Chapter 30 "You want me to marry late, what about you?"

"I'm bad at Chinese?" Ji Tong didn't reply to the WeChat message again and strode after him. "I never scored below 130 in Chinese in high school."

The road was too dark, and Ji Tong stumbled and almost fell, but Gu Lin caught her.

"Watch where you're going," Gu Lin said helplessly.

Ji Tong's first words after she stood still were: "You're the one who's bad at Chinese."

Gu Lin: "Yes, I'm not good at Chinese."

Ji Tong was finally satisfied.

The two walked out of Ping'an Park, and Gu Lin glanced at the time: "I'll take a taxi."

"Wait a minute," Ji Tong said, pulling Gu Lin toward the mall, "let's go buy a gift for Chen Ping'an first."

"Uncle Chen said that during his vacation, he went to the park twice a day to see Gu Linlin."

Shopping malls were packed with people during the holiday.

Ji Tong pulled Gu Lin straight to a bookstore that integrates reading experience space, cultural and creative products, coffee and food, and book sales.

With only a few days left in the long holiday, the study tables in the bookstore were almost all occupied.

Gu Lin stopped in the teaching aids area. He flipped through them, picked out a few "Test Question Research" books, and handed them to Ji Tong.

"this."

Ji Tong: "..."

Ji Tong looked at the several bright green teaching aids, turned back halfway, and her face turned just as green as the teaching aids.

"Is this how you give gifts?"

Gu Lin said calmly, "Uncle Chen said he didn't do well on his entrance exam."

“That’s just this once,” Ji Tong retorted. “Why don’t you mention that he ranked seventh in the grade in the final exam last semester?”

Ji Tong confiscated all the supplementary teaching materials, and put them back in their original places according to their categories, muttering to herself as she did so: "Gu Lin, how are you going to raise your child in the future?"

The physics study guide is here, but where's the chemistry... chemistry study guide?

Ji Tong couldn't find it, so she turned to Gu Lin and asked, "Where did you get your complete chemistry solution book...?"

"Ji Tong." Gu Lin suddenly spoke, interrupting Ji Tong.

Ji Tong held the complete chemistry textbook: "Hmm?"

Gu Lin was silent for a few seconds, then took the complete chemistry book from Ji Tong's hand, walked around the cabinet in front of Ji Tong, and said, "The prerequisite for having children is getting married."

Gu Lin's voice was soft and casual, yet it stunned Ji Tong into silence.

He certainly knew that having children required marriage.

But... Ji Tong's mind suddenly went blank.

Because he realized that he couldn't imagine what it would be like for Gu Lin to get married.

Raising children...

But Gu Lin can't even take care of himself... No, that's not right. As long as Gu Lin is willing, he can always take good care of people.

Ji Tong stood there, frozen in the open space in front of the textbook shelf, like a machine whose gears had suddenly jammed and stopped working.

Gu Lin often, or more accurately, every moment, wondered whether he should recklessly lay everything bare and face his judgment.

But just looking at him like this, the person didn't have to do anything, just standing there, looking at him with those eyes, and... couldn't bear to leave.

A silent sigh.

Gu Lin put down the complete chemistry book and walked towards Ji Tong.

"What should I choose?"

Ji Tong hadn't quite caught up in her thoughts yet: "Hmm?"

Gu Lin: "What gift should we choose for Chen Ping'an?"

"The gift... oh, it's not here, it's in the LEGO section."

"Buy Lego?"

"Yes, I saw him post on his WeChat Moments before, saying it looked good."

The two walked to the LEGO section, where Ji Tong picked out a newest One Piece LEGO set, paid for it, and went to the checkout.

He was unusually quiet.

After making the purchase, Ji Tong took out her phone and sent a message to Chen Ping'an.

[JT: At Uncle Chen's BBQ restaurant?]

Chen Pingan replied instantly.

Chen Ping'an: ?

[Chen Ping'an: Brother? Have you finished feeding Gu Linlin? Are you coming to find me?]

[Chen Ping'an: But I'm not in the store right now, I'm at Xilin Plaza next door.]

[Chen Ping'an: Are you already at the store? I can come over too!]

