Chapter 17 Your Words Still Love Him

"Whose message?" Song Jiahe ended the video conference and walked out of the hotel conference room. Ji Yuanfeng was sitting on the sofa, smiling.

"Timbre." Ji Yuanfeng long-pressed the emoji of the little pigeon leaning against the big pigeon, saved it, and forwarded it to Song Jiahe.

"Look, how cute."

Song Jiahe glanced at it and replied with an emoji.

It's the same story of a baby pigeon leaning on a big pigeon, but instead of "Dad is the most reliable," the caption reads "Mom is the most, most, most reliable."

Ji Yuanfeng: "?"

Why are there two extra "most"s?

Song Jiahe sat down on the sofa, picked up the laptop from the coffee table, turned it on, checked her emails, and casually asked, "What does my darling want from you?"

Ji Yuanfeng: "Last time, the secretary's office just finished organizing the information and sent it to him."

Song Jiahe recalled that there was indeed such a thing, but he didn't ask about it in detail at the time.

"What information?"

Ji Yuanfeng: "Xinda Energy".

Song Jiahe: "Xinda?"

“Yes,” Ji Yuanfeng said, “from the Gu family.”

The Ji family and the Gu family had little business contact, and Song Jiahe knew less about "Xinda" than he did about Gu Lin.

She had met Gu Lin a few times at parent-teacher meetings and often heard Tongtong describe him as a steady and reliable child.

"Why is Tongtong suddenly investigating this?" Song Jiahe took a sip of coffee.

She remembered that the child seemed to have given up his eligibility to be sent abroad.

Thinking of this, she frowned: "Is Cinda in a bad situation?"

Ji Yuanfeng shook his head: "No, everything is normal. We just closed one product line in Anjing."

"These are all standard procedures. Cinda's focus is not in the country."

"That's good." Song Jiahe nodded, without giving it much thought.

-

Night slowly fell in Ankyoreh.

After the two finished dinner, Gu Lin was working on the printed test papers. Ji Tong, unusually, didn't want to bother him today. She made a cup of black tea, placed it beside him, and quietly went into the house.

Tu Jing called at that moment.

Ji Tong felt a sense of relief, as if his wish had come true. He answered the phone: "Senior."

"It's me," Tu Jing on the other end of the phone was taken aback by Ji Tong's tone: "Why are you so excited?"

"..."

Ji Tong coughed: "No, what's up, senior calling at this hour?"

"It's nothing major, it's just that the student union is about to start recruiting new members, and many departments asked me to come and ask about your interest."

If Tu Jing hadn't brought it up, Ji Tong would have almost forgotten about it.

"I haven't decided yet."

"I know, that's what I said too. Old Qi and the others said they haven't seen you at school lately and they found it strange, so they asked me to ask around."

Worried that the sound of her phone call would disturb Gu Lin's work, Ji Tong glanced towards the door and said in a low voice, "Wait a minute, senior, I'll go to the balcony."

Tu Jing heard the sound of the sliding door coming from the other side.

Half a minute later.

"I asked Mingying, have you been staying at Gu Lin's place for the past week or so?"

"Um."

The raindrops, reflected in the light and shadow of the tall buildings, resembled swaying crystal clusters, as Ji Tong leaned against the windowsill and gazed at them.

Tu Jing didn't say anything either, and the atmosphere became quiet for a moment.

A long time passed.

"So you've made up?" Tu Jing's voice was actually very similar to her facial features—neutral and magnetic. However, she would deliberately raise her pitch when talking to people, but Ji Tong knew that this was the state Tu Jing was most comfortable with right now.

Have you made up yet?

Ji Tong has heard this question more than once during this period.

Li Yuan asked, Zhou Tian asked, Cui Mingying asked, and people in the high school group also asked.

Ji Tong's answer was the same.

"without."

Ji Tong paused for a few seconds, glanced at the door, and said very softly.

"But I'm not angry anymore."

He still didn't know why Gu Lin left without saying goodbye, but he knew that Gu Lin had returned, and had come back after a great deal of effort.

"Ji Tong." Tu Jing suddenly spoke, calling him by his full name.

"Um?"

"Your words still love him."

"..."

Ji Tong heard Tu Jing exhale.

"Senior, you're smoking again?"

Tu Jingqu on the other end of the phone flicked her cigarette ash: "You have pretty sharp ears, Ji Tong."

Ji Tong didn't know Tu Jing smoked until she arrived at Anhui University. When she asked, she learned that Tu Jing had been smoking for two years, but thankfully, she didn't smoke frequently.

It's not surprising that people who study art have some quirky personalities.

"By the way, Mingying said Gu Lin came back from Germany?" Tu Jing asked again.

"Um."

Tu Jing casually asked, "Have you picked up any bad habits, like... smoking?"

