人物自述：科恩有一件著名的蓝雨衣，而我有一件鲜艳的橙色外套。橙色是荷兰足球队的颜色，所以我把它当球衣了。每次当小飞侠罗本在绿茵场上翱翔时，我都会穿上它为他每一次漂亮的内切和射门而欣喜。2010年世界杯，罗本单刀时却让荷兰错失渴望已久的冠军。那一次一定伤透了他的心。自此，我再也没有穿过那件橙色外套了。开了书店之后，我把它挂在体育区的架子上，提醒自己曾经热爱过。店里终日放着科恩和迪伦的歌，我也过了一段不需要妥协的日子。后来，在电子书的冲击之下，传统书店一个接着一个倒闭了，而我的也不例外。再后来，我投身股市，却亏掉了最后一分钱。今天，我来到这家经常来的酒吧，发现那个留短发的驻唱已经离开了。虽然我与她并不相识，只是在这里经常听她唱歌而已，但我想我们是同样的人，在人生这个游戏里奔走着。于是，借着威士忌，我开始述说着这个故事。

Danny Boy.

You don’t know me, but your songs do. I’ve heard your singing multiple times in BadGuys. I come here from time to time when my throat goes dry. Rye whiskey tastes better than real life. Don’t you agree?

I have to say, you are a good singer. Your voice was like comforting rain. I might be wrong, but you seem kind of lost.  Some of your pretty words resonate with me, and some others soothe my troubled mind.

I just asked the bartender why the short hair singer was not on stage tonight, and he told me you’ve left Guangzhou already and you like rambling from city to city. I guess it’s your way of life and I hope you enjoy the next town.

Now that I’ve listened to your stories in your songs so much, and with half bottle of rye down in my lungs, I want to return you with one of mine. I don’t have anyone to talk to anyway.

The thing is, I’ve lost my last penny on the stock market, and now I don’t have anything. Life is pretty crazy, like a rolling stone, isn’t it? 

You know, like you, probably, I was once into books and arts. I ran a bookstore on 7th street. You’ve probably heard of it. It was a big one. Vincent’s. I named it after Van Gogh. We got everything: books, music, snacks. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen’s tunes were just playing days and nights.

In the sports section, I hanged an oversized orange coat. Lots of people asked me the story behind it. I didn’t tell them. I’ve never worn it since July 2010 when Robben lost his battle. Do you remember that game? Do you watch football? Anyway, I knew how he felt. It was a broken heart after all. When I was eighteen, I broke up with a girl. I thought it took me everything. She said she loved me and she would never leave me, but it’s just a girl’s habit to say that. I recovered after two weeks of sobbing. I hope he’ll be healed too because I really want to see an orange line dotting the green fields. You see, this coat was not for telling people that I’m a Dutch football fan but for reminding me that I had something to love.

I had some good days with Vincent’s. I made a living with no comprises, and then, boom, everyone turned to online stores. They say digital books are cheaper and you can store up to 1000 books in this Kindle thing. What a joke.

I went out and filled my lungs with alcohol, and then went back and pulled the plug. The music stopped, and I was out. No more kicking and struggling anymore.

In later days I turned to the stock market. I thought if my luck was not in the book business, it must be in lotteries or stock trading.

No luck. It was a terrible idea. Should have been a lawyer or something.

Well, I ran out the last drop of this bottle, so I’ll just end it here.

Maybe I’ll try my luck again and open another Vincent’s if I could borrow some money. I’m still young. I got to carry on before this rolling stone catches me.

Good luck to you, Danny, and to me.