nightingale
The book collector downstairs arrived in a truck with a scale. Jiang Li didn't have many books left, mostly information. Chen An helped him carry the boxes downstairs for 32 yuan. After selling the books, Jiang Li bought two drinks at the store and gave one to Chen An. They stood under the eaves to rest.
By five o'clock, most people had left the campus, and the once lively flower beds were no longer filled with laughter.
Chen An asked him, "How does it feel?"
"Hmm?" Jiang Li looked at him. "What do you feel?"
"graduate."
Jiang Li laughed, "Come on, this isn't my first graduation."
Chen An nodded, "True." Then he suddenly became curious, "Are you the only one repeating in your class?"
Jiang Li shook his head. "No, Liu Hanxiao is a repeater. It's just that I'm not familiar with them."
"Not familiar?" Chen An frowned casually, then quickly relaxed. "I thought you had a lot of friends."
Jiang Li tilted his head, "Friends, programmers count as one, and the others are classmates I have a good relationship with."
Chen An finished the can of Coke and threw it into the trash can. He couldn't help but analyze it. Jiang Li was always surrounded by a lot of people, but most of these people admired him because of his academic aura. Jiang Li only had one or two friends selected from a bunch of admirers.
“But I’m very happy to graduate this year.”
The man who was immersed in his thoughts suddenly heard him say this and asked, "Why?"
Jiang Li had a smile on his lips, "Because I'm not going home alone."
Chen An was stunned. He saw himself in Jiang Li again.
When he graduated, he was seventeen years old and had a bunch of admirers like Jiang Li, but they admired his face. He still kept to himself in school. On the day he went home, he sold dozens of kilograms of books by himself and went home with an empty bag.
At that time, he was lonely, bored with life, and had a sense of unreality as if he was wandering outside the world.
Now there is a boy like him. He doesn't know whether this boy can meet his "teacher" and lead him out of loneliness and hardship, but he wants to do his best to make the boy's life easier.
"You can call me if you need anything."
"Is it the kind that can arrive immediately like 110?"
"yes."
"good."
Chen An asked him where he wanted to go for dinner. He pointed to a hot pot restaurant and said he wanted to eat hot pot. Chen An happily agreed.
"Ji Ji Hong" hot pot restaurant, a famous hot pot restaurant in their county, said it was celebrating the high school students' escape from suffering. Chen An told him to order whatever he wanted. Jiang Li checked the dishes and looked up and asked him, "Do you like spicy food?"
Chen An nodded, took a sip of the hot tea, and then saw Jiang Li tick the box for the double-flavored hot pot.
"You don't eat spicy food?"
“No.”
He answered very straightforwardly. After marking a bunch of side dishes, he handed the list to the waiter, and the two of them stared at each other.
"That guy last time was also a policeman?"
"Um."
Chen An wondered if he should apologize on behalf of Han Ming, but before he could open his mouth, Jiang Li saw through him.
"You don't have to apologize. I didn't take it to heart." Jiang Li said a second later, "But is it true that no one has ever beaten him for doing this?"
Chen An smiled and said, "Yes."
"Really?" Jiang Li became interested.
"Han Ming is a bit of a bad guy. He's a bit too casual in his decisions and relies too much on his intuition." Chen An paused for a moment, then reflected on the past. "When he first arrived at the bureau, he was 24 years old, full of hot-blooded energy. He didn't even look the director right, and he ended up beating up the director's son."
Jiang Li was surprised, "Did he really beat him up?"
"I beat him up, and I got beaten up too," Chen An said. "The director almost returned the product because of this."
"Serves him right!" Jiang Li felt relieved after hearing this, and then complained, "You don't even know that he hit me without mercy."
"You dodged it, too."
"That's something I've practiced since I was little, okay!" Jiang Li said with a curled lip, "After all, I have plenty of experience in taking beatings."
Chen An didn't want Jiang Li to recall his miserable childhood again, so he cleared his throat and ended the topic.
"Making the material?"
Jiang Li filled a plate with cilantro, which shocked Chen An. People say that to see whether you are compatible with someone, you should see whether you can eat together at the dinner table. Watching Jiang Li's hands reaching out to areas he would never touch, he had a premonition that it was over.
"Why are you looking at me?" Jiang Li realized that he was staring at the plate in his hand after he finished beating him, so he quickly protected it and said, "Don't even think about it."
Chen An sneered, "I don't care."
The pot was heated and the waiter helped them put the dishes in. Jiang Li boiled a piece of tripe and dipped it in his rich dipping sauce of cilantro, soy sauce, and sesame paste. He then shoved it into his mouth and sighed, "Who says hot pot only goes well with winter? Hot pot is only comfortable in the summer, and ice cream should be eaten in the winter."
Chen An said with a smile, "You are quite different."
"What do you mean by alternative? Haven't you noticed? Ice cream is simply made for winter. In the summer, ice cream melts as soon as you take it out. Only in winter can the purest flavor of ice cream be preserved."
Jiang Li talked a lot. Chen An put a few slices of beef in his bowl. He could hear what incredible theories he could come up with after he opened his mouth. Sure enough, after commenting on winter, summer was also indispensable.
"Hot pot is the way to go in the summer. Hot pot restaurants and Haidilao are all air-conditioned, so spicy hot pot is absolutely the best thing to eat in the summer!"
Chen An added at the right moment, "You can't handle spicy food."
Jiang Li was enjoying his meal and clapped his chopsticks: "Who said I can't eat? I just don't want to eat. Not eating and not knowing how to eat are two different things, okay?"
"Oh~" Chen An said with a smile, "You are a top student, you are right."
