Dou Xun stood in a daze at the entrance of the hotel for a long time, until the trembling waiter came over to ask him, and then he walked in absent-mindedly.

There is a sign reading "Wish You Good Fortune" in the mirror-like hotel lobby, and a circle of kumquats with copper coins hanging on them is placed at the door, giving off a festive New Year vibe.

Dou Xun silently saved Xu Xilin's cell phone number, and at this moment, his phone rang.

For a moment, Dou Xun's calm expression fluctuated violently, but then he saw the caller ID clearly - Dou Junliang.

He made a "tsk" sound, feeling disgusted and disappointed, and hung up the phone directly, then turned to go to the restaurant on the second floor.

On the second floor of the hotel is a Cantonese restaurant that is neither Chinese nor Western. Its magnificent decoration seems to carry a greasy smell of abalone, which makes people lose their appetite at first glance.

Dou Xun was led by the waiter to find Dou Junliang.

Dou Junliang looked older, his back seemed shorter than before, he no longer had a side part, his temples were neatly shaved and pushed up, all white. He had just been hung up by Dou Xun, and wanted to call again, but a little boy of seven or eight years old jumped up and down beside him, causing all kinds of obstacles for the waiters passing by.

Dou Junliang impatiently pulled the brat back and was about to scold him, but when he looked up, he saw Dou Xun walking towards him with his hands in his pockets.

When Dou Xun left, he was a young man who was traveling and full of resentment. This time when he came back, his original arrogance suddenly became convincing, and he looked as if he was alone. He didn't say anything polite. He waved his phone at Dou Junliang from a distance to indicate that he had received the call, then casually nodded to the waiter who led the way and said to Dou Junliang, "Traffic jam."

Dou Junliang saw that he wanted to stand up for no reason, then he realized that it was unreasonable for a father to welcome his son, so he sat back down and looked at Dou Xun calmly. He coughed dryly and complained half-seriously, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"

Dou Xun: "Not yet in time."

Dou Junliang paused and said, "How can you go home and stay in a hotel? You..."

He wanted to ask Dou Xun if he wanted to go home and live. He and Wu Fenfen had been separated for a long time. Dou Junliang suddenly lost interest in flowers and plants in recent years. No one forced Mrs. Dou to give up her position for a while, so the two of them wasted time like this. As a result, before Dou Junliang could even open his expectant invitation, Dou Xun said indifferently, "Oh, just to stay. I have some things to do at school. I'll look for a house in a couple of days when I have time."

Dou Junliang was choked by him, raised his chopsticks and knocked the hand of the little boy next to him who was eating cold dishes, and scolded: "You don't know how to use chopsticks? It's unruly!"

Dou Xun followed his gaze and looked at the child - in terms of blood relationship, he should be considered half his brother.

The half-brother made eye contact with him, and was a little afraid of this stranger, so he restrained himself a little.

Dou Xun politely said to Dou Junliang: "This child is good-looking, he looks like his mother."

Dou Junliang: “…”

Dou Xun's words sounded like just a normal greeting, and there was nothing wrong with it, but they accurately poked a big hole in Dou Junliang's lung.

Dou Junliang has always considered himself a big shot, and believed that his children would resemble him in qualifications and personality, and resemble their beautiful mothers in appearance - for example, Dou Xun, although he encountered some problems during his growth, was generally a "successful work".

Unfortunately, the chromosomes exchanged between the two people were obviously a blind marriage, and what kind of child they gave birth to was really beyond their subjective will. Dou Junliang's youngest son Dou Zhang, except for his oily hair, was a pirated copy of Wu Fenfen - including his appearance and IQ - at that - the version before plastic surgery.

For this bastard, Dou Junliang bought a shabby and expensive school district house and forced Dou Zhang into the best primary school. As a result, he received two complaints calls a day on average, saying that Dou Zhang was not good at studying and was good at bullying classmates.

All in all, Dou Junliang’s biggest concern is that “his youngest son looks like his mother.”

Dou Junliang gave a stifled laugh, suspecting that Dou Xun was deliberately trying to make things difficult for him.

The father and son, who had not seen each other for a long time, exchanged pleasantries without any real substance, and their conversation was no more cordial than that between strangers.

Dou Xun returned to China without informing Dou Junliang. It was because Dou Junliang had an old friend who had some cooperative relationship with the school-run enterprise of Dou Xun's alma mater, and he learned about his son's news through outsiders.

