After leaving the door, it was still early, and the four of them stood at the bridge, looking at each other, not knowing where to go next.
East Alley is considered a small scenic spot in Weicheng, but since it is a residential alley, there are only a handful of small vendors in it and there are no entertainment projects.
A small river running from west to east divides the east alley from north to south. An ancient eight-character bridge spans the river. There is a small pavilion next to it. Usually, there are many adults fanning themselves, drinking tea, eating fruits, chatting and playing chess there. . On such a hot day, Tao You and the others were not interested in joining this organization.
"Then where should we go next?" Tao You asked hesitantly. If they want to go home, that's fine with her.
Tao You had planned to leave Grandma Tang's house not too early, and they were probably going home. Her house was close, so she could go to the bookstore to enjoy the air conditioning for a while, and then go home after dinner.
"I don't want to go back so early." Hong Xiqi put one hand on her hips and covered her forehead with the other, looking up to the sky, but she didn't have any thoughts.
"I didn't even take a few pictures with the camera I brought." Gu Yi fiddled with the camera in his hand.
"Let me take a look at what you took." Hong Xiqi came up to take a look. "Ah, why did you take the picture of me so ugly? You deleted it! Help me take some new pictures here."
Gu Yi didn't mind the trouble and helped her find a few suitable locations to take photos.
"Xiao Youyou, you come too." Hong Xiqi greeted Tao You, "This is our first time hanging out together. We want to take pictures as a souvenir."
Tao You has always been a bit resistant to the camera. When she was a child, her parents pressured her into taking photos. She rarely took photos after entering junior high school. But looking at Hong Xiqi's joyful smile, she suddenly became less averse to the camera. She walked forward and stood next to her.
"Tao You, don't freeze your face and smile." Gu Yi spoke from behind the camera.
Tao You rubbed his face to relax his muscles and showed an official smile. After taking the photo, the corners of his mouth immediately dropped.
"Song Yimian, Tao You, take a picture of you two together. You are reunited after so many years. For such a memorable event, you must keep a picture. This is the place where you often played when you were children. What a coincidence!" Hong Xiqi stood next to Gu Yi and directed the two of them.
Song Yimian put one hand on Tao You's head, standing casually.
"I'm not short! Aren't you tired like this? What a look!" Tao You stood aside and arranged his hair.
Song Yimian lost his support and staggered.
"I'm not tired, this height is just right." Song Yi said reluctantly, and put his hand up again.
Tao You hurriedly hid aside, unconvinced and looking for an opportunity to fight back: "You are just taking revenge! How can you be so petty? I just took pictures of you when you were a child, and how can you remember it for so many years? Ah!"
Song Yimian avoided the hands and feet that came to her body and responded to her: "You still remember! Because of that time, when I went back, my mother complained about my height for more than half a month, and she kept giving me weird food. The stuff made me grow taller! She even wanted to take me for a paternity test because of my height! If I don’t get it back from you, I’ll be at a loss!”
With the previous lessons learned, Hong Xiqi and Gu Yi tacitly took a few steps back to avoid a second accidental injury.
"Snap! Quick, quick, quick." Hong Xiqi suddenly felt inspired, "If I don't take a photo now, I will wait until later. I will definitely use it in the future."
Gu Yi obediently took several photos in succession.
"Well, these photos are pretty good." Hong Xiqi and Gu Yi stood under the tree, selecting photos, "send them to me."
I also deleted a few pictures that I thought were not good-looking. Gu Yi raised his eyebrows and watched her movements, without telling her that he had uploaded these photos to his phone just now.
"Do you accept it? I'm asking you whether you accept it or not!" Here, Tao You locked Song Yimian's neck with one hand and pressed down, and held his hair with the other hand, staring, with the word 'little bully' written clearly on his face.
"Come on, obey, let go." Song Yimian bent over, a little tired, and his scalp hurt from being pulled.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you're so domineering." Hong Xiqi almost applauded Tao You and took out her mobile phone to take a picture of the scene.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you're really good at acting." Gu Yi also raised his camera to record this moment.
Tao You and Song Yimian finally stood up, but they were still secretly competing with each other on their hands.
"Shoot!" Song Yimian shouted to Gu Yi. He tried hard to control his expression. Tao You pinched the back of his hand, which probably caused bruises.
Gu Yi took a perfunctory photo, glanced at the photo casually, and put away the camera.
"Ding ding ding." Tao You's cell phone rang.
It's Chen Lian.
"Hey, Tao You, I'm at the entrance of Dongxiang." Chen Lian spoke very quietly.
"Oh, let's come out to pick you up." Tao You waved to the three of them and walked outside, "Wait there for a while, we'll be there soon."