Jiang Li became competitive and wanted to prove to him, "I can eat spicy food." As he said that, he picked up a piece of tripe from the spicy pot.
The thin piece of tripe was covered in red oil and stained with chili seeds. He paused.
Chen An stopped him and said, "Forget it, don't force it."
Jiang Li felt that he said this on purpose to provoke him, so he immediately put the tripe into his mouth and chewed it, which made him cough.
He choked badly. Chen An frowned and poured him some cold water. "If you don't know how to eat, don't try to be so stubborn. You'll choke."
Jiang Li's face turned red from coughing, and there were tears in the corners of his eyes. "Can you say something nice?"
Chen An chuckled twice, "Why didn't I say anything nice? I tried to persuade you not to try it, but you wanted to try it yourself."
Jiang Li accurately caught the corner of his mouth that was lowered, and immediately accused him, "You're still laughing!"
"No." Chen An denied.
Jiang Li's mouth was still numb and spicy after a long time of easing out the heat. The person opposite him, however, looked calm and put the food in the hot pot into his mouth. He couldn't help but sigh, "How can you eat so much spicy food?"
"Me?" Chen An said, "I've been eating it since I was a child, so of course I can eat it."
As if to prove something, he picked up a red pepper from the bottom of the pot and put it into his mouth. Jiang Li watched him chew it and then swallow it.
He was surprised, and then had to admire, "You are amazing."
Chen An said, "Why don't you continue with your academic theory?"
Jiang Li spoke without hesitation, "Not eating and not knowing how to eat are two different things, just like me not doing this problem and me not knowing how to do it. I can not do it, but I can not not know how to do it. In short, I can eat, but I just don't want to eat. Over."
Chen An smiled and said, "If your lips weren't so red, I would really believe it."
The next second, Jiang Li immediately covered his lips.
The meal lasted more than an hour. This was the first time that Chen An had eaten for so long. He had this experience in team gatherings, but he rarely stayed until the end. He usually paid the bill and left first.
On the way home, Chen An suddenly asked, "What are you going to do next?"
Jiang Li was already drowsy. After eating and drinking, he sat in the stable car and only woke up a little when he was questioned.
"Take a break for two days and go to the city to work."
"Going to the city to work?"
"Yeah." Jiang Li said, "There are more opportunities in big cities. I can find a job with free food and accommodation to save for tuition."
For some reason, whenever he mentioned tuition, Chen An would think of the money in his salary card, and then ask himself, do you still want to pay his tuition?
There was no sound around for a long time. The car was so quiet that only Jiang Li's steady breathing could be heard. The car drove to the entrance of the alley and stopped steadily. Chen An turned off the engine and hesitated whether to wake him up now.
Jiang Li was sleeping quite well. His hair leaned to one side, revealing a small scar on his forehead. He leaned closer. It was a small triangular scar. Maybe even he had forgotten the existence of this wound, but Chen An reached out, and before he could react, his index finger had touched the skin. He didn't know what he was doing, but in his heart he was glad that Jiang Li didn't wake up.
After a few minutes, he calmed down and pushed him, "Jiang Li."
After calling a few times, Jiang Li opened his eyes dazedly, unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door and got out of the car.
The man walked out, and soon came back and knocked on the car window. Chen An rolled down the window and heard him say, "Good night."
Chen An also said, "Good night."
He sat in the car and watched Jiang Li's figure gradually walk into the alley.
Jiang Li saw from afar that the lights in his house were on. He pushed open the door and saw an uninvited guest sitting on the rattan chair he usually sat on.
"Why did you come back just now?" The man stretched. "I thought Jin Mao and the others were tricking me."
Jiang Li threw his schoolbag on the stone table and took a sip of the tea he had brewed to refresh himself.
"Why are you here? Didn't you hide in a corner?"
The person who came was Nan Jiaxu, his best friend and childhood friend.
Nan Jiaxu crossed his legs and said disdainfully, "That little village is so shabby. There's not even WiFi. How can I stay there?"
Jiang Li sat on the stone table and looked down at him, "What else? Do you know what hiding is?"
Nan Jiaxu rolled his eyes. "How can I, the second young master of the Nan family, live in a place like that? There's not even a washing machine!"
"So what do you want?" Jiang Li raised an eyebrow and said jokingly, "Come work in the factory with me? You're the dignified Second Young Master of Nan."
Nan Jiaxu pushed him and said, "Go away."
Jiang Li chuckled twice, then asked him, "What are you doing here?"
When asked, he remembered the important matter. Nan Jiaxu took out a box of matches from his pocket, pulled out a match, and lit it. "Happy graduation."
Jiang Li slapped his arm away, "Don't give me that."
Nan Jiaxu didn't even come to his graduation last year. He didn't believe that this person would take the risk to come and see him just to celebrate graduation.
"to be honest."
Nan Jiaxu suddenly smiled flatteringly, "I knew Xiaoyu understood me the best."
"Lend me some money."
These words were so hot that they seemed to have rolled around in my mouth, flashing by and being unclear.
Jiang Li opened his phone and asked, "How much?"
Nan Jiaxu made the number 1.
"Ten thousand, okay."
"No." Nan Jiaxu stared at him and said, "One million."
Jiang Li put away his phone, turned around and gave him a death stare, "Why do you need so much money?"
Nan Jiaxu's face turned bitter. "Please, Xiaoyu, I really need this urgently."
"What's your urgent need? You'd better not cause any trouble. We're already struggling." Jiang Li scolded him while checking the balance. "There are people watching us from above. How big of a mess have you made to deserve so much money?"
When Nan Jiaxu became serious, Jiang Li began to doubt whether this person was Nan Jiaxu during the few seconds he was quiet.
"I'm treating a child."
"Treatment?"
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