Du Xiaomeng looked around a little absent-mindedly.

After Zhan Li ate something, he took Lan'er to play with the lantern, the old man Zhan and his sons talked and laughed, Qiu Sha, who was sitting in the corner, talked to Xiaohong behind her, and let out a few soft laughs from time to time.

The scene in front of him was very gentle and happy, but Du Xiaomeng just couldn't blend into this atmosphere. Watching other people's families happily reunite for the holidays, she felt like a superfluous person, sitting in a place that didn't belong to her, out of place with everything around her. This feeling of being excluded was like a thousand pounds of stone weighing on her heart, making her feel very uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that she could hardly breathe.

She was in a trance, and she didn't even hear Old Man Zhan talk to her, until Zhan Qi beside her gently touched her with his elbow before she came back to her senses.

"Xiaomeng, what's wrong with you? Is there something wrong with it? ”

Old Man Zhan's concerned gaze made the abnormal feeling in Du Xiaomeng's heart even stronger. She stood up a little uncomfortably, held her head with a not very good face, and said, "Father-in-law, my head hurts a little, I want to go back and rest first." ”

Old Man Zhan said nervously: "Headache? You'll have to see a doctor! ”

Du Xiaomeng waved his hand and said, "Father-in-law, I'm fine, it's just that I didn't sleep well last night and I had a headache, and I'll get better after a good night." ”

Old Man Zhan hurriedly said, "Then you go back first." He glanced at Du Xiaomeng uneasily, and turned his head to look at Zhan Qi, "Qi'er, send Xiaomeng back." ”

Du Xiaomeng resolutely stopped and said, "No, I'll just go back by myself." ”

Seeing this, Old Man Zhan was no longer reluctant, but he still called a maid ring to send her back.

Du Xiaomeng walked out of the garden, without the stimulation of the gentle gathering beauty, and his depressed mood decreased a lot. She stopped and asked the maid ring behind her, "Are there any grapefruit in the house?" ”

I don't know why Mrs. asked this, Yahuan stayed for a while before she opened her mouth and replied, "There should be several more in the kitchen." ”

Du Xiaomeng glanced at the bright moon in the sky, turned around and walked in the direction of the kitchen. She went to the kitchen and took a grapefruit back to Jicui Garden, and after the maid who sent her back left, she dragged a small table to the open space outside the door, put the grapefruit on the small table, and sat in front of the stone steps in front of the door looking at the grapefruit that was a little unreal by the moonlight.

She sat in one position, motionless. I don't know how long she sits, but she finally moved, got up and turned around and ran back into the house, came out with a knife, picked up the grapefruit on the table and sat back on the stone steps. She cut off a circle of skin from the top of the grapefruit, then made a few strokes on the yuzu and slowly peeled the skin.

"Didn't you say you had to come back and rest for a headache? Why are you still sitting in the doorway and not going to sleep? ”

As soon as I peeled a little grapefruit peel, I heard Zhan Qi's voice ringing in my ears. Looking up, I saw that Zhan Qi had walked to a position less than a meter away from her at some point.

Zhan Qi had already arrived at the door of Jicuiyuan when she entered the house to get a knife, but she had put all her attention on Yuzu and didn't notice anyone coming.

Du Xiaomeng glanced up at Zhan Qi, then put her eyes back on the grapefruit, continued the movements in her hands unhurriedly, and asked, "You run to me so leisurely, don't you have to accompany Qiusha?" ”

Zhan Qi put a paper bag on the small table and said, "Dad said that if you don't eat moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, it won't be a holiday." I saw that you left without eating anything, so I brought a mooncake over to see if you were asleep. ”

Du Xiaomeng didn't raise his head and said, "Thank you." ”

Today she is very different from usual, her words sound listless, and people look wilted.

Zhan Qi couldn't help but ask, "Are you sick?" ”

"Nope." Du Xiaomeng's head still didn't lift half a minute, and continued to peel the grapefruit in his hand.

Zhan Qi stared at Du Xiaomeng for a long time and said, "You look very strange today. Is something going on? ”

Du Xiaomeng finally stopped what she was doing and raised her head to look at Zhan Qi. The moonlight sprinkled on her expressionless face, and fell on her eyes, which were full of strange emotions, and they were all white.

She looked at Zhan Qi for a moment, a faint smile appeared on her face, and said, "It's okay, it's just that I don't like the Mid-Autumn Festival." ”

Seeing the puzzled expression on Zhan Qi's face, she continued: "To be precise, I don't like to watch other people's families reunite and celebrate the holidays happily. The feeling of an outsider who can't fit in is annoying. ”

Zhan prayed to her, she smiled self-deprecatingly, lowered her head and said, "Why am I telling you this?" You won't understand how I feel. ”

Zhan Qi's heart moved, walked to her side and sat down, and said, "I understand." Many years ago, I had a time when I was sent to the fence. In a place that is not your own home, watching other people's families be happy, you will feel lonely, and you will have a feeling of being out of place. And those bad feelings can become very strong during the holidays. ”

Du Xiaomeng looked at Zhan Qi with some surprise, and after a long while, he said in disbelief: "You also feel this way?" In her heart, a soldier is the kind of tough guy who has a will like steel and no other distractions, even if he is an iron man and tender, he will not have such and such a little sadness.

