【Zhou Xiang】The Tropic

1.

"Similar project?" Sun Xiang's eyes suddenly lit up, "Is that what I understand?"

Zhou Zekai didn't rush to explain, got up and took a document from the handbag he brought, and handed it to Sun Xiang.

Sun Xiang took it, and glanced at the beginning with great interest, but his brows gradually wrinkled as he went back.After turning over the last page, he silently closed the folder.

He had eleven million assumptions, but he never imagined that he would see his team's name in this situation.

Should be happy, shouldn't you?Sun Xiang was confused.He was really happy to see things move forward, and he had to choose one of Ye Mingkang and Zhou Zekai to cooperate with, and Zhou Zekai would definitely be his first choice.But somehow, at this moment, Sun Xiang's chest was filled with a strong sense of guilt, which made him unable to seriously and calmly analyze matters at work.

However, Zhou Zekai was still waiting for his answer, just looking at him quietly.

Sun Xiang unconsciously clenched the file folder tightly, as if he was clenching his complicated emotions so that they wouldn't overflow so quickly.

Then he let out a breath slowly, raised his head, and met Zhou Zekai's eyes: "Of course I'm interested, but wait...have you met Ye Mingkang?"

2.

"Yeah." Zhou Zekai was very frank, with a little understanding in his eyes, "He loves to joke since childhood. Don't mind."

Zhou Zekai's words were vague but his expression was sincere, not fake.Sun Xiang's first reaction was that the other party might have been posed by Ye Mingkang with similar questions, but after all, the relationship between his uncle and nephew, and the extent of Ye Mingkang's jokes, Sun Xiang couldn't guess.

So right now, Zhou Zekai asked him not to mind. It is difficult to say whether the point that Sun Xiang might mind in Zhou Zekai's understanding and his own actual understanding are the same thing.

But Sun Xiang was so stupid that he deliberately pointed out such an embarrassing and sensitive issue.

He rubbed his nose, and used the omnipotent skills he had learned in the past few years to deal with Zhou Zekai——haha: "Oh, I understand, I understand. Of course I don't mind."

Zhou Zekai: "Then, the project?"

Sun Xiang choked: "...I have intentions. However," he paused, and subconsciously felt that the atmosphere at the moment was not suitable for talking about such topics, so he covered his mouth and faked a yawn, "It's late, I'm rather tired today , the thinking must be chaotic. Or, we will make an appointment later, and the three of us will have a formal chat at the workplace?"

"Yeah." Zhou Zekai's tone was flat and without emotion.

But Sun Xiang didn't have time to rejoice that he passed the test, and he found that the sight that fell on him had some kind of change just after the syllable fell.

He raised his head abruptly, but Zhou Zekai had already turned his eyes away, and got up to pack the documents.

Sun Xiang looked at the opponent's back, feeling guilty again, he looked helplessly at Zhou Zekai, like a child who didn't know when he made a mistake.

"Hey, it's not early, but I'm still planning to brush the book, what do you say?" The remedial words came out intuitively.

Zhou Zekai paused, and looked back at him: "Okay."

3.

Like last night, Yeguiren was still offline.The atmosphere was subdued, and Sun Xiang tried his best to joke, "Don't let He Xi spoil our identities, this guy, are you sorry to ask for a team?"

Zzk114 returned him six points.

Sun Xiang said again: "Just the two of us are fine, let's see Brother Xiang take you to fly in the double dungeon!"

Zzk1124 went on to knock six points.

Afterwards, no matter what Sun Xiang said, whether it was exaggerated or funny, Zhou Zekai would reply him with ellipses or single modal particles in most cases.

Sun Xiang was not good at coaxing others, and after repeated setbacks, his patience decreased rapidly, and he began to feel unhappy.He thought to himself, you Zhou Zekai, pretend to be dumb, right?Then why am I still singing a one-man show? Don't you need effort to type?

Finally, of course, he fell silent.However, without talking or getting angry, the tacit understanding between the two is still full, and even because of the secret rivalry, the efficiency of the dungeon exploded.It didn't take long for them to clear up all the daily tasks they could do.

The moment Glory's prompt popped up, Sun Xiang unconsciously looked into Zhou Zekai's eyes, wanting to know how he would react in the future.

nothing.Zhou Zekai's side face is expressionless, even with the warm living room lighting filter, it can't make him look half happy.

Next, what should I say, what should I say?

Sun Xiang was deeply confused.He realized that he seemed to be stuck in a situation that he was least able to handle.In the game, the cursor still stays above the exit button, unable to click on it for a long time.He vaguely felt that he was passively expecting something, but if he didn't say it out loud, how could Zhou Zekai, who was also bound by emotions, be willing to respond to him.

Sun Xiang was worried for no reason, and for a while, even the keyboard and mouse, which were usually closest to him, became terrible.After all, they can't understand and can't respond to their irritability.

"Then... I'm going to take a shower." Sun Xiang finally clicked the logout button, but at that moment he found that Zhou Zekai had already logged out.He couldn't help looking at Zhou Zekai's expression again, but unfortunately the latter's actions in reality were also one step ahead of him - Zhou Zekai closed the computer, got up and walked to the study, only giving him the back of his head indifferently.

This cold war came so suddenly, Sun Xiang didn't know the reason from the beginning to the end, and was extremely depressed and wronged.He wanted to save face, so of course he couldn't follow Du Ming in the past and chase after Zhou Zekai to get to the bottom of it.

He pursed his lips, stood up, and walked away without looking back.

4.

Back in the guest bedroom, Sun Xiang lay paralyzed on the bed for a while, not wanting to do anything.After an unknown amount of time, reason regained the upper hand, and he finally got up, took a change of clothes and walked into the bathroom.

