MTL - Paper Plane-Chapter 23

The rain outside the window was weakening, and in the silent summer night with plenty of rain, the cry of frogs came from afar, accompanied by the rustling of leaves swaying in the wind, Tang Junhe slept an unprecedented sleep.

I slept until dawn, neither did I dream of Zhou Lin, nor Yang Xuan.

When he woke up the next morning, Tang Junhe opened the curtains and sat in the bright room for a while, feeling as bright as the rising sun. He thought he could finally get rid of Zhou Lin, maybe only temporarily, but as long as Yang Xuan stayed here for a day, he could spend the day without any shadows, just like all other people of the same age in Runcheng No. 1 Middle School. Just like Ying fen.

He can also get rid of the abnormal desire for Yang Xuan—that is the dark, dirty, shady desire brought by Zhou Lin, if he can stay in the sun all the time, they will also be together Nowhere to hide, just evaporate in the sun.

Tang Junhe thought with ease and joy, he will restore the previous relationship with Yang Xuan, just like when he was a child, he will get back the bright colors, after all, they have never faded.

After breakfast, Tang Junhe went back to his room to get his schoolbag. When he was checking whether he had forgotten to bring his homework, he heard the sound of closing the door outside—Yang Xuan had gone out.

He quickly zipped up his schoolbag, picked it up and ran out, and when he was in a hurry to change his shoes, Tang Xiaonian came out of the bathroom: "Why panic, it's not too late, didn't you leave anything behind?"

"No," Tang Junhe grabbed his schoolbag and ran out, "Mom, I'm leaving."

"Slow down," Tang Xiaonian followed to the door, poked his head out to look at him, and told him, "Be careful on the road and watch the car."

"Understood." Tang Junhe responded, and turned to the elevator without looking back.

—The elevator doors barely closed a second ago, and now they are descending the floors without haste.

Tang Junhe carried his schoolbag on one shoulder, and ran downstairs without daring to delay for a second, for fear that Yang Xuan would leave without waiting for him. The stairwell was suddenly filled with the sound of hurried "thump, thump, thump" footsteps.

When he ran downstairs out of breath, Yang Xuan had already unlocked the bicycle, straightened his waist, and walked towards the entrance of the corridor with one hand on the handlebar.

There is an unwritten rule in Runcheng No. 1 Middle School that sports students have the privilege of not wearing school uniforms from Tuesday to Friday, because they need to train every day—under the extraordinary amount of exercise, it is really difficult to change school uniforms every day.

But today is Monday, the campus flag-raising day, and all students must wear school uniforms and school badges. This is a mandatory rule without exception.

The summer school uniform of Runcheng No. 1 Middle School is not ugly, but it is not very good-looking either. With a pure white short-sleeved cotton shirt and navy blue straight-leg trousers, good-looking people look better, and mediocre people are even more mediocre.

As the striker and face of the school basketball team, Yang Xuan undoubtedly belongs to the group of good-looking people. At the moment, he is wearing the school uniform of Runcheng No. 1 Middle School. His slender and tall juvenile bones make the baggy school uniform fit perfectly. , even if you plunge into a crowd, you will be the first to be caught by the line of sight.

That's my brother. This idea popped up in Tang Junhe's mind again. He found that he was no longer afraid to approach Yang Xuan—Yang Xuan was as good as he imagined, even a little better than he imagined.

He wants to be close to him.

Tang Junhe followed quickly, with a brisk tone, with a soft and waxy boyish voice that was not often seen in the past: "Let's go."

Yang Xuan stepped into the car, put one foot on the ground, and glanced back at him: "You will be followed in the morning?"

Tang Junhe was at a loss for words for a moment, rolled his eyes, nodded and said, "Yes."

"Come on." Yang Xuan turned his head and said indifferently.

Tang Junhe sat in the back seat of the car, hesitated for a moment, and raised his hand to grab the white shirt around Yang Xuan's waist.

Yang Xuan didn't say anything, and rode out of the community on his bicycle.

The air is fresh in the morning, and the hot summer heat has not yet diffused. Under the sunshine, the leaves are so emerald green.

The two were silent all the way, the person in front rode the bicycle silently, and the person behind hummed softly.

Yang Xuan didn't know why his half-brother suddenly seemed to be a different person. Obviously the eyes that looked at him last week were evasive and gloomy, but now they have become happy and lively. This look appeared on his harmless face, which reminded him of his childhood. The little one on the back of his ass.

