Attempted first love

Before I knew it, the fried seafood noodles in front of me lost all temperature and dried up into lumps, which became a lump when picked up with a fork.

When ordering food, Xia Yan mentioned that the taste of this restaurant has been improved several times, and the taste is very good, but Lu Zhouyu is not sensitive to the taste of the food, so he took a few mouthfuls at random, and then put down his fork.

Drinking half a glass of cold beer on an empty stomach didn't feel good. On the other side, Xia Yan, who drank more wine, lost his eyesight, resting his chin on one hand, and at some point grasped a knife in the other.

He asked Lu Zhouyu why he wanted to buy a studio. After getting the answer, he nodded with a smile, and said "hmm" twice, as if he wanted to say something, his lips opened and closed, and finally stopped like a standby, more like a daze than thinking.

It looked like he didn't listen at all.

After a long time, seeing him pressing his stomach with his hands, Lu Zhouyu asked, "Uncomfortable?"

"The stomach is pumping." After Xia Yan answered, his lips were unconsciously clenched, and his whole body curled up like a shrimp.

Lu Zhouyu got up, went around the table and sat to his left, took out the knife he was holding in his hand, and poured another cup of hot water to his lips, "Drink some water first."

The hot air surged upwards, covering Xia Yan's lips with a film of water, shining brightly under the light.Probably wanting to hold the cup by himself, he raised his hand to grab it, but missed, grabbed Lu Zhouyu's wrist and squeezed it.

"Why is it soft?"

The ending sound was swallowed by the water flow, Lu Zhouyu pushed the rim of the cup between his lips, tilted the mouth of the cup, Xia Yan then took his hand, and obediently sipped.

After drinking half a glass of water, Lu Zhouyu asked him, "Is it better?"

Xia Yan licked his lower lip, nodded and shook his head, unable to answer, but let go of the hand that had been covering his stomach, put it on the corner of the table, and beat up and down with the background music.

The rhythm was getting faster and faster, his fingers gradually couldn't keep up with the melody, and he became visibly irritable, muttering: "Wait for me."

"Okay," Lu Zhouyu held his rhythmically moving two fingers, "eat something and go home."

The fork was stuffed into the palm of his hand, Xia Yan held it up to his eyes, blinked his eyes as if out of focus, and finally said: "I want chopsticks."

In my impression, Lu Zhouyu had never seen such a willful side of him, so he inevitably found it funny, and couldn't help teasing him, "This is a western restaurant, without chopsticks."

Xia Yan said "ah" in a daze, looked around, and asked in confusion, "Why are you in a western restaurant?"

"You insisted on coming." Lu Zhouyu told him.

"Impossible." Xia Yan hesitated to get up, but was pushed back to his seat by Lu Zhouyu, and repeated: "Impossible."

"Why is it impossible?" Lu Zhouyu pressed Xia Yan with one hand, and searched for chopsticks in the cutlery box with the other.

"Aren't you still in China?" Xia Yan asked, "How do you eat Western food and speak English?"

The voice is very soft, and the tone is genuine doubts.Lu Zhouyu was taken aback when he heard the words, first he thought that he was drunk enough to start talking nonsense, and then realized that Xia Yan was talking about the phone call he made just now.

The call was from the instructor. Lu Zhouyu was in charge of an installation art exhibit before returning to China. Some of the data in it were wrong and needed to be re-verified.The tutor is a Chinese who grew up in the UK. He speaks Chinese fluently. Both of them communicate in English at work to ensure efficiency and accuracy.

In the middle of the calculation, the instructor suddenly mentioned the exhibition at the Mirage Art Museum and asked "Is it going well?" Lu Zhouyu answered "Smooth".

"Then your friend of the curator can rest assured." He said this in Chinese, and the word "friend" was pronounced perfectly.