Chen Pingan sent four messages in quick succession, the speed at which the messages popped up was like a machine gun.

[JT: ?]

[JT: [Real-time Location] Xilin Square]

JT: I'm right here, where are you?

Chen Ping'an: ?!

[Chen Ping'an: I'm in Sky City! With my classmates! Bro, where are you? I'm coming to pick you up right away!]

[JT: Stay there, Gu Lin and I will come over.]

[Chen Ping'an: Great, great, great! A lot of my classmates want to meet you and Brother Lin!]

[Chen Ping'an: Well-behaved.jpg]

Ji Tong: "?"

What does "many classmates" mean?

Ji Tong's head started to ache before she even saw anyone.

He put away his phone and said to Gu Lin, "Chen Ping'an is in the arcade on the third floor."

Gu Lin took the Lego from his hand: "Then let's go downstairs."

Ji Tong's expression was indifferent: "Mm."

Ji Tong told Chen Pingan to stay in the arcade, but Chen Pingan couldn't sit still. Almost the instant he hung up the phone, he ran to the door, followed by a string of people who had heard the news that "Anjing No. 1 High School completely crushes the two academic geniuses."

So Ji Tong and Gu Lin took the elevator downstairs. They had only taken a few steps when they heard Chen Ping'an's raspy voice.

"Brother! Here! Here!"

Chen Ping'an sprinted over, followed by a group of tall boys, creating a striking visual effect.

Chen Ping'an's eyes widened immediately when he saw the Lego in Gu Lin's hand.

"Dude, you have such great taste! This one is seriously super cool!"

The next second.

This super cool thing was transferred from his brother's hands to his arms.

Chen Ping'an: "???"

"For me? Really? Brother? Really?" Chen Ping'an looked at Ji Tong in disbelief.

"It's fake," Ji Tong joked.

Chen Ping'an hugged the Lego tightly: "Brother, you really are my dad!"

"Wow, that must cost 2000 yuan."

"So cool!"

Seven or eight boys around Chen Ping'an started yelling and screaming.

Their noise level is comparable to that of cicadas chirping in summer.

Ji Tong's ears were sore from the noise that they were about to go play by themselves when Chen Ping'an snatched the game coin box from a boy in a red jacket and shoved it into Ji Tong's hand: "Brother, you and Brother Lin have a good time tonight, it's on me."

"Let's go, let's go."

"Didn't you used to come here often to play the claw machine? They've got a lot of new stuff lately, I'll take you there."

Ji Tong and Gu Lin were thus pushed into the arcade.

Ji Tong didn't want to spoil their fun, but how could she really let Chen Ping'an treat her? Just as she was about to go to the front desk, she turned around and saw Gu Lin walking out from behind a basketball machine, with a game token card worth a thousand yuan in his hand.

The arcade was so noisy that Ji Tong didn't even notice when Gu Lin went to redeem the card.

The two found Chen Ping'an and his classmates in the "Wild Racing" area.

Gu Lin handed him the game coin card.

Ji Tong said, "Treat your classmates well."

Chen Ping'an covered his mouth, his eyes brimming with tears: "Brother Lin, you're my real dad too!"

"You two are both my biological fathers!"

Ji Tong: "..."

Where did this habit of claiming fathers everywhere come from? Does Uncle Chen know?

A group of boys next to me started yelling and shouting again.

Ji Tong flicked Chen Ping'an's forehead and pulled Gu Lin away from the swarm of little "cicadas".

Unlike the dance machine area and the racing car and basketball shooting area, the claw machine area is relatively quiet.

There are definitely many more units now compared to when I was in high school.

But Ji Tong seemed somewhat distracted.

He didn't choose, but turned around and stood in front of a machine.

Gu Lin looked up at the dolls inside.

It's so ugly it's jarring.

Ji Tong, however, seemed not to have seen it.

Insert coin, adjust position, press, nothing.

Insert coin, adjust position, press, nothing.

Coin insertion...

After going back and forth three times, Ji Tong lowered his eyes and finally spoke, calling out softly.

"Gu Lin."

Gu Lin knew he had something to say.

He was distracted when choosing Lego.

