A gentle boy, holding a guitar alone, sat there and sang an old song.
His throat was clean and clear. This is a song that is not difficult to sing, Tao Huainan made a few wrong notes, but he didn't care, he sang it very easily.
Chi Cheng kept looking at him, without turning his eyes for a moment.
"At dusk that day, white snow began to fall, sadness bloomed all over the hills, waiting for youth to end..."
The people sitting below looked around, looking for the "you" that the boy on the stage said. Someone had already locked eyes on Chi Cheng, and a few girls turned their heads to look at him.
But Chi Cheng couldn't see anyone, except the boy in the shirt on the stage.
Many pictures flashed before my eyes one by one, like a very, very long movie.
The movie started in that cold winter, which was rare in more than ten years. That winter was so cold that the joints of the bones were as painful as needles.
At that time he was called Chiku.
He froze like a dead dog in the winter night and was carried into the house. There was a boy on the kang, who was blind.
The little blind man had never seen or knew anything, he was as timid as a mouse, and would jump in fright when the ice skate fell on the ground.
That winter, he was brought back home by the Tao brothers. The tall grown man became his brother.
In my memory, it was the first time I came to the city, and it was also the first time I took a car. The little blind man from the Tao family sat next to him, fumbled in his pocket, took out two lollipops and put them in his hand. Blind people can't see, so they don't pass things to people, so they can only use both hands, holding someone's hand with one hand, and stuffing things with the other.
"You tear one up for me, and I'll give you the other."
The little blind man seemed to have gotten a new toy, and when he turned towards him, his big eyes were full of novelty and anticipation. The sweet and greasy smell of the lollipop rushed over with his voice: "Don't be afraid, my brother is fine."
The blind man loved to be close to people, and he had to stay very close when speaking. He retreated uncomfortably and defensively, and the little blind man said again, "No one will beat you in my house from now on."
The smell of sugar mixed with the smell of milk, too close together, mixed with the warmth of the little blind man's body.
Chi Cheng slept on the bed of Tao's house, wearing the clothes of a blind man, surrounded by the greasy milk smell, mixed with his own rural firewood smell, and gradually couldn't distinguish it.
The blind man was raised delicately, with flesh all over his face and body, especially those two legs, which were so fleshy. They slept together when my brother was away, and he was always woken up. I woke up and pushed down, but after a while it was still pressed up. At first he didn't get used to it, but later he got used to it and didn't feel heavy.
Once, two small meaty legs were pressing on his stomach, which made him unable to breathe, so he pushed one of them down.
The little blind man didn't wake up, and was unhappy when he was pushed, turned around with his mouth pouted, arms around, and grumbled. At that time, he didn't like being so close, and he also found him annoying. After pushing but not pushing, he turned over impatiently with a frown, and then fell asleep like that.
When the screen changed, they all turned into elementary school students carrying schoolbags.
During those few years, they were tightly tied together. The little blind man was exaggeratedly timid, afraid to talk to others, afraid to walk by himself. The two little Doudings in an unfamiliar environment, the little blind man had to hold hands with him every day, and his palms were full of sweat. He often had to shake off the blind man's hand, wipe the sweat from his palms on his trousers, and pull it up again.
Blind people are hypocritical and obsessive, and they can cry. Every day, I have to hold hands until before going to bed, and then hold them far away through the bed rails and pillow covers.
Someone in the school first offered to play with the blind man, but the blind man kept walking behind him and said indifferently: "I don't want to play... I'm too late."
"Midnight movie, full of old love, in the dark, singing for the young..."
The soft melody, accompanied by the boy's soothing voice, brings peace and softness to everyone in a small space.
The two puppies picked up by the security guards in the community turned into two ugly dogs in the alternation of spring, summer, autumn and winter, but they were very lively, biting and rubbing together around the security booth in the community every day.
The boy grows up rapidly, and the shadow under the street lamp gets longer and longer.
Tao Huainan, a junior high school student, put his arms around Chi Ku's arm and said he wanted to drink milk tea.
Chi Ku said, "Tomorrow."
"I want to drink right now," Tao Huainan put his face on Chiku's shoulder, and said humbly, "I'm hungry."
"Drinking milk tea can satisfy hunger when you're hungry?" Chi Ku asked.
"Yes, I want to eat the peas inside." Tao Huainan deliberately acted like a baby, with a soft voice.
A couple passing by on the opposite side glanced at Tao Huainan as they passed by. Chi Ku pulled out his arm, held his hand and said, "Level three."