Zhan Qi smiled and replied, "I'm also alone. ”

After hearing this, Du Xiaomeng showed a faint smile on her face, lowered her head and looked at the grapefruit in her arms without speaking.

Zhan Qi asked a little puzzled, "Isn't this already your home?" How can you be an outsider? ”

After asking this sentence, he had the urge to pick up a stone and smash himself to death. Because, as soon as this sentence came out, Du Xiaomeng's head was raised, with a faint sadness on his face, and even his eyes were smeared with a dull color.

Du Xiaomeng said faintly: "My home? I still have self-knowledge. Here, I am just an unidentified and inconsequential idler, how dare I think this is my home? ”

Zhan Qi looked a little embarrassed, he opened his mouth to say something, Du Xiaomeng took a step ahead of him and continued: "You don't need to have any ideas. I've long been used to not having a home, and it doesn't matter to me whether I had it before, whether I have it now or not. ”

"Don't you have a mother's family?" Zhan Qi didn't understand, why didn't she have a home before?

Du Xiaomeng raised her little face, faced the moonlight, and said with a smile: "Do you know? Since a long time ago, every time I had the Mid-Autumn Festival, I could only shrink in a dark corner and watch the laughter and laughter of others, and secretly envy the happiness of others. I can only be a shadow that others can't see, and if someone sees me, I will be scolded and beaten. That place where no one is a human being, not home, but hell. ”

She wasn't lying, she was talking about the five years she had spent in the mansion. Speaking of her true past, although she was still smiling, her face still involuntarily showed sadness that she couldn't hide.

Looking at the sadness on her face, Zhan Qi suddenly had an urge to embrace her thin body into his arms, but he held back.

Du Xiaomeng lowered her head and continued to fiddle with the grapefruit in her hand, tearing the pomelo peel into half of it one by one, and then slowly separating the skin from the white layer inside with a knife. She said steadily, "I've always wanted to have a home that can give me warmth, but I didn't. However, I was disappointed more often than I expected. ”

Her words made Zhan Qi's chest block inexplicably, and looking at her, his gaze became a little different.

Du Xiaomeng raised her head, smiled, and said, "Don't look at me with such eyes, I will misunderstand." ”

Zhan Qi was a little embarrassed by her saying this, but he didn't look away from her. After a while, he hesitated and said, "You can make this your home." ”

Du Xiaomeng looked him in the eye and asked, "So, what kind of identity should I take to make this place my home?" ”

Zhan Qi couldn't answer.

Du Xiaomeng stood up with a smile and said, "I'm doing well, I don't need any sympathy." Also, Zhan Qi, you can't give me what I want. ”

"What do you want?" Zhan Qi didn't think much about it and blurted out a question.

"Unique." Du Xiaomeng removed the smile on her face and replaced it with a serious expression, "The only emotion is that only two people really protect it, and there is no third party's feelings." ”

Under the moonlight, her serious face looked like reality, which made Zhan Qi involuntarily stunned.

Du Xiaomeng ignored the expression on Zhan Qi's face, stretched his waist, threw the grapefruit in his hand to Zhan Qi, and said, "For the sake of you talking to me for a long time, I'll give this to you." ”

Zhan Qi stretched out his hand to catch it, and looked at it, huh? The shape of this grapefruit is really peculiar.

Du Xiaomeng separated the skin of the pomelo from the white layer inside, and rolled them inward one by one, and now the whole pomelo looks like a blooming chrysanthemum, layered on top of each other.

By the time Zhan Qi withdrew his gaze from the grapefruit, Du Xiaomeng had already walked into the house.

"Little Meng......" he blurted out and called out her name, and subconsciously reached out to pull her, but the moment he was about to touch her hand, he stopped his movements, watched her walk in, and closed the door.

Looking at the closed door for a while, Zhan Qi stood up and left Jicui Garden with the grapefruit given by Du Xiaomeng.

Inside the house, Du Xiaomeng leaned against the door and let out a sigh.

Little Meng ......

It was the first time he had called her name. She wants to laugh, why not? Today's development is going smoothly according to her plan, the plan is going very smoothly, and her back road is also available, all of which is very good. However, at this moment, there was a little discomfort in her heart, which made her unable to laugh.

Why do you feel uncomfortable? She couldn't figure it out herself. Perhaps, it's all the moon's fault, the moonlight is too beautiful and good, it's easy to get confused.