He replied, "What's wrong?"

“I think…” Ji Tong put in two more coins, paused for a long time, “kids can be quite noisy sometimes.”

Gu Lin responded after a long pause.

“Well,” he said, seemingly unintentionally, “but didn’t you like children and say you’d get married after graduating from university?”

Ji Tong blinked and suddenly looked up.

"Me? When did I say that?"

Gu Lin didn't look at him, and instead inserted two coins into a machine next to him.

"On Children's Day, during my second year of high school."

"Children's Day? I..."

Ji Tong's memory suddenly flashed.

He still doesn't remember those words very well, but he remembers Children's Day from his second year of high school very clearly.

The day his little niece turned one month old.

The claw machine's countdown ended, and the claw dropped automatically.

It was only then that Ji Tong vaguely remembered that there seemed to be such a thing.

He remembered that it was his niece's one-month celebration. His niece liked him very much. Whenever he held her, the baby would giggle. His cousin-in-law joked that since she liked children so much, she should get married after graduating from university.

That was Ji Tong's first baby of her nephew's generation. Ji Tong was very curious, so she took a picture and sent it to Gu Lin, casually mentioning her cousin's wife in a joke.

"I didn't mean I like children, I just wanted to tell you that my little niece is very cute," Ji Tong said, momentarily at a loss for words. "I didn't plan to get married and have children right after graduation."

“I…you don’t know, my cousin’s wife had a top-notch medical team from the beginning of her pregnancy preparation, but she still has some health problems after giving birth to her niece.”

"The damage that childbirth does to women is irreversible."

"Entering marriage too early is irresponsible to your partner."

"Have fewer children, have better children, or no children at all, and you'll be happy for life."

"Contemporary youth should be role models for late marriage and late childbirth."

"You'd better set a good example by marrying and having children later in life, you know?"

Ji Tong rambled on incoherently, his tendency to speak too fast when nervous was brought out.

He clutched the two game tokens in his hand. Even though he had just said those words, Ji Tong felt he couldn't quite remember them, as if they had just passed through his mouth and nothing had been left behind.

In the end, all I could remember was the sentence, "You'd better marry and have children later in life and set a good example."

It's as if... all that rambling was just to say this one sentence.

Ji Tong was recalling—

"And you."

Upon hearing Gu Lin's voice, Ji Tong's fingers, which were gripping the game coins, trembled.

"What?"

"You want me to marry late, what about you?"

Gu Lin seemed to have taken it to heart.

Ji Tong suddenly put down the game tokens in her hand, turned around and looked at him, as if to make a promise.

"I also married late."

Gu Lin also turned around and met his gaze in the colorful lights of the claw machine.

Seeing his disbelieving look, Ji Tong immediately said, "Then I swear."

After saying that, he hurriedly raised his hand: "I'll send it..."

Before she could finish speaking, Gu Lin gently pinched her face.

"Don't send it randomly." Gu Lin let go of her hand.

"knew."

Ji Tong put the game coins into Gu Lin's basket: "What do you know?"

Gu Lin said slowly, "If the child is noisy, don't have one, and you'll be happy for life."

The pent-up frustration that had been building up inside Ji Tong all the way here suddenly dissipated.

"Kids are noisy, but toys are quiet. I'll grab a doll for you."

Ji Tong turned around—

Why are the toys in this machine so ugly?

How come I didn't notice this before?

Ji Tong immediately changed positions, surveyed the area, and pulled Gu Lin to a new machine.

Gu Lin looked up and saw that they were all animal figurines.

"Which one do you want?" Gu Lin asked.

Ji Tong took a handful of game coins and put two in.

"Baby elephant".

"Arrest two."

"One is for you, and the other will be taken by your uncle to Kenya to give to 'Nala'."

Nala is the name of the orphaned elephant that Song Zhenshu adopted for Ji Tong.

The name was given by Ji Tong; it's Nala's name from "The Lion King," and it means "gift" in Swahili.

The other baby rhinoceros is named "Simba".

Ji Tong was so focused that she didn't notice the sudden pause in Gu Lin's expression when he mentioned "little uncle".

