On the Formation of a Pseudo Stand-In

"There's only one beauties in the harem." He exhaled silently, and he tried his best to lighten his tone, "Whose brand can you turn?"

After finishing speaking, he turned sideways, rubbed the little guy who was struggling with his eyelids with all his strength, into his arms, patted his back with his right hand, and coaxed: "Okay, go to sleep, your eyelids will soon grow into magnets." gone."

Without giving the other party another chance to duplicity, he immediately answered, "It just so happens that I'm sleepy too."

After all, he yawned exaggeratedly.

This serious appearance made Ye Luo tremble in his bosom, and after laughing, he buried his face in the pajamas material on his chest and rubbed it several times.

Afterwards, he hummed, and finally relaxed his nerves that had been tense for a long time.

Ye Luo's voice was like sticky maltose, sweet and cohesive when he spoke: "Then, good night."

After a pause for a few seconds, he added softly, "... see you tomorrow."

The last three words were thrown out carefully like a parabola, and they were almost inaudible when they finally landed.

"Good night." Hearing this, Mu Chengan's heart felt sour and cold like being poured into bubbling orange soda.

He had no choice but to hug the person in his arms tighter, rubbed his chin against the top of his head affectionately, and added loudly, "See you tomorrow."

After that, no one spoke.

It was raining patter outside the window, and the wind slipped in along the open window, making the uncovered area of ​​Mu Chengan's back chilly.

He didn't move, just buried his head in the moonlight and looked again and again.

The person in his arms opened his mouth slightly, sleeping peacefully, like a child.

He didn't let go to cover the quilt, but instead drew his arms tighter, allowing the person in his arms to sink completely into his arms.

-

When he was about eight or nine years old, Ye Luo often went to the school two streets away, tiptoeing to eavesdrop on other children's classes.

The schools back then were not very formal, and the gates were never closed during school, and the children nearby would like to sneak in to play. Ye Luo would stand next to a classroom on the first floor and look in through the window sill.

Because there were discarded bricks and tiles, when standing on tiptoes, it was just enough for him to see the words on the blackboard.

However, starting from a certain day, the reason for choosing this place is not only this one.

It was a boy a few years older than himself, who sat by the window and dozed off every day. Every time Ye Luo came back, the window was closed tightly, and he couldn't hear the sound inside.

Until one day, for the first time in history, the boy did not fall asleep, and chose to stare at the window and wander away.

Ye Luo, who came in a hurry and finally got up on tiptoe, met his eyes.

Ye Luo was still panting, but he was caught off guard by the shocked eyes and almost slipped, almost falling down.

After finally stabilizing his figure, when he was about to slip away, he noticed that the boy's brows and eyes changed from wide-eyed shock to softness like coaxing a child.

At that time, Ye Luo didn't know what warmth was, but simply thought that that smile was too pretty, so that he wanted to get close, so that he didn't want to leave for a while.

Before he could make up his mind, he saw the young man looking at the podium a few times, and when he turned his head, he made a silencing motion on his lips with his index finger——

Then, the slender and white fingers gently opened the window.

The voice finally came out. There were whispers from teenagers and the high-pitched voice of a middle-aged man. When they got into his ears, Ye Luo felt a tingling sense of satisfaction all over his body.

However, at this moment, he didn't concentrate on listening carefully, but instead focused all his attention on the young man who was writing something.

After the young man finished writing, he tore the piece of paper from the notebook, rolled it up, and stuffed it out through the seam.

—Little one, what are you doing here?

The boy's handwriting is really beautiful.

There are not many people around Ye Luo who can read and write, and even fewer who can write. It was the first time that he put down his face and begged for help, so he learned to read from a neighbor's children of the same age.

During that time, I often sneaked to the next door to knock on the door when that person was not around.

It just so happened that during that time, that person somehow met a group of "friends" who were "playing" and disappeared every two days, as if Ye Luo had been completely forgotten.

The biggest obstacle was gone for the time being, and Ye Luo cherished this hard-won opportunity even more.

Children are kind-hearted, yet childish, and love to show off. Every day, they try their best to pour out what they know.

Ye Luo was very cooperative. Every time he learned ten characters, he would praise the other party for his cleverness. Before he knew it, Ye Luo understood the pinyin and learned a lot of characters.

Also, I can write simple Chinese characters crookedly, and my own name.

Unfortunately, the good times are not long.

Not long after, the only family who sent their children to school, the "bunch of prodigals" in the alley, finally saved enough money and moved out of here.

That day, when the kid next door stood at the door holding a box containing toys, he still had a sense of aloofness of an "intellectual".

The difference is that, for the first time ever, he opened his mouth that day: "I'm moving out today... I won't be able to teach you how to write anymore."

"After I leave, you will be the person in this alley who can read and write the most words."

"Everyone will adore you as much as you adore me... happy?"

Ye Luo didn't feel happy, even a little sad.

