The days move forward in an orderly manner. Every night, Zhou Hao will always receive a message from Jiang Yuqian. The content is very concise, mostly just a few words, such as "I miss you", "Good night", etc. He just glances at it One glance, no reply.
It was on a Thursday morning in early spring that a soulful peep from the shadows was revealed.
Zhou Hao and Qian Weicheng went to the Art Cafe opposite the hospital, wanted to buy a cup of hot coffee, pushed the door in, and the three pairs of eyes met. The smile on Zhou Hao's face gradually faded, Qian Weicheng was quite smart, and ran to the front desk to order by himself, leaving enough room for the other two.
Jiang Yuqian stood up slowly from the chair, his facial expression could not be called surprise, he was a little nervous, and a little hesitant, he was thinking about how to speak.
"Why are you here?" Zhou Hao asked first.
This question has no technical content. It is normal to meet one or two acquaintances in public places, but don't judge Zhou Hao with normal thinking. He now feels that Jiang Yuqian is deliberately creating a coincidence.
"My home is near here, come and sit down." Jiang Yuqian explained, his eyes still fixed on the little lunatic.
"Brother Hao, it's ready, yours." Qian Weicheng handed over a cup of fragrant coffee.
Zhou Hao's eyes never left Jiang Yuqian for a moment. He tried to use his long-term scrutiny to expose the man in front of him. He took the coffee and took a sip without thinking about it.
The scorching heat spread from his mouth into his throat, and then into his esophagus. Zhou Hao couldn't bear it any longer, choked up, moved too much, shook his hand, and spilled the coffee in the cup.
Jiang Yuqian quickly took out a few pieces of paper, leaned over to wipe it for him, and muttered, "Why are you so careless?"
"Brother Hao, you should test the temperature anyway. This will make you mess up, what a bother to Mr. Jiang." Qian Weicheng smiled maliciously, "Mr. Jiang, I'll do it, don't do it."
"I'll do it myself." Zhou Hao pulled out a few pieces of paper from the side.
Jiang Yuqian also stood up straight at this time, "There's no need to wipe it off, it's all soaked in and can't be wiped off."
Jiang Yuqian glanced at Qian Weicheng, and carefully savored the word "Mr. Jiang" in his heart. He used to call him a junior, but within a few months, he has become so special.
No need to guess, it must be the little lunatic who showed resistance to him, and Qian Weicheng changed his words.
"What time do you go to work?" Jiang Yuqian asked.
"Eight o'clock." Qian Weicheng replied quickly.
Jiang Yuqian raised his arm and looked at his watch, "It's a quarter past seven, let's go home and change in time."
The "home" Jiang Yuqian refers to is of course the small apartment he bought near the hospital. He has been living here, and of course he regards this as his and the little lunatic's home.
"No, I'm not as clean as I used to be." Zhou Hao rejected Jiang Yuqian's proposal, and pulled Qian Weicheng out of the cafe.
The free and easy back gradually disappeared from Jiang Yuqian's sight. Over the years, the little madman has really changed a lot. I used to love cleanliness to the point of morbidity, but now I can tolerate dirty stains on my clothes.
Time is a terrible thing.
"Brother Hao, why did you react so strongly today? Mr. Jiang didn't do anything." Qian Weicheng asked as he walked.
Zhou Hao said bluntly, "He doesn't have the habit of waking up early to drink coffee."
Qian Weicheng was confused and hadn't turned the corner yet, "Why... no... it's all here."
Zhou Hao didn't explain anymore.
The two of them have already figured out each other's quirks in the past four years. Needless to say, even a small abnormal behavior can detect each other's tricks. Outsiders, how do you know this
In the evening, Jiang Yuqian appeared outside the dormitory door, carrying a paper bag of brand clothing in his hand.
"Brother Hao, Mr. Jiang is here to look for you." Qian Weicheng turned his head and shouted inside, then smiled brightly, "Mr. Jiang, come in quickly."
Zhou Hao was washing clothes in the bathroom, when he poked his head out from inside and took a look at Jiang Yuqian.
Jiang Yuqian carried the bag, walked into the bathroom with long legs, and closed the door with a "bang-". Zhou Hao didn't respond, and was still squatting beside the basin to wash his clothes.
"Why don't you use a washing machine?" Jiang Yuqian stood beside the sink.
Zhou Hao looked up at him, "I always wash by hand."
Jiang Yuqian didn't wear a suit today, but wore a casual style. He stood the paper bag in his hand by the sink, rolled up his sleeves, and squatted down, "I'll do the laundry, you go and try on the newly bought clothes."
Zhou Hao was still in a dazed state, Jiang Yuqian had already snatched the clothes from him, and was scrubbing vigorously.
When others heard this, they might really think that these two are a couple. The husband does the laundry and the wife tries on the clothes. It's just that there are too many things in between. After all, these years have been tossed beyond recognition.
Zhou Hao stood up, washed his hands covered in laundry detergent foam with water, and then looked at Jiang Yuqian who was buried in the laundry. He always felt that something was weird, but he didn't say anything, and walked out with the paper bag.
When I opened it, it was an army green jacket, which happened to be worn at this season.
Zhou Hao just wanted to put it on for a try, but accidentally saw the label of the clothes, and he put the clothes back.
In the bathroom, Jiang Yuqian was still squatting down to wash clothes, while Zhou Hao stood beside him in a daze.
"It's almost done, have you tried on the clothes?" Jiang Yuqian raised his head and smiled at the little lunatic.
"Did I cost you a lot of money before?"
With a sudden question, Jiang Yuqian's movements suddenly stopped. He didn't know what the little lunatic was thinking, but he still smiled, "It's not much money, why would I be your beneficiary?"
