Chapter 41
Zhou Yue watched the windows of the two cars across the street roll up and disappear silently around the corner. Then she turned around with her hands behind her back and quickly glanced up. "I want to go see the teacher first today. It's not good to go empty-handed. Can you accompany me to buy some things, tea, cigarettes, etc."
"good."
She scratched her face and said, "What kind of tea should I give to a male teacher in his forties or fifties?"
"Not sure."
"Yeah." She lowered her head and clenched her hands tightly behind her back.
The two walked under the swaying shadows of the trees. After a while, Zhou Yue finally noticed them and stopped to look around. "Where's your car?"
"Two blocks away." He had put out his cigarette long ago, but his black shirt was thick with the smell of smoke and his voice was hoarser than usual.
"Why stop so far?" She put her hands behind her back and tilted her neck to look at him, smiling, "But it's such nice weather, it's nice to take a walk."
"This is a civilian area. We'll be too conspicuous if we stop here." He walked with his eyes fixed forward, his arms swinging slightly, and his black gloves and black shirt cast spots of light under the shadows of the trees.
Zhou Yue's smile faded, she looked away from him and lowered her head, "Yeah." After a while, she raised it again, "Are you feeling better? Does it still hurt? You..." She looked at the oncoming passerby with a numb expression, and her nails dug into her flesh behind her back, "Don't rush forward so much in the future, he won't feel sorry for you. Once he thinks you are useful and capable, he will use you until you die and treat you like a big blood bag..." When she mentioned the blood bag, her head drooped even lower, as if a thousand-pound stone was pressing on her neck, "Don't be a blood bag anymore." She stood where she was, and he stood too. She made up her mind to clench the blood beads in her palm and looked around. There was no one, no one was anxious. She looked up eagerly into his eyes and whispered, "Go away, go far away. Just say you've been injured too much, you're slow, and you're useless. He has so many people, he won't rely on you alone!" She paused, thinking of something, took a step closer and grasped his arm, then quickly released it, took a step back, and hid her hand in her sleeve. "You, you need money? Do you need money? I have money, lots of money, I'll give it all to you!" She quickly took out a card from her sleeve and hurriedly stuffed it into his trouser pocket. "The password is you..." She took a breath and shut her mouth. After a long moment, she spoke again, "The password is 891225."
She saw her anxious face in his dark eyes, but his eyes were as quiet as ever. "Madam, have you seen the people around Mr. Jiang leave?"
"Yes! Yes!" She held back her tears, her eyes wide and bright. "I remember all the people he brought with him when he came to see me. Two of them never showed up again. I haven't seen them since."
He looked at her quietly until she began to hesitate, but the ice in his eyes broke and melted, and smiles appeared on both corners of his mouth.
"Madam, I volunteered to be Mr. Jiang's blood bag and die for him because he gave me what I wanted." His bottomless eyes were like a clear lake, reflecting his furry eyelashes, as gentle as a foal on the grassland. Only Zhou Yue's face was reflected in the lake. "At least he understands exchange."
Zhou Yue suddenly lowered her head. If she didn't leave, he wouldn't leave either. She watched his leather shoes blur into black. The breeze blew through her hair, which was stuck to her face by her tears.
"Yeah." She nodded, turned and walked ahead of him along the narrow tree-lined path. She listened to his footsteps rustling on the fallen leaves as they slowly followed behind her. "I think black tea is better. Jin Jun Mei. It nourishes the stomach."
"Yeah." She nodded, but the pain in her throat made it impossible to swallow.
The two of them didn't speak again after that. They crossed two streets and his car was parked at the corner. The corner was very clever, triangular in shape, with only one side facing the quiet and deserted street. A black Mercedes was parked inside, very low-key.
He walked over quickly and opened the passenger door. Zhou Yue stood beside the car and watched for a while, then got in and fastened his seat belt. He then walked around, opened the door, and got in the driver's seat. He fastened his seat belt while looking straight ahead and lowered his eyes to look at the steering wheel.
