When Ji Fan arrived home, Jiang Qihuai was playing chess with Tao Xiuping.
The two sat in front of the chess, and Tao Xiuping rubbed his chin and looked at the chessboard, muttering, "You kid, set me a trap."
Jiang Qihuai smiled, but remained silent.
"However," Tao Xiuping dragged on, holding a cannon and moved two to the side, glanced at it, and said with a smile, "Tell me what is ginger or old spicy."
Jiang Qihuai's eyes fell on the chessboard, as if he was in a hard fight, he didn't move for a long time.
Tao Xiuping snorted and said, "You're still young, your offensive intentions are too obvious, you should hide it a bit."
Ji Fan: "..."
He didn't know why, but the two suddenly seemed to be enjoying themselves.
He changed his shoes and walked in, standing beside him condescendingly.
Jiang Qihuai took a car.
Ji Fan cleared his throat.
Tao Xiuping ate his elephant.
Ji Fan took off his coat and threw it aside, and stood beside him for a long time.
Then he watched Jiang Qihuai calmly vault.
With his movement, Tao Xiuping frowned again, knocked on the eaten chess pieces on the table, and fell into deep thought.
Ji Fan couldn't help but said, "I'm back."
"Calm for a while," Tao Xiu said without raising his head, "playing chess."
"..."
Ji Fan was shocked: "No, how come you old man doesn't recognize his son when someone plays chess with you? I don't have any status at home?"
"You don't play chess with me, you know how to go out to play every day, what status do you need," Tao Xiuping saw that the situation was hopeless, pushed the chess piece forward, raised his head and looked at him and said leisurely, " Want a plate?"
"..."
Ji Fan looked at the pile of messy chess pieces and his head hurt, he strode up the stairs without saying a word: "I thought about it carefully, in fact, there is no need for any status, you go ahead."
Tao Xiuping snorted and looked up at the time: "It's about the same time, are you still going to eat with Zhizhi?"
Jiang Qihuai nodded: "Yes."
"Okay," Tao Xiuping said while putting away the chess pieces, "Thank you for playing chess with me, I know you young people don't like this very much."
Jiang Qihuai helped him put away all the chess pieces: "No, my grandfather often asked me to play with him, I think it's very interesting."
Tao Xiuping was stunned for a moment, then sighed: "It's a pity that I don't have a chance to play a game with the old man."
Jiang Qihuai paused, silently lowering his eyes.
Tao Xiuping glanced at him, didn't say anything, picked up his teacup and said, "I'll accompany Uncle when I have time in the future, that brat Ji Fan doesn't have any frontal cells."
Jiang Qihuai responded.
Tao Xiuping looked at him cheerfully: "When Zhi Zhi comes back to eat when she's free, you often come with her."
When Jiang Qihuai arrived at the office building of the magazine, Tao Zhi happened to go downstairs.
As she pushed open the glass door and walked out, she lowered her head and pressed her phone. A little girl next to her trotted up with a big bag and talked to her.
Tao Zhi responded with a few words, but she didn't know what to say, she lowered her head and gave a faint smile, the corners of her lips slightly raised.
Jiang Qihuai's WeChat phone rang at the same time.
He glanced at her in the car, pulled out his phone, and saw that she had sent him a message.
Jiang Qihuai replied: [Look up.]
Tao Zhi: [?]
Tao Zhi sent a voice directly: "I didn't hug another man this time, did I?"
As she spoke, she turned her head and saw his car parked by the side of the road. The image she had maintained aloofly just a second ago disappeared. She jumped on the spot, raised her arms and waved in his direction. waved, then turned to talk to the little girl next to her.
The little girl nodded and left.
Tao Zhi trotted all the way over, got into the co-pilot, Jiang Qihuai watched her throw her bag in the back seat of the car, pull her seat belt back, and said amusedly, "I asked you to look up, not to look back."
"Isn't there an initial character?" Tao Zhi said with lingering fear as he fastened his seat belt, "I'm afraid when I see this word now."
Jiang Qihuai snorted and started the car.
He picked a Chinese restaurant, ordered her favorite dishes, and took her home after eating.
On the way back, Tao Zhi glanced at him several times.
