windy city rainy season

Christmas is the Spring Festival for Westerners, Tao Yu is wrapped in a quilt and leaning against the window, cars are parked in front of the house across the street, and there is a Christmas tree surrounded by colorful lights in the yard.

What will they eat for the holidays?Tao Yu thought, it must not be dumplings.

In the past, he didn't like to celebrate festivals, especially the Spring Festival. During New Year's greetings, relatives would always ask his girlfriend three sentences.After two years of work, I was with Wei Wei. In the first year, he accompanied his parents back to his hometown during the Spring Festival. In the second year, he stayed in Beijing. Tao Yu asked him to go to Hainan.So Tao Yu never had a good impression of festivals.

Sitting alone in the deserted house at this time, he suddenly missed the festival scene with his family, the Spring Festival Gala he never liked to watch, and the dumplings that were cooked when the clock struck zero.

A white car drove up in the snow, which looked like the Cayenne outside the hospital. The car stopped at the door of Mr. Tang's house and then drove away, leaving Dr. Chang to walk home on the snow.

Tao Yu was a little surprised. He thought the other party would spend the night outside, and he became inexplicably flustered. He grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV. His eyes were fixed on the screen, but his ears drifted outside.He heard the other party enter the door, searched for dishes in the cupboard in the dining room, heard the sound of tin foil being torn, and then the microwave oven started to turn... Finally, he heard footsteps approaching him, and a plate of something with an unknown aroma was sent to him. to the front.

"Christmas Lasagna." Chang Zheng explained, "The traditional Christmas food, made by a friend's mother."

Tao Yu took it with mixed emotions. It turned out that he was going to his boyfriend's house for the holidays. Looking at the layers of things that looked like Italian meatloaf on the plate, he felt very stuffy in his stomach.

Chang Zheng didn't pay attention to his reaction, looked at the TV and asked, "Can you understand Spanish?"

Of course Tao Yu didn't understand, he pressed a station casually, his mind was not on the TV at all.Fortunately, the other party didn't wait for his answer, and turned back to the restaurant to rummage through the boxes.

"What are you looking for?"

"Anything to eat?"

Tao Yu looked at the plate in his hand: "The meatloaf you brought back?"

Chang Zheng didn't answer. He opened the cabinet next to the stove and found a bag of rice inside. He hesitated for two seconds and turned his head to ask, "Can you cook porridge?"

What's the situation?Carnivores switched to fasting?Tao Yu turned off the TV and came to the restaurant, looked at the other party suspiciously and asked, "Why is your face swollen?"

Dr. Chang held one side of his cheek and reluctantly said: "Wisdomtooth." (Translation: Wisdom tooth.)

Tao Yu suddenly realized, suppressed a smile and pushed him away, scooped out a cup of rice from the bag and poured it into the pot.The plate of puff pastry was placed on the dining table, but no one touched it.

"Have you had dinner?" Chang Zheng asked while watching him wash rice and cook porridge.

"I ate it. I went to Chinatown to buy the meal. I thought you wouldn't come back at night, so I didn't leave it for you."

"...Did I say I wouldn't come back?" Dr. Chang thought hard, suspecting that there was something wrong with his memory.

"Didn't you go to spend the holidays with your friends?" Tao Yu pretended to be relaxed, "What activities do Americans have on Christmas? Gala? Countdown to zero? The people of all states congratulate the federal government on Merry Christmas?"

Chang Zheng looked at him thoughtfully, but didn't answer.Tao Yu turned around to avoid his sight, looked at the tiny water bubbles at the bottom of the pot, as if laughing at his unrealistic thoughts before, they swelled and rose, and burst when they surfaced.A migrant who is still struggling on the line of food and clothing, what can he use to support those thoughts that are beyond his control.

"Did you go to the hospital to look for me?" Chang Zheng asked.

"No."

The water in the pot began to boil, Tao Yu turned off the low heat, and carried the quilt thrown in the living room back to the sofa where he slept.

"The porridge needs to be cooked for another 10 minutes. I'll turn off the fire later..."

"My dentist is on vacation." Chang Zheng interrupted him and said, "I asked Tony to help me check. He and his father are both dentists and have a clinic in Chinatown. He drove me to the clinic at night. I don't know you Went to the hospital too."

The air is filled with rice fragrance, mixed with some elusive atmosphere.Tao Yu didn't answer the conversation, and sat on the sofa wrapped in a quilt, not knowing what the other party meant by what he said, and he didn't want to think about it deeply, for fear of leaving an excuse for being sentimental.

"Tao Yu." Chang Zheng leaned against the door of the small living room and called his name softly, "Would you like to try dating me?"

He looked up in astonishment, and looked at the other party with a strange face: "A date?!"

Dr. Chang thought that he had made a mistake in his Chinese expression, so he asked again in English nervously: "Will you goona date with me?"

Tao Yu stammered for a long time and asked, "...Don't you have a dentist?"

Chang Zheng asked inexplicably, "What does having a dentist have to do with dating?"

"Aren't you dating your dentist?"

"I only date him when I see the dentist, no, that's not called a date..." Dr. Chang was worried about his Chinese expression, "I will call him when I need to see the dentist, what is that called?"

"Appointment?" Tao Yu realized that the two seemed to be not on the same channel, "Isn't Tony your boyfriend?"

"Of course not, he is just a friend. My dentist is not at work today, so I asked him to check me up. He brought me Lasangna made by his mother."

The room fell silent, and Tao Yu realized belatedly, was the other party confessing his love just now?It was a serious and exciting thing, how could it be completely wrong to interrupt the atmosphere.He coughed in embarrassment and said, "We just leave one door open, how can we 'date'?"

"That's different." Chang Zheng walked in, knelt on one knee by the sofa and said to him, "I want to know more about you, your preferences, your friends, I think you have conflicts with your family, as a roommate I I can't pry into your privacy, but as a couple, I want to know what is bothering you. I also want you to know me, so that we can know if we are suitable for each other."

Chang Zheng always speaks Chinese in a nondescript way, either making sentences like a primary school student, or making no distinction between written and spoken Chinese.But from these words, Tao Yu could tell that the other party was not just acting on the basis of feeling, but was seriously considering the possibility of their future.He couldn't help putting away his frivolous attitude, and looked at the other party with a little helplessness, not knowing what priority to follow.

Chang Zheng held his hand, leaned over and touched the corner of his lips and said, "I'm not a believer in St. Augustine, and I don't think sexual desire is a sin to be ashamed of, but I hope we can slow down and give each other more opportunity to learn more.”