green shell

Lu Yi stood at the door of the old house, staring at the old rusty lock, holding the key for a long time without moving.

How long has he not been back?two years?five years?

He can't remember.

It rained a little today, and the dry air became humid.Lu Yi took a deep breath, looked up at the vermilion peeling gate, thought in a trance, it seemed that the gate had become much shorter.

When he looked up before, the gate seemed to be very high, going all the way to the sky, and he couldn't see the top, but now he could see the red and black paint on the top of the gate just by raising his eyes a little.

The door seems to have always been old, and it seems to have always been new.The place where he accidentally knocked off a piece of paint on the door when he was a child is still bare, a large piece, standing abruptly next to the grinning animal face, but the rusty animal face seems to have become shiny again.

Memory can be deceiving.

As he grew taller, the tall doors in his memory became shorter.When he grew up, there was no smell of food coming from behind the door.

The only person in the Lu family who loved him has also been gone for many years.

He still remembers the joy he felt when he came here every weekend, because of the strings of candied haws and the egg custard, or because of the warmth of grandma, or both.At school, he was ridiculed by his classmates and threw pebbles, and he came back with injuries all over his body. Afraid that his grandma would be worried, he lied that he had fallen again, and then laughed heartlessly and asked grandma for a bunch of candied haws.

There is no candied haws in summer, so grandma mixes tomatoes with sugar and serves them to him after freezing.

It seems that all the sweetness of childhood is eaten here.

So sweet, so sweet.

It was so sweet that he wanted to cry, it was so sweet that his throat was choked, and it was so sweet that he wished he could be soaked in sugar forever for the rest of his life.

"Why does Ah Wu love sweets so much?" Grandma once asked him, and he looked at the candied haws in front of him, but couldn't tell why.

After grandma left, he quietly bought a lot of candied haws by himself, and when he ate them again, he only felt that the outside was scary sweet, but the inside was amazingly sour, and there was no taste of grandma anymore. Only then did he understand.

Where does he love sweets, he loves the love his grandma gave him.

It was the warmest and sweetest thing in his life.

That's why he hasn't been back for so many years.The locks are rusted, the paint is chipped, and grandma is gone.He couldn't let it go, and was always afraid of opening the door and seeing an empty old house, with no smell of sugar, and no hearing grandma call him "Ah Wu".

"Old road," Xiang Yang walked over from the entrance of the alley, holding two bunches of candied haws wrapped in crystal clear syrup, smiling happily: "Here, candied haws."

Grandma was the only light in his childhood, and it seemed that as soon as he opened the door, the light would fly away with a "whoosh", leaving him stuck in the mud, so he dodged by deceiving himself.

But now he had another ray of light shining on his muddy body, warming him vigorously, so he had the courage to come back.

"Well," Lu Yi smiled, reached out to take the candied haws, tilted his head to look at Xiangyang, and said earnestly, "Thank you."

Xiang Yang blinked twice, looked at the closed door helplessly, then looked back, nodded in doubt: "...well, you're welcome," he observed Lu Yi, always felt that he seemed to be softened a lot, and felt A bunch of candied haws does not need such a solemn thank you. I wanted to ask, but I opened my mouth but closed it again. After thinking about it, I changed the subject: "Aren't you going to open the door?"

"Open." Lu Yi took a deep breath, asked Xiangyang to help hold the candied haws, took a step forward with the key, squeezed the rusty lock, opened it with difficulty, took back the candied haws in silence, and put the other hand on the candied haws. Don't dare to push forward on the door.

"Old road?" Xiang Yang leaned over, doubting whether he would open the door, and called out in a low voice. Seeing his frowning, he paused, smiled and raised the candied haws in his hand: "There are still people selling candied haws now, I just now I thought I was wrong."

Lu Yi came back to his senses, looked at Xiang Yang, and loosened his brows: "Yes, it's hot now."

"So I was very surprised," Xiang Yang said with a suspicious smile on the road, "I asked in the past and said that it was made in an air-conditioned room. It happened to be drizzling today and it was cool, so I sold it out, otherwise I would eat it at home. "

Lu Yi smiled and chatted with Xiang Yang, and gradually his mood became less solemn.

Fortunately, the light was still warming him by his side.

He exhaled softly and reached out to push the door open.The old door opened with a "squeak", revealing the familiar yard. The white hawthorn flowers have not yet fully bloomed, and weeds grow randomly around the yard. It's not so obtrusive anymore.

no grandma.

