journey

The next morning, Chu Jianguo was pushed into the operating room. Luo Nianli sat on the bench with her mother, Chu Zheng stood there leaning against the wall, staring at the ground thoughtfully, and many of his father His old comrades-in-arms and members of the army were also nervously waiting for Chief of Staff Chu.Luo Nianli raised his head and took a peek at Chu Zheng who was standing opposite. Chu Zheng seemed to have a feeling, and he also looked up at Luo Nianli. After staring at each other for a while, Luo Nianli lowered his head first, but Chu Zheng's gaze But always looking at him.Luo Nianli wore a light green shirt on his upper body and suit trousers on his lower body, which fit perfectly. His eyes were big and his skin was white. He also wore a pair of gold-rimmed square glasses. Chu Zheng couldn't move his eyes for some reason.

The operation was performed by the best director of the Cardiovascular Department, with Zhuang Qi as the assistant.Three hours later, when the operation was over, Zhuang Qi came out and said with a smile that the operation went well.Chen Shufen held Zhuang Qi's hand and thanked her excitedly. After a while, Chu Jianguo was pushed out with the oxygen tube inserted. Chu Zheng and Luo Nianli rushed forward to help the medical staff push the bed to the ward.

At the door of the ward, Zhuang Yi stood there waiting, seeing them pushing the bed, he rushed to meet them and helped push them into the ward.After working together to hug Chu Jianguo to bed, Chu Zheng looked back at Zhuang Yi,

"Why did you run here?"

Zhuang Yi pointed at his sister,

"My sister told me that I happen to be in this city, so I'll come and have a look."

He glanced back at Chu Jianguo who was lying on the bed, and then at his sister,

"Is everything going well?"

"Well, just take a good rest. Auntie, let me tell you the precautions."

As he spoke, he grabbed Chen Shufen's hand and started talking one by one.Zhuang Yi turned his head and saw Luo Nianli sitting on the chair beside the hospital bed, looking at his father without saying a word,

"Luo Luo, long time no see."

Luo Nianli looked back at him and smiled.

"Long time no see, Brother Zhuang Yi."

After settling down, Chu Jianguo was still asleep, and Zhuang Yi followed his sister Zhuang Qi to the office to talk about medical matters.Knowing that he was going to stay in the hospital for a while, Chu Zheng walked to the window in the corridor, called Hu Yan, explained the situation, and asked for a leave of absence.As soon as he hung up the phone and walked back, he saw Luo Nianli walking towards the water room with a hot water bottle, Chu Zheng paused and followed.

Luo Nianli put the pot back and turned on the hot water, but found that there was no water coming out, so he looked up at the water tank, there was a sign saying to press the main switch first.Chu Zheng stood at the door behind him without making a sound. After he finished pressing, he unscrewed the hot water spout again, and the scalding hot water splashed out without warning and onto his hands.

"what!"

He took two steps back with his hand, Chu Zheng hurriedly rushed up, took his hand, looked anxiously,

"How is it, did you get burned?"

The back of Luo Nianli's white hand was scalded red by boiling water, Chu Zheng hurriedly dragged him to the nearby sink, and turned on the faucet to wash his burnt part.

"Does it hurt?"

Luo Nianli let him pour cold water with his hand, raised his eyes and peeked at his face, frowning anxiously.After rushing for a while, it seemed to have eased up a bit. Chu Zheng turned on the faucet and took his hand to look at it. Luo Nianli looked up at him. Chu Zheng felt his gaze and looked up at him unconsciously. Clenched his hands tightly.

Zhuang Yi came out of her sister's office and was about to walk to the ward when he passed the water room on the way and saw this scene.He stood calmly outside the water room, looking at the two people in the water room who only had each other in their eyes, a trace of surprise surfaced in his heart, Chu Zheng's affectionate eyes made him frown, Zhuang Yi lowered his head, took a breath, and turned around left.

Chu Zheng returned to the ward with the kettle and Luo Nianli,

"Mom, Luo Luo burned his hand, I'll get him some medicine."

When Chen Shufen heard what Chu Zheng said, she hurriedly got up and walked to her youngest son.

"Ah? Is it very hot? Let me see."

Luo Nianli stretched out his hand to show his mother the red back of his hand,

"It's okay, Mom, just burn it a little bit, and it will be fine in a while. It's my brother who made a fuss."

Chu Zheng looked at him and smiled,

"Then I'll go."

"Oh right, Zheng'er, Zhuang Yi just came over to say something, so he left first."

Chu Zheng nodded, turned around and walked out.

