Striped Retriever

The referee did not respond immediately, and Ke Chenlin was not in a hurry, even though it was their last time.

Hearing the sobbing beside him, Ke Chenlin looked up at the lights on the roof, maybe because of the warm yellow color, he always felt that the light was warm, sprinkled in every corner of their room, just like once Ke Chenlin was used to seeing it every day after returning home from work.

The cries of the referee became louder and louder, Ke Chenlin reached out and patted him on the back as comfort.

"I think it will be later." The referee lowered his voice so low that it was almost stuck in his throat, but Ke Chenlin could hear it.

"An Ding." Ke Chenlin finally spoke again, "I'm with you."

The referee whimpered, and he changed for a while before raising his head again.

An Ding stared fiercely at Ke Chenlin's face, he was not afraid of death, he just had some regrets: "I haven't seen you look old yet."

Ke Chenlin smiled lightly: "That's not pretty."

"But that's you." An Ding retorted him.

There was silence between the two of them again. They looked at each other's faces seriously, as if they wanted to take a closer look at the face that they knew so well, wishing to count the number of pores on their faces.

Finally, Ke Chenlin approached and kissed the referee lightly on the eyelid: "Honey, don't feel so uncomfortable, change your clothes, maybe we should go."

"Where are you going?" the referee asked almost subconsciously.

"Tomorrow, the future, a mysterious place that has never been understood." Ke Chenlin didn't say it was death, he was with An Ding, and the future couldn't be summed up by cold "death", it also belonged to their future , and they will go together, no one will feel lonely on the road.

In the face of a new journey, all the pain in the past will be meaningless.

An Ding really got up, he went to the master bedroom, and Ke Chenlin followed.

They took out two suits from the back of the closet, one off-white and one dark red.

"How old is this thing?" Ke Chen put a shirt on himself.

"We bought it together when we graduated." The referee sat on the bed and put on his pants. "We both worked part-time during the winter and summer vacations, just for this suit."

Their wedding ring was bought later, as for the marriage certificate...

Ke Chenlin took out a printed card from his pocket, and he waved the card at the referee: "There's still this."

The marriage certificate was printed on colored cardboard, with photos of the two of them honestly pasted on it, and it was still on a red background.

The referee finally smiled. He took the card from Ke Chenlin's hand, and fondled it fondly, "This one seems to be only two yuan."

"Yes." Ke Chenlin sighed, and at this moment the conversation between the two finally relaxed.

"What were we doing back then?"

"It seems to be handing out leaflets."

"No, we only distributed leaflets in high school, and we haven't done this since college."

"Oh, I remembered, working for a fast food restaurant."

"Yeah, when our counselor came over, you were so courteous to make ice cream for him with the family bucket, do you remember?"

"Uh... he seems to be having a stomachache for the next week."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

They just chatted one after another. From the first meeting to the later conversation, they never lacked topics before.

Until both of them fastened their ties.

Ke Chenlin turned around in front of the full-length mirror, checking whether he could still hold up the suit: "It's almost there."

His eyes fell on the toilet paper beside him, and finally he inserted a white rose into the referee's breast pocket.

This rose is made of toilet paper.

A red suit with white roses looks weird no matter how you look at it.

The referee glanced at his chest, then at Ke Chenlin.

Ke Chenlin also folded one for himself: "Special circumstances are treated specially. White roses and red roses are similar to us now."

"Send off?" the referee raised an eyebrow and asked.

"Yes, send us off." After putting on his clothes, Ke Chenlin found a bluetooth speaker under the bedside table: "Let's go, honey, let's take the wine and go to the balcony."

"Balcony?" The referee was a little puzzled.

"Sunrise, remember?" Ke Chenlin smiled at him, holding the bluetooth speaker in one hand, and took out two decent goblets from under the dishwasher.

The referee also opened the refrigerator. After searching for a while, he told Ke Chenlin helplessly, "This is probably our home three years ago."

Ke Chenlin had already rushed out of the balcony, when he heard the referee's voice reply, "So?"

"There is no alcohol in our house, do you remember?" The referee was also very helpless, Ke Chenlin and he used to not drink, "But there is Coke here."

Ke Chenlin glanced at the goblet that he had placed on the small wooden table, and hissed: "Almost, they look alike, take it here."

The referee took out a two-liter super large bottle of Coke and poured it into the goblet.

Wearing suits, Ke Chenlin and the referee solemnly waited for the cola to dissipate, and then each of them had a cup in tacit understanding and pretended to touch each other.

