Chapter 144 What a waste! You thought you'd never leave your hometown...

In late January, Li Leshan came to the station to pick up Jiang Yueming. Han Jiang had returned a couple of days earlier and had a long chat with Li Leshan. They had very limited topics to discuss, practically only one: Jiang Yueming.

Han Jiang went on and on about Jiang Yueming's "crimes," such as not answering the phone and "repeating" messages... He didn't defend their revolutionary friendship at all; their more than ten years of brotherhood was practically ruined! Han Jiang spoke with great enthusiasm, listing all of Jiang Yueming's faults.

Han Jiang asked him to give Jiang Yueming a good dressing down, but little did he know that Li Leshan and Jiang Yueming were in the same camp, and completely unshakeable, so much so that no matter how Han Jiang tried to turn them against each other, it was useless.

Ask him to berate Jiang Yueming? Li Leshan didn't even dare to think about it.

The day Jiang Yueming returned, he waited at the train station early in the morning. The train was two hours late, finally arriving at its destination in the early hours of the morning. Jiang Yueming was in a real predicament, wishing he could jump off the train and fly back. Why did he always encounter delays?

He could bear to wait, but the thought of Li Leshan waiting for him at the train station made Jiang Yueming feel terrible, her heart aching terribly. The cold of a train station in the north, in January, at dawn, was self-evident.

I don't know if Li Leshan was dressed warmly enough, I don't know how long Li Leshan had been waiting, and I don't know if Li Leshan was cold.

As soon as he got out of the car, Jiang Yueming flew off. He had accidentally broken his leg a while ago and had been using crutches and getting bandages and casts. He wasn't fully recovered yet. Lin Cuiqin was a little worried about whether he could go back by himself. Jiang Yueming waved his hand and said, "Of course I can." He couldn't possibly not go back. Even if he was crippled, let alone broken, he still had to go back.

Of course, he was keeping this a secret from Li Leshan. Actually, his leg injury is now... well, he doesn't need crutches anymore. Although it's not fully healed, the doctor told him not to move around too much, but he can walk a little, though not too much.

Jiang Yueming couldn't care less about anything now. His wounds were throbbing, but he couldn't worry about anything else. He dragged his suitcase from the platform all the way to the hall. This pain was nothing compared to meeting Li Leshan.

He didn't deliberately hide it. If he hadn't, could he have gone back to Shengping? Would Li Leshan have let him go back? He definitely needed to focus on recovering, and Jiang Yueming was out of the question. But that meant they couldn't see each other. They couldn't meet during winter break, and how much longer would they have to wait? May Day… would they have time during May Day?

"Lele!" Jiang Yueming spotted Li Leshan from afar. He was standing at the exit and looked up when he heard the voice.

Jiang Yueming took a few quick steps, which aggravated his wound, causing him to wince in pain. However, he quickly suppressed the pain. "How long have you been waiting? A long time, right? Aren't you cold? Aren't you cold?"

Li Leshan didn't know which question to answer, so he chose the one Jiang Yueming cared about most first. After thinking it over, he decided it was probably "Is it cold?"

“It’s not cold.” Li Leshan shook his head. “I didn’t wait long.”

Jiang Yueming felt a pang of heartache seeing him like this. He was always like this, but Jiang Yueming knew that he would always arrive at the station an hour or two early to wait, and with the delay, she didn't know how long it would take.

"The train is delayed..." Jiang Yueming gently stroked Li Leshan's cheek and whispered, "Are you tired?"

Li Leshan gently rubbed his palm, then looked at Jiang Yueming and asked, "Aren't you tired after sitting on the train for so long?"

He thought Jiang Yueming must be very tired; she looked like she hadn't slept well.

Jiang Yueming's heart skipped a beat, and her nose felt a little sore. "I'm not tired."

Li Leshan helped him pull his suitcase, while he held Jiang Yueming's hand with his other hand.

Following Li Leshan out of the station, Jiang Yueming looked at the empty yet familiar street scene in front of him. He stopped and couldn't help but say, "It's been a year since I've been back to Shengping."

If you think about it carefully, it really has been a year. He came back last year for Chinese New Year, but he hasn't come back since. One reason is the distance, and the other is that there's no one here worth returning to.

He left the place he thought he would never leave. Indeed, children always think of everything so simply, believing they will never leave their hometown, that they will always be with certain people, and that all separations will lead to reunions.

Now that he thinks about it again, he realizes that his idea was naive and a little foolish. There's no such thing as a free lunch; as you grow up, you find yourself with many things beyond your control.

I have no choice in the matter...

Jiang Yueming suddenly remembered what his aunt had said. A bitter smile appeared on his lips. He looked up at the sky. He didn't understand then, but now he really understood. In one's life, there are too many things that are beyond one's control.

The injury on his calf caused him excruciating pain with every step he took, and Jiang Yueming could only try his best to endure it, acting like a normal person. He knew this wasn't good, but he didn't want Li Leshan to worry.