Dou Junliang cautiously probed: "What do you plan to do after you come back?"

"I haven't thought about it yet," Dou Xun said, "Let's see if there's anything suitable and then we'll talk about it later."

Dou Junliang dipped the tip of his chopsticks in the small bowl in front of him depressedly, knowing that he was not telling the truth.

He heard that Dou Xun came back at the invitation of his former teacher to participate in a research project led by the old professor. The school offered very generous conditions, which was no secret in Dou Junliang's circle.

Dou Junliang could tell that Dou Xun was just making excuses because he was too lazy to talk to him about the "future". He felt a little frustrated and thought for a moment before saying, "Is Mr. Xu's son still in touch with you?"

Dou Xun smiled at him, then reached out to take his empty tea bowl and pour it over: "Don't just drink the water. Their food is a bit bland. Don't you like it?"

Dou Junliang is a shrewd man. He can tell from his expression and the implicit meaning what Dou Xun didn’t say - it’s none of your business.

Dou Xun had not used a penny of his money during his years abroad. It was not until Zhu Xiaocheng called him that Dou Junliang realized that Dou Xun had suspended all the cards he had used before and resolutely stopped accepting the financial support and instructions from his parents. Dou Junliang didn't know how he had been living these years. Now that he saw him again, he only had one thought in his mind: This kid has grown wings.

Now that I have grown strong enough, I am no longer under his control, nor do I have to listen to his nonsense. I no longer confront him and no longer take him seriously.

Dou Junliang had a frustrating dinner and asked the waiter to pay the bill. He heard the waiter smilingly say to Dou Xun: "Hello, it has been charged to your room. Please confirm the bill."

Dou Junliang: “…”

As a father, no matter whether he is strict, doting, or indifferent to his son, when he finds that his son begins to ignore his authority, he will probably feel lonely and feel that he is old.

Dou Xun sent away the lonely Dou Junliang and returned to his hotel room.

I opened the laptop screen and saw a half-written paper on it.

Dou Xun sat in front of the computer for a while, flipping through what he had written three or four times, but didn't read anything. Finally, he sighed and leaned back in his chair.

As soon as he closed his eyes, the folk music in Xu Xilin's car kept echoing in his mind. It was an ordinary business car, but the interior was much more luxurious than the exterior. The car was very clean and comfortable to sit in. I don't know if he often gave people rides, but his driver's license was placed in a conspicuous place, so that even if he met a strange female passenger, she would not feel unsafe.

Dou Xun thought of Xu Xilin's hand casually placed on the steering wheel - the joints were clear, the hand was clean, without any messy bracelets or watches, the cuffs were spotless, and there was a small scar on the back of his hand, as if it was splashed with hot oil.

His driving skills have improved a lot. Dou Xun remembered that his level was similar to that of the old guys back then, and one car also took up two parking spaces. Now he has even performed "centimeter-level operation" and can squeeze in and out of narrow alleys without getting a single feather stuck to him... However, he looked very tired, and his eyes were only half open the whole time. Dou Xun suspected that he was about to fall asleep several times on the way.

Dou Xun left resolutely that year. In the first year after his departure, he hated Xu Xilin so much that whenever he met someone with the surname Xu on the street, he would stare at the person with hatred for a long time.

But the foundation of this hatred was not as solid as he had imagined. By the time he went to a foreign country alone, most of them had already dispersed. He saw foreigners who looked similar on the streets, and he had the illusion that he would never be familiar with this place. Anger, hatred and longing began to grow and ebb inextricably.

Sometimes in the middle of the night, Dou Xun woke up for no reason and often heard his roommate calling home. He would uncontrollably think of Xu Xilin and the small bedroom on the second floor... That was the only "home" he had ever acknowledged in his life.

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine that he was still at home.

There was a single bed, and he lay on it, but only took up half of the space, pretending that there was someone else next to him.

But he didn't dare and was unwilling to contact Xu Xilin. At that time, Dou Xun was competing with himself, and always felt that the two of them had come to this point because of his own powerlessness.

Dou Xun's fierce self-esteem boiled over in his thin chest, forcing him to bear the longing and frustration alone, gritting his teeth and trying to live like a human being.

Until he received Xu Xilin's email too late.

Until he rushed back as fast as he could, he found that the house was empty and the owner had changed.

