vines growing like crazy

The next morning, when Lu Sheng and Xu Yao were having breakfast, they received a call from Tan Ziping. He had an appointment with a painter for dinner, and the other party asked to see Lu Sheng directly. Lu Sheng was unable to follow the scheduled itinerary and visit another artist with Xu Yao. Private wine cellar.

When Tan Ziping came by car, the rain was still falling, and it didn't tend to get smaller. Lu Sheng asked Tan Ziping to drive Xu Yao to the destination first.

Lu Sheng got out of the car with Xu Yao, Xu Yao held an umbrella for Lu Sheng, and Lu Sheng took out the gift that Xu Yao had prepared in advance from the trunk.

After Xu Yao took the things and the umbrella from Lu Sheng's hand, he was still standing by the car door, and Lu Sheng stood under the umbrella with him. He smoothed Xu Yao's hair that was drenched in the rain, and then gently wiped it off with his fingertips. The raindrops at the end of his eyes.

Lu Sheng said, "Can I pick you up after noon, it shouldn't be too late."

Xu Yao lowered his eyes halfway, and said after a while: "Okay, you can do your work first..."

Lu Sheng asked him: "I originally agreed to go with you this morning, go down and take you to my gallery, and I'm going to show you my previous paintings. I'm sorry for disrupting the plan. Now that the schedule has changed, will you be angry?"

Xu Yao lowered his head and pursed his lips, finally raised his head and said to Lu Sheng, "No way."

After staring at him for a while, Lu Sheng said, "Actually, you can ask me, for example, just like now, you stand in front of me and tell me solemnly and coldly-you should come with me, or I said, I hope you'd better appear in front of me before one o'clock in the afternoon, otherwise you will bear the consequences..."

Xu Yao was amused by Lu Sheng's serious and fierce expression. He actually cared in his heart, minded that Lu Sheng broke the appointment suddenly, but he also knew that not everything was as planned, more of it was sudden and uncontrollable unexpected situation.

He cleared his throat and repeated in Lu Sheng's tone, "I hope you will appear in front of me before one o'clock in the afternoon..."

"must."

When Lu Sheng got into the car, Tan Ziping waved to Xu Yao, "Let's go first."

Xu Yao nodded at him, "Be careful on the road."

He stood on the side of the road and watched Lu Sheng's car drive away until the car turned out of the street in front and disappeared in the heavy rain, but within a few seconds, he saw Lu Sheng's car turn back again, stop by his side.

Lu Sheng lowered the car window and waved at him, "Yao Yao, come here, why don't you go in, I wanted to call you."

Xu Yao didn't say that he was dumbfounded just now when he saw the shadow of the car he left, and took a step forward holding an umbrella, stood by the car door, and asked him, "Why are you back again?"

Lu Sheng took out a key from his pocket and handed it to Xu Yao through the car window, "This is the key to my apartment, I forgot to give it to you just now."

Xu Yao didn't ask why he gave him the key, he just took it and put the key in his trousers pocket.

Lu Sheng touched his umbrella finger, "I promise to pick you up before one o'clock in the afternoon."

After Lu Sheng left, he watched the person holding the umbrella gradually shrink from the rearview mirror. He suddenly asked Tan Ziping, "Can you introduce me to a French interior designer?"

Tan Ziping glanced at him in the rearview mirror and asked him, "What's the matter? Are you going to renovate the house? Which one are you going to renovate?"

"I want to redecorate my mother's apartment." Lu Sheng said.

"The decoration design of your current apartment is not very good..." Tan Ziping paused here, and he understood why Lu Sheng wanted to redecorate the house.

Lu Sheng's apartment was originally designed by Qiao Yi. Although he didn't know what happened between Lu Sheng and Qiao Yi, it can be seen from Lu Sheng's attitude that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with Qiao Yi. involvement.

He didn't ask, just said: "Okay, I know one, and I'll give you the designer's phone number later."

Xu Yao put one hand in his trousers pocket, pinching the key ring in the pocket. He turned around and walked to the door behind him after he couldn't see the car again, and rang the doorbell. He rang it several times in a row and stood He waited outside the door for a long time, but no one responded. He took out his mobile phone and checked the address Will sent him again. The address was correct.

He called the other party, but the other party's phone has been in a state of being unable to get through. Just as he was about to ring the doorbell again, he heard a car horn behind him.

