The game room upstairs, which had been making noise, suddenly became quiet.
Sheng Xiaoyue, who leaned on the sofa in the living room, was still watching the eight o'clock soap opera with interest. She was He Qiao's mother, but she was very well maintained, and there was almost no trace of time on her clean and beautiful face.
She is talkative and lively about the bitter passage being staged on the TV screen, regardless of whether He Xiao, who is sitting at the other end of the sofa and holding a document, is listening carefully.
"This kind of parent is really unreasonable. What's wrong with the conditions at home? Why do you have to force two people who love each other to separate? I said, He Xiao, don't be so old-fashioned when you find someone in the future..."
He Xiao pushed his glasses and responded with a smile. He noticed the movement upstairs and took a look.
He is ten years older than He Qiao. Compared with his innocent younger brother, he looks much more mature and steady, and his temperament is elegant.
Soon, the door of the game room was opened, and there was a sudden sound of footsteps, followed by the sound of opening and closing the door.
Sheng Xiaoyue raised her face, looked surprised, and wondered, "What is this child doing?"
A moment later, He Qiao carried two coats, poked his head out of the railing on the second floor, and shouted downstairs, "Mom! Which one should I wear?"
Without waiting for his mother and brother to ask questions, he took the initiative to say, "Mr. Chi asked me out for a late-night snack."
Hearing the words, Sheng Xiaoyue's eyes widened and said without thinking, "The gray one!"
Seeing He Qiao couldn't wait to go back to his room to change his clothes, Sheng Xiaoyue's eyes immediately fell on He Xiao, quite surprised: "When you said you were going to introduce He Qiao to the child of the Chi family, I thought there would be no follow-up."
He Xiao said in a gentle tone: "I heard that Aunt Han is giving Xiaochi Zhang Luo a blind date. Thinking that they are the same age and have similar hobbies, I think we should have a try."
Sheng Xiaoyue muttered, "I have a little impression of Xiaochi. Is the red hair right? It looks good, but it seems to be the same as He Qiao. There is no regular shape. Why don't they play crazy together?"
He Xiao shook his head with a smile: "They are still young. It's time to have fun. They will naturally mature in the future. Don't worry too much."
"That's right. I'm not sure if we can play together."
Sheng Xiaoyue quickly let go of her entanglement. After saying goodbye to her son who grabbed the car key and hurried out, she continued to watch TV with peace of mind.
In the lively noise, He Xiao also lowered his head again and turned over the document in his hand.
The crystal chandelier hanging in the living room sprinkled a shadow of light, covering his eyes covered by the mirror frame, deepening the coldness hidden in it.
In the silent night, He Qiao, who changed into a gray T-shirt, stepped on the accelerator of the car and drove away from the villa.
The brightly lit house in the rearview mirror is getting farther and farther away, like a warm and happy trap.
He Qiao withdrew his gaze and looked calmly at the road ahead.
He knew that He Qiao in the story did not succeed in a blind date with Chi Xueyan. There was no dental care and a night snack, and the two did not even exchange contact methods.
Later, He Xiao arranged other people for him one after another, with conditions similar to Chi Xueyan's: the rich second generation, who had no intention of family business and strong personality, but none of them succeeded. He Qiao barely escaped. Of course, there was a bigger disaster waiting for him later.
He Xiao was too careful. Under his silent observation, He Qiao's every move was bound. He could not show something strange, could not suddenly do something inconsistent with his previous personality, and could not do what he really wanted to do.
He needs a completely free space.
A free space that appears reasonably and will not be suspected or interfered with by He Xiao.
The noisy wind poured into the car window, and the dim yellow street lights illuminated the billboards standing on the side of the road.
In the flamboyant real estate advertisement, the young couple hugged each other and looked at the unique new house surrounded by mountains and rivers in the distance with a smile.
The car drove by, the summer night was hot, and the silver-gray single pillar was stained with rust.
On the side of the street full of fireworks, Chi Xueyan stood under the crimson advertising signboard and waved to He Qiao, who was walking towards him quickly.
On the signboard is a large pot of steaming hot pot, which is exactly the same as the signboard seen in the coffee shop in the evening.
"This is a chain store." Chi Xueyan's tone was gentle, "I'm not lying to you. The taste is really good, especially this head office."
He noticed that He Qiao had changed his clothes and couldn't help joking: "Fortunately, you didn't wear a suit anymore."
He Qiao looked a little cramped. It seemed that he didn't expect to meet again at night. He explained, "My mother asked me to wear that way. It's more formal."
"This is more suitable for you." Chi Xueyan said, "Shall we go in?"
He was about to turn around and walk to the hot pot restaurant, but he caught a glimpse of He Qiao's suddenly stiff expression. His eyes were straight on himself, as if he had seen something incredible.
Chi Xueyan was a little confused: "What's the matter?"
