Preface
originally rejected the competition invitation, but finally stood on the track. Will this be the game that changes his destiny?
Liu Bu visited Xiang Xiang’s home as a teacher and found that there seemed to be other secrets hidden in this young man...
At noon in September, the sun was still very strong. In order to avoid heat stroke, the selection organizing committee arranged the two long-distance track events of 1500m and 5000m in the morning session. The direction did not arrive on time, so Liu Bu postponed the start of the game by one hour on the pretext that there was a lack of first aid personnel and ambulances at the scene.
Seeing that he was almost there, Liu Bu was worrying about what excuse he would find next. Suddenly he saw the direction ducking out of the crowd at the inspection point, following an inspector and walking towards the 5000m starting area 200m away from the starting point. There is a red bib numbered on his chest and back, number 29, indicating that he has completed the sign-in.
Liu Bu stepped forward, but before he could open his mouth, Fang Fang spoke first: "I want to try." Liu Bu didn't understand for a moment whether Fang Fang wanted to try out for competition or sports, but Fang Fang understood his confusion and added : "Try them all."
"How did you figure it out?"
"I went home and asked my grandma, and she agreed... what she asked for." Fang Fang was still not used to looking at others, so he leaned down to fiddle with his shoelaces.
Those were a pair of old canvas shoes. It was the first time Liu Bu saw someone wearing such shoes to participate in a running competition. With many years of experience in running and foot training, he visually determined that his shoe size was European size 40, which is considered a small size for a man who is about to reach adulthood. Small feet are not dominant in middle and long-distance running events. Statistics show that the average height of world-class long-distance runners is 6.6 times the length of their feet, and that of ordinary people is close to 7. Such sports equipment and innate conditions made Liu Bu full of expectations for the direction.
"I can make the final decision regarding sports students; to participate in the city's middle school student sports meet, you have to rely on your own strength to win." Liu Bu introduced that the selection principle set by the county education bureau is that the champions of each event will be directly admitted, and the remaining rankings will be based on competition results. After comprehensive consideration, "The only way to ensure selection is to run first."
At this time, the assembly whistle sounded, and he made several changes of direction on the spot to stretch his muscles, without taking Liu Bu's reminder to heart.
In the early stages of the race, all the players were basically on the same level. After 1,000 meters, a watershed emerged, forming a leading group of seven people. Halfway through the race, the number dropped to four, and after 3,500 meters there were only two left. One of them is Xiang Xiang, and the other is Su Du from Chiwu No. 2 Middle School. Sudu entered the last 1,000 meters ahead by two bodies, and the championship was close at hand.
Liu Bu held a stopwatch in each hand, recording multiple data while holding it. Through these data, he came to a judgment of the game trend that was different from the actual scene.
In the fourth 1000 meters, Sudu’s pace was 3 minutes and 41 seconds, while the first three 1000 meters were 3 minutes 24 seconds, 3 minutes 22 seconds and 3 minutes 25 seconds respectively. The speed dropped too fast; the fourth 1000 meters The number of steps taken was nearly forty more than the previous three 1,000 meters, indicating that the step length was significantly reduced. At the same time, Sudu's facial expression also showed discomfort. The situation in the direction is completely opposite. He adopts the "B-up" running method, also called the progressive running method, that is, every 1000 meters is faster than the previous 1000 meters. This is a common training method for African athletes and is not suitable for Asia. The physical structure of the human race. Liu Bu quickly looked at the two smart stopwatches in his hands and found that the direction growth rate per kilometer was stable at about 3 seconds. The more he ran, the better he was. If he continued like this, he would be able to overtake him in one lap.
However, Liu Bu underestimated Su Du’s willpower. He felt that the direction was catching up, so he gritted his teeth and increased his speed for a while, maintaining the lead until the last 200 meters.
As Su Du cut into the corner, he almost lost his ability to accelerate. However, he had excellent physical condition and relied on the high altitude and wide area to expand the overtaking radius and suppress the direction behind him.
scrambled for position at the top of the arc, gave up the inward direction, and ran a short straight line outward to the second track. The front of him suddenly became clear, which was conducive to swinging his arms and hips.
