After that day, the world seemed to suddenly quiet down. In the past, Xu Tangxi often secretly contacted Xu Tangcheng, but now, it has really become their two-person world.
This kind of calm was a little scary, and Yi Zhe felt uneasy. He talked to Xu Tangcheng several times, and asked him if he wanted to go home and have a look. Xu Tangcheng was silent every time, shook his head, and said, "I can't go back."
The stalemate continued until the uncle called. He didn't know that Xu Tangcheng was in a relationship with a man. He just asked Xu Tangcheng in a slightly reproachful tone how busy he was, and he didn't even go home. Xu Tangcheng had nothing to answer, and the uncle continued: "Tang Xi has been ill for such a big time, and I haven't seen you. Your mother said that you are busy, and you don't even have a day's rest in your new job?"
In a word, Xu Tangcheng's heart sank several times. He stopped in the lively supermarket, YiZhe pushed the cart, also stopped and looked back at him.
"Tang Xi..." Xu Tangcheng murmured, but did not say any more.
"I didn't want to call you at first, you are all grown up and busy, I know. But I saw that your parents were struggling, so I wanted to ask you." The uncle's tone became a little more serious, "Tang Cheng, man , no matter how busy you are, you can't leave home, Tang Xi is weak, and your parents are so old, you should take more care and think more."
Xu Tangcheng's mind was in chaos, he answered a few words, hung up the phone, and turned to call Zhou Hui. But he would never store his family's numbers in the phone book. He used to open the call log, and Zhou Hui would always be in the first few entries, just dial it.
But this time, he opened the call log habitually, only to find that the familiar number was not found on the first two pages.
Disappointment and loss were just the most direct experience at that moment. Xu Tangcheng had no time to think about it, bit his lower lip, and under the urging of pain, he pressed down the number.
YiZhe had already walked back to him and asked him softly what was wrong. Xu Tangcheng looked up at him and said, "Tang Xi is ill."
The phone was connected, and after six beeps, it was hung up.
Xu Tangcheng dialed again, and the hang-up came faster this time.
The warm air in the supermarket is very strong, but standing in front of the freezer, looking at the constantly switching interface on the screen, YiZhe still feels a little cold.
For the third call, after taking the phone off his ear, Xu Tangcheng didn't cut it off immediately, but held it up in front of him, quietly watching the interface showing that he was connecting.
"Still fail?"
"Yeah." Xu Tangcheng seemed to have regained his senses as soon as YiZhe said. He slowly pressed the red button and put the phone in his pocket: "Turn off."
Xu Tangcheng went home after that, but when he came back to Beijing again, Tong Yizhe said with a wry smile that he hadn't seen Tang Xi, but he secretly asked the doctor and said that he was recovering smoothly and that there would be no major problems.
YiZhe saw Xu Tangcheng's worry and helplessness in his eyes, but he couldn't think of what else he could do except say a few words of relief. One day, when he woke up in the middle of the night, in a daze, YiZhe found that there was empty space beside him, panic rushed him immediately, he lifted the quilt to look for it, and didn't even bother to put on slippers.
The living room of their house was connected to the balcony. Yi Zhe went out and saw Xu Tangcheng smoking on the balcony, with a half-length down jacket wrapped around his pajamas.
The sliding door of the balcony is not new, there is a lot of resistance when it is opened, and there is a constant screeching sound. Xu Tangcheng quickly turned around when he heard the movement. Seeing YiZhe, he smiled: "Why did you wake up?"
The living room has no lights on. In comparison, the balcony is brighter due to the influence of outside lights. YiZhe's back was dark, and when Xu Tangcheng looked over, a pair of shiny black eyes were engraved in his field of vision. The emotions inside made Xu Tangcheng stunned slightly, and he didn't understand whether YiZhe had answered his question.
"What are you doing?" YiZhe blinked and walked over.
"Can't sleep, smoke a cigarette."
