Chapter 1 The Noodles

Song Ci was very familiar with the map of the old city district of Dadu. Ten minutes later, the two arrived at a simple noodle shop.

Xu's Beef Noodles.

The owner was tall and thin, with a white towel hanging around his neck. Seeing that it was Song Ci, he greeted him with a smile, "You're here."

"Brought a friend."

Song Ci greeted the owner with a smile and said, "Two large bowls, with extra meat, eggs, and marinated tofu."

He lowered his voice and said, "I've lived here for more than twenty years, and this noodle shop has been open for more than twenty years. This shop has a lot of beef, the taste is authentic, and the price hasn't increased in twenty years."

It was difficult to find such a dilapidated shop in Dateng City, let alone Dadu.

The land in the downtown area was worth its weight in gold. As far as the eye could see, there were brand-new signs, all chain stores, centrally distributed food, which could be heated in a minute. Fast food. The pace of this era was getting faster and faster. No one would sit in an old shop and wait for the chef to make hand-pulled noodles for ten minutes. Everyone was more willing to accept fast food, mechanical preparation, industrial assembly line, clean and hygienic.

"I like this place."

Gu Shen said seriously.

In this shop, he saw the side of the city that was obscured by the fleeting light of the times.

After arriving in Dadu, the reason why he was used to running alone in the night of the small alley was because he liked the fireworks atmosphere that remained in this huge mechanical city.

People are the key components of a city.

This intersecting hutong, and the alleys, are the only places in the cold city that slow down.

Sitting here, Gu Shen felt his mood calmed down...

"Seriously, why are you running?" Song Ci raised his eyebrows and asked curiously, "The previous reason was too bad. Even if you're lying to me, you have to make up a decent one."

"I just made a deal with a guy in the Huazhi Building, and I'm afraid he'll go back on his word." Gu Shen said, "Regardless of whether they're looking for me, I'll run first."

Song Ci was stunned after hearing this, and then couldn't help laughing, "Then you should run. There are no philanthropists in that building. They look gentle and refined, but in reality, they are ruthless characters who eat people without spitting out bones... People who make deals with them often don't end well."

"Actually, I'm okay. I ruthlessly swindled that guy." Gu Shen smiled, "It's possible that he really sent a team to find me, but it's useless to regret it now."

"Yo-ho..." Hearing this, Song Ci became interested. He asked for two bottles of green beer and handed one to Gu Shen, "Tell me more about it?"

"There's no story, that's all there is to it."

Gu Shen shook his head and said, "But the people in that building are all wealthy people with big businesses, and they don't care about those gains and losses at all... It's even more likely that he has already forgotten about it."

He then asked, "What about you? Why are you running?"

"What I said before was the truth." Song Ci said with a straight face, "They chase me, so I run. There's no special reason."

Gu Shen disdainfully raised a middle finger, "Tch."

"If I have to find a reason... it should be that a certain big shot wants to see me, but I don't want to see her now, so I can only choose to run away." Song Ci scratched his head and said with a wry smile, "But you also know that running away is always a delaying tactic. Dadu is so big, where can I run to? At most, I can run to the next alley to eat a bowl of ramen. We'll still have to meet in the future."

"Big shot, tsk tsk, how big?" Gu Shen smiled and changed the subject, "Don't brag too much for the first meeting."

Song Ci took him away and bought him dinner. Gu Shen originally thought that this guy was a tough guy who didn't want to be bothered, and planned to part ways after running away, but after a few words, he didn't expect Song Ci to be a natural.

They chatted casually on the road, and the two became familiar with each other.

Speaking of which, Gu Shen and Song Ci's backgrounds were quite similar. They were both orphans, but one was in Qinghe and the other was in Dadu, and they both relied on their own efforts.

Perhaps it was this similarity that gave Gu Shen a strange feeling.

Perhaps... Song Ci could become his friend?

He didn't want to pry into Song Ci's secrets, nor did he want to inquire about news from this person who might become his friend.

"Big shot, really big."

Song Ci narrowed his eyes, propped his chin, and stared at Gu Shen, and said seriously, "Do you want to hear about it?"

"Not interested."

Gu Shen waved his hand and asked with a smile, "Do you believe that I just swindled Cui Zhongcheng out of a large sum?"

"You're just talking nonsense." Song Ci looked at Gu Shen with a wry smile, and said helplessly, "Everyone in Dadu knows that Cui Zhongcheng is a person who never makes a loss-making business. The person who can swindle him hasn't been born yet."

Gu Shen smiled shyly and said embarrassedly, "Sorry, sorry, I didn't brag well. It's mainly because I just came to Dadu and I'm ignorant. Among the powerful people in Huazhi, I only know Cui Zhongcheng."

Song Ci sighed and said, "Okay, I don't know what to say to you... The noodles are here, let's eat the noodles first!"

The owner carried two bowls of noodles and asked with a smile when he put them down, "Crow, you said last time that you would bring Xiao Lu to eat noodles together. Has she not come back yet?"

