Chapter 33. No Crossing—The light boat has already crossed ten thousand mountains. ...
In winter, dawn comes late. At four in the morning, the sky above the entire Shanfeng Lane is still dark, as if the whole world is asleep.
The alleyway was clean, quiet, and serene.
Chen Zhoudu and Xia Chan walked side by side in the alley, remaining silent for a long time.
Chen Zhoudu was still holding a cup of ginger soup in his hands, drinking it. It seemed that he had been frozen for too long, and his steps and movements were still a little stiff, but his face and hands were warming up slightly.
Xia Chan glanced at his face every now and then, her expression unreadable, and asked, "How do you feel?"
"Thank goodness... cough!"
He had barely finished speaking when he suddenly pressed the back of his hand to his lips and coughed violently.
He coughed up cold air, one cough after another, as if he were going to cough up his lungs.
Xia Chan's eyes subtly held a hint of amusement as she gently patted his back, her tone teasing, "'Fine'?"
He couldn't help but smile sheepishly, barely managing to stop coughing, his face flushed again. Xia Chan scoffed and pulled two cold capsules from her pocket, handing them to him with a nonchalant tone: "You chose this, so you'll have to deal with it! Do you really think the northern winter is a joke? Take these."
Although Chen Zhoudu's face was still disheveled, his eyes clearly lit up with happiness as he looked at the two capsules. He obediently ate them and said, "Thank you."
Xia Chan remained silent and continued walking forward.
After winding through several turns, Xia Chan slowed her pace slightly, looked around, and asked, "Do you remember where this is?"
Chen Zhoudu then looked around in the dim light and recognized the spot where she had mistakenly picked up the wrong person at the station and kicked his suitcase.
I couldn't help but laugh.
"Remember."
Xia Chan glanced at him. In response, he mimicked the scene by making a "kick" motion.
This made Xia Chan laugh out loud, looking around as if she was savoring the memory.
"Back then... that uncle who was with you was swearing and cursing, it was so annoying. I really wanted to kick him when I went back, but I was afraid of having to pay for it. Then I thought I'd just kick a suitcase, even if I had to pay, it wouldn't be too expensive..."
Chen Zhoudu smiled as if reminiscing, then looked at her with a hint of resentment and said, "My suitcase cost five figures."
"Who would have thought it would be so expensive?" Xia Chan grumbled, glancing at him reproachfully. "A piece of junk."
He nodded and smiled repeatedly as if surrendering, and still couldn't help but sigh when recalling the scene, "You just kicked the suitcase in half, it really startled me."
"Isn't he handsome?" Xia Chan raised an eyebrow at him with a hint of pride.
"So cool!" Shen Zhoudu mimicked the way she made a gun gesture with her hand that day and "shot" her.
She laughed even more brightly, her breath steaming in the air, her laughter clear and melodious. The sound of the two of them chatting and laughing in the alley was as crisp and clear as the tinkling of glass bells.
“Cross the river.” After laughing for a while, Xia Chan slightly suppressed her laughter. In the darkness, her face was not very clear, but a faint glimmer of light could be seen in her pupils. “Let’s go back to Shencheng.”
His smile faded at her words. He pursed his lips, lowered his gaze, and lightly rubbed the pebbles under his feet. When he looked up again, his eyes were filled with even more tears, but he still smiled and asked her, "Xia Chan, do you like me?"
He looked her straight in the eye and asked the question, but before she could answer, he quickly looked away, as if he was suddenly afraid of getting her answer.
His stiff fingertips clenched tightly in his pocket as he spoke slowly, "Or...did you ever like someone? Or even just a little bit of affection...did you ever have that?"
Xia Chan remained silent, gazing at his face without answering.
After waiting for a long time without her reply, Chen Zhoudu seemed to understand something, his lips pressed tighter and his eyes gradually lowered.
“Actually…” Xia Chan said at this moment, “I have called you and sent you WeChat messages.”
He paused for a moment, then seemed to realize something and looked up.
She looked into his eyes and smiled, her eyes sparkling as if filled with water. "But you turned off your phone. I thought you had left Qingshui a long time ago."
“My phone was smashed by Shen Jinghai,” he explained immediately.
“I know,” Xia Chan said.
“I will go to university too.” Her eyes, which were fixed on him, were truly filled with tears, which grew stronger in the dim light of the night and reflected like stars. “But I can’t get into Tsinghua or Peking University.”
At that moment, as if confirming something, Chen Zhoudu suddenly laughed, but tears streamed down his face. He immediately said, "Then where do you want to take the exam? I'll go with you!"
"Shanghai? The capital? Chongqing or Shenzhen... I'll go with you!"
"Don't talk nonsense." Xia Chan smiled and ruffled his hair, quietly wiping away the tears in his eyes. She said, "Go and apply to the school you want. It's my business where I want to apply. We are individuals, and we don't need to follow anyone."
Chen Zhoudu's emotions had been completely calmed down. He gazed deeply at her and asked in a low voice, "Then, will you come to my city?"
"Depends on my mood." She simply raised an eyebrow nonchalantly.
Chen Zhoudu's gaze was serious. "Xia Chan, how have you been these days by my side?"
“Very good,” she said, looking quietly into his eyes.
That's enough.
Chen Zhoudu looked into her eyes and smiled back at her.
...
The day Chenzhoudu left was the day before the start of the new school year for Qingshui High School and Junior High School. Spring had arrived, but the spring flowers in the north had not yet bloomed.
Siyi cried her eyes out; she had been crying ever since she came from Chenzhoudu early in the morning to say goodbye to everyone.
