How come I don't see you in a relationship or taking home any girl you have a crush on?

Warm and bright lighting, a cozy and quiet room.

When Lin Jian returned to the living room after taking a shower, Shen Ke's bowl of instant seafood congee was down to the last bottom of the bowl, and Lin Jian was sitting on the sofa in the same style of loungewear as Shen Ke, with his pant legs shrunk down a little, revealing the characteristic thin, white ankles of a teenager.

Shen Ke inadvertently glanced, eyes slightly pause, suddenly asked: "Are you taller?"

"Huh?" Lin Jian thought for a moment, swept his eyes downward along with Shen Ke's gaze, and replied, "Maybe."

"...... has 180?"

"Had a physical at the beginning of the school year, now 181."

"It was 181 in the first year of high school ...... " Shen Ke couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, and his eyes towards Lin Jian were suddenly distant for a few minutes.

In the past, this kind of gaze did not cause any pressure on Lin Jian, but nowadays, he was hiding something in his heart, so he found it hard to resist when facing this kind of gaze.

Shen Ke's idea was very simple--

When that time he was brought home from the small mountain village, white bean sprouts like a small child, a lapse of time, actually has grown so big, so tall.

There's never a strong man in the face of time, Shen Ke puts down his spoon, sighs sadly, and laughs, "Sometimes you're so busy you can't tell the difference between black and white, you don't even feel the time passing, it's as if you're repeating the same things you did yesterday, doing the same things, saying the same things every day, but then you see you and you have to admit it... I can't help but recognize you when I see you -"

Lin Jian: "What?"

Shen Ke laughed, "I'm getting old."

"......" Lin Jian couldn't listen to such words, not a single word, his eyebrows wrinkled almost immediately, "Twenty-seven is old, how do you let seventy-two say, old gods? "

"Don't frown like an adult when you're so young." Shen Ke flexed his eyebrows and flicked them. Shen Ke flexed his eyebrows and Lin Jian closed his eyes as a reflex, then opened them again and heard Shen Ke ask him, "How do you feel about starting school for so long?"

The stance, the tone, it's quite a bit like a parent talking about a conversation.

Lin Jian leaned against the back of the sofa, thought for a moment, and honestly said, "It doesn't feel like much."

"Hmm?"

"I see other freshmen are quite active during the time they first start school, whether it's studying or participating in activities, the energy is quite exciting, I seem ...... to be like that."

There is no special stirring, not because of the new stage of a new school and glad, not because of the sudden heavy schoolwork and worry, as for Lin Jian, it seems that no matter how the external objective environment changes, he can adapt very well, or ...... did not deliberately adapt, he is always the same.

As Gao Chongfan and Qin Le joked about him during one of the recesses shortly after the school year started, "God Lin, even though he usually plays ball with us, how can I put it-" he rubbed his chin and pondered for two seconds, "Alienation! He rubbed his chin for two seconds, then tapped his thigh, "Alienation! Yes, that's the right word!"

Qin Le smiled and gave him a compliment, "Penetrating bro!"

Lin Jian's sense of detachment is innate, not directed at anyone, nor does it refer to specific times, but it is like an invisible shroud that silently separates him from the world around him, a shadowy presence.

Shen Ke listened to his comments about the new semester and was silent for a little while, not responding.

Perhaps others see Lin Jian as "cold and unruly", but in Shen Ke's eyes, he is still the same silent and stubborn child who knelt in the hearth wrapped in his suit jacket eight years ago.

His detachment and indifference did not stem from pride, but from the rootless, floating life of his early childhood.

In the middle of the day, Shen Ke suddenly raised his hand and rubbed the top of his hair, and said with a smile, "That's not good, God Xiao Lin, you have to fit in."

Lin Jian was rubbed in a daze, not even having time to react to the action of "hide", only to feel that the hand that touched the top of his head just now, vaguely with a little hint of pity.

"What's considered conformity?" Lin Jian asked.

"Well ......" Shen Ke thought about it and gave an example, "For example ...... is there any classmate in the new school that you think is not bad? Boys and girls are all counted, if you think and each other is still quite compatible, then contact some more, more friends is always no harm."

Lin Jian's tone was flat: "My classmates were all okay, the class atmosphere was good, and I got along with everyone."

"When you say it fits, how does it fit?"

"And you?" Lin Jian narrowed his eyes slightly, his eyes scrutinizing, and met Shen Ke's gaze without hiding, "And how do you fit in when you say you fit in?"

"......"

After a long time of confrontation, Shen Ke suddenly laughed out, his smile was as warm and deep as water, still the same look Lin Jian was familiar with, and Lin Jian's unconsciously tensed shoulders and back gradually relaxed.

"Too smart for God Lin."

"Not really, it's your intentions that are too obvious." Lin Jian sighed silently, "If you want to ask me if I had an early crush, you don't have to go around in such a big circle."

"I don't mean that." Shen Ke, crying and laughing, "I've just complimented you, and I've just complimented you for nothing--"

In fact, it is this evening when I got off the plane, received a phone call from Ai Jia, Lin Jian in school today rejected the girl's matter briefly recapitulated, and then also seriously instructed his cousin: "You help say good words, really not my intention to bring students to get acquainted with him and so on, the key is unable to resist the friends of the softly persuasive, who let him in the school's Popularity is so high ...... Anyway, let him not be angry with me, huh?"

Shen Ke said, "I'm the one who's begging for mercy. She really doesn't mean it, so don't take it personally, huh?"

