Hello, How Long Has This Been Going On?

Tao Zhiyue held his breath amidst a series of deciphering speculations, like drifting snowflakes gradually piling up on the branches, and the branches were deeply pressed down.

When the last question fell into the air, the overloaded branches snapped, and all the snow just fell down, swirling.

Huo Ran guessed it.

When this moment really came, Tao Zhiyue was unexpectedly not flustered.

In a daze, he thought of Huo Ran's mother. In the spacious and bright kitchen, no one else noticed his strange emotions. Huo Ran was busy stealing braised pork, so only she saw the look in his eyes and read the words inside. Nostalgia.

He felt that Mother Huo originally wanted to step forward to hug him that day, but maybe she realized that he was covering up, so she changed her movements and gently smoothed his crooked neckline.

Like helping Huo Ran tidy up his clothes many years ago.

So in those few seconds, he had his mother again.

Seeing that he hadn't spoken for a long time, Huo Ran took the initiative to ask: "Did I guess right?"

Tao Zhiyue came back to his senses, and said softly, "You are very much like your mother."

He is gentle and considerate to those around him, and has insight beyond ordinary people.

"Others are right, but the last sentence is wrong."

Huo Ran was at a loss for a moment: "You clearly knew what might happen in the future in advance, which is enough to prove that everything was designed..."

"No." Tao Zhiyue shook his head, "Do you know why I suddenly mentioned your mother?"

"Why?"

"Because in the story I know, your parents didn't divorce, your sister became a younger brother, your father only cared about business matters, and your mother preferred the younger brother, so you were not happy at home. I just want to surpass my father's achievements."

Hearing him mention the "story" so bluntly, Huo Ran was startled for a while, and quickly retorted: "This is not me."

"Yes, that person is not you. So this world is not designed, and everything operates according to the laws of nature."

"You inherited your mother's keenness, Sihan inherited her mother's liveliness, and you all inherited your father's courage and perseverance."

"These are not pale and blunt settings, they all come from everything that really happened around you, and there are traceable reasons. No one arranges your life, and our relationship is not written in the book."

Tao Zhiyue spoke slowly, but with a firm tone.

These are all his sincere words. He does not want Huo Ran, who has never believed in fate, to be imprisoned by the "power of plot".

"In the book...is this a novel?" Huo Ran recalled the conversation last night, "Yesterday you asked me what is the meaning of novel existence."

Tao Zhiyue nodded: "I only asked you, but I didn't answer."

"For me, the meaning of this novel may be to let me meet you."

"But at first, you avoided me."

"Because I haven't seen the real you, I was fooled by that bad story in the novel."

Huo Ran seemed to smile: "How bad is it?"

"Everyone is unhappy and has a very tragic past. Although the protagonists seem to be redeeming each other, the relationship line is very blunt and unnatural at all. There are many places that are illogical. The love is strange and the hatred is also strange. The supporting roles are all tool people, and the protagonist's image is also very rigid."

"This book sounds really bad."

"Really." The atmosphere became more relaxed, and Tao Zhiyue joked, "Although I have read very few novels, I think this book must be written by a novice, and even the sentences are not fluent."

"Why did he write this story?"

"I don't know, maybe, as you said last night, he is fulfilling one of his wishes."

Huo Ran kept asking: "Why is this world different from the novel?"

"I don't know, but I hope that after he finished writing, he regretted it and found that the story was poorly written, especially the line on the 7th. He has no family, so he only cares about money. Maybe his daily life is Just give it your all, as you would on the pitch. In any case, he didn't make a real mistake and he didn't deserve such a tragic end."

"It just so happened that I appeared and replaced the role of No. 7, so he disappeared and didn't need to bear that fate anymore. Maybe in another story, he will have a better life."

After hearing Tao Zhiyue's methodical analysis, Huo Ran couldn't help but said, "It would be great if this is the case."

They were silent for a moment, looking into each other's eyes under the dim light.

"It's very strange to talk about these things." Tao Zhiyue laughed, "It's as if dinosaurs that only the two of us can see suddenly appeared on the earth, and then we seriously guessed why they came back to life."

"Yeah, why did dinosaurs appear?" Huo Ran also laughed, "You came to this world suddenly, is there any accident? Or is there any special sign?"

"No, just on the usual commute to get off work."

This is the only lie he told today, and it will be the last lie in the days to come.

