recession

The season of catkins flying all over the city has passed, the begonias have fallen, and the sweet-scented osmanthus is blooming again, and there is a sweet smell in the air.Near the autumnal equinox, the movie wraps up.

They did not take the same flight, and returned to N city one after the other.

Tao Liyang walked out of the terminal and received a call from Xu Yunqing when he switched on the phone.

"Reached?"

"Just got off the plane." Xu Yunqing's flight was three hours ahead of him, Tao Liyang raised his hand to hail a taxi, and asked him casually, "Are you at home or in Yaoxing?"

"I'm in the airport parking lot." Xu Yunqing said lightly.

Tao Liyang's hand to open the door stopped, and he covered the receiver and said sorry to the driver, and told him to leave.When he spoke again, his voice unconsciously brought a smile: "Wait for me?"

"Otherwise?" Xu Yunqing took it for granted, "The location is sent to your mobile phone, and I'm driving your car, so it should be easy to recognize."

It didn't take him much effort to find Xu Yunqing.Seeing that he even changed his clothes: "Did you come back home after a trip?"

"A reporter followed the car and went back to the apartment first. I saw that he left, so I went home and changed your car." Xu Yunqing handed him a glass of Americano.

"Why is it so troublesome?" Tao Liyang took a sip of his hand and put on his seat belt, "Aren't you tired?"

"I don't have work this afternoon, and I'm still idle... It seems that you are always picking me up and waiting for me, but you have never been picked up. I want to try how it feels."

"How does it feel?" Tao Liyang tilted his head and asked him.

"Panic." Xu Yunqing turned on the left turn light and started, and replied concisely, "Time is too tight, and I am always afraid that I will be late on the road."

Tao Liyang suppressed a smile and was about to speak when he caught a glimpse of Xu Yunqing's face changing.He followed Xu Yunqing's gaze and found that he was staring at a shift display screen directly in front of him.The most recent flight took off from Xu Yunqing's hometown.

Tao Liyang gently squeezed Xu Yunqing's forearm, Xu Yunqing seemed to have suddenly recovered: "You called me?"

"No." Tao Liyang patted him, "Drive well, or should I come?"

"It's okay." Xu Yunqing shook his head, pursing his lips and didn't know what he was thinking.Not far from the airport, the car suddenly turned into a side alley and stopped.She tilted her head and called his name, but didn't continue.

Tao Liyang responded without asking anything, neither exposing nor urging, he put his arm around Xu Yunqing's shoulder, and looked at him very gently.

"I'm going to shoot a magazine tomorrow, and I'm going to be a flying guest on a program the day after tomorrow. Shenxi probably won't pick up work for me in the next few days. Is there anything you're busy with recently?" Xu Yunqing said abruptly after a long while.

Tao Liyang quickly recalled his recent schedule: "There will be a script review meeting tomorrow night. The rest of the time is free."

"Okay." Xu Yunqing nodded, lowered his eyes, and his voice was deliberately calm, "I want to go back in two days, so you can accompany me."

Tao Liyang stretched out his hand to cover his trembling hand on the steering wheel, and answered him calmly: "Okay, I'll accompany you."

This is the third time Tao Liyang has come to this small southern city near the river, and each time he has a different mood.

Just like the first time I passed by, it was still quiet and peaceful here.There are many people on Binjiang Road, but there are no pagoda trees blooming this season, and the golden leaves of ginkgo trees are all over the ground.The hotel they booked was also by the river.

"There was a municipal project in one year, and many trees were pulled out, and all were replaced with ginkgo."

While speaking, a leaf happened to fly down on Xu Yunqing's shoulder, and Tao Liyang gently took it off for him.

This is their third day here.The weather was bad two days ago, and the rain never stopped.The two of them didn't leave the hotel, and spent the whole day hanging around in the room.I got up early this morning and saw that the rain had stopped, so I went out for a walk.

Xu Yunqing took the leaves in his hand, and turned the stems gently: "There used to be a lot of phoenix trees planted in the family courtyard in the city, and all of them were pulled out and replaced with ginkgo."

"Go back to school?" Tao Liyang asked.The last time he came to look for Xu Yunqing was at school at night, and he didn't pay attention to what kind of trees filled the yard.

"I don't want to go."

