three feet away

It was raining lightly at night, and Xu Nuo was experiencing a dream in a hazy half-dream and half-awake state.Everything in the dream was the same as it was four years ago, which made her sleep uneasy.

She kept turning over, but she always felt that there was something restraining her body, which made her even more uncomfortable.But the dream is still going on intermittently.

"Sister, you are not allowed to come down, you just watch my performance at this depth of water."

In the muddy river, a small figure in only underwear rolled and rolled up and down on the water surface.A carp rushed up from the water, leaped about [-] centimeters out of the water, and fell in again with cheers.

"Xu Yan, if you don't come up again, I'll go home and call grandma!" Xu Nuo squatted by the river, looking worriedly at the cheerful little man playing in the water in front of him.That was her own brother, two years younger than her, who just turned 13 last month.

The person in the water raised his head and acted like a baby to Xu Nuo: "Don't, let me play for a while, help me!"

Let me watch, if grandma comes this way, call me. "

"I don't care about you." Xu Nuo turned his head away from looking at the man with the hippie smile in the water, but he couldn't help but pay attention to him from the corner of his eye. There was a heavy rain just now, and the mountains flooded. The rice fields and roads in the countryside were all overflowing. The water was turbid.At this time, Xu Yan suddenly said that he was sweating after lunch and wanted to take a bath in the water. He liked water since he was a child, and told promises countless times that he would practice physical education and learn to swim when he grew up, but he was not satisfied with the clear water of the indoor swimming pool.

Xu Nuo couldn't hold him back, so he could only follow him. Just when he reached the river bank, Xu Yan had already taken off his underwear, and before Xu Nuo had time to call him, he plunged into the water.

Xu Nuo looked at the dirty water surface where Xu Yan jumped down and splashed water slowly receding, and the time passed by second by second, but Xu Yan still disappeared, eager to get into the water along the river bank.

"Wa hahaha!"

Before Xu Nuo went into the water, the naughty boy in the water had already surfaced, pouring water into the sky, his body swayed from side to side with some turbulent water waves, wiped the water on his face triumphantly and asked Xu Nuo: "How about it, old lady? Are you scared? It must have been a minute and a half just now, right? Hahaha."

Xu Nuo breathed a sigh of relief, she was amused by the bright and proud expression on Xu Yan's face, but she was annoyed that he insisted on taking a nap in the dirty water at noon, so she casually grabbed a small one beside her. The small pebbles were thrown towards Xu Yan.

"Aha, let's continue." Xu Yan was mischievous. He had promised that the parabola of throwing a stone would fall at most at his side, but he threw himself to catch it with his head. The stone made a crisp sound on his head. Standing up and looking at him to see if there was anything wrong with the smash, Xu Yan laughed haha, covering his head, and said to Xu Nuo after he finished, "It really hurts."

"It deserves it! Hurry up!"

"Oh, I've just come down now. I promise you it's really disappointing. You have to take care of everything." Xu Yan complained, let go and went into the water again.

This time, he sank longer in the water.

Xu Nuo smiled, staring fixedly at the surface of the water, counting silently in her heart, helping her younger brother to time the time, until Xu Yan reappeared at one minute and 35 seconds, swinging her limbs flexibly on the water, she finally He smiled and said, "Not bad, there is progress."

Xu Yan raised his head, with a very unhappy expression on his immature face: "It must be, the one in front of you is a future swimming star."

"Shut up, go ashore." Xu Nuo smiled, and continued to call Xu Yan to go ashore. The water washed down from some mountain, and it was so dirty that she couldn't see it. She couldn't understand why Xu Yan was so crazy, "This water is so dirty. Didn’t your parents give you the money to teach you in the swimming pool? Can’t you go to the swimming pool to learn something professional?”

"You don't understand this. Those who drown in the river can only swim in the swimming pool. The water in the swimming pool has no strength at all."

"Anyway, come up for me, if you don't come up again, I will really call you grandma."

"Don't, I'll play for a while." Seeing that Xu Nuo really got up and was about to go home, Xu Yan was in a hurry and begged for mercy: "Sister, sister, please don't, I'm your own brother, no, you said that since childhood When I grow up, I will let you do everything, why do you still not love me and love me so much?"

