three feet away

Before the end of the summer vacation of her sophomore year, Xu Nuo ended her tutoring, completed all the procedures for studying abroad, and then stayed at home for three days.

In those three days, she never went out of the house like every day at home before. She didn't tell Mother Xu the specific time when she went abroad, but simply said which school she was in and how many years it would take to go abroad.

Father Xu was very happy. Although he was the last one to know about his promise to study abroad as an exchange student, this did not affect his happiness at all. He was no less excited than when he promised to get back the university admission letter from school. He once asked Xu's mother to tentatively ask Xu Nuo, wanting to throw a big banquet like that in those days, but Xu Nuo refused.She didn't think that such excitement meant anything to her. Those greetings that were as emotionless as Gong Xi Fa Cai had changed their flavor during her years of emotional repression, and she didn't like them.

Although in the past two years of college, she has put away her thorny thorns, and when she meets her parents and grandma, she will no longer express her dissatisfaction as rebelliously as before. There is no tit-for-tat relationship. Looking at the knot in her heart that she has been unable to untie.

I don't know when, no one in the family mentioned Xu Yan from time to time, as if that little boy had never appeared, and the summer vacation when he was a teenager was just a nightmare in Xu Nuo's ignorant years.After waking up from the dream, everyone was actively expressing a meaning to her. She was the only child of the Xu family, and her parents and grandma loved her.This phenomenon made Xu Nuo feel ironic, but she never showed anything in front of them.

The night before leaving home, Father Xu stood at Xu Nuo's window and knocked on her glass window, Xu Xu put down the book in his hand, stood up from the desk and opened the curtains, looking at his own shadow on the transparent glass and the one outside the window. The middle-aged man with some lines at the corners of his eyes hesitated for a moment, and opened the window to create a not-so-wide gap between the two of them.

"Well, your grandma cooked edamame." Facing his daughter, the middle-aged man seemed to be a little embarrassed suddenly. He raised his hand and touched his face. He didn't linger on Xu Nuo's face for too long before turning to the side. In the dark passage in the backyard, he continued: "I remember...you liked to eat when you were young..."

Xu Nuo lowered his eyebrows, listened to the whistling sound of the electric fan behind him, and his eyes fell on the feet of the books on the desk in front of him, which was blown by the cool wind. After a moment of silence, he looked up at the small table at the door of the kitchen , Xu’s mother was sitting on the small bench by the table and looking this way, while Xu’s grandma was sitting by the kitchen door, shaking the cattail fan to drive away mosquitoes, Xu Nuo pursed her lips, silently picked up the book and put it on the table, Turning around, he turned off the small fan behind him, opened the door and walked out.

Xu's father obviously didn't expect Xu Nuo to accept his invitation so happily, and when he saw Xu Nuo coming out of the living room, he said something rambling excitedly: "The beans planted by your grandma this year are very full, and tonight will also be very full." Cool, your mother just lit a mosquito coil..."

Xu Nuo paused as she stepped down the steps, and turned her back to Dad Xu, feeling a dull pain in her heart, as if she had just realized for the first time that relatives can also be so polite.In fact, in the many years after Xu Yan left, Mother Xu's attitude towards her has always been similar to that of Father Xu now, a bit flattering... Compared with the previous mode of getting along with each other, it doesn't make her feel uncomfortable at all. She felt good, but felt extremely ironic.

The weather was just as Dad Xu said, the summer night had receded from the heat of the day, the yard was very cool, the moon was very bright, and you could even see the clouds and the dense stars in the sky clearly.

The moonlight fell on the yard, covering a family of four and a dog. The atmosphere of the scene was harmonious, but the atmosphere was not so harmonious. Xu Nuo rarely spoke. In the story of her childhood, Mother Xu accompanied her to eat some edamame, while Grandma Xu, who had obviously aged in the past two years, dozed off against the door. The dog that used to bark at Xu Nuo was also old, lying on the old The wife stared motionlessly at the increasing number of edamame shells on the ground.

Xu Nuo listened to the stories of her childhood that she remembered or didn't remember, and she couldn't tell if she had any emotions in her heart. If she said no, she felt a dull pain in her heart, but if she said yes, she didn't know. Emotions, what are they called?

It wasn't until Xu's father stuttered when he spoke that Xu Nuo picked up a edamame from the table and peeled it off. Looking at the three green and plump beans, he hesitated for a moment, then picked out one from the side and put it in his mouth. Then she put the remaining two beans at hand. She remembered that Xu Yan was naughty in the past and always liked to snatch the ready-made beans from her hand.

"You take this card, you go out to study, don't treat yourself badly."

When Xu's father put a bank card in Xu Nuo's hand, Xu's mother followed up and said: "In the future, when you are far away from home, you should call home more...let your parents know how you are."

Xu Nuo took a breath, Brick looked at Xu's mother, and replied without much change in expression: "I see."