The curve turned straight, and the advantage of the pass was no longer there, but there was still room for strength in the direction. Su Du could feel the warmth from his breath diagonally behind him moving from the back of his neck to the side of his face.
In endurance events, the biggest enemy in the stalemate stage is rhythm. You would rather lose the game than suddenly change the rhythm, otherwise you will easily fall or get injured. In other words, a sudden change of pace can make failure more complete. Unwilling to accept the result of leading all the way and being overtaken in the end, Su Du rushed forward, unable to keep up with his body's supply, and fell forward less than a hundred meters from the finish line. At this time, he was half a body ahead on the second track. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Su Du's staggering. He slumped his shoulder to the left and cut in, crossing into the first track, an arm's length away from Su Du. He secretly took a deep breath. Su Du, who lost his center of gravity, instinctively pushed his back. Although his speed dropped sharply as a result, he at least stabilized his "running" posture with the help of force. Under the huge inertial impact from the rear, despite being prepared, it was still difficult to control the balance and staggered back to the second track. When he started rolling again after two laps, he could only watch as Sudu crossed the line first. The behavior of
caused disagreements within the referee team. Some referees believed that the direction change was not caused by external factors and formed an actual obstruction to other players, hindering other people's technical movements, and the competition results were invalid; other referees believed that the trial was not a formal competition and should be mainly to examine the competitive level, and the direction and Su and Du are of equal strength and can be selected at the same time. Liu Bu did not participate in the discussion. Data tracking is enough to show what the result of the game would have been without this episode. He knew that the direction was not for fouls.
As the general manager of the Chiwu County representative team, Liu Bu had his own considerations and immediately decided that the results were valid and the top three were selected.
Su Du naturally knows the direction. The organizing committee has set up a rest area near the finish line, where finishers can change into their regular clothes. Apart from a towel to wipe his sweat, he had no other equipment. He put it on his shoulder and left the field first. Su Du didn't have time to put on stable shoes and caught up with bare feet: "Xiang Xiang, thank you just now."
The older he gets, the more Xiang Xiang is afraid of being called by his name. Firstly, he is worried that people around him will hear him and attract unwarranted criticism; secondly, he can Nine out of ten people who can name him have heard of the Fang Zhiyou case. Su Du's shout made his shoulders tremble in shock, and the towel fell down. Fortunately, he reacted quickly. The moment the towel fell to the ground, he stood up on his toes and grabbed it with one hand, using the action of dusting it to cover up his panic. In just a few seconds, the direction had hidden his fear and responded coldly, "Nothing."
An adult man pointed the camera at the direction and Sudu, moving the camera from a long shot to a close-up. When the direction realized that the person was photographing him, he quickly covered his face. Thinking that something was wrong, he covered the camera again: "Hey! Who are you! Don't take the picture!"
Su Du pushed away the camera and glanced at the photographer. He immediately explained to the direction: "Sorry, sorry, he is my dad Su Disheng. Recently, he is obsessed with short videos, vlogs and the like. He takes pictures everywhere with a camera every day. He was filming me just now to record my senior year in high school. He didn't You mean something else." He then yelled at the photographer: "Lao Su! Apologize!"
A dark head with similar hair color and skin color moved out from behind the camera, and Su Disheng stood in a slumped posture. , raised his legs and stood at attention with his heels bumped, and gave his son a Hong Kong-style police salute: "Yes sir!" Then he enthusiastically shook the direction's hand, like a cordial meeting between ordinary people: "Xiao Fang, I'm sorry, we are both father and son. It’s a joke.”
was dubious, but after comparing their height, body shape, and facial features, he had to believe it. After all, genes rarely lie.
Without any warning, I thought of Fang Zhiyou again. When I was a kid, someone always seemed to pinch my cheek and say, "You and your dad are so similar." Then they would say, "My son is like my mother, and I'm building a wall." Dad, there is no shortage of food and clothing. I really want to praise you with the newly learned song, your beautiful roundhouse kick! However, it has been a long time since anyone used roundhouse kicks when I was bullied. I lack everything now, is it because I am no longer like you, dad...
