When Ren Jin woke up groggily in the morning, he habitually reached out to the right side of the bed where Gu Yueji usually slept. The icy temperature made him shiver, and he opened his eyes in surprise. Only when he saw the empty pillow did he remember that Gu Yueji had gone back to her hometown.
The familiar warmth and fragrance on the other side of the blankets were now replaced by coldness.
For many years, I've slept alone in a bed. In reality, no matter how wide the bed is, the space a person can occupy is only the width of their body, and the warmth that the body can transmit is only to a corner of the blanket. Sometimes, in my sleep, my hand inadvertently reaches out, touches something cold, and then I quickly pull it back.
Only when there is one more person is the bed spacious and warm enough.
Ren Jin turned around to get his phone from the bedside table, opened Gu Yueji's WeChat, and saw their conversation from last night about chive dumplings. Scrolling up, their conversation seemed so distant and ordinary that they didn't look like a married couple at all.
On the first day Gu Yueji arrived home, she patted her front door. He thought she was letting him know she was safe and replied with "received." Gu Yueji rolled her eyes at him in response.
The next day, he went out for a social engagement and slapped a corner of the dining table on Gu Yueji's phone. Gu Yueji took a while to reply, warning him that he was not allowed to vomit anywhere other than the toilet when he got home, nor was he allowed to lie in bed without taking a shower. He had already been drinking and was a little drunk, feeling that she didn't care about him at all. He replied in a huff that he wasn't going home that night and was going out with his buddies all night so he wouldn't come home and make a mess. Unexpectedly, Gu Yueji replied, "Have fun."
On the third day, which was yesterday, Gu Yueji didn't contact him all night to ask if he had come home. When he woke up in the morning, he sent her a selfie of himself shirtless in bed. Gu Yueji didn't reply. At noon, he sent her a picture of himself eating dumplings at home. Gu Yueji still didn't reply. In the evening, he sent her another picture of himself eating dumplings at home. This time, Gu Yueji replied, telling him to eat dumplings sparingly, saying that she didn't know when she would be back.
This time, Ren Jin was angry and didn't reply to her.
Looking at the chat history, there wasn't a single sweet word or even an intimate nickname. Ren Jin couldn't help but wonder, "They've only been married for a year, and they've already become like roommates?"
But thinking about it, that doesn't seem possible, because their lives behind closed doors are quite harmonious.
My gaze lingered on the last sentence she spoke in the chat box last night. I wondered what she meant by when she would reply. Did she intend to stay in her hometown for a long time?
Ren Jin typed two words on his phone and then stopped. He dialed the number directly, but the call was hung up as soon as it connected.
He was taken aback, then continued calling, only to be hung up again. It wasn't until more than ten minutes later that his phone rang.
"What's the matter? Why are you calling so urgently?"
The wind was so strong on the other end of the phone that Gu Yueji's voice was barely audible.
"Where are you? It's so windy."
"The signal is bad at home, so I ran to the small hill next to the house to call you."
"When are you coming back?" Ren Jin asked directly.
The signal on this small hill wasn't very good, so Gu Yueji's voice was a bit intermittent, "I've only been home for 3 days, how could it be so fast?"
Judging from her tone, Ren Jin couldn't help but ask, "You left on Monday, what day is it today?"
If Gu Yueji hadn't gone home this time, Ren Jin wouldn't have known that there are still places in China that take several days to reach.
Gu Yueji set off home on Monday morning. Her flight, which took place at noon, arrived in the city of her hometown province in the evening. Since there was only one bus a day from the city back to her hometown town, she missed it and had to stay overnight at a hotel near the bus station. The next day, she took a bus early in the morning and traveled from dawn till dusk, finally arriving in town in the evening. Again, because there were no buses back to her village, she stayed another night in a hotel in town. On the third morning, a rural bus took her to the entrance of her village, and she then walked for nearly half an hour to finally reach home.
So although she said she had only been home for 3 days, she had actually been gone for a week.
Ren Jin, sensing her tone implying she intended to stay longer, grew impatient. "How many more days are you going to stay? Isn't your grandfather alright?"
On her first day back home, she angrily called him, saying that her mother had tricked her into coming back by mentioning her grandfather. Her grandfather did have occasional headaches, but they weren't as serious as her mother had described, and the medicine prescribed by the town doctor had helped him a lot.
Gu Yueji could hear the displeasure in Ren Jin's tone on the phone, but she didn't know how to tell him about the family matters, so she could only reassure him, "I won't be staying for too long. Xiao Yao is going back to Yun City, and I need to go back as soon as possible to take over the work at the garment factory."
Ren Jin snorted. She could still think about her garment factory, but why didn't she think about her husband? He had almost eaten all the dumplings she had made and was about to go hungry.
The small hill offered no shelter, and the cold wind blew from all directions. Even wearing several layers of clothing couldn't keep out the biting chill. But his groan was louder than the wind itself, and she couldn't just hang up. "Are you at home or at the construction site?" she asked.
"Isn't it all the same no matter where I am? What's the difference?" Ren Jin suddenly became angry.
"Aren't you happier without me? Go out all night with your buddies if you want, nobody's stopping you."
"Yeah, I'm happy. How do you know I didn't go? I'm not home right now."
"Okay, then I won't bother you anymore. You can have fun." It was too cold, and Gu Yueji couldn't stand it anymore, so she hung up the phone.
Ren Jin stared incredulously at the black screen of the phone, then spat out, "Heartless."
He tossed his phone aside and lay face down on his pillow.
A new cold front arrived today, causing the temperature to drop several degrees, making it exceptionally cold.
Touching the empty side of the bed, I couldn't warm it no matter how much I touched it.
Gu Yueji's home is in the mountainous area of Northwest China, where the temperature is even lower. When she went back, she thought she would be back soon, so she only brought a thick coat. Judging from her tone, it was hard to tell how many more days she would be staying.
His check-up at Xuji was finished yesterday. As Ren Jin thought about it, he picked up his phone and opened the navigation.
Enter the location address that Gu Yueji sent him when he got home, click "Drive There", and a green route will be displayed showing a travel time of 25 hours and 29 minutes.
Ren Jin considered for two seconds, then called Qian Mingjun, "Mingjun, you keep an eye on the construction site for a few days, I'm going out of town."
"Why so suddenly, bro? Where are you going?"
"Go to your sister-in-law's house; you'll meet her family after you get married."
"Oh, that's only right. You can leave the construction site to me without worry."
"Call me anytime if anything happens, and don't make decisions on your own."
"knew."
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