The boy turned to look at her, and after a while, he smiled strangely.
Eyes drooping, she caught a glimpse of the two buns in her hands; when Chen Nian saw it, he handed the plastic bag to him: "Do you want to eat?"
He frowned, not hiding the disgust on his face.
The small white plastic bag was wrinkled, and the inner layer was covered with mist and water droplets, greasy and embarrassing.
Chen Nian blushed when he saw it, took back his hand, and said, "It's cold."
Not tasty.
He took a few steps and asked, "Do you eat this at night?"
Chen Nian nodded.
After a few seconds, he said, "Are you deaf?"
Chen Nian realized that he didn't see her nodding, so he said "um" without beginning or end, and he didn't know whether to answer the dinner or the deaf.
He stopped, frowning in displeasure, and looked at her for a while, then she raised her head in hindsight and looked back at him quietly and purely. He couldn't make a reason, probably speechless, and continued to walk forward without saying a word.
Chen Nian walked slowly without chasing, and stopped at the crossroads. He had already walked half of the zebra crossing. Chen Nian didn't need to cross the road, he was about to turn to go home, he wanted to say hello but felt he didn't have to.
There will be no more intersections, so parting ways, she thought.
The boy threw his coat over his shoulders, walked to the middle of the road, and turned around.
Chen Nian stood upright and quietly on the road, looking at him like a sapling. The wide school uniform T-shirt is covered with a thin body, and it is weak.
He narrowed his eyes in the sunset light.
She pointed to her left hand, indicating that her home was in that direction.
He pointed his thumb behind him, motioning her to come and follow him in that direction.
Chen Nian's hands drooped down, and Tuan hugged the school uniform jacket, looked at him from a distance, and didn't move.
After sunset, people come and go.
He didn't care, he walked across the road and looked again, Chen Nian came along with the crowd.
He snorted to himself, twitched the corners of his mouth, put his hands in his pockets and walked forward to the door of a small restaurant, where there was an open-air dining table, he pulled a plastic stool and sat down, and took out a cigarette to smoke.
After a while, Chen Nian walked up to him and stood aside to watch him.
He also looked up at her, her face was white and small, her hair was neatly combed, with a few strands of hair emerging, fluffy and golden in the setting sun.
He felt that she was like a snail, speaking, walking, and doing everything slowly, even if someone poked her, her tentacles slowly retracted.
After a few seconds, he beckoned her to sit down.
"What to eat?"
"It's all... OK."
"Order."
Chen Nian shook his head and pushed the menu to him. Said to be a menu, but it was just a greasy plastic sheet. He glanced at it and ordered three dishes at random.
Chen Nian looked down at the plastic film on the table and the oil stains on the film, the sound of the whistle on the road beside his ears.
The sun was about to set, and the last ray of sunlight in the evening shone on Chen Nian's face, which was glowing red.
She couldn't open her eyes.
He put the cigarette on the rim of a disposable cup filled with cheap tea, knocked it, and asked, "What grade are you in?"
Chen Nian raised her eyelids, and the setting sun shone on her eyelashes. She couldn't see his face clearly, so she compared "three" with her fingers.
"The third year of junior high?" he asked, rarely sly.
Chen Nian knew what he did on purpose, but still shook his head: "Gao... three."
"You look quite small, like a child." He glanced at her, his eyes could see through the clothes, and said lightly, "Stunted growth."
She felt a hot flush of shame, spreading like a sudden rash on her face.
The shoulders with the chest are more curved.
He let her go and said, "the college entrance examination is coming soon."
Chen Nian nodded.
After smoking a cigarette, he threw the butt of the cigarette into the brown tea and looked at her: "You don't like to talk."
"When I say... words, others... will laugh."
He watched calmly, and when she finished speaking, he said "oh" without any expression.
After a while, he asked, "Why are you laughing? Because you are stuttering?"
Chen Nian: "..."
The first time he said she was "Little Stutter", she was not angry, she could tell her tone clearly.
When the food was served, he asked for a bottle of cold beer, pointed the mouth of the bottle to her glass, and said, "How about some?"
Chen Nian quickly shook his head.
He didn't embarrass her.
The two no longer communicated, and after the meal, he paid. Chen Nian wants to propose to spread it out, but he doesn't know what his name is: "Uh..."
He turned to look at her, his eyes were dark, vaguely sharp, and his thick eyebrows raised: "You called me?"
"what is your name… ?"
"You don't know?" The threatening gaze appeared again.
Chen Nian didn't understand how she knew it.
