Thinking of Shen Jize, Lu Rong quickened his pace again, the puppy followed him with its tongue sticking out, and rushed back to the yard with him.
The rich man is holding a water ladle to water the ginkgo tree planted in the courtyard.
The young tree saplings are not easy to grow, so he transplanted a bowl-sized one from an acquaintance, and said to Lu Rong, "This tree is the same as you, both are eight years old. Grandpa is taking care of them together. Let's see which one of you grows better." Well done."
After a listless week, the ginkgo tree has adapted, and the leaves slowly raised their heads.
"Grandpa, I'm back." Lu Rong greeted and hurried to the bedroom on the second floor.
"Slow down, don't fall."
Throwing the schoolbag on the chair, Lu Rong climbed onto the bed, and removed the pillow towel covering the landline next to the pillow. The milky white fuselage lay there quietly without any movement.
He picked up the microphone and said softly, "Hey, brother, it's me."
After a while, he slowly put the microphone back to its original position.
Downstairs came the sound of cooking oil being poured into the wok, and the rich man was cooking dinner. Lu Rong touched the phone cherishingly, then got out of bed backwards and started to do homework.
When turning pages or getting tired of writing, he will habitually look up at the phone. The silent phone both made him anxious and at the same time reassuring.
"Rongrong, it's time to eat." Cai Ye yelled downstairs after finishing the meal.
"Here we come." Lu Rong finished writing the last question, put all the books and pencil cases back in her bag, and then went downstairs.
Tonight's dishes are green pepper fried meat, tomato and egg soup, and a vegetarian fried cabbage.
The rich man put shredded pork in Lu Rong's bowl, and asked, "Son, what do you think of the new school? How do you get along with those classmates? Grandpa will roast some chestnuts for you and bring them to eat tomorrow."
Lu Rong chewed the rice and said, "Our school is not allowed to bring food."
"Don't take it with you." The rich man was in trouble: "Then why don't you let your classmate come to eat at home?"
Lu Rong thought for a while: "But I don't have any good classmates yet, let's wait until later."
"Okay, you can take it home whenever you want, grandpa will cook something delicious for you."
Lu Rong ate deliciously, his cheeks puffed up from chewing, but he didn't notice that Cai Ye looked at him with a hesitant expression on his face.
"Furry..." After a while, Cai Ye finally spoke.
"Hmm." Lu Rong mixed the shredded pork with the rice and put it in his mouth.
After saying this, the rich man fell silent again.
Lu Rong also sensed something was wrong, stopped his chopsticks and looked at him.
"Grandpa, what's the matter?"
The rich man hesitated for a moment, and said, "Rongrong, do you know that when the receiver is picked up when making a call, there will be beeps inside?"
Lu Rong didn't know why Master Cai asked this, but he tilted his head and recalled it.
Every time he answered the phone, there was no beeping in the receiver, only the sound of Shen Jize's breathing while waiting opposite.
So he shook his head affirmatively: "I didn't hear Didi Ring."
Cai Ye seemed to be very embarrassed, and said: "When you pick up the receiver, the number on the phone is on, you know that?"
Lu Rong bit the tip of his chopsticks and didn't answer.
"Look, if the phone is good, when the receiver is picked up, the numbers will light up and beep."
Seeing Lu Rong staring at him for a moment, Cai Ye bit the bullet and continued: "Every phone must be connected to a telephone line, and the hole for the telephone line is on the buttocks."
Lu Rong leaned behind him with the hand that was not holding the chopsticks.
The rich man said: "It's the bottom of the phone, which is the landline below. There is a hole in the bottom, which is specially used to connect the phone line. This phone can only be used after the phone line is connected."
Lu Rong said, "Then, the telephone line—"
"The phone line needs to be installed by a professional person, and if our phone is installed with a phone line, it will not be the old number, but a new number." The rich man interrupted quickly.
Lu Rong was stunned for a moment, then murmured: "New number..."
"Yes, the phone will only ring if you call the new number, and the old number still won't work."
Lu Rong stared at his bowl without saying a word, and the rich man gave him another piece of shredded meat with chopsticks: "Eat quickly, my boy, the new classmates will definitely be able to play together, grandpa is waiting for you to bring them over to play. "
After a while, he picked up the chopsticks and started to eat. He ate up the shredded pork that the rich man gave him one by one, and the rice in the bowl was also planed without leaving a moment.
"Grandpa, I'm going upstairs." He put down the empty bowl and stood up.
"Go."
Lu Rong walked slowly to the second floor, his small shoulders were slumped, and his feet dragged on the ground as if he had no strength.