"Why is it level three?" Tao Huainan blinked in surprise and asked at a loss.
Chi Ku said, "Don't put your arms around outside, and don't lean on your shoulders."
"Why?" Tao Huainan still asked.
"No reason, others are not like this." Chi Ku said.
Tao Huainan walked away in silence for a while, then pinched Chi Ku's palm and said in a low voice, "I know."
Chi Ku put his hands in his pockets, and finally took two extra streets to buy a cup of milk tea.
The physical changes that come with growing up can be embarrassing and awkward.
After Chiku's voice changed, Tao Huainan often covered his mouth, thinking his voice was unpleasant.
When he came back from school, he was struggling to explain the topic to Tao Huainan. Tao Huainan suddenly smiled and raised his hand to cover his mouth as he listened.
The child hid aside while laughing: "Shut up! It's too ugly! You're not my little brother!"
Chi Ku took his hand away, stood up and said, "Then learn by yourself."
The annoying man thinks it's ugly, but when he hears that he really stands up and wants to leave, he immediately wraps his arms around Chi Ku: "Brother, why are you going!"
Chi Ku said, "I'm not your little brother."
"You are!" Tao Huainan raised his face, smiling shamelessly, "It's not a little brother, but also a puppy! Bark!"
Chi Ku annoyed him so much that he said, "I'll take a bath."
"Then I'll go too," Tao Huainan threw away the braille cone, stood up and hung it on Chiku's back and went to the bathroom together, "wash together together."
The young man's figure gradually grew longer, and Tao Huainan didn't have any sense of restraint, and when he took a bath, he rubbed the foam against his body.
Chi Ku took two steps back, he followed two steps, smiled and said to Chi Ku, "Slippery."
That night, Chi Ku fell asleep in Tao Huainan's arms, and he didn't let go when he fell asleep. In the dream, Chiku was also taking a bath, and was soaked by Tao Huainan, and later he pressed Tao Huainan against the wall, and Tao Huainan was bitten on the neck by him.
Chicheng woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, he got up together, Tao Huainan half-opened his eyes, grabbed his hand and asked, "What are you doing, little brother?"
Chi Cheng cleared his throat and said, "Toilet."
"Yeah," Tao Huainan closed his eyes again, "Then come back quickly."
"Let's go, boy, to see the red morning glow, take my love song, you sing in the wind..."
A heartless boy also has worries when he grows up. Tao Huainan started to have little secrets in his cell phone. He listened to some messy novels with earphones every day, often with a troubled expression on his face.
Tao Huainan fell asleep with his pillow on Chi Cheng's leg, Chi Cheng took off his earphones, and took out the phone from under his arm to turn it off for him.
The screen lit up, and Chi Cheng glanced at it, frowning. Throwing the phone aside, everything is messed up.
Tao Huainan lay on the bed with his legs crossed, naked.
"You just have something wrong, don't tell me you're burned?" Chi Cheng threw down the burn ointment, "You're still mildly burned, and you don't have to be embarrassed if you burn your bald skin."
"You can say that I..." Tao Huainan pouted, clutching the pillow in his hands and pinching it, humming, "I'm in pain."
"You should." Chi Cheng said.
The boy who had just started to develop, his poor part was burned red, hissing and screaming in pain.
Chi Cheng pinched him, his movements were very light, the cotton swab was stained with ointment, and he applied it carefully.
The burn ointment felt oily and uncomfortable, Tao Huainan said softly, "I still hurt..."
Chi Cheng lowered his head and gave him a blow, and exhaled.
Tao Huainan first smiled, and then moved his legs a few seconds later.
He gradually changed under Chi Cheng's hands, the boy's reaction can't be fooled. Chi Cheng paused, Tao Huainan licked his lips, stretched out his hand to push Chi Cheng's hand away: "Okay, okay."
The cotton swab in Chi Cheng's hand was knocked off by him, Tao Huainan pulled the quilt next to him and covered himself indiscriminately, and his voice was also covered in it: "Okay, wipe it off, turn off the light and turn off the light."
Chi Cheng looked at him, and Tao Huainan put the exposed part of his calf under the quilt. The shy child rarely felt embarrassed.
"The dew hangs on the tip of my hair, and it is full of transparent melancholy. It is the first confusion in my life..."
A pair of brothers who grew up bundled together, a close puppy.
They participate in each other's lives, and all perceptions of the world are hand in hand.
They kissed behind closed doors in small rooms and groped each other in deserted homes. Tao Huainan straddled Chi Cheng's lap and kissed Chi Cheng's mouth all at once.
