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Chapter 2

In order to welcome this year's freshmen, the Student Union specially held a freshman sorority party on Friday.Higashino Shizuru didn't have any interest, but as the only exchange student in the school this semester, it was really hard to refuse, so she had to go in dismay.

The content of the sorority is very rich. In addition to the wonderful programs, a lot of interesting game sessions have been added, so that everyone can quickly eliminate the sense of strangeness and restraint while playing.Higashino Shizuru has never been very good at playing games, so he deliberately found the most inconspicuous corner, and sat there quietly watching others play.

Wang Siyuan didn't want to come to join in the fun, but he couldn't stand the hard work of the guys from the student union, and the band had just received favors from them, so he had no choice but to agree to come to join in the fun as a representative of the seniors.

"Students present here, next I will introduce to you the most beautiful, highest-altitude, and most popular three-high band in the history of our school! How high is it, you ask? It's hard to tolerate, girls want to take it home when they see it, and boys want to murder it when they see it!"

"When did the student union change to the Deyun Club?" Fang Jianyue watched with relish from the audience as the host on the stage was blowing nonsense.

"If they weren't so talkative, would I agree to join in the fun?" Wang Siyuan shook his head with a wry smile.

"They are BOX..." The host on the stage called out a letter every time he stretched out a finger, and finally dragged on for a long time.

"BOX!!" The people in the audience echoed loudly.

"BINGO! Do you want to play games with them?"

"Think!" As soon as the voice fell, the audience immediately raised their hands.

"Oh, you are all so enthusiastic, I really don't know who to choose. How about this, this time I will give the choice to the five of them, and they will choose their own partners! The one who wants to be their partner Where is the person?" After speaking, the host waved his arms to the audience.Immediately, screams erupted from the crowd, and the people sitting in the front row raised their arms desperately, hoping that they could be the lucky one.

Higashino Shizuru had seen Luo Ling early in the morning.No wonder, it's hard for a person like him not to be seen, right?It's just that he never expected that the weird guy he met a few days ago actually had his own band?And still so popular?But even so, it didn't change his opinion of this person in the slightest.Perverse, rude, and a little neurotic.Seeing that everyone around him raised their hands high, instead of raising their hands, he deliberately sat down.

"I choose him." Who knows what to fear.As soon as Luo Ling finished speaking, everyone looked in the direction of his finger.

"Don't look, it's you. The one in the last row against the wall wearing a gray plaid shirt." Luo Ling shouted to the audience.

This time, everyone's eyes were quickly locked on Higashino Shizuru, and some of them couldn't help but began to whisper.But the person involved was still sitting on the chair stupidly, with an expression of not knowing what happened at all.Luo Ling muttered impatiently, then stepped off the stage in one stride, walked straight to Dongye Jingxuan's side, took his arm and walked onto the stage.So in the midst of a wave of screams from the girls, Shizuru Nono was dragged onto the stage with a look of bewilderment.

"What are you doing?" Higashino Jingxian shook off Luo Ling's hand as soon as she came to the stage, and asked with an unhappy expression.

"Playing games." Luo Ling replied as a matter of course.

"Why did you choose me?"

"Why can't I choose you?"

"Ah, this classmate is a little special." During the conversation, the host had already walked up to the two of them, "Do you know where he came from?"

"Japan!" The girls in the audience replied loudly.

"So you all know it! Now let this friend who came from afar introduce himself." After the host finished speaking, he handed the microphone to Shizuru Higashino.

Higashino Shizuru was suddenly a little nervous, took the microphone and didn't speak for a long time, and after a while he said awkwardly: "Brother, hello everyone, I... this is Higashino Shizuru, please take care of me."

As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Ling's expression suddenly changed, and a hint of surprise and excitement quickly flashed across his eyes.

"Who is that guy?" Seeing that someone was even more popular than himself, Shen Sa couldn't help muttering.

"He is the Japanese exchange student who just came to our school this semester." Wang Siyuan replied.

"Japanese? Why can't you tell at all?" Fang Jianyue was a little surprised.

"The Japanese look similar to us." Shen Sa said smartly.

"I mean he speaks Chinese very well, he doesn't look like a foreigner at all." Fang Jianyue glanced at him disdainfully.

