There is a type of house called one and a half bedrooms, which are mostly found in old-fashioned buildings built with red bricks.
Chen Zui, who just graduated from high school, lives in this "half".
Almost half of the small space in front of me was taken up by the iron bed with peeling paint. The floor covering less than two square meters was covered with floor leather, but it had cracked in many places and rolled up to reveal a cement floor full of cracks.
Looking along the direction of the cement floor, the only decoration on the mottled old wall is a poster.
The poster shows Jay Chou riding a pink pony and wearing a cowboy hat to pretend to be cool. The text on the poster reads JAY and "I'm Very Busy" respectively.
Such a simple and crude room is of course very familiar to Chen Zui, who has lived here for two years.
But he was still looking at it.
Because even though today is the third day of illness, he still has not adapted to the world in front of him.
It's not a long story. Chen Zui saw countless words when he woke up three days ago.
These words will be wrapped in almost transparent frames and appear on everything he looks at.
After a simple exchange, the text in the bubble box told Chen Zui that they were called barrage and came from 2022. But Chen Zui didn’t know what barrage was. He only knew that this year was clearly 2008.
Therefore, the world he sees now is somewhat like a science fiction movie.
The floor leather bursting in Chen Zui's eyes...
——[Floor leather, one of the indispensable floor materials for modern home decoration. (Something only poor people use)]
——[This broken beauty reminds me of the thighs behind ripped pants~~!]
Looking back at JAY's poster, that one is the busiest.
[Woo la la train whistle, with galloping horse hooves...]
【The sky is blue waiting for misty rain, and I am waiting for you...】
[Give me another two minutes to freeze the memory...]
These lyrics are most familiar to Chen, and they all come from the album "I'm So Busy".
What he didn't understand was that in addition to the lyrics, countless bubbles that lit up and dimmed rapidly were painted on Jay Chou's face - [Our final bottom line!].
If nothing happens, Chen will most likely ask the commentators why Jay Chou is the bottom line?
But now he doesn't.
Sitting on the edge of the iron bed, he was listening to his father's voice next door.
…
"Hey, Brother Wang, I, Xiao Chen, am I rich lately?"
"Brother Zhao, have you paid your wages for the last job? My wife recently had a reexamination and is really in a hurry for money..."
"Third sister, oh, if it wasn't really urgent, I wouldn't be able to open my mouth. I haven't paid you back the money last time. If I can't borrow it this time, forget it. I understand and I will remember you well."
"Fourth uncle, fourth uncle, are you still there?"
"Du~~~~~"
A conversation like this lasted for half an hour.
Chen Zui let the barrage fly in front of him and remained silent for half an hour.
His expression cannot be said to be complicated, because this kind of thing has happened frequently since his mother was seriously ill and admitted to the ICU two years ago.
But every time he heard his father's flattering tone, attentive attitude, and humble words, he felt bad in his heart.
I think back two years ago, my father still owned a heavy-duty dump truck and shuttled between major construction sites.
Although he is not rich and powerful, he is well-off and has dignity. He does not hold his head high when speaking, but at least he has confidence.
The situation has changed in the past two years. Not only did I sell my house and my car, but I also owe a lot of famine.
I risk my life driving a taxi every day just to avoid making a few calls like this.
But the family has a young man who has just graduated from high school and a drug addict who is in the recovery period. Thank God for being able to maintain a balance of income and expenses. If he really can't make ends meet, he still has to pick up a second-hand PHS and overdraft the money he has built over the past forty years.
personal reputation.
Chen least knows whether his father will be completely crushed one day in the future.
He now really wants to go out and make money to share the financial pressure on his family.
At the same time, looking at the barrage all over the room, he concluded that he was also sick and didn't know whether he should cause trouble at home.
…
Ever since the barrage invaded Chen Zui's world.
He never felt any physical discomfort.
Therefore, Chen Zui concluded that the illness should be mental.
Since he grew up watching Hong Kong dramas, Chen Zui’s own diagnosis was that he was either suffering from delusional disorder or schizophrenia.
