Really perfunctory
At around eight o'clock in the evening, Xu Honghan drove back and thoughtfully prepared two thick camouflage jackets for Jiang Zhizhi and Xu Qingbo.
"This place is at a high altitude, and it's very cold climbing at night. I don't think you two brought any thick clothes, so just wear whatever you want."
Indeed, starting from around six o'clock in the evening, Jiang Zhizhi and Xu Qingbo both felt a little cold.
"Get in the car. Let's drive to the lake. We'll save two or three kilometers. We used to start our night hikes from there." He greeted the two of them and opened the door and got in the driver's seat. "By the way, did you guys get some sleep this afternoon?"
"Huh? Not asleep."
Xu Honghan chuckled, "Don't fall asleep while crawling later."
The car arrived at the lake in ten minutes. Xu Honghan parked the car and the three of them started climbing up from the foot of the mountain.
*
"Do you think I'm a psycho?" Lu Xiye yelled angrily into the phone.
On the other end of the phone, Lu Hengshan said coldly, "It's not that I think you're mentally ill, but you are mentally ill right now. I've already contacted a mental hospital for you. Take advantage of this summer vacation to get proper treatment so that you can go back to school normally when school starts in the second half of the year."
"I'm not mentally ill, you are!"
Lu Xiye cursed loudly, hung up the phone and threw it away.
But the next moment, a deep feeling of powerlessness swept over him.
He sat up on the bed all of a sudden.
"Xiaoye? What's wrong?" Cheng Yuping hurried over after hearing the noise. At a glance, she saw the mobile phone with the battery falling out on the floor, and Lu Xiye sitting there dejectedly.
She walked to Lu Xiye's side, her tone becoming gentle, "What's wrong? What happened? Talk to your aunt."
"Aunt Cheng, I'm not mentally ill." Lu Xiye said weakly.
In the past, he always had endless energy to argue with Lu Hengshan and make trouble with him, but now, he just felt very tired.
He just feels tired, he's not mentally ill...
"Auntie knows that Xiaoye is a good boy and he is not sick." Cheng Yuping gently stroked Lu Xiye's face and said softly.
"But my dad wants to send me to a mental hospital. I don't want to go there. I heard that even if you're not sick, you'll be tortured and driven crazy. I'm really fine. I'm just very tired and want to rest. Why won't he even let me rest? Why is he doing this to me?"
Lu Xiye leaned painfully in Cheng Yuping's arms, "If...if my mother were still alive, why would my mother marry such a person, why would she give birth to me..."
His words suddenly touched Cheng Yuping's heart.
She thought of the dream Jiang Zhizhi told her that day.
Zhizhi dreamed that she died, and that Jiang Guozhong and Feng Mei beat and scolded her every day, ruining her life.
If that dream really came true, would Zhizhi be as miserable as Lu Xiye is now, and would she ask the same question?
Thinking of this, she was almost heartbroken and couldn't breathe.
"Xiaoye, if you want, I can be your mother. I will love you and take good care of you like your biological mother."
Although she had not known Lu Xiye for long, Cheng Yuping could see that he was a good boy.
She felt sorry for him and pitied him.
"ah?"
Cheng Yuping's sudden words made Lu Xiye feel a little at a loss.
He quickly stood up from Cheng Yuping's arms, his face slightly reddened. "Or... let it go. Aunt Cheng will always be Aunt Cheng. I like Aunt Cheng very much. Even if Aunt Cheng doesn't want to be my mother, I still like you very much..."
"I understand." Cheng Yuping smiled and ruffled Lu Xiye's hair. "It seems that Xiaoye loves your mother very much. There can only be one mother in this world, right?"
"Yeah." Lu Xiye nodded quickly.
"Xiaoye, I'm going to call your father. He won't send you to a mental hospital, don't worry. You can stay at home, and Aunt Cheng and Aunt Zhou will take care of you. But you have to promise us that you won't skip meals like you did the other day, okay? No matter how tired you are or how much you don't want to get out of bed, you can't ignore us and skip meals."
"Um."
Cheng Yuping stood up, picked up the phone that had fallen to the ground, put the battery back in, and handed it to Lu Xiye, "You can't drop your phone anymore, understand?"
"I understand."
Cheng Yuping's behavior made Lu Xiye even more embarrassed.
Cheng Yuping left the room and called Lu Hengshan.
Lu Xiye looked at the phone in his hand and silently pressed the power button.
Well, it's not broken.
Successfully booted up.
He was fiddling with his phone and somehow ended up in his draft box.
There was only one text message in it, which was addressed to Jiang Zhizhi.
He once lay in bed, edited a lot of things, and finally deleted them, leaving only those three words.
【sorry. 】
Why was he so angry with you at that time?
It seems like I can't control my emotions at all.
Now, I regret it every day.
I wonder what Jiang Zhizhi is doing now? It's not even nine o'clock yet, so she should still be reading, right? This is her usual habit.