There are several empty flower pots on the balcony, which may have been left by the previous residents. Neither Xu Tangcheng nor Yi Che had any idea of planting flowers, so the few flower pots always contained the old soil and were placed alone on the balcony.
Xu Tangcheng pressed the cigarette into a flower pot, twisted it around, inserted it in the center, and then arched the soil beside the arch with his fingers, buried the root of the cigarette butt, and made it stand upright.
His hands were dirty, Xu Tangcheng pinched his two fingers together and rubbed them back and forth. His eyes drooped, and when he caught a glimpse of the cigarette he had just planted, Xu Tangcheng suddenly felt a little bored and chuckled lightly.
"Does it look good?" He pointed to the flowerpot and asked YiZhe.
Not hearing the expected cheering voice, Xu Tangcheng turned his head strangely, only to see Yi Zhe staring at him blankly.
Xu Tangcheng waved his hand in front of Yi Che's eyes: "What are you looking at?"
YiZhe stretched out a hand, grabbed Xu Tangcheng's, and rubbed his dirty index finger with his thumb. When Xu Tangcheng thought that YiZhe would not answer him, YiZhe lowered his head, looked at his hand and said, "Look at the stars."
Xu Tangcheng was stunned for a while, then grinned. He curled his fingers and scratched YiZhe's palm in turn: "Who are you lying, the stars are in the sky."
He raised his head as he spoke, but the sky was gloomy, and there was not a single bright star above the huge city. Xu Tangcheng was not reconciled, and turned his head several times with his neck raised, but he could still only see a bright moon, looking at him.
He sighed in disappointment, looked back, and found that YiZhe was still rubbing his hand with his head down.
In the winter, Xu Tangcheng felt that the corners of his eyes were warmed by the night wind.
The profile of YiZhe's side face is very nice, especially when he concentrates, showing half of his eye like a gem embedded in the painting, his eyelashes are black, as if he is carefully wiping off the edge of the gem. Xu Tangcheng glanced over at his face, and then suddenly called him softly, "Yizhe."
YiZhe raised his head and looked at him.
"Are you afraid?" Xu Tangcheng asked.
He was standing at the door just now, and Wu Liang's eyes were full of panic.
Xu Tangcheng pinched YiZhe's chin with his other hand, where the stubble that had just emerged, was green and sexy.
"What are you afraid of?"
After he asked, he didn't give YiZhe a chance to answer.
Xu Tangcheng is a very well-behaved person. He has not prepared any romantic surprises for YiZhe, and he never says sweet words or does some ambiguous and seductive intimate actions. Even when it comes to love affairs, YiZhe does whatever he wants. , he indulges in every possible way.
He always felt that, in love, it was enough to tell him with a kiss on the lips.
Such rules can sometimes seem boring, and he knows it.
But today was different, Xu Tangcheng raised YiZhe's chin a little bit, then approached him and bit there lightly. He used his teeth to feel the flesh and bones of Yi Zhe, and included hard and soft things into his aggression range, only to suddenly realize that the special closeness of flesh and body can give another experience of love.
YiZhe's hand trembled, and he suddenly clenched him tightly.
Following his jaw line, Xu Tangcheng thought about kissing, and finally stopped the kiss on his closed eyes. But helpless ... not tall enough.
Xu Tangcheng stood on tiptoe, kissed and smiled to himself. The originally closed eyes opened and looked at him blankly. Xu Tangcheng kissed YiZhe on the mouth again and explained to him, "I want to kiss your eyes, but I can't reach them."
Yi Zhe listened, and also slightly bent his mouth, and in turn kissed Xu Tangcheng's eyes.
After he finished kissing, Xu Tangcheng raised his eyelids again, picked him up with his eyes, and asked, "Showing off your height again?"
The pear vortex then went deeper, hiding the moonlight privately.
I don't know why, but Xu Tangcheng wanted to do something to YiZhe at this moment. He squeezed Yizhe's chin again, shook his head gently, and said word by word, "Yizhe, I won't leave you."
