It was completely dark.
There was a small gap in the window, and because of the suction of the night wind, the curtains were attached to the wall, and the outline of the window could be discerned through the fabric. And the moonlight, or the light from the street lamps, shone in through that layer of cloth.
She rested on his arm, looked up at him, saw the curvature of the chin, and the Adam's apple that belonged to a man. Suddenly I thought of the box of razor blades in the bathroom, the trajectory of the sharp, paper-thin silver blade, and his unshaven and decadent appearance.
On his birthday, he sneaked to Washington by himself and waited in the ball room. When Lin Yiyang arrived, he got out of the elevator completely unkempt, looking like he hadn't shaved after being busy for half a month. At that time, everyone was booing and asking Lin Yiyang to kiss her, otherwise he couldn't show the joy of his sweetheart falling from the sky, and he punished all the booing.
He was not a particularly revealing person, and amidst the laughter in the room, the two of them didn't even hug each other, but she could tell that he was very happy.
…
"Lin Lin and I chatted once during the training camp." She thought of one thing.
Knowing the relationship between Lin Yiyang and Yin Guo, Lin Lin was afraid that the two of them lacked experience and believed too much in external measures. If they were recruited, they would affect the World Championships. They talked to her in private, and even showed up to say that they had been recruited because of this. At that time, Yin Guo ignited raging gossip flames as soon as she heard it, but one was Lin Yiyang's younger brother, and the other was her brother, and it was awkward to gossip with the client... so I had to keep it in my heart as a secret.
Regarding Lin Lin's privacy, Yin Guo didn't want to go into details with Lin Yiyang, so he turned the corner and asked, "Has she ever liked anyone else? Except my brother?"
Lin Yiyang leaned against the head of the bed, shaking his head: "Probably not."
Although there was no contact in the past, judging from the atmosphere between Lin Lin and Meng Xiaodong that day, based on his understanding of Lin Lin, he should still like Meng Xiaodong. Lin Lin has been doing things since he was a child, so he has forgotten his feelings, and he is absolutely inseparable from time to time.
"You said... My brother has been out of shape for more than a year. Could it be related to relationship problems?"
"No." He knew his old opponent, so he wouldn't be so vulnerable.
"Since he was 19 years old, he has been directly promoted to the Open and has never played in the qualifiers. But because of the European Masters Cup, he fell out of the top 16 and went to the qualifiers. I heard that it was sad for half a month. "
Yin Guo was brought into the industry by Meng Xiaodong. Although because of Meng Xiaodong's personality, the relationship is not close at ordinary times, but he has a very deep relationship. When it comes to Meng Xiaodong's low period, he is very worried.
Last year can only be regarded as a serious shock and ups and downs, and this year it has been declining all the way. It is almost May, and the best result I got was the semi-finals of the just-concluded China Open. break out.
Lin Yiyang stroked her hair: "It will pass."
"My brother is younger than you, so there should be a chance to get up, right? If it really goes downhill, I'm afraid he won't be able to bear it."
Meng Xiaodong has been playing since he was seven years old, and has always been the most dazzling player among his peers. For more than ten years today, all of his life is snooker's 22 balls, clubs, and table...
She couldn't imagine him retiring, she couldn't even think about it.
Lin Yiyang told her objectively: "Athletes are not hardworking and will be rewarded. No matter how good the results are, the future will be the end of the hero. Sooner or later, if you can't bear it, you have to bear it."
Lin Yiyang is someone who has experienced both highs and lows. His words carry weight and are cruel.
Her heart sank.
Seeing her silent for a long time, he realized that he was too serious, and self-criticized for half a minute, thinking that his little girlfriend seemed to be very interested in Lin Lin and Meng Xiaodong's past, so he said, "Lin Lin is here, and will help him."
She didn't expect Lin Yiyang to say this suddenly.
"Lin Lin told your brother in the past that he likes to see him cut people with a face that is prettier than a girl, and make people cry. He still has a straight face and doesn't even smile.' "
He concluded: "If Meng Xiaodong still has her in his heart, he will get up."
Yin Guo became interested: "Tell me more about them."
Lin Yiyang smiled: "No more."
"You always say that you don't know, but you actually know a lot." She just lost her appetite when she was whetted, how could she let him go, "Think again, help me think."
He shook his head: "I'll tell you when I think about it."
There happened to be movement outside.
"Mei An is awake." Lin Yiyang changed the subject.
As if cooperating with him, there was a knock on the door: "Are you awake?"
