Oral period

"The door is rusted, so I can only climb in from here," Xia Jingzhe opened the window in the corner of the roof wall, which is only half the height of a normal person's leg, and explained, "Grab the window frame, face up, and slide in like this, understand ?"

If it was two months ago, no, even two days ago, someone told him that he would willingly bring people back to his "secret base" in the near future, and help the other person to open the window hand in hand, he would definitely feel that the other person was Idiots talk about dreams-but the fact that is even more magical than dreams has indeed happened.

Zhen Xiao is obviously not the type who is good at physical sports. If you ignore the usual cold to almost indifferent expression on his face and just look at that face, he is even a bit weak and handsome, very similar to the old story of Merry but can't The monster who sees the light, if he smiles, he should be the type that is very popular with little girls - he has not yet mastered the difficult operation of "holding the window and sliding in", and he does not want to master it, so he wisely chose another way : Squat by the window, find a suitable angle to step on the table in the room, and then bend down and sit down.

The room is not big, it probably used to be someone's private office, the furnishings have been moved around, except for the long table by the window, there is only a sofa and a low cabinet in front of the sofa that serves as a table.

Zhen Xiao walked to the low cabinet quite familiarly, picked up a small bag of individually wrapped biscuit sticks, and turned to look at Xia Jingzhe: "Can I eat it?"

"It's up to you," Xia Jingzhe said casually as there was still a lingering smell of smoke in the room, and he walked around behind him and opened the window.

"Then I'm not going to be polite—speaking of which, what did you call me here for?"

"No one called you, you followed up by yourself."

"Really," the boy bit off the biscuit stick and made a crisp sound, "but your back at that time was clearly written with 'follow me'..."

"Get out." Xia Jingzhe stood at the window to breathe, and the previously rare soft expression had long since dissipated, but it was unknown whether it was because Yunxia was too red, or because she just happened to be talking about something, there was still a thin layer of red on her face.

Zhen Xiao snorted, stopped teasing him maliciously, nestled back on the sofa and continued to eat his biscuit sticks, and looked around aimlessly—a small room has even less real area to use, it seems that only this A place with a radius of one meter on the sofa.On the mottled and oxidized old sofa there is a thin blanket, a ball of school uniforms, and a few scattered drawings; on the low table are surrounded by a circle of snacks, unopened Coke cans, pencil cases containing different types of pencils and erasers, blank Manuscript paper, wired headphones... In the middle of all kinds of sundries is a laptop connected to a digital tablet.

As expected of a manga artist.

Thinking about this, Zhen Xiao took out his phone and opened the browser, and entered the name he had written down in the search bar—as expected, after a brief loading, the screen popped up "Popular serial comics-atypical campus troubles" and so on Words, judging from the thumbnail cover image, the painting style is indeed exactly the same as the original manuscripts he has seen before.

"Hey," the owner of the manuscript came behind him at some point and interrupted his thoughts—the next second, another mobile phone was placed in front of him, and the ordering interface of a certain food delivery software came into view, "Would you like what to eat?"

"Huh?" With a little embarrassment of being a thief, Zhen Xiao calmly locked the phone screen, cleared his throat, "I can..."

"It's all right? I'm ready to beat you up after you make random demands." Xia Jingzhe muttered, "Then I'll order the flavors I want, honey mustard and cheese sauce, and panna cotta ..."

For some reason, the brain made up the taste of "mustard-flavored panna cotta", Zhen Xiao frowned, wondering: "What is that..."

"Fried chicken, haven't you tried it?"

Before re-studying, life was two points and one line between school and home. Three meals were strictly controlled, and only ate healthy food with balanced nutrition. Medical expenses can only be bought with cheap temporary bread, let alone takeaway... For Zhenxiao, fried chicken or panna cotta is indeed a strange and distant concept.

Not wanting to get involved in the deeper reasons, the boy had no choice but to clear his throat again as if nothing had happened, and changed the subject: "Can the school order takeaway?"

"If you can't bring it in, just go to the back door to get it when the security guards are not around. You can see it from here," Xia Jingzhe pointed to the direction of the rooftop, "There are also a lot of sneaky people, the school just doesn't know about it."

After finishing speaking, I suddenly remembered something: "By the way, didn't you just say that you have to review every day..."

"You lied to her," Zhen Xiao waved his hand, explaining blankly, "I only go on weekends when I have time, who would go to the hospital every day?"

Honey mustard-flavored fried chicken is still quite a challenge for someone who has never tasted wasabi since his birth - not only that, because he can't accept the wonderful taste of sweet cheese sauce mixed with salty fried chicken, but also A box of fried chicken was also pushed to Xia Jingzhe's side.

"What else can you eat, idiot," Xia Jingzhe sighed helplessly, and put the instant noodles poured in hot water in front of him, "If you don't like it, just tell me, I ordered so much, I can't eat it alone. Can't finish it..."