The car was completely silent, with only the soft, desperately suppressed sobs and the slow scraping of black gloves against the steering wheel. Over and over, then stopping, "Want some rice noodle rolls?" The voice was hoarse like rolling gravel, and the smile in it was like a broken gong on a rattan chair in my grandfather's backyard that had been exposed to the sun all afternoon. It was clumsily gentle. "I know a place that has delicious rice noodle rolls."
Zhou Yue wiped her sticky, cold face, unable to utter a single word, and could only whisper, "I'm not hungry."
The car was quiet for a while. "I haven't had breakfast yet either."
Zhou Yue lowered her head, sniffed hard, wiped the snot that was about to fall from the tip of her nose, and turned to look at him, "But you smell like fried dough sticks." She sniffed again, "And sweet soy milk."
He still stared straight ahead, his dark pupils turning to face the side before blinking his eyelashes and then back again. "It's too early to eat. I want to have brunch."
Zhou Yue glanced at her watch. "Eight o'clock." She looked up blankly, her red and swollen eyelids drooping as if she had been stung by a bee. She looked at him with half-open eyes. "What time did you eat?"
"Six o'clock."
"Tsk." She looked out the window, but there was only a white wall on her side. Her eyelashes fluttered against the white background, as vivid as a fluttering butterfly, and she murmured softly, "You must be having a nervous breakdown. You got up so early. You said you'd pick me up at the Jiang family before nine o'clock."
"Yeah." He smiled, "I just can't sleep at night."
She turned her head to look at him, at his thick black eyelashes and eyes, but his skin was wheat-colored, his eyes were straight, without the sharp and upturned corners, and his nose and mouth were the same, all straight lines. If it weren't for the scar at the corner of his mouth, his facial features would have been drawn with a ruler, like Jack in the English textbook, whom she always read and forgot.
She withdrew her hand from the touch, placed it on her knees and ruffled the hem of her skirt, "You...it's still early, do you want to sleep for a while? I'll just watch the wind when I have nothing to do..." She turned her head to look at the white wall and smiled awkwardly, "Just look at my phone." She raised the phone in the blue case and shook it, "I quite like this kind of electronic product. It's updated so quickly. I just changed this one not long ago, and it's..." She slid open the blank photo album, the blank address book, everything was blank.
"No one has contacted me yet." She wiped the screen with her fingertips. "While you take a nap, I'll play with my phone. When you wake up... take me to eat rice noodle rolls."
…
"Okay." He was silent for a while, adjusted his chair, leaned back with his arms folded across his chest, and closed his eyes.
Zhou Yue lowered her head and fiddled with her unfamiliar new phone. She only heard him silently and didn't dare to look at him. Coincidentally, a red dot appeared in the upper right corner of the text message icon on the screen. She clicked it.
"Hello." Followed by an expression, a crescent moon.
Zhou Yue stared at the text message for a while, then clicked twice to send it:
"Hello."
There were two buzzing sounds behind her. She gripped her phone until her knuckles turned white, and a truck whizzed past just as her thumb touched the stars.
…
"Are you still in pain?"
One second, two seconds... She didn't dare to look back even once, until her palms vibrated.
"It doesn't hurt anymore."
Zhou Yue looked up at the front. There was also a white wall there. No one could see her tears, but she saw the sun gradually illuminating the wall. The vines were bright green and swayed like water waves in the wind.
She finally mustered up the courage to look back. He had his eyes closed. This was the first time she saw Xiao Yuan with his eyes closed. His thick black eyelashes covered his eyes like a quilt, and his lips, which were always tightly closed, finally relaxed for a moment while he was sleeping. It seemed that he was no longer afraid to tell any life-threatening secrets, nor was he afraid of any cruel enemy.
"You're lying." Zhou Yue whispered, looking down at her aqua blue skirt stained with tears. "You're clearly still in pain."
She lowered her head, and her cold hands slowly moved towards him. He crossed his arms, with only his left hand slightly exposed from under his arm. She touched his exposed fingertips, which were wrapped in leather and warm in her palm. At that moment, her heartbeat stopped, and the car horns and human voices all disappeared... Time passed before her eyes, and she flashed back like a kaleidoscope of memories of the summer with the chirping of cicadas, the sofa, and the colorful cartoons on the TV. A little head popped out and looked at her.
