Attempted first love

When the train stopped at Dunhuang Station, it was close to three o'clock in the afternoon.

Chen Wen was waiting outside the station in an army green off-road vehicle. When he saw Lu Zhouyu exiting the station, he lowered the car window and shook his cigarette-holding hand at him.

"Why did you come here specially?" Lu Zhouyu put the luggage into the trunk and got on the co-pilot.

"Everyone else went to visit the scenic spot, I have nothing to do." Chen Wen bit the cigarette in his mouth, started the car, and asked with a smile: "I thought you would fly with them yesterday, why? A green skin sitting alone?"

"Go see a friend." Lu Zhouyu said.

Chen Wen was a classmate of Lu Zhouyu's in college, one level higher than him, and the two often attended classes and worked on projects together, and their relationship was fairly close.But in the past two years, the news of Chen Wen has gradually decreased. When Lu Zhouyu returned to the UK, he tried to contact him, only to learn that Chen Wen had already returned to China and went to the northwest to engage in cultural construction. This time, he led the cooperation with Haicheng.

"So," Chen Wen smiled and didn't ask any further questions, "Isn't it nice to sit on a green skin?"

It was the first time for Lu Zhouyu to take this kind of train in his life. At first, he felt that it was new, but because of the narrow seat, he could not stretch his legs and feet, and his body was not used to it.But because he was looking forward to the first half of the trip, he didn't feel difficult, and he kept reading the newspaper in the second half of the trip. He said, "It's not as exaggerated as you said."

Knowing that Lu Zhouyu came by train instead of plane last night, Chen Wen specifically reminded him that the green leather train was slow and smoky, and an hour seemed like a lifetime.

Chen Wen laughed loudly after hearing this, and patted the steering wheel to speculate: "I think you are chasing someone."

Lu Zhouyu glanced at him sideways, and simply admitted, "I met him during the transit."

"It turns out that you can also chase people." Chen Wen tapped his index finger, and after driving for a while, he said: "I met a girl for the first time when I came here the year before last, and I always think of her when I go back. I was thinking about her, and one night I suddenly felt that I couldn’t wait for a minute, so I ran to the train station to buy a ticket, there was no high-speed train at night, so I could only take the green leather, hard seat for 1 hours.”

"I didn't feel bad at all at the time, and I even got addicted to it, and then I sat down a lot." He took a puff of cigarettes, with a gentle smile hanging from the corners of his eyes and brows, "We will get married next month."

Seeing the ring on his ring finger, Lu Zhouyu said sincerely, "Congratulations."

Chen Wen bit the cigarette in his mouth, and patted him on the shoulder with his hands free, "Learn more from my brother."

The next two days of meetings and visits are very full. After the summary meeting every night, I have to go back to the hotel from the hall and take a taxi for about half an hour.

On the last day, the meeting went smoothly and ended early in the evening.A few people who came from Haicheng with Lu Zhouyu wanted to check in at a well-known local restaurant. Lu Zhouyu caught the train early the next morning and did not attend. Chen Wen took him back to the hotel along the way.

On the way, Chen Wen's cell phone rang. He took a Bluetooth headset and explained "my wife" to Lu Zhouyu. After connecting, he said that he would be home in about four to ten minutes.

When the wheels run over gravel, even a high-performance off-road vehicle will inevitably bump.Lu Zhouyu didn't intend to listen to his call and looked out the window.

This section of the road is wide and empty, very close to the Gobi Desert, and the withered yellow spreads in the sight, like a piece of parchment unfolded.As the sun set, it poured down the horizon like a liquid, almost igniting the entire desert.

Chen Wen was still chatting with his girlfriend on the phone about homework, what to eat for dinner, and whether to buy canned food for the dog.Lu Zhouyu lowered the car window and stuck out the phone with one hand to record the video, as if this could also record the wind, sand and flying stones.

Recalling Xia Yan's description that the sand is like rough snow.Lu Zhouyu stared at the peaceful sandy surface, and thought of the whiteness of the earth in the morning after snow, and felt that this description was very appropriate.

