Pastel Colors

Day0117:08

Song Ran is an illustrator of picture books for children.

He went to S city to work hard when he was just a fledgling, and he struggled for many years, and finally signed long-term contracts with several publishing houses.Because of diligence, politeness, and timely delivery, the aunts, sisters, and old aunts in the editorial department like him very much. They regard him as their son, and often talk about introducing girlfriends to the positive young classmate Ran Ran. He always smiles and says no. , Let's go.

Just kidding, he's gay, he can't harm innocent girls.

Songran's sexual orientation is innate and there is no hope of reversing it.Although he has no time to fall in love in the past 20 years, and he has never really liked anyone, but the blurry figure pressing on him in the spring dream has no breasts and buttocks, and it is definitely not a woman. He is sure of this.

Songran is single and has no partner yet.

When he first came to S City, he saw a same-sex couple holding hands side by side in the subway, which gave him a wrong signal, thinking that the gay circle in S City was as common and open as this couple.So he took the courage to go to GayBar for a night, but was forced to flee by the sensual and flirtatious attire and the slutty estrus atmosphere, and he cut off the idea of ​​finding a partner in this way ever since.

To this day, Songran still lives alone.

Late spring is followed by early summer, and autumn frost is followed by winter snow. He composes pictures under the dense rain and flowering branches, and paints in the warm sun and fallen leaves.

Occasionally, he would have vague expectations, imagining what the other half of the future would look like.Songran likes this sense of anticipation very much, it makes life full of vigor and encourages him to face everyone with a smile, because maybe at a certain inadvertent moment, the destined person will show up unexpectedly.

Song Ran hoped that the first expression she gave him was the cleanest smile.

Songran has two dimples, and she smiles very beautifully, revealing the innocence and innocence that are rare for adults, and easily captured the aunts in the editorial department who are overflowing with maternal love.

However, from a certain day, he became lack of self-confidence.

For example, now, he is standing at the door of the apartment hall, holding the access control card in his hand, practicing smiling over and over again in front of the gleaming floor-to-ceiling glass, his limbs and lips are a little bit nervous.

The bright hall was empty, and it seemed like someone would come out at any moment.

He watched from the corner of his eye, urging himself to adjust his smile as soon as possible.A few seconds later, he swiped the card neatly, and a "ding dong" notification sounded above his head.

He pushed open the glass door and walked across the hall toward the residential elevator.

First step, no one shows up.

Step two, no one shows up.

The third step, the fourth step... Every step I take, I feel more uneasy.

After walking fifteen steps, Song Ran stood in front of the two elevators, and saw that their running indicators were dark, and the number stayed at 01 floor—this meant that he could not meet anyone coming down from the upper floors.

Song Ran sighed in disappointment.

Today, the probability of meeting that man once again approaches zero infinitely.

Song Ran tapped the button to open the door, walked into the elevator, turned around, stared intently at the glass door when he came in, and said his last prayer silently.

There are five seconds until the elevator door closes.

He has five seconds left.

If someone appeared, even if only a strand of hair or a piece of clothing was exposed, as long as he saw it, he would press the button to open the door without hesitation.

But no.

Fate still forgot to favor him.

The elevator doors closed step by step like every day before, the four shiny steel walls were stitched together, and there were two rows of frosted lights above the head. As the floor numbers kept jumping, the atmosphere in the elevator became cramped and depressing.Song Ran leaned against the wall and let out a long breath.

It's ok.

he told himself.

What if I can't meet you today?He still has tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow... As long as he lives here and waits patiently, one day in the future, he will always have a chance to meet that man again.

Song Ran is quite an optimistic person. As a children's illustrator, his life is full of innocent and interesting fairy tales. After a long time, he also maintains a big boy's mentality.The children believe in Santa Claus and the moon rabbit laurel tree, but he believes in the fate between people. Even if he has been waiting in vain for more than 40 days, he still believes that fate exists.

What is fate?

The fate is probably that, on a boring afternoon, Song Ran, who has never been in arrears with the rent, received a call from the landlord, saying that there was something wrong with his business, the house had to be taken back and put up for sale, and he couldn’t renew the lease. Trouble He found a place to settle down as soon as possible.

