Dou Sheng turned around and walked towards the door.
Chen Ge subconsciously shouted: "Don't go out!"
Che Ziming and the others came to their senses and yelled at Dou Sheng to stop moving.
"I'm going out." Dou Sheng's voice was deep and cold.
"I'll just see who it is."
He walked quickly to the door, held it with one hand, and looked through the peephole.
Xie Lan looked at him from behind, his slender fingers slightly curled up with his fingertips resting on the door. It should have been a very relaxed movement, but the tense lines of his arms revealed a hint of emotion.
The banging on the door continued, once every second, as devoutly as the ringing of a bell. The old security door and its frame trembled together.
After a long while, Dou Sheng straightened up and said calmly, "It's the fat guy in the tiger-head shirt, with squinty eyes, a black mole on his neck, and holding a stick."
Chen Ge frowned and recalled, "There were two or three people holding sticks."
"It's him, for sure. I remember him." Dou Sheng put his hands in his trouser pockets out of habit. "Is there a camera installed?"
Chen Ge hummed, "My neighbor has it installed."
Dou Sheng didn't say anything else. He walked back and pinched Xie Lan's left wrist, pressing lightly with the tip of his thumb along the redness and swelling around the wound.
His voice softened again, "Will it hurt if you touch me like this?"
A subtle feeling, elusive and hard to capture, flashed through Xie Lan's mind.
“It’s a bit…” He didn’t know how to describe it in Chinese. He hesitated for a moment and whispered, “distending…”
Dou Sheng looked up at him, "Swelling pain? It's bulging and bulging, like the feeling of bread rising?"
"Um."
Dou Sheng nodded, and held Xie Lan's elbow again. He pinched his wrist with his other hand, first rotating it clockwise, then moving it up and down and left and right. "Does it hurt?"
"It hurts."
"How about this?" He stretched out his hand and pressed the wound on Xie Lan's body. "How does this hurt? Dragging? Dull? Burning?"
Xie Lan felt it for a while and said, "A little bit of both."
Wang Gou's English was too good, so he could only open his mouth to express his shock. Che Ziming sighed, "Poor little Lan, you feel like you're being bullied by a dog in a foreign country, which makes you even more pitiful."
Xie Lan didn't say anything, but he noticed that Dou Sheng's anger, which had just been suppressed, rose again after hearing these words.
Dou Sheng turned around and asked Chen Ge, "Is your mother at home?"
Chen Ge hummed, "He's in the hospital."
Dou Sheng frowned and said, "That's perfect. We'll stay at your house today. We have classes at the provincial training camp tomorrow, and we have to take Xie Lan to the hospital early in the morning, so time is a bit tight."
Hospital
Xie Lan lowered his head in confusion and poked the wound on his arm.
Is it that serious
Chen Ge also glanced at Xie Lan's arm, and after a moment's pause, he said, "Of course, how is his injury?"
"Muscle tear." Dou Sheng said confidently, "With soft tissue contusion, mild bone fracture, and possible inflammation. Do you have a towel at home?"
Chen Ge was stunned for a second, then hurriedly walked into the house, "Yes, come with me."
Xie Lan was stunned. He raised his ordinary arm in disbelief and recalled the diseases that Dou Sheng had just mentioned.
Suddenly I felt the pain in the injured area getting worse.
The banging on the door suddenly stopped. Dai You looked out through the peephole, "Why do they seem to be leaving?"
"Ah? Let me see." Che Ming pushed him away. "Fuck, it really is. What's going on?"
Chen Ge came out and turned to the balcony to look downstairs. After a while, the voices of the men cursing could be heard from below, and the voices became farther and farther away until they disappeared.
Chen Ge sneered, "This group of people are very skilled. They can judge which calls to the police are real, and can predict how long it will take for the police to arrive, and know how to avoid conflicts. This is already the first time. Whoever called the police, cancel it."
