endless city

Jingle Bell--

The melodious bell for the end of class rang, and the senior three students who had finished the final exam finally breathed a sigh of relief. Xu Shaoqian's deskmate packed his schoolbag and asked, "How did you do in the exam, Shaoqian? You must be fine? Anyway, every time In the test, either you are the first or An Luo is the first, you two take turns, there is no suspense for No.1 in our class."

Xu Shaoqian didn't reply, and the chattering tablemate changed the subject again: "By the way, I heard a piece of news, that An Yan from Class 2, Senior [-], do you remember him? He was in the same class as us in junior high school, but he was repeated later. That guy."

Xu Shaoqian raised his head and asked in a low voice: "I remember. What happened to him?"

"I heard that he's going to be repeated again." The deskmate shook his head sympathetically, "Oh, it's really pitiful to be so stupid. It is said that in the last midterm exam, he got 0 points in math! He can't do the big questions, at least there are multiple-choice questions. He was unlucky enough. He threw a rubber to guess the answer, and he didn't get any of the twelve multiple-choice questions right. In the end, he got a shameful 0 points. Our school also No one has ever scored 0 points in the test, An Yan set a new record, even the principal knows, and his homeroom teacher is about to be pissed off by him..."

"..." Xu Shaoqian didn't speak. Seeing that An Luo was about to go out, he said goodbye to his deskmate, picked up his schoolbag and followed An Luo's footsteps.

When An Luo saw Xu Shaoqian, he nodded his head as a greeting, "How was the exam?"

Xu Shaoqian said, "It's okay."

The two walked forward side by side, and when they reached the school gate, Xu Shaoqian pretended to ask casually: "By the way, I heard that An Yan will be repeated again, right?"

An Luo nodded, "I also just found out about the news yesterday. Grandpa is going crazy, and he is in a hurry to come back from other places. After going back tonight, An Yan will probably be beaten again." An Luo paused, turned around Looking at Xu Shaoqian, he said, "Why don't you stop by my house for dinner tonight? Just say that we have some topics to discuss. If you are here, Grandpa should not be too harsh."

"Okay." Of course Xu Shaoqian agreed.

He suddenly wanted to see how An Yan was beaten.The guy who had been arrogant since he was a child, who hadn't seen him for a whole year after repeating the grade, seemed to miss him a little.Without him being naughty and mischievous, class is much less fun.

Occasionally, Xu Shaoqian would think of the clip of being teased by him. Now that he had the opportunity to see him make a fool of himself, Xu Shaoqian actually had a bad idea of ​​gloating in his heart at that time.

When he arrived at An's house, An Yan had already been punished by his grandfather to kneel in the yard. An Guangyao picked up his crutches and smashed them down on his face. An Guangyao, who was mad by anger, didn't care how hard he struck. The sound of the crutches touching the bones sounded particularly harsh.

"You brat! Do you have the nerve to keep a grade again? Repeat twice in a row, and you will take the college entrance examination with An Ze, who is two years younger than you! You are an older brother, don't you have any face?! You were criticized by the whole school. Sneaking at the spine, you feel very happy, don't you?!"

The crutch fell down mercilessly, and the skin on An Yan's neck was scratched.

"Your elder brother and your younger brother can score 1 points in mathematics. If you give me 0 points in the test, you will really pick up their fraction! You are really bringing honor to our family! Every time your father goes to your parent-teacher meeting, you It's really an honor for the head teacher to teach you a lesson in front of all the parents!"

"An Yan, I really don't understand how our An family gave birth to a bastard like you!"

The crutch hit his back one after another, and soon there were dazzling red marks.

An Yan clenched his fingers fiercely, "Yes, I'm just stupid, I just can't figure out those messy trigonometric functions! I can't figure out those formulas even if I read the book desperately! You feel ashamed, don't you? There are so many An family Children, one is better than the other, but I, An Yan, are your shame, right?"

An Guangyao was trembling with anger, "You still dare to talk back?! You are embarrassing all day long, aren't you?? Tell me, what are the advantages of your whole body that we should be proud of??"

An Yan stood up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, staring at An Guangyao with red eyes and said, "I'm embarrassing you! It's hard to raise me as a burden, right? In fact, you have long wanted to drive me away Anyway, you have An Luo, An Ze, and An Mo. They can score 1 points every time to make you proud! Every one of them is better than me! I, An Yan, can score 0 points in the test, and I, An Yan, are so ashamed Now! Then I'll go!"

"Okay! Very good! Get out of here right now—!"

An Guangyao's angry words made An Yan finally leave An's house in despair.

That year, An Yan was only 16 years old. He ran out of the house under the surprised eyes of everyone. He was beaten with red marks on his body and had several holes in his clothes. The embarrassed An Yan endured the pain all over his body. The moment he left the house, crystal tears finally slid down the corners of his eyes.

The strange thing is that Xu Shaoqian watched the scene where he rushed out of the house with injuries all over his body, and he didn't feel happy at all in his heart. Seeing the obvious tear stains on his face, he felt a strange... prickling feeling in his heart.

Xu Shaoqian didn't play a role in rescuing the scene. He and An Luo came late, and An Yan rushed out of the house after yelling a few words before he had time to persuade him. Xu Shaoqian didn't want to stay for dinner under such circumstances, so he He returned directly to Xu's house.

The fourth uncle was not at home, so he made some dinner by himself and ate with Shaobai, then took out the exercise book as usual, went back to the bedroom and turned on the desk lamp to start doing homework.The question was originally very simple, but it was calculated wrong several times in a row, and what flashed in front of my eyes repeatedly was An Yan's teary face.

