intellectual norms

The July sun is an arsonist.

The endless rainy season has passed, and the summer in Denghong City has come quickly and fiercely. After a month of clear weather, the Meteorological Bureau issued high temperature warnings one after another. The heat wave transpired, and the whole city was scorched. It was glowing with white light, and there were very few people and cars.

In an old villa area in the southwest corner of the city, the plants in the garden of the Xia family were all wilting, and the cicadas were singing endlessly in the courtyard.

The 17-year-old Xia Xiaoli huddled in the big mansion for the coolness, and sat lazily on the armrest of the sofa in the living room, holding a photo with her fingers.

In the photo is an adult man, standing in the backlight in a scorching sun, surrounded by dust, like a construction site.

The man has broad shoulders and long legs. In such an environment, he still wears his shirt neatly, light-colored pinstriped suit jacket, and trousers. He just unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, as if through this tiny disheveled appearance. Takes the 100% old school under the hot sun off by a point or two.

"Wow, this person is so old and rustic!" Xia Xiaoli commented unscrupulously from the bottom of her heart, who would wear a three-piece suit and shirt in such a hot day?

He didn't even see what this person looked like. He took a quick glance, and his attention was completely taken away by the heat inside and outside the photo. Is this what my aunt said, "the city's limited golden diamond mature man who is hard to find with a lantern"?

Aunt Bai Xing gave him a "tsk" and said, "What do children know?" Then she took her sister and Xia Xiaoli's mother Bai Zhu to discuss the photos happily as if they had found a treasure.

Xia Xiaoli stepped past them and walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, took a can of iced Coke and stuck it on her forehead, closed her eyes, and heard the murmuring voices of two middle-aged women.

"Tsk", he followed Bai Xing's example and snorted disapprovingly, thinking it was a little funny, then closed the refrigerator door and went up to the second floor.

Tsk, woman.

Women are another kind of creature. Xia Xiaoli is only 17 years old. To be precise, she is less than a month away from 17 years old, so she understands this truth.

A woman's view of a man is completely different from a man's view of a man. Xia Xiaoli feels that he is already a man, so his eyes are naturally different from those of chattering women.

He has complicated feelings towards women. He grew up surrounded by women, just like Jia Baoyu in a modern Grand View Garden.

There are three women in the Xia family, mother Baizhu, and Xia Xiaoli's two older sisters, Xia Xiaoberry and Xia Xiaocheng.

The eldest sister, Xia Xiaobing, is heroic and handsome, a cool girl with a heavy body, and has always been his idol. As for the second sister, Xia Xiaocheng, Xia Xiaoli and this sister are often at odds with each other. "Use" each other without loss.

Xia Xiaoli herself, the obvious favorite of the Xia family group, was given such a name. When she was a child, Baizhu liked to pinch his face the most, saying that our Xiaoli's face is really like a fresh lychee that has been peeled off its shell. It is juicy, white, tender and fragrant. Soft and soft, my mother really did not make a mistake in choosing this name.

Baizhu was innocent all her life, even choosing a name for her child. When she was pregnant, she could name her child whatever fruit she liked, strawberry, orange, lychee... She was so random, her father Xia Yunhan never said no to Baizhu In other words, Baizhu's innocence is all because of her husband's petting, and Xia Xiaoli is often tired of these two.

After growing up, Xia Xiaoli developed a strong rebellious resistance to this description, as well as an indescribable sense of shame. When Baizhu spoke again, Xia Xiaoli stared and became angry. Baizhu kept the words in her heart, but her face was still smiling.

He especially dotes on Xiaoli, Baizhu, his sisters, and his father Xia Yunhan even more.

But this summer vacation, Xia Xiaoli's thoughts are all on another woman who makes him unhappy, no, it should be said that she is just a girl, Huang Tongtong from the class next door.

Xia Xiaoli couldn't figure out what's so good about this plain-looking girl, which made his buddy Jian Rong's eyes glow green when he saw it, just like a hungry wolf. .

Jian Rong, Xia Xiaoli felt chest tightness and shortness of breath when she thought of this name. For the sake of a girl, she threw her good brother aside and didn't play with him during the summer vacation. It was so boring.

"What's the point, you're so stupid!" Xia Xiaoli gulped down a big gulp of iced Coke, thinking angrily along with a hiccup.

I ignored Jian Rong for several days, didn't answer the phone or answer the WeChat, and only lazily typed a few words after several hours, only to see that he was sleeping, didn't know, and didn't want to go.

Don't blame him, Jian Rong enthusiastically regards him as an emotional tree hole and a consulting expert, asking all kinds of unimaginable troubles of adolescent boys, every question makes Xia Xiaoli angry, what do you say every time Tongtong passes by our class Is it interesting for me to smile at me?Do you think Tongtong has a particularly good temper?I just like a good temper, you say...