"Direction, you are injured!" Su Du hooked Lifting his right elbow upward, he was rescued from his muddy emotions.
Before he could see the wound clearly, another handbag slipped past his elbow - it was Liu Bu. He came to report the final conclusion made by the referee team. When he heard Su Du shouting, he took the direction's hand and carefully looked at the bruise. Fortunately, it was a skin injury, so it didn't matter. Even so, Liu Bu continued to fold the short sleeves upward a few times to check for other wounds just to be on the safe side.
turned over his shoulder, and suddenly pulled his arm away, preventing him from looking anymore. Liu Bu went to lift the back, but was protected by the direction again. Liu Bu felt something was wrong, so he pretended to attack the hem of his clothes, but actually pulled at the collar. The collar was torn along the shoulder line, and a sharp scar was exposed. The direction was hurriedly trying to cover it up, but the harder he tried to squeeze it, the easier it was to focus on one thing and miss the other. He could only keep holding up the pieces of clothing, keeping his dynamic line of sight distracted.
Liu Bu's eyes were poisoned, and he could see clearly that the scar was far more than the exposed part, but an old stab wound that spanned the entire length of the shoulder blade.
"What happened?" Liu Bu asked in a low voice.
was so anxious that he almost cried. He said, "Just don't delay the training", turned around and ran away.
Looking at the back of the person leaving, Liu Bu suddenly felt soft in his heart. He blamed himself for overreacting, it was just a scar. Who didn’t have some impulsive moments when he was young? He was almost expelled from school for fighting, no? As for embarrassing people in public. The Fang family consists of an old man and a young child, and has no stable source of income. Buying new clothes may be a stretch for their financial ability.
Liu Bu then thought of Fang Fang's pair of canvas shoes that could hardly be washed out, and decided to go to Fang Fang's house.
The light suddenly went out, and the needle tip went astray, making a gash on Fang Ximei's rough fingertips. The blood was flowing out, and she quickly took it into her mouth. Her desensitized sense of taste could hardly taste the fishy smell. She knew that the people and circuits in the room were aging.
When people are young, they like to listen to their inner voices and rewrite their lives. They believe that is better than . Once you get older, you are more willing to understand the instructions of the gods and accept the destiny. It is a compromise that is limited in time and a trust that is beyond your ability, so you will become superstitious. Fang Ximei was a rare atheist in her generation, and she insisted on materialism in educating her children. However, as the Fang family gradually declined, the number of times she fell into the camp of strange forces and chaos gradually increased.
The older generation has two interpretations of fingers injured by small objects. One is that the ten fingers are like relatives and friends, representing man-made disasters, which is a bad omen; the other is that seeing blood is like seeing wealth, which indicates good luck and is a good omen. The flashing lights create a tense atmosphere of choosing one of two in the final moments of a TV quiz show. Fang Ximei prays under the lights, waiting anxiously for fate to answer.
"Dong dong dong", there was a knock on the door, and Fang Ximei was startled, thinking that was hallucinating . "Dong dong dong", three more times, someone is really knocking on the door.
She looked up at the clock. It was three o'clock in the afternoon, not yet school time, and she had brought her keys with her. The police just came a few days ago and usually don't come so frequently. Who could that be? Fang Zhiyou? If it's him, the answer is "bad omen."
Every time the police come to visit, Fang Ximei will express her position. If there is any information about Fang Zhiyou, she will report it to the police as soon as possible and will never hide it. This is her true thought. Although the old man's education level is not high, he still has basic legal concepts. To protect Fang Zhiyou - regardless of whether Fang Zhiyou assists or not - means pushing Fang Zhiyou into an endless abyss. At the same time, she also understood that if the person outside the door was really a close friend of Fang, no matter what choice she made between "protecting her son" and "protecting her grandson", it would mean giving up the other party, which would be a man-made disaster and a bad omen.
Walked to the door, Fang Ximei was reluctant to open the door for a long time. She was afraid of facing the tragedy behind the door. She even hoped that the person who knocked on the door would leave in good faith, disappear, and never appear again.
"Is anyone home?" A completely unfamiliar voice sounded, and the light returned to stability, saving Fang Ximei who was on the verge of collapse.
