Chasing Summer

After Lin Zhexia hung up the phone, he carefully got up from the bed.

She didn't even change her clothes. She was wearing pajamas and pajamas with cartoon patterns on her body, and her hair was messed up behind her head.

Then tiptoely unscrewed the door and sneaked out.

"I feel a bit sneaky like this," after going downstairs, she saw Chi Yao who was waiting at the entrance of the building, ran to him, and said, "I was a little guilty when I came out just now."

Chi Yao looked at her: "Why are you guilty when you come out to see me?"

Lin Zhexia couldn't help emphasizing: "At this point, my family members are all asleep."

Chi Yao said lukewarmly: "So do you think that we are having a private meeting like this now?"

She didn't mean it at all.

"Who is meeting you privately?"

Lin Zhexia inexplicably felt his ears warm up after hearing this word from Chi Yao's mouth.

Maybe she wanted to cover it up, or maybe her mind seemed to be in a knot at that moment, and without thinking, she blurted out: "Even if I and the dog can be called a secret meeting, it can't be with you."

After she finished speaking, the atmosphere seemed to freeze for a second strangely and for no reason.

A second later, Chi Yao glanced at her condescendingly as usual, then he put away his phone, turned around and walked forward: "Then you go to have a private meeting with the dog."

Lin Zhexia trotted along behind him: "Why should I have a private meeting with a dog."

Chi Yao: "You said it yourself."

Lin Zhexia: "I'll just talk casually, don't you understand just kidding..."

Chi Yao suddenly paused.

Then he stretched out his hand and pointed to a stray dog ​​next to the trash can on the side of the road: "Here it is, you think about it."

"..."

Sometimes this guy is real!

very childish!

Lin Zhexia followed him, and the two walked along the road in the community, turned out of the community, and took a walk to the lake where she often went.

As she walked, she felt that the tension subconsciously calmed down a lot.

In summer, there is a breeze on the lake and cicadas sing.

There is also a dark night sky where you can see the stars when you look up. A sweltering but familiar wind.

and also…

This person next to me.

Lin Zhexia: "The scenery here is very beautiful at night."

Chi Yao let out a "hmm".

Lin Zhexia added: "Actually, I didn't fall asleep tonight, not because of nervousness, it's young people like us, it's just that I went to bed late."

Her response was still an emotionless "hmm".

Lin Zhexia: "Can you say one more word."

Chi Yao said coldly, "Hmm."

Lin Zhexia was speechless: "You better shut up."

Chi Yao wore a black windproof jacket with a wide fit, which made him look taller. With one hand in his jacket pocket, he realized that she was lagging behind and didn't keep up, so he slowed down and waited for her.

The two walked forward, and Lin Zhexia was a little thirsty: "I want to drink water, let's go to the shopping mall in front."

There was more than half an hour before the mall closed, and when the two entered, there was no one in the mall.

The lobby on the first floor was empty, and occasionally two or three people passed by.

She looked around, looking for a milk tea shop.

But Chi Yao took a few steps forward, stopped in front of several white cabinets, and said to her, "Come here."

"What?" Lin Zhexia walked over, "Claw machine?"

Chi Yao: "Catch or not."

Lin Zhexia: "I caught it." She added quickly, "If you invite me, I will run out of pocket money this month."

While Chi Yao took out his mobile phone to scan the code, Lin Zhexia noticed that the name of this claw machine was: Lucky Crane Machine.

"If caught," Lin Zhexia said casually, "does it mean that I will be very lucky tomorrow."

Chi Yao stuffed the bought coins together with the basket into her hand.

"Which one to catch?"

Lin Zhexia looked around.

She wanted to say, "That little bear over there looks okay", but Chi Yao bent down to look at the cabinet at the bottom.

The cabinet at the bottom is full of little white rabbits.

A very small one, one-third the size of a palm, buckled on a keychain, very convenient to carry around.

Then she heard Chi Yao say, "This one."

Lin Zhexia now has a special feeling for "rabbit", she can easily think of the bedtime story that night, and the "coward" that Chi Yao often talks about.

With some strange emotions, she wanted to deliberately avoid the rabbit and asked, "Why, I think the little bear above is also very good."

"Because I paid for it."

"..."

OK

For good reason.

Lin Zhexia squatted down holding a bag full of coins: "You have the final say on what you pay."

She took out two coins from the basket and threw them in. After the machine turned on, she suddenly called out: "Chi Yao."