After spending a box of game tokens, Ji Tong grabbed a cart full of plush toys. He only took two elephants and one cat with him, giving the rest to Chen Ping'an.

It was early morning when I returned to the peninsula from Xilin.

After the light bulb in the guest room was "fixed," Gu Lin went back to his own room.

At 3:11 a.m., Gu Lin woke up from his dream.

He sat quietly for a while, then reached into the hidden compartment of the bedside table drawer, took a lighter, and then took a cigarette from the cigarette case. He walked out of the guest room and went to the French windows.

Gu Lin drew the curtains to block the camera, pushed open the French windows, and walked onto the balcony.

The balcony window was open, and the mint plant with new buds swayed its leaves gently in the evening breeze.

Gu Lin lit a cigarette and leaned against the windowsill.

The curtains that were supposed to block the camera weren't fully closed, leaving a narrow gap.

The faint light from the balcony shone through the narrow gap and onto the coffee table in the living room.

The baby elephant toy that was just caught tonight, which the man planned to have his uncle take to Kenya, is just standing there.

Gu Lin took a drag of his cigarette.

Twenty-six days later, Gu Lin finally dreamed of his conversation with Yang Yin again—

"Gu Lin, has Ji Tong mentioned his uncle Song Zhenshu to you?"

"have."

"Did I tell you why Song Zhenshu suddenly went abroad back then?"

"I'll tell you why, because Song Zhenshu was dating someone at the time."

"He was also his classmate."

Why did I use 'also'?

"You guessed right."

"They are of the same sex."

"It was said that the conflict was quite serious at the time, and after the two broke up, Song Zhenshu went abroad."

"Ah Lin, Song Zhenshu has already nearly killed the Song family. Are you sure you want Ji Tong to go with you?"

Gu Lin only dreamed of this much before waking up.

But this wasn't the first time he had dreamed about it.

This isn't the first time I've experienced this.

What did he reply at the time?

It seems so—

"It's not that I want him to go with me, it's that I want to go with him."

Yang Yin remained silent for a long time.

"What if Ji Tong doesn't end up being one either?"

Gu Lin did not reply.

Perhaps he already knew his answer.

If not.

Then go back, as a friend, in a completely new capacity, and see him off on his next new journey.

Accept, reconstruct, be at peace.

The lingering effects of the dream were like a long aftershock.

Gu Lin leaned against the windowsill, silently enduring the pain until his fingers were burned red by the nearly burnt-out embers.

He lowered his head.

Burn marks were left on the inside of my index finger.

Gu Lin stubbed out his cigarette in the trash can.

My fingers are too obvious; he'll see them easily, so I need to apply medicine.

Gu Lin pressed the cigarette butt down and hid it, then prepared to get up and find the ointment.

Just as you press your hand against the floor-to-ceiling window, a "click" sound comes from somewhere in the living room as a door opens.

Gu Lin stopped moving.

The next second, as he stood there in a daze, the living room light was suddenly switched on.

Like the morning light piercing through the long night.

Gu Lin stood frozen in front of the floor-to-ceiling window for a long time before finally pushing it open and walking inside.

Ji Tong wasn't startled by the sound from the balcony; she simply tilted her head and looked towards it.

He was wearing pajamas, his hair was messy and disheveled, and somehow he had already reached the guest room door and was standing facing it, as if he was about to go in.

"Why are you awake?" Gu Lin asked softly, afraid of startling him.

Ji Tong seemed to be still half asleep, his eyes slightly narrowed. He didn't ask Gu Lin why he wasn't in the room, nor did he ask Gu Lin what he was doing up so late. After a short pause, he turned around and walked towards Gu Lin.

Ji Tong took a few steps and stopped in front of Gu Lin, staring at him for a long time before suddenly lowering his head and resting his forehead on Gu Lin's shoulder.

"I don't know, I just woke up suddenly."

Ji Tong's voice was groggy.

"I just wanted to come and see."

The spot where the cigarette tip touched brought on a sharp, burning pain.

The scent of orange groves filled the air.

Gu Lin raised his hand and placed it on the back of Ji Tong's neck.

friend.

Are you willing to accept this?