Stringy Wind in the Ear - Chap 38
Li Xun came to the door with Li Chuzhi, carrying things. Song Yang was combing the dog’s hair in the yard. It was Pee who found him first and called out. Song Yang turned around and saw him, and smiled brightly.
“Master! Why are you here?”
“I brought you some presents.”
“You look so handsome today.”
“I’m not handsome every day.”
This was the first time Li Xun entered Song Yang’s house. Coincidentally, every time he came to pick up Song Yang or Li Chuzhi for a free meal, it was either early in the morning or late at night, so he would only stay at the gate for a while, waiting for people to come out.
When Pipi saw him, it stuck out its tongue and circled around his thighs, its thick tail like a whip, hitting his knees again and again. His pants were made of cotton, and dog hair rubbed all over his legs.
Li Xun bent down and patted it, but it didn’t get rid of it.
Song Yang said, “I’ll help you glue it off when we get in.”
“Yeah.” Li Xun stopped bothering with the miserable trouser legs.
At the beginning of the new year, Song Yang’s house was very lively. The branches were hung with small red lanterns and colorful lights, dotted like stars, and looked very warm.
Many relatives and friends were sitting around the stone table in the courtyard. Some were playing chess with Teacher Song, some were playing cards with Li Huiying, and there were old men and women sitting at the door basking in the sun, shelling nuts in their hands. A wild cat that came from nowhere was sitting cross-legged under a chair and taking a nap.
Since he entered the room, these people’s eyes have been surrounding them all the time. Li Huiying explained to them in a loud voice: “He is my little daughter’s uncle. Isn’t he very handsome? His whole family is good-looking, and his father is also very impressive.”
A relative laughed just as loudly: “Are you looking for a child bride for Xiao Yang?”
“What nonsense…” Li Huiying smiled with her hands covering her mouth, “But I don’t mind if they fall in love in the future. I am 100% satisfied with Chuzhi. Xiaoxun, what do you think about them getting engaged as children?”
Li Xun’s forehead jumped with fright.
Maybe it’s because Chuzhi is too young, but Song Yang and Li Chuzhi…it seems like incest no matter how you think about it.
Seeing that his face was not right, Song Yang immediately tried to smooth things over: “Mom, can you be more careful with your words? I’m almost of legal marriage age, and I’m still getting engaged?”
“Those who are not married are just kids,” said Song Yang’s grandmother. “I like Chuzhi, that kid too. If she could become my granddaughter-in-law, I would wake up with a smile in my dreams.”
“Please,” Song Yang gestured at his waist with a look of disgust, “She just came to me, she is skinny and has little flesh. In my eyes, she is just a bean sprout.”
“Tsk,” my mother pointed at her calf, “you used to come here when you were a kid.”
Song Jingshan said, “Girls change a lot when they grow up. Don’t look at her now. She is not good-looking. She will definitely be a beautiful girl in the future. Your mother is like that. She looked like a monkey in the photos when she was a child. Now she has grown up well – hiss -”
Grandpa also said: “Xiao Yang, let me tell you, it is a blessing for you to marry a girl as good as Chuzhi. You still look down on her. You two are childhood sweethearts. You are so destined to be together. Seize the opportunity.”
“…”
Even though Song Yang was eloquent, he couldn’t argue with so many people. He made a “huh” sound, grabbed Li Xun’s wrist and dragged him into the house.
“They are a bunch of people with old traditional ideas. Don’t take what they say to heart,” said Song Yang.
Li Xun disagreed on this point.
“They can accept such a big age gap. They are quite open-minded.”
Song Yang thought about it and smiled: “That’s right.”
Wouldn’t the story between him and Li Xun be even more interesting then?
They searched the living room but couldn’t find the lint remover.
Song Yang stood up and said, “It seems to be in my bedroom, come up with me.”
Li Xun refused instinctively, but a bunch of relatives came into the room and talked to him about this and that. He responded with a few words and ran upstairs as if running for his life.
Before pushing the door, Li Xun thought he would see walls covered with anime posters, display cabinets filled with action figures, and a series of other two-dimensional derivative products. That was his stereotype of contemporary college students, but surprisingly, everything in the room had nothing to do with the two-dimensional world.
The walls are covered with colorful sticky notes.
He walked closer and took a closer look. There were English words, key grammar points, math, physics and chemistry formulas, as well as many to-do items that had been checked off.
For example, English combination training, must-do questions, classical Chinese analysis, online class check-in, wrong question bank classification, favorites organization, 50 words…
The handwriting is just like the person, neat and elegant, very pleasing to the eye.
The bedroom is not big and can be seen at a glance. The right side of the double bed is close to the wall. The only photo on the bedside table is taken with him.
Picking up the photo again, Li Xun was filled with emotion.
How could he have imagined that?
That summer more than ten years ago, an arrow I casually sent out was like a seed buried in the soil, blossomed and bore fruit, and in return I gained a passionate little fan.
Now he even runs into the bedroom of his little fans.
This probability must be less than hitting the ten rings with ten thousand arrows in a row.
But he just happened to meet her.
It was this dramatic opportunity that made the relationship between him and Song Yang unusual.
“Finally found it!” Song Yang poked his head out from under the bed, tore off the outer layer of the lint remover, and squatted in front of Li Xun.
Li Xun put the photo down and looked down, and saw a furry head. He tried hard not to rub the soft hair.
Song Yang rolled all the way up from his calf, very carefully, and complained about how long and numerous the pee hair was.