Wang Gou was stunned. "Have the police ever caught him?"
Chen Ge nodded. "We caught them twice, but they didn't cause any real harm, so we could only mediate verbally. It's quite chaotic around here, and the police force is already tight, so the police are helpless."
Dou Sheng just came out with a wet towel and said calmly, "If it doesn't work, move away. If it works, move out of H City. I see those guys are big and strong and don't look like they're taking drugs. As long as they're exposed to drugs, there's nothing to be afraid of."
As he spoke, he folded the towel in half and carefully placed it over Xie Lan's forearm.
The coldness instantly relieved the pain. Xie Lan carefully made the motion of unlocking the door under the towel, and it didn't seem to hurt.
He was puzzled by his hand which had "torn muscles, fractured bones, and inflammation". Dou Sheng suddenly came close and whispered in his ear, "It's just a minor injury. It's okay. Just spray some medicine and it will be fine in two days."
Xie Lan was stunned.
"Since you're here, why not stay overnight at his house and keep this mentally retarded and delinquent child company?" Dou Sheng said as he turned around and touched Xie Lan's head with a calm expression, as if those naughty words and actions had nothing to do with him.
Chen Ge sighed, "It's too late. If you don't leave, think about how to sleep. At least two of you should sleep on the floor with me."
The difficulties in this home were visibly evident. All the furniture had been moved out, and only two of the three bedrooms had beds, one for Chen Ge and one for his mother.
Wang Gou raised his hand, "I have slept on the floor since I was a child."
Yu Fei said, "Then I'll go with you, so I can guard the door." He glanced at the rest of the people, "Then Dai Youche will sleep in the small room, Douzi and Xie Lan will sleep in the big room, and we'll go to class together tomorrow morning, set the alarm."
Everyone said yes.
Chen Ge whispered, "Sorry to bother you."
Yu Fei frowned and patted him on the shoulder, "Don't say such disgusting things."
Although it was called a big house, it only had a double bed which was not very spacious. When Xie Lan sat on it, the bed frame creaked, and when he moved, it creaked again.
Chen Ge took a quilt and a blanket and made the bed for the person sleeping in the living room. Several people talked in low voices.
"Are they debt collectors?"
"Um."
"How long has it been?"
"About half a year, at least eight times, if not ten times."
"So... how much money do you owe? Your dad owes it?"
Chen Ge didn't say anything else. Dou Sheng just came out of the bathroom and interrupted the conversation outside to ask, "Is anyone washing up?"
Everyone said they had washed up. Chen Ge walked over and turned off the light in the bathroom. "Go to sleep. We'll be watching outside and call you if anything happens."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a click and the light in the master bedroom was turned off.
Xie Lan, who was checking his hand injury, suddenly felt dizzy and fell into a daze.
Why turn off his light
Then, Chen Ge turned off all the lights in the house one by one. There was silence inside and outside the house for a while. Che Ming asked in a low voice, "Why turn off the lights? They've all left."
Chen Ge calmly replied: "To save electricity."
"… "
Dou Sheng was so angry that he said, "Why are you scratching your hand to death? Let me take another look at Xie Lan's hand injury."
He reached out and flicked the switch.
Click.
The light was off.
Dou Sheng was stunned for a moment, then clicked the door back and forth several times, turned around and walked to the toilet door, and clicked.
"Why isn't it lit?" He asked incredulously, "It tripped immediately? Is this a circuit from the 1990s?"
Chen Ge sighed helplessly, "Okay, it was a power outage. The power company has been posting overdue bills for a long time, and they announced that there will be a forced power outage tonight."
Everyone: “…”
Chen Ge added calmly: "The notice said eight o'clock, and now it's almost twelve o'clock. I am very grateful."
Everyone: “…”
Dou Sheng was speechless. He waved his hand and told him to go back to the living room to sleep. He stood at the door of the master bedroom and said to Xie Lan, "Is your towel cold? I'll change another towel for you."
