This year is probably the most special one that Lin Yao has ever had in his memory.
When standing in the square to set off fireworks, he could stand beside Guan Ze calmly, without worrying about his parents, and no longer having to suppress his emotions. He looked at Guan Ze who was standing not far from him, and his heart was so full of happiness that he almost had no place to contain it.
"Son," his mother walked over to him and hugged his arm, "are you happy?"
"Well, how can I not be happy?" Lin Yao laughed, twisting his neck and tapping his forehead lightly on his mother's head, "Mom, thank you... I can't say this to my dad, tell him for me."
"In fact, we don't need you to thank us. We didn't want to do it before because we were afraid that you would suffer in the future. Your family protects you too well," Mom sighed, "but there is no way to make up for this. As long as you are happy, Guan Ze is a good person. As long as you two are fine, we have nothing to say."
"He's really good to me. He's the kind of person who will give you ten points without saying anything if you give him one point," Lin Yao looked at Guan Ze who was playing with Lin Zong and a bunch of little kids. "I don't feel it at ordinary times, but when I feel it occasionally, I feel it's special... Mom, do you understand what I mean?"
"I understand," Mom nodded, and turned back to look for Dad, "Oh, I want to go with your dad to put some flowers. This guy will only be free to play with me during the Chinese New Year."
"Lin Yao, come here!" Guan Ze called him.
“Brother, come here!” Lu Teng leaned against Guan Ze’s legs and waved at him. He waved twice as if he remembered something and called out again, “Uncle!”
"Hey, here I come," Lin Yao almost cried when he heard the word uncle. It was so difficult. He ran over and asked, "What's going on?"
"Put these big ones away." Guan Ze pointed to several large boxes nearby.
"Why are you in such a hurry? Isn't this the finale?" Lin Yao took a look and saw that the box was filled with large tubes lined up side by side. The greatest joy of setting off fireworks in the square is to see all kinds of different fireworks, yours is big, mine is even bigger. In the past, every time after setting off the fireworks, Lin Yao would not leave immediately. He would have to stay in the cold wind and watch for another half an hour before he was willing to go back.
"Kid, who's waiting for you to see the finale?" Lin Zong opened the box and together with Guan Ze, he took out a large one and put it on the ground. "I couldn't wait when I knew it was there. I had to see it now."
Lin Yao looked at these things. Although they were not the small cannons that were set off on the top of the mountain that day, he was still a little worried. He approached Guan Ze and asked in a low voice: "Hero, this thing will not pop out any banners or words, right?"
"Yes," Guan Ze turned his head and looked at him with a serious face, "Why, no?"
"Wait a minute," Lin Yao was startled and grabbed his arm, "What's that?"
"Lin Yao is a good daughter-in-law." Guan Ze said calmly.
"Fuck Guan Ze, are you sick?" Lin Yao lowered his voice and roared, "Are you going to let this out for everyone in the square to see?"
Guan Ze didn't say anything, just kept looking at him, then curled his lips: "Yes."
"You..." Lin Yao felt that his forehead was about to sweat, and he couldn't help but wipe it twice with his hands. After wiping, he suddenly raised his hand and stopped, and glanced at Guan Ze with a squint, "You uncle, are you lying to me again?"
"You're so easy to fool. Who else should I fool if not you? I won't feel any sense of accomplishment if I fool you." Guan Ze smiled and turned around to help Lin Zong arrange the fireworks on the ground. A group of little guys beside him kept shouting excitedly.
"Fuck, just wait," Lin Yao pointed at Guan Ze's back, "I will get him back sooner or later!"
When sparks of various colors exploded in the sky, Lin Yao raised his head and squinted his eyes to admire them. After admiring a few of them, he secretly looked around. A large group of people in the family were looking up at the sky. He quickly pulled Guan Ze's clothes and said, "Wife, come and kiss me."
"Who is your wife?" Guan Ze looked up at the sky and asked.