Crow?

Gu Shen raised his eyebrows. Is this guy Song Ci's nickname?

He noticed that when he heard the words "Xiao Lu," a trace of disappointment flashed in Song Ci's eyes, but it disappeared in an instant.

Song Ci took the noodles and said with a bright smile, "Next time, next time, Xiao Lu is too busy. I'll eat more for her!"

The owner turned and left, sighing softly, his voice was very low, "I haven't seen Xiao Lu for many years... I wonder how she's doing..."

"Tsk tsk, there's something going on."

Gu Shen looked him up and down, leaned closer, and gossiped, "Brother Crow, may I ask, who is Xiao Lu?"

"Childhood sweetheart, beautiful and good-natured."

Song Ci raised his eyebrows triumphantly, blew on the hot air of the noodles, and deliberately made his voice very loud.

Then he quietly raised a finger, signaling Gu Shen not to make a sound.

Song Ci lowered his voice a little embarrassedly, "I've had a crush on her for a long time, but I haven't seen her for a long time... I grew up with her in this area when I was a child, but she's no longer in Dadu. Every time I come to this noodle shop, the owner will ask me, when is Xiao Lu coming? I was drunk once and bragged that Xiao Lu is my girlfriend and I'll bring her back to Dadu next year."

Gu Shen looked at each other in dismay.

"Next year and the year after next... how many next years are there..." Song Ci covered his forehead with a look of despair, "I'm a little regretful for bragging about this... What if she really comes back?"

"What are you afraid of? Just say it if you like it!" Gu Shen subconsciously said the first two words loudly, and noticed that Song Ci's face changed suddenly, he quickly lowered his voice and said, "Since you're childhood sweethearts, just go after her boldly."

"..."

Song Ci sighed, chugged the entire bottle of beer, and wiped the corner of his mouth vigorously.

Bitter wine enters the throat and hurts the heart.

He now felt that Gu Shen, whom he had met by chance, was becoming more and more pleasing to the eye, "I'd rather she not come back to Dadu... Or should I tell the owner that we've broken up?"

"Don't," Gu Shen said with a wry smile, "What is this? Don't you like her anymore?"

"The situation is complicated, and it's hard to explain in a few words." Song Ci opened his mouth, hesitated, and said with a wry smile, "Also... Crow is a nickname, don't mention it, it's unlucky."

"You know, I'm an orphan... Well, delicious!" He took a big mouthful of noodles and said vaguely, "I grew up eating food from hundreds of families. Kind people in the neighborhood would occasionally take me in and send me some food every day, but suddenly one day they stopped sending me things. It turned out that someone said I was a jinx, who had killed my parents, and now I was going to kill the people who sent me food. Whoever adopted me would be unlucky... Later, I don't know who started calling me Crow, and it slowly spread, and everyone called me Crow."

Crow, meaning an ominous person.

"But... a name is just a title. I don't know how many times I cried about this when I was a child, but now I don't care anymore." Song Ci finished a whole bowl of noodles in a few mouthfuls, burped comfortably, and smiled, "Children who grow up being pointed at are often stronger and don't care about those rumors and gossip, right and wrong. The most important thing is to have enough to eat."

After a pause, Song Ci secretly glanced at the owner at the door of the shop and carefully added to Gu Shen, "Actually, Old Xu is a very good person, but habits are terrible. Everyone calls me Crow, so they just call me Crow, Crow, and Song Ci doesn't sound right..."

He scratched his head again, "If one day I come here to eat noodles and he doesn't call me Crow, he must have gotten Alzheimer's."

Looking at Song Ci's expression, which was gentle and nostalgic, Gu Shen was stunned.

Song Ci laughed dumbly, "Why are you looking at me like that? Are you conquered by my tolerance and open-mindedness?"

Gu Shen was silent for a while, he moved back a little.

Across the table, he looked at Song Ci again from head to toe.

A sharp buzz cut, a face full of ferocity, that flamboyant shirt, and those time-worn flip-flops with mud stuck in the cracks.

If you want to use two words to summarize this tough guy's image.

The most appropriate thing is probably: Sloppy.

"I can't tell..."

Gu Shen clicked his tongue and sighed with a complex expression, "Before I met you, I couldn't imagine that there would be someone who hides such a delicate and gentle heart under this rough and sturdy appearance."

"You flatter me..."

Song Ci smiled modestly, suddenly his face changed, and he said with a frown, "Oh no... I drank too much wine, I need to pee."

Gu Shen was a little suspicious of his ability to judge people.

How could this Brother Song be serious for more than three seconds?

Song Ci looked apologetic and pointed to the wine bottle, "Brother Gu, I feel like we've known each other for a long time today. Let's drink three hundred more rounds later... But you have to wait for me, I'm going to the toilet."

Gu Shen waved his hand helplessly.

Someone was pardoned, and ran away with his legs clamped together, holding his crotch, without any grace.

And then...

He never came back.