"I didn't ......" Lin Jian only felt speechless, explaining words half-said, but felt futile, "Forget it, some other day to see Ai Jia sister, I will tell her myself."

Shen Ke nodded his head, and suddenly his words changed, "But ...... if there's really a girl you think is great, I don't object to you-"

"Stop." Lin Jian's heart snapped and his face suddenly cooled down a few points, "No, not at the moment, and not in the future, so don't mention it."

His reaction was not expected by Shen Ke, thought for a few minutes, only as a teenager to show off the blush, then smiled and said: "Why cold face, I'm serious, almost sixteen years old ah Xiao Lin God, the flowering season, the rainy season, the beginning of the sinus, how normal. And I'm not such an old-fashioned parent, am I? So if you have a crush on anyone, there is absolutely no need to have any psychological concerns, besides, you are not the kind of person who will affect your studies just because you are in love, that ......"

"--and you?" Lin Jian suddenly spoke up, calmly interrupting him.

Shen Ke's voice abruptly broke and froze for two seconds before he responded, "...... me?"

"I'm almost sixteen years old in my flowery and rainy season, so what are you, almost twenty-eight years old, a torrential downpour, pouring like rain? Then how come you haven't seen you fall in love or take home any of the girls you 'have a crush on' in all these years?"

"......"

Shen Ke had never imagined that one day he would be pressed by Lin Jian about such things, and for a moment even his expression went a little blank.

Shen Ke, who was still in a daze, would not know and could not realize that Lin Jian's right hand, which was placed beside his leg, had already been clenched into a fist when he finished asking this question.

"I am so busy ......" After a few seconds, Shen Ke only came back to his senses from the surprise he had just experienced, and his voice tone was rarely stuck for a while before he laughed and said, "How do I have the time to ponder over this, and I have been so busy all these years that even I can't even take care of you, so don't hold up anyone's good girl."

"......"

Now it was Lin Jian's turn to fall silent.

The two were silent for a long time, Lin Jian The rest of the light suddenly appeared a strong thin wrist, the next second, there is a warm cool fingertips gently against his jaw, slightly force, turn his face back again.

"......" Shen Ke's finger was pressed on his chin, and for a moment, Lin Jian's eyes widened slightly, and then, as if escaping from this sudden close look, he quickly averted his eyes, hardly daring to let himself breathe normally. He hardly dared to let himself breathe normally.

However, it seemed that Shen Ke just wanted to see his expression, to ascertain what Xiao Lin's mood was at that moment, whether he was angry or not, and when he saw Lin Jian's slightly bewildered look, he withdrew his hand calmly.

"Well, it's good that you're not angry." Shen Ke smiled a little and summarized, "Today's talk wasn't very successful, it ran heavily off course, so let's pick up where we left off next time."

I really don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm still hanging on by a thread and I'm here to talk to my kid about this?

Moreover, judging from Lin Jian's reaction, the child must have been influenced by his own influence from what he has heard and learned over the years--

One treats work as life, the other treats learning as an object.

And just because Lin Jian this speech and demeanor of the young and old look, peach blossom luck again what is the use - probably press a bearing can not turn, in the end is their own blind worry.

Shen Ke got up from the couch as if to go back to his room.

"Are you going to sleep?" Lin Jian asked.

"Uh-huh." Shen Ke responded, heading straight for the stairs, smiling and whispering as he went, "Consider me jet-lagged sick tonight, and don't take anything I say to heart."

Lin Jian looked at his back for a second and said softly, "I know."

"Conformity is a social expectation, ego is personal freedom." Shen Ke's thoughts return to full clarity as he walks up the stairs, and the words he leaves behind with his footsteps are like a tranquilizer, the tone of his voice slowly melting into Lin Jian's ears, "Listen to what other people say and forget about it, there's no need to give up your principle of ego in order to conform to objective expectations."

Lin Jian's heart skipped a beat, knowing that it was an abrupt and unreasonable question, but he failed to control the words that came out of his mouth.

"So - what if I'm not what you think I am either ...... or didn't grow up to be what you expected me to be?"

Shen Ke stopped walking, turned around holding onto the stair railing, looked at him with a wry smile and said, "Why grow up to be the way I expect you to be - it doesn't matter what I, or anyone, thinks you should be, no one should grow up the way someone else wants them to. "

"Wouldn't it be a bit selfish for ...... to grow free like that?"

Lin Jian wasn't sure what he was obsessing about, or what he was vaguely laying the groundwork for, except that if one day Shen Ke would develop an attitude similar to that of "disappointment" towards him, that would be something he couldn't accept in any way.

So there are some ugly things to ask up front.

Shen Ke condescendingly stood on the stairs with a little smile in his eyes, looking at him with a gentle, forgiving gaze that always seemed to ask, "What kind of stupid question is that?"

And the next moment, in the most subdued voice, he gave the most solemn answer--

"It's the same thing I said when you were a kid - at home, with me, you can do whatever you want."

The tall figure disappeared behind the second floor bedroom door, which closed behind him, and Lin Jian sat alone in the living room for a long time.

It was only when he slowly exhaled the breath that was clogging up his lungs that he loosened the back of his shoulders little by little and let go of his right hand, which he had been gripping deathly tightly.

Under the shadow of the warm and bright lamp, there was already a thin layer of sweat in his palm that was glistening with moist water.

It was as if his heart tonight, which seemed to have been exposed to the scorching sun and then tenderly dampened by the clear, moist rain.