Chapter 43 The Bitter Summer Is Over, But Can It Really Be Over?
Not seeing him, Shen Qingli didn't know whether she should breathe a sigh of relief or feel a little regretful. Although she had expected it, it would be strange if someone like Lin Xiaqing came to the school anniversary celebration.
None of the awkward encounter she had imagined happened, but she was somewhat lost in thought.
It seems that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, she and he will indeed never see each other again.
-
The school anniversary celebration in Suzhou City began at noon. The seats in the hall gradually filled up. As the lights in the hall slowly dimmed, Luo Yiqiu, who had been busy for most of the day, finally took a break and sat back down next to Shen Qingli and the others.
"Are you going up to give a speech later?" Chen Chaoxi whispered curiously in her ear.
"Of course not, those who are going to speak on stage are all the top scorers in each year's college entrance examination, it's not my turn."
"Wow, who's going this year? Lin Xiaqing? Is he coming?"
“No.” Luo Yiqiu heard the host on stage begin his opening remarks. Amid the noise, she sighed and said, “I finally managed to get in touch with him, but it seems he has settled abroad and said he won’t be coming back.”
"They've all settled abroad? He's doing pretty well then. Wasn't his family doing well a few years ago..." Upon hearing this, Chen Chaoxi opened his mouth, somewhat surprised.
She was about to say something when Luo Yiqiu interrupted her, saying, "Let's not talk about this."
"Oh right, I almost forgot, your two families are old friends. Didn't your dad say back then that you and Lin Xiaqing were betrothed as children?"
Chen Chaoxi's voice reached the ears of the person next to her silently. Shen Qingli paused in her phone play and pursed her lips awkwardly.
"Who would believe that? I've only known him for a short time, we're not even friends. Everyone knows why my dad and the others are saying this..."
Luo Yiqiu pursed her lips speechlessly. Just talking about this matter inevitably brought that person back to mind, and thinking of him made her chest feel a little tight.
Over the years, countless people tried to erase Zhao Yixiao's presence in her life, but she refused to do so. In the end, she was helpless in the face of his resolute rejection.
Her arrogance and stubbornness meant nothing to him.
Seeing the person beside her suddenly fall silent, Chen Chaoxi knew very well what she had thought of, and immediately shut up as well.
After a long pause, she glanced at her cautiously out of the corner of her eye, hesitated for a while, and then said, "So many years have passed, and there's still no news of him?"
"..."
Luo Yiqiu gently shook her head, remaining in the same position without saying a word.
-
A congratulatory video message from many graduating students who were unable to attend in person has already begun playing on the large screen in the lobby.
"Hello everyone, I am Shen Qinghuan, a student from the class of 2008. I am sorry that I cannot be there in person due to work. Happy 100th anniversary of Suzhou No.1 High School!"
Suddenly, a very familiar and beautiful face appeared on the large screen in front of them, and the students sitting below exclaimed in surprise.
Shen Qingli and the others looked up when they heard the voice. Chen Chaoxi saw the people on the big screen and couldn't help but exclaim, "Our No. 1 High School really produces a lot of talented people. The popular female star is our senior."
Upon hearing this, Luo Yiqiu snapped out of her daze. She put on a polite smile again, hiding the slight discomfort in her heart, and nodded in agreement, saying, "Of course, our No. 1 High School is the best key high school in Suzhou."
"If Suwai hears you say that, they'll definitely get anxious again."
"What can we do? Who would have thought that even after we graduated for so many years, Suzhou Foreign Language School is still competing with our No. 1 High School?"
"Then the pressure of achieving high college entrance rates will fall on your shoulders from now on," Shen Qingli said jokingly as she watched the conversation on the big screen.
Chen Chaoxi chimed in, jokingly adding, "Yes, Teacher Luo, the task ahead is arduous and the road is long!"
"Get away from me, you're just bullying me like this." She glared at them reproachfully, feigning anger, and said, "Just focus on watching the stage!"
Seeing her anxious again, Shen Qingli and Chen Chaoxi exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.
She smiled and looked away. The blessing video had already finished playing on stage, and the host was controlling the next part of the program. Next, the senior students would come on stage to give their speeches.
However, since they were all saying similar things, Shen Qingli got a little bored and quietly started playing with her phone. After a while, she remembered that she had promised Chen Nan that she would take some photos for her, and finally looked up again.
Just then, a tall, slender figure walked towards them from the stage not far away. He held a manuscript in his hand and stood on the podium with a somewhat serious expression. The man cleared his throat, and the stage light fell behind him. In the halo of light, Shen Qingli saw the small black mole on the tip of his nose.
She suddenly felt the person looked familiar, but before she could think about it further, she heard the person on stage speak in a gentle voice: "Hello everyone, I am Lu Xu, a graduate of the Class of 2010. It is an honor to stand here today on behalf of..."
The other person's pleasant voice made many people around slowly raise their heads to look at the relevant universities and colleges and the industry they were currently engaged in, which were displayed on the large screen behind Lu Xu.
The top science student in Suzhou in 2013, graduated from Nanshi University with a major in translation...
Seeing the words pop up on the big screen, Chen Chaoxi raised an eyebrow and quietly nudged her with his finger, asking, "This senior is also from Nanjing University, he's quite handsome, and he's from the same school as you. Do you know him?"
"I wouldn't say I know him, but I do know him. He was quite famous at our university back then." Shen Qingli looked at the stage and finally remembered where that feeling of familiarity came from.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the stage, a group of people were quietly chanting and jeering.
"Wow! Brother Lu! Brother Lu!"
"Brother Lu is so handsome! Brother Lu is so handsome!"
Lu Xu had been keeping a straight face, trying to appear serious as she read the manuscript she had painstakingly written. But now, hearing the voices of her friends in the audience, she couldn't help but smile.
