pedestrian

The nature of work in the consulting industry will make people gradually lose almost all interest in social life. During this period of time, they have been working overtime and on business trips, and when they are free occasionally, Tao Ran becomes extremely reluctant to see people.

On Saturday, it was raining heavily, half a cup of hot milk and three shots of espresso, just enough to warm up an afternoon listening to the rain alone.When a person's heart can really calm down and sink into the starlight [-] feet below the sea bit by bit, all the sounds of the world will come alive in the hearing.The icy rain fell on the canopy that covered the sky and the sun, and with the rhythm of the wind, the rustling sound was rushing and slowing down.

Tao Ran was standing by the window holding a mug, feeling that something was going to happen this afternoon.This kind of rain is very suitable as the beginning of a tragic movie. In the dark, maybe even God is unwilling to let go of such a good opportunity.

Sure enough, not long after this moment, Ye Qi frightened the Caesar lying on the phone with a phone call.The obese domestic cat jumped into Tao Ran's arms with all his might, made coffee with half of its tail, was frightened by the temperature of the coffee for a second time, and jumped out again like a cannonball. Wherever it passed, all the light-colored fabrics in the house were destroyed. calamity.

Ye Qi didn't know what was on his mind, and he kept his words hidden and vague, so he insisted on asking him to go back to school to have afternoon tea together.When studying, everyone was envious of the full English afternoon tea provided by the staff restaurant, but it was not open to students.After many years, Ye Qi mentioned this matter again, and mentioned that he had a teaching staff card but was embarrassed to be a grown man to order it alone.

During the hour drive to the college town, the rain had stopped and the overcast weather was colder than it had been before the rain.The school still had the old rules of the past. Cars came in and parked casually. As soon as Tao Ran opened the door, he felt that the suburbs were much colder than the city center. The empty campus was blustery and windy, with the unique humidity of this city, which was blowing. Bone headache.

Because of the cold, he looked back at the back seat before getting out of the car, and accidentally found a cashmere scarf that Chang Zheng had forgotten to take away.In fact, Chang Zheng has been using Tao Ran's favorite perfume, which is the one he always feels he can't control at this age, but he never told Chang Zheng.

The time has not come, and some words are just out of season.

The warmth brought by the scarf and the familiar and fascinating scent made Tao Ran smile involuntarily. Ye Qi sat at the table in the teaching staff cafeteria and waited for him. What he saw was such a lonely figure in a beige windbreaker.It was such a bleak scene, but because of the faint smile on Tao Ran's lips, it made people's eyes shine.

"Has anything good happened recently?"

Before Tao Ran was seated, he heard this sentence, and he was not polite to Ye Qi habitually: "I'm sorry, I really don't have any overtime business dogs. But you, what complaint did you just send to me on the phone? Why is Wang Yuan getting married? You feel very emotional, what are you emotional about. If you don’t say it’s your roommate, I almost forget who Wang Yuan is.”

Ye Qi thought for a while, and replied: "You are not our professional, and it is normal not to remember him."

Tao Ran keenly grasped his abnormality: "I've said so much, you just answer me this?"

It is probably the limit for a truly intelligent person to be deceived to such a far away place by an ambiguous reason.With a long sigh, Ye Qi took the initiative to pick up the teapot and poured Tao Ran a cup of black tea, and then picked a sweet-looking one from the dessert tower on the third floor and put it on his plate.

Tao Ran was directly amused: "Okay, skip the apology part, just tell me what you asked me to do."

"Let me just say, can you not break up with me?"

This is very clear.

After a moment of silence on the table that could be described as swords and swords, maybe Ye Qi's apologetic eyes were too sincere, and there was even a strange color of compassion, Tao Ran chose to speak first.

"Why do you do this? It was like this in the past, and it is still like this now. You can't just soften your heart to Zhou Zhe... the paranoid just because you and Chen Yang are like this."

Ye Qi actually breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank God, I was very surprised that you didn't stand up and go straight away."

"..." Tao Ran really wanted to ask if I was such a person in your mind, but thinking about his performance when he graduated, he was probably more paranoid than a paranoid, so he couldn't say that right now, so he changed his sentence and continued: "People change. Oh, maybe you haven't, but I won't leave the table with a disagreement."

Ye Qi didn't look him in the eyes, just stared at the tea in the cup with a little tea residue, and slowly stated: "I met Zhou Zhe and a recent visiting scholar from us at school this morning. They were chatting, nodded and passed away without saying anything to Zhou Zhe. Then he came to my office and told me a lot..."