It was expected, but Lu Yi felt a little disappointed.He stood blankly outside the threshold, as if he saw himself running around here when he was a child again, and he didn't dare to lift his legs to step in.

It was the first time for Xiang Yang to come into contact with this kind of old house, and the white flowers in the yard attracted his attention at the first sight, and he let out a soft "wow".

Lu Yi came back to his senses, turned his head to look at Xiang Yang, and chuckled lightly: "What do you like?"

"Flower," Xiang Yang raised his chin and pointed at the tree: "What kind of flower is that?"

Lu Yi looked over: "Hawthorn flowers." He tilted his head, and suddenly asked Xiang Yang, "Shall I pick some for you?"

"Not good?" Xiang Yang turned his gaze to Lu Yi.

"What's wrong?" Lu Yi smiled, and walked to the hawthorn tree with ease, and raised his hand to reach the cluster that bloomed just right.When he was young, he picked too much, and the tree always suffered. Every time his grandma would tease him when he sighed and said that there were too few hawthorns, "If I picked less hawthorns, I can still eat candied hawthorns now", and he would regret it, but I will pick them again when the hawthorn flowers bloom next time.

Seeing that Lu Yi walked over in a few steps, Xiang Yang quickly stepped over the threshold and walked towards Lu Yi: "Are you sure you're okay?"

"It's okay," Lu Yi dragged out the ending, and pinched off the bunch of flowers: "This house is mine, and I can still pick a flower."

Xiang Yang's gaze involuntarily fell from the cluster of flowers to Lu Yi, watching him hold the flower in his hand, and raised one corner of his lips at himself, his eyes filled with gentle light, and said softly: "Here."

When the wind blows, it curls up Lu Yi's hair, disturbs the cluster of white hawthorn flowers, and also disturbs Xiangyang's heart.He stared blankly at Lu Yi, and even forgot to reach out to pick up the bunch of flowers.

"I don't want flowers," he murmured softly, "I want you, okay?"

Lu Yi was also stunned, holding the flower, looking at Xiang Yang's serious expression, subconsciously nodded.

Then both of them realized what happened, and turned their eyes away in unison.Lu Yi coughed lightly, lowered his head and carefully studied the flowers in his hand, while Xiang Yang went to look at the other trees, some of which also had small pink and white flowers, and the petals kept falling down with the wind.

Xiang Yang looked up at the flowers, but he was still thinking about what happened just now.He secretly laughed, cleared his throat, blinked his eyes at a petal that was about to fall, and inadvertently asked Lu Yi: "Is what you said just now true?"

Lu Yi paused for a moment, glanced at Xiangyang's side face, saw a petal fell on the tip of his nose, and then fell down leisurely. He was also in a good mood, and pretended to answer casually: "Forget it. What about yours? Forget it?" ?”

"Forget it," Xiang Yang looked at him with a smile, "I want you."

The precarious petal still fell on Xiangyang's shoulder.

Lu Yi looked at Xiangyang smiling in the falling flowers, as if his dimples were filled with honey wine, just looking at it, he was already getting drunk.He walked over slowly, raised his hand and inserted the bunch of white flowers on Xiang Yang's knot, and smiled at him: "Then Mr. Xiang has to be responsible to me."

"Understood." Xiang Yang was amused by him, and let the cluster of flowers stay on his head: "Responsible."

Lu Yi looked at Xiangyang, his smile gradually faded, and stayed lightly on his face.He took a deep breath, raised his eyebrows, and asked softly: "Tell you something about the past, will you listen?"

Naturally, Xiang Yang would not refuse, but he was afraid that he would be sad when he recalled the sad things, so his eyebrows were slightly frowned.

Lu Yi saw what Xiang Yang was thinking when he frowned, he burst out laughing, and stretched out his hand to poke the wrinkles between Xiang Yang's brows: "No, tell me something good, about this small courtyard, about... my grandma."

This alley was not so deserted before. The house next door to them is a young couple, Uncle Yuan and Aunt Zhang, who grew up as childhood sweethearts.The two of them are close to each other, grandma will ask them to eat delicious food, and they will also ask Lu Yi and grandma to come over if they cook delicious food.

But Lu Yi still doesn't like running to other people's houses very much, because when he was just in primary school, his parents started quarreling again in the old house. He sat at the door waiting for his grandma to come back, and happened to meet Aunt Zhang who came back from shopping. The quarrel, looking at Lu Sui's eyes also turned into sympathy and worry, which made him uncomfortable.

