murder begins in summer

According to Shi Zhanyang's request, Qiu Shili didn't bring any weapons. Like any ordinary boy who was spoiled by his family, he put on neat and beautiful clothes, and was led out of the house by his elder brother to celebrate his 15th birthday.

At the outermost position of the garage, there was a car that Qiu Shili had never seen before parked. It was dimly glowing in the twilight. He followed behind Shi Zhanyang and took a closer look. It was a brand new Mercedes S500.

The headlights flickered, Shi Zhanyang opened the back seat door, and the orange lights turned on, turning the glass covered with black film into a smooth brown color, and the seats and floor mats were covered with papers of all sizes. There are at least 20 boxes, almost occupying the space in the second half of the vehicle.

Each box was carefully wrapped in silver-gray soft paper and tied with a bright red tape.

"Remove it now or go home tomorrow?" Shi Zhanyang turned around and asked.

Qiu Shili was startled, "Is it all for me?"

"Yes, I picked the paper and asked them to pack it for me. I didn't expect the package to be so rustic, like Santa Claus at the entrance of the supermarket." Shi Zhanyang smiled and sighed.

"No, not rustic." Qiu Shili shook his head, he was too excited to say anything else.Just because Shi Zhanyang gave him one, he was already very happy, not to mention there are so many and so carefully, each box is like a warm and safe hut, standing above his heart.

He has a suitcase with a lock, which is placed under the bed opposite the pillow, and is often dragged out by him to clean it.All the gifts that Shi Zhanyang gave him over the years, except for a few commonly used weapons, he put in it, and the key of the box lock was tied with the guard left by his grandmother.

Even the notes left by Shi Zhanyang were neatly stored in the photo album by him, and had a place in this box.Qiu Shili was looking forward to the day when his treasure box would be overfilled, but now it seems that this day has come earlier.

"I like it very much, brother. Thank you." Qiu Shili said again, his eyes sparkling.

Shi Zhanyang froze for a moment, then smiled again, "Let's go home and dismantle it, ナナ," he gently pinched Qiu Shili's nose, and put the car keys in his hand, "Anyway, the biggest one It's been taken apart."

Qiu Shili blinked suspiciously.

Shi Zhanyang stood a little further away, tilting his head and looking critically at the shiny sports car, "Wouldn't it look old-fashioned for teenagers to go to a meeting with this kind of car? It's mainly because my first car was like this, and my The car is black, it’s easy to drive, and the safety is acceptable. This one is moonstone gray, and it feels more fashionable and younger. If you don’t like it, you can wrap it as a gift.”

Qiu Shili swallowed several times before recovering from the great surprise, or shock, "...I don't know how to drive."

"Start learning tomorrow. If you have at least one car of your own, they won't be able to lock you up anymore." Shi Zhanyang said cheerfully, sitting in the driver's seat, looking at the little brother who was bending over to get into the co-pilot, "Wait until Next year's birthday, you should take the driver's license test and take me out for a drive."

Qiu Shili sat firmly and pulled the car door hard. Unspeakably, he was a little embarrassed, and his mind was full of Shi Zhanyang sitting in his passenger seat and blowing the wind.He bowed his head to fasten his seat belt, thinking about the appropriate words, "I will definitely practice as soon as possible."

Shi Zhanyang knew that the "as soon as possible" in Qiu Shili's mouth was to practice without sleep and food, and this is what he admired the most. This serious and obedient stubbornness always made him want to tease him, " Nana, come on," he adjusted the rearview mirror, and said seriously, "If one day I am unlucky and lose an arm, break a leg and become paralyzed—in short, I can no longer drive a car, and I will count on you."

"Brother!" Qiu Shili was anxious, and turned his eyes suddenly, and saw the bracelet on Shi Zhanyang's wrist that he made a few years ago. It was his work in the youth handicraft class. This interest class is also Shi Zhanyang. The one who reported it to him said he wanted him to relax and make more good friends in class.

At that time Qiu Shili completed the task very well, the teachers and classmates in the class, all skin colors, all liked him, but now they all lost contact, only this string of ochre-colored garnet beads remained on Shi Zhanyang's wrist.It's not a good stone either, and it's not worth half of Shi Zhanyang's palladium cufflinks when all of them add up.

But the cufflinks have only been worn for a few days, but Shi Zhanyang hasn't taken off the bracelet for several years.

Qiu Shili stared at the circle of rosy light, bit his lips, although he had a lot of complaints about Shi Zhanyang's joke just now, but in the end he just said softly: "How can you talk nonsense."

"Oh, I was wrong—" Shi Zhanyang didn't care, and moved the car to the main road.

"I want to protect you, and that's what I want to do," Qiu Shili wrung his hands, his cheeks were blush, "You will be safe forever. So you can't just talk nonsense."