Knowing that he was wrong, Zhen Xiao rarely choked back, dug a spoonful of pudding into his mouth, and pretended to be dead in silence.

Xia Jingzhe sat down on the armrest of the sofa on the side farther away from him, put on plastic gloves and ate fried chicken by himself, while slandering "how can anyone not like cheese with fried chicken", and said awkwardly: "whatever How should I put it, let me treat you to dinner..."

"Ah."

"In exchange, can you listen to some nonsense from me?"

"Ok?"

"Don't think too much, I'm not interested in expressing my heartfelt interest to someone like you," the young man's eyes flickered with confusion as he looked at Shang Zhenxiao's incomprehensible gaze, "It's just that I haven't talked to anyone for too long, it's a little..."

Lonely, lonely, bored, or any other adjectives—it seems that they are not enough to describe his motives for saying these words by accident.

Just like him, he also couldn't explain why he had never met this person before, but he felt that the other person was trustworthy, a person who could get along with peace of mind even if he didn't deliberately find excuses--this was an exception, so that he had some kind of long-lost feeling. Eager, eager to prove his innocence on the third day of knowing each other, and explain something about the past that he never bothered to explain.

Perhaps it is the intuition of social fear animals.

"Understood, let's talk about it, don't let it go for nothing." After waiting for a long time, Zhen Xiao didn't ask further questions, and said with his chin propped up.

"You really deserve a beating!" He said something that made people grit his teeth, but his tone was so innocent that he was almost obedient, with a soft smile in his eyes, looking at him intently and straightforwardly... exactly like that child.

The instigator didn't take it seriously, he lifted the sealing paper of the instant noodles, and took a sip slowly.

So, in the next half hour, Xia Jingzhe started his narration with a naive mood like a desire to vent.

It started from the day when I entered the belated rebellious period two years ago.

"It's not the first time I've seen those people I met yesterday. The last time I met them was before I transferred here last year. On the way home that day, I ran into a group of people surrounding a girl. , Those three people are also inside... They look very anxious, but they are actually only one year older than me, and they were still students at the time, yes, they are the same age as you, and they have already graduated."

"Maybe I shouldn't be nosy, but I didn't think too much about it at the time, and I rushed up when I saw them wanting to do something. I have learned judo, but I am not good at it. It is still difficult for one person to deal with a dozen of them, so I played a little trick." , I tripped a man while they were rushing up like beating me, and covered his head with my clothes while in the chaos, diverting the firepower of others. Fortunately, it was winter, and it got dark early, and people were angry when they were angry They don’t have any brains, no, they don’t have any brains at all—by the time they realized it, they had beaten their boss so hard that he couldn’t walk, and I also took that girl and escaped.”

"You should have heard a lot of rumors about me. I was fired for fighting, smoking, drinking, and getting tattoos. I heard that it has risen to the level of killing people. Getting fired for fighting is the thing I just said. It was the only time I fought. Smoking It happened after I became an adult, but I have no interest recently. In the first year of high school, I just lit the cigarette to leave a smell on the clothes. The same goes for wine. Colorless white wine is poured on the shirt and worn under other clothes. It will look like the smell of alcohol emanating from the inside out, the tattoo is pasted, and the hair has been dyed, but I thought it was too ugly and dyed it back after two days... Isn't it stupid?"

"The reason... the reason is also very stupid. I was brought up by my grandmother, and her old man has poor legs and feet, so most of the time the nanny takes care of me, or each other. My parents run a company abroad and rarely return to China. Me, I was born purely to continue the bloodline... So since I was a child, I have envied those ordinary children who are disciplined by their parents and will be nagged by their parents when they come home late."

"I went to K Middle School in my first year of high school. It was a high school with a bad reputation and mostly dudes used to mix their diplomas. But my parents didn't investigate these at all. They just took it for granted that it was the most expensive school. High school must be the best, so let me fill in that volunteer..."

"Later, I met a completely different person there, that is, the so-called delinquent boy. He committed crimes every day, was called a parent, and was taken back by his parents...It was stupid, stupid and meaningless, but I was a little Envy——At that time, I suddenly realized that my parents have been doing business and letting me go, maybe it’s because I’m too obedient and peaceful.”

"Then I started to imitate their troubles and didn't want to fight, so I only learned the superficial bad behavior, making myself look as depraved as the people around me."

"As a result, you should have guessed it. The result was that the teacher found out and called the parents, but no one came at all. They only sent people with money, gave red envelopes, gift money, and settled down..."

"Afterwards, it was that fight. I said I didn't do anything, believe it or not, but the result is that the leader of the gang went to the hospital, and the followers were also devastated. Recently, they came to find fault again. Maybe it was that idiot Let me be discharged from the hospital. He is a son of a wealthy businessman, and the school can only expel me in order to settle the matter."

"...Of course I'm not such an easy person to bully. If I don't want to leave, I won't be able to fire me when the Heavenly King comes...I do it voluntarily."