Cai Ye turned to look at his back, shook his head and sighed.
He went back to the bedroom and climbed onto the bed, pulled off the quilt to cover himself, and curled up into a round bedroll.
After a while, a thin white hand stretched out from Juan'er, and dragged the phone next to the pillow in little by little.
Through the gaps in the quilt rolls, one could hear the sound of sobbing and crying inside.
The next day, when Lu Rong came home from school, he saw that the phone next to the pillow had disappeared.
He didn't ask Mr. Cai, but stood by the bed in a daze for a while, then sat back on the desk, slowly took out the notebook and pencil case from his schoolbag, and started to do his homework.
A few days later, Cai Ye took a ride to the sanatorium near Cilongquan Village, trying to find the workers for Shen Yan's contact information.
The workers also only have the mobile phone number he left before, but after dialing, it shows that it is an empty number.
"Mr. Shen took over the new project after finishing the work here. He should have changed his number. We are just working, and we can't contact him."
The rich man went around the ruins of the village, stood with his hands behind his back for half an hour, and finally took the return car down the mountain.
Lu Rong didn't talk about the phone anymore. He went to and from school to do his homework, played with the puppy, and the rich man acted like a baby on his lap. Everything returned to the way it was before he met Shen Jize.
It's just that after the winter vacation, he would go to the town to stand for a while at three o'clock every afternoon.
After three o'clock, a shuttle bus from the county will arrive at the station, and it will only stay for a few minutes. After getting on and off the passengers, the shuttle bus will go to the next location.
Lu Rong stood unimpeded by the parking spot, wearing a brown cotton hat with dog ears and thick scarves and gloves, staring at the people who got out of the car.
If it rains, he will hold a small flower umbrella that his grandfather handed him.
The steamed stuffed bun vendor next to the parking spot is familiar, and when they see him, they will greet him: "Lu Rong, you came here very early today."
"It's getting late, it's only ten minutes away." Lu Rong had a serious face.
Seeing the dark gray bus coming from afar, his eyes lit up, he trotted to meet it, then ran back with the car, and stopped on the platform.
He went to see those who got out of the car one by one, until the door closed, set off, and disappeared at the end of the town. The light in his eyes finally dimmed, and he called out, "Puppy, go home."
The child led the big yellow dog, just like every day before, along the fork to go home, slowly moving forward in frustration.
Chinese New Year is coming soon, the grandpa and grandson listened to the laughter on the TV, and clinked wine glasses with a table of dishes.
"I wish grandpa good health, very very healthy, very very very very healthy." Lu Rong took a sip of the plum wine.
Cai Ye squinted his eyes with a smile: "Okay, okay, even if it's for me, Grandpa will definitely be healthy."
Lu Rong stared at the light brown liquid in the cup, and said silently in his heart: "I wish my brother a happy heart, very very happy, very very very very happy."
After silently reading, he took another sip.
"Don't drink too much, you'll behave like a puppy when you're drunk." The rich man reminded.
Lu Rong hurriedly protected the wine glass: "Just this one, just this one."
The puppy was lying beside it, lazily gnawing on a piece of meaty bone, gnawing two bites and poking it with its paw.
There are red window grilles on the windows, and you can see fireworks exploding in the sky. It was cold outside, but warm inside.
Another new year is here.
…
years later.
At noon in summer, the leaves are all wilted in the sun, only the cicadas are singing heart-piercingly.
In the room with the curtains drawn, the electric fan kept blowing on the bed. The boy on the bed rubbed his eyes and sat up with his hair fluffed from sleep. The hair is on the long side, and the ends are slightly curly, covering the eyes a little.
He was wearing a large old white T-shirt, hanging loosely on his shoulders, blown out by the night wind into waves. The slender neck and shoulders were exposed, and the skin was white and glowing. Underneath is only a pair of shorts, and the two thin white legs are long and straight.
He put on the slippers by the bed, opened the curtains, and squinted against the sudden glare of the sun. His long and dense eyelashes were drawn into an arc.
Pulling the curtains tight with a swipe, he turned off the fan and pushed the door to go downstairs, his slippers slapping on the concrete floor. When I got downstairs, I opened the refrigerator, took out a popsicle and took a big bite, crunching and walking out.
The big yellow dog lay lazily under the eaves, didn't move when it saw him, and just flicked its tail as if nothing.
In the yard, the rich man squatted beside a flowering branch, holding the soil below with his hands, without raising his head, he said, "Rongrong, bring me the big pair of scissors for pruning."
The boy went back to the room again, and after a while, a clear and pleasant voice sounded, with a soft ending: "Grandpa, where did you put the scissors? There are none in the cabinet."
