I have a childhood friend, outstanding like a monster.
Living in the same neighborhood, growing up together since childhood, going to school together every day, often going to each other's house to play.
My mother always regretted not being able to make iron into steel, nagging me, saying that if I was half as excellent as him, it would be great. Every time I heard it, I wanted to pout, half of half, half of half is also not possible.
Since childhood, So Chi An did not like to talk much, did not like to make friends, but always liked to bully me. Every time I wanted to be mean, I always became honest because of his indifferent look.
There was no other way, after all, I still had to rely on other people's homework to get by. People living under the same roof, had to bow their heads.
In my mother's words, our names were somewhat related.
That year, the relationship between our two families was as good as one family, when we were born, it was only three days apart. After my family turned over the dictionary to name me To An, his mother decided on the spot to name him Su Chi An. After knowing that, she laughed at him for a whole week.
He was three days older than me, and was carefully taught to be a good older brother since he was young, but when he was young, his name was "small popsicle", when he grew up, he was "big popsicle", all along I was the only one who always stuck to his back, and he liked to bully me, far from being a good older brother.
Sometimes I also felt that I was not as tall as him, and I was not good at studying, all because of him, brothers who loved and respected each other? This was impossible.
My view of his personality had always been cold and heartless, and that if he could be a dog on a normal day, he would not be a human, this view continued until eighth grade.
At that time, the school opened a class to nurture excellent students, and every night they would have evening self-study, I was not the type to be diligent, so of course I was always lazy in the normal class.
But Su Chi An didn't study hard like me and went to the training class comfortably, I envied his talent.
Maybe I was born unlucky, on the first day I went home by myself I encountered a group of scoundrels with a bad reputation, they robbed me of my money, and even tried to tear my bag apart. The result of resisting was of course a beating, at this moment I deeply regretted not going to training with Su Chi An during the summer break of sixth grade.
I limped back to the school gate to wait for Su Chi An to finish school, this miserable appearance could only be temporarily avoided at his house, coincidentally my uncle and aunt had all gone to work elsewhere, and wouldn't be back for a while.
When I squatted at the school gate and dozed off for the fourth time, Su Chi An finally came out, he was a head taller than his peers in eighth grade, extremely eye-catching in the crowd.
When he saw me he was clearly stunned, quickly ran towards me, in his eyes was a worry I had never seen before. Before, I always thought he was always happy and angry without showing it.
Perhaps my swollen face squatting at the gate looked too pitiful, like a pitiful stray dog. I thought wildly, it must be both ugly and pitiful, otherwise it wouldn't have scared Su Chi An
I had already thought of how to shamelessly go to his house, even made up a reason, surprisingly, he didn't say anything, just silently squatted down carrying me on his back, one hand carefully supporting me, the other hand carrying our bags.
I tilted my head to look at his side, the streetlight cast a layer of warm yellow light on his eyelashes, I absentmindedly looked into his eyes, how could a boy's eyelashes be so long.
There was a moment, I really wanted to reach out and touch his eyelashes.
When I passed by the internet cafe, he glanced inside, I glanced in the direction of his eyes and saw those hooligans, immediately felt the wounds on his body and face hurt more, my fingers unconsciously tightened the cloth on his shoulder.
So Chi An's footsteps stopped, he turned his face and whispered something to me, I couldn't hear clearly for a moment, it seemed like he said don't be afraid.
He carried me home, put me on the sofa, squatted in front of me and frowned, applying medicine for me, his movements were unbelievably gentle.
I had never seen Su Chi An so gentle, in a short while I forgot the pain, I could only stare blankly at his drooping face.
Su Chi An finished applying medicine for me and told me to go to sleep first, then without saying anything he went out.
I was still not very sleepy, so I sat there waiting for him to come back. I don't know how long it took, I waited until I was about to fall asleep when I heard the sound of the door opening, the sound of very light footsteps.
I sat up and looked at Su Chi An in a daze, and in a flash I was clearly scared awake.
His clothes were very dirty, as if he had rolled on the ground, his collar had torn marks, mixed with scratches, there were even blood stains oozing out, under the bright light I could even see a purple bruise at the corner of his mouth.
He was clearly a little startled when he saw me still in the living room, then calmly lowered his head as if nothing had happened and quickly walked back to the bedroom.
"Where did you go?"
When I said it, I realized that my voice was trembling slightly.
His footsteps stopped, his back to me and he didn't say anything.
The answer was almost certain, I felt like there was something blocking my throat, making it difficult for me to make a sound, I tried to make my voice sound more normal.
"Did you go to the internet cafe to find them?"
His body stood there stiffly, his back to me, remaining silent.
I called out to him again: "Su Chi An."
He seemed to sigh, turned around, walked in front of me, sat down, reached out and lightly touched my face, and asked: "Does it still hurt?"
His hands were very beautiful, with distinct joints, but now they carried blue-black and red marks.
I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, my tears suddenly broke the dam. I felt him gently wipe the tears from my face with a tissue, awkwardly repeating to comfort me: "It's okay, it's okay."
I still couldn't hold back my tears. I knew it was embarrassing, but I couldn't help it. He sighed and hugged me, gently patted my back, and coaxed me in my ear like he was coaxing a child: "It's not painful, really."
"They were even worse than me, I used to practice martial arts, have you forgotten?"
"An An, don't cry anymore…"
…
I forgot how long it had been since I fell asleep that night. I only remembered that Su Chi An's embrace was very warm, it was the temperature that belonged to Su Chi An.