blowing clouds

When people are happy, the pace of time is always rushing, but when a person loses the concept of time, this invisible little thing will intensify the pace. Chen Xiyang, amidst the singing of cicadas, suddenly realized that midsummer has arrived.

The road under his feet seemed to have been sunburned, as if he was drowning in a swamp. Chen Xiyang did not look at the steaming twisted air ahead, but walked slowly as if he was a dying old man, while shifting his thoughts to the scene two years ago. Same hot summer.

Because it was too hot, or it might be due to other reasons, Chen Xiyang under the bright sun suddenly shuddered, and then slowly drove out a half-new van from the gate of the family courtyard, stopped in front of him, and Chen Li walked out of the car. The driver poked his head out: "Look at your sweaty body, hurry home and cool off."

The smell of gasoline that hit Chen Xiyang gave Chen Xiyang a bit of a headache. Taking a look, he could see that the back seat of the van was full of plush toys wrapped in plastic film, and suddenly he didn't even remember when his father bought them. This second-hand car, as if he lost his soul when the first two seasons of the year alternated.

"Go to the store now?" After a pause, Chen Xiyang asked Chen Li back.

"Well, there are few people at the moment, I'll go home and get some goods," Chen Li nodded, "Go back quickly, this college student is easy, he doesn't even take books during the summer vacation, A Ji can't do it, and he will memorize it when he comes back. Carrying big bags and small bags, middle school is so stressful now..."

After watching the car exhaust gradually dissipate into the air, Chen Xiyang squinted his eyes and looked at the light spot in the sky that was difficult to see directly, and the cicadas chirping in his ears became more wanton.

It's summer vacation, and he will spend nearly two months with his younger brother day and night.

There was no direct sunlight on the road from the corridor to the house, but Chen Xiyang felt that his footsteps were heavier. Every foot felt like he was stepping on his heart. After turning the door with the key, the smell of home made it even more difficult for him to walk.

Compared with before, Chinese knots and family portraits were hung in the entrance, which made it look less deserted. However, the two brothers in the photos all had forced smiles on their faces, as if they were taking pictures for the first time in their lives, and seemed nervous.

"elder brother?"

After Chen Xiyang opened the door, he didn't go in. Lin Ji's questioning voice came from the living room.

After coping with it, Chen Xiyang entered the house. When passing by the living room, Lin Ji pointed to the plate of sliced ​​watermelon on the table: "Eat some watermelon, isn't it hot outside?"

Chen Xiyang nodded and sat on the sofa covered with blankets.

Because the new house was too spacious, Chen Li still bought a lot of furniture before the children's summer vacation. Nowadays, when someone comes to their house as a guest, they always have to visit and appreciate it.

"Brother, are you also on summer vacation?"

"Ah."

"When will school start?"

"September [-]st."

"We are the same, but our school has to arrive at school half a month in advance, saying it is to make up lessons."

"Ah."

"Brother, you can eat watermelon, I'm going home to do my homework.

After he was left alone in the living room, Chen Xiyang wiped off the sweat from his forehead. Although he was thirsty and hot, he didn't touch the plate of bright red watermelon, his eyes fell on Lin Ji's closed bedroom door involuntarily.

After the conversation that made Chen Xiyang lose his soul, Lin Ji did not deliberately avoid him, and the conversations and greetings that should have had not decreased, but Chen Xiyang noticed that the other party almost no longer looked at him.

Reason tells Chen Xiyang that this is the best and most appropriate way to get along, but the impact of this good news on him is two seasons of confusion.

Sitting comfortably, Chen Xiyang suddenly felt anxious, as if there was no air in the house, and the suffocation forced him to escape from here.He snapped his fingers back and forth, it would be terrible if he was stuck in this kind of depression for the whole summer vacation.

At this moment, the sudden ringing of the phone almost caused Chen Xiyang's heart to jump out. He stood up abruptly as if being stabbed by a needle, and looked at the ringing phone as if facing a formidable enemy.

When Chen Li bought furniture, he wanted to do it in one step, so he simply connected the telephone line at home, but unfortunately he didn't use it much, so Chen Xiyang was extremely unfamiliar with ringtones.

The ear-piercing ringtone seemed to be competing, even though Chen Xiyang hadn't moved for a long time, it was still calling tirelessly. After a few seconds of coldness, Chen Xiyang walked slowly to the phone, picked up the receiver and whispered a word of hello.

"I thought no one answered your phone!" Hear Xu Donghai's laughing voice from the other side.

Chen Xiyang hummed slowly, and added: "I just got home."

On the other side, Xu Donghai's words rang out like a cannonball: "I said, what's the matter with you, brother, you've been out of your wits these days, you don't participate in club activities, you don't write articles, and you don't even bring a book with you during the holidays." Run away! Good guy, when I went back to the dormitory, I thought you were planning to live in school during the holidays, and you didn't pack your things."

Chen Xiyang forced a smile: "I'm so excited, I forgot to take things."

"Thank you, brother. I'll make the bed for you. Otherwise, we'll see how you live when school starts... Let's get down to business." Xu Donghai changed the subject after he finished his invitation, "Do you have any plans for the summer vacation?"

