Don't ask me where I come from.
My hometown is far away.
Why wander?
Wander far away.
Wander!
...
A dessert shop on the street was playing 'Olive Tree,' an old song from over forty years ago.
The lyrics touched Zhuang Zi'ang; he felt like a homeless wanderer himself now.
Neither his father's place nor his mother's could truly be called a home, at best, just a place to stay.
He didn't want to go back to his mother's two-bedroom apartment and face the lonely night alone.
Fortunately, he still had friends to rely on.
"Son, I've run away from home. Can you put me up for a night?" Zhuang Zi'ang dialed Li Huangxuan's number.
"Of course, I'll come down to get you," Li Huangxuan replied readily.
Zhuang Zi'ang showed a faint smile, thinking this son was truly worth raising.
If he were no longer in this world, Li Huangxuan would probably be very sad!
"What happened to you?"
Downstairs in the complex, Li Huangxuan saw Zhuang Zi'ang's face covered in blood and expressed concern and worry.
"It's nothing, just a bit of internal heat lately," Zhuang Zi'ang answered indifferently.
"You really need to take good care of yourself; I'm still counting on you to take care of me in my old age and bury me," Li Huangxuan joked.
True good friends feel uncomfortable if they don't get a couple of jabs in.
In popular terms, it's called a conjugate father-son relationship.
Zhuang Zi'ang was in a sorrowful state of mind and didn't respond to his joke.
He had been to Li Huangxuan's home many times before, always with a feeling of envy.
His parents were loving, the family was warm, and it was always filled with laughter.
Unlike himself, he could only retreat to his room and face the cold, four walls alone whenever he went back.
"Mom, Zhuang Zi'ang is sleeping with me tonight, and he hasn't had dinner yet," Li Huangxuan called out to his mother, Fan Ling, as soon as he entered.
"You haven't eaten so late? I'll cook you a bowl of noodles," Fan Ling replied from the kitchen.
"Thank you, Auntie," Zhuang Zi'ang's nose tingled as soon as he heard the auntie's gentle voice.
How wonderful it would be if he also had such a gentle mother!
Xu Hui was busy with life all day and simply didn't have much energy to nurture mother-son affection.
Li Huangxuan's father, Li Tianyun, came out and, seeing the bloodstains near Zhuang Zi'ang's nose and mouth, looked alarmed and asked many concerned questions.
He told his son to get some ice and called to Zhuang Zi'ang: "Come here, I'll put some ice on you to stop the bleeding."
"Thank you, Uncle," Zhuang Zi'ang bowed.
Li Tianyun applied ice to Zhuang Zi'ang's forehead and the back of his neck, then patiently used a damp towel to clean the bloodstains, sighing repeatedly with heartache: "You must take good care of yourselves at school. If you feel unwell, tell your teachers and parents. Never try to bear it alone."
This one sentence instantly broke Zhuang Zi'ang.
He had gone through such a big ordeal, and it seemed he could only bear it alone, unable to find anyone to rely on.
Earlier at home, facing his cold father, Zhuang Zi'ang had managed to hold back.
At this moment, seeing Li Huangxuan's kind parents, he could no longer hold back; tears streamed down his face, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
Li Tianyun embraced him: "Good boy, don't cry."
Lying in his uncle's warm embrace, Zhuang Zi'ang tried hard to control his emotions.
He kept repeating to himself, a man doesn't easily shed tears.
I can't cry, I can't cry...
"Xiao Zhuang, come eat your noodles!" Fan Ling said softly.
On top of the steaming noodles were two poached eggs.
Li Huangxuan's family all understood Zhuang Zi'ang's family situation.
To avoid upsetting Zhuang Zi'ang, they were all very conscious not to ask about the reason but instead chatted with him about trivial school matters.
"It's truly Huangxuan's good fortune to be friends with you."
"Yes, how are you so amazing that you can always come first in exams?"
"If you were our son, we would truly be overjoyed."
...
Zhuang Zi'ang looked up: "Auntie, are you telling the truth? Do you wish you had a son like me?"
"Of course, having a son like you is a parent's pride," Fan Ling answered without hesitation.
"Cough, cough…" Li Tianyun coughed twice, giving his wife a look.
