Romance

An atmosphere of silence permeated between the two of them.

She sat on the round stool in front of the bed, holding the little boy's hand. Sediment stood not far away, reading messages on his mobile phone.

Drops of medicine fell from the infusion tube, and Wang Zhizhi slept a little more soundly than before.

Ye Yuanyin stared at the saline drip bottle that was about to run out of fluid and stood up to get another bottle of medicine.

His gaze followed her, taking in the surroundings—an ordinary peasant household, with a single main room, cement floors, off-white walls, and no apparent interior design. The square space contained a bed, a sofa, and tattered tables and chairs, each surface covered in a layer of dust and clutter.

Sediment turned his gaze back.

There was a peeling white iron rod, barely tucked between the bed and the bedside cabinet. It was over two meters tall, straight and wide, with no support at all. Only a few curved hooks were welded on the top to hold glass bottles.

Ye Yuanyin stood on tiptoe and tried twice to reach the infusion bottle on the shelf but failed.

She bent her body and drew another parabola with her hands with difficulty.

Chen Yan put away his phone, walked over to her side, took it off easily and handed it to her.

The large windows of Aunt Feng's house were covered with dark green paper with horizontal and vertical grids. The paper had faded in the wind and sun, and the color had lost its vividness. She looked up and saw the light from the yard filtering in. The swaying gray-green color fell on his handsome, rugged face, looking breathtaking.

She quickly lowered her eyes and thanked him.

Chen Yanan watched her change the dressing and said, "Aunt Yang asked about you a few days ago."

"How are they?"

"Xia Xia misses you very much."

Ye Yuanyin said readily, "I miss her too."

Chen Di'an suddenly laughed, even though she had already drawn a clear line in her heart.

She looked at him in confusion, and he added sternly, "I heard from Aunt Yang that you accompanied my father on his final journey."

She nodded, and that was all in the past.

"I'll be here for a while. If you need my help, just let me know." He added, "This will be my thanks for taking care of my father."

Ye Yuanyin was surprised, "You want to stay here for a long time?"

"Well, an AI therapy project for rural autism has been launched. The county believes Jiutao Village is very representative. The company's preliminary inspection team will be here in a few days."

Ye Yuanyin turned to look at Wang Zhizhi lying on the bed, with a hint of pity in his eyes.

Zhizhi was different from other children when she was young. Because her family had no money and intervention was late, her condition has become very serious now.

In fact, quite a few outsiders have come to the village to help. They do so under the guise of charity, donating money and supplies, hanging red banners, snapping photos, and spreading the word. Their arrival is full of fanfare, but when they actually start making demands about the village's current situation, they return empty-handed, unable to solve any practical problems.

She looked at the man beside her, not holding out much hope. "I hope the project goes smoothly."

*

The next day was Grandma Wang’s funeral.

Ye Yuanyin went to primary school in the village. At that time, her father was still teaching in the county. Her mother was working as a potter and could not take care of her, so she asked Grandma Wang to take care of her.

When young Ye Yuanyin came out of the village primary school, he would always see her at first sight.

At that time, Grandma Wang's eyesight was still good. Her shoulder-length hair was neatly combed. She wore a sky-blue buttoned top with intricate black patterns, black pants, black cloth shoes, and clean white socks. She was so neat and tidy, waving at her and smiling, "Ayin, come here quickly."

Later, a heavy snowstorm hit the mountains, and the accumulated snow broke the beams of the house. Her son and daughter-in-law were gone, and only she and the twin boy and girl who slept with her escaped.

Since then, her eyes have been damaged from crying.

The lives of people living in the mountains are always particularly fragile, and the probability of nature making mistakes is high, so you never know when you will lose everything.

Ye Yuanyin stroked the stone rubbing of the Buddha statue on the phone case, thinking that the Bodhisattva was also negligent in protecting these simple but poor souls.

