An Ze will never forget the scene of seeing An Luo for the first time.
It was 20 years ago. Seven-year-old Anze returned to China from Paris with his mother. Growing up in France, he was very unfamiliar with the domestic environment. He only learned from his mother that there were three other An family members. The older brother will live with them, the eldest brother An Luo, the second brother An Yan, and the third cousin An Mo.
An Yan is An Ze's elder brother. He returned to China with his father two years ago. The two brothers meet occasionally. He is no stranger to An Yan, but for the other two brothers who have never met, An Ze only listens to his mother occasionally. bring up—
Big brother An Luo's mother died in a car accident when he was seven years old. Although he was young, he was very sensible. After returning to China, he should learn more from him, remember to get along well with his big brother, and don't be naughty like An Yan...
The mother's advice buried the thought of "be sure to get along with my brother" in the little An Ze's heart. After knowing that his brother's mother had passed away, An Ze firmly believed that he should let his brother more, not because of him. He bullied him when his mother was gone.
The time to return home is set in winter, just before Christmas.
When I came out of the airport, it was snowing heavily in the sky. Large flakes of snowflakes fluttered in the air like feathers. The falling snow made the scenery outside the window a hazy white mist. Under the thick snow, the silver-clad city is covered with snow, like a mysterious and beautiful white castle in a fairy tale.
The heavy snow caused traffic congestion, and the car went home from the airport for two full hours. The curious Anze kept lying on the side of the window and looking at the snow outside the window, so much that his mother said, "Say hello to my brother when I get home" and "I will teach you." "Remember in Chinese" and the like were all thrown out of his mind by Xiao Anze.
It was the afternoon when I got home, the snow had already stopped, and the afternoon sun shone on the white snow, and the reflected light was a bit dazzling. When An Ze, who was wrapped in a thick coat, got out of the car, what he saw was the scene of three boys playing in the snow—
Running around wearing gloves was naturally the familiar An Yan, and the other two brothers who did not know each other. One of them took a branch and painted carefully on the snow, while the other sat there quietly with his eyes closed and basking in the sun. sun.
An Ze tugged at the corner of his mother's clothes and asked, "Mom, which one is the big brother?"
Zhou Bizhen smiled and pointed to the boy sitting there basking in the sun, "That's your elder brother An Luo." Then she waved to Xiao An Luo, "Xiao Luo, come here."
An Luo heard someone calling him, opened his eyes, and looked over here.
- Those are a pair of very beautiful eyes, the black pupils are as clear and bright as they have been washed by this winter snow. His skin is very white, wearing a thick white coat, standing in the snow, seems to be able to blend in with the surrounding snow.
An Luo walked to Zhou Bizhen and asked politely, "Aunt Zhen is back."
He turned his head and glanced at the child behind Zhou Bizhen. Xiao Anze, who got out of the heated car, suddenly became red with the cold air, and his dark, shiny eyes were staring at him seriously. Looking at him, his eyes were full of doubts and curiosity.
"Is this An Ze?" An Luo glanced at the cute child and turned to ask Zhou Bizhen.
Zhou Bizhen smiled and said, "Come on, Aze, say hello to your brother."
"Oh." An Ze nodded and walked out from behind his mother obediently, "Brother."
An Luo stretched out his hand, "Hello, Anze."
Compared with An Luo's calmness and calmness, Xiao Anze was very nervous. When he was in France, he greeted those adults by leaning over and kissing their faces, but now his brother stretched out his hand... What should I do? Would he hate it if you kissed his face
An Ze glanced at his thick gloves, and then at the white hand stretched out in the air, hesitated, and finally decided to take off the gloves, stretched out his hand, and lightly grabbed his brother's fingers.
An Luo probably sat in the snow for too long, and his fingertips were a little cold, but because Anze had been wearing gloves, his fingers were very warm, and the two hands were held together. great body temperature.
Brother's hands are so cold, could they be frozen? An Ze couldn't help but want to hold it for a while to keep him warm, and even wanted to give him his gloves to wear, but An Luo quickly pulled his hand back.
An Ze looked at him a little disappointedly, and said in unfamiliar Chinese: "Hello, brother, I'm An Ze. In the future, please take care of my brother."
This is what he secretly learned from his mother's conversations with people, and he stammered a word.
An Luo seemed to think his brother's greeting was very strange, so he didn't respond, but turned his head and said, "An Yan, An Mo, stop playing, come over to say hello to your brother, and prepare to eat."
"Oh!" An Mo quickly stopped obediently.
But An Yan didn't listen to his brother's words and shouted: "You eat first, I haven't finished it yet!" He was wearing thick leather gloves, holding a large pile of snow and building strange things there.
An Ze asked suspiciously, "Brother, what is An Yan doing?"
An Luo said, "He's building a snowman."
