I have nowhere to go, so I come to see you. Will you take me in? ...

In the evening, after watching TV with his mother for a while, Wen Zichuan went back to his room to sleep.

He lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. When he closed his eyes, one moment he saw Lin Xin's face full of anger as he kicked and roared at him, the next moment he saw the legendary old stories of Beiling Village that seemed like a dream.

Not wanting to disturb his mother's rest, he closed the door, snuggled into the quilt, and video-called Cheng Sizhou.

It rang twice and was hung up. A few minutes later I received a reply: Busy, talk later.

Wen Zichuan held the phone in his hand, letting the screen light make his face pale.

He knew he was busy and didn't need to disturb him. He just missed him a little.

Not feeling sleepy, he logged into his social media account and scrolled through it out of boredom.

Seeing other voice actors busy with their work, he thought, why not record a New Year's greeting tomorrow and send it to his fans.

I clicked on my own topic page and found that I had a lot of fans and the topic volume had increased, but the density of the comments from my die-hard fan "Zi Yue" had decreased a lot. I had to search for a long time to find what he said.

Confucius said: "What kind of lark is Mr. Wen? When he opens his mouth, the sky brightens!"

Netizen: "That's not a lark, it's a crowing chicken."

Confucius said: "Teacher Wen's charming and elegant temperament has penetrated deeply into my heart like a refreshing fragrance."

Netizen: "Is the fragrance a spirit?"

Confucius said: "This live broadcast is so funny! Teacher Wen's eyes are the eighth ocean!"

Netizen: "What is the eighth ocean? Pleasant Goat?"

…

Wen Zichuan smiled foolishly while holding his phone, and then looked at the comment time, which was a month ago.

Alas, I thought that if I browsed the web I wouldn't miss him so much, but it seems to be of no use. The feeling of missing him is like the water in the sink. If the outlet is blocked, it will only accumulate more and more.

Wen Zichuan didn't dare to call or send a message, so he had to look up their chat history and read through them one by one from the time they first met until now.

Cheng Sizhou usually speaks in a lively manner, interspersed with cute Shiba Inu emoticons.

Looking at those words, Wen Zichuan could even imagine his mood and state when he was typing. Immersed in the fantasies related to him, he slowly relaxed and fell asleep.

During the first month of the lunar year, every household is bustling with activity. Even if you don't go out, you can still hear the sounds of people greeting each other upstairs and downstairs, the sound of chopping meat when making dumplings, the clanging of mahjong tiles falling to the ground, and the laughter of children playing.

Wen Zichuan's home is relatively quiet. Lin Hanzhen is afraid that he is not used to this quietness, so she often turns up the volume of the TV. The crosstalk and sketches are also lively.

That night, Brother Zhou said he was busy and would contact me later, but after a few days, there was still no news from him.

Today is the second day of the Chinese New Year. I have received a lot of blessings from colleagues and friends, but I didn’t receive one from him, so I always feel like something is missing.

"Mom, the room is a bit stuffy, I'm going out for a walk."

"Don't go too far, we need to eat soon."

"I understand."

The pace of life in Fengbo is more leisurely than that in Dengyuan. The dim sunlight is dotted among the green bricks and black tiles, like a beauty sleeping in the old times, half lazy and half charming.

This area is the welfare housing of the silk factory. It is quite old, but fortunately the landscaping is well done. The corridors downstairs are full of greenery, and the ivy on the top floor even spreads along the wall to the rooftop.

Wen Zichuan was sitting on a lounge chair beside the flower bed. Not far away, two little boys were playing together.

The boys stuffed lit firecrackers into cans, and when the cans flew off, they covered their ears and laughed loudly and uncontrollably.

This is a must-do activity during the Chinese New Year. When Wen Zichuan was young, the children in the neighborhood also loved to play this way.

The only difference is that instead of seeing cans flying, they would rather see Xiao Wen Zichuan covering his ears and trembling with fear.

One of the boys spotted him and took out a piece of firecracker and held it upright in front of him: "Hey! No peeking! If you have the guts, set one off too and see how high it goes!"

"Me?" Wen Zichuan was a little surprised. He didn't know either of the two boys. Judging from their appearance, he guessed that they must be the children of a neighbor.

The other boy tugged at his companion, his expression extremely serious: "Didn't you hear what your aunt said? His mother is a slut! If you try to play with him, be careful that your aunt won't give you pocket money."

"What did you say?!" Wen Zichuan stood up with a cold expression.

"I said, your mother is a slut!" The boy shouted in a broken voice, as if the louder the voice, the more it could prove his courage.

"Shut up!" Wen Zichuan looked back, afraid that his mother might hear it from the balcony.

It is said that children speak without restraint, but these words were obviously taught by adults.

For many years, the neighbors knew that the Wen family had no adult men. Occasionally, when the family needed to move something heavy, little Wen Zichuan and his mother had no choice but to ask the neighbors for help.

Lin Hanzhen was born delicate and pretty, and any man who saw her couldn't help but take a second look. But she had no husband and had a child, so even if she said a few more words of thanks, she would be subjected to endless abuse.

Some people called her a "slut", a "vixen", and called Wen Zichuan a fatherless bastard.

They use the most unpleasant words on the poorest mother and child, knowing that the other party has no power to fight back, so they never care about the consequences.

Wen Zichuan looked at the boy with disgust in his eyes. When he clenched his fists, a moment of worry flashed through his mind. Isn't it illegal to beat a minor?

Sensing that the atmosphere was not right, the boy immediately tightened his neck, grabbed his companion, turned around and ran away.

"Ouch!" They ran around with their heads down and accidentally bumped into a "wall".

It was a 1.85-meter-high "human wall", made of black wool, with two arms, and it caught two human cubs that came to the door, one on the left and one on the right.