Yi Zhe had no strength at all, and let his head sway with the restless hand, but after hearing this, he exerted a little effort so that his eyes could fall on Xu Tangcheng's face more steadily.
"I won't leave you," Xu Tangcheng said, "so don't be afraid."
After the final exam, YiZhe still stayed in the laboratory for a while due to scientific research tasks. One day, he packed up and was about to leave the laboratory when he was suddenly stopped by a doctoral brother who told him to go to the teacher's office.
YiZhe glanced at the time and frowned slightly. Xu Tangcheng didn't work overtime tonight, and they agreed to go to dinner together.
"Brother Shan," Yi Zhe stopped his senior brother and asked, "Do you know what's going on?"
Brother Shan raised a document in his hand: "I think it's a good thing."
It is indeed a good thing.
Yi Zhe was still a little confused when he came out of the teacher's office. Brother Shan just came back with the signed document. Seeing him sitting in a daze, he patted his head with the folder: "What are you doing? Stupid?"
"Huh?" YiZhe returned to his senses and raised his head.
Brother Shan turned slightly to his side, lowered his voice and asked him, "Are you going?"
"I haven't thought about it yet." YiZhe lowered his head, pinched his two hands together, and clenched them.
"Don't think so?" Seeing that his expression was not right, Brother Shan hesitated for a moment, then patted him on the shoulder, "I tell you, you are lucky, the teacher thinks that you are capable, in fact, it means that you are one day ahead of schedule. It was arranged for you in 2018. You have to prepare for about a year before going to Antarctica. You just finished the basic course. This opportunity is not so easy to get, that is, the teacher cooperates with the laboratory in the United States, otherwise If you don't go to the United States to study for two years, who will let you follow. Don't be afraid of hardships at a young age, whoever has the data will be awesome. You can graduate if you go or not, but do you have the data? , your doctor's gold content is definitely different."
"Um."
Of course YiZhe understands these things, but...
"I don't really want to go."
Unlike the scientific expedition personnel majoring in geology and oceanography, they are not short-term expeditions and will not come back before wintering. They go, at least for a year. Now that he and Xu Tangcheng are in a bad situation, he doesn't have the energy to deal with those complicated preparations, and he can't let Xu Tangcheng go, and he can't go to such a distant and special place by himself.
Brother Shan didn't seem to have expected him to think like this, and didn't speak for a while. The two of them each thought about their own, and after a while of silence, Brother Shan said, "Okay, then think about it."
Xu Tangcheng was going on a business trip to Xiamen for a week. The night before the departure, Yi Zhe helped him pack his luggage and began to revise the PPT that will be used for the final presentation in tomorrow's class. Xu Tangcheng went to the kitchen to wash two apples, peeled them, cut them into small pieces, put them on a plate, and brought them to Yizu.
"Remember to eat fruit at home."
In fact, Yi Zhe has always been in good health, but I don't know if it was because the winter was too dry, or because of the stress at the end of the period, Yi Zhe's throat was swollen for a few days.
"Yeah." YiZhe used a toothpick to poke a small piece that was right and put it in his mouth.
After the last correction, YiZhe played the PPT from the first page. When the question was displayed, Xu Tangcheng happened to be approaching with an apple in his mouth. He bit a toothpick on the tip of his teeth and read the question vaguely.
"Do you remember?" YiZhe asked after a pause.
Prying the toothpick upwards, Xu Tangcheng turned a page and found his memory.
"Ah, remember." Xu Tangcheng said, "I also read this. It was many years ago..."
There was only one chair in front of the desk. In order to look at the screen, Xu Tangcheng put his hands on the back of the chair and on the table respectively. Thinking of not disturbing YiZhe, Xu Tangcheng withdrew his hand after he finished speaking and turned around. But he didn't expect that Yi Zhe suddenly stretched out his arms to wrap his arms around his waist. Before he had time to exclaim, Xu Tangcheng had already been pressed and sat on Yi Zhe's lap.
