custom rival

The setting sun in autumn seems to be burning more prosperously than in summer, hanging in the sky and sinking slowly, the afterglow wraps around the two people who are going home side by side, and casts long shadows in front of them.

Jiang Yan thought over Shu Jiyue's words over and over again, turning his face to look at Xi Zhikong from time to time, his mind was full of "what if my emptiness is taken away by someone", staring at him so that the person frowned and looked at him: " Why do you keep looking at me today, is there something wrong with me?"

Jiang Yan shook her head instinctively: "I found you are a little cuter today."

This is really -- too earthy.

Xi slandered on an empty stomach.

He raised his eyebrows: "Did you do something to apologize to me again?"

Jiang Yan thought, pretending that the benefactor asked you to write love letters to me, if you write twenty love letters, does that count?

It's better not to be frank about this matter. If you say it now, this person will only think that he is sick.He then smiled and said, "What can I do to be sorry for you."

——At most, I just like you too much, I can't control myself, and the situation is getting worse, that's all.

He was still thinking carefully about how to make Xi Zhikong receive his love signal smoothly, and the two of them had already walked to the door of the house without paying attention.Xi Zhikong continued to walk forward, he conditionedly reached out and hooked his collar to hold him back, and raised his voice and asked: "I just told my mother the day before yesterday that I would come to eat every day, and you want to go back on it?"

"I didn't want to go back on my word... I just did, I just came home with my schoolbag!"

Xi Zhikong actually wanted to repent.

Because he made an appointment for an online interview at night.It was an interview, but it was just a 24-hour convenience store job. He told the boss that he was only 16 years old, and the boss didn’t dare to use it. He said that he didn’t look like a 16-year-old. He looked like an adult student. The boss let go Let’s have a good chat and make a video if it’s convenient.

But Jiang Wen must not let Jiang Wen know about this. He must complete his part-time career without anyone noticing, so as not to drink the northwest wind next month.

He didn't like to cause trouble for others, so when his aunt contacted him that day and said that the living expenses would be paid later, although he was really shy in his pocket, he sensibly refused the living expenses for that month.He thought it over, when the part-time job is done this weekend, if he saves a little more, he should be able to finish high school smoothly.

Just go to college, he thought.

Jiang Yan obviously didn't listen to his rhetoric, and directly unloaded his schoolbag quickly, holding it in his hand and standing at the place of four or five steps, shouting to him: "Eat first, then go home."

"Is this okay? I'll keep the schoolbag in your hand. I'll go home first—"

"What are you doing at home? Besides, your schoolbag is worthless, so there's nothing to bet on it." Jiang Yan turned and walked up. From the corner of his eye, he was still observing the movement of Xi Zhikong downstairs. After walking up a few steps, he said, "Have a meal." The meal won't take much time, my mother has already prepared all the meals, hurry up."

Xi Zhikong's last thought of struggling was dispelled because Jiang Yan moved Jiang Wen out. He turned around and followed up the stairs, muttering: "Then I'll go home after dinner."

Jiang Yan was noncommittal, took the key and opened the door.

As expected, Jiang Wen cooked a table of dishes and waited for him. When she heard the movement outside the door, she opened the door and welcomed the person in before Jiang Yan unlocked it.Even Guangji was there, with an easy-going smile and waved to Xi Zhikong.

When the four of them were sitting at the dinner table, Jiang Yan had already acquiesced that this was his future "family of four", and he kept adding vegetables to the empty bowl with his heart on his mind.

"...Jiang Yan, I can't make enough bowls."

Xi Zhikong didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he put a few pieces of meat on the noodles back into his bowl and said: "I can't eat so much, you should hurry up and eat."

"We Yanyan know that we love my brother." Jiang Wen brought up a bowl of soup for everyone, put down the soup spoon and tasted it first, feeling that the taste was a little weak, got up and went to the kitchen to get salt.

Jiang Yan shared another piece of meat that Xi Zhikong brought back with him, and said, "When will I not feel sorry for him anymore."

Xi Zhikong shook his hand, and the spoon fell into the bowl.

Afterwards, Jiang Wen ate the whole meal in silence. At the dinner table, Jiang Wen wished to cut the table and put it in a bowl for Xi Zhikong.He put down the bowl and wanted to wash the dishes as a snack, but Jiang Wen pushed him out of the kitchen and called Jiang Yan to go out with him for a snack.

Jiang Yan was in a good mood, hugged Jiang Wen and kissed her.

"Thank you mom!"

Xi Zhikong stood at the door of the kitchen: "...?"

A few minutes later, the two went out the door one after the other.Two alleys away from their street is a leisure park. He and Jiang Wen occasionally come for a walk after dinner.There are not many people at the moment, and the park is quiet.

At seven o'clock, the lights in various parts of the garden were turned on on time.The whole park is too bright, it looks a little noisy instead.

