four year itch

With the removal of the last dessert, the New Year's Eve dinner can be regarded as coming to an end.

"Hasn't Rui Bai started to take over the company's affairs yet?"

"Rui Bai is still young, let him paint if he likes to paint." Xu Haidong's only daughter, Xu Yi, was the first to respond to her father's question.

"It's not too young, it's already 28." Xu Haidong showed the attitude of an elder.

"Ruibai's new work is already in production, and the follow-up promotion and film and television planning are also being discussed." Xu Ling helped round the field.

"Ruibai has been painting for a long time, right? It's time to learn how to manage the company. After all, it is an Alpha, and it will always take on the responsibilities of the family in the future." Xu Yunren, who hadn't spoken much throughout the whole scene, also echoed at this time recalled his elder brother.

"It's okay to have hobbies when you're young. Ruibai has a talent for painting, so it's okay to let him play for a few years. Isn't it good for our family now?" Xu Yunren's wife Zhou Si softly released her husband, Xu Yunren slanted Glancing at her, she immediately shut up obediently.

"Not doing business properly." Xu Yuwei said coldly, he obviously didn't take Zhou Si's praise seriously, Xu Ruibai was a typical child who was still in the rebellious stage in his eyes.

"As older sisters, you should also take care of your younger brothers. You can start from a small property and let him take care of it. You can't be reluctant, he is ignorant, how can you be ignorant?" Although Xu Haidong said this with a smile, his tone was unavoidable A little more blame.

"Ruibai is not worried about it yet. In my opinion, we still have to start a family before we can think about starting a career." Sun Qiong skillfully led to another topic.

"It's okay to start a family first and then start a career." Xu Haidong agreed with his wife's point of view.

"Didn't Zhuyu say that the girl from the Chen family was not bad a few days ago?" Sun Qiong looked at Bai Zhuyu and asked.

Bai Zhuyu never participated in their conversation. When she was asked suddenly, she calmly put down the wine glass in her hand, and said slowly, "Well, she's a clever girl."

"Is the girl from the Chen family an Omega?" Xu Haidong asked the key question.

"It's Omega, I've met that girl, she has a good personality and appearance." Sun Qiong praised.

"The Chen family, these two years have been a bit steadfast." Xu Yuwei is not optimistic.

"Yes, the Chen family has really fallen behind the times in the past two years, but fortunately, the old brand is still good." Xu Yunren also joined their discussion.

"Well, I can learn more about it." Xu Yuwei was not very satisfied, but he did not refuse, and only gave an ambiguous answer.

From the beginning to the end, no one asked Xu Ruibai if he already had a lover he liked, and no one asked Xu Ruibai if he meant to get to know him.

He is just an insignificant part of this huge machine. He does not need to have his own thoughts. He only needs to obey the will of the machine and do boring rotations to ensure the normal operation of the machine.

Xu Ruibai seemed to be used to such scenes, he swallowed the last bit of liquid in the cup expressionlessly, stood up, and said to the opposite world that had nothing to do with him: "I'm going first."

Bai Zhuyu asked softly to stay, as if asking: "Rui Bai, wouldn't it be good to stay here today to watch the New Year's Eve?"

Xu Ruibai's eyes swept over them indifferently, and silently took Bai Zhuyu's hand away.

Seeing this situation, Xu Yuwei's endurance seemed to have reached its limit. He put down the tableware in his hands heavily, and said with suppressed anger, "Didn't your teacher teach you how to get along with your family?"

"Then how do you say I should get along with my family? Do you love each other like you do, regardless of each other? Dad-dad-"

Xu Ruibai read out the word "Dad" word by word, his tone was obviously joking, but there was an indescribable sadness in his heart.

As if being poked into a sore spot, Xu Yuwei stood up abruptly, hitting the corner of the table with his knee, with a strong majesty and a trace of imperceptible embarrassment on his face.Now even the old man in the main seat can't stay out of the matter, he opened his cloudy eyes slightly, looked at everyone present, but still didn't say a word.

