Yama

There was the sound of crackling firecrackers outside the window, occasionally mixed with the sparkle of fireworks, and the children laughed and shouted and ran, creating a joyful atmosphere unique to this season. Quiet and silent.

Ji Qiao and Jiang Zhen sat on both sides, silently looking at the New Year's dishes on the table——

A plate of shredded potatoes, a plate of fried vegetables, and two bowls of white rice.

Ji Qiao cooked all the meals. In the afternoon, he received a call from Jiang Rui, saying that he and his classmates had joined a surprise cram school, which was far away from home, so they would stay with them and not come back. Let them spend the holidays by themselves.Ji Qiao thought about it, and went out to buy a la carte, but at this time, the supermarket was sold out, and the ready-made shops were not open, and Ji Qiao didn't know how to cook things that were too complicated. Just these two dishes, He has been busy for most of the day.

Jiang Zhen picked up the chopsticks and poked the half-cooked rice, really lost her appetite.

Ji Qiao didn't urge her, and started to eat mouthful by herself.

Jiang Zhen looked at Ji Qiao, and finally managed to chew some potato shreds.

The two of them didn't say a word from the beginning to the end of the meal, after Ji Qiao went to wash the dishes, Jiang Zhen was answering the call from Chi Shuxuan.

Ji Qiao heard her say, "You don't have to come back, it doesn't matter anyway..."

After washing the dishes, Ji Qiao went back to the room. When Yan Cheng called him, Ji Qiao had already fallen asleep.

Hearing Ji Qiao's lazy voice, Yan Cheng smiled, "Why did you go to bed so early, don't you guys have to watch the year?"

Ji Qiao looked at the smoke outside the window and didn't answer.

It was only then that Yan Cheng felt that he seemed to have said something wrong. All he knew about Ji Qiao's situation was that he and Jiang Zhen Jiang Rui should be related. Ji Qiao's current guardian was probably his aunt. The lady who came to hold the parent meeting, but the relationship didn't seem to be harmonious, because Ji Qiao would rather stay at school on weekends than go home, and she never let go of saying that she knew Jiang Zhen brothers and sisters, and he also had an important relative has passed away.

Yan Cheng wanted to ask more questions, but he didn't know how to ask. He was afraid that the question would not be good, which would make Ji Qiao unhappy at this moment.

Just thinking about how to change the topic, Ji Qiao suddenly asked, "What will Shou Sui do?"

"Shou Sui? Elderly people have more rules," Yan Cheng said after a moment of stupefaction. In fact, he didn't really care about these festival customs. Generally, he would do whatever the family asked him to do, and forget about it when he was done. , "Everyone gathers together to talk, put some food on the table, besides sweets and snacks, there are rice cakes, dumplings, glutinous rice balls...gold and silver rice, and then wait for the arrival of the New Year."

"Dumplings, glutinous rice balls..." Ji Qiao repeated.

"Well, the skin I rolled out by myself has meat, vegetables, sesame seeds and red bean stuffing," Yan Cheng tried hard to recall, but Ji Qiao on the other side didn't speak, Yan Cheng really wanted to ask him, don't you eat these? ?

Feeling that Yan Cheng stopped, Ji Qiao actually asked again, "Is there any more?" Yan Cheng was surprised, and began to rack his brains to talk to him about the trivial matters of the New Year, what dishes to eat on New Year's Eve, and how many relatives at home , Who is the New Year's greeting on the first day of junior high school, and who is giving gifts to the second year of junior high school? He himself finds it annoying to talk about it, but Ji Qiao listens silently on the other end.

He could hear the voices of adults talking behind Yan Cheng, sometimes mixed with children's laughter, as well as TV, mahjong, fireworks... All kinds of movements were intertwined and chaotic, and they couldn't distinguish clearly.

Yan Cheng's mouth was a little dry when he said that, he heard Ji Qiao's breath getting longer and longer, and thought he was going to sleep, so he stopped talking.