However, since she finally got to go out and play, she shouldn't be so tactless, right?
Moreover, she was with Xu Qingbo...
He stroked the name on the text message, suddenly pursed his lips, pressed the name, and dialed the number.
*
"The observatory is in front." Xu Honghan, who was carrying the heaviest things, panted lightly and pointed to a white building not far away.
"Why is there a light?"
"There's someone on duty there, and students from nearby X University and some astronomy enthusiasts often come here." Xu Honghan smiled and said, "This is a small amateur observatory with only two refracting optical telescopes. However, it has a computer star map software that can simulate the starry sky. It's definitely worth a look."
"Mr. X?" Jiang Zhizhi subconsciously glanced at Xu Qingbo.
Xu Qingbo coughed lightly and said, "X University is also one of the top universities in the country."
"Oh, it seems you don't know much more than me." Jiang Zhizhi replied jokingly.
Xu Qingbo blushed, "Except for Jingshui and Mingde, I don't know much about the others."
"Beep beep beep~~~"
As she was speaking, the phone in Jiang Zhizhi's pocket suddenly rang.
It was so late, I thought it was my mother Cheng Yuping calling, but when I looked at the caller, it turned out to be Lu Xiye.
After a moment of silence, she deliberately took two steps behind and answered the phone.
"Hello?"
“…”
For a long time, there was no sound from the other side.
Jiang Zhizhi thought it was because she was in the mountains with a bad signal, so she repeated, "Hello? Can't you hear me?"
"I can hear you." A voice came from the other side slowly.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
There was silence again.
Jiang Zhizhi said helplessly, "Maybe the signal here is not good. How about this, I'll call you back when I get back."
As she said that, she was about to hang up the phone.
"Don't you have a place to live?" Lu Xiye suddenly asked.
It’s not stuck again?
Jiang Zhizhi paused as she hung up the phone and nodded, "Yeah, I'm hiking."
"Climbing a mountain? So late?"
"Climb at night, and when you reach the top, you can watch the sunrise." Jiang Zhizhi said.
"Are you alone?"
Jiang Zhizhi glanced at Xu Qingbo in front of her and said, "There are two more people. We came together."
"I know, it's Xu Qingbo." Lu Xiye said sourly.
Jiang Zhizhi was exposed and had to admit, "Yes, it was Xu Qingbo. He came with his uncle, not my teacher."
Lu Xiye wanted to come along before, but the elder didn’t take him.
She didn't want him to think too much, so she didn't say it directly.
"Did you hear the phone call between me and my mom this morning? My mom said you were sick. What happened? Are you feeling better now?" Jiang Zhizhi still showed some concern for him.
But Lu Xiye was still unhappy. Thinking of what Jiang Zhizhi said that morning, he said quietly, "I'm sorry..."
"What?"
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have thrown the star candy Zhou Qi gave you that day, and I shouldn't have lost my temper with you." Lu Xiye said with a snort.
"It's okay, I'm not angry anymore." Jiang Zhizhi smiled faintly.
"Really?"
"real."
"Then you should also apologize to me." Lu Xiye became more and more demanding.
Jiang Zhizhi didn't understand his train of thought and said with amusement, "Should I apologize to you?"
"When you were on the phone with your mom today and she told you I didn't take the exam because I was sick, your attitude was so cold, wasn't it? You only cared about your mom's exam and didn't care about me at all. I was seriously ill and almost died!"
"So serious? Did you fall from the upstairs?"
"No..." Lu Xiye curled his lips and said dissatisfiedly: "I almost starved to death!"
Jiang Zhizhi was amused by him, "What? Isn't Lu Xiye a big eater? How could he starve to death?"
"What I said is true! Really! You don't care about me at all, and you still say that I'm your friend. You are a liar! What you said that day was indeed a lie!" Lu Xiye yelled angrily.
"Okay, okay, I'll treat you to a hamburger and a Coke when I get back. That should be okay, right?" Jiang Zhizhi smiled and coaxed him like she was coaxing a child.
Lu Xiye was filled with anger, "Jiang Zhizhi, you are so perfunctory."
"No more talking, we're at the observatory, I'm going to hang up now." Jiang Zhizhi said.
"Observatory? Aren't you guys climbing a mountain?"
"Well, there's an observatory on this mountain."
"What are you doing at the observatory?"
"Look at the stars and the moon."
“…”
"Can't we watch the stars and the moon at home?"
"beep--"
Before Lu Xiye could finish his words, Jiang Zhizhi hung up the phone.
Damn it!
He was so angry that he raised his phone and was about to throw it down.
Suddenly, he remembered that he had just promised Cheng Yuping that he would not throw his phone again, and he threw it on the bed angrily.
Raise your head and look out the window.
The moon outside was only a tiny, faint piece, so thin that it was almost invisible under the myriad lights in the city.
The stars in the night sky are also very dim and look particularly far away.
Just like now, he and Jiang Zhizhi are so far apart.
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