In the process of confusion, Sun Xiang still didn't realize the truth that Zhou Zekai carved deep marks in his life.It's still a little short of the time to uncover the cover, but other related superficial parts have emerged one after another.

Little by little, more and more details began to remind him of the changed facts of his life.

He squeezed the shower gel bottle, and smelled the orange smell he didn't use often from the dense foam; Sun Xiang actually tried to use it a few times; there are also tiles with complicated and expensive patterns, bath towels with embroidery, and a set of bone china tooth cups...

Even the hiccup he just had, the hiccup caused by supper, is no longer the takeaway skewers in the past.Shredded chicken with fish maw, raw ground apricot juice, goat liver mushroom and scallops... In short, they all belong to the taste of high-end ingredients that Sun Xiang is not used to.

Of course, no matter how many changes there are, the only constant is Zhou Zekai's existence itself.

Even if there was a cold war with unknown reasons, he still brought Sun Xiang a lot of peace of mind, letting him know that he was not alone in this space.This feeling was something that Sun Xiang hadn't noticed before but had enjoyed for a long time, but now because of his mental fluctuations, he was exposed to the sunlight, which didn't make the person happy, but added more irritability to him.

He buried himself in the water, mischievously, and slowly spit out bubbles through his mouth and nose, the bubbles came out of the waterline one after another, burst, and repeated again and again, Sun Xiang thought that this could somewhat dispel those strange emotions.

Then he'll know right away that he's wrong—

Because the scenes were similar, he couldn't help thinking of Zhou Zekai's appearance that night when he was drunk and almost drowned in the bathtub, and then he thought of himself who was busy and exhausted but extremely happy.

The last group of bubbles disappeared in the air. Sun Xiang stroked his wet hair, leaned back to get out of the water, stared at the ceiling in a daze, and silently let out a wry smile.

Finally, as if someone had snapped his fingers in his mind, the scattered clues were connected together like lightning.

——It's the last day.

5.

Although a little unbelievable, Sun Xiang finally understood the reason for Zhou Zekai's depression——

It was a coincidence that he borrowed Zhou Zekai's apartment.Opportunities for private conversations like this may never come again in the future.And just now, they could have chatted for a while longer, more in-depth, and happier, but all of this ended early because of their own selfishness.

Thinking of this, Sun Xiang immediately felt the same strong sense of loss—not accurate, maybe this layer of loss has been squatting in a corner for a long time, and he only discovered it now.

As time went by, Sun Xiang couldn't help but start to think deeply under the double stimulus of hot water and exhaustion.

He rarely had such sentimental moments, but at this moment, those negligent details and subtle traces were dug out one by one by him, and he took the initiative to spread them in front of him.

After Sun Xiang retired from the military, he came into contact with people of all schools and classes. Maintaining idealism and a youthful heart did not prevent him from understanding and being familiar with the operating rules of society.He clearly knew that Zhou Zekai and himself did not belong to the same world. Even though they regarded each other as friends, it was an indisputable fact that their life trajectories were far apart.If he wants to meet Zhao Yaoyao, Fang Minghua, or even Jiang Botao who is far away abroad, he can say "Let's get together!" on the phone on WeChat, but for Zhou Zekai, he may not be so casual.

Finally, he remembered the keys in his pocket.

Brilliant gold, very new.

Because the door can recognize fingerprints and irises, the key is actually the least useful to Zhou Zekai's apartment, at best it is a backup.Unique, for him.

It's a pity that this hard work will soon be returned to the original owner when the sun rises tomorrow.

5.

This bath was not pleasant at all.The exhaustion was not washed away, but soaked through his limbs, making Sun Xiang feel uncomfortable.

He threw himself back on the bed, ripped off his bathrobe, and got under the covers.Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an open box in the corner, half of it was empty, and the other half was scattered with his clothes and daily necessities.He couldn't help but think of Zhou Zekai dragging a similar box today, and guessed a little happily that this guy planned to live here for a long time?

But this kind of happiness lasted less than half a second before Sun Xiang chased him away.

That has nothing to do with me, does it?

No matter how long Zhou Zekai has to live, it will not be able to change the fact that his house has been renovated and he will move out of here immediately.

Thinking of this, Sun Xiang felt even more lost.

He lacks courage the most, but because of some inexplicable things at night, because a switch was turned on—even though he couldn’t see anything clearly after turning it on—just like that, he lost his courage

He originally planned to pack his luggage, but his whole body was extremely exhausted, and he turned over in a daze hugging the quilt, thinking to himself, Zhou Zekai, the master, didn't drive him away, so what was he in a hurry to do.There is still time to clean up tomorrow.If you're not free tomorrow, it's not impossible to delay it for a few more days.

The more he thought about it, the more blurred his mind became, and the heavier his eyelids became, and the drowsiness tugged at the other end. Sun Xiang didn't remember turning off the lights at all, and just fell asleep like this.

6.

Just after zero o'clock, Sun Xiang was snoring lightly when the door of the room suddenly opened gently.

Someone stopped at the door and looked at him for a while, with a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

The central air conditioner is warm, but the arms exposed when sleeping naked and the half of the abdomen exposed by the quilt are still worrying about catching a cold.

The man took off his shoes, walked carefully to the bed, picked up the corner of the quilt that fell to the ground for him, and tucked it in.

Finally turn off the light, turn and leave.

In the darkness, the young man was unaware of everything that happened, including the screen beside his pillow that suddenly lit up because of the incoming message.

August 11 at 24:00

He was too sleepy, and he didn't know that this day was far from being as simple as "the last day a friend borrowed" for the owner of the apartment.

TBC