You say, you say, you say, tongtongtongtongtong, Xia Xiaoli has a physical reaction when she sees this word, and she is very annoying.

Simply angry.

Jian Rong was not like this before.

They were in the same class from kindergarten to high school, and they had been at the same table countless times, and they knew what the other was thinking by looking at the back of each other's heads. Xia Xiaoli didn't expect that one day Jian Rong would fall in love with that ordinary girl in the next class.

Except for the surprise at the beginning, Xia Xiaoli didn't give any warm response to Jian Rong's young boy's budding heart. He just didn't like that girl for no reason, but Jian Rong turned a blind eye to Xia Xiaoli's indifference, and kept asking all kinds of stupid questions. , wishful thinking Xia Xiaoli as a dog-headed military adviser, Xia Xiaoli thought that the former Jian Rong would definitely not be so dull that he could not feel his indifference at all, and she became even more depressed.

He couldn't figure out what the situation was, he just felt bored.

Obviously, the best buddies used to only focus on messing around with themselves, but now they are all focused on others, and there is a kind of... resentment of being meddled by a third party.

Xia Xiaoli suddenly thought of this, and shivered all over her body, followed by a sense of shame crawling all over her body, no...it's all about what, she felt so ashamed and at a loss for a moment.

His skin turned red, and when he looked in the mirror, there were two red clouds on his white and greasy face.

Alas, I never imagined that the summer vacation at the age of 17 would be such an unexpected look.

Before finishing the coke, Bai Zhu called downstairs: "Little Li, come down and eat litchi!"

Xia Xiaoli burped again, looked outside at the flowers and trees that were about to be deformed by the heat wave, and replied in a loud voice, "Don't eat, I'm on fire."

Before the words finished, a person ran up the stairs, and the voice of my aunt Bai Xing said, "Is Xiaoli on fire? Auntie, come and see."

Bai Xing is a doctor and a teacher at Hong University Medical College in this city. He is still as lively as a girl in his forties. Maybe because he is committed to celibacy, he will not marry or have children, so he can be a willful girl all his life.

She knocked on Xia Xiaoli's door, and Xia Xiaoli called out, "Come in, auntie."

Bai Xing wore the same smile as Bai Zhu, and wore a neatly tailored one-piece white dress. He dragged a chair and sat in front of Xia Xiaoli. He looked at the whites of Xia Xiaoli's eyes with a professional doctor's technique, and asked him to open them again. mouth, looked at the tongue coating up and down, and then patted his shoulder lightly: "Damn boy, what are you yelling without getting angry?"

Xiao Li chuckled and said nothing.

Bai Xing was still smiling, and said softly: "Auntie brought the freshest and most delicious glutinous rice cakes, iced, do you want to eat?"

Xia Xiaoli couldn't help raising the corners of her mouth, and Bai Xing pushed again: "Let's go, let's go down to eat lychees with your mother, and chat with you. There is no one in this house all day long. Your father is away on a project, the eldest sister has to work, and the second sister has to work all day. If you are in love, you ignore your mother, she is so lonely."

"Well, good." Xia Xiaoli put down the Coke and went downstairs with Bai Xing.

The Xia family is very big, with many people, and the house is also big. The garden villa with swimming pool that I live in now was bought before Xia Xiaoli was born. For more than ten years, the property has been carefully managed, the trees and flowers are growing lush, and the ecological environment is particularly good.

Xia Yunhan didn't study much, and started his career by doing engineering. Back then, Baizhu, a daughter of a scholarly family, wanted to marry Xia Yunhan. It took a lot of effort. I don't like the indifferent atmosphere in Kochi's family the most, but I like Xia Yunhan's rough and straightforward treatment of her, and he married her regardless. Xia Yunhan really lived up to this simple and stubborn love. He continued to do various construction projects, from small to large, and became the No. [-] private engineering company in Denghong City. He gave Baizhu everything he could get and have, which was extremely rich materially and never faded emotionally.

It's just because of work, the husband and wife always get together less and leave more, which is the only shortcoming.

The coffee table in front of the sofa in the living room downstairs has already placed bright red fruits. Bai Zhu has put on weight in recent years, and looks more than twice as fat as Bai Xing. Also because of raising three children, although she is pure in heart, she looks completely innocent on the outside. It looks like a middle-aged woman, unlike Shirahoshi who still has a vague sense of girlhood.

Baizhu peeled a lychee, held the lower half of the husk and handed it to Xia Xiaoli: "Come, our Xiaoli's favorite."

Xia Xiaoli took it, and the white, tender and translucent flesh was delicious and juicy. He swallowed it in one gulp, and said vaguely: "Mom, don't just peel it for me, you can eat it yourself."

There is a faint fragrance in the room.

He squeezed to sit next to Bai Zhu, saw the photo he had just seen was still on the side of the lychee plate, poked it with his slender finger stained with juice, and asked, "Who is this person, what are you doing?" ?”