"I'm done," Lin Yao gritted his teeth, "Hubby, come on, give me a fucking kiss while no one's paying attention. It's so hard to find this opportunity, it's so worth remembering..."
Guan Ze turned his face and kissed him on the lips.
Lin Yao swayed and tugged at Guan Ze's sleeve before he could stand firm. There were sparks in the sky and people were smiling around him. Such a kiss made Lin Yao more satisfied than ever before. He just wanted to yell a few times at the square to feel refreshed.
Just when he wanted to hurry up and probe Guan Ze's mouth again, Lin Zong, who had been standing in front of them, suddenly turned around and stretched out his hand to Guan Ze: "Did I let you go with my lighter just now...Fuck."
Lin Yao felt that all the embarrassment in his body was concentrated, and he was about to rip his crown off. He slapped Guan Ze on the chest, knocking Guan Ze back several steps. He took out his lighter and faced Lin Zong's back, making his voice sound as calm as possible: "You want a lighter?"
"No, I'll just hold it in for a while." Lin Zong didn't look back.
"Take it!" Lin Yao raised his voice, and it sounded a bit like a roar because he didn't control it well.
Lin Zong turned his head and looked at him. After a long while, he reached out to take the lighter: "What are you going to do with beating me up?"
"No," Lin Yao also took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, "I was just scared."
"How dare you be so bold as to act romantic in front of a crowd of people," Lin Zong threw the lighter to him and glanced at Guan Ze, who was talking to Lu Teng with a smile. He sighed, "What a gap."
Lin Yao walked up to Lin Zong. He had been too busy before the New Year and had not had a chance to talk to Lin Zong alone.
"Brother, I want to ask you something." Lin Yao squatted down and pulled Lin Zong's clothes.
"Ask." Lin Zong also squatted down.
"You and Ye Xiaoling," Lin Yao thought for a moment and turned to look at him, "Is it true?"
"What's true or false?" Lin Zong slowly exhaled a puff of smoke.
"About marriage." Lin Yao bit his lip. This was something that had been on his mind for a long time. In his memory, Lin Zong was a man with his own ideas, who was steady in what he said and did. But he suddenly said he wanted to get married, and to a girl who had always liked him but had not been in contact with him for a long time. This made Lin Yao a little confused.
"Why are you worrying about this?" Lin Zong smiled and hugged Lin Yao's shoulders. "Mom hasn't even asked about it."
"There's definitely something wrong when you say that," Lin Yao nudged him with his elbow, "If you really mean it because of me, now that the matter is resolved, would you mind thinking about it seriously? I can't accept my brother doing this for me."
"Well, this is what happened," Lin Zong smiled and blew out a not-so-round smoke ring, "I want to get married, and as for the candidate, after thinking for a long time, I decided on Ye Xiaoling. I have a feeling for her. You know I couldn't settle down at first, so I just kept hanging with her. But if I really want to get married, I have to deal with her well..."
"Then tell mom that you're getting married after the New Year? You only have so much time to date!" Lin Yao was a little anxious. In fact, he didn't have much impression of Ye Xiaoling. She seemed like a pretty and quiet girl.
"I was afraid that you would make a big deal out of it, so I gave you some comfort," Lin Zong was happy. "I really didn't love you in vain, and you're still helping me figure this out."
"Anyway, just be careful."
"Don't worry, your brother has never done anything wrong to himself." Lin Zong patted him on the shoulder and stood up, jumping twice on the spot. "I'm freezing to death. I have to run a few laps later."
Guan Ze had hardly ever felt the particularly strong atmosphere during the Chinese New Year, not to mention when he was a child. During the years when he stayed in the store with Uncle Ning, the store was extremely busy during the Chinese New Year. In addition, there were only three people in Uncle Ning's family, including him. During the Chinese New Year, they just ate frozen dumplings, watched the evening party, and went to bed on time. As for the years he had been living alone, he had no concept of the Chinese New Year, which was no different from an ordinary day.