"Puppy..." Tao Huainan held Chi Cheng's lips in his mouth, mumbled a title that only belonged to them, and said with confused affection in his eyes, "You hug me".
Chi Cheng touched his back: "Why don't you hug him?"
Tao Huainan turned his head to put his earlobe in his mouth, and said softly, "I will always love you."
Chi Cheng smiled and said, "You just need to be less angry."
"I haven't been mad at you for a long time," Tao Huainan asked as if asking for credit, "Am I good?"
"Good boy." Panting, Chi Cheng kissed him.
A good boy is more ruthless than others.
Chi Cheng stood in the room, leaning against the wall. Seeing Tao Huainan took out a paper cutter from under the mattress, gently rolled up his sleeves, his arms were covered with deep and shallow knife marks.
Chi Cheng even forgot to breathe, watching Tao Huainan slash with his own eyes.
Tao Huainan cut Chi Cheng's soul with a knife, and Chi Cheng didn't even say a word for a few minutes.
"When the years and beauty have become sighs in the wind and dust, there are old tears in your sentimental eyes..."
Chi Cheng connected his phone to the charger, and his roommates were scrambling for tickets in the dormitory, mobilizing the whole dormitory to help him grab it.
"Brother Hey Chi, are you going home for the Chinese New Year? Help me grab it today and help you grab it tomorrow." The roommate said.
"No need," Chi Cheng opened the book and said calmly, "I'm not going home."
"Aren't you coming back during the Chinese New Year?" The roommate asked in surprise.
Chi Cheng only said "um".
My brother has been to Beijing many times, Xiaodong will always be my brother.
Once Xiaodong almost dragged Chicheng onto the plane, but Chicheng still didn't come back, he just said, "Brother, I can't get over it, I have to go when I go back."
"Then when will you be able to live?" Tao Xiaodong was also worried, and said, "Don't look at your brother, don't you still have a brother?"
"I know, bro," Chi Cheng said to him when the two brothers were sitting on the steps, "I'll go back when I can get over my strength."
On the surface, the scar on his chest faded year by year, but the scar in his heart was still clear.
Chi Cheng never mentioned his younger brother to anyone, people around him only knew that he had an older brother, and the two brothers had a good relationship.
He started to work on his own projects and also developed several small software.
Someone asked him: "Brother Chi, why do you always research projects for the blind? It's thankless!"
Chi Cheng didn't answer at first, but after others asked him several times, Chi Cheng casually said, "Because my brother is blind."
Chi Cheng and Shi Kai are both in Beijing, and they meet occasionally.
Every year before Shi Kai goes home during the winter vacation, he asks Chi Cheng if he will come back, and if he wants to book a plane ticket together, but Chi Cheng never says no.
But one winter, Chi Cheng was patted on the shoulder while walking on the road.
"Damn, brother, you even lied to me?" Shi Kai bumped Chi Cheng's shoulder, "I thought I had misunderstood the wrong person! Brother Chi! You are my own brother! You don't want to go with me! ?”
Chi Cheng was also quite surprised, it was such a coincidence, he could only shake his head and laughed and said, "It's a temporary decision."
"Then you went home?" Shi Kai had always speculated about the matter between him and Tao Huainan, but he never asked, and he didn't ask so thoroughly at the moment, he just said, "Are you going to live with me?"
Chi Cheng shook the key in his hand and said, "No need."
The two had a meal, and Shi Kai took a short video of Chi Cheng with his mobile phone.
Holding his mobile phone, he said, "I want to leave your evidence."
Shi Kai is a very good friend, he is good with Chi Cheng and not bad with Tao Huainan. Chi Cheng said, "Don't post it."
"No," Shi Kai said with a wicked smile, "it will definitely be useful in the future."
Chi Cheng followed him.
Shi Kai held up his phone, looked at Chi Cheng in the camera, and asked, "Brother Chi, have you seen Huainan?"
Chi Cheng said, "I see."
"Little Huainan has changed, not like a child like before." Shi Kai said.
Chi Cheng looked at the dead tree outside the glass window, thought for a while, and said, "It hasn't changed much."
"Believe in the age of love, the songs that I failed to sing to you, let me often recall in my life..."
Xiaodong called and said, "Brother, I have something to tell you."
Chi Cheng tucked his phone between his hands, listening and eating while he had a lot of things to do, and he had to go out and negotiate a contract later.
"Your brother said he wanted to go too," Tao Xiaodong discussed with him over the phone, "He has time on vacation, how about I take him?"
Chi Cheng stopped eating, but didn't make a sound.