Chi Yao also squatted down, but even if he was squatting, he was still a lot taller than her.

Chi Yao: "?"

Lin Zhexia operated the joystick: "My talent for catching dolls can't be hidden anymore, let me show you what a real claw machine master is."

As soon as the words fell, the grapple caught nothing.

Chi Yao admired expressionlessly: "This is the talent you can't hide."

Lin Zhexia: "I haven't practiced for a long time, and my skills are rusty. The next one will definitely work, so just watch intently."

After finishing speaking, the grapple in the cabinet closed under her operation, and then briefly touched the rabbit keychain for a second before falling through the air again.

Chi Yao turned his head and looked at her: "It's amazing, it's the first time I've seen such a powerful claw machine master."

Lin Zhexia was a little frustrated: "...Don't speak in such a weird way."

She caught it many times.

Until the last two solitary coins remained in the small red basket.

This time she hesitated: "What should I do, I feel that I may not be able to catch it."

Lucky claw machine.

If you can't catch it, it seems that tomorrow will be unlucky.

Just when she was hesitating, a hand stretched out from the side. After throwing two coins in with that hand, the colored light strips around the fuselage lit up instantly, and then the hand came around from the side, Hold the joystick with her.

There is limited space in which the joystick can be grasped.

So inevitably, the two hands have parts that touch together.

"Catch it," said the owner of the hand.

Lin Zhexia cast a skeptical look: "There is only one last chance left, where did you get your confidence?"

Chi Yao's faint voice came from beside his ear: "Because I'm also a master."

She was about to ridicule, when she glanced at it, her eyes fell on the boy's shining silver earrings, and then she felt the rocker in her hand move.

The grapple in the cabinet hangs in the air, slowly moving towards the delivery port.

Chi Yao chose a rabbit that was stuck near the exit, and there was another rabbit in front of that rabbit that was closer to the exit. If Lin Zhexia had to choose, she might choose the rabbit that was closer.

She was about to say, "You can't catch it like this," but the next second, the grapple fell straight down.

The rabbit was caught briefly for two seconds, and at the same time it was hoisted, the rabbit that was closer to the delivery opening was tilted, its head turned downward, and it fell towards the delivery opening.

"despair".

The rabbit rolled down the delivery port, grunting all the way.

Roll to Chi Yao's hand.

He let go, picked up the keychain with one finger, slightly bent his knuckles, and brought the caught rabbit to Lin Zexia.

"I'm different from a certain master."

He hooked the rabbit keychain and said, "It takes half a day to catch such a simple rabbit."

"Coward," after Lin Zhexia took it in a daze, Chi Yao said again before getting up, "You shouldn't be too unlucky tomorrow."

A little plush rabbit lay quietly in her palm.

At this moment, she had completely forgotten the nervousness she felt when she was lying on the bed half an hour ago and couldn't fall asleep.

the next day.

The weather was fine and the sun was shining brightly.

Lin Zhexia ate a lot for breakfast, and she ate as much as Wei Ping gave her.

Wei Ping: "I guessed that you ate too little yesterday, so I specially prepared a few more breakfasts for you this morning. You should eat more. You are still growing, so how can you do without eating?"

Seeing that she was in good condition, Lin He was also relieved: "Don't be nervous in the afternoon, just perform normally, and we don't have to get some rankings."

Lin Zhexia nodded, put down her chopsticks and said, "Mom, I'm going to go to school with Chi Yao." Before she left, she suddenly thought of something and turned back to her room.

It was too late yesterday, so she put the rabbit keychain by her pillow and went to sleep.

She picked up the rabbit beside the pillow and stuffed the rabbit into her schoolbag.

This afternoon, most of the sophomores were selected to attend the speech contest.

After the lunch break, the contestants went to the backstage of the auditorium to line up to prepare.

Tang Shuxuan borrowed lipstick from a girl in the same class, and asked Lin Zhexia to help her look at it with a mirror when getting ready.

Lin Zhexia: "Not at all."

Tang Shuxuan: "You don't understand, a woman is someone who pleases herself."

Lin Zhexia: "There are so many people in the audience later, can you see him?"

Tang Shuxuan: "As long as he can see me."

Tang Shuxuan finished wiping off her lipstick and asked her, "How is it, does your complexion look much better?"

In fact, this kind of lipstick, which will not be discovered by the teacher, is very light in color.

