recession

After driving for another quarter of an hour, Tao Liyang stopped the car in a nearby open space.

"The road is too narrow, the car can't get in, so we have to walk for a while." He locked the car, and led Xu Yunqing to walk on a gravel road next to him.

The altitude here is not too high, and although the temperature is a little lower than in the city, it is still not to the bone-piercing level. There is a slight sense of ice scum in the air, mixed with the less obvious smell of pine needles.

The moon cast broken shadows from the gaps between the trees. After walking about a hundred meters, I could vaguely see the lights in the distance.

When Xu Yunqing heard Tao Liyang say he was going to the mountain a few days ago, he thought he was buying a holiday villa. There are many mountains around N City, so there should be many real estate projects like this.He also bought two buildings for investment a few years ago, and only visited them when signing the contract. Later, when the price was right, he sold them again.

But along the way, there were no other buildings around, which seemed to be a little different from what he had expected.Going around a bend, a white house appeared in front of you.

Bungalows are not common two-story buildings.It doesn't look too big, it looks like Bailaiping, there are magnolias and camellias planted in the yard, and you can vaguely see small flower buds shaking gently on the branches.

Xu Yunqing stopped, and Tao Liyang looked at him suspiciously: "What?"

"When did you start doing it?" Xu Yunqing asked him, but he didn't hear Tao Liyang's answer, looked into his eyes and asked again, "When?"

"Why?" Tao Liyang stretched out his hand and pinched his shoulder, but Xu Yunqing stubbornly waited for an answer, so he could only smile helplessly, and sighed softly: "Three years ago."

Three years ago, before Xu Yunqing got married, they met for the last time at Tao Liyang's house.

Leaving from a mutual friend's birthday party that day, Xu Yunqing injured his wrist during filming last week and was unable to drive, and his assistant was delayed due to traffic jams.Tao Liyang heard it, and when he hung up the phone, he told his assistant not to come over and sent him back by himself.

The neighborhoods they lived in were not too close to each other, and it started to rain gradually in the middle of the drive.By the time Xu Yunqing went downstairs to the garage, the rain was already so heavy that his vision was blurred.Xu Yunqing was naturally worried that he would go back alone in such weather, so they were used to staying at each other's house overnight, and Tao Liyang didn't have any important work the next day, so he stayed there logically.

It was actually still early at that time, but the sky was dark because of the rain. They opened a bottle of rum and randomly flipped through a disc from the audio-visual room to watch.A very old black-and-white silent film about a woman who lives alone in the mountains and her sweetheart who may never come back when she goes to the battlefield. There is no plot, but it makes people sleepy.

Tao Liyang was in a daze when he heard Xu Yunqing say something wrong: "It's really nice there."

Tao Liyang turned his head away, they were sitting on the thickly carpeted floor, Xu Yunqing held a cushion against his chin, also feeling sleepy: "I will also find a place like this in the future."

"Where is it good?" Seeing that he was a little confused, Tao Liyang also looked at the screen.

"There is no one else." Xu Yunqing pointed to the woman on the screen: "You don't need to hide any emotions, even if you spend your whole life waiting for someone to do something meaningless and shouldn't, no one will make irresponsible remarks .” He drank a little wine and said in a soft sigh, “I want to do the same.”

"Do you have anyone to wait for?" Tao Liyang didn't look at him, pretending to say casually, "As long as you want, you don't have to wait for anyone, and no one can make you wait."

"Myself." Xu Yunqing said in a low voice.

"What?" Tao Liyang didn't hear clearly.

Xu Yunqing shook his head and adjusted a smile: "It's nothing, I'm talking nonsense... don't wait for anyone. I won't be an artist in the future, and it's good for retirement."

"Thinking about this now, your manager will go crazy when he hears it." Tao Liyang smiled and adjusted his sitting posture, getting closer to him, but followed his words and asked, "Do you want a small bungalow like this? "

"No." Xu Yunqing thought seriously for a while and shook his head, "I want a one-story house with a white exterior wall. It doesn't have to be too big, but it needs a yard and a lot of trees in front of it."

"What tree?"

"The kind that blooms, camellia?" Xu Yunqing touched the cup with him, "What do you like?"

"Magnolia."