"What are you looking at?" She knew he would stare at her again while she drank water or rested her eyes. She was so annoyed by his nagging that she scolded him, but no matter how she scolded him, he still looked at her. His small, fleshy hands, as black as charcoal, held onto the leather sofa, leaving wet handprints with every press. His eyelashes, as furry as a small animal, blinked slowly, "Yueyue, it's time for a nap."
"No, no!" She was so engrossed in the movie that she shook her head like a rattle, but in her memory, she still followed him to take a nap every time. The small bedroom was dim, with only a little sunlight shining through the curtains. She was sweating all over in her sleep. Half asleep, she saw him lying on the pillow, his hands supporting his chin, looking at her. His clumsy fingers carefully brushed away the wet hair on her face, and he leaned over to peck her lips lightly. Seeing that she was still awake, he pecked her again...
Zhou Yue looked out the window at the quiet street, with only an occasional car hurriedly passing by.
He was sleeping soundly, without a sound, only heavy breathing. She lowered the back of the chair, lay down beside his face and looked at him quietly for a long time. He was very tall, and lying like this completely blocked her view, but in the dim light she could still see many tiny scars on his skin, like scrapes, and there were one or two white hairs on his short temples.
She moved closer and pecked the corner of his upturned mouth lightly, again and again... The scar that was raised like an earthworm was burning hot, and it seemed that she could smell the scent of gunpowder and blood.
"Madam, if you want to kill me, there's no need to go through so much trouble." He closed his eyes and whispered in a low voice, like a dream, "You just need to blow a breeze in Mr. Jiang's ear and he will turn me into a firework and set me off to cheer you up."
She stroked the tip of her nose at the corner of his lips and paused. "But you kissed me," she whispered, as if telling a secret that even God couldn't tell. "I didn't faint at that time. I remember it all."
He opened his eyes, turned his face, and pressed his black gloves over her face. "It hurts so much. I think I will definitely report to the King of Hell this time." His voice was so hoarse that even his breath sounded vicissitudes of life. "Such a beautiful woman, to be able to hug and kiss her before dying, that would be truly dying under the peony flowers and being a romantic ghost." He stroked her cheek with his thumb to wipe away the traces of tears, and left a warmth when he withdrew his hand.
"If he hadn't asked you to come and save me that day," Zhou Yueyang lay on the chair and looked at the roof of the car, "would you have come?"
"Won't."
There was a long silence.
"Yeah." Zhou Yue nodded, resting her right hand under her head. "That's how it should be. Protecting him is much easier than protecting me. I don't know anything and can't dodge bullets. I'm just a burden..." She turned her head to look at the white wall outside the window. "It's not worth it."
"Yes," he also looked at the roof, smiling so much that the corners of his eyes widened like the scar on the right corner of his mouth. "Once you die, all those crooked thoughts of men will be gone, and everything will be peaceful. Twenty-four hours a day, when you wake up, you eat, when you're tired, you sleep, and the rest of the time you spend taking knives, bullets, and fire for Mr. Jiang. If you die, please have him send his ashes back to my house. If you become disabled, I can just crawl back on my own."
His fluffy eyelashes paused, and his smile was cold. "Like an unwanted dog."
"But now," he turned his head to look at Zhou Yue and laughed hoarsely, "Madam is still alive. You are kind and will not order me around like a dog. I like being with you." He stretched out his hands and put them behind her ears, but it was as if he was holding her face, bringing a bitter smell of cigarettes. While Zhou Yue was stunned, he had already let go of her hands. She felt a slight tugging on her hair. She reached out and touched it, and her hair was tied up. She touched it again, and there was something cold. She stroked it carefully, and felt the touch of tiny diamonds, and stroked out the outline of a crescent moon.
"Thank you, Madam, for treating me to orange juice last time. It was very sweet." He smiled. "It's nine o'clock. Let's go eat rice rolls."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
