111 Episode 17: Travel (Part 1)

On the first Friday in June, Xia Xiqing suddenly proposed to Zhou Ziheng to take him on a trip abroad. At that time Zhou Ziheng was peeling apples for him, and the long red curly peel was broken, which made him feel a little pity.

"Where are you going?" Zhou Ziheng took a bite of the apple himself, and the crisp and juicy voice moved Xia Xiqing's heart. He took the apple in his hand, took a bite, and said vaguely, "firenze."

He spoke Italian, and this was the first time Zhou Ziheng heard him speak Italian, and he found it fresh and full of charm. The familiar syllable made him react immediately, "Florence?"

Xia Xiqing nodded, "Didn't you always want the two of us to travel together? I just want to go back and see my teacher, and I need to trouble him with something."

Ever since he learned about this plan, Zhou Ziheng has been in a state of extreme excitement every day. No matter what he does, he must spend a lot of time planning in advance, such as acting, or writing a thesis. He is a man of rigorous science. Typical rules of conduct. But Xia Xiqing is just the opposite. He is loose, free and disorderly, and he counts wherever he goes. Seeing the information collected by Zhou Ziheng, Xia Xiqing felt amused and helpless.

"Hey, you are going to my alma mater with me, not free travel." Xia Xiqing poked Zhou Ziheng's forehead with his finger, "Why do you make yourself look like a tour guide? Don't I know the way, Young Master Zhou?"

Zhou Ziheng grabbed his index finger, pulled it to his lips and kissed it, like a hummingbird kissing a slender stamen, "I know, but I also want to know the city where you went to school, so I won't be too ignorant."

"It's okay." Xia Xiqing sat cross-legged across from him, deliberately teasing him, "It's not that I like your connotation anyway."

As soon as he said that, Zhou Ziheng threw himself on Xia Xiqing in a daze, put his head on his shoulder, tilted his head and kissed the side of his neck lightly. The kiss was not enough, and he opened his mouth and bit him. The skin, and also bite the faintly throbbing blood vessels under the skin.

"Are you a dog?" Xia Xiqing said so, but his arms automatically wrapped around Zhou Ziheng's back.

"Does it hurt?"

"Okay."

So he took another bite, and Xia Xiqing gasped in pain, pinching his face with both hands and pulling him up, rubbing and rubbing on that pretty face, and then inexplicably kissed him again.

He also liked Zhou Ziheng too much. Xia Xiqing, who was breathing hard after the kiss, thought so.

On the first day of the working day, the two of them flew to Italy in a low-key manner. After more than ten hours of flying, it was already early morning when we arrived in Florence. Due to the special nature of his work, Zhou Ziheng has never traveled alone. Every time he is followed by Ronaldinho and other staff members, and there are many people wherever he goes. But Xia Xiqing is not. He has always been a loner, especially when he is abroad.

"Where is our hotel?" Putting the suitcase in the trunk of the taxi, Zhou Ziheng got into the car and stayed next to Xia Xiqing, "Is it close?"

Xia Xiqing naturally leaned on Zhou Ziheng's shoulder, "I didn't book a hotel."

"Didn't book a hotel?" Zhou Ziheng didn't believe it, "Then where do we live?"

"Sleep on the street." Xia Xiqing said with a smile in his voice. The driver sitting in the driver's seat was an Italian uncle in his fifties. His fat figure was squeezed by the small seat, but his laughter was very hearty. When he saw two young men with Asian faces, his first reaction was He spoke to them in his broken English with a strong Italian accent, but Xia Xiqing replied directly in Italian, "You can speak Italian."

The uncle couldn't help being a little surprised, "Your pronunciation is really authentic."

"I used to be a student of Fomei." Xia Xiqing smiled, raised his head, and told the driver where they were going. Coincidentally, this enthusiastic uncle lived nearby. The two chatted for a long time before he stepped on the road. Get off the gas and drive in the direction of their home in the middle of the night.

Zhou Ziheng sat on the side, looking at Xia Xiqing, the way he speaks Italian is completely different from when he speaks Mandarin, there are many lively little expressions on his face, and he always purses his lips inadvertently when he pronounces words, very quickly and lightly Squeezing it tightly, the little tongue hidden inside collided with the gums, making a playful vibrato, and sometimes made some gestures, with smiles on the corners of the eyes and brows.

