When Yu Chu woke up, the surroundings were quiet, and the slanting sunlight came in from the window, which was a bit orange, making him unable to tell whether it was the morning glow or the evening.
He propped up his upper body and found that his body was a little weak, and his stomach seemed to have been hungry for several days. The clothes on her body were still the ones she wore before going to bed last night, and they were already wrinkled into a ball.
There was a faint TV sound outside the door. He guessed that Li Siming was watching a drama, so he pulled on the disposable slippers next to the bed, got up and opened the bedroom door.
When he walked into the small living room, the person sitting on the sofa raised his head, but it wasn't Li Siming, but Xie Xingmu.
Xie Xingmu looked at Yu Chu and asked, "Are you awake?"
"Yeah." Yu Chu paused for a second, then turned and went into the bathroom.
He turned on the faucet to brush his teeth, and while brushing, he looked at the man with messy hair in the mirror, thinking why Xie Xingmu was here.
The bathroom door was slammed, and Xie Xingmu asked at the door, "Would you like to have breakfast first or take a shower first? I have prepared clean clothes for you."
Yu Chu was very hungry, but the stickiness on his body made him unbearable, so he replied vaguely, "I'll take a bath first."
Xie Xingmu didn't ask any more questions, just turned the doorknob and came in, looked left and right, saw that there was no suitable place, and put a set of folded clean clothes on the towel rack.
The bathroom in this hotel is not big, and Xie Xingmu is tall. Once he came in, the space seemed even more cramped. Yu Chu was squeezed against the top of the washbasin, so she took a toothbrush in her mouth and took a water cup to catch the water, ready to rinse off the toothpaste foam.
But Xie Xingmu put away his clothes and didn't go out, and turned to face the mirror. Seeing this man, Yu Chu stood still behind him, looking at him in the mirror with some doubts.
Xie Xingmu coughed lightly, and said, "You've only been brushing for about a minute, keep brushing, and clean all sides of your teeth. It will take at least three minutes."
Yu Chu suddenly became a little annoyed, and blurted out, "What's none of your business? Get out."
Xie Xingmu looked at his staring eyes, so he had no choice but to open the door and go out, and continued: "Remember to brush for three minutes." He pointed to the mirror in front of him, "Toothpaste has splashed on it, wipe it off after washing." .”
boom.
Yu Chu kicked the door shut.
After brushing his teeth, he turned on the shower and took a shower, and changed into the clothes Xie Xingmu brought in. This is a brand new set of sportswear, white sweater and black trousers, Xie Xingmu thoughtfully took off the label.
When he got out of the bathroom, he saw several lunch boxes, a bowl of vegetable porridge and some exquisite snacks on the coffee table in the living room.
Xie Xingmu was standing in front of the window smoking a cigarette. After hearing the movement, he looked over. After staring at him for two seconds, he turned his head and extinguished the cigarette butt in the ashtray, and said, "First, eat something casually to pad your stomach."
Yu Chu was so hungry that her chest was pressed against the back wall, so she unceremoniously sat under the table, picked up the bowl and chopsticks and started eating. He asked, "What time is it?"
"Four o'clock in the afternoon." Xie Xingmu said.
Yu Chu ate in silence, gobbling it up, Xie Xingmu sat down opposite him, picked up the chopsticks and poked the skin of the soup dumpling to dissipate the heat inside.
"Slow down, no one will fight with you."
Yu Chu buried his head in half of the meal before slowing down, and asked Xie Xingmu, "Aren't you going to eat?"
Xie Xingmu started to pick a thorn from a steamed crucian carp again, and said, "I haven't woken up for a long time. I just ate at the porridge shop, so I packed a portion and brought it here for you."
Only then did Yu Chu notice that he had changed into a black short-sleeved T-shirt and trousers. He looked very energetic, as if he hadn't rested.
"What are you doing here? Can I continue to fish with this bait?" He asked, biting the end of his chopsticks.
Xie Xingmu looked up at him, his eyes were deep and dark, then he lowered his head and continued to pick fishbone, and said, "What kind of bait are you, you are the ancestor."
Seeing that Yu Chu stopped eating and was lost in thought, he bent his fingers and tapped on the table: "Eat quickly, crucian carp will turn fishy when it cools."
After Yu Chu finished eating, Xie Xingmu stood up and cleared the table, put those empty paper bowls and leftovers into plastic bags, and said, "Go to the bedroom to check if there is anything missing, we are going to check out .”