He recorded a ten-second video of the sunset and sent it to Xia Yan. The signal came and went, and it took nearly 10 minutes to send it out.

After another section of driving, a row of camels appeared on the sand dunes. Listening carefully, there seemed to be the sound of copper bells coming from afar.

Lu Zhouyu was busy with recording and taking pictures, and never paid attention to what Chen Wen was talking about. When he was about to arrive at the hotel, he closed the car window and heard Chen Wen say in a very suspicious tone, "But what do I want you to do?" I can't wait for a minute", "Then give me a kiss", the voice is greasy and long, which is quite different from his usual speaking style.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Wen didn't show any embarrassment, and even raised his eyebrows, "Have you learned how to chase girls? This is an on-site teaching."

"What?" Lu Zhouyu sent a framed photo with a camel silhouette and half a sunset into the dialog box. The signal was cut off again, and the progress bar kept turning. He waited patiently, one circle, two circles.

This is the case these days.

Lu Zhouyu took pictures of the beautiful natural scenery, stunning flying murals, sunrises and sunsets, camels and wild flowers, and sent them to Xia Yan. He would also ask him what he was doing and if he had eaten. Xia Yan replied with a photo of a bunch of grapes, saying that it was him. I just picked it, and after a few seconds, I said it was too sour and I couldn't eat it.

There was sometimes a large gap between these conversations, probably because Lu Zhouyu was visiting the cave and the signal was weak, or Xia Yan fell asleep in the hanging chair.

But no matter how long it takes, I can always receive a reply, and the chat history and call time have accumulated a lot.

The progress bar froze for a while, and finally sent it out.

"Pretend to be pitiful," Chen Wen glanced at him sideways, and said in secret: "A man must learn to show weakness occasionally."

Thinking of his coquettish tone, Lu Zhouyu said nothing, put his hands on his knees, looked at the shadowy buildings in front of the road, and after a long while, he suddenly asked: "Is it useful?"

"Of course there is," Chen Wen said, "You must be the kind of person who goes around in a big circle, transfers, and takes the green leather car. After meeting you, you say, 'I'm not tired, just drop by'. .”

The sun was sinking down, hanging on a line of sand dunes, Lu Zhouyu lowered the car window another two inches, and the wind blew into the car.

"You're in a relationship, not a hero movie," Chen Wen said in a more serious voice, "saying 'I want to see you' is a hundred times more useful than 'dropping in'."

Lu Zhouyu turned the phone over and saw several messages sent by Xia Yan 2 minutes ago.

"There are camels."

After 1 minute, another post: "There are groundhogs in the yard!"

Then came a video, Lu Zhouyu clicked on it, first it was a chaotic scene, and then the camera pointed at a hole at the base of the wall, with half of a fluffy tail exposed, Xia Yan's voice came at the same time, with excitement, "Did you see that?" , just got in."

The video is only about ten seconds long, and the voice is just that sentence. The volume is not loud, but it echoes in the car.

"It's the same if the partner is a man, it has nothing to do with gender." After taking his last puff of cigarette, Chen Wen wiped out the cigarette butt, stepped on the brake slowly, stopped at the hotel entrance, and suddenly choked out and said something about you, "Go back Practice, come here when we meet tomorrow." After he finished speaking, he leaned on the back of the chair and laughed non-stop.

Lu Zhouyu punched him on the right shoulder and pushed the door to get out of the car.

Miss you.

Lu Zhouyu participated in an exhibition with the theme "Missing You, Missing You" two years ago.

Thoughts are in various poses and with different expressions, the duty of an artist is to materialize and concretize feelings and thoughts.They tried to present any carrier of "thinking", a hug, two ticket stubs, 43 "what are you doing" in the chat history, and even a pink plastic bag full of wind.

Only without these two words themselves, just like the most impressive love sentence in a movie line must not be "I love you".

Because it is too straightforward, not mellow enough, not sentimental enough, and so ordinary that everyone can talk about it, without recognition.