"It's on the windowsill."
"Well, I found it."
Lu Rong handed the scissors to Mr. Cai, and squatted beside him to watch him pruning, taking a bite of a popsicle from time to time.
"Go farther and eat, the sound makes my teeth hurt." Cai Ye said.
Lu Rong squatted and took two steps back, continuing to click.
The rich man cut off a protruding flower branch: "My teeth are sore, don't stay here, go back to the house and watch TV by yourself."
"I started to dislike me again." Lu Rong muttered and stood up.
The rich man had a smile in his eyes: "You just know? But I despise you. I can't see you dangling under my nose all day long."
"It's about to shake, keep shaking here." Lu Rong went to the stool next to him and sat down, but he stopped chewing the popsicle and just sucked it with his mouth.
A gust of wind blew, and the leaves of the ginkgo tree in the small courtyard rustled.
Lu Rong patted the thick tree trunk and asked: "Grandpa, do you think I grow well, or this tree grows better?"
"You look good." The rich man said, "You have graduated from university, and this tree hasn't even attended elementary school."
Lu Rong looked up at the leaves, and the light fell on his face from the gaps, reflecting a very beautiful face with red lips, white teeth, white eyebrows and dark eyes.
The rich man asked: "I heard that the dolls from the town middle school you used to go on a trip, do you want to go with them?"
"No." Lu Rong said wearily, "I don't want to go out on such a hot day."
The rich man looked up at him: "Seeing how lazy you are, can you lie under the eaves with the puppy all day long?"
The puppy under the eaves raised his head when he heard his name.
"I'm going to the city to look for a job soon, I want to spend more time with grandpa." Lu Rong had a flattering face, his words were sweeter than popsicle water, and even ironed.
The rich man benefited from the bottom of his heart, but he sighed: "Hurry up, hurry up, I will be free sooner."
Lu Rong said: "Grandpa wants to drive me away, so don't think about me so much that you weep."
The rich man smiled and waved him away: "Go, go, drive him away now, it's so hot in the yard, go indoors and watch TV."
Lu Rong went back to the room and turned on the TV, took a pot of water spinach on the table, and chose while watching. The mobile phone in his trouser pocket kept vibrating, and it was the previous class group ringing.
He put down the bamboo basket, took out his mobile phone and wanted to put it on the table, and glanced at it by the way.
The news in the class group is rolling, it is the most active female students in the class.
[An is so handsome, the award-winning movie he acted in will be released in China soon.]
[This is an oriental face, Chinese? Chinese?]
[I'm Chinese, I've been living abroad, I just won an international award, and the new actor...]
[No wonder I haven't heard of it before, but his starting point is so high, and now his propaganda is all over the Internet.]
[I just followed his Weibo.]
Actor... An...
Lu Rong caught these two words and also caught a glimpse of a picture in the chat message.
A young man in a suit, with one arm around his chest and one hand resting on his chin, his shirt was buttoned open.
His mobile phone is a very old low-end smart phone with a low screen resolution, and the small picture that has not been downloaded is very blurry, and the face cannot be seen clearly.
This should be An, but he didn't bother to click on it and take a closer look. He just thought that this person was tall and handsome, so he put down his phone and continued watching TV to choose dishes.
During the period when he just graduated, he was comfortable and relaxed. Unlike other students who were rushing to find a job, Lu Rong stayed at home every day, ate and slept, watched TV and joked with Mr. Cai.
Only in the evening, the grandpa and grandson would take the puppy for a walk by the river, and when the surrounding area darkened and the moon rose, they would slowly return to the small courtyard.
"Grandpa, you seem to be running out of blood pressure medicine." Lu Rong flipped through the pile of daily medicine on the TV cabinet.
"Ah, the last time I went to the county seat, didn't I buy five bottles?" Cai Ye replied while watching the TV.
Lu Rong said, "Obviously I only bought three bottles."
"Oh."
Lu Rong put down the empty bottle and said, "I'll go to the county seat tomorrow to buy medicine for you."
"County city..." The rich man thought for a while: "Okay, don't keep locked in the house, go out for a walk."
The next day, Lu Rong took a cloth bag of broken flowers and went to the county town by the van that leaves every hour in the town.
After an hour of shaking in the car, he got off at the terminal and went to a chain pharmacy not far away to buy antihypertensive drugs. Seeing that it was still early, I wanted to go to the mall to buy a pair of leather shoes for Cai Ye.
When he was studying at university in the city, he would go to some stores to work on weekends when he didn't go home, and he also saved a little pocket money. It's rare to come to the county once, and I want to buy autumn shoes for Cai Ye in advance.
