【Zhou Xiang】The Tropic

1.

The situation was developing so fast that Sun Xiang couldn't bear it.

What made him complain even more was that, being watched by Zhou Zekai's eyes, he really couldn't calm down and consider whether he should get on this car or not.

Come on, I always feel that something is wrong.No, it's too inconsistent with my own style, and I'm afraid to throw myself to death.

"By the way, don't you lie because you are busy with other things?!" Sun Xiang grabbed the flash of thought in his mind, trying to struggle.

Zhou Zekai simply replied: "It's really fine."

His eyes flickered, as if he could guess Sun Xiang's brain circuit, before Sun Xiang could speak, he "kindly" added: "Today is all day off." So Sun Xiang can rest assured to get in the car, without worrying that it will take up his work time.

Sun Xiang said in his heart, buddy, don't do this, I can't tell whether you are lying or not!

Just when he was still trying to struggle, the owner of the car behind waited impatiently and honked the horn heavily.

Now that's all right, a doorman immediately ran over with a smile on his face: "Look, sir——"

"Sorry, I'm leaving now!" Forced by the situation, Sun Xiang gritted his teeth, opened the car door, and got in.

2.

As soon as he got into the passenger seat, Sun Xiang couldn't help frowning.

Last time it was dark and raining, he was tired and sleepy, and he had no energy left to be curious.This time the light was sufficient, and Sun Xiang instantly noticed the completely different atmosphere inside the car from his own car.

The driver turned the steering wheel calmly, as if the unexpected lightness just now was an illusion.The expensive shirt was too tailored and too bland.At the cuffs, the tortoiseshell cufflinks have a calm and restrained arc.The vehicle was moving slowly, and thick and light lights passed over Zhou Zekai's side face, creating an unpredictable feeling. In combination with it, it was unclear whether it was the vehicle or the cold perfume smell from the friend's neckline. All the elements Blended together, it looks like a transparent pocket, and the door is the sealing buckle.It closed tightly with a "snap", logically locking up all of Sun Xiang's thoughts.

He used to think that there was a high transparent wall hidden around Zhou Zekai, and others couldn't turn over to see his real appearance.Right now, Sun Xiang had the illusion of being inside the wall for the first time, but the closeness brought him a pitiful sense of accomplishment, leaving him with doubts and doubts—he still couldn't see Zhou Zekai clearly.

No, it could be a little worse.

Fang Minghua had contacted Zhou Zekai, rounding up means that Zhou Zekai had some understanding of his current situation. As for him, apart from knowing that Zhou Zekai went to college after retiring, other parts, such as what his family does, what he is busy with recently, his What field he worked in and what achievements he had made...he had no idea.

This is not fair.

Thinking about it this way, Sun Xiang suddenly felt that he was sitting on the co-pilot at this moment, and it felt more and more awkward.

However, Sun Xiang's character is destined that he will not go into a dead end.He quickly began to adjust the angle of the seat and the tightness of the seat belt, trying to find his own rhythm.When he secretly breathed a sigh of relief and leaned on the seat contentedly, Sun Xiang once thought that he had succeeded, but in the next second, the hateful rearview mirror more than enough reflected his real eyes——

Embarrassing, complicated, and bewildered.Full of doubts about what to say.

This feeling is very similar to the summer when I first transferred.

3.

Sun Xiang's thoughts inevitably jumped back to eight years ago.I remember it was also a sunny Saturday afternoon.

At that time, he planned to go out to buy earphones, but he never expected to meet Zhou Zekai dragging his suitcase in the elevator.

With a fever in his head, Sun Xiang invited Zhou Zekai: "Are you going out too? What a coincidence! Let's go together?"

Zhou Zekai was stunned for a while, then nodded: "Okay."

After getting out of the elevator, Sun Xiang followed Zhou Zekai all the way, becoming more and more confused as he walked—shouldn't he take a taxi to the front door?

When he saw Zhou Zekai's car in the parking lot, he realized that it was a beautiful misunderstanding from beginning to end - no one told him that Zhou Zekai also drove by himself besides Fang Minghua? ? ?

But this can't be blamed on the reincarnation crowd, they never thought that Sun Xiang would invite the most mysterious captain to go out together when he first came to the club.

But on Sun Xiang, the whole thing is quite understandable.

He had been used to charging alone.That year, when I entered the new environment and changed my position, I had to fight side by side with another partner. It would be a lie to say that I was not at a loss.In order to get out of the transition state as soon as possible, he adopted a simple and crude method - setting time-limited goals for himself, and then gritting his teeth to execute them.Among them was the item "you must get acquainted with Zhou Zekai".

If you want Sun Xiang to be honest with you, he will tell you that Zhou Zekai is definitely not the type of person he most wants to communicate with.Even from a young age, whenever he met this type of guy, such as the cousin who was admitted to MIT with excellent character and learning, he would have a particularly headache. The headache was so great that every New Year greeting, he would think of a hundred ways to avoid it.

