salt by salt

Since then, Yang Chen turned his back on me and refused to contact me, but I felt a little uneasy in retrospect—if Xu Yucheng wanted me to be a bridge to contact Yang Chen, would it affect the plan if I turned against him?It is really difficult to have emotional disputes with partners, and you must consider the impact in everything you do.But I really couldn't bear to beg Yang Chen to be reconciled in a low voice, so I could only do the work at hand first, so that the breath would stick in my throat.

Fortunately, a week later Xu Yucheng asked Andre and I out for dinner, and while Andre was going to the bathroom, I apologized and told him that Yang Chen and I had a falling out.He served me soup calmly, with a smile on his lips: "Did he bully Xiao Yan?"

"It's not really..." I took the soup bowl awkwardly, and looked up at him cautiously, "If you treat Brother Yucheng badly, let me tell you that there is still room for turning around, and it's not that bad."

Xu Yucheng sighed, with a gentle and helpless expression: "Xiao Yan, it doesn't matter."

"Ok?"

"Business and personal relationship are two different things. Yang Chen followed his father and made it very clear." His finger lingered on my cheek, "You don't have to worry about it."

"That's good." I breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the soup bowl and took a sip of the soup. From the corner of my eye, I saw Xu Yucheng still staring at me, a little embarrassed, "Brother Yucheng, eat, what are you looking at me for?"

After a moment of silence, he said softly: "As long as I am still here, I will protect you to the end. Don't be afraid."

I paused and smiled: "Well, I know."

Andre returned to the dining table, we stopped talking about it, and the topic turned to his recent Chinese learning progress. Andre even said a bunch of tongue twisters that I taught him before with a blank expression, and the atmosphere became relaxed.I secretly looked at Xu Yucheng's smiling side face, and Andre suddenly took my hand quietly under the table.I was startled, and turned to look at him. He bit every word clearly: "Brother, teach me another one? I will learn it soon."

If only it could last forever.

In the end, I declined my mother's invitation, and she called me: "Toshihiko, why can't you come?"

Maybe it's because she hasn't spoken for a long time, but the tone of her Chinese is also a bit strange, with a slightly rising tail tone, a bit like Andre who is trying to overcome the difficulty of tongue twisters.I said apologetically, "I've always celebrated the New Year in the main house, and the old man also likes crowds, and this year is also very busy with work, so I really can't go."

In fact, I knew in my heart that this was just an excuse.No matter how busy you are at work, you still have annual leave. If Mr. Xu likes a lot of people, it doesn't mean he likes my appearance, but I also know that if my mother really wants me to go together, just call him and tell him.

Sure enough, she just said: "Well, I must come if I have a chance in the future."

Andrei hadn't learned the Chinese subtext yet, and thought that Mom really wanted me, the person representing her painful past, to be present at the family reunion table—someone who was logically invited but didn't really want him to be present The role of someone who asked others to send out half-truths and half-fake invitations.But if you really want me to go together, any problem will not be a problem, so why stop because of an excuse?

I told Andre, but he was genuinely a little disappointed. After thinking about it, he wanted to stand up and say, "I'll go and talk to grandpa."

I quickly stopped him: "Okay, next year, I will accompany you back next year."

"You must keep your word."

"Yeah." I hurriedly agreed, and pulled him to sit down, "When are you coming back? Is the ticket booked?"

"Next Monday." He was a little sleepy and didn't want to talk to me. He folded his arms and looked cold. Although the handsome boy had a unique charm, I was a conscientious brother and hurried up to coax him: "Are you going back to China next year? Keep your room Are you okay?"

"You want to dismantle it?" He widened his eyes in disbelief, and a look of grievance appeared on his beautiful face, "Brother!"

"That's not what I mean, I mean if you don't come back, I'll keep it for you...then will you come back?" I asked.

"Of course." He glanced at me. "You'll keep my room, right?"

"Of course." I was very happy. Someone at home feels different, so I reached out and hooked his fingers and shook, "I didn't take you out to play much this year. Next year, my brother will take you to travel more, okay? When will you come back?" Tell me too."

"Okay." He calmed down a little, showing a rare almost soft smile.He was obviously taller than me but leaned lazily on the sofa, raised one hand to hook my neck, and tapped his pale rose-colored lips with the other hand, indescribably charming, "Kiss me .”

