Last time, the whole class came to Yuebanwan for a gathering, but this time, Wu Tao invited everyone privately, and invited everyone who had played well together in the past. The atmosphere was more relaxed than usual, and there was no need to deliberately use some boring games to liven up the atmosphere. Although the few of them had become more distant after entering the third year of high school, they were not to the point of having nothing to talk about.

Yu Yiran was almost suffocated by the college entrance examination. As soon as she entered the room, she occupied the microphone and sang loudly, but none of the songs were in tune. She was collectively driven away. Xu Xilin suddenly had an idea and somehow suddenly ordered a few songs that "headphone expert" Dou Xun often played back. He then shoved the microphone into Dou Xun's hand and said, "Come and sing."

For a moment, the private room was quiet.

Last time they forced Dou Xun to sing as a joke, and they almost got him mad. Lao Cheng looked at Xu Xilin in shock, as if he was a fat rabbit with a tiger's beard pulled!

Wu Tao remembered that he had taken the lead in inviting the guests this time in order to seek reconciliation, and he quickly coughed and said, "Uh, that..."

As soon as he opened his mouth, Dou Xun took over the microphone.

Wu Tao: “…”

Dou Xun had never sung in public before. He even lip-synced to the song during the flag-raising ceremony on Monday. He turned the microphone off and on again, and before he had time to figure it out, the song had already changed. He raised the microphone in a panic, not knowing what volume to use. He fumbled and hummed a few lines along. When he turned around, he found Xu Xilin looking at him. He immediately broke out in a hot sweat on his back due to nervousness. He quickly averted his gaze and stared at the subtitles on the screen expressionlessly, as if he was doing a "lyrics reading comprehension".

In the first half of the song, Dou Xun had a hard time keeping up with the rhythm, but when it came to the chorus, he obviously sang more.

Xu Xilin was afraid that he would feel awkward because he couldn't chat with others, so he ordered a few songs for him. After a while, Dou Xun quickly mastered the karaoke skills, found the fun, and started ordering songs for himself. He was not a headphone expert in vain, as he could sing a few lines of everything. Although he couldn't be said to have many skills, for the KTV standards, any song that was not out of tune was considered a good one, and people would applaud him from time to time.

Wu Tao breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back on the sofa, turned to Xu Xilin and said, "He seems to be much easier to talk to now."

Xu Xilin refused the cigarette he handed over and smiled.

Wu Tao looked at him in the dim light and found that Xu Xilin had changed a lot. He hadn't had time to trim his hair for a while. Now that the college entrance examination was approaching, no one cared about such details. He had also lost a lot of weight and didn't talk as much. There seemed to be a layer of worry in his eyes, which were covered by the overlapping light and shadow of the private room.

Xu Xilin: "Congratulations. We are still studying hard, but you have almost mastered it."

"What's there to congratulate?" Wu Tao said in a very niche English love song by Dou Xun, "With my level, it's unrealistic to be a professional athlete. My family wants me to go to a normal school so that I can find someone who can be a physical education teacher. I will become a person like Lao Zhu in the future. It's boring just to think about it."

Lao Zhu is their physical education teacher, a middle-aged man in his fifties. His wife dumped him because she thought he was incompetent. He wears sportswear all year round and no one takes care of him. It seems that his pants can never be washed clean.

Since he had no prestige and could not be a teacher of a proper physical education class, the school had no choice but to let him take a group of kids to play during activity classes. The boys had already dispersed and ran to the stadium, while the girls were well-behaved and did not run around. They played with sandbags nearby. When the sandbags were broken, they went to find Lao Zhu nearby. He stood nearby, holding the rubber band for the children and sewing them at the same time.

Wu Tao smiled bitterly and said, "I can't even sew a sandbag."

"Why do you have to be a physical education teacher?" Xu Xilin turned his eyes away from Dou Xun's back and glanced at Wu Tao. "Wouldn't it be good to do business in the sporting goods industry in the future? Or you can just find a gym or sports activity center to be a private trainer. You can earn a lot of money easily and get to know a lot of people."

"That's not a proper job. Physical education teachers have a regular job." Wu Tao laughed. "You don't understand. Besides, how much money can you make by leading people to do aerobics in a private restaurant? Isn't that similar to working in a beauty salon?"

Xu Xilin wanted to say that the good coaches in his community charge more than two hundred per hour, but then he thought it would be pointless to say it out loud, as it would seem like showing off how much he knows - and besides, even if he made two thousand per hour, there was no funding for that.

