near and far

He Cheng'an stood inside for a while, becoming addicted to cigarettes, went downstairs and went out, sat down on the curb next to the door, lit a cigarette, and smoked in the cold wind.After a while, someone pushed the door and came out, it was Le Mingxin.Le Ming wanted to squat next to him, but he didn't expect that Jiu Jin was still there, so he couldn't squat firmly, and sat down next to He Chengan.

Le Mingxin put on his coat again, his cheeks were slightly red, but his eyes were bright, and asked, "Where's Brother Chen?"

He Chengan shook the soot and said, "I have something to do at home, so I'll go back first, and I'll see you off later."

Le Ming hurriedly said: "Don't bother, I'll take a taxi later."

He Chengan didn't answer his words, instead he looked back at the door, the person who had hit on Le Mingxin just now was still sitting in his seat, looking out from time to time, obviously looking at Le Mingxin, and instead met He Chengan's eyes .

"Go back alone?" He Chengan asked casually with a cigarette in his mouth.

Le Mingxin followed his gaze, blushed, and said, "One, one person..."

He Chengan smiled lightly, not knowing who he was laughing at, and said, "You like men."

It's not a question, it's a certainty, Le Ming agreed, and was speechless again.He found that He Chengan's choking habit had never changed.

He didn't want to talk about this topic of sexuality. He remembered that there was a big incident before He Cheng'an transferred to another school in the second semester of high school.It was rumored among the classmates that He Chengan liked a boy, and the teacher found out about it, and told his parents, and then his parents asked him to transfer, and there was a lot of discussion for a while.Before he transferred to another school, He Chengan was more gloomy and reticent than before. He even got into a fight with a gossip, sent him to the hospital, and then transferred away.

That period of time happened to be when Le Mingxin was struggling with his own sexuality, so he was very impressed by this incident.

He Chengan held the cigarette between two fingers, exhaled a puff of smoke from his mouth, shook out a cigarette with the other hand, and handed it to Le Mingxin.Le Ming didn't smoke, he coughed twice when he was choked by the smoke blowing against the wind, and waved his hands again and again: "I don't smoke, thank you."

He Chengan extinguished the exhausted cigarette, threw away the cigarette butt, stood up, and said, "Let's go."

Le Ming thought, "I'll take a taxi."

"What kind of car to take, let's go."

Le Ming stood up supportively, unable to stand still for a while, and grabbed He Chengan's hand hanging by his side, and He Chengan subconsciously shook it back to support him.Le Mingxin stood still, and found that He Chengan's palm was big and hot, and he didn't lose any warmth in the cold wind. He was holding him steadily, and quickly let go of his hand, whispering: "Thank you."

He Chengan put his hands back into his pockets, drove his own car, parked on the side of the road, and let Le Mingxin get into the car.

After Le Mingxin reported his home address, the two of them were speechless for a moment. Le Mingxin didn't want to be cold, and said, "Why did you come here? Last year, the [-]th anniversary of the No. [-] Middle School in City A, did you go back? I went back for a stroll, and the school became much more beautiful, but the big banyan tree beside the playground was cut down, and I don’t know why..."

Le Mingxin talked for a long while, then turned to see that He Chengan was concentrating on driving, and didn't answer his words. He stopped talking, feeling a little lost, and turned his head to look out the window, because his forehead, which was a little hot from drinking, was touching the windowpane. It was cool for a while.

He Chengan drove an off-road vehicle, driving fast and steadily on the deserted streets in the middle of the night, Le Mingxin fell asleep in a daze.

After arriving at the destination, He Chengan stopped the car, looked sideways, and saw Le Mingxin leaning against the car window, fast asleep, eyes closed, as if dreaming of something good, the corners of his mouth slightly turned up.He was afraid that he couldn't drink enough, He Chengan thought, even the roots of his ears were red, and it was red all the way to his neck, and he didn't know if there was red further down, it was blocked by the collar of the turtleneck sweater.

After leaving City A, He Chengan never went back.

The big banyan tree, he remembered, was just beside the playground.At that time, every time in physical education class and free activities, other people were playing ball and laughing, and He Chengan would sit under the tree, either reading a book or taking a nap.

