As soon as he heard "Mr. Tao", Tao Ling immediately knew that he was in the wrong place.
He glanced at Wen Qingying, Wen Qingying grabbed his hand and shook it hard, and the two entered the store together.
The boss looked at the hands they had just released, and then took a closer look at Tao Ling.
Tao Ling nodded: "Hello Boss Qian, I'm not Tao Jun, I'm his younger brother. You should be calling Tao Jun just now, right?"
Boss Qian opened his mouth and closed it again, holding a purple sand teapot. After a long while, he laughed heartily and said, "I said why I'm the only one getting old, and you are exactly the same as five or six years ago."
Tao Ling also smiled: "Boss Qian, can I ask you, how did you meet my brother?"
"He is my guest." Boss Qian said.
Tao Ling: "But you open a shop here, and there are so many customers coming and going. You just said that you haven't seen him in five or six years."
Boss Qian leaned forward leisurely, leaned his upper body on the counter, and said mysteriously, "That's different, he has vision, he can understand what I want to do at once."
Tao Ling took a breath and raised his left hand: "You mean this?"
"Why are you here?" Boss Qian was a little surprised.
Tao Ling curled the corners of his mouth palely: "My brother left it to me."
Boss Qian laughed: "Where did he go? Did he support the well digging business in the Sahara Desert? Or did he go to plant Populus euphratica in the Xinjiang desert? Mom, you won't go to Vietnam to dig coal, will you?"
The voice fell behind, the air was silent for a while, the boss noticed something was wrong, his eyes went back and forth on the faces of the two people in front of him, his eyebrows raised and he asked, "Huh?"
"He has passed away, more than three years," Tao Ling said.
Boss Qian's hand holding the teapot froze for a while, and at the end all his expressions were withdrawn, and he nodded lightly: "Oh."
There was no politeness or consolation at all, Tao Ling breathed a sigh of relief, and suddenly understood why Tao Jun got along well with this man.
"Boss Qian," he said, "we came back abruptly. Actually, we just wanted to ask about the ring."
Boss Qian nodded again, took the purple clay pot and sat back on the reclining chair, pointing to the bench next to him: "Sit down."
Wen Qingying and Tao Ling walked over and sat opposite him, with a glass counter in the middle. Boss Qian took a few sips of tea and said, "Where do I start listening?"
Without waiting for an answer, he said, "Forget it, I'll talk about it."
"I took over this shop from my old man, and there has been no business. The first business I did was Mr. Tao. He said that he came here from wandering around. When I came in, I was grinding rings. After watching it for a long time, he told me directly that he was gay."
Tao Ling's nose suddenly became sour, and he could bear it, showing calm.
Boss Qian glanced at him: "Does your family have homosexual genes or something? Is this thing inherited? Why is my brother gay and my brother gay?"
Tao Ling smiled, and Wen Qingying saw him smiling, and also lowered his eyes and smiled.
"But you, I'll look at your face," Boss Qian looked at Wen Qingying, "You look like a good guy, and you're a good man. It's just too quiet."
"He can't speak." Tao Ling said calmly.
Holding the purple clay pot, Boss Qian was silent again for a long time, and finally said "Oh", picking up the words in front of him and saying, "He said he was gay and wanted to sharpen a pair of rings for himself and his lover, so he would take him there when he put on the ring. see the family."
Tao Ling pursed his lips and listened to him continue: "I should come down, but when he came to pick it up later, he only took one, and asked me to keep the other one for him until another person came to pick it up."
Tao Ling: "That person came to pick it up some time ago?"
"Yes." Boss Qian knocked on the side of the chair, "One surnamed Xia."
Tao Ling: "Didn't you ask him why it took him so many years to come?"
"Why do you ask?" Boss Qian smiled, as if he was asking such a stupid question, "What do other people's affairs have to do with me?"
Having said that, Tao Ling knew that there was nothing to ask.
