Dou Sheng was silent the whole night. When the school bell rang, Xie Lan saw him flipping through the plan book and making a cross on the line about cheesy love talk.
Che Ziming turned around and patted Xie Lan's desk. "What's so good about this? Have you finished the camp entry exercise paper, Lao Ma?"
Dou Sheng also raised his head and looked over when he heard this. Xie Lan immediately calmed down and handed him the math paper that was under the Chinese textbook.
Che Ziming almost cried, "You really have finished writing it, but I, Herring, haven't even finished the first page."
Dai You came over with his schoolbag, "You guys go back to the dormitory first and wait for me. I'm going to buy a reference book for the competition."
Wang Gou said quickly, "Take me with you, and let me do this paper."
Back in the dormitory, the four people became two. Dou Sheng was fiddling with the GoPro all the way. The dim street lights made the two shadows very long. Xie Lan walked and looked at the two slender shadows - there was obviously a little distance between him and Dou Sheng, but the two shadows touched each other from time to time, and even broke the boundary and overlapped.
"Here, let's record it." Dou Sheng suddenly raised his hand and placed it skillfully on Xie Lan's shoulder.
Xie Lan looked up, and on the screen was his bewildered face. Dou Sheng leaned very close to him and said lazily, "Failure material check-in, big cat, two cats, earthy love talk, give up."
Xie Lan continued to walk forward. In his peripheral vision, he and Dou Sheng's figures rose and fell neatly on the small screen as they walked.
Dou Sheng continued chatting to the camera.
"Originally, we were going to do a challenge of different levels of cheesy love words. The main test subject was Xie Lan, and I was the initiator."
"But after I advanced a little, I felt like I couldn't handle it, so I just gave up."
"I'm old and thin-skinned, there's nothing I can do..."
Xie Lan glanced at him and asked, "Why don't you record a segment about this useless topic?"
Dou Sheng hummed, "There are a group of fans who love to read the summary of the scrapped manuscripts."
As he spoke, he pressed Xie Lan's shoulder with his arm and moved the camera closer. "Xie Lan, come and tell us about this topic that has such a good program effect, but it was not mentioned at the beginning. What do you want to say about this?"
Xie Lan hesitated for a moment, looked at Dou Sheng's eyes in the camera, and said sincerely: "I'm number nine and you're number three. I really think you're cute."
"… "
Dou Sheng lost his composure for a second, and said quickly to the camera: "Okay, let's end this topic here. I hope there will be no more Jiu San in the world..."
Xie Lan couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth, nodding softly under the street light without even noticing it.
Dou Sheng chatted with the camera as he walked along, saying in a casual tone that the food at the small dining table tonight was not good, the sweet and sour spareribs were too sweet, and not suitable for Xie Lan's taste. He also said that he and Xie Lan were suddenly addicted to the milk tea at the school gate recently. They went to the provincial math training camp on Saturday, so Xie Lan couldn't attend the Chinese class. He himself had no classes in the afternoon and was squeezed, so he mourned for the holiday in advance.
Miscellaneous, probably collecting vlog material. Xie Lan walked quietly beside him, and somehow suddenly remembered the comments on the previous videos - fans said that Dou Sheng had been posting comments on every video recently.
Indeed. Dou Sheng looked very good, and that kind of pure and innocent feeling seemed to penetrate from his eyes to the bottom of his heart, open and honest.
**
Before the provincial training camp, the difficulty of the math homework increased by one level every day, and even Xie Lan had to spare two hours to work hard. The live broadcast of the study was delayed again and again, and it was delayed until Friday night.
Zhao Wenying was not around, so Xie Lan spread a tablecloth on the spacious dining table, placed his cell phone on it, spread out the math test paper, and then brought Wutong over and placed it on the wine cabinet behind him.
Wutong cooperated very well. He lay down with his hands folded and yawned.
Xie Lan had just finished all this and was about to start the show when there was a rustling sound on the stairs. Dou Sheng came down with a phone holder in one hand and a bag of food in the other.
"What?" Xie Lan was confused.