He then said politely, "Yes, being a teacher is a good idea."

In high school, everyone sat in the same classroom to study. Some were good students, while others were poor. But no matter what their grades were, they would play and make trouble together after class, as if no one was different from anyone else. At this moment, Xu Xilin suddenly felt an inexplicable force that made the gap between people's ideas bigger and bigger, and would make them go in opposite directions and drift apart in the future, leading completely different lives.

Wu Tao stood up and came back after a while to order some drinks.

Xu Xilin: “…”

It is difficult to change one's nature, but it is easy to change the country. Wu Tao is still very bad.

Lao Cheng was about to reach out his hand while yelling, but Xu Xilin slapped him back: "Are you looking for death? You still have evening self-study tonight. If Qilixiang smells it, she'll peel off your skin."

Wu Tao threw a bottle of mineral water to Lao Cheng: "Don't drink it, I won't start self-study until next week, so you don't have to go tonight. This is for Dou Xun."

Xu Xilin: “No…”

Wu Tao turned around and asked him, "Please ask the commander, can I offer a toast to Master Dou?"

Now Xu Xilin was speechless. He just felt that Wu Tao had matured a little, but now he still seemed very annoying.

Even if we agreed not to drink, we still couldn't help but drink a little in the end.

Dou Xun didn't know whether he was in a good mood or a bad mood. He was particularly easy to talk to that night. When Wu Tao came over with the wine, he really took it. He didn't know how to talk, let alone play tricks. He completely let Wu Tao control the rhythm. Wu Tao would clink glasses with him after saying a few words, and Dou Xun, that silly roe deer, would take a sip consciously after clinking glasses with him, without even asking anyone to let him take the sip.

Xu Xilin covered his face, feeling that he might have to carry Dou Xun back later.

Then I drank too much.

By the evening, Wu Tao was so drunk that he could not stop laughing. Dou Xun's eyes were a little straight. Xu Xilin had no choice but to say, "Let's go home. You go back to school first and send Brother Tao to the dormitory. I'll take that guy home first... It's okay. I won't tell Qilixiang whether I go to the evening study or not."

Dou Xun was quite well behaved after drinking too much, not making any noise or noise, but a little dull - he was not very smart usually. Xu Xilin dismissed everyone, took Dou Xun to the bathroom to vomit, and gave him a bottle of mineral water to rinse his mouth. He wanted to scold him, but then he saw his confused behavior and felt that it was useless to say anything, so he shut up and sat with him silently for a while.

Dou Xun's face turned red from drinking, even the tip of his nose and the rims of his eyes were red, as if he had just cried. He looked a little pitiful. He followed Xu Xilin for a few steps and suddenly grabbed his hand.

Xu Xilin's fingers curled up uncomfortably.

Dou Xun: "I feel uncomfortable."

Xu Xilin: "Didn't you spit it out completely?"

Dou Xun shook his head, then kept holding his hands with both hands, and actually squatted down on the spot, refusing to move!

Xu Xilin bent down and looked at his face: "Where do you feel uncomfortable? Your stomach?"

Dou Xun shook his head.

Xu Xilin: "Dizzy?"

Dou Xun still shook his head. He had a look of a sulky child on his face. He shook his head no matter what was asked, and just didn't move.

There were more and more guests in Yuebanwan, and everyone coming in and out had to take a closer look at the two of them.

Xu Xilin suddenly felt like he was leading a mentally retarded child, and said to Dou Xun, "Get up first, we are blocking their way."

Dou Xun still shook his head. Xu Xilin had no choice but to stand up and walk to the side. Dou Xun pulled his hand, but did not stand up either. He squatted on the ground and was dragged by him - fortunately the crescent floor was smooth.

Xu Xilin dragged it for a while, and felt that the two of them were like sled dogs pulling a cart, so he stopped helplessly: "What on earth are you going to do?"

Dou Xun squatted on the ground and looked up at him. There seemed to be tears in his eyes. Then he lowered his head guiltily as if he was caught peeping and whispered, "I feel...uncomfortable."

Xu Xilin: “…”

Xu Xilin stood there at a loss for a moment, then looked at Dou Xun again, but could only see a whorl of hair. Dou Xun's long eyelashes drooped, and he seemed to be trembling slightly with anxiety, looking so pitiful.

Xu Xilin couldn't stand it after just one look. The thought that he had suppressed that day tried to show its edge again, scratching his heart. Xu Xilin felt that he was not drunk, but his steps were a little unsteady. An idea broke through the boundaries of Civic and crossed the border.

