Just a tattoo.

"What are you looking at." Xie Qingcheng finished washing his hands, took two pieces of tissue paper and wiped them clean, and lightly glanced at He Yu.

Teenager He Yu then asked, "Dr. Xie, on your wrist ......"

Xie Qingcheng's eyes darkened as he looked down and noticed that his sleeves were rolled up too high, exposing the upper part of his wrists, so he immediately tried to lower them.

But the second half of He Yu's question was already out, "What is the text?"

"......" Xie Qingcheng paused for a few seconds, loosened the cufflinks with a stern face, tugged the cuffs flat, and browed his eyes indifferently, "Those who sleep here are known as Shuishangshu (水上書)."

"Why did you text this? Do you like graves?"

Xie Qingcheng rolled his eyes and lifted his wrist to re-set his cufflinks properly, "I like Keats."

He Yu at that time and Xie Qingcheng talk back not much, although the heart of the thought is "you like Keats also do not need to put his epitaph on the arm", but see Xie Qingcheng face is not worried about the color, obviously do not want to talk more nonsense with him, so also did not ask more questions.

Presumably Xie Xue liked his brother's weird taste in carrying epitaphs on his body.

With this in mind, the teenager went to a tattoo parlor near his school that night.

The smiling shopkeeper greeted him, holding several large thick atlases for him to see, he lowered his head and searched for a while among the pages of gods and goddesses, sprites and fauns, interrupting the shopkeeper's eloquent recommendations.

"Is there an epitaph?"

"The most popular is this flying dragon tattoo, look at the finger claws, the - huh? An epitaph?"

Such a weird thing, of course, the tattoo parlor does not have samples, but the owner of the store has seen a lot of all the world's cow ghosts and snakes, to tattoo customers have made a thousand strange requests, so only after a short period of astonishment, and then warmly recommended him: "epitaphs do not have, little handsome if you like a little bit cooler text, the six-letter motto is quite hot."

He Yu smiled very civilly, "I'll find it myself then."

He ended by giving the shopkeeper three lines of poetry--

Nothing of him that doth fade.

But doth suffer a sea-change.

Into something rich and strange.

"This long could hurt for a long time, and there's a few more lines of text to go, so why don't we find a shorter one?"

He Yu said, "It's okay, I'll take this one."

There is a shorter Latin epitaph on the poet's grave, but he wanted a long line exactly like Xie Qingcheng's, like a bracelet around his wrist, so he chose this section of the poem carved on the tombstone.

Nothing about him ever goes away.

Just sunk in a sea of fickleness.

It was transformed into a prosperous and splendid treasure.

The shopkeeper rolled up He Yu's sleeve and was shocked: "Oh, you have a lot of scars here! What happened, handsome? Did someone bully you in school? It seems to be full of scars."

He Yu frowns, "Can't you text with a scar?"

"Yes, of course you can, or I'll tattoo you this one on the most visible scar and still cover it ......"

"There's no need to cover it, I want it on the top of my wrist." He Yu signaled, "This is it, please."

The verse text was ready, burning hot on the teenager's wrist, the finely torn flesh flushed red, the slightly tilted words seeping into the skin by the special potion.

He Yu looked at it, felt satisfied, paid and left the small store.

But how could he have imagined that he would be allergic to the tattoo potion?

I woke up groggy, not only was the writing on my wrist red and blurry and not very legible, but even my head burned from an allergic reaction.

That day was also the day of his unlucky brother's entrance celebration, and both He Jiwei and Lv Zhishu were in Yanzhou with their second son, not to mention that Lv Zhishu made seven or eight phone calls to ask He Yu to remember to turn on the computer and video with his brother--

"You're an older brother, and you've been a role model for everyone, so you always have to wish your brother well in his studies, right?"

He Yu's character is withdrawn, very dignified, what soft words weak words are not willing to say, plus his own attitude towards his parents is very distant, naturally impossible to tell Lv Zhishu he is sick. So braced himself up and hugged a laptop, curled up on the sofa, opened the camera at the appointed time, covered up the flawless fake face, and very decently sent congratulations to the person on the opposite side of the video, and then ......

"Splat."