Dou Sheng shook his phone, "Aren't you broadcasting live? I'll watch from the private room."
"?"
Xie Lan didn't know enough Chinese to understand the word "elegant seat", but he thought that Dou Sheng's behavior of eating and drinking next to the anchor and watching the live broadcast five centimeters away was very indecent.
He moved aside breathlessly, "Don't talk."
Dou Sheng narrowed his eyes, "Of course not. I'll put the food on the plate first. There won't even be a sound of wrapping paper. Just concentrate on your studies."
Xie Lan chuckled, "You'd better be."
This live broadcast was announced in advance, and the number of people increased quickly as soon as it started. Xie Lan picked up the pen and started to write the questions. The camera looked down and showed him a clear picture of the paper.
He had already done this paper once, and then asked Lao Ma to give him a new one, intending to try it again with a different way of thinking.
The room was very quiet. Wutong was snoring softly behind him, and Xie Lan was calculating quickly on the scrap paper.
-Good evening, Lanzai
-Huhuhuhu, it's math
- Dominated by Lanzai's language, the fear is still there 2333
-Mathematics is difficult in China, I am worried about Lanzi
-Hiss, I am in the third year of high school, why can’t I understand these questions…
-Yes... I'm starting to feel something is wrong
Xie Lan glanced at the screen and answered casually: "Tomorrow I will go to the competition training camp with Dou Sheng, and this is the warm-up paper assigned by the teacher."
-Mathematical Competition?!!
-0.0
-Didn’t you come back from abroad to participate in a math competition
"Yeah." Xie Lan basically determined his idea, moved some key proofs onto the test paper, and quickly copied them while answering: "Mathematics in China is indeed more difficult than the same level in the UK. It's good."
"Puff." A light music came from the side.
Dou Sheng had a puff stuck in his throat and was frantically looking for water to drink.
- There seems to be a sound
- This contestant is speechless.
- Boss, this question only takes two minutes...
-Don't follow the process, just start shaking
-Oh my god, is Lanzai good at math
-How many points do you usually get in math
Xie Lan was the same wherever he went, and he usually got full marks in math. But considering that there was a guy next to him who made some strange noises from time to time, he just said tactfully: "I took the test twice since I came back, and the results are pretty good."
As soon as the voice fell, someone who had just recovered his voice after drinking water said dissatisfiedly: "Just say it straight, I got full marks in the math test for the second-class division, and ranked first in the city's top math test. The gap between me and the second place, that is, myself, is only a difficult proof question."
Xie Lan: “…”
Barrage:"!!!"
Xie Lan's mentality collapsed, he threw the pen and said: "We agreed not to make any noise, so you lied to me!"
Dou Sheng picked up a puff and handed it to him, "That's called breaking a promise and getting fat. You'd better memorize this idiom well."
The barrage of comments flashed by like crazy.
-Fuck, is Ermao so awesome
- Beans are a complete failure
- After being crushed, he made a sound of joy, worthy of being called Dou
- Beans are feeding secretly! I saw his hand holding the puff flash by!
-Big cat and second cat also posted today
Xie Lan was speechless. He picked up the pen and looked at Dou Sheng expressionlessly.
Dou Sheng was stared at by him for a few seconds, then waved his hands helplessly, "Okay, okay, I won't say anything. Big sir! This is Xie Lan's quiet study room, I'm just having a midnight snack nearby, you guys should be more modest and study hard."
-Do I understand what he wrote and why should I talk to you
-The comments are disturbing me. I am watching the master solve the problem seriously.
- The second cat is really amazing
- I like two cats
Xie Lan was confused by the barrage of comments on the screen. If those fancy words scrolled faster, they would deprive him of his ability to read Chinese.
He was blank for a while, and simply didn't reply to any of the questions, lowering his head and continuing to do the questions.
Dou Sheng didn't say anything beside him. He turned on his phone and muted the sound to watch the comments. In Xie Lan's peripheral vision, he tilted his head back and swallowed an eclair. His Adam's apple slid happily on his smooth neck. The ordinary eclair seemed to suddenly become delicious when he ate it like this.
