At Jiangcheng West Station, there is an overpass.

The overpass is sheltered from wind and rain, and there are a lot of people. Generally, patrols are strict in places like this, so you rarely see a few homeless people or beggars.

But everything has exceptions. Under the overpass of Jiangcheng West Station, there happened to be an old man in his fifties. He was carrying a torn bag he picked up from an unknown trash can and was limping around.

Wandering.

It is said that he is a beggar, because he does not put a broken bowl on the ground and waits for people to give alms, nor does he ask people for money. It is said that he is a homeless man, he has no money or income, and has difficulty moving, so he often receives help from others.

"He was once prosperous, working as a contractor, which is... a profession that makes a lot of money anyway. But then he injured his back in an accident, and the construction site refused to pay compensation. The project was unfinished, and the balance was not paid to him. The developer ran away.

Most of the people who worked with him were friends from the same village, or old workers who had worked with him for many years. He had no choice but to pay everyone's wages from his own pocket, and then came here alone to find a developer. His waist was injured and he left.

I had to take a break after only a few dozen meters, so I came to Jiangcheng to collect debts, but as a result, my family left the building empty and couldn’t be found at all.”

"Then what?"

"Then, there is nothing more. This is misfortune. It has nothing to do with the times, and has nothing to do with whether you work hard or not. If something happens, it just happens."

Xu Qing stood in front of a roadside stall, wanting to bring Jiang He, who held chestnuts, to buy sugar-fried chestnuts. But it was not the season to eat chestnuts, so he could only pick a piece of sugar cane and let the boss peel it into sections.

The knife in the boss's hand was very sharp and could easily split the outer skin of the sugar cane. While waiting, Xu Qing turned his head and looked towards the west station with calm eyes.

"He begged at the municipal gate for several months and even appeared in newspapers, but to no avail. When he wanted to go back, his wife and children disowned him, his family moved away, and he couldn't even get through on the phone."

The man smiled and took out the newspaper from his dirty backpack and showed it to him again. Xu Qing suddenly sighed, "Human..."

"How do you know?" Jiang He took the sugar cane cut by the stall owner, pinched a piece and handed it to Xu Qing, curious about what he said.

"We were roommates for one night, and he broke off half of the foam board he was sleeping on. He said that the ground would be too cold and he would get sick if he slept on it."

Xu Qing gestured casually, "It's such a big piece, it's a bit big for him to use, but when it's divided in half, it's a bit too small. I feel like my legs are bent when I sleep. I'm very grateful. It's almost winter and it's quite cold at night. I

I took the only ten yuan I had with me to buy two 2-liang bottles of wine and drank with him, talking under the overpass for most of the night."

"So you guys know each other." Jiang He smacked the sugar cane, feeling very happy with his mouth full of sweetness. "What happened to him later?"

"I don't know. I went there several times after that and treated him to a hamburger. Then I didn't see him when I went back. Maybe he went home."

"It's good to be home."

"Maybe he's dead."

On the afternoon of late March, the sunshine was warm. Jiang He followed Xu Qing, carrying a bag of sugar cane and eating it slowly, carefully spitting out the chewed residue into another bag.

"Have you ever been homeless?" she asked.

"No, that's another story about the brass belt."

Xu Qing walked along the familiar street, turned to a small street and walked a few steps forward. When he came to an old bookstore, he paused when he looked at the store's sign and took Jiang He to step inside.

In this era, physical books have gradually declined, and not many people patronize small bookstores like this. Fortunately, the store is owned by the owner. He only needs to pay for water and electricity to maintain this place. He usually sells exercise books and other things to parents of students from surrounding schools.

I can still hold on.

It is almost impossible to recreate the lively scene that Xu Qing had when he was a child. Only those big bookstores will have people looking for all kinds of books, and the popularity will be higher.

The boss could no longer recognize Xu Qing. He stretched out his hand to hold his reading glasses. He sat behind the counter and said hello. Without getting up, he asked the two of them what they wanted to buy.

"just looking around."

Xu Qing responded casually and walked around in the small bookstore. Most of the books here were old and second-hand books. They used to have a book rental business. I don’t know how they charge now. His complete collection of ancient works was originally in this store.

I read half of it, standing in front of the bookshelf holding the book and reading about the world. The other half was renting the book back with my saved pocket money, and hid under the wall with Qin Hao, reading with gusto.

The old bookshelf is not too dirty, it is just old. It can be seen that it has been taken care of frequently. The books on it are all arranged neatly. Only this side is full of old books, and the other side is a five-year exercise book.

For college entrance examinations and the like, there is also a bookshelf in the corner, which contains some professional books and various reading materials. The bottom layer is comics and villain books.

"See if there is anything you like and pick out a few to take back."

Xu Qing said something to Jiang He, then took out a yellowed old book and opened it.

Books are the ladder of human progress. Jiang He's income from reading books is much greater than his income, provided that he can understand it.

In front of so many books in the bookstore, normal people would not pretend to be pretentious by choosing books they could not understand. Jiang He was a normal person, so after browsing for a while, she found a book she could understand and wanted to read.

The boss behind the counter saw that the two of them were quite quiet, so he didn't bother him. He was lying on the table doing his own thing. Unknowingly, more than half an hour passed, and the figures were shrouded in front of the counter. Only then did he hold his eyes again and raised his head.

Come.

"These books..."

Xu Qing put the book in his hand on the counter, then took the big pile from Jiang He, flipped through it twice, looked at her and said, "You don't need this, right?"

What he held in his hand was "The Legend of Two Dragons of the Tang Dynasty", five thick volumes with very small handwriting. They were pirated copies of earlier books.

Let’s look at others, “How to Learn to Speak with ‘High Emotional Intelligence’”, “Humor and Communication”, “Human Weaknesses”...

Fortunately, Xu Qing didn't know if this kind of marketing book could produce some kind of strange reaction with Jiang He, an old woman who was like a blank sheet of paper. Although it was full of vernacular, there was nothing harmful and the whole book contained a lot of common sense.

Over and over again, from a certain perspective, this kind of book is just right for Jiang He.

"Then don't want this." Jiang He nodded. She originally just wanted to see what the novels of the Tang Dynasty were like...

"A brief history of time?" Xu Qing was surprised by the next book. After thinking about it for a while, he didn't say anything and just handed it to the boss to check out.

It doesn't take much thinking to know that Jiang He definitely can't understand this thing. Even he can't understand it. It's just the word 'time' that attracts her.

If you like what you read, buy it. Xu Qing took out his mobile phone and quickly scanned the code to check out. Even if he couldn't understand it, he could put it on the bookshelf as a small comparison. It was not completely useless.
Chapter completed!