custom rival

"I know you are Jiang Yan..." He repeated it again, this time he couldn't control the choking and trembling of his voice, and he let out a long breath before speaking again: "I'm fine, don't worry—you Let go, it hurts me so much."

Jiang Yan loosened his grip and said cautiously, "Brother is worried about you."

Xi Zhikong couldn't break free, so he gave up struggling and turned around in his arms, putting his hands on his chest.

This posture was really warm and ambiguous, Xi Zhikong was indeed comforted, but now that Jiang Yan was holding him tightly, he felt that the atmosphere was a bit awkward.

"Well, let go and talk about it, what do you look like holding me like this."

After Jiang Yan realized it, he quickly let go of his arm and said something sorry in a low voice.

"Before, I... didn't want to go to school." Xi Zhikong smiled wryly, raised his hand and wiped the corners of his eyes, and said, "Jiang Yan, I thought I was a kid—no, actually I'm not a kid anymore. This kind of family, I should grow up faster.

"When I was a child, I got used to my parents' protection, my aunt who treated me like my own son, and asked you to protect me and let me go. Suddenly one day when I lost my mother, I felt that I couldn't handle it.

"Later, something happened to my dad. Every day when I opened my eyes, I saw that I was alone at home. I was even more scared, so—"

Jiang Yan lowered his head and interrupted him with a smile: "So you stopped clinging to me and stopped coming to my house, are you afraid that even I will leave you in the end?

"You still want to drop out of school and work? You're quite courageous."

There was another layer of water vapor in Xi Zhikong's eyes, he turned around while tears fell, raised his hand to wipe his face and pretended to be relaxed: "Oh, you guessed it."

"Guess what!" Jiang Yan grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. Seeing him raising his head and trying to blink back the tears rolling down his eyes, his heart began to throb again.

He raised his hand to hold Xi Zhikong's face, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with his thumb, sighed and said softly: "Are you stupid, you think a lot at such a young age, why did my brother leave you?"

"You took advantage of me again. We were born on the same day, so you only came out for a few minutes first..." Xi Zhikong curled his lips.

Seeing that he looked cute, Jiang Yan rubbed his cheeks vigorously, pretending to be fierce and said: "If you don't tell me about such things again in the future, I will—"

Xi Zhikong frowned, his big eyes looked lively and well-behaved with water vapor, and said vaguely: "Well...what are you doing-wow, let go!"

Jiang Yan pinched his face and said with a smile, "I'm going to beat someone up."

It was getting colder and colder, Xi Zhikong was wearing too little, he shivered and folded his arms and said, "It's so cold, can we get out of this damn place."

"Let's go, you can explain things to me slowly on the way." Jiang Yan reached out and grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the main road, feeling a lot more relaxed.

"I haven't explained anything clearly, I said everything!"

"Where are you going to work tomorrow, what are you doing, what time do you go to work, and what time do you leave work, have you made it clear?"

"Oh, I just go to the convenience store. The night shift is from [-]:[-] pm to [-]:[-] am. It's just the cash register and cleaning..."

"Which convenience store, how much is it for an hour? And..."

……

Jiang Yan walked briskly ahead of Xi Zhikong, and when he reached the downstairs of his house, Xi Zhikong stopped him and said thank you softly.He stopped under the street lamp, rubbing the thumb of his right hand against the tiger's mouth of his left hand, and after a moment of silence, he turned around and said that you are welcome.

In the evening, Jiang Yan used Xi Zhikong's "secret" to threaten him to stay at home. Xi Zhikong looked at Jiang Wen and Lian Guangji in front of him and dared not speak out.Then Jiang Wen stuffed two sets of new clothes into his hands and asked him to try them on for himself. He stared at Jiang Yan while entering his room and locked the door.

Jiang Wen likes to buy some solid-color shirts and T-shirts for Jiang Yan, and often looks at the outfits of fashion bloggers on Weibo. Jiang Yan has always been at the forefront of campus fashion. There are too many clothes in the closet to hang. Jiang Wen finds someone to order Made a hanger and stood it in the study to hang his clothes.

She bought two light-colored tops for Xi Zhikong, a pair of light blue jeans, and a pair of black slacks.Although Xi Zhikong is not as tall as Jiang Yan, his body proportions are also very good, with long legs and a slightly smaller frame than Jiang Yan.

When he got dressed and came out, Jiang Yan stood beside him, grabbed his shoulders naturally and said, "The clothes my mother bought are so beautiful."

"If you want to praise my younger brother for his good clothes, you can do it. Why do you say that the clothes I bought are so beautiful... or our Xiao Kong is the most beautiful, and these eyes are so beautiful..." Jiang Wen raised her hand and stroked his forehead. Seeing this, Xi Zhikong quickly smiled and said thank you, auntie.