Or maybe it's some other strange disease. All in all, it's impossible for the words in front of me to really come from 2022.
Just when I was thinking about these, Chen's father shouted from outside the house: "Come out and watch the competition, Liu Xiang won the 110-meter hurdles today!"
There was no trace of anxiety or heaviness in his voice, pretending as if everything was normal.
Neither Chen Zui nor his mother, who also heard the voice, exposed him, because as long as he remained as usual, everything in the family would be as usual.
Arriving at the living room, which was like a small corridor, Chen Zui sat behind the folding table that could never be folded. He looked at his mother and squeezed her hand.
Chen's father turned to the kitchen and cut a plate of watermelon, which was especially cheap in summer. When it was served to the table, the TV was already ringing: "CCTV, CCTV, welcome to the 2008 BJ Olympics men's 111-meter hurdles preliminaries."
"
My mother was not in the mood to watch the game, so she nagged: "There is no need to eat fruit every day."
Chen's father said seriously: "You drink medicine every day, and you can't do it without eating fruits."
Chen Zui didn't understand the causal relationship between drinking medicine and eating fruit, but he soon saw their smiles at each other, so he also smiled, and he was even more eager to get the money that could change all the current predicaments.
After smiling, Chen's father, who was unaware of his son's psychological activities, turned around and said, "Chen Zui, I bet that Liu Xiang will qualify first in the group stage today!"
What he said is not without basis. After Liu Xiang won the championship in Athens in 2004 with 12.88, he has proved that yellow people can fly too.
Moreover, since the opening of the Olympic Games on August 8, the lives of all Chinese people have changed. In addition to CCTV5 being played on TVs all day long, many ordinary people who did not watch any sports events before have to watch the first thing as soon as they get home from work.
The thing is to count the total number of gold medals and see if China is still ranked first in the world.
Therefore, in the track and field event, Liu Xiang, the only one with a high probability of winning the championship, naturally became the focus.
As for this game, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a crowd of thousands of people and the attention of hundreds of millions of people.
Everyone expects Liu Xiang to win the gold medal in his hometown.
Chen Zui also had such expectations, but the barrage disturbed his viewing of the game.
A lot of bubble boxes popped up on the TV set that had a clear brain after just two kicks.
【pity..】
[Alas, Liu Xiang retired from injury...]
[I still remember that in 2008, my father, who was in his thirties and older, cried when he saw it...]
[My neighbor threw the TV from upstairs, but luckily no one was hit...]
…
Chen Zui looked at the language in the bubble box, and then carefully looked at Liu Xiang on the TV, and found that his expression was a little solemn. He wondered if the expectation of 1.3 billion made him breathless.
Sure enough, when a gunshot rang out, Dad's rough hands on the table clenched unconsciously, and the picture on the TV suddenly changed.
After just one step, Liu Xiang limped without even crossing a hurdle.
There was silence in the stadium, and player No. 1356 left the field sadly.
The commentators tried their best to describe his injury and the reasons why he could not continue playing.
Thousands of people in front of the TV covered half of their faces with their hands, including my father.
Chen Zui also made this move, but what shocked him was not the fact that player No. 1356 retired due to injury, but the accurate predictions of the barrage guys.
So, are you sick or not?
Are the barrages really from 2022?
Frozen and sluggish for a moment.
Chen's father, who was the first to recover, said proudly: "As an athlete, injuries are understandable. If I try again in four years, I believe everything will be fine!"
Maybe he said this to himself.
But Chen Zui saw another series of barrages next to his father's face.
[Don’t expect it, Liu Xiang was injured again in the 2012 Olympics.]
[The difference is that in 2012, he limped across the finish line. 】
Of course Chen Zui would not tell his father the cruel truth four years later.
Now he just wants to go downstairs immediately to avoid his parents and talk to the barrage guys about how to make money.
Unfortunately, the space in the living room was too small and cramped. He was so excited that after standing up suddenly, his knees hit the corner of the table.
With a scream, Chen Zui endured the pain, blocked his parents' concern, gave a few brief explanations, limped open the door, and jumped onto the starting line of his own life.