play off

"Thank you." Duan Yan was not polite to him, reached out to take the drink, unscrewed the bottle cap, tilted his neck, moved his Adam's apple, and gulped down half of the bottle of drink.

After replenishing the water, he couldn't help but let out a hearty sigh of satisfaction from his throat.

Afterwards, he pointed to Xiang Mingqiu who was standing in front of him, then pointed to the half chair next to him, and asked, "Would you like to sit?"

Xiang Mingqiu didn't say anything, took two small steps forward, and sat down beside him.

He was inexplicably nervous, and for a while, he didn't know what to say to the other party.

"Are you Ah Wei from the Cultural and Propaganda Department? I heard from them that you lost the lottery and wanted to act as a mascot during the school sports meeting." Duan Yan smiled and took the lead in bringing up the topic, "I was still working with you in the morning Overshadowed."

Xiang Mingqiu shook his head, through the doll costume, his voice sounded a bit muffled: "I'm here to replace him."

"Oh, what grade and class are you in? I don't know you by hearing this voice." The person beside him changed his sitting posture, with one knee bent on the chair, his chin propped on one hand, and he turned his head slightly to look at him.

"I'm not from your school, I just use money to do things for others."

Duan Yan suddenly became interested: "Take off the hood and let me see what you look like."

He said, reaching out to take off the mascot's hood.

Xiang Mingqiu moved his butt back, shook his head while covering the doll's head, not letting him touch it: "This is not good."

"Look at you, a big man, why are you still shy, why are you so shy?"

As a last resort, Xiang Mingqiu had no choice but to make up an excuse: "I've made an agreement with the benefactor, I can't take off the headgear in front of other people."

When Duan Yan heard this, he was happy: "You are going to pay back the benefactor, how much did he pay you?"

Xiang Mingqiu replied in a muffled voice: "Three hundred and one day."

"It's only three hundred. This amount is not enough for me to recharge the game once."

He said in a casual and ordinary tone, not intentionally to show off in front of Xiang Mingqiu, but because this is a normal state in his life.

Seeing that Xiang Mingqiu didn't pick up the quarrel, he had no choice but to give up: "If you don't want to pick it, then forget it, and I won't make things difficult for you."

As soon as he finished speaking, he asked again: "By the way, why did you come to our school? Just for the 300 yuan?"

The answer is naturally no, but Xiang Mingqiu still nodded: "The family conditions are not good, so I went out to work and earn money."

This time, it was his turn to ask: "Was that your girlfriend just now? Did you two quarrel?"

"No, she confessed to me, but I didn't accept it, so I was slapped." After saying this, he felt the pain on the right side of his face again, "Women are trouble."

Xiang Mingqiu stood up and said something for the girl: "It's obviously your problem, you said that if you don't agree to have sex with you, you will let her go."

"Tsk, you can eavesdrop clearly, so why bother asking me?! Just pretending."

"I..." Xiang Mingqiu was momentarily at a loss for words, and really didn't know how to explain his eavesdropping behavior.

So I had to change the question: "Don't you think this is scumbag?"

"If I were a scumbag, would I have made it so clear to her? I would have tricked her into bed a long time ago and finished it."

"...That girl is very beautiful, are you making excuses because you don't like her?"

He heard a very light sneer, and the words of the person next to him were mixed with disdain: "I don't talk about feelings with others."

Xiang Mingqiu was puzzled: "Why?"

"Emotion is like a chemical reaction, it changes from moment to moment, don't you think?"

"I haven't dated anyone before, so I don't know."

Duan Yan put on the appearance of an experienced person: "Who can guarantee that when two people are together, they will only have each other for the rest of their lives? They love each other so much that they are so fucking tossing, so it's better not to talk about it, life is too short, why not be chic A little? In my opinion, the game world is the most real."

"You are young, where did you get these feelings? Have you experienced them yourself?"

"Brother, I'm almost 18 years old, why am I still young?"

"Anyway, younger than me."

"Young age is not a problem, as long as the bottom is older."

It seems that not only is he young, but he also speaks like a hooligan.

Duan Yan stretched his muscles and bones, then lay down on the chair, resting his head on Xiang Mingqiu's lap.

The doll clothes are soft and as comfortable as pillows.

He patted the rabbit's belly with his hand: "Lend me your thigh as a pillow for a while."

Xiang Mingqiu was startled, this was the closest distance between him and Duan Yan.

Facing the face impartially from this angle, he lowered his head and carefully looked at this boy who was casual and had a good character.

The pink rabbit's head blocked the sunlight above Duan Yan's head, casting a shadow.

Before today came, he had envisioned various scenarios of meeting the other party, but he never expected that it would be like this.

