famine

At first glance, the word "bird shop" sounds like a shop opened in the food industry to sell qualified bird food, especially Zhou Ge's bird shop is opened on such a street full of various shops, and all kinds of snacks and delicacies are next to the bird shop. Therefore, the bird shop is not only very inconspicuous, but anyone who glances past thinks it is a restaurant.

Nowadays, most of the people who like to play with birds are old people. Young people seldom study such gadgets. There are fewer and fewer people who are willing to work hard on it. Places like bird shops are gradually disappearing. It is not easy to find two or three good places with low price and high quality in the city, and it has to be as formal as the one opened by Brother Zhou.

When Cheng Lang followed Jiang Xuan into the shop, he raised his eyes and saw the green-capped parrot standing on the bird stand by the door. At the same time, a voice with a strange tone rang in his ears.

"Yo, here we go."

Jiang Xuan, who was walking in front, kept his expression unchanged, as if he was used to it, and his eyes never deviated. Cheng Lang was stunned for a long time, and checked again and again before he had to believe that the familiar and flattering voice was from Little Black Dou.

No matter how bad it is at the door of a normal store to welcome guests, it is just a lucky cat. Anyone of a certain age will think that they have stabbed a hornet's nest when they come in.

Looking away from the parrot, he glanced at the back of Jiang Xuan's head. Cheng Hong raised his eyes and looked into the store. The store is not big, and there should be a back hall. The front hall is about ten square meters. It’s too crowded, not only that, there are a bunch of bird cages, bird racks, rain cover, glass nets and other bird-raising supplies around the wall. The space will only get more crowded.

Small but complete.

Cheng Yan sniffed, since the moment he came in, he could smell a woody or birdy smell, even though the shutter door was always open to release the smell, it was still a bit unpleasant after closing the store and covering it up overnight.

He was frowning slightly and stroked his nose, when suddenly a hand stretched out in front of him, holding a disposable mask.

"Put it on."

These hands are very thin, and the knuckles of each finger protrude a little. The white skin on the top is very thin, and the skin is pale, as if what flows underneath is not red blood, but clear stream water.

Jiang Xuan turned his head around at some point, leaned towards him, his face was expressionless, and he lowered his eyes without looking at him.

Cheng Lang let out an "ah", then took the mask, and while unpacking the plastic package, he wondered why he hadn't noticed that his eyelashes were so long before.

The single eyelid is not swollen at all.

"Yo! Here we come!"

Just as he hung up the earhooks, Cheng Lang heard another sound.

This time it was sent by a human.

Zhou Hui stood behind the counter, and while registering the birds locked in cages on the table, he stretched his neck and poked his head over the shoulders of the delivery people crowded in front.

Jiang Xuan didn't change his face, just nodded, "I'm busy."

His tone was unremarkable, as if he was saying "Good morning" and "Have you eaten?" Fortunately, Zhou Hui was familiar with him and knew that this was already a way of greeting in Jiang Xuan's view.

He put down the spring pen, and his eyes fell on Cheng Hong behind Jiang Xuan, "This is..."

Brother Zhou didn't tell him that there were other people today, and he was inexplicably curious to see Cheng Lang.

In fact, I don't blame him, who Jiang Xuan is standing with - and standing so close, whoever is not curious.

"My friend," Jiang Xuan said, "he came to see the birds, don't worry about it, he's busy with you."

Zhou Hui became even more curious.

Cheng Lang didn't see Zhou Hui at first, and was still looking left and right to see the birds on the wooden frames on both sides of the aisle. Then he turned his head and smiled friendlyly at Zhou Hui, "Hi, excuse me."

Very polite and very temperamental, not quite like the style of the clothes he was wearing, but lazy enough and sparkling.

— A textbook adult.

Zhou Hui has been used to being wild since he was a child. Under Cheng Yan's calm gaze, he seemed to have lice all over his body for some reason. He immediately changed his sitting posture and put his feet down on the stool. Later, he felt that it was not formal enough. He simply stood up, and waved to him across the counter and the two people delivering birds, as if a prefecture-level leader met a central leader: "Oh, hello, my name is Zhou Hui...you, you Your name?"

As soon as the words finished, Jiang Xuan glanced over coldly, Zhou Hui immediately shrank his shoulders, withdrew his hand, scratched the back of his head and said, "Then just take a look..."