Xie Lan finished writing a proof question and raised his wrist to relax. In the interval between the two, an egg tart slowly came from the edge of his peripheral vision, gradually entered the camera lens, and stopped beside his hand.
-The big cat is here to feed again
-Feed at every opportunity!
-It's a bit ky but I think it's sweet...
-Same, ky, but I just say it's sweet...
Xie Lan put down the egg tart in his hand and asked, "What is ky?"
Dou Sheng glanced at the comments and said calmly, "Ky, ulcer means something rotten in the mouth. They said that even though the mouth ulcer is painful, they still think the egg tarts are sweet."
Xie Lan: “Oh.”
-? ?
- Inappropriate Inappropriate Inappropriate
- Out of place!!!
Xie Lan glanced at the barrage, hummed, changed to a new piece of calculation paper and continued to write a problem, "It's really inappropriate. The oral cavity... that thing, I forgot how to read it. Anyway, if your mouth is sore, just eat less."
Tons of question marks flashed across the barrage, and Xie Lan was confused when he heard a thud next to him.
Dou Sheng covered his mouth and rolled off the stool, his tears wetting his dense eyelashes, which sparkled in the bright light of the restaurant.
Xie Lan began to feel something was wrong, "What does ky mean?"
Dou Sheng let go of his hand and coughed violently for a while, then sat on the ground and said, "It's not the right time..."
What's so inappropriate about this
Xie Lan said angrily, "You can say it if you want."
The so-called math study room was imagined to be quiet and peaceful with live broadcasts and occasional comments discussing academics. But in reality, Xie Lan was devoted to solving eight big problems in a different way, and the comments kept going crazy until he went off the air.
After turning off his phone, Xie Lan was exhausted and empty-minded.
The live broadcast data is very good. He seems to have a magical physique. Every time he broadcasts live, the number of people who watch the live broadcast exceeds the number of fans.
I just feel a little tired.
"Then the advertising fee for the musical instrument training institution has arrived." Dou Sheng sat on the armrest of the sofa and swung his legs leisurely. "After deducting taxes, I will give all the money to everyone. The charity portion will be transferred directly. The donors can write Big Cat and Second Cat, ok?"
Xie Lan hummed.
He thought about it for a while and then suddenly remembered, "How much is Chen Ge in the end?"
"Twenty-eight thousand."
Twenty-eight thousand yuan was enough for an average family to live on for half a year. At least it would not make Chen Ge reluctant to even go to the cafeteria, and he would eat instant noodles in the small cafeteria with boiling water every meal, becoming so thin that he looked unrecognizable.
Xie Lan sighed, "Why don't you try to persuade him, didn't Old Hu ask..."
"No need." Dou Sheng refused bluntly, "He is destined to endure it alone at this stage. Outsiders cannot speak up. Even if someone speaks up, they have to find an opportunity for him to listen, otherwise it will be useless."
Ky, ky again.
Do human beings know how to speak properly
Xie Lan collapsed immediately, stood up expressionlessly and said, "I'm going to sleep."
Tomorrow is the first training session of the provincial training camp. Guo Ruize from the Affiliated High School has been bombarding Xie Lan with messages all afternoon, saying that the students from the Affiliated High School have formed an "Avengers Alliance" to launch a general attack on the mad boss, and asked Xie Lan to wait.
Xie Lan looked up the meaning of "狂苷" with an indifferent look on his face, and replied with an "oh" calmly in his heart.
He came out of the shower and lay on the bed, browsing B station aimlessly. There were many private messages asking for ky's meaning, and he clicked on one at random.
ky is used to describe someone who says something inappropriate at the right time. It comes from the Japanese phrase "空気が読めない".
Xie Lan was stunned.
It turns out that "out of date" is exactly what it means.
He lay in bed with his toes curled up and his ears burning.
But what does that sentence mean, "Although it's ky, I think it's sweet."
sweet
Xie Lan was blank for a few seconds, as if he suddenly understood something. While he was confused, he poked open a dialog box with his finger, which contained a video push from the site.