The carefree boy in front of him, pillowing his lap, came from the same father as him.

Even so, the two of them are not very similar to Duan Chenglin.

Xiang Mingqiu's appearance was more like his mother's, and when people around him saw him for the first time, they would inevitably mistake him for a mixed race.

As for Duan Yan, he should also follow his mother.

He is very handsome, completely different from his mixed-race face with three-dimensional features, he is a serious oriental face.

Short and neat black hair, handsome eyebrows, and a high nose bridge. At the age of 17, he already has a height of nearly 1.8 meters.

In other words, he is the kind of dazzling existence that will be noticed 100% in the crowd.

"What are you looking at?" Duan Yan, who was resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes, raised the corners of his lips at the person above him, and still smiled like that, "Am I handsome?"

After a pause for a few seconds, the person in the doll costume choked out a word: "Handsome."

"I just like people who tell the truth."

During the school sports meeting, teachers and classmates went to the other side of the playground. The botanical garden behind the teaching building was extremely clean, and occasionally there were a few unknown bird calls from the treetops.

The dry autumn wind blew away the dead leaves that fell on the ground, Xiang Mingqiu sat on the bench, couldn't help recalling his past campus life, and was a little lost in thought.

"Didn't you ask me why I was so touched by love before?" Duan Yan suddenly reached out and poked his doll clothes.

"Ah?" Xiang Mingqiu said that his thoughts were pulled back to the present, he couldn't hear what Duan Yan was just saying.

Just as he was thinking whether to ask again, the other party started talking to himself.

"My parents have been married for more than 20 years, and their relationship has always been bad. They always quarrel every now and then, and the relationship is very bad. I often wonder whether they have ever loved each other, and if not, why? give birth to me."

"So that's why you don't want to be in a relationship?"

"Probably." Duan Yan didn't deny it, "I've seen too many family tragedies, and I seem to be a little numb to love."

He smiled and said again: "I tell you this, do you think I'm hypocritical? Actually, I don't usually do this. I don't like to tell people around me about my family. Maybe it's because I don't know you well. , we probably won’t have the chance to meet again in the future, so I will say these things with confidence.”

"By the way, how do your parents get along? Do they have a good relationship? Or do they often quarrel?"

Xiang Mingqiu said lightly: "I don't have a father."

"Did I ask the wrong question?"

"It's okay." He didn't care too much, "Anyway, I haven't seen my dad since the day I was born, and it was my mother who brought me up."

"But my mother is very kind to me, she is a very gentle person, she is so beautiful..."

His words stop here, and if he goes on, I'm afraid he will fall into a sad mood again.

He became a little anxious, he didn't know how to place his hands, and kept pinching them.

Suddenly, there were a few colorful hard candies on the palm. The hard candies were in the shape of a chubby bear, and they looked soft and cute.

"Please eat candy." Duan Yan raised his hand, pushed back the hair that fell on his forehead, and bent his eyes at him.

There was light in the young man's eyes, shining brightly, and the moment their eyes met, that scene formed a permanent freeze frame in Xiang Mingqiu's mind.

After being stunned for a while, Xiang Mingqiu said "Thank you".

It was inconvenient for him to wear doll clothes, and he tore the outer packaging of the candy clumsily, and he tossed for a long time without success.

Duan Yan couldn't stand it anymore, grabbed the candy from him, peeled off the plastic wrapping for him, and held it directly in front of him.

"Here, let's eat."

"I'll just do it myself."

Duan Yan felt that he was strange, so he slapped his outstretched hand away: "This handsome guy has grown up and hasn't fed anyone with his own hands. You are the first one. You have to thank me very much."

Xiang Mingqiu didn't want to argue with him, so he obeyed his will, slightly raised the mascot headgear he was wearing, and exposed his mouth. He leaned forward slightly, and took the fruit in front of him. Hard candy was in his mouth.

Compared with the appearance of the candy, its taste is too bad, a sub-industrial saccharin taste, so sweet? J.

Xiang Mingqiu felt that his taste buds were a little out of order. When he ate the sweet and greasy saccharin in his mouth, what he tasted was an indescribable joy.

This made him a little confused.

"Hey, I didn't expect you to be quite handsome."

"I only showed half of my face, how do you know I'm handsome?"

"The bottom looks good, and the top is definitely not bad. If I guess wrong, then just pretend I didn't say it."

Duan Yan pointed to his neck, then pointed to the same position as himself: "You have a wound here, did you fight with someone else?"

Originally, it was just a casual ridicule, but he didn't expect it to hit the mark.

