The New Year's Eve party usually lasted until after midnight, and the elderly had limited energy and went back upstairs to rest after nine o'clock. Shi Rao and Qiu Cheng stayed on the sofa for a while, feeling deserted, so they ran upstairs too.
"Didn't your parents call and urge you to go home?"
Shi Rao, who was holding the iPad, turned his head and glanced at him, and said in a strange voice, "I muted the phone."
Looking at the woman who was concentrating on playing Match 3, he twitched the corners of his mouth, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"Why have you been so rebellious recently? I gave you courage?"
"Don't put gold on your face, I have never been an obedient person, I used to pretend better."
"Stop playing, what's the point of your game?"
As he said that, he stretched out his hand to snatch something, Shi Rao hurriedly turned his back to him, letting Qiu Cheng miss it.
"You don't care, the New Year's Eve party is boring, so I'm not allowed to play games for a while, right?"
As a person who is afraid of meeting pig teammates, but even more afraid of becoming pig teammates, she never plays online games.
When Qiu Cheng and his brothers were playing League of Legends, she was playing Lianliankan next to her. When they were playing Fortnite, she started playing Match 3. The formula was still familiar, and the original feeling was still there.
"Let's chat."
"There's nothing to talk about. Let's talk at twelve o'clock."
Sitting beside her alone, Qiu Cheng watched her play Xiaoxiaole for a while, and finally turned on the TV to play the New Year's Eve party helplessly, downloaded Xiaoxiaole on his phone, and played with her.
When it was almost eleven o'clock, Shi Rao with sore eyes exited the game and turned off the device, turned her head and squeezed into his arms, raised her neck and acted like a baby at him.
"You help me rub my shoulders, I'm tired from lifting the iPad just now."
"..." He glanced at the unpassable level, put the phone aside, pulled her onto his lap, and gently pinched her shoulders.
"Is our New Year's Eve too boring?"
The woman lying on his lap narrowed her eyes comfortably, "You still said, you lied to me that you prepared a surprise at Xie's house before, but when you arrived, there was nothing, you liar!"
"Who said nothing?"
Hearing this, Shi Rao twisted her neck and turned to look at him, and asked blankly:
"have what?"
"There's me." Before he finished speaking, Qiu Cheng was pinched mercilessly by her, and he gasped in pain.
"Take it easy, where are you pinching?"
"Who told you to lie to me, I didn't cut it for you with scissors, you should thank the Lord Ron."
Shi Rao withdrew her hand and put it under her chin, and continued to enjoy his service with her eyes closed.
Qiu Cheng looked at the delicate woman on her legs, he didn't stop the movements of his hands, but his mind wandered to other places.
"Baby, when do you think it's appropriate for a man to start a family?"
"Get married and start a business? Didn't the ancients say that you should be established at thirty, it should be around thirty. You, you go down a little bit, don't keep holding on to the one-third of an acre of land on your shoulders and don't let go."
"..." Qiu Cheng raised his eyebrows, and thought: You really have a lot to ask for.
"Yes, yes, that's right there, give me a good pinch."
"Around thirty, how much is left and how much is right?"
"Well, three or two years old, if the difference is too much, I always feel old."
After hearing this, Qiu Cheng recalled in his heart how old he was this year.
"Then according to what you mean, I'm also in the marriageable range."
Shi Rao:? ?
"What do you mean? Deliberately tricking me, right?"
"No, I'm just asking. After all, none of our brothers are married, and those two are still single, worse than me."
"You want to introduce them to girlfriends?"
"I'm not as painful as you think. That kind of thing was done by my seven aunts and eight aunts. It's none of my business."
Shi Rao nodded, as if he was very satisfied with his ideological awareness, he calmly gave a thumbs up.
"That's good, your task now is to solve Qiu Rui, don't think about anything else."
"You can't say that. I think there are some things that should be prepared in advance, such as marriage. You said just now that you are 30 years old. I am not far from 30 years old. When will I think about getting married?" thing?"
"..." Well, so you are waiting for me here.
Shi Rao supported the bed and rolled over to sit up, stretched out her index finger and poked his chest a few times.
"What do you mean, hit my shield with my spear?"
The man who was hurt by her poke hurriedly grabbed her restless little hand and put it on his chest, looking at her with a sincere expression.
"I'm serious. If there were no misunderstandings and delays in the past few years, our two children would probably be called daddy. These years, no matter what happened, no matter how people around me persuaded me, I still did not change my original intention."
"In this life, you are the only woman I want to marry, the rib that I lost."
Through the thin woolen sweater, his sonorous and powerful heartbeat vibrated along the blood vessels from her tender palm to her heart. The sound of thud-thump-dump seemed to be beating a drum, which made her heart beat too fast. stand up.
