Wei Qian called back and returned a week later as he promised.

But he didn't walk back by himself. Lao Xiong called a car from somewhere and drove it all the way to the downstairs of his house.

It was a hot summer afternoon, and Kim Jong-un was alone at home eating a late lunch: a bowl of instant noodles.

The local TV station was broadcasting some insignificant news, such as - a warehouse keeper violated the rules and got drunk and mistakenly entered the cold storage. His colleague on shift locked the door as usual and mistakenly locked the keeper into the cold storage, causing his death.

Xiaobao, who was forced by Wei Zhiyuan to do her summer homework, scratched her head and looked painful. She was distracted from time to time. When she raised her head to listen to the news, she couldn't help asking, "What is a cold storage?"

Wei Zhiyuan said without even looking up: "It's a big refrigerator."

Song Xiaobao asked again: "Whose responsibility is that?"

Wei Zhiyuan smiled grimly: "The other party locked the room on time, but he entered the cold storage room beyond the time limit. Of course, it is his own responsibility for violating the regulations."

Song Xiaobao said in confusion: "Then why did he go into that... uh... big refrigerator overtime?"

Wei Zhiyuan said with a double meaning: "Who knows? Maybe he is sick."

Song Xiaobao thought about it and commented, "Oh, this is the first time I've heard that a person can freeze to death. Wouldn't he be cool if he jumped?"

Wei Zhiyuan finally looked up at her and turned off the TV with the remote control.

Xiaobao stuck out his tongue, lowered his head with a look of deep resentment and continued to do his homework.

Wei Zhiyuan looked at her for a moment and thought incredulously: "She and my eldest brother have the same mother?"

At this time, Mr. Xiong Yingjun, who was tanned black and shiny, got out of the car and stopped downstairs of Wei Qian's house. He first bent down to adjust his collar and hairstyle in front of the car window, and then stood up and shouted upstairs: "Is Mr. Tan here? Is Mr. Tan Yu Tan here?"

The window next to him rolled down, and Wei Qian's voice came from inside. His respect for the future "financial path" had been completely wiped out during the unreliable journey for several months. Wei Qian said bluntly: "Why call him? Will helping me tire you to death, idiot?"

Comrade Lao Xiong replied in a gentle voice: "I accept your suggestion to exercise more in the future, but with my current physical strength, I am afraid I can't even carry a gas tank, let alone you."

Wei Qian was so angry that he said weakly after a long while, "Don't call him by his full name, or he might get angry with you."

The old bear asked politely, "Oh, then what should I call you?"

Wei Qian: "... Fatty Three."

Lao Xiong nodded, straightened up, and called upstairs politely: "Excuse me, is Mr. San here?"

Wei Qian in the car turned his head silently.

Fortunately, Sanpang was gifted. When he was having lunch at home, he heard the vague voice of "Mr. San" and was able to understand the situation. He put down his chopsticks and leaned out of the window: "Are you calling me?"

Wei Qian pushed open the car door weakly and waved at him from downstairs: "Third brother, come down and give me a hand."

Sanpang narrowed his already small eyes, stared at him for a long time, and said in shock: "Oh my god! Brother! Qian'er! Didn't you say you were going to sell medicine with a 'stupid and rich fathead fish'? Why do I think you went with Maimaiti to grill lamb skewers! How did you become like this?"

The "stupid but rich fathead fish" just stood aside and listened quietly.

The window on the third floor that heard the sound was suddenly pushed aside. The person who opened the window used too much force, and the window hit the wall with a bang and bounced back.

Wei Zhiyuan: "Brother!"

The boy's voice was almost broken during the voice change period. Wei Qian raised his eyelids and glanced at him: "Calling for the soul?"

He was not much better than Old Bear. There were only two white spots on his face - his teeth and the whites of his eyes. But in Wei Zhiyuan's eyes, the appearance of this dark-haired man was like an Aladdin's magic lamp, which instantly lit up his entire life... Of course, due to that bizarre nightmare, a small shadow appeared under the magic lamp.

Old Mrs. Song was not at home during the day, so Wei Zhiyuan, Xiaobao and Sanpang hurried downstairs. Only then did they know why Wei Qian had been sitting there without moving. One of his legs was in a cast.

When Sanpang saw this, his eyes widened. "This... this won't affect your school opening, right? Is it serious?"

Before Wei Qian could say anything, the fathead fish old bear began to speak in a deep voice, "No, it takes a hundred days to heal a broken bone. He probably only has fifty days left. Considering his thick skin, he should be able to be removed next month."

Wei Qian stood up on one leg with Sanpang's hand and waved at Lao Xiong: "Okay, you can go now. Countdown sign."

The old bear said shyly, "Since we have been through life and death together, please take me in for a few days so I can relax."