"Snowman?" An Ze's Chinese is not good. He doesn't know what a "snowman" is. He glanced suspiciously at the strangeness that An Yan was building, and asked, "Are all snowmen so ugly?"
"..." An Luo didn't answer.
An Yan was very unhappy when he heard this, and shouted to An Ze, "An Ze, you are so annoying! Who said the snowman I made was ugly, you have something wrong with your eyes!" .
An Ze was hit by a snowball, and a large flake of snow fell on his thick coat. He was not angry, nor did he quarrel with An Yan. He was just curious to see the strangeness in An Yandui, and said seriously: " It's really ugly."
An Yan was about to squeeze a snowball to hit him again, An Luo stood in front of An Ze, reached out and patted the snow on An Ze's clothes lightly, looked at An Yan with a frown, and said, "An Yan, don't bully my brother. "
An Yan pouted and turned away.
***
In the evening, many guests came to the house, Zhou Bizhen and An Yudong were busy entertaining the guests, and the four children were rushed to the restaurant to have a table alone to eat.
Xiao Anze, who is used to holding knives and forks in France, is not used to the tableware such as "chopsticks". He always picks half of the food and falls on the table. An Yan said with disgust, "How stupid!" Looking down on himself to eat seriously, as the eldest eldest brother among several children, the important task of teaching his younger brother to use chopsticks naturally falls on An Luo's shoulders.
This little brother who just came back from abroad doesn't know anything, and he is very curious. As the eldest brother, An Luo is also more concerned about him. Seeing him struggling with a green vegetable very hard, An Luo finally can't bear it anymore. Grab his hand and teach him personally: "To hold chopsticks, keep your fingers apart... Hold it like this... Do you understand? Come on, try it."
"Oh!" An Ze imitated his brother's movements to hold chopsticks, and soon learned it. He successfully picked up a green vegetable with chopsticks, put it into his brother's bowl happily, and said, "Understood, thank you brother."
An Luo felt that this younger brother was very cute, so he couldn't help reaching out to touch his head and said, "Be good, don't thank him."
***
At that time, An Yudong was still living in a neighborhood close to the city center, with four bedrooms and two halls, a house of more than 100 square meters. Before living with three children, it was not crowded, but now Anze and his mother came back, With a couple plus four children, the bedroom is naturally not enough.
After sending off a group of guests, Zhou Bizhen packed her luggage in the bedroom, An Ze ran to take a shower, and An Yudong began to worry about the arrangement of the bedroom.
I wanted An Ze and An Yan to sleep in the same room. After all, they are brothers and they are familiar with each other, but An Yan doesn't seem to like his brother, so he ran into the bedroom very early and locked the door. After all, An Mo is not biological So reluctant to force him, An Yudong had to discuss with his eldest son An Luo: "Xiao Luo, let my brother sleep in your room tonight, okay?"
An Luo frowned slightly, obviously not happy.
An Yudong continued to coax him: "I know you hate being close to people, but there aren't enough bedrooms at home, and Anze is seven years old again, so it's not good for him to squeeze a bed with his parents... Just this week, let him share a bed with his parents. You sleep, our new home will be renovated next week, and you can choose the bedroom by then, okay?"
An Luo was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay."
Xiao Anze, who came out of the bath, was taken by his father to the door of his brother An Luo's bedroom, "Anze, I will sleep with my brother here tonight. My brother has to do his homework at night, so don't be naughty and make your brother angry."
An Ze nodded sensible, "Oh, I see."
When he opened the door and walked into the bedroom, An Luo was sitting in front of the desk doing his homework. Under the warm yellow lamp, his skin looked very fair, his long eyelashes drooped down, casting a faint shadow on his eyelids. , the thin lips were pressed tightly together, revealing a trace of indifference that was unapproachable.
Anze had never seen such a beautiful boy before. He suddenly felt that the naughty kids with blonde hair and blue eyes he met in France were simply ugly compared to the older brother in front of him.
Children always like to be close to beautiful people. Although An Ze also wanted to be close to his brother, An Luo kept his face cold and An Ze was too embarrassed to disturb him who was writing seriously, so he had to stand by obediently and watch him silently. Silhouette of head down and writing.
Aware of the serious eyes of the child, An Luo raised his head and asked suspiciously, "What are you looking at?"
An Ze pointed to the notebook on the table, "Brother's handwriting is beautiful, is it Chinese?"
An Luo asked, "You don't speak Chinese?"
An Ze nodded, "I can only speak, not write."
Looking at his serious expression, An Luo couldn't help but say, "Brother will teach you to write, okay?"
Anze nodded immediately, "Okay."
An Luo picked up the pen and wanted to write on the paper, but found that the pen just ran out of ink. After a moment of silence, he looked back at An Ze and said, "Come on, reach out."
An Ze obediently stretched out his hand, and An Luo slowly wrote two words in his palm with his index finger.
