It was rare for Ning Lan to sleep peacefully.
He is used to light sleep, and it is his daily routine to wake up countless times a night. This time, when I opened my eyes, the light coming in through the cracks in the curtains was actually white.
Its daybreak.
His head was still stunned, and he blinked his eyes a few times before he was sure he was right.
Suddenly a voice sounded in my ear: "Awake?"
Ning Lan turned her head and faced the face beside the bed, stunned on the spot.
Sui Yi raised his hand to touch his hair, his warm fingertips brushed his forehead, and Ning Lan shrank his neck reflexively.
He and he also had such a time together, but it was too little and too little, so little that he occasionally recalled it and thought he was dreaming again.
"It's me, don't be afraid." Sui Yi raised the corner of his mouth, revealing a reassuring smile.
Ning Lan opened her mouth slightly, and the memories of last night flooded into her mind like a flood pouring out of the gate.
"I'm here, I'm not going, I'm not going, don't be afraid... don't cry."
The voice was still in his ears, reminding him along with the sour eyes that he cried yesterday, in front of Sui Yi.
Ning Lan closed her eyes in frustration and helplessness.
Everything was messed up by him.
When Granny Zhang came in with the food, Ning Lan was sitting on the bed, staring at the sunflowers on the blanket in a daze.
Sui Yi went to pick up the things in her mother-in-law's hand, but she avoided it as if she was protecting food: "This is for Ningning, not yours."
Sui Yi took back his hand angrily. Of course he knew that he didn't have his share, he just wanted to feed Ning Lan.
The mother-in-law picked up the porridge bowl and scooped a spoon to Ning Lan's mouth. Ning Lan was embarrassed to let the old man serve her. She moved to the bed and wanted to eat by herself. into two pieces.
Sui Yi quickly picked up the broken spoon and went to the kitchen to get a new one.
The mother-in-law recited "Peace from the Shattered" twice, and squeezed Ning Lan's trembling right hand in the palm of her hand.
Ning Lan's knuckles were struggling to move, and they were as sluggish as a newly attached prosthetic limb, which showed that the "all night" my mother-in-law said was not an exaggeration at all.
He had to accept the fact that apart from his eyes and hands, his head also started to ache, and he wished to go back to sleep again, treating all this as a dream that had nothing to do with reality.
Sui Yi took a new spoon and handed it to him, Ning Lan took it with lowered eyes, and ate it behind his back under his burning gaze. Halfway through eating, he suddenly remembered something and asked his mother-in-law, "Where's Brother Lu?"
The mother-in-law said, "He left last night, so please wake up and call him."
Ning Lan put down the bowl after eating, took out two bottles of medicine from the drawer, swallowed two pills each with plain water, and then took out an old-fashioned phone the size of half a palm from under the pillow and dialed Lu Hao's number.
"Hey, Brother Lu... I'm fine, it's fine... I've eaten, um, after dinner... Yesterday I agreed to invite you to dinner, but I fell asleep... Are you free tonight?... Then I'm done. Send it over... It doesn't matter, I'm fine at home anyway... Well, okay, see you at noon."
After his mother-in-law had cleaned up the dishes, when he hung up the phone, she smiled and said, "Going to deliver food to Da Lu? It's almost eight o'clock, hurry up."
Ning Lan sat up from the bed, opened the closet, took clean clothes and trousers, passed by Sui Yi, and said, "Thank you yesterday, if you don't mind, stay for a meal."
Sui Yi didn't close his eyes all night, and described as exhausted. After listening to Ning Lan's words, his gloomy and gloomy face became a little brighter.
The vegetables were bought from the supermarket yesterday. The wax gourd was cut into thick slices, and the ribs were cooked in the pot and then boiled in the pot; the head and tail of the cucumber were removed, sliced into thin slices, and fried with eggs; A dish is done.
Both stoves were on fire, Ning Lan added a spoonful of flour and a spoonful of water to the small soup pot at the edge, stirring quickly with chopsticks. After stirring, the fish is also steamed, remove the steaming pot with fragrance, put the soup pot on the stove, turn to low heat and cook until bubbling, and finally turn off the heat and let it cool.
Sui Yi went to the bathroom and simply washed his face and mouth, then stood by the kitchen, trying to get a hand and never finding a chance.
Ning Lan put the pot in the freezer and planned to use the watermelon she bought yesterday as a spare. Yesterday, Lu Hao probably couldn't find a suitable place to put the watermelon on the top shelf of the shelf. Ning Lan had a hard time standing on tiptoe, Sui Yi went up to help, took half of Ning Lan's body in his arms, and raised his hand to put the watermelon Push it out, take it in his hand, and hand it to Ning Lan.
Ning Lan took two steps back holding the watermelon and said dryly, "Thank you."