Unfortunately, his head was facing someone’s private parts. When the hair remover rolled to the inside of his calf, Song Yang’s head tilted and his ear rubbed against Li Xun’s pants.
The distance was so close that I could feel the hot breath through the fabric.
Li Xun took a step back, and Song Yang squatted and took a step forward: “Don’t move, there are still a lot of hairs.”
I don’t know how, but that shameless man actually had some sense of shame today.
He bent down, grabbed Song Yang’s arm, lifted it up and said, “I can do it myself.”
Song Yang refused: “Hey, it will be done soon, don’t dirty your hands.”
“All right.”
Li Xun rubbed his forehead helplessly, trying not to look at him, and turned his gaze to the desk beside him.
Some essential extracurricular reading materials for high school were neatly arranged on the table, with a dark green cutting mat spread out in the middle, and all the knives and paintbrushes had been put into a transparent storage box.
Li Xun recalled the long production process that Song Yang had described yesterday, as well as the difficulties encountered in the process. His mind flashed back to the image of the little guy lying in front of the desk tinkering with these small parts.
He turned around, facing away from Song Yang, and picked up the phone holder on the table to take a closer look. It was in the shape of a golden retriever, looking a lot like Pee. It was squatting on the lawn, with its slightly raised tail supporting the phone. One pinch revealed that it was made of clay, with a layer of acrylic paint on the outside. It looked quite realistic.
He held the figurine in his hand and asked, “Did you make this yourself?”
“yes.”
“Who taught you to do that?”
“No one taught me, so I just tinkered with it myself. If you like it, take it and I’ll make it next time.”
Li Xun put the things back and said, “I’ll give it to you after you’ve pinched it.”
The hair remover rolled behind him, outlining a little. Song Yang recalled the compliment he received in the hotel and complimented him back, “Master, your butt is also very perky.”
Li Xun stretched out his hands and pinched his cheeks, turning him into a big-mouthed monkey.
“Oh——” Song Yang said incoherently as if he had a candy in his mouth, “Let’s go to the movies?”
“Just us?”
“Well, what else?” Song Yang put away the hair remover and asked, “Do you want to take Chu Zhi with you? After all, it’s a comedy, she will definitely understand it.”
“Forget it, school is about to start, and she hasn’t finished her winter vacation homework yet.”
“Pitiful.”
“no way.”
The cinema was not far from home, so they decided to walk there.
This year is a rare warm winter. Except for the light snow during the competition, there has been no snow since then. The clouds in the sky are very thin, like a layer of ice cream scraped by a spoon, layer upon layer, spreading to the horizon.
Li Xun smelled the aroma of sugar-roasted chestnuts, turned his head, and wanted to ask Song Yang if he wanted to eat some, but found that he was lowering his head to reply to the message.
The remark is “class monitor”.
The other person’s avatar is a cartoon rabbit, and looks like a girl.
Song Yang replied very seriously, as if they were discussing something important. Li Xun put his hands in his pockets and did not interrupt him. By the time Song Yang put down his phone, the aroma of chestnuts had already left them far away.
After a while, the news came again.
Song Yang lowered his head to type, and walked only with his peripheral vision. He followed Li Xun’s steps, and when Li Xun stopped, he stopped too.
There was a shop selling egg waffles at the intersection. Business was booming and there was a long queue of people. Song Yang walked through the line and continued to follow the people in black.
He was halfway through typing when he felt someone grab his collar and pull him back, and then he bumped into a strong chest.
He turned around and saw Li Xun looking down at him. He said coldly, “Don’t look at the road when you walk. If you can see who it is, just follow it.”
Song Yang smiled and tried to hide his embarrassment.
Li Xun then grabbed one end of his scarf and led him like a dog: “Keep chatting, I’ll watch the road.”
“Thanks.”
Although he said so, when Song Yang really lowered his head to chat and ignored him, he rolled his eyes.
Arriving at the cinema, they went straight to the fourth floor. Song Yang went to the automatic ticket machine to exchange his ticket, and when he turned around, he saw Li Xun walking towards him with a large bucket of popcorn and two bottles of mineral water between his right fingers.
Song Yang reached out to take the thing from his hand and asked, “Why don’t you drink the fat house water?”
“What is fat house water?”
“……Cola.”
Li Xun said: “Carbonated drinks are bad for your health.”
Song Yang pursed his lips. Sometimes he really felt that Li Xun was as old-fashioned as his parents’ generation.
There were many people during the Spring Festival, and there were only a few seats left when Song Yang booked the ticket. They walked to the last row in the dark, bent over and squeezed to the middle.
Just a few minutes after the show started, the cell phone in Song Yang’s pocket started buzzing again.
Li Xun took a quick look and found it was a message from the monitor, saying that she was traveling abroad and wanted to buy souvenirs. She put several ornaments together and took a photo, and asked Song Yang which color looked best.
Such a boring question.
The ambiguity between the same sex is often difficult to distinguish, but when it comes to the opposite sex, it is clear at a glance.
Li Xun took a mouthful of popcorn and continued watching the movie. He heard Song Yang laugh twice and his mind shifted away from the screen.
He reached over the popcorn, grabbed the phone, and locked the screen.
Song Yang looked at him puzzledly: “What’s wrong?”
Li Xun took the phone away, stuffed it into his pocket, and said in a low voice: “Confiscate it, I’ll return it to you when I get home.”
