Do you want to talk about the stains in your life?

"Huai Yue, tell dad quickly what kind of girl she is!" Zhou Chuzhuo eagerly held his son's hand, forcing him to put down the brush, his voice a little distorted due to his emotional excitement.

The memory of Shen Roujiao's face made Zhou Huaiyue's heart skip a beat, and an indescribable sweet feeling surged in his heart, "She is smart and beautiful, different from ordinary girls."

"Smarter and prettier than the girl from the Jiang family?" Zhou Chuzhuo thought of his best friend's child, Jiang Qianqian, who always surrounded Zhou Huaiyue like a butterfly, with skin as white as snow, eyebrows like a crescent moon, and eyes like peach blossoms.

In the eyes of the two families, Zhou Huaiyue and Jiang Qianqian grew up together and should have been childhood sweethearts, but Zhou Huaiyue was like a stupid boy who had no brains. Apart from playing with the kids in the school and drawing, he had no interest in Jiang Qianqian, or girls in general. Every time he saw Jiang Qianqian, he would hide as much as possible, just like a mouse seeing a cat.

Later, in order to avoid disaster, the Jiang family donated all their assets in the country and moved abroad. The second year after they left, Zhou Chuzhuo got into trouble and almost broke up his family.

"Of course. Not only is she smart and pretty, she's also good at..." When Zhou Huaiyue almost said the word "making money", he suddenly stopped. It is said that the first impression of parents is very important, so shouldn't he make some appropriate improvements?

"What will happen?" Keeping the suspense at the critical moment.

Seeing his father's impatient eyes, Zhou Huaiyue suddenly thought, "He is also very good at writing! He can write both calligraphy and hard pen calligraphy very well. He is my ghostwriter!"

"A match made in heaven, a match made in heaven!" Zhou Chuzhuo clapped his hands, stood up, and happily turned around in the middle of the room, saying as he turned, "You can draw, and she can write. It's simply a match made in heaven, a perfect match."

As Zhou's father was talking, he suddenly woke up, rushed forward and grabbed Zhou Huaiyue's shoulders, and asked anxiously and solemnly: "Does she know about me and your imprisonment?"

"I haven't had time to tell you yet. She probably won't..." He was interrupted by his father before he could finish his words.

"No, no, no, you can't tell me! You absolutely can't tell me. No matter if I was rehabilitated or why you went to jail, it's always a stain on your life. What if, what if she can't accept it, how can you two be together? You will regret it for the rest of your life if you miss this rare fate." Zhou Chuzhuo got emotional and his mood became low, with tears in his eyes.

Will it?

Zhou Huaiyue kept asking this question in his mind all night. If Shen Roujiao knew about his relationship with his father, would she still trust, rely on, and flatter him as her master as before?

After much deliberation, Zhou Huaiyue decided to take a gamble.

He wanted to tell her everything about his father and himself, in detail. He bet that Shen Roujiao would understand, just like when she wanted to sue Wang Jianxin, he could understand and empathize with her, for fairness and justice.

He firmly believed that they were the same kind of people.

If not, it would be good to just go our separate ways cleanly and have nothing to do with each other in this life.

Thinking of this, Zhou Huaiyue got out of bed and wrote a very long letter. Starting from when he was taken away by the county public security bureau, he continued to talk about why his father was wandering outside and why he went to the countryside. It was a total of seven or eight pages thick.

Time condensed into strokes at the tip of his pen. In countless dark moments, Zhou Huaiyue had reminded himself again and again who he was. But after Shen Roujiao appeared like a little sun, he often forgot who he was.

When they walked side by side in the sunshine, the feeling was both strange and joyful. Zhou Huaiyue couldn't help but look at their shadows, which shortened and lengthened on the ground, giving him an unprecedented sense of peace and satisfaction.

…

After dawn, Zhou Huaiyue washed up early and told his father that he was going to the county post office to make a long-distance call to his mother to inform her of their recent situation. His father told him not to go into so much detail, in case something went wrong with the rehabilitation and his mother would worry.

Zhou Huaiyue said that he knew what was going on and just wanted to report that he was safe. He didn't plan to say anything else. Of course, he didn't even mention writing a letter to Shen Roujiao.

When he walked through the village and came to the edge of the pond, Zhou Huaiyue found a red bean tree, more than 20 meters high, with lush branches and leaves. Many red beans were wrapped in the gray-brown bean shells, which had ripened and burst and fell to the ground.