Xu Nuo rolled his eyes at him: "Stop coming, you are the pimple of grandma and dad, which time didn't you cry like ghosts and howl like wolves so that I was robbed of my toys?"

"Don't you stop grabbing now?"

"Now? It's late! Just wait for grandma to whip you with a broom." After Xu Nuo finished speaking, he turned around and headed back towards grandma's house.

Xu Yan stared at her back in the water, smiled, and shouted at Xu Nuo's back: "I know you're going home to fetch my clothes, sister, the underwear is in the shoe box on the bookcase in my room!"

After shouting, he plunged into the water again.

Xu Nuo turned his back to Xu Yan's direction, listened to the cicadas singing in his ears, and smiled, this kid really got her.

When she returned to the river, Xu Nuo didn't see Xu Yan. She thought he was shutting off the water again. She stood by the river and watched for about 30 seconds. Instinctively rubbing his eyes with his hand, he shouted: "Xu Yan, come up quickly."

No one responded. In the less than two-meter-wide river, the water was tumbling, not violent, but it still made her a little flustered, who was afraid of the water.

"Xu Yan!"

Xu Yan probably landed on the bank, and she looked up at the emerald green mixed with light yellow rice fields on the other side of the river, but she didn't see anyone.

She began to panic and fear, she picked up Xu Yan's clothes on the ground and hugged her in her arms, and ran down the river, calling his name while running, but the only response to her was the thought of ripe winter melons by the river. The cicada who cries louder with her.

"Xu Yan, Xu Yan!"

She began to cry uncontrollably, crying so darkly, she was like a child who didn't understand anything but knew everything, when sadness and pain came, she forgot everything except crying.

"Promise?"

"Promise?"

"You're having a nightmare."

A gentle and familiar voice came from the ear, compared with the pain in the dream, it was unbelievably beautiful, Xu Nuo tried hard to open his eyes to respond, but it happened like a nightmare.She couldn't struggle, fear wrapped her up, but didn't give her a way to escape.

"sister…"

Xu Yan suddenly called her from behind, she stopped struggling, turned her head to look back, there was a wound on his forehead, and he was still bleeding, it was the pebble he threw that hit him!

"Xu Yan, you go ashore, I beg you. Come ashore!" Xu Nuo watched him start to cry, she kept begging Xu Yan, begging him to go ashore, begging him to come back.

Xu Yan's face suddenly turned pale. He was bleeding all over, and there was not a single spot that was intact. He said to Xu Nuo with a sad face, "Sister, why is the ground cracked? The house is pressing on me, it hurts so much."

"I haven't seen you for a long time, do you miss me?"

"I miss you, I miss you, Xu Yan..."

"I miss you too, but I can't go to school with you anymore, I'm dead." Xu Yan said to her with a smile, his face was ashen, "I just came back to see you, I have to go."

"No, no, no, Xu Yan. You can't go if you're not dead, Xu Yan!!!!"

"Promise! Open your eyes!"

"Promise!!!"

Yan Ruyi's voice pierced the eardrums from afar, promising to wake up from the nightmare with a cold face.

Before dawn, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, crackling like tiny stones hitting the tent.Xu Nuo closed her eyes, she hadn't fully woke up from the dream, she could only breathe heavily instinctively.

"You're having a nightmare."

Yan Ruyi's voice came from above his head, Xu Nuo raised his head, only to realize that he was being held in Yan Ruyi's arms.The confinement I felt in the dream just now came from her arms.

She stretched out her arms to hug Yan Ruyi, buried her head in the crook of her neck, wiped her eyes on the corner of the quilt: "Yan Ruyi."

"Ok?"

"Sorry for disturbing your sleep."

Yan Ruyi was stunned for half a second, then raised her hand to wipe off the cold sweat from her forehead: "It's okay, you're just having a nightmare."

Xu Nuo lowered her head and listened to Yan Ruyi's heartbeat. The emotions of grief and grief in the dream gradually eased. She raised her head slightly, looked at Yan Ruyi's face in the dark, and said to her in an inaudible voice: "Yan Ruyi, last time you asked me if I had a younger brother, I said no. Do you remember?"

"Well, remember."

"I lied, Yan Ruyi. I have a younger brother named Xu Yan, who is only two years younger than me. He is very smart and has always been better than me in his studies. When he entered junior high school, the school didn't charge him tuition fees in order to rob him."

