three years old

After Ning Xi pinched his face and blasted him upstairs that morning, Ning Xi was alone in the living room, squatting on the floor, dragged the ashtray over, poured some water into it, and lit a cigarette.

Xing Cheng is full of vigor, his drive and bravery are what Ning Xi admires the most.

Maybe sometimes this is the case, the more the other party has what he lacks, the more he can make his heart move.

After staying up all night without sleeping, Ning Xi got down on the floor before the first class started when she arrived in the classroom. After sleeping in two classes, she woke up feeling cold, and when she touched her forehead, it was still a little hot.

Ning Xi walked around the corridor of the second year of high school to the chemistry laboratory, took the small passage down the stairs, and went straight to the school doctor's office. He still had 500 yuan from his mother, and it cost 50 yuan for the medicine alone.

He took the medicine and went to drink it. Ning Xi took his temperature and it was 38 degrees. It was fine and he could continue the class.

Ning Xi was still groggy when she returned to the classroom, so she greeted the head teacher, and fell asleep on the table with her coat on.

The wind blowing in from outside made one of his ears cold.

When she fell asleep, she turned into two coats. Ning Xi didn't have to guess the smell of the tangy sports perfume. When she turned around, she saw "XC" written on the collar of the school uniform.

Boys and girls love to scribble on school uniforms, and most of them can’t change it. I still remember when I was in junior high school, another public middle school in the district where Xing Cheng studied, there was a big scorpion drawn on the back of the school uniform, and I thought it was special. Cool, tall and slender, ostentatious, with a touch of hair, school grass.

Ning Xi asked him why he drew a crab and told everyone that you were domineering?

Xing Cheng had a look of disbelief, a little doubting the skills of his royal painter.

Brother, this is a fucking scorpion, do you know Scorpio, aren’t you a Scorpio?

Within a few days, rumors and gossips from Xingcheng's school had spread to Ning Xi's ears. It is estimated that the girls in their school who had a crush on Xingcheng were all Scorpios, and they would have to be excited for several days.

This schoolgirl carried a totem of love on her back and ran amok for several days. The more she looked at it, the more she felt that a crab was painted on her back, so she changed her mind, started a new life, and bought a new school uniform. She was bold enough to write directly on the back "11.12" was written.

So, later, Xingcheng learned the guitar in the third year of junior high school, and played cotton upstairs with his arms in his arms every day. He opened his mouth and said, "You were the first snow in [-], later than before, and you parked in the community. The No. [-] car at the door..."

Ning Xi was reading a book downstairs, her head was getting big, and she didn't want to worry about the little Dao Lang from Qingyang District upstairs, so she went up and knocked on the door.

Run, get out.

Two or three days had passed since the fight on Yulin Road. The school concentrated on ideological work for the few boys who fought at the barbecue stand. They educated them for a few days and also went to clean the Academic Affairs Office for a few days.

This matter was led by Xing Cheng, the school decided to give him a warning, and the parents of Cheng Xiyu's girls also went to the school a few more times.

Sweeping the Academic Affairs Office for a week, Xingcheng also temporarily occupied the training time every afternoon. After class, I went there with a broom, followed by a row of people from the school team, all holding brooms and dustpans, asking for help.

Xing Cheng nodded his head, there will be twelve people here, they don't go to training, and they come here with their brothers to sweep the floor, isn't this just for scolding?

After finally persuading those girls, Xing Cheng walked around like a golden cudgel with a broom, humming softly while directing the team members to take out the trash, sweating from the work, but still enjoying it.

After cleaning for several days, he ran into his brother once in a while, and immediately stood up straight, hid the broom behind him, and nodded like standing guard: "Brother!"

Ning Xi stood still. She was going to take a detour to see her younger brother today, holding a book in her hand: "Very diligent."

Xing Cheng didn't realize whether Ning Xi was praising him or hurting him, and was about to say a few words, when he saw Ning Xi carrying a bag, shaking it in front of him, and said flatly: "Take it."

Subconsciously, Cheng Cheng looked down at the bag, there was a NIKE logo on it, and there was a brand new set of knee pads, ankle pads, and arm pads that were almost like sleeves, which could be called fully armed.

This set, at least three or four hundred, right?

Xing Cheng was still a little dazed, when he heard Ning Xi say seriously: "Whether it's on the court or in a fight, don't get hurt again."

A group of boys from the school team who were standing next to them drinking drinks exploded, staring at the bag of items, never heard of a fight that exploded their equipment?

As soon as Ning Xi left, Xing Cheng was not polite, and directly posted it on Moments to show off, took a picture, and the accompanying text was simple and clear: sent by Ning Xi.