"I carry everything I can carry with me," Yu Chu said.
The two walked out of the hotel gate, Xie Xingmu pressed the car key, and the off-road vehicle parked not far away flashed its lights.
Yu Chu looked at the Public Security Bureau not far away, and asked, "Aren't I going to record a statement or something?"
Xie Xingmu said: "No need, let's go, get in the car."
Yu Chu thought he was going to send herself back to the rented house, so she got into the co-pilot, and waited until the big G merged into the traffic, only to find that it was going in the opposite direction from her own home.
Xie Xingmu explained: "You know I have a nephew, right? He's in kindergarten now, it's getting late, let's pick him up first."
Yu Chu didn't object. Ten minutes later, Xie Xingmu parked the car on the side of the road, unfastened his seat belt and said to him, "Wait a minute, I'll pick up Duoduo."
There is a kindergarten across the street, and it is the time after school. Many parents are picking up their children, and the children are noisy.
Yu Chu never liked children, so he pressed the car window button to shut out the noisy voices, and only watched Xie Xingmu's tall figure enter the kindergarten gate.
The waiting time was a little boring, and he stared at an ice cream shop by the roadside, watching those adults buy ice cream for noisy children. Looking at it, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in the field of vision. Xie Xingmu was also behind the line at some point, with a four or five-year-old boy in his left arm.
The little boy was wearing a T-shirt with a little yellow duck on his chest, and was carrying a blue schoolbag. He was talking to Xie Xingmu, gesticulating with his hands excitedly. He couldn't see Xie Xingmu's face here, he could only see him nodding along, listening very carefully.
Xie Xingmu quickly lined up in front of the counter, and when he came out again, there were two more ice creams in his right hand. Seeing him walking towards the direction of the car, Yu Chu quickly turned his eyes away.
The rear door was opened, and the child was stuffed in, still muttering: "He farted a stinky fart, I didn't laugh at him, the children were all laughing, I Didn't laugh at him."
"Well, Duoduo did the right thing." Xie Xingmu leaned over to fasten his seat belt, and handed an ice cream to his hand, "Your favorite strawberry flavor."
After Duoduo took the ice cream, he opened the cab door and sat in, and handed another ice cream in front of Yu Chu.
Yu Chu seldom eats this kind of sweets, but Xie Xingmu didn't say a word, so he took it inexplicably.
"Mango flavor, you should like it." Xie Xingmu looked at him and said.
Yu Chu wondered how he knew he liked mangoes, and suddenly remembered that when he was on Xingyuan Island, he would eat the mangoes in the fruit plate first, Xie Xingmu should have noticed.
His heartbeat suddenly slowed down by half a beat, he lowered his head hastily and took a bite of the ice cream to avoid Xie Xingmu's sight.
"Who is he?" The little boy asked curiously from the back seat.
Xie Xingmu remembered now, and introduced to the two respectively: "Duo Duo, this is Uncle Yu. Xiao Chu, this is my nephew, Duo Duo Chi."
He yelled Xiao Chu very naturally, as if he had yelled countless times, and Yu Chugang's steady heartbeat stopped for another two beats.
"Xiao Chu?" Chi Duoduo asked from behind.
Xie Xingmu corrected: "You can't be called Xiao Chu, you have to be called Uncle Yu."
Chi Duoduo carefully looked at Yu Chu's side face, and smiled: "Xiao Chu."
After Yu Chu grew up, she had no experience with children. After being stared at and called by Chi Duoduo like this, she didn't know what to say, so she tensed her face in silence.
Chi Duoduo looked at him with bright eyes, and suddenly said, "Xiao Chu, you look so good-looking, even better than Hua Zhinan."
Xie Xingmu also looked at Yu Chu, and echoed meaningfully: "You are quite discerning, kid." He then explained to Yu Chu: "Hua Zhinan is his classmate, and he used to always praise the little girl for being pretty."
Chi Duoduo called out again: "Xiao Chu."
Yu Chu turned to look at him, he giggled and said nothing, showing two rows of white teeth like broken rice.
Yu Chu was able to deal with adults with ease, but he really didn't know how to communicate with children. He was inexplicably nervous to meet such a four or five-year-old child.