That face was dirty, bruised and swollen from his grandfather's beating, and those beautiful eyes were filled with crystal clear tears...

Inexplicably, such a tear-stained face made Xu Shaoqian a little upset.

He had never seen An Yan cry.

Ever since he was a child, the mischievous An Yan has been injured many times. Once he fell from a tree and broke his leg. The joints were dislocated and hurt like that. He never shed a tear.

Did you cry today?Obviously... he was very sad when he was scolded by his grandfather, right?

Xu Shaoqian didn't know why, but he always felt a little restless in his heart. He couldn't finish the questions in the exercise book, so he had to call An Luo and asked, "An Luo, is your brother back?"

An Luo said: "Father has already sent someone to look for him, but there is no news yet, and I don't know where he went."

"..." Xu Shaoqian was silent for a while, "Do you want my aunt to help?"

Xu Shaoqian's aunt, Xu Zizheng's eldest sister, Xu Jiahui, is a senior inspector of the Xilin Police Headquarters, so it would be much easier for her to find someone.An Luo said: "Don't alert the police for the time being. Dad has sent a lot of people out, so they should be able to find him. If you can't find him tonight, then ask your aunt for help."

Xu Shaoqian had no choice but to say: "Well, remember to call me if you have any news."

"it is good."

After hanging up the phone, Xu Shaoqian felt even more uneasy in his heart.

The An family sent people out to look for it. It shouldn't be difficult to find it with a carpet search. There is no news so far. Obviously, the large number of people dispatched by the An family were deliberately avoided by An Yan.It's almost ten o'clock, where can he go alone in such a cold winter?I ran out in a hurry, and I couldn’t stay in a hotel without money, what should I do if I was frozen outside?

The uneasiness in his heart gradually expanded, Xu Shaoqian frowned, simply picked up a coat, and hurried to school.

The school is only 10 minutes away from Xu's house, and it will arrive at the school gate soon.

For some reason, Xu Shaoqian always had an intuition that An Yan probably ran back to the school. Although the school will be closed at 8 o'clock in the evening, but with An Yan's ability, climbing over walls and trees is not a problem at all.

Xu Shaoqian climbed over the wall by stepping on the big tree at the back door, walked around the school, and sure enough, found An Yan in a small corner of the playground.

An Yan was huddled up and sitting on a stone bench, with his hands tightly hugging his knees, his shoulders were shaking constantly, his nose was twitching, obviously still crying.At that moment, Xu Shaoqian suddenly felt his heart twitch suddenly, and that strange distress, like a vine growing from the bottom of his heart, quickly spread across his chest.

Don't you hate him?Seeing him sad, shouldn't he be happy, right?Why do you... feel distressed?

It wasn't until that moment that Xu Shaoqian realized that he couldn't see An Yan cry.An Yan, who was used to being arrogant since he was a child, and An Yan who always had a playful smile, such a fragile and helpless appearance made Xu Shaoqian feel so distressed that he could hardly breathe.

Seemingly aware of someone, An Yan raised his head vigilantly, and after discovering that it was Xu Shaoqian, he quickly wiped away the tears on his face, lowered his head, and whispered: "Don't laugh at me, I know I'm very disappointing. However, I have worked very hard, and I have memorized those mathematical formulas many times, but I just can't use them... Am I too stupid?"

There was a long bloodstain on the back of his hand. The blood mixed with the tears on his face, making his already bruised and swollen face dirty and ugly, and his hair was messed up. His red eyes shrank into a ball like this. Very poor.

An Yan whispered as if talking to himself: "I was kicked out of the An family... Maybe they all hate me... It would be great if the An family didn't have me... The elder brother is so good, the younger brother is so smart, An Mo So good...it's just me, always embarrassing them...I'm a superfluous existence in Anjia..."

"Sometimes I also think, let's just leave... But... I can't bear them..."

"I ran out impulsively, and immediately wanted to go back. I am really shameless... Even if I am beaten to death by grandpa... I am reluctant... really leave them..."

At that moment, Xu Shaoqian suddenly reached out his hand out of nowhere, and gently hugged An Yan into his arms.

Thinking back later, Xu Shaoqian still didn’t understand why he made such an outrageous gesture at that time, maybe he just wanted to comfort the crying teenager in front of him, or maybe it was just a moment of inexplicable soft-heartedness or impulsiveness... In short, that hug changed completely. It broke his feelings for An Yan.

Even after many years, he never regretted it.

——Because An Yan hugged him back.

Like a dying person grabbing a life-saving straw, with trembling hands, he hugged his young boy tightly, and the sweater on his chest was quickly wet with tears.Because of sitting in the cold wind for a long time, An Yan's body was so cold that he almost lost his temperature, curled up in his arms and shivered slightly, as helpless as if he had been abandoned by the whole world.

Yes, his family kicked him out today.

He had nowhere to go, but he still couldn't bear to leave those people.

At this time, it was the time when he needed comfort the most. He needed a bit of strength to support him. No matter who that strength came from, he would hold on to it tightly, like a person at a loss, reaching out to grab the last straw.

Xu Shaoqian was extremely fortunate that he was the one who rushed to An Yan's side at this moment.

At that moment, Xu Shaoqian suddenly felt a desire to protect this person. This desire was so strong that he couldn't ignore it. He hugged the boy's trembling body tightly, and even his heart beat violently because of it.

It turns out that under those arrogant, beating, vile, and naughty appearances...

An Yan actually has the softest heart.