Attempted first love

The day before returning to Haicheng, after dinner, Xia Yan saw Lou Rui watering the vines in the yard alone.In the two days since Xia Zhengyang came back, he became obsessed with Chinese painting without incident. Lu Zhouyu dabbled in this aspect, and just after dinner, Xia Zhengyang dragged him into the study to learn how to paint.

After washing his hands, Xia Yan grabbed a handful of tomatoes from the fruit plate, walked to Lou Rui, the water stopped, Lou Rui turned around and saw him, and asked with a smile: "Is everything packed?"

The original scheduled return time was tomorrow afternoon, but it was hard to buy an air ticket, and in the end, he only got the one at [-]:[-] in the morning. Lou Rui felt a little regretful about it, but he didn't say anything, and silently stuffed Xia Yan's vacated half of the suitcase full.

"It's ready." Xia Yan stuffed the small tomato to her, took the water hose, and poured it into the soil, "The grapes grow really well."

The sky was not completely dark yet, presenting a wonderful color of overlapping blue and purple, but the night wind had already blown up from the ground, and the flowers and plants in the garden swayed with the wind.After retiring, Lou Rui stopped devoting his energies to metal research and turned to taking care of plants, and he was equally at ease.

"This was planted during your summer vacation when you were ten years old," Lou Rui recalled. "Your dad and I didn't have time to take care of it, so we came back to life by ourselves."

"Really, I don't have any memory."

"In a blink of an eye, you are so big," Lou Rui squeezed his arm, "you are still too thin, go back and eat well."

Xia Yan nodded and said yes, the watering was almost done, he turned off the water pipe, neither of them was in a hurry to go back to the house, they just enjoyed the shade in the yard.The curtains of the study room were not drawn, and through the window, one could see Lu Zhouyu bowing down to correct Xia Zhengyang's brushwork.

Lou Rui also looked over there and said, "There are quite a lot of Xiaolu clubs."

Xia Yan nodded again, thought for a moment, and asked, "What do you think of him?"

"Ask me?" Lou Rui smiled, "I think he's a good boy."

"Mom, how old are we?" Xia Yan also smiled and said without thinking too much, "I also think he is very good."

"I'm dating him." He confessed directly.

He still couldn't help being nervous after speaking, maybe it should be more gradual, but he didn't want to wait any longer.

Even the stars in the sky already know, this should no longer be a secret.

After a few seconds, Lou Rui didn't say anything. Xia Yan was not sure about her emotions. He didn't know whether to let her digest alone or accompany her to talk about his mental journey, so he stood there and hugged her. Shaking her shoulder lightly, "Mom, is it a little sudden?"

Lou Rui shook her head, she didn't look shocked, and even smiled warmly. The evening wind lifted her hair on the sideburns, and she tied it behind her ears again, "It's not sudden, it's fine if you like it. As long as you like it, we don't have any objections."

"Mom..." Xia Yan's voice was a little hoarse.

"It can be seen that you are very close," Lou Rui said softly, "that's enough."

Xia Yan used to envy children who were controlled by their parents, but when he grew up to a certain age, he began to thank his parents for their tolerance, allowing him to have more options.He hugged Lou Rui and said, "Thank you, Mom."

After half a month's long vacation, Xia Yan returned to Haicheng from the northwest, and Xia Yan spent several days adapting to the climate and fast-paced life.

Before the vacation, he didn't have any work piled up in his hands, and he had enough time to stop and make adjustments, but as soon as Lu Zhouyu came back, he immediately devoted himself to the Dunhuang project.

This cross-provincial project has been approved by the Cultural Bureau, and it is the key work of Haicheng in recent years. Only the preliminary meeting has been held for half a month. Even if Lu Zhouyu is only in charge of the visual creative module, he cannot escape the fate of leaving early and returning late.

However, Xia Yan could see his love for Dunhuang culture, and participated in every link with all his heart, and enjoyed it.When Xia Yan is free, he will help trace some mural patterns, extract element symbols from them, and assist him in IP design, but also learned a lot of new knowledge.

One evening in November, the two of them were sketching in the living room of Xia Yan's house. They moved the tea table away and laid the sulfuric acid paper with a wide open side on the floor.

After tracing the most difficult mural of Flying Apsaras, Xia Yan propped up his body and found that Lu Zhouyu had fallen asleep leaning on the sofa, with his head slightly tilted to one side, and his breathing was long.Xia Yan took out the line drawing pen in his hand, closed the lid, pinched his index finger tentatively, his knuckles twitched, but he still didn't wake up.