“No,” Ji Tong said, “Gu Lin doesn’t smoke; he doesn’t like the smell of cigarettes.”

Tu Jing paused for a moment, then chuckled lightly.

"Yeah."

Ji Tong: "Mm."

Ji Tong was very certain.

During my senior year of high school, the teaching affairs office caught a group of about ten students who were smoking in violation of school rules. Most of them were senior students, and they weren't really smoking, they were just doing it for fun. The school made them write two thousand words of self-criticism as a token punishment.

Although the punishment wasn't severe, it was still two thousand words, so during the second round of investigations, several boys from the parallel classes hid the cigarettes with Li Yuan. This was because the competition classes at No. 1 Middle School had their own "ecosystem," and the teaching affairs office basically didn't check.

Even with constant vigilance, it's hard to guard against a thief within your own household.

It wasn't just a few boys from the regular classes who were curious.

So one dark and stormy night, Li Yuan and his group lit cigarettes.

Ji Tong was also there.

It is said that you will receive nicotine within seven seconds of lighting a cigarette.

Ji Tong was also curious about the sensation of nicotine entering the brain through the lungs. Just as he was about to observe, his cigarette was confiscated and extinguished.

Ji Tong turned his head and saw Gu Lin.

Since then, not a single cigarette has been smoked in the entire senior year, so much so that for a while, Li Yuan and the others saved Gu Lin's contact as "Lin Zexu".

"Why did you suddenly ask that, senior?"

"It's nothing, it's fine if you don't smoke. I was just asking to distract you," Tu Jing put the cigarette butt in her portable ashtray and asked again, "How's Gu Lin's back injury?"

"The bruises haven't fully healed yet, but the bleeding area has already scabbed over," Ji Tong said.

There were two pots of mint on the windowsill. Ji Tong had bought them from a small stall at the entrance the night before last. He was playing with the mint leaves while talking on the phone with Tu Jing.

"Is healed almost completely?"

"Um."

"So you're going back to the dorm next week?"

Ji Tong's fingers, which were fiddling with the leaves, stopped.

Oh right, his original plan was to go back to the dormitory once Gu Lin's back injury healed.

If we're moving back, do we have to pack our things this weekend?

Clothes, blankets, towels, pear-shaped lamp, melting candle lamp, handmade cups, the orange grove aromatherapy that was sent to me also arrived here, and these two jars of mint... How come there are so many things?

A long silence.

Tu Jing didn't say anything, walked to the trash can, and emptied the cigarette butts from the portable box.

a long time.

"Ji Tong," Tu Jing said.

Ji Tong snapped out of his daze.

"Try taking some traditional Chinese medicine to regulate your body. This can't go on forever," Tu Jing said.

Ji Tong's thoughts returned: "Is traditional Chinese medicine good for the recovery of external wounds?"

Tu Jing: "…………"

Tu Jing sighed and said, "I didn't mean for Gu Lin to drink it, I meant for you... Sigh, never mind, I'm hanging up."

Ji Tong: "?"

-

Ji Tong was rarely hung up on; it was Tu Jing who hung up on him. He blinked blankly.

The rain outside the window was getting heavier and heavier. He picked up the mint and took a sniff. It was going to rain for half a month in Anjing. He wondered if this sun-loving plant would survive.

Ji Tong took out her phone, intending to buy a lamp as a temporary fix. Just as she unlocked it, the clothes in the master bedroom suddenly started swaying from side to side. Before Ji Tong could even look up, the mint plant on the windowsill and the decorative lamp began to tilt slightly, and a feeling of dizziness washed over her.

Did you get dizzy from inhaling menthol?

After a brief period of doubt followed by a quick denial, Ji Tong realized it was an earthquake.

He wasn't panicked. Although Anjing rarely experiences earthquakes, he had experienced a few before. The tremor wasn't strong, so it was most likely that the earthquakes in the surrounding area had affected Anjing.

But after all, it was the 21st floor, a high floor, and even the slightest vibration could be amplified. Sensing the danger from the outside world, the body instinctively trembled.

Ji Tong has a naturally sensitive vestibular system, and even just standing there, she felt a kind of motion sickness.

He took a step back, intending to lean against a wall for cushioning his fall, when suddenly his forearm was grabbed and he turned around—

"Lean on me," Gu Lin's voice rang out.

Ji Tong had no idea when Gu Lin arrived. Before he could even think, he was pulled into a hug by those arms.

The scene before him was still dizzying, but the strong signal from the natural imagery could not be ignored, and Ji Tong was somewhat stunned.

"Close your eyes."

The next second, Ji Tong's eyes were covered.

Gu Lin's palms were warm today.

His vision dimmed, his eyesight was shut down, and Gu Lin's palm acted like a switch, weakening all other senses.

Perhaps the tremor was a bit too strong, because Ji Tong felt her heart beating a little fast.

