Wintering

"Jinglingling~jinglingling~"

Mo Dong rubbed the phone next to the bed, opened his eyes and turned off the alarm clock, and habitually opened WeChat to check the notification information in the company group.

Usually at this point, the boss will always post a lotus good morning emoticon pack in the group, and the following section is full of solitaires asking morning.

But today, the screen was overwhelmed by messages about sending out red envelopes and snatching red envelopes one by one.

He slowly remembered that today is New Year's Eve.The APP interface in the mobile phone has been replaced with a festive red skin, and the advertisement that pops up is also about the happy Chinese New Year family reunion, full of joy.

Several people sent him Spring Festival greetings, a small composition of [-] characters, with small patterns of firecrackers and fireworks interspersed between the congratulatory words, which seemed to be sent in groups.

He replied one by one, and suddenly noticed several small red dots in Chen Yue's message box, and he clicked on it immediately.

-

Chen Yue: Mo Dong, I've already got off the plane.

(The time is three o'clock in the morning)

Chen Yue: Pictures

Chen Yue: A friend's home.

Chen Yue: Pictures

Chen Yue: There is snow everywhere here.

Chen Yue:! ! !i saw the aurora

Chen Yue: Pictures

Chen Yue: Pictures

Chen Yue: Mo Dong, are you up yet?

Chen Yue: What are you doing now?

(time is 3 minutes ago)

-

Mo Dong opened the pictures one by one.

The first one is a beautiful red house with a pointed roof and a thick layer of snow on the roof.The background is the dark blue night sky. There is a large floor-to-ceiling window in the house. There are many star decorations hanging outside the window. You can see the corner of the sofa and a small wooden horse in the living room. The warm light inside leans out, like magic in a fairy tale world house.

The second picture is a bit blurry, but it can be roughly seen that it is snow.

The bottom of the third picture is a row of neat and dark houses, and in the distance is a large piece of green aurora dancing like silk, like a greeting from a god.

The fourth one is a selfie of Chen Yue. He is wearing a gray knit hat. He looks warm and generous. He smiles and compares himself to the camera. The background is the gorgeous and mysterious Northern Lights.

Mo Dong stared at the photo for a long time before clicking exit.

Reply to Chen Yue: Get up.

Chen Yue replied immediately: Are you alone at home?did you have breakfast?

Mo Dong replied "Yes."

Chen Yue didn't send any more messages, Mo Dong waited for a while, and then put down the phone.

He propped up his upper body, took out the mother kangaroo from under the quilt, took a look at its deflated belly, searched around under the quilt, and finally saw the little kangaroo's aggrieved tail under the bed , he scooped it up from the cold ground and stuffed it back into mother kangaroo's stomach.

He lifted the quilt and got out of bed to wash.He took down a black cat mouthwash cup from the shelf, and dully repeated a routine that he had to do every day.

When I got to the kitchen, I made myself an egg and boiled noodles, and slowly picked up one by one and swallowed it into my stomach.After eating, he glanced at his phone again, but there was no movement.

He felt a little bewildered.

In the previous Spring Festival, he just casually browsed some technical websites, or read some fairy tale picture books, and he didn't think there was anything special after a few days of vacation.

But this year, he felt that he couldn't get excited about anything.

Mo Dong turned on the TV, there were programs about the Spring Festival everywhere, people were singing and dancing in that small square, he felt a little headache, so he turned it off.

In the evening, he planned to go out for a walk.

The trees on both sides of the street were tied with big red lanterns, and the whole street seemed to be on fire.People wearing beautiful new clothes go out together, and sometimes the laughter that comes from them pierces into his ears.The store's twinkling decorative lights cheerfully attract customers.

He shuttled through the crowd, watching the worldly excitement from a distance.

Suddenly a child ran so fast that he ran into him head-on before he could brake.

He just swayed and took a few steps back, but the child fell back on the ground, the candied haws in his hand fell to the ground, and the child looked up at him stupidly.

Mo Dong paused for a moment, and stretched out his hand to help him up.

The kid came to his senses, jumped up by himself, made a face at him, and walked away in a bouncing manner.

Mo Dong looked back at the child's back on the spot until he disappeared. He put his hands in his pockets, walked around the bunch of gourds on the ground, and continued to walk forward.Passing by an old man selling gourd skewers, he stopped.

There are many children around there, noisy, like a group of lively little magpies.

He walked over and waited patiently beside him.

On the thick grass stick made of wheat straw, bunches of bright red candied haws were inserted, and they were taken down one by one and handed over to expectant little hands.

Mo Dong waited for a long time, and finally the last string of gourds was handed over to him.

He cautiously stuck out his tongue and licked it, and the sweet taste spread from his taste buds.

This is the first time Mo Dong has eaten this kind of snack specially for children.

He remembered that when he was in primary school, there would always be an old man selling a gourd at the door when school was over.Many students took one in each hand and ate while walking on the road.

