until the last minute

Zhou Yin was sitting in the waiting hall of the station, surrounded by noisy crowds, the noise that he usually hates the most gave him a real sense of salvation at this moment.He took out his mobile phone and wanted to report to his mother that he was safe, even though his mother didn't know what he had just experienced.

There were four missed calls on the screen, showing an unfamiliar number.There was also an unread message. When he clicked on it, his mother told him to find a master electrician to come and repair the light.

Anxiety and unspeakable grievances surged up together, and he clasped the phone on his knee roughly, at the same time the ringtone suddenly rang, and the phone vibrated non-stop.

Zhou Yin sat still in his seat, staring at the bright and clean floor, many people passed by him, but none of them made him raise his head.The ringing of the mobile phone slowly stopped, and the broadcast announcing the entrance ticket inspection covered other noisy sounds, and another group of people poured into the waiting hall, and the sound swept from all directions like a tide.

When the tide faded, he saw Li Qing.

Li Qing stood in front of him, gasping for breath with his hands propped on his knees, his eyes seemed surprised and joyful.Zhou Yin turned the phone over and unlocked it, and the number of missed calls from strangers became five.He lowered his eyes and said thank you for a while.

Li Qing stood up straight, and replied lightly that it is good that you are fine.He started calling, and Zhou Yin heard that he was calling the teacher, and it sounded like he was telling the teacher that he was out of danger.

Unexpectedly, this matter would be known by others. After Li Qing hung up the phone, Zhou Yin couldn't hold back and asked: "You told the teacher about me? Did you say it in front of everyone?"

Li Qing put his mobile phone into his trouser pocket. He was still wearing dark blue school trousers, and the bottom of his trousers was covered with a lot of dust.

Seeing that he didn't respond, Zhou Yin's tone became a little aggressive: "Your mobile phone is not locked right now? Why can't you talk to me if you call me?"

Li Qing glanced at him, Zhou Yin thought he should be angry, because of his unreasonable resentment and anger.But Li Qing just looked at him calmly, then sat down next to him, and reconfirmed: "Are you really okay?"

"It's okay." Zhou Yin spat out these two words dryly.

"My mobile phone is broken. I borrowed it from someone else. I'm worried that I won't be able to contact you when I come." Li Qing explained to him in a good-tempered manner, "I didn't tell everyone in front of everyone. Just in case."

Zhou Yin turned to look at him when he heard the words, pursed his lips again and again, unable to say a word of apology.

Fortunately, Li Qing didn't care about it, and took the initiative to lead the conversation to him, "Tell me, what happened."

Zhou Yin showed Li Qing the chat interface between him and the agency. At [-]:[-], the agency asked him if he had arrived at the appointed place and why he didn't see anyone else.

"I made an appointment with this agent to see the house at 10 o'clock. I came early and arrived at 30:[-]. Someone came over and asked me if I wanted to see the house. I thought he was an agent and left with him."

Li Qing frowned when he heard that, Zhou Yin paused, and continued: "I found something wrong because I went to see the second apartment. The house is very remote. He seemed to be a different person when he got into the elevator. He didn't speak. Here you are." I was not sure when I sent the message, until an aunt came in, and she asked me why I went to the rooftop to see the house."

"That person pressed the top floor. I thought the top floor was also a house. I didn't know it was a rooftop."

Li Qing's face darkened, and he said, "It's a good thing you're gone, it's a good thing."

Zhou Yin smiled: "Fortunately, I listened to your persuasion, should I thank you well?"

Li Qing scratched the back of his head, didn't follow what he said, just kept repeating: "It's good that you're fine."

The two bought tickets for the nearest train, and Zhou Yin regretted it within 5 minutes of getting on the train.He opened the curtains, and through the dirty windows, he vaguely saw a huge Ferris wheel on the outermost edge of the station.

The sky was gray and the Ferris wheel was out of service, but that didn't stop him from imagining that there was a colorful amusement park there.

Li Qing came over to ask him what he was looking at, he pointed to the Ferris wheel in the distance, and urged, "Would you like to get out of the car and play for a while?"

