pedestrian

Chinese New Year has long been a period of intensive outbound travel, and Auckland Airport is an important distribution center, and Chinese can be spoken endlessly.Tao Ran slept very badly on the plane, so tired that he almost fell asleep while waiting beside the luggage tray.Enduring his headache, he searched for a familiar face among the guides and tourists outside, but unexpectedly, he only found one.

Maybe it's because he plays a lot of basketball, Tao Zhi grew up like he took the wrong medicine in recent years.The little boy in Tao Ran's impression seemed to be almost as tall as him in the blink of an eye. Standing in the crowd now, his face was full of impatience because of the crowd, but his expression was very vivid.

After meeting Tao Ran's gaze, he quickly walked up to him, took the trolley case, and called out, "Brother."

Tao Ran was afflicted by the terrible pronunciation: "Stop trying to speak Chinese to me, please."

Tao Zhiting was frustrated: "Why, I took Chinese as an elective this year, is it still difficult to hear?"

"Yes, very ugly, Zhizhi."

Even more terrifying than his pronunciation is his Chinese nickname.Tao Yi rolled his eyes when he heard this, and Tao Ran teased him happily: "Zhi Zhi, where are your parents?"

Tao Zhi immediately switched back to English: "I went to Queenstown again. I asked them why they didn't come to pick you up. They said that you and I are almost 50 years old, and we can always find a home."

"The two of them are almost 120 years old together, and they still feel like three-year-olds."

Tao Zhi shrugged and put on a look that we all know they are weird.Tao Ran could only smile and shake his head, and followed him to the parking place.

Tao Zhi frequently checked the time on his phone while leading the way.Tao Ran suddenly remembered something: "The parking fee is so expensive, they asked you to pick me up, and they didn't give you any extra money?"

The good-looking kid, when talking about his parents, rolled his eyes in a blank manner: "What are you giving me? Starting this year, they said they wouldn't give me a penny except for tuition fees. They also said that they wouldn't charge me any rent. Very good, make me contented and happy."

Contentment and Changle is of course in Chinese again. Tao Ran felt chills behind him, and quickly changed the subject: "Is this your car? Do you have a driver's license?"

Tao Zhi smiled at him and showed his eight white teeth: "I just got the driver's license the day before yesterday, and I just picked up the car yesterday. Do you dare to sit?"

"...do I have a choice?"

"Yes, walk back. When you get there, it's almost time for me to drive you back here and fly back to China."

Tao Ran put on his seat belt, sighed and said, "It's really not good to have such a vicious tongue, kid Chi Chi."

"Then why don't I speak Chinese again? The teacher said to speak more and practice more."

"..."

In his sad eyes, Tao Zhizhi kicked the accelerator, and the new car let out a low howl, and jumped out immediately.

There was no danger along the way, and finally arrived home.Neither of the brothers expected that Qipa's parents would come back early, hiding behind the door so naively that they would hold a "surprise welcome ceremony" for them.

Tao Ran was sprayed with colored stripes all over his body, Tao Zhi followed him into the door and survived, but his face was also very ugly.

Seeing his beloved sons, older and younger, Ms. Li, who was still smiling at her age, was very happy: "Is Zhizhi driving well? I taught him how to drive."

Tao Ran put down his backpack and accepted his mother's warm embrace: "Oh, then it's no wonder the car is so amazing. Dad, why don't you teach him?"

"I don't have time." Mr. Tao argued very naturally: "I'm busy learning skydiving, so I don't have time."

Tao Zhi sighed exaggeratedly: "My biological parents must have punished me by throwing me at your door."

So the whole family laughed.

The words "biological parents" are a traditional joke of the Tao family.Everyone had seriously discussed with Tao Zhi whether to help him try to find it.As a result, Tao Zhi said that a large proportion of overseas Chinese immigrants are engaged in the catering service industry. Why did he insist on looking for the two poor cooks who abandoned him, despite his wealthy and free parents not wanting it.

It is rare for him to have such a broad-minded mind and clear thinking. Since then, everyone laughs whenever he mentions it, and he no longer shy away from talking about it.

Mr. Tao quickly rolled up his sleeves, put on an apron, and began to wash his hands and make soup for his wife and children.Tao Zhi tried his best to get the parking fee from Ms. Li, the female version of Grandet.Tao Ran's eyes were fixed on the TV, and these homely, warm and trivial voices gradually filled his ears, and the exhaustion from traveling all the way finally intensified.

