intellectual norms

Xia Xiaoli was already fully awake, so he naturally didn't know what Lin Zhihua said, but he saw that Qiao Yu's expression was obviously very bad when he came out of the bedroom.

Since meeting Qiao Yu, Xia Xiaoli has never seen this kind of look on his face.

Qiao Yu sat on the carpet in front of the sofa, facing Xia Xiaoli across a coffee table full of homework, face to face, he was a little tired, and still a bit dazed, as if he couldn't restrain his trance.

But I still checked the questions that Xia Xiaoli had just finished writing, and said, "You did a good job, you got everything right today."

Xia Xiaoli smiled at him, Qiao Yu rubbed his head with his hand, and said gently: "It's late, should you go back to sleep?"

The kitten, who always liked to pester him to talk, didn't reply or get up. The two looked at each other quietly. The air was heavy and quiet, and there was a hint of undercurrent that only appeared in the early morning and late at night.

Qiao Yu didn't have time to feel what the atmosphere meant, Xia Xiaoli had already moved her body silently and flexibly, turned around behind Qiao Yu a few times, stood on her knees, and then reached out to hug him from behind.

The child's body was soft and warm, with the unique warmth of a teenager. Xia Xiaoli didn't say anything, but just hugged Qiao Yu tightly.

His hands were wrapped around his shoulders, his chest was pressed against his back, his chin was deeply buried in the side of Qiao Yu's neck, and his breath was intertwined.

Qiao Yu's body is much stronger and wider than Xia Xiaoli's. Xia Xiaoli felt that he was hugging a strong and safe object, and finally smelled Qiao Yu's smell so close. Taking a breath, strong and pleasant, he closed his eyes.

Qiao Yu held Xia Xiaoli's wrist, which was barely intertwined in front of his chest. It was so thin that it would break if he exerted an extra inch of strength. , Qiao Yu also closed his eyes, and in this thin and silent hug, he felt a kind of determination-like force, which was poured into his skin and blood from the body behind him little by little.

I don't know how long it took before the furry head rubbed against her neck, and Xia Xiaoli said in a low voice, "Brother Qiao, are you feeling better?"

Qiao Yu seemed to wake up from an extremely soft and warm cloud, held Xia Xiaoli's hands and gently squeezed, "It's much better, Brother Qiao is fine."

"That's good." Xia Xiaoli said like an adult: "There's nothing that can't be solved by a good night's sleep. If it doesn't work, then go to sleep again, and everything will be fine tomorrow morning."

It was obviously an upright word, but in such a quiet and dark atmosphere, Qiao Yu thought about it for some reason. He cleared his throat, pulled back the subconscious distracted thoughts, and said, "Yes."

Xia Xiaoli let go of her hand, moved to the side, looked at Qiao Yu with clear eyes, and said, "You're fine, then I'll go back."

Qiao Yu, who was caught off guard by the child's comfort and warmth, nodded and blinked her eyelashes lightly: "Okay, see you tomorrow."

"Well, see you tomorrow, good night, brother Qiao." Xia Xiaoli packed up her books and homework, hugged her in her arms and left the room.

Qiao Yu's emotions were forced to fluctuate tonight. At this time, he had calmed down, but what Lin Zhihua said, he couldn't pretend that nothing happened.

He would rather that the words he just heard didn't exist. Lin Zhihua's separation from him was separation, and boredom was boredom. Although the process of breaking up brought him pain, everything was open and frank.

Rather than now, the other party suddenly said that he just wanted to separate "temporarily", and the breakup was just a game to find freshness.

This is simply a joke.

What made his heart even colder was that when Lin Zhihua said this now, Qiao Yu in the past doubted whether it was true.

Those happiness and love, encouragement and companionship, all began to change beyond recognition.

A strange anger rose in Qiao Yu's heart. No, he would never agree to this ridiculous and selfish compound request. Whether Lin Zhihua is serious or not is no longer valuable to him. When a person loses trust in his heart , all feelings go with it.

Sitting on the sofa and thinking for a while, this matter is not complicated, and there are no complicated thoughts to deal with. Qiao Yu quickly digested the accident by himself, but after thinking about it, the psychological I was still restless, so I decided to go downstairs for a run.

After changing into sports shorts and running shoes, and putting on a sports watch, he opened and closed the door lightly. He stopped for a while at the door of Xia Xiaoli's room opposite, but he didn't hear any movement inside. He made sure that the child should be asleep now. Go to the stairs and press the elevator.

