The place Chu Li took Zhou Chuan to was in the alley behind the middle school near his residential area—it was dinner time around 7:00 p.m., and the whole street was very lively. There are groups of students carrying schoolbags in front of the string; fruit sellers; traditional pastry sellers, the whole street is packed to the brim...
Most of the small restaurants and milk tea shops on the street are also full of students—they are those high school sophomores and seniors who have finished their classes and are waiting for dinner to go back to evening self-study. At the moment they are crowded in a small restaurant , Order a meal ranging from five yuan to more than ten yuan. Most people have a cup of milk tea in front of them, chatting and waiting for food.
There are cicadas singing in summer, and the earth that has just been roasted violently during the day transfers the last residual heat to the soles of the feet through flip flops. People not far away are chattering, some are gossiping, Talking about the topics of the recent exams, some are complaining about the heavy workload, while others are discussing the popular stars or TV series...
—A very lively evening street.
A cart selling mangoes passed by a puddle on the side of the road, and the splash of dirty water almost splashed pedestrians. A group of female students screamed and ran away, and the fruit vendor who pushed the cart quickly apologized... In the eyes of the income, Hiukawa's big eyebrows trembled, and his first reaction when he stood at the intersection was to turn his head and walk back—but Chu Li, who had known that he would come this way, stood behind him like a gatekeeper. The first time the man turned around, he stretched out his hands and grabbed him: "You don't want to eat anymore?!"
Hiukawa: "I'll go back and order takeout, it's hot, dirty and messy here."
"This is also called dirty and messy. From which fairy palace are you a little fairy? Teacher, stop!" Chu Li dragged back the man who insisted on leaving with all his might.
"Yu Yao didn't tell you the place I hate the most?"
"The position I am competing for is an 'editor' not a 'nanny'!"
"...then you know now."
"You don't even think about going anywhere, just eat here tonight—you have to gain some popularity when you are bored at home every day!"
"I do not."
"..."
…
ten minutes later.
The students sitting at the entrance of a certain restaurant at the end of the street stared dumbfounded at a young lady in her twenties and an uncle with a beard who was half a head taller than her wrestled into the store. Holding two cups of milk tea, the other hand is holding the uncle's elbow, while yelling to the boss "two servings of cumin beef and eggplant", while walking through the crowded shop, the uncle is pushed to the corner near the air conditioner A place to sit down... The uncle struggled for a while, complained in a low voice, and finally landed his butt on a third of the four-legged bench, and fell silent aggrievedly.
The young lady put the milk tea between the two of them, and sat down opposite the uncle. The two looked at each other expressionlessly for a few seconds. The young lady said, "Welcome down."
students:"… "
Chu Li took out a cup of milk tea, cut a small hole on the edge of the cup with a small piece of plastic, and then stuffed the cup with cheese milk foam on the top half and iced tea on the bottom half into the man's hand... The man took it and glanced at it The small hole was scratched on the cup, hesitated for a moment, took out a handkerchief that came out of nowhere from his pocket, wiped it carefully on the lid of the cup, and then took a sip.
students:"… "
Chu Li rolled his eyes to the back of his head.
Chuli: "Is it good to drink?"
Hiukawa put down his cup: "It's okay."
Chu Li glanced at him, opened his share of milk cap himself, took a big gulp to drive away the heat from walking all the way, raised his hand to wipe the thin sweat from his forehead and said lightly: "The chairs in this small shop are no better than yours. The chair at home, if you sit on a third of it so coquettishly, you will have to turn it over in a while."
Hearing this, the man didn't say anything, but moved his butt reluctantly, and looked around - in fact, although the outside looked dilapidated, the whole shop was still clean, with snow-white tiles and polished tiles. The electric fan is clean and squeaking, and the air blown by the air conditioner has no strange smell...
