There is a garden in the courtyard, planted with peonies and roses. The walls of the courtyard are covered with hydrangeas. There is also a red-leafed peach tree standing in the southwest corner. Every midsummer, this small courtyard is full of colorful flowers and the fragrance of flowers is astonishing. My mother suffers from rhinitis.
You can't smell pollen, so whenever the flowers bloom in the garden, your mother will stay away, and only your father will come here to escape the heat.
Zhou Song has been here several times with his father. What impressed him most about this garden was the image of his father squatting on the ground among the gorgeous peonies, pulling weeds and removing insects. In his childhood memory, his father loved to be clean, and he had always loved cleanliness.
He did not allow his clothes or skin to get stained, but when he was tending flowers and plants, he allowed his hands to be covered with soil. His father's flower gardening hobby only started two years ago. One night when he came home from work, he brought
I returned to a Phalaenopsis planted in a flowerpot. A week later, the Phalaenopsis bloomed. My father seemed to be inspired and planted many flower seedlings in the courtyard of this summer villa in the suburbs. Whenever he had time, he would come over to serve the flowers.
After planting grass, in just one month, the garden was filled with flowers and the fragrance spread far and wide.
Zhou Song also liked that garden, but his father never allowed him to go in, let alone fold flowers. He was only allowed to sit far away on the porch covered with flower vines and watch silently, as if the garden belonged to his father alone.
Forbidden area. In addition to the garden, there is another place that is also a forbidden area, which is the basement under the garage.
About a few months ago, he went to the garage to look for ski boots and found a door over one meter high behind an old wardrobe. The door panel was very thick and it was a dark metal door with iron chains and locks hanging on it.
A mysterious sense of imprisonment. He wanted to know what was on the other side of the door, so he went to ask his father for the key, but his father said that he could not give him the key now because it was not yet time. When the time was right, he would take him there himself.
Go in.
He didn't know when the 'time' would come true in the future, and he quickly forgot about it. It wasn't until a few months later, on the night of his 9th birthday, that his father woke him up from his deep sleep and held his hand.
Go to the garage, push open the heavy metal door, and take him into another world.
Leading to the basement requires walking up a flight of stairs several meters long. When he walked down the stairs, he felt that the stairs were very long. They spiraled downwards and penetrated deep into the center of the earth. They seemed to lead to the legendary hell. But the end of the stairs was not hell.
, but a clean and spacious basement. There are simple tables, chairs and wooden frames in the basement. In the middle is a long table covered with marble. The marble table top reflects a pale light under the lamp. In addition,
, are the photos hanging all over the wall. The photos show women with gloomy smiles. They looked at Zhou Song and smiled, but their eyes were full of fear, so the smiles on their faces looked distorted and weird. Their photos were framed,
Hanging on the wall, it looks like an art exhibition.
Zhou Song held Chi Chenguang's hand and asked, "Dad, who are they?"
Chi Chenguang was still as gentle as ever, and his voice was as soft as the breeze: "They are daddy's prey."
Prey? Where are these prey at this time?
"Where are they?"
This was a question in Zhou Song's heart, so when he first heard this sentence, Zhou Song thought it was him who said it, but the voice came from beside him. He turned his head and realized that Chi Chenguang was still involved.
He was looking at a boy. He wanted to see clearly who the boy was, but he saw a face with bone and flesh stuck together and features charred.
Zhou Song woke up suddenly, his heart beating wildly, and he was covered in cold sweat, only to realize that he had just had a nightmare.
The curtains in the bedroom were tightly closed, and a burnt yellow night light was turned on by the bedside. The air was filled with the aroma of lavender essential oil. He lay on the bed and stared straight at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, with the lingering fear of the nightmare lingering in his eyes.
My chest was beating. Gradually, the fear in my heart faded away, and my mouth felt dry, as if I had been trapped in the desert for several days and nights.
He got out of bed and walked out of the bedroom, went to the kitchen to pour water, and looked at the small clock on the TV cabinet. It was about three o'clock in the morning. The doorbell rang suddenly, and then the door rang.
Zhou Song put the water cup on the floating platform, walked to the entrance, and asked: "Who?"
No one answered the door, but the door rang twice more.
Zhou Song asked again: "Who?"
Still no one answered, but the knocking on the door kept coming.
Zhou Song removed the cat-eye cover and looked outside. The door was empty, but the sensor light in the corridor was on. He unlocked the door, opened the door a palm's width, paused warily for a moment, then opened the door and walked into the corridor.
Looking around.
"Have you found my mother?"
Someone spoke behind him. Zhou Song turned around suddenly and saw Lan Lan, who had been missing for a long time. Lan Lan was standing in the living room with her long hair disheveled. She was wearing the T-shirt and shorts she wore on the day she disappeared. The T-shirt was stained with dried blood.
The blood stains are Liu Qin's blood.
Zhou Song closed the door and turned to look at her: "Why are you here?"