A car passed by, Xu Yunqing pulled him towards her.While there was no one around, he took Tao Liyang's hand under the cover of the windbreaker.

"I'm afraid of meeting people I know...although they may not know me anymore." He said, and smiled again, "No, they should know me, but they don't recognize Xu Ning anymore."

Tao Liyang frowned unconsciously, and squeezed his hand tightly.Xu Yunqing's expression was still very relaxed: "Let's go for a walk in the city. I haven't been back for several years. I used to visit graves directly from the outer ring."

After the rain, the air by the river has a unique, faint smell of water.Looking down from Binjiang Road, there are several fishing boats floating in the river.After several days of rain, the water level has risen a lot, and the water surface is followed by the blue sky in the distance.

Xu Yunqing leaned against the railing, watching the children on both sides of the bank flying kites.Tao Liyang saw that he was watching it interestingly, with a little smile on his lips, so he teased him: "Do you want to fly a kite, and I'll buy it for you?"

"It's hardest to bear the grace of a beauty. I don't want you to run away." Xu Yunqing glanced at him with a smile, and scratched his palm lightly, "My dad used to take me here to fly kites. At that time, the bridge was not yet open. Xiu, you need to take a boat to go to the other side. There is an old lady beside the pier who sells glutinous rice cakes, red bean paste and candied dates. When I was changing my teeth, my mother would not allow me to eat sweet ones, so my father would secretly buy them for me, and then go home after eating..."

There was a bit of nostalgia in Xu Yunqing's tone, and after speaking, his voice lowered again, and he smiled bitterly: "I shouldn't actually miss him, right?"

He looked down at the ground, and while he was speaking, he had already reached the end of Binjiang Road. Tao Liyang hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Do you want to visit the grave?"

Xu Yunqing was silent for a long time, and finally said: "Go. Later."

Even in the old city, time did not show much mercy.Xu Yunqing left when he was a teenager, and when he came back, no matter how careful he was, it was difficult to find many memories of his childhood.They had lunch at a restaurant that serves local dishes, and Tao Liyang couldn't tell if it was authentic or not.It's just that the cooking taste here is too sweet, which is somewhat unaccustomed to it.But Xu Yunqing eats seriously, so his appetite is not bad.

This is not a tourist area, and there are no attractions to speak of.

After dinner, I walked along the old street for a while. After a long rain, it was sunny, and the number of people on the street gradually increased.Even though Xu Yunqing brought masks, both of them were tall and thin, and they still stood out in the crowd.It's not easy to go shopping too much. I passed by a theater and saw the Kunqu opera version of "Jade Hairpin" being performed, so I simply bought a ticket and went in to kill an afternoon.

In all fairness, the actor's form and spirit are not good, and his singing is not clear enough.Only Qiujiang's discount, no matter how many times you watch it, is still touching.It took a total of three hours to come out of the theater, and it was still early.They hailed a car and the driver asked where they were going.Tao Liyang glanced at Xu Yunqing, seeing that he didn't intend to speak, so he gave the address of the cemetery.

"Just wait for me here." Xu Yunqing didn't buy any flowers on the way here, nor did he buy any paper money for incense sticks. He stopped before the path up the mountain and said to Tao Liyang.

"Okay." Tao Liyang was not surprised, "You go, I'm right here."

Xu Yunqing nodded, walked a few steps, and then turned back suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Tao Liyang asked him.

"It's not that I don't want you to see him...I just think he..." Xu Yunqing explained hesitantly, unable to explain clearly himself, with a troubled look on his face.Looking at Tao Liyang's eyes, there was a bit of grievance that could not be explained.

"I know." Tao Liyang smiled slightly, lifted the broken hair on his forehead, and kissed his eyes lightly, "Go, I'm here, I won't leave."

Xu Yunqing then walked up the stone ladder from the cemetery, and looked back at Tao Liyang several times on the way, and Tao Liyang kept watching him with a smile.When he walked away, he couldn't help sighing.

The terrain here is higher, and the wind blows from all around, bringing the weeds that are half a person's height on the side of the mountain to make a whimpering sound.It was a bit cold, but the sun was extremely dazzling, falling on the tops of grass and trees, reflecting a little light.

Tao Liyang walked to a higher place, overlooking the village in front.He also couldn't tell which one was the ancestral house of Xu Yunqing's family, the house was dilapidated everywhere, only one looked better, it seemed to have been renovated recently.