"A lot of affectionate words, it's too miserable to listen to, isn't it?"

Ye Qi looked at him with a look of "I know it's stupid, but I just can't stand love acting out tragedy". Tao Ran felt a burst of despair, and held his forehead in grief and smiled wryly, thinking to himself This is the end.

"I almost cried when I saw him in the morning. I really sympathized with him. You guys haven't figured it out for so many years. I promised him one last tie, and you should have an ending."

"Pull the thread? How do you do it?" Tao Ran wanted to take a sip of tea to moisten his throat, but he didn't expect the taste to be really good, so he couldn't help but savored a second sip: "For someone who graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, if he comes again next time, Looking for you, what do you do?"

"No, I made it clear to him today. I will help him for the last time, and then there is no need to contact him, and we will break off on the spot."

"..."

Without his words, Tao Ran almost forgot how good Ye Qi was at stabbing others and himself.But whatever Mr. Ye wants to do, he must be invincible.

He said that he had already broken off friendship with Zhou Zhe on the spot, so what else could Tao Ran do.Really can't do anything about it.

Ye Qi was very clear about his victory, and only now did he openly show a treat attitude, pointing to the black tea and laughing: "This is the tea I brought myself, not from the restaurant. I guess you are here In the future, for the face of this tea, I may feel ashamed to lose my temper."

Tao Ran chewed the cranberry tart slowly: "I'll finish all the talking by myself, it's almost enough."

"I made an agreement with Zhou Zhe, I just ask you to appear in this school in the afternoon. I don't care if I can meet you or where I can meet you, and I didn't tell him."

"Hmph, you're a Buddhist matchmaker. But... it's really because you don't know him well enough." Tao Ran sneered, and his eyes drifted to the door: "Zhou Zhe is a person who can always seize every opportunity to serve himself , as long as you leave a crack in the door for him, he will definitely be able to enter the room."

With that said, he took a napkin and wiped his fingers carefully, pushed away the chair and stood up: "See you next time, he's already here."

Ye Qi continued to use the expression of "I know I'm sorry for you, but I still have to be sorry for you", Tao Ran sighed and patted him on the shoulder: "Forget it."

Ye Qi replied: "Good to go."

Tao Ran walked forward to meet Zhou Zhe's focused gaze, his clothes fluttered and his posture was determined, which seemed to show that he would never turn back.Ye Qi turned around and looked in his eyes, and couldn't help but sigh.

Among the group of friends in the early years, Zhou Zhe was the most willful and bright, while Tao Ran was the most gentle and kind. Who would have guessed that such two people get together, and going around is always a bad relationship.

But every story must have an ending.Not every relationship has to be persistent until Lu Yuanma dies.If Tao Ran needed a solution, then he would rather take the risk than give them a push.There's only so much a friend can do.

Tao Ran and Zhou Zhe, each with a long-handled black umbrella, walked to the wet lake without saying a word.

After so many years of tossing, they have never forgotten each other. There is still the most basic tacit understanding.On the grass by the lake, Zhou Zhe said "I think I like you", while Tao Ran was young and frivolous, blindly confident in himself and the other party, so he heard this sentence as "I like you" .

In fact, looking back, both parties are indeed responsible for things to come to this point.Although Zhou Zhe acted willfully and recklessly, at least he was always honest.Although Tao Ran woke up first, he was even more drunk than Zhou Zhe.After all, there is no connivance, where does the profligate indulgence come from.In the final analysis, it is still a matter of one thing and one thing, and I am willing to bet and admit defeat.

Everything starts here, and it should end here.Zhou Zhe looked around, but couldn't find any place to sit, so he looked at Tao Ran inquiringly.

Tao Ran didn't bother to say much, he pointed at the grove, and headed in that direction first.After the hasty breakup back then, Zhou Zhe asked him to meet here again not long after.When Tao Ran went to the lake, it happened that several girls from the same class were gathered not far away to play on the swings, so he had to go around to the woods and sit on the marble tablet to continue waiting.As a result, when Zhou Zhe arrived, he said sorry, I still miss you very much.

No wonder Zhou Zhe didn't dare to mention it directly.The past is vivid, the pavilions are still the same, so sad, how dare he say that we are going that way.

The tablet said that the overall renovation plan of the entire campus began in a certain month of a certain year and was completed in a certain month of a certain year. It also wrote the names of a few alumni who made large donations.At any rate, the marble does not absorb water, so you can sit on it after wiping it. Tao Ran tidied it up and sat down by himself, only to find that Zhou Zhe was standing at the exit of the path in a daze.