This association made him slightly irritated, and he felt that he had got into a trouble—the little trouble behind his car seat, humming happily—maybe it was a big trouble.

The flag will be raised collectively on Monday morning, and the sports students do not need to go to the playground for training. The two walked into the classroom one after the other, and as soon as they stepped in, they heard Feng Bo shouting at the top of his voice: "Brother Xuan is awesome!"

"Brother Xuan—please take me with you!" Chen Hao's voice did not fall behind.

Yang Xuan glanced at them, walked to his seat with a normal face, and put the schoolbag on the table.

"Hey, brother Xuan, the provincial team!" Feng Bo got up and jumped to the side of Yang Xuan, "Please eat, please eat!"

Chen Yu, the boy at the front table, also turned around to join in the fun: "If you want to invite, invite the whole class!"

"The whole class, please? Then you have to bring the colonel's basketball team?"

"It's not just about bringing the colonel's basketball team, brother Xuan brought the provincial team over here, and give us a lot of insight!"

Ying Hui also got up from her seat, walked over, and waited for the other people to finish booing, then looked at Yang Xuan and asked, "When are you going to report?"

"Ouch—" a boy yelled in a strange voice, "Can't you bear it?"

"Early July." Yang Xuan said flatly, leaning against the empty table in the back row.

"Doesn't that mean you don't need to take the final exam?" Wang Xingchun grasped the key point.

Feng Bo raised his hand high: "I apply to **** brother Xuan to the provincial team!"

"I'll go too, you protect the law on the left, and I protect the law on the right." Wang Xingchun said with a smile.

"..."

"Go downstairs to raise the flag, everyone!" The squad leader walked to the front of the podium and knocked on the table with an eraser.

The people around Yang Xuan quickly dispersed, and Feng Bo and Wang Xingchun followed him to ask questions.

At the beginning of July, Tang Junhe went down the stairs and thought that there was still half a month left, and time was running out.

After school in the evening, all the people in the classroom left, and Tang Junhe stayed until the end as usual. He did the test paper for a while, and then he began to feel a little restless.

He closed the test paper, walked to the window sill, looked at Yang Xuan who was sweating on the basketball court for a while, thought for a while, returned to his desk, packed his schoolbag and walked out of the classroom.

He went downstairs with his schoolbag on his back, went straight out through the back door of the teaching building, and walked to the back mountain of the school.

The summer night falls slowly, the twilight is getting deep, and the setting sun dyes the sky blood red.

The back mountain is densely forested and shaded from the sun. On weekdays, except for the third-year students who run around in groups during the big class break, and the sanitation workers hired by the school to clean it regularly, there are few people here.

Tang Junhe walked out from the back door, looked up at the location of the classroom of the third class of science, and drew a parabola in his mind according to the strength of the basketball he threw, and then walked quickly towards the estimated location without much hesitation ran over.

There are many trees on the huge back mountain. He shuttled among the tree trunks, looking down for the lonely basketball. The rays of the setting sun were cut into fine dots by the tree shadows, projecting onto his hair and shoulders, shaking slightly.

Where would it be... He muttered in a low voice, and almost turned all possible areas, but he couldn't find the basketball.

Maybe it was picked up, Tang Junhe thought a little dejectedly, if it was really a basketball signed by an NBA All-Star, they would definitely pick it up soon, why wait a few months for him to come and look for it? What's more, even if they didn't come to look for it, the sanitation workers would definitely pick it up...

Tang Junhe felt that his IQ had dropped drastically.

He walked down the hill with his head down and sighed. There was some mud on the soles of the shoes, Tang Xiaonian had to ask when he got home soon, he dug out the facial tissues from his school bag, and squatted down to polish his shoes.

He squeezed the dirty facial tissue, walked around to the trash can and threw it in. Just about to go back the same way, his eyes glanced diagonally ahead, and then suddenly it lit up—that basketball!

Tang Junhe ran towards the corner, where the sanitation workers' cutting tools were piled up, presumably they picked them up and put them there, waiting for the students to find them.

He picked up the dirty basketball—it was deflated and faded from months of wind and rain, and looked half-worn.

Tang Junhe hugged it like a baby and put it on the ground, squatted down and wiped off the dirt on the surface of the basketball with a tissue, then picked it up and ran to the playground.

The practice match was not over yet, Yang Xuan was blocked by two people and was looking for a chance to break through. Tang Junhe hugged the basketball, stretched out his finger through the barbed wire fence beside the basketball court, and poked the substitute player who was squatting by the barbed wire fence to watch the game.