Only then did the four of them remember that Chen Lian hadn't come yet, and they were all planning to go home.
"I even forgot that Chen Lian is coming too." Hong Xiqi patted her forehead and said.
"I also forgot to tell her that we have already come out. We can't let her go back home." Tao You also felt sorry.
"Chen Lian."
Tao You and others walked to the entrance of the alley and greeted Chen Lian.
"I'm late. I have something to do at home. I'm sorry." Chen Lian smiled apologetically and clutched the strap of her schoolbag tightly.
"Um," Tao You was a little unable to speak, "Chen Lian, um, Grandma Tang's family suddenly came back just now, so we came out first. I'm sorry for not telling you in time."
Chen Lian's smile froze for a few seconds, she blinked quickly, and said dryly: "No, it's okay. Are you going back?"
"Do you want to go shopping?" Tao You and Hong Xiqi looked at each other, "Let's go together."
"You haven't been here before, so go check it out. It just so happens that I haven't been here for a long time." Hong Xiqi said, "It's just that there are no entertainment projects here."
Chen Lian felt uncomfortable being pulled inside, and she didn't look carefully along the way.
The sun was shining closely on a few people's heads, without a trace of wind, and their heads were buzzing from the sun, so they wanted to find a place to rest and drink some water.
"Hey, Xiaoyouyou, there is a bookstore here."
Five people stopped at the door of the bookstore.
"Jianlanxuan, what a unique name. It just opened? I've never seen it before." Hong Xiqi became interested, "Let's go in and have a look."
"Okay." Tao You nodded and told her plan, "I brought some homework with me. I originally wanted Grandma Tang to come here and sit here for a while to do her homework."
After hearing this, the remaining four people looked at Tao You simultaneously.
"What's wrong?" Tao You was a little flustered and couldn't help but explain, "My home is close, there is air conditioning here, it's quiet, and there are snacks. I just wanted to do my homework for a while before leaving."
"What a coincidence," Hong Xiqi opened her schoolbag and showed it to Tao You, "I also brought my homework and planned to go to the library next to my house."
"I brought it too." Chen Lian also unzipped her zipper and felt better now.
Gu Yi patted his schoolbag and Song Yimian's schoolbag, "We both brought them too. This bookstore is quite good. We come here often and we are familiar with the guy at the bar here. We can get discounts." .”
Tao You thought to himself, "No, this is where I first met Song Yimian when I came back." Also, is it popular nowadays to bring homework with you when you go out to play?
She deeply felt that she needed to work harder and did not want to be left behind.
"Then let's come back after shopping." Tao You said, we agreed to go out to play, but we couldn't let Chen Lian do her homework as soon as she came out.
"It's okay. There's nothing to go shopping in, so let's go in and do your homework." Chen Lian didn't want to go shopping anymore. It was very boring. She regretted running so far until she saw the bookstore.
"Then go in." Hong Xiqi opened the door first and went in.
"Oh my God, this is amazing." She looked around and sighed.
"It's so big." Chen Lian also exclaimed in a low voice. It was the first time in her life that she had seen such a stylish bookstore, and she looked at everything in the store curiously.
The five people hesitated for a few seconds between the second floor and the first floor before decisively choosing seats in front of the bar.
"Brother Chen, you are at work today." Gu Yi lay on the bar and greeted the waiter inside.
"The shift schedule has changed." Brother Chen came over and gave a can of Coke to Gu Yi, "There are so many people here today. Are you a friend?"
"Classmate." Gu Yi replied, "I'll give you a discount later."
Brother Chen nodded readily, "Okay, you can order your own drinks and food."
Gu Yi thanked him and returned to his seat.
"Can he make the decision?" Tao You was a little uneasy, "I'll give it as promised. Can he advance the money?"
"Old customers here have discounts, not to mention veterans like Gu Yi." Song Yimian answered Tao You.
"A veteran," Tao You nodded. He didn't expect that a person like Gu Yi would like to come to a quiet place like a bookstore so much. He thought he liked going out with friends the most. People should not be judged by their appearance.
"Before I came here, I spent most of my time looking for a place to play games. I couldn't have fun at home with my mother taking care of me." Gu Yi smiled playfully.
This is right, this is the Gu Yi that Tao You knows.
Hong Xiqi brought a tray with several cakes and said, "Xiao Youyou, you pick one."
"Didn't you just finish your meal?" Gu Yi didn't understand. "Are you not full? You also ate a lot of the pastries you brought."
Hong Xiqi chirped a few times, "Dessert after dinner."
