Jiang Wang couldn't go out for a while.
It hurts self-esteem for an adult to be ridiculed in public, not to mention a slap in the face.
"What's the use of rushing over here? Your father is just worrying too much!" The woman looked old and miserable, and tried to vent all the pressure of life on Ji Linqiu: "You have no expression at all when you are talking —You monster!"
Ji Linqiu moved a little, as if he heard what she actually wanted to say.
"You guys came to the provincial capital without telling me this time, in fact, to give me a blind date, right." He said indifferently, "I just had a cerebral hemorrhage in the middle of the night after staying at my sister's house for two days, and it's also because of me?"
The elderly quarter mother gave him a hard look.
"We used to live frugally for you to go to college, not to see your face now!"
"Now Dad is in the intensive care unit," Ji Linqiu's voice turned cold: "You still want me to leave him and go on a blind date, are you serious?"
With a long hiss, the woman rushed forward to poke his shoulder in grief.
"Ji Linqiu, do you know that you are going to be thirty years old?? Is there something wrong with you and you are still not married??"
"Your father will be asked as a joke by the leaders and colleagues when you are in the unit during the holidays, and your mother will be asked by them when you return to your mother's house. One or two will think that we don't treat you as a son."
"Do we owe you? Have we made any excessive demands?? We just want you to live like a normal person!"
Ji Linqiu was still looking at the figures in the ward, and after a long while seemed to filter out all the negative emotions she exerted, he said lightly: "Got it."
His younger sister was helpless and aggrieved, but she did not dare to participate in their conversation from the beginning to the end, as if she had already tacitly regarded her as a foreigner.
"Tomorrow at noon, you go to have dinner with the daughter of Uncle Tong's family. They are the most serious professor's family in the scholarly family. Give our old Ji's family a fight!"
Before venting her femininity, she kept poking him with her hand: "Stop being nasty, do you hear me!"
Ji Linqiu suddenly withdrew his arm and looked at her coldly.
"You are breeding cattle."
"What's the matter, I'm afraid I won't be able to get hard enough to let you hold your grandson?"
Mother Ji's face became pale and pale, Jiang Wang had a premonition that the situation was not right and rushed to the rescue, and the stern-faced nurse also appeared at the same time.
"What's the noise? This is the inpatient department, how many patients need to rest!"
"Please go out if you have something to say, if you make trouble again, I will call the security guard!"
"Okay, okay, let's not talk, let's not talk," Ji's mother changed back to the previous humble look, as if she had never lost her temper just now: "I'm sorry, I really caused you trouble."
Jiang Wang walked among them, seemingly unintentionally blocking Ji Linqiu behind him, smiling very politely.
"Mr. Ji and I took turns driving overnight, and went to eat without sleeping for a while at noon. I guess it's hard to be in good shape."
Ji's mother is very cooperative in other matters, but she will not let go of this kind of matter.
"If you miss this opportunity, you will lose it. Sleeping after eating is also good for the stomach!"
"What chance?" Ji Linqiu raised his eyes and said, "The chance of climbing a high branch and getting in the door is gone?"
Ji's mother didn't expect that the child who had always been submissive would dare to talk back, and stretched out her hand suddenly in front of Jiang Wang to slap her face again.
But he was blocked by the man's two fingers.
"Auntie, it's not appropriate." Jiang Wangpi smiled and said: "You also said that he is going to run away."
Ji's mother sighed heavily, then seamlessly switched back to the resentful woman mode, talking about how difficult it was for her.
Jiang Wang was tired of hearing it, so he just excused that the hospitalization procedures had not yet been completed, and dragged Ji Linqiu to the doctor's office to change the temporary cleanliness.
After about an hour or two, it was dawn, and my brother-in-law rushed over from Kuangye in the hospital.
This buddy is tall and burly like a brown bear, and he punched Jiang Wang when he first met him.
"You kid is awesome! Toss me in the middle of the night!"
Jiang Wang smiled: "We have a deep relationship, so it's still a matter of getting things done."
He turned slightly to introduce his friends to each other.
