Chapter 37: There is a difference between close and distant relatives. These four words made him uncomfortable.
The next day, after breakfast, she and Tong Zhongyuan went to the high-speed rail station together. The plane's air pressure was unstable, and she was worried that Tong Zhongyuan wouldn't be able to handle it, so she gritted her teeth and took the high-speed train back home for more than seven hours. When they arrived at the platform, she took him to Carriage 1 and said, "You wait here, I'll go to Carriage 4."
Tong Zhongyuan was stunned: "You didn't buy a connecting seat?"
Haha, she was not lucky enough to enjoy a seat together. She bought him a business class seat and bought herself a first class seat.
"Well, you're in business class. Have a good rest and see you when you get off the bus."
She waved to him and headed towards carriage number 4. The train arrived quickly, and she was relieved to see Tong Zhongyuan board. Although the journey had been truly thrilling, she had finally managed to bring him back safely.
She found her seat, an aisle seat. The window seat next to her was already occupied by a stylishly dressed young man. He was watching a short video. When she sat down, he looked up at her, then lowered his head and immediately looked back up again, then closed the video and switched to a WeChat chat.
Within two minutes, the train started moving. Qin Tian took out her laptop, planning to finish the paper in seven hours. The boy, probably seeing the title of her document, suddenly said, "Are you writing a paper?"
She hadn't planned on chatting on this trip, but since everyone asked, she had no choice but to respond.
"Yeah. I'm almost done. I want to finish it in the car."
The boy understood her implication and stopped talking, returning to his phone. After a few minutes, he mustered up the courage to ask, "Can I add you on WeChat?"
Qin Tian looked at him in surprise and was about to answer when a shadow was cast beside the seat and a familiar voice was heard.
"Hello, can I switch seats with you?"
Qin Tian turned around abruptly and gasped. Tong Zhongyuan, but he wasn't talking to her, he was talking to the boy.
The boy was obviously surprised. He looked at Qin Tian and then at Tong Zhongyuan.
"She is my friend and I want to sit with her," said Tong Zhongyuan.
Before the boy could answer, Qin Tian asked, "What are you doing here?"
Tong Zhongyuan glanced at her and said, "Change seats."
If there weren't people around, Qin Tian would have lost control and would have yelled at him. Boss, you're in business class, but you're switching to first class because you think the price is too high.
"Stop it, go back. It's over seven hours. Isn't business class nice?"
Tong Zhongyuan ignored her. He looked at the boy and said, "Switch?"
The boy was stunned for a few seconds and then confirmed again: "Are you a business class passenger?"
"yes."
"Change."
The boy stood up, quickly picked up his things, vacated his seat, and went to the business car.
Tong Zhongyuan stood there and raised his chin towards Qin Tian.
"You sit inside and be quiet. I'll sit outside."
Qin Tian's eyes met his for a few seconds, then he stood up and moved a seat inside. She said angrily, "If you want to sit first class so badly, why don't you switch with me? I've never sat in business class before."
Tong Zhongyuan smiled but didn't answer. He also took out his computer to check his emails. Qin Tian felt even more sorry for him. He was working on the train as well. Wouldn't business class be nice? She sighed, put on her headphones, and continued writing her paper. Strangely enough, although Tong Zhongyuan didn't disturb her, his presence seemed to be a disturbance. She glanced at him from time to time, and the fresh scent of him surrounded her vaguely. The man who had previously refused to sit in the same row with her in a taxi could actually endure sitting next to her for seven hours.
By lunchtime, she hadn't written a single word. Frustrated, she shut down her computer and ate her lunch in retaliation. After lunch, she saw Tong Zhongyuan still replying to emails. She couldn't help but remind him, "You should take a nap."
Tong Zhongyuan glanced at her, turned off his computer, and lowered his chair. Qin Tian internally complained again: "It's the same sleeping situation, isn't business class nicer?" But he resigned himself to his fate, pulling out a headrest from his backpack and handing him a shawl. He took it, placed the headrest behind his neck, covered himself with the shawl, and closed his eyes, but a smile played at the corners of his mouth.
The high-speed train arrived at the station on time at around 4:00 p.m. Qin Tian sent a message to Tang Zhixu. They had met each other countless times and had a tacit understanding. As soon as she got out of the station, she saw Tang Zhixu. Tang Zhixu walked up to Tong Zhongyuan, greeted him, and asked, "Are you okay?"
"It's okay." Tong Zhongyuan said.
