1. A room that has not been opened for a long time
The setting sun took away the last trace of its afterglow, and its fine light quickly filled the tall buildings in the distance like fireflies.
The boy sat on the low wall of his yard, staring blankly at the velvet curtain-like night.
The yard is not big, with a stone table and four stone benches in the middle. There are several pots of carefully cared for flowers placed under the east corner.
"Jiang Qiao, what are you looking at?"
A crisp sound came along the breeze, and the boy withdrew his gaze and turned to the source of the sound.
In front of the courtyard wall is a long and narrow bluestone road, and each household relies on this path to form an alley.
A girl wearing sportswear and a high ponytail was standing at the entrance of an alley not far from here, with beads of sweat on her forehead, as if she had just returned from a run.
Perhaps because he was too bored, Jiang Qiao rolled his eyes and said something a bit joking: "Look at you."
"You're bored, just do it!" I don't know when the girl had already walked under the courtyard wall, patted Jiang Qiao's dangling calf with her hand, and at the same time handed the bag in her hand up.
"Here, I just bought it from the door of No. 1 Middle School. It's freshly baked."
Jiang Qiao glanced into the bag, which contained two boxes of plum blossom cakes. The fluffy surface was dotted with sesame seeds, pine nuts, jam and other ingredients.
He casually took out a box, and as soon as he opened the lid, the rich fragrance immediately came out.
Cheng Ruoxi was holding a bag in one hand and supporting the courtyard wall with the other, kicking on a few bags of cement under the corner and sitting on the courtyard wall with a vault.
The two of them just sat like this, dangling their feet and puffing out their cheeks while eating, and occasionally giving friendly smiles to the neighbors passing by.
In fact, it was mainly Cheng Ruoxi who smiled, while Jiang Qiao would only nod silently to say hello, and then look at the sky in the distance in a daze.
Ever since he could remember, he and Cheng Ruoxi had lived in the same alley. They were classmates in kindergarten, elementary school and junior high school.
Until Cheng Ruoxi went to the best high school in the city, No. 1 Middle School. Then he went to the second-ranked high school, No. 2 Middle School.
Because this high school promised him a scholarship that was enough to cover tuition and living expenses. Perhaps out of a teenager's inexplicable self-esteem, he wanted to try to survive on his own.
"Hey, have you finished your homework? There are only two days left during the vacation." Cheng Ruoxi swallowed the cake in her mouth and continued.
"Nope."
"Don't copy the answers. I'd rather not write them than copy them." The girl arched his shoulders.
"Tsk, when did I ever do that kind of thing?"
"I believe you," Cheng Ruoxi smoothed her hair, "Didn't my uncle send me a message this morning, telling you to study hard...are you having a tantrum with your uncle again?"
"What did he tell you?" Jiang Qiao ignored the last sentence and stared at the neon lights in the distance.
"Study hard, eat more vegetables, fruits, meat, and don't stay up late..." Cheng Ruoxi actually opened her fingers and started counting.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Jiang Qiao quickly stopped, "That's it, why does he tell you everything?"
Cheng Ruoxi stared at him and said nothing.
…
After Jiang Qiao finished eating the plum blossom cake, he twisted the entire cardboard box into a ball, aimed at the trash can opposite, and threw it away.
Successfully missed.
"Do you have the qualities?" Cheng Ruoxi jumped to the ground with one hand on the courtyard wall, patted the dust on her butt, then picked up the paper ball and threw it into the trash can.
She stood under the bright streetlight, no one was around, only the sound of water was still ticking.
"What are you having for dinner?" she asked.
Jiang Qiao touched his belly and said he was full.
"I knew you were always so casual." Cheng Ruoxi put her bag of pastries on the wall of the courtyard. There was more than half left in it, "Eat this too."
She turned around and left with the light behind her, and then turned back halfway: "By the way, uncle also said that you should pay attention to the hygiene at home, and remember to tidy up those rooms and so on."
This time she really left. Jiang Qiao looked at her back and the ponytail swaying behind her head until she turned a corner.
Jiang Qiao jumped down with the bag and walked straight into the house.
Turning on the light, Jiang Qiao lay down on the sofa and took out the box of plum blossom cakes Cheng Ruoxi gave him and processed them one by one.
Letting it cool does not affect its overall taste.