It's a pity that Zhou Zekai is not his cousin, and Samsara is not an uncle's house that he only visits once a year. He has suffered a lot and knows that he must change, and Zhou Zekai just happened to appear there. Whether he likes it or hates it, for Sun Xiang, He had only one choice, and he had to do it anyway.

After talking about the destination, they got in the car, and there was a long period of silence between the two of them as expected.In order to alleviate the embarrassment of not knowing where to put his hands and feet, Sun Xiang decided to look out the window first.

At this time, they just drove into the elevated along the ramp.There is dense traffic in the vicinity, and looking into the distance, the compact glass facades are shining under the blue sky, and each facade is shining with charming colors... This is a picture of a city similar to the mountain city of my hometown.

A faint sense of familiarity welled up in his heart, and Sun Xiang quickly regained a little bit of comfort.

You can't give up halfway, he said to himself, and after racking his brains for a long time, he finally fished out a common sentence from the chat between his mother and sisters: "I didn't expect that there is a lot of rain in Shanghai in summer, and the sun is so rare. Catch up with Chongqing!"

Fortunately, after that, Zhou Zekai answered the question very face-saving: "I have never been there, what is Chongqing like?"

Send sub-questions!

Sun Xiang relaxed immediately, and described the magic and beauty of the mountain city with great interest, from the Yangtze River cableway to Hongya Cave to hot pot skewers... In short, he gestured happily all the way, and Zhou Zekai very cooperatively "hmm" all the way .When he finally got out of the car, he probably thought that he and Zhou Zekai had successfully planted a seedling of friendship. He patted him on the shoulder and said, "Next time I have a chance to go to Chongqing, find me where I want to eat and where I want to go!"

...However, when Samsara received the business order and was finally able to fly to Chongqing to play an exhibition game, Zhou Zekai had already retired for a full year.

Well, last time he had a good reason to speak up, but this time?

Sun Xiang withdrew his mixed thoughts, and stared at himself in the rearview mirror in confusion, and the face in the mirror said, "What the hell."

The more he thought about it, the more confused he became.

It stands to reason that, except for not returning the clothes, he has no excuse to force himself to improve his relationship with a guy whose rhythm and attributes are very different.But I can't help it, I can't help it...

Forget it, Sun Xiang gave up entanglement, and said to himself, if you want to talk, try it, what are you afraid of, can Zhou Zekai eat you?

Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, he asked Zhou Zekai, "Who were you lying to just now? Mrs. Zhou?"

4.

Rely on me, are you going to admit that you eavesdropped on other people's phone calls?

10 points is probably too much for this opening, if not rationally remembering that he is a 27-year-old mature man, Sun Xiang almost wanted to cover his face and pretend to be an ostrich immediately.

However, after all the words have been said, it is hard to take back the water, so he can only pray that Zhou Zekai will not answer the words.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Zekai answered seriously: "Yes."

"Eh..." Shocked that he was caught, Sun Xiang uttered meaningless syllables in embarrassment.

"However," Zhou Zekai paused, "She doesn't like being called Mrs. Zhou."

"Huh?" Sun Xiang's attention was drawn away by Zhou Zekai's active revelation, he forgot the embarrassment, and showed full curiosity: "Then what do you usually call her?"

"Boss Ye." Zhou Zekai said, "I call her that too."

"Oh, I understand." Sun Xiang connected this title with Fang Minghua's words, thinking he already had a general impression of this lady, "Your mother must be the kind of independent and strong woman."

Zhou Zekai didn't seem to want to continue this line, so he gave a vague "hmm".

Just like eight years ago, miraculously, as soon as Zhou Zekai answered the words, Sun Xiang immediately relaxed completely.He didn't notice Zhou Zekai's emotional changes, and said to himself: "But my mother is also like... What the hell, she's already at this age, and she insists on calling her a pretty girl."

"Pretty girl?" Zhou Zekai's voice became more interested.

"Yes, pretty girl." Miraculously, Sun Xiang understood Zhou Zekai's curiosity in an instant, and explained, "She is from Cantonese. After meeting my father, she married to Chongqing. It is said that she made my grandma very angry."

"It was very powerful to marry far away in that era." Zhou Zekai affirmed.

"Indeed. I also think my mother is very awesome." Decades ago when transportation was backward, marrying far away basically meant giving up the support and contact of her natal family, and going to a place thousands of miles away with completely different climate, dialect, living habits, and food culture. Settling abroad requires more than ordinary courage. "This beautiful girl may have an adventurous spirit in her bones!"

At this time, it happened to be at a red light, and after slowing to a stop, Zhou Zekai glanced at Sun Xiang, then turned his head back.For some reason, Sun Xiang actually read the subtext of "you two are worthy of being mother and son" from Zhou Zekai's eyes.He held back his inexplicable joy and touched his nose, warning himself not to get too complacent, thinking to himself, it must be an illusion.

