Lao Cheng rushed over to help, shouting and yelling. Dou Xun's eyes sank slightly, and he finally let go.

Xu Xilin was too embarrassed to look back. He directed the half-drunk Lao Cheng to carry the drunk Cai Jing to the car. Then he grabbed a handful of his hair and turned around to ask the silent Dou Xun: "Should I give you a ride or do you want to take a taxi?"

Dou Xun picked up his coat, stepped back to a safe distance, and said modestly, "It's all right."

Xu Xilin was stunned. He didn't expect that after not seeing him for so many years, Dou Xun had actually learned to "casually let you put yourself in a dilemma."

Xu Xilin looked down at his toes and said, "It's too late. I'll take you there."

Mr. Dou Xun said "All right" and followed happily.

Dou Xun's heart has been beating wildly since he came out of the private room. After the unexpected contact, his desire to touch Xu Xilin was suddenly activated and expanded rapidly at an exponential rate.

He looked at Xu Xilin's hands on the steering wheel and wanted to put his hands on them. He saw Xu Xilin getting tired of sitting and pinching his neck with his fingers, and he really wanted to do it for him.

Dou Xun also wanted to rub his face with the back of his hand, wanted to push down the wool on his shoulders, wanted to stroke all the way down his slightly arched back... He even wanted to occupy Xu Xilin's bathroom and replace the shower gel that he had changed without permission with the original, familiar scent.

Dou Xun felt that it was not his illusion, and Xu Xilin was not indifferent to him.

The two of them sent the crying Cai Jing and the whining Lao Cheng to their grandfather's flower shop, and suddenly realized that their route actually overlapped with the day they picked up Dou Xun and went back to the hotel.

Last time, there was a solid ice between the two of them, and Xu Xilin was in a daze all the way and didn't say a word to him.

But at this time, the ice was melting at a speed visible to the naked eye, leaving only a layer as thin as window paper.

Xu Xilin tilted his head to glance at Dou Xun: "Have you been drinking? If you feel cold, turn up the air conditioner."

Dou Xun said "hmm", his features were still handsome, and in the dim light, his features looked particularly beautiful. From Xu Xilin's perspective, he was frowning slightly, as if he was bothered by something.

Xu Xilin had many questions that he wanted to ask to break through the thin ice, but they all backed off in front of the faint wrinkles between his brows, so he had to make small talk: "I didn't get to take you to see the house today, as we agreed."

In fact, Dou Xun was just worrying about how to bring up this matter. He really wanted to shamelessly ask Xu Xilin out again, but just when he was dozing off, the other party brought him a pillow.

Dou Xun was shocked: "If it's not a problem..."

...Can you take me for a walk tomorrow?

But before he could finish, Xu Xilin's cell phone rang.

Xu Xilin didn't answer and asked Dou Xun: "What?"

Dou Xun waved his hand, signaling him to go about his business first. He faced forward, staring greedily at Xu Xilin's reflection through the obscure shadow of the car window.

The person who called was Song Lianyuan.

Song Lianyuan asked: "Why haven't you come back yet? Is there anything else going on over there? Which day do you plan to book the ticket?"

"Oh, I was planning to leave today," Xu Xilin said in silence as he parked the car at the intersection and waited for the red light. "I have something to do today, so I changed my flight to tomorrow and will arrive in the evening."

Dou Xun turned his head, rested his elbow on the car door, supported his head, sighed silently, his straight back slumped slightly, and he smiled bitterly to himself - fortunately he didn't have time to say it, because if he had said it, Xu Xilin probably wouldn't be able to refuse, and it would seem like an ignorant and unwilling request.

Song Lianyuan gave him a few instructions, and Xu Xilin responded absentmindedly, joining the traffic flow which had become much thinner.

Dou Xun saw him hang up the phone, then asked: "Why do you want to go out of town at this time?"

Xu Xilin: "No, they urged me to go back for the New Year."

The word "return" hit Dou Xun's heart. His heart, which had just jumped with joy, seemed to be tripped by a quagmire poured from the sky, and gradually it became less joyful. The distance that had been shortened was suddenly far away again. Dou Xun forced himself to suppress the unhappiness in his heart and couldn't help asking sadly, "Why did you sell the house too?"

