South of Chutian

On the first day of 2012, it began to snow again in Wuhan.

Fu Liling arrived home at noon.They are going to have dinner at the uncle's house in the evening, so they just eat a little at noon.Tang Heng ordered her favorite seafood pizza, plus a steaming pot of ginger coke.

"Wow, have you made progress?" Fu Liling held the cup and asked with a smile, "Who did you learn from?"

"...I learned it online."

"Be careful not to burn your hands when cooking."

"Ah."

It is true that he learned it from the Internet. Tang Heng did not lie about this, but he has cooked it in the rented house countless times.After winter came, Tang Heng bought a quick-heating one, which was very convenient for cooking ginger coke.The winter in Wuhan is so fucking cold. Even with the heater turned on, the warmth only floats on the surface of the skin, while the cold permeates the body from the outside to the inside.Every time before the two of them had sex, Tang Heng would boil a pot of ginger cola, and the two of them would sip it slowly one by one. Only when their bodies warmed up would they have the courage to take off their clothes.

"I heard you got an offer." Fu Liling said flatly.

Tang Heng suddenly withdrew his thoughts: "From the University of Chicago."

"Is it a good school?"

"A total of four schools have applied, and this one is the most ideal."

Tang Heng's heart beat a little faster, and he was afraid that Fu Liling would throw the table over when she raised her hand.

But Fu Liling just nodded and said, "Then what about your band?"

Tang Heng froze for a moment: "Just do that."

"Disband?"

"No... let's play together when we have time."

"That's true," Fu Liling thoughtfully, "Anyway, after you graduate, you'll have to go your separate ways."

She has never been very supportive of Tang Heng's playing in the band, and of course she does not object.So usually she seldom asks about the band, and I don't know why she brought it up today.Tang Heng didn't continue the topic, but instead asked, "Where are you celebrating the New Year this year?"

"Go to Sanya?" Fu Liling gulped down the Coke, "I can live in the house I bought last year."

"I don't want to go...too far."

"Far? Isn't the United States farther away?" Fu Liling smiled. "Wuhan is a direct flight, and we will be there in a while. Sanya is warm and the air is good. Anyway, I don't want to celebrate the New Year in Wuhan."

"The competition we participated in had to take advantage of the Chinese New Year to record songs."

"The staff don't have holidays during Chinese New Year?"

"It's the three of us, we record the songs ourselves."

"Tang Heng."

"Ok?"

"Did you want to stay in Wuhan for other reasons?"

Tang Heng laughed dryly: "Is there any other reason?"

"How do I know?" Fu Liling shrugged, "Forget it, do whatever you want, anyway, I'm going to Sanya—a friend made an appointment."

In the evening, Tang Heng came out from his uncle's house, met Jiang Ya'anyun, and went to "Long Love".The boss, Abu, went to Xinjiang to travel, so although it was a holiday, there was no band performance in the store, and only the bartender and a few waiters were left to take care of the business.

Maybe it's because of the cold weather, or maybe it's because the students are preparing for the final exam. "Long Love" is rare and deserted. Looking around, there are only two or three booths filled with people, and a jazz piece reverberates faintly. with.

"Where's Li Yuechi?" Jiang Yaxuan swished, "Why, don't you spend the first day of the new year together?"

"He went to the remedial class."

"Hey, Dad will accompany you in the end."

"roll."

At this time, An Yun wrinkled her nose and asked Jiang Ya: "Have you had a round of drinking?"

"I just drank a little. Sister Lin is going back to Beijing today. I'm giving her a farewell party."

Tang Heng sat up straight: "She asked you out?"

"I asked her out. She invited us to dinner last night."

"I know."

"Sister Lin still asks you."

"Jiang Ya," Tang Heng paused for a moment, before deciding to tell the truth, "She didn't want to sign our band."

Jiang Ya was obviously taken aback for a moment, and then asked, "What do you mean?"

"She had already contacted me and wanted to sign me."

"Only sign you?"

"At least that's what it was said at the time."

"Oh..." Jiang Ya said slowly, "Then she has changed her mind now."

"I haven't told you yet, have I? My offer has come down."

"What's wrong? Can you speak Chinese?"

An Yun glanced at Tang Heng and said to Jiang Ya, "He has been admitted to the University of Chicago."

"Good thing, my son is awesome!" Jiang Ya put his arms around Tang Heng's shoulders, "I've already figured it out, you see you don't have classes next semester, and I don't have classes, the three of us will go to Beijing for a few months for a test, and we will be Experience life. If you don't like it, you and An Yun will go back to study."

An Yun frowned and said, "I have classes next semester."

"Let's ask for leave, it's just a matter of your father's words."

"How can it be that simple?"

