【Zhou Xiang】The Tropic

1.

The plane began taxiing slowly.Amidst the humming of the engines, the flight attendants reminded everyone row by row to switch their electronic products to flight mode.Before putting away the phone, Zhou Zekai habitually opened WeChat and glanced at it.When his eyes flicked past Sun Xiang's name and the words "Thank you, don't stay up late, go to bed early!", he was stunned for a few seconds and smiled.

Sun Xiang didn't know how much willpower it took him to refrain from making a phone call on the spot - after the trip to the shop, the impulse to "don't care about it and confess now" came for the second time.

Every single word is like a cluster of fireworks, exploding in his heart, and when they are connected together, it is a loud bang that makes people dizzy and dizzy.

Coincidentally, at that moment, the electronic products in the room suddenly started to make noise one after another - it was the pre-set alarm - 0:00, December 12, Sun Xiang's birthday, arrived.

Thousands of words, left to speak slowly later.Zhou Zekai adjusted his breathing, and quickly typed four words: Happy birthday.

For the 27-year-old birthday boy.

You will have many more birthdays.I can't listen to my birthday when I say blessings in person, I hope it will be the last time.

2.

Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang's travel habits are exactly the same - if there is no accident, he is unwilling to do anything, race against time and close his eyes to rest.But this time, he made an exception.

From the moment the engine roared, Zhou Zekai involuntarily maintained a posture: looking out the window with his head propped up.

The plane broke free from gravity, the fuselage went up, and began to climb hard.Correspondingly, all the scenery was receding, and the runway and terminal building of Jiangbei Airport, which were clearly visible, gradually disappeared from view.

However, this did not affect Zhou Zekai's rare interest. After the airport disappeared, he began to admire other buildings in the city, from residential areas to industrial sites, all of them with great interest.

Suddenly, an area was blocked by passing clouds, Zhou Zekai tilted his head reflexively, trying to make his eyes "go around the clouds"—and of course failed.At this time, he suddenly realized how out of line his usual behavior was, and how faithfully...exposing his inner changes.

Over the years, he has been to countless cities, but he has no nostalgia before leaving.Because there is no real "relationship" between those cities and him.

Even Chongqing, he has not never visited, but he has never had the idea of ​​visiting the scenic spots in the past.Strictly speaking, only the hotel service is what he cares about—such as whether the sound insulation is good, whether the bathroom is not clean, whether the pillows are comfortable, whether the breakfast is up to your appetite, and so on.

But now, it's different.

It is still the same Chongqing, but not the former Chongqing.

It was suddenly branded as "Sun Xiang", which made Zhou Zekai love Wu and Wudi a lot.Every plant, every tree, every brick and every tile, and even the humid and misty air can trigger his willingness to explore.

That night when he went to Hongya Cave, he was surrounded by crowded crowds, turbid air in narrow passages and noisy dialects.Each of the above, in normal times, would only make him frown in disgust.But when he recalled the scene of walking down with the flow of people, the first thing that came to his mind was the bright and gilded river bank in the distance, and what came back to his ears was the incomprehensible but lively conversation, every moment was charming and interesting.

He remembered that when he was approaching the waterfall, a little boy suddenly came out from nowhere and hit him with considerable force.And his first reaction at the time: Maybe Sun Xiang would run around on the steps so mischievously when he was a child.

It's a pity that the plane climbed faster and faster, and it didn't take long for the last bit of Chongqing to disappear from Zhou Zekai's sight early after the thick clouds passed by.

He heard someone next door sigh with emotion, and finally left that damned cold and damp city.Indeed, the blue sky was finally restored outside the window, and the golden sun shone on the cotton candy-like clouds, and every fold was golden-this is the scene that people usually prefer.

But Zhou Zekai suddenly lost interest.He quickly raised the blanket, leaned back on the seat, and closed his eyes to rest.

3.

A few hours later, the plane landed at Hongqiao.Zhou Zekai woke up, rubbed his eyes, and hesitated whether to send a message to Sun Xiang - if he remembered correctly, Mercury should have finished the press conference by this point.

At the thought of this, two emotions came to his mind intertwined.

On the one hand, he felt regretful that he couldn't go to the scene and watch Sun Xiang finish the battle beautifully with his own eyes; It all came true, and I envy that all the youth of this person from the past to the present can be connected with the things he likes.

...not necessary.

Zhou Zekai pinched the center of his brows heavily, and used the pain to wake himself up—he never regretted it, and this was the best ending he could get.

Even so, the corners of Zhou Zekai's lips were already straightened unconsciously, and his complexion became a little bad because he didn't bother to hide it.

The assistant picked him up at the arrival gate, and couldn't help muttering secretly all the way: What's the matter with the BOSS's face sinking like water?Is there something wrong with the project?

