Chapter 11
At seven o'clock in the morning, when Zou Ping woke up, Tang Yuchuan had already left.
I don’t know what time he went to bed yesterday or whether he slept well.
Zou Ping quickly washed, changed her clothes, picked up the bag she had packed last night and prepared to go out.
As she reached the door, her eyes fell on a small bottle of ointment on the cabinet at the door and the short note next to it.
"There are a lot of mosquitoes outside, so remember to use it."
The handwriting was neat, and the few words made Zou Ping feel warm in her heart.
In Tang Yuchuan's world, emotions are always tightly sealed, but these details can always convey the warmth she desires, neither too much nor too little, just right.
In the bus, the children's voices rose and fell, like the early spring breeze in the wild, unrestrained yet warm.
Zou Ping sat in the last row, next to the window.
When she is with the children, she is used to sitting in this position because she can see every move of each child.
Several boys in the front row were gathered around a piece of graffiti paper, discussing the little monsters they were going to draw. They were talking excitedly, and one of them even made a claw gesture, which scared the little girl next to him so much that she dodged immediately.
A little further back, two girls were secretly applying lipstick. It must have belonged to one of their mothers, but they mistook it for makeup, meticulously applying a little lipstick to each other's faces. Their devotion to beauty was adorable.
Mai Tian, who was sitting by the window in the middle row, was quietly coaxing a child who was a little carsick, saying that she had brought some candy and asked the child to lean on her shoulder and sleep for a while.
The child gradually calmed down, and her little head leaned towards her. Mai Tian reached out and pulled her collar, fearing that she would catch a cold.
She didn't say anything, but the corners of her eyes curved quietly, and a barely guarded smile played across her lips. It was an unconcealable joy that came from within. The innocence of a child always made her forget the noise of reality for a moment.
Mai Sheng was sitting diagonally in front of him. He didn't look back, but saw her smile reflected in the car window - not ostentatious, nor pretentious, but inexplicably touching.
He was stunned for a moment.
It was not a clear image, as if separated by a layer of ripples in the lake - her smile floated quietly on the glass, clean and distant.
Her profile wasn't gentle, with distinct brow bones and a natural edge to the corners of her eyes. But in that instant, that edge softened, enveloped in the children's noise, and faded away silently.
Mai Sheng withdrew his gaze, was silent for a moment, and finally stood up and walked back.
The laughter of children floated in the carriage. He walked through the small noises, not fast, but with an indescribable certainty.
"Do you mind if someone sits here?" he asked softly, his eyes fixed on her without any extra expression.
Zou Ping raised her head slightly and glanced at him with some surprise, "I don't mind."
Mai Sheng sat down, curled up his long legs slightly, leaned against the window, and looked towards the front of the car: "You are smiling very happily."
"Huh?" She was stunned.
"Just now," he tilted his head and pointed at a reflection on the window with his finger, "I saw you smiling in the glass. It was a very... beautiful smile."
"Thank you." She didn't know how to answer, so she turned her head slightly to look at the mountain road outside the window.
"You like children very much, right?" he continued to ask, but his tone was very low, as if he was afraid of disturbing something.
"I don't like them all the time," she thought for a moment and said, "but when I see them, I do feel that there is still pure beauty and simple happiness in the world."
Mai Sheng said "hmm". It seemed that he found it difficult to feel any beauty from children, except for his own sister.
There was another brief silence.
The sunlight outside the window danced and sprinkled on her shoulders like a layer of pale golden halo.
He looked sideways at her——
The clear brow bones and slightly raised eye tails are a bit like the tip of a knife passing across the paper, the lines are neat but not cold and hard.
Her eyebrows and eyes were naturally charming, but when she lowered her eyes, the innocence that had not faded made this charm seem to be crushed and softened.
However, at the age of twenty-something, she seemed to have taken a small step out of time early on, standing between girl and woman, silent and steady.
He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he suddenly wanted to talk to her more.
"Do you have many students?" he asked softly.
"There are sixteen people in this class, and nine of them are here for this sketching session." She looked at the front row, counted them, and turned back. "They're quite noisy."
"But you enjoyed it."
She looked up at him and didn't deny it.
"Come to think of it," Zou Ping suddenly remembered something, "the previous notice clearly stated that it recommended that at least one parent accompany each child. I thought there would be a lot of them."
Mai Sheng smiled and said, "In the end, it was only me."
Zou Ping tilted her head slightly and glanced at him: "Why are you here? You seem to be very close to your sister."
Mai Sheng smiled, his voice slow and slow, his manner a bit deliberately nonchalant. "I've been playing with her since we were little. Maybe it was influenced by my parents... Our family is the kind... Even if we're eating instant noodles, we'll drag her to sit at the same table. Sometimes, feelings are accumulated through time together, so our family is very close."
Zou Ping didn't respond, but just lowered her head and touched her cuffs, feeling a little cold.
"I've heard a little about your family situation." Mai Sheng glanced at her, paused, and said, "Actually, a warm and comfortable life isn't difficult or expensive... As long as you're willing, you can have it."
