sprite house

For a period of time after that, Father Ruan did not go home for several nights because of working overtime.

The teenager has also been eating at his house.During that time, he rushed home every day after class, and the colorful world lost its appeal, as if only the place where the teenagers had beautiful colors.

After getting acquainted with each other again, the boy would occasionally talk to him, asking where did he go to middle school?How are your grades?

These unfamiliar and polite dialogues seem to have built a thick layer of glass between each other.

Ruan Yuan wanted to ask the boy where he lived now, and he also wanted his phone number, thinking that he could visit him when he was not in class on weekdays. He thought that the boy probably just came to this city not long ago, and there were not many interesting places. have been.

But the young man refused to say, just pinched his chubby earlobe, and asked him with a smile, "Haven't you learned enough lessons?"

Ruan Yuan immediately remembered what happened back then, but he wanted to ask more, but the young man cleverly changed the subject.

Until the end of the meal, Ruan Yuan still remembered the boy's words, he made an excuse to ask him to take out the trash, kicked his slippers and followed the boy's footsteps.

The corridor was dark, and the sensor light was broken again.Only the faint lights from the street lamps outside the building fell in scattered from the hollowed-out wall, scattered like fireflies that could not fly.

The opening song of the news broadcast was playing next door, and the children upstairs were playing the piano. The fragmented notes provoked the barking of another family's dog, and the barking sound was quickly covered by the quarrels from downstairs.

Countless noisy voices leaked from the thin walls, congested in the narrow corridor.It was turned into an isolated silence by the darkness.

Ruan Yuan couldn't bear this kind of silence. He held back his words and asked the young man, "Brother, where do you live now?"

The boy said, "Stay in the dormitory."

Ruan Yuan asked him again, "Brother, which school are you studying in now?"

The boy asked him back, "Why are you asking this?"

"I went to play with you," Ruan Yuan pouted, and said aggrievedly, "How do you guard against me and thieves? You won't say anything when asked."

The boy stopped suddenly, and Ruan Yuan walked to him in three steps and two steps, "Brother?"

"A Yuan, you are a smart boy." The young man turned his head sideways, and the light and shadow split his clear face into two halves. With a ferocious smile, he said softly, "You should stay away from me."

Ruan Yuan was a little frightened, he took a step back.The young man stretched his arms to take the bag of trash from his hand, and then gently stroked his hair with his free hand, "Ah Yuan, go back."

Ruan Yuan didn't speak any more, he just stood on the stairs, watching the young man's back gradually disappearing into the darkness.

The next day, Ruan Yuan ran home after class, but he waited and waited until Father Ruan, who didn't have to work overtime, returned.

Vegetable porridge, a meal is tasteless.Ruan Yuan wanted to speak several times, but was choked back by the silence of the two adults.

He could only take advantage of his mother washing dishes in the kitchen after dinner, and ran over to ask, "Mom, will my brother still come to eat in the future?"

Ruan's mother was about to speak, but Ruan's father scolded angrily from behind, "Who is your brother?"

It was the first time since Yuan was born that he saw his parents quarreling so fiercely. He was driven back to the room by his mother and locked inside, so he could only listen to the quarrel outside through the crack.

"You used family money to subsidize his food and school, you think I don't know? That's all! You brought him to our house! How magnanimous do you think I am to bear such a bastard dangling under my nose all day long? !"

"Don't bite a bastard! He's my child too! He's innocent!"

"Innocent? Yes! He is innocent! His father is also innocent!"

"..."

The argument escalated to smashing things.

There was a loud bang, and the smashed wall shook.

Ruan Yuan hid in the room and covered his ears. He regretted why he chose to ask Ruan's mother at that time. He never knew that his father hated his brother so much, just like those people in the village back then...

He is still too young and his brain cannot process more complex information.He just had a hunch that it might be a long time before he saw his brother again.

This intuition kept him depressed for a long time.

※※※

When I saw my brother again, it was the winter vacation of his first year in high school.

Ruan's father was dispatched to other places for a period of time, and his mother, who worked overtime until midnight, took his brother back.

He should be considered a young man now, but he looks thinner than when he was a teenager.In the harsh winter, he was only wrapped in a thin cloak, holding a cup of hot milk brought to him by Ruan's mother, and the fuming heat made his face pale.

The other party, Ruan Yuan, was playing games in the room. Hearing his mother's voice, he hurriedly turned off the computer, pretended to be sleepy, opened the door and poked his head out. As soon as his eyes fell on the young man on the sofa, he froze.