In the darkness, Xie Lan saw Dou Sheng's face, and based on the direction of Dou Sheng's voice, he vaguely felt that Dou Sheng was not pointing completely at him.
He sighed helplessly, "I'll go by myself and wash up while I'm at it."
The old wooden floor creaked when stepped on. Several people lying in the living room were chatting in low voices. Wang Gou spoke less, Yu Fei occasionally interjected, and Chen Ge hardly said a word.
Xie Lan pushed open the toilet door in the dark. There was no light at all. He turned on the faucet in the darkness and splashed water on his face with his right hand.
In the chaos, he suddenly felt that the water drops hanging on his eyelashes were somewhat bright, dripping down, reflecting a dim and somewhat blurred light in his vision, illuminating the soap box and toothbrush cup next to him...
He looked up blankly, only to see a soft light in the mirror. Dou Sheng was leaning against the door with one hand in his pocket and holding a mobile phone in the other. The flashlight was covered with a thin layer of tissue, making the light appear hazy and soft in the darkness.
Xie Lan was stunned for a moment, "Why did you follow me?"
Dou Sheng smiled, turned his wrist and directed the beam to the side, fixing it on a bottle of hand cream in the storage cabinet.
"It's dark and gloomy, and I feel uneasy." He said casually, "I came to find you."
Xie Lan couldn't help but curl his lips when he heard this, "You're so timid again."
Dou Sheng snorted and said softly, "I'm just afraid that you'll be scared, okay."
Hearing this, Xie Lan turned his head and looked at him for a while.
Chen Ge, his house, seemed to be covered with a layer of oppressive gray. Whenever Dou Sheng approached Chen Ge, he would become a little cold and lonely, and unlike Che Ziming and the others, Dou Sheng exuded a kind of depression that seemed to come from his bones and that had changed with the times.
It was very faint and could not be erased, but it would not have any effect on him now. It just stubbornly existed deep within him.
"Okay, okay, okay." Dou Sheng raised his hands in surrender, "I'm as timid as a bean. Forefather, please stop staring at me. You're staring at me and it makes my whole body go numb."
Xie Lan came back to his senses, looked at him again, and turned his head away silently.
He opened the cap of the hand cream with one hand, squeezed out a bean-sized amount, and scooped it away with his fingers.
Xie Lan lowered his head and smeared the cream on his hands in circles, while Dou Sheng whistled softly beside him. The whistle sounded like his usual speech, low and scattered. Xie Lan listened for a while before he felt it was familiar, and looked up and asked, "Adapted version of hblood?"
Dou Sheng hummed, "Like I said, I like this version very much. Grief upon sorrow, extreme sorrow, can actually make the sad person feel more relaxed, just like using one boulder to hit another. Although the collision is painful, it can always make the original stone smaller. Over time, with repeated attempts, a drop of water can still wear away a stone."
Xie Lan didn't quite understand this metaphor. He took a while to react and said, "Then why don't you hum it for Chen Ge?"
It was just a casual suggestion, but Dou Sheng's face instantly fell and he said coldly, "Give it to me."
"?"
Xie Lan's face was about to wrinkle. "Are you sick? Your mood changes are so irregular, aren't they?"
"There are rules. The key is to see if some people are sincere and attentive." Dou Sheng snorted coldly, "Leave and go to sleep."
Xie Lan said: "Leave your phone here, and go out first."
Dou Sheng turned around and looked at him for a while, "Going to the bathroom?"
"Um."
Dou Sheng laughed, "Can you unbutton your pants with one hand? Do you need help?"
Xie Lan was speechless, and there was a barely perceptible burning sensation in his ears. "It is true that manual labor will hurt, but I can bear it. Is it so serious that I can't even take off my pants?"
Dou Sheng smiled and said, "I was just joking. I'll leave the phone here for you."
Xie Lan was too lazy to look at him again and turned around to walk inside.