"Is that called 'can't see it'? That should be called 'can't hear it'!" Shen Sa likes to argue with him.

"He is of mixed Chinese and Japanese, so of course he speaks Chinese well. But he is not only good at Chinese. I heard that he plays the piano very well. He has already won an international award when he was very young. And his father is also a piano player in the university. What about the professor." Wang Siyuan's tone showed full appreciation.

"Oh, that's tall, rich and handsome." Liu Hao summarized the above information.

"Didn't you hear it? Gao Fushuai is usually not a good thing." Shen Sa touched his chin with a look of disapproval.

"I think you are jealous?" Fang Jianyue said with a snort.

"I'm jealous of him? Why am I jealous of him? Jealous that he is whiter than me?" Shen Sa immediately jumped up.

"Don't tell me, he seems to be whiter than you." Liu Hao glanced at Dongye Jingxuan, then looked back at Shen Sa, and said after a serious comparison.

"What's so good about being white? Do you dare to eat steamed buns that are too white? Do you dare to use toilet paper that is too white? It's either a fluorescer or fluorescent agent, be careful to poison you to death!"

"Are you disgusting?"

"Okay, aren't you tired of being poor all day long?" As soon as Wang Siyuan spoke, the three of them fell silent.

"Are you Japanese? Are you real or not?" Luo Ling looked at Higashino Shizuru with a half-smile, and there was a sudden intimacy in his tone.

"Should I show you my passport?" Higashino Shizuru said angrily.

Just as Luo Ling wanted to say something more, the host had already announced that the game had started.

This round of the game is called "You Sing and I Guess".The rule is that one of the two people puts on the earphones and hums the melody along with the music played in the earphones, and then the other guesses what the tune is playing in the earphones.This may seem simple, but it is not.Because you can’t hear other sounds after you put on the earphones, so you can’t control your own pitch and rhythm, and often go out of tune and go in a mess, but you still don’t know it.So as soon as the people on the stage opened their mouths, the audience burst into laughter immediately, because this kind of narcissistic humming sounds really funny to outsiders.

"Let me sing, you can tell from your appearance that you are tone deaf." Luo Ling glanced at Dong Ye beside him, deliberately putting on a disgusted face.This fell right into Higashino Shizuru's arms.

Sure enough, even popular idols like Luo Ling couldn't help making a fool of themselves when they put on the earphones, causing the audience to laugh even more.However, after Higashino Shizuru answered several questions correctly in a row, the smiles on everyone's faces gradually began to be replaced by surprise.Except for two Chinese works that he had never heard before, he answered all the other questions correctly.It seems that no matter how outrageous Luo Ling's tune is, he can always guess what he is singing. Such a strong sense of pitch and tacit understanding stunned everyone present.

"This is... "Yesterday" by the Beatles." When Shizuru Higashino gave the answer to the last question accurately, everyone present was stunned, followed by thunderous applause.

"It's unbelievable! You two have a tacit understanding, don't you? Luo Ling, have you and Dongye known each other for a long time?" The host said with a look of surprise.

"This question...you ask him." Luo Ling didn't answer directly, but looked at Dongye Jingxian with a smile.

But Higashino Shizuru didn't want to answer his words, and deliberately turned his head to look elsewhere, pretending that he didn't hear it.

"Okay, now that you have won, do you have anything you want to say to the other party?" The host interjected immediately upon seeing the cold scene.Luo Ling glanced at Shizuru Higashino, who was deliberately trying to keep a distance from him, and deliberately stepped forward to give him a big bear hug as if playing a prank.Just when Higashino Shizuru looked astonished, there was a burst of screams from the audience, and the atmosphere of the venue was suddenly pushed to a climax.

Shizuzuru Higashino got up and left the venue as soon as she received a call from Yumi Ehara.Ehara Yumi is a student of Higashino Masahiko, and has been his assistant since graduation.When he is busy, Masahiko Higashino will ask Yumi to help take care of his son, so for Shizuru Higashino, Yumi Ehara is like a sister and a mother. Sometimes he even thinks that it would be nice if she really married her father in the future.He likes Yumi because she is the best person in the world to him besides his father and mother.

"Jing Xian, is that you? Why did it take so long for the phone to answer?" Jiang Yuan Yumi's voice on the other end of the phone was as kind and gentle as ever.