Xu Tangcheng reacted to his current posture, laughed, turned his head and asked YiZhe, "Why?"
YiZhe didn't speak, but leaned forward and leaned closer to the person in his arms.
"I saw you watching this at that time, and I thought that I would go to the same university and study the same major as you."
The light from the table lamp shone over, and the eyes of Yi Che were all who had just brushed past Xu Tangcheng.
After a moment of silence, YiZhe suddenly smiled and said, "I really worked hard in my third year of high school."
I fought hard and studied hard.
Not understanding why he suddenly mentioned this, Xu Tangcheng put his hand behind YiZhe's neck and squeezed the soft flesh there: "I know."
On the third day after Xu Tangcheng left, Yi Zhe returned to City C.
He hadn't come back for a long time, and when he saw the lifting pole device at the gate of the yard that had been replaced at some point, his footsteps paused. Standing at the door of Xu Tangcheng's house, he raised one hand and fell for a long time, but he failed to knock on the door. YiZhe let out a long breath, paused for a while, and then raised his hand again.
The door was suddenly pushed open, the door panel hit his knuckles, and Yi Zhe took a small step back in response. Seeing the person showing half of his body, the hand that was hanging in the air immediately returned to his leg and hung down obediently.
"Hello, Auntie." He was a little closer to the door, and there was no room to bow, but YiZhe still tried his best to bend his upper body and lowered his head.
His appearance was obviously beyond Zhou Hui's expectations, Zhou Hui's figure was stagnant, and she looked at him in a daze.
Looking at Zhou Hui from such a close distance, Yi Zhe found that her whole body had more signs of aging. The wrinkles on her face seemed to be more, and her white hair was denser. These marks even climbed into her. The bottom of his eyes, entrenched there, became a bit dull.
"Ah, YiZhe, you..."
After a few words, Zhou Hui stopped as if she didn't know what to say anymore.
"I..." YiZhe changed the bag in his hand and said, "I'm sorry, Auntie, I just wanted to see Tang Xi."
After being let in by Zhou Hui, Yi Zhe sat on the sofa a little stiffly, and then he remembered very slowly that when Zhou Hui opened the door just now, he was dressed neatly and must be going out. He was secretly annoyed, he should have asked "are you okay" just now.
"Tang Xi is sleeping, you should sit down for a while." Zhou Hui poured a cup of hot water and placed it in front of Yi Zhe. Yi Zhe hurriedly thanked him, but he didn't know if he hadn't recovered from Yi Zhe's sudden appearance. Zhou Hui was a little anxious for this thank you, and repeated it twice.
"Tang Cheng..." Yi Zhe thought about it carefully and said tentatively, "Brother Tang Cheng is on a business trip, so I came back by myself."
When he mentioned Xu Tangcheng, Zhou Hui's brows moved. YiZhe felt tight in his heart and didn't dare to speak any more.
"Yeah." The living room was quiet for a while, and Zhou Huicai made a small noise, which counted as a response. She didn't ask about Xu Tangcheng, but said to Yi Zhe, "Are you going to be okay? If you have nothing to do, let's have dinner here. Auntie has a few words to tell you."
YiZhe nodded quickly, his expression unchanged: "Okay."
The door of Xu Tangcheng's bedroom was pushed open, YiZhe looked in that direction a little strangely, and found that it was Xu Tangcheng's grandmother. He quickly stood up to say hello, but Zhou Hui stopped him: "I can't hear, my ears are very deaf now. The hearing aid is broken, and I haven't bought a new one yet."
Grandma took two steps and saw the extra people in the living room. She was stunned for a while, then suddenly smiled: "Yizhe."
YiZhe didn't expect that grandma still remembered him and knew him. Even though she knew she couldn't hear him, she still smiled and said, "Hello grandma."
"I can't hear." Grandma pointed to her ears with a smile, but what she said next was different from Zhou Hui, "I broke the hearing aid, so I'll have it repaired."