"Enjoy it, happy new year, everything goes well." Xu Ruibai was unmoved, and walked towards the door without looking back, leaving only the noise behind.

Xu Ruibai stood outside the iron gate and looked back, the night was low, the mountains were silent, the manor wrapped in vegetation was gloomy and solemn, and a large staggered light leaked from the windows, looking from a distance, it seemed like burning desire.

He sat in the car with a sneer, and as soon as he turned on his phone, he saw the funny New Year's greeting message, as if he had found a trace of warm smoke.

When Xu Ruibai received the call, it was already an hour after the blessing message was sent. Ye Jia was having a New Year's Eve dinner with his family and watching the boring Spring Festival Gala program on TV.

The word "Xu Ruibai" flashed twice on the screen, and the owner of the phone picked it up in a panic.Ye Jia walked quickly to the balcony under the suspicious eyes of his parents.

"What are you doing?" Xu Ruibai's voice was mixed with the howling wind, which sounded a little unreal.

"Eat New Year's Eve dinner."

"Well, I received the text message." Xu Ruibai said so casually, as if they were just ordinary friends who exchanged blessings, and what happened that morning was just a nightmare that Ye Jia had, and it never happened.

"Ah."

Both sides fell into silence, only the wind on the phone.Ye Jia organized his words nervously, he didn't know why Xu Ruibai called, was it just to tell himself that he had received that innocuous text message?

"Are you outside?"

"Well, driving."

"It's too dangerous to make a phone call while driving. Let's talk about it when you get to your destination?" Although Ye Jia was reluctant to part with the hard-earned phone call, he still cared about the other party's safety.

"No destination." Xu Ruibai seemed to be talking to himself.

"What?" The wind covered his voice, and Ye Jia couldn't hear what Xu Ruibai said clearly.

"It's nothing, there is a car phone, it doesn't matter."

"Hmm." Ye Jia asked curiously, "Why are you still outside so late?"

"I want to blow some air."

Ye Jia originally wanted to ask him if he was in a bad mood, otherwise why would he go to blow the air alone on this night of family reunion.But he felt that asking this question seemed too intimate, so he closed his mouth wisely.

"What about you? What are you going to do after the New Year's Eve dinner?" Xu Ruibai seemed quite relaxed today.

"Watching the Spring Festival Gala..."

Xu Ruibai seemed to chuckle lightly, and then said, "Well, it's pretty good."

"Have you had New Year's Eve dinner?"

"Finished."

"Why didn't you accompany your family?" Ye Jia asked subconsciously, and he didn't realize something was wrong until the other party fell silent again.

When the conversation was at an impasse, Chen Jingzhong's angry voice came from the living room, "Son, haven't you finished calling yet? Do you still want to eat?"

Xu Ruibai obviously heard it too, smiled and said, "Go and eat."

"Well, then I'll hang up first?" Ye Jia asked tentatively.

"Ah."

Just as Ye Jia was about to hang up the phone, the next second, a voice came from the other end, "Wait a minute."

"what?"

"Where's your home?"

Although Ye Jia was puzzled, he didn't ask Xu Ruibai's intentions, obediently gave his address, and then hung up the phone.

The Ye family did not have a tradition of keeping the year old. Both Ye Hemin and Chen Jing were used to going to bed early. After watching the Spring Festival Gala walking ceremony for a while, they fell asleep before eleven o'clock.Although Ye Jia and Ye Ming were night owls, they were not interested in the Spring Festival Gala, and they had nothing in common, so they simply went back to their rooms early.

In the past on New Year's Day, Ye Jia was woken up by the sound of firecrackers one after another, but this time he was woken up by the constant ringing of his mobile phone.

Ye Jia answered the phone in a daze, and a tired voice rang out from the other end, "Which building is your house in?"

"Huh?" Ye Jia, who was still awake, couldn't hear what the other party was saying.

