When Lin Yuhui woke up the next morning, he hadn't slept well last night. It seemed that the cheap man reeking of grease and stench had invaded his dreams, disgusting beyond words. Lin Yuhui is a man, he likes women, dislikes men, and despises stinky rotten men even more, especially when there's a rotten woman thrown into the mix.
第二天早上醒来,林语晖昨晚并没有睡好,似乎那个浑身散发着油腻恶臭的贱男人跑到了自己的梦里,恶心至极.林语晖是男人,他喜欢女人,讨厌男人,更讨厌恶臭烂男人,尤其再加上一个烂女人.
Despite these external and internal disturbances, Lin Yuhui hadn't ignored the shifting pandemic situation over these past few days. Two days ago, his hometown had called again to verify his vaccination status, and the surrounding areas of Zhejiang seemed to have begun localized lockdowns as well.
虽然有这样的外部内部纷扰,但是这些天来,林语晖也没有忽视疫情的形势变化,前两天家乡又打来电话核实疫苗注射情况,而浙江本地周边地区似乎也开始了局部封控模式.
Lin Yuhui certainly didn't want to be dragged into centralized quarantine. Not just because of the risk of cross-infection, but also the inconvenience in daily life. Just one thing alone—not sleeping well could trigger heart problems. On top of that, the quarantine environment lacked the medications and supplements he depended on. He might very well not make it through.
林语晖当然不希望自己被卷入集中隔离,不仅仅是被交叉感染的风险,还有生活方面的不便,就单单一样,睡不好觉就可能诱发心脏问题,再加上隔离环境中缺乏自己依赖的药物和补充剂,搞不好自己就会交代在里面.
As every morning, Lin Yuhui walked to the factory office for work, but what was different was that the threshold for evading pandemic lockdowns was accumulating.
如同每天早晨一样,林语晖步行到工厂办公室上班,但不一样的是躲避疫情封控的阈值正在积累.
There was one more thing Lin Yuhui could no longer tolerate. He knew Cerise drove to work in the morning, and he didn't want his actions to cause someone else a traffic accident. When he saw her settle into the office, Lin Yuhui sent her a WeChat message:
还有一件事林语晖无法再忍了,他知道瑟瑞斯早上要开车上班,不想因为自己的行为造成他人交通事故.等看到她坐进了办公室里,林语晖给她发了微信信息,
"I lost, I admit defeat, okay?! Why must you demean yourself like this?!"
"我输了,我认输了还不行吗?姑娘何苦作践自己?!"
Before long, Cerise was crying across from him. Stephanie and Sapphire rushed over to ask what was wrong, then they all went to other rooms.
没一会儿瑟瑞斯在对面哭了,斯蒂芬妮和萨菲尔围上来问怎么了,然后都去了其它房间.
The matter passed like that. Things settled down for a while, and Lin Yuhui had already started booking tickets to go back to his hometown. This time his lips were sealed tight, heh.
事情就这样过去,平淡了一段时间,林语晖已经开始订票准备回老家了,这一次他的嘴很严,呵呵.
One afternoon at noon, as usual, Lin Yuhui had finished lunch and gone to the restroom to wash his face. When he came out, he happened to run into Cerise and Lila also coming out of the women's restroom nearby.
一天中午,像往常一样,林语晖吃过午饭到卫生间洗把脸,出来后正好遇到瑟瑞斯和莱拉也从旁边女卫生间出来,
Lin Yuhui didn't want to see her, so he just looked at the ground and walked away on his own.
林语晖不想看到她,那就看着脚下的地自己走开呗.
Back at his desk, he opened his computer, checked the international news, then scrolled through the comment sections and personal posts to get a sense of how the pandemic situation was progressing everywhere.
回到座位上打开电脑,看看国际新闻,再翻一翻评论区留言和个人发帖,了解一下各地疫情形势的进展.
Internationally, the Biden administration was tightening its containment of China. Domestically, pandemic lockdowns were being carried out in different locations. Actually, what Lin Yuhui feared wasn't the pandemic itself—he could discipline himself to stay away from risks and quarantine properly. What he worried about most was the secondary disasters from forced lockdown measures. Those were things he couldn't predict or control.