"Tang Heng is going too, if you say something nice to your father then—"

"Jiang Ya," Tang Heng stared at the black marble bar and interrupted him softly, "I never thought about being an entertainer."

Jiang Ya lost his voice all of a sudden, and the excited look on his eyebrows also disappeared suddenly.An Yun patted Jiang Ya's arm, and explained in a low voice: "It's really hard for me to ask for leave now...It's nothing to do before, but this year my dad commented on 'Cheung Kong Scholars', and many people stared at it inside and out. "

Jiang Ya looked at her in a daze: "Then why not... you take a leave of absence from school for half a year?"

"What about after half a year?" An Yun sighed, "At most we will sign a contract with the company to be an artist. After half a year, do you think we will become popular in half a year? After half a year, we are still nothing. How can I explain to my dad—say I don't?" Are you in graduate school?"

An Yun continued: "Besides, they didn't want to sign us at first, but only wanted to sign Tang Heng. Well, even if we are brought in now——but Tang Heng still has to go to graduate school, and it took him so much effort to convince him Damn, you got a good offer, so just give up?"

All around was quiet, Jiang Ya hung her head, not knowing what she was thinking.After a while, he suddenly sneered.

"I know," he said, "you're all going to have a great future, and you don't care about this shitty band."

"Jiang Ya—"

"I'm not good at it. I read two fucking books and got into them with special skills."

Tang Heng frowned: "Does this make any sense?"

"It's meaningless. Isn't it meaningless to start this broken band? One of you went to graduate school and the other went abroad. What about me? What am I doing? Go back to Inner Mongolia? Should I go back and inherit my dad's company?"

"This is your own choice..."

"I don't want to fucking!" Jiang Ya growled, got up suddenly, and left like that.

The bartender came over and asked hypocritically, "Is Xiao Jiang all right?" In fact, he must have heard what they were arguing about.

An Yun said softly, "It's okay."

"Oh, what kind of band are you doing?" The bartender returned to the bar and mixed two glasses of orange-red fruit wine for the two of them, "You can't make money..."

Tang Heng and An Yun sipped the fruit wine silently, and neither of them spoke for a while.It wasn't until the jazz was replaced by piano music that the other guests had left that An Yun said, "Are you sure you want to go abroad?"

Tang Heng nodded.

"Then you and Li Yuechi..."

Tang Heng asked a little irritably, "What about us?"

"Is it such an exotic relationship?"

"Ah."

"……Fine."

"What about you and Tian Xiaoqin?"

"Us?" An Yun laughed at herself, "We are nothing, she is straight."

The two finished their respective fruit wines, settled the bill, and walked out of "Long Love" together.It was past ten o'clock in the evening, and Tang Heng received a text message from Li Yuechi a few minutes ago, saying that he had arrived at the dormitory.

"You go first," Tang Heng said, "I'll go over there."

Now they all know that "over there" refers to the rental house of Tang Heng and Li Yuechi.

"Isn't your mother at home?" An Yun was a little surprised, "Aren't you going home at night?"

"Come back, I'm going to get something."

"Oh."

After leaving An Yun, Tang Heng came to his and Li Yuechi's house alone - he didn't like to call it a "rental house", and always felt a sense of precarity.It seems too far-fetched to say "home".After going back and forth, we can only call this place a "house", a dilapidated house, Tang Heng hopes that Donghu Village will never be demolished.

He had nothing to take, and he didn't open the door, just crouched on the stairs by the door.At this time, the snow has stopped, and the snow in the alley is slowly melting, and everywhere is wet and dirty.

In his impression, the city of Wuhan is always wet and dirty.

The phone screen lit up, and there was another text message from Li Yuechi: Can you answer the phone?

Tang Heng dialed directly, and Li Yuechi asked softly, "Are you at home?"

"I'm...downstairs from my house."

His volume returned to normal: "Well, why didn't you go upstairs?".

"Isn't this waiting for your call?" Tang Heng smiled, "Li Yuechi, I want to ask you something."

"what?"

"What are your future plans? Do you want to study for a Ph. D.?"

"No, I want to go to work early."

"Where do you go to work? Back to Guizhou?"

"Where do you want to go?"

"I have not decided yet."

"Then think slowly."

Tang Heng felt his heart tremble: "Will you follow me?"

"of course."

His tone was so natural, so determined.Tang Heng stood up and moved his almost stiff feet: "Then I'm going upstairs."

"Good night." Li Yuechi said warmly.

The New Year's Day holiday ended, and within a few days, Jiang Ya still came to Tang Heng and the others.After all, he had to rely on Li Yuechi for his final homework.

He didn't mention the matter of going to Beijing, and of course he didn't mention Lin Lang again, as if nothing had happened, making jokes as usual.Fu Liling returned to Shanghai. It was the end of the term. Tang Heng finished his course thesis in a rented house. When he typed the last word in the endnote of the thesis, he suddenly realized belatedly that the last part of his undergraduate period A class is over like this.