She opened the door, and a young man stood respectfully outside the door. He was carrying rice and oil in his left hand, and a shoe box and two sets of sportswear in his right hand. He smiled naively: "Are you Grandma Xiang? I am Chi Wuyi. My name is Liu Bu, the middle school physical education teacher and Fangfang’s coach. The school sent me to visit my home.”
Except for the grandson and grandson and the police, no one else has been to this house for a long time, let alone a teacher from Fangfang School. Fang Ximei hurriedly welcomed Liu Bu into the house. While trying to figure out whether Xiang Xiang had gotten into trouble at school, she rummaged through boxes and cabinets to find tea. In the end, they only found some tea, brewed it, skimmed off the foam and brought it to Liu Bu. During this period, Liu Bu made a few polite remarks, but mostly looked at the old man's behavior carefully. After Fang Ximei sat down anxiously, Liu Bu briefly introduced how he got to know Fang Fang and Fang Fang's current situation in school, and made small plans and guarantees for Fang Fang's future.
Fang Ximei was a little excited after hearing this. The teacher in front of her was not here to complain, but to change her life. It was a bad luck, so she got up to withdraw money and go to the grocery store outside to weigh candies. Liu Bu couldn't hold him back and wanted to follow but was stopped by Fang Ximei, so he had to stay in the living room and stare at the ceiling in a daze.
The roof is white and gray, like stains that cannot be wiped off after being smoked. Cobwebs and lint gather at the corners and spread along the mottled cracks in the walls. Liu Bu understood that an old man and a rebellious young man who were walking on thin ice to survive would not have the energy and ability to clean up the upper world. Looking further down, the structure of the house is two bedrooms and one living room. The two doors leading to the bedroom stand side by side, and between the doors is a wall one column wide. Most families would use this area to decorate the space, hang calligraphy and painting decorations, or post their children’s certificates, but the Fang family only hung an old photo alone.
Liu Bu squinted and looked over. In the photo, there was a five or six-year-old child holding the thigh of the adult man next to him and giggling. He recognized the child as the direction, but felt that the photo was a bit evil. The adults' eyebrows are clear and three-dimensional, but the child's appearance is unclear, as if a special effect of blurring the background has been added. Looking closer, it turns out that the photo is just like the roof. It lacks maintenance and is covered with a thin layer of dust. Only the face of an adult man has been swept out with a clear patch the size of his thumb. Liu Bu looked at the height and found that Fang Ximei was no more than 1.5 meters tall with a slightly hunched spine. She would definitely not be able to reach the photo. She was over seventy and would not risk climbing. People who touched the adult man's head could only be in the direction.
"That's Fang Zhiyou, his father." Fang Ximei didn't know when she came back, so she didn't mince words, "Teacher Liu should have heard about our family's situation."
Liu Bu nodded and apologized for his rudeness. Fang Ximei took the initiative to change the topic and said that she would not mention the past and just eat sweets. Fang Ximei didn't just say it, she peeled off one and fed it into Liu Bu's mouth, imitating a young man's tone and asked, "Is it delicious?" Liu Bu, whose mouth was filled with the fragrance of milk, was infected by the old lady's cuteness. He lost his embarrassment and invited Fang Ximei to eat with him.
Fang Ximei waved her hand: "When I was a child, I was eligible to eat sweets only if I did good deeds. Teacher Liu cares about the direction and does good things for my family, so he deserves to eat sweets."
Liu Bushun said: "If you want to say that, you Lao Geng should eat it. "
" Huh? "
" You convinced the direction and agreed and supported him to take the college entrance examination for physical education students. This is a great thing. I'm afraid eating sugar is not enough. Next year, he will have to drink alcohol to get into college. ." Liu Bu ate the candy and his words were sweet.
Fang Ximei looked puzzled: "Teacher Liu, I don't know about Xiang Xiang's physical education test."
The smile froze on his face. Liu Bu clearly remembered that Xiang Xiang had said when he rushed to the field on the day of the selection that it was at grandma's house. Agree to participate in competitions and physical examinations only upon request.