Fan Ling then realized she had misspoken, touching on Zhuang Zi'ang's painful subject.
Such an excellent son, yet he was kicked around like a ball by his biological parents.
After finishing the noodles, Li Huangxuan took Zhuang Zi'ang back to the bedroom.
When they met earlier, he had already eyed the exquisite strawberry cake.
"Son, you didn't have to bring anything when you came, but since you did, I won't be polite."
Li Huangxuan excitedly split the small cake in half, handing a piece to Zhuang Zi'ang.
Zhuang Zi'ang felt guilty and wanted to say that the cake wasn't originally bought for him, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.
Suddenly, a cool sensation on his cheek.
It turned out Li Huangxuan had smeared a dollop of cream on him and loudly laughed: "What are you spacing out for, kid?"
"You dared to ambush me!" Zhuang Zi'ang was not to be outdone, picking up the cake in his hand and smacking it onto Li Huangxuan's face.
Li Huangxuan dodged repeatedly, letting out hearty laughter.
The two chased each other around the room like two mischievous elementary school students.
Zhuang Zi'ang's inner pressure was released in an instant; only when he was with Li Huangxuan did no one remind him to grow up, and no one demanded that he should be more sensible.
Tired from playing, they both lay across the bed.
Li Huangxuan panted, asking: "Son, where did you go this afternoon?"
"I didn't want to go to class, so I went fishing by the river," Zhuang Zi'ang answered truthfully.
"What? You, Zhuang Zi'ang, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, also have times when you don't want to go to class?" Li Huangxuan was incredulous.
"Hmm, I've been a good student for over ten years, and I'm a bit tired," Zhuang Zi'ang said meaningfully.
Then he added: "I met a girl under the ginkgo tree on the playground, even prettier than Lin Mushi, and we played all day."
"Daydreaming, there's no girl in our school prettier than Lin Mushi!" Li Huangxuan was full of disbelief.
Zhuang Zi'ang was stunned when he heard Li Huangxuan's skepticism.
A word to the wise.
Lin Mushi was already the campus belle; if there really was a girl named Su Yudie who was even prettier than Lin Mushi, he couldn't possibly not have heard her name.
Was even the name made up?
Or was she not from their school?
Seeing Zhuang Zi'ang silent for a long time, Li Huangxuan asked again: "Which class is that girl in?"
Zhuang Zi'ang stammered: "She said she's in Class 23."
"What nonsense," Li Huangxuan shook his head, convinced that Zhuang Zi'ang was having a breakdown.
He pulled out his phone and shook it: "It's still early, want to play a round?"
Zhuang Zi'ang frowned: "Aren't you afraid I'll drag you down?"
"You just play support, watch me carry you with my blood C," Li Huangxuan said confidently.
"My only support hero is Fish."
As a model student, Zhuang Zi'ang rarely played games, so he was terrible.
But today he even dared to skip class, so playing a game was no big deal.
"TiMi!"
The two of them opened Honor of Kings together.
Li Huangxuan was Diamond III, and Zhuang Zi'ang was Platinum IV, barely able to duo queue.
Fish is an alias for the support hero Zhuang Zhou.
As one of the famous 'troll' heroes, he is very suitable for noobs to leech points.
"Is it fun for a bunch of people to fight in someone's dream?"
Li Huangxuan and Zhuang Zi'ang began their joyful duo queue journey.
"Hey, why does your Zhuang Zhou have Cleanse?"
"To remove crowd control, is that not allowed?"
"Ult, ult! When Lu Bu jumps, you should ult!"
"Sorry, I have Cleanse myself, I forgot about you guys."
The first game, a close loss.
The second game, a regrettable defeat.
The third game, a free loss.
...
Until Li Huangxuan dropped to Diamond IV, and Zhuang Zi'ang dropped to Gold I, they could no longer duo queue.
"You play Zhuang Zhou very well, just don't play him next time," Li Huangxuan threw his phone down.
"Oh!" Zhuang Zi'ang thought he was being praised.
It's getting late, time to sleep!
The real world is too bitter; dreaming is better, everything is in dreams.
A wonderful long sleep, worth a song, la la la la la...