In Linghai City, in a cramped rental house, a figure suddenly sat up from the single bed.
Big beads of sweat flowed down Zheng Dong's face, and he was breathing heavily, as if he had just done a 100-meter sprint. In fact, he had just woken up.
As the focus of his pupils recovered, Zheng Dong gradually came back to his senses and said, "Mobile phone!"
He sighed secretly, quickly turned on the lamp on the bedside table, and walked straight to the desk a step away.
The desk was relatively clean. Apart from a strange-shaped leather book full of cracks, there was only a mobile phone placed against the wall. The camera of the mobile phone was facing Zheng Dong's single bed.
Zheng Dong picked up the phone anxiously.
Uh, shut down!
Zheng Dong pressed the power button, but there was no response. In desperation, he plugged in the data cable to charge the phone.
He was too anxious. Zheng Dong took a deep breath and his eyes gradually regained clarity. It was normal for his phone to shut down after a night of shooting.
Before waiting for two minutes, Zheng Dong turned on the phone plugged into the charger.
As soon as he turned on the phone, it showed that the phone's memory was full. Zheng Dong ignored it and opened the video taken last night.
Although Zheng Dong's mobile phone has a night shooting function, without lights, the scene he saw was still not clear, and he could only see the blurry outline of the human figure on the single bed.
But Zheng Dong didn't care. He took this photo just to verify one thing: whether he was in this rental house last night, or in other words, whether he was on earth.
As the video played every minute, Zheng Dong's heart gradually lifted.
Buzz!
mmp!
Looking at the caller ID that suddenly jumped on his phone, Zheng Dong was stunned for a moment, and then he cursed in his heart. He was about to hang up, but then chose to answer the call.
Without him, the caller will display the words "Lao Mei".
"Xiao Yu." Zheng Dong tried his best to keep his voice steady, but there was still a hint of vibrato.
"elder brother."
As soon as the call was connected, a crisp voice came from the other end of the phone, and Zheng Dong couldn't help but think of his sister's delicate appearance.
"Yes." Zheng Dong responded gently, "Have the college entrance examination results come out?"
Zheng Dong knew that his sister must have called because of this.
"Hehe." Zheng Yu smiled slyly, but didn't answer.
Hearing his sister's laughter, Zheng Dong felt relieved. He knew that his sister must have done well in the exam, so he smiled and said, "Okay, don't show off."
"578 points."
"578?" Zheng Dong felt happy in his heart, "It exceeded the score by more than 20 points. It was a good test."
Hearing Zheng Dong's praise, Zheng Yu fell silent and said for a while: "It's a pity that he is still a few points short of getting a good grade."
"It doesn't matter. Choosing a good major may not be inferior to a bad major." Zheng Dong comforted, "I will help you refer to it when the time comes."
"Well," Zheng Yu nodded, "By the way, brother, I took advantage of the summer vacation to find a job."
"I'm just a waiter. I'm idle anyway. I can also subsidize my tuition and living expenses."
At the end of the sentence, my sister's voice became smaller and smaller.
Zheng Dong felt sour in his heart after hearing this.
"Brother, actually I am mainly afraid that I will be too bored alone during the summer vacation..."
"Okay, please pay attention to your own safety." Before his sister finished speaking, Zheng Dong agreed.
What his sister did was right. Their family conditions did not allow him to pamper his sister, not to mention that her sister had grown up.
"Yeah, got it!"
With brother's approval, my sister's excited voice became high-pitched.
The two chatted for a few more words and then hung up the phone.
Putting down the phone, Zheng Dong stopped thinking about it. He was eager to figure out the strange things that happened these nights.
Zheng Dong continued to open the video taken last night and started watching it.
An hour later, the sky was completely bright, and the sunlight shone through the window and onto the leather books on the desk, emitting dazzling reflections.
Zheng Dong raised his head and twisted his stiff neck, his expression gloomy and uncertain.
Things are a little different from what I imagined. Are what happened these few nights all a dream? But, this is too real!
Thinking of this, Zheng Dong began to carefully recall the past few days, or to be precise, everything he had encountered in the past three days, trying to find other anomalies.
Finally, he fixed his gaze on the strange leather book on the desk.
The cover of the leather book looks like it is made from the tanned skin of some kind of animal.
Zheng Dong had little knowledge and did not know what kind of animal skin it was made of, and he was not even sure whether it was made of animal skin.
He picked up the leather book on the desk, touched it gently with his palm, and then opened it.
What caught his eye was yellow paper, but strangely, there was no word on the paper. Zheng Dong wanted to continue flipping through it, but he couldn't open it no matter what.
The paper at the back seems to be held together by glue.
Obviously this book seems to be half as thick as a little finger, but Zheng Dong can only open the first page.
