Lemon Lament

It rained last night in Wutuo Town.

When I got up early this morning, I could already feel the slight coolness on my skin exposed outside the quilt.A small piece of sunlight penetrated through the bright yellow curtains at the head of the bed and shone on my arms. I moved my neck and looked up, and suddenly remembered that a guest once commented that such a curtain full of cartoon lemon patterns It's not my style at all.

Of course, the customer was reviewing the curtains in my store, and they are the same as this one at the head of my bed.

To be precise, they come from the same cloth, sewn and cut by the same people.

But this person is not me.

At 6:05 in the morning, I stared blankly at the man with crow's feet in the corner of his eyes in the mirror, and started brushing my teeth.

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Recently, at the intersection of Rensa Road and Dona Street in Wutuo Town, the long-abandoned dilapidated shop was finally bought by someone.

The tenants were two young men, both tall, standing at the door of the store, waiting for the landlord to come and handle the store handover procedures.Probably because he was bored of waiting, one of the boys who looked like a high school student kept tiptoeing and reaching for the ginkgo leaves on the top of his head. After picking off a piece, he stuffed it into his companion's sweater hat with a smile on his face.The boy's companion looked a little older than him, his eyebrows were not as soft and flexible as the boy's, and his facial features were very prominent, like sculptures. Compared with the young boy around him, he seemed a bit more mature.Facing the boy's naughty "prank", he just turned sideways from time to time, but never really wanted to hide. Now he was really helpless, so he grabbed the boy's hand and pulled it back to his side, while the other hand bent his index finger and The middle finger clamped the tip of the boy's nose, and shook it slightly from side to side, as if accusing him of being naughty, but the corners of his mouth that were raised all the time easily betrayed his overwhelming pampering emotions.

"It's really good-looking, young people nowadays." Muzi's mother-in-law looked at the two people who were leaning against the ginkgo tree on the other side of the road and wrinkled her smile through the big glass window: "Old man, you She was so pretty when she chased me back then."

"Oh, half buried in the soil, and still talking about this." Grandpa Muzi straightened up from under the counter, and brought out a freshly baked lemon pie and put it on the counter. The whole room was filled with fragrance, and Granny Muzi smiled Turn around and help arrange the lemon pie in the glass cabinet.

At this time, a fat woman came out from the corner of the road. After seeing two people standing under the ginkgo tree, she waved tentatively: "Mr. Wu?"

"Oh! Hello, I am." The person who was called hurriedly bowed politely, and the ginkgo leaves in the hat of the sweater fell out at the same time, and sprinkled all over his body. Seeing this situation, the instigator next to him "噗嗤" laughed.He glanced at him helplessly, then smiled apologetically at the fat woman, feeling a little embarrassed for a while.

Unexpectedly, the fat woman also laughed and reached out to shake his hand: "Mr. Wu, you are different from what I imagined."

"Eh?"

"When we talked on the phone before, I thought he was a very mature man, but I didn't expect him to be so young and look like a college student."

"Yes, it just looks like it. Don't worry, I talked with you over the phone. I will take good care of your store after I rent it."

"Okay, let's go in and have a look. The downstairs is the storefront, and the upstairs is the room to live in. If you think it's all right, we'll sign the contract." The fat woman said, then tilted her head to look at the smiling boy behind her. , asked: "Is this person going to live here too?"

"Yes."

"But the room upstairs can only accommodate two people. We agreed before that the price will increase if there are more people."

"Well, I know."

"But didn't you mean to rent with your lover? He lives, what about your lover?"

The fat woman opened the door lock while she was talking, but she didn't hear the other party's answer when she finished talking. Turning around, she saw that Mr. Wu hugged the boy's head in his arms and rubbed it, then smiled faintly at herself.

The fat woman was stunned for a moment, then smiled understandingly after understanding, pursed her lips and sighed softly: "It's not easy." Then she turned and pushed open the door of the store without saying anything.

