bucket list

Before Zong Chi entered, he looked up at the corner window on the third floor—the window was closed tightly, whether it was due to the season or an illusion, the flowers and plants on the balcony were not as vibrant as before.He spent a long time here when he was young, especially during the winter and summer vacations, spending months and months in the small room on the fourth floor and in the yard behind the house.When I was a child, the surroundings of this house were even more remote. Except for the occasional neighbor who came over for the weekend, I hardly saw anyone else.But Zong Chi never seemed to feel lonely, and every day he grew up with his grandparents was very happy.

Until he really grows up.

The house is a rather wonderful carrier, but it seems that it also absorbs memories and feelings during the long process of getting along with people, and all the traces of use leave the house with a unique temperament and smell.So even if the people living in it have left, the house can still release the original energy slowly, like a kind of silent memory.

A vague thought came to Zong Chi's mind before he left and came back, and it reappeared at this moment.

He pushed open the door, and the aunt standing at the entrance turned her head immediately, and was about to say hello to him, but Gan Shuyi, who was standing opposite her, was asking her like a condescending hostess. He stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers to draw his attention back.

"Yes, yes." Aunt clasped her hands in front of her body and nodded slightly in agreement.

"Be smart from now on, don't see anything alive." Gan Shuyi was still making some seemingly endless remarks from Zong Chi.

"Mom." He couldn't help but say.

Gan Shuyi then turned around procrastinatingly, and said lightly, "You're back?"

Seeing her performance, Zong Chi knew that the other party had already seen him, so Zong Chi stepped forward and asked, "Mom, how are you doing recently? Are you okay?"

Gan Shuyi raised her eyebrows slightly as if she was tired, and said, "I'm not dead yet, do you want me to live a good life, or not?"

Zong Chi didn't want to answer her obviously provocative words, so he greeted instead: "Hello, Aunt Liang."

Aunt Liang has been taking care of her grandparents for six or seven years, and she has always had a good impression of this polite grandson—the two employers who originally lived in the house were kind and generous, but they left one after another because of illness.Now the future of the house is unknown, and the employees raised by the whole yard are anxious, wondering whether their jobs will be kept. Before this family gathering, rumors have already been flying everywhere.As soon as Madam came back, she stopped her and asked a lot of aggressive questions. Aunt Liang was frightened, but at this moment she was relieved and showed a smile: "Xiao Chi is back, I haven't seen you for a long time."

"How do you speak? How do you address the young master?" Gan Shuyi said unhappily.

Zong Chi said, "I asked Aunt Liang to call me that."

Aunt Liang just showed half a tinge of joy and quickly put it back, saying, "I'll go to the kitchen to see how the meal is being prepared. What are your taboos?"

Gan Shuyi: "I don't even know what we have taboos, how do you do..."

"I'm not at home for lunch." Zong Chi interrupted her unbearably.

As expected, Gan Shuyi's attention immediately turned back to him: "What? Where are you going? You just wanted to leave for a minute after you came back. Why don't you want to stay with me so much?"

"I brought my friend back. I took him out for a walk during the day. Don't worry, I'll come back and have dinner with everyone."

"Friend? What friend, male or female," Gan Shuyi asked curiously, "Will you bring friends home?"

She thought for a while, and frowned: "No, what kind of friend are you, and the family gathering is also coming. Or did you choose this time to come here, and it's not because you want to get close, and take the opportunity to gain some benefits by the way.

Zong Chi got impatient when she heard a series of questions, and the more she said later, the more outrageous she said: "Mom, I'm so old that you only remember to pretend to care about my private life. There's no need for it."

"What are you talking about!" Gan Shuyi was furious, and her voice became high-pitched and sharp: "I want to care about it too! I don't answer the phone, and I can't see people usually, and I don't answer anything. This is the tone when you meet, and you are like that Did you talk to the elders?"

"Oh really? I think I didn't see you talking to me once a year before I got these management resources and shares in my hand." Zong Chi regretted seeing Gan Shuyi's red and white face after he spoke. Taking a deep breath, "Forget it, old Huang Li, it's meaningless to say. It's my fault, long time no see, I'm too aggressive, I'm sorry mom."