During the period when Chu Jianguo was hospitalized, Chu Zheng slept on the accompanying bed beside him at night. Luo Nianli wanted to change with him several times, but Chu Zheng refused without any discussion.Luo Nianli went back to the company to explain his affairs, and then took a long vacation. Chen Shufen cooked dinner at home, and he drove to the hospital with his father along with the meal.

Chen Shufen feels sorry for her son, and whenever she comes, she asks Chu Zheng to go home and sleep.Chu Zheng couldn't beat her, so for several days in a row, he was here at night, and Luo Nianli was here during the day, except for a face-to-face meeting, he didn't see her for long. After a few days, Chu Zheng quit and let his mother No matter how much he rambled, he didn't leave. Instead, he drove his mother back to take a nap at noon, and then ran back to the hospital to sit.

Luo Nianli sighed helplessly several times, not knowing what his brother was thinking, he was the one hiding from him, and he was the one rushing to appear in front of him now.But he didn't dare to take the initiative anymore, not only afraid of being sad again, looking at his father lying on the bed, he would feel a little guilty if he said a word to Chu Zheng.

Chu Jianguo's snoring sounded, and Chu Zheng and Luo Nianli sat on the small sofa relatively silently, with a distance of one person between them.

"Well, do you want to lie down for a while?"

Chu Zheng turned to look at Luo Nianli and asked. Luo Nianli was about to answer when Chu Zheng's cell phone rang. He took out his cell phone and looked at it. It was Zhuang Yi.Chu Zheng got up and walked out of the ward, and answered the phone.

"Chu Zheng, is Uncle Chu feeling better?"

"Well, it's all right, I can eat and drink."

Zhuang Yi's laughter came,

"Tomorrow, I will be stationed in a military hospital in other places for a while. Are you free tonight? Come out and have a meal."

Chu Zheng accepted Zhuang Yi, hung up the phone, glanced at the phone, and went back to the ward to stare at Luo Nianli.

Zhuang Yi got into the car, and Chu Zheng asked him where he wanted to eat.

"I remember when we were young, we didn't always go to a barbecue restaurant. I passed by a while ago and saw that they have moved indoors. The decoration is not bad. Do you want to go there?"

Chu Zheng nodded, turned the steering wheel and drove out.

After entering the small shop, there were already quite a few people. There was a photo of the boss on the wall. Zhuang Yi stood there looking at it and smiled. The boss thought he was standing next to the barbecue grill on the roadside, sweating with his bare arms , the young man who grilled skewers for Chu Zheng and the others with a silly smile on his face.Chu Zheng walked over to take a look, full of memories, that silly smile was so warm and familiar.

The two found a small table and sat down, ordered some food and two glasses of beer, and chatted.Because of the memories of Xiaodian, the topic touched on various things when I was a child,

"Haha, back then, in order to frighten those children, you specially dressed like punks and stood in the alley to block people's houses, but the children didn't block them, so Uncle Chu waited... Hahaha."

Zhuang Yi was out of breath from laughing, Chu Zheng scratched his head in embarrassment, and smiled as he recalled the things he had done back then.

"Thinking about it now, I'm really angry with my dad. My dad just got a heart attack right now, and his body is strong enough."

Zhuang Yi laughed again. For so many years, the two of them always had endless topics to talk about. Chu Zheng always felt that when he was with Zhuang Yi, he was very relaxed and didn't need to worry about anything.

"That's great, I'm so glad."

Zhuang Yi suddenly looked at the wine glass and said,

"Huh? What are you lucky about?"

Chu Zheng bit the flesh and asked, Zhuang Yi looked at him with a smile, and said generously:

"I'm glad we're still buddies, I'm glad nothing has changed, and I'm glad that person is you."

Chu Zheng was taken aback for a moment, then blinked, feeling a little overwhelmed.Zhuang Yi smiled and took the wine glass to touch him, Chu Zheng quickly picked up the wine glass and touched him,

"Hey, I'm curious to ask you a question."

"what?"

Chu Zheng had an intuition that Tao was not a good question.

"Are you unacceptable to men? Or... unacceptable to me?"

Chu Zheng was stunned, Luo Nianli suddenly appeared in his mind, he hurriedly raised his head and drank a glass of wine, and ordered another glass, not knowing how to answer, Zhuang Yi looked at him hesitatingly, as if he was talking to himself said something,

"It seems that it's not because of men, it's just that I can't accept me."

Chu Zheng carefully looked at his face, swallowed,

"Zhuang Yi, I'm sorry. It's not that I can't accept you, but in my heart, you are my very important friend. It's hard for me to treat you as a lover."

Chu Zheng drank another glass of wine, and Zhuang Yi sat across from him and listened carefully to him,

"When I first found out, it still bothered me, but I was really hesitant to try it, but I couldn't."