"I'm in the freshman fraternity."

"Sorority?" The other end of the phone seemed a little surprised. After a pause, he continued, "Ah, that must be very interesting, right? You should participate in more such activities so that you can meet more friends. Ah, I heard that Chinese girls are very cute, tell me honestly, have you ever had a girlfriend? There should be a lot of girls like a guy as good as our Jingxian, right? "

"Miss Yumi, you're making fun of me again." Higashino Shizuru said shyly.

"I'm telling the truth. By the way, how is the school over there? Are you still used to life?"

"You asked these questions last time."

"Ah, you brat, are you annoyed by me?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid that you will become Obasan before you get married, and then no one will dare to want you." Only Yumi Higashino Shizuru can joke so easily.

"Hmph, I don't need you, a brat, to worry about this kind of thing for me!" Jiang Yuan Yumi pretended to be angry, and then suddenly changed her tone, "Professor...he still hasn't called you?"

There was a sudden silence on the other end of the phone.

"Ah, the professor has been very busy recently, and I will attend later."

Yumi Ehara sighed leisurely, "You, it's not that you don't know your father's temper. Can he not be angry when you suddenly go to China as an exchange student without saying a word? Besides, what's the matter between father and son? Discuss? Are you really planning to never talk to your father for the rest of your life? "

"I never wanted to make him angry, I just wanted to make a decision for myself according to my own wishes."

"I know your father is very strict with you, but he did it because he loves you. You are the only boy in the Higashino family, and all his expectations are placed on you."

"Yeah, he always said he couldn't embarrass the Higashino family. Alas, it seems that the surname 'Dongye' is really not easy!" Shizuku Higashino smiled wryly, with a hint of helplessness in his tone.

Although it was just a joke, it felt unspeakably sad to Jiang Yuan Yumi.Because she watched Higashino Shizuru grow up, she knew best that this child carried a much heavier burden than his peers.This is not only because he has an excellent and strict father, but also because he lost a complete family since he was a child.When the other children were still cuddling in their mother's arms and acting like a baby, he could only count his fingers in the dormitory of the boarding school and count the next date to go home.While the other kids were playing baseball and games in the park, he was home alone practicing piano.

Until now, Ehara Yumi still remembers the first time she met Higashino Shizuru.Masahiko Higashino had a temporary class that day and couldn't leave, so he asked Yumi to send his son to a piano competition for him.When Higashino Shizuru appeared in front of her, her first impression was quietness.This boy is completely free from the naughty and noisy boys of the same age. Apart from politely saying hello when they met, he never said a word along the way, just quietly looking at the street scene outside the car window, so quiet that it even makes you feel uncomfortable. His presence was barely felt.

"Want to play games?" Yumi took out the IPAD in her bag.

"Thank you, Dad won't let me play this."

"Then do you eat candy?" Yumi bought this at a convenience store when she came here.

"Thank you, Dad won't let me eat candy."

"So do you want to listen to music?"

"Do you have piano music?"

Yumi turned over the CD on the overturned car, and stuck out her tongue embarrassingly, "Sorry, all I have here is pop music, but it's all pretty good."

"Let's forget it, Dad doesn't like me hearing this." The boy said politely.

God, is Professor Higashino really such a scary person?Professor Dongye's tutor, Yan Youmei, had heard about it a long time ago, but she always thought that it was just a joke of people in the school, which was somewhat exaggerated.But when she saw Higashino Shizuru today, she realized that those rumors were not exaggerated at all, and they were even too much.

Higashino Shizuru won No.1 in that competition, but there was no happy expression on his small face.

"Great, No.1! Why aren't you happy to get No.1?" Yumi raised her hands and cheered, looking happier than Higashino Shizuru.

"What's there to be happy about? Isn't it just a trophy?" the boy said lightly.His appearance is more inherited from his mother's excellent genes, but the Dongye-style stubbornness inadvertently revealed in his eyebrows and eyes is very similar to his father.

"This is the No.1 trophy! There are so many people participating in the competition, it's not easy to be the first. And look at how beautiful this trophy is. I saw that the kid at No.2 rolled his eyes when he looked at it. I can’t even pull it out.” Yumi laughed unknowingly, feeling as if her younger brother had won the game.