Wei Qian: "Did a local earthquake occur in your home?"

Old Bear said even more shyly, "Excuse me, I have a Hedong lion at home. I haven't called my wife for such a long time. I'm really afraid that she will bite me."

San Pang was delighted when he heard this: "Brother, you can't avoid the fifteenth day if you are a real warrior who dares to face the bleak life. You'd better go back and kneel down on the washboard for your leader!"

The old bear smiled and said to him: "I am not a real warrior, I am just a 'stupid and rich fathead fish'."

Sanpang: “…”

Wei Qian: “…”

When Sanpang reacted, his face turned pale. He coughed dryly and glared at Wei Qian fiercely - this kid didn't even give him a warning.

He bent his legs and took a horse stance, patted his shoulder and said to Wei Qian, "You... Hey, come up."

Sanpang carried Wei Qian on his back, still feeling aggrieved, and cursed: "My broad shoulders are still virgin land, reserved for my future wife, but you, my grandson, are getting it for free... Alas."

As he spoke, he glanced down at Wei Qian's arm, trying to find some sense of superiority from his painted skin color, and then he said mockingly: "Third brother, let me ask you, if you wash it later, will the color still fade?"

"Why not?" Wei Qian said coldly, "It will shrink."

He was actually in the mood to joke, and Sanpang was completely relieved - it showed that the injury was not serious and he was safe.

Old Bear was such a coward that he finally didn't dare to go back.

But there was really no room at Wei Qian's house, and Wei Qian thought that Wei Zhiyuan might have suffered too much psychological trauma from his childhood and had always been a little "shy of strangers". For example, the way he looked at Lao Xiong seemed to be full of hostility.

So in the end, Lao Xiong went to live at Sanpang's house - Sanpang's parents went out to purchase goods and would not be back at night.

The two big swindlers hit it off immediately and came together like two contrasting black and white pigs, walking upstairs side by side in a friendly manner to have a meeting of ideas.

Wei Qian didn't even eat a bite of food. He threw his luggage down and fell into a deep sleep. He didn't move at all, not even turning over.

At dinner time in the evening, Old Lady Song thought for a long time before deciding to wake him up and let him eat a few bites of food before going to sleep. Wei Qian was extremely tired. He knew someone was calling him, but he just couldn't wake up. Finally, relying on his strong willpower that had endured the old bear for so many days, Wei Qian crawled up like a zombie, ate a few bites of food without even chewing, and then crawled back to lie down like a corpse.

That night, Wei Zhiyuan did his homework until one o'clock in the morning.

He had originally planned to use the money from the summer camp to buy some clothes for Xiaobao and not go himself. Now it was obvious that he had to change his plan. He had to go to the summer camp, otherwise his eldest brother would not agree. He had no choice but to finish the extra Olympiad homework that he had left behind a few days ago - the teacher would check it when he went there.

As for Song Xiaobao, that naughty girl, it seemed that he didn't have to worry about it for the time being. As soon as her elder brother came back, she was freed from her brief state of being a miserable and sensible little white cabbage, and became happy again. She ran out to play with her classmates in the afternoon, and she didn't save her pocket money, but bought herself a new skirt at the speed of light.

He closed the book and sat quietly in the chair, looking at Wei Qian for a moment. The ugly look of his elder brother now was certainly not the same as the one in his dream that made him so excited. Wei Zhiyuan calmed himself, curled up his four fingers in the middle of his palm, and took turns pinching his palm with his short nails.

"It's just a dream, it means nothing," the young boy thought calmly, "Will someone who dreams of streaking really streak? Will someone who dreams of overturning a car really have the strength to overturn the car? Impossible. If the dream is not absurd, no one would use the word 'dream' to replace the meaning of 'roll'... Big brother has been lying in this position for an entire afternoon and night, isn't his arm numb?"

Thinking this, Wei Zhiyuan walked over slowly, gently touched Wei Qian's shoulder, carefully avoided Wei Qian's injured leg, turned him over, and moved his head to the middle of the pillow.

Wei Qian's steady breathing was not disturbed at all, and it brushed across Wei Zhiyuan's wrist, bringing up a gust of warm breeze.

His silhouette in the dark made Wei Zhiyuan's heart jump. He quickly retracted his hand and lay down beside the bed like a zombie.

Wei Zhiyuan fell into a strange state - Wei Qian's return made his tense spirit relax, and he instinctively felt a pleasant fatigue. He should have fallen asleep as soon as he touched the pillow, but he was controlled by some indescribable excitement. The blood in every vein was rushing forward, and the dynamic warmth was quietly transmitted to his skin through the blood vessels.

He couldn't close his eyes.