He thought: "Do I like Dou Xun?"

Dou Xun is different from other people to him.

When he was in high spirits, everyone was his friend - the old man was a bit stupid, Cai Jing came from a poor family, Wu Tao always hung out with that group of bad people, Dou Xun would get into a fight with people after just a few words, and Yu Yiren was the heroine who had been able to hit people with a brick since she was a child. Every time they went out to play, Xu Xilin would ask her to send him a text message to let him know she was safe when she got home - he would take care of them all the same.

But when he was experiencing the greatest pain in his nearly eighteen years of life, he isolated everyone else from his joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. He would not tell anyone about it, and would not even show it at school... They were outsiders after all.

Only Dou Xun is different.

Xu Xilin sighed, feeling that one of his feet was in a very dangerous place. He bent down, held Dou Xun's armpits with both hands, and pulled him up from the ground. Grabbing Dou Xun's collar, he led the aggrieved drunk home, stumbling over himself.

In the bathroom where Dou Xun had just vomited, Li Bozhi slowly pushed open the door of the cubicle.

He had also drunk some wine. Just now, when Wu Tao was helped out by his group of "good students" friends, Li Bozhi was watching in the box next door.

Li Bozhi's family is a bit similar to Cai Jing's, but his father is his biological father, and his mother ran away with someone else. When he first got into No. 6 Middle School, his father boasted about him outside for a few days and even carried his luggage to school personally. During that period, Li Bozhi really wanted to make a name for himself.

Unfortunately, the wish is good, but the reality is cruel. He soon found that it was impossible to "read well", and even to be famous in the school team was difficult. His father was no longer interested in him, and he stopped caring when he saw that he had no other achievements.

After being depressed, Li Bozhi decided to start hanging out. He would be more powerful every day. The power and pleasure he felt could temporarily make him forget his fear and loneliness, and he could only focus on the present. At this time, Li Bozhi felt that he was betrayed by his best friend.

Aren't we tacitly hanging out together? Aren't we both good-for-nothings, keeping each other warm and ignoring all kinds of rules? We fight together today, and live next door to each other in jail tomorrow - how can you turn over a new leaf?

Because of Wu Tao, Li Bozhi used to play with the students in Class 1 occasionally. At that time, he didn't think there was anything wrong except that the students in the key class played too soft and boring. But as graduation approached and he became more and more anxious, Li Bozhi began to be more and more intolerant of Wu Tao being with the students in Class 1. Anxiety compounded jealousy, and he took a group of people and followed Wu Tao and the others to Yuebanwan, where he drank to drown his sorrows for the whole afternoon.

"What's the matter, Brother Li? Is there a feud?" A young man with a forehead full of yellow hair came up and asked - they were all the gangsters he met when he climbed over the wall to skip class.

Li Bozhi glanced at his face and said impulsively: "I'll ask you to help me with something. I'll treat you to a drink some other day."

Xu Xilin led Dou Xun out of Yuebanwan. It was very lively outside, with all kinds of people dancing and dancing. After walking around for a while and failing to get a taxi, Xu Xilin hesitated for a moment and decided to try his luck at the back door. While walking against the flow of people through the small path, he said to Dou Xun, "If you want to vomit, talk."

Dou Xun didn't say anything, but pried Xu Xilin's hand apart with force, insisting on inserting his fingers into it, interlocking their fingers. Xu Xilin felt itchy from being rubbed between his fingers, and wanted to pull them out, so the two of them started to tug at each other in the small space.

Just when Xu Xilin's patience was about to run out, suddenly, a few unfamiliar thugs came over in front of the path. Xu Xilin wanted to pull Dou Xun aside a little, but the thugs deliberately bumped into him.

Xu Xilin took a half step back, frowning. Seeing the thugs looking at him provocatively, he knew they were here to cause trouble. He pulled Dou Xun aside and glanced behind him. Sure enough, he saw a few people following him. Firstly, he had drunk a little and was sweating all over his forehead because of Dou Xun's tossing. Secondly, he had never offended anyone before, so he didn't notice it for a while.

Xu Xilin: "What's the matter?"

The gangster looked him up and down, his eyes fell on his sneakers, he clicked his tongue twice, and put one hand in his pocket, moving it threateningly.

"It's okay," the gangster said, "I'm a little short on money, but seeing that you seem to be related, I thought I'd get to know you and borrow some money."

If it was a year ago, Master Xu would have already taken action before the other party could finish his sentence. But now it was different. He first thought that it was better to have less trouble than more. He couldn't let his grandmother worry about it. He also had a drunk cat to take care of.