Jiang Qihuai looked ahead intently, with one hand resting loosely on the steering wheel. He seemed to have an inexplicable and rare sense of relaxation, as if he was in a good mood.
Tao Zhi thought for a while and called him, "Jiang Qihuai."
"Huh?" He replied lazily.
Tao Zhi tilted his head: "Do you want to spend the New Year with me this year?"
Tao Zhi thought, when he went last time, Tao Xiuping's attitude seemed to be okay.
Although I'm not sure if it's completely accepted, but it's always good to get in touch with Tao Xiuping and let Tao Xiuping get to know him.
She licked her lips and said, "He seems to like chatting with you, you can chat with him more."
Hearing her mention this, Jiang Qihuai didn't hide it from her anymore, and said flatly: "I met Uncle Tao today."
Tao Zhi almost choked on his own saliva.
She opened her eyes wide and said anxiously: "He is looking for you? Did he tell you something? You don't need to listen to him. He promised me that we will be together."
Jiang Qihuai looked at her anxious look, and comforted her: "I didn't say anything, I just played chess with him for a while."
Tao Zhi frowned, looked at him half-believingly: "Really?"
"Um."
Tao Zhi breathed a sigh of relief, nodded, and suddenly became curious: "Then you won or lost."
"Win or lose." Jiang Qihuai tilted his head, "Is there anything special about it?"
"Too much attention," Tao Zhi said, "Our old Tao is a little princess, if you lose to him, he won't feel happy, he will only think that you are a bad person and not worthy to compete with him on the same stage."
Jiang Qihuai humbly asked for advice: "Win?"
Tao Zhi: "If he wins, he will feel humiliated, unhappy, and even more unhappy."
Jiang Qihuai raised his eyebrows: "That's quite difficult to serve."
"It's much more difficult to serve than me," Tao Zhi sighed, and said in a leisurely tone, "So, you have to please me and make me happy. Say something, say something nice about yourself."
Jiang Qihuai nodded, the car was about to drive to her house, when he reached the next intersection, he suddenly turned on the turn signal and drove away from the original road on the other road.
Tao Zhi looked at her neighborhood getting farther and farther away from her, and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
"Go back to my house." Jiang Qihuai said.
Tao Zhi: "?"
"To please you."
"..."
Jiang Qihuai turned and drove away from another road, but he didn't really take her home.
The route he took changed from familiar to unfamiliar, and from unfamiliar to familiar again. It was not until the car drove past the street in front of the branch campus of the Second Medical University that Tao Zhi began to recognize the road.
After all, she has never been here since she graduated from high school.
The buildings on the side of the road have changed a lot, but they don’t seem to have changed much. Almost all the shops in the market have changed. A copying agency at the corner has become a beef noodle restaurant. The small convenience store at the entrance of the alley is still open, but Changed a brand.
Jiang Qihuai parked the car in the parking space on the side of the road, turned off the engine and got out of the car.
Tao Zhi followed him down, and there was still a familiar small alley in front of her. She looked at the row of code-scanning bicycles parked on the side of the road, and she was a little lost in thought.
Jiang Qihuai turned his head and looked at her: "Let's go?"
Tao Zhi came back to his senses and nodded.
She followed him into the narrow alley. The space was already cramped. There was an old tricycle parked by the wall. There were many cardboard boxes and some old furniture and gadgets piled up on top of it. There was a thick layer of snow, and the dark red paint on the wall was almost peeled off, revealing the dark gray cement inside.
She stepped on the snow, followed him in the dim light of the street lamps and in the silence, walked out of the small alley, walked into the community, and went upstairs.
Then she watched as Jiang Qihuai took out the key and opened the door.
The inside of the house was pitch black, and when Tao Zhi entered, he could smell a little bit of dusty smell from inside.
Jiang Qihuai turned on the light.
The inside was still the same as she remembered it, unchanged at all, with a dining table almost at the door that only one person could pass by, simple and textured old-fashioned wooden furniture, a heavy coffee table, and an old TV with a big butt.
Everything was as clean as she expected, with no dust at all. There were several pots of green plants in front of the balcony of the living room, some of which climbed up the curtain rods and the heating pipes in the corners, growing wildly and lushly. It can be seen that they are well taken care of.
