muddy boy

Chen Linhu was surprised to find that Zhang Xun was simply brazen.

"What do you mean?" Chen Linhu looked at Zhang Xun who was still rubbing his hands, "You still want to take advantage of me for the third time?"

Zhang Xun was very indignant by his tone of condemning hooligans: "I'm not restraining myself, it's really you..." He swallowed a series of adjectives and asked for foreign aid, "Brother Hu!"

As he spoke, he opened the bottom drawer of the desk, pulled out a cat strip, and squeezed it in his hand to make a sound of rubbing the packaging bag.

The fat cat outside the door didn't respond to his name at all. Almost half a second after hearing the sound of the cat strip packaging bag rubbing against each other, a fat, unsmiling face squeezed in through the crack of the door.

Zhang Xun tore apart the cat strips and squeezed out a little, and let the fat cat lick it "purring and purring" while rubbing it from the head to the tip of the butt to relieve his itchy hands.

Chen Linhu was a little surprised when he saw that the fat cat, who didn't like to talk to people, would come to him when he called, "Why does it look like a dog?"

"That is to say, it can't understand human words, or it would have scratched you by now," Zhang Xun said while squeezing the cat strips, "It's a habit, it runs away when it hears the sound of the packaging bag of the food it likes to eat, and I hear it with you." There is a reason why the bell jingles in class."

Chen Linhu thought that your analogy was not quite right, but his eyes were fixed on Zhang Xun's movement of stroking the cat.

"Why do you act like a stalker?" Zhang Xun felt that he was a little too sensitive to Chen Linhu's gaze now, "Do you want to touch it?"

"What?" Chen Linhu didn't react.

"Cat, what else is there?" Zhang Xun was inexplicable, "Passing a cat is a behavior that relieves stress. Although it will occasionally boost the cat's pressure, as long as you feed it regularly, the cat will forgive you graciously." .” After a pause, he added, “Should be.”

The last three words gave Fat Mao a little more humiliation in Chen Linhu's eyes.

"Animals," Chen Linhu said, "are afraid of me."

"Brother Hu won't," Zhang Xun said, "Don't worry, it usually just looks down on you."

Chen Linhu felt that these two situations were not very welcome, but Zhang Xun waved at him. Chen Linhu didn't know what to do, so he really moved forward an inch, stretched out his hand stiffly, and quickly swept the tip of the fluff on Fat Mao's back .

"Would you like to draw the outline here?" Zhang Xun couldn't help laughing, "Come here, come to me."

Chen Linhu paused, and it was rare that he didn't refute him in a tone like calling a child, and moved towards Zhang Xun.

"Hold this," Zhang Xun stuffed the cat strip into Chen Linhu's hands, "Squeeze slowly, and squeeze it after it licks it all up."

The cat strip only tore a not-so-big opening, which looked like a carrot tied to the donkey's head. The fat cat moved its head along the shift of the cat strip, licked it twice and realized something was wrong, and looked at Chen Linhu suspiciously. .

"It stares at people." Chen Linhu was surprised.

Zhang Xun suppressed a smile: "It's okay, continue, it belongs to the type that has milk and is..." Temporarily changed his words, "If you have food, you are a father."

The new father, Chen Linhu, was stiff all over, and mechanically squeezed the cat strips out in small sections. Probably because of this, the fat cat defaulted to him as an automatic feeding machine. After a short period of reluctance, he accepted the status quo. On Chen Linhu's calf crossed, he stretched his head and ate.

"Is it plausible to just touch it?" Zhang Xun sat on the side and couldn't stand it any longer. "What do you use your other hand for? Do you keep your body balanced?"

Chen Linhu was so squeezed by him, he frowned and looked at Zhang Xun: "I haven't cultivated feelings, so it's not easy to touch."

"Cat strips are feelings." Zhang Xun leaned forward and grabbed Chen Linhu's other hand, which was clenched into a fist and resting on his lap, and opened his fingers to lightly press on the back of Fat Cat's neck. "When the feelings are in place, you can touch them."

Zhang Xun released Chen Linhu's five fingers that were originally clenched because of nervousness, and took him to touch the furry and warm things.

Following Zhang Xun's instructions, he scratched the back of Fat Cat's neck a few times with his fingertips.

Maybe the cat strips are really in place. Brother Hu didn't have much resistance to Chen Linhu's daring little tricks. He shook his ears and tolerated this little habit of the feeding machine.

"It feels good." Zhang Xun propped his hands behind his back, and sat lazily watching Chen Linhu's clumsy, foot-like movements. Chen Linhu's appearance is very rare, clumsiness is not clumsiness, like the cautiousness of a fierce tiger and a small trumpet flower after meeting on a narrow road.

Chen Linhu became more and more courageous, and tentatively scratched the fat cat's ears with his fingers, then raised his head and smiled at Zhang Xun.

Laughing like discovering a new world.

The hand behind Zhang Xun who had just parted Chen Linhu's five fingers slowly tightened, and suddenly felt that his sentence "you can touch when you are in place" seemed a bit hooligan.

