After arriving home, Luo Binhan still had countless troubles to deal with. Zhou Yu had already gone to the laboratory and only left a note in the living room, telling Luo Binhan that he was temporarily fostering the parrot with an acquaintance. He also wrote down the other party's contact information, but Luo Binhan did not intend to cause additional trouble for the time being. He helped Yu Xiaorong carry the extra clothes to the guest room and asked her to pack them as she liked. Then he looked around for Fina, and finally took it out from the gap between the curtains and the wall.
"What are you nervous about?" he asked, holding it up with both hands. The ghost lizard stared at him motionless, in a very alert state. It obviously doesn't like outsiders invading its living space. When Zhou Yu came last night, it hid under the sofa glumly and refused to come out no matter how loud Luo Binhan screamed. In comparison, its reaction to Yu Xiaorong was mild. Luo Binhan guessed that Zhou Yu might be contaminated with some kind of smell, disinfectant or anesthetic, or something like that.
"Don't bite me suddenly." He stroked its head, "Now is not the time to play tricks with you."
As soon as he put Fina on the back of the sofa, Yu Xiaorong walked out of the guest room. Before Luo Binhan could block her view, Fina swooped under the sofa.
"What is that?" Yu Xiaorong asked.
"Lizard, I told you."
"It moved too fast."
"It's a rare breed." Luo Binhan said pretending not to care. Yu Xiaorong, on the other hand, lay down next to the sofa, pressing his cheek to the ground, peeking at what was going on under the sofa. "Don't get so close, it might scare you and bite you. This thing is a bit poisonous."
Yu Xiaorong still lay there motionless. Luo Binhan watched her reaction with trepidation, a little afraid that Fina would suddenly stick out her tongue and touch her cheek or even her eyes. Fortunately, she didn't do anything more likely to irritate wild animals. She just stood up from the ground gently.
"What breed is it?"
"I don't know either." Luo Binhan pretended to be stupid and said, "It was given by someone else."
"who?"
"The chief of a small African tribe. A very trustworthy person. He accidentally took the wrong thing from me, so he gave me his pet as compensation."
Yu Xiaorong crossed his arms, and it was written all over his face that she knew he was talking nonsense. "You said it was poisonous?"
"It's not fatal. But if you are bitten by it, you will be stiff for a long time, so don't mess with it. I will lock it up when the cage comes later."
"Is it legal?" Yu Xiaorong asked coldly, "How did you bring it across the border?"
"It was delivered by express delivery." Luo Binhan said, "Aren't you convinced? Go call the police and arrest me."
Yu Xiaorong rushed over and strangled his neck. They were fooling around for a few minutes when Luo Binhan's new cell phone rang. The person who delivered the fish tank had already arrived at the gate of the community. He immediately took the opportunity to escape and urged her to move the things upstairs together. After they finished setting up the fish tank, the cage for Fina arrived again. Out of compensation, what Luo Binhan finally bought was not a dog cage, but a multi-layered cat cage with a rather complex structure, enough for the small animals inside to climb up and down. But the thing was not as easy to assemble as he thought, and they even argued over where a screw should be inserted.
"Fixed wheels!" He tapped the universal wheel in his hand.
"Top cover!" Yu Xiaorong grabbed the cover part in her hand, "It must be the top cover! If it is the screw that fixes the wheel, it must have at least four of the same..."
She suddenly stopped talking and looked at the sofa in surprise. Luo Binhan turned around to look and found that Fina had slipped out from under the sofa at some point and was staring furtively at the unfinished cage. The brown scales are dotted with diamond patterns, just like the pillow underneath it.
Yu Xiaorong looked at it in surprise. "Will it turn into an ambient color?"
"Yes, can't you?" Luo Binhan took the opportunity to tighten the screws, "Have you never heard of a chameleon?"
"Chameleons don't change colors like this! They change colors based on mood and temperature... How many other colors can it change? It must be on the list of rare animals."
"Protect yourself." Luo Binhan replied perfunctorily. He had devoted all his energy to the business of tightening screws. The regrettable thing was that this time he seemed to be really wrong. The thickness of the screws is a little off, and they can't be tightened firmly no matter how hard they are. He threw it away in frustration and secretly replaced it with another one, and this time it was the right one. But once you get the first step right, the rest will be much simpler. He smoothly put together the entire cage by himself.