"Well, I was scratched by the aunt who was buying vegetables in the market." Xiang Mingqiu nodded frankly and admitted.

"No...why did you get involved with the aunt in the vegetable market?"

It's not Xiang Mingqiu's fault, he passed by the market on his way home from get off work a few days earlier, and went there to buy vegetables.

Living alone is like this, you have to do it yourself for money, rice and salt.

He doesn't have a lot of budget. In order to reduce expenses, he will go to the market every time when the stalls are about to close in the evening, and pick up some leftovers that others don't want, because they are cheap. If he is lucky, the boss may give him some leftovers for free. .

When I passed the pork stall, there happened to be an aunt who was also shopping.

The aunt handed the selected piece of pork belly to the boss for weighing, and when she was about to pay, she found that her wallet was missing.

That aunt is an unreasonable shrew, just because Xiang Mingqiu has been standing beside her when she buys pork, she insists that Xiang Mingqiu is a thief. She went to the police station and attracted the surrounding crowd to watch.

Although Xiang Mingqiu has a good temper, he will never be cowardly at critical moments.

Being wronged for no reason, he really couldn't swallow his anger, and reasoned with the aunt confidently.

The aunt couldn't produce any evidence, so she got anxious and moved her hands at him, scratching and scratching at him, scratching her nails violently, scraping off a piece of skin on his neck, and red blood seeped out from the wound, which has not yet healed , When taking a bath every day, the damaged wound will be accompanied by strong stinging pain when it touches clean water.

"What happened to that shrew?"

"She didn't lose her wallet at all. It was left at another stall when she was shopping for vegetables, and the stall owner ran over to return it to her after picking it up."

"Did she apologize to you?"

"No, she turned around and slipped away when she got the wallet, and I don't want to continue to toss with her, as long as the misunderstanding is resolved."

Duan Yan was very angry when he heard that, and cursed a few times: "Fuck, why is there such a stupid shrew?! It's thanks to you for being able to bear it. If this kind of thing happens to me, even if she is a woman, I will Teach her a lesson."

There are many such people in this world, and many things are inherently unfair.

It doesn't mean that Xiang Mingqiu is willing to accept these things, but people's ability is always limited. Now he is not strong enough, lacks ability, and sometimes he is unlucky, and there is nothing he can do.

Duan Yan picked up the satchel on the ground, unzipped the chain, and groped inside for a while.

After a while, he took out a box of Yunnan Baiyao Band-Aid, took two pieces, and handed it to Xiang Mingqiu.

"Take this and post it, the effect of this medicine is not bad."

"I didn't expect that a boy like you would have such a thing. You are very careful."

Duan Yan was not used to being praised for his carefulness for the first time.

He seemed a little embarrassed, plucked his hair irritably, and explained to himself: "No, in order to prepare for the school sports meeting, I used to practice running on the sports field every day after school, and it was common for skin to be scratched, so I prepared this. "

Holding the Band-Aids in his hand, Xiang Mingqiu carefully put them into the small pocket of the doll's clothes.

"Aren't you posting it?" Duan Yan asked him.

"Well, later, it's inconvenient to wear clothes now."

"I'll do it." After Duan Yan said, he turned out the Band-Aid he had just put in his pocket, and tore open the package with three or two movements, "You raise the headgear a little bit."

Xiang Mingqiu obeyed obediently, holding the heavy hood, revealing a small part of his neck.

Against the white skin, the red wound where the tender flesh can be seen looks a bit?}.

Duan Yan aimed the band-aid at the wound on his neck, pasted it lightly, and then stroked the band-aid with his fingers back and forth a few times to smooth it out.

Without a place to come, many things in the past suddenly flashed in Xiang Mingqiu's mind like a revolving lantern.

After his mother passed away, he lost his only relative in the world. He had to put down his studies and face the oppression of life alone.

He tried very hard to survive, to pay off his debts as soon as possible, and to live a good life.

For this reason, he worked as hard as he could, working several jobs at the same time, wishing he could not eat or sleep 24 hours a day, so that he could have more time to make money.

Because of his outstanding looks, he also suffered a lot when he was working.

When I was a waiter in a restaurant, I would meet those guys with unruly hands and feet from time to time. They always groped Ming Qiu intentionally or unintentionally when serving dishes to Ming Qiu.

He once had a dispute with those guys because of this, and the other party even went to the manager to complain about him. In order to calm things down, the manager made him bow down to apologize to the guests every time, but it was clear that the person who was wrong was not him at all.

Later, he went to work as a technician in Muzu City, and saw more various and blatant guests.

Some people asked him if he would provide extra services, and some bosses secretly gave him a business card, asking him to consider whether he should be his lover.

