Time flies, and even winter is coming to an end.
During the Chinese New Year, Xia Xiqing did not go back to the Xia family. It was not his home originally. He was used to spending the New Year alone anyway, so he did not think it was a big deal. But this time was different. Zhou Ziheng stayed with him until the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, and only went to the West Hill Villa on New Year's Eve.
The house was bustling with people everywhere. Zhou Ziheng took off his scarf and down jacket and gave them to Aunt Hong. His father was entertaining relatives in the living room. There was also a young girl sitting next to him, who seemed to be brought by some family. Zhou Ziheng took the initiative to greet them and wished them a happy new year, then went into the kitchen.
"mom."
Zhou's mother was just scooping a spoonful of chicken soup from the casserole to taste it, when her son came back. She quickly put the spoon to Zhou Ziheng's mouth, "Hengheng, help me taste it, is it lacking salt?" Zhou Ziheng blew twice and drank the soup, "It tastes good." He licked his lips, "Mom, how many days of vacation did your institute have?"
"It will be on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, but I have to go back early because I have a very important project on hold. I will make something delicious for you guys at home in the next few days."
Seeing his mother was very happy, Zhou Ziheng hugged her arm and asked tentatively, "Mom, who is that person outside?"
"Your father's childhood friend. They grew up in the same courtyard together." Mom took out some cut fruit and put a piece of dragon fruit on a toothpick and fed it to Zhou Ziheng. He quickly took the toothpick and asked, "What about the girl next to you..."
"She's my precious daughter." The mother laughed, as if teasing Zhou Ziheng on purpose, "How is she? Is she pretty?"
When it comes to the word beautiful, the only thing that comes to Zhou Ziheng's mind is Xia Xiqing who is sitting quietly in front of the drawing board and painting.
"Don't arrange marriages for me. What era is this? There are still arranged marriages." Zhou Ziheng didn't even realize that he was completely trying to cover up the truth.
Zhou's mother glanced at him and closed the kitchen door. "I was just teasing you, why are you talking so much?" She lowered her head to cut bamboo shoots. Zhou Ziheng wanted to help but couldn't, just like he couldn't get a word in.
"Mom, I actually have..."
"I know what you are going to say." Mom raised her head, her face very calm, "Your sister-in-law told me."
"Sister-in-law? She..." Zhou Ziheng didn't expect Jiang Yin to tell his mother. This news caught him off guard. "How could my sister-in-law..."
"I noticed something was wrong during the days you were in solitary confinement. I asked her several times before she was willing to tell me and asked me to keep it a secret for you." Mother Zhou put the chopped bamboo shoots into the chicken soup and covered it. "I don't know if you were born with this condition or if it changed later." She looked into Zhou Ziheng's eyes, "but if it was just a spur of the moment thing, there's no need to tell me."
"No." Zhou Ziheng immediately refuted, but he felt that his tone was a bit too radical, so he slowed down a bit, "I'm not just impulsive, I really like him. No..." Zhou Ziheng was dissatisfied with his wording, "I love him very much."
Mother Zhou put down what she was holding and turned to look at Zhou Ziheng. She gave birth to him very young, and even now her face did not show many signs of aging, but a wise and mature beauty. She looked at him quietly for a while, as if trying to understand the expression on her son's face.
"In fact, I couldn't accept it at first. I couldn't sleep for several nights in a row. I felt very regretful. I felt that I shouldn't have let you enter that circle. You should study hard and do research like me. This is a very natural thing."
She lowered her eyes. "But your sister-in-law told me very confidently that you were not affected by the circle. You are still the same person as before, and you have become more complete. But even if she said that, I still can't accept it. It's not that I want to deprive you of the right to like someone, but this matter is beyond my imagination."
Zhou Ziheng lowered his head and opened his mouth. He wanted to speak but didn't know what to say. As a son, he really didn't have the courage to tell everything.
"Compared to many people, our family is considered complete and happy. Although you have been in the entertainment industry since you were a child, we have never neglected your education and care. I don't know where the mistake was." The mother frowned slightly, as if revealing confusion.
Zhou Ziheng looked at her. The confusion in his mother's eyes touched a soft spot in his heart. He was actually afraid that his mother would get hurt.
Rather than whether she could accept it, Zhou Ziheng was more afraid that she would blame her love for a man on his negligence.
This is not true, so Zhou Ziheng is afraid.
But the next second, the mother's brows relaxed and her eyes were filled with relief.
“But then I figured it out.”
She raised her head and reached out to touch Zhou Ziheng's cheek, "I didn't make any mistakes, and neither did you."
