Chapter 20:

On the second day of November, the weather was exceptionally good, the sun was shining warmly, and the sky was blue. The haze was blown away by the north wind the other day, and the morning air was clear and clean, but the temperature was lower.
Xu Qin tucked the scarf around his neck and walked quickly into Wufang Street. He saw the high blue sky, the low red wall, and a large amount of steam floating in the streets, a burst of steamed buns.
The shops were not open yet. Rows of wooden doors were closed. The doors were covered with colorful graffiti. I don't know if it was the students of a nearby art school. Colorful, from anime to antiquity, from characters to scenery, like an old woman's face with youthful makeup.
In any neighborhood, the earliest wake up was a breakfast shop and stalls. Deep-fried, steamed and stewed, with various aromas drilling into the nose.
The small white-collar workers who live in Wufang Street squeeze in front of the stall to buy fritters and soy milk, and some sit in the shop while brushing their phones while drinking soup.
An ordinary person's day starts like this.
In the past, Xu Qin never paid attention to these people. They are like the background of this city. Like the screws of this machine, one more and one less, just like the increase or decrease of a tree leaf, is insignificant.
But today, Xu Qin carefully observed each of them.
A couple bought two porridge packs before the paving and kissed each other:
"See you tonight."
"Work hard."
"Know it."
The two turned around and turned in different directions. The girl ran past Xu Qin, the smile on her face vigorous. The boy walked away a few meters away, looked back at the girl's back, smiled, and continued to hurry.
Another girl queued up to buy breakfast while taking her cell phone to report to her boss for work. When she put down her cell phone, she took a long sigh of relief and was very satisfied.
And in the store, a man swallowed the noodles while padding on the tablet, gorging on it, can't tell whether this noodle is too delicious, or in a hurry.
Others were carrying briefcases, humming and chewing fritters, walking briskly past Xu Qin.
Of course, there is also a black eye. When I worked overtime last night and did n’t sleep well, I called while sprinting: "Eh, Master, I'll be at the intersection immediately. You wait for me for a minute.-I saw your car Now. "
The Great Thousand World is not only the bright and beautiful on the other side of the Palm Garden; there are also ordinary bitter little sweets.
Xu Qin turned into the alley, and the golden ginkgo leaves paved the way, leading her to the Zhai's house, and the door opened.
Uncle Zhai is a person who loves to get up early, and I don't know if he will hit him.
Xu Qin crossed the threshold lightly, bypassed the shadow wall, passed through the cloister, and entered the courtyard. It was quiet inside, and the morning sunlight shone on all kinds of woodworkers.
The bird cage on the tree is gone. Uncle should go out and walk the birds.
The door of the west wing was concealed, indicating that the people who lived inside were awake.
Xu Qin walked over and looked in through the door slit, only to see the wooden wardrobe. The cabinet door was half open, and several men's sweaters and trousers hung inside.
She buckled the door lightly, and no one answered; she reached out and poked again, and the door opened.
At first glance, the most impressive impression in the room is that it is clean and tidy, with a certain degree of discipline.
Clean and dust-free on the wooden floor. On the bluish-grey bed, the sheets were smoothed out without any wrinkles, and the quilts were folded into standard army-style tofu pieces. The dark red cork sofa and coffee table are well-organized, the chairs are also laid out in front of the desk, and there are a row of books on the table, such as flammable materials illustrating the world fire case. The clothes in the closet also hang straight and orderly, like the smell of washed laundry detergent and the scent of the sun; the pair of men's socks in the wooden frame at the bottom of the cabinet are rolled up neatly and arranged neatly.
Sunlight spilled into the room through the wooden window, the window was clear, the air was fresh, and there was a faint pine fragrance.
Everything shows that this is a self-disciplined man's house, clean and sexy.
Xu Qin stood there for a few seconds, remembering that Song Yan's house was not like this before. At that time, he was a typical teenager. The bed was covered with blankets, dirty clothes were piled on the sofa, and the coffee table was filled with comic books ...
Still wandering, the door of the small room behind him opened, the footsteps of the man stepped into the corridor, Xu Qin had n’t had time to look back, Song Yanren was standing behind her, and a quiet voice came from the back of her head: "Come again ? "
Xu Qin turned around and saw the man's clear and hard collarbone, and she quickly stepped back.