国际上拜登政府加紧对华围堵,国内疫情封控在不同地点进行,其实林语晖怕的不是疫情本身,因为他自己能够约束自己远离风险做好隔离,他最担心的还是封控强制行为的次生灾害.那是他所无法预计和自己掌握的.
For a moment there seemed to be no good news. His nerves were on edge—at least for him, he was quite sensitive. While flipping through web pages, he happened to see an animal with cute big eyes, its head swaying, looking at the camera—an owl.
一时间似乎没有什么好消息,神经紧张兮兮的,至少对于她来说是这样的,他比较敏感.网页翻动间,正好看到一个动物,很萌的大眼睛,头还在摇晃,看着拍摄镜头,猫头鹰.
Lin Yuhui smiled, a long-lost smile.
林语晖笑了,久违的笑容.
"He's smiling over there," Lila said from across the way.
"他在那笑呢,"莱拉在对面说,
Lin Yuhui of course heard her. He didn't look at her or acknowledge her, just kept searching for the information he needed. He'd get back to work after the lunch break.
林语晖当然听到了,没看她也没理她,继续查自己需要的信息,一会儿午休时间过了再工作.
"David, I'm telling you, stop harassing me!" a girl shouted loudly behind Lin Yuhui.
"大卫我告诉你,不要再骚扰我,"一个女生大声在林语晖身后喊叫,
He turned around and saw it was Cerise. He didn't know when she had gone out and come back. Lin Yuhui sat there confused, looking up at her and said,
他回头一看,原来是瑟瑞斯,不知道她什么时候出去又回来了,林语晖很困惑地坐在那里回头仰望她说,
"I didn't?" thinking to himself how long it had been since he last sent her a WeChat message.
"我没有啊?",心想我都多长时间不再给她发微信了.
"You pervert, I'm telling you, the messages you sent me are all recorded on my WeChat!"
"你个变态,我告诉你,你给我发的信息在我的微信上都有记录,"
Oh, Lin Yuhui understood. She wanted to vent by calling him a pervert. So let her scold him—what was the point of arguing? So he just went along with her,
哦,林语晖明白了,她是要骂我这个变态出气,那就让她骂吧,和她争执个什么劲,于是便顺着她说,
"Fine fine fine, I'm a pervert, I'm a pervert." Then he turned back and ignored her.
"好好好,我是变态,我是变态."然后转回头不理她了.
Cerise swished her proud single ponytail as she walked past him back to her seat.
只见瑟瑞斯甩着她那高傲的单马尾,从自己面前走过回到了自己的座位上.
Lin Yuhui had originally brought up the concept of sexual harassment to point something out to Cerise, to warn her that if she wasn't looking for a partner at work, she shouldn't shout about these things in the office every day. Wasn't that a woman harassing a man? Otherwise why would the Zhonggang leaders ban them from wearing shorts and showing their thighs? He never expected her to turn the tables on him.
林语晖先提出性骚扰这个概念本来是点拨瑟瑞斯,告诫她如果不在单位里找对象就不要每天在办公室叫嚷这些事情,难道就不是女性在骚扰男性吗?不然中钢的领导为什么禁止她们穿短裤露大腿?没想到她还倒打一耙.
What frustrated Lin Yuhui was that he couldn't help himself either. Just now when Cerise was scolding him, his attention had still been on her pale white face, beneath the lipstick on her lips—the color was very faint. Was it because she was so angry?
让林语晖无奈的是自己也不争气,刚才瑟瑞斯骂自己的时候,自己的注意力还在她粉白的脸上,嘴唇的唇膏底下,颜色很淡,是不是很生气才这样.
While Lin Yuhui was still pondering, Stephanie had already left with Cerise. In the corridor, she asked Cerise if she wanted to apologize to Lin Yuhui. But how could that ever be her proud choice?
还在林语晖思索间,斯蒂芬妮已经和瑟瑞斯离开,在走廊里问她,要不要给林语晖道歉,可是那怎么会是她高傲的选择呢?
Lin Yuhui felt wronged too. For private conversations, if you don't like it, just block them, or talk back, or have the courage to communicate formally. Although he didn't care about being scolded by a female colleague in public, what made him feel wronged was that it was her who had been saying behind his back, sentence after sentence, that she wanted to find a partner. He was the only single man in the entire office. And now it had turned out like this—wasn't this toying with his feelings?