"My son just fell in love with someone, and that person happened to be a boy." She smiled, "This logic is actually very simple, right?"
Zhou Ziheng's nose was sore. He actually had a lot to say, but at this moment his emotions had surpassed his rational and logical thinking. He didn't expect that his mother had been silently thinking about his feelings for so many days and nights. As a mother, she must have struggled and panicked. After all, she was not on the mainstream path.
But Zhou Ziheng has never followed the mainstream path since he was a child.
His throat was blocked, and he paused for a long time before he said in a calm voice, "Mom, thank you."
"Don't cry on this holiday." She patted Zhou Ziheng's shoulder, "Don't talk about this at the dinner table today. Your father knows nothing and is impatient. Let's think about it carefully. If you really like him, mom will help you."
In fact, this was once the most painful part for Zhou Ziheng. Although he had made the worst plan and believed that the possibility of not being blessed by his family would not hurt him too much, as long as he did not lose Xia Xiqing, he could sacrifice part of his perfection.
However, for a child like him who has grown up in a happy family, family occupies such an important position in his heart.
He was willing to give up this important part, he had already prepared himself mentally. But now, this important part told him that he was not wrong.
You won't lose me.
At this moment, Zhou Ziheng felt that he was the happiest person in the world.
Zhou Ziheng rushed back to Haidian early in the morning of the first day of the new year. His mother gave him a lot of supplements, nominally for him, but before leaving, she kept winking at him, "Say Happy New Year for me."
Zhou's father, who came out to see him off, looked puzzled, "Who are you saying Happy New Year to?"
The mother and son said in unison, "I'm telling you~"
Before returning home, Zhou Ziheng thought Xia Xiqing must be sleeping. But when he opened the door, he found that Xia Xiqing was not at home. He ran back to the opposite door and opened his own door. He saw Xia Xiqing standing on a chair and wiping the French window. He turned around when he heard the door open and asked, "Why are you back so early?"
Zhou Ziheng put down the supplements and rushed over, hugging Xia Xiqing's legs, but was strongly resisted by him, "What are you doing? I'm working."
"Why are you so hardworking, my little painter?" Zhou Ziheng took him down from the chair and turned him around before putting him down. He held his shoulders and kissed him on both cheeks. "You are so good."
"You're crazy." Xia Xiqing wiped his face in disgust, and looked at his shoes and couldn't help cursing, "Why did you come in with shoes on? Go out and change your shoes. I'm so annoyed with you."
Zhou Ziheng stuck out his tongue and obediently ran back to the entrance to change his shoes. As for what his mother knew, he wanted to wait until everything was settled before telling Xia Xiqing, so as not to worry him.
"I won't buy such a big house in the future. It's so tiring to clean it." Xia Xiqing sat on the floor and unscrewed a bottle of water.
Hearing him talk about buying a house in the future, Zhou Ziheng felt inexplicably hurt, and the scene of the future seemed to appear in front of him all of a sudden.
"Just call her the cleaning lady." Zhou Ziheng came over, sat down, and held him in his arms.
Xia Xiqing's eyes were empty, as if he was really tired. He spoke slowly, like an exhausted kitten, "You have to clean up for the New Year yourself."
“You’re so cute.”
"Go away, you're the cute one."
“The cutest thing about not admitting that you’re cute is that you’re not cute!”
"…Looking for a fight on New Year's Day, huh?"
The two were arguing when a phone call came in. It was Xia Zhixu asking them to come over for dinner. Xia Xiqing hadn't agreed yet, but Zhou Ziheng was very happy to do so and kept interrupting. Xia Xiqing had no choice but to agree. The two of them went their separate ways and entered from different gates of Xia Zhixu's residential area and arrived at his home.
"It's like Mission Impossible. It's not easy for you to have such a relationship." Xia Zhixu opened the door for Zhou Ziheng who arrived later. Zhou Ziheng took off his hat and mask and walked in. He saw Xia Xiqing, who had arrived for a while, sitting at the table in the restaurant and helping Xu Qichen make dumplings.
"Brother Ziheng!"
Before he could react, a figure rushed over and hugged him like a small bomb. He looked down and saw that it was Xia Xiu Ze. "You are here too?"
"Yeah, I'm also Xia Zhixu..." He was halfway through his sentence when Xia Zhixu kicked him in the calf, kicking back the rest of his words, "Hey, I heard that my brother was coming, so I came over."
Zhou Ziheng held back his laughter and walked over to Xia Xiqing. "Are these dumplings made by you? There is no artistry at all."
Xia Xiqing rolled his eyes at him and said, "I think you're just looking for a fight."