"If you don't want to, then don't take it with you, and I didn't tell him to go." Xiaodong said, "You decide, it's up to you."
Chi Cheng thought for a few seconds and said, "Take it."
Xiaodong was also silent for a while, and then asked tentatively: "Are you going normally? Don't let me lead your brother here, and you can't go back later."
Chi Cheng picked up the phone and stuck it to his ear, lowered his head, said "um", and said, "Go."
Fan Guo and Guo Yiming were studying their next project over there, but Chi Cheng didn't listen to it, and he couldn't listen to it either.
After a while at the expressway, he will meet his brother. Chi Cheng sat in the back row of the car, with his eyes closed, his heart felt as if he was on fire.
There was a video on the phone, Chi Cheng didn't watch it, he just listened with earphones on.
Shi Kai smiled and asked, "Little Huainan, do you miss your little brother?"
The drunk boy replied obediently and honestly: "I miss him every day..."
"Hey brother, it's here," Fan Guo turned around and asked him, "Did you throw it here?"
Chi Cheng said "Yes", "I'll go to my brother's car."
"There is a business ahead, it should be waiting for you." Guo Yiming said, "You go, Brother Chi."
Chi Cheng got out of the car with his bag on his back, and walked towards the parked business car step by step. Before opening the car door, Chi Cheng took off the earphones and put them in his pocket.
The door opens.
A boy sat in the last row, wearing short-sleeved shorts, very clean and handsome, but with some bruises and injuries on his body.
Chi Cheng glanced over him, seemingly inadvertently, he smiled and called "Brother" to Xiaodong.
The boy froze in the middle of a yawn and forgot to even breathe.
"The age of believing in love, the song that I failed to sing to you, I often recall it in my life..."
When the singing stopped, Tao Huainan was still holding the guitar and finished playing the last note. He couldn't remember the next note accurately, and he almost played it by feeling. He was still smiling, his eyes were fixed on a point in the void, and his fingers were plucking the strings neither fast nor slow.
Listen to a gentle song and watch a gentle movie.
Tao Huainan, the protagonist of the story, just said one word is not enough, no matter which word is still a little thin.
To whom
He's my love, my brother, my... puppy.
After playing all the notes, Tao Huainan's hand covered the strings again, ending the long and flat melody.
The warm yellow light was still hitting him, and Tao Huainan was still sitting on the high stool, as if he had just finished watching a movie.
The light in Chi Cheng's eyes was still clear, the little boy who was so timid that he could only hide behind and cry, could now calmly sit in front of so many people and sing to him.
Before the lights were completely dimmed, the movie played the last scene, like an easter egg for the gentle audience.
Hot summer, hot summer.
The pale boy curled up on the bed, hugged his knees, and curled up in a ball without making a sound.
Chi Cheng endured him for several days, but in the end he couldn't bear it anymore.
The boy couldn't bear his strength and was dragged to kneel on the bed. Hearing that Chi Cheng said that he was going to the hospital, he began to cry and scream like a collapse.
He has never lost his composure like this, like a child overwhelmed by emotion, he cried presumptuously and embarrassedly, threw himself on Chi Cheng and hugged him tightly, crying until his throat cracked.
Chi Cheng kissed him.
The boy screamed and cried, "Brother, I'm scared".
He was so frightened that his lips were as white as his face, and his whole body trembled in Chi Cheng's arms.
Chi Cheng hugged his boy all the time, kissed his forehead, patted his back, and lifted his face from his body.
Tao Huainan said again: "Brother, I'm afraid."
"Don't be afraid." Chi Cheng wiped away his tears and snot, wiped the boy's face clean, stroked his head and said, "It's okay, grow up well."
The author has something to say:
Zai: Thank you sisters, we have grown up.
That's it.
I am grateful for these four months. There are various emotions during the process, and it will be good to watch after it is over. Writing bamboo horse essays must be more heart-warming. Since last night, my heart has been empty. But the story has to end, the children have grown up.
I hope the children in the story and their brothers and friends are all well, and I hope their sisters outside the story are also well.
Whether it is a cute little partner or my friends, I am grateful for the support.
(This song is called "Lian Lian Feng Dust", a very old song, I have liked it for many years. You can search it to listen to it, the original version cannot be surpassed, the voice of the old wolf is very gentle. Don't comment on the song, don't comment, don't disturb others, I sincerely request.)
The next chapter is "Returning the Tide", Yanyan is a cute little girl. I don't like being called a big guy in women's clothing, but I'm happy to be praised for being beautiful.