"That student who was bullied," Zhang Xun's mind was in a mess, and his mouth seemed to be out of control, and he said unconsciously, "What happened afterwards?"

After he finished speaking, he had the urge to bite his tongue. Zhang Xun watched Chen Linhu's upturned mouth slowly drop a little bit, and began to sincerely consider Chen Linhu's saying that he couldn't speak when he was nervous as an important issue.

"I haven't been in touch again, and I didn't talk much at first." Chen Linhu scratched Fat Mao's neck with his fingertips, and said lightly, "After that, he went home to study by himself, but I told his buddies in the previous dormitory The college entrance examination is not bad, and the school I got into is not bad.”

Zhang Xun pulled out a message from the words: "Man? I was wondering if you were a hero who saved the beauty."

"The Gou Xiong Mang tree is pretty much the same." Chen Linhu laughed at himself, "The tree was not saved, and I almost pulled it up by the roots."

Zhang Xun really didn't know how to answer his question, so he bit his cigarette butt and remained silent.

"What about you here?" Chen Linhu was a little relaxed, Zhang Xun gave him a feeling that he could say anything, so he shrugged his right shoulder and motioned for Zhang Xun.

"Tsk," Zhang Xun smacked his tongue, "We have to even out in terms of selling misery, right?"

Chen Linhu was amused: "You don't want to get even, and I have nothing to do."

He smiled and Zhang Xun was at a loss for words. He thought for a while: "When I was young, one year during Chinese New Year, I ran away from home. My dad caught me at the train station and gave me a slap. Yes. After that, I had to mend my feet for any cigarette butts that were not extinguished while I was walking."

"..." Chen Linhu felt that Zhang Xun seemed to use an unpretentious and short narrative method to tell an obscure and unbearable story. It took him a while to find a less abrupt way to speak, " Have you ever run away from home?"

Zhang Xun said with a smile: "Attempt, no. When I was young, I wanted to go back to the countryside to find my grandma. When I arrived at the station, I realized that I didn't bring enough money to buy a ticket. Looking outside to see if anyone dropped the steel coin on the ground, while imagining how to get on the train, but both failed, and my dad fell from the sky."

Recalling that Zhang Xun said that he had no relatives to go to, Chen Linhu realized that the old lady who made Zhang Xun run away from home to see was probably gone.

This kind of one-stroke plot in life should have been a big blow to Zhang Xun who had to rely on picking up steel coins to mix trains back then, but because of the passage of time, it has become a trivial matter that can be casually talked about with people in early autumn nights many years later.

But Chen Linhu feels that it is possible for a person to live to this age and still remember how to pick up steel coins. Even though the vivid colors left in the memory when it happened at the beginning are gone, there are still gray and clear scars .

Chen Linhu scratched Zhang Xun's arm twice through the sleeve fabric with his fingertips that had stroked Fat Mao.

"Don't," Zhang Xun felt numb on one side of his body from this stiff consoling gesture, "Compared to you, who add color to your face, I'm really nothing."

"You are also very fierce," Chen Linhu said, "A normal person can't unscrew such a round scar."

Zhang Xun thought that his mouth was not in vain.

Just now Chen Linhu lightly awakened the itchy flesh all over the body, and the scratching still remained on his arm. It was amazing, Zhang Xun felt that the touch was very clear even through the fabric.

"Have you regretted what you did then?" Zhang Xun asked suddenly.

Chen Linhu paused for a second: "If I didn't stop me then, I would regret it."

Zhang Xun understood that Chen Linhu had slightly wavered about whether his actions were correct afterwards.

"I don't regret doing this," Chen Linhu said after feeding the cat sticks, and the fat cat put down the bowl and disowned all relatives. After confirming that Chen Linhu was out of stock, he shook his ears and turned aside to lick his mouth and paws.Chen Linhu threw the cat strip packaging bag into the trash can, put his hands back on the ground, looked at the ceiling above his head and said, "I just always think, if only I could do it more properly, and be more clever."

Zhang Xun thought it was quite difficult. After all, Chen Linhu was the type with straight sides when he landed.

"If I can be like you," Chen Linhu said, "it will be fine."

At least Chen Xingye can wake up from his dreams with a smile.

Zhang Xun didn't answer, and after a while, he opened his mouth and said, "It's good for you to do this. Square head and square brain, it takes a lot of effort to become round."

Chen Linhu didn't understand what he meant. When he looked up, Zhang Xun had already stood up, pulled out his chair and sat down at the desk.

He shook the mouse, the computer screen lit up, and a large number of manuscripts reminded Zhang Xun that he still had a lot of work to do.

As soon as he got up, the surrounding environment seemed to change accordingly. It made people feel that the hazy light faded away, and the consciousness that he was in the old small bedroom on the second floor became clear again.

The topic seemed to be cut off hastily. Zhang Xun looked at the "ants" on the screen, and habitually turned on the lighter. When he was almost at the end of the cigarette, he remembered Chen Linhu. He glanced at him and extinguished the flame.