Xu Yunqing nodded, and said naturally: "Then plant it too."

"and then?"

"The back of the yard is all used to grow roses, don't put up fences, let them grow casually. There should be a floor-to-ceiling window facing it, and you can see it when you look up when you sit in the house."

"What should I do when the flowers wither?"

Xu Yunqing glared at him: "Thank you, it's also a rose."

"Okay, of course." Tao Liyang nodded indulgently, "I was wrong, don't interrupt, what else do you want, continue talking."

They chatted in such a mess all night, and finally even settled on the color of the curtains of the non-existent house.When the sky was about to dawn, they shared the last glass of wine, said good night, and went back to their rooms to sleep.

"Yunqing." The moment before the bedroom door closed, Tao Liyang called him.

"What?" Xu Yunqing stopped.

Tao Liyang's mind was not too clear under the drowsiness and alcohol at that time, but he still asked: "Your house is used for the elderly." He couldn't help laughing as he spoke, with a little nervousness that he couldn't explain , "You said, no one else is allowed to go. Then, or, can I go?... At least I chose the tree."

The light in the living room was turned off, half of Xu Yunqing's face was hidden in the darkness, Tao Liyang couldn't see his expression clearly, but the corners of his eyes were indeed bent, so it should be a smile.

"Yeah." Xu Yunqing looked at him, "You can come."

For a long time after that, they did not find a chance to meet again.

It's just that Tao Liyang saw a missed call from Xu Yunqing on his mobile phone after a meeting one day.He redialed and was not picked up until a long time later.

"It's nothing, really, I accidentally pressed it." Xu Yunqing said.Tao Liyang always felt that his tone didn't sound too good, but it seemed to be the same as usual.

"Probably because I didn't sleep well." Xu Yunqing said.After saying a few more casual words, he hung up the phone.

Just like this, more than a month later, a movie that Tao Liyang himself was the producer was in the promotion period. The book he wrote was not very favored by the capital because of the weird plot.But he was unwilling to make major changes, so he simply found a young director and formed a team to shoot.

Tao Liyang was very busy, but for some reason, he still remembered that phone call in his mind—even though Xu Yunqing said repeatedly that he was fine.After thinking about it, I must go see him.However, before they could meet, he got the news of Xu Yunqing's marriage at the film's promotional event.

Weibo was paralyzed for a while, and Tao Liyang could hardly sit down on the chair due to the discussions of the people around him.He almost ran away, and he didn't know what he was running from.He found the nearest lounge and hid in. The big explosions on Weibo gave him a headache.He clicked on Xu Yunqing's Weibo, and the marriage certificate was so red that he suspected that his eyes were bleeding.

Tao Liyang wondered what the hell happened, he just missed a call and lost him completely?Suddenly, another thought popped up in his mind. It turned out that Xu Yunqing had lied to him, and there was no room for him in that house.

For a long time afterwards, it seemed to him in every sense like a terrible dream.

Hearing the news about Xu Yunqing's marriage from different sources in a daze, promised to be his best man but broke his leg at the airport, wandered around for several months after being discharged from the hospital, and then learned the news of Li Shuang's miscarriage Then I ran to Xu Yunqing's house to look for him...

In retrospect, there is not much real feeling, as if an outsider is watching everything going on.It was really hard for Tao Liyang to imagine, if all this had happened, what kind of mood he would have survived at that time.

But in the end, everything has passed, and people are always pushed forward by time, no matter how embarrassing their posture is.

After meeting Xu Yunqing, he was going to leave N City, but happened to meet relatives celebrating his mother's birthday, so he stayed for a few more days.

During the period, I found time to meet a few old friends, and they all asked him where he hid, why he couldn't catch anyone everywhere?Tao Liyang just smiled perfunctorily and did not answer.

After a meeting one day, a senior brother was going to inspect a house on a nearby mountain, and invited Tao Liyang to go with him, saying that the scenery on the mountain was beautiful, and it would be a good idea to go there for entertainment.Maybe he and that senior brother hadn't seen each other for a long time, they were chatting happily, and they had nothing else to do, so they went together.

