South of Chutian

At five o'clock, Jiang Ya yelled that she was hungry. There was a party at An Yun's house, so she had to go home for dinner.Tang Heng and Jiang Ya ordered takeaway, and the two sat cross-legged on the sofa, each with a bowl of grains and fish meal, surprisingly quiet.

Halfway through eating, Jiang Ya sighed softly: "The female college is not allowed to stay."

Tang Heng raised his head and looked at him with the eyes of a mentally retarded man.

"We used to have dinner, ah, chatting and laughing lively," Jiang Ya complained, "Now, there are others, ignore me."

Tang Heng said, "Are you busy?"

"It's okay, we can't chat!"

"Then let's talk."

"You've been looking at your phone all afternoon," Jiang Ya said with a grin, and her tone was quite obscene, "What are you talking about with the surname Li?"

"I didn't say anything, and his name is Li Yuechi."

"I really can't imagine you falling in love with him..."

"Oh," Tang Heng paused, staring down at the fish meal and fish balls in the bowl, "Then let me ask you a question."

"What?"

"When you were in love...how often did you contact me?"

"How long have you been in touch?" Jiang Ya was a little dazed, and said, "We just... basically meet every day."

"What about when we don't meet?"

"Call."

"Can't you make a phone call?"

"You fuckin QQ online dating."

"..."

"No, what's the matter?" Jiang Ya put down the bowl, and stepped over to Tang Heng's side, "That person surnamed Li won't let you call?"

"No."

"Then you fight."

"We agreed to text in the afternoon...he's busy at the hospital."

"What is he busy with?"

"take care of patient."

"Damn," Jiang Ya rolled her eyes, "No matter how busy you are, you can't even answer a call?"

Don't talk about the phone call, Tang Heng answered silently in his heart, he didn't even reply to a text message.Mingming shook his phone when we parted in the subway, and he said he would send text messages casually when he was in Baotong Pagoda.

"You have to be tough, son, we don't owe him anything, why are you so cowardly!"

Tang Heng said in a low voice: "Forget it, I guess he has something to do."

"Just call and ask."

"Need not."

"Stubborn, you can," Jiang Ya sneered, "I'll see how long you can hold it."

Tang Heng did overestimate himself.After dinner, Jiang Ya went on a date with his girlfriend, and Tang Heng walked home alone.The lights on Luoyu Road are just beginning to come on, bustling with people, and the off-duty people are walking fast, filled with the excitement of welcoming the weekend.Only Tang Heng paced slowly with his hands in his pockets, looking not in a hurry.It's not that he's not in a hurry, it's just that it's useless to be anxious - he can't fly to Li Yuechi's side to force him to reply to the text message.The ancients looked at Qianfan, but he just looked at the mobile phone. This black little machine seems to be born with a spirituality, stubbornly neither bright nor active, but it is against him.For the first time, he knew that waiting was such a tormenting thing.

The sky was getting dark, thick dark clouds gathered in the sky, and the wind picked up slightly.Tang Heng passed by Cai Linji, and heard the waiter at the door say, it's going to rain.

In Wuhan, there is always a lot of rain at night.

Tang Heng paused, and suddenly remembered that night—could the debtor have gone to block Li Yuechi again? !

Thinking of this, he couldn't bear it anymore, and quickly dialed Li Yuechi's number—thank God, the phone was not turned off.

But soon, the other party hung up.

Dial again, hang up again.

Until the third hang up, Tang Heng finally received a text message from Li Yuechi, which couldn't be any shorter: something to do, wait for me

It turned out that he didn't see the text message.Tang Heng thought.

At nine o'clock in the evening, it was still raining outside the window, and Tang Heng had already given up contacting Li Yuechi.He thought that maybe Li Yuechi was really busy, busy taking care of that teacher Zhao.Tang Heng told himself that it doesn't matter, as long as Li Yuechi is fine, they still have a lot of time anyway.

After comforting himself like this, Tang Heng went into the bathroom to take a shower.In the middle of washing, I suddenly heard a sharp "嗡—嗡—" which was the sound of the mobile phone vibrating on the glass table.Tang Heng rushed out with his head full of foam—the uncle's call.