Zhou Hui said that he didn't know he was coming, and Xu Yueliang happened to be away today. There were few people eating at home, so there was not much preparation, and only a few simple home-cooked dishes were cooked. YiZhe repeatedly said, "It's already fine," but sitting in the chair, looking at the steaming food, he was somewhat frightened. He didn't understand why Zhou Hui's attitude towards him was not bad at all. She didn't let Xu Tangcheng go home, but why could she keep him at the same table as before.
"Don't Tang Xi eat?" Yi Zhe thought for a while and asked.
"She wasn't feeling well last night and didn't sleep well. You just fell asleep when you came. Let her sleep for a while, and I'll do it for her when she wakes up."
YiZhe was a little worried, and hurriedly asked, "Are you alright?"
"It's alright." Zhou Hui shook her head, "I asked the doctor, and the doctor said that it was probably because of the cold, and he told me to take medicine on time and have a good rest."
"Well, then it's better to rest more and keep warm." After YiZhe finished speaking, he felt that his words were useless at all. He was silent for a while before he spoke carefully: "Brother Tang Cheng is very worried about Tang Xi, Auntie..."
"Easy."
Before he could say the request, he was interrupted by Zhou Hui with a slightly higher volume. After he stopped his voice and looked over, Zhou Hui raised her head, which was slightly down, and barely raised the corner of her mouth: "Let's eat first, and talk while you eat."
Zhou Hui's cooking skills are very good, but Yizhe was worried. He took a few bites of food, but he didn't taste anything. Sometimes, he still didn't know what he just took or what he was eating.
"You called him 'brother', but he took you the wrong way. Auntie apologizes to you for him."
Yi Zhe was stunned for less than a second, then he reacted immediately and said quickly, "No, Auntie, I am the first..."
Under Zhou Hui's calm gaze, YiZhe lowered his voice in the second half of the sentence. He glanced at the grandma who was unaware, still eating in small bites, and said, "I liked him first."
A gentle tone, not declaring anything, but just stating.
After he finished speaking, Zhou Hui did not move for a long time. She maintained a posture, looking at the floral pattern on the edge of the same plate, and after a long time, with a low volume, she said, "This matter is his fault, and we will not allow you to be together."
No matter which sentence before or after, Zhou Hui said it very firmly.
Yi Zhe had already prepared enough in his heart. Of course, he wasn't surprised when he heard this, but he still had obvious sadness in his heart.
"Yizhe, Tang Cheng is my child, so between the two of you, I always worry more about him, I hope you can understand."
YiZhe nodded. This is natural.
"When you're together, it's one thing that others make irresponsible remarks, but that's not what I'm most afraid of." Zhou Hui took a piece of rapeseed and put it in the bowl, "Tang Cheng and I said the same thing, I said, You talk about love and love now, because you are both young. Life is not so easy to live, you can't imagine how many things will happen in the future, and the relationship between the two of you will affect you a lot. "
Rubbing the edge of the bowl with his thumb back and forth, swallowing the rice in his mouth, YiZhe said softly, "No matter what happens, I will take care of him."
It was a belief he had long ago, so he said it even though he knew he had not done it well.
Zhou Hui didn't answer immediately, and when Yi Zhe wanted to restate his promise more clearly, Zhou Hui suddenly asked, "Can you really do it?"
YiZhe didn't understand, so he raised his head and looked at Zhou Hui.
"You can now, I believe. But in ten, twenty years, will you still like him so much?"
Yizhe never thought about this question. Ten years, twenty years, the concept of time has never appeared in his head, more precisely, he never considered whether he would always like Xu Tangcheng.
So he met Zhou Hui's gaze at this moment, nodded, and told her bluntly: "I will."
Many people will come to a conclusion that is close to the truth. Most of the time, the only thing that lasts is love, which belongs to a person and is all kinds of love. Some people say that love will become a habit, become a family, or that the love for one person is transferred to another person, which is a lasting change in different directions. After all, there are thousands of love in the world, and when it comes to eternity, people are all selfish.