Bai Zhu and Bai Xing looked at each other and smiled, and Bai Xing said: "This is a photo that my aunt and I managed to get from other people's mother. I plan to let your elder sister go on a blind date."

"Ah!" Xia Xiaoli was taken aback. The freshly peeled lychee bones rolled to the ground, and the round and shiny flesh bounced on the ground a few times. He picked it up and put it in the pile of shells on the table.

"I can't, auntie, big sister wouldn't be interested in something like this... right?" Xia Xiaoli swallowed the second half of the sentence tactfully, Xia Xiaoberry is a very artistic and fashionable person, how could she fall in love with such an old-fashioned person.

Baizhu patted Xia Xiaoli on the head: "You still don't like it? You don't know how many people are begging for a blind date with this person! Fortunately, your aunt and her mother are college colleagues, and they are your aunt's senior, so they asked for such a blind date." Photos and chances for a blind date."

"Who is this?" Xia Xiaoli's curiosity was aroused, just a little bit.

As soon as he mentioned this person, Bai Xing's eyes lit up in an instant, and he even straightened his sitting posture. As if giving an academic report, he began to introduce: "His name is Qiao Yu, he is 33 years old, and he is 1 meters tall. You can call him Vice President Qiao or Professor Qiao, he just returned to China at the end of last month, and he will soon be the vice president of the School of Construction Engineering of our school, and also the chief designer of the Design Institute of our school."

"Professor Qiao's undergraduate, master's and doctoral degree all graduated from the Department of Architecture of Columbia University in the United States, and then majored in bridge design. The bridge project he served as the chief designer once won the Arthur Haydn Award, which is the Nobel Prize for bridge design. Joe The fact that the professor can come to our school to teach is simply..."

Seeing Bai Xing's face glowing with pride, Xia Xiaoli wished she could use the best adjectives in the world to this person.

He clapped blankly: "Oh, that's amazing." He acted as if he didn't care about it at all, but was just flattering his aunt.

"It's just amazing!" Bai Xing said eloquently, "Although I'm not from the School of Civil Engineering, I know that the school leaders have talked with him for many years in order to get this master back. His parents are retired old professors from our school. This relationship has taken a lot of effort. I heard that he had flatly rejected him before, but this year he suddenly let go. This time, except for the school leaders who ran to his house one after another, those colleagues of old Professor Qiao Ladies and gentlemen, those who wanted their own daughters to go on a blind date with him also broke their legs, and the news of his blind date was only leaked by old Professor Qiao himself, otherwise a junior like me really wouldn’t dare to come forward.”

Xia Xiaoli ate several lychees, wiped her hands, picked up the photo and looked at it again: "Although it is indeed very powerful, this photo is just an ordinary person..."

The photo was not taken well, with the backlight, Xia Xiaoli couldn't even make out the word "handsome" even if she squinted her eyes.

At his age, it's like floating clouds in the face of his family background and education, and he has won too many awards. The only thing that matters is whether he looks good or not. No one knows that he, Xia Xiaoli, is actually a pretty face control.

Jian Rong just took advantage of this, Xia Xiaoli thought he was good-looking, since she was a child.

"Normal?!" Baizhu snatched the photo from her son, her fat body bumped into Xiaoli, Xia Xiaoli couldn't help frowning: "Mom! Do you know how much you weigh now!"

After all, he leaned directly on Baizhu's body, saying that he disliked Baizhu's fatness, but his body was more honest. Xia Xiaoli liked her fat mother very much, and felt that she was safe and reliable.

Bai Zhu lowered her head and stared at him: "Your aunt has met Mr. Qiao in real life, and said that she has never seen such a handsome man except your father when he was young. I see that although he is still a little worse than your father back then, But this safe and reliable temperament is exactly the same. At first glance, he is a man who will be nice to his wife. Your mother and I can't do anything else. It is absolutely okay to look at people. Although he is slightly older than your eldest sister, this is not true. What a big problem, let your eldest sister, that savage, do it, if we can succeed in a blind date, our family will really burn the incense."

"Really?" When it comes to being handsome, Xia Xiaoli became a little interested, but he still didn't fully believe that boys at the age of his aunt and mother who think they are handsome are emmmmm, and there is a generation gap with his aesthetics.

Bai Xing nodded in agreement with each other, and his tone was extremely firm: "Xiao Li, you haven't seen Teacher Qiao himself. I watched this kid grow up. He has been the object of all the girls in the school since junior high school. He looks so handsome. ...And I have never seen such a humble and well-educated child with his family background and tutor, your aunt and I have no confidence in men in this life, but Professor Qiao has such good conditions, I really can't miss it in vain. "

Cough, okay, it's all about you women anyway.

Xia Xiaoli sighed silently in her heart, peeled another lychee, and unknowingly ate half of the litchi.

Clear and sweet, so delicious.