I leaned over and kissed him deeply, and there was a kind of pure joy when my lips and tongue were entangled.His arms hugged me tightly, and the heat of his body's closeness made me feel in a trance that we are vines clinging to each other, entangled with each other for a lifetime and will never be separated.The very thought made my heart tremble.

Recently, I have kissed Andre frequently, not to arouse lust, but to express intimacy.I know that this kind of behavior is abnormal. Ordinary brothers don't express their feelings through kissing, or this kind of long and deep kiss between lovers.But we even slept in bed after all, so think of it as our own way of being close to each other.

"Come back soon." I pecked and kissed his lips, "I will miss you, brother."

That day I specially asked for leave to send Andre to the airport. Andre's outstanding appearance won him a lot of attention. The airport hall cast bright sunshine in the afternoon, and he and I hugged and waved like normal brothers.

"Take care," I said. "Say hello to Mom."

"Remember to eat." He kissed my forehead lightly, and I looked up and smiled at him, "Brother, I'm leaving."

When his dazzling blond hair completely disappeared from my sight, I turned around and turned on my phone to see Song Cheng's message: "Are you coming over today?"

"Wait for me." I stretched and replied, "I'm getting ready to go."

I bumped into Lao Luo at the stairs of Song Cheng's house.He was carrying a big bag of vegetables and fruits and was climbing the stairs humming and humming. When he saw me at the corner of the stairs, he shouted, "That...Jun Yan! Wait, wait, wait!"

"Eh?" I froze for a moment and raised my head, "What a coincidence."

"Isn't that right, I was just looking for Xiao Song to ask for your contact information." He came down with his things again, and approached me with a smile on his face, which made me take two steps back, "Come on, I'll tell you Say something."

"Go in and talk about it." I was a little embarrassed, "Isn't Song Cheng's house upstairs?"

"Oh, it's not convenient to talk about it here, so I'll just waste a while."

The more courteous Lao Luo wants to say here, the more worried I am, but he has already put down the bag full of tomatoes and grabbed my arm with a lot of force. I was afraid that the pulling would be ugly, so I had to compromise: "You say."

"You know that Song Cheng's money is tight these days, right?" he said, "As friends, we don't have much to give, but we will definitely help if we can. Don't you think I'm here to send him something?"

I looked at him suspiciously, and he continued: "I had an idea recently, and I was going to ask Xiao Song to take a set of themed photos for contribution, but I took two or three times, and they were not satisfied with it, saying that it was flawed. I also wanted to Invite two models, but the more people you invite, the less you can distribute to Xiao Song? I am thinking, your temperament and appearance are all in line, can you please help me with this—no, help Xiao Song busy?"

I frowned, and opened my mouth to refuse: "I don't have experience as a model, this is really impossible..."

"It's not difficult, it's really not difficult. You can just come here in the morning or afternoon, and you can do it in the evening. Try it, just come and experience it." He stared at me with enthusiasm in his eyes, "Really, this role is not yours. No, you can do it for sure. It’s very easy, you can help people and get paid, let’s try it?”

He went on to say: "You said that you are now a waiter, which is simply a waste of your temperament. I heard Xiao Song say that your family conditions are not very good? Come and try it. I am not a bad person. Young people learn more skills. A way out. You don't have to show your face if you don't want to, how about it?"

He said one thing after another, and before I could refute, I was blocked by him and had nothing to say, so I could only reluctantly agree: "But I'm short on time..."

"Time is tight and we can arrange it. I'm free." He let go of my arm and picked up the bag of tomatoes. "Walk around and go upstairs to discuss carefully."

I had no choice but to follow him upstairs.Lao Luo knocked on the door, and Song Cheng jumped in to put down his things as soon as the door opened, and hurriedly pulled me to make a time with him.After repeatedly confirming that I can go, he will leave, saying that he will come over to deliver a vegetable, and there is still work to do, and he is afraid that if I stay for another second, I will regret it.Before leaving, he winked at me: "That's it, Jun Yan, I'll wait for you to come!"

I watched him close the door, turned my head and asked Song Cheng, "Is he usually like this?"