Chen Ge's bathroom had two glass sliding doors, which separated the shower, toilet, and sink. Xie Lan saw that both doors were open in the light, but he didn't expect that there was a threshold. He stepped on them unexpectedly, twisted his leg, and hit his shoulder on the glass with a thud. It hurt.
"What's wrong?" Chen Ge shouted outside.
Xie Lan's face flushed, and he quickly replied, "It's okay!"
Dou Sheng came back from the door to help him up, his tone somewhat helpless, "Ancestor, please watch your feet."
He held Xie Lan's right arm with one hand and grasped his waist with the other hand around the injured area. "Did you hit your left hand again?"
"without."
Before Xie Lan could react, her body instinctively pulled itself out of his hands and she hurriedly said, "It's okay."
Maybe it was because his movement to break free was too obvious, but Dou Sheng’s hand paused in the air for a second before he retracted it.
"Be careful."
"Um."
After he left, Xie Lan breathed a sigh of relief and felt his fingertips were numb.
He had hated physical contact with people since he was a child, so he could never understand why Dai You, Che Ziming and the others were so close all the time. Every time they wanted to take him with them, he would instinctively break free.
At first, he felt a little uncomfortable when Dou Sheng came over and put his arm around his shoulder, but after enduring it a few times, he got used to it. But just like before, the distance was suddenly broken, and he subconsciously wanted to break away, and that desire was even stronger than before with Dai You and the others.
But, it’s the same.
It seemed not to be a struggle of rejection and disgust, but panic.
From the intuitive to the physiological, it's all very abnormal.
Xie Lan stayed in the bathroom alone for a long time before picking up his phone and walking inside.
Maybe the action of bending the waist left a psychological trauma on Xie Lan, but Xie Lan had another strange dream that night.
It was the same scene in the bathroom as at night, but it was completely the same. He dreamed that he and Dou Sheng ran into each other after going to the bathroom. There were two long straps hanging in front of Dou Sheng's sweatpants. He pulled the straps and tightened them suddenly. The thin shirt revealed the outline of the boy's thin and tight waist. Those slender fingers tied the straps into a loose knot. Then Dou Sheng walked towards him, stretched out his hand, and pinched the two identical straps hanging from Xie Lan's waistband.
When he tightened the two ropes, Xie Lan staggered forward half a step and put his hand on Dou Sheng's chest.
Dou Sheng grabbed his waist as if he was afraid that he would fall.
"Be careful."
—If it were those three words, they would carry a very real echo, and Xie Lan even realized that it was a dream.
When he sat up suddenly from the bed, it was raining heavily outside. It was the first rain since returning to China, and it was so heavy and unhurried. Xie Lan sat on the bed blankly. He didn't need to look in the mirror to know how confused he was.
If he had this kind of dream, there must be something wrong with him.
After a long while, he suddenly felt something was wrong and turned around to find that the bed on the other side was empty.
The phone showed that it was already past two in the morning. The house was very quiet. Xie Lan let his mind wander for a while before picking up the wrinkled towel and getting out of bed, intending to rinse it with cold water again.
If you want to touch your hand, just touch your forehead.
He walked quietly to the outside of the toilet and was about to push the door, but found it was ajar.
"You came to me late at night to ask me this?"
It was Chen Ge's voice.
Xie Lan suddenly understood and wanted to leave, but before his foot touched the ground, he pulled it back.
For some unknown reason, he wanted to know what Dou Sheng would say to Chen Ge.
Dou Sheng's voice was very calm. "Yes, just to ask this. How much money do you owe that group of people? Do you have an IOU? Have you asked your father about the authenticity of the debt?"
Chen Ge was silent for a while before he said, "That group of people had three IOUs in their hands, totaling 680,000 yuan. My father has done more bad things than we thought. As for the one about stopping drug trafficking, he just repeatedly emphasized that he would pay the money to anyone who came. That group of people is not clean, so they dare not ask the government to enforce it."