The funeral procession in the village was not long. The white hollow paper money scattered down, like a bundle of ropes binding people tightly. She stood inside, listening to Yaya's heartbreaking cry, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon, the village director Zheng Baoshan came again. He was carrying two large suitcases in his hands, and his purple face was swollen like a pufferfish.

Secretary Ma followed closely behind, holding two stacked storage boxes in his arms, looking very relaxed.

At that time, Ye Yuanyin was taking a nap. He was exhausted and began to dream.

Because of the last "vicious dog" incident, she always tried to avoid You Jing as much as possible.

You Jing, however, began to pester her.

He openly expressed his desire to pursue her, chased her around the campus in a luxury car, and had a crowd of onlookers surround her to take pictures and report news. The posts about the two of them on the campus forum were always true and false, like watching a joke that would eventually end.

With his peacock-like personality, he couldn't learn what it meant to be low-key, but Ye Yuanyin often became the target of people's complaints because of his simple dress.

She felt embarrassed.

Her life was ripped apart violently, and envy, questioning, slander, and harassment came together, disrupting her life which was already lacking in knowledge about the city.

It's like a person who is not yet ready to bloom, but suddenly has her petals pried apart by the public, leaving her naked and ashamed.

What's more, he has many admirers.

Those people always play bad jokes.

Dirty water splashed for no reason, clothes quickly soiled again after washing, toothbrushes and water cups that were never found. Until one time, while out sketching, on a high-speed bus, they jokingly covered her eyes with towels and roughly tore at her shirt and skirt...

The few seconds before the instructor arrived were the darkest concentration camp in her life.

Ye Yuan woke up from his sleep with his fists clenched and sweat all over his forehead.

My heart was pounding, but my mind was extremely confused.

She heard the noisy sounds in the yard, picked up the clothes that were placed aside, put them on, and walked down the bamboo stairs.

Sediment was wearing a casual navy blue hooded sweatshirt with the sleeves pushed up to his forearms. His mother was teaching him how to sift clay. He had never done such rough work before and had no idea how to do it, so his clothes were covered in dust.

Seeing Ye Yuanyin coming down, A'ma complained to her, "Why do you sleep so late and let Mr. Shen do the work for you?"

After saying that, he walked into the kitchen and started preparing dinner.

Ye Yuanyin was upset and extended her prejudice against rich people who acted recklessly to him. She put on a stern face and said coldly to the man in front of her: "You've been tired, let me do it."

Sediment looked up and saw that she was wearing a short, black, coarse cloth top with a cross collar and red and blue patterns, and a narrow skirt of the same color. Her eyes were still swollen, and she said impatiently to the cat that was circling around her, "Go away! Chunfen, stay away from me!"

He forced a smile on his face, thinking that this girl was in a bad mood when she woke up, so he moved aside to make room for her.

Seeing him pick up the sieve again, Ye Yuanyin quickly reached out to grab it and said unhappily, "How can you do this? You dirty your clothes and you want others to wash them for you."

He smiled lightly, as if to coax her. "You don't have to wash it, I can wash it myself."

"Who said I need to wash?" She said angrily, "I'm not Aunt Yang."

After saying this, she felt she had overstepped her bounds. This outburst of anger was completely unprovoked and extremely annoying. She blushed slightly, put down the sieve in her hand, and headed for the kitchen.

At this time, Secretary Ma came in with a suitcase, greeted Ye Yuanyin respectfully, and went upstairs to his father's study.

Ye Yuanyin paused, turned around in confusion, and asked him, "Do you still want to live here?"

"yes."

She felt it was inconvenient and said unkindly, "There should be a guesthouse in the village."

"I can't get used to it." Chen Yan added, "Secretary Long and your mother both agreed."

Ye Yuanyin was defeated by him and said angrily, "Whatever you want."

*

The third daughter of the Long family has been very tired of taking care of the brother and sister of the Wang family recently. In the afternoon, she was busy running around to arrange for Chen Dian'an to stay. Shortly after dinner, she went to rest early.

On an April night in the mountains, the air was chilly and hostile.

