black succulent
I opened my eyes, covered in sweat, grabbed the remote control, and pressed it. A beep from above, like a revelation, woke me up a bit. I stared at the red dot on the air conditioner, waiting for the cool breeze to come down. The mattress vibrated and I turned to look at her. She turned over, facing the wall, apparently awake, but didn’t make a sound. She reached out her hand, touched the phone, turned on the screen, and swipe quickly with her fingertips. I closed my eyes and covered my chest with my hands, as if I was playing dead. After the room cooled down, I still haven’t returned to my dream. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. When the last stream of urine dripped, I shivered, and the word “divorce” popped into my mind. I went back to the bed and asked in a strange way, “Do you think it’s okay?”
She said “Yes”. This “hmm” is illusory, I seem to have not heard it clearly, and I seem to hear it clearly, but I don’t want to ask again. I went to the kitchen to fry two eggs and heat a bag of milk. As I ate, I stared at the plate, the egg whites and yolks were broken. A hand was on my head and I was banging against the plate. The neck was strained, and the cervical spine rattled, but somehow it held up. It should be my own hand, she is still sleeping in the bedroom. I dumped the eggs into the trash can, gulped down the milk, and went downstairs with a gurgling stomach. My forehead hurts a little, it’s weird, obviously I didn’t hit it, it must be an illusion.
I drove to a school in the suburbs. After leaving the city, I saw mountains in the distance. The mountain is not green, it is gray, like a huge garbage dump. The roadside vegetable greenhouses are one after another, and the plastic sheeting is glowing with white light. There is always a stench getting into the car, and the smell is different depending on the road section. First it is the smell of cow dung, then chicken dung, and the most mellow smell of manure. This is the real world.
There are two classes today, the first class is from 10:00 am to 11:40 am, and the second class is from 2:00 pm to 3:40 pm. Classes are boring, like eating with unfamiliar people. After the class, I sat in the office and read a book, but I couldn’t read anything. The sliced noodles I ate at noon still gathered in my stomach. I quickly ran to the toilet door and spit twice into the washbasin. The noodles were broken, not as complete as I imagined. The figure next to me flickered, and a hand patted my back.
“Ms. Zhang, why do you have indigestion?” It was my colleague, Xiaoyan, who was talking, and she always smelled of jasmine.
“The sliced noodles are too hard and undercooked.” I said, with the silk on my mouth, I scooped up a handful of water and rinsed my mouth. Xiaoyan sighed for no reason, then walked into the women’s toilet with a sway. I rinsed my mouth and washed my face, but she still hasn’t come out. I went back to my office and sat down, staring at my desk. The white pressing board is covered with black plastic strips, with a curvature in the middle, and the keyboard tray below. My head dropped suddenly, and my forehead hit the table with a loud bang. It’s not painful, but it feels better.
Someone came in, a scent of jasmine, it was Xiaoyan. I lowered my head, it was inconvenient to look at her, and suddenly I felt a poke on my shoulder. She held a box of medicine, “Mr. Zhang, this is morphine. I just bought it. My stomach is not good. I will send you four pills. You can take one now.” After she finished speaking, she cut a small strip, There are four pills on it, and it’s on my desk. She didn’t notice the bag on my forehead. I thanked her, pressed a pill, and swallowed it in one gulp. She was sitting at her desk, apparently preparing for lessons. An hour later, I felt hungry and was about to ask her to eat, but her cell phone rang. She didn’t answer, and greeted me, “Mr. Liang, I’m leaving!” She ran out of the office.
This afternoon, there was a regular teaching meeting. More than a dozen teachers gathered around a big table to talk, most of them were female teachers, and they were all relatively young. There was only one male teacher, and that was me. I was also the oldest at forty-four years old. I looked out of place because of my weather-beaten look. I joined the job the year before last as a writer teacher, teaching students to write. This is a private university with a flexible system. They are all serious teachers, some teach the history of literature, some teach aesthetics, although they are younger, they are all more experienced than me. After the meeting was over, the director asked everyone if there was anything else. The director, surnamed Xu, is the oldest female teacher at 29 years old. I said, “There is another personal matter.” Director Xu asked about the personal matter, so I asked if I could apply for a dormitory. I wanted to live in the school and make my unit my home. After listening to Director Xu, he thought it was a good thing and showed his love for work, so he expressed his support and could apply immediately.
“Ms. Liang, are you coming to live in the school? The dormitory is very bad.” It was Xiaoqian who spoke. Her upper teeth were extremely raised, her mouth protruded and was quite wide, and her chin was too short. She has the fastest mouth and loves to chatter. I asked her what’s wrong with it. She said that the dormitory was dark and damp, cold in winter and hot in summer, without air conditioning, shabby furniture, bath water was intermittent, and the toilet did not flush automatically, but was equipped with a leather hose, which she flushed herself. As she spoke, she waved her hands, as if she was hitting feces and urine with a water hose. We are all going to die laughing. Xiaoqian smiled even more heartily, his upper teeth turned out, revealing a large area of gums.
“It’s okay,” I stopped laughing, “you can live there, and I can definitely live there.” ”
That’s not necessarily the case, we are single, we live alone, we can do whatever we want. You come to live in the school, what will my sister-in-law do?” Are you not afraid of Lao Wang next door? By the way, my sister-in-law also comes to live. Last year, before you came, we recruited an old writer, brought his wife with us, and bought a double bed, Simmons The mattress is very thick. The old writer has a good physique. Every night, he goes to the playground for a run. The old lady dances downstairs in the dormitory with a speaker. Many students also dance along
. Have you seen it?” I interrupted her on purpose, otherwise she would have been talking until the end of work.
“The old writer was not good at lecturing. He was dismissed after the probationary period. You hadn’t come yet. In front of us, he cried a lot, worrying about what to do with the big bed. Finally, he found the school leader and said About the bed. The leader asked him to go to the materials department. The section chief went to the dormitory to look at the bed, bought it at a discount, found a bunch of students to move it out, and moved it to the counselor’s duty room. Now, the big bed was taken by the teacher on duty Sleeping in turns, everyone said it was very comfortable, it was very flexible when lying down, and it saved energy when moving, and the elderly would enjoy it…”
We laughed heartily again. Xiaoqian’s words are very dirty, and most of the female teachers are too embarrassed to answer. Before the meeting ended, Director Xu said, “Ms. Yan, you can accompany Mr. Liang to the logistics department to apply for a dormitory.” Xiaoyan nodded. She teaches foreign literature and is also a secretary, taking care of office chores.
On the way to the logistics office, Xiaoyan asked: “Mr. Liang, do you want to buy a big bed too?” I said: “If you don’t buy it, why do you buy it?” After a pause, I said: “I come to live in the school for separation. If she comes to live together, it will be meaningless.” She walked on my right, briskly, with a small beige leather bag on her left shoulder, and Pressed on the leather bag, the back of the hand is very white, with blue blood vessels floating. She sighed and said, “When a couple spends a long time, problems will arise. Is that true? God, I really don’t want such a relationship.” Probably because she has read too many English novels, Xiaoyan speaks with an interpreter accent, which is very cute of.
“I am like this, I don’t know how others are.” I replied.
“Mr. Liang, you are an honest person.”
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