The man turned his head, raised his face, and saw clearly that the person who poked him was the little boy who just transferred to another school a few months ago and was very popular with girls. He looked puzzled: "Call me?"

"Well," Tang Junhe was not sociable and rarely took the initiative to chat with people. At this moment, he swallowed nervously and said, "Do you know where you can inflate a basketball?"

The man saw the broken basketball in his arms, stretched out his arm and pointed in one direction: "The equipment room over there will do it."

"Thank you." Tang Junhe got the answer and left with the basketball in his arms.

He has never inflated a basketball, and he has never seen a pump that inflates a basketball. He squatted in the equipment room, found something similar to a bicycle pump, studied it for a while, and then pointed the air needle at the basketball. air holes, trying to inflate the basketball.

—Success!

With all his strength, Tang Junhe filled the deflated basketball to a hard state, put it on the ground and pressed it, and then pulled out the air needle. Holding the inflated basketball in his arms, he patted it on the ground of the equipment room a few times before he picked it up contentedly.

On the playground, the physical education teacher who was acting as the referee had already started counting down: "There are still three minutes!" Yang Xuan looked at the gap, took off in front of the defense of the two, feinted, and made a feint. The basketball in my hand is sent to the basket - another goal!

Tang Junhe ran to the bathroom on the first floor of the teaching building with the basketball in his arms. Facing the faucet, he put the basketball under the running water and rinsed it, rubbing and kneading it. Then he turned off the faucet and wiped off the water on the surface of the basketball with a paper towel.

Freshen up. He picked up the basketball happily.

After a practice match, Yang Xuan walked towards the barbed wire fence with sweaty hair, and bent down to pick up a bottle of mineral water.

"Yes!" The squatting high school senior stood up and walked over lazily, "No wonder so many people went to the city league, and the provincial team just took a fancy to you. I said, I didn't recruit you to show off Bar."

Yang Xuan was only focused on pouring water into his throat, and didn't have time to pay attention to him.

"Old Sun is willing to give up now." The man continued.

The irrigation was too fast, and the water dripped down his chin. Yang Xuan raised his arm and rubbed it, saying, "He can't bear it."

"You forgot that when you were freshman in high school, your dad came here specially to ask you to quit the basketball team. My grandson was in a panic."

Yang Xuan replenished the water, began to squeeze the bottle, leaning against the barbed wire, and took a sip every once in a while.

"By the way, just now, that little boy in your grade, with a dirty basketball in his arms, came over and asked me where I was cheering up," the man jokingly mentioned what happened just now, "I laughed so hard, just those thin arms and legs Yes, can you play basketball?"

"Who?" Yang Xuan asked casually.

"The one who transferred from another school a while ago," the man hooked his finger on the barbed wire, "Tell me, what do those girls like about him? I really don't understand the aesthetics of these people." After the man finished speaking, he looked at his arm with regret. Protruding biceps.

"Hey." A crisp voice suddenly came from behind.

Both of them turned their heads, but Tang Junhe was only facing Yang Xuan. There was glistening sweat on his forehead, and his fair face was flushed from running. Holding the bird in his arms, he barely recovered after a lot of tossing. basketball.

"Uh..." The man was caught in the bag, touched his head, and stammered, "Full, are you ready?"

"Can you come out?" Tang Junhe looked at Yang Xuan and said, "Or I will go in."

"Come in." Yang Xuan looked at him, thought for a while and said.

Tang Junhe hugged the basketball, went around to the main entrance of the basketball court, and walked in.

If he hadn't held the half-worn basketball like a treasure, Yang Xuan would no longer remember that the basketball was his own—he couldn't remember the origin of the basketball, maybe someone gave him a birthday present, Ever since it appeared, it has been placed in the corner of the classroom. Before it could be slapped, it was thrown out of the window by Tang Junhe.

—and now he's picked it up again.

Tang Junhe walked up to him and handed him the basketball with both hands. The sincerity in his eyes was almost innocent: "I've cheered up, and I should still be able to use it."

A third person present stared at the scene dumbfounded.

There is no doubt that this is a good basketball. Tang Junhe raised his chin slightly and looked at Yang Xuan, with a trace of expectation hidden in his eyes.

If you don't take it, that expectation will be extinguished. Yang Xuan thought.

He bent down to pick up his schoolbag, threw it on his shoulder, and walked towards the main entrance of the basketball court, leaving Tang Junhe with the back of his head: "I don't need it, you can keep it."