Song Yan's wet hair, wrapped in bathrobes, just shampooed and took a shower. The entire face looked unusually clean and handsome, but the brows were slightly wrinkled, his eyes were not polite, and his chin pointed aside: "Let one Let."
Xu Qin gave way, Song Yan entered the house sideways, the door closed, leaving Xu Qin in the corridor.
The sun is just right, and the ginkgo tree in the corner of the courtyard is golden.
Xu Qin looked at the leaves on the treetops and figured out how he was not very friendly just now.
With a little remorse or love in her eyes, he softened; with a little hesitation and hesitation in her eyes, he became cold.
It was poisonous enough to see her sincerity and bad roots clearly.
Soon after, the door opened and Song Yan came out and changed the sweater jacket and trousers. Seeing Xu Qin was still outside, he asked, "Look for me?"
This is nonsense.
Xu Qin: "Yes."
Song Yan: "Yesterday, helping you clean the house was a matter of official business. Our implementation of the work caused inconvenience to the public, so we should clean up the scene."
Xu Qin didn't make himself passionate: "I know."
Song Yan: "Is there anything else to find me?"
Xu Qin: "Yes"
Song Yan: "What are you doing?"
Xu Qin: "Thank you."
Song Yan pierced: "How long will you play with this set?"
Xu Qin's face does not change color: "Until you accept it."
Song Yan: "..."
Xu Qin's expression was calm and his tone was sparse: "I don't like to owe human affection. You have saved me several times and you have to pay it back."
Song Yan: "How come?"
Xu Qin: "I invite you to dinner."
"..." Song Yan laughed as if seeing through her trick.
Xu Qin was flat and bland, not blushing.
Song Yan didn't answer for a moment, felt the smoke from the jacket pocket, just put it in his mouth, Xu Qin said in time: "Smoking early in the morning is bad for your health."
Song Yan was lowering her head to light a cigarette, and raised her eyes to see her.
Xu Qin said: "From the doctor's advice."
Song Yan took this advice to the ears and ignited the smoke, asking, "Where did I get my watch on duty?"
Xu Qin: "Xiao Yixiao is his cousin."
Song Yan: "Oh."
He stopped talking and only smoked.
Xu Qin stood for a while and said, "Let's eat."
Song Yan said: "Don't go." Turned into the room, "You come back."
Just stepped into the threshold, and looked back again, Xu Qin stood still.
Song Yan said, "Don't go yet?"
Xu Qin still said that: "I invite you to dinner."
He squinted at her for a moment, and hummed out: "Then just stand here."
Before the words fell, the door of the east wing opened, and Zhai Miao was carrying his bag to go to school. As soon as he went out, he saw Xu Qin standing in front of him.
"I said someone whispered early in the morning, why are you here again?" Zhai Miao strode across the yard, "I told you not to pester my brother anymore, you don't understand. Why are you this person How annoying? "
Xu Qin said nothing.
Song Yan glanced at her, then at Zhai Miao, and said nothing for a while.
But when Zhai Miao continued to speak, Song Yan suddenly forbidden: "Zhai Miao."
Zhai Miao ignored it: "It was originally, I couldn't get away in a hurry, and I came here again last time. Why are you so cheeky?"
Song Yan's brow furrowed: "Okay. Go to school, what's going on with here?"
Zhai Miao refused to accept: "Well, then I told my mother to go ..."
Song Yan strode forward, grabbed Zhai Miao and walked outside the door. Zhai Miao yelled, "Mo" didn't make a sound, and Song Yan covered her mouth and walked out of the door.
Song Yan dropped her in the alley: "Are you still alive?"
Zhai Miao shook his frustrated down jacket, hating that iron is not steel: "Brother, I'm afraid you are soft-hearted, I worry about you and you are dying. I blasted her when she came to you last time. , The same as dog skin plaster ... "
Song Yan's face changed slightly: "Okay, I know, go to school."
Zhai Miao refused to go to the house: "You can't pull a man, I'll help you bomb her--"
Song Yan grabbed her collar and pulled her back: "Enough is enough."