It is said that people miss home and long for reunion during the Chinese New Year, but he has never had this feeling. Apart from calling Uncle Ning, he has no one to miss on such days.
But after this, he will definitely feel like he misses someone and his home.
Parents, brothers, lovers.
Guan Ze had been sitting on the sofa watching the lively family in front of him. He almost missed this kind of happiness. Lin Yao always said "fortunately", and he also thought so. Fortunately, fortunately, fortunately...
"What are you thinking about?" Lin Yao fell on the sofa beside him, holding his stomach, "Ah, I'm too full."
"I'm not thinking about anything. I'm just enjoying myself." Guan Ze smiled.
"I'm telling you, my dad just said that several of his projects won't start until April, and now it's freezing and he can't do the work," Lin Yao looked at him with an unconcealed smile in his eyes, "He won't be running out often recently..."
"When are you moving there?" Guan Ze interrupted him with a smile and asked directly.
"Can you let me finish my words?"
"Then tell me."
"He doesn't go out often recently. He spends a lot of time at home with my mom. My mom said she was worried that we would be uncomfortable, so she asked me to move in with you," Lin Yao rubbed his nose, "but we have to go home every week to be with him."
Guan Ze waited for a while, and when he saw that he didn't continue talking, he asked again: "When are you moving there?"
"Before work, I'm afraid there will be too much trouble once I get to work." Lin Yao said happily.
"good."
"I want to use the cabinet on the left," Lin Yao pointed to the cabinet on the right that Guan Ze had vacated for him, "I'm used to it. I have obsessive-compulsive disorder."
"Okay." Guan Ze nodded and took out his clothes one by one from the cabinet on the left and put them on the right.
"My toothbrush and other things should be placed on the left side. Also," Lin Yao pointed at the bed, "I have to sleep on the left side."
"Don't you usually sleep alone? And you distinguish between left and right?" Guan Ze narrowed his eyes.
"Aren't we two now? I like to hug the quilt sideways to my right," Lin Yao gestured, "It's just right to turn over so I can hug you."
"Okay, you sleep on the left side."
"So good." Lin Yao took his clothes out of the box and hung them in the closet with great satisfaction.
When hanging the clothes, Lin Yao moved very slowly. He was enjoying the process of infiltrating his own traces into Guan Ze's life. He had imagined such a scene many times before, him and the person he liked, in their own space, feeling relaxed and comfortable.
"Do you know what I'm thinking now?" Lin Yao held the cabinet door and turned to look at Guan Ze.
"I don't know." Guan Ze leaned against the door and folded his arms, looking at him. "You're always thinking about random things. Who knows what you're thinking?"
"You've learned your lesson. You don't try to see through the fool anymore?" Lin Yao closed the cabinet door with satisfaction.
"Tell me about it." Guan Ze handed him a piece of chocolate.
"I just feel extremely satisfied, just like lying on the roof in the sun in the middle of winter, feeling so satisfied that my whole body is fluffy and beads of sweat appear on the tip of my nose," Lin Yao looked at the sunlight outside the window. "When I was with you before, no matter how good you were to me, I always felt like I was dreaming and worried about being woken up suddenly. Now it's different, I'm very..."
Lin Yao patted his chest and said, "I feel solid and full."
Guan Ze didn't say anything. He stretched out his hands and hugged him tightly, patting him on the back a few times: "Let's go and bask in the sun."
"Where are we going? The park?" Lin Yao didn't move. His chin rested on Guan Ze's shoulder and his whole body leaned against Guan Ze. If he hooked his arm around Guan Ze's neck, he could just drag him away.
"Find a roof and lie down on it."
Lin Yao did not ask much. Guan Ze knew a lot of strange places. Although these were places he found to kill time because he was too bored alone, and it sounded quite depressing, once the two of them went to these places together, the melancholy would be swept away immediately.