No sooner had the communication screen ended than a long, bony hand poked out from behind him and unceremoniously closed the laptop resting in his lap.

He Yu was taken aback and turned his head and tilted his face to see Xie Qingcheng standing behind the sofa.

Xie Qingcheng Broad shoulders, long legs, poker face, drooping peach blossom eyes, condescendingly looked at him, "If you're sick, get some rest."

He Yu: "I was just halfway through talking to them."

Xie Qingcheng stood behind the sofa and reached out to touch the forehead of He Yu, who was looking up at him from the sofa.

His hand is slightly cool, touch on He Yu's hot skin can not speak of refreshing, He Yu instinctively inhaled, subconsciously squinted his eyes forward, head to gently arch to rub Xie Qingcheng's hand, comfortable for a moment can not say the next words.

"Kid, you have a fever."

After Xie Qingcheng touched his forehead, he leaned over and picked up the thin notebook from He Yu's lap, who was sitting on the sofa.

He Yu scrunched halfway back to his senses, "My computer ......"

Xie Qingcheng didn't intend to give the computer back to him, but said, "It's just an entrance celebration, but it's you yourself, why did you suddenly have such a high fever and didn't even speak a word to anyone."

"It's okay, this little thing, you don't have to care so much." He Yu tried to reach the notebook in Xie Qingcheng's hand again.

Xie Qingcheng held his hand higher, "You're my patient, if I don't care about you, who else can I expect to care about you."

"......"

He Yu clutched Xie Qingcheng's arm across the backrest of the sofa and glared at him, several times wanting to open his mouth to retort something, but he could not find the right words.

The two men were like that, one sitting, the other standing, him reaching out and tugging at him, him looking back at him. The dusk wind ruffled the snow-white gauze curtains, and the thick, oil-painting-like light streamed in through the slightly open window edges.

Perhaps at that time, the sick and lonely boy is too poor, Xie Qingcheng always cold and merciless eyes, but more or less have a few soft illusion.

"He Yu," he said, "you live too tightly, you can't be perfect in everything."

He Yu : "Dr. Xie, you're just a doctor, you don't have to think about these things for me, just give me back my laptop, I have to finish things."

The two men confronted each other, but finally Xie Qingcheng lifted his laptop and gently tapped the corner of He Yu's forehead, "Follow the doctor's instructions."

Then Xie Qingcheng's eyes dropped and inadvertently swept over a small section of skin that was vaguely exposed under the corner of his sleeve.

He frowned, "What happened to your hand?"

Like an electric shock, He Yu immediately withdrew his hand from pulling Xie Qingcheng's hand and tried to pull his sleeve back up.

But Xie Qingcheng had already clutched He Yu's arm with his backhand before him, and then lifted He Yu's long sleeve--

Xie Qingcheng : "......"

He Yu: "......"

Xie Qingcheng: "You got a tattoo?"

He Yu: "No."

"You don't have tattoo potion on this wrist?"

"......"

"Do you have nothing to do? How old are you? Does the school allow you to do that?"

"......" He Yu doesn't say anything, but the invisible dragon's tail slaps violently and anxiously behind him.

Xie Qingcheng's eyes darted back and forth between his wrist and his face, and after a long time, he seemed to understand, "...... He Yu, are you ...... learning from me? "

That's a real stomp on Little dragon cubs.

The boy was in a hurry, but he couldn't say a word, he could only gouge out Xie Qingcheng with his eyes, and his face was as ugly as if he had eaten a poisonous mushroom.

"Are you taking after me?"

".................." He Yu jumps up from the couch and is about to leave. "This was designed by a tattoo artist, who wants to learn from you, you're not handsome at all, you're not good looking at all, I don't like your taste at all ......"

But he may have overestimated his own physical condition, not two steps, his feet were floating, as if stepping on cotton, and then the sky and earth rotated in front of his eyes, and when he reacted, he had already been picked up by Xie Qingcheng like when he was a child, and carried on his shoulders like a sack.

The thing is, He Yu was really small at that time, not even as small as Xie Qingcheng's waist.

And now ......

Almost furious, He Yu turned his head, not pretending to be a good boy, and pinched the back of Xie Qingcheng's neck, "You put me down! It's too embarrassing ......"

