until the last minute

On weekends, Li Qing took time to cut his hair, exposing his forehead on purpose.After the flag-raising ceremony on Monday, Li Qing approached Ruan Wei, who was in the queue of girls, and asked her to stay and chat for a while.

Ruan Wei walked towards Li Qing amidst the booing of others, and the two walked half a circle around the playground. After the classes on the playground had left, Li Qing took out a brand new mobile phone from his pocket and handed it to Ruan Wei.

"I'll give it back to you. I don't know when you stuffed it into my schoolbag. Last time I made it very clear that I don't need it."

Ruan Wei was puzzled: "Why? Your mobile phone is so broken that you can't use it, isn't it?"

"Yes, but I don't need you to buy it for me, this is too expensive."

Li Qing insisted on returning the phone to Ruan Wei, and Ruan Wei accepted it unwillingly.Not discouraged, she rolled her eyes and threw out the bait boldly, "What do you want? I can give you everything. If you don't like this one, I'll change it to a cheaper one."

Li Qing frowned, with resistance written all over his face, "No, I don't need it."

"Then what do you want? Just say it, I like you," Ruan Wei said without thinking, with bright eyes shining, "Do you want to consider staying with me?"

Ruan Wei's frankness was beyond Li Qing's expectation, he sighed softly, "I'm sorry, I can't agree."

"why?"

"Sorry." Faced with Ruan Wei's resentful eyes, Li Qing could only apologize, he silently took a step back, and then strode away without looking back.

At noon, Li Qing was helping out in the back kitchen of the cafeteria as usual. This part-time job was arranged by the school affairs office. After working for a few days, he felt well adapted.

He ate his meal before the window closed, and he ate very fast, finishing it in two or three strokes.After choking, he went to make another bowl of soup, scooped up the soup and drank it slowly, and when the bowl of soup was about to bottom out, he finally saw Zhou Yin.

After Zhou Yin finished his meal, he walked towards him without much hesitation while holding the lunch box.

"It's too late and there's no food." Zhou Yin sat down opposite him and muttered softly.Li Qing smiled, opened another lunch box, and took out the boiled egg that he hadn't eaten just now.He rolled the boiled egg on the table, peeled off the shell and put it in Zhou Yin's lunch box.

"Thank you." Zhou Yin poked open the egg, gave half of it to Li Qing, and said with a smile, "I'll give you half, it's hard to get fat on your own."

Li Qing ate it in one gulp, drank the remaining soup, and then started to pack the lunch box, "I have something to do, I'll go back first, you eat slowly."

Zhou Yin raised his eyes to look at him, Li Qing thought for a while, and said in a low voice: "By the way, my phone is broken, don't send WeChat or make calls recently, just wait for me to find you."

Li Qing spoke the second half of the sentence vaguely and quickly, he guessed that Zhou Yin would understand.Since that day, everything that happened in the laboratory, including things that happened a long time ago, seems to have been turned over. No one agreed, but they all tacitly refrained from mentioning it.

He knew that only in this way could he and Zhou Yin get along without any scruples.

In the second year of high school, get out of class ends at [-] o'clock in the evening for self-study, and day students can go back half an hour earlier.Li Qing left as soon as the o'clock arrived, never delaying, he had to catch the last bus back to the rental house, and then rushed to the next part-time job non-stop.

He works a part-time night shift at a convenience store near the rental house, and his working hours are from ten o'clock in the evening to two o'clock in the morning.Originally, he didn't need to work two part-time jobs. The school exempted him from tuition and miscellaneous fees, and the promised stipend was enough for his daily expenses.

However, the mobile phone broke suddenly. On the night when he accompanied Zhou Yin to the police station, after he refused Zhou Yin to go back with him, when he returned to the rental house alone, the mobile phone that had been working all night completely failed—even to Zhou Yin. It is impossible to make a phone call or send a message.

He is going to buy another and will have to buy a new phone, so he needs the extra income to come in.

