My 26-year-old Female Tenant

I looked at Mi Cai, tried to calm down all the emotions in my heart, and waited for her to give me an answer. She picked up the cup of "West of the Old City" and took another sip, then nodded to me, and said: "I and He has a marriage agreement..."

   "Now this agreement can't be counted, you are still my woman in Zhaoyang, don't even think about it!"

She imitated what I did just now, stirring the coffee, and drank the remaining half a cup of coffee in one gulp, as if she was using her actions to prove that we were married, and finally asked me: "What about you, who are you with these days?" together?"

   "I lived alone, but I wanted to go on a blind date, but it didn't work out."

   "Why do you want to go on a blind date?"

   "Because love is too selfish, I don't want to watch you get married before me."

   "You have always been like this, so that time at Yan Yan and Fang Yuan's wedding, you told Jian Wei that I was your girlfriend...!"

   "Yeah, after you left that day, Xiang Chen proposed to Jian Wei, and she agreed, and you really became my girlfriend. Sometimes it's not necessarily a bad thing to be selfish."

   "Then have you ever thought that Jian Wei agreed to Xiang Chen's courtship just because you made out of nothing that I was your girlfriend?"

  I looked at her and asked after a while, "Is there any basis for your statement?"

   "No, I just think it's a bit of a coincidence."

   "So that must be just a coincidence. What I care about is our present and future. I will definitely give you happiness. I swear to this coffee shop west of the old city!"

  "You don't need to swear to me. It's my lack of firmness that hurt you all the time. It's me who should make you happier......"

Love is the most inconsequential thing in this world. Mi Cai’s simple words made me forget all the unhappiness that happened before, and I began to imagine the future under the flickering light of the kerosene lamp again. I don't think there is anything that can separate us.

  During the brief silence, the boss brought us two more cups of boiled water and said, "This coffee is too strong, drink some water, so you can sleep better at night."

  I said "thank you" and asked him: "Boss, how long has your coffee shop been open, and I haven't heard of it before."

   "It's been almost four years, business has been bad, and not many people know about it."

  I hesitated for a moment, but still asked: "May I ask, do you make a living from this coffee shop?"

The boss nodded, and I looked at him again. The denim jacket has been washed white, and the T-shirt inside is already very loose. I think life is very difficult, and I can meet him in this way on this rainy night. I really want to help him, but I don't know if he is against such a commercial operation, and I really feel a kind of desolation in his eyes that sees through the world. Such a person is numb to money, and what he pursues may be It's just this way of life, so I can't ask, for fear that I will tarnish his current way of life!

  But he didn't want Mi Cai to ask: "Your coffee shop is almost out of business, right?"

  The boss looked at Mi Cai and said after a long time, "Yes."

  Mi Cai said again: "Can you tell us the story about you and this coffee shop? My boyfriend and I think you must be a man with a story!"

I nodded and looked at him expectantly. I really want to know the story of "West of the Old City", and I think this kind of coffee shop is the type that should appear on the road of literature and art, but unfortunately it is not mine... ...But it doesn't affect my liking for this coffee shop at all.

  The boss hasn't spoken yet, but his eyes are already wet. It seems that just thinking about "West of the Old City" has already stimulated his tear glands.

He took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, then extinguished the kerosene lamp at the bar, and sat down opposite Mi Cai and me, so the small coffee shop was filled with the kerosene lamp extinguished. Fortunately, the strong wind outside the window quickly dissipated these smells.

The boss took a deep breath of the cigarette, let it out heavily, and said, "I am an unsuccessful painter. I came to the city of Suzhou five years ago and met a girl from Changsha who worked as a shopping guide in a shopping mall. After getting along for a while, we I fell in love, and this is where we used to live... I don’t have any source of income, so she has always supported my painting dream, she worked hard to earn money, and helped me contact art dealers, but there was no art dealer ...No art dealer is willing to take the risk to get my paintings, because I am too unknown...so she can only work harder to make money...but the money earned by working is ultimately Meager, the dream that can be painted is so heavy... So she took out all the savings of these years, and then opened this most humble coffee shop, I can paint in it, and I can also Earn some money to subsidize our lives, but the business has never been good, because I can only make coffee, and we can't sell other things in the store, and the customers who have been here are gradually reluctant to come... "

He stopped and took another puff of the cigarette, but the tears that had been rolling in his eyes fell down, and he said with a sob: "Many evenings, we sat under the eaves of this coffee shop, looking at the endless In the old city in the distance, she said: If I can buy an old house there, it will be enough, at least it is our home... But, I can't do anything except painting, so she can only pay more attention to it. Desperately, it is really difficult to survive in this city!...Every night, she would carry the wholesale flowers to the entrance of the cinema and sell them to couples watching movies We... One day, when it was raining like today, she was walking back with unsold flowers. I asked her to take the bus, but she was reluctant to spend the few dollars... ...I was really worried, so I rode my bicycle to pick her up...to pick her up...just at an intersection in the old city, the blood flowing from her was mixed with flower petals All over the place... She was not breathing anymore!... The driver who caused the accident escaped, and her soul was buried in that old city alone... There is no such a good girl... It was my downfall and downfall that indirectly killed her!"

  His emotions are out of control, and tears are dripping down from between his fingers pressing his eyes... At this moment, I saw a real heart-piercing! His soul may have already gone with that Changsha girl. It turns out that there is such a sad story behind this "West of the Old City" coffee shop. He is right, there is no such a good girl in this world anymore. …

My cigarette was already wet by the rain, so I took out one from his cigarette case and lit it, and I couldn't help crying, and Mi Cai also covered her face and wept. No one wants to hear such a story, because the content inside is so too painful.

  I wiped the moisture from the corners of my eyes with my fingers, and asked him: "Which shopping mall did your girlfriend work at that time, was it Zhuomei or Polaroid?"

  He took out another cigarette and lit it, and it took a long time before he replied, "I'm working as a shopping guide at a counter in Zhuomei."