The two of them were already past the age of sticking their buttocks and playing in the mud. Grandma Wang asked them to come down to play. They didn't know what to play for a while, so they could only wander around with their hands in their trouser pockets. They had to stop when they met neighbors they knew before. Say a few pleasantries.
The knitting factory built a basketball court on the edge of the family area, and sometimes organized employees to play ball games, usually occupied by a group of sports activists from middle and high schools.
When Wen Ai and Yue Xiao passed by the basketball court, they glanced into the barbed wire fence and saw two familiar figures - Luo Dongdong and Chen Feiyang. The two were playing one-on-one, and Wen Ai could feel the heated atmosphere between them from a long distance away.
Luo Dongdong doesn't live in this area. There is only one reason why he can appear here to play with Chen Feiyang. Wen Ai looked around, wasn't the little girl in the dress in the stands Miao Miao
Yue Xiao asked from the side: "Going to say hello?"
Wen Ai glared at him: "What do you need to say?"
A few of them played together since they were young, and they belonged to the same school in junior high school. They had such a good relationship, and it was unreasonable to pretend not to see them when they happened to meet.
The two went around to the entrance of the basketball court. The metal mesh gate was a little narrow today, with a gap of 70 to 80 centimeters, which was quite roomy for one person to pass through. If two people had to pass through at the same time, it would seem that these two people were a bit mentally retarded.
Wen Ai turned his body in time and finally squeezed through the door, and almost didn't fall.
He turned his head and said angrily at Yue Xiao: "Why are you robbing me? Can't you come in later?"
"Didn't you just say that you want to walk side by side?" Yue Xiao smiled at Wen Ai while patting the sleeve dust that was stained on the iron door frame just now, "I promised you."
Seeing that he was serious, Wen Ai said inexplicably: "You are just short-sighted."
Yue Xiao didn't refute, just smiled at him.
"Why are you here? Rare visitors!" Miao Miao was so bored alone in the stands, her eyes lit up when she saw Wen Ai and Yue Xiao, "I was so bored that you happened to talk to me."
Wen Ai sat down next to her: "Er Dong and Fei Yang are with you, are you still bored?"
Miao Miao showed a speechless expression: "The two of them have called me since noon and haven't spoken more than ten sentences to me. I really don't know why they called me here."
Wen Ai said good things to them: "I let you be the referee, I called you specially."
"Come on." Miao Miao lowered her head and straightened her skirt, "I'm just a spectator at best."
Wen Ai comforted her a few words, then turned to look at Yue Xiao, and pointed at the duo on the court with his chin: "See, they are just as careless as you."
Yue Xiao followed him and nodded: "I see."
Luo Dongdong and Chen Feiyang played hard, sweating profusely back to the stands, and only saw Wen Ai and Yue Xiao during the intermission.
"Looking at Grandma Wang again?" Chen Feiyang greeted them, bent down and took out a box of sandwich biscuits from the backpack on the ground, and shared a piece for each of them.
"Yeah." Wen Ai replied while nibbling on a biscuit, "Here's something to deliver."
Luo Dongdong didn't ask for Chen Feiyang's biscuits, took two sips of water, and laughed at him with his curly hair on his face: "Little fat man is just a little fat man, he always takes food with him anytime and anywhere."
Luo Dongdong looked at Miao Miao: "Miao Miao, you can't have such a person."
"Don't keep calling me a fat man, I'm so sick." Chen Feiyang handed the biscuits in front of him again, "I really don't want to eat them? To replenish my energy."
"No need." Luo Dongdong sat next to Yue Xiao and put his arms around his shoulders, "We skinny people have good physical strength, don't we, Brother Ma?"
"Yes, but Feiyang is also skinny now." Yue Xiao smiled, pointing to the bicycle parked outside the basketball court, "Erdong, can you lend me your bicycle for a while?"
"What kind of bike are you riding!" Luo Dongdong squeezed his shoulder, "I still want to play ball with you!"
Yue Xiao shook his head: "No."
"Don't pester him." Chen Feiyang tore Luo Dongdong off Yue Xiao's back, pointed at Wen Ai with his chin, "Can Brother Ma leave Yunyun behind to play with you?"
"Let's come together, little bamboo." Luo Dongdong stood up and snapped his fingers at Wen Ai next to Yue Xiao, "I'll teach you, Baojiabaohui!"
Wen Ai looked at the sweat dripping from Luo Dongdong's neck, and shook his head: "I don't want to play."
That's right, Wen Ai's vote was vetoed, so no one can talk about Yue Xiao again.
Luo Dongdong took out the key of the car lock and threw it into Yue Xiao's arms, then got off the court with Chen Feiyang holding the basketball.
Feeling bored, Miao Miao left the stadium with Wen Ai and Yue Xiao, said goodbye to them after coming out, turned around her skirts, and went home lightly.
Yue Xiao pushed the bicycle onto the road, stepped on the seat, turned to Wen Ai and said, "Come on, go for a drive!"
Wen Ai came over, supported his shoulders, lifted his legs, and sat on the back seat.
The weather at the end of August is still sultry, but now the wheels are turning and the wind blows, refreshing the whole person.