He tactfully rejected the other party's request, and the other party did not give up, and often went to Muzu City to find him in the name of massage.

The repeated refusals made the other party angry and ashamed, pointing at his nose and yelling at him, making the disturbance known to everyone in Muzu City.

Misfortunes never come singly, he was so defenseless that he was almost violated by a transvestite who thought he was a sister.

......

Sometimes, he can't understand why he is always the unlucky person, why the nights are always so long, why the debts are always difficult to repay...

He didn't understand.

In an instant, he expressed his feelings and said softly: "Life is so tiring..."

When the words came out of his mouth unconsciously, tears filled his eyes unconsciously.

The liquid overflowed from the corners of the eyes, ran down the cheeks, and slid down to the neck.

Duan Yan first saw that the corner of the Band-Aid that had just been pasted was wet, and then heard the sound of sniffling from under the hood, and was suddenly a little dazed.

"You...what's the matter with you?"

Sitting on the chair, Xiang Mingqiu kept shaking his head, unwilling to give any explanation, trying to say in a smiling tone: "It's nothing, it's just a sudden emotion."

Duan Yan ignored it: "To be fair, I told you about myself, and you have to tell me about yours."

Xiang Mingqiu didn't say a word, secretly took a light sniff.

"The two of us are strangers who met by chance, and we may not have the chance to meet again in the future. Today, we will act as each other's trash cans. If you have any troubles, feel free to tell them. Even if it can't be resolved, at least you can For a brief refreshment."

The wind stopped, the birds stopped singing, and the surroundings became quiet again.

The two sat side by side on the bench, carrying their own thoughts, and neither of them spoke.

After a long time, Xiang Mingqiu was the first to break the silence: "My mother is gone, and now I am the only one left. When she leaves, I must repay the family's hundreds of thousands of debts.

"I don't mean to blame her. She is sick and needs a lot of money for medical treatment. There is nothing I can do about it.

"But life is really tiring.

"I don't know what to do either.

"I think I might not be able to hold on anymore..."

Duan Yan listened quietly to what he was saying.

He fumbled in his trouser pocket, found the last cigarette, held it in his mouth, and held the lighter in his hand until the filter tip was bitten into teeth marks, and it had not been lit for a long time.

Without saying a word, Duan Yan picked up the satchel on the ground, took out the wallet, took out a savings card from it, and handed it to Xiang Mingqiu.

Xiang Mingqiu looked at the card in his hand, then turned to look at Duan Yan, with a puzzled expression on his face under the hood.

"There is 5 yuan in it. I can't remember the password. It is written on the back of the card. You can take it."

Xiang Mingqiu shook his head, a little flattered.

"Why, didn't you say you were short of money?"

"But why do you..."

Duan Yan knew that he didn't understand. From the other party's point of view, his sudden behavior must be very strange.

"Anyway, my family is not short of money. This 5 yuan is only my pocket money for a month, but it should help you solve your urgent needs."

Staring at the bank card, Xiang Mingqiu hesitated in his heart.

"What's your name? Why don't you leave me a contact information, and I will definitely return it to you in the future."

"It's okay, it's okay if you don't pay it back, it's only [-], I'm not short of this money."

The break time officially ended, and the broadcast in the lobby of the teaching building started to broadcast again.

"The triple jump event of the sophomore men's group will start in 15 minutes. For athletes who haven't signed in yet, please hurry up and sign in at the sign-in counter!"

There was a sound of footsteps from far to near, and the other end of Cen Kainuo Botanical Garden ran towards Duan Yan.

While running, he waved vigorously at Duan Yan: "Sanhuo! Damn, why are you here? The triple jump competition is about to start, and everyone is looking for you everywhere, hurry up!"

"Ah, here we come." Duan Yan replied slowly and methodically in a long and drawn out tone.

He stuffed the bank card into the pocket of Xiang Mingqiu's doll costume: "Put it away, I'm leaving first."

He stood up from the chair, put his schoolbag on his shoulder, and then shouted at Cen Kainuo: "Kaizi, come and help me take a photo with Tutu!"

After finishing speaking, he hung his whole body on Xiang Mingqiu's body, hugged him, and smiled slightly at the camera.

Before leaving, he suddenly remembered something, turned around, jumped up on the spot, made a gesture of throwing a three-pointer to the person behind him, and told him loudly: "My name is Duan Yan, Duan of the rank, That Yan of the Three Fires!"

Seeing this radiant young man drifting away, Xiang Mingqiu felt a touch in his heart, an indescribable emotion.

His name is Duan Yan, and he lives up to his name, like a raging fire that burns him inside and out without knowing it.