Tao Zhi walked in in a daze, looked at the small bench in front of the sofa where she had written the test paper on, and at the rocking chair quietly placed by the balcony window, all of these were so familiar that she suddenly felt a little sour on the tip of her nose .
She raised her hand in a concealed manner and rubbed her nose: "Didn't the landlord move back into this house?"
"Moved away," Jiang Qihuai walked in and said, "My son graduated and went to the south, and the whole family went with him. Before leaving, we sold the house."
"Then, did you buy it?" Tao Zhi asked.
"Um."
The house is old and cannot be demolished, and the location is not very good, even if it is rented out, the rent is very cheap.
Jiang Qihuai knew someone well, and the landlord was very straightforward when he sold, and even the price he gave him was lower than the market price.
Jiang Qihuai started following projects in college, followed his mentor to do projects after going to the United States, entered the stock market, and stayed on Wall Street for a year, all because he wanted to make money.
He wants to earn the most money as quickly as possible, he can't come back poor and empty after such a long time, and expect Tao Zhi to follow him with nothing.
In the process, he unexpectedly discovered that he was actually very suitable for this line of work.
Jiang Qinghe wanted him to be a doctor, so he pinned his expectations on Jiang Zhi on Jiang Qihuai. Later, because of Tao Zhi's mother, Jiang Qihuai also thought about taking medical examinations.
But also because of Jiang Zhi's criminal record, no matter how hard he tried in his life, he couldn't enter the hospital and get a formal salary.
So when he sees Tao Zhi and Jiang Hesheng together, he has a very faint, subtle, but distinct concern like a thorn.
Tao Zhi brushed the corner of the dining table with his fingertips and walked all the way forward, crossed the living room, walked to the door of the first bedroom, and opened the door to enter.
As if time traveled back to high school in an instant, the teenager's room was clean and simple, with not many things, a desk, a bed, a wardrobe and a small bookshelf were all there was.
She obviously didn't come here very often, but she felt that this small room, which seemed so crowded that she couldn't walk a few steps, involved all the connections between her and him from beginning to end.
The first time I understood my mind, when I wanted to get close to him but couldn't help but shrink back, on a snowy New Year's Eve night, I left without saying goodbye.
There was a blank wall in front of his desk, which was covered with photos, and there was even a little trace of glue on it, but now it was clean, leaving only the middle one.
Tao Zhi walked over and looked down.
In the photo, she is still wearing the ugly sports school uniform from Experiment 1, her long hair is tied into a neat ponytail, and a distressed expression is fixed on her immature face. She is burying her head and holding a pen, doing the paper.
Tao Zhi didn't even know when the photo was taken.
She subconsciously looked for the handwriting in the corner of the photo, but found that there was nothing written on the photo.
She stood there in a daze, when suddenly someone opened his arms and hugged her from behind.
Jiang Qihuai lowered his eyes, and his eyes fell on the girl in that photo, his voice was calm and clear in the quiet room: "I still can't afford to buy a big house for Zhizhi, but at least, I want to make this place stay."
There are traces of the two most important people in his life.
Here was where he could approach her.
On that evening many years ago, when I saw her sitting in front of the coffee table with a small stool, holding up the test paper and looking up at him with a smile, in the warm and bright room filled with the aroma of food, she and Jiang Qinghe While sitting by the window playing chess, Jiang Qihuai felt for the first time that he could have a home.
He is no longer the kid who squatted in the orphanage when he was four years old. He ate alone and grew up alone. He occasionally envied the ants under the tree who could return home.
Jiang Qihuai hugged her and said slowly, "This place is very important to me."
Tao Zhi's eyes suddenly turned red.
She lowered her eyes hastily and whispered, "Who wants you to buy a big house?"
Jiang Qihuai laughed softly: "The princess wants to live in the palace."
Tao Zhi turned around, looked up at him, and said slowly, "That's not the case for everyone, Rapunzel only lives in the tower."
She raised her arms around his neck, tiptoed slightly, kissed his chin, then kissed his lips, and said softly and vaguely: "Your Highness's princess is also willing to live in a small house."