The kitchen is transparent. The owner of the stir-fry puts a lot of eggplants into the pot, sautes them with garlic until fragrant, and then when the fire is up, add oil. When the eggplants are flattened, add beef strips, seasonings, cumin... more oil, Only the eggplant can be made into a puree; the hands must be fast so that the beef will not be over-fried—
Finally, as soon as the pot was turned over, the owner's daughter-in-law lifted the two casserole pots from the coal fire and lifted the lids, and divided the fragrant cumin beef into the two casserole pots with a big spoon.
Fifteen seconds later, the two servings of cumin beef casserole were placed in front of them... Hiukawa cheered as he watched the little girl sitting across from him, put down his milk tea cup, stared at the delicious rice in front of him, and opened a pair of Disposable chopsticks, after skillfully rubbing the small thorns on them—
Handed the chopsticks to the man's eyes.
Hiukawa froze for a moment, raised his hand to take the chopsticks, did not move, stared at Chuli again and pulled out a pair of chopsticks from the chopstick holder, still snapped them apart neatly, rubbed them, and then poked the chopsticks into the casserole rice in front of him, Let the aroma of the rice hit the sky...
All she had in her eyes was the donburi in front of her, and it cost twelve yuan a piece, but it seemed to make her eyes shine—
While feeling "Why is this little girl so down-to-earth?", the man held the chopsticks in his hand and watched the person on the other side bury his head in his mouth...
Looking at it, he who was disgusted with "what the hell is this place so noisy, so hot and so messy" last second, suddenly felt like he was hungry too.
Hiukawa: "..."
A generation of great literary gods has fallen.
Your son is heading for the beginning of degeneration.
The elegant and non-greasy aura life is going away.
Dinner can't be under 100 yuan. Meal standards are silently broken.
Hiukawa raised his chopsticks and buried himself in his meal.
Chu Li was also busy burying her head in grilling rice, and when her empty stomach was finally filled with some food, she slowed down and habitually pricked up her ears to listen to the gossip of the students around her. I suddenly heard familiar nouns suddenly drilled into my ears—
"Ah, did you see that Hiukawa just posted on Weibo! He is still alive! He was not arrested by the police!"
Get caught by the police? First salute black question mark face.
"Really? Really? Let's take a look. I'll take a look. Grass really posted, what does 'I'm tempted by the light' mean... I haven't seen this for so many days and suddenly said this, don't you be crazy? .”
"Why do I feel like I'm in love?"
"Who do you think my husband is in love with?! Who?!"
"Leave a comment and ask—what do you mean, sir, are you in love? You agreed to marry me when I grow up—send it, and the comment is successful."
"...By the way, I'll ask him when he will update. My roommate wants to see him update before he dies... But Da Da has just appeared, so it's not good to remind me? You have to pay attention to a wave before reminding you how to do a play?"
"I'm afraid of any reminders, the comments are all 30,000 to 40,000, half of them are cheering, 'You are still alive', and the other half are hurting, 'When are you going to update', there is one more you, not more, you one less..."
"What if Da Da is driven crazy by us?"
Amidst the chirping discussions, Chu Li turned around and found that several little girls in school uniforms were huddling together like a flock of birds. Their heads were placed on the cell phone of the little girl in the middle, pointing and discussing continuously...
Chu Li raised his eyebrows slightly, thinking that the fans of Da Da are real, you can meet them wherever you go, and you can bump into a group of them when you eat a bowl of rice. How does a guy react when he finds out he's being loved by a bunch of high school girls...
But unexpectedly, he found that the man sitting opposite him was eating quietly while maintaining his original posture and speed, occasionally taking a sip of milk...
He is as firm as a mountain.
As if without hearing it, a discussion about himself was taking place.
But at this moment, even if he is unshaven and wearing a shirt, big pants, flip-flops, sitting in the crowd, he still stands out from the crowd.
——The topic of the high school girls behind the scenes has changed from "Is Hiukawa insane?" to "Look at the guy behind who looks handsome with a shaved beard" and "Damn it, maybe it's not the uncle but the brother" and other remarks As proof.
Chu Li narrowed his eyes with a smile.
The man still didn't raise his head, but finally reacted when Chu Li started laughing, and said flatly, "Laughing like a pervert at the man who is eating, you have a special hobby."