"Maybe it's because I'm special." Tao Zhiyue hid the real reason and joked, "You are also very special to be the protagonist. There are a hundred thousand reasons."

"Actually, I still have a lot of questions to ask, but for a while, I can't think of what to ask."

Huo Ran looked down at his hands, the palms were wet with sweat.

"Is it very cold?" He murmured, "I used to think this description was exaggerated, but now I know that when people are at a loss, their hands and feet really feel cold, as if they have lost all their strength."

"I hope you lied to me. This is just an exaggerated April Fool's Day joke, but today is not April Fool's Day, and I know you won't lie to me."

The continuous voice faded away, and the feeling of panic and loss gradually came over.

Tao Zhiyue didn't know how to use words to comfort him, so he could only return a silent hug.

He could hear the violent heartbeat in the other's chest.

Huo Ran's low voice rang in his ears.

"Someone wrote a script, but the actual content of the performance changed. But anyway, my name was written."

"I think, I need a little time to figure it out."

he said finally.

The rest of the day passed quickly.

The lawn, the smoke from the barbecue, the sound of laughter, and the spilled wine.

Huo Ran was talking to his friends as usual, his smile remained the same, and no one else noticed anything unusual.

Tao Zhiyue noticed sensitively that he looked at each friend seriously, as if to judge whether they really existed.

Sometimes he would be distracted, look down at the shadows reflected on the grass, and correspond with the people on the ground one by one to see if anyone was missed.

He also patted Huo Sihan's head very suddenly, so startled that Huo Sihan quickly took out his mobile phone and looked in the mirror, thinking that his brother had wiped something on his head.

Everyone was laughing, Tao Zhiyue also laughed, but his eyes were sore.

He seemed to see himself a year and a half ago.

After waking up, he felt that the world had played a huge joke on him, and thought it was an overly realistic dream, so he always wanted to find flaws in the people passing by to see if they were phantoms.

In the evening, the party ended and the excitement ended.

Tao Zhiyue looked at Huo Ran and said goodbye to his family with a smile, and then they set off for the airport.

By his side, Huo Ran doesn't have to pretend to be cheerful, and occasionally asks questions that others can't understand at all.

"What have I learned?"

"finance."

"Am I becoming a workaholic like my dad?"

"Um."

The plane passed through the night at an altitude of 10,000 meters, and the world under the clouds was lit with distant and tiny lights.

It's the quietest ride they've ever had together.

Arriving in the familiar Jinbei City, Tao Zhiyue returned to Room 1502 alone.

They said good night tacitly to each other in the elevator, and then separated.

This time, Tao Zhiyue didn't look for a reason. Tao Zhiyue waved at him, and watched the elevator door slowly close and go up, before turning around and looking for the key to open the door.

After his birthday that day, Huo Ran gave him the space to be alone. He thought that Huo Ran might need it more at this moment.

Compared to him who was silent for a year before slowly opening his heart, Huo Ran has already acted much braver.

No matter how much time he needs, Tao Zhiyue will wait patiently.

In the days that followed, Huo Ran would sometimes go to work in the company, sometimes travel alone, and sometimes come to the company to pick him up from get off work and have dinner together.

The two of them didn't stay together as often as before, but it was more like the time when they were in different places, always talking on mobile phone messages.

Tao Zhiyue went to work, typed codes, and left work as usual, listening to Huo Ran share his daily life fragments through the Internet from time to time.

Huo Ran revisited his old place and went to his favorite tropical island.

[Xiao Huo: I was going to the beach by car today, and for some reason I thought of a car accident, and suddenly became very nervous, and almost wanted to get out of the car on the way. ]

[Xiao Huo: The driver thought my expression was weird, and I was very defensive all the way afterwards, I still can’t explain it:(]

[Xiao Huo: The scenery seen while snorkeling is still very beautiful, I took a photo for you to see. ]

[Tao: Don't worry, it doesn't matter if I'm not here. ]

[Tao: The little penguin tilts its head.jpg]

Huo Ran dug out a lot of things that condensed the old times.

[Xiao Huo: I'm looking at our chat history, it's so long, we seem to have endless things to talk about every day. ]

[Xiao Huo: I saw the day when you said you had no sense of reality. ]

[Xiao Huo: If it were me now, I might be able to comfort you with more empathy. ]

[Tao: You are breathing, you are real, you can see the screen and the messages from me, that is the sense of reality. ]

[Tao: You said it very well at that time, and I always remember this sentence. ]

Huo Ran would occasionally joke about it during his work breaks.

