The difference between cloud and mud

Jiang Tong has talked about several love affairs without pain or itching, but none of them made him feel such a strong lack.Chinese class once a week is not enough, there are not enough meetings in the middle of the week, and there are not enough phone and video calls every day.He used to laugh silently in his heart at those couples who wished they could stick together all the time, but now that he was on the scene, he realized that he had gone too far, wishing he could fold and compress Xiao Fengtai and carry it with him all day long.

He knew that Xiao Fengtai also had the same idea, so he had been looking forward to the summer vacation for a long time.When talking about the plan for summer, the young man was eloquent, Jiang Tong listened silently, guilt pressed his chest like a sponge full of water, making his throat choked.

"...So what do you think?" Xiao Fengtai finally remembered his existence, and turned to look at him: "I know you probably want to join the laboratory, but please, this is summer vacation, a legal vacation for students, you have to learn to combine work with rest. "

"I just got the news last week that I probably won't be staying in Singapore this summer." He bit the bullet and continued.

"Our laboratory has a cooperative project with a university in Beijing, and the boss of the other laboratory is very influential in the academic world. The professor recommended me to help...and also go home by the way."

Xiao Fengtai lowered his head and didn't speak, his whole body languished at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier." He wanted to grab the young man's shoulder, but the other side dodged him.

Jiang Tong smiled wryly.

"I also want to stay, but next semester is the application season. There are only a few laboratories in the world doing immunization, and even fewer grant full scholarships. Regardless of undergraduate school or research experience, I have no advantage."

"Professor Gu kindly helped me, I can't miss this opportunity."

He could come up with a more convincing argument. After all, what is more natural than being with a mother who is bedridden with terminal cancer?But Jiang Tong decided to hide from Xiao Fengtai for a while, he didn't want Xiao Fengtai to pity him.

"Don't treat me like an adolescent girl." Xiao Fengtai glared at him: "I understand the truth, you have to give me some time to digest the poor expectations."

"Okay, okay." Jiang Tong raised his hands in surrender: "Then, can I have a bowl of wontons to replenish your energy and adjust your expectations as soon as possible?"

Xiao Fengtai picked up the phone to cover his face, as if he didn't want to talk to him.Jiang Tong didn't take it seriously, turned around and walked into the kitchen to open the refrigerator to get the wrapped wontons, wash the pot and boil water.

"... Put more shrimp stuffing." At the last second before cooking, Xiao Fengtai's reluctant voice came from the living room.

Jiang Tong covered his mouth, trying to suppress his laughter.Don't let this bowl of wontons be sacrificed in vain.

The quarrel over the summer vacation was an insignificant part of their lives, and it was quickly forgotten by him.Thanks to the combined effects of dopamine, serotonin and adrenaline, first-time couples can be the most understanding and forgiving people in the world.

Jiang Tong's stepfather, Fang Dayong, belongs to the so-called Beijing natives who "haven't stepped on it well". He has wholesaled video tapes, opened a leather bag company, and worked as a contractor for a while.However, time is fate, others are riding waves in the tide of reform and opening up, earning a lot of money, Master Fang fumbled for a while, not only did not make any money, but also lost without leaving his pants, and his wife ran away angrily.

Fortunately, no matter how hard the natives are, there will always be a house at the bottom.Both Fang Dayong and Song Yiyi are honest people, they just want to be companions when they get married for the second time, and they don't flirt with each other. They have a pair of smart and lovely children, and the days of reorganizing the family are quite enjoyable.

Until Song Yiyi found out the tumor.

Jiang Tong dragged his luggage out of the airport, and saw Fang Dayong waiting at the door with his arms crossed at a glance.I haven't seen him for more than a year, and he is much thinner than he remembered.The cheeks that are rosy and full due to fat are shriveled, showing wrinkles and aging.

He trotted two steps quickly: "It's too much trouble for you, I can just take the airport bus by myself."

Fang Dayong walked towards the parking lot with a suitcase in one hand: "Come on, our family is a taxi, so it's not bad for your two trips."