Xu Yao glanced back, there was a black off-road vehicle parked beside him, the driver's seat was lowered, and a middle-aged French man was sitting inside, he greeted him in French: "Hello... "

Xu Yao looked back at the still closed door and asked him in French, "Who are you?"

The French man pointed to the door behind him and asked him, "Are you here to find me?"

Xu Yao asked him: "You are Will's friend, Mr. Cuomo?"

The French man nodded, turned off the engine and got out of the car. Braving the rain, he reached out to shake hands with Xu Yao, "Yes, what's your name?"

"My name is Xu Yao..." Xu Yao shook hands with him and covered Cuomo's head with the umbrella out of politeness.

Cuomo smiled and nodded at him to express his thanks, and then said: "I'm really sorry, the address I gave you was wrong, so I came to pick you up, but I didn't expect you to arrive early."

Xu Yao said: "I just arrived, I just leave 10 minutes earlier than usual, where is your wine cellar?"

Cuomo thought for a while and said, "It's in another block, but it's not far away. It's about 10 minutes by car. Mr. Xu, please get on the bus."

Xu Yao hesitated at the door of the car, but Cuomo had already opened the rear door for him, and made a gesture of invitation to him, "Sorry, it was my negligence before, you get in the car."

Xu Yao finally got into Cuomo's car and sat in the back seat. Cuomo closed the door for him and got into the driver's seat.

Cuomo is not a talkative person. He politely asked Xu Yao a few questions while driving. After that, the car was very quiet, and the two had nothing to say along the way.

Xu Yao was sitting in the back seat of the car, feeling Cuomo looking at him through the rearview mirror from time to time. Cuomo's gaze made Xu Yao feel a little uncomfortable, so he had no choice but to move his body and lean against the window , tilting his head to look out the window.

The car drove in the rain for 25 minutes. Xu Yao raised his wrist and looked at the pointer on the watch. Cuomo was still driving and did not arrive at the new address within the expected time. He thought, maybe it was because of the rain. But it still made him feel a little irritated, and even regretted getting into Cuomo's car just now.

He thought he might be able to find an excuse to leave after he got out of the car—such as a sudden illness.

Xu Yao rarely took the initiative to break the appointment, but during the 25 minutes in the closed car, and the extended time, he really didn't want to continue to be in the same room with Cuomo.

Cuomo drove for another 10 minutes. Xu Yao didn't know where they were. He opened the map to check. They were getting farther and farther away from Lu Sheng's apartment. Finally, the car drove into a remote neighborhood with lonely roads on both sides. It is a villa, but there are very few pedestrians on the street, and there is nothing outside the car window except the sound of rain and the occasional siren in the distance.

Cuomo parked in front of a corner villa. Cuomo got out of the car first, and then opened the rear door for Xu Yao. Xu Yao opened the umbrella with the gift in his hand and got out of the car.

He raised his head and glanced at the villa. The house was quite old at first glance. It had three floors in total. He raised his head and looked across the yard from a distance. It was pitch black behind the glass windows.

Cuomo still didn't open the umbrella, and got under Xu Yao's umbrella directly. After he took out the key and opened the door, he said to Xu Yao, "This is it, we have arrived."

Xu Yao stood at the door without moving. If Cuomo looked at him in the rearview mirror from time to time in the car was his illusion, then when Cuomo stood side by side with him under the umbrella, with one hand behind his waist , and intentionally or unintentionally swept his waist, he had already determined that Cuomo's purpose was not to let him visit the wine cellar.

Xu Yao frowned and avoided the hands beside him, held the umbrella and moved a little away, and said to Cuomo: "Sorry, Mr. Cuomo, I suddenly feel a little unwell, and I may not be able to visit your wine cellar today , I'm really sorry for wasting your time."

After he finished speaking, he raised the gift box in his hand, "This is a little gift from me, I hope you like it."

Cuomo accepted Xu Yao's gift with a smile and said "Thank you."

Seeing that he had received the gift, Xu Yao didn't want to stay any longer. He wanted to leave here, so he said directly, "Then I'll go back first."

After he finished speaking, he wanted to turn around while holding the umbrella, but Cuomo grabbed his wrist by his side, "What's wrong with Mr. Xu? Maybe I can help you. I have a lot of wine at home, and I'm happy to help you .”

As he spoke, he raised his hand to touch Xu Yao's face.

Xu Yao slapped Cuomo's hand off, and said coldly: "Mr. Cuomo, please show some respect, I'm leaving first."

Cuomo raised the wrist that Xu Yao had just patted, turned and shook it a few times in front of Xu Yao's eyes, and smiled at him sinisterly, "Correct me, my name is not Cuomo."