"Big Cat and Little Cat's Sweet Daily Life"
Douyan Douyu: Lanzai would like to show you this video. It’s the first time I’ve made a meme video. Please forgive me if it’s not very good!
Xie Lan clicked it without much thought.
The video starts in silence, and then shows a freeze-frame shot of Xie Lan handwriting an idiom to curse Ye Shen during the last live broadcast. The real scene fades out into a hand-painted style, and a line of words appears crookedly above the word "Fuck you bitch": The second cat will always protect the big cat!
Then a sweet Japanese background music sounded instantly. Several animated pictures of him and Dou Sheng at the grass concert appeared on the screen, also turned into hand-drawn pictures, flashing to the rhythm of the music.
Xie Lan's hands trembled and he almost dropped his phone.
He immediately pressed the volume-down button frantically until the phone was as quiet as a chicken, with only the screen flashing.
The video had three frames in total, and there was nothing to watch without the sound. But for some reason, Xie Lan did not turn it off, but instead looked up and saw the tightly closed door.
It was not until more than 80 seconds later, when the video ended, that he let out a long sigh and quickly exited.
"Xie Lan." Dou Sheng's voice suddenly sounded outside the door. Before he finished speaking, the door handle was pressed down.
Xie Lan's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately stuffed his phone under his pillow. He quickly asked Dou Sheng, who had pushed the door open, "What's going on?"
Dou Sheng's expression was very serious, his brows were tightly knitted, and there was a detectable trace of anxiety.
"What's the matter?" Xie Lan asked again.
Dou Sheng held the phone and said, "I don't feel right. I need to go find Chen Ge. You... just follow me and I'll tell you."
"What's the meaning?"
"I just transferred money to Chen Ge, and he sent me his bank card number. I asked him for the cardholder's name, but he didn't reply. I called him, but he hung up as soon as he picked up the phone. It was a bit... noisy on the other end." Dou Sheng hesitated for a moment, "It sounded like someone was banging on his door."
Smash the door
Xie Lan understood and stood up without saying anything, "I'll go with you."
After asking, I found out that Chen Ge lived in the community at the exit of Yangchang Lane, the place where I met the gangsters when school started.
Dou Sheng made several more calls along the way, but Chen Ge hung up on them all. He urgently contacted those people in the group, and most of them rushed to Chen Ge from all directions. Judging from the distance, they should have arrived earlier than them.
Dou Sheng said, "Be careful later. The people who are pestering Chen Ge are different from the campus hooligans. See the situation. If it doesn't work, call the police. The Chinese police are 110."
Xie Lan nodded, "I know."
On the way, Dou Sheng briefly explained the situation. Chen Ge's mother was a married woman from another place. She was a housewife. She had been seriously ill since his father went to jail. There were not many people on his mother's side, and there were no elderly people on his father's side, only two aunts, and they had not been contacted since the accident.
"I guess even if he lives on his previous savings and the minimum living allowance every month, it may not be enough for medical expenses. He originally wanted to drop out of school this semester, but Hu Xiujie and Lao Ma went to negotiate several times, and the school waived all tuition and miscellaneous fees and only gave him 500 yuan in meal subsidies every month, which was enough to barely keep him." Dou Sheng sighed, "He only went to school reluctantly to cash in the meal subsidies. He sold the meal cards as soon as he got them at the beginning of the month and ate instant noodles himself. I saw it twice."
Xie Lan felt a little lost after hearing this and didn't know what to say.
He didn't quite understand the complicated relationship between relatives mentioned earlier. He only remembered Dou Sheng's last words - Chen Gezhi was willing to go to school not because he had hope, but because he wanted the school to give him 500 yuan a month.
It's just five hundred. The last time they had a barbecue to celebrate the math test, it cost more than four hundred.
Xie Lan looked out the window at the gloomy night, and suddenly remembered the row of report cards posted next to the blackboard. There was the short horizontal line that Chen Ge had drawn at the height of the second place, which stopped abruptly.
Dou Sheng whispered again, "Regarding the concert, do you think he really didn't know about the money he secretly gave us? He probably just doesn't dare to think about it too deeply. Once he thinks about it, the money will be gone. We both know this."
