It's unusually hot in Nanli today.

Zhang Shu wore a black shirt over a black T-shirt. Zhang Sujin was very dissatisfied: "Are you going to attend a funeral?"

Zhang Shu realized later that it was indeed not appropriate. He just thought that every time he wore black, Shengxia would always take a few more glances at him.

But today was a special day, so Zhang Shu changed into a white T-shirt with a blue shirt, and casually pushed up his sleeves to his forearms, looking clean and refreshing, but just too casual.

Lu Zheng sent a car to pick them up. The driver communicated with Zhang Sujin using sign language, which surprised Zhang Shu a little.

"Almost all the people doing service around him are disabled," Zhang Sujin explained.

Zhang Shu raised his eyebrows. It was an interesting discovery.

When they arrived at the hotel, the Lu family had already arrived.

Lu Zheng had lost his parents, but he invited his uncles, aunts, and sisters-in-law who were on good terms with him to come and take care of the family, and Lu Youze's family was also there.

A dozen or twenty people sat around a round table with a diameter of several dozen meters, all of them well-dressed and dignified.

Compared with the huge group of people in the Lu family, Zhang Sujin and Zhang Shu seem a little weak.

It was the first time that Zhang Shu met Lu Zheng, his future brother-in-law, who looked a bit frivolous.

When shaking hands, Zhang Shu secretly exerted his strength and suddenly pinched the tiger's mouth. People who are caught off guard usually show their teeth, but Lu Zheng remained calm and even pulled the hand to close the distance. He patted Zhang Shu on the shoulder and said, "This is Ah Shu, handsome!"

He acted like an elder and a brother, as if nothing had happened.

Zhang Shu let go of his hand - this guy has something.

A group of people stood up and greeted each other.

Lu Youze sat in his seat, calmly feeling the joyful atmosphere.

His eyes fell on Zhang Shu.

Compared to the Lu family who were all dressed up, Zhang Shu was a little too casual.

But we have to admit that in the luxurious and elegant box, Zhang Shu did not lose face.

I don't remember who in the class said that Zhang Shu was, and he looked very expensive. He was born with a lazy vibe, and he looked like he didn't care about anything, as if he had everything.

If people don't know his family background, many people would think he comes from a wealthy family when they first meet him.

They were all like this, brother and sister. Even though there was nothing behind them, they came towards them like they were leading an army of thousands of horses.

Just like now, Zhang Shu should have never been to such a place.

But he didn't look around, didn't wait, didn't make any movements or expressions, just like he walked into the classroom.

——Look at the wealth and luxury that makes you lazy and inattentive.

"Cousin, your classmate is so handsome!"

His cousin whispered to him, and Lu Youze said expressionlessly: "Yes, he is the most handsome boy on campus."

"Wow, what about you?"

"Me?" Lu Youze suddenly smiled and said self-deprecatingly, "They said I was the prince."

"Hahaha, that's right!"

Lu Youze glanced at his heartless cousin and asked, "If it were you, would you choose the school hunk or the prince?"

"If you are the prince, then I am the princess, so of course I will choose the school hunk."

Oh, really.

Maybe. From ancient times to the present, princesses have never had any interest in princes. What they like are either poor scholars or young guards. This is true from storybooks to idol dramas.

The Lu family's dinner had many rules. Lu Zheng introduced both parties, and then the elders brought three glasses of wine, with each toast becoming longer and longer. It was hard to tell whether the capitalists' beautiful words were sincere or just for show, but the atmosphere was always warm and harmonious.

Zhang Shu couldn't be said to be disgusted, nor could he be said to like it.

This is his sister's future family. He doesn't ask to fit in, but he shows respect.

"So, Zhengzi, are you planning to get engaged first or what?" the elder sitting in the main seat spoke.

Lu Zheng held Zhang Sujin's shoulders. The table was too big, so he just shouted, "Anything is fine. The faster the better!"

It was the first time that Zhang Shu saw his sister looking shy.

Lu Zheng finally said: "Let's get the marriage certificate first, and then we can hold the wedding after Ah Shu and Youzi finish their college entrance examinations!"

You, boy?

Cub?

Zhang Shu almost spit out his wine on the table.

"Lu! Zheng! Are you going to call me like that again?" Lu Youze was angry.

Everyone at the table burst into laughter.

"Youze, you are disrespectful and you are not allowed to call me uncle like that," Lu Youze's father Lu Cong raised his glass with a smile, "Who can say anything about your decision? Congratulations to you first. Leave the rest of the preparations to your sister-in-law!"

A group of people were talking about wedding customs.

No matter how wealthy a family is, in the end, all they talk about is their children.

Academic performance is an unavoidable topic.

"Ah Shu is the top student in the affiliated high school!" Lu Zheng praised.