A row of large lanterns were hung outside the balcony of the familiar small building, and a row of pickle jars were placed in the small courtyard that was originally planted with various flowers. The crooked bicycle they used to ride was long gone, and a child's walker was thrown at the foot of the wall. The blessing character pasted on the door when they moved in was a little mottled, and it looked like they had moved in for a while.

At that moment, Dou Xun, who was dragging his suitcase, didn't know how to react.

Once upon a time, a huge bulldozer came into his world, destroyed everything with great force, and forcibly expelled him from the world. When he finally gathered enough courage and strength to fight back, he found that he could no longer find the original path.

Entire communities, cities... and even the vast land became empty.

Dou Xun went to great lengths to find the social media accounts that Xu Xilin rarely used, and contacted some classmates he was not familiar with in the past, but there was no trace of Xu Xilin anywhere.

He once thought that as long as he moved forward, kept moving forward, and became stronger, one day he would be able to recover what he had lost. Later he realized that the world was also moving forward, and that old things were constantly deteriorating, evaporating, and turning into ashes.

Nothing will wait for him.

Dou Xun was not a man who gave up easily. Later on, during holidays or for academic exchanges, he would travel back to China whenever he had the chance. He made many trips, but it was always in vain.

He was like a stray migratory bird, walking past the door of his increasingly unfamiliar "home" countless times.

I saw that the word "Fu" was gone.

I saw that the walker was gone.

I saw the walker turned into a children's bicycle, and a lush crop of chives was planted in the yard...

The place becomes more and more unfamiliar every year. Recently, the new owner of the house renovated it, repainted the exterior walls, and installed strange-looking anti-theft windows.

Dou Xun had just returned from the old residence of the Xu family that afternoon. He went to the school to handle some formalities and called a car. Unexpectedly, Xu Xilin, who was nowhere to be found, showed up without any warning. It was like a homeless person who picked up a lottery ticket and was told that he had won the jackpot. He was completely lost. Sitting in the hotel, Dou Xun's photographic memory could not remember what he said on the way.

What is the real feeling of “Looking back suddenly, that person is standing in the dimming lights”?

It’s hard to describe... Anyway, he memorized Xu Xilin’s driver’s license number.

Xu Xilin's company was on holiday, so he drove himself the next day to deliver a few pots of flowers he got from Lao Cheng to an important client. Including traffic jams and social engagements, he spent the entire day and looked very busy.

However, when he was waiting for a red light, waiting for someone, or paying the bill while waiting for the waiter to swipe the card, he always couldn't help but look down at his mobile phone - he didn't know what he was looking at, but he always felt like there was something he had to do.

Xu Xilin spent the whole day as an absent-minded internet-addicted teenager. He finished his work before the New Year in a daze, went home, took a handful of pine nuts, and played the "you throw, I pick up" game with the grey parrot, making a mess of the house. He then cleaned up the house with the bird - the bird was responsible for picking up the scattered pine nuts and its own fallen feathers, while Xu Xilin squatted on the ground and wiped the floor.

As he was wiping, he suddenly realized what he wanted to do - he wanted to send a message to Dou Xun, a greeting or a happy new year... anyway, say something.

Xu Xilin sat on the floor he had just mopped, thinking over and over again for a long while, picked up his phone and put it down again, typed a few words and deleted them. This brief greeting almost drained his brains.

The grey parrot landed on his shoulder with its eyes wide open, and curiously looked at his phone. Its sharp claws tore his sweater again.

"Hiss... what a waste." Xu Xilin complained, but didn't chase it away. He teased the parrot and said, "Stop making trouble and sing a song for Daddy."

The grey parrot calmly looked down at its claws and scratched his clothes for fun without saying a word.

"How much reward is needed for lofty ambitions, how many true friends are there..." Xu Xilin hummed two lines of "Xiao Yao Tan" to set a tune for it.

The parrot refused his song request. It howled meaninglessly with its neck straight, then blurted out, "It was you who wanted to separate, so let's separate..."

Xu Xilin couldn't bear it any longer and snapped his finger at the bird's beak, stopping the damn "Love Business".

The grey parrot was disturbed and scratched his shoulder angrily.

Xu Xilin: "Little evil creature."

It really is worthy of being bought by Dou Xun.

Then he thought about it, sighed, threw his phone aside, and said to the grey parrot: "You have a point."

It was he who pried Dou Xun's hands apart without any explanation and cut them in half. It was also he who called Dou Junliang and destroyed the last bit of hope between them.

