Barrier of Light

At half past eleven, the lights in the old town are scattered and the night is dim. Different from the prosperity in the main city of Dadu and along the river beach, the lights here have the texture of the old era, like a movie shot on film, even if the wind blows The voices seemed quieter, and old songs seemed to be flowing in the air.

Some people say that this is the atmosphere of fireworks and humanity.

But in the eyes of more silent people... this is the smell of being eliminated by the times.

Only the showman models will make a special trip to the old town of Dadu, actually to take photos and put them on their personal social platforms to show their unique artistic taste, or to accept business orders. These people left after taking the photo. Before pressing the shutter button, they held their coffee and leaned against the old alley, smiling sweetly. After the photo was frozen, they just rushed to the next location in the dust, thinking of finishing the photo and finishing the work early.

Things that are truly outdated by the times will not be reviled.

The real elimination is forgetting, exiting the stage quietly, and everyone will be surprised when they suddenly think of it. They may feel regret for a second, but they will forget it in an instant.

This old city no longer occupies a small space in everyone's memory... People who are nostalgic cannot survive in the city of Dadu.

Gu Shen stood at the corner of the alley.

He looked at the time and couldn't help but hold his forehead, thinking that he must be crazy.

Follow your usual schedule.

At this point in time, he should have rested.

But Crow dialed Gu Shen's number and, as a friend, warmly invited him to come to the old city for a late-night snack... an invitation that didn't sound alluring. Gu Shen didn't know what was going on in his head. He actually chose to go to the appointment on time.

As expected, the unreliable guy who extended the warm invitation has not yet arrived.

Isn't it about cuckooing?

"I'm coming!"

Someone waved from a distance on the other side of the night.

A man in a suit and tie, wearing a heavy motorcycle helmet on his head, waved while trying to remove the helmet with one hand. Perhaps because the helmet was stuffed too tightly, he tried twice and failed... The man was top-heavy. The running posture looks quite funny.

Finally, Song Ci suddenly stopped with her feet, made a bowing gesture, lowered her head, knocked on her forehead, and said in a low voice.

"The hatband is a little tight... please help me pull it out."

Gu Shen felt helpless and took his hand. It must be said that the helmet was really tightly stuffed. He straightened it up with both hands and pulled it out hard...

A "pop" sound.

"Yo ho ho... feel good, feel good."

The crow exhaled a large puff of smoke in a refreshing manner, and he actually had a woman's cigarette butt that was burned to his butt in his mouth. I really don't know how he rode on the road in the smoky field of vision of the goggles.

"The cigarette was given to me by my wife, so I couldn't bear to throw it away."

Song Ci shook his helmet vigorously with both hands, shaking out the cigarette ash and dust. Taking advantage of this moment, he took a big sip on the butt of the cigarette and said with a smile, "Why do you have dissatisfaction written all over your face?"

Gu Shen said angrily: "I believed your lies and stayed in the cold wind for half an hour!"

"Hey, hey...is it taking so long? I did something temporarily after hanging up the phone."

Song Ci scratched his head, "The old city is different from Jiangtan. Everyone is asleep at this point. Riding a motorcycle to blow up the street will be scolded. Although my mother is dead and doesn't care about being scolded, after all, Wearing this suit can be regarded as representing my wife's face, so I'd better not do any immoral things... I came here with a pushcart during the last part of the journey, and I just parked my motorcycle outside the alley."

"As long as you come, I won't be cheated." Gu Shen sighed softly.

"What kind of words are these! Is this the kind of person I keep my word for?" Song Ci said with a beaming smile, "Open it for dinner tonight, I'll treat you!"

…

…

"Here he comes."

At 11:30 in the middle of the night, Lao Xu Beef Noodle House hadn't closed yet, but it was almost closing. The boss smiled and greeted Song Ci, "I'll fry whatever dishes you want to eat. I won't accept customers later, and I'll leave the inside for you." A location..."

Song Ci chuckled, hunched his neck and looked at the second floor of the store.

"Don't worry...already asleep."

The boss gestured in a low voice: "Don't disturb her, otherwise...she will drive you away."

Song Ci quickly made a gesture of understanding, and pulled Gu Shen to sit carefully in front of the small table in the corner. He whispered: "The boss lady doesn't like me very much, please keep your voice down later."

Gu Shen smiled, "Isn't it because of the immoral things you usually do?"

Song Ci sighed and muttered: "I usually skip the bill, but it's not like no one pays the bill... and I don't owe her a penny. This woman has been in a bad mood all day."

"How do you know that those people you brought before will pay the bill obediently?"

Song Ci sneered, stretched out his fist as big as a sandbag, and said triumphantly: "Here, do you see it? With this, people can buy the order."

Gu Shen was a little helpless.

"Let's have some beef offal in hot pot, some stir-fried pork, some spicy stir-fried chicken gizzards..." Song Ci didn't open the memorized menu from beginning to end, and ordered three dishes in one go, and asked suggestively: "You Take a look, do you want to add something else?"