林语晖觉得自己也委屈,私人间的谈话,不喜欢就拉黑算了,或者怼回来了,或者勇于正式沟通.虽然他不在乎当众被女同志骂,但是他觉得委屈的是,一开始是你在我背后一句句地要找对象,全办公室就自己是单身男性,现在又弄成这个样子,这不是玩弄我的感情吗?
Thinking of this, Lin Yuhui's nose stung a little. He simply got up and left the office, went to the place where he usually walked, looked up at the blue sky and sighed in his heart—God, what's wrong with people nowadays?
想到这林语晖觉得鼻子有点酸,索性也起身出了办公室,来到自己经常散步的地方,仰望蓝天在心中感慨,天啊,现在的人都怎么了?
Suddenly he felt what seemed like a drop of water land on his face. He was a bit confused, because it was high noon and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky.
忽然他感到似乎有一滴水珠落在了自己脸上,他有些疑惑,因为现在是正午,天上没有一丝云,
He stretched out his hand again, and sure enough another drop landed on his palm. A few drops had fallen on the ground around him. He looked back at the production area—no water cooling towers were discharging, and it wasn't the wind direction from this side either. It really was raining. Heh, only heaven knows me, Lin Yuhui sighed.
他又伸出手,确实又有水珠落在手掌,周边地上落了几滴水珠.再回头看看生产区,没有水冷塔排放,也不是这边的风向,真的是在下雨.呵呵,只有老天知我,林语晖感慨.
His days could finally settle down. On a new morning, a new girl came to the Zhonggang front desk, slim of figure, with exactly the same hairstyle as the third person he had met in his dream. Lin Yuhui found it amusing in his heart—you're all here now, right? I should go too. This is just the fate we have in this life.
他的日子终于可以平淡下来了,就在新的一天早上,中钢前台来了一个新女生,体型纤细,正是他在梦里遇到的第三个人同样的发型.林语晖心里好笑,你们都到齐了是吗?我也该走了,也就这点人生缘分了.
Back at his desk, he was still somewhat worried about the person greeting at the door, because the pandemic situation seemed even more tense. So he took a printed copy of the hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin usage instructions for COVID prevention from his drawer and brought it to the main gate front desk. Turning to walk back, he ran into the Zhonggang IT girl—she had seen everything. Lin Yuhui could only share a smile with her. He didn't want to explain anything either.
回到座位上,还是有些惦记在门口迎宾那个人,因为疫情形势似乎更紧张了.于是他便拿了一份抽屉里打印的新冠防治相关的羟氯喹和阿奇霉素使用方法,送到了大门前台.转身往回走正遇见中钢IT女,都被她看见了.林语晖只好相视一笑,他也不想解释什么了.
Half a month later, the train he had booked finally took him back to his hometown during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday—that hometown he had missed so many times during his growing years.
半个月后,他预定的火车终于在中秋节假日期间,把他带回了故乡,那成长岁月中,一次次久违的故乡.
Carrying his laptop and pulling his suitcase, there before him was the building where he had grown up. Now he could finally stay in this peaceful little nest. But grandma was gone, and grandpa had been taken to live with his parents.
手提着笔记本电脑,拉着行李箱,眼前又是在这里长大的那栋楼房,如今终于可以守在这个平静的小窝生活,可是奶奶已经不在了,爷爷被接走在父母那里.
He opened the door. The room was stuffy and damp—the windows hadn't been opened all summer. Lin Yuhui put down his things and opened all the windows.
打开房门,屋子里又闷又潮,一夏天没有开窗换气.林语晖放下物品,打开所有的窗子.
The computer desk was still as messy as when he had left. He set up his computer, ready to start a new life, only now there were no longer children's laughter and whispers by his side.
电脑桌上还是自己临出门时的凌乱.架上电脑准备开始新的生活,只是身边不再有孩子的欢笑和耳语,
He went to the kitchen wanting to boil some water to drink, and discovered that over the past few months, the chopsticks had grown green mold. The sunlight streaming through the window was still scorching hot, but grandma's figure was no longer in the kitchen.
来到厨房想烧点水喝,发现几个月间筷子已经长了绿色的霉菌.窗子照进来的阳光依旧炙热,可是厨房里再也没有了奶奶的身影.
(Translated by ERNIE Bot)