"I'll go back to my room and rest for a while."

Ms. Li was in the midst of settling accounts with her youngest son, and without looking back, she said to him, "Go ahead, I'll call you later for dinner."

His room was on the second floor, and the bedding that he had just prepared for his return exuded the breath of sunshine. Tao Ran lay down in it, and immediately felt relaxed all over his body and mind.The enemy mother and son downstairs are still chattering, and you can hear a little bit even when the door is closed.He imagined Tao Zhi's flushed face with anger, felt a continuous stream of smiles emerging from the bottom of his heart, and soon fell asleep in peace.

The windows were not closed tightly, and the summer wind in the southern hemisphere brought the fragrance of gardenias in full bloom in the garden. When I woke up, it was already dusk.There were several knocks on the door, and Tao Ran knew it was Tao Zhi when he heard the style. He sat up and asked him to come in while putting on his short sleeves.

Tao Zhi's eyes were fixed on his brother for several seconds, and he sighed with envy: "I heard that you are very busy, why are you still practicing so well?"

"You can also exercise in fragmented time, it depends on how much you want to practice."

The long-lost gentle tone from his elder brother made Tao Zhi let go of the little stranger he hadn't seen for a year.He quickly sat down on the small sofa in Tao Ran's room and explained why he came.

"I...I have something to ask you, can you not tell your parents?"

Tao Ran looked at him and smiled: "When did you find me alone, did I tell my parents? And I made a point of saying this, Tao Zhizhi, you must be in love."

The boy's face turned red.

Tao Ran laughed harder: "Haha, come on, boy or girl."

"..." Tao Zhi was taken aback when he heard that: "Girl. And it's not considered in love anymore, I'm about to start chasing her."

"Well, it's a good thing you're a girl. If you bend too, our parents will really become crooked."

Tao Zhi couldn't understand the joke: "What is Wanzai Wharf?"

"Uh...it's nothing, your Chinese is too poor." Seeing his brother's bewildered expression, Tao Ran couldn't help being amused again: "Can't you ask so many friends? Why are you waiting to ask me?"

"Because my parents said that since you were young, people have been sent to your door to like you, and every time someone else chases you. I just want to ask you, how do they chase you? How do you want others to chase you? Is there anything? ...a particularly useful method?"

He asked bluntly and sincerely. Tao Ran originally planned to seize the opportunity and laugh at it first, but then he couldn't bear it anymore.I think that when I was in love at the beginning, I was just like Tao Zhi, almost when I first entered university.His parents have just immigrated, and his classmates are still unfamiliar, and he doesn't have a brother around who can ask these questions.

Tao Ran was savoring this extraordinarily heavy trust, but Tao Zhi misunderstood: "This matter is so complicated? How long have you thought about it? How many people have chased you..."

"Not many, four."

Tao Zhi immediately straightened his back and pricked up his ears.

Tao Ran had no experience in explaining these things to others. In order to avoid the weird scene where his brothers blushed, he had no choice but to choose to be the thick-skinned person and pretend to be calm.

"The first one, my high school classmate, is very timid. He only dared to buy me some small things with a small note. The second one, a college classmate, is not a professional at all, and he always looks for opportunities to get close to me , either bring breakfast or ask me to have dinner together, it’s quite boring, too deliberate. The third, a colleague, came to block me after work. I’m still half of his boss. Later, I saw him standing at the exit of the underground parking garage. Next to him, it was as if he was being punished, and I blushed for him. The fourth one..."

Tao Zhi's eyes lit up excitedly: "Is this your current boyfriend?"

Tao Ran thought for a while, and could only answer with a smile: "Almost."

"Then what's the difference between him and the previous ones, teach me."

"How to teach this..." There is a younger brother who insists on breaking the casserole and asking the end, and the older brother is helpless: "If you insist on saying there is any difference, I think he knows how to take advantage of opportunities. I I'm also a colleague with him, and this time he's my half-boss, and we spend a lot of time working together, and every time he makes me feel like he's really..."

Speaking of this, Tao Ran swallowed the words "know me" with difficulty.This idea has been buried deep in his heart for a long time, and he just wants to keep it privately.

Tao Zhi's bright eyes were still fixed on him. In order to help him establish his confidence in love in this life, Tao Ran bit the bullet and continued: "What I mean is, what you want to express is understanding and love, and you don't have to find time to be with each other every day." Just get along and cherish the right opportunity.”