Lu Zhouyu leaned against the stone pillar outside the hotel and stood in the open space for a while.Until the night sky is low, the stars are small, and people are small.The phone was dialed out, and it was connected after only one ring.Xia Yan greeted in a very soft voice, as if afraid of disturbing something, Lu Zhouyu asked him: "Are you still watching the groundhog?"

"Yes, it's out." Xia Yan asked, "Do you want to see it? It's fluffy and cute."

Lu Zhouyu said he wanted to, so he cut the video and came over. The first second it was connected, there were front-facing cameras on both sides. Lu Zhouyu saw that Xia Yan seemed to be squatting by a wall. From the angle of looking up, half of his face was in the picture. and tangled vines overhead.

Xia Yan's gaze was in the distance first, and then moved to the camera, "Are you done?"

"Yeah." Lu Zhouyu took the phone away, showed the hotel's signboard, and then moved the screen to his eyes.They looked at each other for a few seconds, they were probably not used to it, no one spoke for a while, and Xia Yan didn't turn the camera to take pictures of the groundhog.

"Have you eaten yet?" Lu Zhouyu asked in a low voice.

"Eat it, it's still noodles. How about you?"

Tourists came back to the hotel one after another. Lu Zhouyu held up his mobile phone and walked away. He rubbed the position of his jaw on the screen with his finger, "Not yet. I just returned to the hotel after a day's project meeting."

"Is it all right?"

"Ah."

"Then what's your next plan? Dunhuang has many cultural landscapes, right?"

"They want to visit Yumen Pass tomorrow."

"It's good, just to relax." Xia Yan said, "I'll show you the groundhog, it seems to be asleep."

His camera shakes and switches to the rear. In the center of the screen is a dark mass of creatures, motionless. Lu Zhouyu then shifts his gaze to the shadow of Xia Yan, who is also dark next to him, feeling a little subtle in his heart. desire.

"Xia Yan." He called out.

"Ok?"

"I'll be at your place tomorrow morning," Lu Zhouyu said, "It's the same station as last time."

"Aren't you going to Yumen Pass?" The shadow moved.

"Others want to visit, so I won't go."

"Why don't you go," Xia Yan said, "I've only heard about Yumen Pass in poems, but I haven't been there yet. It should be very spectacular."

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly let out a "hiss".

"what happened?"

"...It's okay, my legs are numb after squatting for too long."

The shadow stretched and elongated unsteadily, and the movement was a little slow. Lu Zhouyu could only watch his step by step through the screen, and moved himself onto the hanging chair with difficulty.

Lu Zhouyu followed him step by step, walked to an open sandy field, and found a flat stone to sit on.The hotel ushered in the second wave of tourists returning from scenic spots, and there was a lot of noise, but he was far away from the excitement.

The wind picked up, and his hair and clothes were covered with a thin layer of sand. He didn't care, and simply lay back on the stone.

Xia Yan's camera hadn't turned around yet, and was still aiming at the groundhog that had become a black spot, but he could see Lu Zhouyu, so he asked with a smile, "Why are you still lying down, looking at the stars?"

The starry sky here is indeed more beautiful than what you can see anywhere. Lu Zhouyu raised the phone in front of him to block the night sky, "I want to see you," he said, "Xia Yan, turn the camera around."

About ten seconds later, Xia Yan cut the camera to the front, his head rested on the back of the hanging chair, his whole face was exposed, and he was silent, but his body was swinging back and forth with the hanging chair, one after another. Swing, looks relaxed and casual.

Until he had nothing to say and continued to persuade: "It's already here, why don't you go to Yumen Pass, anyway, I can wait for you here."

"I will come to this project often in the future. If you want to go, we will go together next time."

When Lu Zhouyu gave a report at the meeting and drafted a plan, he was always calm, calm, full but not overflowing, and had the right to speak like the center of the whirlpool.

But right now he is lying on the ground, like any insignificant grain of sand, speaking the most direct and hot words.

"But I want to see you and can't wait," he said.