Even under high-intensity work, Xia Yan seldom sees his sleepy appearance. He felt novelty for a while, and leaned on the sofa to observe for a long time. Finally, he couldn't hold back, picked up a piece of scrap paper, and drew a picture of his appearance. The cartoon character with a big head raised it up to appreciate it for a moment, then got up and clapped his hands and went to the kitchen to cook instant noodles.

When I came out again, dusk had come, and the sky was full of colorful clouds, which was so beautiful.Lu Zhouyu was already awake, still sitting on the floor with his back to him, head down, not knowing what he was doing.Xia Yan walked over quietly, trying to scare him, but the hand that swept over grabbed his ankle first, and when he almost fell, he just fell into an embrace.

"What are you doing?" Xia Yan felt a little embarrassed and changed the subject.

Lu Zhouyu lifted him up by his waist, and pulled out the drawing paper that was pressed under his body. Next to the cartoon villain, he added one, head to head, sleeping next to each other. The picture was very cute, and Xia Yan added another One fat and one thin two goldfish.

That painting was later framed by him and hung on the background wall of the entrance.

The weather was getting colder. At the end of December, Xia Yan was busy with the projects in hand, and set aside time to accept Xiao Jiang's huge commission to plan his wedding.Xiao Jiang and Miao Miao have known each other for eight years, and they finally achieved a positive result.According to Xiao Jiang, Miao Miao doesn't like the complicated wedding process, let alone the boring pick-up game, everything can be kept simple.

The wedding was held during the New Year. On that day, there was a rare light snowfall in Haicheng. The venue was chosen in a seaside hotel. The environment was elegant, and the overall style was mainly French style. The large white decorative flowers matched the snow scene very well.

There were not many guests at the wedding, they were all close relatives and friends of the couple, and the process was cut to the minimum. It was not as complicated and grand as a traditional wedding, but more like a large New Year's party.

After exchanging the rings, it was time for the bride to throw the bouquet. Miao Miao and Xiao Jiang looked at each other for a second, and they both smiled. As if it had been discussed earlier, Miao Miao picked up the topic and patted it, jokingly said: " As far as I know, my sisters don't want to go into the grave of marriage at this time, and I can't push others here."

After she finished speaking, everyone in the audience laughed.Xia Yan is the main planner, sitting in the first row of the guest seats, so that he can control it in time in case of a temporary situation.After replying to the next orchestra's performance arrangement on the mobile phone, I looked up and saw Miao Miao and Xiao Jiang walking along the long ceremony stage. Miao Miao said: "So we want to give this blessing to the best a friend of mine."

The bouquet was thrown from the stage, it happened to land between Xia Yan and Lu Zhouyu, and they caught it with their hands at the same time.

Xiao Jiang added: "I wish him happiness."

It also seems to be "I wish them happiness", the sound of the stereo is too loud, and the rumble can't be heard clearly, but no one pays attention to it in the lively scene.

A few seats away, Ji Qilin, dressed in a black suit, stood up and was the first to applaud.

After the wedding, the two of them were finally free, cut off all information, and slept happily at home for a few days.

On the last day of the Spring Festival holiday, it was almost noon when he woke up. Xia Yan took out his phone from under the pillow and turned it on. Many messages flooded in at once, but none of them were urgent.He flipped through it casually, and found that there was an exhibition link forwarded by Ji Qilin, which was "Echo", which he wanted to introduce Lu Zhouyu to participate in, and it had been successfully launched.

The participants in the first phase were a girl whose parents passed away unexpectedly. Through technically synthesized sound effects, she was given the opportunity to talk to her parents again, expressing her regret for not being able to say goodbye properly.Xia Yan clicked on the introduction of the text version and took a look. He accidentally triggered the sound effect button, and the sound came out. He quickly shut it down. Lu Zhouyu still woke up and asked him, "What are you looking at?"

Turning the phone towards him, Xia Yan didn't hide it, "This."

After listening to the audio together, they were very moved.

Regarding Zhou Man, Lu Zhouyu no longer hides and avoids habitually. She once taught Lu Zhouyu not to love when he was young, and she also used her miserable half life to do bloody cases.

The influence of childhood is far-reaching. It cannot be denied that Lu Zhouyu still misses her, but he does not want to dwell on the past blindly. He already has feelings that he wants to hold on to firmly.

However, when the family courtyard was being renovated, some of Zhou Man's dusty videos were accidentally found. She used to be the lead cellist of the orchestra, and she had many competition videos, as well as upside-down videos that she recorded when she was entertaining at home.