"The houses here are very beautiful, and you have great taste." The uncle praised very sincerely when he got off the car.

"I think so too." Xia Xiqing smiled at him.

"Do you have a rental car?" The uncle put his arm on the car window, worrying about him.

"No." Xia Xiqing shook his head, "But I will consider renting a car tomorrow." Zhou Ziheng stared blankly beside him. He thought Xia Xiqing was so cute when he said this no, it didn't look like a crisp negative sentence in English with a strong nasal sound. The initial place of pronunciation is not the oral cavity, nor the vocal cords, but the nasal cavity.

His nose is slightly wrinkled, and there is a sticky resonance similar to em in his nasal cavity, his shoulders shrank a little, coupled with a slight shaking of his head, and finally the soft tongue touches the palate and leaves quickly, all the small details make up this A small no.

So cute, like a kitten that refuses to be petted.

"Then have fun, pretty Oriental boys."

The driver drove away and put them in a quiet alley, with beautiful houses full of Italian style on both sides. A sharp first quarter moon hung in the narrow sky at the entrance of the alley, shining a grayish white light.

Zhou Ziheng spoke, imitating Xia Xiqing's tone just now, "Did you just say no?"

Xia Xiqing's right eyebrow was raised, and a surprised smile appeared on his face. He is indeed a top student, but he just wanted to tease Zhou Ziheng, so he shrugged his shoulders, "boh~"

It was another cute modal particle, and Zhou Ziheng's heart beat restlessly again. The strange modal particle that popped out of Xia Xiqing's mouth was as painful as a little **** on the side of the road.

"And what does that mean?"

What Zhou Ziheng didn't know was that compared to a simple negative sentence, the modal particle boh is more playful, meaning "I don't know", and can be said at any time. Xia Xiqing also particularly likes to use this word in oral expression.

"boh."

"What do you mean?" Zhou Ziheng followed behind him with a suitcase. Two people walked up the green wrought iron stairs outside a beige house. The Z-shaped stairs turned back and forth twice, and finally reached the top floor. Xia Xiqing stopped in front of the blue door, turned around, and said the last time to Zhou Ziheng , "boh~"

said, he stuck out his tongue. This malicious display of cuteness is simply a blow to Zhou Ziheng's heart. Before Xia Xiqing had time to be proud, Zhou Ziheng pushed against the blue door, his arms wrapped around his waist and tightened, and his two bodies with warm body temperature were pressed together through a thin cotton jacket.

The cold white moonlight passed Zhou Ziheng's ears, illuminating Xia Xiqing's face, softening the sly smile on his face. Zhou Ziheng lowered his head, and slowly rubbed the tip of Xia Xiqing's nose with his straight nose. His voice was very deep, mellowed by the night.

"Aren't you too bad?"

Xia Xiqing raised his head, opened his full lips slightly, looked at Zhou Ziheng's drooping eyes with wet eyes, and rested his hands loosely on his hips. Let him rub so ambiguously.

It wasn't until Zhou Ziheng raised his eyes to look at him again that Xia Xiqing opened his mouth and spoke seductive words to him with the kindest and cleanest looking face.

"If you don't kiss me now, I'll be worse."

These words were mixed with too many soft voices, which made Zhou Ziheng's heart moist. Just as he lowered his head and wanted to kiss Xia Xiqing, he avoided him with a smile, "It's too late."

He found the key from his jeans pocket, lowered his head and opened the door that hadn't been opened for more than a year, and reached in to turn on the light inside first. The warm yellow light instantly filled the small suite, and the beige walls were reflected warmly and beautifully.

"What the **** does boh mean?"

Xia Xiqing expressed helplessness for his diligent hobby, picked up his luggage and walked into the room, "I don't know."

"How come you don't know?" Zhou Ziheng brought in another larger suitcase, placed it side by side in the corner with his, and then took Xia Xiqing's hand.

"Boh means 'I, no, know, way'." Xia Xiqing grabbed Zhou Ziheng's hand and pulled him to sit on the small sofa in the living room. The moment his tired body sank into the soft sofa, he let out a heartfelt cry Sighing comfortably, he looked up at the ceiling.