Now that so many years have passed, Dou Xun must have a new life, and from the few words he exchanged in the car that day, he seemed to still have some grudge against him. Xu Xilin thought that if he went back and pretended nothing had happened, it would be too despicable.

Xu Xilin said to the bird: "It's really a piece of crap, isn't it?"

The grey parrot replied irrelevantly: "Eight hundred standard bearers rushed to the north slope——"

"Well then," Xu Xilin changed the water for the parrot and promised it seriously, "Then let's head to the north slope - go back to the south to celebrate the New Year."

He didn't want to go to any class reunion or colleague reunion, or any meeting of the Tiandihui. When Xu Xilin was timid, he was very active. In just five minutes, he booked a flight back to his "hometown" base, ready to slip away.

As a result, just when the text message of successful ticket booking was sent to his mobile phone, Lao Cheng called him and told him the time and place of the class reunion.

Xu Xilin had a lot of excuses in his mind, and he said, "I may not be able to go. I have to go back to the headquarters during the New Year..."

"Drag it on." Lao Cheng interrupted him rudely, "No, you have to come this time, even if you have to sell everything you have!"

Xu Xilin: "I..."

Lao Cheng: "Old Cai is out!"

Xu Xilin: “…”

It's really an irrefutable reason.

Yuebanwan officially closed down a year ago. The building was split into two floors. The second floor became a Sichuan restaurant, and the first floor was divided into several small shops. Even the No. 6 Middle School was relocated. After merging with another high school, it moved to a more spacious place. The familiar places were all unrecognizable. Lao Cheng had no choice but to book a newly opened KTV with a buffet, which was also convenient for eating.

It always feels a bit weird that we can’t meet at the “old place”, so that the reunion of old classmates doesn’t feel like a reunion, but more like a “meeting” among netizens.

Xu Xilin checked the route in advance, parked the car, and went in carrying a few bottles of red wine. At the door, he met a tall girl with long hair who was talking on the phone. He glanced at her and didn't recognize her, so he let her pass and was about to walk in silently.

The girl suddenly screamed, "Captain Xu!"

Xu Xilin looked back at her blankly.

The girl said: "Can you do this? You can't even recognize me!"

Xu Xilin smiled awkwardly while carefully distinguishing the other person's facial features covered by delicate light makeup, but still failed to recognize her.

When he looked at her height, which was only a few centimeters shorter than his, he was even more puzzled - had there ever been a girl this tall in his class? Could it be that someone had shamelessly grown taller after graduating from high school?

unless……

Xu Xilin: "...Wait, you are not Yu Yiran, right?"

Yu Yiran has lost half the width of her original size, it's almost as if her personality has changed. Her short hair has turned into long flowing hair, her shorts have turned into a pleated skirt, and she has even learned to smile without showing her teeth!

She actually looks like a "normal" girl.

Xu Xilin arrived late, and when he entered the private room, he found that many people had already arrived. For a moment, he felt that the room was full of strangers. He was confused for a while before he found his state of mind.

Wu Tao gained weight early. He had a pointed face when he was young, but now it has grown into a square one. He has become a sturdy and honest man, and looks a lot gentler. He fits the image of a physical education teacher in primary and secondary schools very well.

Luo Bing also became plump, just got engaged, and wore a 5-6 diamond ring on her hand, a small one, but very delicate, as if she had already stepped into an ordinary and happy marriage. She was no longer shy in her early years, and when she saw Xu Xilin coming in, she greeted him openly, and even reached out to hug him, and turned around to joke with everyone: "Look how hard my first love works, he's still so handsome!"

Deng Shu, who was already pregnant, laughed in the background: "It's also my first love."

Xu Xilin: "Thank you, thank you, thank you all the beauties for coming. It was worth it that I went to get a face lift yesterday."

He greeted everyone who seemed to be from another world, and finally raised his eyes to look at Dou Xun in the corner.

Dou Xun was chatting with the non-mainstream youth Lao Cheng in a casual manner, but his eyes had not been directed elsewhere since Xu Xilin came in. Cai Jing was peeling an apple next to the two of them - he was the protagonist in this party, but his presence was so weak that he could not be seen if no one paid attention.

In the private room full of social and life atmosphere, the three of them are non-mainstream and independent.

Xu Xilin paused and joined the "non-mainstream" territory.