[The summer solstice has not yet come] Carving time

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"Do you know, Gu Qiaochu really said that to me... He said that he would go to a height that a person like me would never reach in his life. He really said that to me... It's just that No one wants to believe me." As he said this, he unconsciously clasped his handcuffed hands on the table, "But it's okay, I'm used to it... But you didn't ask me why I was with him Can't make it through? That's the reason."

"It doesn't matter if I can't reach his height in my life, as long as I can be a stumbling block on his way. Let him go up later, later!" He looked up at the people sitting outside, and suddenly laughed weirdly, "Besides, don't you wonder how I tricked him to the edge of the river that day... Thanks to you! Gu Qiaochu's good student!"

Lu Zhiang couldn't fall asleep that whole night. With his eyes open, he repeatedly typed a long paragraph in Gu Qiaochu's dialog box, and then deleted everything without leaving a word.

His mind was buzzing with the man's overly crazy laughter that he heard in the prison in the afternoon.

"That morning, I sent someone to take your mobile phone away. I used it to send a message to Gu Qiaochu, and I told him to save you! He is so smart, hey! But he really came, and he was very obedient He came here alone!" He seemed so excited when he said this, he couldn't stop patting the table with his hands, "My friend and I have always disliked him, we beat him under the embankment and threw stones at his head. Hands and legs, isn’t he good at playing the piano? Oh yes, I scraped his eyes with a steel ruler, which is duller than a knife..."

Hearing this, Lu Zhiang couldn't take it anymore, he suddenly stood up and slapped the glass partition in front of him vigorously, wishing he could rush in and tear that person apart.

"What's wrong with him! What did he do wrong!" Lu Zhiang tried his best to widen his eyes and try to see the ugly face inside, until the guarding policeman rushed in and pulled the man away, accompanied by tears in his eyes suddenly He came down, "Why did you treat him like this!"

Lu Zhiang only felt a splitting headache, he kept walking around the room, and suddenly took the picture frame by the table and smashed it to the ground.

Only then did he realize that the headless youth that Gu Qiaochu painted was himself.

It was as if Gu Qiaochu had died in that sad summer.

In that summer, Asakawa was still covered by large camphor trees. The skirts of the girls on the street gradually changed from knee-length to shorter. The wind mixed with the smell of camphor blew through the streets of Asakawa as before. Even the noodle shop they often go to is still the chef of the very smiling uncle.But the old Gu Qiaochu remained under the embankment forever.

Lu Zhiang felt as if he could suddenly understand why Gu Qiaochu would sometimes be in a daze for a long time without moving, why he suddenly woke up from a dream when he fell asleep at night, clasped his waist and panted but couldn't say a word, Or when you are sick and have a fever, you mutter about the pain in a daze.

It turned out to be really painful.

Gu Qiaochu occasionally wonders how much an accident can affect people.He was obviously an adult in the legal sense at that time, but he still seemed to be afraid of being tied up and dragged underground by the embankment.He always thought that everything could be handled by himself, only once because of Yu Lai's soft heart, he didn't expect such consequences.

At that time, he was afraid that he would never survive again. He was afraid that his supposedly glorious future would just end in this dark and damp place, accompanied by large wounds and bloodstains.

But when he really survived, looking at his hands and legs wrapped in gauze and plaster, the police took pictures of him when they came to collect evidence. He saw the stitched wounds on his bruised eye sockets and eyelids, and his swollen old Gao half face.

At that time, he suddenly hated that he still had one eye, because the photo was really ugly.

Later, he recovered better, and his family transferred him to a hospital in Shanghai for rehabilitation.He couldn't use his right hand at first, so he could barely stand up with his arms hanging on the bar, but if he wanted to move a little, he would fall violently from above.

At that time, he also had the same question as Lu Zhiang, what did he do to provoke these people.

When the new year was approaching, Gu Qiaochu still booked a ticket back to Asakawa.

He was wearing a lead gray half turtleneck sweater and a long gray blue woolen jacket, and he looked very deserted.

It was already afternoon when he transferred to Shi County, he was walking on the familiar bluestone road, when he opened the gate of the courtyard, he saw Lu Zhiang who should not be here.

Lu Zhiang has been in Shi County for two days, he thought he should spend more time with Grandma Gu since Gu Qiaochu is not here.He didn't expect Gu Qiaochu to come back suddenly, but when he was watering the flowers with a gourd ladle in the yard, he heard the sound of the courtyard door being pushed open, and subconsciously looked up and saw Gu Qiaochu.

Gu Qiaochu carried a dark suitcase across the threshold and walked over. He bent his eyes and smiled softly, as if none of the unpleasant things had happened when we parted, "Why are you here?"

"I... I'm here to accompany grandma." Lu Zhiang unconsciously took two steps forward, he stretched out his hand to scratch his hair, and carefully looked at Gu Qiaochu from head to toe, feeling a little sad Eyes were red, "You are so skinny and out of shape."