Lan Lan: "Where?"
Zhou Song suddenly noticed something, looked around and found himself standing in a strange room. He was horrified: "What place is this?"
Lan Lan said nothing, turned around and walked to the window, opened a layer of white glass curtains, looked out the window, and looked at the city's night lights that never ceased all night long. She asked again: "Have you found my mother?"
"
Zhou Song wanted to know where he was, so he walked towards her, trying to determine his location by identifying the surrounding buildings. He stood behind Lan Lan and looked out the window, only to see the stretching lights, like a dark river.
Moored fishing boats.
"Where is your mother?" Zhou Song asked.
Lan Lan sighed as lightly as the breeze: "You have found her."
Zhou Song: "She is dead, right?"
Lan Lan nodded and said, "I regret it very much."
Zhou Song: "What do you regret?"
Lan Lan: "I regret that I didn't help her or stop him in that alley."
Who was she talking about? Who didn't she stop? Her father Lan Zhaolin?
Zhou Song slowly walked up to her and asked, "Is your father a murderer?"
Lan Lan was silent for a long time. Zhou Song turned to look at her and saw that her face was pale and her expression was gloomy, like a corpse frozen in the morning light. Only then did he realize that Lan Lan was already dead.
Lan Lan said: "My dad said, survival of the fittest. This is the instinct of human survival, and it applies even among relatives."
Zhou Song: "Your mother is terminally ill and is a drag on you and your father. So she is not suitable to survive."
But, is it right to say so? Can people be so selfish and cruel?
Lan Lan said: "I miss her so much. If she knew that my fate was as miserable as hers, maybe she would forgive me."
A circle of purple bruises gradually appeared on her neck, like traces of being strangled with a rope. With a gasp, she fell straight back and fell to the floor, her eyes wide open and her face turned pale.
Turned into a corpse that had been dead for a long time.
Zhou Song sat down next to her, looked at her face, and saw relief and peace on her dead face. He drew energy from Lan Lan's corpse that could soothe the anxiety in his heart. This energy was like
A stream of clear spring waded through black mountains and white waters, and flowed into the most unknown and secret corner of his heart.
He didn't want to leave for a long time, and even wanted to lie next to her, turn into another corpse, embrace the inner satisfaction and peace, and then die.
"Mr. Zhou? Mr. Zhou, why are you sleeping here? You will catch a cold!"
Zhou Song was woken up by someone shaking his shoulders. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the sofa, his silk pajamas already cold. He sat up and saw a water glass on the coffee table in front of him, which seemed to be what he had last night.
The glass of water I poured out when I got up in the middle of the night.
Sister Cai was worried that he had a cold and asked him to go back to the room and get dressed quickly. He stood up groggily, perhaps because he had woken up violently and felt dizzy. Sister Cai quickly held his hand and felt that his body temperature was a bit hot: "
Mr. Zhou, your hands are so hot, do you have a fever?"
Zhou Song gently pushed her hand away and said, "I'm fine. Pour me a cup of hot water." After that, he went to the bathroom to wash up.
Sister Cai was right. He did have a low fever, perhaps because he slept on the sofa all night. His dizziness became more and more obvious during breakfast. Sister Cai bought him fever-reducing medicine, which he took after meals.
After taking one piece, he went to work. In fact, he really wanted to get off the line with minor injuries and sleep at home because of his illness. But today was Zhou Lingjun’s first day after being discharged from the hospital and returning to the company to work. He was more or less unwilling to let Zhou Lingjun think he was
He's a slacker who skips work and misses work.
When he arrived at the company, he started a new day of chores. The physical discomfort caused by his illness caused him to be in a bad mood. He had a cold face towards everyone, and he was always sparing when talking. The department manager Daisy also tried his best to talk to him.
By being perfunctory, all the good popularity I had accumulated in just one morning was ruined.
The reason why he is so uncharacteristically is not only because he is not feeling well, but also because the newcomer from the marketing department who came in yesterday showed great interest in him. He always peeked at him with curious eyes and frequently took out his mobile phone to take secret photos of him.
, even made an excuse to go to talk to Tian Xin near his work station, wishing to keep her eyes glued to him all the time. Zhou Song felt that he had become an animal in her eyes, a rare species introduced by the zoo.
This person's name is Julie. The reason why she acted so boldly, regardless of his status as the second youngest son of the Zhou family, and visited him like a wild animal, is because she was directly recruited by the female manager Daisy, and it is said that she is somewhat related to Daisy.
Because of his connections, he thought that he had more royal blood than others, so on his first day of employment, he called the staff of the General Affairs Department to replace the chairs and tables in his workstation with a brand new set, which was very flamboyant.
Julie came to Tian Xin's workstation with another project document. She said she wanted Tian Xin's guidance, but in fact she was creating an opportunity to observe Zhou Song up close. Zhou Song could only turn a blind eye to her and concentrate on his own work.