One of them was very new, with a pink post-it note on the plastic case, with a slightly yellowed edge, and the date was marked on it, only the year and month, which was the time when she was hospitalized before she died.

When Zhou Man appeared on the screen, Lu Zhouyu was in a daze for a long time. Probably due to poor spirits, she spoke intermittently in front of the camera. The main idea was to let Lu Zhouyu live a good life in the future and not to mention those sharp theories.

Lu Zhouyu only saw half of the video, because it was time to have dinner with Xia Yan, and then it was delayed for a long time.

"I'll take you to see my mother some other day." Putting down the phone, Lu Zhouyu hugged Xia Yan's waist under the quilt.

"Okay." Xia Yan hugged him back, and asked several times: "How is the decoration of the family courtyard, do you really not need me to help?"

Lu Zhouyu still said "no need" and "it's almost ready".

When spring comes, the Dunhuang project basically sets the tone, and there is finally a little respite.One afternoon, when the flowers were blooming the most, Xia Yan had just left the studio when he received a call from Lu Zhouyu, saying that he was preparing for a solo exhibition, and asked if he could come to help.

"What exhibition?" I had never heard him mention it before.

There was no specific explanation on the phone, Xia Yan asked him to send the address, saying that he would be there by car.After hanging up, he received the positioning information. He didn't pay attention at first, but followed the navigation. Halfway through the journey, he felt familiar, and it was clearly the direction of the family home.

When he arrived at the place, there was no answer when he knocked on the door. Xia Yan took out the brass key that hadn't been used for a long time, and opened the door.

The interior has a new look, the original old and inconvenient decoration has been demolished, a more livable design has been planned, and the colors are much brighter.

Still no one was seen, Xia Yan walked in holding the key. When passing the living room, there was an avant-garde vase on the coffee table, made of steel blue glass, with a slender neck inclined at 45 degrees, but it was incompatible with it. A clumsy paper flower in a bottle.

As he approached, Xia Yan grabbed the flower branch and gently pulled it out to look. He was sure that it was the Kawasaki rose he had folded in the clinic and gave it to Lu Zhouyu, but he only dared to say it was a rose.

The glass door leading to the garden was not closed tightly, and a small crack was blown open by the wind, and movement outside could be vaguely heard.Xia Yan yelled and walked outside.

The original miscellaneous plants in the garden have been cleared, and the lawn has been paved again. There is a gray-white stone road in the middle, and there are stone tables and benches on the right, and rattan hanging baskets, which are swinging in the wind.On the left, Lu Zhouyu is wearing overalls, with army green trouser legs covered in mud, and a shovel standing at his feet.

Behind him turned out to be a fresh big pit.

Xia Yan jumped and ran along the stone road, looked him up and down, smiled for a while and said: "So you asked me to be a coolie." He rolled up his cuffs and stepped on the soft soil, "What else do you need to do?"

Lu Zhouyu also laughed, without retorting, pointing to a sapling with a bowl-sized sapling in the corner, "Let's plant a tree together."

"What kind of tree?" Xia Yan asked as it was bare and couldn't tell the species.

"Hawthorn tree." Lu Zhouyu held the trunk, lifted it up, and planted the end with coiled roots into the pit.

For a moment, Xia Yan felt that everything in front of him was close to a dream he had personally experienced, so that the soil under his feet was as soft as a cloud.

After filling the soil, he realized later: "Is this your exhibition?"

"Yes," Lu Zhouyu added, "ours."

The exhibition is to plant a tree.

Hawthorn.

I don't know how long the cycle is, maybe it's infinite.

Thinking of the handful of sand in the desert, Xia Yan subconsciously spread out his palms and asked in a whisper, "Where's the ticket." He said he would send a ticket.

Lu Zhouyu shook his hand with a smile, and said, "Didn't I give you the key a long time ago?"

The final step is watering.

The sun shines through the water curtain, reflecting a virtual rainbow.

The water flow was quickly absorbed by the soil, as if impatient, so that Xia Yan seemed to see the root system under the ground expand instantly, and the ground was shaking, as if some kind of life awakened.

The ground cracked, the saplings twitched, and suddenly flew into a towering appearance, very close to the clouds and the sun.

The leaves swayed, collided, and crackled on the top of the head. The tree was full of flowers, and in a short while, the first bright red fruit was produced, which fell on the branches.

Or sour, or sweet.Picked up by them.

The harvest season has passed, this fruit is a bit late, but not too late.

(Finish)