Dou Sheng asked, "So you gave it to me?"
"No. I won't give it to you. All the savings in the family have been spent on my mother's medical treatment. We only have this house left. My father was sentenced to life imprisonment. He will be released in 20 or 30 years. If he is not dead yet, let them ask him to pay with interest." Chen Ge said with a self-deprecating smile, "How is it? Does it smell like someone's scumbag son?"
Dou Sheng snorted, "I still have some sense."
"What?" Chen Ge was slightly stunned.
Dou Sheng sighed, "I said you still have some sense. When I saw you were so poor before, I thought you even sold your house to fill the bottomless pit."
Chen Ge paused and laughed bitterly twice.
After a long moment, he whispered, "Beans."
"Um."
"I can handle my own affairs. Tomorrow you take them to class. What's that provincial training camp? Math competition? Go do it well and don't bother me. Hu Xiujie must hate me to death. Let her hate me less."
Dou Sheng yawned, "Don't worry about us, the chosen ones. Helping some mentally retarded children in our spare time is a supplement to our life experience."
"Fuck." Chen Ge was amused. He laughed dryly twice and then whispered, "I've received the advertising fee. Thanks, brother. I'll pay you back later."
Dou Sheng said, "No need. Xie Lan was very happy that day. He said it had been years since he last played in a band with a clarinet. So in this sense, your clarinet is indeed more valuable than other instruments."
Chen Ge's voice was a little dazed. "What does it have to do with Xie Lan? The decision on your money is in his hands?"
Xie Lan was also a little confused outside.
Dou Sheng groaned, "Anyway, everyone was happy that day. We have the final say on how to distribute the salary. You don't have to worry about it... I'm getting off topic. Actually, I just want to say that you should just think of your father as dead. The destruction of a family is a disaster, but people should always look forward. I'm telling you this with a sore back, I..."
"I know about your situation." Chen Ge interrupted him, and after a pause, he continued, "But my family's situation is not as simple as the destruction of the family and the death of the people."
Dou Sheng was silent for a long time after hearing this, so long that Xie Lan's feet were numb from standing, and then he suddenly heard him laugh nonchalantly.
Dou Sheng said softly, "You know my story? My father died in a car accident, and many people know about it. I ranked first in the city in the high school entrance examination that year, and there were even reporters who came to interview me about how I got through it. You said it was ridiculous, and what's even more ridiculous is that I accepted that interview."
Died in a car accident.
In the darkness, Xie Lan's heart seemed to suddenly skip a beat.
Although Dou Sheng's father had never appeared, he had guessed the worst possibility, but when he heard Dou Sheng say it with his own ears, he still felt as if something was gripping his heart, his blood was clogged, and his fingertips were cold.
Chen Ge was silent for a long time before he hummed, "So I said, I believe you understand the feeling of losing your family, but..."
"Listen to me." Dou Sheng's tone was heavy. "Except for me and my mom, no one knows the truth. On that day, my dad suddenly went on a business trip and left in a hurry. That's how the car accident happened. But in fact, the business trip was fake. He had been cheating on his wife for more than a year, and that woman called him away that day."
The sound of rain outside suddenly became loud. Xie Lan stood outside the door, feeling a cold and numb feeling crawling up his spine through his fingertips.
His hands were shaking, and he turned around to leave, but when his feet stepped on the floor there was a sudden creaking sound.
Xie Lan froze in place.
The toilet was quiet for a while. Xie Lan's mind was blank as he waited for Dou Sheng to come out.
But Dou Sheng didn't. He just kept silent for a while and continued, "So, in fact, I have the position and obligation to enlighten you more than anyone else. Because in a sense, I have been through a similar journey, and I understand how you feel. The real fatal injury is not the destruction of your family, but the sudden feeling of betrayal."
