ha? I looked at Wen Jiubai in a daze. What is he saying? Could it be... is he complaining
Are you complaining to me
"So now my stomach is growling with hunger." Wen Jiubai squatted on the table and winked at me.
"Then you can buy a box lunch. There are box lunches on the train. I heard someone shouting just now." I was baffled.
"So—" Wen Jiubai lay lazily on his stomach, while dangling a finger in front of my eyes, "You buy me to eat."
"Huh?" I couldn't help raising my voice.
"It's your fault that I wasn't allowed to eat. If you're not responsible, who is responsible? Please let me eat." Wen Jiubai said righteously.
This seat? This seat?
Wen Jiubai actually called himself this seat? I looked at him, dumbfounded. The childish sophomore boy in front of him is completely different from the confident exorcist with poetry and books before him. It is a bit too "surprised" to be able to see a completely different side of this person.
Could it be... is it because no one else is here now
"Flight attendants, two lunch boxes."
"15 yuan a piece."
"Thanks."
I handed one of them to the listless Wen Jiubai, "Here, your box lunch."
"The things on the train are really expensive." As Wen Jiubai said this, he took the boxed lunch as a matter of course and opened the disposable chopsticks.
"You know it's expensive, but you still insist on asking me to invite you." I muttered.
"Okay, don't be angry. Open your mouth." I saw Wen Jiubai holding something between his chopsticks and handing it to me.
I opened my mouth subconsciously, and Wen Jiubai stuffed the thing into my mouth all at once. I chewed, and a spicy smell hit my face.
"It's so spicy! What kind of chili are you bastard feeding me!"
"Seeing that you are not very focused, so that you can wake up."
"Wake up, you big-headed ghost!"
———————————
As time passed, the boy grew up and became a teenager. The teenager started to go to school, met more people, and then found that he was always different from other male students. I always have no friends, I am always alone, and the classmates around me are always laughing at me.
"Look, that sissy is coming!"
"He's obviously a boy, but he has long hair and braids."
"What's the matter? The students in class two said that he even came to school in a skirt."
"Wow, that's disgusting!"
"Stay away from him, be careful not to be infected with the sissy virus!"
Before the boy walked over, the children laughed and scattered.
"Mom, that..."
Once after school, the teenager finally mustered up the courage to ask his mother a question.
The mother who was cooking in the kitchen answered absently, "What's wrong?"
"Why do I have long hair and wear this kind of clothes?" The boy asked hesitantly, clutching the corner of his clothes, "No other male students in my class are like me... They laughed at me and called me …”
The mother stopped stirring, turned off the fire, and looked at the boy, "What did they say about you?"
"Call me..." the boy's voice became smaller and smaller, "Call me a sissy."
"So?" The mother cast a cold gaze, seemingly unmoved by it, "They say so, let's go, what if I can lose a piece of meat for you!"
"But, but!" The boy couldn't help raising his voice and wanted to refute, "They said too much..."
It was at this moment that the mother's expression began to change. She stared at her child like an enemy, "What do you mean? Are you dissatisfied with my arrangement? Do you want to resist me?"
The boy was so frightened by these words that he trembled all over, and quickly defended, "No..."
"You are clearly!" The mother raised her voice and threw the spatula into the pot. The loud sound made the boy tremble in fright.
"Come here! You don't know what to do, you are just like your father!" The mother stretched out her hand and grabbed the boy's ear. The boy didn't dare to resist, so he was dragged by the ear all the way to the bedroom. inside.
"Look!" The mother insisted on dragging the boy to the floor-to-ceiling mirror, and the boy's embarrassment could be seen in full view, "You have such a good skin and a good face. If your mother was like you when I was young The pretty face is already full of joy! Your mother and I, when I was young, I was the one who suffered so much. I couldn’t afford any beautiful clothes and shoes. I married an asshole like your father. You are so handsome now , beautiful clothes and good cosmetics, you are not satisfied. Don’t listen to the nonsense of those classmates now, what do those little kids know. With such good conditions, many men will definitely fall in love with you in the future. Listen to your mother , Mom, this is also for your own good, do you know?"
The boy lowered his head, trying to bury his head where his mother couldn't see it.
The boy didn't know whether his mother was doing it for his own good. All he knew was that his mother always looked extremely anxious, complaining angrily and sadly about how unfair life was to her. But once, when he put on the long dress that his mother had worn when she was young, his mother smiled.
Not a fake or perfunctory smile, but a gratifying smile from the heart.
The teenager at that time was ignorant, just thinking, although he didn't like being called a sissy by his classmates, but if such a dress could make his mother in grief happy...
———————————
In the darkness, I slowly opened my eyes and blinked in confusion. The train was still running smoothly, and the sky outside the window had become dark at some point.
It seemed that he had fallen asleep leaning on Wen Jiubai's shoulder. My eye sockets were a little wet, I raised my hand, just about to wipe away my tears indiscriminately, a handkerchief was handed over.
"Here. What kind of dream did you have? You cried like a little cat."
Startled, I raised my head quickly. Wen Jiubai looked at me in the dark, his gray pupils looked extraordinarily gentle in the night.
I took the handkerchief, wiped it carelessly, and muttered, "There's nothing."
Wen Jiubai just smiled, and did not continue to ask, "Sleep a little longer. It will be several hours before we arrive at the station."
"Hmm." I responded casually, and just closed my eyes again. When I was half asleep and half awake, I seemed to hear Wen Jiubai's sigh and the strength of his gentle stroking on the top of my head.
"You, always. Every time, every time..."
There was nothing to say all night, and the train arrived in Beining on time at five o'clock in the morning. After curling up on the hard seat all night, I woke up with pain all over my body, and my legs were so numb that I couldn't even stand up. On the other hand, Wen Jiubai still helped me carry my luggage like a normal person, which made me wonder what his body was made of.