I also posted it in the school team group, and took a few pictures of the buyer's show wearing the upper body. The fart was so bad that a few boys in the school team yelled heartbreakingly in the WeChat group, Brother Xi, I am Also! ! !

Xingcheng took the phone and replied one by one, no, it's impossible, step aside, dreaming!

Are you his brother?

After returning home at night, Xing Cheng tried all the equipment on his body, stood in front of the full-length mirror for a long time, wearing his jersey, his mind was full of his brother's words.

Don't get hurt anymore.

……

The second year of high school was released early, and Xing Cheng wanted to wait for Ning Xi today, so he actually ran with the ball and sat in the playground, with grass under his buttocks. Fortunately, it hasn't rained much in Chengdu recently, so it's dry.

He took off his schoolbag and put it under his body, and he still felt quite comfortable, since there were not many textbooks in it anyway, it was very soft.

On a winter night in Chengdu, the lights glowing in the sky reflect a piece of purple, and the stars are dotted on the night, looming, it seems that the night is not so cold anymore.

Cheng Cheng was lying on the grass, his eyes were full of stars, the lights in the third grade classroom above the teaching building were still on, and Ying Yuchen was lying down beside him drinking soda, the two boys were lying side by side, covered with coats, With legs crossed, toast one after another.

After being stabbed, Ying Yuchen came back to rest and didn't go to the stadium much. His grades were pretty good, and his family didn't put pressure on him, and his brother couldn't control him at school. He didn't even take it, so he ran away from the evening self-study and rushed down.

For this reason, Xingcheng also bought an extra can, opened it with one hand, and handed it to Ying Yuchen, who smiled and bumped into the air with pride: "Thank you, brother!"

Xingcheng didn't have the nerve to ask more about his brother's affairs, he cared about Ying Yuchen's wounds and then let it go, saying that it would be safer for Ying Yuchen to go with him and Ning Xi when school was late.

Ying Yuchen said that his brother specially sent someone to pick him up, but it was not a big deal.

Xing Cheng also listened to Ying Yuchen talk about his situation, why did someone who studied well in Beijing come to Chengdu, what kind of person his brother is, and what...

"Hey, don't talk about me, I'm frustrated. Tell me about you?"

He drank more than half of the soda, Ying Yuchen still had the smell of red pomegranate in his mouth, and asked him with a smile: "Xing Cheng, you really don't plan to become a sports student? You are tall enough, and your grades are just barely enough. Let's go for an artistic..."

Xing Cheng also swallowed, the carbonic acid made the tip of his tongue very refreshing: "No, I have to see where my brother is going to read first."

Ying Yuchen slapped his thigh: "Oh my god...you two are too clingy! No, you are too clingy to him."

Xingcheng smiled, and clinked glasses with Ying Yuchen with a can: "I'm just such a brother, so why don't you stick tighter?"

"I don't know if my intuition is wrong, I always feel that you and your brother are not the same!"

Ying Yuchen couldn't hold back anymore, and asked directly.

Not even giving him a chance to catch his breath, Xingcheng admitted it generously: "I like my brother, I shaved his head and skipped class for him, learned guitar, climbed over walls and jumped off buildings for him..."

Almost jumping up from the grass, Ying Yuchen pulled some grass and threw it on Xing Cheng: "Fuck, I don't think it's right!"

So worried that even the can of red pomegranate soda was pinched and deformed, Ying Yuchen brushed out his limp hair, put his hands behind his back, held the tab of the can in his mouth, and murmured: "My brother recently I don't know what to do with a guy, really... You said you don't want a lot of girls here, how hard will it be to leave in the future?"

Chengcheng sighed, opened his eyes and began to count the stars in the sky above the playground, and when he counted to the seventh, his eyes were a little dazed, and he said, "No way, no one can replace him, you have to hold him tighter."

Ying Yuchen thought for a while, and felt that Ning Xi's behavior was quite different, so he asked him, "Does your brother like you?"

As soon as he asked this question, Xing Cheng didn't know where the courage came from. He stared at the bright lamp in the window of the senior three classroom, his eyes reflected the stars in the sky, and nodded.

"like."

After school last night, he took two bags of instant noodles and two eggs and went to Ning Xi's house to start a stove.

As soon as the kitchen light was turned on, the tongue of fire from the stove jumped up, almost turning a pair of sword eyebrows into daggers by the fire.

Ning Xi couldn't stand it anymore, and drove Xing Cheng out of the kitchen, cracked two eggs, cooked them spicy and served them out, and gave both eggs to Xing Cheng.

Xingcheng stirred it a few times with his chopsticks: "Damn, brother, why are there two eggs?"

Ning Xi held the bowl and didn't sit down to eat, and didn't even bother to raise her eyelids, so she replied coldly, "Double yolk eggs."