The corners of Xu's mother's eyes were shining, promising that she didn't want to see such a scene, she quickly turned around, bent down to take a can of beer from the table and opened it, held it in her hand and handed it to Xu's father with both hands, using jerky He shouted in a tone: "Dad."

Papa Xu was stunned for a moment, and then immediately came to his senses, picked up his wine glass and stretched out his hand, promised to lower the wine jar, lightly touched Papa Xu's wine glass, raised his head and drank all the beer in it, and then put the beer in front of him. Xu's bank card was pushed in front of Xu's father: "I have been working as a tutor outside for the past two years, and I have saved some money, which is enough. Grandma is old, and she can use it at home. It's a bit cold, so I went in to rest, and you should go early have a rest."

From the short distance back to the room from the yard, Xu Nuo felt the gaze of the woman behind her. She looked up at the moon in the sky, and then looked down at her own shadow. She didn't look back. When the door closed, she closed Turned on the light, secretly wiped his eyes.

Leaving home the next day, she didn't go back to school directly according to the easy route she should have taken, but took a bus to the high school she hadn't been to for a long time.

She jumped off the bus at a familiar platform and walked in a familiar direction against the scorching sun. Nothing had changed.

At the entrance of a flower shop near the school gate, she stopped, stood at the door and looked through the window for a long time, then entered the shop, and 3 minutes later, she came out from behind the plastic curtain, holding a small pot of aloe in her right hand .

The old man at the gate of the school was dozing off with a fan in the guard room. After the school moved, the campus, which was not that big compared to other schools, became a community with only a few staff dormitory buildings. It was empty and clean. Very soon, Xu Nuo walked sideways into the school gate through the crack of the unclosed iron gate next to the guard room. As soon as she stepped into the campus, her heart became inexplicably dull.After the relocation, the flowers, plants and trees in the school did not have professional repairs. The leaves of the big-leaved magnolia above the head were already so dense that they could hardly see through the light. Walking below, it was like walking into the dusk. People can't help feeling sad.

Xu Nuo turned a corner in front of the teacher's apartment, walked into the alley, and then walked into the small courtyard that carried her painful youth memories.

The courtyard is quiet and quiet, and there are still a few days before the end of the summer vacation. Most of the teachers have not yet returned to school, and the weather is hot. Even if there are people, most of them are taking a nap in the room with a fan blowing on them. No one notices that there is a stranger Came here.

Xu Nuo walked into the yard, walked slowly step by step to the door of the locked room, stood at the bottom of the low steps and stared at the lock for a moment, the sunlight fell on the lock handle, and the refracted light was very It almost made her lose her sight, but she still stared at it for a moment, without moving a bit.Time passed by every minute and every second, and it seemed that everything in her world had ceased to be alive or inanimate, only the closed door and the fastened lock remained.

"็ Hello Who are you?"

"Hello?"

"Who are you? Why are you crying?"

There was the faint voice of someone talking in her ears, and Xu Nuo's thoughts flew back from a distant place. She slowly turned sideways and looked at the place where the voice came from. In her eyes, it was a colorful piece of water, and she only vaguely looked at it. I can clearly see the outline of the person standing in front of me.

"Are you a student here?"

The visitor asked her in a surprised tone.

Xu Nuo blinked, turned his head away from his body and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, sucked his nose to adjust his breathing, and then looked back at the visitor and said apologetically, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." The person who came was a girl who was not too different from Xu Nuo's age. She was dressed neatly and generously, with a huge backpack on her back and a huge suitcase at her feet.It is estimated that it is a new teacher in the past two years.

Xu Nuo twitched the corners of his mouth politely at her, turned around and walked towards the alley.

"Hey!"

The man behind him suddenly yelled at Xu Nuo's back: "Are you looking for someone? Tell me who you are looking for, and I'll see if I know you."

Xu Nuo stopped, turned his back to her and thought for two seconds. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the aloe in his hand, turned around and shook his head at the girl: "Thank you, she is not here anymore." The closed door of the room asked her: "Do you live in that room?"

The girl glanced back at the room behind her, and nodded blankly: "Yes, this is the room temporarily allocated by the school for the new teacher."

Xu Nuo nodded, and then she held the green transparent aloe in her palm and asked her, "Can I put this on the windowsill?"

The girl looked at Xu Nuo suspiciously, hesitated for two seconds, then nodded hesitantly.

"Thank you." After getting permission, Xu Nuo quickly returned to the door of the room, stood under the steps and carefully looked at the narrow and empty window sill, then walked straight up, holding the small potted plant in his hand, and gently placed it on the window. After reaching the top, she took two steps back, looked at the position with a frown, stepped forward again, and adjusted her position carefully. The girl bowed slightly and thanked again: "Thank you."

After speaking, she turned and walked out of the yard.

"I'll help you water it." Regardless of Xu Nuo's hasty pace, the girl stood under the steps and still shouted loudly to Xu Nuo's disappearing figure.

Hearing those words, Xu Nuo resisted the soreness in the corners of his eyes, lowered his head, and ran all the way out of the magnolia passage and out of the school without looking back.