"No problem," Xu Xilin groped in his bag, took out his wallet, and shook it. "How much do you want, buddy?"

The gangster looked at him with a fake smile: "It doesn't need to be too much, just give me 10,000 or 20,000 first."

This means he is determined to find trouble.

Xu Xilin smiled and looked around: "You guys blocked me in this alley on the west side. You followed us when we went out, right? Tell me, who did I offend?"

The gangster said with a playful smile: "No one, I just like you and want to talk to you."

As he spoke, he took his hand out of his pocket and pulled out a palm-sized folding knife. He played with it, flicking it out and then retracting it. He raised his chin and said, "It's not convenient to talk here. How about going inside for a couple of drinks?"

Before he finished speaking, a hand covered with tattoos rested on Xu Xilin's shoulder from behind.

Xu Xilin secretly let out a breath and resisted the urge to turn around and kick him, but before he could say anything, Dou Xun, who had been following him obediently, suddenly refused to do so, stepped forward, pulled the hand off his shoulder, and slammed it hard onto the tattooed man's face.

Drunks are very strong, and the tattooed man was caught off guard and slapped by himself. He immediately got angry: "You don't want to save my face!"

Xu Xilin: “…”

It really causes trouble.

Seeing that the situation could not be resolved peacefully, Xu Xilin had no choice but to take action. He picked up his schoolbag and kicked the tattooed man in the side of his waist. There were no ribs on the side of his waist, which was one of the most vulnerable parts. The man was in so much pain that he sat down on the ground without making a sound. Xu Xilin turned around and pushed Dou Xun: "Go first!"

But the bean paste didn't cooperate at all. Instead of leaving, it pounced on Xu Xilin and hugged him like an octopus.

Xu Xilin was caught off guard and fell back three steps, bumping into the wall of the path. He was so mad that he wished he could turn Dou Xun over to empty the alcohol from his head and ask this guy which side he was on.

Dou Xun pushed him against the wall, turned his back to Xu Xilin without saying a word, and opened his arms to block him behind him. It was purely a game of eagle catching chickens.

Xu Xilin: “…”

Dou Xun might have wanted to say something, but when he opened his mouth, he probably forgot the words again. So this drunkard stubbornly stayed in the alley, maintaining this stupid protective posture, confronting a group of thugs.

"The idiot who brought it? Beat him up!"

Xu Xilin was both moved and anxious. At this moment, there was a loud noise at the end of the path. A tall man walked in with a stick in his hand and knocked on the trash can at the intersection.

The people in the alley looked over together, and someone whispered, "Song Lianyuan."

When the small thugs met the big thugs, the one holding the knife began to get nervous. Song Lianyuan lit a cigarette and said slowly, "We are all friends, so it's okay to have a couple of drinks. But my brother is in his third year of high school, and his family is worried if he comes home late. Do you all understand?"

A group of little hooligans dared not not understand.

Song Lianyuan smiled and waved to Xu Xilin: "Come here, Xiaolin, I'll call a car to take you home."

The thugs who were blocking the road reluctantly gave way, and Xu Xilin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

When he took out his wallet just now, he called Song Lianyuan. Song Lianyuan worked in Yuebanwan, and calling him would be more effective than calling the police.

Song Lianyuan sent them to the taxi and tapped Xu Xilin on the forehead: "Aunt Xu is gone, so no one cares about you, right? Why are you still hanging out here at this hour?"

Xu Xilin had treated him as his elder brother since childhood and didn't dare to say a word.

But Dou Xun refused to listen. He grabbed Xu Xilin's shoulder fiercely, covered his forehead with his hand, and glared at Song Lianyuan.

Song Lianyuan made him laugh: "What kind of wine is this little brat drinking? He doesn't even know his own last name, yet he still knows how to protect you."

Xu Xilin's face was almost red with embarrassment. He said goodbye to him in a hurry and stuffed Dou Xun into a taxi.

After great effort, he managed to drag Dou Xun home. As soon as he opened the door, he came face to face with the grey parrot in the living room on the first floor.

The grey parrot had just woken up and opened its eyes to see two drunken "stinky men". It was so furious that it screamed at the top of its lungs, "Catch the hooligans!"

Dou Xun was so frightened that he was confused and didn't see where the enemy came from. He hurriedly hugged Xu Xilin, ready to fight with the bird, while pressing Xu Xilin's neck hard, as if he wanted to roll him into a ball and stuff him into his arms.