Secret Love · Orange Raw Huainan

Chapter 48 The Fairy Tale of Time

Luo Zhi hated daytime trains.

If it was an evening car, she could now climb to the upper berth to sleep or read a novel, instead of sitting on the lower berth and comforting the aunt in front of her with boring words over and over again.

Aunt Fu is a slightly fat fair-skinned woman who is well maintained.Her son looks very similar to his mother. He is a delicate and thin boy who shyly smiles when he sees outsiders.The child's father was short, thin and dark, with chapped skin and deep wrinkles around his eyes. Although he seldom smiled, he could still see clearly.

Very unlike family.Luo Zhi thought.

The husband and son sat on the folding chairs in the aisle, and there were only Luo Zhi and Aunt Fu on the lower bunk.Aunt Fu held her hand and wept while talking, and she accompanied her and said, "Don't worry, it's okay for the child to go out and wander around, but you can't always be at home", "Since there are relatives to take care of you, don't worry, you will get used to it soon", etc. Nonsense that doesn't require brain processing.

The boy studied hotel management in a vocational high school, and his cousin, who is now the front desk manager of a big hotel near Dongzhimen, Beijing, found him a job there, so the couple sent him to Beijing together.Aunt Fu's tears haven't stopped since she drove the car.Her husband didn't know whether he was reluctant or impatient, he didn't try to persuade her, but just stared out of the window with a dark face.Luo Zhi listened to her rambling for an hour, talking back and forth, and finally ran out of words.

"This kid just doesn't study hard. When he entered a vocational high school, he thought everything would be fine. Anyway, we didn't have a way to get him into a key high school at that time. If he went to a general high school, he might as well go to a vocational high school. Anyway, he couldn't get into a good university. Now the employment is so low. It’s hard, it’s better not to go to a third-rate university. Look at how good you are, how many times have I told him that there is a talented student at Sister Han’s family in our unit..."

Luo Zhi felt that the direction of the conversation was a little out of control, so she quickly diverted: "Auntie, you knew my mother before, right?"

"That's right, we worked together in the No. [-] Light Bureau at the time. We were in the same office, but she only stayed there for a year and a half... At that time, what happened to your father... It really didn't happen at the right time."

You mean, my dad died at the wrong time?Luo Zhi didn't show any strange expression.

"It's your mother's fault too, it was too violent. We all advised her that even if your grandfather doesn't retire, it won't be of much use, so just bear with it for a while, and we will investigate after the limelight, and we will always give you justice Yes, but she doesn't listen anyway."

Luo Zhi still didn't speak.

She has an impression of Aunt Fu.Aunt Fu didn't help her mother back then, but she didn't make trouble either.

Aunt Fu felt a little embarrassed, so she continued: "However, I understand the morality of this world. No matter how dark or unreasonable it is, the old ancestor's saying that good is rewarded with good and evil is rewarded with evil is still true. Look, your mother You will support me for the rest of my life, what a blessed person! When we met again later in the canteen of the mold factory, she told me about you, and we were all envious of you."

Luo Zhi smiled wryly, she was indeed the only main thread and hope for her mother's future life.

"Besides, the director of the first light bureau is now our second in command... I heard that someone is going to join forces with him. I guess it will be after this Spring Festival. Your mother told you, someone came to look for him I heard that the batch of scrapped aging equipment was one of the key evidences when the factory was restructured. They asked your mother to write the materials. I think it took so many years to find out this matter. Nepotism is ignored, which means that the person above who wants to punish him must have a background. I guess it will be possible to bring him down this time. You should also vent your anger..."

Luo Zhi's head buzzed, and she looked at Aunt Fu blankly.She had a lot to ask, but she moved her lips but didn't ask, because subconsciously she didn't want to know anything.

If you don't know, there will be no confusion, trouble, or embarrassment.

"...This matter is still kept secret. I was also found by the investigation team, but I will tell you, people have said it, and the news cannot be leaked. Anyway, I think it will be soon. This is the old saying: It’s not that you don’t report it. The time has not come."

Aunt Fu was still talking non-stop, Luo Zhi stood up, took out water from her bag, and drank silently.

Her mother didn't tell her about this.

why?
Beijing Railway Station was as overcrowded as ever.Luo Zhi brought Aunt Fu's family of three into the subway station, pointed to the route map and told them how to transfer, and then watched them board the subway in the opposite direction to her.

"Call me if you need any help," she told Aunt Fu's son her mobile phone number, "When it's convenient for you, I'll go to Dongzhimen to see you."

After she finished speaking, Aunt Fu's tears started to fall again.No matter how reluctant, the child will eventually have his own way to go.

Finally seeing the subway disappear into the dark tunnel, Luo Zhi heaved a sigh of relief.

Someone patted her on the back.

She turned around and found that Sheng Huainan was leaning on the pillar beside the yellow line on the platform and looking at her with a smile.