Her thoughts were not clear here, but Fang Ximei was analyzing to herself: "The direction told me about going for a run after school every afternoon, but he was talking about going for a run by the lake alone, and I was still worried. That place is not safe. It turns out that he went to practice sports with you. This kid was probably afraid that I would disagree, so he never mentioned it to me. In fact, this is a good thing. I just hope that he can get into college and not leave too early. Get into society.By the way, practicing sports must be very tiring. When he comes back, I have to ask him to quit his job on weekend nights and focus on studying and training. "
Work? Liu Bu had not grasped this information before.
Fang Ximei explained: "After Xiang's father had an accident, the family had no income, and the neighbors didn't like us. An old sister looked at me pitifully and found a job for me. The cross-stitch work was barely enough to make ends meet. In my second year of junior high school, Xiang Fang found a job without telling me. He washed dishes in a restaurant on weekend nights and earned 600 yuan a month to supplement the family income. This kid is stubborn and I can't stop him. After that, he never attended the evening self-study on Saturday or Sunday. His academic performance was originally ranked in the middle of the pack, but now he has plummeted. He has been scolded and beaten, but to no avail. It's rare for a teacher to think so highly of him and even come to deliver shoes and clothes. This time I have to persuade him to come back no matter what. "
Liu Bu asked where the store where Fang Fang worked odd jobs was. Fang Ximei told her the address and name of the store. Liu Bu then reassured her: "You don't need to persuade me, lest Fang Xiang finds out and will hate you." I took the time to discuss it with my boss and asked him to find an excuse to open the car. "
Leaving Fang's house, Liu Bu went straight to a street in the Chengdong Night Market. According to the house number provided by Fang Ximei, he found "Jiangnan Food Stall" - the place where Fang Fang claimed to wash dishes every weekend night. There was still an hour before dinner. , this store that specializes in late-night snacks has no sign of opening yet.
Liu Bu walked back and forth from the street to the end of the street. He had doubts. Chengdong Night Market Street and Fangjia are located at the east and west ends of Chiwu County. It is not close to Chiwu No. 1 Middle School and there is no direct bus. In the past six months, due to the urban reconstruction project, I even need to transfer to two buses. Although I only work on weekends, the peak catering in this small place is basically concentrated on weekends, and the work of the kitchen is concentrated. The volume will naturally increase sharply on weekends, and the salary of 600 yuan is not high at all. Why should we look for a part-time job with inconvenient commuting and ordinary pay?
Moreover, the Chengdong Night Market is busy, and the surrounding area is densely populated with KTVs, footbaths, Internet cafes and other entertainments. The place is crowded and crowded, and Xiang Xiang's reclusive character can adapt to being exposed in this environment for a long time.
The more critical question is that after all, his identity is only a teacher, and Xiang Xiang is over 16 years old and under 18 years old. , it is not child labor, but " underage workers ", but the catering industry is not in the list of prohibited industries in the " Special Protection Regulations for Underage Workers ". How can I persuade the boss of Jiangnan Food Stalls to resign? What?
was struggling, the rolling door of Jiangnan Food Stall opened with a bang, and he had no choice but to bite the bullet. After a few minutes, all worries were superfluous, because the boss told Liu Bu that Jiangnan Food Stall had never hired anyone. The employee named Fang Fang has never paid anyone a salary of 600 yuan. In order to prove that the statement is true, the boss also produced the salary list.
New doubts arose as a result of Fang Fang's name. The address matched, so it must not have been a spur-of-the-moment spiel to deal with Fang Ximei's interrogation. He was familiar with this area, so he chose the Jiangnan Food Stall as part of the lie. It happened to be the only area in the city where the Fang family had never lived. Why is he familiar with this area? Since the job is fake, where does the regular monthly income of 600 yuan come from?
The sky is getting dark, and on the contrary, the fireworks on the night market are getting brighter. After the trials, considering that some of the selected team members came from towns far away from the county and needed to go home to collect clothes before returning to the city to participate in the training, the county education committee postponed the training time by one day. , The top priority now is to go back to school to finalize the training plan.
He walked slowly towards the school, writing as he walked, but suddenly stopped when he reached the place where he could vaguely see the school gate.