When he looked up at the boy next to him from his young age, he once thought that he was tall and omnipotent, but now that kind of admiration has disappeared as his perspective has changed.

He discovered that his brother was just a mortal man.

However, this mortal body, as tiny as an ant among the countless living beings, and this mortal body that had been tanned into an African mummy, was like a tornado, instantly sweeping away the dark clouds and bitter rain in his spiritual world, and in the blink of an eye, the sky was high and the clouds were light in the vast wilderness.

Wei Zhiyuan lay on the bed with his face up, pulling at the strings of his heart. With a magnifying glass, he tried to find the subtle details of his emotions hidden in every crack of his bones. He was like a third person floating in the night sky, looking down at himself - still full of fear and panic... the cowardly and incompetent self.

Wei Zhiyuan came to a conclusion. He thought that he was still too weak, so he needed a spiritual pillar like his elder brother.

He decided to clear out this pillar completely.

However, even so, his mood still did not become clear, and there was still something in his soul that was always stuck.

Wei Zhiyuan's dissection of his soul stopped here. He seemed to be instinctively afraid of that small shadow area, which seemed to contain the truth of the sticky feeling that lingered on him. Out of self-protection, he sealed up that small piece of truth.

It was a love mixed with death, twisted, perverted, immoral, absurd and terrifying, which had exceeded the bottom line of what a young boy could bear.

"The spring breeze, knowing no romance, stirs the hearts of young men." The lyrics are beautiful, but not every young man whose heart is moved is necessarily bright and sunny.

Wei Zhiyuan knew clearly that he was sliding into an abyss, but he didn't know how to stop it.

Wei Qian slept until the evening of the next day.

He staggered to his feet amid the worried gazes of his family. He became as thin as a moving clothes rack. He went into the bathroom and turned on the water to take a shower.

The structure of his shower was very primitive, with just two simple pipes, one connected to the hot water tank and the other to the tap. The tap water came faster, so every time he turned on the shower, the water would be cold within ten seconds.

The cold water gave Wei Qian a shock and he instinctively took a step back. Only then did he remember that he had returned to the plain filled with oxygen bubbles.

He slept so hard that his whole body ached. He took a hasty shower with one leg hanging, and then ate three bowls of rice in one breath. Only then did he feel alive again.

His hands were covered with various scars from scratches, but he could still eat very quickly at the table, and it didn't affect his performance at all.

Old Lady Song sighed and muttered, "You are such a heartless ungrateful person, what has happened to you? Are you planning to kill us?"

Where have you been?

It’s really hard to put it into words.

Wei Qian actually didn't mean to make his family anxious. He had endured all the hardships and misfortunes he could have endured along the way.

In addition to Wei Qian, Lao Xiong also brought three people, all of whom were young and strong men. But except for one named Xiaoliu, the others all reacted strongly.

Their first stop was Zaduo County, Qinghai, which is more than 4,000 meters above sea level. Wei Qian vomited all the way there.

It was really a bummer. At the worst, I couldn't sleep all night. I felt as if a heavy object was pressing on my chest and my temples were pinched. At that time, everyone envied and hated Xiaoliu, but within two days, Xiaoliu died.

Xiaoliu was in great shape and ate everything with relish in the midst of his gloom. He had the illusion that he was made of iron and steel. He took a long bath in the small hotel at night. The hotel they stayed in had limited facilities and the hot water was intermittent. Xiaoliu took a hot bath for the first half of the time and a cold shower for the second half.

When the sun went down in the evening, the temperature dropped by nearly 20 degrees. Xiaoliu started to have a fever in the middle of the night. He didn't pay much attention at first, thinking it was a normal altitude sickness. He couldn't bear it anymore and reached for the phone to tell Lao Xiong. Lao Xiong crawled up and sent him to the hospital in the early morning. When they arrived, they found that he had cerebral edema and his condition was serious. It was too late to transfer him, so he had to be rescued on the spot.

In the end, he couldn’t be saved. Xiaoliu died at the age of 27.

From then on, Wei Qian and his friends wrapped themselves up like quails every day without anyone telling them to.

And this is just the beginning. Behind the natural disaster is a man-made disaster - Lao Xiong himself is a walking man-made disaster.

He first took Wei Qian and the others on a tour of the local area, purchased some Cordyceps as a test of the waters, and gained a general understanding of the market situation. After that, Lao Xiong made a decision with a stroke of his pen - to go south to Tibet!

At that time, Wei Qian was still naive and did not question this guy's decision, thinking that he had other intentions. It was not until in a small town south of Lhasa, when Lao Xiong took a fancy to a pot and decided to hike through mountains and rivers for the pot, that Wei Qian truly realized that there was something wrong with Xiong Yingjun's brain.

