flawed

Finally returned to Jiang Yu's "hometown", but it was a little different from Zhao Lan's imagination.

It's a low stair room, and his house is on the 4th floor.The house is as old as the appearance of this building, narrow, two bedrooms and one living room are separated in a small space, each room is small, and the living room is also small.A dining table, a sofa, and a TV fill up this little space, and once three adults enter, it looks crowded.

The air conditioner is also old, and the air outlet makes noise.

But unexpectedly it is very tidy and clean. Not only does it not give people a bad feeling because of its old and small space, but it also has a smell of ironed posts in the old days.There is also a faint fresh and pleasant smell in the room.

Qi Nuliang carried the luggage directly to the bedroom prepared for them, and came out with two sets of sanitary ware in his hand.He distributed the towels to the two of them and pointed to the bathroom: "Go wash your face first and cool down."

Zhao Lan instructed Jiang Yu: "You go first, I want to remove my makeup."

Jiang Yu went first.

Zhao Lan went to get the cosmetic bag in the box, and saw a color photo of a woman in the room.The size of the photo is not small, and it is placed on the dressing table in front of the window sill.A few bright red apples were placed in front of the photo, and a bouquet of fresh lilies that were about to bloom was inserted in a white porcelain vase next to it.

She saw Jiang Yu's shadow from the woman's eyebrows, and immediately knew who this person was.

Taking the makeup bag to the bathroom, the door was ajar, Jiang Yu was standing in front of the sink, with his face upturned, his face was covered with a wet towel.The sunlight came in through the glass window, illuminating the small square of floor tiles under his feet, and the floating dust slowly swirled around his calf.But the person seemed to be frozen, standing there motionless, as if trying to cool down the heat of his body with this small wet towel.

"Is it ready?" Zhao Lan pushed open the door.

Jiang Yu was startled, and the towel slid off his face. When he turned his face and saw it was her, he was relieved, picked up the washbasin, and made room for him: "Come on."

Zhao Lan stood in front of the mirror and began to apply cleansing oil on her face, asking, "The picture in the room is your mother?"

"Ah."

Agreeing, he twisted the towel to wipe his neck again, and then reached into his clothes to wipe the sweat off his body.After wiping, I rubbed the towel twice carefully, wrung it dry, and hung it up.

Only then did Zhao Lan notice that he didn't use a new towel, and the new towel was only hanging wet on the side.

"Your mother is so beautiful."

"Ah."

"You look a lot like her."

Jiang Yu smiled: "Thank you for the compliment."

"Eh? I didn't mean to praise you."

After they washed and came out, Qi Nuliang made them each a cup of honey lemonade, saying that they were tired from the journey, so they would eat something casually at home tonight, take a good rest, and go out to eat tomorrow.After speaking, I went to the kitchen.

Zhao Lan sipped honey water with ice cubes and mint leaves: "Brother Qi can cook, I really can't tell."

Jiang Yu held the water glass with both hands: "He cooks delicious food."

"What does he do?"

"I've done everything, and I've been a cook."

Jiang Yu kept his eyes locked on the closed kitchen door, and the familiar smell of food engraved deep in his memory wafted out, and the expression on his face became soft and ambiguous.

"You said Brother Qi was a cook?" Zhao Lan thought it was unbelievable, so he joked, "Why do I think his hands are not like holding a kitchen knife, but more like holding a machete."

"I've taken it too." Jiang Yu said in a calm tone.

Seeing Zhao Lan's astonishment, he explained: "It's hard to make money in a small place, and there's no choice. You can do whatever can make you money." Jiang Yu suddenly lowered his head when he remembered something.

Zhao Lan frowned and looked at Jiang Yu: "Why do I think you..."

"how?"

She shook her head: "It's okay." Not only now, but since she set foot on Hongcheng, she already felt that Jiang Yu was weird.

"Where's that little fan you hang around your neck?"

"In the bag."

He took the electric fan and pushed open the kitchen door.The range hood was clamoring, and the choking aroma and heat wave rushed to the face.

The man who was shaking the iron pan knew who it was without turning around: "Go out and wait, it's almost ready, it's hot inside."

It was very hot, the man took off his outer shirt, and was only wearing a white cotton undershirt. His back was soaked, and beads of sweat hung on his shoulders.

After taking off his coat, the patterns on his arms were fully revealed, spreading from his wrists all the way to his shoulder blades, with flowing water on one side and flowing clouds on the other, and the dense and beautiful patterns crowded together, like blooming flowers surrounded by arms.

The pattern on the back of the neck is only a high bun protruding from the collar of the cotton shirt, but Jiang Yu knows that the back hidden under the old man's shirt is a picture of Guanyin sitting on a lotus.No matter how time washes away his memory, he will always remember Guanyin's beautiful and kind face, under the narrowed eyelids that look like thin threads, there is an eternal and loving gaze.

Sweat slid down to the waist, and the cotton shirt tied in the waist of the trousers was wet.The strength of the man shaking the pot and spoon brought up the muscles of his arms and back shoulders, making Jiang Yu's hungry eyes a little more fierce.

He just swallowed his saliva, then smiled, and regained the sunny and cheerful look of a young man.

"Here's a small electric fan to cool you off." He hung the small electric fan around the man's neck, and went out with the prepared dishes.