"Get your little raggedy paws off my neck if you don't want me to give you an over-the-shoulder drop."

He Yu : "...... You let go of me first! I'm twelve years old!"

"It's not even as old as I am when you read it backwards, and as tall as you scurry, you're still a brat in middle school."

"Xie Qingcheng!!!"

Xie Qingcheng paused for a moment, still lightly, but his voice seemed to carry some transgressing laughter, "He Yu. I can't imagine that you admire me so much."

"Who worships you!!!"

"You like Shelley?"

"Not at all! I like graves!"

A lot of noise.

Until now, He Yu still doesn't know if that light smile, which obviously doesn't belong to the doctor-patient relationship, was an illusion caused by the fact that he was burning too much at that time.

What's more, so much time has passed that He Yu no longer remembers many of the details so vividly.

But what he still remembers clearly is the night Xie Qingcheng carried him back to his bedroom, gave him an anti-allergy shot, and then went to the bedroom terrace for a long phone call with Lv Zhishu.

He Yu was lying on the bed, and through the floor-to-ceiling glass door, he couldn't hear what Xie Qingcheng was saying to Lv Zhishu, but he could see that Xie Qingcheng was constantly lifting his hand and rubbing his brow bone, and seemed to be repressing some kind of emotion in the middle of the conversation, and at the end of the night, Xie Qingcheng was obviously very violent in his words, and that night, he was angry.

Xie Qingcheng stood on the balcony, holding a cell phone, and spoke heavily to Lv Zhishu, hostility between his brows-

It's really not necessary.

He Yu thought as he watched him trying to communicate with his own mother between the pillows and covers.

There's really no need.

What is the point of this pleading for concern and begging for mercy?

Then Xie Qingcheng pushed the door in, and He Yu, in order not to upset himself even more, turned around and closed his eyes before he came in, pretending to be asleep.

He smelled the shallow, icy scent of disinfectant on Xie Qingcheng's body, but for some reason, perhaps wrapped in the moonlit chill of the bright night, it wasn't as unpleasant as it had been before.

Xie Qingcheng sat down beside him and watched him for a while. At that time, Xie Qingcheng also thought that He Yu had already fallen asleep, so his voice was very soft, but when he opened his mouth, He Yu still heard that his voice was a bit hoarse, the kind of tired hoarseness of arguing with Lv Zhishu for a long time, but still to no avail.

"Forget it." The man said faintly.

The moon color is clear and crisp, sprinkled in front of the bed, a sound of forgetfulness, somehow revealing a little warmth that has never existed before.

"Kid ...... you get some rest, I'm fine for a few days, I can keep you company."

"......"

That moment--

At that moment, He Yu's heart suddenly felt an indescribable pain.

It was a taste he had almost never clearly perceived before, as if a rusty knife, which had been born in one place with his flesh and blood, had been violently awakened by the sigh-laden sentence, and had begun to wriggle around inside his chest trying to be pulled out.

He was in so much pain that he couldn't breathe at once, but he still had to be quiet so that Xie Qingcheng wouldn't realize that he was still awake.

He knew that Xie Qingcheng had failed to negotiate, an outcome he wasn't surprised by, except that he suddenly realized that before Xie Qingcheng, there hadn't even been even a single person who would have made such an effort for the sake of him not being alone.

There has never been even one person who would choose to stand on his side between He Li and himself, and ask that pair of parents, who seem to be strangers, on his behalf -

Why.

He Yu's face side in the dark, thick eyelashes quietly hanging, in Xie Qingcheng can not see the place, slowly a drop of tears seeped out, along the cheeks, noiselessly dripping down between the goose down pillow quilt.

With such a strange dull ache in his heart, he remained silent, remained in disguise, until at last the false became true, and he really did drift off to sleep.

The next morning, He Yu's fever broke and he woke up early.

The morning light shone in through the gauze curtains that fluttered lightly with the wind, the birds cried clear outside the window, and his mind was as clear as if it had been washed--

He blinked and adjusted himself, rolled over, and was just about to get up when he saw Xie Qingcheng on the side of the bed with his arm resting on his pillow and a few strands of his forehead hair hanging down slightly.

