After school in the evening, Zhou Yao did not invite her companion and left the school alone.

The weather seemed to be interesting. It took a few days to clear, and it suddenly started to rain, and the dry ground was wet in a blink of an eye.

Chen Xuze knew that Zhou Yao left first, his eyes were a little thicker, and his expression was still calm. The worries on Jiang Jiashu and the others next to him could not be covered.

"She can't do anything she shouldn't do?"

"No." Chen Xuze said very sure, "She should go home for dinner today. It's okay."

Compared to caring about Zhou Yao, Chen Xuze obviously needs the worries of Jiang Jiashu and others more.

At the entrance of Class 4, the behavior was bad and the nature was bad. Chen Xuze was called to the office by the head teacher and the head teacher of his class to accept criticism.

"Bullying classmates in public! Still a girl, how can you do this?"

"Crossing your neck, is it a trivial matter? If you are not careful and use your strength, it will be a death-taking!"

"I thought you were also a sensible and good student, but it was really disappointing!"

“…”

Jiang Jiashu eavesdropped at the door of the office, and secretly got angry while listening, and cursing secretly: "Bad! Why don't those goblins come out to be fair when they mess around? Girls are amazing, girls can bully other girls, damn..."

No matter what, Chen Xuze was ordered to write a review. After being scolded, he was rushed to the front of the Teacher's Ethics Building to stand as a warning to others.

...

The convenience store near the school is open 24 hours a day. Zhou Yao bought a sandwich, squatted beside the stairs at the door, and stuttered in small stutters.

In front of her was a continuous rain curtain like beads falling. She didn't bring an umbrella. When she came out, the rain was still small. Unexpectedly, it became heavy in a blink of an eye.

The sound of rain drizzles. Zhou Yao was eating a sandwich. An old man squatting under the eaves next to her looked at her. The old man looked a little stunned and his eyes were dull.

Zhou Yao looked at him, and the old man seemed to notice her and moved his steps closer to her. Zhou Yao paused, but did not hide, just stared at his movements.

"Can you...can you give me ten dollars..."

"Ten dollars..."

The old man was a little confused, but his eyes were still dull when he spoke.

When Zhou Yao touched her pocket, she only had a few coins, and she couldn't even get the ten dollars together. She didn't say anything and shook her head silently.

The old man looked at her, and after a while, he asked the same thing again: "Can you... give me ten dollars..."

He seemed to be in a bad mood. Zhou Yao thought about it and moved a little further away from him.

There was no sound for a long time, except for the raindrops falling on the ground, the bustling noise had nothing to do with them.

The old man squatted there, like a microcosm under the rain curtain. Zhou Yao couldn't help but look at him for a while, and suddenly moved slowly, squatting a step away from him, tearing the sandwich in his hand in half, "Come on?"

What she gave him was clean, the half she had never bitten.

The old man laughed. Zhou Yao finally realized that he was obviously no longer a normal person's mind, as if he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. But he had no contact information on him, so she had to give up if she wanted to help him contact his family.

The rain slowly fell, and suddenly became heavier. The wind blew the raindrops in, and Zhou Yao's hair was dyed a little wet. Then, the rain slowly decreased, and the sound of dripping on the ground became lighter.

Zhou Yao and the old man squatted side by side, eating half a sandwich one by one, and no one despised anyone.

Before he finished the half sandwich in his hand, a group of people rushed towards the old man. From his words, it could be seen that it was his family. His family hurriedly checked whether he was injured. Seeing that the sandwich he had eaten a few bites in his hand, he quickly turned around and thanked Zhou Yao.

The group of people quickly left. On the stairs at the convenience store, only Zhou Yao was left squatting alone. There was a seat in the store, but she didn't want to go in. After eating the sandwich, she clapped her hands and stood up, looking up at the sky that was not clear.

Everyone passing by the street seemed to have umbrellas, but those without umbrellas stood under the signs of various stores, waiting for people to pick them up.

She doesn't have an umbrella, and no one will come to pick her up.

Zhou Yao put the bag on her head and rushed into the rain without hesitation.

...

"Here I'm back? Why are you covered in wet all over!"

As soon as Zhou Yao entered the house, Zhou's mother caught a glimpse of her wet clothes and frowned immediately.

“It’s raining.”

"I'll let you bring an umbrella without an umbrella! Really, I have to wash one more piece of clothing."

The mahjong hall in front was noisy, and every table should be full. Dad Zhou was drinking tea in the hall and chatting with his card friends. Mother Zhou took advantage of the time to handle housework in the house.

"Hurry up and change your clothes, I'll wash it, don't you hear it?" she said.

Zhou Yao said oh, went back to the room and changed into clean clothes, and put the wet piece into the storage basket.

"Have you burned incense to your brother?" As soon as she put down her clothes, Zhou's mother suddenly asked.

Zhou Yao paused for a moment, "No."

Mother Zhou turned her head and glanced at her, with disagreement, "Then why don't you go quickly! It's so big and I don't understand the rules at all. Your brother is alone. The incense on the platform is almost burned. Hurry up and continue it for him!"