Cheng Yan tilted his head and laughed, "My surname is Cheng, let me take a look first, you are busy."

He just looked at it for a long time. There are birds in the cages on the wooden frame and on the top of the head. They are of different colors and varieties. Every bird stays in its own cage. Some stood in a daze on the bird stand, some bowed their heads to peck, and some called at each other with the bird neighbors next door. If the people in the store didn't speak, they could easily hear the birdsong and rustling. .There were too many birds, and Cheng Hong didn't study them well, so he could only recognize a few of them, and they were all recited backwards by the old man in the countryside.

The blue, gray and black bird hanging on the pole directly above Cheng Hong's head is called Sanbao. The red beak of the Sanbao bird is pointed directly at the top of his head, and the small eyes are piercing, staring at Cheng Hong's eyes without moving. , the posture of not moving even if the enemy doesn't move, looks very dexterous.

"By the way, Dongzi," Zhou Hui, who had been keeping his head down to take notes, suddenly raised his head and rubbed his hands together, "You picked that thrush, right? I like it so much. Take it out for a walk, and a group of people will envy it." , the hair is shiny, I have trained it for two weeks before I get used to it, the little thing has spirituality, I am going to keep it forever and no one will give it to me, it’s great that bird..."

"As long as you like it." Jiang Xuan didn't show any expression, "Are there any left from the batch of orioles from last time?"

Cheng Lang looked at him upon hearing this.

Zhou Hui was stunned for two seconds, "Ah? Yes, yes, it's in the back, I'll take it for you..."

"Just wait, I'll go."

Jiang Xuan looked back at Cheng Lang, beckoning, "Let's go, let's go and have a look."

Cheng Lang nodded, then bent his eyes at Zhou Hui who was in a daze, and followed him into the back hall step by step.

The back hall is much more spacious than the front hall. There are five or six rows of wooden shelves, similar to a small warehouse. Each grid is filled with birdcages, which looks quite spectacular.

Cheng Lang followed Jiang Xuan and walked past each wooden frame, and saw that there were labels on the wooden frames. After looking at a few of them, he saw "Wen Xu", "Shou Dai", "Nun Pigeon" and so on. He had never heard the name of the bird before, and finally stopped at the edge of the row of wooden shelves marked with "sorrel", and turned in.

There were also a lot of birdcages on the shelves, but some had birds in them and some didn’t. They were put together in an orderly manner and seemed to be selling well. There were not many cages left on the entire wooden shelf.

Cheng Lang looked around and sighed, "It's really spectacular."

Jiang Xuan seemed to smile, raised his hand to straighten a crooked birdcage, and said, "I felt the same way when I first came here. The oriole in Brother Zhou's shop has always been selling very well. The bird teasers came when the goods arrived, but luckily there are still leftovers this time, otherwise you would have to change to something else."

Cheng Lang didn't understand these things, but he could tell that Jiang Xuan seemed to understand it, and couldn't help being a little interested: "You also like playing with birds?"

"..." Jiang Xuan was silent for a while, Cheng Lang looked at his indistinct expression, wondering what he was thinking.

It took a long time to hear him say, "It's okay."

Cheng Yan nodded, and looked at the several orioles on the shelf, "You can also help me see the birds."

"...Row."

After 2 minutes, Jiang Xuan picked out one of several orioles that seemed the same to Cheng Lang, and lifted the bird cage from the wooden frame.

The squirrel in the cage was suddenly startled, and it sang twice, its shrill voice was high-pitched, like a bell like tin, and its tone was very bright and pure.

Cheng Lang tilted his head and stared at the black hair on the top of the bird's head, then moved to the beak, and asked, "Is this a male or a female?"

"Male," Jiang Xuan glanced at him, retracting his arms, "I forgot to ask, does the old man want a female or a male?"

Cheng Hong stretched out his finger and knocked on the birdcage. The oriole's eyes looked over, but it stopped screaming at this time, and the eyes staring at Cheng Hong were quite hostile, as if he would peck someone desperately if he was dissatisfied.

Cheng Lang looked at it for a while, then withdrew his hand, and asked, "Can you tell male and female?"

Jiang Xuan: "Well, it's as simple as dividing male and female crabs."

Cheng Lang opened his mouth, not wanting to make him so proud, but he really admired Da Mantou.

"Let's go with it. I don't know what the old man likes, but I guess he will go crazy when he sees this one."