The decoration of this small room is very interesting. The furniture in the living room are all in beautiful Italian classical style. Even the coffee cups are as exquisite as sculptured works of art. The brick-red ceiling looks like mahogany boards spliced ​​together one by one. You can take a closer look It seems to be painted. The crystal chandelier on the ceiling refracts multicolored glazed light, forming large and small apertures on each small pendant. But this house is full of smoke and fire. There are many paintings on the off-white walls, some of them are oil paintings with strong colors, but most of them are random line drawings, which are a bit messy, and some are torn out from nowhere. The pages of the book, along with the pictures, were pinned to the wall with little silver thumbtacks.

These small details of life are all in Xia Xiqing's style. @无限好文, all in Jamie

"Is this the house where you used to go to school?"

"That's right." Xia Xiqing tilted his head on Zhou Ziheng's side neck, "I was still living here at the end of February last year."

Zhou Ziheng actually thought that Xia Xiqing should live outside the school, but he never thought that it was such a small one-bedroom apartment. But when he thought about it again, he felt that this was very similar to where Xia Xiqing should live.

"It's been more than a year since you left, hasn't the landlord rented out the house to others?"

Xia Xiqing shook his head, "The landlord is a nice old lady. I specially asked her to keep the house for me. I will pay her the rent regularly. Because at that time I didn't think I could stay in China for too long. I always I want to come back." As Xia Xiqing said, he began to let go, "The grandma is seventy years old, and lives with his wife on the first and second floors. They also have a very cute little granddaughter. Every morning, the grandma will At the door on the first floor, I sit on a small bench and comb my little granddaughter’s hair. When I come downstairs, I will raise my hand enthusiastically, ciao~” He imitated the landlady’s grandma’s way of saying hello, and smiled again.

Zhou Ziheng likes to hear him say these things, and his poor imagination can suddenly be effective at this moment, imagining Xia Xiqing quickly going downstairs with his bag on his back, greeting the old grandma.

"His wife used to be a shoemaker who repaired leather shoes. He was very good at repairing leather shoes. Many people came to him, so he often came around with his small tool box. When he came back, he always brought grandma a sprig of flowers, sometimes irises. , and sometimes roses."

"Whenever I see him arranging flowers for grandma, I think, it's so good to be alive." Xia Xiqing sighed with a smile, then fell down on his side and pillowed Zhou Ziheng's thigh, looking at the ceiling, and then floating from the ceiling to Zhou Ziheng's deep eyes.

He stretched out his fingers, and gently stroked along the bridge of his high nose, moving down to the peak of Zhou Ziheng's lips, like a paintbrush with the most gentle strokes, carefully tracing the shape of his lips.

"As long as you live long enough, you will always meet someone who can fall in love with you." Xia Xiqing muttered to himself.

Zhou Ziheng's heart beat violently, as if he had been lightly poked by this slender finger. He lowered his head and kissed Xia Xi's thin eyelids. @无限好文, all in Jamie

After resting in the living room for a while, Xia Xiqing took him into his former bedroom. The bathroom was fairly large. After the shower, the two of them changed into large T-shirts. Xia Xiqing sat cross-legged on the bed and fell silent. Zhou Ziheng helped him He blow-dried his hair, stroking the strands of hair with his fingers, and brushing his scalp gently.

"Fortunately, the landlord's grandma always asks someone to clean it for me, so I can sleep straight away, otherwise it would take me a whole night just to clean the room." Xia Xiqing looked at the wall, "But these things on the wall are too messy."

What he was talking about were the paintings plastered on the walls of the bedroom. Those were not actually Xia Xiqing's works, they were all semi-finished products to vent his emotions, and some were not even semi-finished products, just a mess of lines. Hearing what he said, Zhou Ziheng also focused on the paintings on the wall. To be honest, most of these paintings are abstract, even dark. Since he met Xia Xiqing, he has rarely seen such a style of painting. Most are refined and elegant classics.

There is a large oil painting in the middle of the bed, which is much higher than the others. The human face in the painting looks like a human face, but it is divided into many pieces by lines, just like a face in a broken mirror. The eyes are red, the cheeks are black, and the lips are pale. With different colors, there is a strange feeling.

Under his thin face, there is a black heart, which is the most realistic part of the whole painting. The blood vessels connecting the heart flow with black blood, watering the heart like venom.

Xia Xiqing stared at the painting quietly without saying a word.

Zhou Ziheng could feel his emotional changes, and the reason for this was not even clear to him, as if the hearts of the two of them were tied by a thin red thread, as long as there was a slight movement in Xia Xiqing's heart , this thread will be pulled, pulling his heart.