"My buddies called my name," he said. "Twice."
Chen Nian didn't pay attention outside the school walls and on the street.
He stared at her, stood up, his eyes did not move, a deep crease appeared on his eyelids, he finally moved away, kicked the chair and left.
Chen Nian followed.
Speechless all the way.
He walked obliquely in front, and she followed in an orderly manner. From time to time, he glanced back at her pretending to be unintentional, making sure she was following.
She walked slowly and he had to wait. Once he turned around, looked at her for a few seconds, spit out the chewing gum in his mouth, wrapped it in paper, raised his wrist, and smashed it at her head. Chen Nian was startled, the ball of paper passed by her ear and smashed into the trash can behind her with a "dong" sound.
Chen Nian: "..."
Boys really like to play this long-distance parabolic trick.
He turned around and walked away, Chen Nian rubbed his neck with a bitter face behind him, just when he was startled, he accidentally swallowed the chewing gum he was chewing.
When I walked to the alley near my house, the road was different, and it was dark.
He glanced at the alley, turned around and asked, "Are you afraid?"
Chen Nian looked up at him, his eyes were clear, his eyebrows were lightly frowned, and his expression said everything.
He said, "Let's go."
He walked to the front with his pocket in his pocket, and when he heard the light footsteps following him behind him, he pulled the corner of his lips coolly.
After walking a few steps, he accidentally took out a candy from his trouser pocket and handed it to her.
Chen Nian shook his head.
He still didn't force it, and put it back in his pocket.
When I arrived at the door, it was an old-fashioned building with dark lights. The long staircase leading to the second floor is open air. Chen Nian pointed to the attic on the second floor, meaning that she lived there.
He stuffed a cigarette in his mouth and turned to leave.
Chen Niancai stepped on the steps and heard a voice: "North Ye."
Chen Nian turned his head suddenly, the straight long hair tied behind his head like a black silk skirt, unscrewed and closed.
He was cold and might as well see that the cigarette in his mouth shook lightly and took it down.
"My name is Kitano," he said. "Remember."
He walked towards her, thin but tall, with a temperament like a wall; Chen Nian looked up at him, stepped back unconsciously, accidentally knocked on the steps, and sat down on the stairs. Chen Nian gently hugged his knees.
He walked up to her, squatted down, his eyes were level with hers, and said, "Read."
"Read... what?"
"my name."
"North... Kitano..." She stared at his pale face in the night, stammering.
He shook his head very lightly.
Chen Nian knew what he meant, rubbed his hands, and said hard: "North..." He opened his mouth again, "... North..."
"Read with me," he said. "North."
"… north."
"wild."
"… wild."
"Nino."
"..." Chen Nian's eyes were as dark as grapes, looking at him.
"..." He was not impatient, like teaching a babbling toddler, "North."
"north."
"wild."
"wild."
"Kitano," he said.
"..." Chen Nian tried and opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say anything.
He didn't speak, just looked at her like that. I don't know whether to wait or fight.
Chen Nian's lips moved: "North, Ye." He still looked at him silently, so she prepared for a while and said, "North Ye."
"Okay," he said. "Ten times."
Chen Nian looked at him.
"Read it."
"Kitano." Chen Niannian said in a thin voice, "Kitano, Kitano, Kitano, Kitano..."
She closed her mouth, and the two looked at each other. She was sitting on the steps with residual heat, and the crickets in the grass were shouting.
He pinned the cigarette in her thin white ear, and rubbed the edge of her ear with his fingertips. The delicate skin was instantly red and hot, and he said, "Continue."
"Kitano," she said again, a little slowly, "… Kitano… "
He listened with a half-smile, took out the candy, tore open the package and put the candy in his mouth,
She was still obediently reciting, "… Kitano… Kitano… Kitano… "
ten times.
She looked at him and he looked at her.
After a while, she said, "It's over."
"Little stutter," he said, clutching her pale cheek in his hand, "just one more time."
Chen Nian's heart almost jumped to her ears, she said, "No... it's bad."
"One more time."
"Do not… "
"Difference."
Chen Nian had no choice but to pass it once: "North..."
He knelt down on one knee, pinched her chin, lowered his head and bit her lip.
Unlike last time, this time, his tongue stuck in her mouth.
The smell of orange, sour and sweet, the fire on her face, the pain at the base of her tongue, she held her breath until her cheeks flushed,
At the end, the young man sniffed her lips, stood up, and said, "Well read, I'll give you a reward."
Chen Nian's hands and feet were hot, and the orange-flavored candy was in his mouth.