He Qiao still looked at him, with an indescribable complex emotion in his eyes: "The neckline of your clothes..."
Chi Xueyan stretched out her hand to touch the neckline of the black T-shirt, and instantly touched a sticky wetness.
Looking down, his fingertips were stained with bright red dense liquid.
Chi Xueyan:...
On this chaotic night with ups and downs, the fake blood stained by the bar party was completely ignored by him.
Staring at the shocking blood on his fingers, Chi Xueyan was silent for a moment and said slowly, "If I say it's fake blood made of corn syrup, will you believe it?"
He Qiao's answer was also half a beat slower: "...Yes."
Chi Xueyan heard the insincere words behind this word. She remembered the vicious villain described by He Qiao before who did all the bad things, and subconsciously wanted to explain that he was not such a person.
But a pack of tissues was handed to him first.
He Qiao pointed to his collarbone to signal, "There are also some positions on your body."
So Chi Xueyan didn't open his mouth again.
After a moment of dascination, he took the tissue and walked to the hot pot restaurant with a smile.
At the steaming table, the paper ball stained with "blood" exuded a sweet smell and was swept into the trash can one after another.
Chi Xueyan's face was as usual, he ordered food, shabu-shabu, and chatted with Heqiao, as if he was enjoying an ordinary night snack with his friends casually.
There was a noisy voice around. The freshly cut beef rolled into the rich and fragrant spicy pot, and quickly changed color and curled up; the square dried tofu skin fell into the hot soup, gradually changing its shape and melting into a completely different softness.
At an ordinary moment, Chi Xueyan stared at the hot pot with constant ups and downs of ingredients, and suddenly said calmly, "I met Lu Siyi, and it was tonight."
He Qiao's action of picking vegetables stopped.
He put down his chopsticks and looked over through the vague heat: "Are you okay?"
For Chi Xueyan, the world is obviously turning upside down in an instant.
"I don't know." Chi Xueyan said honestly, "I need more evidence."
I was told that the time to meet Lu Siyi was too close. If you are a person who is very familiar with his personality, it is not difficult to guess that he will be interested in a stranger who is thinking about calculating formulas on that occasion.
Although he doesn't know what it means to do so.
But the person in the story is too strange, so he can't fully believe He Qiao's words.
"Are there more details about me in the story you know?" He asked He Qiao, "Especially what has happened and only I know."
What has not happened cannot be proven, and what is not a secret has no value.
After listening to what he said, He Qiao seemed to fall into meditation. After a long time, he whispered, "I don't know what no one else knows except you, and there are not many details about your past life..."
"I can only think of one thing." There was obvious uncertainty in his expression, "A small thing."
Chi Xueyan waited patiently for him to continue.
"On the night of your fifth birthday, you sat on the sofa eating cake and accidentally fell asleep holding a fork. When you were half asleep and half awake, you saw in a daze that the mother opposite was taking the camera brought by your father and taking pictures of you with a smile. Your father took the opportunity to kiss her cheek, and the camera shook, so you appeared in the painting. The edge of the face is also a little blurry, but you like this picture very much.
He Qiao finished seriously and hesitated a little: "I don't know if this is the detail you want. Maybe you have mentioned it to others--"
His words stopped abruptly in the air.
Because he saw an almost frozen increduls on Chi Xueyan's face.
Everything seemed to stand still, and the face that was reddened by the heat suddenly turned pale and the blood faded.
He Qiao clearly saw sweat slipping down his cheeks, climbing over his collarbone, and silently seeping into the collar that still had dark red.
It took Chi Xueyan a long time to find her voice.
"Is this what I told Lu Siyi?" He asked slowly, "One day in the future, I told him about it myself?"
He Qiao kept silent and lowered his head in silence.
Chi Xueyan gradually found his usual tone. He whispered, as if he was talking to himself, "If that's the case, I will definitely like him very much in the future."
It's not just liking, but love.
The story behind the five-year-old birthday photo is his first and deepest memory of love.
So far, he has never mentioned it to anyone, but he seriously imagined that in the future, on an ordinary afternoon, he would talk about this small past with a smile to his lover who was talking lazily on the sofa side by side, talking about the little boy with a creamy face in the photo, and the kiss collected by memory outside the photo.
Everything He Qiao told him was true.
Chi Xueyan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, the uneasy paleness on his face disappeared.
He calmly looked straight at the man with a complicated expression on the opposite side, and said cautiously, "Can I trouble you one more thing?"
He Qiao replied quickly, "Okay."
The next morning.
There are not many guests in the VIP area of the physical examination center.
The inspector guide guided the physical examination process dedicatedly. Chi Xueyan, who was leaning against the door, looked through the physical examination process in his hand and waited for He Qiao to come out of the electrocardiogram room.