Oh yes, this scene is also the past.According to the plot of the year, Zhou Zhe should come over and give him a deep hug, and then start to pour out his heart.

Fortunately, Tao Ran was really tired of asking herself now.

"If you dare to come over, I will definitely hit you until you go out sideways. If you don't believe me, you can try."

Zhou Zhe woke up like a dream: "If I don't come here, where else can I go?"

Tao Ran patted the empty seat next to him, and looked at Zhou Zhe with calm eyes: "You know what I mean, don't pretend to be confused. Come and sit, you have been trying to find me, you always have something to say."

"I just thought that the first time we met was through Ye Qi."

Tao Ran smiled: "In order to have a beginning and an end, you have done a full set of plays."

After removing all pretense and self-deception, Zhou Zhe is actually a sensible person.At least if he really wants to have a serious conversation, he and Tao Ran can be on the same channel: "Why do you always think I'm acting. I never hide anything between us."

"That means you are a scumbag yourself. The more you don't hide it, the more scumbag you will be."

This is too unlike Tao Ran, and too much like Tao Ran.Zhou Zhe was startled when he heard the sound, and then Tao Ran laughed first, and Zhou Zhe didn't hold back: "I think this is a good ending. It turns out that the words in my heart are waiting for me here, thank you for your hard work, bear with me." It took so many years to say that."

"Yeah..." Tao Ran looked up at the slowly moving lead gray cumulonimbus clouds, and sighed sincerely: "It's been so many years in a blink of an eye, and I can still sit with you and talk about these things, it's really rare."

Zhou Zhe wanted to answer the conversation, but when he opened his mouth, he realized that he couldn't make a sound.Tao Ran's melancholy tone struck a chord in his heart, even he himself didn't understand how he could trample the bond between the two of them back and forth until today after only loving this one person all these years.

"Are you and your teacher together?"

Zhou Zhe raised his hand and rubbed the corners of his eyes: "Not yet."

Tao Ran smiled indifferently: "Oh, not yet. Don't be too pretentious, he has already established a career, and he is very serious to come to China for you."

"Hey, wait a little longer." Zhou Zhe, who always does whatever he wants, has learned to sigh sincerely: "At least now, I don't know how to still love you and promise him at the same time."

Tao Ran almost laughed out loud, but then he thought about how courageous he could say the word, so he endured it: "Are you kidding me? I haven't contacted you for a few years, and you said you still love me?" I?"

"Look, this is the difference. If I dare to say that I still love you now, you dare to answer me if I am teasing you. You don't care about me anymore, so you don't have to consider my feelings."

Tao Ran's expression gradually became serious, but they were sitting side by side, Zhou Zhe missed the opportunity to see him clearly: "Back then...you and I were serious, that's enough. From you, I learned something very important The most important thing is that in many cases, kindness to others is indeed cruelty to oneself. Enough is enough to stop losses in time, which is a necessary ability for a person to control his own life."

Zhou Zhe smiled wryly: "This is your parting message? Is this a warning to me, or to yourself?"

"It's not a warning, it's really not." Tao Ran turned his head and looked into Zhou Zhe's eyes: "I just want to say a few words to you calmly. Then let's just leave it at that, and no one will think about being friends anymore , why bother?"

"you……"

Tao Ran tolerated his hesitation for the last time, and just waited for him quietly, just like the gentleness of many years ago.

"Take good care of yourself. Don't make things go wrong because of me. If you meet someone worthy of your efforts in the future, you still have to do your best."

"A penny of effort is a penny of hard work. I'm tired, and I just want to plan for myself in the future and live a more comfortable life."

Zhou Zhe smiled at him, with caring eyes that were never fake: "Don't be like this, really. You still have a way out for yourself. If you don't dare to bet, you are doomed to have nothing."

"You can say leave a way out, it sounds better."

"This is what you taught me. Either don't say it, or say what you really want to say. Thank you very much, I have learned a lot."

The two of them chatted for a long time like this, the water birds looking for food came and flew away, the library gradually lit up, and the night that had been watched countless times side by side came again.

In the end, they all fell silent.

Tao Ran thought, this is the end.The scum changed me, and I changed the scum.In the depths of time, the sincere and self-willed boy Zhou Zhe he once loved without reservation, and the person in front of him who was stained with wind and frost by the ups and downs of the world, finally overlapped together.

He wanted to say "thank you, that's it, goodbye", but finally he didn't say it.Really say goodbye why bother to say goodbye.

The future may not be better, but it will definitely be difficult and long.One difference and two wide, I hope to cherish it.