Originally, he was not a good cook, and when making dumplings, the fillings were always exposed, so he had no choice but to let Zhou Ziheng take over his position to help Xu Qichen make dumplings. Xia Zhixu was playing games with Xia Xiu Ze, but Xia Xiu Ze lost every game, which made Xia Xiqing almost roll up his sleeves, "Can you do it? If not, then leave."
Xia Xiu Ze pouted and moved his butt, "Then win it back for me."
"Don't worry." Xia Xiqing grabbed the handle and said, "Look, I'm going to kill them all."
Xia Zhixu sneered, "Don't set yourself a goal. Chen Fang will come over later and we'll have a three-person game."
"Come if you want."
"What if I lose?"
"It's up to you."
With nothing to do, Xia Xiuze looked around and found a pile of boxes in the corner of the living room. "Zhi Xu... Brother, what is this?"
After hearing him call him brother, Xia Zhixu turned around and explained, "My mom asked me to move here from home a few days ago, saying that there was no place to put the old things."
"Old stuff?" Xia Xiu Ze laughed, sitting cross-legged on the ground and began to pick and choose, "I like old stuff the most."
"Then pick and choose. If you like something, take it home."
"Um!"
In fact, there was nothing special. Most of them were Xia Zhixu's old hard drives and some books, mostly related to programming and physics. Xia Xiu Ze flipped to the bottom and found a large photo album.
"Wow, so many photos of you when you were a kid."
Xu Qichen quickly wrapped the last one, washed his hands and ran over, "I want to see it."
"Brother Chenchen, haven't you seen it?" Xia Xiu Ze asked, turning his head.
Xu Qichen shook his head, "I've seen some of them, but this one doesn't seem to be there." He lowered his head and looked at the yellowed old photos, "Zhixu, your canine teeth were too obvious when you were a child. How come you had canine teeth before you changed your teeth?" He flipped through the pages again and found a photo of two children, both only three or four years old, looking like glutinous rice balls, sitting next to each other on a small stool.
Xu Qichen was a little confused, "Is the guy next to you your brother? He doesn't look that young." He held up the photo album for Xia Zhixu to see, and Xia Zhixu glanced at it, "That's Xia Xiqing."
"You two looked alike when you were kids, more alike than brothers." Xu Qichen added in a low voice, nudging Xia Xiu Ze's shoulder, "But your brother is prettier, right?"
Xia Xiu Ze nodded and whispered, "My brother looked like a girl when he was a child."
"Can you say that again?!"
"I didn't say anything!" Xia Xiu Ze hid beside Xu Qichen like a little mouse, lowered his head and flipped through the photo album.
Zhou Ziheng heard them talking from a distance and wanted to go over, but he still had several sheets of dough to wrap, so he had to speed up. Finally, he finished wrapping the last dumpling, stacked them neatly, washed his hands quickly, and walked to the living room.
"Wait, who's this picture?" Xu Qichen held up one of the pictures that no one was looking at, and pointed at a person on it, "Who's this little girl?"
Zhou Ziheng sat down next to Xu Qichen, and when he saw the photo he was pointing at, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Suddenly, vague memories of my childhood flashed through my mind.
A girl in a white dress handed him a white rose and said, "Take it, and don't cry. I will take you to find your mother."
"I..." Little Zhou Ziheng sobbed, "My mother is not here."
The girl paused, "Really? My mother is gone too..."
The six-year-old boy hugged his legs, tears streaming down his face, "Sister, I'm scared. So many people are looking at me, I want to cry."
"I'm not your sister," he pulled Zhou Ziheng away, squatted down and held his shoulders, "Also, don't be afraid."
"It's nothing to be afraid of."
Although Zhou Ziheng was pulling himself away from his memories, his heartbeat couldn't calm down. The face in his memory that had been blurred by time gradually merged with the girl in the photo album.
"Who is this?"
Xia Xiqing's harsh words came true, and Xia Zhixu really lost. He simply threw down the controller in his hand, walked over to pick up the photo album, squinted his eyes to take a look, and suddenly laughed, "Hahaha, Xia Xiqing, look! Your dark history with beauties!"
"What the hell..." Xia Xiqing was still immersed in the excitement of winning the game, and was a little puzzled to see him so happy. He walked over and saw that the photo was of a girl wearing a white long skirt and waist-length black hair. The photo was not very clear, but the background behind was clearly Xia Zhixu's home.
Xia Zhixu acted like he had just found a treasure, and childishly showed it to everyone, "Let me tell you, this was in fifth or sixth grade, during summer vacation, Xia Xiqing, Chen Fang and I, we played games together, and he lost three games in a row, so we forced him to wear my mom's skirt, and it was my mom who helped us dress him up, isn't he handsome, hahahaha."
