sinovels Chapter 11 The Old Man's Record Store
Chapter 11 The Old Man's Record Store
Monday morning was uneventful.Zhang Luotuo got up at 96 in the morning, took the elevator to the [-]th floor, refueled his spaceship at the parking lot, and then took off, all the way to the company.He said goodbye to Ah Mei and got off the spaceship.He raised his head, the air was as thick as ever, and the girl selling orange soda winked at him on the big screen and spun around.
"It's absolutely delicious." She promised him, and Zhang Luotuo squinted his eyes, looking at her big black eyes.
"Hey, camel," said a brisk female voice.Zhang Luotuo turned around, and Zheng Zheng came from the other direction. She took a glass of tomato juice, tilted her head, and observed his face, "Is the allergy gone? Do you still need to take medicine? I still want to give it later." You are on leave."
"I was almost fine yesterday. Have you finished your overtime work?" Zhang Luotuo said with a smile. He noticed that Zheng Zheng's complexion was not very good, with heavy dark circles under his eyes, he looked tired, and there were some flickers. uneasy.
Zheng Zheng sighed and nodded to him: "I left early yesterday and went home to rest for a while."
Zhang Luotuo pointed at her dark circles suspiciously: "Then you still stayed up late? It's so strange, it doesn't feel like you."
Zheng Zheng touched his lower eyelids in panic, and opened his eyes wide: "Do you have dark circles? Damn, I haven't looked in the mirror today!"
"Did something happen?" Zhang Luotuo asked curiously.He knows Zheng Zheng, she is the kind of optimist who will not stay up late even if the company closes down, but sleeps until dawn, and decides how to survive the next day.
Zheng Zheng's eyes flickered for a moment, but she immediately shrugged indifferently.She took out a small mirror, used it to look at her eyes, and then turned off the mirror with a "snap": "Actually, I went to bed very early last night because I had to go to work the next day, but it turned out that I came at two o'clock in the middle of the night." It was a harassing phone call, the first thing I said was laughing, and then I said something like 'Die the imitation person!', before I could react, the other end hung up the phone, so I didn't sleep well in the second half of the night."
"You won't be targeted by the Meteor Gang, right?" Zhang Luotuo teased suspiciously.
The Meteor Gang is an underground organization against counterfeiters. It was popular a long time ago. They use technological loopholes to encrypt their phone numbers. They often make random phone calls at night to harass citizens, publicize their ideas, and scold counterfeiters. They firmly believe that the entire city Has been controlled by counterfeiters.But later Chongqing upgraded the telephone system, doubling the strength to shield the Meteor Gang, so their crimes were greatly reduced, but urban legends still left a corner for them, and it is rumored that there are still remnants of members in the streets and alleys. nocturnal activity.
"Your joke still seems to be from 20 years ago." Zheng Zhengbai glanced at him, snorted coldly, closed the mirror with a "snap", and said to himself, "But if it's really them, the police won't be able to find them." Come out and I will find them too."
Zhang Luotuo couldn't help laughing, and shook his head: "The police will thank you." Zheng Zheng's temperament was the same as before.
They broke up at the entrance of the company. Zheng Zheng had breakfast and got on the elevator first. She said that she still had a lot of things to deal with. She looked a little nervous. Zhang Luotuo guessed it was because of continuous overtime work.He said goodbye to her and continued to wait for the downward elevator.
The company introduction image on the wall flickered, and Zhang Luotuo read the words on it out of boredom.
"Chief of Administration. Joad." It said.Joad's face was imprinted on it, expressionless, his gray eyes hollow and impassive.
Zhang Luotuo looked at him, squinting his eyes, it was hard to imagine that they had listened to the record together last night, and agreed to meet today.
"See you at 05:30 in the afternoon." He whispered to him.
Many people have come to the office, they are sitting on their seats, making up for the loopholes in the toy or modifying the plan. Zhang Luotuo remembers that his most recent job is to develop the toy panda model 5600. Its shape has been preliminarily determined, but people still Without getting the chip inside, they tried their best to break through a technical problem.But Zhang Luotuo doesn’t care about this. He is responsible for making up for the lack of toys, such as system errors such as the owner calling the name of the toy, but the toy does not respond. Every day, various customers send back the product to request repairs or add functions.
He breathed a sigh of relief, and walked to his desk with a little ease, ready to start his day's work.There are already five boxes of different colors piled up on the table.The owner sends the toy by drone in a company-made box for them to repair.
Zhang Luotuo carefully removed the top one, avoiding breaking it.He opened the box, and inside was a flat-lying toy dog, which hadn't been charged yet, motionless, like a realistic plush toy.The bugs in the toy mentioned by the owner are written on a white card beside it.