Luo Zhi was stunned, neither saying hello nor smiling.She was still immersed in the news brought by Aunt Fu, and when she suddenly saw him appearing in front of her eyes, she felt absurdly unreal.

"Did you go to hell?" He smiled, his face a little dark.

What surprised Luo Zhi was his voice, it seemed that he had a bad cold, it was unbelievably hoarse.

The voice made her feel dazed, somehow it sounded a little familiar, a thread of memory was revealed, she tried to reach out her hand, but she couldn't catch it no matter what.

Sheng Huainan laughed for a while, and felt a little embarrassed seeing her not talking, so he cleared his throat and said, "Last time on the phone, you said you would take this train back. I guess it will be Sunday. I happen to be in Chongwen tonight. I'm doing some errands with some ministers of the student union near the door, and I'll stop by to see if I can meet you when it's over. I didn't expect you to come out with others. I don't know if you want people to see me, so I have been following you all the time. Fortunately, you sent them away, otherwise I would have followed all the way."

"It's no big deal to meet classmates at the subway station, and they won't do anything when they see it. You're overthinking it. But thank you anyway." Luo Zhi said indifferently.

Sheng Huainan stopped laughing.He thought for a while, took her suitcase and said, "Is the schoolbag heavy? I'll help you carry it."

Luo Zhi pursed her lips tightly, she was exhausted from being on the train during the day, and she had no intention of being kind to him and pretending to be peaceful.She clutched the handle of the suitcase tightly and said, "Sheng Huainan, what are you doing?"

His hands froze in mid-air, then slowly dropped.

"I annoy you, don't I?"

Luo Zhi was taken aback for a moment, what the hell are you pretending—the suitcase was taken away before she could say a word.Sheng Huainan dragged it and strode towards the exit, and said as he walked, "There are too many people taking the subway now, let's take a taxi."

Luo Zhi chased after him in a few steps, and there were strange looks from passers-by around her. She suddenly felt that it would be boring to drag, so she also lowered her head and followed him outside.

The wind in Beijing is much softer than that in my hometown. It took them a long time to stop a taxi, and the wind kept blowing, but she didn't feel cold.

The two sat in the back row together, and were silent together in the Hong Kong and Taiwan accent of the radio DJ.The car shuttled through the night scenes of Beijing, and the places it passed were sometimes prosperous and beautiful, and sometimes desolate and messy.The city swelled comfortably between two extremes.

"Later... were you scared? Didn't you have a nightmare, right?" Sheng Huainan's voice was difficult when he spoke, and that strange yet familiar feeling swept over Luo Zhi again.

The night before, perhaps because he was worried about what happened in the funeral parlor, he texted her to tell her about his sweet dreams, but Luo Zhi didn't reply.

"I'm not afraid anymore. Thank you for helping me answer the test for Fa Dao."

"This is the fourth time you've said it."

Luo Zhi didn't respond.

When I got to school, the meter just jumped to 62.Luo Zhi took out her wallet, Sheng Huainan pressed her hand, didn't say anything, just glanced at her indifferently.So without arguing, she put the wallet back into her pocket, and pulled out the hand that was held down by him.

I lowered my head and thought of the sun chariot in Happy Valley, but my heart still hurts.

"By the way, today is Christmas Eve. Have you eaten yet?" Sheng Huainan asked standing at the door of the dormitory building.

"I'm not hungry." Luo Zhi smiled forcedly, "Thank you for picking me up. You have a cold, are you seriously ill? It's cold outside, so go back to the dormitory."

Sheng Huainan stepped forward to stop her: "Luo Zhi, I was too impulsive and treated you like that without considering the cause and effect. I apologize first."

He was still so calm and peaceful when he apologized.

Luo Zhi raised her head and stared clearly into his eyes: "What is the antecedent and what is the consequence, please explain clearly."

"I don't want to say it yet."

"Then you think about it, think about the cause and effect, and then think about the countermeasures. Before you make a final decision, let's pretend that we don't know each other. In case you later find out that I have committed a heinous crime, but you eased the relationship with me before, Picking up the station and eating again, if you regret it, just slap me again, pretending that you don’t know each other very well—hehe, take your time to think about it, and I’m not in a hurry, if you don’t understand it in this life, let’s think about it in the next life.”

His eyes widened in surprise, soft lashes silhouetted against the orange light.

"Okay," he gently let go of her wrist, "let's find a place to talk."

Luo Zhi struggled a little in her heart, she bowed her head and remained silent.

"Accompany me to the roof to blow some air, okay? I haven't seen the night scene since I took you there that time."

"You really like it there, even when you catch a cold." Luo Zhi smiled.His hoarse voice softened her a little.

"During evening self-study in high school, I also like to sit on the window sill of our administrative building and watch the night view. It's a quirk, but I think these two places are quite similar..."

Luo Zhi suddenly raised her head.

Something seemed to hit her on the head, and she was instantly clear.