Shen Zhoudu will first take the train to Tongcheng with Shen Jinghai and his stepmother Yang Yuan, and then take off from Tongcheng Airport. Siyi, Huangmaola, and the others are still somewhat afraid of Shen Jinghai, so they are unwilling to see him off at the station, and only watch him leave from the gate of the "Du" courtyard.
"Why are you crying?" Xia Chan joked when she saw Si Yi crying even more bitterly after he returned. "He's gone, not dead."
Siyi burst into laughter through her tears and patted her on the shoulder. A moment later, Huang Mao drove up to the door in a convertible electric scooter and beckoned everyone to get in.
The convertible took the five people to a field in the suburbs, where there were endless train tracks.
There, you can also see trains traveling from Qingshui to Tongcheng.
Two years ago, Xia Chan also saw Xie Xun off here.
The winter fields, like an endless expanse of wasteland, were both desolate and vast. The five of them stood out like cranes among chickens on a towering slope. Unable to go to the station to see him off, they decided to do so here.
There are many ways to say goodbye, but they wanted to give him the most sincere and heartfelt one.
As the train bound for Tongcheng rumbled in from afar, the five people standing on the slope, Si Yi La La, raised her colorful scarf and shouted at the train with all their might, along with Huang Mao Pang Hu:
"Sinking boat crossing!"
"The sunken boat crosses the river—!"
"Goodbye, Brother Zhoudu!"
"The sunken boat has crossed! Goodbye—"
They didn't know which window was his, nor could they see him. But they believed he could see them.
Xia Chan stood silently beside the group, watching the train disappear into the distance in a long, silent silence...
...
In the summer of 2016, Chenzhoudu unexpectedly arrived in a small town in the north.
The town was remote and simple, described by the locals as backward, rustic, and impoverished, but Chenzhoudu found it to be exceptionally warm and welcoming.
He also stumbled upon a hotel called "Watari".
It is the "crossing" in "sunken boat crossing".
Everything made him feel an extraordinary sense of destiny.
But at that time, Chenzhoudu did not know that the connections between people are like summer flowers in full bloom, stunning and sudden. But they are also as fragile as petals, easily scattered and disappeared with a gentle breeze.
That was six months after Shen Zhoudu and Xia Chan lost contact—
One day, a stranger added him on WeChat, and the verification message read: "Hello, are you Mr. Chen Zhoudu?"
At first, Chen Zhoudu thought it was just a sales pitch and ignored it. The number continued to send verification messages shortly afterward, saying, "Qingshui Town, Xia Chan."
He immediately pressed pass and eagerly asked her if she knew Xia Chan, and where she was.
The other party claimed that they were a small shop called "Time Mailbox" and that a girl named Xia Chan from Qingshui Town had asked them to deliver something to her at this time.
"I'm sorry, sir, this girl placed an order at our physical store and didn't leave a phone number. She only told us to contact you and that if we couldn't reach you, we would have to deal with the item ourselves. So I don't know where she is right now."
"Sir, could you give me an address? We'll send you the things she entrusted to us."
Chen Zhoudu gave him the school's address and waited anxiously for three whole days.
On the third day, he finally received a package, which turned out to be a guitar.
—A classic wooden guitar with a sea-blue lacquer finish, its tone is as ethereal and beautiful as the wind blowing the waves under the moon, and each string is brand new and sparkling as if starlight has fallen.
This is a relatively high-end and expensive guitar brand. He stared blankly at the guitar, his mind blank. As he stood up, something suddenly fell out of the guitar's soundhole, and he was slightly taken aback.
It was a card.
There is a small boat and a cicada drawn on it.
The cicada hovered over the edge of a vast sea, while the small boat had already sailed far, far away on the water.
He stared blankly at the image, his heart pounding slowly and heavily. With trembling hands, he flipped the card open and saw a line of words on the back.
"The light boat has already crossed ten thousand mountains."
The handwriting is elegant and unrestrained, with a sharp edge to it.
Chen Zhoudu held the card to his heart and suddenly burst into tears.
This is six months after Chen Zhoudu and Xia Chan lost contact.
On June 8th, after finishing his last exam, he spoke with her on the phone for the last time. On June 9th, however, she suddenly blocked him on WeChat, his phone number, and all other communication tools. She vanished without a trace.
I searched for the sunken boat at Qing Shui Shan Feng Lane, but the place was deserted.
Everything that happened seemed to have become a dream, fantastic and passionate, but upon waking, it all vanished into nothingness.
When Uncle Chao and Aunt Chao saw him, they stammered and didn't know what to say. In the end, they just sighed, patted his shoulder, and said, "Put it down!"
The sunken boat waded through confusion, bewilderment, anxiety, and ultimately, helplessness...
Chen Zhoudu finally understood what she had said: life here was like a hurdle he had to overcome. And there are countless hurdles in this world, which one must ultimately overcome on their own.
But there are some hurdles he can't overcome, and he can never let go of them.
And in the end, he didn't get the answer he wanted.
But from the moment he saw the guitar and those words, some answers seemed unnecessary to be spoken aloud. It was a voice hidden deep within her heart, and he finally heard its echo at that moment.
"Xia Chan, do you like me?"
"I love you too, even if the boat is sunken."
—The light boat has already crossed ten thousand mountains.
But he couldn't get through that summer when he was seventeen.
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Author's Note: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone! The campus arc is now over! [Sprinkling flowers] Tomorrow we'll start the urban arc, where we can happily talk about love! (Just kidding!) Hehe~
See you tomorrow, goodnight [blue heart]
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