Return to the city
The national highway was finally fully connected. Villagers were curiously exploring the clean, smooth asphalt. Some children even lay down on the road as a bed. Their parents pulled them up and scolded them, saying, "Don't you want to die? A car will run you over."
Wu Meilai passed by carrying a bamboo basket.
"Boss Wu is not opening the store today?"
"Yeah, weeding my field." After the road was repaired and the construction team left, business slowed down again. She glanced at the little girl, slumped on the road with her new schoolbag, and said with a smile, "Are you bringing your child to sign up?"
"Yes, I didn't write a single word during the winter vacation. I was crying while I was making up last night. I don't know if the teacher will accept it."
Wu Meilai smiled and stopped talking. She climbed up the dirt road beside the highway to her own field and started working.
By lunchtime, Wu Meilai not only cleared the weeds in the field, but also cut a large basket full of pig grass.
As I stood up with the basket on my back, I heard a long and loud whistle.
It was the horn of the first bus passing through the village.
The farmers who were still working dropped their hoes and ran to the roadside to watch, saying excitedly, "It will be more convenient to go to the city in the future."
Another person said: "Not only that, it's convenient to go anywhere."
Wu Meilai was also genuinely happy. She grabbed the weeds on the ridge, carefully walked down to the road, and walked home along the sidewalk, looking ahead expectantly from time to time.
After a while, the shuttle bus appeared at the corner and drove slowly towards us.
Wu Meilai stopped and followed the big guy coming towards her, her eyes full of joy.
Perhaps because it was a rare occasion for him to attract so much attention, the bus driver drove much slower than usual.
This also allowed Wu Meilai to see clearly the people behind the last row of windows when the car passed by her.
Zhou Qianling wore headphones, leaned back in his seat with his eyes closed, leaving only his profile visible to the outside of the car window.
Wu Meilai stared at her intently, her body turning with the car until the tail of the car disappeared around another corner, then she realized:
Zhou Qianling is gone.
Wu Meilai felt as if she was relieved because she felt empty inside.
"Ouch, I should have told it to stop," someone regretted.
"Come on, what will you do with your hoe and basket if you get in the car?" another person replied.
The car had left, but their enthusiasm remained undiminished and they were still talking excitedly.
Wu Meilai lost the initial joy and walked home in a daze.
She opened her phone and there was no red dot on Zhou Qianling’s profile picture.
And the information that has not been sent is still retained in my input box:
You are a good person. I hope you find the right person. Let’s not contact each other again in the future.
She cleared the words.
It is no longer needed.
Wu Meilai thought expressionlessly: This is good, no need to worry about being discovered.
——
There was nothing different in the new year. Wu Mei's shop was still lukewarm, and the family was still dealing with trivial matters.
"Zhou Qianling" also seemed to become blurred. Those moonlit nights eventually turned into an absurd, fleeting romance, which was gradually drowned out by the trivialities of life until it was forgotten.
They had only known each other for two months, and Wu Meilai did not have deep feelings for her, and she believed that Zhou Qianling was the same.
After locking the shop door, Wu Meilai rode a motorcycle on the side of the road.
She bought this second-hand motorcycle in town. She refused the one Zhou Qianling gave her.
In less than half an hour, she arrived at Xinjie. She parked her motorcycle in front of an empty store, and a woman came out to greet her with a smile.
"Have you seen it? My place has the best value for money. Right in front of us is the entrance to the streets of all the villages. You'll see this the first thing you see when you come in."
Wu Meilai didn't look in the direction she pointed, as she had already examined these things.
In addition to the large flow of people and spacious space, Wu Meilai also liked the toilet behind the store. She took a look and found it was quite large and could even accommodate a bed.
In recent months, Wu Ergou's greed has become more and more ugly. He thinks he has her under his control and introduces all kinds of people to her from time to time, telling her to marry someone else as soon as possible. She really has to pay some money to shut him up.
"Have you made up your mind?" The landlord waited for a long time without any response and asked again.
"Twenty thousand a year is still too expensive. I'm afraid I can't make that much even if I sell powder for a year."
Seeing her interest, the landlord became even more enthusiastic. "Since you seem to be compatible, I'll charge you two thousand less. How about eighteen thousand? There was a young man who came to see me earlier. I won't lower the price even a penny."
Wu Mei came into the store and looked around again, pointing at the wall and said, "There's nothing in here, and these are all falling off. Look, you can even see the bricks. I'll have to repaint the wall when the time comes."
The landlord also knew that the price was indeed high in the countryside, so he lowered it by another thousand, saying, "It can't be any lower."
Wu Mei came to bargain and said, "15,000, I guess. The money I used to start my business was scraped together from everywhere, and this is all I have."
After a long discussion, the two finally agreed on a price of 15,800.
After signing the contract, Wu Meilai felt mixed emotions. She was happy that she could earn more money, but she was worried that the money for buying the store was indeed borrowed from everywhere, and now that she had to renovate it later, her debts were piling up.
After a busy day, she returned home with a heavy heart. Sure enough, that old man, Wu Ergou, was waiting in the living room again. When he saw her, he smiled with wrinkles on his face and said, "Come and see this boy." Liu Guiyan also smiled, and it seemed that she was really satisfied with the man.
She casually glanced at the screen of the mobile phone handed to her by Liu Guiyan, and found fault with it: "She must be quite old, ugly, and has little hair. I don't like her." After that, she went back to her bedroom, closed the door, and locked the cursing voice outside.
Lying on the bed, she stared blankly at the plum forest outside the window. It was already lush green, with plump green plums hanging among the leaves.
Summer is already here.
Wu Meilai picked up her phone and looked through her Moments.
If there was any trace Zhou Qianling left in her life, it should be the countdown to the college entrance examination that she occasionally saw.
She no longer posts selfies, only serious and encouraging quotes from famous people.
Wu Meilai opened the private photo album, and the only photo in it had been deleted by her long ago.
When she realized that Zhou Qianling was indeed a gentlemanly teacher.
Close your eyes, no unnecessary movements.
Wu Meilai didn't dare to imagine any other scenarios, as that would make her feel like she was offending a stranger who had nothing to do with her.
She just recalled every detail of that night over and over again, her every smile and frown, and her rubbing her face against her calf.
Wu Meilai's breathing gradually quickened, and her legs tightly clamped the quilt.
She was trying to get rid of her strange habit, but every time she did so, she began to miss Zhou Qianling terribly and regretted pushing her away.
She always regrets it. If she doesn't push it away, she will regret it. If she pushes it away, she will still regret it.
"Qianling, Qianling, Qianling..."
Wu Meilai hugged the quilt tightly, each cry suppressed. The desire in her heart needed an outlet, but her remaining rationality prevented her from revealing this name to the world.
Every whisper tugs at the edge of taboo.
......
Meilai Clay Pot Lamb Noodles officially opened in July, and her bet paid off. The town's customer flow was countless times greater than that of the village. Especially on market days, her shop's four square tables were packed from 10 a.m. onward. During peak hours, she even had to set up a folding table outside, making her want to work like an octopus.
On normal days, high school students from the town would come here to eat. In addition, there is a village nearby that is developing into a tourist destination, so there are strangers passing by the store every day.
Wu Meilai was busy from morning till night and fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed at night. Gradually, she lost her worldly desires and naturally gave up the strange habits that bothered her.
That day, a girl came into the store. Wu Mei saw that she looked familiar and thought she was a student from a nearby high school, so she casually asked, "What do you want to eat today?"
The girl looked up at her with some joy in her eyes and said, "Do you still remember me?"
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