"But, I'm standing in front of you now, first in the grade, super handsome, with 1,328,000 fans, a group of buddies, and someone I particularly like. By the way, I actually think that if you have a relationship, maybe... ah, forget it, I'm off topic. You don't have to look at me so moved. I'm just revealing my scars to heal you. The past has long faded. I'm just used to seeing that one of the two heroes of Class 4 is gone."
He talked a lot, walked out, pressed the door handle, and paused again.
The low voice said, "Chen Ge, if you still feel a little unwilling..."
"I'm not willing to accept this." Chen Ge punched the ceramic of the wash basin and said hoarsely, "It's because I'm not willing to accept this that I'm holding on to this house to pay off the debt and wait until my mother is discharged from the hospital. If there's even a glimmer of hope, who would want to be a scumbag for the rest of their life?"
Dou Sheng smiled softly upon hearing this, "Well, that's what I wanted to say. You are barefoot now and you are afraid to wear shoes. You have a house in your hand. It's easy to turn the tables."
"But you have to pick up your knife first."
The sound of rain rumbled outside, and Xie Lan couldn't tell for a moment whether the sound of the rain was louder or the voice in his heart was louder.
He saw the bathroom door open and Dou Sheng's tall figure walked out. When he saw him, his expression was indifferent. He passed by him and grabbed his wrist.
Dou Sheng's palms were burning, but his voice was calm, "Why are you so dazed? Go back to your room and sleep."
He pulled Xie Lan back to the room by the wrist and closed the door. Dou Sheng then let go of her hand, walked to the window and opened it.
The rain was noisy and the humid wind blew in, making people feel refreshed all over.
Dou Sheng sighed softly, "I was careless. I forgot that cats are shallow sleepers. They will wake up after a short nap and will not make any sound when walking."
Xie Lan said with difficulty: "I will tell others..."
"I know." Dou Sheng nodded, "I believe it."
He paused, closed the window again, walked over to Xie Lan, put his arms around his shoulders from behind, and buried his head in his neck.
My breath sprayed on my sensitive skin and it felt a little itchy.
"I'm a little worried that you might think too much, so I'll give you a hug." Dou Sheng said softly, "The past, no matter how deep the scars are, they have all turned into a layer of dead skin. I don't care about them anymore."
Xie Lan felt a pain in his chest, and he unconsciously reached out and touched Dou Sheng's head.
There were tingling sensations in the palm of my hand. It turned out that this was what it felt like to touch someone's head to comfort them. I just wanted to rub it more, but I didn't know what to say. It seemed that just rubbing it a little could make the other person feel better.
Just like the night when Xie Lan first moved into Dou Sheng’s house and woke up from a nightmare, Dou Sheng touched his head.
"Xie Lan."
"Um?"
Dou Sheng whispered, "Fortunately, you arrived when I was full of energy and vigor. This is what the Chinese people value: fate."
Xie Lan understood fate too well, so he just nodded subconsciously, paused, and asked in a low voice, "What does high-spirited mean...?"
"… "
Dou Sheng changed a series of words, "Handsome guy, number one in the grade, has 1,328,000 fans, and has someone he particularly likes."
At this point, Xie Lan was too lazy to correct him that being a fan could be considered as being in love. He just continued to rub Dou Sheng's head, and after a long time, he whispered, "I know, I just feel a little regretful that we met too late. If we had met earlier, it would be better if I could be with you alone."
After the words were spoken, the room was silent for a long time.
It was so quiet that Xie Lan stopped rubbing his hair and was about to ask when he suddenly heard Dou Sheng's low, satisfied laugh.
Xie Lan was stunned, "What's wrong?"
"nothing."
Dou Sheng stood up, raised his hand and lightly stroked the side of his face, paused, and then gently put it down.
It just seemed as if she casually stretched the wrinkles on his collar.
Dou Sheng said in a very light voice, "Perhaps you will be with me earlier and longer than you thought."