The smile in Jiang Xuan's eyes flickered, and his stern look restrained a lot, "The old man is very easy to coax."

Cheng Lang: "No."

After picking the birds, Cheng Hong was not in a hurry to leave. Jiang Xuan was outside helping Zhou Hui to register and check the new birds. He had nothing to do and looked inside and outside the store one by one. The impression is that the group of old men sitting around the tree chatting in the countryside, everyone has a birdcage at their feet, some are covered with cloth and some are not. A few people can chat for an afternoon when they sit together and chat about birds.There is also the starling on the bird stand at home. The old man can quarrel with it for hours and never get bored.

Ever since he met Jiang Xuan and had the opportunity to watch birds in the bird shop, he could see that Jiang Xuan didn't want to tell him too much about the relevant knowledge, or he wanted to know more about the truth, after all, these little gadgets are very interesting to look at , is also very spiritual.

Maybe when he gets old, he will raise a house full of birds to amuse himself.

Jiang Xuan came to find Cheng Hong after finishing all the business in the store, and saw him stretching out a finger to touch the hair of the birthday belt through the crack of the birdcage.

"Oh," he called out, "I'll bite you for a while."

Cheng Lang withdrew his hand, looked at him sideways, and smiled sheepishly: "These birds are quite interesting, I think I can stay here all afternoon."

"I can't wait," Jiang Xuan leaned on the wooden frame, looking at him with his hands in his pockets, "I'm done, should I go to eat?"

The rustling sound of birds came from the wooden frame beside him, and Cheng Hong was a little disappointed, "Let's go then, is your name Zhou Hui?"

Jiang Xuan: "Don't take him, he has to watch the store, just bring him back later."

After eating nearby, the two of them went back to the store. Jiang Xuan gave Zhou Hui the packaged meal, then went to the back hall to get the bird, and after paying the money, they could go home.

Cheng Lang's car was parked on the side of the road. Cayenne, a high-end car, looked very nondescript on this mixed street. Cheng Lang and Jiang Xuan stood together, like adults shopping with children, giving people the same feeling. Some are nondescript.

The two walked side by side in the direction of Cayenne. Jiang Xuan looked at the car, laughed twice for a long time, and asked Cheng Hong, "Are you leaving on the 25th?"

The afternoon sun was just right, and it hit obliquely. The shadows of the two people were parallel, thin and tall.The one with neck hunched is Jiang Xuan, and the one with a bunch of hair protruding from his shoulders is Cheng Hong.

Cheng Yan lowered his head and stepped on the shadow, "Well, go back to celebrate the New Year."

"When will you be back?"

Jiang Xuan blurted out without thinking at all.

Cheng Lang didn't even think about it: "Soon."

...how fast is it?

Before Jiang Xuan could ask, Cheng Hong asked again, "What about you? Where are you... celebrating the New Year?"

Ever since he heard Sister Conch's words that day, he has been curious for a long time, wondering why Jiang Xuan lives in Xiaomantou's house, wondering why he doesn't go home even after the winter vacation, and wondering why he celebrates the New Year alone.

Of course, Jiang Xuan didn't answer him.

The two got into the car in silence, and Cayenne slid out in silence.

The sound of the engine is very low, and the turn signal "clicks".

The attached middle school will be here soon.

"or..."

Jiang Xuan had already put one hand on the handle. When he heard Cheng Hong's voice, he subconsciously stopped, but he didn't turn his head to look at him. He still twisted his body, staring out of the window without moving.

"..."

Cheng Lang hesitated for more than one way. This idea even arose when he knew that Jiang Xuan, an underage high school student, wanted to live alone, but he still didn't know how to say it.

Because I feel that Jiang Xuan will definitely refuse.

"How about you go back to the countryside with me to celebrate the New Year?"

"..."

After a long while without seeing Jiang Xuan answering, Cheng Lang stopped staring at the back of his head, sighed softly, and explained: "Take it as a trip, I mean if you stay in school alone, it will be boring, right? It’s much more interesting than the downtown area, and it’s also lively during the Chinese New Year, and I won’t be able to stay for long. I’ll be back after the third and fourth day of the new year. I’m going there by car, and it will take two hours, and the road alone is quite boring...”

Jiang Xuan opened the car door and stepped out.

The author has something to say:

Cool brother is really hard to coax╭(╯^╰)╮