Since he was a child, he had always had low self-esteem, so he was naturally afraid of those eyes.

Aunt Zhang didn't say anything, but Lu Yi still felt very embarrassed, so he stopped visiting.

In the future, he can no longer run to the old house every three days, because the school is far away from the old house, and he can only come back on weekends.He sat here by himself on Friday, walked a long way to get here, and then went back by car with his grandma after a weekend.

Such a long road, but now I walk but find that it is actually very short.

"Maybe I had short legs back then." Lu Yi took a bite of the candied haws: "It's almost melting, let's finish eating first..."

Lu Sui was stunned.He chewed the candied haws and savored the taste carefully.If it weren't for the astringent hawthorn, this candied haws would be almost the same as his grandma's.

"This is delicious." Xiang Yang took a bite and raised his eyebrows in surprise, "I've never tasted this kind of food before."

"...This tastes very similar to the one made by my grandma." Lu Yi shook the stick and smiled, "Did I tell you about my grandma?"

Lu Yi's grandmother is a very gentle old lady. Her husband left early, she raised her precious son by herself, and her temperament has been mellowed by time.

Maybe it was because I was too used to my son before, and after getting married, my son's family affairs were very chaotic.The old lady regretted it, but she couldn't make it up, so she had to find a way to make her unhappy grandson happy.

The dishes cooked by grandma were very delicious. Lu Yi sat on the stool, dangling his legs and watching grandma busy. He also wanted to do something, so he walked over slowly, raised his eyes and asked grandma if he could teach him how to cook.

"I learned it bit by bit. At first, I made scrambled eggs with tomatoes, then fried eggs, and then egg custard. Later, when I opened them up a bit, my grandma began to let me use a kitchen knife, and I knew more dishes," said Lu. Sitting on the stone steps in front of the house, with his legs crossed, he scratched the ground with a bamboo stick, talking and laughing, and looked at Xiangyang: "Speaking of which, I cook so well now, I am very different from my grandma." It’s a big relationship, I learned a lot of dishes from her.”

"Then I will definitely like to eat the food cooked by your grandma." Xiang Yang smiled.

"You will definitely like my grandma too, she is fine." Lu Yi lowered his head to look at the gray ground, a little disappointed: "If it is possible, I really want to take you to meet her. All the happy things when I was young It's all about her."

Xiang Yang reached out and touched Lu Yi's head: "Then she must be very powerful."

"Very powerful." Lu doubted his head and looked over.

Grandma is like a master of stories. Lu Yi has heard at least a thousand different stories from her, each of which is so vivid.She also has a good voice, singing old songs is particularly tasteful, when Lu Yi fell asleep in her soft singing, he continued to listen to her singing in his dream.

"She can also draw stick figures, make kites, and origami," Lu Yi recalled: "She seems to know everything."

Grandma would always bandage him after he was injured, and would make him all kinds of wonderful gadgets and tricks to make him happy. At that time, he thought that grandma didn't know anything, that he was hiding it very well, and slowly , Later I realized that grandma just didn't expose it.

Holding the warm egg custard, he sat in the warm room and watched his grandma pick the glowing red hawthorns in a patch of snow, string them together and put them in the syrup made of rock sugar.

That is the sweetness of winter.

Summer is like tomatoes mixed with sugar. There is transparent sugar on each piece of tomato. After one bite, the crunchy granules melt and become sour and sweet. Together with the cool tomatoes, it takes away the heat from his body.

And watermelon.Sweet watermelon, together with the cool wind, is a perfect match in summer.

"The wind is produced by my grandma with a cattail fan." Lu Yi pursed his lips: "At that time, the old house did not have air conditioners, only electric fans, and they couldn't be taken outside, so my grandma fanned me manually. "

Of course, Lu Yi would not only let grandma suffer, he would also pass the watermelon to grandma, and reach out to fan grandma with a fan.

In the last summer, grandma didn't want to move anymore. She sat on the rocking chair, but she still held the fan and insisted on fanning Lu Yi.

At that time, the wind was not hot, people were not cold, winter was not so cold, and the nights were not so long.

Lu Yi stopped the hand holding the stick and scratched around, staring at the tip of the stick, his eyes bright and dark.

"I still had a home back then," he said.

The author has something to say:

I checked and found that the flower language of hawthorn flower is to protect the only love. It is unexpectedly suitable to be placed here. It is a good coincidence.