"Brother, I'm with you--"
Song Yan coldly said: "Will you go?"
Zhai Miao sulked.
Song Yan: "One, two, three--"
Just raising his hand, Zhai Miao ran away with his head in his head and shouted, "I will come back at night anyway!"
Song Yan watched her disappear around the corner of the alley, the red walls and gray bricks of the courtyard house, and the sky in the late autumn was high and blue. His face was dark and turbulent, he took a sip of his cigarette, threw the cigarette on the ground and crushed it with his feet, and turned back up the steps to enter the gate.
Xu Qin stood at the vermilion gate, with a small face and white eyes, looking at him.
Song Yan crossed the threshold and did not look at her: "You go."
Xu Qin looked back, still saying: "I invite you to dinner."
Song Yan went down the steps without looking back: "Don't eat."
Xu Qin said, "OK, then please invite me to dinner."
Song Yan had just stepped down the stairs and was stunned by her words, her eyebrows flickering, and she looked back at her inconceivably: "What am I trying to figure out?"
Xu Qin: "Yesterday I helped your entire fire brigade. Should you be the captain, should n’t you take the lead in thanking me? But I waited at home for a day, no flower baskets, no fruits, no pennants, and no thank you phone. Feeling me This good citizen is in vain. How can you firefighters do this? "
When she said this, her face was unusually indifferent, and her tone was very well-founded. It seemed that if Song Yan refused, he would be dereliction of duty, that is, a good citizen who did not respect the law and discipline.
Song Yan's jaw tensed tightly, looked at her for several seconds, and asked, "Xu Qin."
Xu Qin: "Huh?"
Song Yan: "You look like this, do people around you know?"
Xu Qin thought for a while, then looked at him again, and asked seriously: "What does it look like?"
Song Yan: "..."
He seemed to be no wrong, and finally nodded: "OK, you are the ancestor."
Say, go outside.
Xu Qin put his hands in his coat pocket and kept up with him.
...
When I walked onto the main street of Wufang Street again, the sunlight had shone from the eaves on the west to the blue stone road. The white-collar workers who got up early disappeared, and migrant workers and deliverymen came and went.
The shops opened one after another.
The proprietress of the spice shop pushed open the door panel. The fine dust was in the autumn sunshine. The proprietress turned back to see Song Yan and greeted: "Little Song, do you rest today?"
Song Yan smiled back: "Yes."
Here are all old neighbors in the old neighborhood, greeting one by one, Song Yan responded one by one, Xu Qin glanced at him, and saw him smiling broadly, his eyes curved, as beautiful as the sun.
She remembered that the last time he saw a smile like this, it was years ago.
And the smile at this moment is not for her.
The proprietress is still gossiping and saying: "Little Song, our family has marinated dried fish and told Zhai Miao to take it home after school."
Song Yan: "Thank you Aunt Zhang."
The proprietress smiled: "You're welcome--" Eyes glanced beside him, and looked at him again, "Yo, is this Meng Qin?"
Xu Qin answered: "Xu Qin, surnamed Xu."
"Oh." The others didn't care or care, but it was even more curious how the two of them came out early in the morning. But he didn't have much words on his mouth and was busy opening.
They also went in and out of Wufang Street that year, and he hugged her by the shoulder or took her by the hand. Unlike now, at a distance, passers-by hurriedly passed between the two people, and they did not realize that the two were together.
No one spoke, and I wonder if anyone recalled the time of that year. The street is still that street, and the people are still that group of people. The children who were tightly dependent on each other now move silently.
Even Song Yan became extremely silent.
Walking to the breakfast shop, Song Yan turned back and asked Xu Qin: "What do you want to eat?"
Xu Qin said: "Tofu brain, red oil noodles." Is the specialty of this family, before he and she often eat.
Song Yan paused briefly for a second, as if emptying for a moment, and then he recovered and said to the boss: "Two bowls each, plus a basket of roasted wheat."
Turning around to enter the door, Xu Qin said: "You also need hemp balls, fritters, soy milk."
Song Yan paused for a moment, looked at her side, and somewhat doubted her food intake, but said nothing, and looked back at the boss: "Ma Tuan and Youtiao Soy Milk."