The space of the store is small and the location is relatively remote. After the coffee shop opened by the previous tenant closed down, it has been empty, and the decoration has become dilapidated and dusty.But even such a desolate atmosphere still did not dampen the interest of the new owner. The boy who had been enjoying himself playing with ginkgo leaves before was bending over to study the antique coffee machine on the bar with great interest. Until I heard the person at the other end of the bar calling me.

"Chan Ran, come here and sign."

The man called Mr. Wu smiled and waved, the boy trotted over, and the two of them bent over the desk together and signed their names side by side on the black and white rental contract——

Wu Haofan, Lin Canran.

Six words, square and upright, solemn.

From this moment on, they were separated from their former lives, and no one knew where they came from, no one reminded them of their troubles, and no one could stop them from loving each other desperately.

Wutuo Town was the place where they finally decided after searching for a long time on the map with a magnifying glass.

Here, will be their free utopia.

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It’s not enough for people to refuse to accept the old age. The water for brushing teeth in the morning started to hurt my gums. I rubbed my cheeks and planned to boil some hot water for myself to make a cup of milk and cereal for breakfast.

While waiting for the water to boil, my cream mixer has also started to work, "buzzing" sound and smashing together with the tempting sweet aroma floating in the air, which is fresh eggs, butter, almond powder and powdered sugar The mixed taste, in this taste that has accompanied me for most of my life, I cut one fresh lemon after another.

You know, I never drank milk before, and I didn't like the sweet taste.

People who like these two, hey, they are still sleeping late at this time.

At 7:10 in the morning, I put the first batch of lemon pie in the oven.

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Granny Muzi really likes the two young people on the opposite side of the road, so on the first day of their store's official opening, Granny Muzi pushed open the door of the small bar named Utopia with her homemade lemon pie.

The business of the new store is not good. At the moment, there is only one customer sitting in the afterglow of the setting sun drinking a special cocktail to pass the time. The originally not too big store looks extraordinarily empty. Lin Canran is lying on the bar counter bored Playing with the nose pen, Wu Haofan stood at the bar cleaning the glass, glanced at his childish expression trying to pout from time to time, and smiled lightly.

Granny Muzi came in when Wu Haofan finished washing the last glass, the small copper bell by the door dinged, and the two people at the bar turned their heads at the same time, both of them stunned.

Lin Canran took off the pen from his mouth, turned around and bent over: "Welcome, mother-in-law, what would you like to drink? We only have wine here." After speaking, he smiled apologetically, his lips and eyes curled up, Seeing that Muzi's mother-in-law was even more happy, she sighed "Oh" and patted Lin Canran at the same time, then went straight to the bar and put a box of lemon pie on the table very heartily.

"Plum bar!" She sat on the high bar stool with some difficulty, and playfully tapped the wooden table with wrinkled hands, smiling kindly.

Both Wu Haofan and Lin Canran were a little surprised by her mother-in-law's behavior, but felt that this liveliness was very cute.Plum wine was sweet and sour, but it had great stamina, but she didn't care about it when she was over fifty years old, she raised her head and squinted her eyes as if she was still a girl.

very nice.

For some reason, these two words suddenly popped up in Wu Haofan's heart, very straightforward, but he couldn't find a more suitable word to describe the warmth that surged in his heart at that moment——

The wrinkled smile of the mother-in-law, the sprouting green plants at the bar, the customers sitting quietly in the corner, the trams passing by outside the window, the streets covered with golden ginkgo leaves, and the bright red sunset glow in the sky are so strange Personal and human emotions will be triggered by a small and irrelevant thing, like dominoes falling one by one. This small but vibrant Utopia Town has what they once longed for. Everything, pure, quiet, sincere, friendly.

You see, the past is all over, life is already beautiful, so why not be happy?

Wu Haofan glanced at Lin Canran subconsciously, and found that he was also looking at him, his eyes met, and he smiled at each other, both of them had the same emotion in their eyes.

