Xie Qingcheng didn't know how he fell asleep.

If it was in the past, his heart was so chaotic and the things he experienced were so messy, he would never have been able to sleep.

However, his health is getting worse and worse, and he has just received RN-13 treatment, which is a thousand times more painful than chemotherapy. sense.

He didn't want to sleep, he felt that he needed to calm down and think about the increasingly obvious inner tremor when he faced He Yu, and why.

He looked at the closed door of He Yu.

He is outside the door, He Yu is inside, and the door is not opened...

In the end, he scolded himself in a low voice, and fell back on the sofa in despair, his eyes turned to the blank ceiling, and gradually lost his mind.

Tired and painful, Xie Qingcheng, who finally fell asleep, had a dream.

He dreamed that he was trapped in a tattered puppet bear, standing in front of the Ferris wheel in the amusement park, as if waiting for someone.

He didn't know who he was waiting for, he just stood awkwardly and dilapidated with a handful of amusement park hydrogen balloons in his hand.

The Ferris wheel slowly turned, the neon lights changed, and the tourists who finished riding walked down laughing and talking, and no one paid attention to the corner where he was standing.

The tourists come in groups.

They laughed happily and contentedly, and the rag bear and his toy balloon were superfluous to them. So they can't see him.

After a while, Xie Qingcheng realized that he seemed to be waiting for someone who needed him and wanted to take the balloon from his hand.

But he seems to have some kind of magic, can't speak, can't treat each other with his true colors, can only stand like this, wait... wait...

In the sound of dreamlike playground music, a couple came down, Xie Qingcheng suddenly realized that they were his own parents, and he wanted to move his body and walk over.

Xie Qingcheng stopped in a daze.

He knew they were gone, and there was no turning back.

The second one who got off the Ferris wheel was Qin Ciyan.

Old Qin was alone, wearing the white coat he had worn all his life, looking around with a smile, Xie Qingcheng wanted to make him stop, but suddenly a child - a six or seven-year-old man appeared in the distance The big little boy, holding the cone, raised his head and shouted something to Lao Qin, but Xie Qingcheng couldn't hear it.

But he already knew who the kid was.

Old Qin stretched out his hand and held the palm of the little boy, the man and the boy gradually disappeared in the colorful lights of the paradise, they looked very happy.

It is a happiness that I have never had before.

Only Xie Qingcheng stayed in place.

It is getting dark.

The third person who came down was Xie Xue, Xie Xue jumped up and down. .

When Xie Xue passed him, she was stunned for a moment. She stared at the rag doll, as if she thought he was familiar. After a few seconds, she walked up to him, laughed, and was about to speak—

In the distance, someone suddenly called her name.

Xie Qingcheng couldn't see the person's appearance, but he knew that it was a man, the one Xie Xue wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

Xie Xue heard that person's voice, turned her head, and thought about it, she is not a child after all, whether it is a doll or a colorful balloon, it should not belong to her anymore.

She gave him a last smile, waved her childhood favorite bear puppet toy, stepped on the small white high heels, and walked briskly towards her bright future.

It was dark.

On the Ferris wheel, many people came down one after another.

There are Chen Wan, Aunt Li, and Li Rouqiu...but they all have their own direction to go, no one...no one needs the hug of the broken bear puppet, no one, When you need to break the bear puppet tightly in the hands of the colorful balloons.

The amusement park is about to close, and everyone is leaving.

He stood alone in the slump of interest, blinking slowly in the bear puppet, he gradually closed his eyes, gradually let go of his hands, and let those balloons that could not cheer anyone else flutter earth to heaven...

However—

"Dr. Xie."

"Dr. Xie."

He heard someone calling him.

He opened his eyes vaguely, but there was no one in sight.

"Look at me, I'm here."

He lowered his head, and what he saw was a neatly groomed and beautiful child, about seven or eight years old, looking up at him.

That was the first time he saw He Yu...

"Doctor Xie, why don't you go home?"

"..." He couldn't answer, he was in the puppet, in the magic.

And even if he could answer, what would he say?

He has no home.

"By the way, Dr. Xie..." Xiao Heyu stretched out his hand, he held up a small face man in the shape of a dragon, "This is what I made at the playground today... you…"

He put the little dragon face man in the pocket of Xie Qingcheng's doll suit.

The child laughed: "Can you praise me?"

"Can you give me a hug?"

“…”

Can you give me a hug…

It seems that he has heard what He Yu said countless times.

Sad, impulsive, coquettish, earnest, pleading, desperate—

He Yu's voice.

told him over and over again.

This is a lonely child, stubbornly begging for a little response from him.

Can you give me a hug? Xie Qingcheng?

Like when I held you.

The child has been waiting, waiting…

But Xie Qingcheng couldn't move, Xie Qingcheng was in the bear puppet, neither could speak nor bend down to give him any reaction.