When the door opened, he saw He Qiao coming out of the room, and the electronic sound of calling the next guest sounded behind him as usual, his mood seemed to calm down again.
After last night's verification, Chi Xueyan completely believed the story told by He Qiao, but inevitably he suddenly felt strange to the world he had lived in for more than 20 years, so that he lacked some sense of reality that he was breathing at the moment.
Perhaps it is the instinct of a doctor that makes him uncontrollably think, whether He Qiao, as an outsider, is different from the people in this world.
Or, as the characters in the book, they are different from Heqiao outside the book.
He tried to touch the fantasy like a fairy tale.
However, everything is normal.
Even if the physical examination report comes out later, except for the items that need to be tested, other physical examination results can be known on the spot.
No doctor regards He Qiao as a weirdo.
He Qiao, who walked out of the examination room, looked at the physical examination form in Chi Xueyan's hand: "What's the next item?"
The guide on the side took the initiative to remind, "Now you can draw blood. After drawing blood, you can have breakfast. The place to draw blood is over there."
He Qiao walked along her guidance and was about to sit down in front of the blood drawing platform, but was stopped by Chi Xueyan.
"I don't think I need to draw blood." Chi Xueyan was not only grateful for the cooperation of Heqiao, but also apologized a little. "Thank you for coming today."
He Qiao understood what he meant, but he still sat down: "It doesn't maind. I really need to have a checkup."
Before Chi Xueyan mentioned it, this was the angle he had not considered.
He watched the nurse tie a tourniquet on his arm.
Chi Xueyan stood aside and looked at him, his eyes flashing slightly.
The tip of the needle pierced the skin, and the crimson blood flowed into the test tubes of different colors, and the illusion gradually turned into reality.
Chi Xueyan thought that he seemed to be beginning to accept a series of changes that happened yesterday.
He decided to regard the bizarre novel plot as a harbinger of future fate.
The most complete and accurate fortune-telling.
The test tubes full of blood were neatly arranged in the shelf. There was a faint chirping of birds outside the window, the green leaves of the treetops were fluttering, the light and shadow were scattered, and the flowing scenery all fell into the eyes of the red-haired young man.
He took two glasses of water in front of the water dispenser, handed one glass to He Qiao and one glass to himself.
The taste of water is clear and sweet, which is no different from the past.
Then he slowly flattened the disposable plastic cup and threw it into the trash can.
The first step to get rid of fate is to refuse the simple breakfast provided by the physical examination center.
Chi Xueyan knew that there was a delicious breakfast shop nearby, and it was a few minutes' walk away.
"You seem to be familiar with the delicious food here." He Qiao said.
"Eating is a big deal in life." Chi Xueyan said casually, "Yesterday's hot pot was not bad, was it?"
"Hmm."
The sun was just right in the morning. On the way to the breakfast shop, the two talked like ordinary friends.
"You said that I am the worst villain." Chi Xueyan asked curiously, "Are there any other villains besides me?"
"Yes, my brother." After He Qiao answered, he added rigorously, "It's He Qiao's half-brother, He Xiao."
A trace of surprise flashed on Chi Xueyan's face. He finally knew the indirect connection between He Qiao and this story: "Does he also like Lu Siyi?"
"No." He Qiao said, "He likes another protagonist in the story."
Chi Xueyan thought for a while and commented in a relevant way, "It's very fair for each person to have a rival."
I don't know if He Qiao, the book traveler in front of me, tried to change his brother's fate.
"How did he end up?"
This question made He Qiao silent for a while before he said, "It's not too bad. He finally..."
Chi Xueyan keenly took over his unfinished words and joked, "Have you changed your ways?"
He Qiao answered briefly yes.
This ending is indeed much better than him who died after nothing.
In the subtle still air, Chi Xueyan's voice became more relaxed: "What about you? What role do you play in the story?"
When answering this question, He Qiao avoided the sight that met him, looked down at the skin that had just been drawn, and gently uncovered the tape covering the cotton ball.
"An irrelevant supporting role."
The needle eye on the inside of the elbow is faintly red, and the bleeding has stopped.
Chi Xueyan followed his gaze and suddenly remembered the "blood" shed from his collarbone last night.
"It was really syrup last night." He repeated the old thing with a smile, "The taste is very sweet."
"Hmm." He Qiao answered, "I smell it."
Chi Xueyan then asked, "Are you afraid of me?"
He Qiao shook his head without hesitation.
In the warm sunlight, Chi Xueyan's eyes shifted from her arm at hand all the way to the handsome face of He Qiao.
He seemed to smell sincerity.
So Chi Xueyan stopped and stared at the bright and calm eyes of the other party.
A few seconds later, he smiled, as if he had met a fish tail swaying on the edge of the coral bush, lingering the fragrance of the ocean, so the voice showed a rare softness and warmth.
He asked with a smile, "Then will you marry me?"