Just after ten o'clock, the Zhangjia Canteen set up the table early for lunch.
After Ning Lan took two bites, she put down her chopsticks, split the watermelon on the chopping board, and dug it into the transparent lunch box with a round spoon and sealed it. The other lunch box with only one compartment is filled with white rice, scrambled eggs with cucumber, and pork ribs in order from bottom to top. Finally, a sausage cooked with the rice is taken out from the rice cooker, cut into slices and placed on the rice. Two lunch boxes Pack separately in foam bags.
There was no sausage on the table, only fish that Sui Yi didn't like to eat. The sausage was obviously prepared for Lu Hao alone.
Sui Yi was stuck in his throat, and his mother-in-law was still humming and rolling her eyes at him. Even if Ning Lan made the meal, she couldn't taste it.
He hurriedly finished the white rice in the bowl and stood up to go out with Ning Lan.
"What are you doing?" the mother-in-law shouted loudly.
"Send him."
Sui Yi rushed out the door, took out the car key from his pocket, and got into the car and started it in one go.
The rain stopped in the middle of the night yesterday, and as soon as the sun came out, the water on the ground quickly evaporated.
Sui Yi followed the road unhurriedly, Ning Lan would rather be exposed to the sun than take his car, and walked to the bus stop to stand. Sui Yi found an open space to park the car and waited for the bus with him.
The frequency of the intercity bus was low, and it took a while for the bus to arrive. Ning Lan swiped the card to get on the bus, Sui Yi followed behind, took out a hundred yuan from his pocket, and the driver waved at him impatiently: "I can't find it, I can't find it. open."
Ning Lan had already sat down, but she stood up and walked to the door to swipe the card for Sui Yi.
When he returned to his seat, the aunt next to him who also got on the bus from Quanxi Station asked him, "This is your friend, Ningning?"
As soon as Sui Yi got into the car, the driver hurriedly pulled on the handbrake and started off. He was almost knocked over and almost lost his footing. He supported Ning Lan's seat back and just sat down in the back row when he heard Ning Lan say to the aunt next to him, "I used to colleague."
"Former colleague" Sui Yi stabilized his mind, followed Ning Lan to get off the bus in the city, and then went to transfer to the subway with him.
It took some time to go to the service desk to exchange small notes and buy a one-way ticket. The door was about to close when I got off the subway. Sui Yi stepped in with long legs and stood shoulder to shoulder with Ning Lan.
The line was full from morning to night, but fortunately, the passengers in the car were all looking down at their mobile phones, and no one paid attention to a certain star standing out next to the old, weak, sick and disabled seats.
After getting off the subway, Sui Yi still followed step by step, turning to the boulevard leading to the hospital, Ning Lan finally couldn't help it and turned around and said, "Why are you following me?"
Sui Yi stood still and couldn't find a suitable answer for a while.
Ning Lan didn't expect to wait for his response, and said, "I've taken the medicine and I won't get sick. You don't have to follow me."
When Sui Yi heard the word "illness", his eyes froze, and even his footsteps slowed down. He watched Ning Lan get on the elevator and waited for him by the flower bed on the first floor.
Wait until half afternoon.
Several times I went to the doctor surnamed Lu, and the answer I got from the nurse was "Dr. Lu is operating." Sui Yi ran upstairs and downstairs several times and couldn't find Ning Lan. She called Aunt Jiang's house. Aunt Jiang went to the canteen to investigate, and came back and told him, "Ning Ning has come back and just arrived home!"
While Sui Yi breathed a sigh of relief, there was also a sense of helplessness.
He waited at the door of the consultation room until Lu Hao came back from the operation.
Lu Hao didn't seem surprised to see him, and invited him into the office, took out the two empty lunch boxes to wash them, and sat down to talk with him.
Sui Yi preempted: "What's wrong with Lan Lan?"
Lu Hao raised his eyebrows and looked at him: "I should ask you, what did you do to him to make him like this?"
Although Ning Lan's mental state has not been very good, the only symptomatic symptoms are insomnia and memory loss. He has never been emotionally out of control like last night. He couldn't listen to anything, and it was almost hysterical. Sui Yi refused to let go, crying and begging him not to leave.
The psychiatrist was right, Ning Lan's cheerfulness was all disguised. His strength comes from the heart, and it also begins to fester and collapse from the inside. If it wasn't like that yesterday, maybe by this time next year, he still won't be able to see the crux of Ning Lan's problems.
"Before, I treated him badly." Sui Yi said in a low voice, with shame in his eyes, but also with unbearable difficulty, "I didn't know he was sick, if I knew..."
If you know? Will Ning Lan not leave
No, it will still go. Because he never trusted him, never tried to understand him, never even let go of his attitude as a controller and talked to him.