Gu Shen understood what this guy meant at a glance: "No need...this is enough."

"Ahem...why are you looking at me like that?" Song Ci said with a shy smile: "We are just rough people, we don't have any high-level hobbies, and we are not usually willing to go to the river beach and spend wasteful money on a drink of three hundred cups. Foreign wine, the wine here is delicious and cheap!”

"Young people in Jiangtan like to drink sake at night. It's a drink from Yinghai District. It sounds bourgeois and elegant. You can try this..." Song Ci whispered a few words to the boss, and Lao Xu came from the back of the cabinet. Taking out a mysterious long bottle wrapped in black newspaper, he laughed softly, "A pure man should drink this!"

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes and looked at the small cup of white wine in front of him. He thought that this wine was even more compact than the one in Qingtao Bar. With such a small cup, couldn't he finish it in one gulp?

For a young man like him, drinking is probably the least good thing. For the purpose of investigating the case, last time he went to Jiangtan and tasted 300 cups of "Metropolis". The taste was pretty good, not as good as Song Ci's. So unbearable.

With the idea of ​​giving it a try, Gu Shen raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp.

After one sip, Gu Shen choked and almost spurted out snot and tears.

The wine this time was obviously different from the previous ones. It was extremely spicy in the mouth, as if swallowing a blazing fire. The flame spread down the throat until the whole body was burned.

"You are really... fierce."

Seeing Gu Shen making a fool of himself, Song Ci couldn't help but laugh.

He took a small sip and said softly: "This cup of wine must be drunk slowly, divided into seven or eight times, before you can finish it."

"What kind of wine is this?" Gu Shen felt a wave of heat rushing towards Tianling Gai.

Song Ci narrowed his eyes and said calmly: "The name of this wine... is called 'Lion Awakening'. The sleeping lion wakes up with an angry look. After drinking it, he will feel that his whole body has endless power. The name is no longer important, because the lion wakes up." Xingxing was discontinued ten years ago, and one cup is missing. I have kept it with my boss for several years, and this is the first time I have taken it out to drink with others."

He raised his glass and asked softly: "How does the Lion Wake taste?"

The sleepiness of the late night dissipated in front of a small cup of wine.

Gu Shen felt a strange illusion.

He seemed to be looking at himself... From a bird's eye view, his consciousness was not at all drunken, but extremely sober.

"I feel like I finally woke up."

Gu Shen murmured: "This wine is very good, why has it been discontinued?"

"Actually, it's not accurate to describe it as discontinued, because Lion Wake has never been mass-produced." Song Ci lowered his eyebrows, "The formula only exists in the mind of one person, and that person died ten years ago. So when the lion wakes up, it naturally ceases to exist.”

Gu Shen was startled.

Song Ci took out his old wallet, pinched out a yellowed photo from the inside, and said with a smile: "I was really in a hurry last time, and I didn't even have time to show it off to you when I was running away from the bill... Well, it's mine... Childhood sweetheart, Xiao Lu, do you look good?"

The photo had been touched by fingers many times, and it had turned yellow and old to the point where it was about to develop patina.

The girl in the photo has a blurred face, tilting her head slightly, showing a slight smile, and a tiger tooth.

Sure enough... Xiao Lu is the senior sister.

Lu Nanjin.

I didn’t expect that my senior sister, who is usually not very talkative or smiley, would smile so sweetly when she was a child.

Gu Shen said honestly: "It looks good..."

The words were not finished.

"Of course it looks good!" Crow squeaked as he took the photo back, knocked on the table with a show-off written all over his face, and said, "Xiao Lu is mine, don't look at it too much!"

Gu Shen smiled and asked a question: "It's good-looking, but why do I think...she looks a bit like Madam?"

"...They are sisters, biological sisters."

Crow Crow took another sip and Shi Xing said, "Don't get it wrong. It's one thing for me to like Xiao Lu, but it's another thing to work for Madam. There is no relationship at all between the two. Madam took me from my old age I was brought out by the city, I owe Madam a lot, I have nothing to repay, only this bad life."

"Death?"

Gu Shen glanced at Crow.

Although I don't know this guy well, the person who can be the wife's personal guard must be a top transcendent.

"I owe it to Madam...and the entire Lu family."

Song Ci's voice was brewing in his throat. After drinking the lion's awakening, his voice was hoarse like a beast. This is indeed not a wine that can be mass-produced, because every drop of wine contains extraordinary spiritual elements that will make people He mistakenly thought he was awake...until he was so drunk that he fell unconscious.

"Oh...how do you say it?"

Gu Shen was in excellent condition and was not affected by the "Lion Awakening" at all.

He sipped the wine cup in small sips, just because the wine was very strong and would choke his throat if he drank it quickly... From the beginning to the end, except for his cheeks being slightly hot, he had no adverse reactions.

The spiritual elements in the alcohol soaked into his mind and were swallowed up by the blazing fire. He was the one who was truly suitable for drinking lions to sober up.

A hundred cups will keep you from getting drunk.

A thousand cups will not fall.