What the hell is this?
Three days ago, it appeared on my desk out of thin air without any warning.
For the next three days, I had the same strange dream every night.
But Zheng Dong didn't know what the connection was between the strange dreams he had at night and this book.
Headache!
After thinking for a long time and finding nothing, he could only put the matter aside for now.
He knew that besides this matter, there was another important thing to do today, which was to find a job.
Zheng Dong is four years older than his sister. Her sister is going to college and he just graduated. However, as the number of college students increases, it is becoming more and more difficult to find a good job.
Fortunately, he currently has a part-time job that pays well. Speaking of this part-time job, Zheng Dong loves and hates it.
Because of it, Zheng Dong had the money to successfully finish college, and because of it, he often got bruises all over his body.
...
Linghai City.
Guomao Building.
Linghai City, as a quasi-first-tier city in China, has always had high housing prices. As a landmark building in Linghai City, the value of the Guomao Building can be imagined.
Zheng Dong's part-time job is in this tall building, and he just works...
"Dongzi, are you here?"
"Brother Hai."
As soon as he walked into the door of the Kickboxing Club, a muscular man wearing a black vest greeted Zheng Dong with a smile.
It was Brother Hai whom Zheng Dong mentioned.
When Zheng Dong entered the martial arts gym, it was naturally impossible for him to become a martial arts instructor. He did not know any martial arts. In fact, his job here was called a sparring partner.
Generally, martial arts gyms do not have the job of sparring partner. Usually, martial arts coaches work part-time, but this martial arts gym is quite special.
Zheng Dong could only attribute it to the boss being rich and willful.
"Brother Hai, what is the game number today?"
Zheng Dong said while putting on protective clothing quickly.
"No. 4." Brother Hai raised his head and said.
On court No. 4, there are two people on the field, a coach in a black vest and a student in a white vest.
Wearing thick protective clothing, a mask, and a blocking board, Zheng Dong, fully armed, calmly walked towards Site 4.
Being a sparring partner in a kickboxing club, although the salary is high, is not a good job.
This job requires the sparring partner to only take hits and not fight back. During the beating, he can hide and block, but he cannot run.
Sometimes when encountering overly aggressive clients, the sparring partner is even asked to take off his protective clothing.
It’s not that the martial arts gym didn’t recruit other sparring partners, all of them left after only a few days of work. Only Zheng Dong stayed here for three full years.
Zheng Dong still remembers the first time he was beaten. His body hurt for more than half a month, and he was still wearing protective clothing.
Despite this, Zheng Dong still chose to persevere.
Zheng Dong walked to court No. 4, where the coach was teaching the students horse steps.
"Yesterday I was talking about horse stance. Horse stance is the most basic stance in martial arts, but most people can't get into it even if they spend their entire lives standing on horse stance."
The coach in black said and gave a demonstration to the students, "The horse stance is divided into three positions: high, medium and low. Beginners usually start from the high stance and put a small amount of force on the legs first, and you watch."
I saw the coach in black spreading his feet shoulder-width apart, slightly bending his knees, holding his chest and back, and keeping his toes firmly on the ground.
Zheng Dong looked at the coach in black standing on his horse, as if he was seeing not a person, but an old pine, rooted in the soil, unmoving no matter how the wind blew or rained.
"The imaginary pushing force in the horse stance refers to pushing your head upward, as if a thread is hanging on your head. Doing all these movements to a standard proves that your horse stance skills have taken shape."
"Does this count as entry level?"
The student in white clothes said excitedly at the side. Although he didn't understand martial arts, he still knew the name of Coach Qin in front of him clearly.
"Getting started?" Coach Qin smiled, "It's still far from being able to do just that."
"When you stand in the horse stance, when you can feel a stream of heat starting from the soles of your feet, running straight down the middle and straight to the vertebrae, your horse stance is called entry."
The student in white didn't pay attention, but Zheng Dong felt something in his heart. According to the coach, his horse steps are considered beginners?
Zheng Dong has been a sparring partner in the martial arts gym for three years. He has been immersed in it and understands some basic knowledge of martial arts, especially pile skills.
What Zheng Dong heard the head coach talk about most was pile skills.
"Coach Qin."
When he saw the coach finished explaining, he quickly stepped forward to say hello.
"Here we come."
Zheng Dong nodded. The coach Qin in front of him was about thirty years old. He was tall and average-looking, but when he looked at people with his eyes, he gave people a great sense of oppression.
Qin Wushuang, the head coach of the martial arts gym, he is the only one in charge of the entire martial arts gym, except for the boss who never sees his end.
Coach Qin stopped the exercise and slowly took two steps back, his left leg lame a bit.
"Okay, you practice with him for a while first, and I'll take a rest."