He suddenly had such a good attitude, which stunned Gan Shuyi. The two were silent for a moment, and the atmosphere in the room was so awkward that it didn't look like a mother and child gathering.

In the class, Gan Shuyi finally snorted: "So what kind of friend is it? I brought it back home from a long distance."

"Boyfriend." Without waiting for anyone to respond, Zong Chi waved his hand smartly and said, "Let's go, come back for dinner at night, remember to prepare a place for the two of you."

Leaving Aunt Liang and Gan Shuyi stunned, Zong Chi walked out the door with ease and went straight to the kitchen.Although the back kitchen and the main building are connected together, they need to enter through two different passages, which are quite secretive.The entrance to the kitchen is hidden on one side to facilitate the entry and exit of the so-called "servants". This is an old habit. Zong Chi thought that Jian Changche would never find a place.But when he walked around to the kitchen, he found that Jian Changche was actually sitting among several aunts and uncles, with grapefruit and pomegranates already placed in front of him, and the group of people were chatting and laughing happily.

"Huh?" Zong Chi said in surprise.

When everyone saw that it was him, the room immediately fell silent. Jian Changche smiled at him while peeling the grapefruit: "It will be ready so soon?"

Zong Chi's tone was sour: "Do you think I came back too soon?"

He didn't look at it for a while, tsk tsk.

"What are you talking about?" Jian Changche stood up and walked over, and lightly tapped his forehead, "What are you doing now, are you going out to play?"

Zong Chi: "Yes."

Jian Changche turned around with a smile and said hello to the people in the kitchen. He followed behind and asked, "You used to live here?"

Zong Chi: "Yes."

Jian Changche took a few steps back towards the main building, raised her head with her hands in her trouser pockets, and looked up: "Where do you live?"

Zong Chi stretched out his hand and pointed to him: "There."

"What is that room used for now?"

"No reason, it's still the same as before." Zong Chi wondered, "What's the matter, you don't want to go and see it, do you?"

Jian Changche smiled, "Can't you watch it? I won't laugh at you."

"You're always laughing at me!" Zong Chi feigned anger, "And there's nothing shameful in it! It's just a normal kid's room."

There are not many "normal children" living in this kind of environment, Jian Changche thought to himself, but still said: "Why can't you watch it if you don't feel ashamed?"

"You can see it, you can see it, go see it now!"

The two of them went back to the main building through the back door, and while Gan Shuyi was on the phone, they walked up to the fourth floor quietly.Zong Chi didn't lie when the door opened—it was just like any kid's room.A 1.8-meter-long single bed, Zong Chi can't lie down no matter what; a set of desks and chairs; a bookcase of books and decorations, of which simple illustrations of classical works occupy two rows, and Some detective stories, reference books and photo albums.There are quite a few dinosaur models in the small display shelf on the right side of the closet. They are of different sizes, but they are all exquisite. There are all kinds of models and varieties. It is simply a miniature version of Jurassic Park.

"It's really homey." Jian Changche bent slightly, looking at a small figurine of a soldier with a gun.

Zong Chi picked up a Triceratops nostalgicly: "I miss you so much."

Here, Jian Changche has already pulled out a huge photo album from the bookcase, flipped through it, and in front of him is a young Zongchi who is sitting cross-legged on the ground and eating mutton skewers. The wind blew up.

"Hahahaha! So stupid!" Jian Changche burst out laughing, "I thought you were some kind of delicate and elegant young master when you were young, so stupid hahahaha!"

"Didn't you say you couldn't laugh!" Zong Chi snatched the photo album angrily, "After seeing the photos of me when I was young, I'm mine!"

Jian Changche laughed so hard that he couldn't stand upright, and wanted to snatch back the photo album and enjoy it again, when he suddenly heard movement in the corridor, and the faint voice of a woman talking, he didn't dare to say anything, maybe he thought Zong Chi's mother was here.Zong Chi saw that it took only a second for him to go from domineering to quail, and sneered: "Hehe, you coward. You only know how to bully me, what a hero."