This compliment is really embarrassing. How should classmate Lu Youze deal with it?

Zhang Sujin pinched Lu Zheng's thigh.

"Wow, so amazing! I think your family has amazing genes, Xiaojin!"

"You are a very handsome man. Do you want to work in the group in the future?"

"You are a human resources manager. Are you suffering from an occupational disease? Are you starting with high school students?"

"Hahaha……"

"Isn't Youze also going abroad to study business?"

Lu Youze's mother said, "Yes, I'm going to the University of Pennsylvania."

"That's amazing! When you take the postgraduate entrance exam, go to your uncle's school!"

"Our family is really full of talented people..."

“That’s right…”

After a long conversation and another round of drinking, Zhang Shu said something to Zhang Sujin and took the opportunity to go to the bathroom.

When I came out of the bathroom, I saw a person sitting in the atrium - Lu Youze.

Unexpected, but not too surprising.

When Zhang Shu just entered the private room, Lu Youze already looked like he had something to talk about.

It has to be said that capitalists really have nowhere to spend their money.

It's not surprising that there is a toilet inside the private room of this hotel, but it's quite weird that there is a tall atrium in the middle with a tree that never sees the sun.

It is not uncommon to see oddly shaped sofas under the trees.

Zhang Shu complained in his heart, but he didn't care too much.

He walked over and sat down on the other side of the S-shaped sofa.

In this way, he and Lu Youze each occupied a recess, like each occupying a harbor, without interfering with each other, but as long as they turned their heads to look at each other, they were still in a straight line.

Oh, this is art.

"Do you think your sister will be happy?" Lu Youze spoke first.

Zhang Shu's eyebrows suddenly frowned, and he turned his head to look over, his eyes were as sharp as a knife.

Lu Youze also turned around and said, "I think so."

Zhang Shu's tense expression relaxed a little.

Lu Youze: "Because the person she is going to marry is my uncle, Lu Zheng, a man who has been raised as a free-range child, but is so strong that he can do anything effortlessly, a man who does not tolerate any objection to his decisions, a man who can remove all obstacles and silence all those who disagree if he wants."

Zhang Shu listened quietly, without responding or interrupting.

"Otherwise you wouldn't be able to see such a happy scene today. Your sister is very lucky because there are not many Lu Zhengs in the world."

Zhang Shu could vaguely sense what he wanted to say.

Lu Youze: "But there are not many Lu Zhengs in the world."

The word "but" was emphasized particularly strongly.

Zhang Shu held the phone tightly and said solemnly, "What do you want to say? Don't beat around the bush."

Sometimes I am really annoyed by this kind of conversation. People have to start from the bottom of the logical chain, and if they can't say some life philosophy, they seem very classless.

Lu Youze, however, was not going to be led astray by him and continued to say something seemingly irrelevant: "I saw you fighting in the first year of high school and I thought it was wrong, so I told the teacher. I thought the teacher could help you to turn back from your wrong path. I had no ill intentions. This is what my education taught me. This is what I should do. But you think it is normal to solve problems with fists. This is also what the environment you grew up in has brought you. We are both right, but this is what happened - we have been in opposition for more than two years..."

"Later, I changed my mind and realized that everyone has their own way of solving problems, so I didn't pay too much attention to your hostility towards me."

Zhang Shu interrupted him: "It's useless to care about it. Can you talk me out of it or beat me up?"

“…”

“Indeed.”

Zhang Shu: "You don't have to be so dignified. Let me guess what you are thinking. You just look down on others, but you should control yourself and don't show contempt. It makes you look very low-class and low-class.

So every time you see him, you are just forbearing. As for Hou Junqi's attitude of not arguing with a fool...why don't you just have a few words with him? Do you think he will still target you like this?

Who has spent two years writing a small report? You are so arrogant, but you pretend to be equal to all. That is the most annoying thing. Do you know the saying "to hide one's own faults is to make them more conspicuous"?

Lu Youze's back tensed, his eyes filled with denial and excuse.

Zhang Shu looked at him and suddenly understood: "You think you are not like that? You think you are not like that? If you use a behavior pattern for a long time, it will become ingrained in your bones."

"But you are right about one thing. We are both right. We are just in different environments. So if you want to say something, just say, I will not scold you or hit you today. Just say whatever you want. If you have something to say, just say it now."

Lu Youze stopped looking at Zhang Shu. "As we talked, I found that we are even more different. It is obvious how important the growth environment and family conditions are. Just now I said that there are not many Lu Zhengs in the world. You are not Lu Zheng. How big is the gap between you and Sheng Xia? Can you make up for it? You are very talented and work hard. You can change the future, but you can't change the gap that is born."

midsummer.

After chatting for a long time, the key words finally emerged.

Zhang Shu laughed and said, "If you like her, go after her. Why are you talking to me here?"