Zhou Hao turned around and walked out. Jiang Yuqian felt a panic in his heart, and then began to rinse his clothes with clean water.
"Qian Weicheng, how much money do you have?"
Qian Weicheng swiped the lollipop in his mouth and smashed it a few times, "I still have more than three hundred in cash, and I still have some in Alipay."
"how many?"
"What are you doing? Let me take a look," Qian Weicheng opened the Alipay interface, "There are still 23,000 left."
"Lend it to me first, and I will pay you back in a few months."
Qian Weicheng didn't know why, so he still acted like a fool, "You don't tell me what you want, I won't borrow it, I saved it to marry my wife."
"I owe Jiang Yuqian money."
"Oh, okay, don't forget to go back and ask Grandma Wang for me."
Qian Weicheng transferred all 230,000 to Zhou Hao's Alipay, and Zhou Hao saved 160,000, which made him nearly 40,000.
Zhou Hao appeared in the small bathroom again. The tiled floor around the sink was wet and there were still some unquenched foam. Jiang Yuqian stood by the sink and threw his clothes.
"Jiang Yuqian."
Jiang Yuqian turned his head, and when he saw the gloomy face of the little lunatic, his peaceful mood immediately turned cold, "What's the matter?"
"You give me your Alipay account number, and I will transfer the money to you."
Jiang Yuqian shook the water in his hand, and also had a serious face, "What money?"
"I owe you money before."
"Heck," he had vaccinated himself a long time ago, but Jiang Yuqian's heart was still pierced when he heard this.
"You don't owe me any money, and you don't need to pay it back."
"You have to pay it back, you are not being taken advantage of."
"That's my voluntary, I'm willing to give you flowers."
Zhou Hao's temper came up, "Who cares if you are willing or not, and you are not mine, you should pay back the money you owe."
"Who am I not to you?" Jiang Yuqian repeated coldly, "Then how much are you going to pay?"
"Repay you forty thousand first."
"Forty thousand?" Jiang Yuqian pretended to be mocking, "Are you really ignorant or pretending not to know? Forty thousand is not even a fraction."
Zhou Hao's hands hanging on both sides of his clothes were slightly clenched into fists, his cheap self-esteem was aching, his tense face gradually loosened, and his fists loosened. He lowered his eyes and couldn't say a word of argument.
Jiang Yuqian was right, he really wasn't there yet.
There was a sudden silence, and no one spoke. Jiang Yuqian glanced at the little lunatic, then turned his face away silently, feeling bored and aching in his heart, he was really making trouble for himself—
Knowing that he would hate the little lunatic the most, he insisted on saying those hurtful words.
"Haohao." Jiang Yuqian lost the battle, his voice softened.
Zhou Hao suddenly raised his eyes and said angrily, "Don't call me Haohao! I will return the money to you!"
Anger arose in Jiang Yuqian's chest. He kicked the basin to the corner fiercely, and the foamy water in it spilled all over the floor, "Zhou Hao! Do you think you are the only one in this world who has self-respect!?"
Zhou Hao rushed out of the bathroom, threw all the airplane models piled up in the corner of the dormitory to the door, pointed to the pile of dusty and exquisite models, and gasped with his chest heaving, "Take all your crap away!"
There was no way to escape the injury in Jiang Yuqian's eyes, he stared at the little lunatic with sharp and sad eyes.
Here, Qian Weicheng looked at the two people who were arguing red-faced, and wondered if the two had taken gunpowder or something.
"What are you two arguing about at night?"
Jiang Yuqian violently pushed away Zhou Hao who was blocking the door, and left the dormitory.
Qian Weicheng looked at the models scattered on the floor by the door, and asked Zhou Hao, "Brother Hao, do you still want those things?"
Zhou Hao didn't say anything, bent down and picked up the models one by one, still piled in the corner before.
Qian Weicheng sighed, "Brother Hao, why do you think you are doing this? Throw it away and pick it up again. You and your junior each take a step back, so you won't be arguing all the time."
"Did I really hurt his self-esteem?" Zhou Hao asked Qian Weicheng in a daze.
"I can't tell, I just think you two are awkward, but, are those gadgets of yours sent by your junior? Then he is really naive..."
Zhou Hao didn't listen to Qian Weicheng's words anymore, he took out the army green jacket from the paper bag, and made gestures on his body.
==============
The group photo with "Hao Hao and Qian Qian" written on the back turned into a crumpled piece of paper and was thrown on the ground in disgust by the owner. It used to be hidden in the innermost drawer by the owner as a treasure, and it was taken out to look through it from time to time.
Today is not what it used to be, and today's situation is much worse than before.
Jiang Yuqian, who had finished smoking, walked back to the bedroom, picked up the photo on the floor, and flattened it carefully, but it never returned to its original appearance. In the photo of the madman.
It was already ten o'clock at night, and the glaring white light from the chandelier shone faintly on every corner of the bedroom. Jiang Yuqian's anger had disappeared, replaced by a kind of sadness.
The kind of sadness that no matter what he tried to recover, he couldn't recover.
Tick tick, another half an hour later, the hour hand points to 22:30.
He lay on the bed, turned sideways, and made a call, "beep beep—" rang a few times, then hung up;
He called again, but still hung up;
One after another, he called four times, but never got through.
Helpless, he edited a message to the little madman—
"Haohao, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten angry just now. Tomorrow is Friday, and I'll take you out for a delicious meal tonight, okay? After dinner, let's go to a movie."
Of course, he didn't get a reply.
That night, the man slept very unsteadily. He could be woken up by the sound of vehicles entering and leaving the community, or the sound of dripping water in the bathroom.
After waking up, I would subconsciously look at my phone, but there was still no response.