Tang Zhixu nodded slightly and took the suitcase from Qin Tian. Qin Tian followed him naturally and walked with him. After walking a few steps, he seemed to remember Tong Zhongyuan and turned around to wave to him, indicating that he should follow.
Tang Zhixu put Qin Tian’s luggage into the trunk and took Tong Zhongyuan’s suitcase.
"I can do it myself."
Tang Zhixu didn't insist. He waited for him to put it away and closed the trunk.
Qin Tian opened the passenger seat and sat in. He took out a bottle of water from the glove box familiarly and handed it to Tong Zhongyuan in the back seat.
Tang Zhixu started the car and drove out of the garage. While driving, he chatted with Qin Tian.
"I sent your dad to live there last week. I checked around and the conditions are pretty good. I left my phone number so he can contact me if he needs anything. I called him yesterday and he said he's pretty used to it."
"Well, I'll go see him tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. What about the house? Is it easy to rent?"
"I told you, there's a guy who wants to rent it, but I was afraid he'd be slovenly, so I waited. Now there are two girls who want to stay, and the price is almost agreed. Go ahead and sign the contract. The female tenants should be clean, so it'll be easier for you to deal with them."
"Damn! Ah! Where's my flower? I forgot to ask you to water it!"
"You sound like you remember it, and you didn't leave me the key. I almost climbed through the window to save it. Then I asked your downstairs neighbor, who connected a water pipe to your balcony. I can't control whether it lives or dies, but I tried my best. I say, why should you grow flowers like you? Just grow a cactus..."
Qin Tian was amused by him and laughed. Tang Zhixu turned a corner, and Qin Tian leaned his head to the left, accidentally glancing at Tong Zhongyuan. He was holding the bottle of water in his hand, unopened, with his head lowered, wondering what he was thinking.
Tong Zhongyuan stared at the bottle of water in a trance. He had thought that any girl would be tempted by Qin Tian's side during this illness. But he had never considered that Qin Tian's meticulous care wasn't just because he was Tong Zhongyuan. Now he understood that she would do the same thing no matter which colleague was ill. If the person was Tang Zhixu, she would only be more attentive, more intimate, and more considerate.
"You should drive more steadily. He just recovered from an illness. Don't be too irritating."
"knew."
He raised his head, and from a distance, she had a look of unintentional anger on her face.
The distinction between close and distant—those four words had never been so unbearable as they were at that moment. Wasn't myocarditis supposed to have no sequelae? Why did his heart ache so badly, as if it were being squeezed tightly by an invisible hand, choking him, making every breath incredibly difficult?
After Tang Zhixu sent Tong Zhongyuan off, he stopped downstairs at Qin Tian's house. He carried his luggage upstairs as usual. He had so many things to ask her over the past two weeks, but when he saw her, he couldn't bring himself to ask anything.
As soon as she entered the room, she immediately ran to the balcony to look at her flowers. He looked at her back and felt a strange bitterness in his heart.
That year he broke up with his girlfriend. They had been together for four years, from college to work, and he knew that it was his fault that the relationship had come to an end. During the breakup, he was listless and had lost interest in everything around him. Qin Tian rarely came to see him during that time, and he was glad that he could free himself without her around. In contrast to his relationship, his work and life were particularly smooth. On rainy days, there would be an umbrella on the table; whatever information he wanted to look up, it was right in front of him. If he didn't have lunch, someone would order afternoon tea in the afternoon; later he found out that it was Qin Tian who was silently taking care of him. She expressed her care and gratitude for him in a non-disturbing way. After two months, he gradually recovered, and Qin Tian gradually resumed normal communication with him.
He still remembered that day was Christmas Eve. Qin Tian gave him an apple and said that someone gave her two movie tickets. Would you like to go to the movies together? He and Qin Tian were very close, but they had no personal contact. He had never thought of going with her to places that were not related to work, such as watching movies, shopping, and amusement parks. He asked her in surprise why she didn't ask her best friend to go with her. She said embarrassedly that she didn't expect it and left quickly. She never made a similar invitation again. A month later, he found a new girlfriend. They soon became inseparable. Once, he and Qin Tian were on a business trip, and his new girlfriend couldn't bear to leave him, so she came to find him in another place. He introduced her to Qin Tian. At that moment, he saw that Qin Tian's bright pupils seemed to be stung and quickly dimmed. He once suspected that this scene was his illusion, but for some reason, he never forgot her expression at that moment.
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