【Zhou Xiang】The Tropic

1.

In the evening, the wind blew up, and the temperature dropped like a plunge, and the rain foam and fallen leaves floated half of the city together.Two minutes after eight o'clock, Zhou Zekai entered the door with a cold and damp feeling, and received a better hospitality than expected——

The warm and dry air in the room is reassuring, and the earthy aroma of vegetable soup embraces him with open arms.

He untied his scarf, took off his coat, and a series of actions slowed down a lot because of his mental slack.

After changing home clothes, a busy friend still didn't realize his existence.Zhou Zekai involuntarily raised the corners of his lips, and walked slowly towards the kitchen.

2.

An hour ago, he had just finished a heated small-scale discussion.The subordinates left one after another, and he stayed in the office rubbing his temples, exhausted and hungry at the same time.

At the corner of the table is a sandwich that has been cold for a long time. I bought it in a cafe when we were talking about things. I originally wanted to have it for lunch, but I haven't had time to take a bite yet.He planned to ask the secretary to heat it up in the microwave, and make a cup of tea for dinner.

He has become numb and accustomed to this kind of irregular life, and he doesn't find it difficult to bear.

But for some reason, when he walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows and saw the far and near bright and dark lights in the vast night, a strange thought suddenly popped up in his mind: Maybe one of the thousands of lights has such a little connection with himself .And your own dinner should not be so pitiful that there are only reheated sandwiches.

Then he suddenly remembered Sun Xiang's speech the day before, "Bring vegetables back".Rationality told him that this was Sun Xiang's polite line and could not be taken seriously, but emotionally, he had already indulged his imagination to outline what kind of a bag of vegetables it would be and what kind of delicacies it could make.

But soon, he stopped this untimely wandering of thoughts, returned to the desk, picked up the internal phone, and prepared to call the secretary for a hot sandwich.

However, at this moment, his phone vibrated slightly and the screen lit up.

Next came the computer.The difference between before and after is less than a few seconds, and a prompt box pops up in the lower right corner.

is the same thing. You've got a new mail.

3.

Zhou Zekai's office is located on the other side of the city.If you are racing in the rain, the navigation software will tell you that you can barely arrive at [-]:[-].He still has countless emails and documents to deal with. Although in the mobile digital age, the location does not restrict the continuation of work, but to go to an ordinary meal arranged by his former teammates on a whim, crossing Shanghai on this precarious night is really crazy and exciting. exaggerate.

But once this idea appears, it is like colored ink dripping into a pool. Not only is it extremely difficult to remove, but it will rapidly expand in size over time, and in a blink of an eye, it becomes impossible to ignore.

Even, the more he forced not to consider this possibility, the more another voice in his heart wanted to express his secret desire——

"In time."

"Go quickly."

"Everyone took the initiative to invite."

"What are you hesitating about?"

Zhou Zekai closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them again, the decision had been made.

He lives like a precise and calm instrument, and rarely lets impulse control his brain. He doesn't think there is a problem, but today, he wants to listen to his intuition.

He walked back to the desk, leaned over, and instead of grabbing the handset of the intercom, he grabbed the car keys next door.

4.

At this moment, when he was standing at the door of the kitchen, he felt that he chose to take in Sun Xiang, chose to accept the invitation to cross Shanghai, it was not exaggerated or absurd at all, it was simply one of the most correct decisions he made this year.

The autumn atmosphere is deep outside, the interior is warm like spring, and there is a home-cooked meal that smells delicious.

Well worth it.

He stood at the door for a while, but didn't go in immediately.

Sun Xiang was so absorbed in his work that he didn't realize that there was another person in the room until now. This made Zhou Zekai amused, and wondered how long it would take for this guy to react.

He stared at Sun Xiang's back, and then his eyes fell on a small open pot on the stove.

That's right, it was this scent that seduced him from the moment he entered the door. Now that he got closer, it became more and more intense, and the scent almost made his nose fall off.

Under the orange light of the range hood, the milky white soup in the corner of the pot looks softer and more attractive.It was slowly roasting on a small fire, rolling bubbles, Zhou Zekai took a step forward quietly, almost wanting to open it immediately to find out.

At the same time, the triple feedback of smell, sight and hearing affected the brain's imagination and made him have the urge to swallow.And the strong feeling of emptiness in his stomach also came back, Zhou Zekai wished he could fill out the rice now, and feast on the soup in the pot.

However, Sun Xiang was still busy at the chopping board at the moment, telling him with actions that if he wanted to eat this meal, he still needed to wait patiently.Zhou Zekai looked at the silhouette of the other party with his sleeves rolled up, and suddenly felt a little wronged.

Aggrieved by anticipation and curiosity.