"An... Ze... Your name is written like this, can you see it clearly?"
An Ze shook his head and answered honestly, "No."
An Luo repeated it stroke by stroke.
An Ze nodded and said, "I see clearly." Then he took An Luo's hand, wrote the word An Ze in his palm, and asked seriously, "Brother, did I write it right?"
"Yes..." An Luo was very surprised. This younger brother was really too smart and had an excellent memory. He had never learned Chinese characters for such a difficult word "An Ze" and memorized it after reading it twice.
"Brother, how do you write your name?" An Ze asked again.
"It's written like this." An Luo came back to his senses and wrote another word "Luo" in his palm.
An Ze quickly learned it, and while writing the word "Luo" repeatedly, he said curiously, "Brother, our names are very similar, with three dots on the left."
An Luo said, "That's three o'clock water."
An Ze wondered: "What is three o'clock water?"
An Luo said: "It's... the radicals of Chinese characters."
"What are the radicals?"
"..." What a problem child. An Luo felt that it was very difficult to communicate with children with zero Chinese knowledge, so he changed the subject and said, "It's getting late, go to bed now."
"Oh." An Ze quickly climbed into the bed and went to lie down obediently. After covering the quilt, seeing that An Luo still hadn't come over, he stuck his head out and asked, "Isn't brother sleeping?"
An Luo was silent for a while, then walked to the bed, went to bed, and turned off the light.
The room suddenly became quiet. Seven-year-old An Ze and ten-year-old An Luo were lying side by side on a large bed. An Ze had just returned to China, and the jet lag was overwhelmed. Move, just lay there silently in a daze.
At first, An Luo didn't seem to get used to the people around him, but then he fell asleep because of the drowsiness. He seemed to be afraid of the cold. After falling asleep, he habitually rolled the quilt over and wrapped himself like a dumpling. .
An Ze's quilt was suddenly swept away by his brother, and he said with some doubts, "Brother... My quilt... "
An Luo, who was asleep, ignored him at all.
An Ze wanted to pull a little quilt to cover it, but An Luo wrapped it tightly. An Ze couldn't pull the quilt for a long time, so he had to rub against his brother aggrievedly, stretched out his hand and shook his body, "Brother... the quilt …”
In his sleep, An Luo seemed to hear someone muttering in his ear.
"..." An Ze was pushed to the side of the bed and almost rolled off.
He didn't dare to quarrel with him, but it was so cold that he couldn't stand it, so An Ze had to rub him over again, stretched out his hand, and hugged his brother and the quilt as if he were hugging a big pillow to keep him warm.
***
The next morning, Xiao Anze, who had not been covered with a quilt overnight, caught a cold and had a high fever. Out of guilt, An Luo has been taking care of him by his side, guarding him all day.
When An Ze woke up from a high fever, what he saw was his brother who was sitting beside the bed with a concerned look on his face.
He said in a very gentle voice, "Are you awake? Are you feeling better?"
He touched the hand on his forehead, and there was a comforting coolness, which was An Luo's uniquely low body temperature, and from that day on, this slightly cool temperature was clearly left in Anze's memory.
Seeing that An Ze was in a daze and didn't speak, An Luo got up again and poured a glass of water, lifted An Ze up from the bed, put it to his lips and said, "Come on, drink some hot water first, and I'll get you something to eat after drinking it. "
Anze has lived in France for many years. He has no siblings by his side. He is used to entertaining himself when his mother is not at home. No one has ever treated him so well.
At this time, sitting by the bed and caring about his brother made An Ze feel particularly warm and cordial.
It was also from that time that An Ze stubbornly thought that his brother was actually a very good and gentle person.
Even after An Luo became more and more indifferent to him, An Ze never questioned his initial impression of his brother.
It's just that An Ze forgot that only children who can cry will make people feel distressed, and children who are too sensible will never get more love from their brother, although they will be recognized by their brother.
During the initial period, An Luo only took care of him for the reason that "the younger brother who just returned to China is not suitable for the environment", but after the smart Anze quickly adapted to the environment, An Luo's concern for this younger brother was become less and less.
Later, An Luo even gradually ignored the existence of An Ze, the fourth younger brother, because in his eyes, this fourth younger brother no longer needed his attention. What he had more trouble with was An Yan, who always liked to cause trouble. What he cares about is An Mo, who is not in good health. An Ze, the fourth younger brother who suddenly came back from abroad and has no emotional foundation, has become less and less important in his eyes.
An Luo slowly forgot the events of his childhood. He even forgot that the word "Anze" was written by him, stroke by stroke, stroke by stroke with his index finger.
Those were the first two Chinese characters An Ze learned.
The third is the word "Luo" in "An Luo".
Twenty years have passed in a hurry, but the plot of the first encounter is clearly imprinted in my heart like a brand.
It is a pity that only An Ze was imprinted in the bottom of his heart.