Zhou Hui also thinks so. She doesn't believe that there is any kind of love that can tie two people who are not tied together for a lifetime. It is related to Xu Tangcheng's life. She can't believe that the two of them will really become that special case. But she looked at Yi Zhe's too firm eyes, and suddenly didn't want to argue with him, because she knew that when she said it, Yi Zhe wouldn't listen, just like Xu Tangcheng.
"Well, even if you can, after ten or twenty years, you will like him so much, and you will take care of him. But have you ever thought that after fifty or sixty years, he will be seventy or eighty and old? ,How to do it?"
"I'll still take care of him." YiZhe repeated stubbornly, telling Zhou Hui, and also telling this unsatisfactory self. But before he could settle down, he suddenly understood the meaning of Zhou Hui's question.
Zhou Hui's eyes were dyed a thin red, her lips moved, and she told Yi Zhe, "When he gets old, you will get old too."
His mind went blank for a moment, and when Yizhe recalled it later, the fear that overwhelmed his heart at that moment was no longer caused by the strong opposition of Xu Tangcheng's family, but he was really thinking about what to do when they got old, and whether Xu Tangcheng would be able to do it. Sick, will he get sick.
"My dad and I won't survive that day. Even if you are together, we can't see how you will live by then." Zhou Hui covered her face with her hands and opened her eyes forcefully to avoid tears. , "But it's because we don't live that day that we are afraid. I have no ambitions in my life, the only hope is that he and Tang Xi can live a peaceful life. Yizhe... If you are like this, I am afraid of him. ... I'm afraid he won't have a good life in the future, and I won't even close my eyes at that time."
Before he came, Yi Zhe had already prepared a full stomach of rhetoric, but his guarantees did not contain any items that could explain birth, aging, illness, and death.
"I know you are a good boy, you are all good boys... Yizhe, can you listen to Auntie, you should try it separately. Just as we were going to take Tang Xi to the south for a while, I told Tang Cheng that he would not go with us. "Xu Tangcheng's attitude that day has always been a thorn in Zhou Hui's heart, she is sad, sad for his abandonment of them, but more, it is actually fear, even if she knows that Xu Tangcheng has deep feelings for them, she Still afraid that such persistence will make her really lose him. No one can really appreciate her thoughts and fears these days. She has no ambitions and is confined to her family. Her children are what she loves the most.
Originally, she made up her mind not to cry today, but Zhou Hui couldn't hold back her tears and silently shed tears. Afraid of being discovered by her grandmother, she hurriedly wiped it with her hands, took a bite of the dish and put it in her mouth to suppress her emotions.
Yi Zhe couldn't come back to his senses from what he said just now—Xu Tangcheng never told him that his family was going to the south.
This was the first time YiZhe saw Zhou Hui cry. When he saw Zhou Hui for the first time, Yi Zhe was thinking how much he would feel sorry for his mother if Xu Tangcheng saw it.
There were so many emotions gathered in his heart, they were all mixed up, and the world was turning upside down. Even he couldn't tell what they were. He stretched out his chopsticks numbly, wanting to take a bite of the dish, but a hand suddenly appeared in his sight, holding up a plate.
"Mom," Zhou Hui asked, seemingly forgetting that her grandmother didn't have a hearing aid, "Why?"
Grandma naturally didn't hear Zhou Hui's words, so she picked up another plate of dishes and switched places before looking at Yi Zhe and smiling.
"Change, I see that you like eggplant, you should be closer and eat more."
When he was in school, YiZhe couldn't do reading comprehension. He didn't understand where a sentence came from so many meanings, and even if he saw the answer, he was still unconvinced, thinking that these people were just making up. After reading books for so many years, doing so many questions, and forgetting many sentences he didn't understand, but looking at the plate of eggplant, he suddenly remembered a sentence - "kindness is the most powerful weapon".
This was a question for a mid-term exam. He read the sentence coldly for a long time, and left the question blank.