In order to avoid the open space for square dancing, Jiang Yan and Xi Zhikong walked deep into the road without paying attention to the road ahead. Rubbing his arms, he said, "How did we get here?"

"Huh? Ah... here seems to be—" Jiang Yan looked around and felt that the atmosphere was just right, so he just sat down on the bamboo chair and row of stools in front of him, and said, "It seems that the environment is quite good."

Xi Zhikong couldn't agree with his words while his back was getting cold, he continued to rub his arms and took a deep breath and said, "Do you have something to tell me?"

Jiang Yan immediately looked up at him, and patted the position beside him.

"We both grew up together, you can't just say anything, you're just talking..." Xi Zhikong muttered and sat down beside him, leaning on the back of the chair with arms folded and looking at him.

The surroundings were quiet, and there was a long silence between the two of them. The surroundings were so quiet that occasionally a few passers-by watched them leave quickly.

Jiang Yan didn't think about confessing his heart to him now, not only because he was afraid that Xi Zhikong would not be ready, but he himself was not ready either.

He knew that the appearance of this feeling was not sudden, and it was not without reason, but after all, Xikong still didn't know anything about it. If he said it at this time, it would inevitably appear aggressive.

After a while, Xi Zhikong couldn't bear it anymore, he suddenly asked loudly: "Jiang Yan, what are you talking about!"

Jiang Yan finally cleared his throat and said, "Nothing special, I just want to ask you—how do you think I treat you?"

What do you mean by how you treat me?

Xi Zhikong frowned puzzled, and asked again: "You just want to ask this? You put so much effort into asking this—"

"You answer me first before you can continue to ask, you talk first."

Seeing Jiang Yan's "I'm just cheating" look, Xi Zhikong was angry and felt funny, "If you waste my time instead of asking me for something important, I'll be really angry." What a joke, this If it were someone else, he would have turned his head and left, and he was still playing some bad game of trying to get him here.

"I think you are very nice to me, then what?"

Xi Zhikong didn't say anything, and he didn't ask anything, Jiang Yan's heart was pounding like a drum.He sat up from the back of the chair, put on a serious expression and asked, "I'm very good to you, how good is it?"

"...Jiang Yan, what on earth are you trying to say? Why are you so awkward all of a sudden?"

"I——" Jiang Yan is indeed one of the rare times when he can't speak in front of Xi Zhikong. When he straightened his tongue and was about to ask the next question, Xi Zhikong's cell phone rang.

God is not helping me, Jiang Yan thought.

Seeing the caller ID, Xi Zhikong was a little flustered. He turned off the ringtone and locked the phone screen with the side button. Jiang Yan still saw the name he saved: the owner of the convenience store.

He couldn't hang up the phone, so he could only bite the bullet and answer it in front of Jiang Yan.

"Hi, hello. It's Xi Zhikong to me, um... well, I'm sorry. I just finished the exam today, and I was delayed by something at school... Yes! Yes, yes, tomorrow, right? Okay, then I will Come over at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon, okay, okay, thank you!"

After hanging up the phone, Xi Zhikong got his first job in his life, a part-time night shift job in a convenience store on weekends, which costs 320 yuan more at night than during the day, and [-] hours of night shift, [-] yuan for two days on weekends, and the living expenses are covered.

Jiang Yan had no other thoughts in his mind. When Xi Zhikong put his phone away with a smile on his face, he frowned and asked, "What are you going to do tomorrow? Part-time job?"

"Well, I told you that you must never tell your mother." Xi Zhikong thought for a while and decided to confess to Jiang Yan first.

Jiang Yan nodded: "Then you explain clearly to me, and I will handle it as appropriate."

"We still have to deal with it as appropriate..." Xi Zhikong curled his lips, pinching the hem of his clothes with his thumb and forefinger to wrinkle the place, and after a while he said in a muffled voice: "My living allowance... is gone."

Jiang Yan got up from the chair suddenly: "No more? What is no more? Didn't your uncle and aunt agree to give you every month—"

"Yes, I agreed to give me living expenses every month, but others are not philanthropists, they also have to live, I can't always rely on them." Xi Zhikong hurriedly interrupted him, and took a few steps forward Hanging his hands by his side, he said slowly, "And my dad doesn't know when he will be able to come out, I——I want to save money to go to college."

"No, then you, why didn't you tell me? You said I can help you figure out a solution together!" Jiang Yan was anxious, stepped forward and grabbed Xi Zhikong's wrist, tightening his fingers hard enough to pinch him My wrist hurts.

Xi Zhikong also put his hand on Jiang Yan's arm and slowly pushed him down, saying in a low voice: "I don't want to cause trouble for others, I think everyone's life is quite difficult, not easy."

"Then am I someone else?!" Jiang Yan looked down at the back of Xi Zhikong's hands, suddenly raised his arms and put them on his shoulders, and asked him: "Am I someone else? I'm asking you!"