Just before receiving that phone call, Song Ran had just finished handing in the manuscript, in a relaxed mood, and rarely had the urge to act like a baby, so she propped her chin, pouted, and complained softly in the editorial department.

At the same time as he spoke, Aunt Ji who was searching for discounted skirts next to her read the last line of the Taobao page and pressed to turn the page.The screen went blank, giving the ears a second to idle, and just caught the complaint.

Just an hour ago, Aunt Ji had a new key in her bag.

This key can open the door to 8012A, Building [-], Bishuiwanju.

Aunt Ji has a decades-old best friend named Liu.More than half a year ago, this old girlfriend and her husband bought a new house in Bishuiwanju. They had just finished decorating and furnishing, and within a few days of living there, their daughter who was far away in Australia called urgently, saying that it was an early birth. a granddaughter.The couple hurriedly bought air tickets and flew to Melbourne. They were in a hurry and had no time to find foster care for the puppet cat at home. They would not come back until half a year later, so they entrusted Aunt Ji to rent it out to a clean young man who loves cats. When hiring someone to look after the cat for them.

The point is, the rent is only two thousand and one month.

The old couple surnamed Liu are retired professors of F University. They have taught for 30 years and have a deep affection for the campus. They bought a house within walking distance of Metro Line 10.Coupled with the fact that it is close to the embassy area, the security is good, and the environment is high-end, the normal rent of Bishuiwan Residence is about [-] per month, which is four times beyond Songran's affordability.

Yes, exactly four times.

In S City, where money flows freely, with Songran's meager income, he can only afford to rent a 80-square-meter old house built in the [-]s and blackened by the briquette oven.

The one-bedroom apartment that Songran rented before was a product of the last century, with water and air leaks and poor lighting.At the time of planning, I didn’t care too much. The gates of the two houses on the corner are close to each other, and the anti-theft doors are often stuck, making it difficult to enter and exit.There was a quarrel next door and the door was slammed, "bang bang bang" straight to the door of Songran's house.

When Songran was concentrating on creating, he was easily frightened. A knock on the door or a shake of the hand would ruin the work he had worked so hard to draw.Occasionally, if you are lucky, you can save it by tinkering, but most of the time you can only repaint.

The bears upstairs were also restless. Several times, just after finishing the base color, the bears jumped up and down, and the white paint on the ceiling was loose, mixed with dust and falling down, covering it with light fresh watercolors Up, even blowing can't blow it off.He looked at the canvas like a construction site, thought about it, but couldn't find a solution, so he rubbed his hair and sat on the bed in a daze.

To be honest, Song Ran really wanted to say goodbye to the slums, but that day, a set of [-] square meters, a prime location, and a monthly rent of [-] yuan really fell out of the sky, and he found that he couldn't take advantage of it.

Aunt Ji was very enthusiastic, grabbed her bag just after five o'clock, and drove Songran to see the house like a cow.

Songran stood at the gate of the community wearing a drawing kit and a cute cat pullover with random graffiti, watching the private cars with rare logos passing by, and was surprised to find that during the 10 minutes, Apart from them, no third person walked in.

This place is obviously not suitable for ordinary people to live in - he can't park the old bicycle with 0 displacement in the underground garage with these big guys with 4 or 5 displacement at every turn, right?

Moreover, there is no vegetable market around.

On the way from the subway station, Songran saw a pet clinic opened by a French doctor, an izakaya with red paper lanterns hanging at the door, a theater comparable to a five-star hotel, and an imported supermarket specializing in organic food... near Bishuiwan Residence The buildings have reached the realm of non-human fireworks, and they have expelled the small vegetable market in the downtown area to four or five blocks away. I really don't know what the rich eat.

The same expenditure is 2000 yuan. Instead of adding [-] square meters of extra space, Songran hopes to exchange for a living environment that suits him. It is best to live in a lively market area. When he goes out, he can see an old man in a vest carrying a vegetable basket. Dee's kind.

Songran knows what she wants, so she is persistent.

At least when he saw the house with Aunt Ji, took the elevator down, walked past the two-meter-wide wooden bridge over the shallow pool, and turned his head to look back, he was still trying to find a way to decline, and said, "The rent is too cheap. , the house is big, and I don’t have any experience in raising cats, so you still..."

