sweet kiss bitter summer

At about nine o'clock at night, Tan Chen got out of the taxi on the side of the road and walked into the dimly lit Wangjie Old Alley alone.

Since he and Liang Luo'an went to college together, he actually didn't come back very many times, and adding in the time he left later, it has been ten years at least.

Fengchao City is a small city, developing very slowly, but because ten years is really too long, the pristine alleys have become different from Tan Chen's memory, and there are many street shops and plaques that I have never seen before. There are bright and dazzling colored lights on the sky, quietly flickering in the chilly night wind.

But if it is completely unfamiliar, Tan Chen looks at it in the night, and it seems that there are still some corners he is familiar with.

The steps of the shaved ice shop at the entrance of the alley are broken, the plaque is covered with dust, the low-power light bulb at the door emits an old-fashioned warm yellow light, and the boss with a receding hairline is standing on the concrete platform, squinting boredly smokes.

After Tan Chen said hello, he walked in. The simple hand-operated shaving ice machine disappeared from the counter of the store, and it was replaced by an advanced machine that can be found in water bars in the city. There are several rows of large freezers on the wall, which have been converted into a cold drink wholesale store. .

"Take whatever you buy."

The boss handed over the dark blue plastic basket, looked at Tan Chen a few times, brushed off the burnt cigarette ash, and took another puff in his mouth, "Hey, are you that godson of the old Liang family? That dainty little kid comes to me for lemon ice."

Tan Chen nodded slightly, and said with some regret, "I don't sell shaved ice now."

"Few people buy, but the craftsmanship is still there."

The boss walked to the counter, scooped out a cup of ice cubes from the refrigerator, and asked, "Would you like a cup?" Seeing Tan Chen nodding, the boss started to work, and said with a smile while operating the advanced ice crusher : "I didn't expect that after so many years, Lemon Ice still has repeat customers.

Don't worry, it's all old. "

People in business are good at chatting, the owner of the cold drink shop is, but Tan Chen is a little out of order.

Starting with a glass of mediocre lemon ice, following the insignificant intersection of memory, they inevitably chatted about the person who loves lemon shaved ice.

"Did the youngest son of the Liang family come back with you? You two were fine before."

The boss acted quickly, put the crushed ice back into the glass, and found canned lemon jam, "I bought the ice for him today?" Tan Chen didn't answer immediately, watching the boss pour the sticky and bright lemon jam on the sand. Put a cheap colorful disposable spoon on the ice layer, and hand the cold plastic cup to Tan Chen.

"Come back and have a look if you have the chance, I invite you to eat this glass of ice brother."

Tan Chen took the lemon ice, thanked the boss, left without saying anything.

He walked for a while on the leaf-strewn street, came to a street lamp that had been damaged due to disrepair, and put a spoonful of jammy lemon ice into his mouth.

The ice is very cold, and in the lonely night of late autumn, it is so cold that one's teeth tremble, but there is always a taste in the cold that Tan Chen cannot ignore.

In a very good midsummer, Liang Luo'an once kissed his lips happily with such a taste.

He was also very happy, and he thought greedily that they could be happy for a lifetime like this.

It turns out that there are many things that I can't help thinking about.

The businesses closed one after another, and the colored lights were extinguished one by one, turning the air into a dull color.

Tan Chen continued to walk aimlessly, and when he reached the corner of the alley that turned into the residential area, his vision became dim and deep, and the dark corner seemed like a road that could not be turned back.

Tan Chen stopped in his tracks a little bluntly.

This seems to be called "closer to the hometown, more timid".

Timid, because there is love.

Being denied, being insisted on, knowingly committing a crime is hard to let go.

Tan Chen stood blankly in the dark for a while, put down the spoon in his hand, and didn't take another bite of lemon ice.

The fine ice crystals melted in large chunks, and the water droplets on the wall of the cup seeped into Tan Chen's fingers, making his hands very cold.

Tan Chen didn't turn around until his skin felt numb and all the ice in the glass had melted. He saw the space at the entrance of the alley filled with the light of street lights, but he felt abnormally confused.