Wang Yaya flipped through the picture books Ye Yuanyin had read as a child and asked, "Sister, will it snow at this time of year?"

"It looks like it will."

Missing her deceased grandmother, the little girl said with red eyes, "Then Grandma won't have to wrap the house with layers of plastic sheets anymore."

Whenever it snowed, they didn't dare sleep in the house. No matter how cold it was outside, she and her brother had to live in a makeshift brick house, for fear that a heavy snowfall would take their lives.

Ye Yuanyin held her hand and felt the rugged lines on her palm that were left prematurely by a hard life.

Chen Yanan found a table in the main room, opened his laptop and started a video conference with members of the technical team.

In the early stages of the project, no one had a clear direction, and everyone just spoke whatever came to mind. No one had a clear idea of ​​what to build, to what extent, or what the future held.

While the policy direction is clear enough, the industry is still struggling to produce high-quality products. Finding the precise integration of innovative technologies while also creating a product that is widely accepted by the public is no easy task.

He listened to everyone's speeches, turned his head and looked into the yard. He saw Wang Zhizhi sitting alone on the bluestone steps, muttering to herself, but no one knew what she was saying.

Dian Xian is the decision-maker. Everyone's opinions will eventually come down to him. Now countless eyes are staring at him, and in the end, he can't escape the three words - what to do?

He withdrew his gaze from Wang Zhizhi and said, "At present, what we can do is to collect as many sample cases as possible from children in rural areas with psychological problems. It's like a pathological biopsy of a stomach cancer patient. Using data, we can quickly and accurately analyze the specific location of the lesion. This will leave doctors with enough time to deal with other work."

"The same applies to analyzing children with autism and other problems. The medical field is crowded, so we can do art therapy. We can collect as many sample cases as possible and develop a therapy software to assist parents in early intervention. I think the future development prospects should be good."

After the video conference ended, he walked out of the main room and sat next to Wang Zhizhi.

The little boy glanced at him and continued to immerse himself in his own world. Sediment looked down and saw him using a small branch to draw a lot of symbols on the ground that he couldn't understand.

He pointed to one of the patterns that had three circles and an incomplete triangle at the end and asked him, "What does this mean?"

The little boy seemed not to hear what he said. He curled up into a ball and continued to talk to himself in his own world.

Sediment stood up.

There was only one light in the yard, and his tall and thin figure stood under the circle of light. Suddenly, snow began to fall from the sky, and countless snow shadows rushed towards him like moths to a flame.

Wang Yaya closed the book and said, "Uncle, don't bother with Zhizhi. He's talking to the stars."

The weather in the mountains was unpredictable, so Secretary Ma had specially brought over a few umbrellas while helping with the moving that afternoon. Chen Yanan entered the house, his black umbrella opened. The mountain breeze carried snow particles, and he held the umbrella firmly, as if it were having an epileptic fit.

Under the umbrella, Wang Zhizhi was muttering to herself, but the small wooden stick in her hand never stopped moving.

Dian Jing'an never said a word. The umbrella covered the child and the snow fell all over him.

After settling the two children, Ye Yuanyin suddenly remembered that there were still some clothes left in the yard. She came down from upstairs and found Yan Xi'an smoking in the yard.

The black umbrella was propped up diagonally on the ground. He put one hand into his trouser pocket and scratched his forehead with the thumb holding the cigarette. He looked a little stern, as if he was thinking about something.

The yard was already covered with a layer of white.

Ye Yuanyin brushed off the snow on the clothesline and took the clothes off one by one. Chen Yanan put out his cigarette and came over to help her.

"Xiao Ye."

He suddenly spoke, and Ye Yuanyin was stunned for a moment and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Are there many children like Zhizhi in the village?"

"Quite a lot," she said, looking up and stretching her arms to reach the shorts high above her. "Every family has its own problems. When parents are not at home, children always have a lot of problems."

Sediment took off the clothes easily and placed them in her hands, then asked, "Are you interested in working with me?"

Ye Yuanyin looked at him in confusion.