Getting used to his taunts, Chu Li's smile didn't change, and he propped his chin with one hand: "Isn't it good? Sit among the high school students, have a meal, and feel the breath of youth..."
"The meal is good, high school students are fine." Hiukawa put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth, "Noisy ears."
Chuli thought for a while, then lifted his chin from his hand: "Really? I think it's pretty good. People are like this. When I was in elementary school, I was looking forward to junior high school. In junior high school, I was looking forward to high school. In high school, I thought I was in hell and I was looking forward to university. … As a result, after graduating from university, I started to work, but I suddenly found that the purest and happiest time in my life seemed to be high school. It was so good at that time. I didn’t have to worry about anything, just brushed the question bank day and night, and after school, I was with my friends. Squeeze together to eat at roadside stalls, study at night and shoot mosquitoes or something—"
As Chu Li said, he laughed again: "At that time, every day I heard the Chinese teacher overtime talking about 'you are the worst class I have ever taken', but she failed the exam, and she stayed with us again cry."
Hikawa didn't speak.
Chu Li took a sip of the milk cover, and glanced at the man sitting opposite him with the edge of the cup: "Aren't you a childless person with a hard heart, don't you miss your school days at all? When you write a literary guy, you are like a corpse." How can impress others... "
Hiukawa took out the change and put it on the table: "You are drinking milk tea, not wine, so don't make excuses and talk nonsense."
First ceremony: "..."
Putting down the meal money, the man stood up and walked out of the shop—
Amidst the emotions of the group of girls just now, "He is so tall", "The nose is so straight", "Made is handsome even with a beard, my friends, once you accept this setting", Chu Li yelled "The boss pays the bill", and hurriedly followed chase out...
…
When I walked out of the store again, night had already fallen.
The heat of the day finally dissipated. After eating and drinking enough, the man slowed down his footsteps and walked in the middle of the street... without looking back, he remained silent—Chu Li felt that he should be thinking about something important.
With her hands behind her back, she jumped up and down and followed behind the man at a faster pace.
"Mr. Jiang Yucheng said, teacher, you are depressed these days. The fuse of all events seems to be that your high school classmates are going to get together? You said that you happened to meet the Chinese teacher who taught you and him during the period in C city. I'm going to retire, so the school is planning to gather outstanding graduates from all classes to hold a teacher appreciation banquet or something... "
"He has a slit in his mouth."
"Teacher Jiang Yucheng didn't tell me anything," Chu Li hurriedly waved his hands to cleanse the idol, "I asked him what's wrong with you, and he said you were upset about this."
At the beginning of the ceremony, she found that the man walking in front of her suddenly stopped.
The man turned his back to her, she couldn't see the emotion on his face, she could only hear from his voice that he seemed hesitant—
"You asked me just now, did I have no childhood, or a heart of stone, and I don't miss my school days at all..."
"?"
"I don't miss it."
"Hey, how is it possible, Mr. Hiukawa, you are good-looking, good at studying, graduated from a famous university, and your high school study career must be perfect... Especially you are so good at writing, 800-character composition is no problem, Your Chinese teacher is probably your first batch of fans, right?"
"No," the man started to walk again, letting the people behind him speed up and circle around him to stare at him curiously. He looked into her eyes and said lightly, "When I was in high school, the composition was out of sixty points. Before the high school exam in March, I never got 40 points in my composition."
Chu Li was taken aback.
The man raised his hand, and patted the dangling head in front of him—seeing the dangling head stop shaking because of his slap, the man paused, and then smiled not so obviously spread out in the eyes...
Perhaps it is because the ear roots that have been cleared up after the noise give people a wonderful feeling of clearing the fog.
Maybe it's the situation.
Or maybe it was the person who appeared in front of me, who suddenly wanted him to open his mouth that had been closed for many days, and say something...
It's like a mussel with its mouth tightly closed met with boiling water that forced it to open its mouth.
Anyway -
"Tell you a story about my friend."
"?"
"My friends are like me."
"..."