.Everything was calm until Zhou Song left his seat to get a cup of tea and came back to find that Julie was taking photos of his mobile phone and computer with her mobile phone.
This behavior completely annoyed him, and he walked back steadily and asked: "What are you doing?"
Julie was caught, and of course she refused to admit that she was peeking into his privacy. She pretended to be stupid and said she didn't do anything, and then left. But Zhou Song snatched her phone away, and she was stunned and shouted.
:"What are you doing!"
Zhou Song avoided her hand that rushed to shoot the phone, and threw her phone into a small fish tank on Tian Xin's table. With a pop, the phone instantly sank to the bottom, and a circle of water gradually appeared.
Julie: "My new phone!"
She fished for her mobile phone with all her teeth and claws, not forgetting to curse Zhou Song fiercely: "Madman!"
Zhou Song ignored it and sat down to continue working.
This farce alarmed the female manager Daisy, who rushed over in an aggressive manner. She first scolded the crowd of onlookers and asked, "What are you arguing about?"
Julie held her wet cell phone and cried, telling Zhou Song that she threw her cell phone into the fish tank and ruined her new love crazy 12.
After hearing this, Daisy's eyebrows stood up: "Xiao Zhou, why did you throw away your colleague's cell phone?"
Zhou Song had headphones in his ears and was translating a document. When he heard Daisy ask him, he hung his hands on the keyboard for a moment, then took off the headphones and threw them on the table, saying, "I quit."
After saying that, he picked up the suit jacket hanging on the back of the chair and walked out. The incident happened so suddenly that a group of people stood there, at a loss.
But Zhou Song didn't make it, and bumped into Liang Xie before he left the door of the marketing department. Just now, Tian Xin saw that something was wrong and quickly informed Liang Xie, so Liang Xie came at the right time. As soon as Liang Xie came in, he saw
Zhou Song threw his suit jacket over his shoulder and carried it, as if he was ready to return home. He patted Zhou Song on the shoulder and said, "Stand still."
He went directly to Daisy and entered the office with Daisy. As soon as Daisy entered the door, she complained about Zhou Song's faults, criticized Zhou Song's work and conduct, and talked about herself until her mouth was dry. She stopped
He came down to drink water. After drinking the water, he realized that Liang Xiao had not said a word, so he asked: "Secretary Liang, why don't you speak?"
Liang Xiao was standing at the window looking out. Hearing this, he turned around and looked at Daisy with a stern look on his face: "Do you think I'm here to intercede with you?"
Daisy then felt something was wrong: "What do you mean?"
Liang Xie took two steps towards her and smiled coldly: "Have you forgotten that Wanheng Group's surname is Zhou? Even if Zhou Song did something wrong, it's not your fault to make irresponsible remarks. You need to recognize your position.
, you are just working for the Zhou family, not Zhou Song’s dean."
Daisy: "But just now Zhou Song took his colleague's cell phone——"
Liang Xie cut off her words forcefully: "Zhou Song threw your niece's cell phone into the water? What your niece did was obvious to everyone in the marketing department. You should find the reason from your niece, but you blamed Zhou Song.
.Why do you think you can accuse Zhou Song? Why do you think Zhou Song is going to be angry with you?"
Daisy's face turned red and she didn't dare to answer.
Liang Xie raced against the clock to curse, looked at his watch, and said: "Don't think you are irreplaceable, I can find someone to replace you at any time. If what happened today happens a second time, I will arrange for the personnel department to help you and
Your niece is leaving her job."
He glanced at Daisy warningly, then walked out of Daisy's office, quickly adjusted his friendly smile, and smiled at everyone in the office area: "What happened just now was just a misunderstanding, and it has been resolved now. Who is Julie?"
?”
Julie raised her hand: "Me."
Liang Xie smiled and said: "I apologize to you on behalf of Zhou Song, and your mobile phone company will double the compensation. The compensation will be paid to you together with your salary next month." He then said to everyone, "It's okay, it's okay, let's work.
.”
Liang Xie was very popular, and everyone listened to his words, and order in the marketing department quickly returned to normal.
Liang Xie came out of the marketing department office area and found Zhou Song in the corridor. Zhou Song was standing leaning against the wall, looking lazy and indifferent. As soon as he walked over, he heard Zhou Song say: "I quit."
Liang Xie vetoed it with one vote: "No."
Zhou Song glanced at him sideways: "You can't do it if you say no?"
Liang Xie: "Yes, I won't do it if I say no."
Zhou Song: "I just picked up my feet and left. What can you do?"
Liang Xie: "I have nothing to do, but my eldest brother will be very disappointed."
Zhou Song was speechless, now Zhou Lingjun had become his weakness, and Liang Xie knew how to pinch his weakness.
Liang Xie saw that he had an unwilling look on his face and knew that he had changed his mind, so he smiled and said: "It's lunch break time. Let's go eat. After dinner, go to work in the afternoon."