Li Qing squinted his eyes and looked very hard, Zhou Yin directly grabbed one of his fingers, poked it on the window, and traced the giant disc, "Did you see it? The Ferris wheel, there must be an amusement park there. "

Li Qing shook his head with a smirk: "I really didn't see it, and it's too late, I'm about to drive."

"Are you short-sighted?" Zhou Yin asked him, Li Qing wrinkled his nose - this seemed to be a habitual action, even though he didn't wear glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"One eye is more than 200 degrees and the other is more than 100 degrees. The degree may have deepened recently."

"Then you don't wear glasses?" Zhou Yin asked curiously.

"I wear it to class."

After the bus departed, the two stopped communicating. Zhou Yin took a peek at Li Qing. The back of Li Qing's head was against the headrest of the seat, his eyes were closed, and his hands were neatly resting on the armrests, as if he was ready to fall asleep. .

Zhou Yin wanted to laugh a little, he raised his mobile phone to face Li Qing's side face, took a candid photo very quickly, and then put the mobile phone upside down on his knee as if guilty of guilt.From the beginning to the end, his eyes never left Li Qing. He didn't turn around and pretend to look out the window until he was sure that Li Qing hadn't noticed.

Without confirming the photos he took, he could roughly outline Li Qing's appearance. It was serious, with resolute and sharp facial lines, thick eyebrows, and slightly deep eye sockets. The combination of these made Li Qing look domineering.

Even though he wasn't always like this, Zhou Yin knew that when those eyes looked over gently, he would become honest, even a little clumsy.

After the bus drove for nearly half an hour, Li Qing woke up, and Zhou Yin turned his head to the window, pretending to be asleep.The dazzling light shone on the eyes, and the eyelids trembled uneasily. On the one hand, they were scalded by the sun, and on the other hand, they were afraid—for fear that Li Qing would see that he was pretending to sleep.

After contacting yesterday and today, he probably knows what kind of person Li Qing is. He is warm-hearted and kind, and he will generously help even strangers.So even if they didn't know each other before, Li Qing would still help him when he saw him injured or in distress.

Zhou Yin was very sure that even if it was another person, Li Qing would still do the same.

When his thoughts were racing, he felt that Li Qing was approaching him, and then the light spots on his eyelids disappeared instantly, and the discomfort caused by the strong light disappeared immediately.Li Qing drew the blackout curtains for him.

Zhou Yin couldn't pretend to sleep anymore, he opened his eyes, and he caught the gaze of the person in front of him before he could move away.

"Did I wake you up?" Li Qing asked softly.

Zhou Yin smiled: "No, I didn't fall asleep, but you, I haven't said thank you to you yet."

Li Qing had a little helplessness on his face, and he emphasized again seriously: "You thanked me."

When the bus drove into the tunnel, it was suddenly pitch black, and Zhou Yin's murmured "not enough" was swallowed by the darkness.

After getting out of the car, Zhou Yin tacitly agreed that they should go back to their respective homes. He walked straight towards the exit, and Li Qing who got off the car with him suddenly disappeared.He stopped, turned around to check, Li Qing turned back to the car for some reason.

He saw Li Qing turning around in the carriage, keeping his head down all the time, as if he was looking for something.Not long after, he came down with three or four mineral water bottles in his hand.There was an old man with a stooped figure standing beside the car door, Zhou Zhichu didn't notice it until Li Qing walked up to the old man.

He put all the mineral water bottles into the burlap bag that the old man was carrying.

Without watching the next scene, Zhou Yin went to the only exit of the station ahead of time to block people.He changed his mind and didn't want to say goodbye so soon, and he also mastered the method to make Li Qing go with him willingly.

Zhou Yin stopped a taxi and asked the driver to wait for a while.The crowd gradually dispersed. Li Qing walked over slowly with a backpack on one shoulder.He habitually hunched over and looked down, so he didn't notice Zhou Yin who was a few steps away from him.