"Hey, didn't you just finish your meal? Aren't you full? You also ate a lot of the fruit you brought." Seeing Gu Yi reaching for the cake, Hong Xiqi choked it back without saying a word.
"Ahem." Gu Yi cleared his throat awkwardly and glanced at Hong Xiqi: "Snack after dinner."
"Tch." Hong Xiqi expressed disdain for his behavior.
Chen Lian looked at the four of them and found that she couldn't get into the conversation, "Have you all brought something to grandma?"
"Oh, there's nothing." Tao You thought of what he said before, "There's no need to bring it with you. Grandma Tang just said something to us."
Chen Lian forced a smile. When she lowered her head and opened her homework, her smile completely disappeared.
The five of them stopped chatting and all lowered their heads to write their homework seriously.
Time passed, and when Tao You looked up again, a large red-orange fire cloud hung on the horizon, and the small river sandwiched in the middle of the alley was sparkling and dyed the same red-orange color.
A ray of setting sun spreads over the water, half of the river is rustling and half of the river is red.
This poem popped into Tao You's mind, which had little stock of poems. He felt in his heart how good he was at applying what he had learned, and he laughed unconsciously.
"Why are you dazed? Are you done with your homework?" Song Yimian heard her laughter and tapped her head with a pen.
"Hey, try again!" Tao You threatened, covering his head and glaring.
Song Yimian ignored her threat and took her homework book, "Can't you do these questions? Let me explain to you?"
Tao You snatched the notebook back and covered up the empty topic: "It's none of your business! I can do it myself."
Song Yimian laughed, "As your deskmate and monitor, I should help you. Don't worry, I won't laugh at you."
As he spoke, he pulled the notebook over again, put a piece of scratch paper on it, and began to calculate and explain.
Tao You is not stupid. Someone took the initiative to teach her questions, so she just continued. She happened to be stuck on these questions.
On the other side, Hong Xiqi bit the tip of her pen and frowned as she looked at the math problem in front of her, unable to write for a long time.
"Master Gu, can you tell me something?" Gu Yi leaned over and glanced at the question and asked kindly.
Hong Xiqi glanced at him and pushed her homework book in front of him.
Chen Lian, who was sitting in the middle, raised her head and looked at the four people on both sides who were discussing the topic. She clenched her pen tightly. Unexplainable emotions came to her heart. She left several deep scratches on the draft paper. After I calmed down, I turned over the page of draft paper as if nothing had happened and continued writing my homework.
"Xiaoyou." Boss Tong walked over with a smile, "Come and study."
"Hello." Tao You twitched her lips, not knowing what to say. She only remembered this strange bookstore owner when she entered the bookstore. She didn't expect to meet him again by such a coincidence.
The boss and his boss carefully looked at Song Yimian, who was sharing the topic with Tao You. His smile faded and he asked Tao You, "Are these your classmates?" His eyes did not leave Song Yimian.
"Well, yes." Tao You nodded, not really wanting to pay attention to him.
Boss Tong nodded slightly and looked at Tao You with a bigger smile, "Study well. They are all good students. Then you continue. If you want to eat, just tell Xiao Chen and I will charge it to my account."
"Um, thank you." Tao You's boss had already left before he could say his words of rejection.
Song Yimian frowned, feeling that there was something indescribably weird about the way his boss looked at him just now, which made him feel uncomfortable all over. Looking at the boss's figure disappearing into the stairwell, he turned around and asked Tao You: "Who is he? What are you doing? Did you know him when you were young? How did you meet him? Are you that familiar? Are you free of charge?"
Tao You was thrown several questions in a row.
Looking at the curious faces of the other people, Tao You sighed and explained the previous meeting clearly.
"He is the bookstore owner." Hong Xiqi recalled the appearance of the same boss, "Well, it seems different from what I thought. But he is a nice person, and he gave us a free order."
"You actually know the boss here! I've been here so many times and I haven't even met him, let alone known him." Gu Yi said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? What kind of discount do you want? Hey, can you help me? Go and tell me if you can sell Ai Jiu’s new set of comics to me at a cheaper price.”
Song Yimian still frowned and reminded Tao You: "You should be careful and don't foolishly trust strangers. If you come here in the future, you have to tell me and I will come with you."
Tao You gave Song Yimian an affirmative look: "Of course, I'm not stupid, how could we meet by chance every time." As he said that, he took a spoon to dig into the cake in front of him, but found that it was already eaten. Haven't eaten enough yet. She smashed her mouth and put down the spoon.
Song Yimian handed his cake to Tao You: "Eat it, I'm not hungry."
Tao You was not polite, picked it up, took a big spoonful and put it into his mouth.
