Chapter 26：

When the words fell to the ground, Huo Ran couldn't help standing up.

The slightly hot screen of the mobile phone was pressed against the ear, sticky sweat leaked from the palm of the hand, Huo Ran felt that he had never been so nervous.

He stood alone in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows of the hotel room, looking out at the bright lights of thousands of families.

I don't know which lamp Dr. Tao will be under at the moment.

Huo Ran, who was so preoccupied yesterday, didn't fall asleep until almost nine o'clock in the morning. When he woke up, it was almost dusk, and he saw a vague and familiar figure repeatedly in his dreams.

As soon as he woke up, he picked up his mobile phone. There was a long red dot in the PP message bar, but the person he was most looking forward to was not there.

Huo Ran, who struggled overnight with the unfamiliar and novel emotional world, temporarily confirmed that he had a tendency to change his mind.

But because of his abruptness, Dr. Tao seemed to be angry, and has ignored him until now.

For this reason, Huo Ran was completely indifferent to work, canceled the arrangement to go to the game exhibition, and stayed in the room listlessly processing a few emails, during which he kept checking his phone every five minutes on average.

Huo Ran, who has always believed that his life is fulfilling and rich, felt that time was so difficult for the first time, as if countless ants were walking swaggeringly in his heart.

After finishing the dinner brought by the waiter, Huo Ran gave up pretending to work, simply opened the game, and went to Animal Island to pass the time.

Then he saw the bright and beautiful bunch of flowers at the door of the hut.

And a short note from Dr. Tao in the middle of the night.

[A hedgehog: Network failure, suddenly dropped. ]

[A hedgehog: I brought a small gift, I apologize to you ^-^]

[A hedgehog: The flowers you planted for me the day before yesterday bloomed, and I picked the most beautiful ones for you. ]

The big brown bear in the center of the screen bent down to pick up the bouquet, carefully held it in the furry arms, and showed a happy smile.

That's the default pickup emote in the game, but it's exactly the same as Huo Ran outside the game.

Huo Ran didn't know how to describe his mood, probably like drinking a lot of soda, the slight and dense stimulation spread from the blood vessels to the heart, and his body was full of bubbles.

It turned out that Dr. Tao was really offline, not angry with him.

Huo Ran admired the picture of the brown bear hugging the flower for ten minutes before he remembered to restrain his silly expression, and immediately sent a message on PP.

[HR: Doctor Tao, I'm sorry, I just logged into the game and saw your message. ]

[HR: The flowers are very beautiful, and I will build a garden in the future. ]

[HR: Little Bear Goes Around.gif]

But until eight o'clock in the evening, Dr. Tao did not reply.

His light gray system default avatar is grayer than usual and offline.

Or according to the results in the search engine, he is invisible.

On this night, Huo Ran learned more about the use of pp from the Internet than all these years combined.

He knows that pp can be set to be invisible to a certain person alone, he knows that he can set a suffix for a pat, and he can set a special concern for his friends...

Huo Ran very naturally set up a special concern for Dr. Tao, and also set up an online reminder with a cough sound effect.

While waiting for Doctor Tao to appear, Huo Ran seriously did a series of childish things.

He called the people from the Animal Island Production Company to ask them to pay more attention to the player's network stability. The Animal Island producer on the other end of the phone looked confused and could only respond repeatedly.

Then Huo Ran wandered around the small island, and marked out a site that could be used as a garden, and planned to be a flower farmer in the next few days.

When passing by the biggest fruit tree, Huo Ran stared at the small wooden sign inserted on the spur of the moment, thinking that [no stealing] looked weird.

After thinking for a while, the clumsy big brown bear took out another wooden sign from the warehouse, wrote "Welcome to Taste", and nailed it to the stake with satisfaction.

When it was almost nine o'clock, the bored Huo Ran was about to go to Hedgehog Island to see the scenery, when the computer and mobile phone suddenly sounded coughing at the same time.

At a glance, he saw that Doctor Tao's default avatar brightened a little.

Doctor Tao is online now.

Huo Ran immediately became nervous, picked up the phone, and waited for Dr. Tao's reply.

Ever since he got a new phone, Huo Ran has been really fond of chatting on his phone.

Compared with the text typed with the keyboard on the large computer screen, the dialog box held in the hand seems to have a more realistic sense of one-on-one chat.

But Huo Ran waited for several minutes, and there was no movement in the dialog box, not even a status prompt of "typing in progress".