Two bucks a bunch.

He didn't have a dollar in his pocket, so he could only stand aside and watch others eat.

Now, he finally ate this candied haws, which was 14 years late. For some reason, he felt a bit bitter.

He took the stick, and ate and walked home like those carefree, happy children.

Chen Yue sent him a video call invitation at eight o'clock in the evening.

At this time, Mo Dong was reading a picture book of fairy tales that he had just read. It told a story about a snail that lost its shell when it was born, and found it after all kinds of hardships.

In one scene, it was raining heavily, and the little snail had no shell, so he had to hide under a mushroom to hide from the rain, and was laughed at by a few passing ants.

The notification tone of the mobile phone brought him back to the real world, and he agreed to Chen Yue's video invitation.

As soon as the screen changed, Chen Yue's big smiling face appeared on the phone screen, "Mo Dong! Have you had dinner yet? What's wrong with your eyes, why are they red?"

Mo Dong quickly rubbed his eyes, "It's okay, I just read for a long time."

"Mo Dong, I'm at a friend's house right now, let's Fika together and show you the chocolate cake we made by ourselves."

The screen of the mobile phone shook for a while, scanning the two people sitting on the sofa, and finally fixed on the red and white plaid tablecloth, where three small ceramic discs were placed neatly, and three cut triangles were placed inside. Chocolate cake, with some silver powdered sugar sprinkled on the dark brown cake surface, looks delicate and delicious.There are also three cups of coffee and a glass of milk.

"How is it?" Chen Yue's cheerful voice came from the phone.

"Looks delicious."

Chen Yue turned the screen to himself again, grinning, "Mo Dong, let me introduce my friend to you. Have you seen the beauty in the red dress on the left? Her name is Jiang Xia. I mentioned it to you last time." Yes. The long-haired beauty next to her is her girlfriend, Abbey."

Two women sitting on the sofa say hello to their phones in unison, "hi!"

Mo Dong nodded in bewilderment, "Hello."

Chen Yue said from the side, "Mo Dong, my... good friend."

Jiang Xia at the side glanced at Chen Yue, and then said warmly to Mo Dong, "Mo Dong, come here to play when you have time, our place is full of snow, you can go cross-country skiing in the forest, it's fun. And Abbey makes awesome blueberry cookies...”

A child's cry suddenly came from the background of the video, and when the screen turned, there was a round little black head in sight, the little head was raised up, and a little crying face was blushing, screaming aggrievedly : "Uncle, give me a hug." The goose-yellow hem was being held in its mouth by a big white fluffy dog.

Jiang Xia on the side hurried over, picked up the little guy from the ground, and said with a headache, "Little ancestor, why are you crying again?"

Mo Dong felt his gaze on the phone lowered, and Chen Yue stretched out a hand into the screen, and gently scratched the little girl's nose, with a helpless and doting tone, "Oh, uncle has been holding the baby for a whole day, Let uncle rest for a while, okay? Xiao Diaojing."

Mo Dong looked at the child's pursed mouth, with tears in his big and round eyes.

Chen Yue smiled lightly, and said to Mo Dong, "This little crying bag is Jiang Yanzhou's daughter. She is four and a half years old, and her name is Jiang Zhizhi. Zhizhi, come say hello to Brother Mo."

Jiang Zhizhi was called Xiaobaijing again, very upset, he reluctantly raised his chubby little hand and waved it, and said in a childish voice, "Brother Mo is good."

Mo Dong replied nervously, "Zhi Zhi is good."

Then I heard Chen Yue say to the people over there, "Look at Zhizhi, I have a few words with Mo Dong."

The wooden stairs in the picture were shaky, followed by the wine-red carpet, and finally there was a sound of closing the door, everything around suddenly became quiet, and Chen Yue's voice was much lower than before, "Mo Dong."

"Ah."

"What book were you reading just now?" Chen Yue sat down on a chair beside him, his face slightly moved closer to the phone, and his big eyes narrowed slightly.

Mo Dong couldn't help but reached into the quilt, grabbed the kangaroo's tail, and rubbed it lightly, "Just some programming books..."

Chen Yue looked at him earnestly for a while, and then whispered, "You are over there...alone? Why don't you come here and celebrate the New Year with us?"

Mo Dong didn't speak, but put his fingers into the kangaroo's belly, the warm and soft touch instantly soothed his anxious mood.

Chen Yue was familiar with coaxing Zhizhi this day, and he subconsciously opened his mouth with an aggrieved "hmm~~~"

"Come on, come on, I miss you so much. Come here, I'll make you bear biscuits, okay?"

How could Mo Dong bear this, he had no choice but to agree.

I bought a plane ticket for tomorrow and sent the screenshot to Chen Yue for viewing.

Immediately, there were emoji packs of cats launching hearts.Mo Dong watched for a long time before putting down his phone, picked up the mother kangaroo and hugged it in his arms, and continued to read the story of the little snail.