"It doesn't have love, I want it to give me love." Pink handwriting, big exclamation point, and a crying emoji.Zhang Luotuo guessed that there might be a problem with the toy's hugging or listening system, which is very troublesome.He turned on the vulnerability self-examination software on the computer, connected it to the electric toy dog with a data cable, and prepared to wait for the software to find the problem before starting work.
But two hours later, the self-inspection software finished checking for bugs, and the data cable turned on a green light, prompting him: "No loopholes were found!" Zhang Luotuo was quite surprised.He put down his coffee, frowned and went to investigate.This kind of situation rarely happens. It may be that the loophole is too small to be caught by the self-check software, so he decided to check it himself.
And this is where the disaster begins.For the next three hours, he buried his head in the pile of toys, dissected the hardware, checked every little chip, and looked for loopholes, but the result was always in vain.Of the 840 parts, he found [-] and five, and every part was perfect.
He has to carry it to the end.This is the basic quality of a toy repairman.He took a swig of coffee, took a deep breath, and swore to himself.
"Bang bang."
A beating sound hit his chest unexpectedly like an outdated gun.He was taken aback suddenly and raised his head.The voice pulled him out of his messy thoughts, and he couldn't realize what it was for a moment.
In the direction of the left hand, diagonally opposite him, in the empty and vast light, Joad is wearing a windbreaker, with cold gray eyes and tightly closed lips.One of his hands rested on the door.Seeing that Zhang Luotuo had seen him, he tapped on the door twice again like a woodpecker.bang bang.
Zhang Luotuo unconsciously put down the toy in his hand: "Why are you here?" He suddenly reacted, raised his head, and suddenly looked at the clock in the center of the office.The minute and second hands above coincide, and the time points to [-]:[-] pm.Below the central clock, messy toys and design drawings were piled up together, making a squeak.The office is empty, and the rain hits the glass like a lasgun.
Half an hour has passed since closing time.
"I've been waiting for you in the coffee shop for half an hour." Joad frowned and said, looking impatient.
Zhang Luotuo stood up suddenly - he had an appointment with Qiao De's record store.The repair time was too long, and he forgot the time: "Sorry." He patted his head, sighed, and explained to Joad, "I'm repairing a toy." He pointed to the plush toy on the table and said , feeling guilty, "I checked it with self-checking software, but there were no loopholes, so I searched manually, so it took so long."
Joad frowned, and walked forward arrogantly: "Impossible, the self-inspection software is almost error-free." He said. "Especially this kind of small toys, it's easy for them to check this." Zhang Luotuo is very familiar with Qiao De's appearance, and Qiao De is always confident in the quality of Eleven's products.This is a company founded by your Mr. Q.He looked around at the annual meeting and told them this.
Joad looked down and picked up the white card: "It has no love?" He read it, in a dramatic tone, as if questioning the ethereal request, "Love? What is love?—"
Zhang Luotuo didn't like his tone, he frowned.
Joad looked up and saw Zhang Luotuo's expression.He seemed to realize something, put down the card suddenly, and changed the subject nonchalantly: "You can fix the rest later, and go to the record store first." He said, fiddling with the head of the robot pet with both hands. , it was disassembled, "I don't have that much time." He said unnaturally.
The night is like the Internet everywhere.
Zhang Luotuo raised his head and looked at the sky. It was buried by various shops. The only thing exposed was black mixed with the fluorescence of the holographic image. A drone passed through the middle.The air was cold, and he took a deep breath, smelling of cigarettes and rust.Joad stood next to him, his face unchanged, like a hollow projection promoting high life. He was obviously not the kind of person who would love the breath of life.People who come and go occasionally look at them.The road sign was on the left side of them, projected on the rusted screen, flashing fluorescent light, Zhang Luotuo squinted at it.
Nanping.It says.Nanping is the largest department store in Chongqing, made up of thousands of stores.People will compare it with the shopping street in Jiulongpo.But they are clearly different.Jiulongpo is the territory of Joads, while Nanping is a mixed bag.But no matter what, Zhang Luotuo felt that it was much safer than the four kilometers, at least the sale of nerve drugs and sexual intercourse were prohibited here.
"Where's that record store you speak of?" Joad said.They crossed the light rail line and into the traffic.It teetered above them.Zhang Luotuo had read in a book that when Chongqing was the capital, people still used it for transportation. Later, almost everyone had a spaceship, so it became a product of nostalgia.Joad looked around arrogantly, the street here was very narrow, and the billboards were almost squeezed in front of people's noses, as if he wanted to kiss them.There are all kinds of imitation people around to solicit business, and they go straight through.