On the afternoon of the first meeting with Xiang Xiang, Liu Bu met him again at the school gate and sent him an invitation to the selection competition with a red-headed document from the Education Bureau. At that time, Xiang Xiang ignored him and ran away in a hurry. Later, I accidentally discovered that Xiang Xiang was hiding behind a passerby and secretly looked toward the school, where he was.That day, Liu Bu thought that the direction was being childish, rejecting others and wanting to see how angry they would be after being rejected.
Now that I think about it, I was wrong.
At the end of the school day, Liu Bu did not want to go back to school, so he waited outside the school gate. During this period, he looked here several times, but there was no sign of him, indicating that he had gone elsewhere on the way and was not always there. In addition, if you deliberately want to hide, there are many shops along the street. It is more concealed to sneak into any one than to hide behind passers-by. For example, the post office on the right is a good option.
and so on, post office?
That day, Xiang Xiang did hold an envelope-like object in his hand.
The initial training plan suddenly disappeared, replaced by old photos that had been wiped clean of dust during home visits and the dark green painted mailbox that flashed in front of him. Liu Bu took out his cell phone and checked his address book, trying to verify his guess.
The phone call was made to my college roommate. After graduation, his college roommate did not engage in sports-related jobs. His parents, who came from a post office background, asked an acquaintance to arrange for him to work at the city post office. This was not the first time Liu Bu asked him for help. He had consulted on many express delivery issues before, so he got straight to the point and went straight to the topic.
"Business consultation. Can I check the correspondence records between two people through their names?"
" ordinary mail or registered mail ?" My college roommate didn't talk nonsense.
"Everyone wants to know."
"Registered mail requires a real-name signature, and it can definitely be checked. The "Postal Law" stipulates that registered mail records must be kept for one year, and our unit requires that it be kept for two years. The situation of ordinary mail is quite special. ." The college roommate cleared his throat and began to answer. There were no records of ordinary mail before. However, in 2012, CCTV's "News 1+1" did a special program and reported that the domestic ordinary mail loss rate was as high as 33%. After that, China Post Group launched reforms and required that the ordinary mail loss rate be reduced. to within 1‰. Starting around 2018, ordinary mail barcoding has been implemented across the country, that is, ordinary mail still follows the old law externally, can be delivered freely, does not require a signature, and is not responsible for losses and compensation; internally, it is entered into the system, and the circulation process is handled as registered mail. "Our ordinary mail here The barcoding work was carried out relatively early, so the regular mail receipt and delivery records in the past two years are also available. "
"Then I will send you the name, and you can help me scroll through the system," Liu said at the same time. The information editing step has been completed.
The college roommate was embarrassed: "Brother, this is a bit..."
"It doesn't comply with the regulations, right? I understand. But I'm not prying into other people's privacy, it's really for work. Let's do it, you can check it for me first, and I'll wait for two days. I will provide you with the supporting documents in the name of the company. If something goes wrong, you will not be held responsible. "
"You have said so, what else can I say?" "
How long does it take to check? In his mind, Bu went over the introduction of his college roommate's relationship with him and his letters. He analyzed that Fang Zhiyou was most likely to send money to the direction every month by sending letters. Since the loss rate of ordinary mail was so high, the possibility of choosing ordinary mail was not too great. Just check the registered mail. Then I thought again, I checked everything, just check thoroughly.
"Check everything, just the past two years."
After about 20 minutes of searching, my college roommate called back and lamented that fewer and fewer people were writing letters, and the data was not as massive as imagined. I entered the two names "Fang Zhiyou" and "Direction" into the receipt and delivery columns of the ordinary mail query system one by one, but there was no search result; I entered the names "Fang Zhiyou" and "Direction" into the receipt and delivery columns of the registered mail query system, but there was still no search result.
On the other end of the phone, his college roommate was telling him, "Brother, please remember to provide me with supporting documents." On the other end of the phone, Liu Bu hung up the phone numbly.
To be continued...
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Author | Luo and Zhang Editor | Saili
Original link: " Those who wear canvas shoes to participate in running competitions must be Very strong | Yingfeng03》
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