In the past, he always wanted to get enough credits and graduate quickly, especially when he was running a 1000-meter long-distance race.At this moment, he looked at the high and low eaves outside the window, but he didn't feel excited, only felt a trance.Tang Heng re-examined the thesis, and as if not reconciled, added a dispensable note, as if this would make his four years of university more perfect.

After sending the thesis to the teacher's mailbox, Tang Heng got up and stretched for a long time.This is a bright morning after snow—there has been light snowfall in Wuhan these days, and it is rare to see the sun today.The thermos was filled with the rice wine that Li Yuechi had bought in the morning, and it was still steaming hot at the moment, and Tang Heng finished the rice wine slowly.

This year's Chinese New Year is early, and the winter vacation will start in two days. This morning is Li Yuechi's last exam.

The exam started at nine o'clock, Tang Heng glanced at his phone, it was ten forty.He brought a mop from the bathroom, mopped the room carefully, then wiped the table, the glass, and the vacuum flask.When all this was done, it was exactly eleven o'clock.Has Li Yuechi finished the exam?What to eat to celebrate, hot pot, grilled fish, or that newly opened Thai food?

Putting on the new sweater Fu Liling bought for him, Tang Heng dialed Li Yuechi's number at [-]:[-].

The call was made, but no one answered.Haven't handed in the paper yet?Li Xueba took the exam too seriously.

Tang Heng was about to make another call when the word "Uncle" suddenly popped up on the screen.

"Hey, Xiao Heng," Professor Tang said calmly, "We will have a dinner together later, so you can come with us."

"Have you finished the exam?"

"The exam will be over in an hour. This year I gave the easiest paper. Ximen Fuchunxuan Room 302, you can just take a taxi there, we are heading there now."

"Oh..." No wonder Li Yuechi didn't answer the phone, it turned out that he was with his uncle and the others.

Tang Heng agreed, and didn't call Li Yuechi again.He went to the alley and stopped a taxi. The road was a bit congested, and it took more than half an hour for the taxi to arrive at the hotel.When Tang Heng got out of the car, his head was swollen and he was a little motion sick. He bought a bottle of iced Coke at the convenience store in front of him and poured tons of it down his throat to feel better.

If it wasn't for Li Yuechi, he wouldn't have bothered to suffer this crime, and came to have dinner with a group of unfamiliar senior brothers and sisters.

Tang Heng walked into the restaurant, went up the escalator, walked around a corner under the guidance of the waiter, and came to the door of private room 302.The door was closed, and he heard his uncle's heroic laughter.

Tang Heng pushed the door open, and Professor Tang waved at him: "It's almost here, come, sit here."

Tang Heng had no choice but to walk over and sit down beside his uncle.Li Yuechi sat diagonally across from him, their eyes briefly met in the air, and then turned to the side at the same time.

"Junior brother, what do you drink?" A girl whose name Tang Heng couldn't remember greeted enthusiastically, "This is Pu'er tea, and this is chrysanthemum tea."

"Pu'er." Tang Heng stood up, "I pour it myself."

"It's okay, you sit here, I'll come," the girl said with a smile, "It's quite hot, drink it slowly."

Tang Heng asked his uncle, "Where's An Yun?"

"The girl slipped away as soon as the exam was over," Professor Tang said, "Lao An invited people from the Education Committee to dinner today and called her over."

"Oh..." Tang Heng responded, while casting another glance at Li Yuechi.Li Yuechi was drinking soup with his head down, white radish pork rib soup - doesn't he like to eat radishes?

Tang Heng turned his eyes a little to the side, and met Tian Xiaoqin who was beside Li Yuechi.Her eyelashes were drooping, her cheeks were a little red, maybe it was because the temperature of the air conditioner was too high.

"Xu Rong," Professor Tang took a sip of juice and asked her, "When are you and your boyfriend going to settle down?"

"Hurry up, wait until you graduate next year." Xu Rong frowned with a smile, "There is no house now."

"Don't worry about housing, young people, there are plenty of opportunities to earn money..." Professor Tang looked around at the students, like a father who spoke earnestly, "You are all graduates, so you have to take the matter of finding a partner seriously."

"Teacher Tang, don't worry," said the guy with the pothead next to Xu Rong, "I'll keep my juniors and younger sisters with me! I'll introduce them!"

Xu Rong laughed angrily and said, "Come on, Bao Lei, our division has resolved it internally, so you don't need to bother!"

"Huh?" Bao Lei was taken aback, "Really?"

"Really," Xu Rong looked at Li Yuechi and Tian Xiaoqin with a very excited tone, "Xiaoqin just told us—she and Yuechi are together!"