That was the first time he saw Xie Qingcheng sleeping.

It was calm, light, serene and translucent as if it were a thin soul, like the first rays of morning light falling in front of a window pane after the night had passed.

His eyes unconsciously moved down and landed on Xie Qingcheng's wrist.

Xie Qingcheng sleeps on his left arm, because the button was loosened when he was asleep, the cuffs were open, and that section of the skin and bone thin wrist was exposed, so pale that it was a bit blinding.

He Yu looks at the line on his wrist that he has glimpsed before, but never read word for word -

"Here lies one whose name was written in water"

The long sleepers of this place, the reputation of the book on the water ......

.

He Yu left the clubhouse, his heart in turmoil, and walked aimlessly.

All the way there, he was thinking about all this nonsense, but - again - why was he recalling these past events?

No matter how the past, no matter what Xie Qingcheng at that time out of what kind of mood, and he said, kid, it's okay, I can stay with you, that's all false.

How much Xie Qingcheng touched him at that time, and later when he resolutely left, it was the same as how deep and how hard a knife was stabbed in his heart.

In fact, over the years, He Yu has not failed to think in the quiet of the night, why Xie Qingcheng had to go.

Is he not doing enough?

Was he not as normal a person as he wanted to be?

On the day of his junior year, at the age of fourteen, he stood in front of Xie Qingcheng, hardened in a mortar and pestle, and didn't even have the courage to open his mouth and ask that man a question-- Xie Qingcheng, tell me, the words you said to me that day, the warmth you gave me, was it because I thought it was wrong?

Am I mistaken?

That all, that's the simple, clean doctor-patient relationship you talk about, isn't it?

Seven years.

Xie Qingcheng, it's about time you showed a little bit of affection by giving a homeless dog a visit to the doctor, right?

Then why can you separate so clearly, why can you walk away so dryly ...... Why can you be so full of rhetoric about hiring, contracts, rules - and as if forgetting that you too have occasionally shown me, that one star, that perhaps shouldn't belong to the compassion and warmth of a doctor.

He felt so humiliated when he was left behind.

His pride was hurt badly and he felt that Xie Qingcheng was a hot slap on his cheek.

So much so that He Yu never wanted to think about it - it was just his own fault anyway.

He has so little that when he gets a bit of marginal scrap-like affection from someone else, he treasures it, ridiculously treasures it, and thinks he's gotten a priceless treasure.

How conspicuously humiliating.

He Yu's arrogance made him strangle the little touch of the past with his own hands, and then mercilessly sealed the coffin.

Until this moment--

He Yu closed his eyes, the coffin of memories was opened, and before his eyes, he recalled the scene of Xie Qingcheng arguing with his own mother on the terrace without being overbearing, remembering the sigh that landed on his pillow when he pushed the door in tiredly.

Forget it.

Little ghost.

I'm fine for a few days. I can keep you company.

"......"

Xie Qingcheng gave him faith and companionship, but Xie Qingcheng later left so completely and so ruthlessly that he could always be calm and clear, weighing the pros and cons clearly. He would be willing to study psychiatry, but he would also leave the hospital because he didn't want to be the next Qin Ciyan. He would say nice things about treating the mentally ill equally, but on the other hand he would say that there are different kinds of lives, and that a doctor's life is much more valuable than that of a mentally ill person.

Xie Qingcheng is too complicated and contradictory.

He Yu went so far as to feel that apart from the man who was literally tortured to the point of powerlessness underneath him last night, any aspect of Xie Qingcheng was unreal.

It's all fake.

It was kaleidoscopic, and he was too young to see through him.

The teenager walked irritably for a long time with no destination in sight, and when he came back to his senses, he realized that he had unknowingly walked near Xie Qingcheng's house.

--

"You get out of the way! I have a problem at home, I want to go home!"

The words that Xie Qingcheng had left behind during his argument with him just now echoed in his ears again at this moment.

He Yu stood on this side of the curb with his hands in his pants pockets, looking blankly away from the chaotic scene at the entrance to Stranger Rain Lane on the other side of the curb, where there were even many police officers.

He probably knows what happened to Xie Qingcheng's family.