"Jiang Yan!" Xi Zhikong shook his hands and took a step back, "That's why I don't want to tell you, tell Auntie, I'm not hypocritical, I can live a good life on my own, do you understand?"

"What a fart!" Jiang Yan lost control a little bit, he was very angry at Xi Zhikong's concealment.

He treated him as an outsider out of the banquet, and was even more angry at himself for letting him survive such a long period of time alone.

He claims to be kind to Xi Zhikong, but he is so "good" that he doesn't know anything about his current situation.

Xi Zhikong hesitated to speak, turned around and said, "Go back, it's so cold. Don't worry about me, I'm just going to work. There are many people worse than me, and it's not necessarily that they all—"

He was suddenly speechless.

He felt something hit his back, and the bang made him flustered, his heart seemed to stop beating, and he was even a little out of breath.

——Jiang Yan hugged Xi Zhikong from behind, his arms strangled him so tightly that his heart was about to be crushed and explode.

Xi Zhikong didn't have time to ask the reason, he seemed to accept the hug as a matter of course - his eyes were sore, the scenery in front of him was blurred, he gritted his back teeth and didn't dare to look back.Before the two of them said a word, he was sad to death.

He obviously didn't want to show the person behind him how embarrassed he was running around for his life, but the seemingly pointless persistence he held in his hands fell apart in this embrace in an instant.

"I know you don't want to trouble others, but I'm not someone else. I'm Jiang Yan, the Jiang Yan who grew up with you and wore a pair of pants, it's your brother Yan, it's you——your best...friend...you How can you make me understand if you don't tell me about such a big thing?"

Jiang Yan made several swallowing movements repeatedly, trying his best to adjust the disordered breathing between the mouth and nose to a normal rhythm.

He almost couldn't hold back, so he said it.

But the current Xi Zhikong would not accept him no matter what. He knew in his heart that this person had a very strong self-esteem and would only treat his feelings as charity.

"I know you are Jiang Yan."

Just because you are Jiang Yan, my best friend, the person I most want and rely on the most, we have not grown up yet, how can I share with you this fucking life that is about to overwhelm me" ".

And having you in my life is already great. This is clearly a gift, a gift from God that I should cherish even more.If I still stick to you all the time like when I was a child, I am afraid that one day you will be bored and tired, and then I will lose you.

Xi Zhikong was extremely sad.He endured and endured to hold back the tears.

The last time he cried was when his father was arrested and imprisoned.

Since his mother passed away unexpectedly in a car accident, his father is no longer a complete person.He lived in a daze, made mistakes repeatedly in the unit, and the leaders' kind reminders and severe criticisms failed to change his state. Finally, one day he signed a document by mistake and caused the company to suffer huge losses. The superiors tracked him down and lost his job. , and then worked as a security guard in a private company, and his spirit gradually became abnormal.

But Xi Chuzhi has always been an upright man, dignified and down-to-earth. After marrying his wife, he lived a poor life but never thought of it wrongly. What happened to the father.

At that time, Xi Chuzhi couldn't talk to Xi Zhikong normally, and often forgot what he was doing while talking.Xi Zhikong's aunt took him to the hospital for an examination. The doctor said that he suffered from a mental illness that Xi Zhikong couldn't understand because of the huge blow.

He didn't believe that Xi Chuzhi could carry out a robbery and murder case calmly and calmly. He wrote a long, long letter of love and sent it to the judicial department, and sent it to the police in charge of Xi Chuzhi's case. The judge of the first instance of the case.

For a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child, to achieve that step is already all.

When the verdict was pronounced in the first instance, Xi Chuzhi still refused to admit it. He was already incoherent in court, and the only thing left in his mouth was "I don't have it."So my aunt submitted materials to the court for a retrial.This time at the scene of the second trial, Xi Chuzhi actually pleaded guilty in court.

The public prosecutor breathed a sigh of relief, but the judge looked at Xi Zhikong with helplessness in his eyes. Xi Chuzhi cried bitterly and knelt down to apologize to his sister who had been working for him for more than half a year, saying sorry vaguely.

In the following six months, my aunt repeatedly expressed that she would take Xi Zhikong to see Xi Chuzhi, but he refused.He didn't want to admit that he had such a father at that time.

And one day after Xi Chuzhi was imprisoned for a year, Xi Zhikong came home and saw three strangers standing at the door of his house, put down a black bag and left. He didn't dare to chase them out, opened the bag and saw several Ten bundles of cash.

The originally ignorant child understood his father's compromise at that moment.

The 40 yuan has been kept at his home. In the past few years, he has not gone to the police with the money, nor has he moved half a cent. It is not difficult.

Xi Chuzhi compromised, but he couldn't compromise. That was what his mother taught him since he was a child. If a person wants to live, he has to live well—only by living decently can he be proud and free.

Apart from himself, only Jiang Yan knew the existence of the money, not even Jiang Wen.