He was wandering in the night wearing exquisite leather shoes. When he stepped into the junction of light and dark, he heard the sound of dead leaves falling to the ground at the alley, and the obvious, panicked footsteps that did not belong to him, with the echo of rapid breathing, in the There is a very unreal sense of delusion in the darkness.

So that when Liang Luo'an bumped into his arms, at that moment, Tan Chen thought he was hallucinating.

"Luan?" Tan Chen patted Liang Luoan's frail back that kept rising and falling, and called him with some uncertainty.

"... Tan Chen, Tan Chen."

Liang Luo'an rested his head on Tan Chen's shoulder, his voice was intermittent, and he called Tan Chen's name with difficulty during the interval of violent coughing.

Tan Chen felt sudden palpitations, raised Liang Luoan's face, and saw his painful expression in the dim light.

Liang Luo'an was crying, tears were streaming from his trance-eyed eyes, his hands tightly clutched the shirt on Tan Chen's chest, and it hurt Tan Chen's heart.

"Luan, don't be afraid, I brought your medicine, don't be afraid."

Tan Chen supported Liang Luo'an's body with one hand, took out a white medicine bottle from his suit pocket with the other hand, poured out two pills with difficulty, and handed it to Liang Luo'an, who was short of breath.

"Take the medicine, and then we'll go to the hospital."

Tan Chen's voice was a little trembling, but he coaxed Liang Luo'an very gently, "It will be fine, don't be afraid, I'm right here."

Liang Luo'an looked at Tan Chen in a daze with rainy eyes, and seemed to recognize the person in front of him. He lowered his head obediently, couldn't help coughing a few more times, and hung his weak body in front of Tan Chen, just Holding the palm of Tan Chen's hand to take the pill, he swallowed it with difficulty.

"Tan Chen..." Liang Luoan continued to call Tan Chen helplessly after taking the medicine.

Tan Chen touched Luo An's back lightly, told him "I'm here, don't be afraid", then put him on his back, ran out of the street at the fastest speed, and stopped a car on the main road .

Liang Luo'an was confused about his situation.

He seems to remember a superstition that people will quickly review their life in their consciousness before they are close to death, which is called revolving lantern.

In fact, there is nothing special, it feels like a dream, but the dream is too real, those subtle sense of déjà vu are so real that people have an unreal illusion.

So, just like the reality, Tan Chen began to appear in front of Liang Luo'an very early on.

At that time, the lemon tree at home was still growing very well, and Tan Chen stood under the lemon tree, looking at him expressionlessly.

But Liang Luoan wanted to hug him.

Tan Chen's body was very warm, when he hugged Liang Luo'an, he felt a sense of peace of mind wrapped around him, like the temperature of midsummer ripening the fruit, which gave birth to some kind of hot and sweet feelings in Liang Luo'an's body.

In the bitter summer of that year, they plucked a lemon from the lemon tree in the yard.

The unripe lemon was unusually sour, but Tan Chen gave him a sweet kiss.

The taste of that kiss was too good to be reproduced, so that after Tan Chen left, whenever Liang Luo'an thought of him, he could only taste the bitterness of the medicine.

I don't know if it's because the bitter taste is too deep in my heart, or because I miss Tan Chen too much, Liang Luo'an realizes that he seems to be a victim of Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve. Even though seven years have passed, he is repeatedly forced to strengthen Remembering, so Dudu can't forget those feelings.

In fact, the seven years without Tan Chen are very long to experience, but very short to recall.

Liang Luo'an was a little curious about what Tan Chen's seven years were like, when did he become sad, and when did he become used to being sad.

Maybe it all happened earlier.

Liang Luo'an tried to look back, but saw his mother's haggard face full of tears, her usually gentle eyes turned scarlet, like a scalding hell, turning him and Tan Chen into embarrassed prisoners.

They kept falling and falling.

At a certain moment, Liang Luo'an suddenly felt ecstatic.

The world seemed to be raining, and he began to float up gradually abnormally, very cold, and the palms that had lost the warm touch were empty—it was Tan Chen who let go of his hand, and then fell into the darkness.

Liang Luoan suddenly opened his eyes.

All I could see was the empty and white ceiling, the infusion bags hanging on the rack, the medical equipment in operation, and the eager gazes of my parents.