desolate

It was noon when I woke up, the room was still dark, the curtains were drawn tightly, and no light leaked in.Unsurprisingly, Zhou Ze didn't have breakfast.

There was no one around, so I reached out to touch it, and there was only a piece of ice cold.

Zhou Ze's whole face was buried in the quilt, his head seemed to be fighting with 36 gods, and the pain was dull. Although he took anti-inflammatory drugs last night, his throat still seemed to be on fire.

He pressed his temples hard, slowly got up from the bed, and reached for the mineral water on the coffee table.

"Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-"

Suddenly, the cell phone that was placed in an unknown corner rang.

Zhou Ze thought it was a call from Pei Ye, so he took the water and went back to the bed to fumble without even seeing the notification of the call.

"Hey--"

His voice was hoarse, like rust sawing through old wood.

"hello."

An unfamiliar voice made Zhou Ze frowned deeply.

"You are……"

"Come out and have a meal, my dear brother—brother—"

Snapped.

Hang up decisively.

Zhou Ze pinched the bridge of his nose, planning to call Pei Ye first.

"Ding-ding-ding-"

Before Pei Ye's number was dialed, Zhou Xuan's call came in again.

If you don't answer this call, there will be a second call, a third call, and an indiscriminate bombardment of all kinds of information, and he can't shut down forever—at least not now

"Hey……"

"Why did you hang up on me?" Zhou Xuan's tone was a bit off, "I just asked you to come out for dinner, so why not."

Zhou Ze said slowly, "I don't want to go."

Zhou Xuan didn't talk nonsense: "Come down quickly, I'll wait for you in the lobby."

As soon as the voice is off, the phone hangs up.

"..."

Zhou Ze had a headache, both physically and mentally.

He didn't know how Zhou Xuan got here, and he didn't know what the other party was going to do, but he knew that if he didn't go down, this person could stay here until he went out.

Stalking is his specialty, and torturing people is his hobby.

Forget it.

Zhou Ze got up and changed his clothes, he would see him as soon as he thought about it, after all, he couldn't lose a piece of meat.

But when he really saw Zhou Xuan dragging two huge suitcases in the lobby downstairs, he still regretted his decision to come to see him 3 minutes ago.

"Zhou, help me open a room, I don't have any money." Zhou Xuan stuffed his ID card into his hand, as if if you don't help me, I will live with you.

"I don't have any money either." Zhou Ze pushed back his ID card.

"...Then I can only live with you." Zhou Xuan pushed the two suitcases forward with full posture.

See, sure enough.

"Then come."

If it was before, Zhou Ze might have already agreed. He used to flatter everyone without a trace, including his stubborn brother.But now, he doesn't want to please anyone to get others' favor to him.

The way Zhou Xuan looked at him changed.

From being surprised to looking at him, he seemed to have re-acquainted with this younger brother in this short period of time.

"...Okay, okay, whatever I borrowed, my credit card is overdrawn, and I will pay you back tomorrow."

"Make an IOU, and if you don't pay it back when it's due, you will be charged interest at the highest interest rate of the domestic bank."

"..."

What a chicken thief.

Zhou Xuan nodded with difficulty.

"……Row!"

"Then what... write the repayment date next Wednesday!"

Zhou Ze asked the front desk for paper and pen, and started writing the IOU on the spot.The girl at the front desk knew this guest who had rented a room in the hotel for two months. She still remembered how he "spend a lot of money" at the time, and she never imagined that she would be so fussy with her brother.

Zhou Xuan didn't expect either.

"Cho, you seem to have changed." He stared into his younger brother's eyes, as if he wanted to look into his heart through this skin.

"Really? How's it going?" Zhou Ze showed him the IOU, then both parties signed their names, and he finally returned the pen to the front desk.

"It's getting more annoying."

"Then you have changed too."

"Ok?"

"Before, you wouldn't say it directly."

Zhou Ze helped him pay the room fee with his own money, and then followed Zhou Xuan upstairs to put his luggage.

The number representing the floor is constantly jumping, the elevator is going up slowly, and the mirror-like door reflects the shadows of two people - about the same height, [-]% similar appearance, but completely different because of their clothes.

"Really, what was I like before?"

Zhou Xuan fiddled with his hair and straightened the necklace around his neck, as if he was satisfied with today's outfit.

"Call me in the middle of the night, take me to the bar, ask me to help you with your homework, open a room with your girlfriend and ask me to buy it for you..." Zhou Ze carefully counted.

"Enough is enough!" Zhou Xuan stretched out his hand to interrupt him, his face was a little uneasy, "How do you remember so clearly?"

Zhou Ze smiled nonchalantly, and walked out first after the elevator door opened.

——Of course he remembers clearly that during the winter and summer vacations, he would always study at home or go to cram schools alone.

There are few vivid days, he remembers them very clearly.

"This hotel... so that's it, no wonder it's cheap."

As soon as he walked into the room, Zhou Xuan was critical.

"This is the best hotel here." Zhou Ze watched as he took off the ring on his hand, and put on another two from the suitcase.

"Okay, let's go, go eat, I'm starving to death." Zhou Xuan changed into a suit of clothes and put on a pair of sunglasses pretendingly.

Sao bag.

Zhou Ze evaluated silently in his heart.

"Are you scolding me?" Zhou Xuan had a panoramic view of the expression on his face.

"No." How dare.

Zhou Ze smiled calmly.

The place to eat was a Hunan restaurant with a Chinese-style decoration and semi-open cubicles. Zhou Xuan chose a set meal for two on the software.While waiting for the meal, the two brothers faced each other like strangers without a word.

Zhou Ze held his mobile phone and concentrated on sending a message to Pei Ye asking where he was.