"I'll give it to you if you like it." Higashino Shizuru actually picked up the shiny big trophy that didn't match his figure, and put it on the empty front passenger seat with great effort.

"Give it to me? Don't you want to take it home and show it to your father?" Yumi felt a little funny at the little boy's behavior.

"It's okay, anyway, I have a lot of trophies like this in my house." For some reason, when these words came out of Shizuru Higashino's mouth, people couldn't feel the slightest bit of showing off, as if they were talking about today weather.

"Are you saying that to show that you are very powerful?" Seeing his serious face, Yumi couldn't help but deliberately tease him.

"I'm not good at all. I can't do anything except play the piano." The boy turned his head out of the window again, with a somewhat indifferent expression on his face.However, at this moment, a sliver of excitement unique to children suddenly appeared on his face, and he leaned over the car window and looked across the street.

"Where is that place?"

Yumi Wensheng glanced out of the window. It turned out that there was a new fast food restaurant there. Many colorful balloons and flower baskets were arranged at the entrance, and an actor dressed as a clown was invited to perform at the entrance.

"Oh, this store is quite famous in Tokyo. There is one near our school. My classmates and I used to go there often."

"a fast food shop?"

"Hey, you've never been to a fast food restaurant, have you?" Yumi asked in disbelief.

"Papa said that if you eat the food there, you will die."

Jiang Yuan Yumi was really completely defeated now.A thought suddenly appeared in her mind, so she turned the car around at the intersection ahead.

"Today, I am treating you to a treat to celebrate your victory in the competition!"

"But my dad..."

"Leave your dad alone, he's not here anyway. You can eat whatever you want today, and I promise your dad will never know."

The boy looked at Yumi with a pair of clear and bright eyes, and seemed to be a little uncertain.

"Really...you can eat anything?"

"Of course, although I'm not a rich person, I can still afford to treat you to dinner." Yumi patted her purse.

"Can I have a Coke then?"

"Of course you can. You are the biggest when your father is not here, and you are what you say."

Higashino Shizuru finally smiled, and ran to the ordering counter excitedly.At this moment, Yumi Jiangyuan suddenly realized that he was actually just an eight-year-old child.

After hanging up the phone, Higashino Shizuru let out a long breath, but the depression in his heart didn't ease a bit, on the contrary, it became more serious.This was the first time in his life that he had disobeyed his father, because he wanted too much to choose according to his own wishes, even if only once.Throughout the past 17 years, almost everything was decided for him by his father.From what kind of hairstyle to what kind of clothes to wear, from which club to join to which high school to apply for, and even what color carp flags to hang on Boys’ Day is up to the father, and now it is even more important that he will go to school in the future. In that university, his father had to make decisions for him on what major to study.What about after that?Could it be that he couldn't even choose what kind of job he was looking for and what kind of wife he would marry?What is the meaning of such a life set by others?How is this different from lifelong?Once a person is suppressed for too long, there will be an eruption one day, and this incident is like a flame, which instantly ignites the long-buried emotions in Higashino Shizuru's heart into a raging fire.With a mentality of seeing death as home, he even signed up for the school's exchange student program without telling his father.Whether it's a provocation or the last madness in despair, at least he has acted as a master for himself once in this life, so it's not a waste of time, right?However, just when he was full of enthusiasm and made all preparations to fight for freedom, his father showed unexpected generosity, and signed the guardian's column without saying a word, which is called Higashino Shizuru Some were caught off guard.He suddenly remembered those lions he saw when he went to the zoo when he was a child. They were obviously imprisoned poor creatures, but they still had to put on a posture of the king of beasts, pretending to be pacing back and forth in that small cage, From time to time, he yelled at the tourists, but in exchange for more silly faces and countless flashing lights.I remember that at that time, I especially hoped that one day all the lions in the zoo could escape from their cages. Even if they fell under the guns of human beings and died vigorously, it would be better than slowly rotting into a ball of stinky meat like a dead dog like a dead dog like now. Be strong.

"Does it take me so far to answer a phone call? Is it from my girlfriend?"

As soon as Dongye Jingxian turned around, he saw Luo Ling, which made him even more depressed, who was already in a bad mood, so he frowned and asked, "Are you eavesdropping on me?"

