An entire wall of the airport lobby was covered with floor-to-ceiling glass. The sunlight shining on the boy's face further highlighted his sharp features.
He raised his hand and lifted his collar, and Xie Lan discovered that the hand had very good bone structure, with clear finger bones and thin and strong wrist bones.
The owner of the hand spoke up, "WeChat me?"
Xie Lan hesitated and said, "I don't use WeChat."
“What about Alipay?”
"Not yet. My phone is broken. Can you tell me your bank account?"
"No Alipay?" The man looked up and said in a daze, "No wonder you speak a little strangely. Are you a foreigner?"
"I'm Chinese." Xie Lan answered immediately. "I'm not good at Chinese, but I'm Chinese."
He was annoyed, very annoyed.
Exactly the same camera, exactly the same official camera bag, and they both like to hang it on their school bags.
The question is what was it that hooked him just now
My eyes swept over the schoolbag hanging on the side of the man's body. There was a small sycamore leaf decoration hanging on the zipper, and there was also a thing that looked like an egg beater with an unclosed wire. It was probably the culprit that caused this bad luck.
The boy looked down along his line of sight, frowned, took down the "egg beater", and muttered, "Che Ziming is asking for a beating."
"What is this?" Xie Lan couldn't help but ask.
"The kind that massages the scalp to open up the brain meridians for mentally retarded children."
The other party threw it into the trash can and said, "My name is Dou Sheng, what's your name?"
"aron." His English name and Chinese name sound a bit similar.
"Oh. Do you have someone to answer it?"
Xie Lan pursed her lips and said "hmm" softly.
Dou Sheng picked up the phone and said slowly, "I'm here to pick someone up, too. My cousin just returned home. I'll call her first to let her know, and then I'll go with you to find the person who picked you up and ask him to compensate me. You two can settle the matter privately. Is that ok?"
In fact, there was no difference. The person who came to pick up Xie Lan was also a stranger, but Xie Lan had no choice but to nod.
Dou Sheng turned his back and made a phone call, and he stood not far away and watched.
After a while, Dou Sheng hung up the phone and muttered while typing, "He won't leave, will he..."
Xie Lan asked casually, "What time is the flight?"
"It landed at 4:50, and it's been 20 minutes and the phone is still off."
Xie Lan subconsciously touched the plane ticket in his pocket, "Is your cousin coming from London?"
"Yes. Eh?" Dou Sheng looked up suddenly, "You too?"
Xie Lan nodded. "Maybe he's waiting for his shipment to be checked in, or going through customs. Go to the passage and wait."
Dou Sheng sighed, "Forget about that. Uncle Xiao Ma even made a sign so that she could feel the warmth of the motherland as soon as she got off the plane."
As he spoke, he took out a folded poster from his schoolbag and unfolded it, revealing two lines of large characters clearly in front of Xie Lan.
lan xie
Welcome home! (smiley face)
The handsome guy's expression was shocked.
“Is this your cousin??”
"Yeah." Dou Sheng held the banner across his chest and walked forward.
"etc!"
Xie Lan raised his hand and grabbed his sleeve, blocking the two lines of words with his body.
Dou Sheng raised his eyelids and asked, "What?"
Xie Lan asked, "Do you know what she looks like?"
"I don't know what she looks like now, but there's a photo of her when she was six or seven years old, a rebellious girl." Dou Sheng tapped his phone twice and held it in front of Xie Lan, "Here."
The child with black eyes and red lips stood under the pine tree in the park, looking at the camera with some unhappiness.
He was dressed in a normal British little boy's outfit, with a small shirt, a small scarf, a small windbreaker and small leather shoes. The only thing that made him look a little like a girl was the red hairpin on his forehead, which he had forced on his forehead because his mother had bumped it and pinned it on for fear that her hair would rub against the wound.
Xie Lan's eyes were blank, and he suddenly wanted to go back to England.
Xie Jingming was indeed a ruthless man, actually sending out this kind of evildoer to drive him back in various ways.
He tore the poster from Dou Sheng's hand and folded it in a few seconds.
Dou Sheng frowned, "What are you doing again?"
Xie Lan's eyes were filled with hatred, "Are you sure it's a woman?"
