sunk into the earth

The cemetery is on the outskirts of the city, and there is no one to manage it. Several steles have been knocked down by the wind and sun.Layers of holly trees are planted all around. This cemetery was saved from the fate of being razed to the ground because it was far from the city center. The gray stele looks black from a distance.But if you look carefully, there is a row of eye-catching wooden stakes next to the most common stone tablet. If you don’t know it, you may think it’s a prank. To live and die with the owner of the stele, or to protect her.

Cheng Sheng was not in good spirits when he went to the cemetery at night. Zhang Chen looked at him many times in the dark, and finally guessed that Zhang Licheng had spoken some nasty words to him, so he pulled him towards him and looked at him. Looking at the stele in the dark night, she said to him: "My dad is crazy, don't care what he tells you."

Cheng Sheng said "Okay" softly, but suddenly knelt down in front of Li Xiaoyun's tombstone and kowtowed several times.

Haiyan, who was burning paper in front of another row of monuments, was startled when she heard the sudden movement, but she was relieved when she heard the thump, thump, and Cheng Sheng kowtowed to the monument, and muttered: "There Money has no money, power has no power, there is a lot of suffering and guilt, no better than us."

Zhang Chen next to him stood up straight, and called out softly to the direction of the tombstone, "Mom". The surroundings were terribly silent, and this short cry echoed in the dark night. Zhang Chen suddenly remembered those Buddhist scriptures of redemption. He thought it was unnecessary. Because it has been too long, so long that he is about to forget this person's face, and when he sees this new face again, he no longer wants to remember these things. The group of children on the mountain, the old man who avoided him because of his homosexuality, Zhang Chen had long forgotten what kind of faces these people had.So he gently said to his mother's tombstone: "Forgive him, this man is more stubborn than me. If you don't forgive him, he will have trouble with himself for the rest of his life."

After speaking, he put his hand on Cheng Sheng's shoulder, stroked his fluffy hair with the other hand, and said in the empty cemetery, "I forgive you for her."

The three of them burned a lot of paper purses, Zhang Chencheng burned it in front of this monument, Haiyan burned it in front of another row of monuments next to it, and said in their mouths: "Obviously, I have treated you well enough. I didn’t forget to burn money for you, but I don’t have much money to spend myself.”

She poked the tombstone with the crutch in her hand, and Cheng Sheng's thud-thump-thump-kowtow sound was all in her ears. She suddenly laughed and said in the direction of the tombstone, "Obviously, I always thought you died early and it was a pity, but You see, there is nothing good about being alive, Boss Cheng is so rich, powerful and knowledgeable, isn’t he living in the same pain as us? Do you feel better if you think this way? "

Her words echoed in the empty cemetery, and Cheng sat on the dry grass next to the tombstone with a plop, rubbing his fingers on the surface of the rough stone tablet beside him from time to time.

Zhang Chen burned all the things he bought in the afternoon, took out an iron box from his carry-on bag, and picked and put in the photos that had been developed after he came out of the nursing home.

Cheng Sheng leaned against the tombstone, hugged and touched it with both hands, without any expression of fear on his face. He heard the sound of jingling and looked up at Zhang Chen, just in time to see the corner of a stack of photos in his hand, dumbfounded. Throat asked: "What are you doing?"

"Show it to my mother." Zhang Chen moved very slowly and lightly, always making people feel that he loves everything he touches, including guitars, pianos, people, and even photos.

He put the selected photos in one by one, and told Cheng Sheng below: "My mother has never been out of Yuncheng, not even the provincial capital. The biggest hope in this life is that I can go out, so I Every time I go to a new place, I take some photos and send them to her, hoping that she can go to other parts of the world."

Cheng Sheng stretched out his hand suddenly, helped the dirty ground to stand up, his legs were sore and numb from kneeling for too long, and he staggered forward as soon as he stood up.

Zhang Chen stretched out his hand to support him, but he saw him staring at the stack of photos in his hand, picking inside with one hand, and pulled out a Zhang Chen that he took on the train in the morning.

The photo was a bit blurry, Zhang Chen was leaning against the window, with a large expanse of verdant poplar forest behind him, he was immersed in a gentle light and shadow, with a gentle expression on his face that Cheng Sheng had never seen before.Cheng Sheng looked at his side face and thought, there must be something in the heart of a person who can show such an expression.

Cheng Sheng was supported by Zhang Chen, one arm was hung on his body, and he said, "Let auntie see how you look now, she must want to see you the most."