"I'm not that boring." Luo Ling shook his hand, and a white fur ball drew a perfect parabola in the air, "Here, you forgot to take the prize just now."

Higashino Shizuru reached out to catch it, and it turned out to be a fluffy polar bear doll with a very vivid and cute shape.

"I don't need this kind of thing, you can keep it." Dongye Jingxian reached out and handed the bear doll back to Luo Ling.

"You're welcome, I have it too." Luo Ling took out a doll from his back as he spoke, and smugly pointed it at him.

"Why are you a hippopotamus and I'm a polar bear?" Higashino Shizuru unconsciously asked the truth.

"Because you are whiter!"

"Then your mouth is bigger?"

Luo Ling smiled, but he didn't mind. "Actually, there's a reason for that."

"What's the point?"

"I ask you, where do polar bears live?"

"Arctic."

"Where's the hippopotamus?"

"Africa."

"Well, not bad." Luo Ling nodded with satisfaction.

Dongye Jingxian's face turned green immediately, and he cursed secretly: Am I stupid?It's okay, why cooperate with him so much?

"Do you understand now?" Luo Ling raised his eyelids and asked.

"Understand what?"

"It's fate to meet thousands of miles away! Hey, do you know the meaning of this sentence?" Luo Ling almost forgot that Dongye Jingxian was a foreigner.

"Red deer!" Higashino Shizuru unconsciously scolded a sentence in Japanese in his heart, not knowing whether he was scolding others or himself.

"Hey, I haven't finished talking yet." Seeing Dongye Jingxuan turned around to leave, Luo Ling hurriedly called him from behind.

"Actually, hippos and polar bears have one thing in common, do you know what it is? They both like swimming! Hey, can you swim?" The smile on Luo Ling's face was bright and dazzling, but at this moment, Shizuku Higashino only felt himself How stupid to waste so much time listening to this guy talking nonsense here!

"Hey, don't rush away, I have something to do with you!"

But this time Higashino Shizuru did not stop, but accelerated his pace.

"I didn't lie to you, something really happened! It's serious!!" Luo Ling was still shouting from behind, but Shizuru Higashino showed no intention of stopping.Seeing him go further and further, Luo Ling suddenly yelled "Xiao Xian!"

Higashino Jingxian stopped suddenly, then turned around and stared at Luo Ling in surprise.You know, except grandma, no one in this world has ever called him that, not even his parents.

"Your mother is from Xiamen, right? You went to elementary school there for two years, and your grandma is a Catholic. Every week she will take you to worship in a nearby Catholic church." Luo Ling spoke faster and faster, with a smile on his face. There was a slight red glow due to excitement.

"You, how did you know?" Higashino Shizuru became more and more surprised the more he listened.

"You don't remember me?" Luo Ling sighed with a sour tone. "Hey, how long has it been since you forgot about your good brother?

"You are..." Higashino Shizuru looked at the strange boy in front of him suspiciously, trying to search for clues related to him in his brain.

"I really can't remember? Then do you still remember Father Luo in the Catholic Church? That foreign priest with the big nose? And the braces boy?" Seeing that Dongye Jingxuan still had intermittent amnesia, Luo Ling couldn't help but patted his forehead , made an expression of wanting to die, "You and I used to go to his yard to steal mangoes. Once you were blocked by his big yellow dog and couldn't get up and down the tree. I ran away to help you lure the dog away. Five streets, and I was almost bitten by a dog in the end."

The big-nosed priest, the man with braces, mango stealing, the big yellow dog... Higashino Shizuru couldn't help but fell into deep thought for a while, feeling as if someone had inadvertently flipped a dusty place deep in his memory, and those silences Memories that have been held for a long time are lifted up like fine dust.Gradually, those long-standing memories in my mind became clearer little by little like the photos in the developing potion.Suddenly, he stared at Luo Ling with wide eyes, his eyes full of disbelief. "You, you, are you... Zero?"

"You can't remember it after talking for a long time, but you remembered it as soon as I was bitten by a dog. So you only remember this incident!" Luo Ling breathed out as if relieved, and then said with complaints.