"I'll be there soon. That record store is called the old man's record store, and it's just behind the game plaza." Zhang Luotuo muttered, noticing that Joad was a little impatient because of the filth here.
The game plaza is always noisy.All kinds of words pass by people, Spanish and Japanese are mixed, Korean and Chinese are combined, this is a garbage dump of various languages.At the entrance, the huge Dunhuang gods and Buddhas swim above people's heads, interlaced with the high-pitched battle music.Zhang Luotuo went in, sorted out his sight in the chaotic scene, sorted out the way out, and occasionally looked back to see where Joad was. He was a little worried that Joad would be lost in this kind of place like Mao Mao. Here is a place full of saturated colors and noises. hardest hit area.But his worries were obviously superfluous. Joad was different from Maomao. He didn't miss these things. He was not far away from him, and he followed behind him, his face was covered by the statue of Dunhuang God. He noticed that Zhang Luotuo was looking at him and glanced over. .Zhang Luotuo felt relieved and waved to him.
"Keep going." He mouthed.
Zhang Luotuo turned his head, his eyes flickered with light.Something seemed to flicker to the left, like a silver light, and he squinted, ready to pass through it without noticing—bang.In the next second, he kicked something.Like an entity, he shuddered.
"road!"
A great roar came from the left.He turned his head to see a man staring at him, eyes sunken, VR glasses pushed up on his forehead.He gestured with both hands and yelled at Zhang Luotuo, his voice was like deep water.But Zhang Luotuo couldn't understand, it wasn't Chinese or Spanish, or even Japanese.
"Sorry?" The man's voice made Zhang Luotuo dizzy.
The man pointed to the game screen and the chair under him, and then to Zhang Camel.The word "lose" on the game screen is full of red light.Zhang Luotuo guessed based on his sign language, and probably understood.What he meant seemed to be that Zhang Luotuo kicked his chair, which cost him the game.
"I'm sorry." Zhang Luotuo said quickly.
The man seemed to understand what he said, nodded, stretched out his left hand towards him, and raised his middle finger.Zhang Luotuo was taken aback, and pointed his left middle finger, which is a symbol that all Chongqing people understand—"lose money."
"I..." Zhang Luotuo touched his trouser pocket in embarrassment.His e-money was wiped out by buying parts as early as the beginning of the month.He didn't bring much money today, at most it was for buying records. Nowadays, electronic records are not very valuable. You can buy a lot of them for five yuan, but the money for playing games is much more expensive. Companies always use games to manipulate people. desire, which he was not sure he could afford.
Put a hand on Zhang Camel's shoulder.Zhang Luotuo smelled a faint forest smell.He looked up, and Joad passed through the crowd at some point and stood with him.Zhang Luotuo could only see his side face, which was covered in the color of the bombing, but the eyes were still prominently sharp gray.
"Jord?" he said suspiciously.
Joad raised his left hand. With an arrogant expression and a calm tone, he lazily said something to the man. Zhang Luotuo couldn't understand, but it sounded like a threat.The face of the man on the opposite side changed suddenly, he retracted his middle finger, his voice lowered infinitely, but he was still muttering.Joad didn't budge, and he said another word.The man opened his eyes wide, and the scar above his eyeballs was slightly open, looking unwilling, then he spread his arms, yelled, stepped back with gritted teeth, and sat back on the seat again.
"Let's go." Joad let go of his left hand and said to Zhang Luotuo.
"What? What are you talking about?" Zhang Luotuo was dumbfounded, and everything ended suddenly in a way he couldn't understand.
Joad took out a handkerchief from his chest in disgust and wiped his left sleeve. The man's saliva fell on it just now: "He wants to blackmail you and blame you for the reason he lost the game." Joad said, Throwing the handkerchief into the trash can beside him, "I told him that I saw it. He lost it long before you came. If he asks for more money, I will call the police. The counterfeit police don't know how serious it is."
A question is still fermenting in Zhang Luotuo's mind.He endured it for a while, and finally couldn't help but ask: "What language did you speak just now?" He raised his head and asked Joad.He had never heard the language around before.Not German, English, Spanish, nor East Asian languages.
"Sanskrit," Joad said.
Zhang Luotuo was stunned. The answer was beyond his expectations: "Sanskrit? That lost language? How can you speak it?" He had read "Chongqing Language History" before, and the book said that the last person in the world who could speak Sanskrit of people died in [-].
"I know every language."
"What?" Zhang Luotuo almost tied his tongue.Suspecting that he had heard wrong, he raised his head and looked at Joad.
But Joad didn't answer.He stopped in his tracks, showing a skeptical look: "Is this the record store you were talking about?"