Zhang Chen glanced at him, did not speak, but put the photo on the top in his hand, carefully closed the lid of the tin box, and checked it carefully before preparing to start work.He was familiar with this unattended cemetery, and he neatly took tools to dig open the soft ground in front of the stele, put the newly sealed box in neatly, and then filled it up with the remaining soil next to it.

The wind was strong at night, and Cheng Sheng was trembling due to gusts of evil wind. He put his arms around his body to seek a sense of security. He floated along in the chilly night wind, but his eyes kept sticking to the back of Zhang Chen who was seriously burying things, watching He looked at it and asked casually, "Will this thing rot soon after being buried in the ground?"

Zhang Chen in front didn't even look back, "Maybe, maybe it's because my mother saw it."

"I didn't expect you to be superstitious."

Zhang Chen said: "Good things are superstitious, and bad things are ignored."

Cheng Sheng started to laugh, and smiled, noticing the abrupt row of stakes next to him, and asked, "What is that row of red stakes?"

This time Zhang Chen stopped his movements, threw the hammer into the grass next to him, and said casually: "I have nothing to do to play, and stay with my mother, for fear that she will be too lonely."

Cheng Sheng knew that Zhang Shenmi was telling the truth, he was not that kind of person with nothing to do.But Cheng Sheng knew that he couldn't ask anything, so he could only wait for the person in front to speak up, so he stopped asking.

The three of them burned several large paper wallets, and many paper villas and paper cars beside them. They burned all the things they didn't enjoy during their lifetime, so much that the heavenly beings would never be able to enjoy them all.

Cheng Sheng's forehead and trousers were covered with dirt from when he knelt and kowtowed just now. Zhang Chen saw it, took out a pack of wet wipes from his bag, and wiped his face carefully, gently and seriously. Cheng Sheng looked at him He stared at his forehead without blinking, and suddenly said: "I remember that day, your forehead was covered with injuries, and you were covered by the rain, you were so embarrassed."

Zhang Chen covered his mouth with his hands, and then blocked his eyes, looking back and forth at his half-remained face, and said, "I was so stupid when I was young."

Cheng Sheng lowered his head, remained silent for a long time, and suddenly said, "I'm not stupid, I've never seen you like that. At that time, I felt that you gave yourself completely to me."

He also said: "At that time, I just wanted to run with you, to a place where there was no one, and didn't do anything serious, just the two of us nesting together every day."

On the way home, there was light rain, as thin as silk, and it was hard to detect when it fell. The three of them walked in the silvery sky without umbrellas.Haiyan walked ahead alone on crutches. When she came out of the cemetery, she refused to go with the two, saying only: "I feel a little uncomfortable. Let me stay alone for a while and don't talk to me."

The two people in the back rubbed their shoulders, with a thin layer of wet rain on their bodies, Zhang Chen said next to Cheng Sheng: "Sister Haiyan is usually heartless, but because she is too hearty."

Cheng Sheng nodded, "I know, I know, you have to protect yourself, otherwise how can you survive."

The city of Yuncheng let Zhang Chen let down his guard against Cheng Sheng. This is not like the capital, where only his shell is left with the label of Yunyun excellent, but everyone in Yuncheng knows that he is gay, and everyone knows that his mother Overwhelmed by himself, Zhang Chen doesn't care about anything here, he can do anything, the originally drooping hand suddenly grabs to the side, grabs a wet finger that is stained with rain, and then moves it up, knocking the person next to him The whole palm is wrapped in the palm of my hand.

Cheng Sheng glanced at him in the rain, but said nothing.

The two of them walked back to the hotel wet, wrapped in a layer of fishy smell unique to rainy days.Zhang Chen asked Cheng Sheng to take a shower first, and waited for him to come out of the bathroom in his pajamas and a towel before going in by himself.There is a warm and gentle feeling in the bathroom, which is the temperature left by the previous person.Zhang Chen remembered this day a few years ago, when he stayed alone in the hotel, ordered the hotel restaurant to take a cold shower, and took Haiyan, who was cold in one suit and another in the other, to the icy cemetery in summer.

When he came out again, he saw Cheng Sheng on the bed holding a cup to drink water, and there was a medicine box on the table next to him, which was a commonly used painkiller.

The old problem of the two of them suffering from back pain whenever it rained was repeated.