He waited for a while, but no new message popped up from that black profile picture.

...maybe busy?

"Hey, don't you know that you can't play with your phone while eating?" Zhou chose to tap the edge of the bowl with his chopsticks.

"Don't knock on the bowl while eating."

"you……"

Zhou Ze put down his phone, facing the plate of chopped pepper fish head just served, he really didn't want to move his chopsticks.He doesn't like fish, it feels fishy, ​​and he can't eat spicy food too much, but he likes these Zhou Xuans very much.

Zhou Ze picked up some fried lotus root, and finally asked the other party why he came: "I didn't ask along the way, what's the matter with you here?"

"Nothing…"

I just don't know if it's okay or I don't want to say it.

Zhou Ze didn't continue to ask, but waited quietly.

Sure enough, the other party couldn't hold back any longer: "Actually, it's not a big deal..." He tried his best to look calm, "Did you know that Aunt Qu gave birth to a son during the Chinese New Year?"

"know."

A younger brother who was two rounds faster than them.

"The child is too noisy, crying every day, very annoying, so I will come out to stay for a few days."

Zhou Xuan poked the rice in the bowl repeatedly.

To be more precise, he had a big fight with his father because of this little brother, and then ran away from home—but as a 20-year-old adult, he was really embarrassed to admit this childish behavior in front of Zhou Ze.

Fortunately, Zhou Ze didn't intend to expose him.

"Then you can live here, anyway, you live on campus when school starts."

"Yes! I think so too, when the time comes... What? You have a cold?"

Maybe it was because he was about to cough up his lungs, Zhou Xuan finally realized it later.

Zhou Ze blushed: "...a little bit."

"Didn't I buy ginger tea for you yesterday?"

"...Is that what you bought?"

"That's not it?"

Yesterday, when he just left the station, he ran into the heavy rain and went back to the hotel soaked. When he ordered takeout for himself, he also gave Zhou Ze a copy. It was not because he cared, but because he thought that the other party would get a strange takeaway. It should be annoying, but it's just fun.

Zhou Xuan brought the menu and re-ordered a few lighter dishes: "I told you that you had a cold and you wouldn't eat here."

Zhou Ze sniffed, but didn't speak.

After eating, Zhou Ze accompanied Zhou Xuan to the shopping mall for a while, saying that the things in the hotel were not used to, and he wanted to buy some daily necessities to go back.

I don't know why the two big men kept wandering around until the afternoon, and then had dinner outside.

Fortunately, Zhou Xuan chose a tea restaurant out of conscience this time.

It was still bright when we returned to the hotel, but the sun had already set in the west, and the rose color on the clouds had already faded away. At this time, the sky was a little blue, and a flock of birds flew low.

Zhou Ze returned to the room, the same as when he went out, the quilt was in a mess, the changed clothes were still pitifully draped on the bathroom doorknob, and the curtains hadn't even been opened in time, the room was like a sealed box.

Pei didn't come back either.

No phone calls or text messages.

This realization made him a little frustrated.

The medicine I bought last night was still on the coffee table, and there were two small holes in the aluminum box.Zhou Ze stood aside and hesitated for a while, then took out two pills and water and swallowed them.

Otherwise, Pei Ye may be angry when he comes back to see that he didn't take the medicine...

Zhou Ze embraced the pillow, staring at the white wall, thinking drowsily.

It didn't take long for the medicine to take effect, and he finally fell asleep uncontrollably.

At around eight o'clock in the evening, Zhou Xuan, who lived on the same floor, was rowing vigorously at a beautiful woman on a certain social software, when a battery reminder interrupted him.

He couldn't find the charger left and right, so he thought of Zhou Ze again.

Staying in the room is also boring, Zhou Xuan grabbed two packs of potato chips from the suitcase as a door-to-door gift.

"Cho—open the door—I'm your brother—"

Zhou Xuan slammed the door and called Zhou Ze's name, but for some reason, he didn't see the other party coming to open the door, so he called the other party's phone.

It took almost ten seconds to connect, but no one answered the phone, but there was a sudden "bang—" from inside the door.

Like something heavy fell down.

Zhou Xuan realized something was wrong, and hurried down to the front desk to find someone to help, but fortunately the receptionist recognized him and took out the spare room card.

Going upstairs again, Zhou chose the spare room card to open the door.

"Zhou Ze—"

As soon as he entered the door, Zhou Xuan saw a person sitting at the end of the bed, holding a mobile phone in one hand and rubbing the back of his head with the other, with a painful expression on his face.

"What's wrong with you? Get up—"

Zhou Xuan wanted to help him up, but when he stretched out his hand, he found that the other person was extremely hot.

"You have a fever?"

Zhou Xuan thought it was his own illusion, and probed his forehead with the back of his hand.

Terribly hot.

"Go, go to the hospital."

Zhou Xuan helped him up from the ground.

"No, I'll just sleep for a while."

Although Zhou Ze had a severe fever, his consciousness was clear and he didn't want to go to the hospital no matter what.He pushed Zhou Xuan away, grabbed his phone and lay back on the bed.

Looking at his sleeping position lying on the quilt, Zhou Xuan probably knows how he turned from a cold to a fever.

He struggled to cover Zhou Ze with the unpressed quilt, then wrapped him into a long white worm, and turned up the temperature of the air conditioner to make him sweat.

After doing all this, Zhou Xuan took out his room card and prepared to go downstairs to buy some antipyretics.

Before leaving, he glanced at the person on the bed, and pursed his lips as if resigned to his fate.

"..."

"I really owe you..."

The author says:

There are some bugs in the previous chapters, the changes are not big, friends who have read it can ignore~

tomorrow