It was the holiday villa of a partner of his senior brother.I found a lot of ways, and spent a lot of money to buy the right to use a piece of land on the mountain, and designed and repaired it myself.As a result, the capital chain of the newly established company was broken, and it had to be sold again.The senior brother was not very interested in that villa after seeing it, the price was too high, it seemed worthless.The distance is a bit further, and it is really inconvenient if there are no people around.

However, such quietness moved Tao Liyang, who was originally just an accompanying guest.

Looking at the lush trees around him and the clouds and smoke rising from the valley in the distance, he couldn't help recalling that afternoon that he probably would never go back again. He remembered Xu Yunqing saying, "I also want a house, built in the surrounding without other place for people. ’, he also said, ‘You can come. '

Tao Liyang knew that he shouldn't be sad, but he still called his brother the next day.Ask him to help put a line, he wants to buy that house.

That price was not easy for Tao Liyang, and it was barely within the acceptable range.Besides, the other party wanted it very urgently. He had just invested in two low-budget films, and he couldn't afford that much cash at the moment.After selling a few stocks and taking on a job to adapt a novel, I finally raised enough money.

On the contrary, Tao Cheng heard about it from somewhere and asked him if he was short of money recently. He has always been reluctant to accept screen adaptations.He prevaricated casually, and Tao Cheng didn't ask any further questions, but within two days he had deposited a large amount of money into his card, which was enough to buy two more houses.Tao Liyang naturally refused to accept it, but Tao Cheng just waved his hand impatiently: "If you give it to you, you can take it. I don't bother to care about you, because I'm afraid that your mother will find out and make trouble with me. You are her eyeball, how can she bear you?" suffer from lack of money."

Tao Liyang could only accept it, but it was useless. He didn't need the money from his family for a long time, so he simply bought a low-risk fund and put it under Xu Anru's name.

The formalities of the house were quickly completed.Tao Liyang asked someone to dismantle the two-story villa that had just been repaired and hadn't been able to install it yet. He also hired a designer to build a flat floor. The balcony was large, the kitchen faced the sun, the living room was equipped with floor-to-ceiling windows, and there were magnolia and camellia. The roses in the courtyard are all as Xu Yunqing said.

He is not qualified to go to the house that Xu Yunqing envisioned, so if he builds a similar one, will Xu Yunqing come?

Maybe never.

Tao Liyang thought so when everything was taken care of and he locked the courtyard door and left.

It turned out that he was the one waiting.In fact, there are not many people who can make him wait, but Xu Yunqing can take one if he can.

But he did it anyway, for his own sake.

But he actually waited until Xu Yunqing came and gave him his heart.

"I found someone to replace all the glass with one-way two days ago." They opened the door, Tao Liyang turned on the light in the living room, and said with a smile.

The decoration of the whole house is the minimalist style that Xu Yunqing likes, with the main colors of porcelain white and light gray.

Xu Yunqing clasped fingers with him, followed Tao Liyang into the room, there was no place he had mentioned before, and even the table mats were from his usual brand of home furnishing.

"What's the matter, this is?" Tao Liyang sensed his emotions, stopped and turned to face him, brushing his fingertips over his lower eyelids, jokingly said: "Don't cry. Your salary is so high. A house, it’s not enough. I didn’t say I would give it to you.”

"I didn't cry." Xu Yunqing didn't cry either. He just lowered his head, leaned against his shoulder, and whispered for a while, "Why do you have such a good memory? You remember everything."

Tao Liyang suppressed his smile and patted him on the back: "Didn't you forget it?"

"What if I forget? Will you be disappointed, will you feel that what you have done is meaningless." Xu Yunqing looked up into his eyes, those eyes that were always looking at him tenderly, he already knew the answer.

Tao Liyang shook his head lightly: "Yunqing. As I said, you don't need to remember anything, and you don't need to be burdened. This house is just something I have to do..."

It is also difficult for him to accurately describe his mood, but he knows that Xu Yunqing also understands.

So I didn't say anything anymore, stretched out my arms and hugged him, felt Xu Yunqing's warmth spread from his arms to his heart, and then whispered to his ear, "You are the meaning itself."

The author says:

Sorry, no update for a long time.Encountered something, my condition is not very good, in the process of adjustment, I am getting better soon, probably.But this article will definitely be finished, and will not run away halfway.