"How is it?" He turned to ask Yu Xiaorong. It turned out that she was standing motionless in front of the sofa. For a moment, he thought she had been paralyzed by Fina, and hurriedly walked over to help her lie down.
"Shh!" Yu Xiaorong's eyes stared at the lizard for a moment. The latter stared back at her like a rock. The atmosphere between them made it difficult for Luo Binhan to get in.
"What? Are you seeing the right person?"
"You really don't know its breed?"
"Some people in the local area call it the ghost paralytic lizard, but you don't expect to find out its scientific name based on this."
"It may be a species that has not yet been discovered." Yu Xiaorong whispered, "an endangered creature. Are you sure it grew up in Africa?"
Luo Binhan was surprised to find that Li Li might be right. Somehow, Yu Xiaorong was fascinated by Fina, even though her appearance was far from cute. Fina's attitude towards Yu Xiaorong is not too bad. After all, it is a very smart animal, and it seems that it can also judge the relationship between Yu Xiaorong and the owner of the house. So it waited for a while, then tentatively moved from the sofa to the ground.
Yu Xiaorong stepped away in cooperation, and it slowly walked towards the newly erected cage, eager to try at the open door of the cage. Luo Binhan wanted to take the opportunity to close the cage door, but Yu Xiaorong stopped him.
"Why lock it up?"
"What a joke!" Luo Binhan said, "Then what's the point of buying this cage?"
"He likes it quite a lot."
Fina has already gotten into the cage, climbing on the staggered platform to watch. Yu Xiaorong put his hands in his pockets and stood outside the cage looking at it intently. Now Luo Binhan was sure that she really liked it.
"What's its name?"
"Fina."
"how old are you?"
"I don't know that."
"I will find out if it is a new species." Yu Xiaorong said firmly.
Luo Binhan didn't take this sentence too seriously. Even though he called Yu Xiaorong a troublemaker, she wasn't ready to call the police and arrest him because of a mysterious lizard. And she could figure out Fina's origin on her own? That is something that cannot be accomplished in a whole year, ten years, or a hundred years.
"Rongren, it's not a dog." He had to declare, "I'm not kidding, it can really make you unable to move for a whole day. Even if it's not fatal, it will make you feel uncomfortable for a long time. If we don't lock it up, then you have to take the risk, understand? It doesn't treat you as a member of the family."
"I will keep a distance from it." Yu Xiaorong said, "Just worry about your own business."
Luo Binhan still had some doubts, but he also understood that sixteen years old was different from eight years old. On matters that had nothing to do with principles, he had better let her make her own decision. So he walked into his bedroom and started to deal with the things he had to do at work. He listed the people he had to meet this week, flipped through the group's annual reports for the past two years, and wrote down a few questions about expense figures. After finishing these few small things, two hours passed.
He resolutely closed the computer and was about to go to the living room to see if Yu Xiaorong had fallen asleep when he suddenly remembered something.
"Where are they?" He asked to himself, first lying down and looking at the drawers under the bed. Inside were various rarely used certificates and documents, various insurance policies related to himself, thick shoes and socks worn only in autumn and winter, and even a box of comic books and story tapes. In that pile of documents, he could find diplomas from elementary school to university, but there was nothing he needed. Finally, he had a flash of inspiration, got up, opened the bookcase, and took out the file box containing copies of Zhou Yu's paintings and photos from the deepest part.
"Yes!" he said, pulling out a high school graduation yearbook with gold characters on a black background. He took it back to the bedside and sat down to look through it.
At the front of the memory book is a class photo. Everyone is wearing the same dark blue uniform and has the same simple hairstyle. It's not easy to recognize among the faces smaller than a soybean. After many years, he could only identify himself, Zhou Yu, and several other boys' names with relative certainty.
He continued to turn his head back. The rest are all freely combined photos of multiple people. A photo of him and Zhou Yu. Funny photos of the entire boys dormitory. Except for one of him standing on a chair, pretending to scatter flower petals to Zhou Yu and Zhou Yu in front of him (these two people were of course unaware when the shutter fell), there is really no other girl in these photos. This is not surprising. In their strict management high school, no one would invite students of the opposite sex to take a group photo without any reason before graduation.
