The rain kept falling, dripping, and the air was damp. When Shen Yigong and Song Qi arrived home, they were both drenched in the rain. Zhao's mother heard the sound and called Xiaoqiang to hold an umbrella and run out to pick them up. Shen Yigong took the boy's hand and took him into his arms, and took the black umbrella and propped it between them.

When I entered the house, I heard Zhao's mother say: "Oh, is it going to rain nine times out of ten with such a loud thunder today, why don't you two even take an umbrella." ”

Shen Yigong looked down at the wet footprints he stepped on, the mud stuck to the bluestone ground in front of the door, and then turned his head sideways, and saw Xiaoqiang take a towel to him: "Dad, you're all wet." ”

He took two and the other for Uncle Song. Zhao's mother put away the umbrella and shook off the water, and went into the kitchen to make ginger tea. Shen Yigong asked Song Qi to go upstairs to take a shower first, and he came over to look at Xiaoqiang's homework book on the table: "It's almost the final exam, right?" ”

Xiaoqiang nodded and sat back at the table. In fact, he also has a desk in his own room, but there is an electric fan in the living room that can blow it for him and Zhao's mother.

"Next Monday's final exam, I will take Chinese and mathematics first, and then science."

Shen Yigong watched him pick up the pen and write neatly in the notebook, and rubbed his head: "Okay, then you can do it." After the exam, my dad will take you to the stone pond to eat fish. ”

Xiao Qiang raised his face and his eyes lit up: "Chef Yang's sea bass? ”

"Just eat Chef Yang's sea bass." Tilting his head and seeing Song Qi standing on the stairs looking at him calmly, Shen Yigong added, "Take your Uncle Song to eat together." ”

The child nodded again and again, finished writing the homework book in his hand and closed it, and the word "Shen Qiang" was written in the name column on the cover. After a few years of getting along, Shen Yigong really treated Xiaoqiang as his own son, two or three years ago, Xiaoqiang changed his mouth and called Shen Yigong "Dad", and when he heard it for the first time, this iron man inexplicably felt a sour nose.

Song Qi glanced at the father and son, grabbed a towel and wiped his wet hair, turned upstairs and went to the bathroom. Shen Yigong followed after a while, stood outside the door, and sighed with him: "Xiao Song, let's not take Lao Wang's affairs home." ”

Song Qi stood in front of the mirror but took off his clothes like no one around: "Do you want to stay in the bathroom and watch me take a bath?" ”

Shen Yigong pursed his lips and didn't speak. Song Qi unbuttoned his shirt and paused slightly, squinting at him: "You really don't plan to leave?" ”

Shen bowed his head and closed the bathroom door. He leaned behind the door and continued with Song Qi: "There are things that should be kept secret or still kept secret, Xiao Song." ”

Song Qi turned on the faucet, waited for the hot water to fill the bathtub, he sat naked by the bathtub, tilted his head to listen to Shen Yigong's voice coming through the wooden door of the bathroom.

"We are responsible not only for the people who died, for their relatives and friends, but also for the people around us. We have faith, we can be fearless and sacrificed, but there are people who don't need to bear such a heavy fate, so let them go, okay? ”

Song Qi's fingertips gently flicked the rising water line.

"I'm back, here-I'm just Shen Yigong, the chairman of Penglai's domestic market, and you're just Song Qi, a playwright. Okay, Xiao Song? ”

Shen Yigong brushed back the wet hair scattered on his forehead and tapped on the bathroom door. The sound of water stopped and he heard an answer from the bathroom: "...... I must, obey your orders and arrangements, Director Shen. What can I say but 'yes'? ”

Shen Yigong stretched out his hand and pressed lightly on the door, hesitated for a moment, and finally didn't say anything more. In March last year, Lao Lu sent Song Qi to his house, when Liang Qingwen had already moved out to live, although he didn't say it explicitly, but Shen Yigong knew that the other party should have found an apartment where he could go on a private date with You Yiman. In the past two years, as the situation has become more tense, the tenants in Shen Yigong's apartment building have begun to leave Shanghai one by one. He didn't advertise anymore, so it's not too lonely for him, Xiaoqiang, and Zhao's mother to live.

Lao Lu told Shen Yigong before he came last year that he was a young gentleman who wrote articles, and Yan'an attached great importance to him, and Mr. Wood had also read his articles when he was in Shanghai and thought it was very good. It's just that the situation in Shanghai is grim now, and I hope that Mr. Shen can provide protection for it temporarily.

Shen Yigong naturally said okay. However, he doesn't often read articles, and even if he reads newspapers, he only focuses on those economic and political content, and rarely reads literary works, mainly because he doesn't have this foundation, and he can't talk about the level of appreciation. Liang Qingwen is very clear about this, so everything in the company that needs to be appreciated is taken care of, and he never needs to bother with Shen Yigong. Shen Yigong often laughs at himself for being a reckless man who can fight and make money, which is actually true. Therefore, it is impossible to guess who will come. Who wanted Lao Lu to bring someone the next day, but he was startled.