After a while, the car moved, and Sun Xiang was trying to find a new topic when Zhou Zekai asked, "Do you speak Cantonese?"

"No, no, no!" Sun Xiang quickly denied, "I know the words "beautiful girl" and "pujiezi". I'm too lazy to teach me Cantonese."

While talking, they passed under the bridge, the light dimmed for a moment, and Zhou Zekai's eyes were clearly reflected on the front windshield...the kind that had a hint of seeing through. "Cough," Sun Xiang suddenly felt guilty.He straightened the collar of his coat, brushed the hair near the ears, and finally couldn't help it: "Okay, let me confess, I must have been curious when I was a child... I pestered my mother to teach me, but I can't learn it after I finish, so I am very self-aware gave up!"

"Hehe." Zhou Zekai couldn't help it anymore.

Sun Xiang's face brightened, and he broke the can: "Anyway, my language skills are really not good. The same goes for Shanghainese. Do you know that if I hadn't had to practice with those big guys who love to speak Shanghainese, I might still be in the The state of counting from 1 to 10."

After all, as if to prove the fruits of his hard work, Sun Xiang switched to Shanghai dialect and spoke a few sentences.

"Very standard." Zhou Zekai nodded.

"Thank you, thank you!" Sun Xiang replied triumphantly and playfully, and suddenly remembered something, propped his right hand on the edge of the window, and looked at Zhou Zekai with his head: "By the way, the Shanghai dialect I heard for the first time seems to be you and me. Said."

Zhou Zekai seemed a little surprised: "Me?"

A flash of nostalgia flashed in Sun Xiang's eyes: "Well, when you went back to the dormitory on the first day, you might have been tired and slack, so you said to me in Shanghai dialect at the door, see you tomorrow. I guess you probably don't remember."

Zhou Zekai: "..."

Sun Xiang saw that he rarely showed such an expression of being overwhelmed since the reunion, and couldn't help but feel flustered, which directly affected the expression of words: "Hahaha, this can be fake. We were the only two in the corridor that day. Going back at the latest, I want to say good night and you don't look at me, I'm feeling embarrassed, I didn't expect you to explain to me the court meeting suddenly, so I told myself, Zhou Zekai is okay, I guess he can get along with him in the future. I won the best partner in the first year, which proves my intuition is right. If you didn’t retire that year and played two more times, maybe we can get a few more awards, what a pity!”

Zhou Zekai: "..."

Sun Xiang's original intention was to express that being teammates with Zhou Zekai feels great, just like boys bumping shoulders and fists after getting off the court for the wonderful cooperation in the game, there is no special meaning.But when Zhou Zekai remained silent, Sun Xiang belatedly realized that he might have said something wrong—even though he didn't know what the problem was.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but peek at Zhou Zekai.However, the latter looked focused on driving, and he didn't seem to want to chat with him any longer.

At this moment, Zhou Zekai suddenly turned his head towards Sun Xiang: "What?"

"It's nothing!" Sun Xiang felt guilty for a moment, hurriedly looked away, and found a clumsy excuse, "Hey, I'm a little sleepy, go to sleep first, call me when you arrive!" After saying that, he hugged his chest and closed his eyes, as if every minute just fell asleep.

Zhou Zekai reacted quickly, reached out and pressed a few times on the central control, and adjusted the air conditioner on Sun Xiang's side to the lowest setting.Sun Xiang secretly opened his eyelids, and when he saw all this, he cried out inwardly.Could it be that I have to pretend to sleep all the way home?Wait, home? !

"Zhou Zekai!" Sun Xiang sat up straight suddenly, "Wait, it seems I haven't given you the address yet?"

Zhou Zekai glanced at him helplessly, and without explaining, he freed up a hand and adjusted the map scale of the central control to the maximum.

The guiding line was winding, and the end point was exactly where Sun Xiang's house was.

Sun Xiang laughed dryly, lamenting from the bottom of his heart that it was the nth time that he was so wise in front of his old teammates: "...haha, yes, I sent it to your car last time, so it should be saved in history, hahaha, look at my memory! "

After the explanation, Sun Xiang himself felt bored, rubbed his face silently, and began to stare at the scenery outside the window in a daze.

Zhou Zekai drove quietly, and did not take the initiative to start the topic again.After crossing the elevated road and crossing the river tunnel, and turning south for a while, they successfully arrived at Sun Xiang's community.

When Sun Xiang unbuckled his seat belt, Zhou Zekai picked up his phone.From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse that the interface didn't look like an email, and Sun Xiang believed Zhou Zekai's "rest today" statement for no reason.Immediately afterwards, a vague idea rushed into my mind, and then transformed into an inexplicable strong impulse.

"Zhou Zekai," Sun Xiang found himself facing this friend, it was always difficult to hide his thoughts, and he wanted to say something, "If you have nothing to do today... why don't you come up and have a cup of tea and rest for a while before leaving?"

TBC