For a moment, there was only the shallow breathing of the two on the phone.

After a while, Yan Cheng called softly, "Ji Qiao?"

Ji Qiao asked confusedly, "Huh?"

Yan Cheng: "Are you home alone now?"

Thinking of Jiang Zhen, Ji Qiao felt that there was no difference at all if she was there or not, presumably the other party felt the same way, so she said "hmm" again.

Yan Cheng asked cautiously, "Where are your... parents?"

Ji Qiao opened her half-closed eyes slightly, and then narrowed them again.

"died……"

He said it casually, as if it didn't matter.

But Yan Cheng stopped continuing, and instead said, "Then you watch the New Year's Eve with me... No, let's watch the New Year together."

Ji Qiao didn't respond, but she didn't refuse either.

This night, the two of them just chatted one after another. Of course, [-]% of the time it was Yan Cheng who was talking. Didi's notification sound came, and then Ji Qiao's breath slowly disappeared on the other end of the phone.

Apparently, the phone on the other end was out of battery.

Standing on the balcony, Yan Cheng looked at the altars in the yard downstairs, and he didn't know what it was like.

……

He didn't go to bed until dawn, and got up again before eight o'clock. On the first day of the new year, there was an endless stream of visitors. Yan Cheng followed Mrs. Yan, as well as his second uncle and uncle to receive him in the hall.

As far as the situation of the Yan family is concerned, naturally not everyone can see it when they come. Generally, they are friendships established in the early years, or they have a lot of close blood. , The old man's complexion is not very good.

It wasn't until a person who claimed to be his uncle Baiba brother introduced his company's history while talking, the old man finally couldn't sit still and got up and left with his sleeves thrown.

The uncle hurriedly drove them away and asked Yan Cheng to persuade him embarrassingly. After all, Yan Cheng was a junior, and he didn't want grandpa to be angry, so he followed up in the study.

The old lady was so angry that her hand holding the teapot was trembling. When she saw Yan Cheng, she shouted, "You needn't tell me, those prodigal things, where were they when your father was in trouble? I beg others with an old face. Where were they when they were born? Now that the Yan family has regained its glory, they are all here thinking of adding luster, white-eyed wolf!"

Yan Cheng didn't talk to him, his grandfather's temper came and went quickly, he just sat with him for a while and then went down.

People came outside again, this time it was Wu Zixu and Hong Hao, Yan Cheng took them upstairs, ignoring the look from his second uncle and younger uncle asking how the old man was doing.

Wu Zixu was still carrying a lot of things in his hands, and he looked around all the way.

"As for the old man, my dad asked me to bring him a lot of good supplements, all of which are to honor him."

Yan Cheng asked the servant to pick it up, "Thank you dad for me." Then he entered the room.

Wu Zixu also knew the situation of the Yan family very well, so he understood it all at once, and said in a low voice, "Are your second uncle and uncle stupid again?"

Yan Cheng just snorted lightly, not bothering to talk about it, and asked, "Where are Yuan Dong and Xiao Wu?"

Hong Hao said, "Fifth brother has gone abroad, guess where Dong brother went."

Yan Cheng was puzzled, and then looked at Wu Zixu, also with a mysterious expression on his face.

"U City?"

Wu Zixu was shocked, "How do you know? You also met him?"

Is it really City U?

Yan Cheng frowned, "Who met him?"

Hong Hao said, "I, before I left, I ran into Brother Dong at the U City Airport. He went there alone, saying it was for fun."

Wu Zixu smacked his mouth, "Why do you say that the Far East is going to U City for the New Year's Eve, and we are not there anymore after returning. Could it be that we met a new love when we came last time?"

Yan Cheng asked, "What about now? Who will accompany you?"

Hong Hao said, "Xi Tang."

"You contacted him?"