"Tang Heng, what are you doing?" Professor Tang's tone was more serious than usual, "You said that you want to give up your exchange quota to Japan?"

"Well, I don't want to go."

"Why don't you want to go?!"

"I stayed in school to write my graduation thesis."

"How can you not write a thesis!"

"I won't go anyway."

"You are already an adult," Tang Heng could imagine Professor Tang's stern face, "Can you take responsibility for your own decision?!"

"It just so happens that my mother doesn't want me to go either."

"Oh, I'm thinking of your mother now! Then I don't think you should go abroad to study in graduate school!"

"I……"

"Think about it for yourself," Professor Tang sighed softly, with some disappointment in his tone, "If you have an exchange experience abroad, it will also help you apply for the school. I told you to reserve your spot there, and there is still time to regret it tomorrow. "

Tang Heng hung up the phone and threw the phone at the coffee table with a muffled "bang".

The water droplets on his body pooled into a small puddle on the floor, he stared down at the puddle of water, and walked slowly back to the bathroom for a while.He didn't want to admit his loss very much, even if no one saw it, he didn't want to admit it.

After taking a shower, I read twenty pages of Bourdieu, and found the dumplings made by Aunt Wang from the refrigerator, cooked ten of them, and ate them.

It's already ten past two after finishing these.

The phone was lying on the edge of the coffee table, still silent.Tang Heng wanted to go to bed - although he couldn't fall asleep so early, he couldn't be interested in doing anything else.After a moment of silence, he turned off all the headlights, leaving only one light by the bedside. With that soft light, he quietly stared at the mobile phone a few steps away.

I can't tell whether I am angry with my phone or with myself.

After a while, Tang Heng picked up the phone as if admitting defeat, and pressed it, but there was no response.

No, it broke?

After connecting the charging cable, Tang Heng sat by the bed with his phone in his hands.If the phone is turned off because the battery is exhausted, it needs to be charged for a while before the phone can be turned on.The little black machine fell heavily in his palm, as well as his heart.

After a while, the small light in the upper right corner blinks green.It turned out that there was really no electricity.Press and hold the power button for a long time, hold your hands together, that is Nokia's boot animation.

The animation ends, the screen goes black for a short time, and then lights up again.

A prompt box pops up, and you have three unread text messages.

Tang Heng stood up all of a sudden.

Article 21, 35:[-], Li Yuechi: I'm back, can we meet?

Article 21, 45:[-], Li Yuechi: See you tomorrow.

Article 22, 01:[-], Li Yuechi: Good night.

Tang Heng sat down heavily, feeling that he fell from the sky, and his heart finally fell back to the solid earth.

He dialed Li Yuechi's number, and the call was connected almost as soon as the busy tone sounded.

"Tang Heng," Li Yuechi called his name in a low voice, "Are you asleep?"

"No."

"Well," he smiled, "otherwise you wouldn't be able to see my text messages."

"Then you slept all afternoon?"

"..."

"Forget it," Tang Heng said, "rest early."

"sorry."

"I'm just kidding."

"Ms. Zhao left this afternoon." Li Yuechi was silent for a moment, "I want to see you."

A quarter of an hour later, Tang Heng saw Li Yuechi.He changed into a black T-shirt and black sweatpants. If he hadn't been holding a maroon umbrella, he would probably have melted into the night.Tang Heng stepped forward, bent down and got under his umbrella, and smelled a very light scent of shower gel on him.

For a while, none of them spoke.The fine rain fell on the umbrella surface, and no sound could be heard.

"Too busy in the afternoon," Li Yuechi said in a low voice, "I've been at the funeral home since then."

"Then... don't feel too bad."

Li Yuechi nodded: "I'm already prepared."

"That's good," Tang Heng paused, "I was just... just a little worried about you."

"I was at the funeral home when you called." Li Yuechi's voice was muffled and soft, "I don't know why, but I don't want to hear your voice in that place."