"You smoke it." Chen Linhu stood up, his hair was almost dry, "I'm going back, thank you today."

Zhang Xun felt a little anxious just now, which was very inexplicable, but seeing Chen Linhu's calm eyes, this emotion was smoothed away like a small wrinkle.

"What we cranes should do." Zhang Xun lit his cigarette and smiled, "Bye bye, go to bed early."

Chen Linhu didn't have any extra ways to deal with this kind of polite words, so he nodded silently.

The aimless chat just now turned into a polite farewell. Zhang Xun moved his lips, wanting to say something, but the phrase "I want to be like you" lingered in Zhang Xun's mind repeatedly. Some sticky bitterness rose from the throat.

"Can you," Chen Linhu said, "Lend me some books? It's boring just playing with your phone."

Zhang Xun was stunned, stood up and walked to the bookshelf, found out half of the comics Chen Linhu had just read and a few follow-up books, and stuffed them all into his arms: "Take it away, take it all away."

Before Chen Linhu said what he wanted to read, Zhang Xun found the books he needed with great precision.

"You can see that I want to borrow a copy?" Chen Linhu asked.

"You read this book when I came out of the shower," Zhang Xun said, "I remember it."

Chen Linhu was a little surprised, but felt that if it was Zhang Xun, it would be natural, so he smiled.

Not knowing if he was smoked by the smoke from the cigarette, Zhang Xun squinted his eyes and turned his head away, and took another book from the bedside stacked in Chen Linhu's hand.

Chen Linhu met with "The Little Prince" which he hadn't finished last time.

After taking a shower, he borrowed a few books along the way. Chen Linhu returned with a full load, and his hands were almost insufficient, so Zhang Xun had to open the door for him to see him out.

After half of Chen Linhu's body had gone out, Zhang Xun, who had been silent all this time, spoke.

"It's actually quite handsome." Zhang Xun said.

Chen Linhu turned his head.

Zhang Xun gestured at the end of his eyebrows: "Just you, you are quite handsome. I think if you tell Uncle Chen, he will feel the same way."

Chen Linhu's expression paused, and he subconsciously stared at Zhang Xun, wondering what the words meant.

But Zhang Xun only saw Zhang Xun half-cast his eyes, coughed and added quickly: "I'll just talk about it."

"It's not casual," Chen Linhu said out of nowhere, "He's really handsome."

Zhang Xun was choked by the smoke, and while laughing and coughing, he waved to Chen Linhu again and again: "You go, you don't bother others when you see your handsome face."

Chen Linhu went down to the first floor in three steps at a time, and only when he opened the anti-theft door of his home did he hear the sound of Zhang Xun closing the door overhead.

Before it was time for Old Chen to go to bed, when Chen Linhu entered the door, he was lying on the rocking chair and fighting landlords on his mobile phone, with the new earphones Chen Linhu bought for him hanging on his ears, and a book that he always looked through before going to bed on his belly. An account book with a torn cover that is about to fall off.

After saying hello to Old Chen, Chen Linhu went back to his bedroom with the book he borrowed from Zhang Xun.

Unwaveringly, he spread out his sketchbook and drew a few pages of sketches, which has almost become Chen Linhu's habit.

Except for a few talented players who make people hate their teeth, painting is basically a lot of practice to maintain the touch and eyesight. If you stop painting for a while, you may have to reverse your skills.

Chen Linhu doesn’t have any plans for his future, and this habit has never found a clear direction for development. He usually practices drawing pictures of people or things he was looking for or passing by. Only after finishing his drawing today, did he realize that half of the paintings are cats. .

The cat also looked like a pig, and its eyes were very unkind, provocative and contemptuous, making Chen Linhu's hands itchy.

Itchy hands.

He raised his left hand and put it under the lamp to illuminate it.

The joints are clear, the skin is fair, and some slightly convex blood vessels can be seen, and there is no allergic red rash.

But it still felt a little itchy. Chen Linhu thought about it for a long time, and felt that the range of itching was arranged and combined, and after passing through the outline of his art student, it seemed to be the place Zhang Xun touched when he held his hand to touch the fat cat.

Chen Linhu shook his hands, but did not shake off the feeling of sticking to the skin.

I can't be allergic to Zhang Xun, just sweaty hands or something.

Zhang Xun didn't even sweat.

Chen Linhu seriously recalled that Zhang Xun's palms were still very dry and hot, because he had rubbed his head, so Chen Linhu knew that Zhang Xun's hands were quite strong.

But it was very light when he hit his head.

Chen Linhu leaned on the back of the chair, rubbed his hands, glanced out of the corner of his eye at a stack of books on the corner of the table, and the child with yellow hair and long scarf on the top cover looked curious and confused.

A little alien, Chen Linhu thought, traveled through planets inhabited by people he couldn't understand.

According to this setting, the planet trained by Zhang should be quite different from the planet he is on.

Chen Linhu is a little curious about a "planet".

He scratched the back of his hand, thinking that there might be something on the "planet" that he was allergic to.

The author has something to say:

He was really trying to think clearly.