Hearing this, Xie Lan turned his head to look at him. Dou Sheng was looking out the window when he said this, his expression still expressionless.
It was past eleven when the car arrived at the destination. The street lights in the community were relatively bright. Xie Lan and Dou Sheng drove around several old buildings before they finally saw four familiar figures at the corner of the building in front.
As soon as Dou Sheng came over, he asked, "Are there any suspicious people?"
Wang Gou said tremblingly, "When we arrived, it was absolutely silent! There was not a single cloud in the sky. The guy rushed straight up the stairs and was dragged down by us. But we all saw that in the winding corridor, there were two fat guys squatting at the door of Chen Ge's house. One was a bald fat guy wearing a big gold chain, and the other was a leopard-print fat guy holding a big thick stick. They were..."
The woman turned her head and held his shoulders, muting him.
"Please, just stop talking when you're nervous. I have a headache."
Wang Gou covered his mouth and nodded.
Dou Sheng curled his lips in silence, "Just two? Are they banging on the door?"
Dai You shook his head. "There should be more than two. When we entered the community, a group of people went out. The two above should just be guarding the gate."
Che Ziming pulled Dai You's arm and added in a low voice: "It's probably a debt collector. Chen Ge didn't answer the phone. Should we go up?"
Dou Sheng frowned, "It's a bit troublesome to collect the debt. It's not easy to call the police right away. Let's wait and see."
Xie Lan looked up and saw that all the lights in the entire unit were off, and the voice-controlled lights in the stairwell on the fourth floor kept turning on and off from time to time. It was probably those two people blocking the door.
Dai You said, "Chen Ge is smart, he is probably pretending, as long as he doesn't come out, these people can't keep blocking him here."
Dou Sheng hummed, "Let's wait here for a while, try to get those two to leave, and then we can go back to our own places."
Everyone agreed. Xie Lan looked up at the all-black windows and sighed softly.
The street light was on the other side of the building. It was dark around the bend. You could hide without being discovered. Several people were standing or squatting. Dou Sheng leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets. He rubbed his right foot against the wall, as if in a trance.
Normally he would check Bilibili wherever he went, but this time he was stuck in an endless wait, just staring blankly.
Xie Lan watched him from the side. The tall and thin figure was hidden in the darkness, looking a little lonely.
He suddenly recalled what Dou Sheng had said casually in the movie—Chen Ge was destined to endure this stage alone, and no one else could speak.
"Hey." Xie Lan called him subconsciously without thinking clearly.
Dou Sheng raised his eyes and looked over. Those black eyes were still calm, and even showed a hint of warmth and care when looking at him, which diluted the loneliness a little.
"What?"
Xie Lan was about to say something but suddenly stopped, feeling a little confused and not knowing how to start.
What I'm asking is, have you ever had a similar experience? What happened to you in junior high school? Would you like to tell me about it
His relationship with Dou Sheng was indeed very strange. Not too far, not too close either, and he couldn't think of any position from which he could confidently inquire about it.
Dou Sheng looked down at his feet and said, "You look so bad, is there a bug here? Stand on my side, I'll step on it if there is one."
As he spoke, he reached out and took Xie Lan's arm, pulling Xie Lan towards him.
The feeling of his five fingers pressing on her skin was very clear. It was not until he let go for a while that Xie Lan gently stretched out her sleeves.
"Fuck." The driver in the car in front suddenly jogged back and hushed, "Those guys who have been making so much noise are going to eat! Come back!"
As soon as he finished speaking, noisy sounds came from a distance, breaking the silence of the night.
The five men were all big guys. Some of them were holding bottles of wine and walking unsteadily.
They walked to the door of Chen Ge's unit and one of them spat on the ground, "The little bastard is right here, you have to break the door down for me tonight!"
A few other people responded, and the footsteps of the crowd went upstairs in a mighty manner. The windows in the corridors on each floor were open, and the cursing sounds were carried out by the wind and fell into the ears clearly. Soon, the sound of banging on doors and shouting and cursing came from upstairs, echoing throughout the community.