"I'm not as handsome as before." Gu Qiaochu smiled and laughed.

"No, it's always been worse than me."

During the dinner, Lu Zhiang looked at Grandma Gu who seemed to wake up suddenly, took Gu Qiaochu's hand and chattered a lot.He didn't expect the old man to say in the end, "Zhi Ang is a good boy."

In the past two days since he came to Shi County, Grandma Gu always called him "A Chu".

At night, Gu Qiaochu took a shower in the room, and when he came out in his pajamas, he happened to see Lu Zhiang took some clothes and was about to go out, "Well, since you are back now, I'll go to the guest room to sleep."

"Don't bother, you can just sleep here." Gu Qiaochu covered his head with a towel, his whole body was wet and looked very harmless.He thought that the guest room at home should not be cleaned up now, after all, there is still more than a week before the Chinese New Year, and there are no plans for visitors at all.

When meeting Lu Zhiang this time, he seemed very cramped, and when he slept on the same bed with Gu Qiaochu after a long absence, he didn't know what happened, and suddenly felt uncomfortable.

He put his arms around Gu Qiaochu's naked waist through his clothes under the quilt, listening to the deep and hoarse laughter of the people next to him.He wept a little disappointedly, and leaned over to kiss the corner of Gu Qiaochu's smiling lips, "We'll be fine, shall we?"

He finally realized that Gu Qiaochu was so used to him that there was almost no bottom line, and he was not surprised when he heard Gu Qiaochu whisper "OK".He suddenly had the illusion that even if he said "let's separate" to Gu Qiaochu one day, Gu Qiaochu would probably just say "yes" in response.

Then he reached out to untie the belt of Gu Qiaochu's pajamas, and when Gu Qiaochu felt pain, he raised his head and bit his shoulder.

He lowered his head and sucked Gu Qiaochu's bitter tears into his mouth bit by bit, and finally he cried too.

It seems that during the time when they were not together, the torment that the two of them suffered in their hearts fell into the sheets together with the tears.

The next day, Yu Lai drove to Asakawa with two high school roommates. On the way, he made an agreement with people not to mention the incident at that time when they met. This time it was just a party.

But when he opened the door and entered the yard, and saw Gu Qiaochu and Lu Zhiang sleeping in the sun with a book lying on their faces, he still felt a little weird.

Hearing the noise, Gu Qiaochu dazedly brought the book covering his face. His whole body was warmed by the sun, but his eyes were half-closed against the blackness under his eye sockets. Spirit.But when he saw Yu Lai and two high school roommates coming in, his whole body became clear, he threw the book on Lu Zhiang and walked over to say hello, "Long time no see!"

Yu Lai raised his eyebrows and looked at Gu Qiaochu's dark circles of the same type under Lu Zhiang's eyes who just got up, he grabbed Gu Qiaochu's hand and smiled meaningfully, "You two didn't sleep last night, did you?"

"Sleeping." Gu Qiaochu secretly held Yu Lai's hand firmly, without looking at Lu Zhiang, he knew that the man was so flustered by Yu Lai's words that both books fell to the ground.He showed a typical smirk on his face, greeted the two people behind and then stared at Yu Lai, lost in thought, "The helper at home received a call today and heard that you are coming, and I started cleaning the guest room at six o'clock. If you can't sleep well, what do you think of it?"

"Salary reduction is basic." Zheng Haowen put all the souvenirs he was carrying on the stone table in the yard.

After Liu Jiajie hugged Gu Qiaochu, he took a step around to block Yu behind him, clenched his hand into a fist to cover up clearing his throat, and continued, "Demotion is a must."

"Hey!" Yu Lai laughed angrily at the fact that the two of them vented their anger because they couldn't see his good brother. He stepped over Gu Qiaochu's shoulder and grabbed Liu Jiajie's collar, "You two are in a daze today, right? This kid has been away in Japan for so long, and you two are still messing with me with him!"

In the evening, several people set up a charcoal grill in the yard, and Gu Qiaochu and Lu Zhiang brought Lixia over on the way to buy ingredients.The little girl was very happy to see them standing together, she bit her lower lip to restrain herself from laughing too excitedly, and in the end she secretly buried her head and grabbed the corner of Gu Qiaochu's clothes without daring to look up.

When the stars came out, they ate barbecue in the yard and drank low-alcohol beer.Gu Qiaochu caught a glimpse of Lixia reaching out furtively to reach for the beer can, smiled and took a clean bamboo stick to knock that dishonest hand.

Lixia seemed to be frightened. He looked back at Gu Qiaochu, carefully withdrew his hand, shrugged his mouth and gestured an index finger towards Gu Qiaochu, blinking his eyes to be cute, "Just a small bite!"

"No." Gu Qiaochu also blinked his eyes, but refused very simply.He patted Lu Zhiang on the shoulder, and the latter handed over a can of Coke knowingly, "You drink this. Boys drink, don't get involved."