He Yu looked into his eyes, slowly, from anticipation, to blankness, from blankness to confusion, from confusion to disappointment...

He looked at Xie Qingcheng in silence.

Then - his body gradually became transparent - he too - he also disappeared.

He will disappear too...

Xie Qingcheng suddenly felt very uncomfortable. In the dream, he tried his best to break free from the shackles of magic. ? do you know i'm in there? He wanted to reach out-

Suddenly.

The surroundings seemed to suddenly become white, colorful lights, Ferris wheel, masonry streets where floats paraded, everything faded, and it became a scene like a color lead painting.

Xie Qingcheng's eyes widened.

Someone hugged him from behind.

He didn't look back, but his heart had gone from calm, and gradually rushed to catch up with the body's response. There was a great tremor in his chest, and he could feel the familiar body temperature and smell …

He Yu when he was a child disappeared in front of his eyes, and He Yu when he grew up hugged him behind him.

Xie Qingcheng could feel his hot tears streaming down and falling on his shoulders... The tattered puppet bear was hugged tightly by the tall and handsome young man, He Yu burst into tears and whispered softly Say, "I know you're in there. Don't go."

"I need a puppet bear."

"I still want the colored **** in your hand..."

"Xie Qingcheng, give me your balloons and dolls. Will you?"

"You...turn back and give me a hug, okay..."

The moment.

At that moment, Xie Qingcheng's heart seemed to be hit by the heaviest and heaviest shock, the shock destroyed the magic tied to him and broke the shackles that made him unable to move himself .

The broken bear puppet turned around awkwardly, and looked at him silently for a long time with eyes like chocolate beans—

Then it stretched out its dilapidated arms that no one needed to rely on, and slowly... slowly lifted... Finally, it hugged the young man standing in front of him wiping tears …

"Stop crying."

The hoarse voice can finally be unsealed from the puppet, and it is difficult to flow out from his voice that has been unable to speak for a long time.

"Don't cry, He Yu..."

"Stop crying..."

Withered lips murmured, eyelids rolled - Xie Qingcheng woke up suddenly from the dream.

His eyes were still slack, and the afterglow of the dream hadn't disappeared.

He raised his hand, trembling, and touched his eyelid lightly.

He is…

What did you dream about?

The earthquake in my heart continued, affecting my limbs, and even my fingertips could not calm down.

He wiped his eyes in disbelief - hot and humid.

There are real tears.

"..." Xie Qingcheng lay on the sofa, his chest rising and falling more rapidly than usual, he still had those neon lights in his eyes, and there seemed to be the ethereal singing of the playground in his ears.

He didn't want to believe what he dreamed, the response and vulnerability in his dream.

He was even more reluctant to believe the feelings he showed at that moment...

He really responded to He Yu.

He slumped on the sofa in a daze, with no strength all over his body, his Adam's apple rolling, his eyes wide open, thinking about all this.

Thinking of the last hug in the dream, my heart is still trembling.

I don't know if He Yu left?

He turned to look at the study door, which was still closed.

"Are you awake?" He Yu seemed to be still embarrassed by what happened to the two of them before going to bed. He was not willing to look directly at Xie Qingcheng, but bent his hand to cover up. He coughed and said in a low voice, "Well, I cooked a late-night snack, and you haven't eaten it yet, right? I wanted to wake you up later. It will be soon... You are waiting for me for five minutes."

Although He Yu didn't want Xie Qingcheng into the kitchen and wanted to bring the dishes out, Xie Qingcheng went in anyway.

A casserole was simmered on a small fire on the stove, steaming hot, and there was a smell that was definitely not unfamiliar to the old Shanghai people.

Xie Qingcheng walked over and saw He Yu's mobile phone still placed in front of the stove.

Master is not very good at cooking, this is what he learned and sold according to the online recipe. The title of the recipe was also displayed on the screen, and the title was cliché and straightforward—

Make a pot of soup for your baby.

Xie Qingcheng looked away from the title, as if avoiding something.

He took the insulated wet towel, lifted the lid of the casserole, and the steam inside was bubbling out, blurring his resolute face.

The stew in the pot is really pickled and fresh.

Xie Qingcheng likes this dish very much, Aunt Li can cook it, he can do it himself, but it's not as good as his mother's cooking.

Pickled Duxian is a typical southern dish, which requires ingredients such as young bamboo shoots, ham ribs and thousand knots, but cooking this dish also requires an invisible ingredient, which is patience.

The pickled tuk-tuk is made from the sound of the soup making the rumbling sound when it is simmered slowly. During the long and patient stewing process, the freshness of bamboo shoots, the freshness and saltiness of ham, and the fragrance of spare ribs have all turned into the essence of the pot, and have been cooked into the thousand knots of Bona's various flavors.

He Yu is so cheeky, he can't hang up now, he wants to rush Xie Qingcheng out: "Don't stand here, I can't play well if you stand here, you, you first Get out."