"This is Teacher Ji, a person I respect very much."
"This is Kuang Ye, a friend I met in business, who has a lot of contacts in the provincial capital."
Ji Linqiu greeted him politely, and Kuangye shook hands with him carelessly.
"Students, you have a good temperament at first glance. Don't worry, I have specifically told you about your father, and my younger brother will come to take care of him more later."
Ji Linqiu didn't sleep all night and his complexion was bad, and he was a little wobbly when he bowed.
"It's really troublesome. I invite you to dinner tonight."
As the name suggests, Kuangye people are very wild. If they have money, they will ride a motorcycle all day long and fly around the field all day long. Making friends is all about being happy.
Jiang Wang knew that it would be safe to entrust this matter to him, and he would take care of his factory's business later on, and made a few jokes to invite Ji's mother and the others to come and get to know each other.
After ten o'clock at noon, the drowsiness became uncontrollable, as if trying to drain the arterial blood from the brain stem to the neck.
He himself was uncomfortable, and when he looked at Ji Linqiu, he looked sympathetically.
"Are you really going?"
"It's time to grab a meal." Ji Linqiu laughed at himself: "Maybe he will be regarded as a phoenix man, and we won't be able to chat much."
"Hey, can I follow?"
Ji Linqiu froze for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
"That's good." He seemed to be finally relieved: "It's all girls with their companions, and I'm the first to enjoy this treatment."
As long as Ji's mother saw her son let go of his promise to the blind date, she was satisfied, and worried that it would affect Jiang Wang's rest, so she said a few polite words in a hypocritical manner.
"My son has never dared to get too close to girls since he was a child. Maybe I was too strict in the past. I stared at him all day and night for fear of falling in love early." Ji's mother wiped her eyes, as if she had inherited twelve responsibilities by herself. Ku: "It's good to have friends like you by my side now, and it's good to be cheerful at last."
Jiang Wang's heart suddenly brightened, and he thought that you may have noticed something wrong with you.
The restaurant is quite high-end. It is located in the revolving restaurant on the 22nd floor of the five-star hotel. Looking outside, you can get a glimpse of the high-altitude view of the entire city.
The crystal chandelier swirled and fell like a shell, and the crimson velvet tablecloth didn't have half an inch of wrinkles.
The girl is twenty-five this year, with pearl earrings flickering, and she is very delicately dressed.
But judging by the suppressed smile on the female companion's face, there is a high probability that she was forced to come over by her parents.
During the banquet, the delicious dishes were served one by one, Jiang Wang ate at a leisurely pace, and his attention was basically on Ji Linqiu.
He found the man really interesting.
The men are almost bear-like, and they can't help looking at their breasts and ass when they meet a good-looking girl, but the degree of camouflage is different.
Jiang Wang observed for a while, and found that Ji Linqiu was always distracted and didn't even look at the other girl.
Even if he went to the bathroom halfway, he didn't even bother to look at his slender calves.
No, are you really afraid of women
Ji Linqiu was so sleepy all the way, but he was polite enough to speak well, and his appearance was pure
Jun, in fact, is very popular with the two little girls.
The female partner of the blind date originally wanted to be the background board, but later she couldn't help talking with her, and even held her face and focused on watching Ji Linqiu.
The girl opposite was more interested in Jiang Wang, and asked him if he was single when the meal was over.
"A second marriage with a baby," Jiang Wang was also afraid of disturbing the good things of Huang's family, and refused with a smile: "The children are already eight years old."
The girl expressed deep regret, and left with a few words of emotion on her arm.
They stayed in the provincial capital for a total of four days.
In four days, he was arranged to go on blind dates three times, either for dinner or coffee, but he only had time to watch over the old man at night.
Ji Linqiu always has a good sense of distance and is very polite to the girls.
One of them was a little tempted, but he politely avoided him.
Jiang Wang saw something, and La Ji Linqiu went to the small garden in the hospital to breathe in the gap between the beds in the hospital.
The small garden is not big, and only two or three old people are pushed out for a stroll in wheelchairs at the moment.