"Why... are you here?" Wen Zichuan looked up. Who else could it be if not Cheng Sizhou?

"Come join your team," Cheng Sizhou said to the two cubs, "It's two against two now, isn't it fair?"

"It's not fair! It's not fair at all!" the two boys struggled. "You two are adults, and we are children. You are bullying us!"

Cheng Sizhou squatted down and looked them in the eye: "Okay, let's not use force, let's use culture."

The one holding the firecracker seemed to be smarter and immediately asked, "What's the text?"

Cheng Sizhou pointed to a plastic bag at his feet and said, "The fireworks I just bought are much more powerful than your firecrackers. I'll ask you questions and you guys answer them. If you answer one correctly, I'll give you a firework. How about that?"

"Okay." The human cub couldn't resist the temptation of adults' interests and agreed immediately.

Cheng Sizhou asked, "What are your names?"

The boys thought, isn't this simple? One answered "Zhang Yihang" and the other answered "Zhu Ruiming".

So each of them got a "mole".

Cheng Sizhou asked again: "Where do you two live?"

Zhang Yihang lives on the third floor of Building 2. Zhu Ruiming came to visit relatives, but his home is not far away.

The two of them got another "little flying saucer".

Cheng Sizhou asked the last question: "Tell me about something embarrassing that happened recently."

The two boys were a little hesitant. Since it was such an embarrassing thing, how could they tell others?

"If you don't tell me, there will be no fireworks." Cheng Sizhou said, picking up the bag and looking like he was about to leave.

"I'll tell you!" Zhang Yihang looked at the large firework. It must be very beautiful when it was set off. "I failed my math final exam..."

Zhu Ruiming sneered, "How can that be considered embarrassing? I only got 30 points in math."

Zhang Yihang's competitive spirit kicked in: "Isn't it embarrassing that you got 30 points? You only got 20 points on the midterm exam."

"So what? I can win even if all my teammates die. Can you?"

"If I hadn't given you all my equipment before I died, would you have been able to win?"

Cheng Sizhou gave them the "Fire Tree and Silver Flower" and pointed at Wen Zichuan: "Apologize to him."

The two boys' eyes widened at the same time: "Why?"

Cheng Sizhou's smile disappeared completely: "Why do you think so?"

The two boys looked at each other. The fireworks had not been lit yet, but they felt a little hot in their hands.

Seeing their indifferent expressions, Cheng Sizhou cleared his throat and shouted upstairs, "Zhang Yihang from Building 2, 3rd Floor, failed his math final exam! Zhu Ruiming only got 30 points on his math final exam and often plays PUBG!"

"Hey! What are you doing?" Zhu Ruiming was anxious. His mother was playing cards upstairs!

"You two should apologize to this brother, otherwise I will not only yell at him here, but also go to your school and yell at him."

"Do you know where our school is?"

"I know, isn't it Fengqiao No. 3 Primary School?"

Zhang Yihang panicked and whispered in Zhu Ruiming's ear, "How did he know our school? Could he be a teacher?"

Zhu Ruiming also became nervous: "How about... just apologize? What if it really is a teacher at school? We'll both be dead when school starts."

Cheng Sizhou went out wearing glasses today, and when he wasn't smiling, he did look a bit like a teacher.

"Okay, okay, we apologize. We're sorry," said Zhang Yihang.

"I'm sorry." Zhu Ruiming said.

After the two boys finished talking to Wen Zichuan, they ran back home with the fireworks in their arms.

Like the two cubs, Wen Zichuan used to be afraid of being embarrassed, but now, Cheng Sizhou's side is the only place where he can lick his wounds and piece together his self-esteem.

"We went through so much trouble and lost six fireworks just to get them to apologize?"

"It's better than a beating. If something goes wrong, the medical bills will be more expensive than fireworks."

The sun had risen, illuminating the man in front of him with exceptional brightness. Wen Zichuan wanted to take a good look at him, but the sunlight dazzled his eyes. "Why did you come to Fengbo?"

Cheng Sizhou lowered his head, hiding his expression: "I have nowhere to go, so I wanted to come find you."

Wen Zichuan didn't dare to make any intimate moves, so he could only pull him to sit on the lounge chair.

Both of them had so much to say, but they didn't know where to start.

Wen Zichuan suppressed the surging emotions in his heart and looked around and asked, "How do you know they are from Fengqiao No. 3 Primary School?"

Cheng Sizhou pointed upwards and said, "There's a school uniform hanging on the balcony, and it says so."

Wen Zichuan didn't really care about the answer. He looked down at the plastic bag again and asked, "Why did you buy so many fireworks?"

"If you can't sleep at night, just keep playing it, keep playing it."

"I can't sleep either, so I'll keep you company."

"Zichuan."

"Um?"

"sorry."

"Didn't we agree not to say 'sorry'?"

"I don't speak for anything else, I speak for myself."

"what happens?"

"It's nothing, I just feel like I have no strength. In the past, when I was tired and sleepy, I could eat something and then take a nap to recover. But now, my strength is gone, and it's gone." Cheng Sizhou looked at the withered yellow leaves beside the flower bed, and he looked more and more tired as he spoke. "I'm afraid that if I lose my strength, I won't be able to take good care of you like before..."

Wen Zichuan could imagine that, with Old Jiang seriously injured and Mrs. Lin unable to leave her, and the two families sharing one son, Brother Zhou would have to run around everywhere without even a chance to breathe.

"Since you're here in Fengbo, take a good rest."

Cheng Sizhou took out his phone and showed it to Wen Zichuan. The interface was full of little red dots. There were more than a hundred missed calls and unchecked messages. "Or, you can knock me out, or find a place to lock me up."