This feeling is not unfamiliar to it, but it has been a long time since Zhou Zekai thought about it seriously, and it probably dates back to his elementary school days.

At that time, his family had not experienced great changes, and both parents were willing to sacrifice and pay for the family.The father, who is a university professor, refused classes after three o'clock in the afternoon, just to pick him up from school on time.In the setting sun, he carried his schoolbag and walked back to the courtyard with his father.He lives on the second floor, and often he can smell the fragrance from his windows before he steps up the stairs.

Shrimp fried in oil, shredded eel, small green vegetables... The homely cooking in the home, but because of the special cooking and eating place, it is endowed with unusual meaning.

The home is clean and comfortable, with one large and one small cups of warm water on the table.After his father helped him take down his schoolbag, eight out of ten times he would cry out that he was hungry, and then justifiably took him to the kitchen to steal a meal.Mother will always find them the first time, push them out with a smile, ask them to wash their hands carefully, and arrange the dishes.The dishes and chopsticks are set by his father, but he can only do his homework obediently while smelling the fragrance, thinking aggrievedly why his mother couldn't start the fire earlier.

...The sound of crackling oil grains was heard, Zhou Zekai withdrew his mind, and found that Sun Xiang had poured the last dish into the pot at some point and was stirring it.

"Go back a bit, be careful of oil splashing." Sun Xiang directed without looking back.

It turned out to have been discovered a long time ago.

Zhou Zekai rolled up his sleeves calmly, walked aside, picked up the rice spoon, "Are you ready?"

Sun Xiang turned off the fire, turned his head and laughed loudly: "Are you starving? Let's serve it!"

5.

Three dishes and one soup, deep-fried shrimp, stir-fried pork belly with green peppers, mushroom tofu, attractive in color and tangy in aroma; the soup is marinated and fresh, thanks to modern fresh-keeping technology, the dishes that were originally limited to spring can also be enjoyed in late autumn.Of course, the most important thing is that there is a good chef who has it all arranged like magic.

"The time is too short, I put some condensed soup, don't you mind?" The chef was very humble.

Zhou Zekai's response was to pick up the spoon and pour it into his own bowl: "I don't mind."

"I don't know what you like to eat, cook whatever you like, eat less if you don't like it, don't save face for me." Sun Xiang picked up a chopstick of pork belly with green peppers.Concerned about Zhou Zekai's taste, this is the only dish that is made too spicy.

Zhou Zekai paused when he raised his chopsticks: "Yes."

Sure enough, Zhou Zekai never poked his chopsticks into this dish again.

Sun Xiang secretly laughed.At first, before he emphasized it, Zhou Zekai did pinch it once, and took a bite, his face flushed slightly, and his forehead was sweating. He guessed that this friend might be trying to be polite.Now he finally didn't have to pretend anymore, and he didn't need to have the psychological burden of "bullying" Zhou Zekai anymore.

6.

After a brief conversation, the hungry and flustered two stopped talking and each seriously ate.

The tableware in this apartment is too delicate, one bowl is filled, and the rice is less than 2 taels, which is far from satisfying the needs of an adult man, so Sun Xiang got up to fill another bowl after a while.

But at this time, there was less than half of the rice in Zhou Zekai's bowl, as if he was deliberately controlling his carbohydrate intake.

Sun Xiang slandered "health preservation", unscrewed the Coke, took a refreshing sip, and looked at Zhou Zekai secretly from the corner of his eye.

After watching for a while, he realized that the special features of Zhou Zekai's table behavior were not limited to his self-control in nutrition ratio.

How should I put it, the state of Zhou Zekai when he was drinking soup and eating vegetables tonight is different from when he was gathering at Yu Rongzhuang and cooking dumplings here--maybe he didn't even realize it, but there was a slight urgent feeling.

Although the posture is still elegant, but because of this trace of eagerness, it becomes full of fireworks.Less mysterious, more everyday and kind.Sun Xiang watched him eat, as if he saw his playmates who came to eat at home back then.In short, he is a completely different person from the aristocratic son who was cold and distant when we first met.

He simply attributed the change to the influence of his cooking skills. He was a little proud and happy, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He didn't notice that he had been staring at it for too long. Zhou Zekai suddenly raised his head, and their eyes met.

Sun Xiang staggered his eyes guiltily, and hurriedly lowered his head to pick up the rice.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Zekai insisted on expressing his curiosity.

Sun Xiang's hands holding the vegetables stopped, and when he looked up again, there was a sly smile in his eyes: "Uh, rice grains, you ate it all over your face."

7.

There was about half a minute of silence in the air.

During this period, Zhou Zekai tried his best to wipe his face with a tissue, but he couldn't touch the "rice grain" that didn't exist.

