Let go of the past

As long as Li Ziqing can remember, the concept of Chinese New Year has always been different from what ordinary people understand.

In the eyes of all happy or not so happy people, Chinese New Year is probably a very warm and beautiful word. It represents reunion and tolerance, like wine opened after a whole year of brewing. With extremely psychedelic colors, people are deeply immersed in it, temporarily forgetting the years of pain and loss, manic depression and anxiety, wanton carnival, day and night.

But when it came to Li Ziqing's place, apart from being one year older during the Chinese New Year, everything else had nothing to do with him.

From the year he can remember, Uncle Li has been his only relative in this world, a relative who has no blood relationship, or it can be said to be a guardian in the legal sense.And every year around New Year's Eve, Uncle Li either stayed in City B or flew abroad, basically never staying at his and Li Ziqing's home in City S.

Although the family hired a nanny to take care of them, they still have to go home during the holidays. Fortunately, Li Ziqing has lived with the nanny since childhood, and he has learned good cooking skills under his influence. Although it is not as good as a chef, it is still Not to starve to death.

On New Year's Eve, Li Ziqing went to a nearby large supermarket in the afternoon to buy a bunch of ingredients, and when he came back, he tossed out a table of dishes from the recipes he copied from the Internet. Booming, fireworks and firecrackers were not completely banned in S City in those years, the habits left by the ancestors, there should be some during festivals.

He walked around the sofa and opened the window of the living room a little, so that the noise from the outside could come in. It felt like he had a sudden connection with the excitement of ordinary people.

The Spring Festival Gala on the TV screen in the living room has entered the countdown to the opening. The last soup was served. Li Ziqing took off his apron and turned off the light in the kitchen. When he walked to the coffee table, he couldn't help pinching a small piece of sweet and sour sauce into his mouth. In the mouth, the sweet and sour taste filled the mouth, and the corners of the eyes were slightly raised with happiness.

The sound of the TV was turned on loudly, and the sound of firecrackers outside became more and more intense. Even so, when the phone rang, Li Ziqing looked at the call notification displayed on it, and everything was silent in an instant, and only one person knocked on the door of his heart.

Li Ziqing went over to close the window, held the phone to his ear and connected the call, before he could make a sound, Ji Bing spoke first as usual, his voice was deep and magnetic, as if trembling from his chest, hitting him hard on the eardrum.

"Ziqing, happy new year."

Li Ziqing suddenly had an inexplicable strange emotion in his heart. This emotion was stuck in his brain, making him unconscious for a while, and he was in a trance. He just replied softly to the other party: "...um."

Sure enough, Ji Bing laughed in a low voice over there, the familiar laughter was transmitted to Li Ziqing through the electric current, as if carrying the picture, it also sent the expression in the other party's eyebrows and eyes, that person seemed to be close at hand , but far away in the sky.

He couldn't help but clenched his phone tightly, and couldn't help asking: "Where are you?"

"I'm at home." Ji Bing replied in a natural tone, and then he couldn't help teasing him: "What? Missed me? Didn't you just meet yesterday?"

Li Ziqing was caught off guard and choked, and immediately retorted with a guilty conscience: "I just asked, if you are at home, why don't you go to the reunion dinner and still have time to make phone calls."

"I have to reunite with you first," Ji Bing's ending voice was filled with a brisk tone, as if he was in a good mood: "Otherwise, I won't be able to taste it later."

"..." Although he has long been used to it, Li Ziqing's heart still started beating violently uncontrollably. He tried his best to calm down, pretending to be calm and complaining: "Do you have these nasty lines all year round?"

"If you like, you can have a little more today."

"...I don't like it." The duplicity Li Ziqing felt his cheeks burning slightly, "You don't say such things in the future," he paused, and added: "Once a week, no more."

Ji Bing held back his laugh, and honestly agreed: "Okay," but couldn't help adding: "Why are you so cute?"

Li Ziqing couldn't answer his words, so he changed the subject and asked, "Are you going to have a New Year's Eve dinner?"

"Well," Ji Bing answered one word lightly, but inexplicably gave people the illusion of ambiguity, and then asked Li Ziqing: "What about you? Are you alone, or are you with your Uncle Li?"

"Uncle Li is in the kitchen," Li Ziqing said of course, "We must reunite with my family on New Year's Eve, it's too desolate to live alone."