It felt like a long time had passed, yet also like only a few seconds, before the earthquake stopped.

The jolt disappeared.

"It's stopped?" Ji Tong asked softly.

"Um."

Ji Tong pulled Gu Lin's hand away and looked around. Everything was no longer shaking, except for the overturned pot of mint that reminded her of the small earthquake that had just occurred. Everything else was normal.

The area downstairs in the residential complex started to get noisy.

Ji Tong raised her hand and gently touched her chest.

Strange, the earthquake has stopped, so why is my heart still beating so fast?

Ji Tong shook her head, suppressing the strange palpitation in her heart, and looked at Gu Lin.

"Don't you have any safety awareness? The average self-rescue time in an earthquake is only 12 seconds. Find somewhere to hide! Why are you coming to me? You're so stupid."

He almost lost his balance just now, how could Gu Lin still run in from the living room?

"Don't stand by the window, we don't know if there will be any aftershocks." Ji Tong said, grabbing Gu Lin's wrist and leading him towards the living room, but her eyebrows were inexplicably smiling.

In this situation, the most instinctive reaction of the body is to run or hide, but Gu Lin came looking for him.

Their phones kept buzzing.

Ji Tong opened the news feed and glanced at it; sure enough.

The epicenter was near Ankyoreh. It was a magnitude 4.0 earthquake with a focal depth of 23 kilometers, only 17 kilometers from Ankyoreh, and a maximum intensity of 3.7 degrees.

Ji Tong reviewed the official report and thankfully, the earthquake was far below the seismic resistance standards of the two cities, and there were no casualties.

The WeChat messages were far more intense than an earthquake; videos were being sent in every group, large and small.

[Li Yuan: @JT, Tongtong, are you and Lin Ge alright? The tremors on the 21st floor must have been very strong.]

As if too lazy to type, Li Yuan sent a voice message instead.

But Ji Tong couldn't hear very clearly.

[JT: Why is it so noisy?]

[Li Yuan: The school has been bombed.]

[JT: ?]

[Li Yuan: [Video]]

Ji Tong clicked on the video, and in the footage, Li Yuan was crowded in the escape passage of the boys' dormitory, and the stairwell was completely blocked.

[Li Yuan: People who usually say "It's good to be alive, it's okay to die" suddenly become completely different when faced with a real crisis. Their eyes show no hesitation, only a strong desire to live.]

Looking at the crowded scene in the video, Ji Tong didn't think they were making a mountain out of a molehill.

Ji Tong pressed the voice bar: "High awareness of prevention shows that earthquake education is in place, which is a good thing."

Unlike someone else.

"Someone" was walking over from the island counter with two cups of mint tea in his hand.

Ji Tong nudged "someone's" arm and pulled him to sit on the carpet in front of the sofa.

Their arms would occasionally brush against each other, a silent display of intimacy.

Ji Tong took a sip of tea.

A red dot notification appeared on WeChat indicating that someone had posted on Moments.

He clicked on it casually.

[Cai Wen: "The once brilliant universe has been reduced to nothing but photons and black holes. The universe has entered the 'Black Hole Era,' where there are no longer planets, stars, or any habitable celestial bodies to support life. However, the end of the world is still a long way off."]

[Cai Wen: I just watched the documentary "The End of the Universe" this morning, and this is what I wanted to say.]

[Tu Jing replied: Our great poet Cai is getting sentimental again.]

[Li Yuan replied: Getting sentimental again, "Universe" bro.]

[Zeng Rui replied: Getting sentimental again, "Black Hole" guy.]

[Pan Liangzhe replied: Getting sentimental again, "Doomsday" guy.]

[Cai Wen's reply: Blocked all.]

After laughing, Ji Tong leaned back slightly on the sofa behind him.

a long time.

Ji Tong pressed her knee against Gu Lin's knee.

A signal that says, "I'm going to speak, look at me."

Gu Lin turned his head.

Ji Tong: "Gu Lin."

Gu Lin: "Hmm?"

Ji Tong: "If the world were ending in an hour, what would you do?"

The noise downstairs hadn't subsided yet, but the 21st floor was unusually quiet.

Gu Lin looked at him for a while, then curled his fingers and pushed the cup of mint tea towards him.

"Make yourself a cup of mint tea."

Gu Lin only said "make a cup of mint tea", but Ji Tong heard "make you a cup of mint tea".

Gu Lin also followed Ji Tong's example and leaned back slightly.

The two leaned against each other on the sofa, shoulder to shoulder.

"And you?" Gu Lin asked.

The two, who believe in the order and rules of numbers, rarely discuss such "artistic" topics.

"Well," Ji Tong thought for a moment, drawing out her words, "then I'll have a cup of mint tea."

"After we finish drinking, we'll both be finished."