Wu Haofan poured half a glass of plum wine and handed it over, Muzi's mother-in-law took it, and pushed the lemon pie she brought forward: "This is for you to eat. I made it at home and sold it on this street. Can't remember how many years."

"Muzi West Point?" Lin Canran read the hot-stamped logo on the lemon pie, and sat down on the bar stool next to her mother-in-law: "It turns out that the Muzi West Point across the street is opened by my mother-in-law!"

"And my wife." Granny Muzi took a sip of plum wine, pursed her lips and smashed it carefully.

"That's really embarrassing, mother-in-law," Wu Haofan smiled embarrassingly: "We should have gone to visit a long time ago. I have been busy with opening the store these days, and it has been delayed until now—"

"It doesn't matter, I'll walk around your store, same." As if recalling something, Muzi's mother-in-law narrowed her eyes: "I, looking at you always feels like looking at me when I was young. You two , is it a foreigner?"

Wu Haofan froze with the hand holding the rag. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Lin Canran's uneasy eyes looking at him at the same time. For a moment, he felt his throat tightening. Gu Zi said it.

"I can tell by your accent that you're not a local." Grandma Muzi waved her hand, but her eyes were full of kindness and kindness: "Sometimes when I look at the two of you from the opposite side, I think, such a young child, why don't you open a car?" Shop, no family members, no friends to help. Why?"

While talking, she drank another sip of wine, the old record player in the store finished playing a song, the guests in the corner got up and left, the door dinged again, but neither Lin Canran nor Wu Haofan got up to collect the drinks. Finished cocktail glasses, they carefully looked at this old man drinking alone, how can I describe it?This kind of look is like a child who wants to protect his favorite toy from being snatched and destroyed by other bad children, so he ran and ran with it, and after running a long way, he finally found a big toy that could hide it. Tree, just when he thought that the toy would never be found, he heard the sound of footsteps. That was the look in the eyes of the child who hid the toy at that moment.

"I'm here, I don't want to inquire about anything." Muzi's mother-in-law was still smiling, and the next song sounded. Her old voice and soft music calmed the two hearts that were in a panic again: "Grandma is getting old. But don’t gossip, you have to leave your hometown at a young age, everyone has a story that can’t be told, if you can’t tell it, just recollect it yourself, it’s also a taste of life.” She drank the wine in her glass in one gulp She turned around and tried to stretch her feet to the ground to get off the bar stool. Lin Canran quickly reached out to help him, she took his young arm with her rough palm, and finally patted it: "Look, this skinny guy, You are still a child, so if you have anything to do in the future, just come and find me and your grandpa Muzi. After leaving home, there will always be times when you need to take care of him."

The child who hid the toy turned his head in a panic, only to find that the footsteps turned out to be grandma calling him to go home for dinner.

Lin Canran's eyes were watery all of a sudden, he nodded fiercely, and gave Granny Muzi a big smile, the doorbell rang again, and that stumbling figure gradually melted into the warm light of the pastry shop opposite .

"Brilliant."

Lin Canran turned his head when he heard the sound, Wu Haofan's face looked extraordinarily soft in the darkening dusk, those long and deep eyes had the same gentle aftertaste after being moved.

"Come and eat pie. Grandma made it, it should be very sweet."

On this day, they put up the [CLOSE] house number when the sun was setting. The two sat in the dim bar, listening to the lazy music on the old record player by the light of the street lamp, drinking a cup of hot milk and a cup of Iced black tea, you take a sip and share the lemon pie, what spreads out on the taste buds is a story they can't tell.

In that unknown city where they originally lived, they are lovers who are 2 years apart, have been in love for 3 years, and are separated by 4 squares and parks.