His tone was very light, like a casual consolation, but there was a hint of meaning at the end of his words. It was not an explicit invitation, but more like a gesture of slowly approaching.
The car suddenly shook.
Mai Sheng reached out and tried to steady her shoulder. The movement was gentle, yet it carried a certain natural sense of protection.
But Zou Ping still turned sideways slightly, as if it was a subconscious action, or as if it was an instinct that had been developed long ago, and dodged it calmly.
The air between the two seemed to pause.
She didn't look at him, but just looked at the sunlight-dappled shadows of the trees outside the window. Her eyes were slightly dazed, as if she was a little distracted, or as if she had paused in some memory.
In the past week, both she and Tang Yuchuan have been very busy.
He woke up a little before her, and she went to bed a little after him. All day, their lives ran like two parallel tracks, occasionally intersecting but rarely conversing. Yet, neither of them felt awkward. Even the restraint she had previously felt at home had faded somewhat.
When she woke up, the teacup was already placed on the corner of the dining table. It was still steaming and the water was the temperature she was used to. Two red dates were added to the porridge, which was just the sweetness she was used to.
In the evening, she sat at her desk, preparing lessons, her back to the living room. It was dark outside, and the house was quiet. She could hear the key turning in the door lock, the soft tinkle of his shoes as the door closed. Occasionally, he would wash a cup in the kitchen, or rummage through something, his movements always gentle.
She hardly left the house, just listening, as if to make sure he was indeed back, and then she would go to bed with peace of mind and prepare to sleep.
Occasionally, she would warm a small bowl of soup on the stove, not too hot, not too cold. No note, no explanation. The next morning, the bowl was gone, the cleaned bowl placed on the drainer, even in its original place.
No one spoke, no laughter, no physical contact.
But the whole house was quiet and peaceful, as if someone had polished daily life to just the right temperature, not warm at all, but intriguing.
No one had any extra emotions, as if each of them was a piece of quiet wood in the room. However, Zou Ping found that she liked this feeling. It was this feeling that made her feel the existence of "home" so truly as never before.
If the happiness that Mai Sheng talked about was the warm atmosphere spread in the light, then the happiness she wanted was like an obscure lamp, burning silently in the quietest corner of time.
She became more and more certain that she liked Tang Yuchuan, and that he had the happiness she wanted.
She suddenly spoke, as if asking him, or perhaps talking to herself: "Is there really someone who loves going home so much?"
In the past, Zou Ping avoided the word "home." She had no home.
When she was a child, she thought that as long as she tried her best, she could take her mother out of the cage under the eaves and build a home of their own.
But later, my mother silently stood on my father's side, and she learned not to think about "home" anymore.
Home, she told herself, was a luxury, something that belonged to other people.
But recently, for some reason, she began to think of "home" again.
It’s not because of the mountain road, sunshine, or the warm daily life that someone talks about.
It’s because of Tang Yuchuan.
Zou Ping realized.
Mai Sheng glanced at her, but didn't rush to answer. He just asked softly, "Do you want to try it?"
"Hmm?" She responded softly, as if she had noticed something, but was worried that she was being too sentimental, so she simply didn't ask any further.
The wind quietly came in through the gaps in the car window, and the car became quiet for a moment. The only sound left was the children turning pages of books and whispering laughter, like small and continuous ripples on the water.
Mai Sheng didn't say anything else, but just lowered his head and looked at his palm, as if the question just now was never really directed at her from the beginning.
Zou Ping was still looking out the window, motionless.
After a long while, she turned to look at him, a very light smile on her lips: "I'm already trying."
Mai Sheng was stunned for a moment, as if he didn't quite understand what she meant.
But she didn't explain, she just withdrew her gaze and returned it to the children.
The little boy in the front row who raised his paw started making a noise again. Another little girl was writing her secret wish seriously. She didn't even notice the pen stains on her cuffs.
Her eyes gradually softened, as if focused on a silent thought.
Zou Ping found that she seemed more fragile than before. She not only began to yearn for a "home", but also yearned for happiness.
Compared to the concept of "home", Zou Ping has even less experience with happiness. For so many years, she has never expected to truly have it.
Before meeting Tang Yuchuan, she had never even seriously imagined what happiness was like.
But after meeting him, she suddenly understood what kind of happiness she wanted.
Quiet, patient, undisturbed.
Quiet, safe, no need to please or guess.
The car turned a corner and the sunlight shone through the window onto the children's faces, soft and warm.
Zou Ping narrowed his eyes, pulled at his coat collar, and asked softly, "Are we almost there?"
Mai Sheng nodded, and the car gradually became quiet again. Everyone began to pack up and prepare to get off.
The scenery outside the window became clearer and clearer, and the mountains and tree shadows in the distance intertwined into a quiet picture.
Zou Ping took out her cell phone, pressed the shutter button, and took a picture of the corner of the car window filled with sunlight.
She softly sent a message to Tang Yuchuan——
"arrive."
These two simple words were like a silent letter, carrying her little thoughts.
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