"Maybe you are really in line with his idea." The injury on Song Cheng's face healed a lot, but it was slightly bruised, which could be covered with foundation.Wearing an off-white sweater, he went to the kitchen to pour water for me, "I'm surprised that you promised me."

"I don't really want to show my face." I took the water and smiled at him, "I don't care about the rest, just shoot and play."

"Why don't you slap your face? I think Jun Yan is very good-looking." He gently brushed away my slightly longer bangs, and stared at me seriously, "Just... how should I put it, I have a good temperament."

"It's just because you are familiar with me." I gently held his hand, "I'm a public face, and I know that very well - let's not talk about this, has the company arranged a job for you recently?"

Song Cheng frowned slightly, and then stretched out: "No, but don't worry, it will take a while to get the money after this filming."

"Then I have to perform well." I took a sip of water casually, "Don't blame me for the poor filming, anyway, I'm here to play a cameo."

"How come?" He showed a warm smile, "What do you want to eat today?"

I put down the cup and went to the kitchen with him: "Let me see the ingredients, what did Lao Luo send?"

"Here, these... are quite fresh. How about making tomato egg noodles and frying an eggplant? Last time you said that eggplant was delicious."

"Okay."

After Zhuang Lin's incident, Sun Ning was completely friendly to me and didn't give me any sympathy, and I was not interested in accommodating her anymore. Although she is a colleague who usually keeps her head down and doesn't look up, as long as she does her job well, who should coax her? Who is it?

Everyone in the company worked in silence, and Brother Wang, who occasionally joked, stopped talking for fear of being picked on by Sun Ning, and the atmosphere was extremely dull.Yang Chen's occasional funny text messages disappeared, and when I got home, I was alone facing the empty and dark room, and I was really depressed.Although Andre often texts me, he suffers from jet lag and always staggers the chat time.I couldn't help but feel that it would be nice to take pictures with Song Cheng, at least I could have someone to talk to.

On weekends, I went to see Song Cheng at the appointed time, and then went to Lao Luo's studio together.

It is said that the studio is just two bungalows on the outskirts of the city, with graffiti of unknown meaning sprayed on the outer walls.I thought that the house that Song Cheng rented could be regarded as an urban-rural fringe area. In Lao Luo, I really felt how much City B has expanded in the past few years, and this kind of place is actually within the scope of City B!

"Lao Luo doesn't care about the weeds outside this house? It's still mud!" I complained, "This land is too remote."

"It's okay." Song Cheng knelt down to help me roll up the trousers of my jeans, and said softly, "It rained yesterday and the ground was very wet. Be careful not to splash mud on your pants."

"Actually, it's okay..." I couldn't say anything more, so I pulled him up, "Let's go."

The four sides of the room are covered with white paint, and some painting tools and still life props are scattered on the floor.Lao Luo was fiddling with his video camera, and he looked very serious in a jacket. When he saw us coming in, he just nodded, not smiling like usual.I pulled up a chair and sat down, and heard him say to the other side: "Xiao Song, I have told him several times, so this time I will tell you about my concept and the source of my ideas alone, so that you can integrate into this atmosphere as soon as possible. inside."

While listening to Lao Luo's words, I sneaked a glance at Song Cheng, who was seriously observing the sculpture, from the corner of my eye.The morning sun was very good, falling on him from the window, some dust in the air was floating in the light, he was more beautiful than those sculptures.

The theme of this set is "Public Lover".Lao Luo originally only photographed Song Cheng, and I also think that Song Cheng's appearance and temperament are very relevant. He is not a popular lover if he is handsome-but obviously it is easy to "false meaning" if he is too straightforward.So Lao Luo wanted to cooperate with Song Cheng and me according to his idea to add a storyline to the photos, with a couple of lovers as the objects.

"That's right, Jun Yan, you are playing the role of a passionate young woman, understand?" He gestured to me seriously, "You have many lovers, and Xiao Song is one of your lovers, and you are having an affair. But he is different from others , you are not out of lust, but simply because you love him and pity him."

"He is young and outstanding, admired by countless people, but temporarily seduced by you, representing the image of a 'public lover'. You can't keep him forever, you only get this dewy love, I want to express him through you."

I sighed: "I don't have the ability to express the whole story without mentioning it. As far as I am a man, it is too far away."

"It's okay." Lao Luo said affirmatively, "You follow my command, absolutely no problem."