Jiang Wen wanted to adopt Xi Zhikong, but she never dared to mention it.

She didn't tell Jiang Yan, but she mentioned it to Lian Guangji, and Lian Guangji agreed, but she still didn't dare to tell Xi Zhikong himself.Such a well-behaved child in her heart is actually struggling with a life that is too cruel to him, and has never given up. Any concern from her may stimulate his sensitive heart.

She felt that the time was not ripe, so she has been waiting.

"Mom, I still have something to say to Xiaokong, let's go back to the room first." Jiang Yan pushed Xi Zhikong back to the room and turned to lock the door.

Xi Zhikong: "...what are you doing?"

"Why don't you go to bed so late?" Jiang Yan changed his clothes and fell on the bed, patted the place beside him, and said, "Why are you standing there?"

Xi Zhikong moved slowly to the side of the bed, hesitantly asked: "Do you have anything else to say?"

Jiang Yan curled up his lips and asked him, "How is your Huang Wen career going?"

"I told you it wasn't Huang Wen—well, what I wrote before was true, but then I took serious orders!" Xi Zhikong sat on the bed, patted his legs cross-legged on the pillow, and argued hard.

"Okay, okay, I get it." Jiang Yan reached out and hooked his neck to pull him down, with his long legs draped across his body, "I'm sleepy, go to sleep, don't you have to go to work tomorrow?"

Xi Zhikong was speechless: "I will go in the afternoon..."

"Then go to bed early."

"..."

After a few minutes.

Jiang Yan squinted his eyes and felt Xi Zhikong move, and immediately asked, "What are you doing?"

"...I go to the bathroom."

Xi Zhikong stood in front of the mirror in the toilet, looked at himself in the mirror and suddenly smiled, then looked down at his hands after a while, and then made a few gestures on his waist, thinking of Jiang Yan's warm chest, his ears felt sore, his two Without any warning, a few traces of blush flew on her cheeks, and she muttered: "This person is sick, what are you doing hugging me?"

The next day.

Because he had to work until the early hours of the morning, Xi Zhikong had no choice but to hurry up and write his homework.Jiang Yan wrote whatever he wrote, except that it was difficult to catch up with his progress and rhythm in mathematics, and the other subjects were relatively smooth.

Seeing Jiang Yan finished, Xi Zhikong flipped through the last math problem in the workbook and pushed it in front of him, "How to do this problem?"

"This question is a bit difficult. Let me take a look at these formulas first." Jiang Yan put the finished homework aside, took a new manuscript paper, and wrote the name of the formula in the blank space for him.

Xi Zhikong looked at it for a while, and after thinking for 2 minutes, he picked up a pen and began to write seriously.While writing Jiang Yan, he corrected a few small mistakes for him, and patiently explained how each step came about.

"Jiang Yan, I think you can become a teacher in the future." Xi Zhikong said suddenly.

Jiang Yan compared the steps he had just written down, and after confirming that they were correct, he marked a few key points with a red pen, and said, "Why did you say that suddenly?"

"You are really too patient."

Jiang Yan laughed and said, "I am very patient with you."

Seeing the smile on the corner of his mouth, Xi Zhikong missed another beat from his heart—this person, why is he so strange recently.

That—why is there a root sign here? "

Jiang Yan was too serious, unaware of Xi Zhikong's blunt change of subject, and took his notes from his schoolbag, "There are some in the notes I copied for you last time, you go back and take a look carefully, look, this ..."

……

In the afternoon, Jiang Wen and Lian Guangji went out. It was almost four o'clock when Xi Zhikong finally finished his homework. He hurriedly packed up his things and prepared to go out. Jiang Yan took the keys and followed to the entrance to put on his shoes.

"Huh? Are you going out too?"

Xi Zhikong asked him.

Jiang Yan put on his shoes and pushed someone out the door, saying, "I'll take you to work."

"You sent me? Send me?" Xi Zhikong held the clothes Jiang Wen bought for him in his hand, stopped at the stairs and asked, "Why did you send me? It's not like I can't find it."

"I can't find it. I'll go with you once. I've never heard of the place you mentioned."

Xi Zhikong's heartbeat suddenly accelerated again. He didn't know why Jiang Yan insisted on "sending" him to work, and he didn't know why this man suddenly cared about him so much during this period—maybe it wasn't a sudden caring.It dawned on him.

He has been busy with his life recently, and it seems that he hasn't paid attention to Jiang Yan for a long time.

It used to be like that, chasing after him and chasing people away.

Why did it suddenly turn around?

