Reverse Approach

【1】

It happened to be the longest noon in summer, the big trees outside the teaching building of No. [-] Middle School had dense branches and leaves, and the glass windows with mottled light and shadows were motionless, trapped in the windless hour.

On the playground, it is the last physical education class before the lunch break.

The boys played happily on the basketball court against the scorching sun, soaking their wide vests with sweat.Girls huddled together under a few huge parasols, waving the water bottles in their hands joyfully.As if whoever wins will give it to someone, the petite face is full of vitality, which makes the male students cheer and run with all their strength.

The breath of youth filled Yizhong.Studying, exercising, and falling in love are inseparable from each other.

It's just that all of this has nothing to do with Liao Nanqing.He didn't like playing in the hot sun, and he wasn't accepted by anyone.

He is like a taciturn alien, the corners of his mouth are slightly scratched, his eyes are dim, and he repeats the lengthy loneliness.Sitting alone in the shade of a tree in a daze, the phone buzzed and vibrated in his pocket and didn't care.His well-shaped jaw is particularly prominent in the thin cheeks, revealing a deviating silence.

A basketball deliberately rolls to his feet.

"Little prisoner!" they called him with a sneer, "Why didn't you answer the phone!"

Liao Nanqing raised his dark eyes and stood up.His thin and emaciated figure gradually disappeared in the shadows, almost invisible.

The off-campus stationery store has been open for more than ten years, and it has just been renovated a while ago, and the things are placed more and more neatly.There are a few scattered packs of cigarettes in the cashier counter, which are kept in a corner, and teachers come to visit occasionally.

At noon when the wind was light, Liao Nanqing's hair was messed up, his forehead was bald with a small bruise, his eyes were full of confusion, and he said hoarsely to the young man in his early twenties, "I buy cigarettes."

Thinking about it, I added: "Ask for the cheapest."

The young man is Su Beimo, the nephew of the proprietress of the stationery store, who came to help look after the store.He is 21 years old this year, and he is a senior student after the summer vacation. When he stood up, he was about 185 tall.At a glance, he was wearing blue short sleeves, white slacks, and a pair of flip flops, and he yawned lazily.He glanced up and down at Liao Nanqing, and then looked at the school badge on his chest, with the class and name written on it.

'Liao Nanqing', Su Beimo said silently in his heart, and replied decisively on his face: "No."

"Yes, I saw it."

"The leaders of your school have greeted us." Su Beimo looked too lazy to talk to him. He looked down on these bum high school students who were not doing their jobs, "I won't let you out."

The young man glanced at the cigarettes on the side of the counter, his eyes were red, as astringent as plums in May, he couldn't tell whether it was a headache or no way out.Su Beimo took out a box of hard candies from the counter: "I still have this." But Liao Nanqing didn't take the box of hard candies, but just walked away with his head down.

His back looks like a brick, slightly hunched and cowering.

In the scorching heat of a summer afternoon, the sight is distorted together.

For this reason, Su Beimo couldn't help but look at him twice, put away the hard candy and put it back in the glass counter.The middle-aged woman in the back room came out with a bag of fruit in her hand: "Beimo, I need your help to look after the store this afternoon. I'll go and deliver some fruits to your grandma. If students come to pick up the ordered stationery, It's all here."

"Understood." Su Beimo responded, "Auntie, if I pass by my dad's work unit and tell him when I come back, I will start to go home tonight, and his phone will be turned off when I call him."

Su Beimo's parents divorced when he was four years old, and his mother went to City A for work, while he and his father Su Jing stayed in this small county.Since Su Jing is a workaholic, Su Ya, the only aunt, took on the responsibility of taking care of the details of Su Beimo's life.

My aunt's husband died in an accident. After that, she never remarried and had no children. She always took Su Beimo as her own care.

Generally speaking, two movies can kill an afternoon, and Su Beimo was tired of the time going too fast.But for the students who still have to go to cram school in this hot summer, they wish that time would add wings and fly faster and faster.

One to three o'clock, when the cram school ends, high school students swarm out of the school like a nest of white ants in school uniforms, quickly occupying the canteen and sweeping away the cold drink popsicles.

Su Beimo was so busy collecting money that he had no free time at all.

"Boss, where is the stationery ordered by our class!"

"Here!" Su Beimo wished that there would be a shadow, so he took the money and walked into the back room.The stationery was moved outside one box after another, "Three boxes, please register."

The small canteen was crowded with noisy students, and there was also a familiar figure. Liao Nanqing was out of place, and the surrounding students kept a distance from him.No matter how crowded, I don't want to touch him, as if he is a different kind.

Three boys carrying stationery struggled to squeeze out, and accidentally bumped into a girl.

The injured girl rubbed Liao Nanqing's arm with her arm, and when her skin touched, Liao Nanqing's complexion turned pale instantly.The girl let out a scream, and rushed out of the crowd as if she had encountered dirt, cursing as she ran.The boy who bumped into the girl apologized repeatedly, but when he turned his head and saw Liao Nanqing's expression, he shut his mouth like swallowing a fly.

He didn't want to apologize to Liao Nanqing.

Liao Nanqing took a step back helplessly, his trouser pockets were bulging.