Now that everyone is gone, why are you living in such an empty big house? Are you raising a ghost?

But it was not appropriate to say this at this moment. As soon as Xu Xilin closed his eyes, he thought of the days when Dou Xun had no news after he left, and the days when he spent every day with his grandmother's portrait.

The "past" is really like an enemy-occupied area, with mines every three steps and too many historical problems.

Xu Xilin had to pretend to be relaxed and said, "The domestic housing prices rose too much in those two years. I felt that the market was a bit dangerous. Relatively small apartments have strong liquidity and are more resistant to risks. Besides, I just wanted to quit my job and start a business. I was living from hand to mouth, so I had to have some source of income. I bought a few small houses and collected rent."

Dou Xun was speechless for a moment.

Can a home with so many memories and so many emotions be abandoned just because of the three cold words "mobility"?

Dou Xun's mouth corners tightened, and he began to doubt that the momentary intimacy in the private room just now was all an illusion.

At this time, Xu Xilin asked again: "You can't spend the New Year in the hotel, right? How about..."

Dou Xun held his breath and waited expectantly for his next sentence.

"Come to my house and stay for a while" These words came back and forth on Xu Xilin's tongue several times.

But it was abrupt on the one hand, and on the other hand...Xu Xilin felt that his home, which was like a memorial hall, didn't seem suitable to shelter Dou Xun, so he finally swallowed it.

He thought he was smart and came up with a bad idea: "Why don't we go to Lao Cheng's place? There is an empty room in his flower shop. Cai Jing is back this year, so it will be lively."

Dou Xun's expression turned completely cold, and he said calmly: "Let's talk about it later. I have somewhere to go."

Then the two of them stopped talking. Xu Xilin sensitively noticed that Dou Xun's mood suddenly became depressed. He didn't dare to ask casually and could only drive steadily.

After such a long journey, Dou Xun no longer had any cheerfulness left and felt that his expectations were just a fluke.

Someone once said, "I won't be angry with you," but in the end, we still parted ways.

Someone once said, "This room will always be reserved for you," but it has now become "Why don't you go to Laocheng's place?"

And the sentence "go back to celebrate the New Year", he didn't even know where Xu Xilin's home was now.

Dou Xun wanted to be quiet for a while, so he said indifferently: "Just drop me off at the intersection ahead. There's no need to go over there. It's not easy to turn around ahead."

Xu Xilin silently parked the car on the side of the road, and Dou Xun walked into the cold winter night without looking back, with the hem of his coat slicing through the night sky. Xu Xilin had an indescribable intuition for a moment, as if after a brief encounter, this figure was foreshadowing the next long journey of separation.

He suddenly opened the car door and got out: "Dou Xun!"

Dou Xun turned around and looked at him.

Xu Xilin's soul split into two, and the left half thought: "Don't be too serious."

The right half thought: "From what you heard from him, whether to leave or stay is so ambiguous. It is very likely that no one has been around for these years?"

Then the left half fired back: "Have you forgotten what he said to you before he left, 'We'll never see each other again'? He hasn't come back for so many years, he must hate you to death! I've heard of love turning into hate, but have you heard of hate turning into love? What are you dreaming about?"

The right half was nearly killed with one strike.

Xu Xilin moved his lips slightly a few times but couldn't utter a word.

Dou Xun's eyebrows curled up slightly. Xu Xilin was familiar with this expression. It meant that he was a little impatient.

Who would have thought that at such an inappropriate time, the right half of Xu Xilin that was knocked down was just pretending to be dead, and in a moment he took advantage of the opportunity to climb up and forcibly seized the opportunity to speak.

Xu Xilin blurted out, "Can you look after the parrot for a few days? I have to go back there to do my annual report, and it's too much trouble to ship it back and forth."

Dou Xun was silent for a moment. Xu Xilin held his breath and waited for a long while as if waiting for a verdict. He felt that time had become infinitely long. Just when he was about to back off, he said, "If it's troublesome..."

Dou Xun said, "Okay."