"you do not……"

Before Xu Yao finished speaking, the unknown French man didn't give Xu Yao time to react, he directly raised his hand and grabbed Xu Yao's arm, "Come here, come in, have a cup of coffee, wait for the rain It's not bad to go after stopping, although there is no wine cellar here, but the bed is very big..."

"Let me go," Xu Yao shook the hand on his wrist vigorously, and the umbrella in his hand was also thrown to the ground. The handle of the umbrella turned upwards, and the wind blew it around twice in the rain. , and was finally caught under the iron gate, the handle of the umbrella shaking tremblingly in the rain.

Without the umbrella, the raindrops fell on Xu Yao's body, and he was soon drenched in the rain. The rain on his hair kept dripping down his cheeks, and the fabric of his clothes clinged to his body, which was icy and cold.

"let me go……"

Seeing Xu Yao struggling hard, the man strangled Xu Yao's neck from behind and dragged him into the yard behind him.

Xu Yao wanted to break away the hand that was strangling his neck, but the man was much taller than him, and their strength was clearly not at the same level.

Xu Yao felt that the arms around his neck tightened a little bit more, he couldn't speak, he only let out a few hoarse growls from his throat, and finally he grabbed the iron gate's railing with all his strength, holding on tightly.

The man behind him loosened Xu Yao's neck, trying to pull away Xu Yao's hands that were gripping the iron gate. After Xu Yao's neck was loosened, he shouted for help in French in the direction of the street intersection, but this block It was really remote, no one passed by, and no one would come to rescue him.

The man buried his head on Xu Yao's neck, and took a deep breath, "I just passed by that street intersection, and I liked you very much when I saw you, and I could tell at a glance that you were the same as me, you were gay, I I don't want to hurt you, you better not resist, there is no one here, there will be no one in this block when it rains, no one will come to help you."

The palm of Xu Yao's hand that was pawing on the iron railing was cut, and the blood dripped down between the fingers, and was quickly washed away by the rain. It's like falling apart.

He used all the tricks at his disposal, but when faced with real power, he was powerless.

The man's arms strangled Xu Yao's neck again. Xu Yao felt as if his neck was about to be strangled. The breath on his face made him feel sick. He looked into the man's eyes from the corner of his eye, and finally Xu Yao Yao saw the timing, let go of the iron gate railing with both hands, stretched out two fingers, and poked them back hard...

Because of the sudden pain in his eyes, the man let go of the arm that was strangling Xu Yao's neck after a howl of pain.

Xu Yao took the opportunity to break free and escaped from the yard...

The raindrops hit Xu Yao. He ran straight along the street. He didn't have time to look back to see if the man was chasing him. He just kept running until he reached the bustling urban area. There were many people on the street and cars Many, many people were watching him, and many people came to ask him if he needed help.

Xu Yao refused one by one, he knew that he should go to the police station to call the police now, but he only wanted to see Lu Sheng now, he touched his pocket, he didn't know when his phone disappeared, only the apartment that Lu Sheng gave him was left Finally, he got into a taxi and gave the driver the address of the apartment, which had a landline.

Xu Yao was sitting on the back seat of the taxi, looked down at himself in despair, his hair and clothes were still dripping, the buttons of his coat were unbuttoned a few times, his fingers were still trembling uncontrollably , his wrist was swollen very high, the back of his hand was scratched by the iron door, and the palm of his hand was still bleeding. He was afraid that the blood would drip on the taxi, and with his palm facing up, he put the back of his hand on his lap through the wet coat.

The taxi driver handed him a pack of tissues, Xu Yao thanked him after taking it, wiped the blood on his palms and the rain on his face, the driver asked him several times if he needed help, Xu Yao finally just raised his hand and touched it. With a sore throat even to breathe, he repeated the address of the apartment.

He didn't dare to imagine what would have happened to him if he hadn't escaped just now. Xu Yao felt a little regretful at the moment, and there was also the grievance that came up later...

Before Lu Sheng left, he asked him if he would be angry, what he clearly wanted to say in his heart was——

Yes, I am indeed a little angry. Your original plan was to go to your gallery with me in the morning and then to your gallery in the afternoon, but you suddenly broke your promise.

He even wanted to make his own request to Lu Sheng, telling him——

Lu Sheng, can you cancel or change the time of your lunch appointment?I hate your sudden break of the appointment, and I also hate the rainy day now...