Lu Ling stopped, and Nicholas beside her glanced back and left first.

She was waiting for the boy, was he still angry? She looked at his face for an answer.

There was no expression on the handsome face, but there was a little coldness in his voice, "My parents know that you and Alex are only Christmas, so they want to ask if you are interested in coming to our house tonight? Anna has also returned from Edinburgh and would like to see you." ”

Anna Amber is Patrick Amber's sister, and she has always had a good relationship with Lu Ling, but she has not had the opportunity to meet in Edinburgh in the past few years. She didn't go back to London last Christmas.

Lu Ling thought for a moment and looked at the boy, "What about you, are you still angry with me, and you don't want me to go?"

Patrick also looked at her, in fact, he knew that the woman on the other side only had such a soft gaze when talking to him, and more often she was cold and stubborn. A trace of helplessness crossed his face, his eyes gradually softened, and he turned his head away and said, "I didn't think so." ”

When Lu Ling heard him say this, he finally smiled, his eyes crooked, "Okay." I told my boss that I was going to get over to work, and it might be a little late. She said as she remembered something, "But...... Everywhere is closed, I can't buy a bottle of wine to take with me......"

"It doesn't matter, they're happy if you can come. I'll wait for you together. ”

Lu Ling thought of the lovely Jack and Lucy, and there was really nothing to worry about. She looked at Patrick again, and he was sweating profusely, and his training coat and socks were muddy. He was fighting hard in the final stages of the training session, and she didn't know if it would affect her fitness tomorrow, so she voiced her worries.

Patrick stared into her smiling eyes and said seriously, "I'm in good shape. ”

Does he mean that he doesn't need a rotation at all?

"Hey, Pat, remember what I told you? Good players don't question the coach's decisions lightly. ”

Patrick looked away, "I'll go back to the locker room and take a shower." With that, he threw his coat over his shoulders and walked past her.

****

Patrick finished his bath in the locker room. Then he wrapped himself in a bath towel and wiped his hair and walked to his closet. He just took a shower, and everyone was gone. Zixiang and Ian seemed to say hello when they left, but he didn't hear the sound of water clearly.

He changed into his clothes, shook his still wet hair, and sat down.

Abby said on WhatsApp to ask him if he was home. She is also with her family today. They haven't reached that kind of festival yet, so they don't take each other home for this kind of festival.

He didn't rush back, jumped out of the WhatsApp app, opened YouTube, and searched for the manager's name in the search box. At the top are videos of Nicolas Flores as head coach, including an interview on QPR's own YouTube channel. Patrick pulled down, finally seeing highlights from Nicholas' playing days.

He clicked on the one that looked higher in pixels and looked at it carefully. To be fair, Nicholas plays well.

But what about free-kick footwork? The boy thought, as long as I wanted to, I couldn't be worse than you.

He jumped out of the YouTube program and replied to his girlfriend, "I'm waiting for Christine, she's going to my house for Christmas today." x”

****

After Nicholas found out that the assistant looked at his watch for the third time, he finally spoke, "Christine, if you have something to do, you can go first." ”

He sits on the couch, tilting his head and looking at two screens at the same time, sometimes pausing abruptly to take some notes.

After the loss, he didn't talk much.

Lu Ling glanced at him, hesitated and stood up, his preoccupied appearance made her a little confused. It's Christmas, will he still stay alone in this office until midnight? It seems impossible to fly back to Spain to reunite with his family, is it possible that his parents will fly over? She pursed her lips and stood for a while, neither sitting down again nor leaving.

At this point, he pressed the pause button, turned his head and said, "Are you going to go or staying? ”

He's really not angry, she thought.

"I went to a friend's house for Christmas today. She said and walked out.

Nicholas didn't say anything, and the sound of the game sounded again.

Lu Ling hesitated when he walked to the door, then turned around and said, "Merry Christmas!"

He didn't take his eyes off the screen for half a second, and replied casually, "You too." ”

****

Lu Ling came out of the office and hurriedly called Patrick. The other end quickly connected, saying to wait for her in the parking lot.

When she arrived at the parking lot, he was leaning against his car door and playing on his phone. The boy had just finished bathing, and his short pale blonde hair looked very soft, but there was no hairspray.

"I'm sorry, Pat. Have you waited a long time?" Lu Ling said as he walked over.

The boy smiled and shook his head. He wasn't angry anymore. She thought.

The Amber family had moved to Wimbledon a few years earlier, and the old East London apartments were a thing of the past. After they moved out, Lu Ling had only been to their new home once or twice.

On both sides of the block are townhouses that are common in the UK, and his house is the middle one on the right. Like many of his previous homes, Christmas lights were lit up in front of his house.

As soon as the door opened, it was Lucy Amber, who she hadn't seen in a long time, Patrick's mother. Lucy was in her fifties, her hair and eyes were exactly the same color as her son's, she was a little thin, her medium-length hair was scattered over her shoulders, and she smiled beautifully and gently. When you are young, you must be a beauty. She hugged Lu Ling warmly, "Oh, my dear Tina (Christine's nickname), how are you, long time no see!"

"Hi Lucy, thank you for your greetings, I'm fine, how are you?"

They greeted each other and entered the house, and Jack and Anna rushed to hear the noise. Jack is a few years older than Lucy, except for a little belly, his figure is also well-proportioned. Compared to his wife's good looks, he is relatively mediocre, but the whole person is very aura, and he is a little taller than Patrick.

Anna was six years older than Patrick, twenty-four, and stayed on to work for a real estate agent in Edinburgh after graduating. Like Patrick, she also inherited her mother's good looks and has a bumpy figure. It's kind of a girl like Abby, maybe even wilder than Abby.

Although Lu Ling was very familiar with their family, even close, on the way here, she felt that it was still inappropriate for her to visit Christmas empty-handed, even if Pat said it didn't matter. But it's not good to turn back, in the end, this kind of festival, she is a little weak.

"A Wonderful Christmas" is playing in the house.

In the past few days, Lu Ling has almost vomited this song.

She made a joke and complained, and Anna quickly pointed to her brother and said, "It's not that Pat likes it yet." ”

Patrick was lying on the couch watching BTSport's Champions League group stage highlights, when he heard their conversation, tilted his head, glanced at this side, and said lazily, "Please, Tina, this is a great Christmas song." ”

Lu Ling glared at the boy on the sofa when she heard this, knowing that he was imitating the others in the Amber family to call her. The boy smiled wickedly at her expression, turned his head and continued to watch TV.

Jack and Lucy are in the kitchen, and Anna is by her side, gossiping about her last date.

There is an electric stove in the fireplace in the living room, and the Christmas tree is beautifully decorated with lots of presents underneath. In addition to this, the house is full of holly and Christmas wreaths, as well as parasitic pavilions.

The ubiquitous festive atmosphere is the Christmas of the Amber family in her impression.

At dinner, they chatted and ate, and the atmosphere was wonderful. Jack is also a fan and inevitably talks a lot about football. Later, we talked about Pat's new girlfriend.

Lucy, Jack, and Anna are very gossipy about Pat's current girlfriend and keep asking Lu Ling what kind of girl she is. Lu Ling was quite helpless, she had only seen Abby twice, although she had a good impression of each other, she didn't know each other after all.

Patrick leisurely slipped a piece of turkey meat onto his plate and took another sip of eggnog, which had no intention of saving her.

At about nine o'clock, Lu Ling felt that it was time to go back. In fact, it was still early, and she mainly wanted to go to East London to see Lu Yungui. She said goodbye to the Amber family several times, and finally came out of the house.

It was very cold outside, not only in terms of temperature, but compared to the warmth and warmth inside the house, Lu Ling was in a trance.

Patrick came out after her, and the boy closed the door softly.

Lu Ling looked back, and he also prepared a gift for her. She's been so busy this year that she's forgotten to buy gifts for everyone.

She embarrassedly tuckled her hand into the pocket of her down jacket and smiled apologetically, "Pat, my gift is postponed for a week." ”

"I'll remember. The boy was unceremonious, and handed her a beautifully packed little box.

Lu Ling knew what it was as soon as he got it, and he didn't need to open it, he gave her a CD.

"Who's?"

“OneDirection.” He held back a smile and looked like he had succeeded in his prank, like when he was a child.

"Oh, Pat, your gift will never exceed ten pounds!"

*****

There was a strange smell in the house, like a rancid smell. It's a little pungent, but it's not tolerable. The sofa was full of dirty clothes, and on the table were several newspapers in addition to leftover instant noodle boxes and take-out boxes, and a thick English-Chinese dictionary was pressed on top of the newspapers.

Lu Yungui boiled hot water in the kitchen and asked her daughter if she drank tea or coffee.

Lu Ling said no. She picked up the newspapers and flipped through them, and they all had one thing in common, that is, they all reported on the news of QPR.

He came out of the kitchen, took a cup of coffee, and wanted to hand it to his daughter, but seeing that she didn't mean to take it, he put it on the table.

Lu Ling asked him if he had been driving recently, he nodded, and said that he would run to the airport several times a day, and sometimes he would also run to move.

Mr. Lu said it was great that the Sun reporter had been fired. Lu Ling nodded, but he didn't say anything.

The father and daughter sat facing each other, seemingly speechless.

However, Lu Yungui's heart was warm, he didn't expect his daughter to come to see him tonight. If he had known, he would have tidied up his home. It's a mess, she'll have to talk about him in a moment. He thought.

Lu Ling drank all the coffee in the cup, was stunned for a while, and stood up, "I have to go back, there will be a game tomorrow." ”

Lu Yungui nodded and stood up as well. As if thinking of something, he stretched out his hand, "Xiaoling, you wait." ”

With that, he turned around and went to the bedroom, took the iPad, and pointed to it and said, "Xiao Ling, look at this." ”

Lu Ling glanced at it and knew that he was talking about Yan Jia's interview.

Lu Yungui said again, "This reporter came to me. ”

Coming out of the apartment, it started to rain lightly. White Christmas is hard to come by, but wet Christmas is a frequent visit to London.

Lu Ling didn't know how Yan Jia found Lu Yungui, but fortunately, Lu Yungui said that she didn't ask any special questions, just chatted casually. But she has always been a little unsteady in her heart.