cactus on bay window

I had to meet him again on New Year's Day. In the morning, he suddenly called me and asked me, "Are you coming today?"

"If you can't go..."

"Of course not!" He interrupted me: "At two o'clock in the afternoon, the school cultural center."

"What time did you arrange my show?"

"About 03:30."

"Then it's okay if I arrive at three o'clock?"

"Of course not! What if something happens in the middle and you need to play early? By the way, you have to sing because you have to."

"Why do you decide what I sing? Shouldn't it be up to me to decide?"

"Didn't you ask me to accompany you? I play this song best."

"Then you don't care if I know you well?"

"What are you afraid of with live accompaniment? You just sing, don't listen to the accompaniment music, I will follow your rhythm."

"You... really dance?"

"You can't fake it, just dance while playing, just don't laugh."

"I'm really sweating."

"Don't worry about me, hurry up and practice singing. Don't talk to you anymore, I have a lot to do. I'll wait for you at the gate of the museum at two o'clock in the afternoon."

I haven’t been on stage for almost ten years. It would be a lie to say that I am not nervous, but since it is a live accompaniment, it is exactly as he said, I don’t care about the accompaniment music, I can sing whatever I want, so I just hum in a low voice Several times, by the way, memorize the lyrics.I am absolutely not worried about singing badly, but if I forget the words, it will be ugly.

At [-] o'clock in the afternoon, I arrived at the entrance of the school cultural center on time, and I didn't see Ling Guo waiting for me there, but I saw Yue Yang, who was standing behind a pile of mineral water and drink boxes carrying goods.

"Yueyang! What are you doing?" I walked towards him.

"Brother!" He laughed immediately when he saw me, ran out and said, "I'm helping sell water, why did you come here?"

"Yo, so you don't know?" I really didn't expect Ling Guo not to tell him.

"Know what?" He asked strangely.

I was about to tell him when Ling Guo suddenly rushed over from nowhere, stopped us and said, "You're pretty punctual." Then he said to Yue Yang, "Don't be lazy, quickly move a box of water to the backstage. There will be your brother's performance later."

"What?" Yue Yang's eyes widened, before he could understand, Ling Guo pulled my arm and dragged me in.

There are several lounges in the backstage, and there are people coming and going in the corridor outside. I didn’t see the legendary star and the host of the charity show, Xu Shihao. Seeing me looking around, Ling Guo whispered in my ear: “Xu Shihao has already come on stage. , warming up."

"Who's looking for him?" I glared at him.

"Just to tell you." He turned his face away, pushed open the door of a lounge, and pulled me in again. "Come on, let's rehearse first to find out how we feel."

This is a musical instrument room, and there were two other people who, seeing us coming in, nodded and did not speak, continuing to play with their musical instruments.

I was about to go to the battlefield, and I couldn't shirk it, so I hummed a tune and asked him to play the guitar to follow, but I didn't sing the lyrics, and he didn't say anything. He bowed his head and played very seriously. It was exactly as he said, this song He plays the song very well, no matter I'm faster or slower, he can keep up with my rhythm, and I don't need to listen to where he is playing.

After he followed it once, he immediately had a bottom line in his mind, so he put down his guitar and pulled me out again. "The first and second rows of the auditorium are for school leaders and performers. If you are willing to sit, you can go there. If you don't want to go, go to the door to help Yueyang sell water."

"I'm going to sell water." I said without hesitation, let me sit down and look at Xu Shihao, stop joking.

"I guess you have to sell water." He smiled, dropped me and left: "Then I don't care about you! I still have a lot of things to do, and I will go to the door to find you soon. "

So I was selling water with Yue Yang at the door before the performance. He was also very happy, and introduced me to the people next to me as his brother. There will be a performance in a while. After the introduction, I remembered to ask me: "You, what are you performing? ?”

The few people next to me laughed when they heard it, and basically took his words as a joke, and didn't take it seriously, so I didn't say anything, and kept working hard to help them carry water.

Just after 03:30, Ling Guo ran out and waved to me, and I patted Yue Yang on the shoulder to say goodbye to him.

Ling Guo and I stood at the passageway on the stage and listened to the voices on the stage. Xu Shihao was talking with a microphone: "I really like the show that Lian Li and Fan Zheqi collaborated with just now, not only because one of them is a handsome guy and the other is a beautiful woman, but also Because they were able to support this charity performance, I heard that they stayed up for several nights for this cooperation, so, do you like them?"

"Like—" A crowd of people answered below.

"Okay, it seems that they are your idols. Of course, they are also my idols. In fact, I was as excited as you when I saw them just now. I have to go to the backstage to ask for their autographs later."

There was laughter under the stage.Unexpectedly, after experiencing so much, Xu Shihao can still stand in front of more than 2000 people like when he was just in college, stirring up the atmosphere with humor. I thought he should be a very formal and elegant host.

"Okay, let's see who the next guest performer is. Does it make me want to care about whether he wants to sign an autograph or take a group photo? Maybe..." Xu Shihao paused suddenly, probably because he saw my name?I didn't expect that Ling Guo didn't give him the list of performers in advance. I will be on stage soon, so he saw my name on the list.

"Am I getting old and dazzled?" Xu Shihao, who sounded stuck just now, quickly recovered his humorous tone and said, "I seem to see a very familiar name, but you have never seen this person on TV. I've seen him before. Are you curious?"

"Yes—" The audience cooperated with him very much.