The afternoon sun fell on them, and the mottled light spots were a little messy.
"What's the matter, I'm in a bad mood." Jiang Wang accompanied him slowly forward with a cigarette in his mouth, feeling that he was getting closer to the truth of his previous life: "Those relatives gossip or something... just for the sake of feeling superior."
"They are all married and have children, so they can compare and give advice on this kind of thing."
"But... are you avoiding girls on purpose?"
Ji Linqiu stood under the plane tree, looked at him for a while and said, "Teach me to smoke."
Jiang Wang was noncommittal: "It's not a good thing, don't learn it."
Ji Linqiu stared at him.
Jiang Wang sighed, and handed him the white sand that he had just smoked twice, so as not to waste good things.
"Inhale, then exhale through the nose, don't choke."
Ji Linqiu hesitated for two seconds, took the cigarette and was still looking at it.
"I hate my saliva," Jiang Wang didn't bother to worry about these things, and he was used to being unrestrained in the barracks: "Wait, I'll order another one for you."
Ji Linqiu shook his head and took a deep breath.
Then he suddenly choked into his lungs, his eyes were flushed by the smell of tar, and he covered his mouth and coughed.
He looks very sad.
He seems to be particularly easy to bully and stubborn.
When I coughed hard, my eyelashes would be stained with tears, and the sound of my breathing would also be broken.
Jiang Wang took the cigarette and took another puff to demonstrate to him.
"Use your nasal cavity and look at me."
Ji Linqiu watched intently, holding the cigarette between his fingers like him, and repeated it with cold eyes.
The broken shadows of the sycamore branches and leaves shrouded them, as if giving them temporary shelter.
Jiang Wang watched the former teacher take a deep breath the first time and the second time, the movements became more proficient, and the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.
He suddenly realized that Ji Linqiu was also an ordinary person.
Just like him, ordinary people who are confused and irritable when dealing with family relations.
He always looks at him with halo intentionally or unintentionally, and Ji Linqiu is so handy in taking care of children, sometimes it gives Jiang Wang the illusion that he can handle everything well.
After the filter was broken, he felt that the distance was closer, and he even felt a kind of sympathy for meeting the same kind.
Ji Linqiu smoked Jiang Wang's whole stick of white sand, put the cigarette butt in the gravel bowl of the garbage bin, and threw it into the basket of harmful garbage.
Jiang Wang witnessed the whole process, thinking that a good teacher is indeed a good teacher, so he would probably have turned around and left by pressing on the tree.
He asked a question when the two went back.
"how do you feel?"
"I'm so dizzy." Ji Linqiu sighed: "I won't smoke in this life."
Jiang Wang laughed.
The old man woke up in the afternoon after the operation, but he was very tired and talked less.
After he was transferred from the ICU, Ji's mother stayed with him throughout the whole process, and his daughter was responsible for cooking soup and medicine at home, taking good care of him.
The old lady is like a strict housekeeper, reporting to him every day what happened in detail.
Although Ji's father can't move his body yet, he will squint his eyes and listen, then nod and shake his head, and shake his head heavily.
At this time, Ji's mother would look back at Ji Linqiu with tears in her eyes.
Jiang Wang didn't have much family memory in his two lifetimes, and he felt his scalp tighten when he watched Ji Linqiu's situation for two or three days.
Fuck, this is too suffocating.
Before they left, they actually went on a blind date for the fourth time, and returned to the city after eating something.
This time, a second-married woman with a four-year-old child sat across from her. The child was either yelling to listen to a story or poking the food with chopsticks. The two reluctantly laughed and accompanied them, and quietly packed two hamburger and chicken wings. The Ji family saw it.
"You can think about it after you go back. Let's transfer the work to the provincial capital earlier, okay?" At this time, Ji's mother changed back to a loving mother, with a worried face on her face: "Mom is most worried about you. The family also has money for you to marry a daughter-in-law, and we have saved all the bride price your sister received back then."
"Cook well at home alone, usually go to bed early and change homework before it is too late, be obedient."