This is not like Dr. Tao's habit of replying to messages as soon as he is free.

Huo Ran was a little uneasy. Before he could think of a countermeasure, he moved his hands first and made a voice call.

Before I had time to regret hanging up, the voice was connected.

Huo Ran's mind went blank for a moment, and he wanted to speak but couldn't find a voice.

There was some noise on the other end of the phone, with indistinct voices and laughter, and what was closer was a light breath, gently brushing against his ears like a feather.

Huo Ran asked subconsciously: "... Hello, is this Dr. Tao?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he couldn't sit still, and was driven by a mysterious force to stand up, pacing back and forth to relieve the panic.

What will Dr. Tao's voice be like?

After a few seconds, the master of that breath responded, "Who is Dr. Tao?"

His voice was clear and soft, with an uncertain daze at the moment, and the ending was a little soft, as if he had lost his strength.

The voice is so familiar, very similar to the masked boy I met yesterday.

This thought flashed through his mind, and Huo Ran quickly noticed that the person on the phone was not in the right state.

He calmed down and continued to ask carefully, "Is this your pp?"

"Well, it's mine." The other party thought for a while and asked in confusion, "But I'm not a doctor... who are you?"

A few high-pitched male voices came from the background noise.

"Brother Tao, did someone make a wrong call? Just hang up!"

"Are you stupid? It's PP voice, how could you make a mistake..."

"Ah, it turns out Brother Tao won't know people when he's drunk! It's fun!"

The owner of that voice retorted slowly: "I know you. You are Wang Heng. I'm not drunk."

Immediately someone excitedly said: "Brother Tao looks so cute now! Can you record it?"

"Be careful of being beaten tomorrow, hahahahaha."

"Brother Tao still remembers me when he's drunk, so touched, come on! Have another drink!"

"Good guy, Mr. Guo is still drunk! Stay away!"

…

After listening for a while, Huo Ran was sure that a group of drunks were on the other end of the phone, and also confirmed from the "Brother Tao" that the owner of the voice was Dr. Tao.

Dr. Tao was probably having a drink with his colleagues.

He memorized what the group of drunken men on the opposite side said, and then said to Dr. Tao seriously: "I am a friend you met on the Internet, and my nickname is HR."

"HR?" Dr. Tao looked very disbelieving, "Really? Why don't I remember it?"

Huo Ran's heart suddenly felt sour. Dr. Tao still remembered his colleague's name after he was drunk, but he had no impression of him.

"Really." Huo Ran tried hard to think about how to prove his identity to a drunkard, "I know you have a lot of cute emoticons, you just sent me a lot of them, and I saved them all, but you never post them. dynamic…"

While talking, the memories of getting along with each other during this time flooded my heart, as if there were endless things to say, and even the voice became soft.

"You like surfing the Internet, browsing Sky Forum, and playing Animal Island, but for some reason, you haven't been online for a long time, and the island is deserted."

"I helped you reclaim the wasteland, cut dead trees, and sow seeds in the garden. You are a hedgehog in the game and built many different styles of cottages. I like the dark gray one the most. There is a big skylight on the roof. I didn't know it before, but the roof can also be changed, you told me."

"You seem to know me very well." Doctor Tao said in a daze, "I also like that one the most, because you can see the stars when you stay in the room."

At this moment, in the night sky looking out from the floor-to-ceiling windows, stars are twinkling.

Huo Ran stood in front of the window, and slowly put his other hand on the glass, his fingertips felt cool, overlapping with the distant evening star.

"Look up at the sky now, and you can see the stars." He whispered, "Stop drinking, it's bad for your health. Is the party almost over?"

Dr. Tao believed his words completely, let down his guard, and his voice became very loose.

"It's over, I'm going home." Doctor Tao's voice was full of joy, "I'm going outside to look at the stars."

Huo Ran suddenly became nervous, "You are drunk, let a colleague see you off."

"No, I'm not drunk." Doctor Tao firmly believed that he was not drunk, "I can't even walk."

Huo Ran's brain was running at high speed, "That's called a car, and it will take you directly downstairs. Ask a colleague to take you to the car, or let me call a car for you, okay?"

He didn't want to rashly spy on Dr. Tao's real life, but he was really worried about his current state.

"No, I'll walk back by myself, it's very close."

Dr. Tao insisted, "I pass this road every day when I commute to and from get off work. The bus only takes two stops. Turn left at the intersection and go straight, and you will arrive at the community. I go home alone like this every day."