Lu Zhouyu looked up from the page full of decimals, and looked at the bar. Xia Yan was facing him, and was drinking with the restaurant owner. The liquid in the glass was colorful, and the lights were broken inside, dazzling people's eyes.

"Hmm." He withdrew his gaze, responded briefly and then reported a set of numbers, "Try this instead."

"Wait, it's still loading."

During the conversation, the drinks were served first, a glass of beer and a glass of sparkling water on the tray. Seeing that Lu Zhouyu was on the phone, the waiter put the beer directly in front of him.

After he walked away, Lu Zhouyu picked up the cup and reversed the position of the two drinks. Xia Yan ordered butter beer, which was more sweet than ordinary beer.

Even the wine should be sweet, Lu Zhouyu smiled silently, and heard the instructor ask "When will I come back, have you bought the ticket", and said "The new project of the city government needs to submit materials before the end of the month".

The ticket has already been bought, Lu Zhouyu took a sip of sparkling water and said, "Not yet, not sure."

Just after the exhibition ended, Ji Qilin asked him to talk about the Biennale, saying that the chief curator, Mr. Shen Ru, wanted to invite him to participate.

"Although the time is a bit tight, it is still a branch venue, but it is a good opportunity." Ji Qilin said.

Lu Zhouyu told him the time of the air ticket, "Thank you, but the time is probably too late. I still have projects to do when I go back."

After listening to it, Ji Qilin laughed heartily, "Xiao Xia said a long time ago that you would refuse, let me get ready."

"he knows?"

"Yes, I told him earlier that I wanted him to ask you what you mean first." Ji Qilin paused, and then said: "It's also because I didn't think carefully, I should let the person in charge talk to you directly, Xiaoxia knows you If you want to leave, I might be worried to tell you directly, you can't refuse."

After a while of silence, the sound of the rain outside the window gradually increased, and people in the exhibition hall also left one after another. A thin and vague figure on the glass was swallowed by the crowd.

Lu Zhouyu said, "I see."

"There will be an emergency preparatory meeting tomorrow morning. If you are interested, you can come and listen to it. You don't have to participate. Give us some advice, great artist." Ji Qilin smiled.

Originally, Lu Zhouyu was going to talk to Xia Yan about the Biennale, or more—when he said "I have something to tell you", he realized that they had known each other for ten years, and they hadn't even had a single frank conversation with each other. conversation.

It seems to be always missing, or rare opportunities, or intentional evasion, one barrier after another, looking back, it has been built into an iron wall, and it is difficult for facts and emotions to be conveyed and perceived.

But at the same time, Lu Zhouyu felt that there was no need to say more. The more you talk, the easier it is to deviate from the original meaning.

In this conversation, he was only going to ask "Do you want me to exhibit?"

Xia Yan said yes, so he will stay.

But the current situation--

"Chopsticks, give me." Xia Yan asked intermittently. After getting the chopsticks, like a child, the two stick together to pick out the noodles on the plate. He overturned the dried fried noodles and fell on the table. .

Lu Zhouyu pushed the dinner plate away and brought over the fruit. In the blink of an eye, Xia Yan went to bite the noodles on the table.

"Wait." Lu Zhouyu quickly covered his mouth, but his index finger was bitten, and it took a long time to pull it out.

"What a puppy, you." He rubbed his knuckles and pushed Xia Yan back into the chair.

Xia Yan's long hair was disheveled, and he was a little angry because he didn't eat the fried noodles. His pale face turned red, and he complained in a hoarse voice: "Why don't you give me something to eat?"

Lu Zhouyu was completely helpless with him, and walked around behind him with one hand, put it on his shoulder, and controlled him not to move around, then pricked a piece of cantaloupe with a fork, and handed it to his mouth, "Open your mouth."

After smelling it closely, Xia Yan asked: "What is this?"

"cantaloupe."

"Did you know that eating cucumber and honey tastes like honeydew melon?" Xia Yan opened his mouth, swallowed the piece of melon, and wrinkled his nose.