Ji Linqiu perfunctorily agreed, and waved goodbye to his family.
Jiang Wang didn't slow down until he drove the car into the high speed, feeling like he was leading Teacher Ji to escape from the clutches of the clutches.
They could have walked home at three o'clock in the afternoon and had dinner together, but it was already evening when they returned, and they probably would not arrive until late at night.
There are many sections of the national highway without lights, and it is very troublesome to walk with the help of car lights to guide the way.
The traffic broadcaster babbled about today's news, the wind was buzzing outside the window, and the world suddenly became a boring straight line.
Jiang Wang noticed that Ji Linqiu had been silent all this time, worried that he was in a bad mood, so he comforted him.
"My parents left early, in fact, I still envy you a little bit, after all, I can accompany them." The man tried not to poke his difficulties: "But... don't put yourself into it for a few beautiful words of others."
"Even if you're married, they can't gossip, if you have a baby late, and if your child's grades are good, they can still tell you what to do."
Ji Linqiu hummed lightly.
He likes to lean against the car window in a daze, but such a posture will reveal his slender neck, making him look extraordinarily fragile.
"It's good to have high vision. It's okay. I'll find some suitable ones for you later. Let's play and get along together first."
"no need."
"Jiang Wang," Ji Linqiu said calmly as he looked into the dark distance, "I'm gay."
The man was taken aback for a moment, then smiled again: "So what's the matter, it's a small matter."
He didn't expect it to be like this.
Jiang Wang received a lot of clients in his previous life, and indeed met quite a few GAYs.
He will not show any avoidance, even if those women or men are teasing and teasing in front of his face, the tone of conversation seems to be as natural as a husband and wife.
He didn't bother to think about why some people would like people of the same gender, but there was still a subtle resistance in his heart.
It's just that I never thought of it, but beside me
In such a close place, the teacher who I value and get close to is also gay.
For a moment, he wanted to persuade Ji Linqiu to think about it, but soon realized that this was a very arrogant idea.
—It seems that a man chooses to be with the same sex only if he really can't live with a woman.
So much so that saying something like "It's okay, I don't discriminate" or "Are you afraid of women" will turn into ridicule with unclear colors.
After much deliberation, he finally said something very cautiously in a tactful tone.
"Stay safe."
Ji Linqiu understood what he was saying, just shook his head, and smiled.
"Don't pay attention."
"I'm a man, but I can't get close to a woman."
"I'm gay but I hate it when men touch me."
"After thinking about it, maybe I am nothing, and should not have existed from the beginning."
Jiang Wang stared blankly, realizing that when Ji Linqiu said that he had never been in love at all, he meant that he had never had intimate contact with men or women.
"No way..." He slowed down the car, and finally turned his head to look at Ji Linqiu: "You don't have to push yourself like this."
"In fact, if I dare to tell any parent that I'm gay and I don't want a job, even the landlord won't rent a house to me."
When Ji Linqiu mentioned these, there was a kind of withdrawn calm, as if he was not talking about himself at all.
"Did you... have you encountered any bad things?"
"No," he said slowly, "it's just that when I'm touched by other men, my mind will immediately remind me that I'm gay."
"And the very thought was enough to drive me to self-loathing."
"I've been to Qingba, and I've met some similar people."
"Some people hide carefully and cautiously, and even force themselves to marry and have sex with women."
"There are also people who just choose to have fun and indulge themselves. They are on the way of being fucked and fucked every day, and there are endless condoms in their bags."
When Ji Linqiu said these things, he was rather self-defeating. He was probably suppressed so hard by his family these days that he had to speak out at the risk of losing his friend Jiang Wang.
"I'm like nobody."
"I'm like a wild goose that has strayed away. The wild goose that flies south every winter, Jiang Wang, have you ever seen it?"
"Scattered and lost, I don't know where to go when I fly north, and I can't go back when I fly south."
"Jiang Wang, I am that wild goose."
Jiang Wang turned to look at him again, and slowly stepped on the brakes to stop the car with a low voice.