"Isn't it obvious that she's a woman? What does it have to do with you?"
Xie Lan stared at him without saying anything. After a while, Dou Sheng suddenly frowned.
His Adam's apple slid twice slightly, but he remained calm and clicked on the photo again, holding it up to Xie Lan's face.
for a long time.
"that-"
"May I ask your Chinese name, young man—"
"Xie Lan."
"… "
After checking the ID information, the two of them sat in silence for a while.
Until Xie Lan spoke first and greeted: "Nice to meet you, hello."
It sounds a lot like "Nice to meet you, why don't you die?"
Dou Sheng's mouth twitched, and after a while he nodded slightly, "Yeah. Very good, how about you?"
Before Xie Lan could roll her eyes, he clicked his tongue again, leaned in close and asked in a low voice: "Did you like to wear hairpins when you were a child? Do you still have that... unique habit now?"
"… "
Xie Lan used his thumbs to pinch the joints of his other eight fingers to keep his expression from collapsing. "Does your mother know that I'm a boy?"
Dou Sheng pondered for a while and said, "I should know, but it was not explained clearly on the phone."
"Who else knows about this?" Xie Lan asked again.
"What's up?"
Xie Lan's eyes were filled with anger. "Cousin."
"Oh... this..."
Dou Sheng reached into his pocket and touched his phone, and whispered, "Just some fans, um, about a million."
Xie Lan didn't hear clearly, "What?"
"Nothing." Dou Sheng raised his head steadily, "I think I misunderstood. Let's go. The driver is waiting in the parking lot."
The driver, Xiao Ma, is a chubby boy with single eyelids and a smiling face. He is very friendly when we meet and greet each other.
The car quickly drove out of the airport highway and onto the H City overpass. Under the bridge was a river that divided the city into two. The setting sun sparkled on the water, and the city's reflection was shining brightly in that golden color.
Xiao Ma introduced while driving, "Our neighborhood is called Wangjiang Liying. Remember, it used to be called Wangjiang Lane. You can say any name when you take a taxi."
Xie Lan knew Wangjiang Lane. This name appeared too many times in her mother's notebook. There were towering sycamore trees outside Wangjiang Lane. To get out of the house, one had to run up thirty-two steps. The sunlight shone through the gaps between the sycamore leaves, leaving a few bright spots on her face.
He lowered his eyes, feeling very reluctant about the idea of staying in a stranger's home, and planned to politely decline the offer at the dinner table.
Putting aside her unreliable son, Zhao Wenying has a very good temperament. She is wearing a light brown cashmere dress, which makes her look bright and elegant.
She was very outgoing, without any reserve or courtesy. As soon as Xie Lan called her "Auntie", she dragged her to wash her hands and made her sit down at the dining table.
Zhao Wenying smiled and said, "Are you tired from the flight? Let me tell you, this is your homecoming. As the saying goes, you eat dumplings when you get on the plane and noodles when you get off. I did nothing else this afternoon but cook this bowl of noodles. Come and try it."
The abalone and white clams in the white porcelain bowl were stewed in the golden soup, which looked bright and beautiful, covering the hand-rolled noodles below. Zhao Wenying handed the chopsticks to Xie Lan and thoughtfully placed a fork next to him.
Just as Xie Lan picked up the chopsticks after thanking him, he suddenly heard Zhao Wenying sigh with emotion.
"You and Lang Jing are so alike." She said softly, "When she was in school, she said she wanted to give birth to a handsome boy, well-educated and well-mannered, the kind that would make her look great when she goes out. Now it seems like her wish has come true. She married the man she loves and gave birth to such a great son. God has treated her well."
Xie Lan's hand on his leg trembled slightly.
Xie Lan's mother was Xiao Langjing. Four or five months after her death, Xie Lan found the notebooks she had been writing for more than 20 years while sorting out her belongings.
Xie Lan had also seen similar words to what Zhao Wenying said on those yellowed pages.
The fading ink on those words allowed him to glimpse into his mother's youthfulness that he was not aware of, but time had taken her away from him forever.
Because of this reminiscence of the past, Xie Lan swallowed the refusal he had prepared.