It takes more than half of Beijing to get home from the airport. Fortunately, the rush hour has passed and the road is not blocked.The radio is buzzing with calls from readers and popular Chinese songs of the season, I love you, you love me, I don't love you, I love you but pretend not to love you.Fang Dayong turned on the radio loudly, and Jiang Tong suspected that this was his means of avoiding the embarrassing atmosphere in the car.

They were silent all the way, occasionally exchanging a few innocuous words.How busy is the school, how is the final exam result, Beibei's favorite university... When the taxi drove into the community, Jiang Tong seemed to hear Fang Dayong let out a sigh of relief.

The apartment is a Soviet-style tube building in the 60s, with a uniform matchbox shape, a grid of raised security windows, hanging quilts to dry, plastic colored ropes, faded paper pinwheels and air-dried bacon.In Jiang Tong's impression, the Fang family's old house was dark and narrow.I don't know if it's a psychological effect, but I haven't seen him for more than a year. The fifty-square-meter two-bedroom and one-living room is more dilapidated and smaller than he remembered.There are piles of medicine boxes that are sold for money on the entrance corridor, which occupy most of the space and can only accommodate a single person.There is a single bed in the small hall, and a few out-of-season coats are scattered on the bed. The seam between the wall and the ceiling has been blackened, and there are zigzag cracks.

The door to the main house was closed.Fang Dayong said softly: "Your mother is already asleep."

"Beibei hasn't finished her evening self-study, so I wrong you to make do with the night in the living room. Tomorrow I will tidy up and build a bed for you in her room."

"Dad, I really don't need it." Jiang Tong's attitude was gentle, but his tone was unquestionable: "There is a dormitory in the school. I will stay for one night and see my mother and Beibei. I will leave tomorrow morning."

"Beibei is a big girl, so it's hard to squeeze into the room with me anymore."

Fang Dayong agreed, then ran to the kitchen to get him some washing utensils.Jiang Tong understands his embarrassment.Fang Dayong is in the role of the pillar of the family, but he is unable to bear the corresponding obligations. Instead, he has to rely on his son in law to support the family expenses.The existence of Jiang Tong is the proof of Fang Dayong's incompetence, a embodied shame of 1.8 meters long, 52 centimeters wide and 75 kilograms in weight.Fang Dayong was oppressed and suffocated by his presence, and needed to escape for short periods of time to breathe fresh air.

Jiang Tong waited until Beibei came back to wash and go to bed.The little girl knew nothing about the subtle tension between the adults, she lowered her voice but couldn't hide the excitement and joy on her face, and she pulled Jiang Tong to whisper for a long time.

Jiang Tong didn't expect that he would suffer from insomnia in the small single bed that he had slept in for several years.Early morning is the quietest time in the city.He lay quietly on his back, staring at the shadows cast by the street lights on the ceiling outside the window.There is no air conditioner in the living room, the old electric fan is buzzing at the end of the bed, the outer cover has been loosened, bang, bang, bang, regular light sound, a kind of white noise that has hypnotic and refreshing effects at the same time.

Jiang Tong couldn't sleep because he would think of Xiao Fengtai when he closed his eyes, the green grass and blue sea seen from Xiao's hexagonal study, the Guanari violin, and the handmade suit Xiao Fengtai threw on the steps coat.

The phone buzzed, he swiped open the screen, and Xiao Fengtai sent him a photo.The night sky is blue-purple reflected by neon lights, and flamingo life buoys float in the fluorescent swimming pool. Large areas of bright blue and pink make the lights of tall buildings in the distance look dim.The boys and girls were dressed in cool clothes, and their collagen-filled cheeks were filled with smiles as bright and warm as the summer sun.

Xiao Fengtai only showed a small half of his face on the screen, his bangs were sticking to his forehead wetly, it could be seen that he had been wet once.The subjects who were photographed seemed to know him very well, grimacing at the screen.

"I really hope that the summer vacation will never end." Jiang Tong sensed that Xiao Fengtai was demonstrating to him, although it was in a roundabout way full of intentional concealment.Xiao Fengtai has always acted like this, and Jiang Tong usually thinks he is cute, but in the sleepless early morning after sitting on a six-hour plane, he suddenly felt an indescribable irritability and frustration.