It shouldn't be, he remembered that the night before, Zhou Zekai sent himself a special detailed email to assign tasks, each of which was based on the premise of a successful negotiation.

Zhou Zekai had no knowledge of the assistant's inner activities.He felt extremely tired when he thought about the itinerary of the next few meetings today.After getting in the car, he lowered the seat back a few inches, closed his eyes in a lack of energy, and prepared to hurry up to catch up on sleep.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, the mobile phone that was thrown in the central control in the back row suddenly vibrated slightly.

He frowned and touched it, and the assistant was terrified when he saw the obvious displeasure.As a result, in the next second, Zhou Zekai's entire expression softened suddenly.

At this moment, all his attention was firmly attracted by this news——

"Did you get off the plane? Remember to eat more fire-reducing chili peppers. Don't underestimate our Chongqing chili, it has a delay debuff:-)"

4.

Zhou Zekai stared at this news for a long time, and laughed silently.

It has nothing to do with the concern conveyed by the content itself, what matters is the timing of the message and who it comes from.

Not sooner or later, just when he was depressed due to various complicated reasons, the news of Sun Xiang arrived.Whether it's a coincidence or a subtle influence, in short, no matter what the content is, it has indeed achieved an effect beyond the message itself——

Swept away Zhou Zekai's depression and exhaustion.

Zhou Zekai carefully read this sentence several times, raised the corners of his lips, and sent a message to Sun Xiang energetically: How about the press conference?

Sun Xiang threw the link: It must be awesome!This is the replay address, if you are free, give us a like and coin!

5.

"How much longer?" Zhou Zekai asked the assistant.

"Two to 10 minutes. If there is a traffic jam, it may take half an hour." The assistant replied.

10 minutes is enough.Zhou Zekai happily plugged in his earphones and clicked on the video.The essence of the press conference was nothing more than those few sentences, and he resolutely fast-forwarded the part that had nothing to do with Sun Xiang.

0:00, the background board with LOGO, the empty seats, and the flashing lights.The camera flickered, and Sun Xiang entered the arena, followed by Zhao Yaoyao, the PR manager, He Xi, Qian Chen, and Wu Yue.Zhou Zekai realized that this was the first time he saw Sun Xiang wearing the Mercury uniform, black, white and grey, clean and refreshing, and the logo on the chest was also simple - a sun and a star revolving around it.

The undifferentiated styles have completely different effects on different wearers.He Xi is full of childishness and thin, a proper school uniform for children.When Sun Xiang wears it, shoulders are shoulders and legs are legs, muscles are faintly visible, and the residual youthful spirit and mature male hormones are fused together, it is simply a natural golden sign.

Zhou Zekai admired it for a while, and after screenshotting the picture, he thought amusedly, if the sales of team uniforms had a small increase because of this, the contribution of the boss, Sun Xiang, must be counted.

At 1:00, Zhao Yaoyao started, exchanged pleasantries, and introduced each of them.Zhou Zekai discovered an interesting phenomenon: At the beginning, He Xi, Qian Chen, and Wu Yue all had serious expressions on their faces, without squinting their eyes. Xiang glanced in the direction, his eyes sparkling, and he became a standard trio of fans.

At 2:30, Zhao Yaoyao and Sun Xiang looked at each other and turned to He Xi: "We are very pleased to announce that the Mercury team will officially welcome new blood starting today. The team wishes He Xi all the best in the upcoming games." I look forward to making progress together with him and creating brilliance together.”

Before he could finish his sentence, all guns and short guns turned to He Xi.The frenzied gesture of the flashlight seems to have exceeded the children’s expectations—he was secretly playing a game of turning off the microphone buttons with Wu Yue a second ago, but at this moment he was suddenly cueed, obviously flustered, and failed to turn on the microphone immediately.

At 2:35, Sun Xiang got up straight away, walked over in two steps, knelt down on one knee, handed his microphone to He Xi's mouth, and said solemnly, "Don't bother, it must be my brother's microphone that works better."

The audience roared with laughter, and Zhou Zekai couldn't help laughing too.

He Xi regained his composure and held the microphone: "Hi everyone, I'm He Xi, a New Glory League player who just registered the day before yesterday. Thank you all for coming to my debut conference."

Afterwards, Qian Chen and Wu Yue, as captains and partners, also talked about unity and cooperation according to the previous script.

"That's right." In front of the camera, Sun Xiang refrained from rubbing the heads of the children, put one hand on He Xi and the other on Wu Yue's shoulders, "Let me add a few words. He Xi is young and talented. I am very confident in his wonderful performance. But in addition, he will definitely make mistakes, on and off the court, countless times. I hope that when everyone praises, they will praise them hard, and when they make mistakes, they will spray them hard. We drank alcohol and kept it hidden from reporting, so as to save face for me."

Laughter broke out again.