If it wasn't for yesterday's incident, they might have gone wrong again, like in the past, one of them was wrong, the other was hesitant, and they missed so many good times.
"It's all my fault, it's all my fault." Sui Yi repeated what he said yesterday when he was holding Ning Lan, raised his head and asked Lu Hao, "How can his illness be cured? What medicine should I take? Which hospital should I go to? OK? What can I… do?"
As long as Ning Lan is well, he is willing to do anything.
Lu Hao's face was solemn, and he remained silent.
Just when Sui Yi thought the situation was serious and his mind was filled with unease, Lu Hao finally said, "Don't do anything." He took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind, "Just stay by his side. it is good."
Lu Hao considers himself to be a person with pride in his bones. If he had met earlier, he might not have withdrawn so cowardly.
However, good luck makes people, he wants to be a safe haven for Ning Lan, but what Ning Lan needs is the fledgling arm of the young man in front of him.
At night when the commissary closed, the last customer was still in the store drinking coffee.
Ning Lan wiped the counter carefully, and when the rag was thrown on the small table, Sui Yi picked up the coffee cup and moved it inside, not wanting to leave at all.
After wiping the table, Ning Lan shouted to the back room, "Mother-in-law, it's time to eat."
There are only two people in the family, one old and one small. In summer, meals are often served on the folding table in the store, blowing the evening breeze and eating jelly, which can be said to be the most relaxed and happy time of the day.
This happiness naturally does not include Sui Yi's share. He was blasted out by his mother-in-law with a dustpan, and was almost covered in garbage.
"Ning Ning wants to repay your favor at noon, and you can't go away. Hurry up and get out of here."
Mother-in-law Zhang only protects her own children, and is a typical example of "disposal after use" to outsiders. Sui Yi didn't move, she put the garbage bag at his feet and said in disgust, "Roll with the garbage."
In the room, Ning Lan finished her meal and changed her phone to post a video of making jelly.
There was no WiFi at home, so he walked from the house to the store with his mobile phone in hand, looking for signals in every corner. On transmission to 95%, kick something under the shelf.
When I took it out, it was a piano case. His mind was far from what it used to be, but he still remembered what the piano case looked like.
He looked up and looked out the window, the man was still there.
After thinking about it, Ning Lan felt that this might be a conspiracy, and decided to get up tomorrow morning and throw it directly at the door.
As a result, I baked cakes on the bed for half the night. I turned on the electric fan because it was too noisy, and when I turned it off, I was sweating. I was so irritable that I couldn't sleep.
Ning Lan simply got up, ready to throw the piano box out in the dead of night.
The backyard door was facing a dead end. He didn't dare to go there. He tiptoed across the front yard to the store, twisted the door lock and pushed it out. Strangely, he couldn't push it.
He thought that the iron door was rusted by the rain again, so he used some strength to push it with his knees, and the strange resistance suddenly disappeared, in exchange for an even more strange muffled sound.
Ning Lan was a little frightened, so she stuck out half of her face and saw Sui Yi sitting on the ground with one long leg supported, covering her head and staring at him blankly.
"What are you doing here?" Ning Lan blurted out.
"To accompany you." Sui Yi put down the hand holding his forehead, bent his other leg, stood up with a vigorous kick, and added a little embarrassedly, "I fell asleep."
Ning Lan knew that he hadn't slept all night last night, so he couldn't understand his purpose.
"I lost my temper yesterday, I'm sorry." Ning Lan walked out and handed the piano case to Sui Yi, "I won't hold you anymore, just go."
Sui Yi reached out to pick up the piano case, and held Ning Lan's hand by the way.
Ning Lan trembled all over, as if she was getting an electric shock, she was about to pull her hand back. Sui Yi's left hand has been pressing the strings all the year round, and the fingers are long and strong, and it is very easy to wrap Ning Lan's hand.
"It's not that you hold me and won't let go," he said, "it's that I don't want to let go."
His life was supposed to follow the rules, even if he entered the mixed entertainment industry, he did not forget his original intention, and he was down-to-earth, one step at a time.
To him, Ning Lan was a deviant existence. They were so different. He was surrounded by the whole world since he was a child, while Ning Lan ran desperately after the world.
Perhaps it is precisely because of the difference that the attraction is as earth-shattering as the bow of a ship hits an iceberg. When he regained his senses and wanted to turn the rudder to turn the course, it was too late.
He has resisted, struggled, touched involuntarily, and hurt insincerely.
In the end, Ning Lan's hand slowly loosened the hem of his clothes, but tightly gripped his heart.
The pain that still exists to this day always reminds him that the rest of the world is insignificant, only Ning Lan's hand, he will never let go again in this life.