Although this is an old house, the interior decoration is exquisite and comfortable.
Jiang Qiao has lived with his father Jiang Hanlin since he was a child. He has never seen his mother since he was five years old. Neighbors said that his mother could not bear the marriage and left. He had no impression of this.
After that, Jiang Hanlin became very silent and traveled all over the world with the engineering project team, sometimes not being able to return home once a year.
From then on, Jiang Qiao was entrusted to the Cheng Ruoxi family. When he was a child, Jiang's father would bring several large bags of things to the Cheng family every time he came back, leaving a fee.
After reaching junior high school, Jiang Qiao returned to his own home, eating and doing laundry alone. However, Jiang's father would still carry things to Cheng's house once a year.
The father and son rarely communicated with each other. At first they would ask some questions about life, but in the end they had nothing to say.
Naturally, Cheng Ruoxi acted like a telephone receiver.
She would bring some food over from time to time. When Jiang Qiao was away, she would squat at the entrance of the courtyard, or simply climb over the courtyard wall and sit in the courtyard waiting. Sometimes she would come over to help Jiang Qiao wash the quilt on weekends, as if she was a close friend.
My sister's style.
After entering high school, Jiang Qiao worked hard to study for his poor self-esteem.
But no matter what, every time the city takes the college entrance examination, his ranking always fluctuates between 50 and 100, while Cheng Ruoxi... is firmly in the top three in the city.
But they are both in the top five of their respective high schools. It must be said that the difference in strength between the two high schools is sometimes greater than the difference in color between two pastoral dogs.
The gap in educational resources and IQ sometimes really makes a big difference.
…
It was almost eight o'clock, and Jiang Qiao had already finished the meal. While playing the news on the TV as BGM, he took out his chemistry textbook to review.
With the sound of TV news as the background sound, he will not feel too bored and lonely when reviewing.
Halfway through, he remembered what Cheng Ruoxi had told him, to do a general cleaning of the whole house, especially the rooms that he had not been in often.
This house has two floors, with several rooms on each floor. The second floor is used as a storage room, so there is no need to organize it.
There are two bedrooms on the first floor. Apart from Jiang Qiao's own bedroom, there is only one on the east side.
Jiang Qiao tilted his head and looked at the room diagonally opposite to his left. The door was closed, and the word "福" on it was dimmed and tilted.
That was his parents' room before. Since his mother left, he has gone in only a handful of times. The last time he went in seemed to be a few months ago. Moreover, Father Jiang would not enter this room every time he came back.
Go live on the second floor.
Jiang Qiao didn't know when he walked to the door, and a thin layer of dust fell on the door handle.
Do you want to clean it? The slanted moonlight shines in from outside the door, illuminating the somewhat deserted yard.
Let's go in and take a look. Jiang Qiao held the door handle and twisted his wrist.
What's going on? Why is the door handle so tight? Has it not been moved for a long time? Jiang Qiao exerted a little force, but the handle didn't move at all.
Locked?
Jiang Qiao hurriedly found the key, but after trying for a long time, he still couldn't open the door.
A few layers of sweat broke out on his forehead, and his heart gradually became impetuous. An uncontrollable thought came to his mind: This door must be opened.
It's okay to be humiliated by a door.
The voice of the news channel host on the TV floated in front of his ears: The temperature trend across the country is very abnormal, and residents must take measures to deal with it.
But he couldn't hear anything. He held the handle with both hands and twisted it hard. At the same time, he pressed his shoulders against the door and pushed in, almost using all his strength to suck milk.
The wooden door began to tremble, and the gap beside the door slowly became larger, and a bright blue light suddenly appeared along the edge of the gap.
He felt that what he was pushing was not a wooden door, but an ancient and heavy bronze door.
The angle gradually widened, until he could roughly see the scene behind the door.
Jiang Qiao was stunned.
Behind the door seemed to be another world. The bed, table, chairs, and fluorescent lamps in his memory almost no longer existed. They were replaced by a simple blue crystal chandelier, a half-person-high long table carved with mysterious patterns, and a long table.
Bottled potions of various colors are boiling on the table...
and a broom flying toward him in the air.
Damn it! Jiang Qiao screamed in pain, his forehead was hit hard, and he staggered to the ground.
A frightened female voice came from the shadow under the light behind the door, like a frightened oriole: