This is a story from one day in the past, during winter vacation.
Although the New Year has just passed in that small town in the north, as it is on the border and the already small population has returned home in large numbers, it still looks a little deserted under the cover of white snow in the low temperature of nearly 30 degrees below zero. It is no different from usual times.
.
If I have to say it, there are some red firecracker debris in the snowdrifts on the roadside...
Then there is the community on the edge of the city. The official who lives in the villa next to it has not yet been selected for eating, drinking, prostitution and gambling. In winter, it only seems to be warm and bright sunshine.
In a unit building, every door is open, and the two neighboring families look like they are about to go out. Some tall and thin men are holding on to the figure next to them whose legs and feet are not convenient, and some women are dragging their hands before going out.
Qibao told the two 'left-behind children' in the room:
"Xiao Ran, there are leftover dishes from last night in the refrigerator. You and Fang Ran can heat them up at noon. You two don't have to stay at home all day long. You can go somewhere to play together. Then let's go."
Standing at the door, he watched quietly as the woman chased the other two people who had already left. The slender girl in a white soft sweater closed the door, and then looked at the figure standing at the door of her room who had also heard the news.
His hair is a little longer, and his indifferent eyes look a little taciturn.
"Did you hear that? Aunt Fang asked us to get out."
The girl's legs were slender under black tights. Fang Xiaoran squatted at the door and arranged her slippers casually and said casually in a calm voice.
"Um.."
Lowering his eyes, he nodded and looked away, then paused for a moment before speaking in a slow voice, as if hesitantly not knowing how to speak to the other party:
"Then... is there anywhere you want to go..."
The moment she heard him say this, her movement of getting up paused for a moment, and then Fang Xiaoran's voice suddenly became even calmer, with her back turned to him, and she uttered one word calmly.
"without."
Then he turned around and walked to the sofa, picked up the unfinished book on the coffee table and sat down near the window.
The sun was shining brightly on her, the sky was clear and the scenery was far away. It was indeed a good time to read a book.
But he seemed to hear the sudden indifference of the word just now. He opened his mouth and finally couldn't say anything more, so he had no choice but to turn around and go back to his room.
There was no unnecessary chatting. Rather than saying that both of them were taciturn, it was more precisely because of the estrangement left over from the past that it felt a little unnatural for each other to speak.
But as far as this brother and sister have been since high school, this can be considered a normal situation.
It was obviously my own home, but I couldn't seem to get out of the room. I sat at the desk and looked at the piles of college entrance examination materials and practice papers. I escaped from these things for a while during the short winter vacation, and I subconsciously flipped through them.
Are the results no longer keeping up with those of the first tier...
I was thinking about all kinds of things in my mind, staring blankly at the hands on the alarm clock on the table spinning, and letting time pass by like this, until I remembered the conversation just now, and I could hear the sound of pages turning outside the door.
Did I say the wrong thing just now...
Wouldn't it be better to just tell where to go...
He glanced outside the door, but in the end he couldn't go out and continue the topic. He sighed unconsciously and slowly lay on the table.
It's become like this again...
Since the two of them were no longer in the same class last semester, it seems that it has become more and more common for them to not talk to each other at home.
The short daytime in winter seems to have made the morning even shorter because there is no need to get up early for leisure during the annual vacation. Unknowingly, it was already lunch time after the two parents left, thinking about the transfer student who came before.
On the table, I heard footsteps in the living room coming to my door.
"I'm going to heat up the rice. What do you want to eat from yesterday's leftovers?"
As if he was passing by the door of his room, Fang Xiaoran stood at the door and looked at him and asked. He who was lying on the table suddenly sat upright in the chair. He opened his mouth without expecting that she would ask him, and then stuck for a moment.
Then he opened his mouth and said:
"Ah... anything will do."
Then Fang Xiaoran glanced at him, walked into the kitchen without saying a word and opened the refrigerator. There were leftover New Year's Eve dinners that were abundant every day during this period. He took out two dishes that he didn't like and put on his apron. What had he done before?
She had already become proficient at housework without even realizing it.
As if he had received permission to leave the house, feeling that the stagnation just now had eased a little, he walked out of the bedroom, glanced at the kitchen, and sat on the sofa in the living room. On the coffee table was the book Fang Xiaoran had just read.
"Career determines life"
Are you already reading this kind of book...
Slightly startled, the taciturn young man remembered that his teacher had said that after the start of the next semester, experts would give lectures on major selection and employment.
Compared with the cool bedroom in the morning, the living room is warmer in winter. Although there are only two people at home, sitting on the sofa always feels a bit awkward and uncomfortable, but listening to the sound of lunch in the kitchen and the bright sunshine outside the window,
The plainness is still somewhat reassuring.
"It's done, come and eat."
Faint words without emotion rang out. Fang Xiaoran, who took off his apron and wiped his hands, looked at him and said. The two people sitting at the dinner table, with only the sound of bowls and chopsticks, remained silent until he heard Fang Xiaoran sitting opposite him calmly.
Asked casually:
"Have you decided which university to apply to?"
In high school, all courses have ended early. The review teaching in the first half of the last year of high school has ended. In the second half of the semester, only candidates who have various mock tests and exercises are left. Unless there are no big surprises, the results have been basically finalized.
It would not be too exaggerated to say that there is an improvement.
So everyone has basically started to think ahead about which city they want to go to and which university they go to.
The key to life is nothing to lose.
Knowing that this was a question she asked casually as she didn't want the air to be too quiet, the only topic the two of them could interact with was this.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! So he paused, chewed the rice in his mouth and silently answered simply.
"Let's go to Los Angeles. I plan to apply for college there."
"Why Los Angeles."
"My current grades are better than choosing a school or a city."
"You plan to stay there after graduation..."
"Well, probably."
"Is it..."
The ordinary conversation ended very calmly, without saying anything more.
After putting the dishes and chopsticks away for soaking in the kitchen sink, he glanced at the girl who was sitting back in the living room reading a book, and hesitated for a moment.
Instead of walking back to his room, he sat on the carpet in the living room and leaned against the sofa. Seeing his movements, Fang Xiaoran glanced at him from the corner of his eyes and said nothing.
The distance between the two of them was very close this time.
He touched the remote control and carefully felt it. The girl didn't seem to object. He turned on the TV and replayed the channels of various parties in the past few days, and then turned down the volume slightly.
Seeing that she didn't leave, I felt relieved for some reason.
He was leaning on the sofa and sitting on the ground behind the coffee table, and the figure sitting behind him was reading a book. The two people in the room were quiet with each other. No one said anything, but having nothing to say was actually divided into making people feel embarrassed and making people feel relaxed.
of two kinds,
It seems to be the latter now.
Then the afternoon sun shone brighter, the floor heating made the carpet warm, and the lively programs on the TV were playing, and the quiet sound dispelled the loneliness in the room.
It was a very ordinary day. They didn’t go anywhere. The brother and sister who rarely greeted each other spent the day like this.
Although it is very dull, it is also very reassuring.
The long-standing stiff relationship between them eased slightly on this day.
"Aunt Fang and the others seem to be coming back late tonight. Do you want to eat something?"
"Well, anything is fine."
...
...
It was just that when I sat back at the table in my room at night, I saw the bookshelf I had flipped through in the morning, and there was a notebook that I hadn't seen for a long time. I subconsciously opened it and saw the first page on it, with immature handwriting and...
The most conspicuous sentence among innocent words,
'I want to be a hero.'
After a few seconds of silent silence, he slowly tore off the page.