"I understand that. My friend said, you have to distract yourself when you flirt, and run away after flirting."

"... What kind of friends have you made, can you still talk about something serious."

Advice-hungry people aren't at all happy with this overly general answer: "Why don't you ever go after people?"

Tao Ran subconsciously took a deep breath, and then exhaled again, deeply feeling that the child is too big to deal with: "Because I find falling in love very annoying. Instead of spending time on others, it is better to do more things that you want to do. Always be more reliable than others.”

"Then you've been in love several times, why did you change your mind?"

"Because... courtship is very important to some people. They will think of many ways and create a lot of pressure to achieve their goals. If I don't change my mind, they will not give up. In fact, to really get rid of a The human way is to let him get what he wants, after a while he realizes that what you give him is different from what he imagined, and he will leave by himself.”

Judging from Tao Zhi's state of mind and experience, this long-tested experience is really too ruthless.The poor boy was poured the truth of the world over his head, and fell silent immediately.

A bird with extremely bright feathers flew from nowhere, landed on Tao Ran's window sill, and looked in with its head tilted for a while.Probably because the Tao family brothers are all good looking, the stupid bird suddenly opened its tail feathers, took a strange step and began to jump wildly, as if it came here on purpose, proving that courtship is really important that Tao Ran said.

When the two of them turned their attention back from the dance, Tao Zhicai struggled to find words to spell out his next sentence in English: "You...every time you fall in love, you always think like this ?”

"It's about the same. For different people, the mentality at the beginning will be different. Some people I know he will leave sooner or later, and some people I don't know what will happen in the future. I can only wait for time to give us the answer. In fact, I How you think is often not important at all, I think it will last for a long time, but it may not last long, so it is better not to think too much, it is easier to live one day at a time."

Tao Zhi was terrified by this adult's concept, and was speechless for a while.In the past, he only felt that Tao Ran's demeanor had a special kind of free and easy, as if he didn't care about anything. Now, by chance, he talked to him, and he suddenly realized where it all came from.

He really wanted to refute something, but he vaguely felt that what Tao Ran said was the truth, it was his real experience after walking in the world for these years.

Tao Zhi stood there thinking for a long time. While waiting for him, Tao Ran picked up the sports watch to see if it was automatically adjusted to the new time zone.When the hour came, the watch vibrated to tell the time, Tao Zhi seemed to be awakened, and his eyes finally became lively again.

"What if, I mean, if, after I start with someone, I can never be disappointed and never leave?"

Tao Ran moved his gaze from the dial to his face, and there seemed to be a strange pity in his face: "It's impossible not to be disappointed, everyone starts a relationship based on a good imagination. As for what you said about not leaving... If you and the other party are not too wronged, then you are very lucky."

This consultation on how to pursue the sweetheart has completely turned into a big discussion on the concept of love between brothers.Seeing that classmate Tao Zhizhi's face was so ugly, and he would go downstairs to have dinner together soon, Tao Ran didn't want to take the blame for bullying his younger brother as soon as he came back, so he quickly started to divert the conflict.

"You've asked me so much, what are you thinking now? It seems that you are also the kind of person who asks for whatever you want. I'm also curious about what kind of thinking that is."

He thought Tao Zhi thought that the girl he liked would smile and even say something with joy.Unexpectedly, the other party was very serious, and his lips were pursed into a line when he was thinking. Looking at it this way, he was already a heroic young man.

"I didn't think about it that much, really, just liking someone is rare in itself, I don't think I will have too many opportunities like this. If I have the ability to make another person happy, even if it's just for a while, even if I end up Or if she decides to leave, I am also willing to be that brave person. It is better to fail than to miss out."

"..."

Recently, I really went crazy, I flew here from a long distance, and I heard the same logic again.Tao Ran stared at him for a while, and finally sighed: "You sound so much like that Mr. Almost."

Accompanied by the smell of meat and oil gradually wafting up, the voice of Ms. Li calling them to eat had already spread upstairs.Tao Ran stood up, stretched, and was about to leave the room.At this moment, Tao Zhi who was on the sofa jumped up suddenly, grabbed him, and asked cheerfully, "Do you mean that if I chase her like this, she will definitely agree to me?"

Tao Ran didn't bother to talk to him anymore.