It's not that he is reluctant to part with anyone, after all, it would be a kind of irony if such feelings of reluctance appear in this pool of stagnant water.

He wasn't reluctant, but felt that once the family left, the alley would return to its former lifelessness.

Even if this family's stubbornness doesn't affect these people, even for the people here, their only value is as a joke for after-dinner refreshments.

But Ye Luo just felt that it was different.

The specific difference, Ye Luo couldn't tell.

It's probably like someone throwing a stone into the stagnant water when passing by. The stone will sink to the bottom as soon as it falls, and the waves won't even rise for two seconds.

But what if there are no more people throwing stones?

Ye Luo sank into the stagnant water, waved to his former little friend, and said nothing.

The other party seemed bored, and muttered: "It's like this again... If it wasn't for that time when you came here to ask me to teach you how to read, I would have thought you were dumb."

"Learning characters is fast, but just talking like this, I haven't improved."

Ye Luo wasn't angry, he knew that the other party was taking a gamble because he hated iron but not steel, on the contrary, he was finally relieved of the pressure because of the other party's scolding.

He smiled sincerely, and finally said, "Thank you for being willing to teach me so many things."

"I hope everything goes well after you leave here."

In fact, as long as you leave this place, no matter how hard or tired you are, you will get better, Ye Luo thought.

Anyway, there is hope ahead.

The other party said awkwardly, as if embarrassed, buried his head in counting his toys, and was silent for a while, until his father yelled in the car, telling him to get in the car soon.

Only then did the little boy come back to his senses, he turned his head and said loudly, wait a minute.

He turned his head to stare at himself, and said a long series of words eagerly, as if he had accumulated a backlog in his heart for a long time, and he couldn't find an outlet. Until now, he finally had a chance to vent: "Actually, the first time I When I saw you, I felt that you would leave here before me..."

"As long as you think of a way and go to school, you will definitely have a chance to get out of this ghost place..."

Ye Luo knew what he meant, but apart from being moved, he was more flustered. He didn't dare to listen to such words, because he couldn't escape at all.

The little boy didn't know that not everyone was so lucky.

He has such powerful parents, who have struggled in this place for so many years without losing their muscles and bones. How much they have gone through, they can grit their teeth and walk out of the alley today with their children with their heads held high.

Not only did Ye Luo have no backing, not only was he short of a car that would take him out, but he also had a rope tied tightly around his wrist, and he had those dirty fingers that were like a nightmare.

The man's fingers were calloused, and he couldn't wash them clean all the year round. He always put strange things under his nose, and laughed out loud admiring his frightened expression.

How dare you go, how can you go?

It is my greatest luck to have the opportunity to escape occasionally and take a peek at the outside world.

—Little one, what are you doing here?

Ye Luo recovered and looked at the note, feeling that the writing on it was tens of thousands of times better than that written by the little boy next door. Fortunately, he once believed the other party's words, thinking that the dog crawling essay that he wanted to write now would really be praised by the teacher every day.

Just as he was thinking, he dangled in the crack of the window, and stretched out a pen.

Ye Luo blinked, wiped his hand on his clothes a few times, and then took it with great care. The pen was still warm when it was held in his hand, it was extremely warm.

Ye Luo pursed her lips, and carefully wrote the word "learning" on the paper.

But no matter how serious I am, after all, I haven’t held the pen for too long, and the words I write are always crooked. I even forgot that there were three points on it when I first wrote the pen, and the last point was added later.

Waiting for the second word...

Ye Luo, who had never read a book, held back the sweat on his brow and didn't even think about how to write.

His face flushed for a full minute, and Ye Luo, who was afraid that the other party would wait too long and impatient, had to write a pinyin of the word "Xi" in a hurry.

After folding the paper randomly and hurriedly stuffing it through the window, Ye Luo glanced at the two rows of words.

The crooked pinyin and characters that I patched together, looked even more ugly and embarrassing under the smooth questioning of the other party.

During the whole process of stuffing the paper in, Ye Luo didn't dare to raise his head during the silence after the end, and could only think wildly——

Will the other party despise me, can't even write such a simple word?

Ye Luo was lying on the window sill, thinking more and more desperately, just when he was thinking about stuffing the pen back and running away, the piece of paper dangled out from the window again.

Ye Luo exploded into the sky from the deep sea in an instant, looked up and saw the boy smiled softly, and tapped the origami with his index finger.

Joy swept through the cells of his body in an instant, and he opened the paper with shaking hands, only to see the boy draw a big smiling face under his crooked words.

After the smiling face, he answered the sentence——

Your writing is so cute, and the people are interesting. It's the first time I've seen anyone say they want to learn.

These words are well-behaved, like a boy who can talk to anyone when he is bored, but the remaining few sentences seem to come on a whim, and the words are obviously erratic——

How about making friends with me if you come every day?

What the teacher said is so boring, if I teach you, it will definitely be much faster to learn.

But as a tuition fee, when you are free, come and chat with me.

If you agree, just sign your name below, the default is the puppy.

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