Zhang Chen looked at Cheng Sheng's face again, and found that he was similar to himself, with his brows tightly furrowed, his lips pursed into a line, and one arm stroked back and forth on his back, as if he wanted to relieve the pain through this movement.He walked to the bed and sat down, picked up the medicine box on the bedside table, carefully read the instructions printed on the back, and inadvertently asked, "Painkillers?"

Cheng Sheng nodded, "Back hurts, and it hurts when it rains." He turned his head to look at Zhang Shen's face, and found that his lips were extremely pale, and he looked like he was enduring the pain. One stick hurts people, so I tentatively asked: "Are you not feeling well? Do you want to take a pill?"

Zhang Chen didn't refuse, took out the medicine tablet, broke off a pill, took the cup in Cheng Sheng's hand, and swallowed the painkiller with warm water.

The rain outside was getting heavier, and after a while, the sound of running water hitting the glass was heard, and there was thunder in the distance, and there were rumbling loud noises one after another. The whole city seemed to be submerged in the bottom of the sea.

Two people in the room nestled on two single beds, quietly listening to the rain and thunder, waiting for the painkillers to take effect.Only the bedside lamp was on in the room, and it only cast a small halo on the side of their bedside. Cheng Sheng looked sideways at Zhang Chen who was leaning on the bedside, and suddenly told frankly: "At that time, I had a serious bone fracture. A moderate operation, and after that, my back hurts every rainy day, and I rely on painkillers to survive."

As he spoke, he got up and got out of bed, and sat down slowly beside Zhang Chen's bed, opened his pajamas, leaving him with a naked and thin back.

A muffled voice came from the front: "Look at the scar on my back, isn't it too obvious?"

Zhang Chen straightened his waist, and in front of him was a white and thin back. Cheng Sheng's back was very thin, and the bone in the spine was particularly clear. Small black mole.Zhang Chen took a closer look, and finally saw a short scar on his back, next to the spine, which was not conspicuous.He stretched out his hand to touch it, and the owner of the back trembled with his fingers. Wherever he touched the back and the bones under his hands trembled, but the person in front didn't say anything, and let Zhang Chen's hand stroke it.

After a while, Cheng Sheng pulled off the uplifted pajamas, kicked off the slippers under his feet, and climbed neatly onto Zhang Chen's single bed, with a twinkle in his eyes, and asked him, "Can you let me see your back?" back?"

Zhang Chen nodded.Soon he felt a pair of hands touch his back, the hands intentionally rubbed back and forth along his spine, fingers and palms searched and finally found the scar beside his shoulder blade, while touching it lovingly, he put the whole body into his arms In together.

"Your scar is more obvious than mine."

Zhang Chen forcibly squeezed a big living person into his arms. He knew what this person wanted to do, but today he didn't want to stop him, and he said obediently and truthfully: "At that time, there was no operation, and it was like this when it split and then healed naturally. It was obvious to the touch. .”

The bedside lamp on the other side was turned off, only Zhang Shen's bedside lamp was left on, and the room became drowsy, with a little dust floating in the light.

Zhang Chen looked at Cheng Sheng in the light and shadow, half of his back was exposed, a slender and protruding bone under the back of his neck, with moles on it, and a scar on the side, Zhang Chen only saw that bone, which was wrapped in flesh , glowing with a healthy luster, it swayed back and forth in the ambiguous light, and was dyed a faint shadow by the dark side without light.Zhang Chen stretched out his hand to feel it, from the beginning of this bone to the tailbone. Along the way, he thought that no one except him had ever experienced this feeling, just like no one could understand the first time he pressed the steel strings, touched the piano, inserted Speaker, it was the first time to write a melody with a pen, and it was the first time to drag and cut the recorded instrument sound into a complete song. How does it feel to touch beauty with trembling hands that have been scarred by blood for the first time.

The bone finally swayed on his hip, and soon Zhang Chen felt his hip being held down, and his hairy head kept rubbing against his body. Zhang Chen reached out and touched his hair, from the back of his head to the back of his neck, Concentrate on feeling the familiar but unfamiliar body.

The torrential rain outside hit the glass window, and the two people inside were already sweating a little. They both felt that they were probably wet by the rain outside.

The single bed was too narrow, but it was enough for two people sticking together. Hearing the sound of the rainstorm outside the window, Zhang Chen suddenly asked, "How many hours did we have time difference at that time?"

Seeing that the people below did not answer, he repeated: "If it rains at the same time, how many hours will we be apart?" This time, the people below raised their heads slightly and told him: "Half a day, a full twelve hours. "

Zhang Chen nodded and said, "It turns out that we are in pain together every twelve hours."