Berry Muffins

Chapter 6

06

"My mother would transfer her living expenses one after another before. Later, she immigrated, and we lost contact. Later, my grandma was gone. It was my aunt who took me back to her home. In fact, my aunt was very good to me, but my uncle did not. I like me so much. After all, suddenly there is a Mi Chong who comes to eat and live in the house, and it is normal for him to be unhappy."

After hearing Tao Lan's words, Lu Yuqing felt an indescribable feeling in his heart: "Is the money enough? If not, I..."

"It's okay." Tao Lan hurriedly interrupted him, "I used to work part-time at Jiekou Cake Shop during the winter and summer vacations. If it wasn't for this year's third year of high school, the owner's sister told me to prepare for the college entrance examination first and stop working part-time. And I have already Think about it, I will also look for a part-time job during the summer vacation after the third year of high school, so it really doesn't matter. You have helped me too much, don't embarrass me anymore, okay?"

Lu Yuqing looked at him, and the faint distress in his eyes became more and more obvious.

"Don't you wear a hearing aid?" Lu Yuqing asked suddenly, he had seen Tao Lan so many times, it seemed that he had never seen him wearing a hearing aid.

Tao Lan seemed to remember something unpleasant, and shook his head lazily: "I don't usually wear it. I wear it when I am listening to English."

Lu Yuqing asked puzzledly, "Why don't you wear it?"

"Some people find it very strange." Tao Lan pinched his fingers subconsciously, with a bitter tone, "I don't want to be treated as a different kind, that feeling is very annoying."

Lu Yuqing frowned.As someone who has experienced it, he naturally understands the messy things between middle and high school students.

Tao Lan's looks and personality are already soft in the group of boys. If he wears a hearing aid again, he may be regarded as a different kind by those who are interested.

"It would be too tiring to live while caring about what other people think." Lu Yuqing said suddenly, "You don't need to care about the opinions of idiots, but you will suffer the harm if you don't wear a hearing aid. Is this really okay? ?”

Tao Lan looked at him, and found that apart from the usual tenderness in his eyes, there was more sadness in his eyes.

"Actually, when I saw you for the first time, I was taken aback for a while, because you really look like my brother."

"Huh?" Tao Lan was stunned for a while, this was the second time Lu Yuqing said that he looked like his younger brother.

Lu Yuqing lowered his eyes and looked gentle: "To be precise, he is the younger brother of the neighbor's family. We grew up together."

Tao Lan sighed softly.

"He's actually a few months younger than me," Lu Yuqing smiled, pursing his lips, "but he always looks like he's not growing up."

"He was not in good health when he was born, and he was sick and hospitalized every three days. So I am always used to taking care of him and protecting him." Lu Yuqing's eyes drooped, and his tone was calm, "Although he is in poor health, he has a good personality. But she is very nice, very polite and gentle, she is always hurt but still loves to laugh."

Tao Lan blinked, his eyes focused on Lu Yuqing's face.At this moment, Lu Yuqing was immersed in his own memories, his expression was gentle but his eyes were full of sadness.Naturally, he didn't realize how much longing and nostalgia were hidden in Tao Lan's eyes.

"He dropped out of school in the third year of high school, because his body really couldn't support it anymore." Lu Yuqing was immersed in the memory, with a look of remorse on his brows, "Obviously he was tortured in the hospital repeatedly, but I was still smiling at my family and friends, but at that time I really couldn’t spare much time to see him, and I couldn’t be with him when he was undergoing such painful treatment.”

Tao Lan opened his mouth, but he didn't know how to comfort Lu Yuqing, so he grabbed Lu Yuqing's hand in desperation.

The original rejection of physical contact seemed to be invalid on Lu Yuqing's side.

The boy's hands are well-articulated and his fingers are slender. They are very beautiful, and Tao Lan also likes them very much.

"I only saw the letter he left me later, in which he was still making fun of me. He said that I was always too cold and didn't like to laugh, and I looked fierce and not easy to approach. Let me change, let me Make more friends so that I can live a good life."

Tao Lan seemed to have a bad premonition, he opened his mouth slightly, and asked softly, "Is he okay?"

"Well, at least there is no need for painful dialysis and surgery now, and he should live well in another world without illness and pain." Lu Yuqing lowered his eyes lightly, but his tone was full of sadness.

Tao Lan bit her lower lip subconsciously, and slowly tightened her hand holding Lu Yuqing.

Lu Yuqing rubbed Tao Lan's long bangs with the other hand, and nodded his eyes.

"The eyes are very similar, as are the tear moles at the end of the eyes, and the mole on the neck."

In fact, the facial features are not very similar, but the temperament of the two people is very similar, which belongs to the kind that acquaintances will be taken aback at first glance.The tear mole at the end of the eye and the small mole on the Adam's apple seem to grow in the same place.

That's why when they met for the first time, Lu Yuqing lost his mind for a moment, and he couldn't help smiling at Tao Lan: "Fate is really amazing."

Only at this time did Tao Lan understand why Lu Yuqing was so kind to him.