"Okay, let me make a grand introduction—the one who will perform for you is my old classmate Yue Jiao. He was the famous lead singer of the campus band of our city's law school ten years ago. Welcome Yue Jiao to bring you a solo song "Love Is Deserving" "Already", and welcome accompanist and dancer at the same time: "Freshman Flight Suit Ling Guo."

Ling Guo and I stepped onto the stage amidst bursts of applause, and Xu Shihao rushed up and gave me a big hug in an exaggerated way.

If it weren't for the stage, I could push him somersaults, but now I can only pretend to hug him happily, but I let him go quickly, and then half-truthfully said to him: "Now the stage It’s mine, hurry up and ask your idol for an autograph!”

There was a burst of laughter from the audience, and Xu Shihao smiled and walked down.

Next is Ling Guo and I’s show. I sing very well, but I’m not particularly good at it. If it’s just me singing on stage, I might not get much applause. Fortunately, I have Ling Guo’s accompaniment today. No, To be exact, it was fortunate to have him as a dancer, and it won very warm applause and cheers from the audience.

In fact, Ling Guo's so-called backup dancer was quite unexpected. With his long arms and legs, he wouldn't look good in any dance, so he didn't really dance at all, but pretended to be a robot.He was circling around me, every movement was like a robot that was out of oil, but not too rigid, sometimes it looked like he was about to fall down, and people squeezed his sweat for him, but in fact he was is performing.Playing the robot didn't stop him from playing the guitar, that's what makes him so good. His body is stiff but his fingers are surprisingly flexible. I don't know how he did it.

During the whole singing process, my eyes turned around him like the eyes of the audience. I was worried that he would fall and startled, and then I was amused by him and wanted to laugh. I will fall in love with you myself, I dare not let myself get too close, I am afraid that I have nothing to give you, loving you also requires a lot of courage, I am only afraid that I will fall in love with you myself, maybe one day I will not be able to help it, missing only makes you I have suffered myself, falling in love with you is what I have to do.” During these lyrics, Ling Guo deliberately got close to me, and I didn’t hide or not. He even threw his rusty waist at me. The crotch made the scene look very ambiguous, causing the audience to scream and boo one after another.

I sang a song so many times, it was rare that I didn't make any mistakes, and finally finished singing smoothly.

As soon as the performance was over, I saw two people rushing up from the side of the stage, each holding a bunch of flowers in his hands.This posture seemed a bit exaggerated, I couldn't help but dodge back, when the flowers were delivered to my hands, I realized that the person who delivered the flowers was Yue Yang, and when I looked at Ling Guo, it was actually Xu Chunya.Before I could say anything, Yue Yang snatched the microphone from my hand and shouted to the auditorium: "I am Yue Yang in freshman flight uniform! This is my brother! Darling!" After finishing speaking, he hugged my The head bit my face, and then shouted again: "Brother, I love you!"

Amidst the cheers and slapping on the table below, Yue Yang pulled Xu Chunya up and ran down.I scratched my hair, and said to everyone with some embarrassment: "Actually, I love my younger brother very much. Everyone has heard that he is Yue Yang in the freshman flight suit. Please take care of me in the future!"

There was laughter again in the audience, but it's not my job to enliven the atmosphere, that's Xu Shihao's business, so I didn't say anything, turned around, pushed Ling Guo and stepped off the stage together.

After entering the aisle, Ling Guo stuffed the flowers in his hand into my arms and said: "Borrowing flowers to present Buddha, congratulations on your successful performance, and thank you for coming to assist in the performance."

"It's not sincere to borrow flowers to offer Buddha." I stuffed the two bundles of flowers back to him and said, "If you really want to thank me, go sell water for Yue Yang, so I can take him out to play."

"Ah?" Ling Guo looked at me unhappily: "Are you taking him out to play or not?"

"Why bring you? You are not my brother."

"Who says I'm not your brother?" He asked seriously.

"Really? Then call me brother." I also said seriously.

"This...you are taking advantage of others!" The expression on his face became even more unhappy.

"Forget it." I turned around and left, and said to myself: "Anyway, I don't want to have another brother."

"Hey! Yue Jiao!" He called me angrily from behind.

It was even more impossible for me to pay attention to him, and I walked faster.When I got to the gate, I saw Yue Yang standing there waiting for me, so I went up and asked him: "Are you still selling water?"

"Ah, it doesn't matter if you sell it or not, I'm not busy now."

"Let's go then, I'll take you shopping." He pulled him up and was about to leave.

"Hey! Brother!" He looked at Ling Guo who came out behind me and said, "Let's take Ling Guo with me." Then he asked Ling Guo without waiting for my opinion: "Do you have anything else? If you have nothing to do, let's go together." shop."

"I..." Before he could answer, I suddenly turned my head and gave him a look, and he looked at me and whispered, "Is there something... or... is it okay?"

"Who are you asking? I'm asking you." Yue Yang looked at him strangely.

"Your brother doesn't want to take me with you." He told Yue Yang, and put on a pitiful expression.

"Why? Brother." Yue Yang looked at me.

"No reason." I said, "Today is the first day of the new year, and I just want us brothers to be alone."

"Oh." Yue Yang nodded, and said to Ling Guo apologetically, "I'm sorry, private time, I'll call you next time."

Ling Guo glanced at me helplessly, turned around and left, his back was a little lonely, which suddenly gave me an indescribably oppressive feeling.In fact, I don't hate him, I just want to alienate him.On him, there is an aura that makes people's heart beat faster when they get close. If I don't deliberately avoid him, I'm afraid I will think wildly.Behavior can be controlled, but thoughts cannot be controlled. The so-called out of sight and calm of mind, I can only have less contact and meeting with him.