Qiu Cheng looked at her quietly, his eyes focused and affectionate, he couldn't find anything other than her face in his eyes, as if this pair of star eyes were born for her.
"You, don't do this."
He is usually a hooligan, but today he changed his way, which made her uncomfortable.
Shi Rao blushed and looked away from his face, trying to pull her hand back, but failed after several attempts. The man was like a sculpture, a rock, standing firmly in front of her, making people both reassured and frightened.
"Let go first, please, you hurt me."
The man's hand loosened a little, but she still couldn't break free. After struggling a few times, she finally gave up.
"Didn't I say it before, about getting married..."
She tilted her head and stared at the pattern on the bed sheet, trying to pretend to be disapproving and negotiating with him, but was interrupted by his faint voice.
"While you speak, look at me."
"Huh?" Shi Rao froze for a moment, looked up at him, Qiu Cheng raised his eyebrows to signal her to continue.
But when she met his starry eyes, she couldn't speak a word, her head turned around and around, and she couldn't think of a suitable line.
"Nothing else to say?"
After waiting for a long time but not waiting for the next sentence, he took the initiative to attack, Shi Rao bit the corner of his lips and nodded innocently.
"If you don't know what to say, I'll say it. Do you like me?"
Shi Rao nodded, thinking to herself: You are not talking nonsense, if I don't like you, why should I leave my family to accompany you on New Year's Eve.
"Then do you love me?"
She continued to nod.
"will you marry me?"
"..." Shi Rao was stunned for a moment, hesitated for a moment, and then nodded heavily.
"Do you think I can't afford to marry you?"
People who are used to nodding nod their heads habitually without hearing what he said clearly. Halfway through the nodding, they find something is wrong and quickly change it to shaking their heads.
"So, why don't you want to marry me?"
"..."
Sure enough, it was still the same routine, holding her hands and feet one after another, not allowing her to back down.
"I didn't say no, I won't marry you, I just wanted to talk about it later."
"Tomorrow after tomorrow, there are so many tomorrows. You push tomorrow today, the day after tomorrow, and a year or so has passed. It will not affect other people's lives, but will only delay and waste our time and energy."
"If it was three years ago, we would still have time to waste and grind, but now I am almost thirty years old. Getting married, preparing for the wedding, and getting married after marriage, we will have children when we are all ready. Probably around 35."
"I don't ask you to promise me right now, I just want a certain or less vague time, tell me when you will be ready, and I will show up at your door with flowers and a ring at that time."
"Is it done?"
A sentence of "Is it done?" seems to be able to express the bitterness and injustice in his heart, as well as the humbleness buried deep in his heart in the past few years.
Shi Rao just kept the posture just now, knelt on the bed and looked at him quietly, his eyes were a little wet unconsciously, and the tip of his nose was sore as if stimulated by an onion.
She couldn't say the words of refusal, and she couldn't play sloppy with him like before, let alone give him a clear answer.
Marriage is not a trivial matter. She feels that she is not ready yet. She doesn't know where it is, but she just feels that something is missing.
Whether it's pressure, passion, or impulsiveness, she can't say, and she can't say clearly, she just feels that there is something missing between herself and him.
Looking at the woman who seemed to be forced into a dilemma by himself, Qiu Cheng felt pain and anger in his heart, he grabbed Shi Rao's hand, pulled her to the bedside, pressed a switch on the wall and the room instantly became dark.
Shi Rao with tears in his eyes stood by the window, not knowing what he was going to do, tears fell from his eyes, and his vision was much clearer, she found that the flower shed seemed to be very lively, with gorgeous lights shining.
"What's in there?"
"A gift for you, but I don't know if you still want it now."
"Why not?"
Shi Rao asked back, dragged him and ran out, and when he reached the door, he stopped him.
"It's cold outside, you need to put on some clothes, and...you should be able to guess what's inside, are you sure you want to go down and have a look?"
"..." After listening to Qiu Cheng's question, she was unavoidably stunned again. If she said no after seeing it, wouldn't it be more chilling than not going down to have a look
She stood at the door with her head lowered in thought, but she never let go of his hand. After about a minute, Shi Rao raised her head, as if she had figured out something, and said in a firm tone.
"Look, why don't you read it? You haven't given me any presents in the past few years. It's rare to prepare one, how can I not go and have a look?"
After finishing speaking, she dragged Qiu Cheng to the cloakroom, took the black woolen coat off the hanger and threw it to him, and put on a short green down jacket on herself.
"Is that enough? Are your legs still exposed?"