Higashino Shizuru lowered his head in embarrassment, then raised his head in disbelief to look at the boy in front of him who was half a head taller than him, and asked again uncertainly, "It's really you?"

"Who else knows these embarrassing things about you except me!" After finishing speaking, Luo Ling intimately punched him on the shoulder. "Actually, when I saw you that night, I thought you were very familiar, but you have changed so much that I didn't dare to recognize you for a while. I didn't know it was you until you reported your family name just now."

"So you already knew it when you made the game just now?"

"Of course, why don't I let you guess with confidence? I remember that when I was a child, the priest said that you have a super sense of pitch. I didn't expect it to be even better when you grow up."

Faced with Luo Ling's compliment, Higashino Shizuru was a little embarrassed, and quickly changed the subject and said, "Hey, I remember that you seemed to be about the same size as me when I was young, why have you grown so tall now? What have you been eating these years? "

"I also want to ask you what you have been eating! You have eaten all your brains, I haven't seen you for a few years, and you don't even know your old friends."

"Eight years, right? We haven't seen each other for almost eight years." Dong Ye Jingxian reminded Luo Ling, feeling a little emotional in his heart.

"Eight years? Is it that long?" Luo Ling frowned and muttered.

Higashino Shizuru nodded.

Luo Ling looked sideways at the sky, secretly thinking about the day.The sunlight hit his face at a 45-degree angle, making his face even more chiseled.After a while, it was estimated that the calculations were getting more and more chaotic, so he waved his hands to give up, changed the subject and said, "Hey, why did you suddenly come to our school to be an exchange student?"

"Uh... I just came here when I got the chance." Higashino Shizuru deliberately concealed the fact that he and his father were having trouble, "What about you? When did you learn the cello?"

"Father Luo taught me. I just learned to play, but I didn't expect to like it all at once."

"Father Luo can also play the cello?" Higashino Shizuru only remembered that the foreign priest in the Catholic Church played the organ very well.

"Of course, there are still many things he knows!" As soon as Father Luo was mentioned, Luo Ling couldn't hide the pride in his eyes.He grew up in the Catholic Church, and he has already regarded Father Luo as his father.

"Father, is he all right now?"

"He returned to China when I was just in junior high school. But every Christmas he would send me a card."

"What about the braces guy? Still living in the big house?"

"It's moved away. Not only his house, everyone in the big house has moved out. Now it's a key protection unit, and no one is allowed to enter."

"What about my grandma's house?"

"It was demolished, and it is now an activity center for the elderly. What, you don't know?"

Higashino Shizuru paused, and then said calmly: "My mother rarely returns to Japan now, and it took me a long time to find out about my grandma's death."

Luo Ling paused in his heart, and then immediately changed his excited expression, "Our band has a performance next weekend, come and play if you have time?"

"Okay. By the way, the name of your band is quite special. Does it have any special meaning?" Higashino Shizuru raised his face, and smiled again between his brows.

"This name was thought up by our captain. He said that the five of us are like a fist, and we can only exert the greatest strength when we are together. And doesn't BOX mean a box? He said that he hoped that our band would It makes a difference. It’s like a box, you never know what’s inside until you open it.”

"Funny, kind of rock'n'roll, I like it."

"You like rock and roll too?"

"Yeah, I like BEATLES and GUNSN' ROSE best."

"Oh? You like GNR too? I'm a huge fan of theirs. My favorite song they cover...."

“Knockin' On Heaven's Door“

The two of them said the title of the song at the same time.

"You like this song too?" Luo Ling asked happily.

"Hmm. Although it's a cover, I think it's better than the original. Especially Axl's voice, the lyrics of this song are really perfect."

"Yeah, it looks like you and I are still friends."

"Knowledge? What do you mean?"

"It turns out that there is Chinese that you don't understand!" Luo Ling said as he put his arms on Higashino Shizuru's shoulder affectionately, as if they had been together for eight years and had never been separated.

The author has something to say: I used to think it was easy to post on the Internet, but now I realize that I was completely wrong.After doing countless single-choice and multiple-choice questions, my article was finally published smoothly!For a person with choice phobia like me, it is really not easy not to pass out halfway or give up directly, so I have to give myself a thumbs up for this!

Seeing what I wrote appear on the computer screen feels amazing!