Paper Plane - Chapter 54

“Stop playing, stop playing,” someone yelled, “It’s almost ten o’clock, and it’s time to go back after singing for a while.”

The lively atmosphere in the private room was restored again. Yang Xuan sat back on the leather sofa against the wall, picked up the bottle of beer that was placed on the table earlier, poured most of it down in one go, and then leaned heavily on the back of the sofa , He raised his head, closed his eyes, and frowned.

Tang Junhe turned his head to look at him, and reached out to shake his hand, but Yang Xuan pulled his hand away calmly.

Ying Hui kept her word, and she really sang the song “Paper Airplane”, with a gentle and lingering voice, and most of the people present were tired from the noise, so no one shouted for a while, and they all calmed down and listened to her singing.

“The prince rides a white horse, the moon is gone, and how silly the cat is chasing its tail. My childhood memories are so priceless…”

Feng Bo turned his head to look at Yang Xuan, he didn’t understand why he had reached the last step, and he was about to take a breath, but Yang Xuan stopped, obviously he was never such an indecisive person before. However, as soon as he turned his head, he met Tang Junhe’s eyes looking straight at him. On the screen wall, the MV image flickered, and the light hit Tang Junhe’s face, making him look as white as a dummy.

Those beautiful eyes were like a pair of deep cat’s eyes at the moment, when they stared at him without blinking, they were so cold that for no reason a chill ran up his spine.

Feng Bo subconsciously avoided his gaze, and when he came back to his senses, he was annoyed at what he was afraid of just now—an illegitimate child who couldn’t see the light. But when he turned his head again, Tang Junhe had already withdrawn his gaze,

“Brother,” Tang Junhe turned his head to look at Yang Xuan, and whispered, “Let’s go back.”

Yang Xuan opened his eyes and turned to look at him with his head leaning on the back of the chair. Those eyes were particularly deep because they were slightly sunken. In the short few minutes just now, there were obvious bloodshot eyes, and his voice sounded hoarse. It was startling: “Well, let’s go.”

Seeing Yang Xuan and Tang Junhe push the door out, Feng Bo stiffened his neck and remained silent, but Wang Xingchun turned to him and asked, “Brother Xuan, are you leaving now?”

“Well, let’s go first, let’s play.” His state looked very wrong, not the kind of hostility when fighting, nor the kind of irritability when patience was exhausted, it was an indescribable expression, Make him look like a different person.

“What’s wrong?” Wang Xingchun pointed to the closed door and mouthed Feng Bo.

Feng Bo shrugged, apparently he didn’t want to say more.

After leaving the door, Yang Xuan turned left and took Tang Junhe to the elevator. The elevators on both sides are going up, and there is a man and woman hugging each other standing in front of the elevator door. In the cold winter, the woman with heavy makeup is wearing a fur on the upper body, but only a leather skirt on the lower body, as if drunk , leaning against the man’s arms and acting softly.

They didn’t make a sound for a moment, waiting silently for the elevator to go up and down. Yang Xuan took two steps to the side and leaned against the window sill. He looked at Tang Junhe standing in front of the elevator, stretched out his hand to the trash can beside him calmly, let go of his palm, the blue one was deformed by his grip, and then pinched into several pieces “Smoke”, just like that, all fell into it silently.

“Ding—” The elevator came. Tang Junhe turned his head to look at Yang Xuan, who walked towards him and got on the elevator with him. The elevator was a bit crowded, and the man and woman were standing next to Tang Junhe. As soon as the door was closed, the strong smell of alcohol had nowhere to escape, and they were all blocked in this closed space. Tang Junhe unconsciously leaned towards Yang Xuan. Yang Xuan glanced at him, then suddenly stretched out his arms to wrap his arms around his shoulders, and pulled him into his arms.

This unexpected action made Tang Junhe look up at Yang Xuan in surprise, but Yang Xuan just turned his face to look at the jumping floor numbers on the small screen, and did not meet his gaze.

When they got down from the elevator, Yang Xuan withdrew his arm and put that hand back into his pocket. Electronic dance music with a strong rhythm was played in the hall, and couples of men and women who were almost drunk, staggered past them.