……

He steals?

Su Beimo frowned, leaned forward and grabbed Liao Nanqing who was about to leave, the voices in the canteen suddenly dropped to zero.It was as if the world had been changed secretly, quietly.

"Hello..." Su Beimo said.

Suddenly, Liao Nanqing shrank his head in panic, and turned his eyes to the boys standing outside the canteen waiting for him.The boy whistled with a smile on his face, mocking him majestically, as if he wanted to see a good show.

Su Beimo noticed it, and immediately changed his words: "Come and help."

Liao Nanqing didn't understand, and looked at him in confusion, his eyes were timid but full of guard.He was trembling a little, so lightly that no one else could feel it, but Su Beimo could feel it when he held his hand.Although Liao Nanqing lowered his head, the newly added bruises on the corners of his mouth were very clear.So, after three seconds, Su Beimo repeated: "Come and help." He said it lightly and peacefully.

The commissary suddenly sighed, and resumed its noise.

The young man obediently helped Su Beimo take this and that, collected money for change, and did not run away quietly.Half an hour later, Su Beimo's work came to an end.Liao Nanqing stood in the empty canteen, his forehead was covered with beads of sweat, and his white school uniform was covered with a lot of dust. He took out the two packs of cigarettes in his pocket and put them on the glass counter: "I just... have some money Put it on the counter."

"These two packs of cigarettes cost forty, so you'll give me thirty?" Su Beimo wanted to put the cigarettes back on the counter, but he didn't. Liao Nanqing pressed them down with his hand.

He hurriedly said, "Then I'll give you another ten yuan!"

"The school rules of No. [-] Middle School are very strict. I don't know if you want to be expelled. But if I sell you cigarettes, the school will talk to us. Understand?" Su Beimo broke his hand and took out three cigarettes from the drawer. Zhang Shiyuan put it on the back of his hand, and scratched his white finger crevices from the corner of his eye, but the light was leaking.

Liao Nanqing stopped talking, dodging Su Beimo's questioning gaze.The baggy school uniform doesn't fit his thin body well. His skin is considered fair among boys, and his eyes are also good-looking, but there are too many emotions mixed in it, which makes him look impure.He hesitated for a while, then said awkwardly, "I won't tell others that I bought it from you."

Su Beimo frowned when he thought of the little ruffian students who were standing outside waiting for him just now, and didn't answer.He cleaned up the counter, put on his messenger bag, and gently pushed the boy's shoulder: "I'm going to close the door."

Liao Nanqing walked out in frustration, and after a few steps, he came back and begged him unwillingly: "Can you sell me the cigarettes, just this once. I really will buy it once."

"You can buy it elsewhere, don't come to me." Su Beimo skillfully pulled down the iron door and locked it.

"But they specifically want yours, and they are staring at me." Liao Nanqing knew that this request was playing tricks on him, the more they couldn't buy it, the more reason they had to blame him.But there was nothing he could do, nothing at all.

If he wanted to survive his third year of high school, he had to accept these difficulties.

"What's none of my business?" Su Beimo shrugged, as if he didn't want to talk to him.

Liao Nanqing ate his door shut, showed a rare look of annoyance, and walked a little further away with his schoolbag on his back.Su Beimo walked behind, thinking that such a cowardly person still has a temper?

Su Beimo was about to get on the bus when he received a call from his father Su Jing.

Su Jing asked him to find a nearby vegetable market to buy some vegetables and go home. The father and son hadn't seen each other for half a month, so Su Jing planned to cook a good meal tonight.

Su Beimo had been staying at grandma's house to accompany the old man a few days ago, and it was rare for him to go home for a few days, Su Jing was very caring.

Since Su Beimo's parents divorced, neither of them remarried.A strong woman, a workaholic, there is no major contradiction, just not suitable for marriage.Su Jing's old-fashioned and boring personality, with a stubborn and rigorous temper, just fits his job as a researcher.Su's mother is good at interpersonal communication and has an open-minded personality. She opened a small company in City A, doing clothing business.

Although Su Beimo looks like Su Jing, his temper is exactly the same as Su's mother who is good-natured.

In the past summer vacation, Su Beimo would go to city A to live for a month.This year, because of helping my aunt look at the store, the plan to go to city A was also delayed.

Su Beimo remembered that Su Jing liked to eat okra, so he went to buy it on purpose, and visited a few delis along the way.

After finally finding one that looked good, it was unfortunate that when they came out, they ran into that weird Liao Nanqing again.

In fact, Su Beimo could pretend that he hadn't seen him, but Liao Nanqing was pushed around by a few boys who also wore school uniforms, with a lot of force.At five o'clock in the evening, the bustling vegetable market gradually quiets down, those who close their stalls close their stalls, and those who go home go home.There are no cameras here, and the bullying behavior of high school students will not be known.

Su Beimo passed by them and went to the platform to wait for the bus.

Liao Nanqing was within ten steps of him, being pulled by his collar.

Mixed with laughter, low-level abuse.Liao Nanqing was hurt by the beating, and his lips trembled suddenly.

"You are trash like your father." Someone laughed, as if saying a funny joke.

The quiet Liao Nanqing suddenly turned red and raised his arms to resist the opponent.