Li Qing has already memorized every task to be done at the point of purchase, replenishment, cash register, and shelf cleaning.Another long-term worker also gave advice on the blind spot of monitoring in the store and how to sleep late in the night shift.

There were still a lot of customers before twelve o'clock, and Li Qing was paying the customers quickly while stuffing mints into his mouth at the same time.When you are most sleepy, you can rely on mints to refresh you.

After one o'clock, the passenger flow decreased, so Li Qing took out his mobile phone and turned it on while restocking.Zhou Yin's name flashed on the screen immediately, Li Qing pressed to answer, and Zhou Yin's vague voice came: "Hello? Did you get through?"

"Zhou Yin? Why did you call me?" Li Qing clenched his phone tightly, and unconsciously lowered his voice, "Haven't you slept yet?"

"Ah, I forgot I can't call you."

Li Qing patiently explained to him: "It's not impossible, my phone is broken, and it will automatically shut down after a few words." In the past few days, his phone sometimes turns on and sometimes fails, even if it is turned on for less than half a minute, it will automatically turn off. shutdown.

"Well, you said you would find me." Zhou Yin's voice on the other end of the phone was very small and distorted, Li Qing put the phone against his ear, trying his best to capture every word Zhou Yin said, "I'll wait for you to this point. "

"Sorry, wait for me a little longer, I'll call you right away." Li Qing held his breath, the sudden silence made him realize something, he moved the phone away, the screen was black, no matter how hard he pressed the power button, there was no response.

He rushed out of the convenience store immediately, and there was a bus shelter outside, with a payphone on it.I found a public phone from my memory, inserted the traffic card in the dark, and just picked up the receiver when I heard a mechanical female voice: "Hello, this function is out of service."

Li Qing held the receiver silently. He should have thought of it a long time ago. This public phone is extremely old, corroded and rusted due to years of exposure to the sun and rain.He hadn't noticed it in the past, how dare he expect an outdated and neglected payphone to connect him with the person he wanted to contact now.

Turning over on time at two o'clock in the morning, Li Qing returned to the rental house.Usually the first thing to do is turn on the switch of the electric water heater in the bathroom. The storage-type electric water heater in the rental house needs to be heated for more than half an hour to have hot water.Sometimes I come home late, forget to leave or can't wait to take a cold shower.

Then he had to boil water, collect clothes, wash the dishes and chopsticks that were not washed in the morning, and finally sweep the floor carelessly.

However, today he didn't want to do it. He threw away the backpack key as soon as he entered the door, and sat on the ground dejectedly, looking at the moonlight and starlight pouring in generously from the window.He could see it, but he couldn't imagine that the tens of square meters he was in was also visited by moonlight and stars.

This place is so simple and old, and it is impossible to even openly welcome those who want to accept it.

Li Qing threw the broken cell phone away, and he recited a number silently in his heart, guessing that the owner of the number should have fallen asleep.

The next day, when doing exercises between classes, Li Qing found Zhou Yin from the crooked queue in the next class at a glance. Zhou Yin was in the middle and back of the queue, and Li Qing was the last one in the queue.

In the past, at the end of the game, he always watched them go first in class, one after another, and the same backs were quickly confused.And today, the back figure that he had been staring at all the time, left the team as he walked, and turned to another direction.

Li Qing secretly wrote down the direction and route, and when it was his class's turn to leave, he turned in the opposite direction when he walked out of the playground.

Now he is very familiar with the campus, and he can tell where he is going from the general direction and the road section he is walking.What Zhou Yin was going to was the southwest gate of the school. Li Qing had only heard of it, but had never been there.

When he was about to arrive at his destination, he saw the dilapidated gazebo and the low courtyard wall from a distance, and finally remembered that the alley where he had fought was the alley where he climbed over the wall.

Zhou Yin was in the gazebo, talking to someone with his back turned.

Li Qing didn't approach or stay away, and hid behind the rockery and trees sideways.