Pushing open the door and walking out of the KTV, the cold wind blows in from outside. Not far away, a drunk man bumps into him in a crooked manner. Yang Xuan stretches out his hand to hold Tang Junhe’s wrist, and leads him towards the side of the road. He was about to reach out to stop the taxi, when Tang Junhe who was standing aside suddenly said, “Brother, I want to go to the bathroom.”

Yang Xuan turned to look at him: “Shall I go with you?”

“No, no need,” Tang Junhe pulled his wrist out of Yang Xuan’s hand, “Brother, wait for me here, I’ll be back soon.” Without waiting for Yang Xuan to say anything, he ran away quickly.

Seeing Tang Junhe running into the KTV, Yang Xuan let out a long breath of white air. Looking towards the KTV lobby through the glass door, the men and women inside were dancing wildly, and he suddenly remembered what Feng Bo said – “Throw it anywhere and see if anyone comes to pick it up.”

Tang Junhe’s expression squatting in front of him that night, and his appearance when he just lit a cigarette flashed in his mind. There is no doubt that if he really did that, his brother would be picked up soon.

His younger brother was lost when he was a child, and he ran around the center of Runcheng City all afternoon in a panic, and finally found him. The feeling of regaining the treasure is still clearly remembered. But just for a moment, he actually thought about leaving him anywhere, and then walked away by himself. Thinking of this, he felt a little scared. If he had inhaled that cigarette just now, Tang Xiaonian would be the only one who would collapse, but also himself.

Thinking about this, Yang Xuan walked towards the KTV, stood still and waited at the door. In this mixed environment, anything could happen, and he didn’t want any accidents to happen to his brother.

***

Tang Junhe ran into the hall, but he didn’t look for the bathroom on the first floor, but ran straight to the stairs, and walked up the stairs quickly to the fourth floor. Turning out of the stairs, he turned his head to look, and confirmed that this was the place where he had just waited for the elevator.

He glanced at the position where Yang Xuan was standing just now, his eyes fell on the trash can in the corner, then walked to the corridor, and looked on both sides cautiously – no one in the class came out, so he retreated to the trash can in the corner , ignoring the gazes of those who were waiting for the elevator, bent down and looked at the silver-white metal trash can in front of him.

The trash can is square and square, and the opening at the top is tilted and flipped. When throwing out trash, you need to stretch your hand over and press one side of the lid. After looking at it for a while, Tang Junhe stretched out both hands, grasped the connection gap between the lid and the bucket, and tried to lift it upwards.

“Hey, what are you doing?” A security guard came over and shouted at him. Tang Junhe looked up at the man and said, “I fell into something, I want to take it out and look for it.”

The man frowned in disgust: “Then go find it, don’t break the trash can, you’ll have to pay for it.”

Tang Junhe came down and saw that the man was gone, he reached out and took off the lid of the trash can and put it aside. There is also a plastic bucket in the metal bucket with a black garbage bag inside, and all the garbage thrown in is put into the garbage bag. The garbage in the garbage bag was not too dirty, mostly wine bottles and cigarette butts. Tang Junhe only took a look, and saw the few pieces of blue cigarettes falling on it. He stretched out his hand and picked them up into the palm of the other hand one by one. He found four pieces in total. He looked at them in the palm of his hand and put them into the pocket of the down jacket. Then he stretched out his hand again and pulled the wine bottle on it, wanting to see if there was anything missing, and then he saw the black box.

He took out the box, looked inside, and stretched out his hand to pull out the plastic box inside. The hollow in the middle of the sponge seemed to be just enough to hold a cigarette. He turned the box over again, looked at the back, and put the box in his pocket. After all this was done, he bent down to pick up the lid, restored the trash can to its original shape, then went to the bathroom on the same floor to wash his hands, and then hurried down the stairs.

After waiting for a long time, Yang Xuan looked towards the KTV lobby. I didn’t smoke that cigarette just now, I just went to the bathroom, nothing will happen, right?

Thinking this way, he saw Tang Junhe walking down the stairs. There is not a bathroom on the first floor, so why go upstairs? But this kind of thought just flashed in his mind, and he didn’t pay much attention to it—maybe he didn’t find a bathroom on the first floor. He quickly thought of an explanation, after all, his brother was a road idiot since he was a child.

“Brother, let’s go.” Tang Junhe pushed the door out, looked at him and said.

Yang Xuan walked to the side of the road and stopped a taxi, let Tang Junhe sit in first, and then bent down and sat in again.