In the hottest dog days of the year, there is no coolness at midnight, and the air is frozen and very viscous.

Qiao Yu recklessly ran along the Denghong River, bringing a scorching wind in the thick air like ointment, and the wind mixed with his more scorching breath, all of which turned into dripping sweat.

Running along the river bank to the nearest bridge, and then turning back, an hour has passed.

Qiao Yu likes to run. When he was in New York, as long as he didn’t leave the construction site, he would run twice a week, 10 to 15 kilometers each time. After returning to China, this frequency was reduced to once a week. Recently, he feels that work and life are similar All on track to get back to old old habits.

That's right, how could the new world he built with great difficulty make it collapse again because of Lin Zhihua's crazy words.

After running 11 kilometers in the sweltering night, Qiao Yu was as wet as if he was fished out of the river, but after venting like this, his heart was completely released.

After returning to the apartment and taking a shower again, it was past two o'clock, and Qiao Yu turned on the phone again.

He knows Lin Zhihua too well. Since he thinks that separation and reunion are games, he will be addicted to it and will not give up easily. The academic exchange activities between Hong Kong University and Columbia University are as far away as December. Before that, he must be with each other. Do work communication frequently.

But Qiao Yu has already thought of a countermeasure, and he will talk to Zhou Yishen at work tomorrow.

As soon as the phone was turned on, a lot of information flooded in, all from Lin Zhihua's private information on WhatsApp. When they broke up, they didn't delete each other's contact information and social platforms. This approach was too naive. Qiao Yu kept these, I didn't expect to receive a sudden "grass of turning back".

He didn't read those messages, but just set the chat dialog box with Lin Zhihua not to remind, hesitated for a while, and didn't block it directly, after all, there was still work to be connected.

Then he saw Xia Xiaoli's Moments posted an hour ago. Xia Xiaoli rarely posted on Moments. The last time the news was still in the afternoon when they drove across the bridge together, Qiao Yu saw him posting an emoji The picture above is a fat cat lying on the ground with its belly turned open. The words on the picture are: If you are not happy, just rub me.

Qiao Yu's heart softened suddenly, so soft that it was about to melt.

That night, Qiao Yu had a dream. He dreamed that there was a proud and domineering cat that would show its paws at him whenever it was upset, causing him to run away covered in blood. Then Xia Xiaoli appeared, lazily and silently. She snuggled up to him, meowed at him, and suddenly turned into a cat, rolled a few times around his feet, turned her belly on her back, and continued to meow softly.

Qiao Yu couldn't help stretching out his hand towards it, gently scratching between the furry belly and the neck, the cat barked loudly, using all four paws together, rolling on its back while holding his hand, the pink kitten's tongue was still He kept licking Qiao Yu's fingers, licking away all the bloodstains from being scratched.

In the dream, Qiao Yu only felt that the hand rubbing the cat was warm and itchy. He stopped and looked at the cat, and the cat looked at him, and then the cat meowed again and turned back into a human form.

The transformed Xia Xiaoli was still squatting in front of Qiao Yu like a cat, and somehow she wore a pink cat bell around her neck, which jingled with every slight movement. Qiao Yu couldn't hear the sound in the dream, but he still had it. This feeling, when the bell moved, his heart also moved.

Then Xia Xiaoli slowly raised a pair of cat ears on the top of her head, and shook him. The boy remained motionless, and a cat's tail behind him who was squatting also came over and hooked Qiao Yu's ankle.

The boy in front of him turned into a combination of a human and a cat, as if possessing demonic powers, Qiao Yu was bewitched and couldn't help but pull him into his arms...

The next day, Qiao Yu woke up very early, before 6:[-], he was lying on the bed, and the strange and magnificent dream at night was vivid in his mind, he remembered what he did in the dream, after waking up, the unrestrained Indulgence turned into a trace of guilt in reality.

His body was still reacting continuously, and it was the first time since returning to China that it was so intense.

Small movements came from the corridor, at 6:40, Xia Xiaoli went out on time for morning self-study.

In Qiao Yu's normal schedule, she usually wakes up at 7 o'clock every day. If she wakes up early, she will hear the sound of Xia Xiaoli going out. The sound insulation of the apartment is very good, and she can only hear the slight opening and closing of the door, not even the footsteps in the corridor.

After Xia Xiaoli left, Qiao Yu seemed to let out a sigh of relief, and suddenly lifted the quilt, looking at her unstoppable desire, she remained motionless.