"Just woke up." He replied.
"When I came back last time, Jiang Yang said there was a ball room nearby? Tell me where it is, I should go to training."
Lin Yiyang replied: "Wait a minute, let's go together."
Chen An'an was awake, and it was not easy for them to stay in bed.
He and Yin Guo made the bed, and when they were getting dressed, they said to her, "As soon as the Nine-Ball World Championship is over, Anmei will retire. This is his last open match."
So fast? Chen An'an was about the same age as him, not yet thirty... But during the training camp, his performance was indeed not outstanding, and he was much worse than the young people.
"I'll be out later, I don't know." He stroked her hair.
"Um."
Lin Yiyang came to the United States this time to accompany Yin Guo and Chen Anan.
That kid is a deadhead, because his grades are not top-notch, so he only cares about the game and the club.
No matter what the game is, domestic or foreign, there will always be only training and hotels in the place, and I don’t want to waste the club’s money. Once the game is over, I will not stay for one more day, and the first batch will return to China. So even though I came here last year, I always went to the hotel and the gymnasium at two o'clock and one line, and I came to this apartment to see Lin Yiyang at most.
Lin Yiyang thought, taking advantage of this last opportunity of the Open, to accompany him around.
The older brother is the host, but the younger brother never dares to refuse.
***
They ate dinner and went to the ballroom to practice.
Coming back after a year, she couldn't help looking at every familiar corner from the moment she walked down the stairs.
This year, Lin Yiyang lived in this apartment, and naturally practiced in this ball room, so the table in the private room that he used to use before was specially replaced with snooker, and he reserved it all year round.
Yin Guo and Chen An'an completed today's training separately on two nine-ball tables in a private room.
Lin Yiyang was on the sidelines doing sparring, leisurely and leisurely, and seemed to be enjoying himself very much. In fact, he still likes this kind of life. He sets up a table for his girlfriend and brother to practice, and he stays with him. Holding an ice bucket of beer, no matter if they are regional champions, national champions, or amateur players, they are all mixed together, those who love to preach, those who love to drink, those who love to drink, and those who love to tell jokes.
On this night, Yin Guo saw the long-lost Lin Yiyang again.
It seems that he was in Flushing that night, wearing a black cotton casual top, trousers, and sneakers, and carrying a public club in an unknown small ball room, acting as an unknown hidden master.
This is the talented man who does not stick to the rules, the man who is equally happy to play ball and play with the world whether it is a game or not, whether he is getting a bonus or not.
"It's nice of him to be like this, he's at ease." Chen An'an was beside Yin Guo, and because of a few bottles of beer, it was rare for him to talk too much, "Lin Yiyang, who no one can control, is himself."
She echoed: "I also had the same impression when I saw him play for the first time, in another Chinese ball room. He was very arrogant that day, and his opponent was a very famous regional champion, so he said to others—come, let me see." Look at your strength."
Up to now, she still remembers the way he was holding a cue stick, bouncing the ball with one hand, and talking to people with his back turned to her.
Chen An'an laughed when he heard that, holding the brown glass bottle, he continued to say with emotion: "He is a very contradictory person. On the one hand, he is extremely free and easy, no matter what he says, he doesn't want it, and on the other hand, he is too affectionate. Hands and feet tied."
But who is not contradictory, people are multi-faceted.
Chen Anan paused for a while, and suddenly said: "I sometimes think, if we hadn't shown up, he would be fine here."
"You don't want him to go back?" She thought that the people in Dongxin City gathered together last year with the same purpose to let Lin Yiyang go back to China.
Chen Anan shook her head.
After a while, he said again: "Jiang Yang wants him to go back, and Jiang Yang wants him to take over the Dongxincheng team."
Want him to pick up Dongxincheng
Yin Guo glanced at the man next to the snooker table in the distance. He was playing snooker with a white-haired old man. The old man was an amateur, and he was not at the same technical level as him, and he liked to ask questions. Lin Yiyang spoke seriously, he was answering questions while having fun.
"He didn't agree?" Yin Guo asked softly.
She guessed that she definitely didn't agree, and if he did, he would tell himself.
"Yes, I didn't agree."
Chen Anan paused for a while, as if he had a lot to say, but because he rarely communicated with women on weekdays, he still talked about the past after much deliberation: "In the past, among us, only he and Jiang Yang were Mr. He My apprentices, others have their own teachers. My teacher left in the second year when I first entered Dongxin City. I was in the first year of junior high school with mediocre qualifications, and other teachers were unwilling to take over... But I don’t want to leave, I want to continue Fight, no one can teach you and you can’t stay.”