The nearest shopping mall was a few blocks away, and a bus arrived not far away, so he got on the bus.
As the bus passed the long street, Lu Rong looked sideways at the pedestrians outside the window.
A boy learning to walk staggers forward on the sidewalk, his grandpa with his arms outstretched, protecting him like an old hen.
Lu Rong watched with a smile on his face until he could no longer see.
The moment he turned his head, he glanced over the light box by the roadside and saw the poster on it.
It was a man in a suit, looking young and sharp. He crossed his chest with one hand and rested his chin with the other hand. The top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, revealing his light brown skin, adding a touch of sexiness.
His hair looks messy but very stylish, with a few strands blocking his forehead, but not blocking his deep eyebrows.
Very handsome, very handsome, is a big handsome guy.
This was Lu Rong's first impression when he saw the poster.
Then there was a strange feeling, that the facial features of this young man were very familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.
But before I could take a closer look, the light box was left behind the car. Lu Rong turned around, and after thinking for a moment, he suddenly remembered the previous news in the class group, and there was this picture at that time.
No wonder it looks familiar...
Lu Rong was relieved.
It seems to be an actor who just won an award abroad, what is his name? Anthony? Ada
…
When the bus arrived at the stop, there was a shopping mall dozens of meters away, and Lu Rong stepped on the small cloth bag and walked in.
He went directly to the third floor where the leather goods were sold, and went into a shoe store that was not too expensive to choose leather shoes for his grandfather.
Because it needs to be light, soft, breathable and comfortable, after he selected a few pairs of alternative shoes, he asked the clerk carefully, and even tried them on for himself.
He repeatedly compared and chose, but fortunately, his mouth was sweet, and his dimples appeared and disappeared when he smiled, so the clerk was not impatient and introduced him seriously.
Finally, under the recommendation of the clerk, I chose a pair of shoes that were doing activities, and the discount was more than 400.
Lu Rong paid the bill with his mobile phone, and left the shopping mall with his shoebox.
Walking to the bus stop not far away, the bus hadn't arrived yet, Lu Rong stared at a large Led screen on the opposite wall in a daze.
It seemed that someone was being interviewed there, a fat bald man was gesturing to say something, but Lu Rong didn't listen, although his eyes were watching, he was thinking about other things in his heart.
"...It's An, look, it's An, the new Best Actor of the International Awards."
"I know, I know, it's really handsome..."
"The award-winning film will be released in China immediately, and he will also develop in China in the future."
"Sure, look at the propaganda campaign these days, An is everywhere."
…
The loud conversation of the people beside him interrupted Lu Rong's thoughts, and only then did he realize that the fat bald man on the big screen had disappeared, and turned into a very handsome young man. He is about 20 years old, with youthful vigor and the charm of a mature man.
Lu Rong glanced at it and casually turned his eyes away, but then he thought of something, and slowly turned back, staring at the person on the big screen. After staring at it for a while, he began to breathe rapidly, his eyes opened wide, and he clutched his small floral cloth bag tightly with both hands.
A young man in a tailored dark suit is sitting on an armchair with his legs folded, smiling and doing an interview.
He has broad shoulders, narrow waist and slender legs, and his sitting posture is casual but not slack. Wearing an expensive watch, the left hand rests on the armrest of the sofa, while the right taps lightly, as if thinking about how to answer the interviewer's question.
“…I’m so lucky to have come across this film and played the role of Trekker. Of course, this character is very complicated and difficult to control…”
His voice is very pleasant, deep and soft, with a very textured magnetism.
"I heard that An plays not only the trekker, but also the past and present life of the trekker, which is equivalent to playing two roles."
"Wow, his voice is nice too."
The people on the platform also looked at the big screen, still discussing loudly.
Lu Rong didn't pay attention to what these people said, but looked at the big screen in disbelief, his mind went blank, and his heart seemed to be beating with a drumstick.
Bang bang, bang bang.
Different from the posters that have been glimpsed, the man on the big screen is magnified several times, as if sitting in front of him. On the high-definition monitor, every expression of his, every tilt of his head, slight frown and slight twitch of his lips fell into Lu Rong's eyes.
— including that very distinct red mole on his wrist.
Time seemed to freeze, the man's handsome facial features overlapped with the boy in his memory, and then merged perfectly, those years of memories rushed over his face.
"Furry, come here."
"Call out, brother, I'll listen."
"I am both your brother and your husband..."
"Furry, brother will never leave you."
…
Lu Rong's lips moved slightly, and he called out in a barely audible voice: "Brother..."