Lu Youze: "As I said just now, I have no ill intentions and I will not pursue her. If we are on the same track, many things will come naturally. I don't deny that I like Shengxia, but I am not telling you this to argue with you. I am not interested in love at this age and I don't bother to undermine you. But if you and Shengxia fall in love, it's like hitting a wall. It's not good for either of you. I am telling you this... just stating the facts."

Zhang Shu was silent for a moment, then said, "Everyone has a purpose for doing things, and if the purpose is not apparent, they will subconsciously deny it. This is you, can't you see clearly? You say these are not for yourself, but for me?

As for the south wall, how do you know you can't hit it if you don't try? You, the young master, take risks too seriously and wait for everything to happen naturally, but I, a grassroots person, believe that God rewards hard work and you have to fight for it yourself. There is nothing that you can't get even if you try your best. If there is, it's just that I don't want it anymore."

“No,” Lu Youze retorted, “If there is, it’s just that you know you can’t get it, so you don’t want it anymore.”

"Yes," Zhang Shu did not deny, "but for Shengxia, up to now, perhaps in this life, I will never stop wanting her."

Lu Youze: "But she won't say forever, and she won't wait for you. She's going to the US to study at university. Will you go too? Or, will you have a long-distance relationship for four to five years or even longer? You two have no foundation, and you're even in two completely different worlds. Are you so confident that you can make it through?"

After he finished speaking, Lu Youze saw a crack in Zhang Shu's always nonchalant expression.

"Her family also let her study at Binghamton University, but she seems very unhappy. I don't want to admit it, and I'm jealous. The reason she hesitated is because of you."

"You may be very strong, and you can bring someone from below the first-tier line to more than 20 points above the line in two months, but so what? You want to go to Heyan for college, right? It's either Heqing or Haiyan, so you can choose between these two, right?

What about her?

Even if she is willing to stay in China for you, with this score, she can only go to the lower-tier schools like Heyan. How can it be compared with Penn? But if she applies to other schools, you will be in a foreign land. How long have you known each other? Can you stand the test? There is nothing to say about being in a foreign country. "

"This is the situation you are in now. No matter which path you take, it won't work. She can have better choices, and she deserves better choices, but if she continues in this state, she will end up with nothing. You know that."

You know.

He knows.

He should know.

Silence spread, and Lu Youze added: "Don't make a childish and selfish decision, Zhang Shu."

Zhang Shu suddenly stood up, but did not say anything. Half a minute later, he said, "Have you finished your report, nephew?"

Lu Youze also stood up and reacted to the address for a while. He was a little speechless. After saying so much, why did he still have the mood to care about this? He angrily said, "Zhang Shu!"

Zhang Shu walked away, leaving behind a sentence: "Alright, little one, uncle got it."

Lu Youze: …

The lunch ended before two o'clock, so punctually that it seemed as if no one wanted to stay even a second longer.

This is really inconsistent with the happy atmosphere. They look so harmonious, why can't they just keep drinking and chatting until the afternoon?

But no.

After leaving the hotel, Zhang Shu said something to Zhang Sujin and left first, without asking Lu Zheng's driver to take him away.

He originally wanted to take a taxi, but after searching, he found that the hotel and Yifang Bookstore were less than three kilometers away. It was still early, so he decided to walk there.

He felt a little sleepy after drinking, especially in the second half, he drank all kinds of red and white drinks, and the wind made his head feel heavy.

The weather was fine, the sun was shining brightly, the leaves of the camphor trees were bright green, Zhang Shu walked under the shade of the trees, and her voice rang in his ears——

"Nanli's camphor tree is Ah Shu being a scoundrel!"

"Ah Shu Ah Shu Ah Shu..."

How could there be someone who could make people's hearts beat faster just by calling their name?

That evening during the class, she stood by the podium and said to him, "Zhang Shu, the teacher is calling you."

Zhang Shu's heartbeat slowed down at that moment.

She doesn't know.

At that time, he didn't care.

Many scenes that he had not paid much attention to before began to play in Zhang Shu's mind on a loop.

The final scene is frozen at first sight.

Or maybe it was the second time we met.

For Zhang Shu, it was their first meeting. It was a pity that he didn't pay attention to her when he fell off his bike.

The second time we met was in the carport of senior year.

I didn't expect that after half a year, all the details were clear to me.

The purple sunset, the hot evening breeze, the rustling leaves...

Everything is hot and noisy in summer.

Only the panicked girl's face was clear and calm.

Like a glass of cucumber juice after an intense workout.

Relieve all the troubles.

Zhang Shu suddenly laughed.

If this isn't love at first sight, then what is?

I give in. I lose.

When we arrived at Yifang Bookstore, it was only 2:30.

