Chapter 1 001 A stray dog.

Tang Sijia met the boy in the corridor again.

This was the seventh time she had met him this month, even though today was only February 10th.

It was not too dark at night, and Tang Sijia went home from work as usual.

In the dark corridor, the dim voice-controlled lights lit up layer by layer, illuminating the narrow space with a lingering glow, and occasionally the sound of dogs barking and children running and jumping could be heard.

The boy was wearing a thin white sweatshirt and black pants, sitting quietly in the stairwell between the fifth and sixth floors. His long-untrimmed hair blocked his eyes, and only his high nose bridge, pale and thin jaw, and injured lips could be seen.

And... those hands casually dangling on his knees.

Tang Sijia had never seen such beautiful hands.

There were several wounds on the porcelain-white skin, which looked like transparent white jade stained with blood under the light. The slenderness of the fingers had long exceeded the normal range. They were slightly bent to relieve the force, and the distinct thin bones and blue veins on the back of the hands were cast in dark shadows by the weak light.

Even though he had noticed it several times before, Tang Sijia couldn't help but stare at the hands in a trance. It was not

until the tiny glimmer of light pierced through the boy's hair that Tang Sijia suddenly came back to his senses. After meeting the boy's gaze, his scalp tightened and his cheeks quickly became hot.

If the boy's hands were a finely crafted work of art, then those eyes were probably the creator himself who put the Moran Lake into his eye sockets. It

was dark and gloomy, but in an instant it was illuminated by the light and cleared up, and one could see through it at a glance.

Although he couldn't see his full appearance, he could clearly feel that he was an exquisite boy who could be called a work of art.

Just like an elf who rashly broke into a building full of cobwebs, he was out of place in this suburban building that looked like a slum.

It looks like he is from a completely different world from her.

Tang Sijia lowered her eyes, avoiding his sight calmly, walked lightly, walked around the boy from the other side of the narrow corridor, and headed upstairs.

As she walked, she took out the key as if nothing had happened.

With a "pop", the key fell from her fingertips to the ground, and the empty corridor echoed with a harsh echo.

Tang Sijia panicked and tried to bend over, but the beautiful and slender hand had already picked up the key and handed it to her.

Tang Sijia looked at the hand and felt that the distinct fingers alone were equivalent to most of her hand length.

"Thank you." Tang Sijia pulled the corner of her lip and took the key, but before she could take her hand back, her wrist was suddenly grabbed by someone.

The voice-controlled light also went out suddenly, and the corridor fell into darkness.

Tang Sijia's body froze in place, her heart pounding wildly, her wrist felt cold, as if it was tightly wrapped by a poisonous snake, and her breathing slowed down. In an instant, countless cases of perverted killers that she had seen flooded into her mind.

She had heard that serial killers preferred to target young women who lived alone; she had also heard that there was indeed a perverted exhibitionist who had been roaming around recently.

However, she had never heard that the exhibitionist was a young boy...

While she was daydreaming, the boy who caught her never took the next step.

Tang Sijia couldn't help but tighten her throat: "You..."

"Sister," the boy's voice was as clear as a misty pond in a mountain stream, with a hazy hoarseness, "Help me."

This was the first time they heard him speak after the seven times they passed by each other.

There was obviously the noise of neighbors around, but the boy's voice seemed to be coming from a closed sunken theater, and only his voice echoed around, empty and pleasant.

Tang Sijia felt that her eardrums seemed to be bewitched by his voice, and they jumped twice: "What?"

The question was a subconscious reaction, even though she heard his words clearly.

The boy repeated in a low voice again: "I'm injured, you help me..."

"...Okay?"

Tang Sijia finally lowered her head. Under the extinguished light, she couldn't actually see his complete appearance at the moment, but she instinctively felt a sense of danger.

Only appearing in the night, like a black buck rose, the noble velvet texture, but hidden temptation.

Tang Sijia instinctively avoided it, took out her mobile phone and said vaguely: "Do you still remember your family's number? I can help you contact your family..."

"I don't have any family." The boy's voice became cold in an instant.

Tang Sijia's hand stopped unlocking the phone, leaving only the faint light of the screen to illuminate the shock and trance that flashed across her face.

"I'll help you call the police, or call 120?" Tang Sijia suggested.