"Really," Lu Zhouyu pricked another large piece and pressed it between his lips: "Take another bite."

"Wait……"

"One more bite."

"acid……"

"Sweet, open your mouth."

Lu Zhouyu seldom gets drunk, and has no experience in taking care of drunks. During his undergraduate years, he had a Russian roommate who was very good at drinking. The only time he came back drunk was to eat half a watermelon, and then he woke up.

Just mouthful after mouthful, without giving Xia Yan a chance to speak at all, after eating half a plate of cantaloupe, he seemed to wake up a bit from the wine, stopped talking nonsense, instead turned his head and stared at Lu Zhouyu intently.

The distance was too close, Lu Zhouyu still had one arm on his shoulder, and his breathing was entangled. Because Lu Zhouyu was not sensitive to the smell of food, he also smelled the strong aroma of melons and fruits, and his throat suddenly became a little dry.

After eating, Xia Yan's face returned to normal, his lips were moistened, he stretched out the tip of his tongue and licked his lower lip, as if recalling the taste, he said, "It's really sour, try it."

"Really," Lu Zhouyu just said, neither eating a piece of melon nor looking at him again, "Let's go."

Xia Yan was dazed for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay, it's time to sleep."

When the two walked out of the restaurant, the sky outside seemed to be swept by a tornado, and it was completely dark.

"It's getting dark," Xia Yan said, looking up at the upstairs studio with regret, the door was closed tightly, "School is already over, isn't it?"

"It's raining heavily, so there's no class today."

Until he walked back to the bridge, Xia Yan still turned his head a few steps. When the wind blew, he seemed a little cold, and he no longer spoke in such a lazy tone, "Okay, then come again next time."

After walking out for a long time, a car was stopped, and the two sat side by side in the back seat. When they were passing by the family courtyard, Lu Zhouyu wanted to tell Xia Yan that he had to get out of the car first, but when he turned his head, he found Xia Yan was leaning against the car glass and fell asleep. Yes, the exhaled hot air made a white mist out of the glass, like a cloud.

Until he missed the gate of the family courtyard, the cloud became more and more abundant. Lu Zhouyu didn't wake him up, but gave another address to the driver, and the taxi turned around and went straight to the viaduct.

Twenty minutes later, the car stopped at the gate of Xia Yan's family compound. The driver had to take over and could no longer carry passengers. Lu Zhouyu had to pay first, then woke Xia Yan up, and the two got out of the car together.

Xia Yan looked sluggish without waking up, and his thinking was sluggish. Seeing Lu Zhouyu standing still by the roadside, he said, "Let's go."

"where to?"

"Go home."

What he said made sense, Lu Zhouyu laughed, turned his shoulders, pointed to the gate, and asked, "Do you still know the way home?"

Xia Yan blinked, and glanced at him with an idiot look, "I'm not amnesia anymore."

"Then go home, I'm going home too."

"Oh, I'm going to go shopping." Xia Yan passed him and walked forward. His footsteps were a little staggering at first, but he became steady after a few steps, but it was a bit slow, like a programmed robot, stepping forward step by step. The convenience store at the entrance.

Lu Zhouyu took out his mobile phone to hail a taxi. Due to the bad weather, the system showed that he would have to wait for more than ten minutes. At the same time, he received a WeChat message from Ji Qilin sending him the time and place of tomorrow's meeting, saying, "If you are interested, you can come and listen."

After replying, Lu Zhouyu increased the price on the taxi-hailing software, but still no driver took the order, but Xia Yan came back instead.

Lu Zhouyu stood on the steps by the side of the road, so he had to raise his head, put one hand in his pocket, and asked, "You go to my house first. The weather is bad, you can't get a taxi, and the road will be very busy if it rains again." Danger."

He was half-drunk, his lips kept opening and closing, putting on facts and reasoning, and he even said "Kitty wants to see you".

Lu Zhouyu thought for a while and said, "Okay."