[Xiao Huo: I am very busy today. ]

[Xiao Huo: I really want to find out the person in the book and let him work. ]

[Tao: No, I don’t like him. ]

[Tao: Maomao waving.gif]

On the other side, Tao Zhiyue returned to the long-lost life of living alone, but in fact he often felt lonely.

I was used to having someone to chat with after get off work every day, but suddenly I became alone again, and suddenly felt that I had nothing to do.

It’s not interesting to browse forums online, and it’s also boring to sit and watch TV.

I don't know how he spent the year before meeting Huo Ran.

Simply unimaginable.

Moreover, when Tao Zhiyue was playing with his mobile phone in front of the TV screen, he wanted to eat the watermelon in the refrigerator, and subconsciously spoke to the non-existent person by his side. Only when the voice fell, did he realize that he was not there.

You can't play games with Huo Ran to decide who is the unlucky guy who gets up to get the watermelon, he has to go by himself.

After a few days of boredom, Tao Zhiyue decided to take advantage of this free time to learn some new dishes.

When the world is blank, when you smell the aroma of food, you will feel that you should pick up chopsticks, as if there is something worth looking forward to.

He is used to cooking dishes for two people, so when Huo Ran didn't go far away, he would pack the extra portion and put it in the refrigerator upstairs for supper when he came back from overtime work.

No matter whether the dish was cooked successfully that day, Tao Zhiyue would write it truthfully in the note, draw a stick figure of today's dish, and stick it on the refrigerator door.

[September 2, osmanthus orange peel duck, the color is not very good, but the taste is good. ]

The next night, when he went upstairs to recycle the dishes, he saw the clean dishes on the table and a note with an extra line.

[tasty. What is the black mass painted next to it? Why are there yellow dots on it? ]

A dark mass with little yellow dots.

Tao Zhiyue frowned.

Osmanthus tangerine peel duck is really difficult to draw.

[September 4th, glutinous rice lotus root balls, you can save half for breakfast. You should be able to see what the painting is today, right? ]

[It is delicious and has a strong feeling of satiety. I can see that it is glutinous rice lotus root balls! ]

…

[September 8th, orange-flavored paper-wrapped fish is Longli fish, which should be suitable for fitness. ]

[The taste is so special, you can eat it often in the future. Draw like today! ]

…

[September 14th, pork trotters from hell, it seems a bit too spicy. ]

[I drank a lot of water, but it was very fragrant and I couldn't stop. Why is it called **** trotters? ]

[Because this trotter is made of radish. ]

[! ! I don't believe it, it's obviously a pig's trotter! ]

[Congratulations, you are not fooled, it is pig's trotters, who lied to you^-^]

…

When twenty-one colorful notes filled with conversations had accumulated, Tao Zhiyue received a gift from Huo Ran in return.

That day when he got off work, he came back with a bag of vegetables, turned on the light in the living room, and saw a huge box on the dining table, with a blue note on it, slightly curled up.

Tao Zhiyue suddenly became a little nervous.

He went to the kitchen to put down the dishes, washed his hands, wiped off the water drops carefully, and took a deep breath before approaching the dining table.

It was a huge jigsaw puzzle box with a thousand pieces. There was no pattern on the surface, it was pure white, and the position to put could only be judged by the shape of the pieces, but each piece looked similar, like a clueless mess. of fog.

Tao Zhiyue took off the sticky note with some surprise, picked it up and read it.

It was Huo Ran's familiar handwriting.

[I just came back in the afternoon, but I have something urgent to do in the evening, so I went to the company again. ]

[Actually, I still haven’t figured it out, but when I’m in a daze on the road, I always think of the gifts in the refrigerator, so I can’t help but wonder what I’ll eat on the day I come back. After thinking about it, I forget other things. ]

[I have eaten for nothing, and I should bring you a gift. I saw this puzzle in the store. I hope you won’t want to hit me when you receive it. ]

He also drew a crooked jigsaw puzzle next to it, probably a little uglier than the sweet-scented osmanthus tangerine duck.

[This puzzle is difficult, and finding the answer is also difficult, maybe we can work together faster. ]

[Wait for me to come back to eat supper^-^]

[Not going back upstairs, but going home. ]