Shi Zhanyang nodded his head and laughed loudly, lowered the window to the lowest level, and stepped on the accelerator deeply. The brand new engine gave out an energetic roar. Down the mountain, and into the stream of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The lights of the city in front of us just came on, as if a lamp was blown down by the fierce spring breeze, causing a piece of land to burn slowly.

Shi Zhanyang took Qiu Shili to watch a play, the classic "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". They sat side by side in the center of the pool seat, watching McMurphy on the stage wearing a pure white prison uniform and chanting loudly:

"But Itried, didn't I? Goddamnit, at least Idid that. Jesus, Imean, youguys don't do nothing but complain about how you can't...standitinthisplacehere, andthenyouhaven'tgotthegutstowalkout?

"What do you think you are, for Christ'ssake? Crazy or something?

"You'renocrazierthantheaverageassholeoutwalkingaroundonthestreets!"

(But I tried, didn't I? Shit, at least I tried. Y'all keep complaining about this place, but you don't have the guts to get out of here? Do you think you're nuts? No, you're not! You're the same as the street Assholes are no different!)

When Mike read to the end, Shi Zhanyang opened his mouth slightly and followed silently, "I'm talking about my life, and my life doesn't seem to need your affirmation."

This is his favorite drama. He has watched it no less than five times. Once when he was in Korea to discuss business, there was a show in the theater. He even watched the Korean version before returning home.

Qiu Shili sat upright on the side, quietly looking at Shi Zhanyang's eyes that lit up as the plot went crazy and out of control with his peripheral vision.His eyes are bright.Qiu Shili thought with certainty.

It was early ten o'clock when we left the theater. In early May, the late spring evening wind on the west coast was warm and dry. Shi Zhanyang answered two calls briefly, then put away his mobile phone, and started to discuss with Qiu Shili.That means to eat first and then sleep, and to accompany Qiu Shili to the place he wants to go tomorrow.

Of course Qiu Shili agreed excitedly, he hadn't stayed outside for a long time, let alone with his elder brother.The two parked the car among the many commercial buildings. This area is mainly filled with banks and financial companies. They have already finished get off work. The buildings are all dark, blocking the stars and the moon. Only one place is brightly lit——

Those are a few unremarkable Japanese-style buildings. The walls and tiles are old, but they occupy a gap in this land where every inch of land is precious. They have an exquisite and clean courtyard with magnolia trees planted there. The flowers are almost gone, but there are still a few budding ones left, hanging on the branches like jade, sticking out of the wall.

There were a few men around the courtyard, and when they saw Zhan Yang approaching, they rushed up, one was responsible for opening the door, and the others kept a close distance, standing with their hands behind their backs.

Shi Zhanyang smiled and nodded at them.

"I got a bluefin tuna from the Tsugaru Strait, and it was only shipped to the port this morning," Shi Zhanyang said, leading Qiu Shili across the threshold and across the stone path on the side of the bamboo forest, "Please ナナ eat something from home .”

Behind the bamboo grove is a spacious Japanese room. Put on slippers and go in. There are lanterns hanging on the ceiling and windows on three walls, making it very transparent.The floor is paved with bamboo mats, and there are seven or eight short square tables, all of which are full except for the innermost one. Wear anti-racism colored T-shirts.

In short, they all looked like they had just come out from overtime work to have fun and relax, talking and laughing, drinking and eating, and didn't pay attention to the two newcomers.

Qiu Shili noticed that, not including Shi Zhanyang and himself, there were a total of nineteen guests in the room, most of them were Asians, accounting for eleven, and most of them were men, accounting for sixteen.

And, more importantly, each of them wore a pair of red rhombus earrings on their earlobes.

Qiu Shili couldn't figure it out, but because of the unique symbol of the family at this time, he put down his nervous heart for the time being.

Shi Zhanyang looked very ordinary, took off his suit jacket, sat down cross-legged, whispered something to the waiter wearing a small pattern bathrobe, and then went to see Qiu Shili, "How is it, do you feel like you were a child? Izakayas are so hard to find in San Francisco.”

In fact, Qiu Shili doesn't remember much about his childhood. Even if he did, he never even went out of the village, let alone an izakaya, but he really liked seeing Shi Zhanyang's self-satisfied appearance, so he straightened up. Waist, sat in the traditional sitting posture, and said with the only remaining memory: "Grandma said that men only go to izakaya to drink with their best friends in the middle of the night."

Shi Zhanyang smiled lightly, poured honey pear juice for Qiu Shili, poured himself a glass of sake, and took a sip, "So ナナ is my best friend. My best friend."

At this moment, the room fell silent, the waiter opened the kitchen curtain, and the black-haired and yellow-skinned chef came out holding a tuna that was as long as a three-year-old child. He held the fish in front of Shi Zhanyang, bowed his waist, and spoke fluently. In English, "Mr. Shi, please take a look at the entry that entered the customs this morning."