While speaking, a silver-gray Infiniti came into view from the right side, decelerated smoothly to zero, put in reverse gear, and reversed into the umbrella parking space of the fifth building.

More than 40 days have passed, and Song Ran still remembers every frame of that time.

The windows were rolled down, the daylight was shining, and everything seemed pre-arranged to show him the man in the driver's seat in the most perfect way - sitting upright, muscles relaxed, left hand resting on top of the steering wheel, light blue The collar button of the pure cotton shirt was opened, and the cuffs were neatly rolled up to the forearm.

His profile is almost perfect, especially the bridge of the nose and brow bone.

He raised his neck slightly, with the back of his head pressed against the back of the seat, the corners of his lips raised, and he was chatting with the person in the back seat who was blocked by the window.Because they had a happy chat, they smiled naturally, and those smiling eyes seemed to condense the ultimate tenderness in the world.

The speed of the car accurately returned to zero at one and a half parking spaces, and the car stopped so securely that there was no one centimeter forward rush.The man changed gears casually, glanced at the rearview mirror out of the corner of his eye, and began to reverse the car skillfully.

The direction is full, the wheels are spinning, and the body draws a perfect arc, entering the warehouse without haste.

As the angle changed, the man's side face gradually turned into a front face, and his handsome features and pleasant smile were clearly displayed in front of Song Ran.

Song Ran stood on the wooden bridge, clutching the hem of his T-shirt tightly, feeling hot all over his body.

His eyes used to linger in thousands of beautiful colors, but now they can only accommodate this man.

Songran used to read gossip magazines with her sisters from the publishing house, and read a ranking called "What do men do the most handsome", and the number one was "Reversing".The sisters screamed while hugging the magazine, expressing that they couldn't agree more. Song Ran looked dazed, with a jumping question mark above his head, thinking seriously about how cool this action is.

Now he is staring at the car, his breathing is disordered, his blood is flowing backwards, his adrenaline is boiling like boiling water, and he truly understands the feelings of his sisters at that time.

The man is really sexy as hell in the process of smoothly reversing the car!

In ancient times, a keen hunter's ability to control the direction would fascinate all females in the race. This instinct of admiration for the strong has been passed down from generation to generation, and it has gone beyond the scope of reason and has become an incentive to ignite hormones.

The Infiniti's engine was turned off, and on the opposite wooden bridge, the love that sprouted in Songran's heart was burning hot in his chest.

In 23 years, his belated love awakened for the first time.

The man pulled out the key, opened the door and got out of the car.

1.8 meters six.

Or 1.8 meters seven.

Song Ran is a kneeling looker, kneeling in the dust, unable to accurately estimate the man's height, only to see that he is in excellent shape, his appearance is not messed up after a day's trip, and his shirt is as smooth as before, faintly outlining his firm chest and abdomen Muscular, the hem is neatly gathered in the waistband by the belt, a typical elite style.

He has a pair of slender legs, in Songran's eyes, that is the king's scepter - straight, sacred, exuding a powerful aura and coercion.

The man stretched out his hand to open the back seat door, bent down and reached into his upper body, and when he came out, he already had a small child in his arms.The child twisted his buttocks, sat on his father's arms, wrapped his small arms around his neck, and kissed awkwardly on the cheek.

If Songran just fell into the huge impact of love just now, then at this moment, when the picture of the man holding the young son came into view, Songran was almost stunned.

This is a perfect man.

He belongs to the family.

It is difficult for Songran to distinguish whether it is the dual identities of husband and father that add a mature texture to this man and make him fatally attractive, or whether it is the happy family behind him that fills Songran's innermost desire for family. eager.

Songran has no home.

He had it when he was very young, and he lost it when he was very young.

At this moment, he was standing on the wooden bridge, watching from afar the man holding the young son in his arms, tossing and catching him, laughing and playing as he walked into the living room of the fifth building, and suddenly turned around and snatched the key from Aunt Ji's hand.

He is going to live here.

Because there is a complete family living on a certain floor of this building, which may be very close to the twelfth floor where he will live.They represent the most admirable vision in Songran's heart. Through the walls and floors, those inaudible and invisible laughter can shelter Songran's heart in imagination.