After being drunk, his words became light and ethereal, and even a little blurred at the end, but Huo Ran could hear a kind of inaudible loneliness.

"Do you go home alone every day?"

The surrounding noise went away, and Dr. Tao seemed to have walked out of the restaurant amidst the chaotic farewell sounds of his colleagues.

"Yeah, I'm alone on weekends." His voice became clear again, echoing in the silent street, "I'm used to being alone."

Huo Ran was at a loss for words for a moment, and he felt a needle-like feeling in his heart, and he answered almost reflexively.

"I'll walk you home with me."

Doctor Tao was stunned, "But you are on the phone."

"I can keep talking to you until you get home safe and sound."

Dr. Tao seemed to ponder over his intentions, and emphasized emphatically, "Then don't persuade me, I won't change jobs for the time being."

Huo Ran was stunned, and it took him a while to realize what he meant, and said with a smile: "I'm not a human being, this is the abbreviation of my name."

"Oh." Doctor Tao thought of something, and his voice became muffled, "I don't like this abbreviation."

Huo Ran asked curiously, "Why?"

Dr. Tao didn't answer. He was breathing lightly and sometimes heavily. Occasionally, the sound of motors of cars passing by could be heard on the phone.

Huo Ran didn't care about this small detail, and hurriedly instructed: "Don't walk on the road, walk on the sidewalk beside it, and be careful of vehicles."

"Okay."

"Dizzy? If dizzy, take the car."

"Not dizzy."

"Does your stomach feel uncomfortable? Do you want to vomit?"

"No."

"How far is it from home? Don't be sleepy now, don't get sleepy, just stick to it and you'll be home."

"quickly."

Huo Ranxu babbled on for a long time, and Doctor Tao at the other end responded cooperatively, very obediently.

During the question and answer, Huo Ran gradually smiled.

Even if he didn't know what Dr. Tao looked like, he still felt that the current Dr. Tao must be very cute.

He was a little jealous of the group of colleagues who could drink and eat with Dr. Tao.

The atmosphere was just right, so Huo Ran carefully asked the question that made him depressed before: "Doctor Tao, do you remember me now?"

"I remember." Dr. Tao said with certainty, and then raised an objection, "My surname is Tao, but I'm not a doctor. Why do you call me Dr. Tao?"

If it was said that the previous denial might be due to drunkenness and insanity, but hearing Dr. Tao's serious voice at the moment, Huo Ran couldn't help but feel puzzled.

So Dr. Tao is not a doctor?

…Then how should he be called Dr. Tao?

Huo Ran asked cautiously: "Then what should I call you?"

Doctor Tao said softly, "My name is Tao Zhiyue."

The clear voice announced his name with some embarrassment, and the very tender pronunciation made Huo Ran's heart tremble slightly.

"Is it all in all?"

Still a slow retort: ​​"No, it's knowing that you know, the more you climb the mountains and the mountains."

Tao Zhiyue.

Huo Ran quietly memorized the name, and his heart burst into unreasonable joy, "It sounds good."

"My mother named it for me." Tao Zhi said in a low voice, "I like this name very much."

Huo Ran was about to tell Tao Zhiyue his name when he heard some sad words from him.

"Don't you ask me?"

"what?"

"Ask me if I have paid attention to the car, whether I feel uncomfortable, when I will be home..."

In the end, his voice was close to a whisper, and the last words were lost in his rapid breathing.

"I miss Mom and Dad."

Huo Ran was stunned, he heard the longing and sadness in that voice.

Thinking of what Tao Zhiyue said before, he seemed to understand something.

So he said he was used to being alone.

Huo Ran collected himself, suppressed the waves in his heart, and continued to ask.

"Do you want to take a shower when you get home?"

"...you need to wash it, the smell of barbecue is so strong."

"Don't take a shower, it's easy to fall when you take a shower after drinking alcohol, stick to it today, and wash it tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."

"If you get a headache tomorrow, please take a day off and rest at home."

"You can rest tomorrow, with pay."

Tao Zhiyue's tone gradually returned to normal, and when he talked about paid leave, the ending sound rose, and he was a little proud.

Huo Ran couldn't control the raised corners of his mouth, and there was a smile in his voice, "That's great."

Tao Zhiyue on the other end of the phone also laughed in a low voice, with a shy smile, "I seem to be drunk...I'm sorry."

Now Huo Ran refuses to admit that he was drunk.

"Don't be sorry, you're fine."