Just when this friend finally remembered that he could use his mobile phone as a mirror to confirm the situation, and was about to pick it up, Sun Xiang burst out laughing: "I'm sorry hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha don't hit me!"!"

Zhou Zekai: ...

8.

After all, they were all grown-ups, and after realizing Sun Xiang's prank, Zhou Zekai didn't show much anger, and just gave him a helpless look, and then continued to control himself to eat.

However, Sun Xiang's state of mind changed subtly because of this episode.

At first he sent an email to Zhou Zekai, subconsciously thinking that this person would not come to the appointment today.Unexpectedly, not only did people reply to the email quickly, but they also responded very quickly.He clearly asked not to eat celery and not to drink, but Sun Xiang was caught off guard.

He had no choice but to abandon the spicy rabbit head and spicy fried seafood that he had already planned, and change them to mild dishes that are more in line with the taste of Shanghainese.

So when Zhou Zekai came and ate the meals he cooked, even though he didn't say anything, he still had a slight sense of mission completion of "successfully entertaining the landlord" in his heart.

This sense of mission completion made him temporarily forget that his original intention of inviting Zhou Zekai was to establish a friendship with this person, and subconsciously drew a polite dotted line between the two of them.

However, a prank on the spur of the moment drew Zhou Zekai's helpless and conniving reaction, and made Sun Xiang think again that the person across from him could try to be friends.

Thinking about it this way, the way he looked at Zhou Zekai changed accordingly, and he became more close to Zhou Zekai that he hadn't even noticed.

"Is my deep-fried shrimp okay?" As he said, he turned the plate of shrimp [-] degrees, and turned the side with more shrimps towards Zhou Zekai. Play it safe.If it's between friends, it's normal to push the dishes and encourage them to eat more, but just now Zhou Zekai's vague restraint made him involuntarily control his "hospitality" behavior.

Now that he was relaxed, Sun Xiang finally couldn't hide his usual habit of eating with his friends.

Noticing Sun Xiang's movements, Zhou Zekai couldn't help but glance at him, and finally remembered something, and silently pushed the pork belly with green peppers towards Sun Xiang.Learn from others.Reciprocate.

Sun Xiang's reaction was more generous.He dragged it over unceremoniously: "You really don't want to eat? That's all mine!"

With the only spicy dish, he happily settled down half a bowl of rice.At the same time, Zhou Zekai really sped up the speed of frying shrimp with oil, and the frequency of drinking soup seemed to increase a bit.

During the intermission, Sun Xiang put down his chopsticks, propped his head and looked at Zhou Zekai with great interest: "By the way, I have a question for you?"

9.

It turned out that while cooking, Sun Xiang was thinking about one thing.

When they were all still in reincarnation, every winter solstice, the cafeteria would serve a special dish: perfect dumplings.Ten kinds of fillings, ten colors, ten for each contestant, as the name implies.

At that time, no one would have leftovers, even Lu Boyuan, the pickiest eater, ate it all in one sitting.Not to mention Zhou Zekai as the captain.

And celery is one of the fillings of dumplings.

Doesn't that mean - "You didn't hate celery until you retired?"

Zhou Zekai was taken aback: "...Sometimes I ate too much and my stomach felt uncomfortable."

10.

The reason why Zhou Zekai doesn't like celery is actually far from being as simple as his understatement.

In the second year after retiring from the military, his mother believed what a friend said, and advocated diet therapy and health preservation.She must drink celery and carrot juice every day, not only by herself, but Zhou Zekai must accompany her.

He didn't want to go into such detail at first, but for some reason, when Sun Xiang asked, "Why are you eating so much celery?", he couldn't help explaining the general idea.

Sun Xiang looked at him in surprise and sympathy: "It's terrible! It's fine if you don't vomit!"

Zhou Zekai smiled vaguely: "Yeah."

Sun Xiang picked a piece of shiitake mushroom for himself, but he couldn't taste it, and his thoughts were still on Zhou Zekai being forced to drink celery juice.

"It's weird..." He muttered softly, as if talking to himself.

He originally thought that Zhou Zekai's mother's extremes came from her love for Zhou Zekai, but after listening to Zhou Zekai's description just now, this woman didn't seem to care as much for Zhou Zekai as he thought.Forcing her to drink celery juice with her is one thing, and being so tired from work that she has a fever is another. Has this mother really cared about Zhou Zekai's health?

Of course, good tutoring prevented him from making complaints in front of Zhou Zekai.He thought for a while, and finally changed his angle and said to Zhou Zekai: "If you are young and eating irregularly and hurting your stomach, you should find someone to take care of it. For example, ask a nutritionist or a family doctor."

Zhou Zekai put down the spoon and nodded, "Yes."