Guan Ze's car was heading out of the city. After more than an hour, Lin Yao began to see large tracts of farmland covered with snow around him. The white snow was shining brightly in the sun.
"Don't you plan to drive to the top of that mountain to bask in the sun now? That would take a long time," Lin Yao said, looking at the countryside around him. "We have to go to work the day after tomorrow."
"Can you tell the direction?" Guan Ze was a little helpless.
"Isn't it this way?" Lin Yao looked out the car window. "Last time I was too excited to elope and was worried that my brother would catch me cheating, so I didn't look carefully."
"One is east and the other is west. You must be very careless to not be able to tell the difference between the two directions," Guan Ze sighed, "Do you know the way from the company to our community?"
"Turn right at the intersection before my house. I won't make the mistake even with my eyes closed." Lin Yao sniffed, "I can find you by just smelling your scent."
"Then I'm really pretty," Guan Ze lowered his head and sniffed himself, "It's hard for you."
Lin Yao leaned back in the car seat, closed his eyes and smiled for a long time before he said, "You can be quite silly sometimes."
"infect."
"roll."
Guan Ze's car stopped at the entrance of a small village, and Lin Yao followed him out of the car.
In the past, Lin Yao thought that the most beautiful scenery in the countryside was autumn. Everywhere you looked was golden, like a thick blanket that made people want to jump on it and roll around.
Now he saw the whole world covered in white, as if everything had disappeared from his sight, leaving only the two of them. The beauty was also so great that it made him shiver. Of course, it might also be because he was cold.
Guan Ze was very familiar with the place. He led Lin Yao along the road into the village. After taking a few small paths, they arrived at a three-story building at the southern edge of the village.
The courtyard door was not locked, so he pushed it open and asked, "Where is the person? Uncle Chen?"
The door inside opened, and an old man poked his head out to take a look: "Hey, isn't this Mr. Guan? Happy New Year! Come and eat chicken?"
"Happy New Year, Uncle Chen. Please help me prepare first, and then lend me the drying area on your rooftop." Guan Ze smiled and pointed to the rooftop.
"Come on, come in," Grandpa Chen waved, "Do you want to take pictures? Many people have come here to take pictures these past two days. You can just go upstairs. I just cleaned up there yesterday. It's very clean."
Lin Yao and Guan Ze followed the stairs up to the platform on the third floor. The platform was quite spacious and had no guardrails. Because it was on the edge of the village, the view was very good and they could see very far ahead, and it was all white.
"Do you still come here often?" Lin Yao walked around the edge of the platform, "Eat chicken?"
"Well, the chickens raised by the villagers themselves are delicious," Guan Ze smiled, tilting his face up to face the sun, "How about basking in the sun here?"
"Let me try." Lin Yao sat on the ground, then lay down and closed his eyes.
The wind was actually quite strong. If he hadn't been wearing thick clothes, he would have definitely felt cold. But the midday sun was also very strong, shining all over him. It didn't take long for him to feel the warmth. He turned over and lay on the platform: "Turn over and get some sun."
Guan Ze lay down beside him and put his arms around his waist: "How do you feel?"
"Comfortable," Lin Yao smiled. It was definitely not warm. It was hard to sweat on the tip of his nose. The wind was blowing hard. If there were beads of sweat, they would have to dry up. But he still felt warm from the inside out. His whole body felt like it was rubbing against a long-haired blanket. "If I say I like the feeling of floating in the sea in the future, will you take me to the beach right away?"
"It's so beautiful," Guan Ze was happy, "It's close here. If you want to soak in the sea, I can probably get you a bathtub of water and buy you a dozen bags of salt..."
"Okay, I want to float in the sea."
"Then let's go buy some salt when we get back."
"Shall we go together?"
"Together."
"Will we be together from now on?"
"Everything at once."
"Does it include pooping?"
"If you can poop, I will definitely share the toilet with you."
…