Xia Xiqing glanced at him with disdain, "What the hell, there's no such thing, you're just making it up."
"Really? The physical evidence is all here, and the witness will be here soon! Your memory is so bad that you can't even remember such an important thing."
"My hippocampus has its own thoughts. It doesn't remember anything embarrassing." Xia Xiqing rolled his eyes at him, but when he turned his head, he saw Zhou Ziheng staring at the photo. He kicked Zhou Ziheng's crossed legs and said, "Hey, stop looking at it."
Zhou Ziheng suddenly raised his head, looked at Xia Xiqing's face carefully, then lowered his head to look at the photo, repeating the process several times.
"I told you to stop looking, why are you still looking?" Xia Xi was about to grab the photo album, but was suddenly hugged by Zhou Ziheng, "You are that girl!"
Xia Xiqing pushed him away, "Who is a girl? Speak properly!"
Zhou Ziheng anxiously asked Xia Zhixu for confirmation, "Did you go to a park at that time?"
"Yes! My mom took us to Zhongshan Park." Xia Zhixu sat on the sofa, still laughing, holding Xu Qichen's hand and rubbing his belly, "But later he ran off by himself and I didn't know where. I wandered around for a long time before I finally found him. I thought he was autistic at the time, the cross-dressing Xia Xiqing, hahahaha."
what.
How come he has no recollection of this at all? Could it be that he had such a miserable childhood that he selectively forgot so many things
However, when Xia Xiqing recalled the past, he could only remember the pain and suffering, and there were almost no happy things. He didn't remember the cross-dressing man at all.
But when he thought about it carefully, some images suddenly flashed through Xia Xiqing's mind: a small playground in the park, the lawn under the roller coaster, and a child who was crying and stuttering and holding on to him and refusing to let go.
No wonder he always felt that Zhou Ziheng looked familiar when he was a child.
"It can't be such a coincidence..."
Zhou Ziheng's face was filled with excitement. "My first movie was filmed in Hankou. Last time I wanted to go to the park to take a look, but I was afraid you would be unhappy, so I didn't mention it."
Xu Qichen, who had been listening to the conversation, tried hard to sort out his thoughts, "Wait a minute, so you met each other when you were kids?"
"She's the sister I liked when I was a child." Zhou Ziheng grabbed Xia Xiqing's hand, Xia Xiqing pried his hand apart and held her forehead, "What sister... Ouch, my head hurts."
"That's right! I got lost in the park, and he folded a rose for me out of paper." Zhou Ziheng didn't know how to describe his feelings at the moment. He could hardly believe that the young lady at that time was actually Xia Xiqing. He grabbed Xia Xiqing's hand, "Can you still fold it now?"
"It seems..." Xia Xiqing pulled out a piece of tissue paper and lowered his head, "Let me try..."
"Damn it, Xia Xiqing, you've been holding people back since you were a kid."
"Tsk tsk, I don't even dare to write like this in my novels..."
"Brother, you look so good in a skirt!"
"Shut up… "
The room was in chaos. Zhou Ziheng was the only one who didn't say a word. He felt like he was dreaming. He felt dizzy and felt like he was flying in the clouds. There was no happier thing than this.
The stunning glimpse that I had been thinking about all along has finally returned to me after fifteen years.
It turns out that the so-called white rose is the red rose in front of us.
"You are my first love."
These words were like a feather, floating lightly into Xia Xiqing's ears. He lowered his head, and those memories lost in the long river of time seemed to be recovering little by little. The crying little ball turned out to be the person in front of him.
"What..." Xia Xiqing muttered quietly, "I've been jealous of myself for a long time."
They raised their heads and their eyes met, and both of them couldn't help but laugh.
"I hated you so much at first," Zhou Ziheng also found it funny, "Why didn't I recognize you the first time I saw you? I was so stupid."
Recalling their tit-for-tat first meeting, Zhou Ziheng was filled with regret.
"I forgive you." Xia Xiqing pinched his chin and smiled proudly, "Because you have been secretly in love with me for so long."
so far so good.
They didn't miss it.
Xia Xiqing smiled and placed a folded paper rose in Zhou Ziheng's palm.
The crying child at that time stumbled over from the mist of time and bumped into him with the spring breeze.
Tears turned into gentle kisses, and childishness turned into enthusiasm.
I hugged him, who had been holding on for many years, and patted his back gently.
This time it was his turn to say, don't be afraid.
The author has something to say: There are two updates today