"The night here is like daytime!"
Shui Wa exclaimed that Guo Qiang was right, there were really many lights in the city. Now, he and Erbao were walking along the main street of the provincial capital city toward the train station, each carrying a shoe shine box. Erbao is from Shuiwa's neighboring village. He had worked with Guoqiang in the provincial capital before. According to the address Guoqiang had given before, Shuiwa had a lot of trouble finding him. He is no longer working at the construction site, but It's time to shine shoes. When Shui Wa found him, one of his colleagues who lived with him happened to have something to go home. He simply taught Shui Wa a few lessons, and then asked Shui Wa to carry the set on his back and go with him.
Shui Wa didn't have much confidence in this job. He thought about it along the way, if repairing shoes is not enough, how about shining shoes? Anyone who pays a dollar for a shoe polish (three dollars if the shoe polish is better) has something wrong with him. But in front of the train station, business started coming even before their stall was set up. By eleven o'clock that night, Shui Wa actually earned fourteen yuan! But on the way back, Erbao looked unhappy and said that business was not good today. The implication was that Shui Wa had obviously stolen his business.
"What are those big iron boxes under the window?" Shui Wa asked, pointing to a building in front of her.
"Air conditioning, it feels like spring in that room right now."
"The city is so nice!" Shui Wa said, wiping the sweat from her face.
"As long as you work hard here, it's easy to make a living, but if you want to start a family, there's no way." Erbao said, pointing to the building with his chin, "Buying an apartment costs two to three thousand and one square meters! "
Shui Wa asked innocently: "What is a square meter?"
Erbao shook his head contemptuously and ignored him.
Shui Wa lives in a simple house rented by the same person as more than a dozen people. Most of these people are migrant workers and farmers doing small business in the city. However, the person sitting next to Shui Wa on Datong Pu is a city man. But not from this city. When he was here, he was just like everyone else. He ate the same as them, and he also went shirtless outside to enjoy the cool air at night. But every morning, he dressed up in a suit and leather shoes, and walked out as if he was a different person. He really felt like a golden phoenix flying out of the henhouse. This man's surname was Lu Minghai, and everyone didn't hate him. This was mainly because of the thing he brought. To Shui Wa, that thing is just a big umbrella, but the umbrella is made of mirror, and the inside is bright. Put the umbrella upside down in the sun, and put a pot of water on a bracket on the head of the umbrella handle. The bottom of the pot was dazzled by the light, and the water in the pot boiled quickly. Shui Wa later learned that it was called a solar cooker. Everyone uses this thing to cook and boil water, which saves a lot of money, but it cannot be used when the sun is not shining.
This big umbrella called a solar stove has no ribs, just a thin piece. The most confusing moment for Shui Wa was when she watched Lu Hai retract his umbrella: a thin wire stretched out from the umbrella all the way into the house. When retracting the umbrella, Lu Hai entered the house and unplugged the wire, and the umbrella fell to the ground. , turned into a piece of silver cloth. Shui Wa picked up the cloth and looked at it carefully. It was soft and smooth, so light that he could hardly feel its weight. The surface reflected a strange image of himself deformed, and also changed the colorful patterns on the surface of soap bubbles. As soon as he let go, the silver cloth fell from between his fingers. It slid to the ground silently, like a handful of light mercury. When Lu Hai plugged in the power plug again, the silver cloth stretched out lazily like an open lotus, and soon turned into a round umbrella that stood upside down on the ground. I touched the umbrella surface again. It was thin and hard. It made a pleasant metallic sound when tapped. It was very strong and could support a pot or kettle filled with water after being fixed on the ground.
Lu Hai told Shui Wa: "This is a nanomaterial with a smooth surface, good reflectivity, and high strength. The most important thing is that it is soft under normal conditions, but it will become soft when a weak current is passed through. Get hard.”
Shui Wa later learned that this material called nanomirror film was a research result of Lu Hai. After applying for a patent, he invested all his money in an attempt to open up the market for this achievement, but no one took notice of several products, including portable solar cookers. As a result, he lost all his money and is now so poor that he borrowed money from Shui Wa. rent. Although it has fallen to this point. But the man was not depressed at all. He was still running around every day, trying to find a way out for the application of this new material. He told Shui Wa that this was the thirteenth city he had visited.
In addition to the solar cooker, Lu Hai also has a small piece of nano mirror film, which is usually spread out on the table beside the bed like a small silver handkerchief. Every morning before going out, Lu Hai always turns on a small power switch. The silver handkerchief immediately turned into a hard sheet and turned into a small smooth mirror. Lu Hai combed and groomed it. One morning, while combing his hair in front of the small mirror, he glanced sideways at Shui Wa, who had just climbed out of bed, and said:
"You should pay attention to your appearance, wash your face often, and stop your hair from being messy all the time. And your clothes are like this. Can't you buy a new, cheaper one?"
Shui Wa took the mirror and looked at it, and shook her head with a smile, meaning that for a shoe shiner, it was useless to bother herself.
Lu Hai approached Shui Wa and said, "Modern society is full of opportunities. There are golden birds flying all over the sky. One day you might reach out and catch one. The premise is that you have to take yourself seriously."
Shui Wa looked around and found no golden birds. He shook his head and said, "I haven't read many books."
"Of course it's a pity, but who knows, sometimes this might be an advantage. The great thing about this era is its elusiveness. No one knows who the miracle will happen to."
"You...went to college, right?"
"I have a PhD in solid state physics and was a university professor before I resigned."
After Lu Hai left, Shui Wa was stunned for a long time, and then shook her head, thinking that people like Lu Hai traveled to thirteen cities and couldn't catch the bird, so how could she do it? He felt that this guy was making fun of him, but the guy himself was pitiful and ridiculous.
That night, some of the other people in the room were asleep, and some gathered in a group to play poker. Shui Wa and Lu Hai went to a small restaurant a few steps outside the door to watch TV. It was already twelve o'clock at night, and the news was being broadcast on the TV. There was only the announcer on the screen and no other pictures.
"At the press conference of the State Council held this afternoon, the spokesperson revealed that the world-famous China Solar Project has been officially launched. This is another super-large project to transform the national ecology after the Three-North Shelter Forest..."
Shuiwa has heard of this project before and knows that it will build another sun in our sky. This solar energy will bring more rainfall to the arid northwest. This matter was too mysterious for Shui Wa. It was like the first time he encountered this kind of thing. He wanted to ask Lu Hai, but when he turned around, he saw Lu Hai staring at the TV with his eyes wide open and his mouth half open, as if he was distracted by it. Captured the soul. Shui Wa waved her hand in front of him, but he didn't respond. It wasn't until the news had passed that he returned to normal and said to himself:
"Really, why didn't I think of the Chinese Sun?"
Shui Wa looked at him blankly. It was impossible for him not to know this thing that even he knew. Which Chinese didn't know this? Of course he knew, he just didn't expect it, so what did he think of now? How could this matter have anything to do with him, Lu Hai, a down-and-out homeless man living in a stuffy simple house?
Lu Hai said: "Remember what I said in the morning? Now a golden bird has flown in front of me. It's such a big golden bird. In fact, it has been hovering above my head before, and I didn't even feel it! "
Shui Wa still looked at him in confusion.
Lu Hai stood up: "I'm going to Beijing to catch the 2:30 train. Little brother, come with me!"
"Going to Beijing? What are you doing?"
"Beijing is so big, what can't you do? Even shoe shining, you can earn a lot more than here!"
So, that night, Shui Wa and Lu Hai boarded a crowded train that didn't even have seats. The train passed through the vast western wilderness in the night and headed towards the rising sun.