Xu Xilin was stunned for a moment, and then they both spoke almost at the same time.

Dou Xun: "Then I'll go get it from you tomorrow."

Xu Xilin: "I'll send it to you before I leave tomorrow."

Dou Xun: “…”

He took a deep breath, and tried his best to convince himself not to mess it up. He suppressed his bitterness and smiled half-sourly: "Why, what treasure do you have hidden at home that requires you to be so cautious?"

Then, without waiting for Xu Xilin to make up an excuse, he said, "Then you can send it to Lao Cheng. It may not be allowed to keep birds where I live."

After saying that, Dou Xun nodded at him quickly and walked away with big strides as if escaping.

The next day, when Dou Xun arrived at "Grandpa" flower shop, the grey parrot was already there. Xu Xilin went to the airport before dawn.

"He's so busy that it's hard to even mention it," Lao Cheng carefully added water to the bird ancestor in the cage. "No matter when you call him, he's always in the company, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If he had this much energy when he was in school, maybe you two would be schoolmates now... Hey, Dou Xian'er, how can I serve this monster? Why do I feel like it has some grievances against me?"

Maybe because Xu Xilin had instructed him before coming, the grey parrot did not take any active attacking action. It stood on the shelf in the birdcage, staring at Lao Cheng with a noble and cold look, and if you looked closely, it seemed as if it even looked at him with a bit of contempt.

"Male birds don't like men." Dou Xun tentatively stretched out his hand. The grey parrot obviously had forgotten him. It stood up as if it was facing a great enemy and lowered its head to peck him. Dou Xun reluctantly retracted his hand, "See, it has a problem with me too."

Lao Cheng looked back and saw Cai Jing still tending to the flowers in the front yard. He then carefully lowered his voice and said to Dou Xun, "You two...that...that what..."

Dou Xun: "Broken up, it's been many years."

"Oh," Lao Cheng nodded, and after a while, he said awkwardly, "We outsiders can't say these things. Actually... it doesn't seem to matter now. You can get married abroad, and it's quite fashionable - have you tried it with others?"

Dou Xun shook his head silently.

Over the years, many people have shown interest in him, most of them women. Later, perhaps because he had never had a female companion and was noticed by someone with ulterior motives, men began to join the team.

But none of them is Xu Xilin.

Some people may only be able to develop a deep and unforgettable relationship once in their lives, at a specific age, in a specific environment, and with a specific person, which hurts them so much that all the subsequent ones become a waste.

Thinking rationally, it's not necessarily that the person is so good that he is unparalleled in the world. Perhaps after adolescence, the pressures and ambitions of life came one after another, his vision became more and more crowded, he saw more and more things, and he no longer had the energy to desperately seek a relationship.

What's more, Xu Xilin was indeed a man who had experienced the vicissitudes of life for him.

Dou Xun didn't seem to want to talk about this topic with outsiders, so he asked Lao Cheng, "Did Xu Xilin say anything to pay attention to?"

"Oh, yes!" Lao Cheng came back to his senses, "He put down a big bag of things, maybe bird food, let me see..."

Xu Xilin left behind a large bag half a meter high, which contained only some bird food and necessities such as sawdust. The rest were all toys for His Majesty the Bird. The most spectacular one was a huge chewing toy that could be hung up. It was colorful, and the ground was hung with balls and bells, which were even more domineering than those played by ordinary children.

Dou Xun: “…”

"How inhumane!" Lao Cheng picked up a puzzle forager, where you can put food in and let the bird find a way to get it out from openings of different shapes. He tried to put his finger in, but it got stuck... Maybe this thing is a bit ahead of his IQ. Lao Cheng touched his chest and sighed, "Boss Xu is really talented in this regard. He can raise anything he wants."

As he spoke, he took the feeder to tease the grey parrot. The parrot seemed to look at him with even more contempt. It stuck its head out of the cage, slowly put its mouth into the largest hole in the feeder, and took away a nut - the bird was actually demonstrating to him how to use this thing.

Lao Cheng suffered mental trauma.

"Don't keep it locked up all the time. It's easy to get depressed." Dou Xun said as he opened the cage and wanted to take the grey parrot out.