Xie Lan looked up and saw that all the voice-controlled lights were on, and several of them turned on one after another.
"It's not good. They are drunk." Dou Sheng took out his cell phone. "I'll call the police. Che Ziming will call Chen Ge and ask him to get out no matter what."
Che Ming's hands were shaking. He dialed the number and put the phone down after a while. "Turn it off..."
The atmosphere suddenly became tense, and Dou Sheng turned his back and spoke in a low voice to the operator.
He didn't mention debt collection, he just said that there were eight or nine big men blocking the door, and there were only the classmate and his mother inside, and he felt a little scared.
Just after hanging up the phone, there was a deafening bang from upstairs, like a steel pipe hitting a door and breaking it, which made the eardrums of everyone downstairs feel uncomfortable.
Finally, a neighbor opened the door and came out. It was a man on the fifth floor. He stood at a window between the fifth and fourth floors and yelled, "Smash, smash, smash! Smash your mother! Are you going to let me sleep? If you don't leave, I'll call the police! Wu Dongyan, are you going to come out and take care of it? Everyone in the building can't sleep well because of you!"
Dou Sheng immediately turned around and walked upstairs, "Oh my god, Chen Ge can't hold his composure any longer."
The six people had the same premonition and pushed each other to run upstairs. Dou Sheng was just in front of Xie Lan, and he took three or four steps with his long legs, and soon he reached the floor below Chen Ge and the others.
The six people slammed on the brakes, and almost at the same time, the security door with a hole in it opened.
Chen Ge came out and said coldly, "I have called the police. If you don't get out now, wait for the police to come."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, the leader grabbed his wrist and pulled him out. Compared with the group of big and strong men, Chen Ge's thin body lost its usual strength and thinness, and was left with only thinness. He raised his leg and kicked the man in the stomach, but his foot was caught by another man. The man twisted his leg, hit his knee with his elbow, and swung Chen Ge out like a sack.
Chen Ge sat down on the steps, leaning back and climbing down several steps before he saw Dou Sheng and the others.
He tore off his coat and threw it to the ground, "Mom, you're going too far, aren't you?"
He rushed forward and kicked the man, causing him to stagger back two steps, and yelled, "Douzi, hurry up!"
The corridor was in complete chaos. The debt collectors were cursing at the debt collectors and rushing down to beat people. Xie Lan was holding on in front of them. Dou Sheng grabbed Xie Lan in one hand and Chen Ge in the other, and bravely fought his way through the crowd. He finally got a hold of the area in front of Chen Ge's door and held on to the door just in time to close it.
"Go!" Dou Sheng yelled, "Herring! Hit them!"
He did not want to fight, as he could not get the upper hand among the group of burly men. He turned around and kicked away the few people who were pulling his arms. He walked into the room and picked up the mop handle to hit someone's hand that was clinging to the door frame. There was a scream from the crowd outside the door, and the hand had just been retracted when Herring slammed the door shut with a bang.
The moment the door was locked, the person outside kicked it frantically, the noise was so loud that it gave people a headache. Xie Lan felt pain in his arms and legs. He didn't know how many punches and kicks he had received along the way after being dragged in by Dou Sheng. Dou Sheng was probably worse off than him.
"Everyone come in." Dou Sheng said unhappily, "Go into the inner room and wait for the police to arrive."
As he said this, he let go of Chen Ge and continued to pull Xie Lan inside.
Xie Lan hissed.
"Wait a minute!"
He called out to Dou Sheng in one hand, and with his other hand grasped the hand that Dou Sheng was pulling his arm, barely able to stop the pain from the pulling.
There was no light in the room, and it was pitch black. Xie Lan carefully pulled his left hand out of Dou Sheng's grasp and tried to shake his arm.
Before I could swing it all the way to the bottom, the muscles in my forearm jumped violently, and then I felt an intense pain.
Chen Ge turned on the light in the living room, and Xie Lan finally saw a red mark on his left arm, probably from being hit by a stick. It ran diagonally from the outer wrist bone to the middle of the forearm, and the surrounding flesh was swelling rapidly.