Xie Xingmu noticed his unnaturalness, was a little surprised, and thought it was a little funny, so he let Chi Duoduo call Xiao Chu several times, until Yu Chu's expression became more and more stiff, and he started the car with a smile: "Forget it." I’ll correct it when I go back.” He said to Yu Chu, “Eat it quickly, before the ice cream melts.”
Chi Duoduo in the back seat also enthusiastically said: "Xiao Chu, eat quickly, if you can't finish eating, I can help you."
The big G started and merged into the traffic flow. Yu Chu saw that the edge of the ice cream had melted a little, so he lowered his head and ate it slowly. Even though his back was turned to Chi Duoduo, he could feel the child's two fiery gazes all the time falling on the side of his face.
This made him a little bit on pins and needles.
"Uncle, are we bringing Xiao Chu home?" Chi Duoduo asked while eating.
Yu Chu was taken aback when he heard this, only to realize that the off-road hadn't turned a corner, but was heading in the opposite direction from the house he rented.
But what surprised him more than this was Xie Xingmu's answer.
"Yes, Uncle Yu will live with us temporarily." Xie Xingmu looked at the car coming from behind in the rearview mirror, and replied naturally.
Before Yu Chu had time to ask, Chi Duoduo burst into cheers: "Wow, I knew it, uncle, is Xiao Chu a gift from you?"
"No, your uncle has already bought your gift and left it at home." Xie Xingmu looked at Yu Chu with a smile, and seeing that he was still in a daze, he said, "It's not safe for you to live there. Live with me."
"I won't go." Yu Chu replied.
Xie Xingmu was not surprised and asked: "Why?"
"How do you make bait after going to your house?" Yu Chu turned the cone and licked it again, and said, "I live at the captain's house of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, and they won't be so stupid as to come to me, so they will never be able to catch it? "
There was a red light ahead, Xie Xingmu stepped on the brakes, watched him sticking out his tongue and licking the ice cream, and said after a while: "Let's think of another way in the future, stay at my house now."
Yu Chu rolled the ice cream on his upper lip into his mouth with his tongue, squinted at him and asked, "What? I'm afraid something will happen to my bait and it will make you feel guilty. I'm sorry, Grandma Zhao?"
Xie Xingmu turned his gaze away, and said in a dry voice, "I'm sorry, I didn't think carefully, and I won't do it in the future."
Yu Chu didn't say anything more, and didn't say anything more about refusing to live in his house. She just concentrated on sipping the ice cream water dripping from the egg roll wrapper.
Although Xie Xingmu turned his head away, he watched his movements from the rearview mirror inside the car. After the green light came on, he let go of the brake and moved forward, saying, "Eat the ice cream well, don't lick it for fun."
"I didn't lick and play. If I don't lick off the melted water, it will drip on my pants." Yu Chu muttered.
Chi Duoduo also said from behind: "Yes, I'm licking too, Xiao Chu, look."
"Shut up." Xie Xingmu yelled at Chi Duoduo, "If you want to drip it in my car, just wipe it off with a paper towel, without leaving any traces."
Chi Duoduo pouted, and put his other hand under the cone.
Yu Chu didn't continue to lick it, and stuffed the remaining half of the ice cream into her mouth. Unexpectedly, this ball of ice cream is quite big, stuffing the cheeks, and the whole mouth is so cold that it starts to feel numb and painful.
Xie Xingmu was concentrating on driving, but Chi Duoduo, who had been watching him all the time, noticed something unusual, and couldn't help poking his head forward and asked, "Xiao Chu, are you choking? Xiao Chu, what's wrong with you?"
Xie Xingmu looked at the co-pilot and saw Yu Chu puffing his cheeks, with tears in his eyes, swallowing desperately, and then opening his mouth to breathe out. He was stunned for a moment, holding the steering wheel with one hand, and put the other hand on Yu Chu's mouth: "Quick, spit it out."
Yu Chu glanced at the hand, and finally did not spit out, but stretched his neck and swallowed with difficulty, but the whole mouth was numb, and even the throat to the stomach seemed to be frozen.
Xie Xingmu parked the car on the side of the road, jumped out of the car, trotted into a small restaurant nearby, came out with a cup of hot water, walked around to the co-pilot and opened the door, bent down and handed it to Yu Chu's mouth: "Drink some hot water. slowly."
Yu Chu took the paper cup and drank it slowly, Xie Xingmu returned to the driver's seat and sat down, looked at Yu Chu without speaking, and looked a little speechless.