Chu Zheng looked at the meat skewers on the plate and said, Zhuang Yi sighed,

"I understand. Thank you, Chu Zheng, for telling me this."

The two were speechless for a while, they were both recalling the topic just now, thinking about something, Zhuang Yi picked up the wine glass and took a sip,

"Then how do you know you can accept men?"

"I..."

Chu Zheng was dumbfounded by the question for a while, and didn't know what to say.

"I... When did I say that I can accept men... Haha, don't talk nonsense."

Zhuang Yi looked at him, just smiled slightly, and didn't say anything.

Chu Zheng parked the car at the gate of the compound,

"Is not you going home?"

"No, I'll go to the hospital to take Luo Luo back."

"Chu Zheng, do you know that you really dote on Luo Nianli?"

Chu Zheng glanced at him, smiled,

"Really? I still think I owe him a lot."

Zhuang Yi unbuckled his seat belt, but didn't get out of the car. He looked at the empty courtyard,

"Chu Zheng, do you have someone you like?"

Chu Zheng looked at the steering wheel and didn't say yes or no.

"I want to know who it is."

What Zhuang Yi said was not euphemistic, nor did he mean to ask at all. Although he knew that he was not qualified to ask in such an orderly tone, when Chu Zheng didn't answer his last question, he unconsciously That's all.

The car was quiet for a while, Chu Zheng opened the window, and the wind blew in and raised Zhuang Yi's bangs.Zhuang Yi felt a little sad and sore in his heart, he raised his hand to touch the doorknob, but before he opened it,

"Luo Nianli..."

A light voice came from behind, Chu Zheng sighed, and looked down at the steering wheel.Zhuang Yi turned his head to look at him, his eyes widened, and he looked at Chu Zheng's profile in puzzlement,

"But he is your brother."

Chu Zheng lowered his head and didn't speak. He didn't know what to say. After a few minutes of relative silence,

"You say I'm a buddy, I can't put it with my lover. Then Luo Nianli is your younger brother, how can you..."

Zhuang Yi shed a tear. If he could understand and accept Chu Zheng's explanation before, then Chu Zheng's choice now would throw him into the abyss again.

"I'm sorry Zhuang Yi...Luo Luo once told me that he tried hard, sinned, and suffered, but he still couldn't control his feelings."

"I have received a lot of endurance training in the army, drug, speech, psychological..."

"But I didn't understand until now, how he felt."

"Even I, I can't do it, control emotions."

"I know a lot of things that don't make sense, or even hurt others."

Having said that, Chu Zheng raised his head, looked into Zhuang Yi's red eyes,

"I can only say sorry, I'm sorry. There's nothing else I can do."

Zhuang Yi stared at him for a while, although Chu Zheng had always been a presence that gave people a sense of security, he could feel Chu Zheng's pain and helplessness.He sniffed and exhaled,

"This may be fate, God always likes to play tricks on people."

Zhuang Yi opened the car door, got out of the car and closed the door, and left without looking back.Chu Zheng rested his forehead on the steering wheel, feeling tired like never before.

The phone rang, and Chu Zheng took it out to check, it was my mother.

"Hello? Mom?"

"Zheng'er, have you finished your meal?"

"Oh, it's over, I'll go back to the hospital right away."

"Oh, no hurry. You can come and see if there is a porridge shop. Luo Luo said at night that his stomach hurts and he didn't eat. He won't let me go downstairs. Your father can't do without people. You buy it for me. Come back."

Chu Zheng frowned upon hearing this,

"Okay, I see Mom."

Chu Zheng hung up the phone, sighed, started the car and drove out of the compound.

He returned to the ward with two bowls of porridge and a bunch of candied haws, his mother was sitting by the bed talking to his father, and Luo Nianli was sitting on the sofa holding his laptop and typing.Hearing the sound, Luo Nianli looked up at his brother. Chu Zheng put the food on the table and sat down.

"Is the stomach ache better?"

Luo Nianli was surprised, and Chen Shufen hurriedly said:

"I told your brother, come on, your brother bought you porridge, go and eat something to warm your stomach."

Luo Nianli looked at his mother, smiled helplessly, took away his notebook, got up and sat down at the small table, opened the porridge that Chu Zheng bought, and saw the bunch of candied haws next to the porridge, he frowned, Turning his head to look at Chu Zheng who was walking over, Chu Zheng had a smile on his face,

"Hawthorn, appetizing, you don't like to eat this."

Luo Nianli glanced sideways at his mother, then looked up at Chu Zheng, with a bit of complaint on his face.Chu Zheng took the stool with a smile, sat down beside him, and watched him eat.Luo Nianli rolled his eyes at him, opened the porridge and drank it spoonful by spoonful, but didn't even touch the candied haws.