"You still need me, Wang Xiang already knew the news, okay?" Wang Xiang is the mayor of City U, and also Wang Xitang's father, such a good opportunity, a fool would know how to cherish it.

Yan Cheng remained silent, thought for a while, took out his mobile phone and called Wang Xitang, but the phone rang for a while, but no one answered.

He called Liao Yuandong again, but no one answered.

Hong Hao said, "There's no need to call, I've already called, but they won't answer."

"why?"

"I don't know, I'm probably playing crazy."

Yan Cheng looked at the phone, and before putting it back, he couldn't help dialing a familiar number.He sent a message to Ji Qiao in the morning, but the other party didn't reply. When he called at this moment, the answer was that the owner of the phone had turned off the phone.

Probably because I was tired yesterday, I will call again later, Yan Cheng thought.

However, after dinner in the evening, he made several phone calls to Ji Qiao, but the other end still didn't turn on the phone, Yan Cheng's heart became restless.

Hong Hao, who has no eyesight, persuaded him, "Don't worry, Brother Dong and Xi Tang are together, and they are not alone. Even if there are many robbers during the Chinese New Year, if they enter the house, kill and set fire, they can still provoke them." ah."

It's fine if he doesn't say this, but the more Yan Cheng listens to what he said, the more uncomfortable he becomes.Thinking of Ji Qiao's state when he called him last night, Yan Cheng felt like a rat was scratching his heart.

For the rest of the time, he never left the phone, sent Wu Zixu away, went to see his mother, and was a little absent-minded when talking to Tan Ying.

When Tan Ying saw Yan Cheng's eyes wandering, she stopped talking and said, "Go back to sleep early."

Yan Cheng went back, and called Ji Qiao one last time before going to bed, but the phone was still turned off.

Yan Cheng closed his eyes, threw the phone away, and turned off the lights.

……

Xu Shi was exhausted all the time when she was in school. Ji Qiao started to feel drowsy after returning to Chi's house. She woke up once in the morning on the first day of the new year, got up and ate a steamed bun with water, and then fell asleep again In the evening, I wanted to prepare dinner for Jiang Zhen, but later found that she had eaten instant noodles, so Ji Qiao ate another steamed bun, went to bed and read a book.

She planned to read two chapters and preview the subjects for the next semester, but within 10 minutes, Ji Qiao fell asleep again, and it was the next morning when she woke up again.

He took out the phone from under the pillow, only to see a black screen, and there was no response when he pressed it, only then did he realize that he had forgotten to charge it after the phone call with Yan Cheng the day before yesterday.

Ji Qiao got up, connected her phone to the power source, and then cleaned up. When she came back, she found that there were more than [-] missed calls and more than a dozen text messages, and the caller and sender were all the same.

Ji Qiao read each item, and the more she saw the back, the more she frowned. When she finished reading the last item, Ji Qiao put down her phone and was stunned for a moment.

Then he walked slowly to the window and drew the curtains.

In the middle of the bare branches downstairs, a man stood behind the tree with his neck hunched, the long scarf on his collar swinging aimlessly with the howling north wind.

……

Yan Cheng bought the plane at 05:30, and it was less than [-]:[-] o'clock in U City, and less than [-] o'clock downstairs at Ji Qiao's house. Yan Cheng figured that Ji Qiao would probably wake up, but he was worried that he was sick alone. When he was hungry or hungry, he hesitated to go up now, half an hour passed, the cold wind was blowing, he forgot to put on his hat, and now his ears felt numb from the cold.

Just as he was thinking about the same old question over and over again, the door under the corridor opened, and a person in thin pajamas suddenly appeared in front of him.

Yan Cheng stared blankly at Ji Qiao's face, then watched him approach, and then looked around himself.

Ji Qiao cursed softly, "Are you sick?"

Yan Cheng's heart went numb, and he stretched out his hand to pull him over, the smile on his face couldn't be stopped.

"Well, it can't be cured long ago."