Quick Wear: Cousin, Come to the Bowl Quickly

But the appearance of Lin Xi just broke the life motto he had always practiced.

The rain meandered down along the tilted umbrella and gathered into strings of crystal beads at the eaves. The scene in Song Guanwen's memory suddenly came vividly.

The piece of peach pastry that was stuffed into his palm still had the warmth of her palm.

The package of rock sugar, carefully wrapped in oil paper, was as crystal clear as her dodging yet bright eyes.

There was also that day when she squatted on the edge of the field, tugging at purslane with her slender fingers. The back of her neck was red from the sun, but she still had to tense her back and pretended to be nonchalant as she raised her voice, "Boiled purslane in water can cure sunburn..."

The disheveled figure lowered his head, his eyes red from crying, but still did not forget to fan him with a palm-leaf fan.

These days, under the scorching sun, the thin body rushed back and forth to visit...

These fragmented memories are like vines in early spring, quietly taking root under the high wall built by Song Guanwen. The tender green tentacles climb the cracks in the bricks and stones, and the soft tendrils tentatively touch every crack.

By the time he realized it, those seemingly fragile branches had already passed through the wall, and a trembling little leaf bud had grown on the hardest frozen soil in his heart.

During these days, although Song Guanwen still acted indifferent, he always acted lukewarm towards Lin Xi, who would occasionally take out a handful of wild fruits from her washed-out blue cloth bag, or take out a few peanuts and red dates and eagerly hand them to him.

But only he himself knew that whenever the sun set and the slowly descending dusk gradually eroded the light in the room, his hands holding the book would begin to stiffen, and the words on the pages would become blurred into crooked ants, and he would prick up his ears and try to catch any movement outside the door.

First, there was the creaking sound of the toothless old women packing their stools under the old locust tree outside the courtyard gate, then the voice of the second aunt next door calling the chickens back to the coop, and finally the rustling sound of cloth shoes rubbing against the loess road.

Lin Xi's footsteps were quick and hurried, and she always seemed to be in a panic, as if someone was chasing her from behind.

If the footsteps did not sound on time, Song Guanwen would feel irritated for no reason and his thoughts would start to race uncontrollably.

"He didn't smile when she handed him the cricket cage she had made herself yesterday. She seemed a little depressed. How about he put the cage out later and let her know that she likes it?"

"Let's talk about her. Don't stuff her with red dates or walnuts. He's not bleeding or having any broken bones. She's got a small body, so she should just keep it for herself."

"I don't know if her parents didn't feed her when she was little. Why is she seventeen or eighteen years old and still as skinny as a monkey?"

"He's not tall, but he runs pretty fast. He's always the first one to enter the yard."

"Why hasn't she come yet..."

Song Guanwen didn't realize that his attitude towards Lin Xi had changed from ignoring her at the beginning to gradually paying attention to her, and he even began to look forward to her appearance every day.

And his not very spacious little wooden box was gradually filled with all kinds of little gadgets she sent him.

The colors are a mess, but through the dry branches and leaves, you can still glimpse the vibrant wildflowers and weeds of the time. There's a delicate and small cricket cage woven from willow branches, a handful of plump fried soybeans, a few shrunken bright red dates, and a few palm-sized, somewhat worn but lively and interesting comic books...

Lin Xi was like a little bee with fluttering wings. Every day, she would patiently bring the "treasures" she had harvested outside to Song Guanwen, even though these "treasures" were usually used to coax children.

I don’t know who I learned it from.

Song Guanwen thought so in his heart, but every time he wanted to refuse, he would always swallow the words that were on the tip of his tongue when he met Lin Xi's eyes flashing with "If you don't accept it, I will cry in front of you."

It’s not good to cry too much.

Song Guanwen sighed helplessly in his heart.

After taking the things, he would always raise the curled copy of "How the Steel Was Tempered" higher in his hand, avoid her bright eyes, and tell her coldly that she didn't need to come the next day.

Lin Xi would always respond with a low "OK" with a bit of grievance, but the next day she would act as if nothing had happened. She would excitedly open the closed door in the afterglow of the sunset and smile sweetly at Song Guanwen with a joyful tone.

"Cousin, here I come!"

"Ah."

Song Guanwen would always respond calmly, and then continue to look down at the book in his hand as if nothing had happened, but he himself did not notice that his fingertips that were originally tightly gripping the paper gradually relaxed, leaving only a shallow wrinkle on the page.

It was a rare rainy day, so the educated youth didn't have to go out to the fields. Song Guanwen woke up early. His back injury had almost healed, and he just had to avoid doing any big movements like bending over or hunching his back.

It was already bright outside. Listening to the crackling sound of rain outside, he suddenly thought of something. He got off the kang quietly amid the snoring of the male educated youth, took his toiletries to the bathroom, and tidied himself up.

After returning to the house, he took out the white shirt that he only wore when he went to town to buy things, put it on, and after doing all this, he slowly climbed back onto the kang, adjusted his posture, and started reading as usual.

But as he watched, his thoughts began to wander.

Lin Xi didn't come yesterday. It was said that the work assigned to the educated youth by the team leader was particularly heavy, and almost everyone collapsed on the kang after returning to the educated youth site and didn't want to move.

But it's raining heavily today and no one is doing anything, so she should come early. Song Guanwen's eyes were fixed on the pages of the book, but his ears were paying attention to the movements outside the house.

But the rain was so heavy that I couldn't hear anything except the noisy sound of rain.

It's better not to come. It's raining so hard that her small body will probably get soaked and she will get sick. He doesn't have enough money to buy her another can of malted milk.

Song Guanwen's mind was full of thoughts, which kept changing from moment to moment. He lay there with the book in his hands for a long time, watching the male educated youth who had been sleeping in gradually get up, wash up, eat, and start chatting in the house. However, amid the increasingly heavy rain, the familiar knock on the door never came.

"Why doesn't she come?"

"She shouldn't be coming, right?"

"Did her clothes get wet in the rain on the way here, and did she go back to change?"

Song Guanwen's fingers gripping the pages of the book tightened more and more, until Zhang Jianguo came in with cherries and casually said, "Sent by Lin Zhiqing," the taut string in his head suddenly broke.

She has been here.

But no one came in to see him.