They walked into the community, and in front of the unit building, Xia Yan pointed to the sweet-scented osmanthus tree beside him and said, "It bloomed very well in previous years and was very fragrant, but this year it was all knocked down by the rain."

"I don't like rainy days." When he opened the door, he emphasized it again.

As soon as the door was opened, Alaska's huge body rushed forward, Xia Yan was thrown backwards by him, Lu Zhouyu held his shoulders, and pushed in with him and the dog.

There was still a fish in the fish tank in the porch, and Lu Zhouyu asked him, "Didn't you mean to raise another one?"

Xia Yan glanced at the fish tank, then turned to look at him again, and said slowly: "I still want the one you mentioned..."

"Bristol Goldfish." Lu Zhouyu added for him.

"Hmm..." Xia Yan scratched his face in embarrassment, "I can't remember the name."

After speaking, he walked straight in and said, "You can sit down casually, I will pour water", and then entered the kitchen.

The white tea I drank during my last visit was still brewed, but the fruit was changed from hawthorn to citrus.

He didn't explain the reason for letting Lu Zhouyu go home together, and Lu Zhouyu didn't ask.At the end of the drink, Xia Yan leaned on the sofa, his eyes became more and more confused, as if he was about to fall asleep in the next second, his breathing became longer, and his body smelled like a mixture of wine and tea.

Originally, he wanted to wait for him to fall asleep and leave, but every time Lu Zhouyu turned his head to look at him, Xia Yan immediately received his gaze, like a student secretly dozing off in class, trying to open his eyes wide to show his innocence.

At last he couldn't stand it anymore, Lu Zhouyu said to him: "Go to sleep, I'll go back first." After thinking about it, even though he knew that Xia Yan was still drunk and couldn't listen to anything, he still added: "The double words that Teacher Ji said Annual Exhibition..."

Speaking of this sentence, Xia Yan, who was originally drowsy, suddenly woke up. With a wave of his hand, he overturned a coat on the back of the sofa. Something fell out and knocked on the floor several times. .

Kitty heard the sound and ran over. Before it was in his mouth, Lu Zhouyu bent down to pick it up, held it in the palm of his hand, and found that it was the lighter that had been taken away.

"It's almost used up." Xia Yan stumbled over from the other side of the sofa, and took out another lighter from his pocket, which should be a new one he bought at a convenience store.

He said, "I'll pay you for a new one. Don't want the old one." After finishing speaking, he reached out and clasped Lu Zhouyu's wrist holding the lighter. .

But Lu Zhouyu didn't break away, nor went to get the new one, but asked, "Why?"

Xia Yan was still looking at Lu Zhouyu at first, but when he heard this, his eyelashes lowered, his lips were tightly closed, his whole portrait was covered by dark clouds, and he passively resisted answering.

As usual, Lu Zhouyu would not say more, ask more questions, and stay for a second longer, but at this moment, inexplicably, he asked again: "Xia Yan, why? This is mine."

"I regret it! You didn't reply me again," Xia Yan raised his head, and the heat from his breath hit Lu Zhouyu's neck, "Why should I return it to you?"

I don't know if it's because of being too sleepy, or because of other reasons, his eye sockets are slightly red.

"What reply do you want?" Lu Zhouyu looked at him and asked again, "Do you still want to try?"

Xia Yan didn't speak.

Lighter, red flag canal, one bet after another, a "try", an out-of-control kiss on a rainy night... all the light and feathery fragments connected together are enough to draw a fascinating conclusion.

Until now, it's not that Lu Zhouyu couldn't feel Xia Yan's affection for him, a little liking for him, but he couldn't estimate the weight of this emotion, and he didn't have any expectations.

"How long do you want to try?" he asked.

Xia Yan's thinking was still stuck on the last question, and he answered: "I think so."

"Okay then," Lu Zhouyu held him backhanded and said, "Then let's try."