squirrel

When the squirrel came out of the kitchen after washing the dishes, he saw Gao Liyuan sitting down by the coffee table, taking out a cigarette and holding it in his mouth.He injured his arm, but his only remaining hand was still sharp. He snatched the cigarette while Gao Liyuan was unaware, retreated to the corner where he used to sit, and did not forget to grin at him, "Thank you." .”

He had finished smoking Hongtashan the day before yesterday from the owner of the restaurant. Yesterday he was patronizing and angry, but after waking up today he became extremely addicted to cigarettes.He was planning to wait for the night to cool down and go downstairs to buy, and it happened that some free ones were delivered to his door.

Gao Liyuan was suddenly robbed of his cigarettes, so he turned his head and saw the squirrel making faces at him.I don't know if it's just because he's afraid of losing the cigarette or because he's worried that he'll snatch it back. The squirrel bites the filter tip with its teeth, and when it's talking, it happens to be able to see a circle of slightly darker water marks where it's bitten.

Gao Liyuan looked back and silently smoked a cigarette again.The fan behind it whirled, gathering and dispersing two puffs of light blue smoke.The squirrel was puffing smoke rings on the ceiling, and suddenly heard a voice asking: "Is your hometown in Songning?"

He froze and didn't say a word. After a while, he heard Gao Liyuan repeat it again, and at the end he called his name as a reminder: "Squirrel."

"What about checking your household registration? Why do you care so much?" Squirrel sat up straight on the sofa, and threw the words over, "I signed a contract with you, don't even think about sending me home."

"Where do you want to go?"

As soon as Gao Liyuan heard the tone, he guessed that the squirrel must have misunderstood what he meant, sighed, and put out the cigarette first, looked at the other party and told him all the things he had thought about in the afternoon: "I want to ask you, wait for the hand What are your plans when you recover from your injury? You are still young, why don't you go to a vocational high school or something, and work more steadily when you come out... Songning is not too far from here, I can accompany you back someday Discuss at home."

So that's what he meant.After taking the last puff of cigarette, the squirrel calmed down a little, stared at the dents on the edge of the coffee table, and replied, "My parents are dead, who else can I discuss with?"

He originally thought that this conversation could come to an end. To be honest, those squirrels who have to watch people's faces while cleaning the dishes are really not willing to do it, otherwise they wouldn't have spent so long with Brother Tang—— But the question is, who will pay for the vocational high school?

"Then there must be a relative or something," Gao Liyuan was still asking, "otherwise you..."

"It's not over!"

The heat seems to have turned into a tangible film, wrapping around the body layer by layer, forcing out all the restless thoughts.The squirrel finally couldn't help shouting, and after interrupting Gao Liyuan, he still didn't forget to join his army: "Ask me everything, why don't you tell me about yourself first? Why are all your terrifying piles of medals stored in the cabinet?" inside?"

The squirrel spoke quickly, and after finishing speaking, he picked up the tea that Gao Liyuan had left hanging there before, and took a big gulp viciously.There was probably too much tea, and the taste was so bitter that he smacked his lips, and when he raised his eyes again, Gao Liyuan still maintained the posture he had just interrupted, as if stunned.

After a while Gao Liyuan came back to his senses, first subconsciously frowned, then sighed with a wry smile: "Why are you still thinking about this?"

The squirrel didn't respond, and just stared back with a "you can figure it out" expression.Unexpectedly, this time Gao Liyuan was unexpectedly frank, turned around and opened the cabinet door, took out a medal and handed it to Squirrel for a look: "This. This is the award, which made me recruited into the provincial team."

"Provincial team?!" Although Squirrel hadn't done anything serious all day long, he still had some ideas about these things, so he widened his eyes immediately, "Then why... when did you retire?"

"It's too early, I didn't run away in high school." Gao Liyuan rubbed the medal and shook his head, "My parents used to be workers in a state-owned factory. At that time, I always thought that I would like to have other interests. It’s okay, at worst, I’ll go back later and hold the iron job like them. Later, I was laid off all of a sudden, and I changed my mind and urged me to go back to school, thinking that the only way to be guaranteed is to be a college student—it’s a pity that I’m not that kind of material.”

"That's it?" Gao Liyuan's narration was too succinct, which surprised the squirrel. He couldn't help but ask back, and got a confirmed answer: "That's it."

Gao Liyuan nodded briefly, thinking that since he had finished speaking, he tried to bring the topic back to the very beginning: "Okay, let's talk about your schooling..."

"Etc., etc!"

But the squirrel was persistent, and quickly stopped him. This time, he simply moved out of his nest and went to Gao Liyuan's side: "Then when you were in the provincial team, you lived in the provincial capital? How is the provincial capital?"

I don't know whether he was really asking or just wanted to drag the topic away, until Gao Liyuan finished the cup of tea in front of him and refilled the water again, the squirrel was still asking all kinds of incredible questions one after another.He was dumbfounded by the ensuing questions, and finally stood up as if surrendering, and took out a photo album from his bedroom.

"Let me show you the photos." Gao Liyuan took very few photos when he was a child and later, most of them were group photos taken in the provincial team back then.In those somewhat faded photos, he pointed out to the squirrel the Provincial Gymnasium many years ago. Under the high dome, stood a row of teenagers whose facial features hadn't fully grown.

The squirrel recognized Gao Liyuan at a glance: he shaved his body so that his scalp could be seen, and stood tall and thin in the line, his skin seemed darker than it is now.A group of people were smiling at the camera, and he was also very happy, showing his white teeth.

The photo album was turned to the end in a blink of an eye, and the squirrel was still full of thoughts. Remembering the previous pages that Gao Liyuan skipped directly, he turned back and read it from the beginning.After laughing at the silly look of the other party at the full moon, Squirrel soon noticed a photo that was probably from a primary school sports meeting, and pointed to the child beside him: "Do you have a younger brother?"

"No." He heard Gao Liyuan whisper behind him, "It's my neighbor's child."