What is it like to fall in love with a courier boy?

"Yicheng Anqing"

It has been nearly half a month since I arrived in Anqing. If I had to use one word to describe my impression of this city, "electric vehicles" would definitely bear the brunt.

This is a city where there are almost no bicycles. Let alone enjoying bicycles, I am surprised to see a cyclist on the entire road.

Here, men, women, old and young, all ride electric bicycles of different styles and enjoy themselves leisurely. At the entrance of the middle school next to the factory, there are rows of electric vehicles parked at the entrance during school hours, and cars are rarely seen.

I wonder if electric vehicles have become a standard for measuring whether urban life is comfortable and satisfying enough?

People do not need a car to show their status, and there is not enough distance for it to take advantage of its performance. Bicycling and walking are too time-consuming and laborious, so electric vehicles have become standard equipment. Just like in Chengdu, electric vehicles are the mainstream at every intersection.

Anqing’s nickname is “Yicheng”. When I first heard the name, I thought it meant "livable", but later I learned that Guo Pu, the originator of Chinese Feng Shui and a poet of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, once climbed up here to overlook the Yangtze River and said, "This place is suitable for a city."

I prefer its former name: Shengtang County. Emperor Liu of the Han Dynasty made his last southern tour during his lifetime. He arrived here along the Yangtze River, climbed Tianzhu Mountain, shot dragons in the river, and composed "The Song of Songyang in the Prosperous Tang Dynasty".

On a non-holiday Friday afternoon, there were few idle people like us in this small town. The Yangtze River was wide and calm. We stood on the three-story riverside plank road, with the wind blowing on our faces. , as gentle as a caress.

At my feet, there were several half-naked old people swimming in the river about half a meter away from the shore. I pulled Lao Yang to look at me in surprise, but his eyes were always staring at Leisure not far away. old man fishing.

Lao Yang likes fishing. I don’t know how a boy of his age can be so patient. Every time I encountered a place with water, I was always obsessed with the scenery in the distance. He would squat by the river and strike up a conversation with every fisherman: "Brother, are there any fish?"

When he met someone who was willing to talk to him, he would sit nearby and watch. If he was in a good mood, he would let him try a shot to satisfy his addiction.

He enjoyed the process of putting earthworms on the hook and throwing the long fishing line into the river, and then stared at the water, meticulously. I like to be on the sidelines, watching him like this.

Sitting behind the second-hand electric car he just bought, his hands were around his waist, his face was against his back, and his favorite song "Ours" was playing in his other ear. Time".

Following the navigation on Dianping, we walked around five streets, visited two empty stores, and finally found a small and shabby store: Crock Pot Simmering Soup.

The five-yuan can of sparerib soup seems to have lost its local character in a city where Dianping’s reputation has not kept up with the pace of store changes, and has instead allowed local and Sichuan restaurants to steal the limelight.

For example, for two consecutive weekends, we chose Chongqing Hot Pot and Chengdu Chuan Chuan Xiang.

"Factory Girl"

I have lived there for half a month and I am still lost in the factory area with only "one vertical line and three horizontal lines".

As an ignorant northern girl, every plant and tree in the south feels fresh. There are many camphor trees in the factory area. They are tall and tall, strong and strong. The leaves are still green and full in the autumn in the south where Beijing has been heated. There are a few red ones hanging on the branches. In the flash of sunlight, I mistakenly thought they were growing strawberries. .

It’s not my fault. There is an orange tree at the door of the cafeteria. There are many green and yellow colors, like stars hanging on a Christmas tree. I picked it and tasted it. It was sweet and sour.

There is a big papaya tree next to it. My colleague told me that it is only for viewing and not edible.

But the persimmons on the other wall are already red and hung too high. I am waiting for them to fall.

I like the small roads here very much. There are no cars and few people are seen. There are tall trees on both sides. The fallen leaves under the feet have not been excessively cleared, and traces of autumn can still be seen.

But at night, when darkness fell, the entire factory area was covered with a layer of black cloth, and the inside looked like a bottomless swamp. The colleagues who were preparing to run at night were so frightened that they immediately called for help. Headed.

After five years, I returned to my identity as a "female factory worker".

On the second day of work, my throat collapsed. I laughed at myself for changing from a "child voice" to a drake voice. For the first time, I experienced the pain of not being able to speak normally. The sore throat and uncontrollable cough in the morning made it impossible for me to sleep well.

Under the continuous action of Pharyngitis Tablets, Golden Throat, Watermelon Cream and Pangdahai, my throat finally showed signs of improvement. Although it was still hoarse, it finally no longer croaked.