This is the rule, when the chef accepts the expensive fish from the dealer, he must ask the chef to confirm the integrity and freshness of the fish before using the knife.

Shi Zhanyang bit two edamame in salt water, and said: "Just cut it according to what you are good at. The best piece is only reserved for one person, and the rest is thrown away."

The chef nodded in agreement, turned back to the kitchen, the fins and tail of the fish flashed briefly in front of Qiu Shili, and they were all silvery.

Ten minutes later, the belly of the fish was made into sashimi, covered with layers of snowflake-like fish meat, folded into a beautiful shape, and placed on a small plate in front of Qiu Shili, while the rest were thrown into the trash can.

Shi Zhanyang didn't have any regrets, "Only birthday stars can eat it tonight. I won't give it to anyone else." He pushed the cyan square bone china dinner plate in front of Qiu Shili again.

"Brother, mom is right, you are really naive sometimes..." Qiu Shili lowered his eyelashes, but smiled. When Shi Zhanyang saw that he was not shy, he raised his hand to pick up the chopsticks, and tasted it without dipping it in the sauce. One sip, the mood becomes more and more relaxed.

He smiled and watched his younger brother eat slowly, imagining the softness and sweetness of sashimi—in fact, he is not keen on this kind of food, but at a certain moment when Qiu Shili opened his mouth and bit the tip of the chopsticks, a blur of tender pink flashed in front of his eyes , I don't know if it's the extremely fresh and delicious fish, or a small piece of tongue.

Shi Zhanyang was taken aback by this thought, his scalp was numb, he lowered his head in embarrassment, added some more sake for himself, and was about to drink it, but Qiu Shili snatched the cup away.

The man actually drank it all in one gulp, wiped the corners of his mouth, and met Shi Zhanyang's surprised eyes.

"It's so spicy!" After trying to shut up and hold his breath but failed, Qiu Shili coughed a few times in a daze, opened his mouth, and fanned the wind fiercely. "It's actually okay!" He felt ashamed again, blushing and explained, resolutely not touching the pear juice to hangover.

Shi Zhanyang's guilty conscience was inexplicably relieved a lot, and his mind returned to a normal state. On the other hand, he could only use "suddenly and accidentally went crazy" to explain it.With a calm look, he handed the white porcelain wine bottle to his younger brother, knocking the bottom of the bottle on the wooden table, "Hey, 15 years old is indeed an adult, do you dare to take another sip?"

Qiu Shili actually took it seriously, because of the sentence "Master", he was full of energy, biting the mouth of the bottle with his teeth, he held the bottle up and gurgled hard, choking until tears came out, and his eyes looking at the lamp were swollen. It tends to be blurry, and he refuses to stop.

In the end, Shi Zhanyang got up and came over, grabbed his wrist and snatched the wine bottle away, "Come on," Shi Zhanyang wiped his tears with his cuff, and also wiped his overflowing wine stains, and said loudly, "I wish you all the best!" Happy birthday to our brand new man!"

Qiu Shili was wondering, when he suddenly heard rough singing voices behind him, one person, two people, gradually superimposed, singing "Happy Birthday to you", looking back, the people in the room were still laughing and cursing absurdly drunk Han is singing with a serious face at the moment.

"Haha, they really are all from my brother." Qiu Shili exhaled acrid alcohol, and held Shi Zhanyang's wrist.

Shi Zhanyang finally wiped the corners of his mouth twice, returned to his seat, squeezed some wasabi, took two mouthfuls and held the next hand.I finished eating with my hands, and the birthday song was sung as planned, and the red earrings were all sitting upright, waiting for his big brother to speak.

"ナナ," Shi Zhanyang only looked at Qiu Shili, and said in a flat voice, "Remember these people today, and you will be their big brother in the future. They can help you a lot in different aspects. You don't have to go to them. They will come to you."

Qiu Shili tried his best to suppress the alcohol, glanced at everyone around him, nailed them on their faces for a few seconds, and a knife was engraved in his mind, "I remember it all." He said.

"Okay." Shi Zhanyang tapped on the table, still using Chinese, "Everyone, do you remember the third young master?"

"Remember clearly!" Everyone said in unison, they called Shi Zhanyang "Young Master".

"Okay!" Shi Zhanyang filled the wine and Qiu Shili's as well, then raised his glasses with both hands, with a rare serious expression, with a kind of non-negotiable dignity, he watched everyone sitting around pour wine one after another, until The last person also raised his cup high, showing respect, and then he suddenly smiled, with a pure face similar to "My wish is world peace".

He smiled comfortably and said: "After drinking this cup, everyone should change to pear juice, moisten your throat, and live a few more years."

Qiu Shili was dazed just now, but now he regained his energy and immediately glared at him, but behind his ears he heard roaring laughter, Shi Zhanyang lightly clinked glasses with him, "ナナ, happy birthday to you. "