Loving Strangers

"I still want to listen to you sing tonight, okay?"

--"OK."

No feasting, no deafening.

There was only a beam of spotlights on Bai Zhi, and she hummed the prelude softly and sang the lyrics.

Xiaoju sat at the farthest position and looked at Baizhi.Just like the music festival that day, she was at the farthest place from Baizhi, quietly watching her singing "Loving Strangers/Loving Strangers/Loving Strangers..."

When the singing time came, the guests who had calmed down and listened to the music resumed their lively activities, greeting and drinking, and the noise continued.

Baizhi jumped off the high stool with the guitar in his hands, unplugged the microphone, went to the bar and handed it to Taozi, and put the guitar back on.

"Baizhi helped me look at the bar, I have to go downstairs to look for a while, that guy has a stomachache again."

The guy Taozi was talking about was his boyfriend, who collected money at the bar downstairs, and the nephew of the boss.

Baizhi smiled knowingly, "Go."

She beckoned Xiaoju to come over——

"Aren't you used to this kind of situation?"

Xiaoju shook her head.

He replied in a very good mood: "Listening to your singing is enough to offset it."

"You can really talk." Bai Zhi stretched out his hand and pinched her face.

She wanted to do this a long time ago, so soft.

"Xiaoju, won't your family worry about you?" In the past few days, except for painting during the day, she still cleans up with herself at night.Fortunately, it's not a weekend, so I don't need to work part-time in a large bar.

The two also gradually became acquainted.

Let go of your defenses, let go of your identity as a stranger, and become...a friend who doesn't care.

It's just ordinary friends who play well during a period of time.

"No, they don't even care about themselves." The voice became softer as the words went to the back, and Bai Zhi heard a hint of ridicule from it.But other people's housework is not easy to manage, so she just skipped it.

"Why do you keep running outside these days?"

Xiaoju took out slippers from the shoe cabinet at the door and changed them on, clutching the straps on the drawing board tightly, bowed her head and said nothing.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Xiaoju's mother was unconsciously stern, and she was very dissatisfied with Xiaoju's attitude.

"I heard." Xiaoju put down the drawing board she had been memorizing for a long time, changed her hugging posture, passed the hall directly, and was stopped when she was about to go upstairs to her room——

"You have forgotten even the most basic manners?" Xiaoju's father, who was reading the newspaper beside him, finally showed his presence, and the two elders sat there with cold faces.

"Jiang Ju!"

Xiaoju's mother was even angrier at her gesture of turning her back to them.

"...You guys, why are you teaching me?" She lowered her head, her expression was unclear, her words were confused, but her voice was so weak that it was almost silent, as if she was muttering to herself, and she seemed to be speaking to her parents.

Parents are still sitting on the sofa, occupying both ends.

This attitude of not interfering with each other seems to have been put on for a long time, and it has not changed since childhood.

One second they were still arguing, and the next second they could whitewash the peace when they saw her.

If he really cared about her, why would he keep arguing about one issue year after year and day after day?

If not for her scruples.

And why did you let her go out when she was so noisy that she threw things?

Xiaoju turned around: "Aren't you tired like this?"

"What?" Xiaoju's parents were stunned.

"Why did you teach me how to be polite, but you guys are arguing so much? Because you don't want to show me the ugliest side, so you pretend nothing happened..."

"But I heard it all..."

"When are you going to let me out of a family like this? I'm really tired."

"Sorry, I don't want to be home today."

"boom--"

The door that Xiaoju had just closed was opened by her again, and she went out again with the drawing board.

"Xiaoju! Where are you going?" Xiaoju's mother couldn't believe it, she turned her head and yelled at Xiaoju's father, "If it wasn't for you, Xiaoju would have become like this!"

"Isn't it your responsibility here!"

Xiaoju behind the door was holding the drawing board, and in the blurry night, listening to the voices starting to quarrel inside again, there was only a mocking smile on her lips.

You see, we continue to grow up, listen to our parents, be a good person, be a kind person, be a polite person, and don't let others scold you for having no tutor.

Everything your parents teach you is a gift for the future.

But it's hard because your parents didn't teach you how to deal with yourself if they fight.