During the beginning of the second year of high school, he was very irritable.He didn't want to study science, but He Jing didn't ask his opinion at all, and directly contacted the school teacher to assign him to the science class.In retaliation, He Chengan got close to full marks in Chinese and English in the class placement test, but handed in blank papers in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and was not admitted to the key class.He Jing was so angry that he picked up the ashtray and threw it at He Chengan, but He Chengan didn't dodge it, let the ashtray hit his shoulder, and shattered into eight petals on the ground.

He said: "Although you fight, you can't run away because of me. My mother ran away, and you can't fight if you want to."

He Jing almost burst his blood vessel, so he packed him up and stuffed him into the school.

It was another physical education class, He Chengan sat under the big banyan tree in a daze, yawned from time to time, leaned against the trunk, and slid down bit by bit, the sunlight was shattered by the thick branches and leaves of the banyan tree, hitting his body, he didn't feel hot, On the contrary, it is warm and harmonious.He Cheng'an was about to fall asleep again, but a badminton flew over with the sound of the wind and got stuck directly on the branches and leaves above his head.

Several people ran over with badminton rackets, and it was Le Mingxin who took the lead.He was sweating from playing badminton, his forehead was wet and stuck to his forehead, he looked up at the shuttlecock, and said with a smile, "Wait until I take it down."

He Chengan thought they were noisy, so he patted his buttocks, stood up and moved to the side, watching Le Mingxin throw the badminton racket upwards at the ball, but missed, the badminton trembled, but still stuck and did not fall, the people next to him I didn't feel lost, but it was as if I had encountered a new game, and I smiled and pushed Le Mingxin to let him play again.

Le Mingxin grinned, lifted the hem of his school uniform and wiped the sweat off his face, revealing his flexible waist.

He Cheng'an was so quarreled by this group of people that his brain hurt, and he thought that Le Mingxin had indeed asked for leave for him that day, so he went under the tree and pushed Le Mingxin away, and stepped on the strong and tangled air roots of the banyan tree, climbing vigorously. Going up, stretching out his hand, he plucked the badminton from the hanging branches and leaves lightly, pointed it at Le Mingxin, looked up at his face in a daze, and let go.

The badminton hit Le Mingxin on the forehead, then bounced off and fell to the ground, which stunned him for a moment.

The person next to him picked up the badminton, said thanks, and ran back. Only Le Mingxin stood where he was, rubbing the red spot on his forehead, looking at He Chengan who was looking for a place to climb down, and said: " Hey, be careful, step on the left and right!"

He Cheng'an would have been able to get down in two or three strokes, but Le Mingxin was so nervous, talking left and right, and took up the place where he wanted to jump down and landed. He jumped down and knocked down instead. Le Mingxin.He Chengan was tall, not more than 1.8 meters tall, with tight muscles, knocking Le Mingxin back two steps, pulling He Chengan to the ground.

He Cheng'an was brought down by him, and fell directly on Le Mingxin's body, his forehead hit his forehead, and there was a "bang", the pain made both of them stare at each other.He Chengan struggled to get up, and saw Le Mingxin lying under him, his forehead was red, his eyes were sore and tears came out, and his body smelled mixed with sweat and grass.

It turned out that the tree had been cut down.

He Chengan tilted his head, quietly looked at the sleeping Le Mingxin for a while, then pushed him awake, and said, "Here we are."

Le Mingxin rubbed his eyes and woke up, and said embarrassedly: "I actually fell asleep."

He Chengan said, "Good night."

Le Mingxin didn't expect that He Chengan, who had been cold and inaccessible all night, would suddenly become gentle. He froze for a while, untied his seat belt, and said good night with a pursed smile, got out of the car, waved to He Chengan, and passed by The Malatang stall, which is still very lively, went upstairs and went home.

He Chengan sat in the car in a daze for a while, wanted to take out a cigarette, recovered, put the cigarette back again, took out a stack of note papers from the corner, and wrote " The words "quit smoking" were pasted on the lower edge of the rear-view mirror, and the car reversed and left.