Yin Guo guessed, "Did he ask Mr. He to help?"
Chen Anan smiled, shook his head and said: "He told the people in Dongxincheng that he is the champion anyway, and he will teach me. What he said is really crazy, because this incident offended several Dongxincheng His teachers all said that he was arrogant, and Mr. You He dared to say anything and do anything."
But without Lin Yiyang's self-important insistence, Chen An'an would have changed careers long ago, and that would be another life trajectory. Maybe it will be better, maybe not as good as it is now, but it will definitely miss billiards again.
"Dun Frustrate is a person who doesn't like to talk beautiful words. His philosophy of life is that he is really strong when he is strong. He doesn't like to engage in social networking. The people around him dispersed, only to see that he was still there."
Lin Yiyang waved to her and asked her to go out with him to get some air.
Yin Guo put the club on the shelf, walked through the crowd in two or three steps, and followed him up the steps.
The scaffolding outside the gate of the ball room was still there. She took Lin Yiyang's hand and looked up: "What are you doing for renovation? It hasn't been demolished for a year."
He laughs, who knows.
In Lin Yiyang's hand was a pack of cigarettes from the golf room owner. Right now he was in a good mood, leaning against the door frame, looking at the street view outside, knocking on the bottom of the cigarette case, knocked out one, lit it with a lighter, and took a puff.
A faint smoke dispersed in the night, he squinted his eyes, looked at her through the smoke, saw that the smoke had disappeared without a trace, and did not make a sound.
"Drink too much?" Her hand waved in front of his eyes.
This little wine is not bad, but it's too early to drink too much.
"Look at that." He suddenly grabbed Yin Guo's wrist, clasped her arm, hugged her from behind, and pointed his finger with a cigarette in the distance, the next street.
It's an ice cream truck.
She knew that he was going to feed herself again...
"You are nice to people, don't you just feed them delicious food?"
That being said, it's pretty much the same.
My parents left early, and I didn't get in touch with relatives in the first two years. It was because he brought his younger brother himself, and it was difficult to coax him to buy food. It was annoying at first. I have to go to school, go to the ball room, and ride my brother to and from kindergarten. Life is not easy. It is a great happiness to have delicious food.
He got excited, smoked his cigarette in a few puffs, and took out his wallet from his trousers pocket.
As a result, Chen An'an came out and was also given an ice cream, one for each of Yin Guo.
"I'm a big man," Chen An'an, a rough old man, held an ice cream cone, "buy me this..."
He smiled and said to Yin Guo: "When he was young, he took his brother with him every day. There were only three tricks: scaring, beating, and buying food. I guess the third trick is directly for you, and he doesn't know anything else."
Yin Guo was delighted to hear that, "Yes, yes, he is cute and invited people to dinner. That's how he caught me."
"Little junior sister in Beicheng, still lack someone to invite me to dinner?" Chen An'an smiled.
She pursed her lips and smiled. It is not lacking, but it is not as good as him, not as good as a finger.
A man has all his belongings in his arms, and his mind is full of plans to take you to eat here and there, wishing to buy you a glass of antique wine from the year you were born with every last penny. No one can compare to this kind of person.
Lin Yiyang lit another cigarette beside him, and watched the two finish their ice cream as if they were children. Someone in the golf room ordered a few more ice buckets of beer, and asked loudly, "Lin, is it until midnight? You will pay for it?"
Lin Yiyang leaned there, and replied with a smile: "By tomorrow morning, how much will they drink and buy."
Enthusiastic cheers and thanks, Lin Yiyang saw two homeless men on the side of the road also looking at this place, and threw away the half pack of cigarettes in his hand: "Enjoy."
A few consecutive "Amazing" sounds from the tramps made people feel better.
Yin Guo and him are on the left side of the door and the other on the right side of the door. He was smoking and looking at her.
Encircled by his eyes, Yin Guo took two steps towards him, wrapping his arms around his neck. Lin Yiyang looked down at her, there was something fierce in his dark pupils, but it was only in his eyes.
On this street, at the place where he hugged her for the first time, beside the road full of traffic and passers-by, he lowered his head. Because he was afraid that she would think the smell of cigarettes was too strong, he kissed the corner of her mouth, slipped in from the crack of his lips, touched her twice with the tip of his tongue, and left quickly.
Immediately, he laughed and commented in a low voice: "The ice cream is not bad."