withered lover

After Du Zhinian finished his shift, he took a taxi and went home.

Yesterday he had just finished treating Shen Guiwan's injuries, and several comatose patients from a car accident came to the emergency room. They were busy all night and only slept intermittently for less than an hour.

Du Zhinian was very tired. After returning home, he didn't have the energy to take a shower, so he slumped on the sofa and pulled the blanket to catch up on sleep.

The staying power of the night was so strong that Du Zhinian slept until evening.

When he woke up, he was still a little confused. Looking at the darkness in front of him, he suddenly had the illusion that he fell asleep until the next morning.

But it was just an illusion, Du Zhinian's work limited his rest time, and he didn't have the right to sleep freely.

He lay on the sofa for a while, and his body's senses slowly came to life.

The sluggish brain was slowed down, and just received the signal of hunger, followed by a whine from the stomach, clamoring for the owner of the body to eat quickly.

The room was very quiet, and the sound of gastrointestinal motility was so clear that no one could ignore it. Du Zhinian rubbed his brows and picked up his phone to order takeaway.

He turned on the screen, and three missed calls came into view. The last one was from half an hour ago, and the callers were all from the same person - Du Zhinian's childhood friend.

Today is not a weekend, nor is it a holiday. Du Zhinian didn't know why this inconspicuous caller was so crazy. He ordered takeaway first before calling the other party back.

Fa Xiao answered quickly, "Old Du, do you have time for a drink tonight?"

Du Zhinian lay on the sofa and lazily replied, "Yes."

"So refreshing today?" Fa Xiao wondered, "Old time, old place?"

Du Zhinian glanced at the time, there were three hours left, enough time to wash and tidy up by himself.

He turned over and sat up, and simply said, "Okay."

At nine o'clock in the evening, Du Zhinian went to the appointment on time.

The old place where the novels are published is a bar that Du Zhinian often goes to. He has worked in the hospital for a long time, and he has a way of regulating stress. It's just that he sees a lot of life and death, and occasionally he will go to the bar for a while when he is stressed.

Du Zhinian pushed open the glass door of the bar, the bell on the door jingled, but it didn't cover up the conversation in the room.

Fa Xiao was joking with the bartender behind the bar. Du Zhinian heard their chatter from afar, walked over and interrupted them without apology: "A glass of Godfather, thank you."

Seeing the handsome regular customer coming, the bartender winked at Du Zhinian, blew him a kiss, stepped on stiletto heels and twisted his waist to get the wine from the cabinet.

Fa Xiao looked at the curvaceous back of the beautiful bartender, patted Du Zhinian on the shoulder and joked: "Old Du, you are always so confused, no wonder you get dumped every time."

Du Zhinian raised his eyebrows, "If you think I'm bothering you, I'll leave now?"

"Don't." Fa Xiao pressed his shoulder, "It's rare to come out for a drink, don't be so disappointing."

Du Zhinian smiled but did not answer.

Although Fa Xiao grew up together, his relationship with Fa Xiao in recent years has been limited to drinking and chatting, and his personal relationship is not considered intimacy, not to mention that he is invited by the other party every time, so he doesn't care whether it is a disappointment or not.

When Fa Xiao was waiting for Du Zhinian, he had already drank two glasses of whiskey, and now he was getting drunk, so he talked to himself about what happened in the circle recently.

He is a gossiper, and there are no tight-lipped people around him. He is afraid that the gossip will spread behind his back and offend others, so he can only harass Du Zhinian, who is not very mixed in the second generation ancestor's circle, every now and then.

Fa Xiao chattered non-stop, first about whose boss cheated on the secretary, and then about whose children played crazy abroad, playing everything they shouldn't have.

Du Zhinian took a sip of his wine, and made a few monotones to echo from time to time.

After posting the novel, the messy gossip may have been dry, so I stopped to drink some wine to moisten my throat.

After drinking a cup of tequila, Fa Xiao suddenly leaned in front of Du Zhinian and asked in a low voice, "Old Du, do you remember that trash second ancestor of the Liu family?"

Du Zhinian thought for a long time, and barely matched his name with the foolish face in his mind.

He frowned slightly, nodded in confusion and said, "I remember."

Fa Xiao opened his mouth in surprise, "You actually remember that idiot!"

