Wintering

How much courage does it take to let the person who always hides in the shadows take a step to expose himself to the eyes of the public, hold that little bit of delusion, and hold a full and heavy heart to him before.

Chen Yue still remembered that the few white roses were thin and small, and they looked timid, and they were held by the girl without embarrassment. The scene was inexplicably funny.

The girl could also see that Chen Yue was not interested in her, so she smiled generously, and casually threw the bouquet of flowers aside the table.Everyone laughed and laughed again, but the two parties just exposed it as a joke.

No one ever looked at those superfluous ugly roses again.

Chen Yue has always been a good drinker, but for some reason, he drank too much that night, and fell on the sofa in a daze, listening to the noisy bustle, half asleep and half awake.

After an unknown amount of time, when he struggled to open his drunken eyes, all the people had already left sparsely. Someone approached him, and he subconsciously called out, "Mo Dong."

The man froze for a moment, and said, "Sir, we are going to close, do you need to call for a driver?"

Chen Yue reacted for a long time, shook his head, and opened his eyes again, only to find that he and the waiter were the only two left in the whole box.He fumbled for his phone in his pocket and called Mo Dong.

The phone that usually rang once or twice would be answered, but now it has not been answered after a long time.

Chen Yue called a few more times, but the tone was still busy, thinking that Mo Dong probably left alone earlier.

He declined the waiter's proposal, staggered out, and was mostly sobered by the cool wind at the door.The street lamps on the street illuminated the night like day, a car roared past, and the strong night wind ripped his windbreaker to pieces.

He walked alone with his head down, staring at the shadows on the ground, lengthening and disappearing for a while, repeating the cycle.

After walking for a while, he became impatient and looked at his watch frequently. It turned out that only 5 minutes had passed, and the nearest subway station was still 7 minutes away.

He and Mo Dong have walked this road many times, but when he walked alone today, he found it was so long.

After walking for a while, he thought about calling a taxi, but when he looked up, there was a man standing not far in front of him looking at him.

The empty clothes fluttered silently, and the thin and tall figure outlined by the night wind, it was Mo Dong and whoever it was.

Chen Yue looked at him fixedly for a few times, then suddenly turned around and walked back, feeling a sense of anger in his heart, noticing that the person behind him was following up quickly, he immediately quickened his pace, his breathing became short of breath, and his brain became hot.

In the end, Mo Dong almost ran at a fast pace before grabbing him, looking at him helplessly: "You're going the wrong way, the railway is standing over there."

Chen Yue glared at him, very angry.You still have the nerve to say, if you leave me there alone, you won't be afraid of any accidents happening to me!

"Where did you go? Why didn't you answer the phone?"

Mo Dong was silent for a while, and said: "I thought you would go back with them, I... just thought I would go back first." After speaking, he carefully raised his head and glanced at Chen Yue. His fiery eyes shot straight down.

He hesitated for a while, and tentatively said: "Then, let's go back together now, there are not many people in the subway now."

"Don't go, call a taxi!" It was the first time Chen Yue said this loudly to Mo Dong, and there was a burst of inexplicable grievances in his heart.

The two of them went back in a taxi that night, and they didn't have a word of conversation along the way.

For several days afterwards, Mo Dong seemed to be avoiding him intentionally or unintentionally.

Chen Yue felt inexplicable.

Now when he heard Mo Dong's roommate talk about the pot of roses, he knew how much embarrassment Mo Dong had suffered that day.

Chen Yue felt a little frustrated, took out a pack of cigarettes from his belt, turned on the hands-free, and smoked one cigarette after another.

Mo Dong's roommate was eloquent as soon as he opened the chat box.

After all, everyone has the desire to peep and gossip.People like Mo Dong who don't like to talk and walk alone are the key observation objects in the dormitory.

"He must be very short of money. Not only did he apply for a work-study program for a bursary, but he even went to work at the milk tea shop at the east gate of the school after his self-study in the evening. He often wrote programming homework for others, but he was desperate. Sometimes it was three o'clock in the morning. , his bed curtain is still lit..."

Chen Yue knew that Mo Dong's family background was not good, but Mo Dong's grades were excellent, and the school's scholarship never let him down. In addition to the stipend, it was enough to cover daily expenses, so he didn't need to do so many part-time jobs.

But Chen Yue once mentioned to Mo Dong that he planned to go abroad for further studies, and Mo Dong showed rare curiosity about this matter, and asked him a lot about the relevant expenses.

He probably guessed that Mo Dong worked so hard to make money for this reason.

And the reason why Mo Dong went abroad to study...maybe...is also because of him.

After talking to Mo Dong's roommate for a long time, he still didn't get any information about Mo Dong's whereabouts. After thanking his roommate, Chen Yue hung up the phone in disappointment and fell down on the bed in a mess.

Classmates and friends have searched here, and only Mo Dong's parents have not asked.

But Chen Yue didn't really want to find Mo Dong's parents.

When he was a child, he and Mo Dong lived in the same unit building in the same community.Mo Dong lives on the fifth floor, and he lives on the fourth floor.

The night when he moved in with his parents, he heard the movement upstairs a lot, ping -pong ping ping, and some people smashed the floor with things like pots. .

So Chen's father went upstairs to communicate with that family, and Chen Yue stood at the door of his house, curiously listening to the conversation upstairs.

Judging from the sound, the person coming out of the upstairs should be a middle-aged man with a rough voice, arrogant, and a string of unsavory swear words. Father Chen calmly negotiated with him for a while, and finally got through to the police. On the phone, the man slammed the door cursingly, and finally became much quieter.

Chen Yue watched his father look tired when he came down the stairs. Father Chen patted him on the shoulder and told him to go back to sleep.

Chen Yue nodded, and when he was about to close the door, suddenly the upstairs door was opened roughly, followed by the man's voice just now.

"Bitch!"

The sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, thump, thud, seemed to roll down the stairs, mixed with a painful muffled sound.

The voice-activated lights in the stairwell were all on.

With the help of the dim yellow light, Chen Yue saw a dark shadow curled up on the stairs above.

Little Chen boldly took two steps forward, the black figure moved slightly, and he saw clearly that it was a boy about ten years old, lying on the concrete floor with his back to him, who had just been kicked down the stairs Before he got down, he hadn't slowed down yet, and he could hear his slightly trembling messy breathing.

"Hey, you..." Chen Yue said calmly, "What's wrong with you?" stared at him quietly.

Like a small animal vigilantly examining the motives of the visitor.

Chen Yue was frightened by his sinister eyes without a trace of warmth, he hurriedly took a step back, and stammered: "You... hello, goodbye." After finishing speaking, he ran back home as if fleeing, " The door slammed shut quickly.

Later, every time Chen Yue went out, he would hold his mother's hand tightly, and look around anxiously, for fear of meeting that strange young man with gloomy brows again.

After a while, except for the occasional knocking on the door and quarrels upstairs, the boy didn't seem to show up.

Chen Yue felt relieved and often went out alone to play with the children in the same community.He was a bit taller than his peers, with a cheerful personality, and he quickly became a little boss among the group of children.

There is an open space next to the community, no weeds, only a small sand dune. They played balls, sand and spinning tops there. They were so crazy that they were covered in mud. They didn't go home until the sun went down with a fifty-cent popsicle in their mouths. .