"Lanlan." Zhao Wenying asked gently, "Your father said that you want to take the college entrance examination in China and don't want to become a British citizen?"
Xie Lan wasn't sure how much Xie Jingming had told her about the conflict between father and son, so she could only hum vaguely.
"Then Auntie will help you contact the school. You can't miss your classes. Start studying first."
Xie Lan was a little surprised when he heard this. He thought Xie Jingming had found a lobbyist.
Zhao Wenying sent a few messages on her phone and asked Xie Lan, "What grade are you in?"
Xie Lan hesitated for a moment, "It might be roughly equivalent to the second year of high school in China."
"Then it's the same as beans, what classes are there?"
"It's a elective system. I chose mathematics, physics, chemistry, and economics."
"Which subject is better?"
"Mathematics."
Xie Lan immediately added, "Chinese is definitely the weakest subject in China."
Zhao Wenying gestured OK, "Your dad said that you have not changed your nationality, and your household registration is still in this area. The second semester of the second year of high school starts tomorrow, and the principal promised that you can go to Douzi's class for two days first, and then decide where to go after the class placement test."
Xie Lan had learned about the domestic education system, so he nodded and said thank you.
Zhao Wenying switched to an old Buddha tone and asked Dou Sheng, "How are the classes arranged this time?"
Dou Sheng leaned back in his chair, swiping his phone, and said casually, "There are two A's in science, one traditional A, which is for the top 50 in total score, and one math and physics A. For those who are preparing for next year's independent enrollment, the top 30 in math and physics will be selected. Those who meet both requirements will be given priority to math and physics A, and the rest will be ranked at the back according to the total score of 50 people in each class."
He spoke very slowly, perhaps because he was afraid that Zhao Wenying wouldn't understand or because he wanted to explain it clearly to Xie Lan.
Zhao Wenying nodded, "Most of you in Class 4 will enter Mathematics A, right?"
Dou Sheng hummed, "Change the class name, remove a few people from the back, and the teacher won't change."
Xie Lan understood that Class 4 should be the best class at the moment.
I can't believe that someone who can't even tell the difference between men and women is actually in the best class.
Zhao Wenying turned around and said to Xie Lan, "Try to get into the top 300. I've asked around before, and actually the top 300 have pretty good teacher staffing."
The first three hundred.
Xie Lan was shocked and straightened his back.
"How many people are there in total?"
Zhao Wenying said with emotion: "This class is full, with more than 600 students in science."
"… "
They seemed to have some misunderstanding about his achievements.
Xie Lan was thinking about how to correct this misunderstanding, but Zhao Wenying suddenly looked at Dou Sheng, and his kindness suddenly disappeared.
"By the way, where is the cake I asked you to order?"
Xie Lan was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and subconsciously curled his fingers, then looked at Dou Sheng.
Dou Sheng scooped himself another bowl of noodles, lowered his head and slurped them, and said vaguely and indifferently, "Oh, I forgot."
"Forgot?!" Zhao Wenying's voice suddenly rose, "Can you be more reliable?! I only asked you to do two things, the first was to pick me up at the airport, and the second was to order a cake, and you can't even do this!"
Zhao Wenying started to scold him, but Dou Sheng rubbed his ears and ate noodles in silence.
Xie Lan felt relieved. It was so awkward to celebrate their birthday together the first time they met that he even felt that Dou Sheng's perfunctory attitude was a favor to him in some sense.
Just when I felt relieved, the door lock suddenly made a click, and Xiao Ma, who had said he was going to drive away, came back with a big white box in his hand.
"Bean, I'm not saying anything about you. A cake could also fall into the trunk. Luckily, I hadn't driven far when I remembered it. Tell me about you."
Dou Sheng: “…”
Xie Lan: “…”
Xie Lan never expected that today's disaster was not over yet.
My mood went up and down all day, and finally reached its climax when Zhao Wenying lifted the lid.
On the pink cream cake, it was written in dreamy Tiffany blue:
Xie Lan:
Happy birthday, young, beautiful and adorable!
The bottom of the plastic crown on the corner of the cake is engraved with a string of cursive English words: princess
"Cake shop template." Dou Sheng said immediately, "I can't think of such a tacky word."
Xie Lan sat there in a daze, his soul dying again.