It was less than ten o’clock when I got home, Tang Xiaonian had finished washing and was sitting in the living room watching TV. Seeing that Tang Junhe came back with all his beard and tail, she breathed a sigh of relief, and urged: “Hurry up and go to bed, what are you running around in the middle of the night?” After finishing speaking, she went back to her room to sleep.

Tang Junhe returned to his room, took the box out of his coat pocket, and then took out the four cigarettes, and put them one by one on the groove in the middle of the sponge. The size is consistent, and there is no doubt that this small, thin box is used to store this cigarette.

He carefully looked at the words on the back of the box, and took out the electronic dictionary to look up the English words on it, and then put the box in the drawer of the bedside table. He sat on the edge of the bed, seemed to meditate for a while, then opened the door and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

After taking a shower, before his hair was completely dry, he ran to knock on the door of Yang Xuan’s room.

“Brother, what time do you go to bed tonight?” Tang Junhe sat on Yang Xuan’s bed and asked him.

“Sleep after taking a shower.” Yang Xuan got up to go to the bathroom. Tang Junhe wanted to say something, but Yang Xuan had already opened the door and left. When he came back, he saw Tang Junhe took off his slippers, knelt barefoot on the carpet on the balcony, and was lying in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows looking out.

Hearing the sound of pushing the door, Tang Junhe turned his head and said, “Brother, you can see stars in the sky tonight.”

Yang Xuan let out a “hmm”, sat on the edge of the bed and wiped his hair absently with a towel.

“Brother, come and take a look.” Tang Junhe called him back again.

“Look for yourself.” Yang Xuan said.

Seeing that Yang Xuan couldn’t come over, Tang Junhe crawled over from the carpet. The edge of the carpet was not far from the bed. He knelt straight, stretched his arms and pulled Yang Xuan’s wrist: “Brother, come and watch with me.”

There was a hint of pleading in his tone, and it was almost impossible for Yang Xuan to refuse. Yang Xuan could only put the bath towel aside, stood up and walked to the carpet, took off his shoes, and walked to the French window.

Tang Junhe ran barefoot to the head of the bed, turned off the overhead light, sat back beside Yang Xuan, and watched the stars in the night sky outside the window with him.

The clouds in the sky were blown slightly by the wind, and the moon was bent into a very thin silver hook. Looking up, the stars on the sky were distant and mysterious, echoing the snow-covered road. The room with the lights turned off was not too dark, and the silver glow scattered all over the floor was trampled under their feet.

The room with floor heating was very warm, and Yang Xuan even felt a little hot, so he lit another cigarette and started smoking.

“Brother, squat down.” Tang Junhe stretched out his hand and pulled the leg of his pajama pants.

“What’s wrong?” Yang Xuan squatted down and looked at him. Tang Junhe stretched out his hand to grab his wrist, leaned his wet head over, carefully identifying the time on the watch.

“It’s 11:55.” Tang Junhe looked at him, his eyes were bright, as if filled with stars in the sky, “Brother, we will be one year older in five minutes.”

Yang Xuan thought it was a little funny, his younger brother always seemed to make these timings serious. Birthdays too, New Years too. But what if another 5 minutes? It’s like this every year, and the new year doesn’t bring any earth-shattering, celebratory changes.

Tang Junhe stretched out his hand and held Yang Xuan’s wrist holding the cigarette: “Brother, I didn’t learn to smoke just now, can you teach me again?”

Yang Xuan looked at him, white smoke exhaled from his lips, filled the face in front of him, Tang Junhe squinted his eyes, that innocent and seductive expression seemed to be looming on his face again. Maybe if you want to arouse/love him, you don’t need that tricky cigarette at all, this kind of thought flashed in Yang Xuan’s mind.

“Brother.” Seeing that Yang Xuan didn’t speak, Tang Junhe called him again, his voice very soft. He felt that his brother’s expression suddenly became very strange, his eyes were slightly squinted, and his eyes reminded him of some kind of beast, so he unconsciously licked his lips.

“What do good students learn to smoke?” Yang Xuan dragged the ashtray on the window sill and extinguished the cigarette in his hand, then stretched out his hand to pinch Tang Junhe’s chin, and touched the wet lower lip with his thumb on, “How about teaching you something else?”