Shimmer Forest

"Yes, I'm sorry..." Liu Xiaozhou stood up in a hurry, half of his face was hidden under the long bangs, and there was a slight tremor in his tiny voice.

"Oh? Just kidding, don't mind." Su Jingran felt a little embarrassed by his awkward appearance, and quickly waved his hand to smooth things over.

Liu Xiaozhou stepped aside and said in a low voice, "Uncle, please sit down..."

He was obviously a guy exuding hostility, but he was surprisingly polite.Su Jingran was somewhat puzzled, but Wu Hao laughed unceremoniously: "Pfft... there are still people who regard you as a fool as an elder... Sure enough, it's because they don't understand?"

"Stinky boy!" Su walked over in a stride, directly pressed his face into the leftover plate, and smiled sullenly: "You have to pay for looking down on adults."

"That, that..." Liu Xiaozhou looked at the two people who were picking on each other, and wanted to stop him but hesitated to step forward.

"Don't worry, they have always been like this, just get used to it." Su Jin shrugged indifferently, and continued to eat calmly as if nothing had happened.

"Is that uncle, is that your father?" There were pots and pans flying around the table, Liu Xiaozhou subconsciously leaned a little in Su Jin's direction, and asked cautiously.

"That's right." Su Jin didn't raise his head, he focused all his attention on the food, and answered casually.

"That's great..." Liu Xiaozhou stared at them ecstatically, eyes full of envy.

Su Jingran took some things, and by the way, had a fight with Wu Hao before leaving.Liu Xiaozhou has been sitting at the table doing homework, while the other two are playing games idly.

His eyes always subconsciously glanced at the gorgeous fighting scene, and when he realized this, he always tried his best to return his attention to the homework, and wrote quietly.

The sound of the second hand echoed regularly, easily covered by the sound of pressing the handle.The volume of the TV was turned to the lowest level, and the sound of fighting was mixed with the whispers of the two.

Liu Xiaozhou raised his head, looked at the hour hand which was just pointing to 9 o'clock, and said submissively, "Well, it's time to go to rest."

"Oh, you go." Su Jin was still concentrating on playing the game, and casually muddled through.

"But Dad said, you must go to bed before 9 o'clock." He was still reluctant, but his voice was a little softer than before.

"Well, so you go." This time it was Wu Hao who answered, he had just been kicked by the opponent with a spiral kick, and his tone was somewhat unkind.

"Aren't you and your father going to be angry?" Seeing that the two of them had no interest in understanding what he said, Liu Xiaozhou was silent for a while, and there was some tremor in his lowered voice.

"En?" The two put down the handles at the same time, turned to look at him, Su Jin's face was full of doubts: "Why are you angry?"

"For example, if you don't go to bed on time, no, won't you be beaten?" As if he was not used to being watched, he shrank his neck subconsciously and asked hesitantly.

"Of course not." Wu Hao was extremely surprised by his remarks, and vaguely realized the reason why he was so cautious.Thinking of this, he also forgot the previous unpleasantness, and asked with a friendly face: "Want to play together?"

"I, can I?" A gleam of light flashed quickly in Liu Xiaozhou's eyes, but soon dimmed again, full of fear and uneasiness.

"What's wrong?" Su Jin stuffed the handle directly into the opponent's hand, stood up and stretched: "You play for me first, I'll go take a bath."

"Um...thank you, thank you..." His voice of thanks was extremely soft, and for the first time a smile appeared on that pale face that was always full of restraint.

Su Jin patted him on the shoulder lightly, and the corners of her raised lips became more gentle.

The three of them were noisy and played until late at night. Wu Hao and Su Jin couldn't bear the overwhelming sleepiness, so they finally decided to rest.

Although Liu Xiaozhou was arranged to sleep on the floor, it didn't affect his enthusiasm at all, and he talked about many things happily.

He said that he had never played so happily since he was a child.What his parents ask him to do every day is only reading and doing homework.

He said that his father was a very strict and terrible person, as long as he did not act according to his words, he would be beaten very badly.

He said, I know those people are trying to trick me into the cave, want to see me make a fool of myself.But I still went, I really thought that as long as I can integrate into them, as long as I do so, some people will regard me as a friend.

He said, why does everyone hate me?I'm so lonely, so lonely...

The words narrated slowly, poured out with the sound of sighs, became more and more intermittent and small, and finally disappeared in the dense night.

Wu Hao lay on the bed, held Su Jin's hand, and said in a daze, "Stupid, I always feel a little pitiful for him..."