Sun Xiang also laughed, and after laughing, his expression became serious: "I'm not joking just to stir up the atmosphere. I really want to take this opportunity to say what's in my heart—maybe all of you here, and friends in front of the screen, feel that the recent TV The competitive circle is a bit too tolerant of young players, isn't it? Besides, our Mercury has already fallen because of this, and we don't want to fall twice in the same position."

After finishing speaking, Sun Xiang turned around and asked today's protagonist: "Brother Xiang said this at your press conference, will you be angry?"

"How is it possible?" He Xi straightened his chest, grinned at Sun Xiang, and then turned to Wu Yue, "I've realized it a long time ago! How about you, Wu Yue?"

"Nonsense!" Wu Yue raised his head not to be outdone, "Are you mistaken? I taught you this!"

After everyone had finished their music, Zhao Yaoyao finished. Afterwards, the public relations manager took the initiative to lead the conversation, and naturally transitioned to answering reporters' questions.Because the questions and answers were relatively formulaic, Zhou Zekai skipped and watched for a few minutes, then dragged the progress bar back to the previous scene where Sun Xiang appeared.

This time, he discovered more interesting things, such as Sun Xiang's micro-expression at the moment when he almost couldn't hold back rubbing the child's head, and when He Xi and Wu Yue bickered, Sun Xiang looked at the baby next to him, looking proud and satisfied demeanor...

He silently took screenshots, and then opened ins and repo very smoothly.

6.

After posting the ins, Zhou Zekai also arrived in Hongyuan.Before getting out of the car, he hesitated for a moment, then raised his head and asked his assistant, "Are you free at noon?"

After explaining the matter, Zhou Zekai hurried to attend the meeting.Who would have thought that he was caught by the protagonist of the screenshot not long after his "self-entertainment" thing was online on the po.

Sun Xiang himself didn't know why he opened his ins, why he suddenly wanted to watch the activities of Zhou Zekai's trumpet—maybe it was some kind of intuition.

But anyway, Zhou Zekai...has actually been updated!

And every update, there are several screenshots, cough, several screenshots related to yourself? !

What broke Sun Xiang the most was that even though Zhou Zekai didn't have a single word of commentary, he was able to get what this guy wanted to express at a glance - "This shot is really interesting".

"The shame is beyond the charts," Sun Xiang covered his face and complained in a low voice, "Kill me!"

"Boss, what did you say?" Zhao Yaoyao, who was ordering, seemed to hear Sun Xiang muttering, "Do you want ginger chicken?"

"Yes, yes, order, Sand Ginger Chicken!" Sun Xiang continued to fall into silence after dealing with Zhao Yaoyao.

He thought for a moment whether he should directly confront Zhou Zekai and tell him to delete the ins, but immediately after, another self jumped out in his mind and shouted: "Why do you want him to delete it! You obviously want Zhou Zekai to see the post His own performance at the meeting, isn't this the proof that he watched the whole process seriously?"

...that's right.He could feel his heartbeat speeding up due to inexplicable joy when he saw the screenshot.

Sun Xiang rubbed his face, and hammered the villain who has become more and more duplicity recently a thousand times.

"Brother Xiang...?" Zhao Yaoyao finished ordering and found that Sun Xiang had a strange expression.

Sun Xiang coughed: "...It's nothing, someone found out about my birthday and gave me a surprise."

7.

However, Sun Xiang didn't know that his birthday surprise was more than that.

In the middle of the night, he had just returned to the apartment after finishing work - of course it would be more convenient to sleep in the company, but he didn't want to treat himself too badly for his annual birthday - he was about to find something to eat to fill his stomach, when there was a sudden movement in the hallway.

"Zhou Zekai?" Sun Xiang was so surprised that he didn't have time to close the refrigerator door, and saw a person coming out from the entrance, holding a beautifully packaged square paper box in his hand, "This is—?"

As the bright lights in the living room shone on the other party, Sun Xiang finally saw clearly that this man was wearing a formal attire—not that Zhou Zekai's usual attire was not formal enough, but that this attire... from shoulders to waist to legs, had almost no folds The locks, even the shine of the tie and cufflinks, were new and clean.

This is simply not the state it should be after a busy day.

Sun Xiang looked into Zhou Zekai's eyes, and his heart missed a few beats.In the chest, the warmth has unknowingly merged into a river, and is rushing to the whole body along with every beat of the heart——

He was almost a little shocked to find that he had become so dishonest in his heart—it turned out that the so-called "Isn't He Xi a gift from you?" had nothing to do with being handsome or unrestrained.After a lapse of nearly 24 hours, he realized that the real intention of what he said at that time was to cover up his disappointment for the sake of face.

It turned out that his true wish was as simple as that——

I want to see someone before zero o'clock, and I want to hear someone say this to me face to face——

"Happy birthday." The handsome man blinked at him, as if he heard his heart.

TBC