Fart, his brother didn't eat it at all, Xing Cheng quickly emptied the noodles, went to the convenience store to buy two eggs, and forced another bowl of boiled eggs for his brother.

When his brother bowed his head to mix the noodles, Xing Cheng stretched out his hand to pinch his brother's cheek, and said viciously, if I have a share, then you must have a share.

Later, Xing Cheng rushed to wash the dishes, thinking about it in the kitchen for a long time.

When he returned to his room at night, he gritted his teeth and worked until 01:30 in the morning. He wrote a history paper that he didn't understand the most. He memorized the timeline for a long time, and he thoroughly ate the notebook Ning Xi gave him... …

He gave the electric hot water bottle to Ning Xi, and all he needed to warm the bed at night was by shaking. He also told Ning Xi that he had two, one on the top and one on the bottom, and they were so hot that they sweated at night, and they always kicked one out, saving it for themselves and wasting it.

You won't be on the school team starting tomorrow, right?

But playing also feels like a must...

But it would be really stupid to play again. This grade is far from the second line. It's not long since the second year of high school. Don't you really plan to catch up with his brother in grades?

Xingcheng thinks that there is a saying that is true. When you were a student, falling in love does not necessarily affect your studies, but unrequited love will definitely affect your studies.

This Friday is the winter solstice, Ning Xi's mother called Ning Xi for the first time, and told Ning Xi to go to the high-tech zone after school. There was a mutton soup pot at home. It happened to be Friday after school, so come over to eat some.

Ning Xi held the phone, and his nose was a little sore. It wasn't because his mother asked him to go to dinner. He just felt that last year his mother didn't remember that the third year of senior high school only had Sunday on the weekend, and it's still the same this year after repeating the study.

He doesn't care about the results of the monthly exam, and occasionally greets her in life. On the surface, Ning Xi is neither salty nor indifferent, but in his heart, only he knows how much he cherishes this phone call from his mother.

During the winter solstice last year, he was also forgotten. At noon, he ran to the school alone to eat a meal of mutton soup. When he returned to school, he vomited.

What Ning Xi didn't expect was that because he hadn't eaten, Xing Cheng escaped the evening self-study, and went to the back of the playground to climb over the wall to buy mutton soup. Just as he was riding on the wall with a long leg, he turned around and saw the principal squatting under the wall He held a flashlight in his hand.

The group of buddies he helped from the school team were still eager to try on the other side of the wall, pulling their necks and shouting: "Let's go! Can you go down!"

Cheng Cheng rode on the wall, looked at the principal here, and at the buddy standing there, closed his eyes in despair, and made a booing gesture to his buddy.

Ren Mei jumped: "Now you know you are afraid?"

Xingcheng sneered, holding back his laughter in his heart, I'll give it a try for you.

Ren Mei jumped up the wall in a few moments, and rode too, but she was dumbfounded when she got up, the two boys stared at the principal under the wall, and the principal asked with a smile: "You are well-trained, where are you going?"

Xing Cheng is also straightforward: "Buy mutton soup, I'm hungry."

Also because of this, Xingcheng's father held down Xingcheng's head that night and forced him to eat mutton soup for two hours at home, which made the head teacher who came to visit the house stupid.

This year, Xingcheng didn't go over the wall again. As soon as the third year of high school was over, he wanted to pick up his brother and go with him. He wanted to find a nearby restaurant and have a little fun.

He knew that Ning Xi's mother asked Ning Xi to eat, but he didn't expect that Ning Xi really thought about it and asked for leave.

He didn't come to self-study all night, and he didn't tell his mother that he had class tonight.

Standing alone at the door of the senior three classroom, Xingcheng was a little discouraged when he saw the seniors coming and going with their schoolbags packed up and leaving.

It's also my fault that he didn't tell Ning Xi if we want to have dinner together tonight.

Ying Yuchen was holding an insulated bucket in his hand, and took a pair of disposable chopsticks that he didn't know where to find. He was humming in the corridor with a sad face. Is there still something to eat?"

The pure taste of Jianyang mutton soup in the thermos is really rare and delicious!

Ying Yuchen nodded: "It's delicious, but we all eat dumplings there!"

Xing Cheng couldn't help but want to roll his eyes: "Do as the Romans do, you can eat whatever you want here."

Ying Yuchen began to worry again: "The one who delivered the mutton soup is the man I told you before, the man who was entangled with my brother. I had a car accident on the Jingang Circuit before, and he hit my ass. What a shame!"

Xing Cheng clapped his hands: "Fate."

He knows that this elementary school principal loves cars, and he is also very interested in traveling, but now he can only afford 68 basketballs with his economic strength, so the car plan is temporarily put on hold until he is in his 20s.