Su Jin shook his palm back, and his deep words were indifferent but meaningful: "Poor people must have something to hate. This is an eternal truth."

The sound of even breathing came from the people around him. Su Jin knew that he was asleep, so he just smiled, buried his head in his arm, and fell into a deep sleep.

Before dawn, Liu Xiaozhou got up and stood in the yard reading English texts aloud.

Su Jin was awakened directly in her sleep, grabbed the pillow and rushed out.When he heard the noise, he turned his head and wanted to show a smile, but his face was covered by the other person's pillow.

Su Jin held back the anger of getting up, and put the pillow on his face with a black face and rubbed it hard. Before he could react, he was directly blocked, and he couldn't speak until Wu Hao ran out in a hurry and hugged Su Jin, and he was freed, sitting on the ground panting heavily.

"Are you—are you tired of working?" Su Jin gritted her teeth and asked word by word, staggering and disheveled, like a zombie in a movie.

"Wow, I'm sorry!" Liu Xiaozhou was so frightened that he fell to the ground, apologizing non-stop, and his legs couldn't stop shaking.

"What the hell are you doing..." Wu Hao held Su Jin's arm from behind, who was completely out of control due to severe getting up, and asked the culprit who was so frightened that he almost peed his pants with a helpless expression.

"This, this is the homework in the morning..." Liu Xiaozhou barely adjusted his glasses, and did not dare to look directly at the two of them, and replied in a panic: "Because, if you don't read, you will be, be beaten..."

"You will be beaten to death if you read it, okay?" Su Jin finally recovered a little bit of reason, and rubbed his aching temples due to lack of sleep.Frowning and looking at Liu Xiaozhou who was about to cry, he sighed and walked over helplessly.

Thinking that he was about to be beaten again, Liu Xiaozhou shrank subconsciously, and stretched out his arms to cover his face.Su Jin patted him on the shoulder with a palm, and said earnestly: "Xiao Zhou, look at me."

The trembling of his body didn't stop, he just instinctively obeyed the other party's words, hesitated, and looked at the other party carefully.

In the backlight, Su Jin's face was gentle and fuzzy, the golden light sprinkled on the soft hair, subtly blending with that delicate face, as if this light was born with it.

Liu Xiaozhou was surprised for a moment, but for a moment he forgot to be afraid, and just stared blankly at the person in front of him.

"Listen to me." Su Jin exhaled lightly, trying to keep his tone soft and gentle.He looked into the other person's eyes and said word by word: "Here, no one will hurt you."

"So, you don't have to put shackles on yourself, you can do whatever you want."

The soft voice is like flowing water, gently brushing over the ears, melting into the light of the morning sun, making people obsessed.As if possessing some kind of magical magic, Liu Xiaozhou's heart inexplicably settled down.

But Wu Hao rolled his eyes, and couldn't help but slander: You beat people so hard just now, you're really embarrassed to say it now...

Not knowing what he was thinking, Liu Xiaozhou stared at Su Jin's appearance, narrowed his eyes slightly against the light, and a little expectation grew in the confusion: "Is it really possible to do anything?"

"Really." Su Jin responded to him seriously, and nodded solemnly.

"Then...you..." Liu Xiaozhou's eyes still didn't move away from him, hesitated, hesitated, stretched out his hand towards the light, and asked softly, "Can you be friends with me?"

Su Jin was slightly taken aback, as if he didn't expect him to make such a request, and responded with a gentle smile, holding the hand he extended: "Of course."

Wu Hao, who was dull, did not feel a sense of crisis because of this. Instead, he was very moved and held the hands of the two, and smiled brightly: "We are all your friends!"

The three looked at each other and smiled.

Su Jingran was smoking a cigarette and standing in the corner of the yard, lazily leaning against the peeling paint wall, blowing out smoke rings lightly, with a strange and mysterious smile on his lips: "Do you even want to tame 'devils'...As expected of me son."

Under the leadership of Wu Hao and Su Jin, Liu Xiaozhou gradually got rid of some "problems". He no longer just concentrates on doing homework every day, no longer sleeps and wakes up on time to disturb the neighbors, and no longer trembles and keeps silent.He learned to be rude, to grab a game console, and to refuse to do things he hated.

He gradually became like a complete and real person, with feelings and interests, and Su Jin, who had put a lot of effort into this, gradually felt like a father.

But the development of the matter was somewhat beyond Su Jin's expectation. He originally wanted to drive to Liu Xiaozhou and send him back from the cave after he calmed down and everything returned to normal.

But as Liu Xiaozhou's dependence on him deepened, he began to fear that if this continued, that person might not be able to return to the original world.