"Sheng Huainan, when you were freshman in high school, did you meet someone on the window sill on the fourth floor of the administrative area?"

They spoke there.The window sill on the fourth floor that she liked but was later occupied by him and Ye Zhanyan.

They had spoken there.

Revisiting back to her hometown in high school and Sheng Huainan's cold happened to happen at the same time, and the memory fragments in Luo Zhi's mind suddenly spliced ​​together, piecing together a past that she had ignored.

On the eve of the first mid-term exam in the first grade of high school, during the break of evening self-study, Luo Zhi slipped to the administrative area because she was upset about her review, and walked along the window in the long corridor.She would often pass a few couples in the dark, go around quietly, draw an arc, and then walk back to the window.

At that time, she wondered wildly, if she drew the trajectory of avoiding all the way, would it look like the dull ocean waves in children's paintings?
Finally arriving at a relatively quiet window, she jumped up and sat down, leaning half of her body against the cool and comfortable glass.At the end of October, the fog in the north was heavy, and the corridors in the administrative district were pitch-black. Only the faint light from the distant commercial district outside the window illuminated the thin layer of water vapor on the glass, and she silently wrote equations on it with her fingertips.

But in any case the coefficients are not evenly matched.She got annoyed, erased it, changed another piece and continued to write, and erased again... After a while, half of the window was covered.

There was a soft laugh next to him.

She was startled, and turned her head. There was a tall boy standing on the other side of the huge window sill. The light was too dark, and his back was facing the window, so he couldn't see his face clearly.

"I'm sorry," the boy's voice was hoarse, as if he had a bad cold, "I just wanted to say...the molecular formula of your hydrogen sulfide is wrong..."

Luo Zhi was dumb, and quickly corrected it, turned her face and smiled gratefully, forgetting that the other party must not be able to see clearly.

"I'm not good at chemistry," she said with a smile, "I just thought that hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs, so I added an O."

The boy's laughter was rough, mixed with coughing, and he seemed to be seriously ill.

"Can I lend you half of the window sill? I like to stand on a high place to watch the night view, but there are too many couples nearby, and there is no quiet place."

She readily agreed.

They watched in silence the dazzling bead chains strung together by lights on the viaduct in the distance, until the voice of a couple not far away became louder and louder.

Her face was on fire, and the boy cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"High school students are so explosive." He opened his mouth to ease the awkward atmosphere.

"What's so strange," she laughed, "I have been in love since the senior grades of elementary school."

"What do children know?"

"I understand, I understand!" She suddenly became interested, "In fact, self-righteous love between children is interesting."

Sheng Huainan's eyes were confused at first, but after Luo Zhi's narration, they suddenly brightened and then darkened in an instant.

"It's you." There was a hint of regret that Luo Zhi couldn't understand in his tone.

"So it was you who recommended "Fairy Tales of Time" to me twice in a row."

At that time, Luo Zhi suddenly had a crazy idea, wanting to tell the story of His Majesty the Emperor she met at the wedding when she was a child to this stranger who had never met in the dark—for so many years, no one has ever borne the weight of her memories , Sometimes she just wants to find a tree hole and put everything in it safely, even if it's not the right time.

However, she was still timid after all. She thought about it, suppressed the sudden impulsiveness, and said softly, "Have you ever watched a cartoon called "Fairy Tale of Time"?"

The boy seemed to scratch the back of his head: "Is it from Disney?"

"No," Luo Zhi turned sideways and gestured, "There is a plot like this: the little heroine in fifth grade was stopped by a boy who had a crush on her on the way home from school. Both of them were very embarrassed, and the boy was red." I thought about it for a long time and didn't know how to express my love. Then I suddenly asked a girl a strange question for some reason."

"what?"

"Sunny, cloudy, or rainy, which one do you prefer?"

The boy coughed violently a few times: "It's raining."

"...I didn't ask you." Luo Zhi shyly kicked the window sill.

The boy coughed more violently, not sure if he was shy.

"In short..." Luo Zhi continued, "The girl thought about it and said, it's cloudy. The boy was very happy, smiled brightly and said, me too—then turned around and ran away."

"End?"

"It's over."

"It's very romantic."

"Huh?" Luo Zhi was puzzled.

The boy smiled: "The so-called romance means that there is no future."

They were suddenly silent together.In the silence, only the sound of breathing remained, and the distance between the two ends of the window sill began to be filled with vague ambiguity.

Luo Zhi's heart was beating wildly for no reason, and she said in a panic, "I'm back to work."

The boy's voice seemed to be muffled in a kettle: "You...then...bye."

She ran too fast, and the people behind shouted something, which was disturbed by the sound of her own footsteps.She couldn't hear clearly, the lingering sound echoed in the empty corridor, like the sound of ocean waves lingering for a long time.

"What did you ask me last?" Luo Zhi raised her head.

Sheng Huainan looked at the street lights in the distance with a gentle expression.

"I asked, what's your name."

(End of this chapter)