He recalled the night of the fight, the memories of being punched and kicked, swearing, and the anger that erupted from it all came to mind.When his emotions were most violent, he met Zhou Yin.

Perhaps it was because the first meeting was too thrilling, and from then on, every time I saw Zhou Yin, I would feel nervous reflexively, my scalp would go numb, and even my heart would tremble.

This feeling seems to be no different from a heartbeat.Li Qing didn't delve into it, he waited here wholeheartedly, as if to be a substitute in time when the previous person left.

Through the hole in the rockery, he saw Zhou Yin took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and gave it to the person in front of him.Immediately after that person started to puff, Zhou Yin stepped back in resistance, turned his face away, and almost met his gaze.

Li Qing suddenly withdrew his gaze, thought for a while, came out from behind the rockery, and walked straight towards the pavilion.

The man who was smoking saw him appear, smiled playfully, put the cigarette case into Zhou Yin's hand, and waved away.Zhou Yin was about to put the cigarette case back, when he saw him coming, he tilted his head and asked him: "Do you want to smoke too?"

"I don't smoke."

"Then what are you doing here with me?" Zhou Yin looked at him straight in the eyes.

Li Qing glanced at the cigarette case in Zhou Yin's hand, and said hesitantly, "That's why that person came to you just now?"

"Yeah, their class is very strict, cigarettes can only be put here, and he will come to me if he wants to smoke."

"he is?"

"Growing up together when I was young, my mother knew his father, and his father was a school physics teacher."

"Oh."

Zhou Yin laughed and said, "Is it clear now?"

Li Qing lowered his head and thought for a moment, then continued to ask: "Will he come to you often?"

"Fortunately, let's see when he becomes addicted to smoking. I can't predict."

"Is he a heavy smoker?"

"It's hard to say, why are you asking this?" Zhou Yin raised his eyes, and when he saw Li Qing staring into his deep eyes, he smiled knowingly, "I don't know, only those who are close to him know whether he is addicted to cigarettes or not." Bar."

Li Qing hooked the corner of his mouth, "Can you tell me what his name is?"

"No, unless you tell me what you want to do."

"I went to complain to the teacher, and the school asked each other to report and expose, so that he can't bother you."

"Li Qing." Zhou Yin called his name, deliberately put on a stern face, and wanted to warn in a serious tone, but Li Qing had a smile in his eyes, which made him unable to really cool down, and the words of the order were extremely stern. Momentum, "You can't complain."

"Give me the cigarette."

Li Qing stepped onto the gazebo and walked in front of Zhou Yin, the two finally faced each other.He snatched the pack of cigarettes from Zhou Yin's hand neatly. Zhou Yin was unprepared and wanted to grab it after he realized it. Li Qing raised his arm and took advantage of his height to lift the pack of cigarettes high.

Zhou Yin couldn't help laughing and said: "You are not naive."

Li Qing stared at Zhou Yin, his eyes fixed for a few seconds, and the smile in his eyes gradually turned into eagerness and longing.He moved his lips and whispered sorry.

Zhou Yin was a little puzzled: "Huh? What's wrong?"

"I didn't call you last night. I made an agreement but missed the appointment."

"It's okay," Zhou Yin said in relief, "It's nothing important for me to find you."

Li Qing responded blankly, unable to tell whether he was disappointed or relieved. When his arm was hanging down, he was caught suddenly. Zhou Yin's hand wrapped his hand holding the cigarette case, and he only looked into his eyes. The eyes are pure and focused.

"I called you just to ask if you were asleep. I couldn't sleep. But you didn't call me later. I guess you should be asleep. So, did you sleep well last night?"

Li Qing grabbed Zhou Yin's hand instead, the harder he tried, the more deformed the cigarette case was under the squeeze of each other's palms.His breathing became rapid, and his eyes were so sharp that they seemed to be wedged into a hook.

"I didn't sleep well," he murmured, before Zhou Yin asked why, he took the initiative to give the answer, "Because I miss you."