The interior of the store is very simple, the walls and floors are wooden, and sometimes it is oily and not very clean. The ceiling is very low, not much higher than Song Yan.
As soon as the two of them sat down, the clerk served two bowls of tofu brains with a thick layer of daylily marinade.
When Song Yan brought Xu Qin here for the first time to eat tofu brain, Xu Qin's eyes widened: "What is this thick thing? The tofu brain needs sugar, how to eat this?"
Song Yan raised her eyebrows: "Tofu brain put sugar? Is the brain sick?"
The two argued that the tofu brain was sweet and salty for a week, but later Xu Qin also accepted the salty tofu brain, salty and sweet, each with its own taste.
...
If Song Yan didn't have much, he quickly ate his tofu brain, and Xu Qin still had half of it in the bowl. Red oil noodles are also on the table.
Printed bowls, lacquered wooden chopsticks, and nicks on the sides of the bowl. A large bowl of thin noodles, sprinkled with red oil, looks appetizing and smells good.
Song Yan picked up the chopsticks and ate it. Xu Qin also picked up the noodles and took a bite, eating and eating, and suddenly said, "It's very strange."
Song Yan was absent-minded and asked, "How?"
"The taste hasn't changed." Xu Qin said, "Many shops have been doing it for a long time, and the business is good, and the taste and quality have declined. But this one hasn't. It's as delicious as before."
Song Yan didn't answer the call and ate a lot of noodles. Since he entered the store, he talked very little. Instead, the clerk who was busy with the spinning top heard her words and answered: "It's all in the neighborhood, how can you pit people?"
Guests who are having breakfast are talking: "We are really people on Wufang Street. Business and people are based on conscience."
People in the shop chatted.
Song Yan finished the noodles quickly, chewed the roasted wheat with a bite, wiped her mouth, and looked at Xu Qin. There were half a bowl of tofu brain in front of her, half a bowl of red oil noodles, a hemp ball, and a fritter of soy milk.
She ate half of the red oil noodles and added a spoonful of chili to the noodles.
Song Yan watched the hot red chili be stirred by her and melted into the noodles and soup.
She sat in this position many years ago, scooping a spoonful of chili oil into the bowl.
He snapped: "So much?"
She didn't think it was enough. She picked up a large piece of chili with chopsticks and tasted it: "True fragrance."
She ate one bite after another-the Meng family didn't eat spicy food, and only with him could she release her nature.
He looked flirtatious and snorted disdainfully.
She picked another big piece and handed it to him: "Try it, it's really delicious."
Song Yan shook his head: "Am I sick, masochistic."
Xu Qin said, "I will kiss you when you eat."
Without saying anything, Song Yan swallowed the chili.
With a moment of contemplation, the girl at that time became the current girl. The tables and chairs in front of her seemed to have not changed, but they were older. The chair sitting under the buttocks was also loose and crumbling.
Xu Qin was still eating noodles slowly. A strand of hair slipped off her shoulders. She lifted her hand and stroked it, not to the back of her ears. The small white ears faced his side.
Song Yan watched calmly.
The hair looked like it was deliberately messed up. A small punch just went up, and a big punch fell down again. Xu Qin slowly put down his chopsticks, his hands gathered his long hair behind his head, and took the rubber band to show off his fair neck and long lines , The mechanism is delicate.
Song Yan bit her lower lip unconsciously. She picked up her chopsticks and continued to eat noodles, but she was still in a hurry.
"Shao rubbing." Song Yan finally impatient, urged.
Xu Qin picked up a large chopstick noodle and sent it to his mouth. His cheeks were bulging and he was making a bunch of balls, and his little red lips were also moving.
Song Yan frowned inadvertently, his eyebrows twisted into a pimple, and after a while, he suddenly stretched out his eyes, looking away, the corners of his lips tickled, somewhat contemptuously.
"Xu Qin, this age is not suitable for pretending to be cute, you know?"
"Huh?" Xu Qin raised his head abruptly, his eyes black and black, his eyes straight and clean, "What's wrong?"
Song Yan: "..."
Without saying a word, he kicked the bench and got up, walked out of the shop, and stood on the sidewalk smoking.
Song Yan pulled halfway and looked back at the woman in the room,
Routine, all routine.