He flipped through the last two "Photos with My Favorite Teachers", and sandwiched between the back covers were a dozen pieces of colorful stationery, which were the so-called "Graduation Classmates". Luo Binhan never understood the meaning of this thing, because they already had a classmate chat group at that time, but this kind of paper commemorative notebook was still very popular at the time. It seems to have started among girls. They will take some exquisite and fancy little books and invite every classmate to fill in their name, birthday, zodiac sign, zodiac attribute, contact information - and even their classmates' impressions and blessings!
This is not about commemoration at all. Luo Binhan believes that the essence of this behavior is human beings' natural enthusiasm for collecting cards. Therefore, unlike taking commemorative group photos, everyone who makes this kind of paper classmate record will be keen to collect more names, so that every familiar or unfamiliar classmate, as long as they are not annoying, can explain their blood type and zodiac sign, and write Write comments and blessings to yourself. In return, they actively pass out fancy papers with their own messages and blessings on them.
Luo Binhan himself had never made such a classmate record, but he had to explain his birthday and metaphysical attributes in the stamp books of more than a dozen people, and he also received gifts from the owners of each classmate record. This was definitely the day he received the most ink from female classmates. Due to the fatigue of repeatedly filling out forms, he did not study the blessings or comments given to him on these papers at the time, but in the end he still maintained the bottom line of alumni friendship, which was to collect these old papers that were destined to be no longer used. In the memory book.
Reliving the memories of his boyhood gave him a strange experience. Perhaps because he is still young, he has no desire to return to those days of campus life, but the pain and troubles of youth are nothing compared to what he will experience as an adult. What he felt was a faint sense of fear and disgust, like looking at himself in the mirror after a night of partying. Shallow, ignorant, exaggerated, and so embarrassing that people cannot bear to look at him. Looking back at his teenage self was like watching a stupid wild animal, and he didn't even dare to think about what he had written in his essays or diaries at that time.
However, when he looked through these student records one by one, what he read seemed to be another life. In the comments of his classmates, this person is cheerful, enthusiastic, sports-loving, funny, and popular... Who is this person writing about? Luo Binhan thought in confusion. He repeatedly confirmed that he did not make a mistake in taking the classmate address written to someone else. But maybe these are clichés, they just give each student modular praise words, like a blood type and horoscope personality book.
A piece of lake-colored letter paper came into his eyes. The quality of this paper is very good. It feels thick and smooth, with a shiny oily waxy luster on the surface. There are lavender primrose patterns embossed on the four corners, and the pen words written in dark green ink look like new. Luo Binhan picked it up and saw "Shi Qi" written in the name column, followed by birthday, address and phone number. Her zodiac sign is Aries, and her blood type column is empty. Maybe she doesn’t know it herself.
He continued to read down, and as expected, the second half was also "a message from a classmate." In the center of the empty white box, the former owner of the letter wrote in an overly square but somewhat rigid handwriting:
Happy Graduation!
"Ah?" Luo Binhan said. He turned the paper to the back and looked at it. There was not a word on it. So he turned it over again and stared at that sentence, lost in thought. He really had no more impression of Shi Qi. It seemed that she was not the type with a unique and unforgettable personality. However, this letter gave him a hint, that is, Shi Qi might have social phobia. Happy Graduation. The stiff and deep handwriting shows that the writer was not only unhappy at the time, but probably quite nervous. As for why a social terrorist would spread his message to classmates with whom he was not close, he had no idea.
Maybe Shi Qi wanted to show friendship to him because something embarrassing had happened between them. And since she is willing to do this, it means that at least she does not hate him. The embarrassment was purely unexpected. Their little grudge had completely turned over, maybe it had already turned over on graduation day, but he didn't notice it at the time. Thinking of this, he stuffed the particularly delicate piece of letter paper back into its original place and put the entire souvenir album back into the depths of the bookcase.
"Do you remember the past, sir?"
This time Luo Binhan was not surprised at all. He turned around and saw Li Li, made a shushing gesture, then walked to the door and peeked outside to confirm that Yu Xiaorong had entered the guest room.
"You can't wander around casually when my sister is here." He closed the door and whispered, "Be careful what you say. Also, don't stand at the head of my bed while I'm asleep."