"—Brother?" He couldn't believe it, forgot to pretend for a moment, pushed the door a few steps and ran to the side of the young man. The young man's eyes were full of tiredness, and when he looked up at him, his eyes were a little dull , looks like a puppet with an empty shell.

Ah Yuan felt his throat was blocked for a moment, and at the same time he spoke, his voice was hoarse as if he was crying, "Brother! What's wrong with you?"

Ruan's mother on the side looked very ugly on the phone, and after hanging up the phone, she said, "Your brother almost had an accident."

Ruan Yuan grabbed his brother's hand that was as cold as ice, frightened, and muttered, "What... what's going on?"

Mother Ruan glanced at the young man, her tone softened a lot, "Yuan Yuan, can you let your brother sleep with you tonight?"

Ruan Yuan naturally agreed repeatedly.

Ruan's mother went to work on the follow-up.Ruan Yuan took a new change of clothes and led his brother to the bathroom for a hot shower.Seeing that his brother was not in good condition, he waited with him outside the bathroom.

The other party didn't say a word during the whole process, and there was no expression on their faces.Ruan Yuan felt uneasy and waited until the two of them finished washing and went to bed together to turn off the lights.

Ruan Yuan held the young man's cold hand, and called softly, "Brother?"

The young man held his hand as if responding, and the heat was continuously drawn from his palm.

Ruan Yuan was worried about his reaction, so he boldly asked softly, "Brother, what's wrong with you?"

The young man came closer, his breath sprayed on Ruan Yuan's face, it was so cold that he didn't seem like a living person.

Ruan Yuan was a little surprised. He had just soaked in the hot bath for so long, but why did the other party's siblings still look like they were fished out of an ice cave, and the bed was so cold that the bed became damp.

Ruan Yuan couldn't help but got out from under the quilt, went to the table to dig out the hot water bottle in the drawer, plugged it in, and stood by the table waiting to be recharged.

The light from the opposite building shined on his face through the glass window, Ruan Yuan saw his own face printed on the glass window, and when he was illuminated by the light outside the window, he looked pale and frightening.

But at this moment, a young man's muffled voice suddenly came from behind him, and he asked him, "A Yuan, have you seen them?"

Ruan Yuan couldn't help shivering, he subconsciously opened his eyes wide, and when his pupils shrank, suddenly countless figures appeared on the glass window.Their eyes were dull, but they had a smile on their faces, and the smile tore half of their faces.They stood there silently, as if they were far away, but also seemed close at hand.

They all come from behind him—

Ruan Yuan turned his head abruptly, and there was nothing behind him.There was a human figure on the bed, it was his brother.

The hot water bottle made a gurgling sound, and the red light for charging jumped off.Ruan Yuan hugged the hot water bottle and crawled back into the bed, stuffing the hot water bottle into the young man's arms, "Brother, it won't be so cold if you hold this."

The young man took the hot water bottle with one hand, and hugged him into his arms together.

The hot water bottles were pressed against each other's chests through their clothes, dedicated to dissipating the cold.

Ruan Yuan buried half of his head in the bed.Sniffing, I still couldn't help asking, "Brother, what happened to you?"

"A Yuan, it's them," the young man was finally willing to speak, his deep voice was full of helplessness like a sigh, "They've been pestering me, I've had enough."

"Who?" Ruan Yuan's mind went blank for a moment, and countless voices suddenly filled his ears—women's weeping and children's laughter, blunt objects sharpened by sharp objects, and men's roars were drowned in it , and finally the sound of water, tick-tick-tick-

No, maybe it wasn't water, but blood gushing from the broken neck.The thick and dark blood gradually solidified and dried up with the passage of time, and the ticking sound gradually disappeared, returning to pools of silence.

At this moment, they seem to have returned to the deserted mansion back then.

The garden is full of withered plants, lightning, thunder and downpour intertwined to create a gloomy interior.They huddled in a square inch and snuggled together.Countless ghosts lingered and howled around them, and it seemed that only each other remained in the whole world.

Through the thick quilt, Ruan Yuan felt that someone was looking at him, that gaze was full of resentment, towards the living and the living world, it was the hatred from ghosts who died in vain——

"Brother," he endured the trembling of his teeth, and repeated his comfort over and over again, "Don't be afraid, I'm here."

The young man didn't speak, he just stretched out his hand and patted Ruan Yuan's back lightly, as if comforting a baby.

Gradually, Ruan Yuan became a little sleepy.All the fear was slowly leaving, he sniffed the breath in the young man's arms, and felt extremely at ease.When he officially fell asleep, he seemed to hear the voice of the young man, as if saying, "I'm sorry."