As soon as she entered the bedroom just now, she changed into a nightgown, now it's not enough to just put on a small down jacket.
"It's okay, let's just run over there."
With bare calves, she dragged Qiu Cheng downstairs, and ran to the greenhouse without stopping. The moment she opened the door, warm wind blowing in with the fragrance of flowers.
It looked unreal from the outside, but when she came in, she found that this place was quite different from before. The light-emitting diodes illuminated the place like daytime. A knock can also make a crisp sound.
"You did it?"
"Could it be that you thought my mother would help?"
He also poked the bell next to the photo, and listening to the sound of the jingle bell, he pulled her to continue walking in.
After walking inside, she realized that it wasn't just these gadgets, he also played with the flowers and spelled their names.
"Auntie didn't beat you up, you made all her flowers look like this."
"She was thinking about it, so I asked her: Do you want flowers or grandchildren? She was silent for a while, then turned and went out."
Hearing this, she imagined the scene at that time, and pinched him dumbfounded.
"Aren't you lying, who said that these flowers can be exchanged for grandchildren?"
"Of course these flowers can't be exchanged for a child, but they can help me deceive a daughter-in-law. If the child's mother has already got it, will the child be far behind?"
As he spoke, he pulled the red thread in front of him, and a letter fell from the top. Shi Rao subconsciously stretched out his hand and hugged the letter in his arms.
"What's this?"
"love letter."
"..." Looking at the man who seemed to have given up treatment, she squeezed the letter in her hand and burst out laughing.
"Can't you be more tactful?"
"It's already this time, what else is there to be euphemistic? I originally wanted to bring you here before midnight, and accompany you here to count down and welcome the New Year, but you ruined the atmosphere."
With such a big pot, she couldn't carry it on her back. Shi Rao smiled and lowered her head to get the letter, and pulled out the light blue card from the envelope.
"Dear baby!"
"Just look at it, why are you still reading it?"
Shi Rao took the card and went back dissatisfied, "It's just the two of us here, why can't I read it, you are so embarrassed to write it out, why don't you be too embarrassed to listen to me read the content of the letter?"
After finishing speaking, she retracted her gaze, deliberately held the letter at eye level, cleared her throat, and read aloud with emotion.
"I'm your favorite brother Qiu Cheng... why are you so embarrassed?"
"You just read it, there's so much nonsense." As he spoke, he frowned and poked the back of her head dissatisfied, Shi Rao turned and glared at him and continued to read.
"It's been 20 years since I knew you. Occasionally, I still have the illusion that we are still the wandering group that sang wantonly in the bar that year."
"In these years, I have been constantly reflecting on myself, trying to find out my shortcomings, correct them one by one, and make myself a perfect enough man, someone you can rely on with peace of mind."
"There is still a long way to go, but I hope to always have you by my side, no matter where we go or what we do, we are always together."
"The ring is in the flower behind you, if you will wear it..."
Shi Rao's voice became smaller and smaller, she turned around and looked behind at the big peach heart spelled out with red roses, and leaned over to look for the legendary ring among the rose petals.
Suddenly, a ray of light refracted into her eyes, she walked forward with the letter, bent down and carefully stretched out her hand to pick up the diamond ring that fell on the flower.
"What are you taking it for? You don't plan to put it on."
Shi Rao looked carefully at the ring in his hand, saw the initials of their names on the inside, and looked up at him with a flat mouth.
"When did you buy it?"
"I bought one last year, but I was not satisfied with it. I bought another one this year. Do you like it?"
"I like it, please help me put it on."
"???"
Seeing him stunned, she simply bent her lips and put the ring in his palm.
"I just asked you to help me put it on, and I haven't said that I will marry you now, so don't be sentimental."
Before he finished speaking, Qiu Cheng grabbed her little hand, and put the ring on her hand gently and carefully.
Looking at the tailor-made ring for her, he pulled Shi Rao's hand to his lips, and placed a soft kiss on her hand.
"I knew it was appropriate."
Looking at the man who was full of emotions, she smiled, tiptoed and kissed him on the face.
"For the sake of your hard work, I accepted the ring, but the matter of marriage is not considered yet. When you take down the Qiu family and solve all your worries, I will be generous." Admit your identity."
"real?"
"Really! When did I lie to you, as long as you solve the mess in the Qiu family, I will tell fans who my boyfriend is."
"I'll remember what you said. If you don't admit it at that time, see how I will deal with you."
As he said that, he stretched out his arms to wrap around Shi Rao's shoulders and bowed his head to kiss him. Shi Rao raised his hands and wrapped them around his neck, slightly padded his feet and bit his thin lips not to be outdone.