Chapter 165 I Can’t Bear to Leave You (Part 5)
The air was clearly cold in the early morning, but Zhuang Wan felt like a bun in a steamer about to burst, extremely anxious.
She couldn't pretend any longer and had to raise her head.
Seeing Pei Xingju's face, I was suddenly startled. He might not have rested well, his face looked haggard, and the faint dark circles under his eyes made him look very tired.
He just looked at her quietly without saying anything. When the officials around him saw this, they all looked at her and dispersed.
Soon, it seemed that there were only two people left in the entire alley.
"I heard..." Zhuang Wan hesitated for a moment and asked, "Are you leaving at noon?"
"Um."
"I wish you a safe journey."
Pei Xingju's throat moved, but he just looked at her silently without saying a word.
Zhuang Wan fiddled with the clasps in her sleeves. Unable to bear the depressing atmosphere, she simply said, "I just told Lixia that I have some things to do in the shop, so I won't see you off."
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Oh... I think I'm going to report to you." Zhuang Wan pretended to be calm and said, "Our business is going very smoothly. Our seafood snacks are very popular. A merchant from Linzhou just placed an order for a batch. So I have to keep an eye on it and make sure nothing goes wrong."
As she spoke, Zhuang Wan couldn't help but turn her face away.
This is such a lame excuse, it's terrible.
She lowered her eyes and kicked the stones under her feet in frustration.
"Zhuang Wan." At this time, Pei Xingju suddenly called her.
Zhuang Wan looked up.
I saw some emotions in his eyes, and he asked slowly and seriously: "Come back to Beijing with me, okay?"
It was as if a string in her heart suddenly plucked, shattering the composure she had managed to maintain. She didn't dare look Pei Xingju in the eye, fearing she would be tempted to respond.
At this time, a light snow flakes began to fall from the sky. The snow in the south was not thick, and there was cold wet ground, where the snow immediately melted and disappeared.
For a long time, Zhuang Wan did not respond.
A flake of snow fell on Pei Xingju's eyelashes, a cool sensation, just like his current state of mind. He fluttered his eyelashes to brush the snow away, gave her one last, deep look, and then turned to get into the carriage.
The snow fell heavier and heavier, blurring the world and the figures of the people in front of us.
Zhuang Wan stood by the roadside, hearing the rumble of carriages and horses driving away. With a melancholy sigh, he also walked towards his shop.
.
The snow was very stubborn that day and it snowed almost all day long.
They landed lightly and quietly on the eaves and on the persimmon tree, where a few tiny fruits lay, stained with a layer of white.
Zhuang Wan was busy in the shop all day. In the evening, when she returned to the courtyard, she immediately went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
There wasn't much to prepare. It was just dinner for her and Xiao Wangcai, so it was easy enough. But she didn't want to stop. She cleaned the stove, soaked soybeans from the cupboard, and checked to see if the jar was full.
Snow continued to fall in the courtyard, as if the entire world had become silent in a single day. Even Pei Xingju's house across the street was deserted and silent.
Zhuang Wan had known Pei Xingju had left, but she hadn't expected the entire Lihua Lane to become so deserted after his departure.
She deliberately ignored the loneliness she was finding it difficult to get used to and had dinner with Xiao Wangzai in the kitchen. After dinner, she added two more sticks of firewood to the stove and began to boil water and wash dishes.
It was clearly just two or three bowls, but by the time she finished washing them, it was already dark. In the hazy night, only the courtyard was covered in white.
Zhuang Wan stood at the kitchen door for a long time before dragging her feet back to get some hot water to soak her feet.
I don’t know how long I soaked in the water, but it was already completely dark and I could hardly see the road.
When Zhuang Wan came to her senses, the water in the basin had turned cold.
She then stood up again, first poured the foot washing water into the gutter under the eaves, and then went to light the lamp in her slippers.
The lamp was lit, and a halo of light fell on the old wooden table. Zhuang Wan's brain seemed to have crashed, and for a moment, she forgot to go to sleep and stared blankly at the halo on the table.
Until someone suddenly knocked on the door.
Her heart started beating wildly.
"Who?" she asked, opening the door.
Perhaps the person outside didn't hear and didn't answer. The knocking stopped after a while and there was no more sound.
Zhuang Wan suddenly panicked and ran to open the door in her slippers.
The door opened, and the man turned around: "Huh? I thought Sister Ruyi had gone to bed."
It turned out to be Arya.
Zhuang Wan couldn't explain how lost she felt at that moment.
She forced a smile and said, "Er Ya, what's the matter so late?"
"It's okay, my mother asked me to come and see her," Erya said, "Master Pei is gone, and I'm worried that Sister Ruyi won't be used to it."
Suddenly, Zhuang Wan felt as if her heart was pricked by a needle, and she finally understood why she felt so overwhelmed by loss.
——Pei Xingju left.
What is she expecting?
Zhuang Wan lowered his head and smiled bitterly. He set out this morning, so he should be a hundred miles away by now, right?
"I'm fine. Thank you, mother, for your concern." He said, "Er Ya, go back to bed early."
"Hey, Sister Ruyi, if anything happens, just call us. My parents are next door."
"Um."
Zhuang Wan closed the door again.
As if all the strength had been drained from his body, he slowly leaned against the door panel.
It’s better to leave. We are not on the same path anyway.
She thought.
She had rejected him many times. A man needs to save face, not to mention Pei Xingju. How could he possibly be here?
She is being pretentious.
Zhuang Wan took a deep breath and patted her face: "It's okay, he's just good-looking..."
——He was so good-looking that she couldn't help but be attracted to him.
What's the big deal? There are so many good-looking men out there. Just go ahead and don't regret it. When she has money in the future, she can support seven or eight of them...
At this time, someone knocked on the door again.
Zhuang Wan perked up and opened the door: "Er Ya, what else—"
When she saw who was coming, she stopped suddenly.
Snowflakes fluttered, filling the hazy night sky like willow catkins. A man, weathered and frosted, stood at the door, leading his horse with a smile on his face. A thin layer of snow fell on his dark hair and shoulders.
Like a sculpture, but more like a lover who has been away for a long time and returns home full of longing.
"You..." Zhuang Wan thought it was an illusion, afraid to break it, so she asked in a low voice, "Why are you here? Didn't you leave?"
Pei Xingju's chest heaved, and as he spoke, he exhaled a large amount of cold air.
"I'll come back to see you," he said.
"Zhuang Wan," he stared at her, "I can't bear to leave you. I want to ask you again, are you willing to—"
The next moment, I felt a heaviness on my chest as someone hit me.
Before he could finish, Zhuang Wan had already thrown herself into his arms. Her heart was pounding like a drum, but she was filled with joy.
My heart, which had been empty all day, was finally comforted at this moment.
I thought he had left Hezhou and that they would never meet again in their lives. But he came back, riding alone from a distance of a hundred miles, traveling under the stars and moon, just to say, "I can't bear to leave you."
At this moment, Zhuang Wan realized that she couldn't bear to part with him either.
I'm really reluctant to leave.
"Okay." She smiled and hugged his waist. Still feeling it wasn't enough, she climbed up his neck and then stood on tiptoe to kiss him.
Pei Xingju seemed to be frozen, standing there stupidly without moving, allowing her to kiss him.
His lips were warm and cool, and because of the heat in the past few days, there was a layer of dry skin on them. They were not easy to kiss, but they tasted very good.
Zhuang Wan held his face and expressed her joy without reservation, eagerly and enthusiastically.
Pei Xingju shuddered.
The shudder brought him back to his senses, and soon he took the initiative and hugged her tightly.
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