Lao Cheng: “Wait…”

Although the bird did not actively attack, it was unwilling to let the "stranger" approach. It first dodged vigilantly, but when it found it could not turn around, it turned back and bit Dou Xun's hand.

The bird's beak was ruthless, and Dou Xun's hand was immediately covered in blood. Lao Cheng let out a loud "Ah", which alarmed Cai Jing who was outside.

"Shh, it's okay." Dou Xun's eyes twitched in pain, but he didn't retract his hand. He carefully and gently took the grey parrot out and gently stroked its feathers. "It bit me a lot when I first bought it."

But at that time it was still small, so its bite didn't hurt so much.

The grey parrot probably sensed that he had no ill intentions, so it gradually retracted its tense defenses and landed on the shelf. It still looked at Dou Xun with some caution, and when it saw that he insisted on getting close, it would also pretend to bite him, but it was just a light threat and no longer bit him hard.

Lao Cheng was busy reconciling the accounts. When he came back after a long time, he saw that Dou Xun, who had spent half a day with the parrot, had been allowed to sit next to the parrot.

Lao Cheng looked at Dou Xun's miserable hands with mixed feelings, thinking that he was asking for trouble.

Dou Xun was quite happy to be bitten.

"Still not allowed to touch," he said, "but he's a little familiar with me."

As he was talking, the grey parrot that was playing with a ball thought for a moment, picked out the ugliest ball, and gave it to Dou Xun.

After so many years, they have become strangers and even the birds he raised don't recognize him anymore.

Dou Xun stared at the grey parrot, and his heart felt relieved - but it didn't matter, the bird could get familiar with it again, at most it would bleed a little more, and the man could chase it again, at most he would have to walk a little more distance.

Lao Cheng was about to say something when his phone rang. He looked down and saw that Xu Xilin had sent him a WeChat message, asking in a nonsensical way, "How is it? Did you ask me?"

Lao Cheng sighed secretly, he never thought that one day he would be able to run a pimping business - there was no such dramatic thing happening to him when he was in school.

Xu Xilin has returned to Song Lianyuan. He just arrived and is already eager to go home. He can't let go of his "son" or Dou Xun. He wishes he could report to the headquarters in the afternoon and leave the next day. Gao Lan could only hear him talking incoherently.

"I'm serious," Gao Lan said, "so many people are asking me to introduce you to someone. What kind do you like?"

Xu Xilin had just sent a message to Lao Cheng and was sitting there anxiously waiting for a reply. He said absentmindedly, "She's very smart and very pretty."

Gao Lan asked, "What about your temper? What about your personality? Hey, why are you men so superficial?"

Song Lianyuan couldn't stand it, but he couldn't tell Gao Lanming. His elder brother was very reliable in this respect - he would never tell other people's secrets, not even his own wife. He came over and pulled Gao Lan away: "You're almost done. When his mother was alive, she didn't care so much. Can't this kid find one himself when he's grown up? Does he need you to introduce him? Xiaolin, go out and buy some vegetables, and we'll make dumplings."

Xu Xilin said a little slower: "Oh."

Gao Lan: "I want leeks."

Song Lianyuan: "I want fennel."

After saying that, they both looked at each other and spoke in unison.

Song Lianyuan: "Listen to your sister-in-law."

Gao Lan: "Listen to your brother."

At this moment, Xu Xilin's cell phone vibrated. The words "fennel" and "leek" were shaken away to the sky by the vibration. Xu Xilin clicked on Lao Cheng's message with trembling fingers.

Lao Cheng said: "I asked, and he said no, you have a chance, come back soon."

All of a sudden, a bolt of thunder blew away the dark clouds, the sky became clear and the sea was calm, and a rainbow stretched from Xu Xilin's temple to his feet.

He raised his head suddenly like Fan Jin who had passed the imperial examination. Under the confused gazes of Song Lianyuan and Gao Lan, he used all his strength to smooth the corners of his mouth. His face, which always smiled at everyone, looked particularly serious: "Do you have any idea? What kind of fragrant chives should I buy?"