After touching it, Ke Chenlin felt a little funny again: "Shall we take a sip of this Coke or drink it slowly?"

"Drink." The referee shrugged.

There is really no need to taste this thing, they all raised their heads and drank it in one gulp, and then they both sighed comfortably.

Ke Chenlin turned on his mobile phone, found a soothing pure music playlist, connected it to a bluetooth speaker, and stretched out a hand towards the referee in a gentlemanly manner.

"Dancing?" The referee blinked twice.

"Please." Ke Chenlin adjusted his tone, narrowed his eyes slightly, and curled up the corners of his lips.

The referee put his hand on it, and the two hugged each other, dancing slowly with their soothing wishes.

In fact, what they care about is not the so-called romance. After all, the balcony is not well decorated, so it is not romantic at all.

The referee looked at Ke Chenlin, and he felt his throat a little astringent again.

"Are you angry with me?" Ke Chenlin asked him.

"Why are you angry?" The referee pressed his emotions back again.

"I took you away forcefully." Ke Chenlin said, "And you have no chance to resist."

"No." The referee shook his head, "I'm looking forward to the...future with you." He also didn't say the word eternal sleep.

"At least I'm no longer alone, but I can't help but think better." The referee said, "Like growing old together."

"We are not human beings now." Ke Chenlin reminded him that the referee hadn't understood what he meant.

Ke Chenlin put his arms around his waist and led him around in a circle.

The referee kept looking at Ke Chenlin's face and the starry sky behind him.

When the referee saw the fine lines slowly appearing in the corners of Ke Chenlin's eyes, he first opened his eyes wide and then laughed.

Dancing was actually a bit awkward at first, of course it wasn't because he didn't know how to do it. After all, there was nothing in the referee's information database, but he never had such... such tender moments with Ke Chenlin.

Even their confession is a matter of course after you understand and I understand.

But it's a dream, isn't it?

A dream that sends them running into the future.

Rotating again, the reflection of the glass reflected their current appearance, and the referee's back turned to reveal Ke Chenlin's face.

There are fine lines on the face, and white hair appears on the temples.

The same goes for referees.

They are slowly getting old.

Slow and gentle aging, this is not scary, because they know that if there is a future in this world, this will also be what their lover looks like.

Throw away the beautiful, enviable shell, those various labels.

If one day a handsome guy walks into a coffee shop, no girls and boys will strike up a conversation, and no one will stop because of his appearance.

If you no longer have those professional halos and identities.

Who is he?

Referee Ke Chenlin knew that at least the person in front of him, no matter what he looked like, was his lover.

That kind of awkward love mixed with too many things is the most genuine thing left after stripping off the glitz.

"Ke Chenlin." The referee saw the white belly of the sky from above Ke Chenlin's shoulder, "The sun is out."

That's not the sun, that's the harbinger of the extinction program finally shutting everything down, they all know that.

Ke Chenlin turned his head and smiled: "Yes, the sun is out." His voice is a little hoarse now.

"Honey, it's time for us to go." They stopped dancing and clasped their ringed hands tightly.

The hands are old and mottled.

"You're handsome even when you're old," said the referee.

"You just have a filter." Ke Chenlin didn't think that the old self would have such an outstanding appearance, "Because you love me."

"Yeah, I love you." The referee nodded, so he is happy now, after a dream, the dust has settled.

They stood side by side, smiling at the sun, like everyone who sees the sunrise and thinks of "tomorrow".

The light fell on their faces, and it fell on their hands.

The silver ring on his hand is even more shining under the light.

The light became stronger and stronger, and finally swallowed those two shadows.

They left and went to "tomorrow". As for where this tomorrow is and what it looks like, probably only they know.

……

The sun shines on the earth again, and it is a new day.

The children in the old community are still noisy.

The children laughed and ran downstairs, their school uniforms scratched against the dark wall of the corridor, the children patted it nonchalantly, glanced at the wall and then ran away.

Under the layers of graffiti, there is a cartoon villain covered with "Ke Chenlin" written on the villain's body, but it can't be seen clearly.

No one knew that the cartoon villain actually came out for a short time to breathe, just like no one knew that Anding, the creator of the cartoon villain, had ever returned here.

It's just that next to this cartoon villain, there is another cartoon character in a similar style, with the word "Stability" written on his body.

They were not painted in the same year.

An Ding didn't know the existence of this villain either, because the moment he looked over, this villain was erased by someone.

And the owners of the two cartoon villains have gone to unknown places, so everything that was covered up returned to normal.

These two cartoons are also printed on the wall, side by side, showing that they have been here.

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