Shen Qingli and the others looked in the direction of the sound. After looking, Chen Chaoxi shook his head and sighed, "It seems to be another once-famous figure from No. 1 High School."
Again, she felt that the word Chen Chaoxi was very apt. In No. 1 High School, there was never a shortage of outstanding people, and those who were outstanding enough and had an extraordinary appearance could always cause a stir in any crowd.
She was already used to these things, just like her sister, Luo Yiqiu, Zhao Yixiao, and... Lin Xiaqing, being remembered by countless people, or perhaps becoming a part of someone's youth.
And she was always the one watching from the sidelines.
Thinking of this, she suddenly lost interest in continuing to watch. After taking out her phone and snapping a few photos to show Chen Nan, she drifted off into her own thoughts again.
On the phone, in the chat window about Chen Nan, after she sent the photo message, the nickname above her head kept showing "typing..."
After a very long time, she finally replied with a simple message: "It's so lively here."
Pear: It looks lively, but it's actually super boring.
She chatted with Chen Nan listlessly, her attention mostly diverted, until he said he had to go back to work, and their conversation came to an end.
But now that she had nothing else to do to pass the time, she could only open other apps on her phone and browse around aimlessly.
It was many days later when she opened Weibo again. As soon as she opened it, she found that Chen Yang had posted a Weibo on her following list.
Strangely, there was only a cake emoji and no other text. Many people in the comments were puzzled, but for some reason, Shen Qingli felt that this Weibo post was celebrating something related to Suzhou No. 1 Middle School.
Remembering the gossip Lu Ning had told her more than ten times before, she habitually clicked into the other person's profile and took a look. She had turned off notifications because she found the "Summer of Bitterness" comment annoying with so many likes and comments.
She initially thought the buzz would die down in a few days, but when she clicked into the Weibo post she had commented on again, she found that people were still replying to her continuously.
-
Why is unrequited love like "bitter summer"?
Many of the questions that people answered were expressions of curiosity and doubt.
In her memory, the sweltering summer was probably the most unbearable heat, making people lose all pleasant memories and leaving only painful dullness and an inability to swallow their food.
This is probably the last memory left of Lin Xiaqing.
She didn't intend to reply, but her comment was still pushed to the top, and many people followed her account to her homepage and commented on her other blog posts.
Back in college, she used Weibo quite frequently, but after graduation she didn't use it much anymore. So her homepage only contains things from a few years ago, including some text blog posts, editing skills she taught herself in college, and some uploaded short movie videos.
Over the years, she has slowly lost her former self, but the only thing she has held onto tightly and refused to give up is her love for movies and her unwillingness to let go.
Since they won't let her learn it, she'll just have to figure it out herself.
Many netizens found comments and likes under her edited videos.
Netizen #1: This editing is so professional, so amazing!
Netizen #2: I'm guessing the blogger studied film!
Netizen #3: Why are there no more updates? Are there any new ones?
...
Shen Qingli sat in the hall, staring at the comments on her phone screen, and inexplicably fell into a silence.
In the silence, a round of applause broke out, and the person on stage had finished speaking and left the stage.
Next came various other talent shows. Suzhou No. 1 High School's anniversary celebration was very well organized and lively. If she didn't have any other feelings for the school, she would probably be very interested.
Unfortunately, as the curtain slowly rose on the stage, my thoughts drifted uncontrollably, as if I were drifting back to the past.
Realizing something was wrong with her, Shen Qingli blinked her dry eyes, her eyelashes trembling uncontrollably. She knew she wasn't the only one experiencing the same emotional turmoil.
So she turned her head and, using the stage lights, looked at Luo Yiqiu next to her, only to find that Luo Yiqiu had only glanced at the stage before abruptly lowering her head.
She dared not look up again, dared not face anything on the stage.
Witnessing all of her reactions, Shen Qingli lowered her eyelids, feeling a mix of emotions. She absentmindedly scrolled through her phone screen, trying to do something to distract herself.
She didn't want to continue watching anything on stage, even though the performance was wonderful and drew many exclamations of amazement from those around her. She still didn't dare to look up.
She was scrolling through her old Weibo posts on her phone, not really paying much attention, just trying to keep herself occupied. She couldn't even remember most of what was on them.
Right after graduating from high school, she had the strongest urge to confide in others, and she could send several messages a day.
Her fingers kept swiping across the screen, scrolling down randomly, glancing over most of the content. But then, her gaze froze for a moment, her expression turning blank.
Her hand hovered beside the blog post, her eyes glued to the content; she was almost speechless, forgetting to breathe.
It was the Spring Festival after the first semester of my freshman year. I didn't go home, but applied to stay on campus.
That night, gazing at the fireworks bursting in the night sky, she took a picture of the moon in the sky. The caption was simple, but it felt incredibly heavy to her.
Pear: Is the moon this bright in England tonight too?
The comments below were also viewed by many netizens, with some asking: Is he in the UK?
A user with an IP address in the UK replied: "It's almost impossible to see them all at the same time."
...
Looking at the comments below explaining the time difference between China and the UK, she suddenly burst out laughing.
I'm worried about someone who's abroad, and everything about him is in a different time zone.
Someone asked her if he was in England, but she didn't know where Lin Xiaqing was now; she probably couldn't find him for a long time.
...
After staring at the Weibo post for a long time, she glanced at Luo Yiqiu, who remained silent and dared not look up, and suddenly asked herself a question.
Can the past really be so easily forgotten?
-----------------------
Author's note: Note: The VCR and speech template are from the internet.
The annotation for "bitter summer" was inspired by Baidu's explanation.
A side note:
My back still hurts a lot. I hope it gets better soon, otherwise I'll really need to take time off work to see a doctor. TT
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