Chapter 67 Rewind 3: Winter Night
Lincheng was extremely cold at the end of January. It was not the kind of cold that was low in temperature, but the kind of cold that was damp and biting. No matter how thickly people wore, they could not withstand the attack of the damp and cold.
Every winter, it would rain continuously in Lincheng, from late autumn to early spring. The winter rain would continue for two months without stopping.
In the past summer and winter vacations, Luo Qinglin either worked in the cemetery and lived in the staff dormitory, or lived in Officer Qiao's home, helping his son with his homework and helping Mrs. Qiao with housework.
But this year he is in his senior year of high school, and the school only has a two-week holiday for the New Year. The coffee shop where he worked on weekends closed a few days ago, and the owner had already returned to his hometown to prepare for the New Year.
The closer it gets to holidays, the busier Officer Joe becomes. Luo Qinglin didn't want to disturb him at home, so he submitted an application form to the school, applying to live in the dormitory during the winter vacation.
Taking his special circumstances into consideration, the school quickly approved his application.
During the holidays, most students have packed their bags and gone home, leaving only a few students with special circumstances staying in school.
Luo Qinglin's daily routine is to take mock tests during the day, correct and organize his wrong questions at night, review knowledge points before going to bed, and check Jiang Yanyu's account for a while.
In the first few days, Luo Qinglin felt quite comfortable, but in the following days, the longer he stayed alone in the dormitory, the more dazed he felt.
As the Spring Festival approaches, social networks are filled with a festive atmosphere, which is in stark contrast to the cold and silent dormitory.
On New Year's Eve, Luo Qinglin finally decided to give himself a day off. He threw away the fast food in the box and went out of school to find food.
It gets dark early, and before six o'clock the sky has already turned dark blue.
There were thick clouds in the sky, blocking the moon completely, not allowing even a bit of moonlight to shine in.
Luo Qinglin wrapped himself in a light pink cotton coat and a white cashmere scarf, put away his keys, and finally walked out the door at six o'clock.
The air was filled with the fishy and wet smell of rain. The raindrops were very small and floated everywhere, bringing a chill into every pore.
Luo Qinglin put on the hood of his cotton-padded jacket and hid half of his face in the scarf. The hot air he exhaled floated upwards, forming a layer of mist on his lenses, which appeared and disappeared from time to time.
The school roads are lined with sycamore trees. By late winter, the trees have lost all their leaves, leaving only bare branches.
Because of the holiday, the water in the Green Duck Lake next to the dormitory has been drained, leaving only a dry depression.
There was no one outside, and the usually bustling place was now deserted and silent, as if Luo Qinglin was the only one left in the world.
The howling winter wind not only rustled the branches, but also blew raindrops everywhere, some of which even passed over the lenses and jumped into Luo Qinglin's eyes.
The temperature was approaching zero degrees. Luo Qinglin had his hands in his cotton coat pockets, but in order to wipe off the mist on his lenses, he had to stretch out his hands and endure the attack of the cold.
Since it is the Spring Festival...
So what should he eat?
Luo Qinglin walked from the dormitory to the side school gate, swiped his campus card and went out, then walked around the outer wall of the school in confusion.
Warm orange lanterns have been hung on the trees on both sides of the street. The road was sparsely populated and there were few cars on the road, but the surrounding residential buildings were brightly lit with lights on in every household.
After breathing in the scarf for a long time, the scarf has already been soaked by water vapor. Luo Qinglin felt uncomfortable, so he pulled his scarf down to reveal his face.
White steam was exhaled from the mouth, forming an ink painting in the air that only lasted for a moment and then quickly dissipated.
Luo Qinglin walked along the outer wall, circled most of the campus, and walked for nearly twenty minutes before he reached the main gate from the side gate.
Directly opposite the main gate of Lincheng No. 1 Middle School is the Lvyuan community. Many students who are not under much financial pressure will rent houses in the Lvyuan community.
Luo Qinglin stopped and raised his head, looking at the imposing high-rise building with flashing neon lights across the street.
Many households in the high-rise buildings have lights on. The lights look warm, like small stars embedded in the buildings.
The cold wind started to blow again, bringing with it tiny raindrops flying everywhere. The cold was unavoidable. The lights looked very warm, but not a single light shone on Luo Qinglin.
Luo Qinglin knew that Jiang Yanyu lived in Lvyuan Community.
So, could it be that among these bright little stars now, there lives the person he loves?
Thinking of this, Luo Qinglin took out his mobile phone and opened Jiang Yanyu's social account to check if he had updated anything today.
But Jiang Yanyu's latest Weibo post was still a selfie he posted just after his vacation. The picture was out of focus, blurry, and had a bad composition, and it didn't show his handsomeness at all.
Luo Qinglin put away his phone and continued to stare at the soft lights in the tall buildings opposite, like a wandering soul eagerly waiting.
The whistling cold wind shook the raindrops off the branches, and they fell onto Luo Qinglin's hat, making the pink fabric even darker.
Soon, when the pedestrian light turned green, Luo Qinglin hid his face in his scarf, crossed the road, and walked towards the Lvyuan community.
This is Luo Qinglin's first time to come to Lvyuan Community.
The gate of the community was wide open. Although there was someone on duty in the security booth, the security guard saw that Luo Qinglin was obviously a student and not a suspicious person, so he easily let him pass.
There are pine, cypress and holly trees planted everywhere in the Green Garden community. They are evergreen all year round with lush branches and leaves, and look quite magnificent in this cold winter.
The entire community was much larger than Luo Qinglin had imagined. Most of the restaurants in the community had already closed and were extremely deserted.
Luo Qinglin wandered around, walked and walked, and finally stopped in front of a dumpling restaurant that was open.