Tang Heng couldn't say anything.

They walked out of Lingbo Gate, crossed the road, and came to the edge of East Lake.It was already very late at this time, and it was raining again. There was no one around the lake, and there were few passing cars.There is a dark lake in front of you, a dark campus behind you, and a dark sky above your head, with no stars and no moon. This is a vast night, which seems to be specially for them.

Li Yuechi said: "I thought she could hold on for a while longer."

"Do not blame you."

"I know, but it's still a little uncomfortable." He leaned his waist against the railing and faced Tang Heng. "When I graduated from the third year of junior high, I was going to work in the mine with my dad. She went to our place to teach and went to see my parents. Told them to put me in high school."

"And you went to high school?"

"My parents disagreed because the family lacked money. She ran to my house every day to persuade them and posted 500 yuan to pay my tuition."

"she's fine."

"Well. Later, when I came to Wuhan to study at university, I got in touch with her again. At the end of last year, she had a high fever for a while, and was diagnosed with bone cancer at the Central Hospital, which has spread."

Tang Heng didn't know how to comfort Li Yuechi, "death" was too far away from his life.He was 11 years old when his father died, and his memories of that time have long since faded.Tang Heng remembered that Li Yuechi said after he was drunk that she was the price, and he still didn't understand this sentence, so he squeezed Li Yuechi's hand hard, and found it very cold.

Li Yuechi smiled, probably not wanting to make the atmosphere too heavy: "What about you, what did you do this afternoon?"

"Choose a song at Jiang Ya's house."

"Choose a song?"

"Our band is planning to release an album. An Yun has compiled a few songs before, so we will pick them first."

"She arranges the music, so who will write the lyrics?"

"Me and Jiang Ya."

"Can you make it?"

"what?"

"You're going to Japan."

"not going."

"..."

"You can't object," Tang Heng said half-jokingly, "Anyone can object, but you can't."

"Is it because of me?"

"Yes." He felt no need to lie.

"I can wait for you to come back," Li Yuechi said, "really."

"I signed up for the exchange to avoid you." Tang Heng said confidently.

Li Yuechi stopped talking, and Tang Heng only heard him sigh very lightly.Then he leaned forward, put his chin on Tang Heng's shoulder, wrapped his arms around Tang Heng's hands and waist, and came up like a net cage.His body was heavy, his breathing was heavy, and the smell of shower gel became clearer.At this moment, a taxi passed by, and the orange headlights passed them far away, and the slender raindrops elongated their shadows.In fact, there is only one cloud of shadows, because they overlap each other, like two stones that cannot be separated from each other.

Li Yuechi buried his face on Tang Heng's shoulder and said in a low voice, "I'll write you a line of lyrics, okay?"

"Huh?" Tang Heng was a little surprised.

Li Yuechi said, "I'll think about it."

When he was thinking, he just threw himself on Tang Heng motionless, as if there were only two of them left in the world.The East Lake in the drizzle is a piece of sea, the distance is the sea, the sea is behind, the sky is also the sea, and the only land under their feet.

"You are, lake water." He paused for half a minute, and said firmly, "was rolled into my lungs."

Tang Heng asked, "Why lungs?"

He smiled and said, "Because the lungs are very important organs."

Are you the lake water rolled into my lungs?Without waiting for Tang Heng to think too much, he put away the umbrella and put it aside, cupped Tang Heng's cheek with both hands, and kissed slowly.From the corner of his forehead, to the end of his eyebrows, to his eyelashes, to the bridge of his nose, his dry lips brushed against Tang Heng's skin, bringing some lingering itchiness, like some kind of small animal gently rubbing past.Tang Heng felt himself trembling slightly.Finally his lips touched Tang Heng's lips, there was silence, the world was chaotic, they had enough time, Tang Heng parted his lips to meet him, his chest rose and fell at the same frequency as his, and the touch burst between his lips.Tang Heng thought vaguely, as if lake water had really been sucked into his lungs, but even so he didn't want to stop.In Chutian's favor, they just leave each other to each other.