Zhou Yao didn't say anything, and walked to the cabinet against the wall of the living room. There was an incense burner on the cabinet, and behind the incense burner was a photo of a child. The boy in the photo looked very similar to her, even more beautiful than her.

He said he was his brother, but in fact, Zhou Yao was not familiar with him. Before she could remember, her brother had died in a car accident. He was Zhou's treasure. After he left, Zhou's mother even had a whole year, and almost ended her life due to depression.

Zhou Yao lit three incense sticks and inserted them. He knocked twice, and the door was knocked. Zhou's mother went to open the door and saw that it was the neighbor next door who brought the glutinous rice cakes she made with her own hands.

The greetings between the women ended soon. Zhou's mother thanked the neighbor for her kindness and took the plate of glutinous rice cakes. Zhou's mother picked up a bowl from the plate and asked Zhou Yao to send it to the mahjong hall in front to Zhou's father.

The rice cakes are made very large, but there are only four. Zhou’s mother cut one into half with a knife, ate half by herself, and gave it to Zhou Yao. There were exactly two left on the plate.

Zhou Yao likes to eat sweets. When he was a child, he almost got his teeth decayed because of his greed for candy. After eating the half of the glutinous rice cake in the bowl, Zhou Yao's chopsticks moved towards the remaining two on the plate, but did not pick them up directly, and hesitated a little.

Before the tip of her chopsticks fell, Zhou's mother picked up the glutinous rice cakes, walked to the cabinet, and placed the plate of two glutinous rice cakes in front of her eldest son's portrait.

She muttered with heartache:

"Good, you like to eat sweet things the most. Eat a few more bites. Remember to come to the dream to tell your mother..."

Zhou Yao pinched the chopsticks and rubbed them, walked to the pool, washed them clean, and quietly put them back into the chopsticks.

...

Zhou Yao knew that Chen Xuze must have been punished, and he heard about it when he left school. He pinched his classmates' neck, especially the other party was a girl, and he was a boy. No matter what happened, he would not take any action in his teacher's opinion.

Chen Xuze was punished to write a review and asked to write a sufficient 5,000 words and hand it over to their class teacher tomorrow afternoon. Today, he was deprived of the right to go for dinner. Although the class teacher was heartbroken, he had to make an attitude and let him stand in the outermost corridor in front of the Teacher's Ethics Building until evening self-study.

When Zhou Yao arrived, he stood in the corridor, put one hand in his pocket, his face calm, without any depression of being punished.

Seeing her come, he asked, "Have you eaten?"

Zhou Yao nodded.

“What did you eat?”

"I didn't eat the leftover rice at noon, so I ate the glutinous rice cakes sent by two aunts next door."

Chen Xuze seemed to be very leisurely and asked her: "Is it delicious?"

"Delicious." Zhou Yao nodded, "Sweet."

She likes to eat sweets, Chen Xuze knows. Hearing this sentence, he seemed to smile, the curve of the corners of his mouth was very light, and it seemed like an illusion.

The green branches were still dripping with raindrops, and the eaves were flowing into the water from time to time. The edge of the corridor was almost wet.

Zhou Yao asked: "Are you hungry?"

Chen Xuze didn't react, and looked down at her who was shorter than her. After a long time, he nodded boredly.

Zhou Yao took out a pack of small biscuits from his pocket and handed them to him. He took it, but he didn't even look at it, and stuffed it into his pocket.

"I can't eat now. I'm seen by the teacher. I guess I'm going to stand until tomorrow morning." He seemed to be in a good mood, and he was so funny.

Zhou Yao smiled.

She asked, "How long have you been standing? Are you very tired?"

"It's okay, I'm not very tired," he said. "But I'm bored and want to leave."

Chen Xuze raised his head slightly and turned his neck. He was lazy and did not have the slightest restraint of being punished to stand. He was tall and long legs, and looked like a fresh scenery between the wet leaves through the gaps.

Zhou Yao glared, "You can't leave, you will be scolded if you leave at night."

"Just casually."

She glanced at him and asked, "How long will it take?"

Chen Xuze looked up at the clock on the wall of the building and curled his lips, "It's about twenty minutes."

"You have to stand up well, be good, and you will be free after class."

Chen Xuze did not agree and sang the opposite tune as he felt, "Not necessarily. I'm so annoyed to stand here, maybe I'll leave later."

Zhou Yao frowned and emphasized: "You must stand well, otherwise you will continue to be punished."

He looked indifferent.

Zhou Yao stared at him for a few seconds, looked at his light and elegant facial features carefully, and suddenly said, "Hand stretched out."

Chen Xuze did not hesitate at all, and stretched out his left hand as he said, and handed it to her.

Zhou Yao took out a black pen she carried with him from her pocket, pulled out the cover, and gently wrote a few words in his palm -

Xu, Ze, beloved.

Chen Xuze stared at the three words in his palm for a few seconds, slowly clenched his fists, and stuffed his hand into his jacket pocket.

After a long time, he finally stopped tantrums and stood up peacefully, no longer thinking of leaving early. He just raised his chin slightly and lowered his eyes to her.

The leaves rustled, making his voice seem soft and wet.

He was quiet for a few seconds and said:

"--good."
Chapter completed!