The half-drunk alcoholic began to lose control of his words and deeds, and unconsciously raised his voice, causing the guests in the booth to look sideways.

Du Zhinian leaned on the backrest and said in a deep voice, "Keep your voice down."

Fa Xiao let out an "oh" and said, "The Liu family recently talked about a new project, and it was almost a deal, but that idiot just put the partner's son to sleep, and made a big fuss after being caught by the family."

"The partner is also a coward. The small family didn't dare to trouble the Liu family, so they sent their son to the hospital instead."

"There's another thing." Du Zhinian put down the wine glass, and the ice cubes collided lightly with the glass wall, making a crisp and pleasant sound.

Fa Xiao took out the cigarette holder and put it on, said vaguely: "It's spread in the circle, I heard that that idiot surnamed Liu was locked up for several days."

Du Zhinian watched him light the cigarette, the tobacco leaves burned under the scorching flame, the sparks flickered on and off, and the choking smoke drifted away with his breath.

"I've seen the photos, and that man looks so damn good." Fa Xiao blew out a smoke ring, "It's just pathetic, it didn't do any good to be slept on, and he was beaten to the hospital by his own father."

"Tsk tsk, that trash is really cheap."

The smoke blurred Du Zhinian's vision, the edges of the wine bottle were blurred, and even the glass cabinet was integrated with the fog.

Hearing Fa Xiao's words, a mocking smile curled up on the corner of his mouth.

That cigarette burned quickly, Fa Xiao extinguished the sparks from the cigarette butt on the glass ashtray, black ash was printed on the transparent glass, and the pungent smoke dissipated in the air.

He rubbed his fingers, turned his head and asked Du Zhinian: "Have you been vacant for a long time? Haven't talked recently?"

Du Zhinian shook the wine glass, the ice cubes in the glass collided back and forth.

He was silent for a while, and said helplessly, "I won't talk anymore, I'm always getting dumped, and I don't have the energy to coax my new boyfriend."

Since being broken up last time, Du Zhinian has been vacant for nearly half a year.

He had talked about several different types of boyfriends, but every time he fell in love, the other party broke up first without exception, and even the reasons were exactly the same.

Not considerate enough, caring enough about each other, or even loving each other enough.

Du Zhinian began to get tired of boring love games. Work was already tiring, and love that didn't have a regulating effect was meaningless and would only kill his few emotions.

"The hospital is so busy?" Fa Xiao didn't notice Du Zhinian's emotions, and simply and rudely attributed the problem to Du Zhinian's work.

Du Zhinian didn't want to explain, so he followed his words and replied, "It's a little bit."

He drank the rest of the wine in one gulp, the bitter and slightly spicy liquid slid down his throat and into his stomach, with a faint burning sensation in the cold.

Fa Xiao smacked his lips and asked, "Don't you think about going home and doing things with Chairman Du?"

"I don't like it." Du Zhinian put down his wine glass, and the glass made a muffled sound when it touched the solid wood table.

He sighed and said with emotion: "Whether it's a relationship or a job, it's so boring to always be led by the nose."

"Life is so long, how can you not find some excitement."

As Du Zhinian spoke, Shen Guiwan's eyes appeared in his mind.

Those were a pair of very cold eyes, clean and bright, but like black jade soaked in a glacier, it was so cold that one would shrink back.

Du Zhinian recalled Shen Guiwan's every move, and his head, which was not a bit drunk, sobered up instantly.

He tapped on the solid wood table top of the bar, with a playful smile on his face, "I plan to find a quieter bed partner."

Physiological needs always have to be addressed. If you can’t talk about love, just find a partner who can get what you need.

When Fa Xiao heard it, he suddenly regained his spirits, "Oh, what's the matter?"

The ice cubes in the wine glass slowly melted in the wine, leaning against the glass askew.

Du Zhinian flicked the glass, and the fine water droplets condensed on the glass wall dripped along the smooth surface and gathered at the bottom of the glass.

With water on his fingertips, he wrote the word "late" on the dark brown solid wood table.

Water seeped into the grain of the solid wood tabletop, and the handwriting soon became blurred. Du Zhinian pressed his palm on the water mark while Fa Xiao was staring at him, slowly erasing the word.

"Just saw one," he said.