"On the day of the accident, grandma heard about my fight from nowhere, and hurried out to look for me, and accidentally fell down the stairs... a cerebral hemorrhage, and almost failed to be rescued."

"My mother came back from business abroad and slapped me when we met, which woke me up."

The young man sighed, and ended the talk without warning. His eyes stayed on the last piece of fried chicken in front of him. He was silent for a moment, and then added as if trying to cover up: "It's much more comfortable to say it. These words are not for you Yes, forget it after listening to it, I just... have saved it for a long time, and when I want to meet again, I will tell it to someone, and then I will beat him up hard. I can't bear it if I save it for too long Let's rehearse it with you first."

——True and false.

"Are you going to beat me up now?" After listening to a long story, Zhen Xiao didn't show any emotion, just pushed the finished instant noodle box to his side, and said, "First Say yes, I am very insensitive, I will get dizzy and have a headache when I am overly stimulated, and I may faint like last time, so be merciful."

"Is this the point? Ordinary people should laugh at me after hearing such words, or..."

"Most people won't listen to you finish these words," Zhen Xiao casually played with the prism-shaped eraser, speaking to the point, with his usual indifferent tone - when he wasn't smiling, his whole body was surrounded by something that was incompatible with the world around him A sense of indifference, even if you are talking about things related to yourself, you are as indifferent as a bystander who states the facts, "It's not for me anyway, and I have no obligation to evaluate."

Under the appearance of indifference, there seems to be a jar of jealousy that has been quietly overturned.

Unaware of the jealousy that the client didn't know about, Xia Jingzhe met his gaze and thought with some loss, it really was just an illusion.

Whether it's bad or gentle, it's just a fleeting illusion, just like an iceberg, it looks like pure ice on the surface, only the circle where it meets the water surface changes, occasionally refracting different lights, making people feel like icebergs. People have the illusion that the layer of ice is melting and they can glimpse their real body—but there is still more ice hidden under the water surface.

Whether he proves his innocence or not is just a stranger's confession to him, meaningless.

It doesn't matter anymore. "Don't have expectations for others, don't give your heart to others", it's just a relationship that is being manipulated and teased again and again, there is nothing to look forward to, don't take it too seriously...

He will no longer treat someone wholeheartedly like he did when he was a child, but in the end he will be abandoned - even if Zhen Xiao resembles that person, it is impossible for him to repeat the same mistakes.

"But..." After a long silence, Zhen Xiao suddenly spoke, breaking the abrupt silence.

"Huh?" Xia Jingzhe asked angrily.

"As soon as I transferred to school, I was criticized by others and isolated for no reason." No matter how bad a person is, he also vaguely noticed the depression of the other party at this time. It is up to him to say something to ease the atmosphere, "Don't you think it's a little strange?"

"It doesn't matter, the result won't change anyway," Xia Jingzhe waved his hands, stood up, and carried the trash to the door to put it down, "I've been used to it for a long time."

"But isn't it lonely?"

"Lonely fart, and I'm not a boudoir." Due to the injury on the forehead of the other party, the hand knife that should have fallen on the top of the head fell on the shoulder instead, Xia Jingzhe moved his wrist and said, "Besides, I am busy every day, so I don't have a sad spring." Time to hurt autumn."

"Very busy..." Zhen Xiao looked at the manga manuscripts scattered on the table, and if he realized something, "Busy drawing manga?"

"Well, I will study occasionally, so as not to be ashamed of poor grades, and—" With trust in the other party's ability to keep secrets, no, maybe it was some kind of more childish show-off mentality, after briefly showing off, Xia Jing Zhe asked, "Have you heard of the 'Black Envelope Office'?"

Instinctively thinking that the other party would not mention this term for no reason, the young man thought about it, his expression froze for a moment, and he said his conjecture: "Are you... are you also one of them?"

"How is it possible..." - Zhen Xiao breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm the creator of this thing." - choking.

"By the way, I was the only one from the beginning to the end. The location of the 'office' is this abandoned office—but I rarely meet people, and if I have to, I will make appointments on the rooftop outside."

Recalling the black envelope that she personally placed under the abandoned sculpture yesterday, and the shameful plea for help inside, Zhen Xiao blinked, feeling that her normally calm heart might have undergone unprecedented huge fluctuations just a second ago.

"Then you... will all those, uh, wishes be granted?" He tentatively asked calmly.

"Not necessarily, there is an unwritten requirement that you must leave your contact information. If you can't get in touch later, I don't want to waste time." - Zhen Xiao breathed a sigh of relief again.

"But I will take a look at it. By the way, there are still two entrustments that I just received and I haven't had time to open them. Do you want to take a look?"—choked again.

Fortunately, he didn't leave any contact information. With Xia Jingzhe's almost zero understanding of him, he probably wouldn't have guessed that the letter was left by him... Let this matter rot into the coffin, it's better than letting this kind of person Come to be a life mentor to answer his doubts