"Really? That's amazing. Where does he go to school now?" Yan Ruyi followed the promise.

Xu Nuo smiled in the dark, turned her back to Yan Ruyi, and hugged her hands tightly under the quilt.

"he died."

"..."

It took Yan Ruyi a few seconds to recover from her surprise. She leaned over and chased Xu Nuo, pulling her into her arms from behind, and kissed the back of her neck when Xu Nuo was trembling slightly and crying softly: " Well, it's all over."

"I hate him, I tell everyone that I hate him, since he was born, everything that belongs to me has become his for granted, he hates and has a thick skin, steals all the things I like and don't like But he is my younger brother, he is so cute when he is asleep, and he is so innocent when he calls me sister... I didn't mean it, Yan Ruyi, I didn't mean it..."

Yan Ruyi hugged her even tighter when Xu Nuo shouted with a crying voice, and she hugged her, comforting her over and over again: "I know, be good, I know. It has nothing to do with you."

"No, no. It's my fault. He was washed far away by the water. When they picked him up under the tree roots by the river a few kilometers away, he still had a lump on his forehead. I gave it to him with a stone. He smashed it. Yan Ruyi, he drowned, it must be because I smashed his head. Four years, in these four years, he never appeared in my dreams... He was blaming me... But just now, he came suddenly, But he said he was leaving..."

"I'm still here, Xu Nuo, be good, I'm still here." Yan Ruyi rolled over and knelt half-kneeling in heartache, she grabbed Xu Nuo's body and let her sit up with her, holding her face, thumbs He kept wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes for her: "I'm still by your side, I'm with you."

Xu Nuo laughed, she shook her head: "Yan Ruyi, you are my teacher, can you really stay with me as you said?"

"..." Yan Ruyi was stunned for a moment when asked this question.

Feeling her silence, Xu Nuo gently raised his hand to take Yan Ruyi's hand off his arm: "Thank you, Teacher Yan."

After speaking, she leaned down feebly, wondering if it was the aftermath of the earthquake, she was very dizzy.

"Promise."

"..." Xu Nuo heard Yan Ruyi calling her, but she was immersed in the sad world where she suddenly dreamed that Xu Yan had experienced the pain four years ago again, and she was unwilling to get out, she didn't answer Ruyi.

"Promise?"

Yan Ruyi called her again, this time, she raised her voice slightly.

Xu Nuo turned over, turned his back to Yan Ruyi, and still didn't say a word.

In the dark, she listened carefully to the movement behind her, but she didn't hear anything unusual. Yan Ruyi was still sitting, not knowing what she was thinking.

Yan Ruyi waited in silence for a long time, finally, after not wanting to wait even half a second, she suddenly lifted the quilt off Xu Nuo's body, and pressed herself down on her body.

Before Xu Nuo could react, Yan Ruyi bit her mouth, and she frowned for a moment, but she refused to say anything.

Yan Ruyi let go of her lips and teeth, and kissed her with indescribable tenderness and lingering.

Xu Nuo was a little dazed by Yan Ruyi's sudden movement, she lay there upright without moving.

Yan Ruyi suddenly laughed, she straightened up, her voice trembling when she laughed: "If liking and enthusiasm are just to express the indifference you can get and leave behind, then you have won the promise."

Yan Ruyi's aggrieved voice made Xu Nuo suddenly wake up from her morbid pessimism. She stretched out her hand to pull Yan Ruyi's hand, but Yan Ruyi threw it away.

"I'm sorry." She apologized in a low voice: "Yan Ruyi, you misunderstood."

Yan Ruyi sneered: "What is the misunderstanding? I am your teacher and you are my student. What is there to misunderstand?"

Xu Nuo turned over and sat behind Yan Ruyi, stretched out his hand to hook Yan Ruyi's neck, and rubbed his nose against Yan Ruyi's face like a puppy: "I'm sorry, I won't say that again to question you. I will try my best to change it." Pessimistic fault, I really like you."

Yan Ruyi finally relaxed her attitude, she tilted her head and pressed her forehead against Xu Nuo's forehead, she exhaled lightly, and said to her in an extremely gentle tone: "Some people know that they can't like it, but they are still moved. Promise, I know that liking you is a wrong thing, and responding to you is even more wrong, but I... don't know when it started, I can no longer pretend not to see you..."