But Lin Zhexia still said: "The four words bright and moving describe you, and he will definitely fall in love with you at a glance later."

The speech contest began quickly, and they could hear the judges and host in the background.

There was also the exaggerated movement when the audience applauded. More than a thousand people applauded together, and the whole backstage seemed to be shaking.

This voice made Tang Shuxuan, who was not nervous at first, nervous.

This time, it was Lin Zhexia who comforted her instead: "It's okay, think about your senior, calm down."

Tang Shuxuan: "Why are you so calm?"

Lin Zhexia sometimes subconsciously pretends to be aggressive in a tone similar to Chi Yao's: "Oh, I'm different from you, I don't mess around when I'm in danger."

Tang Shuxuan instantly recognized this similar tone.

Tang Shuxuan glanced at her: "Why do you speak so late."

"..."

Tang Shuxuan took the stage in front of her.

After all, she has experience and is usually a social expert. She quickly adjusted her status and walked out of the backstage with her head held high.

Lin Zhexia heard Tang Shuxuan's voice coming from the microphone in the background, but when it came to her, it was separated by a wall and became heavy and blurred: "Hello everyone, I am Tang Shuxuan from Class 2 and 7—"

After about twenty minutes, the thick velvet curtain in the backstage was pulled open: "The next one is ready."

The people outside the curtain looked at the situation on the stage and said:

"Okay, let's go on stage next."

Before she walked out from the backstage, she let out a soft breath.

It is definitely a lie to say that you are not nervous. How can you not be nervous in the face of so many people.

But before she came to the stage, she lowered her head and glanced at the little rabbit that she had sneaked in and hidden in her palm.

She found that there seemed to be nothing to be nervous about.

Holding the rabbit, she seemed to have some kind of power out of thin air from the depths of her heart, that tiny but warm power, enough to make her face everything.

The stage is huge.

For her seventeen years old, this is a big, big, scary stage.

After the host finished reading the words and stepped back from the center of the stage, she was the only one left on the huge stage.

In the first row in front of her were teachers and school leaders from all grades.

Further back, there was a mass of black heads, and nearly a thousand people sat under the stage. At this moment, everyone is looking at her.

She couldn't describe how she felt at the moment, she was not afraid, she didn't want to back down, she didn't have any thoughts, or any thoughts were squeezed by some thoughts. That thought was - Chi Yao was also in the audience.

Among these people was Chi Yao.

Realizing this, she was no longer afraid.

She unconsciously wanted to find his place among these people.

The seats are arranged according to the class, she can easily tell the specific location of the second grade, and then glance around that location.

Before she came on stage, she said to Tang Shuxuan, "There are so many people in the audience later, can you see him?"

She didn't know if Tang Shuxuan could see it just now, but she found that she could.

She could find him at a glance from the crowd.

Lin Zhexia's eyes passed through the crowd and landed on a corner in the back row of the auditorium.

In the corner, the light is dim.

The young man was thin and leaned lazily on the back of the back.

Lin Zhexia's heart beat faster before she spoke, and she clenched the microphone tightly: "Teachers, hello everyone, I am Lin Zhexia from Class 7, Grade 2, and the topic of my speech is 'Youth'."

There was inevitably some feigned calm in her voice.

Then, she saw the figure move.

The eyes of the two seem to meet for a second.

It was like this that day too. There were many people in the living room. In the crowd, she and Chi Yao looked at each other.

Surrounded by the most familiar gang making small noises of encouragement.

Standing where thousands of people were watching, Lin Zhexia's heart beat irregularly.

But the pretended calmness in her voice faded unconsciously, and the script she read out was not the routine script full of nonsense prepared earlier, but a new script she rewrote last night: "My youth, It may be a little different from everyone, because for me it has a starting point. That starting point is a very special three words, and those three words are 'Nanxiang Street'."

Her voice began to firm up.

"My youth started there."

…

For Lin Zhexia, there are many strange monsters in the world when she grows up.

It's not like when I was a child, I can throw my fist around with recklessness and ignorance.

People will become timid and timid unconsciously.

Even when faced with something that one could have done, the first step is self-limitation.

But when she encounters many difficult things in life that require courage to do, there is always someone who believes that she can do it, and gives her courage when she is trying to muster up courage .

So she found that the violent wind and rain that she imagined would not be able to wet her at all.

Because of these.

So she seems to have become, braver than before.