Zhang Shu walked around the bookstore and saw the sunlight-filled table in his dream.

In the dream, he was sitting on that table, kissing her until she almost suffocated.

Zhang Shu shook his head, feeling a little dizzy from the alcohol. He suddenly wanted to eat some candy, so he walked out of the bookstore and went to the newsstand across the street to buy a lollipop and a bottle of water.

Just as he was guzzling water down his throat, the familiar white electric motor appeared in his field of vision.

Across the road, the girl braked her bike but did not get out. She glanced at her watch, seemed to think about it, and then turned around and left.

Zhang Shu sat on a low stool next to the newsstand and tore open the package of the lollipop.

The shade of the trees kept him in darkness, and he seemed like a completely different world from the bright sunny day outside.

Zhang Shu felt a sense of frustration and powerlessness that he had never experienced before.

From the time I left the hotel until now, it has been stuck in my throat and seems to be about to burst out.

Never.

The words my friends said at the party last night rang in my ears again.

"Sheng Mingfeng, your political achievements are very solid... At this age, it is estimated that he can be promoted further... If he moves up, he will become a figure that ordinary people can only see through the news broadcast..."

"Will a child of this status suffer the same hardships as us in the college entrance examination? I thought they all went abroad through connections."

"I feel the same way. If you don't go now, you will have to go in the future, right?"

…

Zhang Shu's mind was a mess with all the images and sounds. He crunched the lollipop, quickly pulled out the glue stick, bought another one, and stuffed it in his mouth.

It is lightly held, with a hint of sweetness.

Midsummer is back again.

This time he saw clearly that she was wearing a skirt.

The white dress is almost blending into her fair skin.

It looks really good.

Zhang Shu felt that it was not an exaggeration to describe her with the most beautiful words in the world.

She is so beautiful.

His mind was confused, and he even wondered with a bit of amusement whether she had ever appeared in his real life. Was she just a beautiful phantom in his youth?

When he knew Sheng Mingfeng's identity, he thought about it.

So what?

He wants to get it, to own it.

Maybe there is a bit of youthful arrogance, but it is also this arrogance that makes him realize that he has grown up without anyone or anything that makes him so obsessed and forces him to be a little conceited.

He watched her enter the store and sit down at the sunny table by the window.

She looked at her phone repeatedly, pursed her lips, and looked unhappy.

She took out a beautiful hairpin and pinned it to her ear.

Dazzling.

Well, shouldn't he tell her that no adornment is more eye-catching than herself?

His phone vibrated and he clicked it.

Before I knew it, it was already half past three.

Jasmine: "Where have you been?"

His girl is waiting for him.

appointment.

I have to say that some of Lu Youze's words are harsh but realistic.

“You can change the future, but you can’t change the differences that are born.”

Yes, so when he sent Shengxia back, he could only say goodbye hastily across an intersection.

And Lu Youze was the man recognized by her mother and could take her home.

This is the innate gap.

"This is your current situation. No matter which way you go, it won't work... If you continue like this, she will end up with nothing."

Zhang Shu wanted to look up at the sky, but all he saw above his head was dense camphor trees.

No one could tell him the answer.

Is possession selfish?

Head bowed, he typed.

"sorry."

Coward, delete.

"I can't go on,"

Coward, delete.

"I need to think about it,"

It's time to think about it, but not this way. Delete.

He made a voice call.

He watched as the girl immediately picked up the phone.

They spoke at the same time -

"Do you have..."

"Shengxia, you go back first."

There was silence for a while, and then the girl's gentle voice came: "Hmm?"

Zhang Shu: "It's not convenient to meet you today."

I was afraid that I would lose control of myself and say something irreversible or do something irreversible.

She seemed confused for a moment, then said in a brisk voice, "Is that so? It doesn't matter. You go ahead and do your work. I haven't arrived yet. So I'll just go home."

"Um."

Silly boy, how could there be such a girl? He, this rubbish, is letting things slide. How can she find reasons for him to not feel so guilty?

The voice was disconnected.

But Shengxia didn't leave, and Zhang Shu didn't leave either.

She sat there quietly and took off her hairpin calmly. The waiter poured her a glass of water and seemed to ask if she wanted to order. She ordered and was in a daze. The meal was served. Zhang Shu couldn't see clearly what it was, but he could see that she didn't move at all.

She found a book to read, and then sat there until the sunset filled the entire floor-to-ceiling window. She looked out the window, closed the book, packed up her things and left.

Only when her Xiaobai disappeared from her sight did Zhang Shu stand up from the bench. Under the curious gaze of the newsstand owner, she bought her fifth lollipop of the day and turned to leave.

After being in the wind for the whole afternoon and getting rid of most of the alcohol, what have you come up with?

To no avail.

Still want it very much.

She was not his whim.