Chen Xiyang shook his head silently, and waited until Xu Donghai's impatient urging came from the receiver before he remembered to speak: "There is no arrangement, let's eat and die."

"You're so decadent at such a young age," Xu Donghai muttered, "If you didn't arrange it, how about brother taking you somewhere?"

"Where is it?" Chen Xiyang subconsciously glanced back at Lin Ji's bedroom door when he asked the question.

Xu Donghai pondered for a moment: "It's like this. I haven't mentioned to you where I want to go after graduation. My parents said I can do whatever I want. I've thought about it recently and plan to engage in a literature-related industry, so I want to go to The publishing house is doing odd jobs to check the market, do you want to come with me?"

"Publishing house?" Chen Xiyang was just a little surprised. After all, Xu Donghai once revealed that he was more interested in literature than in writing. It is understandable that he does not plan to become a professional writer. Chen Xiyang just didn't expect that the other party would start thinking about the future early on. gone.

Thinking about himself, let alone where he is going, it seems that even the meaning of existence in the future has become blurred, Chen Xiyang smiled wryly at himself.

Xu Donghai misunderstood his laughter: "Don't laugh so creepily, can you? My brother didn't mean to force you, but just wanted to ask if you are interested in being my colleague after graduation. Everyone has their own aspirations, and it doesn't matter if you don't want to."

Chen Xiyang only had a single concept for the publishing house, and there was no such thing as whether he was interested or not, but thinking of the nearly two-month summer vacation, he agreed without hesitation: "If you are interested, let's make an appointment to meet and chat."

There was a sound of closing the door, and after the sound of footsteps went away, Lin Ji, who was writing vigorously, suddenly stopped his pen tip. He looked at the shiny tabletop with new paint, and his thoughts flew to nowhere.

In the summer afternoon, both the flowers and the leaves are wilting, exuding a mediocre laziness from the inside out, and the most stark contrast is the students running around in the street, for them Holidays are the best time, even if they are sweating profusely and screaming hoarsely, they will never lack cheerful smiles on their faces.

Maybe a popsicle or a joke can bring their happiness to the peak, but Chen Xiyang has to do his best to keep his heart from falling to the bottom.

Walking into the appointed cafe, Chen Xiyang finally understood why Xu Donghai made an appointment with him here. In the somewhat dim hall, there were only people sitting on the table in the corner, immersed in the world of flirting with each other. Didn't care that someone came over.

"I suddenly felt like I shouldn't be here."

After sitting down opposite Xu Donghai and Xia Jun, Chen Xiyang forced a smile on his face.

With a smile on the corner of Xia Jun's mouth, Xu Donghai gave Xu Donghai a nudge, and Xu Donghai laughed aloud: "One family doesn't talk about two families, so don't treat our god-brother as an outsider."

Chen Xiyang smiled and said nothing, the two on the opposite side chatted and laughed a few more words, then Xia Jun got up and said goodbye: "Okay, let's talk about business, I'll go back first."

Chen Xiyang was taken aback, and after saying goodbye, he looked at Xu Donghai: "I'm not really disturbing you, am I?"

"What are you talking about?" Xu Donghai waved his hand, "This place is close to her home. I made an appointment here just to meet her. After all, I have to do business during the holidays. I'm afraid there will be few opportunities to meet her."

Chen Xiyang nodded silently, feeling that he was getting farther and farther away from the life of a normal person.

"What would you like to drink?" Xu Donghai asked.

Chen Xiyang shook his head: "Let's talk about business, you can talk about that publishing house in detail."

Xu Donghai said: "There are only a few of our local publishing houses, and they are all private, but there is one that has been in business for the longest time. When I inquired about it, I felt that word-of-mouth was okay, so I asked my dad to look for it. That boss, he agreed with me to do odd jobs during the holidays, so I just wanted to take you to have a look."

Chen Xiyang pondered: "The publishing house... what exactly does it do? Does it match our major?"

"It's called doing chores, but it's actually going to the editorial department. We won't really let us do the work of boiling water and cleaning," Xu Donghai said with a smile, "As far as I know, there are two main jobs, one is to cooperate with the editor-in-chief in reviewing manuscripts, There is also a channel to contact various bookstores.”

Chen Xiyang nodded hesitantly: "It's not that I participated in the writing. What does this work have to do with literature?"

"You don't understand the mystery of this," Xu Donghai said with my most intelligent and wise face, "The biggest advantage of the publishing house is that you can see the works of many authors that are hard to buy in the market, even New works from foreign countries. Brother, people who engage in literature need to broaden their horizons. Classical culture needs to be studied, and the new culture that is popular today is also very important. Many new foreign writers don’t even know their names, so they don’t want to understand them. Understanding is really our loss!"

It wasn't until now that Chen Xiyang really became interested: "It's really rare that you can say such reasonable things."

Xu Donghai has already been used to being satirized by him, and he doesn't care: "How, brother found you a good job, right? Regardless of whether you plan to work in a publishing house in the future, it is always right to go there this vacation to broaden your horizons." .”

Chen Xiyang nodded as cautiously as his expression: "The only thing I worry about is, will they want me?"

Xu Donghai snorted, as if he had heard some joke: "Don't worry, I'll let you know how big my brother is right away!"