Xi Zhikong stepped to the convenience store. The boss was sitting at a small table outside drinking tea, raised his hand and looked at his watch without lifting his eyelids, and said, "I'm almost late. Don't be late for work."

"Okay boss, I'm sorry because I haven't been here before, so I searched for a while." Xi Zhikong apologized again and again, Jiang Yan pushed open the door of the convenience store and walked in, looking around the store back and forth .

The boss closed the newspaper in his hand and led Xi Zhikong into the back warehouse.

"You should familiarize yourself with the situation in the store today. To be honest, this is the first time I am recruiting work-study students. I also see that your situation is special, so you must be more serious about things." The boss pointed at the messy warehouse and Xi Zhikong After explaining some precautions, he glanced at Jiang Yan who was leaning against the door, and asked him, "Your friend?"

"Well, this is my friend. We're in the same class."

The boss nodded without saying anything, and led the person to the cashier counter, and asked the cashier who was cashing out to show him the operation, and then asked Xi Zhikong to try it out by himself, "It's easy to teach, and you can learn it once you learn it." , Be careful when cashier, be careful not to receive counterfeit money, large bills must go through the money detector."

Xi Zhikong responded and studied the banknote detector again.

Jiang Yan sat on the edge of the bar next to the floor-to-ceiling windows in the store, gnawed boredly with a piece of corn sausage in his mouth, and looked back from time to time.

"Okay, that's about it. The salary I told you before is 20 yuan an hour, paid every half a month. If you have anything to do, contact the store manager." The boss patted Xi Zhikong on the shoulder, turned and left the store.

Holding the blue overalls in his arms, Xi Zhikong walked behind Jiang Yan and said, "You can go home now, I have agreed with you, and I will start working tonight."

"Then I'll go back first, you—what time do you leave work?" Jiang Yan took out his mobile phone to look at it, then counted eight hours back by himself, and said, "I don't get off work until two o'clock."

"Well, I'll just ride my bike back later. You should go back quickly. It's time for dinner at home."

Jiang Yan raised his eyebrows, jumped down from the chair and patted the hem of his clothes, "Then I'll go back, work hard, I'll take care of you."

"...you talk a lot."

Xi Zhikong sent the person out of the store, familiarized himself with the workflow for a while, and even tidied up the warehouse before handing over the shift.He didn't know how long it had been since the shelves in the warehouse hadn't been tidied and cleaned. When he pulled down the waste cardboard boxes above, there was a burst of dust, which made him want to shed tears.

While moving the cardboard boxes out, he sighed that life was not easy.

But this is just the beginning, and I don’t know how much more similar work will be done in the future.

He secretly cheered himself up, and suddenly Jiang Yan's smiling face appeared in his mind.

He thought to himself, the aftereffect of that hug last night was too strong.

Later, at 06:30, he officially started his work after completing the handover with the previous staff member.

There are more customers than usual on weekend nights, and they provide hot water for free on weekends. This is what the store manager just asked him to heat up the hot water every hour.The newly opened store is not enough manpower. He has to take care of the hygiene of the store at the same time as the cash register. When someone finishes eating instant noodles or self-heating lunch boxes, he has to clean up as soon as possible. These are not difficult for him. Generally speaking, the first day of work went smoothly, but in the middle of the night, he started to feel sleepy after eleven o'clock.

He played some music for himself to refresh himself, and when he was too sleepy, he read a book.From eleven o'clock to twelve o'clock, it was obviously only an hour, but he felt like his days were like years.

Standing at the checkout counter drowsy and trying to keep his energy up, he was really sleepy when he got up to 01:30, and he planned to open the store door and go for a walk.

Seeing that he was about to get off work, he took off the apron around his waist. When he pushed open the glass door, the wind chimes jingled, and a gust of cool wind hit his face, which made him wake up a lot.

There were a few food stalls bustling along the street, and the sound of the boss hawking and delivering orders came to his ears, and he suddenly felt a little hungry.

He stood on the edge of the sidewalk and stretched, and when he turned around, a familiar figure broke into his sight.

...It's Jiang Yan.

With two bags still steaming in his hands, Jiang Yan trotted over lightly with a piece of clothing hanging on his arm.

Why is he here?

Xi Zhikong couldn't help it, he smiled at the visitor without even realizing it.

"Why are you here?" He asked Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan didn't speak, and his eyes signaled him to follow into the store.He put the things on the bar, rubbed his hands, and said, "Can you eat during working hours?"

Then he looked at the time, it was 10:[-], it was [-]:[-], and he said, "It doesn't matter, there are still [-] minutes left, let's treat it as you are off work, come and eat."

Xi Zhikong's mind was still empty.There are only two bowls of steaming late-night snacks in my eyes.