The footsteps gradually faded away, Jian Changche shook his head, noncommittal, too lazy to fight with him, and simply took another thick book from the bookshelf.Some of them are photos of Zongchi's school performances or sports games when he was in junior high school, which is much more normal, and there are also many photos of birthdays or parties.

"Ah! This is my first love girlfriend." Zong Chi pointed to the group photo on one of the pages and said, "We were going to a dance together at the time."

"What? Girlfriend?" Jian Changche was taken aback.In the photo, the young Zong Chi was wearing a white dress, with exquisite and beautiful features, his face was serious, his expression was trying to be serious but still a little cute.His arms are slightly bent, encircling the hand of another little girl, who is wearing a blue satin skirt and has a cute hairstyle.

"The pure love relationship in the student days. She came to confess to me. At that time, I felt that I liked her too, so we were together." Zong Chi spread his hands, "Then we held hands, kissed faces and so on. We broke up after graduation, and she cried."

"Scumbag." Jian Changche snorted.

Zong Chi became happy: "I was serious at the time too! I didn't know so much at that time! That's right, I vaguely feel that she likes me more than her, and the feeling of liking doesn't seem to match. I I even wrote a letter to say goodbye to her."

Jian Changche couldn't help laughing along with him, pointing to the little boy in the center of the photo who was always surrounded by everyone: "See, you were quite popular when you were a child. Your personality was not as twisted as it is now."

"Most of these photos are taken by my dad." Zong Chi said, "Although he is always away, he still thinks about me when he goes out, and he tries his best to come back for his birthday. In order to make up for his usual absence, Every birthday has to be a huge event. But children, they forget after a few days, and only the relationship generated by company is the most lasting. So every time my dad comes back from afar, I don’t kiss him again , Looking back now, he was probably quite sad at the time."

Jian Changche slowly flipped through this extremely thick birthday party photo album. Although the scenes recorded under the camera were from more than [-] years ago, the layout of the scenes and the costumes of the characters in it are not outdated today.The children who came to the birthday party inside were still dressed in gorgeous clothes, and their mothers were even more dressed up to attend, unwilling to miss every moment of this social occasion. Everyone looked elegant and at ease, just like a movie scene.

During the ten years Jian Changche grew up, he almost never had a birthday. The orphanage would occasionally give out some candy and snacks for the first child's birthday. Most of them were donated from outside. They were very unwilling to accept it.It's useless to hold a lot of candy in your hand, and you can't exchange it for anything else, so the employees will first pick out the imported high-end chocolates and give them to their children, and distribute the rest they don't want.

Jian Changche didn't want to grab it, and he didn't like sweets, so he almost never got any.

Thinking of this episode, he suddenly didn't want to watch it.

It's not because of hypocrisy, nor is it because of self-pity, let alone lamenting the injustice of fate.Instead, he suddenly felt that his existence in this house and this room itself was very absurd.It is even more absurd for him to attend any family gathering as Zong Chi's "friend". Look at Zong Chi's "friends" from childhood to adulthood, which one is like him and which one is like him.

"Let's go." Jian Changche closed the heavy photo album on her lap.

"Don't watch it?" Zong Chi was a little surprised, but he didn't do it. He thought: "Let me take you to a delicious steamed vegetable restaurant. We can walk there, it will only take 20 minutes."

"Yes." Jian Changche agreed vaguely.

When the two went down to the third floor, he followed Zong Chi, who couldn't help himself, to look at the room of his grandparents - the room was very clean, but there were indeed a lot of sundries, presumably because the two old people hadn't been cleaned up after their death. Want to know who gave the order.Remembering that kind, elegant and playful old man, Jian Changche couldn't help but feel sentimental... He was used to all this.

So he could only imagine how sad Zong Chi must be.

But Zongchi didn't show too much emotion. He watched the room in silence, watching every inch carefully, as if he was trying to scan the room with his eyes and build a file in his brain.Finally, he sighed softly, closed the door, and said, "let's go."