The boy looked at her: "If we alert the police or go to the hospital, I might be beaten even worse, or even die..." He said, raising the corners of his lips, "Do you believe it, sister?"

Tang Sijia looked at him blankly. Although he was joking, his eyes were dark and serious.

The boy laughed and stood up.

Tang Sijia realized at this time that this boy who looked a few years younger than her was more than a head taller than her, and his thin figure was shaky.

"I'm sorry to cause you trouble. It's been a bit uneasy around here recently. It's my duty to be on guard against strangers." The boy forced a smile and turned to go down the stairs.

Tang Sijia looked at his back. It seemed that in addition to the superficial flesh wounds, he had other injuries. The action of standing up involved something. His face turned paler and a thin layer of cold sweat instantly appeared on his forehead.

"Sister," the boy turned his head and thought of something. "I heard you open and close the door with just one turn a few days ago. It's better to lock it. This kind of lock is not safe."

Tang Sijia's entrance door is an old-fashioned mechanical lock. Usually,

she has to reinsert the key and turn it twice to lock the door. It's very troublesome. She has long been accustomed to closing the door when she goes out or comes back.

The boy has walked down the stairs step by step, his right leg limping, staggering, and looking shaky.

Tang Sijia stared at his back. It must be said that after seeing his injuries, Tang Sijia felt relieved.

He looked so thin and had injuries on his body. Even if he was really a bad guy, she would not be unable to deal with him.

Tang Sijia looked at his bleak back and asked inexplicably: "Where are you going?"

After all, he looked like seventeen or eighteen years old. He should be studying well on campus, not... In such a late winter, dragging his injured body, wearing a single piece of clothing with nowhere to go.

If... Tang Mingwen was still alive, he would probably be this old. Tang Sijia's thoughts drifted away.

"I don't know." The boy's voice sounded too calm.

"You... don't have a home?" Tang Sijia asked hesitantly. After all, his expression when he talked about his family just now was not very good.

The boy's back froze, and he was about to leave without saying a word.

Tang Sijia looked at his thin back, and finally heard her own sigh: "Wait a minute."

After saying that, she walked a few steps to the door of the top floor, opened the door, and quickly put daily medicines such as iodine, gauze, Yunnan Baiyao and erythromycin ointment from the medicine box into a bag beside her. She walked out of the door in two or three steps and handed the bag to the boy.

The boy looked at the bag, then at her, but didn't take it.

"Take it." Tang Sijia urged him. Seeing that he didn't move, she simply stuffed the bag into his hand and went back into the house.

The door closed with a "click". Because of what the boy just said, Tang Sijia looked at the door lock a few more times before turning around and changing into slippers and walking into the house.

The small room was in full view, with one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen and one bathroom, and it was cramped everywhere. Because it was on the top floor, even if you paid for heating, it was several degrees lower than the normal room temperature. The location was relatively remote, and there were only low-rise buildings like this one outside the window, with a faint smell of fireworks.

However, because of this, in Beijing, where every inch of land is valuable, the rent here is 1,500 yuan lower than other places, and the landlord rarely asks about this place.

If the rent was not paid every quarter, Tang Sijia thought, the landlord who went abroad with his daughter to retire might not remember that he had a house here.

Tang Sijia laughed. It was quite suitable for her, ordinary and inconspicuous.

There were still some wonton wrappers from yesterday in the refrigerator. Tang Sijia quickly made a bowl of tomato and egg noodles. After eating, she stood for a while and then sat on the carpet in front of the sofa to read some information.

She studied Chinese language and literature in an ordinary first-class university. After graduation, she became a specialist in the content center of a cultural media company called "Nanshan". She didn't have a thorough understanding of a lot of knowledge and needed further study.

It was just that those complicated texts made people distracted after a while. Maybe it was because she just met that boy that reminded her of Tang Mingwen. She thought of the past again.

She rarely thought of it.

Tang Mingwen was her younger brother, but he was not as well-behaved as the boy just now, calling him "sister" all the time.

He was five years younger than her. The whole family spoiled him and indulged him, which cultivated his character as a little bully since he was a child. He always spoke and acted in a bossy manner.

When she could no longer bear it, she had fought with Tang Mingwen, but her parents' words "You are the elder sister, give in to your younger brother" always made her stop and stay away from him.

When she was twelve years old, her parents finally paid the down payment for a house in Beijing. To celebrate, they took advantage of the annual leave at the end of that year and drove them to Jiangcheng in the south for a self-driving tour.