"Mr. Ji, if I touch you, will you feel sick too?"
In fact, Ji Linqiu avoided him when he touched him when we first met.
Xing Xing was fast asleep at the teacher's house that day, and Ji Linqiu's wet hair was stained with wall dust when he was sent all the way home, and he wanted to help brush it off.
Just didn't expect it to be like this.
Jiang Wang deliberately omitted this memory, and proposed again as if he had never tried it before.
"Maybe it's just overthinking, things are not that complicated."
Ji Linqiu lowered his eyebrows in silence, and nodded for a while.
"I'll touch your shoulder," the man said gently, "Don't be afraid, I'll wait for you to relax before putting my whole palm on it."
Ji Linqiu had already caught his breath, and nodded his head tamely.
The body has already begun to tremble slightly.
Jiang Wang moved slowly, stretching out his hand under his gaze, and approaching his shoulder little by little.
Then I felt Ji Linqiu's body trembling even more.
"Relax," he laughed, "It's not the end of the world, we all have to go to work tomorrow."
"I put my finger down."
His palms are dry and warm, and when they cover his shoulders, the gentle smell of a beast is the diffusion of temperature from point to surface.
Then silently count for five seconds, and then slowly take it away.
Ji Linqiu took a deep breath for a while.
"It's me being hypocritical." He laughed at himself, "That's right, it's unavoidable to be patted on the shoulder by the leader, and some even like to hug people."
The car moved slowly, and Jiang Wang turned up the sound of the radio again, as if nothing happened just now.
"Do you know what I'm thinking?"
"I don't know." Ji Linqiu's defense mechanism has not been released yet, and he lowered his eyes and said: "When most people hear the word gay, their first reaction is AIDS and promiscuity."
"Not really," Jiang Wang yawned: "What I thought was, well, I'm finally equal to you."
"Equality?" Ji Linqiu didn't expect him to use this word.
"I used to always look up to you. I felt like you knew everything and didn't seem to have any weaknesses." Jiang Wang laughed, feeling naive too: "I used to see you take care of Xing Wang too much, and I felt like I was with Xiao Xingwang. Babies have a bunch of stinky problems, you are good everywhere."
"It turns out that Teacher Ji will also be embarrassed by his family members to the point of being speechless, wishing he could go on blind dates eighty times a day."
"Ouch, I suddenly got a lot closer."
Ji Linqiu couldn't help but laugh.
"Look how much you gloat."
Jiang Wang didn't want him to be sad, so he changed the subject casually.
"By the way, I bought a new house."
"Dong?"
"Well, I found a small single-family villa with a yard." He was happy again, and put all his unhappiness behind him: "I can dig a small pond to raise koi later, or I can give it to Peng Xingwang. Make a swing."
Ji Linqiu listened intently, correcting some of his wild fantasies from time to time.
While chatting happily, Peng Xingwang called.
"Hi—brother—"
"I haven't slept yet," Jiang Wang is used to the child popping up at any time to post: "Did you have fun at the summer camp?"
"Today we went chasing rabbits! We almost chased them!"
Jiang Wang vaguely felt that something was wrong, explained that he was still driving, and asked Ji Linqiu to chat with him.
The child did not expect that he could chat with his dearest teacher Ji, and the sweetness of his voice immediately rose to ten points.
"Ms. Ji!! I miss you so much!! I even made you a great gift, wait for me to bring it back to you in a few days!!"
As soon as Ji Linqiu heard Peng Xingwang's call, he unconsciously relaxed and smiled.
"You can't climb trees, be careful not to break your arm."
"But there are squirrels on it!! I really want to pet the squirrels!!"
They talked for more than ten minutes on the speakerphone, and Jiang Wang listened while driving, interjecting a few words from time to time.
In the end, the child hung up the phone reluctantly, saying that the teacher in the camp urged him to go back to sleep.
"Actually, I sneaked out to call you guys! Remember to miss me tomorrow too!"
The two men had nothing to do with him, so they agreed together.
When we drove home again, it seemed warm in the car and the stars in the sky were bright.