Car racing is the same as basketball. In a sense, it is a sport that most men are passionate about. The sparks sparked in it are naturally hard to extinguish. I think the first time I fought with his brother was because of a ball. Who hit the back of the head.

In the evening, he ran home alone, ate the mutton soup made at home, and ran to the window to see if the lights downstairs were on. His mother asked for scar cream and knocked on his brother's door.

Today his father smoked at home and stamped the sofa, the sparks burned loudly and ignited quickly, and Xing Cheng suddenly thought of Ning Xi's wrist.

Take it to wipe his wrists, I don't know if it will help.

As soon as he rang the doorbell, the door opened, and the smell of cigarettes filled the living room.

Ning Xi lowered her eyes, a small mole on the tip of her nose made her face even more beautiful, her skin was still too white, she was holding a math paper in her hand, and she was holding a draft paper in her palm, the equations on it were still clearly visible.

Further down, Ning Xi took a cigarette in his mouth, half burned, sparks flickered.

Ning Xi, whose face was half immersed in the smoke, was so psychedelic and lonely, with blurred brows and eyes, thin and beautiful jawline, every inch of the cigarette butt burned into Cheng Cheng's eyes.

Xing Cheng squeezed the scar removal ointment in his hand, but was speechless for a while.

It was the first and only time he saw his brother like this.

Decadent and mysterious, with indifferent eyes, smoking a cigarette while writing math problems, sitting in the living room, lighting the lamp, and on the small table I bought, there is still a small half of unused draft paper.

Ning Xi took a puff of the cigarette, didn't pinch it, spit it out in a circle, raised her eyes, and stared at Xing Cheng.

He finally, he finally, revealed his truest self in front of Xing Cheng.

In the place where he was once invisible, he is not as good as the surface, nor is he so sunny.

Laughing, or not laughing, is him.

Strong or cowardly, it is also him.

Xing Cheng explained the purpose of coming, Ning Xi rolled up his sleeves and stretched his arms over.

The scar was only the size of a fingernail. It was hideous and terrifying. It was slightly sunken and dark brown in color. It looked like someone had strangled his throat.

As if he was holding something in his hand, Xing Cheng took out the cotton swab, not daring to mess around, and applied medicine to him little by little, without taking his eyes off the scar.

He painted slowly, Ning Xi couldn't hold back seeing his cautious look, and said with a smile: "During it."

Xing Cheng's heart was about to die of pain, it hurt to death.

It felt like he looked at the smoke scar more, as if it was all scalded on his body, like a branding iron, the front side was stamped on the back side, the pain made him breathless.

Ning Xi kept staring at him without speaking.

Xing Cheng raised his head, met his brother's eyes, and couldn't help sighing: "We may have been enemies in the previous life, you must have stabbed me in the chest with a sword, in this life I have to pay off the debt to love you so much..."

Ning Xi took a puff of cigarette, sat on the floor in front of Xing Cheng, tore off half of the shirt she was wearing on her upper body, and said in a low voice, "I also have a scar on my chest."

As if being beaten again, Xing Cheng was about to dig a piece of scar removal ointment on his fingertips, but Ning Xi pinched his hand: "Touch it."

Ning Xi knocked out the lamp in the living room, and the surrounding lights suddenly dimmed, and she couldn't see her fingers.

Xing Cheng swallowed his saliva.

That day, Xing Cheng carefully stretched out his hand, and in the dark night, he could see the line of his brother's neck, collarbone, and the open collar below, half of his chest exposed in the cold air...

As soon as the rough fingertips of Xing Cheng's long-term practice ball touching the basket touched the warm skin, Ning Xi withdrew his hand and pressed Xing Cheng's hand violently.

At this moment, Xing Cheng felt that what lived in his palm was Ning Xi's intense heartbeat.

It is the affection of my sweetheart.

"Do you feel it? It likes you too."

After finishing this sentence, Ning Xi took a deep breath and continued slowly: "Xing Cheng, this is the real me."

At the age of 17, at this moment of walking on a certain night, he held his Ning Xi tightly in his arms, and suddenly felt that all the lights in this city were turned off.

The brightest thing in the world alone is the one they have lighted for each other in their hearts.

Xing Cheng hugged Ning Xi tightly, looked at the closed door, recalled every time he wanted to come in but was kept locked outside, now he finally came in.

Really, entered Ning Xi's heart and participated in his life.

He thought of the fighting spirit aroused countless times because of Ning Xi, the weight of growth, and every step he took, he was determined.

In this small living room, Xing Cheng gently patted Ning Xi on the back comfortingly.

Secret and blissful.