On the way back, there was a car accident.

Crushed iron sheets, pungent gasoline smell, screams around, and the smell of blood...

Kind passers-by came to rescue her, but they only had time to pull her out of the wide open window. When they wanted to rescue others, it was too late. The car exploded.

She was the only survivor in a family of four.

Afterwards, firefighters and passers-by joined the ranks of firefighting and rescue, and she stood blankly in the noisy crowd, holding the rag doll her parents bought for her with a bloody face.

I don't know who took this photo and posted it online. She received sympathy and tears from thousands of people.

On the third day, she saw a capable woman in a suit and tie in the welfare home. She was holding a sponsorship document and said that Mr. Jiang, the chairman of Hansi Group, sympathized with her situation and was willing to sponsor her until she graduated from college.

And she only needed to attend a charity dinner every year...

The phone suddenly rang, and Tang Sijia suddenly pulled herself out of those memories, breathing slightly faster.

It was a message from Sister Wang in the same group, asking for a backup copyright authorization document.

Tang Sijia sent the document over, and no longer had the heart to look at the information. She simply closed the computer and took a shower. At

10:30 pm, Tang Sijia lay on the bed on time, and soon fell asleep in a daze. Half asleep and half awake, she seemed to hear a faint movement outside the door.

Tang Sijia opened her eyes suddenly, and her sleepiness was swept away.

She has never slept well, and the slightest movement can easily wake her up.

The movement outside the door continued.

Tang Sijia took a light breath, clenched her hands slightly, walked to the door, and carefully looked out through the peephole.

The voice-activated light in the corridor was not on, and she could only vaguely see the thin black shadow sitting on the stairs, quietly stood up, put something at her door, and then staggered downstairs.

Tang Sijia paused for a few seconds and opened the door.

The light from the room poured out, and she could clearly see the floor at the door, where the medicine bag she had just stuffed into the boy was neatly placed.

The boy, who had already walked halfway down the stairs, also stopped.

Tang Sijia looked at the medicine bag, then at the boy: "You didn't treat the wound?"

The boy didn't look back, just "hmm".

Tang Sijia was puzzled: "Why?"

"Waste."

Tang Sijia calmed down, walked down the stairs for a long time, walked to the boy's side, and looked at him seriously: "I don't have money. The most valuable thing in the whole rental house is a four-year-old laptop."

The boy tilted his head, and there seemed to be confusion in his eyes.

Tang Sijia: "There are so many identical residential buildings here, why do you choose to sit here and hold me?"

Opposite her is an empty house that has been uninhabited for years, and the door has long been covered with small advertisements.

She didn't think the boy had any love for her, she knew it well. She

has been like this since she was a child, with average academic performance and above average appearance, not outstanding, inconspicuous, just like the millions of people in this world.

But she didn't think that the boy had found her by "fate" by accident.

The boy turned his head and met her sight. With the light from the open door, Tang Sijia finally saw the boy's appearance clearly.

His skin was white and thin, as if you could see through the clear skin and see the bright and smooth flesh underneath. His lips were like a white lily, smooth and shiny. The eyebrows under his eyes were half covered by his hair, and there was still a bit of childishness, but with a sense of desolation that was unbearable to look at.

Tang Sijia rarely used the word "beautiful" to describe a boy, but it was the only word that came to her mind at this moment.

"That day, you fed a stray dog ​​on the side of the path downstairs." The boy spoke, his voice clear and a little hoarse at the end.

Tang Sijia suddenly came back to his senses: "What?"

"So many people avoided that dirty and smelly stray dog, only you were very patient, it bared its teeth and you didn't show any impatience, instead you gave it a chicken leg," the boy continued, "I was thinking, you can feed stray dogs, maybe you can feed me too."

Tang Sijia was shocked by his strange brain circuit, and it took a few seconds to find her voice: "Just because of this?"

"Yeah."

Tang Sijia was quiet for a long time: "What if I didn't come out?"

The boy pursed his lips and didn't speak.

Tang Sijia stared at him, and saw the medicine bag at the door from the corner of her eye: "...You come in first."

After that, she turned around and walked back to the room without looking at him again.

"Sister." The boy called her and smiled.

"My name is Shichuan, Shi means time, and Chuan means mountains and rivers."