In the early morning, the time when he was entangled in a lot of articles seemed to have passed away, and Huo Ran couldn't remember what he was thinking at that time.

He just thinks everything is fine now.

Huo Ran stood in front of the window for a long time, unwilling to look away.

Perhaps Tao Zhiyue was walking slowly on a certain street he could see, and under the illumination of the street lamps, he was heading towards his home.

They had never met before, but Huo Ran felt that he saw this scene clearly.

The slender figure was shrouded in warm yellow light, leaving a slanted shadow on the asphalt road.

"Did you drink a lot today?"

Tao Zhi recalled it carefully, "Well...not a lot, but I forgot how much I drank."

Huo Ran couldn't hold back his curiosity, "May I ask you, why are you drinking today?"

He intuitively felt that Tao Zhi was more unlikely to be someone who liked to drink.

Tao Zhiyue was silent for a while, just when Huo Ran began to reflect on whether he had said something wrong, and wanted to withdraw the question uneasily, he answered in a low voice.

"I'm in love with someone I shouldn't be in love with."

Huo Ran stopped breathing for a moment.

The fact that "Dr. Tao has someone he likes" that he had deliberately forgotten came back to his mind.

It turned out that Tao Zhiyue drank a lot of wine because of that talent.

His heart was suddenly sour, and Huo Ran didn't know what to say next.

He was silent for a while, and heard Tao Zhiyue talking to himself very annoyed.

"Even though I know he is a straight man, and I haven't met him, why do I still fall in love with him uncontrollably?"

Tao Zhiyue forgot Huo Ran on the other end of the phone and fell into his own world.

"He told me yesterday that he fell in love with a girl, and it was love at first sight."

"I should bless him. He has reached middle age and has never been in a relationship. It should be a happy thing to finally have someone he likes."

"But I can't be happier."

As Huo Ran listened, disbelief gradually appeared in his eyes.

Why is this description so familiar?

…Except for the point of being middle-aged.

Huo Ran suppressed the throbbing in his heart, and his voice pretended to be calm, "Why do you think he is middle-aged?"

Tao Zhiyue was unaware of his excitement, and explained solemnly: "Because he doesn't surf the Internet, he doesn't understand any buzzwords... and he uses a very old-fashioned landscape photo as his profile picture."

In an instant, there was only the sound of a pounding heartbeat in the whole world.

Huo Ran gripped the phone tightly, as if to hold a fleeting illusion.

Even his voice trembled.

"Then what buzzwords have you... taught him?"

Tao Zhiyue answered every question: "Well, let me think about it."

"There are green tea, connotation, Amway..." He paused, "No, he learned Amway by himself. As a middle-aged man, I envy his learning ability and the speed at which he accepts new things..."

Huo Ran subconsciously ignored the part after the middle-aged man.

His mood suddenly jumped up.

Even when he was drunk, Tao Zhiyue still remembered every bit of him.

"And then there's the tangerine qi..." Tao Zhiyue, whose brain was slow to respond, was stuck again while talking, "Oh, the tangerine qi doesn't seem to be him, it's someone else."

Hearing this, Huo Ran felt that his whole body was stiff, but his blood was as hot as boiling.

Tangerine smell, War of the Roses, boys wearing masks...

In the crowd of strangers, he saw the person at a glance.

The world is so big, I happened to meet him.

The blood rose to the top of his head all of a sudden, and Huo Ran could no longer keep calm.

Tao Zhiyue was still muttering to himself, his voice was very confused: "Why did I remember it wrong? It's so strange, obviously they are not from the same generation..."

Huo Ran knew that it would not be open and aboveboard to talk routinely when the other party was drunk, but he really couldn't contain his excitement.

"Is it a game exhibition? Jinbei Game Exhibition."

His deep voice was full of anticipation and excitement, and the fingers imprinted on the glass window turned white vigorously, and the hot and humid white mist bloomed in front of him.

"Yeah, I was really lucky yesterday, and I was selected as a lucky audience." Tao Zhiyue smiled, "The game is very fun, and the cabin is also very beautiful."

"I went there again today, and many, many people were queuing up to take pictures, and they were all pink flowers. The little loli I pinched had pink hair."

"I wanted to take pictures too, but I held back. I went around this afternoon and didn't see him."

Drunkness erodes reason, and Tao Zhiyue's speech becomes confused, and his voice becomes distant.

Huo Ran recovered from the fiery fantasy in an instant, and his eyes were filled with real worry: "Is it uncomfortable?"

