng had only been to the second floor once. Not only did Uncle Zhang rarely let him go to the second floor, he even
He was not allowed to come to the store too often. Xu Feng said that he could come over to help Uncle Zhang when he was free, but Uncle Zhang always said that he was too busy to come here alone. Let him study hard, learn more knowledge in school, and go to the store in the future.
Only in order to become a useful person in society.
It was pitch dark on the second floor. Xu Feng didn't know where the light switch was. He used his mobile phone to take photos for a long time before turning on the lights on the second floor. The second floor was as clean as the first floor. The furniture only had a bed and a table.
There is a chair and a wardrobe standing against the wall. There is a row of nails on the wall next to the table. On the nails are hanging fishing rods, fishing nets and some fishing equipment that Xu Feng cannot name.
Xu Feng walked to the table and sat down on the chair. He used his mobile phone to dial Uncle Zhang's number again, but still couldn't get through. He didn't know what to do next or how to contact Uncle Zhang.
. He stood up and walked back and forth in the room several times, trying to find clues about Uncle Zhang's news.
There were some clothes hanging neatly in the closet, most of which were ordinary styles, including summer shorts and short sleeves, and winter sweaters and down jackets. At the innermost side of the closet, Xu Feng saw a finely made suit, and he picked it up
After taking a look, I thought that I had never seen Uncle Zhang wearing such high-end clothes.
The paint on the desk has almost worn off, and the rough wood grain has been exposed on the tabletop. The desk has three drawers, none of which are locked. Xu Feng opened the rightmost drawer first and saw some books that looked like account books placed inside. The middle one
There were some odds and ends in the drawer, including cold medicine, nail clippers, a calculator, and a few coins. Xu Feng opened the drawer on the left and saw a thick notebook in the drawer, with a notebook on top.
It was just a carbon pen. He was about to pick up the notebook when he suddenly heard a banging on the door.
Xu Feng was startled and hurriedly walked to the stairs to listen to the noise below. At this time, the rolling shutter door rang again. It was someone outside knocking on the aluminum rolling shutter. Xu Feng didn't know whether he should go down and open the door or not.
The door should be opened. After the roller shutter was knocked twice, an old man's voice came:
"Lao Zhang, Lao Zhang, are you back?"
Xu Feng heard that someone was looking for Uncle Zhang. He hesitated and did not open the door. He thought that if he opened the door, how should he explain to the people outside? What should he do if people outside asked him where Uncle Zhang had gone?
What's the answer?
"Is there no one inside? Did he go out again?"
"Oh, just come back. I'll see him again tomorrow."
The man outside said a few words to himself and then left, and the dumpling house became quiet again.
Xu Feng returned to the table, picked up the record book from the open drawer and looked through it.
March 1, 2020
I was lucky today. I caught 12 big silver carp weighing more than a pound in 3 hours. Unfortunately, I lost one of my good hooks.
February 4, 2020
Today is the 15th anniversary of the death of Brother Xu. Xu Feng is about to graduate from college. Time flies so fast!
Seeing this page, Xu Feng felt his head swell with a buzzing sound, and his notebook fell on the table. Brother Xu? 15 years? Xu Feng? Does Uncle Zhang know my dad? He plopped down on the chair, his mind
There's a blank inside.
After sitting blankly for a while, he quickly picked up the notebook again and flipped through the previous content. At this time, the mobile phone in his pocket suddenly rang, and the noisy ringtone instantly broke the silence in the room. Xu Feng quickly took out his mobile phone and saw
It was his girlfriend calling.
"Hello, Xiaoxia." Xu Feng quickly picked up the phone,
"Xu Feng, where are you?" A delicate female voice came from the other end of the phone.
"I'm at Uncle Zhang's place, discussing work matters with him." Xu Feng replied gently.
"Oh, what's there to discuss? Come back quickly. I'm hungry. You can accompany me for a midnight snack."
"Can I...wait for a while?" Xu Feng didn't want to give up the opportunity to explore the secret.
"No, no, I'm almost starving to death."
"Okay, okay, I'll go back right away, Xiaoxia, don't worry."
Xu Feng was so entangled by his girlfriend that he had no choice but to put down his notebook, close the drawer, and walk towards the stairs.
Just when he was about to press the light switch, he suddenly returned to the table and picked up the notebook. Seeing that there were three notebooks under the notebook, he simply picked up all the notebooks and closed the door upstairs.
He turned on the lights downstairs, locked the door and hurried back to school.
During the time Xu Feng entered the dumpling restaurant, the woman in the shop across the pedestrian street kept staring.
Three hours later, when Su Le and the others were investigating the scene on the riverside, a thin figure came to the door of Hongqu Dumpling House. The person was wearing a baggy sportswear, and the hood of the sports top completely covered his face.
Covered. The thin figure did not stop in front of the door, but directly opened the rolling shutter door with the key. After the person entered, he quickly closed the rolling shutter door.
There were no lights on in the dumpling restaurant, and only a vague figure appeared in the window on the second floor for a moment.
Ten minutes later, the thin figure opened the rolling shutter door and quickly locked the door again after coming out. When leaving, he was carrying a black backpack in his hand.