His self-esteem is very solid and self-consistent.Jiang Tong is not angry with anyone.This restlessness is similar to jet lag, similar to altitude sickness.Returning to his own life from the dreamy, peachy, hormonal whitewashed pseudo-reality, he realized how suspended and ethereal life on the island was.The other party is still immersed in this suspension without knowing it.An ensemble with a misplaced beat is always a mouthful.

Jiang Tong would never think of it.Xiao Fengtai was not in Singapore when he posted the photo, but was on the bus from Beijing Capital International Airport to the city.He signed up for a summer camp in China at the last minute.

The plane was late, and a whole car of students was drowsy, shaking from side to side with the inertia of the shuttle bus.The long-distance flight in economy class made Xiao Fengtai's back ache, but his mind was extremely excited.

Jiang Tong didn't reply to the message, he guessed he was asleep.Anyway, he doesn't want to drink alcohol.Thinking of his wonderful alibi, Xiao Fengtai couldn't help smiling.He likes the feeling of planning surprises for Jiang Tong.It's an elaborate trap, a perfect crime, and his handsome and suave Mr. Cop is kept in the dark from start to finish, oblivious to what's going on and what's about to happen.

Xiao Fengtai leaned his forehead against the car window.They haven't seen each other for two weeks, but Jiang Tong's image in his mind is getting clearer and more three-dimensional day by day.He looked at the river of neon lights flowing and flashing outside the window, remembered Jiang Tong rolled up half of his sleeves to reveal his muscular and tight arms, remembered his sharp-edged chin with rough tentacles, remembered Jiang Tong hugging him every time he entered the door, alone He took off his glasses and threw them on the table.Xiao Fengtai's mouth was dry in the cool night wind in Beijing, and he felt that every cell in him was yearning for Jiang Tong.Craving his touch, his kisses, his gaze.

Will Jiang Tong miss herself like him?

The [-]-day summer camp is hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Singapore.According to the plan, the students should travel to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to experience the great fruits of China's great rivers and mountains and the socialist economic construction of reform and opening up.It's a pity that Xiao Fengtai, a greenhouse flower born in a corrupt capitalist family, is stubborn and refuses to be educated.When he sent the team to take over the hotel room card, he and the teacher leading the team looked at each other tacitly.The check has arrived, and according to the agreement, he will part ways with the rest of the team after tonight, and fly back to Singapore together at the end of the summer camp.

Xiao Fengtai thought he would suffer from insomnia, but he passed out as soon as he touched the pillow.When he woke up, he first went to grab his phone, and Jiang Tong replied to his message - he really fell asleep early last night.

"Go out and play, pay attention to safety, and occasionally read a book."

Lukewarm, old-fashioned, unflappable.Typical Jiang Tong's reply.Fortunately, Xiao Fengtai lived in a room alone, he could roll and roll on the bed unscrupulously for a week, laughing like a fool.

"Just woke up." He jumped up from the bed and typed with one hand: "Are you going to the laboratory today?"

"I'll be there soon." Jiang Tong replied quickly this time: "I will have a preliminary chat with the professor in a while, and I will officially start working tomorrow."

"Are you in the university?" He pretended to ask casually: "I heard that the whole school is like a garden, and you want to do experiments in an old house with cornices and colonnades?"

When Jiang Tong received the news, he was walking to the door of the biological building, looking at the modern style glass curtain wall building and the dusty asphalt road in front of him.He laughed dumbfounded, raised his hand and took a photo for Xiao Fengtai.

"It seems that I was cheated by my cousin." After a while, Xiao Fengtai replied: "He went to exchange and described Yanda as an ancient imperial garden, so it turns out that it is actually a construction site."

"Part of the campus is really beautiful. When you have the opportunity to come to Beijing, I will take you around." Jiang Tong suddenly had a whim, wanting to tease him: "This is a good place to fall in love."

"You have to keep your word." After sending out the message, Xiao Fengtai put away his mobile phone, dragged his luggage and boarded the taxi.He zoomed in on the photo sent by Jiang Tong in his mobile phone and stretched it to the driver's seat: "Master driver, go to this building inside Yanda University."