"I don't intend to cause trouble." Li Li said, "But everything in the room will enter my surveillance. Sir, I think you should know this."
Luo Binhan stared at her helplessly. He has made the greatest concessions to his privacy. Now every day he goes to the bathroom farthest from the bedroom to freshen up and dress, and he tries not to look inappropriate in the bedroom. There was almost no place in the house where he could relax.
"Have you met my sister?"
"Yes."
"What's your impression?" Luo Binhan asked with some emotion, "She will stay in the same room with you all day and give you gifts. Do you still like her?"
"This doesn't pose a problem to me." Li Li smiled, "Look on the bright side, sir, I can monitor her movements for you, especially when she explores your bedroom."
Luo Binhan already has two monitors, Miffy and Fina. However, he also believed that in terms of the meticulousness of his observations and the sincerity of his reports, Li Li was far more useful than the other two spies. He finally became happy and felt that Yu Xiaorong's right to privacy could not be stronger than his own. If my brother has to face a super-intelligent surveillance camera in his bedroom every day after get off work, then it’s fair for his sister to be miserable.
"I noticed you were flipping through the memory album." Li Li said, "What reminds you of the past?"
"It's nothing, I met an old classmate...it was quite emotional."
Li Li asked him to explain in detail what happened. This story was originally a bit private, but Luo Binhan really wanted to talk to someone now, and Zhou Yu was not around. So he sat down and told Li Li about today's experience at the flower and bird market, as well as several past events from high school that he remembered. Li Li acted as an excellent listener as always, asking a few weird questions from time to time. She asked him if he remembered Shi Qi's past preferences and what they had said.
Luo Binhan couldn't answer any of these questions. He really didn't pay attention to Shi Qi. She was not the best or the liveliest in the class, nor was she as out of the ordinary as Zhou Yu. They never selected the class beauty or class leader at all (to be honest, he didn't even know who was doing this). Now that he was trying to think back, he could only vaguely remember that her family was from a good family, but few of his classmates were from poor families. He could only tell Li Li that her art scores might be good because she had a painting that was posted on the display wall together with Zhou Yu's works.
"What did you draw?" Li Li asked with interest.
"How do I remember this?" Luo Binhan said vaguely, "Landscape? Still life?"
"There must be a picture left in your head, sir. Otherwise you wouldn't remember the picture at all."
Luo Binhan looked up at the ceiling. He only remembered Zhou Yu's paintings. Her talent for painting, which she inherited from her father, emerged very early. After all these years, the painting hanging in the center of the display wall is still vivid: a pot of hibiscus flowers blooming on the wall. The edges of the petals are curled and blackened, like burnt ashes.
Who can forget easily? It is extremely difficult to believe that the hot passion and the hidden evil flowed out from under Zhou Yu's slender and cold fingers. People looking at the display wall can only see this painting, the fiery red flowers rolling among countless colored lines. Other works are blurred and hidden, like stars in the daytime or a few ink spots around a black hole, which cannot attract attention at all. Luo Binhan was about to give up searching for the answer, but the scene during the day appeared before his eyes: the icy blue ceiling in the distance, the rippling water shadow, and the bowl of lotus floating quietly in the celadon vat.
The lens of memory suddenly zoomed in closer, or should I say took a step back. He finally saw that there were indeed other people's paintings around the burning red flowers. Of course it is also beautiful, but it is inevitably a bit bleak. It's not entirely because of the hibiscus flowers, because this painting does not have strong colors to begin with. It is just a black and white painting drawn with pencil or charcoal. It is a dark vein of stems and leaves, thin lines of petals, and shadows as light as veins. A large, abrupt blank space.
Luo Binhan got close to this painting in his memories, wondering if the signature and inscription were what he thought. In fact, he had never looked at this painting in detail in the past, but it was undoubtedly Shi Qi's work. It was one of the paintings that was praised by the art teacher in class for its charm.
"Lotus." Luo Binhan said thoughtfully, "I guess this is her preference."
"The interesting thing is that the pattern on your letterhead is primrose, sir."
"Then what's the problem? Can people only eat one dish in their lifetime?"
Li Li didn't speak, but responded to him with her meaningful smile. Luo Binhan firmly believed that this person was playing tricks again.
(End of chapter)