“…”

—

"Don't stand in the kitchen and distract me, go out." Zhou Muying also said this to Xie Qingcheng before.

He Yu is like her in this respect.

Xie Qingcheng wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything, he went out.

As he sat in the living room and waited, he kept thinking about his dreams and everything that happened before.

He knew that He Yu had dug out a heart and wanted to give it to himself.

He had never seen such a passionate love before, so at first he only regarded it as a teenage whim. Not really.

He is like a king who doesn't recognize He's jade, and He Yu is a person from Huaibi who has been wronged by him. He Yu has proven time and time again that his heart is true. He told Xie Qingcheng that you are irreplaceable. If you think that it is wrong for me to love you, I can be wrong for the rest of my life, until the day I die, It also proves that I am right.

He said, every day I live, I will accompany you, every hour, every minute, every second. I love you, I will protect you, and I will be with you.

Xie Qingcheng is not a heart of stone, and it is false to say that it has not been touched. But what made him unable to break free was actually He Yu's need for him.

Xie Qingcheng is always a macho man, what he does most often and is used to doing is to take care of others. As if that was the meaning of his existence.

Xie Qingcheng thought carefully, if one day, he is gone, how will everyone around them live?

He knew that Aunt Li, Chen Nan, Xie Xue...they would be very sad, but he also believed that they could support each other and slowly come out of that sadness.

There are many bridges between them and the society. It is painful to lose one of them, but it will not be impossible to get out.

Then he thought of He Yu.

If he was gone, would He Yu still be obediently cooking soup in the kitchen? Will he still keep a fire in front of a recipe and cook a meal seriously?

If he is gone, will He Yu find someone to talk to, try his best to see a doctor, try his best to restrain himself, so as not to be swallowed up by his inner demon, he will follow another person and talk to the other person Talk about a trivial incident today and then seek a hug from that person?

Xie Qingcheng knew that it was difficult.

He Yu is too stubborn.

Even if he knows that a road is dead and dark, as long as he steps on it, he will keep going.

Xie Qingcheng closed his eyes.

He didn't expect that at the end, the remaining person who made him unpredictable in his subsequent life, and the person he was most worried about, would be He Yu.

"It's ready, try it!"

He Yu came out of the kitchen, brought a steaming big bowl, and put it in front of Xie Qingcheng.

"I'm smart, it should taste good."

Xie Qingcheng took a look and saw that it was not pickled.

The fragrant minced meat and mushroom topping covered the soup noodles, and finally several thousand knots of umami were boiled on the top, sprinkled with a handful of white sesame seeds.

The essence of pickled duxian lies in the soup and thousand knots, because the umami of bamboo shoots, ham and meat has been completely given to them.

Xie Qingcheng looked at this bowl of noodles made with pickled fresh thick soup, as if He Yu had exhausted all his enthusiasm, love and kindness, and then graciously held in front of him. He knew something was breaking down in his heart.

"He Yu."

The boy raised his almond eyes: "Huh?"

“…”

Xie Qingcheng found that he wanted to apologize for his cruelty to him before.

He was so angry at him for no reason, and a few hours later, he returned him a warm pot of soup…

Xie Qingcheng felt very uncomfortable, he really wanted to reach out and give this lonely dragon a hug.

Just like in a dream, He Yu hugged him, who was trapped in the old ragdoll bear.

But he finally endured the slight trembling of his fingertips and did not do that.

If a bridge is going to be demolished eventually, it shouldn't be the way teenagers are used to walking.

Xie Qingcheng was still very rational in the end, and looked away restrainedly.

"Let's have some too."

"I eat meat, I like meat."

"..." Who doesn't know that the marinated meat has already boiled all the essence into the soup, so what flavor is left?

But He Yu, a picky eater who is more picky than anything else, really went to scoop up some meat and bones, and sat opposite Xie Qingcheng and nibbled.

Canine.

Xie Qingcheng thought about it for a long time, and finally made up his mind and said, "...He Yu. Come to me on the weekend and I will cook you what you want. Then..."

Before he finished speaking, He Yu's joy and frustration overflowed in an instant: "Is it the weekend?...I'm going to the sports meeting on the weekend, and the school reported it to me. ."

Xie Qingcheng thought for a while: "Then let's play well. I'll talk about it next time."

"Will you come to my game then?"

“…”

"Will you?"

"I have classes on weekend mornings, I will try my best."

Xie Qingcheng said, as if he felt that the boy's eyes were too hot, so he lowered his eyes and ate the noodles.

The boy was happy again.

And at that moment, Xie Qingcheng felt so much pain in his heart...

He finally knew that he also cared about He Yu that much, but so what?

Long grief, that is too selfish and too irresponsible.

However, now is also the time to completely cut off the heart-

It's time for him to put down the kid who wants to hug the bear doll.