The small square table is filled with all kinds of dishes, including tableware for serving dishes, iron pots and porcelain bowls, everything.Just by smelling the aroma and looking at the color, Zhao Lan knew that it tasted good. Just now Zhao Lan was a little suspicious that he had been a cook, but now he is quite convinced.

Sitting at the table, Qi Nuliang put on the outer shirt again.

He gave Jiang Yu and Zhao Lan his only two job bowls, and found a disposable plastic bowl for himself.When handing the job bowl to Zhao Lan, he explained a little awkwardly: "I am usually the only one in the house. This bowl was used by Xiao Yu before, and it has been scalded with boiling water."

"It's okay, I don't dislike him." Zhao Lan took it, and started to eat it sullenly, saying it was delicious.

Seeing that the girl didn't care, Qi Nuliang felt relieved, opened two cans of beer and gave Jiang Yu one.

According to Jiang Yu, after four years in college, plus three years after graduation, he has not been back for seven years.No matter how close the relationship is, it will be diluted by time.Even if it doesn't fade away, between grown men, many emotions are kept in their hearts, and it's not normal to talk about it as soon as they meet.

In the afternoon, Zhao Lan wanted to start a conversation to break this strange embarrassment, but now she was too busy talking.

Qi Nuliang seemed to have sensed the silence at the dining table, picked up the remote control, and turned on the TV.

The hoarse roar of the host of the shopping channel came, a voice he was familiar with.Sometimes a person is too quiet, every night at this point he eats with the noise.Tonight he tuned to a music channel.

After drinking a can of wine, it seemed that he just remembered the most important thing about Jiang Yu's return this time.

"When will you get married? Is the date set?"

Zhao Lan raised her face to look at Jiang Yu, and Jiang Yu said, "On the 1st of next month, forget about finding someone, that day is a good day." After a pause, he asked Qi Nuliang for his opinion, "What do you think? Will you be too anxious?"

"As long as you think it's good." The man picked up the wine, touched Jiang Yu's glass, and then Zhao Lan's drink glass, "Brother, I wish you a happy wedding in advance." As he spoke, he drank a can of wine and left. do.

"Thank you Brother Qi." Zhao Lan also drank the drink in the cup.

Only Jiang Yu stared at the man, picked up the wine glass but did not put it to his lips.

The man ate two mouthfuls of food, and said to Jiang Yu: "Marriage is the first great event in life. You can go and share incense with your mother in a while, and tell her yourself."

"it is good."

In order to make it easier for the two to stay, Qi Nuliang moved the photo of Jiang Yu's mother to his room.

After dinner, Jiang Yu went to offer incense to his mother, leaving Zhao Lan and him in the living room.

Zhao Lan watched the variety show while nibbling on iced watermelon.The house has no balcony, Qi Nuliang sits on the window sill and smokes.The window was opened with a small crack, and he pointed out the cigarette butt between his fingers, the gray-white smoke drifted out, and some sultry air came in.

Zhao Lan couldn't help turning her head to look at the man after watching the TV twice.At first she thought he should be a "big brother" with a very outgoing personality, but after a short contact, she felt that he was covered with a gloomy atmosphere, and she couldn't see any sadness, but just felt very lonely.

"Brother Qi, come in and smoke, my dad always smokes at home, it's okay."

"Yeah." The man agreed, but put out the half-finished cigarette in the ashtray on the balcony, "Do you want to wash up first and go to bed early?"

"It's only eight o'clock, it's still early."

He stopped persuading, and asked again, "Would you like some lemonade?"

"Ah."

Zhao Lan watched the man make lemonade for her, and asked, "Brother Qi, when did Jiang Yu's mother die?"

"10 years old."

"Where's his father?"

Bending down to take out ice cubes from the refrigerator, Qi Nuliang paused, and said after a while, "He passed away at a very young age."

"What about the other relatives?"

"No relationship."

"Then he really has only you as a family."

The man didn't speak, and handed the cold drink to the girl.

"I heard from Jiang Yu that you paid for him to go to school, so it should be quite hard work."

"good."

Zhao Lan was sipping an ice-cold drink. Facing this type of person who seldom talked, she couldn't keep her chatterbox off: "It must be very hard work. My parents are exhausting enough to support me alone."

Hearing this, the man raised his eyelids to look at her, and smiled: "Miss, please worry."

"Jiang Yu should be quite worried. As far as his character is concerned, we have known each other for six or seven years, and we are still not sure."

Thinking of something, Qi Nuliang lowered his head and muttered, as if telling himself: "He suffered too much when he was young."

"Life is first bitter and then sweet. It's better now. He has a good job and a high salary. Let him respect you in the future." Zhao Lan chattered briskly, like a lively tit.

"What are you talking about?" The man's clear voice interrupted their chat.

"Let's talk about you."

"Stop talking nonsense, go wash up first."

"It's still early."

As Jiang Yu said, he came over and gave Zhao Lan a hand: "Go quickly, be obedient. The bathroom is not ventilated. Wash it first to cool off."

Zhao Lan reluctantly went first.

Qi Nuliang avoided suspicion and went back to his room.After a while, Jiang Yu came to urge Qi Nuliang to wash again, so he went to wash first.

The night was getting late, and the family became more popular this night, Qi Nuliang unconsciously hummed the song from the music channel just now.He put the fruit plate back in front of Yao Huilan's photo, went to change the water for the flowers, was lying on the bed smoking a cigarette, the door was pushed open with a "creak", and Jiang Yu walked in, dripping wet all over.