Qiao De's sudden change of topic interrupted Zhang Luotuo's thoughts.His gaze followed the direction Joad's eyes turned.He saw a girl with sequined skin pushing open a metal door and entering the ballroom.Above her head, a huge colored ball lamp was spinning rapidly in the air, throwing pink light.The sweet smell of pineapple wine diffused in the air, and dance music came faintly from the metal gate, like a disco style.The two men passed by the girl with sequined skin. They led a girl with pink hair and walked out the door, laughing constantly, and headed straight for the hotel next door.Everything is perfect and strange, like another world.Zhang Luotuo was at a loss. He didn't quite understand why Qiao De wanted him to watch an adult-level dance hall.
He turned his head: "About that language..."
Joad raised his chin and interrupted it again: "Look carefully." His eyes focused on the colored ball light.
Zhang Luotuo raised his head, squinted his eyes, tried his best to regain his vision from the light, and captured the signboard text behind the colorful ball lights.
It says.
"Old Man's Record Store".The subheading below reads: "Adult-Grade Ballroom."
"What do you want to say?" Joad asked lazily with his hands in his trouser pockets.
Zhang Luotuo opened his mouth wide and was stunned, then he looked around in a panic at the street scene, but he immediately realized that he was in the right place.
Familiar scenery, the same street, behind the game plaza, the two stores next to it are a hotel and a jewelry store, and the house number next to the strong neon light shows No. 156, Nanping.
Old Man's Record Store.Even the store name is right.
But that's not what he's looking for, at least not a dance hall—it's still at the adult level, "No..." He stammered to explain to Joad, but couldn't speak.
For a moment, Zhang Luotuo suspected that he had fallen into a parallel time and space—the last time he came here, this place had nothing to do with the dance hall in front of him, but a record store with only one imitation person at the door. , like a large liquor store.The owner of the store is sitting behind the record cabinet, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a beige shirt, playing songs casually.Zhang Luotuo knew him quite well and chatted jokingly.
"Excuse me, is this the first time for the two of you to come here?" Someone at the door of the ballroom watched them stop, and asked them politely.
He wore black-rimmed glasses and a beige shirt, and his face made Zhang Camel's eyes shine.
"Boss Dong? Why are you here?" Zhang Luotuo blinked, grasping at straws, "What happened to your record store?" He turned his head in embarrassment, pointed to the dance hall behind him, and asked stammeringly. The words "Adult-Grade Ballroom" glowed behind his back, and he felt his ears turn red while Joad was still looking at him.
His face in black-rimmed glasses remained the same. He bent down and said respectfully, "Are you my boss' previous guest?"
"What?" Zhang Luotuo didn't understand.The words spoken by the face in front of him, which was exactly the same as that of the boss, were like a riddle.
The black-rimmed glasses did not waver, and he explained calmly: "I am a fake man, and my boss made me according to his appearance. My main job is to welcome guests." He looked at it politely. Zhang Luotuo took a look, "This record store closed last month, and now it has been converted into a dance hall. You know, according to what my boss said, the record store is outdated."
Zhang Luotuo was stunned.obsolete.He didn't realize it. The store was still alive when he came here last month, but it disappeared without a trace in just twenty days.
"Obsolete." He repeated unconsciously, a sense of loss welling up in his heart.
But the black-rimmed glasses couldn't perceive Zhang Luotuo's loss.
"It's out of date," he said, firmly.Then he cleared his throat and put on the most enthusiastic expression of the impersonator, "So you want to go in and have fun? Regular customers can get a [-]% discount."
This sentence reminded Zhang Luotuo that he did not come here alone, and there was Qiao De by his side.
He looked up—he had Joad here on an appointment, but now the place they wanted to go was gone—absolutely gone.
He cleared his throat and said with a guilty conscience: "I'm sorry... let's go, I didn't expect it to change." He made up his mind that Jod would not like this place, and he couldn't even stand the company's environment with many people. A restaurant, let alone a ballroom.
Joad was looking at the colored ball lights. He felt Zhang Luotuo's gaze, and his gaze slid down to Zhang Luotuo's face.Zhang Luotuo's heart skipped a beat, and Joad's face was shrouded in shadow, looking calm, with the game light and neon tubes isolated behind him.Zhang Luotuo had the illusion that Qiao De seemed to be probing what he was thinking.
He guessed that Joad was going to mock him, and he shook his feet uneasily, ready to bear it.
Joad looked away and glanced at the dance hall.The pink color of the colored ball lights flowed on his face, twinkling.
"Go in and have a look." Unexpectedly, Zhang Luotuo narrowed his eyes and replied.
The author has something to say:
Happy New Year! (Speaking to myself in a stand-alone situation)