A good man deserves a good family to match, and sometimes the rules of the world aren't too bad.

Song Ran thinks so.

He will not disturb the lives of his neighbors, he just wants to get closer, absorb the remaining warmth of other people's happiness, and breathe a little bit of family warmth—they are his fairy tales.

No one can enter the fairy tale world, but as long as they believe in its existence, they can live happily.

The elevator stopped on the twelfth floor, and the lights came on, flickering softly.Song Ran adjusted her mood from the faint disappointment and walked out of the elevator.

There are two families on each floor of Bishuiwanju. Get out of the elevator and turn right to Room A, and turn left to Room B.The public area is a smooth beige marble tile surface, and the private space starts from the respective door carpet and extends to the shoe rack and flower stand by the window.

The door rug in Songran's house was huge, a piece of soft tufted material, with a picture of a chipmunk submerged in a pile of pine cones.Last year, he drew the cover and illustrations for "Dream of the Chipmunk", which accidentally became a small hit and produced a few peripherals.Songran originally wanted to get a doll, but unfortunately, the old aunts in the publishing house have grandchildren at home, and their fighting power is extremely fierce. He squeezed his head and only grabbed a baby play blanket. He couldn't decide where to put it, so he just threw it outside As a door blanket.In contrast, the door blanket in room B is much more serious - a standard size rectangle, bristles, dark gray, and the material is quite resistant to dirt, which shows that the owner has a decisive and capable character.

Song Ran took off his canvas shoes, put them neatly on the shoe rack, inserted the access control card into the slot, and with a beep, the keyhole flashed out.

He took out the key to open the door, and observed the flower bed plants before going in.

Bluebells and sunflowers are growing well, full of color and vibrant in the sun.The soil is soft and moist, and there is no need to add water for the time being, just spray some water mist on the petals and leaves.

Then he remembered something, turned around, hopped to the flower bed opposite the door, and stretched his neck to have a look—sure enough, the two pots of Casablanca were half dead, and the expensive nutrient soil was completely dry and cracked.When I first moved in last month, the flower was a bit wilted. He couldn't see it, and quietly helped to water it for two weeks. The other party might have misunderstood that the flower was of the same family as a cactus, and could live without watering, so he simply let go of it.

Song Ran was not worth it for the flowers and plants, she made a face towards Room B, and jumped back again and again.

The twelve-pound fluffy dumpling cloth was waiting inside the door. When Songran came back, he yelled softly, then fell to the ground with a thump, revealing his white belly, begging to be petted.

Song Ran comforted it, added water and cat food to the cat bowl, and started to make dinner for herself.

There are still fresh asparagus and shrimps in the refrigerator. Song Ran fastens the apron and defrosts the ingredients. In a small bowl, marinate the shrimps with shredded ginger and cooking wine. On the chopping board, the hob slices the asparagus. In the small casserole, boil porridge.He especially liked the sound of thick porridge bubbling, and thought it was the food singing, so he hummed the tune softly while shaking the pot and spoon to beat the beat.

Stir fry the ingredients over high heat, pour into the porridge pot, and stir clockwise evenly.

Songran thought the color was ugly, so he added a small spoonful of seafood soy sauce.The steam in the pot is rising, and the aroma of soy sauce is tangy, which makes people greedy.

After cooking the porridge and cleaning the stove, the sky outside the window was already dark.

Song Ran remembered that she needed to spray the flowers and plants, so she picked up the spray bottle, took some water under the faucet, and pulled the slippers and pushed the door out.After pushing open a crack, he felt that the hand felt a little strange. The door panel seemed to be blocked by something. After pushing harder, a muffled cry sounded in the darkness. It was the voice of a child.

As soon as the child cries, the voice-activated lights in the public area immediately turn on.

Song Ran poked his head out from the crack of the door, and saw a little boy sitting on the chipmunk door blanket, holding a small schoolbag in his left hand, propping his head on the ground with his right hand, looking up at him with an aggrieved face.There are sparkling teardrops swirling in a pair of big black and watery eyes, reminiscent of flowing crystals.

Song Ran became nervous, and a stream of water mist came out of the spray bottle.

"Baby, you... whose child is it?"