There were big lanterns hanging on both sides of the dumpling restaurant's door, swaying left and right in the wind, and looking about to fall down.
When I opened the door curtain, warm air hit me in the face, misting up the lenses on my nose.
There were no customers in the store. When the owner heard the noise, he poked his head out from the kitchen and asked with a smile, "Welcome, what would you like to eat?"
The owner should be a Beijing native. He speaks with a strong Beijing accent, has a small braid on his head, is of strong build, and wears a pink apron in front of him.
Luo Qinglin took the menu, smiled back at the owner unnaturally, then found a seat in a corner and sat down to look at the menu.
"Two taels of pork with fennel." Luo Qinglin said.
"Is this enough?" the shopkeeper asked in surprise.
Luo Qinglin nodded, took out ten yuan from his pocket, put it on the menu, and handed it to the owner.
Not long after, the owner came out from the kitchen carrying a tray.
In addition to the dumplings, there was also glutinous rice balls cooked with overnight fermented glutinous rice wine on the tray. The owner placed both of these items in front of Luo Qinglin.
"I didn't order any glutinous rice balls," Luo Qinglin reminded.
"Are you a student of No. 1 Middle School?" the shop owner said with a smile, "When students from No. 1 Middle School come to eat dumplings at my restaurant, I will give them tangyuan for free."
Without giving Luo Qinglin a chance to speak, the owner quickly turned around and walked towards the kitchen, saying without even turning his head: "Study hard and do your best in the college entrance examination."
Luo Qinglin stared at the glutinous rice dumplings in front of him for a long while before he scooped up a spoonful of glutinous rice dumplings.
The glutinous rice dumplings are unfilled and are small, made of glutinous rice flour. They are soft, chewy and chewy. The fermented glutinous rice soup is sweet and delicious, and seems to have some brown sugar in it, with a special caramel aroma.
As the scalding heat entered his mouth, Luo Qinglin finally escaped from his loneliness and felt the taste of the New Year.
It seemed as if his nasal cavity was filled with the water of loneliness. Luo Qinglin sniffed, but it didn't help. He had to take out a tissue and blow out the loneliness.
When you bite into the thin dumpling skin, the aroma of meat and the special spicy flavor of fennel gushes out and diffuses outward with the steam.
The aroma exploded in his mouth, and Luo Qinglin puffed up his cheeks, chewing the delicious meat filling carefully.
When there were only two dumplings left on the plate, the curtain of the dumpling restaurant was suddenly pulled open.
"Brother, pack up the eight liang dumplings, the same as always."
"Okay!"
This voice is...Jiang Yanyu? !
Luo Qinglin's heart skipped a beat and he immediately stopped chewing. He slowly raised his head and looked towards the door curtain.
Jiang Yanyu was only wearing a thin sportswear, with the zipper of his sports jacket zipped up to the top and his pants tapered above his ankles. His exposed ankle bones were a little red, as if they had been frostbitten by the cold wind.
My heart began to pound as if it was going to burst out of my chest.
Luo Qinglin knew that he shouldn't stare at others like that, but he seemed to be bewitched and couldn't move his eyes away.
Noticing his gaze, Jiang Yanyu seemed to sense something and inadvertently glanced in the direction of Luo Qinglin.
The four eyes met through the lenses.
My heartbeat became faster and faster. We only looked at each other for a second, but it felt like a light year.
After being caught peeking, Luo Qinglin nervously clenched his chopsticks, quickly closed his eyes and lowered his head, hiding half of his face in his scarf.
Did Jiang Yanyu see him? !
Luo Qinglin did not dare to look up. He could only lower his head and stare at the round dumplings on the plate nervously.
The clock on the wall ticked away, and Luo Qinglin's heart tightened with every second.
"Your dumplings, be careful they're hot."
While he was daydreaming, the dumplings were already cooked and the owner handed two heavy bags of take-away boxes to Jiang Yanyu.
"Thank you, brother, and Happy New Year." Jiang Yanyu said with a smile.
"Happy New Year," the shop owner replied.
Jiang Yanyu took the takeaway box, the plastic bag made a rustling sound, and the door curtain was lifted and then closed again.
The moment Jiang Yanyu walked out of the dumpling restaurant, Luo Qinglin suddenly raised his head and stuffed the two remaining dumplings on the plate into his mouth.
"Happy New Year, goodbye, boss!" Luo Qinglin stood up in a panic, puffed out his cheeks and said goodbye to the owner.
"Happy New Year..." The owner popped his head out from the kitchen and replied, only to find that there was no one in the store.
After leaving the dumpling restaurant, Luo Qinglin looked around and finally spotted Jiang Yanyu's back on the left.
Jiang Yanyu's back was getting farther and farther away. He was only a few steps away from the corner and was about to disappear.
Do you want to follow?
Isn't this perverted? This is secretly stalking!
However, he didn't want to miss the opportunity to see Jiang Yanyu.
Thoughts are like tangled raindrops, tangled and swaying at both ends. The white steam exhaled from his mouth blocked his eyes, making Jiang Yanyu's back blurry and unclear.
Under the dim street lights, Luo Qinglin stared straight at the figure. His heart seemed to be hanging on a broken bridge, tense, beating wildly, excited and stimulated.
When Jiang Yanyu's figure completely disappeared, Luo Qinglin finally stopped thinking about it.
He put on his hood, hid half of his face in his scarf, and ran in the direction where the figure disappeared...
The author has something to say:
Luo Qinglin: He saw me! (The little deer bumps into dokidoki)
Jiang Yanyu: He is actually wearing a pink cotton jacket. He looks soft and cute. (Grinning)
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