"Yeah, who said no?"

"Ah."

Ji Bing paused for a few seconds before saying, "Someone called me here, hang up first."

"Okay," Li Ziqing looked at the fireworks blooming outside the window, and said slowly with his mobile phone against his cheek, "Happy New Year, Ji Bing."

Ji Bing chuckled again, then suddenly moved closer to the phone, and said in a low voice, "Thank you baby."

Li Ziqing choked for breath, took a moment to relax, put his palm on his hot face, and murmured: "...you have already used up the quota for next week."

"It's too strict. Don't you give discounts during the Chinese New Year?"

"Luxury goods are generally not discounted."

"That's it," Ji Bing said slowly, "Then it's not too much to ask for a gift, right?"

Li Ziqing vaguely guessed what he wanted to say, but still followed his words and asked, "What gift?"

"You can also tell me something nasty."

The heat that had just dropped from Li Ziqing's face covered it again: "...I won't."

"You can check it online, you are allowed to cheat, and I will wait for you."

"..." Li Ziqing's palms were sweating, his heart was thumping and he felt like he was about to jump out of his chest, he stared fixedly at the waves of fireworks outside the window, his eyes gradually became sore, and his heart began to feel faint. Feeling suffocated, he could tell what that inexplicable strange emotion was.

It was the loss and loneliness of being alone on New Year's Eve that I hadn't felt in more than ten years.

People don't know what loneliness is when they are born. Only when they start to miss another person, do they know the true face of loneliness, which is so terrible and helpless.

Ji Bing waited there quietly, without making a sound or urging him. He knew that Li Ziqing needed some time to build up his mind, and he could afford it and wait.

After a while, I heard Li Ziqing speak slowly, his mouth moved closer, and the voice passed softly, not only hitting the eardrums, but also hitting the heart: "Ji Bing, I miss you so much, I miss you so much that I can't wait to get into my phone, send myself to you."

Ji Bing paused, then spoke again, with a helpless and gentle tone: "You're not cheating, it's simply a foul."

Li Ziqing covered his burning face, even if the other party was not in front of him, he was already too shy to control himself, "...it's obviously the level of a primary school student's composition."

"That's why it looks more simple and cute."

"..." Li Ziqing grabbed the roots of the green plants on the window sill, calmed down a little, and asked him, "Aren't you going to hang up the phone?"

"Well, you should go to eat quickly, eat more, and then go to bed after watching the Spring Festival Gala, don't stay up late, I will call you tomorrow."

"OK, bye."

"Goodbye baby."

Li Ziqing put down his mobile phone, turned around and returned to the sofa, the table was full of aromas of hot dishes and hot soup, the gongs and drums were blaring in the TV, and firecrackers blared outside the window. This is the feeling of reunion, warm and sour Yes, there is a place in my heart to put a person in, and it will no longer be empty and silent, but will start to boil and fill the sky.

In the sparsely populated VIP waiting room of S City Airport, Ji Bing was sitting in the middle of the large sofa, holding his mobile phone in his palm, the screen gradually blacked out, and his gaze was directed to a certain point in the void not far away, with a look of indifference. A little lonely.

About three to five minutes later, the phone rang again. He answered it blankly, and said bluntly, "I'm already at the airport."

"Okay, send me the flight number, and I'll arrange someone to pick you up."

"Then I'll hang up first."

"Wait," Ji's father said in a calm and powerful voice without any emotion, "Is today New Year's Eve in China?"

"Yes, what's wrong?"

"Did you eat?"

"I didn't eat."

Father Ji paused for a moment, "Let's talk about it later."

"Dad," Ji Bing suddenly changed the topic: "I won't be here for long this time, and school will start soon after the Chinese New Year."

"I know." Ji's father said lightly: "I promise you, as long as you don't violate the agreement, I will not break my promise."

"Thank you dad."

"Well, have something to eat on the plane and be careful."

Three hours later, the land of the motherland began to count down to the new year together. As the host of the Spring Festival Gala finished the New Year's speech impassionedly, thousands of households followed the countdown. The bell rang to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. However, a text message was sent.

At an altitude of tens of thousands of meters in the distance, the plane began to cross the ocean and fly to the east coast of the United States, quietly, slowly widening the time difference.

The author has something to say: the past tense is about to end