"Can I trouble you to do me another favor?"

Hearing Zhou Yin's voice suddenly, Li Qing was a little dazed, and suddenly raised his head, Zhou Yin in front of him was smiling politely, and there was an undeniable sincerity in his eyes.

He didn't ask anything, and agreed: "Okay."

At this time, Li Qing was standing on the ladder, looking up to change the light bulb for the ceiling lamp in the living room.Zhou Yin held onto the ladder and occasionally handed him tools.The light bulb was bought at a hardware store on the way back. Zhou Yin can change ordinary light bulbs by himself, but he can’t do anything when he encounters a ceiling lamp that needs to be disassembled.

He showed Li Qing the disassembly and assembly steps he found online, and Li Qing said he could change it, so he went home with him without any worries.

After mother knew it was a classmate, she scolded him and reprimanded him for not bothering her classmates. On the contrary, Li Qing exposed the matter in a few words, but was forced to agree to stay for dinner tonight.

Seeing Li Qing's embarrassment, Zhou Yin deliberately didn't open his mouth. He had planned to let Li Qing stay, and it was better for his mother to come forward than him to make excuses.

After changing the light bulb, Li Qing came down from the ladder. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and started packing the ladder and tools without much rest.Zhou Yin wanted to help him with a ladder, but he avoided it, saying that it was dirty, don't touch it, and walked towards the utility room with the ladder on his shoulders.

The utility room is behind the stairs, and the space is cramped. Li Qing put the ladder and toolbox in, and as soon as he turned around, he collided with Zhou Yin who came in from behind.

"Huh? What is this?" Zhou Yin raised his face, as if he was trying to identify something, and suddenly reached out to pat Li Qing's sweaty hair.

Li Qing was taken aback: "What's wrong?"

"No, I thought there was something dirty, but I was wrong." Zhou Yin raised the corners of his mouth with a shallow smile.Little by little, he brushed away the few strands of wet hair stuck to Li Qing's forehead, and murmured: "The hair is a bit long."

Li Qing didn't react, there was only a very dim light in the utility room, the surface of the lampshade was full of stains, and even the light became diffuse.Li Qing's eyes were a little distracted, as if he didn't know where to look, Zhou Yin's voice called him back: "Do you want to cut your hair?"

"Ok?"

"I said, do you want to cut your hair?"

"To be cut."

Coming out of the utility room, mother was preparing dinner in the kitchen, Zhou Yin suggested that Li Qing take a bath.He took Li Qing upstairs to his room, pushed him into the bathroom, and adjusted the water temperature for him.

Zhou Yin unpacked new towels and underwear, rummaged through the closet to find sportswear that had only been worn once or twice, folded all the clothes into a ball, carried them to the bathroom.

The sound of dripping water gradually filled the entire room, and water vapor seemed to overflow from the crack in the glass door of the bathroom.Zhou Yin stopped at the door of the bathroom, he didn't know whether it was the soft fabric in his arms, or the rising water vapor, he felt extremely hot.

He put the clothes in the clothes basket outside the bathroom door and reminded Li Qing to come out and get them by himself.

Li Qing answered vaguely, the glass door reflected a shadowy figure, Zhou Yin glanced at it, the frosted glass made everything blurry, not only voice, figure, but also feeling.

He went to the washstand to wash his hands and face, bent over, splashed a handful of cold water on his face.

The bathroom door opened and closed once, the sound of water stopped suddenly, and the bathroom became quiet for a while, Zhou Yin suddenly asked: "I was looking at the house outside, so you call me and say you want to bring my backpack over."

"I came to you in such a hurry, I forgot to take it." Li Qing replied through a door.

"Have you always been this helpful?"

Li Qing opened the bathroom door and came out covered in steam. Zhou Yin's clothes were a bit short for him, and his bare ankles and wrists made his figure even more straight.

"No." Li Qing looked at Zhou Yin, "You helped me, so I want to say thank you in person."

Zhou Yin didn't answer, he remembered the day when Li Qing fought with someone, but he was actually there.