In the first year they were together, Lin Canran was a freshman in high school, and Wu Haofan was a senior in high school.The two are beautiful, just like many campus lovers. Every morning, Wu Haofan will ride a mountain bike through four square parks to pick up Lin Canran to go to school together. The mountain bike has no back seat, and Lin Canran sits on the front bar with his butt slanted On the morning, he took out the sandwich breakfast prepared by his mother from his schoolbag, and shared it with Wu Haofan, and Wu Haofan would buy hot milk on the road in advance and put it in his arms, and let Lin Canran drink it after Lin Canran finished eating the sandwich. At this time, the most youthful and beautiful things between lovers will happen—Lin Canran will always put the last sip of milk in his mouth and let Wu Haofan kiss it—this is a small plot that happens every day, Wu Haofan hates milk But Lin Canran stubbornly believed that milk was good for the body, so he forced Wu Haofan to adapt, even a little bit.

Lin Canran is a clever ghost, who would refuse a lover's sweet kiss?When Wu Haofan bent his eyes and kissed, he couldn't help but think like this.

The two are not in the same grade or in the same building, but unfortunately, the two buildings are facing each other. Lin Canran is sitting on the left side by the window, and when he turns his head, he can see the lush osmanthus tree and the osmanthus tree under the tree by the window. Wu Haofan.For this reason, Lin Canran once told Wu Haofan sincerely that it must have been done on purpose by God, who couldn't bear to separate people who love each other.At that time, Wu Haofan had just finished playing basketball, and took a sip of the iced black tea he bought for himself from the school canteen in Lin Canran's hand, and said with a smile, you just know.

You see, they were all innocent children who believed that true love could be blessed by God.On the first Christmas Eve that the two spent together, Wu Haofan drove Lin Canran to the central square on a bicycle, where a "Christmas Tree Lighting by Ten Thousands of People" event is held every year, and people write their New Year's wishes on the stars The lights are then hung on the tree. The higher the hanging, the easier it is for Santa to see and the easier it is for the wish to come true.

They lined up to lead the star lights. Lin Canran stood in front of Wu Haofan and walked backwards. When he was wearing a big down jacket and moved around, he looked like a clumsy penguin. He was not flexible in his movements, and he did not forget to stretch his hands into Wu Haofan's neck to keep warm. , Said that the hands were frozen for a while and could not write.Wu Haofan was afraid that he would fall and kept tugging at him, asking him what he planned to write in a while, but Lin Canran smiled and didn't answer, looked down at the hands that were red from the cold that were holding his waist, turned around, held them, and I stuffed my hands into the pockets of the down jacket together, until Wu Haofan circled him from behind, and his hands in the pockets were also held backwards. Then Lin Canran whispered, Christmas Eve, of course, is to seek peace, peace Ann.

That day, the two of them queued for a long time, their noses were red and their legs were stiff from the cold, but their hands were warm.

That day, the two tried their best to hang the star lamp high up, so that their toes were sore and their arms hurt, but their hearts were satisfied.

On that day, the Christmas tree hung with star lights was lit up amidst the cheers of thousands of people. Among the twinkling eyes, two stars were tied together, expressing the same wishes.

【Can Ran and I can be together safely. ——Wu Haofan]

【Haofan and I are safe, we are safe. —— Lin Canran]

There was only half of Muzi's lemon pie left, Lin Canran held a small fork in his mouth, looked at Wu Haofan who was drinking all the iced black tea with his head up, and asked, "Don't you want to eat?"

Wu Haofan waved his hand: "It's too sweet."

"No way."

"It's because you love sweets, so you don't think so."

Lin Canran gulped down the milk, shook his head and said "Yes" in the negative, pouted his lips and leaned forward before explaining, Wu Haofan naturally leaned over and took the 'last sip of milk' kiss, Until all the milk stains on the corners of his mouth were kissed away, Wu Haofan still didn't intend to end, Lin Canran squinted his eyes half-closed between his lips and teeth, his voice was fuzzy and soft.

"It's not sweet, I mean, it's kind of lemony in the end."

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