Tao Zhiyue at the other end answered after a while.

"My face is so hot, and the wind is so hot tonight." Tao Zhiyue murmured, "I seem to be really allergic to alcohol."

"But it doesn't matter. Someone gave me a box of loratadine yesterday. I put it in the cabinet and can eat it when I get home."

Speaking of this, Tao Zhiyue's voice flashed a quiet smile.

Huo Ran clearly remembered that when he took the medicine box from his hand, his ears were red, and his bright eyes were full of astonishment.

On the smooth and cold cardboard box, their hands touched briefly for a moment.

The scorching heat lingered on the fingertips, and the skin carried a soft electric current.

It turned out that they had been so close.

It is difficult for Huo Ran to describe the emotions surging in his heart at this moment.

He felt a kind of luck to meet in a sea of ​​thousands of people, and his life was so wonderful, and he also felt a kind of regret after suddenly realizing it.

If he also went to the game exhibition today, would he be able to meet him again?

Seeing him again, what will they say between them?

Thoughts were churning, but in the end, Huo Ran suppressed all the complicated and unspeakable emotions, and pure tenderness flowed in his voice.

"If you are allergic again in the future, remember to tell me right away."

Tao Zhiyue seemed unable to understand what he meant, "Why?"

"Next time, I will give you the medicine as soon as possible." Huo Ran said softly, "I will never forget it again."

"…Thank you."

Tao Zhi was a little moved, "You are such a good person."

Although he didn't surf the Internet very much before, Huo Ran still knows the memes that are very commonly used in life.

He laughed and said, "Is this a good person card?"

"Hmm... no." Tao Zhiyue's voice fluttered again, as if shaking his head, "This is not a confession."

Hearing the word confession, Huo Ran's already rapid heartbeat accelerated again.

He tried his best to suppress the inexplicable impulse in his heart, "Yes, it's not a confession."

"I don't like the name good person card."

Tao Zhiyue's tone was rarely stubborn, "A good person is a good person, not an excuse to refuse. I like all good people, and they should be cherished."

"You are right, you are also a very good person." Huo Ran responded solemnly.

"..." Tao Zhiyue paused for a while, and said in a low voice, "I passed by the window where I can look in the mirror, and I blushed."

Then he deceived himself and said: "No, I must take medicine when I get home today."

Huo Ran felt that the heart seemed to be melted by the high temperature, scattered into pieces bit by bit, penetrated into every crevice of the body, and affected every nerve.

He could hardly resist the urge to rush out the door.

He really wanted to see Tao Zhiyue who was wandering alone in the street at this time.

But he clearly understood the sensitivity and caution of the other party.

After thinking for a long time, Huo Ran asked cautiously: "Will you go to the game exhibition tomorrow?"

Tao Zhiyue thought for a moment: "Tomorrow...go to bed first tomorrow. I don't want to go, I'm so tired, I want to be lazy."

"Okay, then be lazy."

It wasn't until such a mood appeared in him that Huo Ran finally believed that there would really be someone who said every word was cute.

There was silence on the phone for a while, only the faint sound of breathing and the sound of cars passing by.

They listened quietly to each other's breathing.

Suddenly, Tao Zhi exclaimed softly: "There are so many stars tonight."

"I've been talking to you just now, and I forgot to look at the stars."

His voice became far away again, Huo Ran felt that he must have raised his head, staring at the stars in the sky obsessively.

"It's so beautiful, it's twinkling, and it looks better than in the game."

Hearing this, Huo Ran also raised his head at the same time, passed the sleepless lights of half of the city, and looked at the quiet sky.

They are looking at the same starry sky.

The night sky is grand and the galaxy is full of stars. In the moonlight like water, beautiful evening stars twinkle and fall into the turbulent sea of ​​hearts unexpectedly.

Huo Ran felt that time and space seemed to be out of place, and he returned to the small wooden house. There was a round brown hedgehog sitting in front of the mirror, the spikes glowed with silvery white light, and a big brown bear with soft fur pushed the door open, as if it should belong to here.

Then they looked up at the huge world beyond the skylight together.

Huo Ran remembered what he had said to Tao Zhiyue that day.

[Doctor Tao, hedgehogs can also be hugged. ]

That day in the game, he hid behind the brown bear not wanting to scare Dr. Tao, so he just patted the hedgehog's back covered with spikes gently with his broad bear claws.

And at this moment, Huo Ran really wanted to hug the real him.