Pulling Wen Qingying up, he glanced at the counter a second time, and Boss Qian said quietly, "If you don't really want to buy but feel embarrassed, don't look at it, you don't cherish my goods at all, and you don't care if you say a few words. Trouble."
"No, I didn't think so." Tao Ling smiled, "Thank you, Boss Qian."
Just as Wen Qingying was about to step out the door, Boss Qian suddenly said, "Hey, I remembered, the man surnamed Xia said something."
Tao Ling turned his head and saw Boss Qian's gentle eyebrows.
"He said there was someone better suited to wear that ring than him."
After leaving the gold shop, Tao Ling was always absent-minded, and Wen Qingying kept holding him, so that he didn't have to worry about the road.
The two clasped their fingers together, put them into Wen Qingying's wide pocket, and walked slowly around the town, uphill and downhill, slate stairs.
Passing by a small shop selling rose cakes on the way, Tao Ling suddenly shivered as if cold, but there was no expression on his face.
Wen Qingying pinched his fingertips, and rubbed his thumb from the back of his hand to his knuckles.
In the evening, he found a hotel nearby. Tao Ling asked Wen Qingying if he wanted to go shopping. Wen Qingying saw that he was in a low mood and shook his head.
Tao Ling smiled, looked down at his hand, and then remembered that it was time to change the medicine, and finally forced him to go out to the pharmacy.
After changing the medicine, he walked back and passed a dark, gentle slope. Tao Ling had lowered his head, but something bright flashed in front of him.
At the same time, Wen Qingying dragged him to a stop.
Tao Ling was stunned for a moment and raised his head. The sound of bang bang exploded in the distance. One after another, fireworks bloomed on the edge of the ancient town, illuminating a small square of sky.
The ban on fireworks has been implemented in Wu City for too many years. Tao Ling has not seen real fireworks for a long time. Although the special smell of firecrackers is far away, Tao Ling thinks he smells it.
It's the smell of New Year's Eve when I was a kid.
He turned his head towards Wen Qingying, and before he could see his face clearly, he was suddenly greeted with a cold kiss.
Tao Ling closed his eyes, and the touch on his lips gradually became warm.
He also has fireworks in his heart, and he kisses his loved ones under the flying stars.
As long as you don't sigh, the night will put away its minions and become a real night.
Both of them slept very late that night. Tao Lingwo was in Wen Qingying's arms. He fell asleep at first, but woke up in a daze in the middle of the night.
This place was very quiet at night. After waking up, Tao Ling thought of Tao Jun and couldn't close his eyes any more.
After watching Wen Qingying for a long time and recalling what Boss Qian said during the day, Tao Ling quietly took Wen Qingying's hand and got out of bed.
The next morning, when Tao Ling opened his eyes, Wen Qingying had already woken up.
"Morning." Tao Ling said, couldn't help but leaned forward and kissed his collarbone.
Wen Qingying smiled softly and rubbed his face.
He sat up when Tao Ling got out of bed, his eyes swept over his hands inadvertently, and he suddenly stopped.
Tao Ling stood by the window with his back to him, and pulled the curtains open.
Wen Qingying raised her right hand, gently tore off the half-covered gauze, and carefully looked at her middle finger by the morning light. There was a ring on it, exactly the same as the one on Tao Ling's hand.
Unexpectedly, the ring seemed to be tailor-made for him, and the size was just right.
One left and one right, the ring kisses the ring when holding hands.
After looking at it for a long time, Wen Qingying looked further away. He closed one eye to observe Tao Ling's back. From this angle, Tao Ling was as big as his hand.
Wen Qingying smiled, he got up and got out of bed, walked behind Tao Ling and hugged him tightly.
Then sunrise.
In two days, it will be New Year's Eve. The surrounding shops are gradually closed, but the flower shop is still open. Anyway, as long as the two are together, they can spend their time wherever they are, and feel at ease no matter what.
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Yun family sisters and Bai Guan came to bring some New Year's goods.