As they walked closer and closer to deserted places, the first thing that disappeared was the cell phone signal, and then the cell phone.

We stopped to rest halfway that day. Some people ate in the car, and some got out and sang folk songs - oh, which means peeing in the wild.

Wei Qian had no appetite and was about to get off the car to get some fresh air when suddenly, Lao Xiong, who had just returned from the toilet, pointed at them and shouted in horror, "Get off! Get off! Get off quickly!"

The old bear's expression was rarely so ferocious, and his voice was as shrill as a broken iron pot scraped by a rotten shovel. When it got into people's ears, it almost made them want to urinate. Everyone grabbed their bags of valuables in a well-trained manner, opened the car doors and jumped out.

In a flash, Wei Qian was the last one to be pulled down by Old Bear, and he sat down on the ground along with his property that depended on his life and death. Then everyone gasped and watched their car flip over the cliff, and with a loud bang, it was gone.

Later, Lao Xiong said that when he was walking over here, he found that the soil on the back half of the car that was originally parked on the side of the road began to loosen. He had a bad feeling at the time and shouted quickly. Everyone jumped out of the car, the center of gravity of the car changed, and the loose soil collapsed directly. The off-road vehicle that had accompanied them all the way was immortalized.

There is no village in front, no shop behind, and two Eleventh Roads under your feet.

Wei Qian asked sincerely, "Boss Xiong, can you repeat once more, why are we walking so miserably on this barren road?"

Boss Xiong, the bastard, said with equal sincerity: “Buy a pot.”

Wei Qian spoke his true feelings: "You are a big idiot!"

The big idiot and a group of little idiots lost contact with the outside world. Fortunately, there were occasionally Buddhist believers who walked from the Tibetan area of ​​Sichuan to Lhasa for pilgrimage on the Sichuan-Tibet line. Some of these people traveled alone, while others traveled together with tricycles carrying supplies. Wei Qian and his friends walked for several days in hunger and cold, and finally, with the blessing of Buddha, they met this group of Tibetans.

Although the other party had few properties and their only fixed asset was a small pedal-powered tricycle, it was good to see people there, at least they could get a few bites of food. The old Tibetans were experienced and knew how to get supplies, so at least they didn't starve to death.

Along the way, they hitchhiked on every vehicle, slept in the open air, and suffered all kinds of hardships. Lao Xiong joked that although they were running around to make a living now, they would become great in the future. The Shanxi merchants who went west and the Huizhou merchants who went south along the Huihang Ancient Road made their living in this way.

No one paid any attention to him; they all wanted to kill the fathead fish.

Later, Lao Xiong bought his pot as he wished - it was a stone pot made of soapstone from the cliff of Nanga Parbatwa, a virgin peak that no one could conquer. The stone was very soft and could be scratched by fingernails, so no matter what was made, it had to be made by hand. Even though Wei Qian was called a "country bumpkin who had never seen the world" by Lao Xiong, he could tell that the thing was good.

Unfortunately, there is no road in the area. When each of them carried a bunch of Cordyceps and safflower purchased from local villagers and several large pots, and walked with their faces facing the loess and their backs facing the sky, everyone developed an unspeakable class hatred for the pots.

The journey was so miserable that it was like crossing a snowy mountain and climbing a grassland. Wei Qian even rolled down the hillside and injured his leg.

Fortunately, although Wei Qian had no faith in his heart, he was willing to pay more attention to money than his life. He fixed his leg with a splint and followed them for another day, dragging his injured leg, before he reached a place where there were people.

The herders still have no modern communication with the outside world, but fortunately, the people are simple and honest and took them in. One family that went to Lhasa for business had a small pickup truck, but the owner was not at home. Lao Xiong had to stay in the local area for nearly a month before he rented the car and moved to Chengdu.

It was not until he arrived in Chengdu that Wei Qian got the chance to contact his family.

After staying in Chengdu for three or four days, Lao Xiong used his eloquence to sell the stone pot at a price nearly ten times higher, thus recovering all the costs of the trip and even having some left over.

There were also people who wanted to buy medicinal herbs, but they were rejected by Lao Xiong and he didn't sell any of them - because those herbs were light and easy to carry, and he could be more efficient in bringing them back to the mainland.

As soon as the pot was taken out, they did not stay for a single day and set off for Qinghai that night, picking up the luggage they had stored there and crawling back again.

The thousands of words involved are like eighty-one difficulties.

However, facing this whole family, Wei Qian's sense of responsibility finally overcame his natural desire to show off after surviving a disaster. He just said in a mature and steady manner, "It's nothing. The signal over there is not good, and we couldn't get through on the phone. We found some things and can sell them for some money. You are old, so don't go out to do such heavy work in the future."