Yue Xiao rode very steadily, and drove Wen Ai through this family area that carried their childhood memories. The exterior walls of many buildings had turned yellow, and they were covered with a sense of age. The familiar people and things were still there. Still staying here, the cold noodle stand in front of the flower bed, the mahjong parlor on the first floor of Unit 3, the biggest yellow jue tree beside the open space—look, there are still a few little kids hanging on the branches.
Wen Ai and Yue Xiao were sitting in the same car, looking at the same scenery, presumably recalling the same things.
"Sit still." Yue Xiao said suddenly, "It's going downhill."
Hearing this, Wen Ai immediately let go of Yue Xiao's clothes and grabbed his waist instead.
There is only one slope in the family area, not long, but extremely steep.
"Slow down!" Wen Ai didn't even have the courage to look at the steep slope, and only dared to yell at Yue Xiao, "If you drop me, I'll never end with you!"
Yue Xiao firmly held the brake handle: "Don't be afraid."
As soon as the voice fell, Wen Ai felt his whole body tilted forward by a large margin, and then he rushed down all the way obliquely, the speed was getting faster and faster, the car kept vibrating, as if a car was going to happen in the next second. It's like flipping headfirst downhill.
"Yue Xiao—" Wen Ai huddled behind Yue Xiao like a little milk cub seeking asylum, wrapped his arms around his waist like vines, and the wrapping became tighter, "Yue Xiao, Yue Xiao, Yue Xiao..."
"I'm here." Yue Xiao's voice came from the wind blowing past his ears, "I'm almost there."
It only took a few seconds to rush downhill, but Wen Ai felt that kind of scratching feeling of weightlessness that lasted for a century.
After returning to the flat ground, Yue Xiao stopped the car, put his feet on the ground, turned his head and asked, "Are you okay?"
"What is it, okay..." Wen Ai hugged Yue Xiao's waist, put his head on his back and took deep breaths, and said softly, "Let me slowly..."
"good."
Yue Xiao didn't dare to move anymore, he was busy manipulating the front of the car just now when he was at the extreme speed of life and death, but now he stopped and calmed down, and he was belatedly aware of how ambiguous Wen Ai's reliance on him was.
Yue Xiao's body became more and more stiff, Wen Ai felt it, straightened up and let go of him, and slapped him on the back: "Why did you become so stiff?"
Yue Xiao blushed and didn't dare to turn around, coughed twice in embarrassment: "Your necklace is hurting me, it hurts a bit."
"It deserves it." Wen Ai lowered his head and pulled the little bamboo horse out of his collar. He had worn this necklace for more than three years, and he didn't know how many red strings he changed. "Why didn't you think of this when you carved? This stuff hit my chest unexpectedly, it hurts all the time, I haven't said anything yet!"
Yue Xiao was silent for a while: "If it hurts, take it off."
"Do you want you to command?" Wen Ai stuffed the little bamboo horse back into his clothes, and patted him on the shoulder, "Go to the stadium, return the car and go back to grandma's house for dinner."
Yue Xiao laughed, his voice rose, and he kicked the pedal: "Let's go!"
In the third year of junior high school, students are under the pressure of the senior high school entrance examination. Only those with excellent grades can continue to study in high school, otherwise they can only go to technical school.
Yue Xiao is not a material for studying, his grades are not high or low, he shuts himself in his room every night and studies hard.
After dinner that day, Wen Ai knocked on Yue Xiao's door, seeing him holding a pile of review materials, Yue Xiao was a little stunned.
"What are you doing at the gate!" Wen Ai said angrily, "These books are not heavy!"
"I'll get it." Yue Xiao hurriedly took all the books from him, "Come in."
Wen Ai closed the door casually, walked to the desk and sat down, put aside the open exercise book on the desk, and made a space: "Put it here."
Yue Xiao put the book over, dragged a bench and sat next to Wen Ai: "This is?"
"Are you so stupid? You can't tell when you're tutoring?" Wen Ai's expression was a little unnatural, "If it wasn't for my father insisting on me, I wouldn't be bothered to teach you."
Yue Xiao suddenly laughed: "Thank you."
Wen Ai's grades in all subjects are very good, the only shortcoming is mathematics, but it is enough for Yue Xiao to make up lessons.
It's just that if you don't understand it, you don't understand it. After Wen Ai talked for a long time, his mouth was dry, and Yue Xiao was still wrong about the question that should be wrong.
Wen Ai threw away the pen in frustration, and Yue Xiao poured him a glass of water: "I'm sorry, I'm so stupid."
Wen Ai drank the water and didn't know what to say.
Yue Xiao smiled: "Don't waste time for me, study hard by yourself."
Wen Ai put the cup on the table: "Don't give up on yourself so much, even if you want to join the army, you still have to finish high school, right?"
It was clearly requested in the plot, my hero!
Seeing that Wen Ai really didn't intend to leave, Yue Xiao hesitated for a long time, and finally explained: "Actually... Dad talked to me this afternoon, and he told me not to be under pressure. If you really can't pass the exam, help me find a relationship..."
Wen Ai was stunned on the bench, his mind was filled with the words he just said, "Dad insists on me helping you—"
The whole person is not well.
Wen Ai picked up the review materials on the table and left without delay.
"Wait!" Yue Xiao chased after him, "Don't be angry."
Before he finished speaking, the door of Wen Ai's room slammed down on his face.
Wen Ai's angry voice came from the door: "Explode in place, you! Damn it!"
Yue Xiao innocently rubbed his red nose, feeling quite happy in his heart.