"I've tidied up your place," Li Leshan gestured to him. "Where are you sleeping tonight?"

"Oh..." Jiang Yueming was taken aback, "You cleaned? You're tired..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Leshan's glare silenced him. Jiang Yueming silently swallowed the question, "Are you tired?" He was about to ask, "Where are you going?" when he remembered the injury on his calf and could only speak, his voice a little weak, "Go...go home."

Li Leshan was visibly taken aback. He tightened his grip on his suitcase, but didn't say anything more, only nodded.

Jiang Yueming glanced at him discreetly, feeling a pang of sadness in his heart. He thought that in a couple of days, once his leg was a little better, he would definitely go to see Li Leshan; right now, it wasn't quite possible. But as he thought about it, he felt a little disappointed because Li Leshan hadn't said anything.

He lowered his head and said softly, "Don't bother seeing me off any further, let's stop here."

He can climb the stairs himself; he shouldn't let Li Leshan notice anything amiss. Actually, he didn't want to hide it, but the thought of Li Leshan worrying about him made him reluctant. The situation is much better now. A while ago, using crutches was really difficult; climbing stairs every day, he had never climbed so slowly, and it had never hurt so much. Every step was torture.

But he's the type to only report good news and not bad. When you're out and about, who reports bad news? Everyone swallows their pride and keeps quiet. If he complained, wouldn't he seem too dramatic?

Li Leshan slowly released his grip on the suitcase. He glanced at Jiang Yueming and asked, "Are you hungry?"

"Huh?" Jiang Yueming didn't know why he suddenly brought this up, and quickly shook her head, "No, I'm not hungry. I ate instant noodles in the car."

He said that eating well was unrealistic. He couldn't bear to eat the 20-yuan boxed meal on the train, so it would be more believable if he said he ate instant noodles instead.

"Then I'm leaving?" Li Leshan continued to sign.

Jiang Yueming nodded. He had to hold onto the luggage handle to make himself look normal. For some reason, perhaps because of the two steps he took when leaving the station, his calves were now aching terribly, as if the pain was drilling into his bones.

Watching Li Leshan's departing figure, Jiang Yueming stood there for a long time, until the figure disappeared into the night before he slowly pulled his suitcase into the tenement building.

The stairwell was pitch black, with only the cold wind constantly blowing in. Jiang Yueming coughed. The motion-activated light didn't respond; he guessed it was broken again, and nobody cared. Over the years, many people had left Third Alley. The young people wanted to go out and make their way in the world, and the elderly had been taken away by their children to other places. Now, the remaining people were so worn down by life that they probably didn't care about the broken motion-activated light.

He held onto the iron railing with one hand and carried his suitcase with the other, moving step by step up the steps.

Moving up like this was really strenuous. Jiang Yueming felt the wound on her leg reopen, because her calf felt a little cold, as if blood was seeping through the bandage.

Thankfully, thankfully Li Leshan wasn't allowed to see him off. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to keep it a secret.

With each step he took, a sharp pain surged through him. Even in the dead of winter, a thin layer of sweat covered Jiang Yueming's forehead, nose, and back. Back when he used crutches, he truly felt crippled; going up and down the stairs every day was incredibly difficult. He never wanted to experience that feeling again.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the steps that usually took only a few dozen seconds to climb took almost half an hour today.

"What a waste of your life," Jiang Yueming laughed self-deprecatingly. He trembled slightly as he pulled out his keys from his pocket and opened the door.

Standing at the doorway in a daze for a long time, he seemed to come to his senses and slowly shuffled into the living room. Everything was spotless, even the door had been wiped clean. Jiang Yueming stared blankly for a long time, seemingly able to imagine Li Leshan bustling around tidying up.

The bed was also replaced with a new one, and the cotton quilt used in winter was folded into a square and placed at the foot of the bed.

Jiang Yueming sat on the bed, his calves finally feeling relaxed. He touched the clean sheets, his heart filled with a bitter taste. He couldn't understand how Li Leshan could be so kind, going to such lengths without saying a word.

He rummaged through his suitcase and pulled out new bandages and cleaning medication. He carefully rolled up his trousers to his knees. Sure enough, the bandages were soaked with blood, which was oozing out. He didn't know when the wound had been torn open. When he unwrapped the bandages, touching his leg felt like tearing open the wound.

"..." Jiang Yueming swallowed hard, and with one burst of energy, tore off all the bandages. He breathed a sigh of relief, stretched out his legs, and before he could take the next step, the living room lights were suddenly turned on, casting a faint light into the room.

Jiang Yueming was startled. He didn't care about anything else and endured the excruciating pain to pull down his trouser leg. He then kicked the blood-stained bandage under the bed.

He hurriedly hid what he was holding, trying his best to appear normal. The next second, Li Leshan gently pushed open the bedroom door.

"Lele," Jiang Yueming's voice trembled with pain as she asked, enduring the discomfort, "Why...why are you here?"