Sun Xiang struggled for a while, but couldn't help but tell Zhou Zekai a few lessons about the health-preserving soups from his beautiful girls. He suggested finding a nanny to prepare them in advance, and bringing the thermos to the company for preparation.

Zhou Zekai still said "um", but he really took out his mobile phone to write down the ingredients when Sun Xiang was talking about the ingredients.

This topic came to an end in this way, but it did not mean the end of their chat.Sun Xiang got up to clean up the dishes, and Zhou Zekai went to the kitchen with him carrying the dishes.When the two worked together to dispose of kitchen waste, they chatted occasionally.After cleaning up, when Sun Xiang cut two plates of fruit and returned to the living room, Zhou Zekai made tea again and invited him to come and taste it together.

Sun Xiang naturally had no objection for having a snack after the meal.

Although he was slightly puzzled that this person didn't go to work immediately, he sat down in front of the tea tray unceremoniously.

With the continuous rainy night as the background, they drank tea slowly, and at the same time, because of the initiative of the restless Sun Xiang, they opened up the conversation box, and the content of the conversation gradually became more and more endless and leisurely.

During the process, Sun Xiang would sometimes stop suddenly in a daze, feeling secretly, and only after re-planning to date as friends did he realize that there were so many things to share in life, including those things that had happened before, but were completely unthinkable at the time and could still be with each other. the content of the discussion.

For example, the flight meals ordered by the Reincarnation Internal Affairs Department were always extremely unpalatable.

"That's right!" Sun Xiang laughed loudly.If it wasn’t for the expensive-looking teacup in his hand, he might have patted it on the table to emphasize, “It will always be China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai, and it will always be chicken rice and beef noodles. It’s so bad that I want to cry! Please! Let them learn from Sichuan Airlines old godmother!"

Zhou Zekai shrugged: "I don't eat, except fruit."

"Fruit is no good either, it's becoming more and more unpalatable! And it's not fresh! But at that time, you have to play games, and you won't have energy if you don't eat it." Sun Xiang snorted disdainfully, "I've learned to be smart after retiring. Either I only drink Coke, Or eat it on the ground in advance!"

In addition to the flight meals, they also talked about the air-conditioning temperature in the training room showing 18 to 26, and the computer peripherals that look dazzling but are actually difficult to use. When talking about special resonance, they even gestured and laughed, "Yes, yes, yes!" "I'll say it!" "That's right!"

But that's not to say they only have happy parts to communicate with.

The greater comfort came from the moment when both of them couldn't find a new topic, so they each hugged a computer and went back to work.

Don't talk, do your own thing in a space, but don't feel awkward at all, but have a kind of fulfillment of being accompanied.

Time slipped away without anyone noticing, and by the time Sun Xiang stretched himself and finally finished answering the last email, it was almost 11:30.

He stretched, stretched halfway, and suddenly turned to look at Zhou Zekai with some hesitation.

From his observation point of view, Zhou Zekai seemed to be concentrated and busy, and it was not very polite to interrupt directly.

However, time waits for no one, half an hour later, the number of dungeons will be reset, and today is a waste of time.

Forget it, for Zhou Zekai, work must come first, don't bother him. So what about the solo trip, brother Xiang!

Sun Xiang no longer struggled, put on the earphones resolutely, clicked on the game icon, and logged in.

The magnificent city wall of Aedra and the outline of the bustling fountain square gradually appeared in Sun Xiang's sight.

He switched his equipment to the one with heavy critical strike and heavy attack speed, and then confidently walked towards the notice board for receiving the daily copy.

Who would have thought that when he had just arrived at the notice board and was about to reach out to peel off the parchment of a very realistic copy of the reward offer, a hand suddenly appeared and took the first step to reveal the board.

Sun Xiang turned around reflexively, and in the next second, he instantly petrified.

The sharpshooter with "ZzK1124" above his head is standing side by side with the elemental blaster with "Night Returner 9802" above his head, looking like a good couple.The parchment was rolled into a long strip, and it was held in the hands of the element blaster.

"Brother! You're finally here!" The element blaster's excited dialog box and team invitation popped up almost at the same time, "Sister-in-law said that I haven't done the daily yet, it's fate that brought us together!"

The real Sun Xiang suddenly turned his head and looked at Zhou Zekai.

The latter seemed to know that he would come out, and looked at it with his chin resting at some point.

The two looked at each other, and Zhou Zekai smiled innocently and gracefully, the kind that could be on the cover of a magazine with just a pat.In the face of beauty, Sun Xiang was not moved, just because the mouth said: "Brother, come on."

Sun Xiang was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood and punch the wall, he thought, is it too late to go offline now?

TBC

There will always be a difference between life and the performance of people on the Internet. Brother Xiang, are you aware of this truth?smile.jpg