It seems to say, hey, the person you like is sad.

Zhou Ziheng turned off the hair dryer, rubbed Xia Xiqing's hair, and kissed the top of his head twice, "What's wrong?" He could see Xia Xiqing's eyes were looking at the painting, so he tried to ask, "Is that a painting? what."

Xia Xiqing's voice didn't have much emotion, as if he was answering what the weather was like today, "My self-portrait." Said he added, "Self-portrait from the past." It seemed that adding this sentence could make Zhou Ziheng feel less distressed. But even he himself felt that this was all useless work, so he turned around and got into Xia Liang's quilt, lying on his side and closing his eyes.

"I'm so tired." Xia Xiqing said softly, "Let's sleep."

Zhou Ziheng lay beside him, patted his shoulder lightly, trying to lull him to sleep.

But after a long time, Xia Xiqing didn't fall asleep either. Under the light of the bedside lamp, his eyelashes cast trembling shadows. Zhou Ziheng held him in his arms, giving him enough sense of security.

"Do you know why I rent this house?" Xia Xiqing still closed his eyes, he was always inexplicably stubborn somewhere.

"Because it's so small, a tiny house doesn't feel spacey."

"Well." Xia Xiqing continued, "I came to Italy almost to escape the past, but I found that after I came here, I became a person again. I was the only Chinese student in the class, and my Italian at that time was not good enough. Not so good, many times when people scold me behind my back, I can only rely on my eyes to tell."

Zhou Ziheng frowned, "What are you scolding?"

"Freak, looks like a woman, etc..." Xia Xiqing sighed, "But I don't mind that much, compared to what happened when I was a child, it's nothing. And later I became the social center of this circle , It’s quite ironic to say it.” @无限好文, all in Jamie

"But at that time, my teacher was very worried about me. He felt that I had serious psychological problems. If I kept using paintings to express my distorted heart, it would only push me into a more dangerous situation." Xia Xiqing's mouth twitched He said, "He once didn't let me draw, and asked me to travel around and study in Europe."

Zhou Ziheng thought of that painting, "So, this painting was drawn by you at that time."

"Yeah." Xia Xiqing raised his eyes suddenly, "I was like that at that time, I won't lie to you."

Of course I don't want you to see my dark side, of course I want to cover up those scars, those ugly dilapidated areas, and all the lonely times I've been weak and rotten. But how can I say that these are not me.

I have so many fake moments, but at least in front of you, I don't want to pretend anymore.

Because you showed up and gave me the love I never had. You tell me I am wonderful.

Then I'll just...let's believe it.

Xia Xiqing's consciousness gradually fell into a soft place, like a cloud, but deeper than a cloud. He vaguely felt that the people around him had left, but he didn't know whether it was a dream or reality, he felt flustered, and couldn't reach out to hug him tightly. Consciousness just disintegrated, passing by little by little.

When they woke up the next day, the sunlight had already filled the entire small bedroom, on the light blue summer quilt they had covered. The summer wind flipped the curtains, and knocked open the glass windows with a scent of double roses. Xia Xi woke up, raised his hand to cover the sun with the back of his hand, and opened his eyes only after his consciousness gradually returned to his soft body.

Zhou Ziheng was still sleeping, and his sleeping face was beautiful. When he was at home before, he always got up in a hurry, Xia Xiqing could rarely see his sleeping face, so he lay on his side and looked at it for a while. Every corner became soft when he fell asleep, like a distant mountain covered in fog.

Xia Xiqing thought about whether he should buy him some local breakfast, so he sat up, turned his neck, and prepared to get out of bed to wash. Strangely, he found a box of colored pencils on the table next to the bed, which was scattered all over the table, and there were several **** of waste paper.

Yuan didn't take it too seriously, but when he looked directly at the opposite wall for a moment, he couldn't help being stunned.

The self-portrait of myself is gone, and the center of the wall is covered with paintings. There is a clumsy and even funny painting on it. It shows the face of a boy with a bright smile, and the colors of the colored pencils are soft. , like a children's painting drawn by a child.

He walked over suspiciously and looked carefully. It turned out that there was a line of words written at the bottom, and the beautiful handwriting made the painting style even more childish.

[Portrait of Xia Xiqing. —by: Zhou Ziheng]