Yun Xin still looked as if no one owed her, and sat in the car and watched everything coldly.
Bai Guan was unloading things after saying hello, Wen Qingying watched for a while, although it was inconvenient to wrap his hands in gauze, he went to help.
Yunnan was talking to Tao Ling in the store, sighing, "Mr. Tao, you have such a good relationship with my brother!"
Tao Ling just smiled.
Yunnan asked, "Does Teacher Tao not go home for the New Year?"
"My house is nearby," Tao Ling said, in order to avoid having to deal with similar problems in the future, he said again, "It's okay to be idle, I'm in your brother's stock, and I'm selling flowers here. ."
Yunnan smiled cutely: "How could Teacher Tao lose his job?"
"Then I can see Teacher Tao when I come to see my brother in the future?" she said.
Tao Ling: "Maybe."
He turned his head to look at Wen Qingying's back, and asked casually, "Yunnan, why doesn't your brother go home? Is it because your sister doesn't like him?"
Yunnan glanced at the car outside, and whispered, "This, Mr. Tao, don't get me wrong. Although my sister and my brother don't get along well, my sister doesn't have any bad intentions."
Tao Ling nodded.
"My brother didn't like living at home very much. We used to live in our hometown, and everyone was sad after my mother died. At that time, I just came to study here, and the family simply moved here. After coming here, my brother stayed in the hospital for a while, After he was discharged from the hospital, he said he didn't want to live with anyone, so he moved out by himself."
Hearing the hospitalization, Tao Ling's heart suddenly stagnates, and he wants to ask again, but outside Yun Xin impatiently shouts: "Yunnan! It's time to go home!"
Seeing that Bai Guan had gotten into the car, Yunnan hurriedly responded and said, "Mr. Tao, I'm leaving."
"Walk slowly." Tao Lingying followed her to the door.
Below the low steps outside the door, Wen Qingying rubbed Yunnan's hair and waved goodbye to her.
The car drove away, Wen Qingying turned around, and saw the store full of things, he spread his hands helplessly.
Tao Ling slapped his hand, and his fingers were easily squeezed into the palm of his hand. He turned his head with a smile, and suddenly saw the owner of the next store looking at him.
He was stunned for a moment, but didn't respond, but Wen Qingying seemed to be afraid of him leaving, and immediately clenched his hand tighter, and smiled at the boss.
The atmosphere suddenly became awkward, but after two seconds, the boss smiled kindly and said, "The two of you have such a good relationship."
"Ah," Tao Ling didn't know what the boss saw or not. He thought of what Jue Xia said here a few days ago, and he didn't know what to judge for a while, and finally responded, "Yes ."
"Happy New Year's Eve."
"happy New Year."
Entering the store, Tao Ling was silent, and Wen Qingying gestured to him: "Sir, are you angry?"
Tao Ling even guessed that he understood what he meant and shook his head.
Wen Qingying took out her phone and admitted her mistake: "I'm sorry sir, I shouldn't have done that."
Tao Ling smiled: "What?"
Wen Qingying looked at him for a long time, blinked, and confessed: "I did it on purpose just now, I want people to know that our relationship is not normal, I shouldn't be like this."
After looking at each other for a moment, Tao Ling wrote: "No, I'm not angry at all, I gave you the ring just to let you tell the world."
Wen Qingying showed her little tiger teeth, lifted the gauze to look at the ring, and finally typed: "Then I'll take it after school starts, okay?"
Tao Ling's emotions were too complicated, so he responded, "Okay, everything is fine."
I don't know what Wen Qingying thought, but Tao Ling didn't mind the gifts from the Yun family.
The two have been living together for the past few days, and today we are going back to Tao Ling's house.
When Wen Qingying went to the kitchen to boil water, Tao Ling sent a slightly abrupt message to Yunnan: "Yunnan, sorry to disturb you, may I ask, what is your brother hospitalized for?"