This is not an ordinary red bean, but the red bean in Wang Wei's poem, "Red beans grow in the south, and spring comes with a few branches. I wish you would pick more, for this is the best for expressing lovesickness." In ancient times, lovers would give each other red beans as tokens to express their longing for each other.

Zhou Huaiyue walked around under the tree again and again, and finally picked up a few beautiful red beans, and also picked off a few leaves and put them in his backpack.

We took the first bus that passed by the village and finally arrived at Ping'an County five hours later.

He casually bought two steamed buns near the bus station and ate them while walking towards the post office.

The County Post and Telecommunications Bureau is a relatively conspicuous building at a turn at an intersection. There are white rain marks on the dark green stucco walls. The front is not big, but the wooden sign above it reads "People's Post and Telecommunications" in large letters. The font color has faded and aged due to the erosion of time, making it look simple and solemn.

After entering the door, there is a cement floor and white walls that are slightly yellowed in some places. Opposite the door is a long row of wooden counters with dark brown wood grain and a polished surface that is smooth and shiny. There are people standing in front of the counters waiting to handle business.

There were four or five staff members sitting behind the counter, all of them women, with work badges hanging on their chests. In front of the counter were office supplies such as abacus, pens, stamps, and seals.

On the wall behind them were business regulations and fee standards written in neat brush handwriting.

There were not many people lining up at the mail and parcel counter; however, there were quite a few people at the telegraph window. The telegraph was charged by word, and the atmosphere was even more tense and anxious. At the back of the hall, the longest queue was at the long-distance phone window. Because there were only two long-distance telephones, there were several layers of people lining up.

Zhou Huaiyue decided to queue up to call his mother first and then send a letter before leaving. In the queue, there were two girls standing in front of him, chatting quietly.

As they chatted, the two girls looked back at Zhou Huaiyue for a few seconds and took the initiative to start a conversation, "Are you also queuing for a long-distance ride?"

Otherwise, just stand and enjoy the scenery.

He didn't reply, just nodded silently.

"Where are you calling from?" The girls continued to ask out of curiosity.

Maybe it was because he was already restless or because waiting in line made him irritable, but Zhou Huaiyue was very reluctant to answer. He replied unhappily, "Fight to the capital."

The two girls took the initiative to ignore Zhou Huaiyue's unfriendly attitude and said excitedly: "We also called the capital and called our families. What about you? Did you call your family too?"

"Call a friend." Zhou Huaiyue's voice was cold and low, and he tried his best to suppress the unhappiness in his heart. When they were about to ask again, he made up his mind and said quickly: "He just got out of prison. I'll call and ask about the situation inside."

The girls were frightened by his words and looked at each other, fear and panic showing on their faces. After they shut their mouths like wooden chickens, they turned around silently and took two steps forward, leaving a distance of one person between them and Zhou Huaiyue. Not only them, but also those in front, behind, and left and right were trying to avoid him as much as possible and moved away from him, and they spoke to him in whispers with their mouths covered.

It was as if he was a poisonous source of infection. Everyone avoided him as if he were the plague, staying away from him for fear of having any contact with him.

The girl who used to look at him boldly now only dares to glance at him secretly.

good.

very nice.

I just don't want to bother with strangers, just be quiet.

But those strange looks still shot like arrows from all directions, piercing Zhou Huaiyue's body and sharply cutting big holes in it. The questions he had thought about last night came flooding back and deeply hurt his heart.

Zhou Huaiyue began to doubt and waver, and his confidence in himself and Shen Roujiao gradually disappeared under the sharp gaze.

The hour in line seemed as long as a century. Zhou Huaiyue went from hoping Shen Roujiao knew to being afraid that Shen Roujiao knew. The mental journey in between was extremely difficult. When he thought that she would hide from him like everyone else, his heart was tightened and painful.

It felt like being abandoned by the whole world, and deeply trapped in a hopeless darkness. He had experienced the feeling of being isolated and helpless, the suffocation of being on an isolated island, and the pessimism and despair of being at the bottom of the abyss.

But Shen Roujiao's appearance, like a gust of wind, brought with it warmth and vigorous vitality, which led him to regain strength and walk out of the swamp step by step.

He had been abandoned once and didn't want to be abandoned a second time.

The letter in the backpack had been crumpled beyond recognition. Finally, it was torn to pieces by Zhou Huaiyue.

He needs to think about it again, rewrite it, and write a new letter.