It was my first time to deal with Fatty Sea. When I first saw it, it looked like an ugly hard date core. When it encountered water, it turned into a soft lump around my fingers, like Tremella soup with too much coffee, with a soft and glutinous texture. It's crisp, and after a few glasses of water, I feel full.

Every day is divided into several fragments: breakfast, class, coffee break, lunch, class, afternoon tea, and dinner. It was like being back in a high school classroom, but in the role of a teacher.

Every time I hear them say: we are proud to have you, it makes me wonder, maybe I should be a teacher?

You know, this was a career choice that I was extremely resistant to and resisted.

My suspicion is a bit unfounded. However, in two days, after explaining "a certain formula and algorithm" three times in a row to no avail, my voice and temper reached critical levels. Brother Curry, who looked confused, had fear in his eyes, fearing that I would kill someone with a knife in the next second. .

After taking deep breaths many times, I think I am still not suitable to be a teacher.

In order to take care of the friends from the country of curry, the kitchen changed the tricks to cook for them. It was originally a working meal for each person, but it was upgraded to a rotating table meal by their deadly serial complaint. Then our translators also benefited from it.

Sometimes curry friends cook by themselves and ask us to evaluate and rate whether the boiled shrimp is more delicious or the curry shrimp tastes better! It was just over fried chicken legs, plus peppers, onions and curry, which made me have diarrhea more frequently.

After eating curry rice for a week, we took the initiative to give up the big meal and went to the staff canteen to eat lunch boxes.

In the past few days in mid-October, it has been raining in Anqing. I don’t like to hold an umbrella. The rain is blowing on my face, and I finally have the moist feeling of the south.

"Our Time"

My roommate and I have a two-hour time difference. She goes to bed at nine o'clock in the evening and gets up at five o'clock in the evening, while I wake up at ten o'clock in the evening. I just got off Lao Yang's motorcycle and kissed him goodbye three times before reluctantly returning to the dormitory.

Every time I pass by the security booth at the door, I feel guilty about sneaking out to play in the student dormitory at night.

It is not that easy to settle in a strange city. Lao Yang worked as an SF Express boy in Beijing for two months, and now he has become a S.F. Express boy again when he came here.

In Beijing, the delivery fee per order starts at 23 yuan, but here it is only 9 yuan. After the platform deducts 20%, it also charges a net income of 300 yuan as a deposit, and the remaining money can be withdrawn every week.

Lao Yang only got 2 orders on the first day, with a net income of 30 yuan. Each order will be given a waiting time of about 10 seconds, and it will be easier for other couriers who work longer hours to grab it.

After grabbing the phone several times to no avail, I dropped the phone.

Lao Yang chooses to work at night. Firstly, there is no risk of being caught by the traffic police. After all, he drives a motorcycle that drinks gas without a license. Secondly, there will be less competition at midnight.

On the second day after I started working, Lao Yang bought me a rose. I stuffed it into a juice cup and it bloomed for a long time.

We rented a small house in the alley of Jixian South Road, with a one-bedroom and one-living room layout, like a hutong in Beijing.

There is a single bed in the bedroom, with more than a dozen slender wooden boards spread uneasily on it. The second time I went there, the bed was broken the moment it slipped from Lao Yang’s arms. The frame of the bed.

When the newly bought sea blue sheets and quilts were spread on the bed, I felt that I finally had my own world in this city.

On the second Friday, Lao Yang came to the factory to pick me up and take me home. When we happened to receive an order, I sat on the back of his motorcycle and went to pick up and deliver the goods together.

The first store I went to was a flower shop. The boss handed me a bouquet of red roses with two bear dolls on them.

I was thinking in the car, maybe I should open a post on Zhihu: What is it like to accompany your boyfriend to send flowers to other women?

Riding all the way from the city to the development zone, I didn’t expect that the person receiving the flowers was a middle-aged uncle. He was holding the flowers and kept confirming at a loss, don’t you give me the wrong one? Who will give me flowers....

Before I finished delivering the second order, it started to rain. After Lao Yang sent me home, he continued to work alone until 2 o'clock in the morning. Come back.

He excitedly handed the phone to me. The balance in his account finally reached 300, and he could withdraw whatever he earned next.

Saturday night was Jacky Cheung’s concert. The two of us went to the bookstore on Renmin Road in the rain. Preface and Postscript, and saw writing on the wall of the bookstore:

We are like two people. A lost person, wandering in a strange city. Two months later, I don’t know where it will go.

Lao Yang said from the first day he met me that our meeting was like a dream.

I want to say that if this is a dream, I hope it can be as beautiful and long as this autumn.