Tao Liyang frowned, took out his mobile phone and took a picture to enlarge it. It was indeed renovated.Just when it was a little strange, I saw someone coming out of that room, and actually came towards the direction of the back mountain.

Not far away, but within ten minutes, that person had already arrived.This is an old man with gray hair on one side, holding a bouquet of white hyacinths, he glanced at Tao Liyang indifferently, without paying attention.

Tao Liyang felt that his face looked a little familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.He couldn't remember it for a while, until the old man passed by him and walked up the steps leading to the cemetery, Tao Liyang was stunned.

He remembered where he had seen this face, it was in the information given by Ji Lian.

This is Su Liang.

Tao Liyang was taken aback for a moment, not understanding how Su Liang would appear here so suddenly.After realizing it, he quickly caught up with him and stopped him: "Sorry, Mr. Su, you can't go up."

Su Liang stopped when he heard the sound, and looked at him with some surprise: "Are you calling me?...Do you know me?

Tao Liyang silently looked at Su Liang.In the photo he saw, Su Liang was in his prime. In fact, if he looked carefully, the face in front of him could still find the traces of the past.Tao Liyang didn't have a good impression of him, but it was indeed difficult to speak harshly to an old man. He collected himself and said directly: "You'd better leave here now, Yun Qing is up there."

"Yun Qing?" Su Liang's expression changed suddenly, "Xiao Ning? He's back?"

"Yes, so you go first."

Su Liang looked at him: "You know? Who are you?"

He asked vaguely, Tao Liyang understood, but he didn't answer him, he just said: "I'm his friend. Yun Qing probably should come down in a while, you go first."

Tao Liyang urged her several times, Su Liang hesitated for a while, and was about to leave, but stopped, thinking about it: "I want to see Xiao Ning again, I know I'm sorry for them, but..."

"You want to see him?" Tao Liyang remembered the scene when he found Xu Yunqing in the cemetery that day, and couldn't hold back his temper for a while, "Yunqing won't want to see you, he finally got better, can I ask you to go first?" ?”

Tao Liyang's tone was not kind. Hearing what he said, Su Liang hesitated, but did not leave.There was a stalemate, and there were already hurried footsteps coming from the heights.

Tao Liyang turned his head subconsciously, and Xu Yunqing walked down the steps quickly.He was also holding a bouquet of hyacinths, the petals looked slightly withered, probably put there by Su Liang a few days ago.

When he saw Su Liang, his brows furrowed heavily.He ran down in two steps, but first grabbed Tao Liyang's hand and dragged him behind him to block it.He threw the flower in his hand heavily on the ground in front of Su Liang: "Who allowed you to come and see him? He's all dead, and you still need your courtship? Do you deserve it?"

Su Liang coughed and bent down to pick up the flowers: "Xiao Ning, it's useless for me to apologize to you for what happened back then, but your father..."

When Xu Yunqing heard him mention Xu Qiming, his whole body was like an irritated little animal, all the spikes on his back stood up, trembling with anger, only his hands were soft.Holding Tao Liyang tightly, he didn't let go at all: "I don't want to see you, and my dad won't think about it either. Since you left the country to go abroad to pursue your bright future, why do you want to come back? Who wants to see you pretending?"

Su Liang muttered, unable to utter a complete sentence.Xu Yunqing snatched the flower from his hand and threw it to the foot of the mountain again.The voice is not high, but very cold: "Get lost."

Su Liang looked at him for a long time, finally dropped his hand in frustration, turned and left, describing his downfall.

Xu Yunqing watched Su Liang's figure disappear around the corner, as if he suddenly lost strength, and almost fell to the ground.Tao Liyang held his arm in time: "Yun Qing."

Xu Yunqing shook his head: "I'm fine, I'm fine."

He repeated it several times in a row, with half of his body weight on Tao Liyang.Heart heaving unceasingly, face pale, said for a long time: "Tao Liyang, take me back."

"Okay, let's go back." Tao Liyang hurriedly wrapped his arms around his waist, letting him lean on himself, "It's all right."

Xu Yunqing moved his Adam's apple twice, barely stood up straight, and took a step forward with Tao Liyang's support.Stopped discouraged, shook his head: "I have no strength. Carry me on your back."

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