Maybe he is very good to everyone, but to himself, after all, he has added a little guilt and thoughts to his brother.

After eating, Tao Lan took out his hearing aid from his pocket and slowly put it on his ear.

He turned his face to Lu Yuqing, and asked in a dazed and unconfident manner, "Isn't it really strange?"

"Well, it's very cute." Lu Yuqing took advantage of his height and looked down, and could clearly see the cute hair on the top of Tao Lan's head.

He leaned down slightly to Tao Lan's ear, and asked softly, "Can you hear me now?"

The boy's voice was low, and because it was too close, it had a slightly tingling taste.

Tao Lan's ears turned red unconsciously, and he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.

"Are we good friends who share each other's secrets?" Tao Lan suddenly looked up at Lu Yuqing and asked seriously.

Lu Yuqing couldn't help laughing, and subconsciously pinched Tao Lan's delicate and delicate nose, just like what he did to Xiaoran before, the sudden movement shocked people a lot.

Tao Lan covered his nose and glared at him, seeming to realize that what he said just now seemed to be in the middle school, so he closed his mouth regretfully.

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Before the end of the vacation, Tao Lan went to a nearby barber shop to have a student's hair cut casually. After the cut, the natural maroon fluffy short hair was well-behaved.

Before going out, he looked at the mirror in the bathroom, turned his face to observe the hearing aid on his ear, finally took a slow and deep breath, rubbed his face and went out the door.

In fact, he lied to Lu Yuqing that he hadn't worn a hearing aid since high school, not even for exams, even though his English listening was a mess.

But he is not afraid now.

It's no longer hearing at the same time and not hearing at the same time. The hustle and bustle of the street can't wait to seep into his ears. Tao Lan lowers his eyes and smiles only when he occasionally meets acquaintances.

He briefly wore a hearing aid during the military training before entering the freshman year of high school, and then a boy in the class reacted particularly exaggeratedly to him, which disgusted Tao Lan, and he stopped wearing it since then.

Even so, he had a hard time in the first year of high school.

Zhou Linchuan arrived a bit late today, and after entering the school gate, he was blocked by bold school girls, who forcibly collected a paper bag of sandwiches and milk tea.

When he came to the classroom, he almost stepped on it. When he walked in from the back door, he happened to meet Tao Lan throwing garbage, and he saw the things Tao Lan was wearing on his ears at a glance.

Zhou Linchuan raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

As soon as Tao Lan opened the homework and papers to be written in the evening self-study, a paper bag was pushed over the table.

Tao Lan: "?"

Zhou Linchuan glanced at him casually, and tapped the desk lightly with his fingers, the meaning was obvious.

Tao Lan pursed his lower lip and handed him the completed National Day homework.

He sat on Zhou Linchuan's left hand side, and every time Zhou Linchuan gave him something or asked him for something, he usually made some noises under his nose instead of speaking directly into his right ear, which saved some embarrassment.

Tao Lan looked at the beautifully printed paper bag, and looked at Zhou Linchuan hesitatingly. This person was like this every time, when he received gifts, snacks, etc. from girls, he would casually stuff them with his cronies, or throw them away by the way. Give it to Tao Lan in exchange for copying the paper.

Zhou Linchuan didn't show strange emotions about his hearing aid, and Tao Lan was quite grateful to him for this.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that the boy who hated him stopped picking on him in the first year of high school because of Zhou Linchuan.

After Zhou Linchuan kicked that person out of the door of Class [-] classroom, he had no face to come here again.

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Soon it was autumn, and the weather became capricious.

The college entrance examination is getting closer, and Tao Lan is used to wearing hearing aids in and out of class. The students in the class don't make a fuss, but occasionally a few girls ask him what it is.

Sure enough, unprovoked malice is a minority after all.

The weather is cold, Tao Lan is wearing a dark blue long-sleeved school uniform inside, and a black and white school uniform jacket outside. He wears a lot of clothes, but he doesn't look fat at all. He is indeed too thin. The girl at the front desk also said that he The figure of a cardboard figure, the kind that disappears when the wind blows.

In fact, he really eats a lot recently, on the one hand because of the college entrance examination, he has to take good care of his body, and on the other hand because of Lu Yuqing's feeding.

Being told to eat breakfast well, Tao Lan couldn't help thinking that Lu Yuqing really thought of herself as a younger brother.

But what I feel for him is not all my longing for my brother.

The longer he gets along, the more he yearns for the warmth that this person gives him, even if he treats everyone well, it doesn't matter, what Tao Lan extravagantly wants is this little bit of tenderness.

It was very late when I came home from the evening self-study. Although the 24-hour convenience store near my home was still open, most of the food on the shelves was empty.

Tao Lan missed a tuna rice ball for supper, and took a carton of strawberry milk for an unprecedented time. He ordered the wrong food for dinner, so he didn't eat much, and his stomach was already hungry.

It happened that Lu Yuqing sent a WeChat message to ask him if he was home, and Tao Lan took a photo of the things in his hand and sent it to him.