Song Qi greeted him first, and Lao Lu saw that the two of them knew each other, so he didn't introduce much, and left after a few words. Shen Yigong carried his luggage upstairs for him, said a few words of greeting, and asked about the situation. The last time we met was in the spring of the 21st year of the Republic of China, before Japan sent troops to Shanghai. At that time, Song Qi was accompanying a handsome and tall young man to Penglai Market to buy clothes, and when he met Shen Yigong to come down to inspect, he invited them to a meal. Shen Yigong listened to Song Qi's introduction, the young man's surname was Zhou, and when he saw him again this time, he asked casually, where is Mr. Zhou?

Song Qi frowned for a while, and shook his head wordlessly. Shen Yigong didn't want to ask too much. He saw that Xiao Song had lost a lot of weight, and his face had lost its luster compared to a few years ago, and it was very likely that it was related to that Mr. Zhou. Shen Yigong is not good at asking about people's privacy, he doesn't say it, and he doesn't ask much.

Zhao's mother cleaned up the room for Song Qi, and he stayed at Shen Yigong's house so far. There are two paintings hanging in the room, which read, "The blood is fertile and the grass is fertile in the Central Plains, and the cold and condensed earth is springing." Song Qi said that this is Lu Xun's poem. Shen Yigong mentioned that he had read this gentleman's article. Although many of them can't read it, they have read it.

Lao Lu said that he hoped that Shen Yigong could protect Song Qi, but at that time he didn't understand that Mr. Xiao Song, a bookwriter, could provoke anyone, and he really waited for him to get along, and then he realized that Mr. Xiao Song has a good temper on weekdays, but it doesn't mean that he can be soft when he writes articles and scolds people, and he opens a literary salon at home every few days, closes the window and points to the blue sky and white sun flag, and scolds Lao Jiang for being a lackey of imperialism and being ashamed. Shen Yigong sometimes listened to it next door, and he couldn't laugh or cry. He didn't know if it was because he was old or what was going on, but listening to the noisy noise of this group of young people, he suddenly found that he seemed to be slowly, slowly missing some kind of spirit to hate, refute, and rebel.

He hated the Kuomintang's policy of "settling the outside world before securing the interior," and felt that it was extremely shameful for those soldiers who pointed their guns at ordinary people, but he gradually buried all this in his heart, made plans step by step, and achieved his goals by safer and easier victorious means.

Even like today, Song Qi asked - "Why can you be so ruthless?" ”

Suddenly, Shen Yigong felt that his attitude was like that of the man who looked at him coldly. Calm and calm like him, he deploys everything in the shadows, and then waits quietly for the moment when the prey falls into the trap.

And the one who can yell and scream regardless of it, and can cry bitterly anytime and anywhere...... Young and strange, it feels like a world away. In retrospect, he was too inadequate and naïve, and the man who had been able to accept him endured all this, but also wore down his sincerity. That memory has been too long, and when I think about it again, it looks like a dream on a winter day.

A snow, a fireworks; A kiss, a promise.

It's so beautiful, Shen Yigong didn't realize until he was thirty years old why Huo Zuo was so sincere and frightened at that time. The things he gave Huo Zuo were so beautiful that they were fake, and they would be wiped out anytime and anywhere.

That's the love of a young man. Pure and fragile, as indestructible as a rock, but as precious as an ephemeral flower.

Over the years, they have rarely had the opportunity to meet above, they are like a completely divorced couple, each of them is fine and does not see each other, if there is a business cooperation must have some exchanges, then when the past no longer exists, in business, there is no more other communication. There may also be some repressed things that must be endured and there will be an undercurrent surging between them, but the interests, history, emotions, and betrayals that can be built on top of them...... Too many and too complicated things pressed between them, across the layers of mountains, or rushing rivers, and the slightest bit of warmth that had been left was washed away.

They never had the chance to sit down and smoke a cigarette again.

They didn't smile at each other as tacitly as before.

Time can change many things, from tree rings to the development process of a country. Time separates the people who once loved each other, makes the unswerving love that once ended miserably in the marriage, and also makes the rich hatred of Zeng disappear.

Time has also allowed those lies to surface little by little.

When Cheng Changyu was about to leave the Huo Mansion, Huo Zuo said to him: "You let Xiao Xu bring the two children to breakfast tomorrow morning." ”

Cheng Changyu's back paused slightly. After a while, he turned around with a smile and nodded to Huo Zuo: "Okay, this is no problem." Xiao Xu and the girl have been talking about you before, and I will bring them over when I come tomorrow. ”

"Okay. It's good that you know. Huo Zuo lay down on the couch again, and he waved his hand to signal him to close the door and retreat. The door creaked shut, the light in the room was not turned on, and only the small glass lamp on the small table in the darkness was there. The flames in the glass lampshade swayed up and down, teeth and claws greedily swept through the transparent cover, and tried to escape again and again, but in vain. The lamp illuminated half of Huo Zuo's face, but it was generally sunk in rich black. He opened his eyes slightly, looking gloomily and calmly in the direction Cheng Changyu left, his brows furrowed, as if he was thinking.