The other party raised the volume slightly: "Ye Jia, let me ask you how many buildings do you live in?"

"Who are you?" Ye Jia, who had disturbed her dream, asked angrily.

"I'm Xu Ruibai."

Hearing the familiar name, Ye Jia suddenly opened his eyes wide.When he saw the caller ID, Ye Jia jumped up from the bed.

"Where... are you...?" Ye Jia found that his hands and feet were trembling uncontrollably.

"The gate of your neighborhood."

"Wait a minute... I'll be right there." Ye Jia put on her clothes with hands and feet, and ran out the door before she even had time to change into her slippers.

As soon as he opened the door, Ye Jia was shocked by the cold wind. He wrapped his coat tightly and rushed into the cold wind.Even his footsteps became erratic.

Along the way, Ye Jia kept thinking, this must be a dream.

He would often have such a dream, the dream was a vast expanse of whiteness, in the dream he was always running towards the same place, the face of the person in the dream was always covered in smoke and dust, but he always had the same name.At the end of the dream was a cold and sad emptiness in the palm of his hand. He never touched that figure, not even once. He just kept running towards that name.

If it's a dream, please don't wake up, just let him keep running like this.

Ye Jia stopped under the streetlight two meters away from him.

The smoke and dust dissipated, the light and shadow turned into frost, and the moonlight shone brightly in the center. Ye Jia heard his own drowned voice, and this time he finally saw the appearance of the person in his dream——

Xu Ruibai was leaning on the side of the car smoking a cigarette, and turned around when he heard footsteps.Amidst the smog, Xu Ruibai gave him a weary smile. They were separated by a streetlight, and Xu Ruibai said to him: "Happy New Year."

He seemed to come with a sea of ​​flowers, and wherever he went, everything was growing noisily and silently.

——This is a better dream.

But how dare he dream such a beautiful dream?

On the night of the New Year's Eve, he walked alone through the lights of thousands of houses and across the vast sea of ​​people, just to come to say to himself more than 700 kilometers away in this early morning light: "Happy New Year."

Just ask, how can I not be moved.

Ye Jia resisted the urge to go up to hug Xu Ruibai, and said softly from a distance, "Happy New Year."

This was the first person he met this year, and the first sentence he said Happy New Year.

Their eyes met, as if there was some unusual aura surging between them, Xu Ruibai threw away the cigarette butt in his hand, and walked over quickly, before Ye Jia could react, he had already embraced the back of Ye Jia's neck, He kissed him hard.This kiss was savage and blunt, without the slightest provocation of passion/desire, nor the lingering lingeringness of the past, but rather like a longing in the depths of the soul, like to confirm that he truly exists in this world.

The pain of the gums colliding, the suffocation of the breath, the mild cedar, the sweet rose, the cold body, the hot tongue.

With the infinitely enlarged sense of touch, smell and perception, the universe seems to be boiled at this moment, and only each other is left in the entire time and space, and they all feel extremely at ease.

Only now did he dare to confirm that it was really Xu Ruibai.

Ye Jia moved his feet and asked hoarsely, "Why are you here?"

Xu Ruibai rested his chin lightly on Ye Jia's shoulder, and rubbed his cheek against his neck, as if coquettishly: "I'm so sleepy."

Ye Jia led Xu Ruibai into his room, the family members were still asleep, and they didn't turn on the lights.Xu Ruibai took off his coat and lay down in the warm blanket, instantly surrounded by a warm smell, it was the smell of sunlight mixed with Ye Jia's body, like a field of roses in the morning, warm and sweet.Ye Jia did not lie down on the bed with him, but sat cross-legged on the carpet beside him.

Xu Ruibai must have been really tired, he was overwhelmed by drowsiness, and soon fell asleep, breathing heavily.

Ye Jia sat quietly in the dark, and could still feel the heat from his cheeks. He gently pressed his hand on the seat of his heart, and the speed there was so fast that he could hardly bear it.