Chapter 30 The disc seemed like some kind of destiny that had quietly slipped into her palm...
Ye Yuying stood there stunned for a few seconds. Just then, the wind picked up and down, and she was a little unsure if she had misheard.
She asked hesitantly, "You mean..."
"I'll take you back to Qingcheng." Cheng Mingdu's gaze fell, like a swallowtail butterfly resting on a spring treetop, his voice carried on the wind.
Just then, her nose felt a little itchy, as if she could already smell the sweet fragrance of wisteria from her hometown, growing in her grandmother's yard.
"I'll go get ready and be right there."
It took her several moments to react, and then she suddenly seemed to have wings on her feet, and she ran upstairs, taking two steps at a time.
Her voice carried a rare mix of excitement and panic, and her steps were even lighter than when she was running away.
A few minutes later, Ye Yuying changed out of her school uniform, still carrying her old schoolbag on her shoulder, seemingly without bringing anything extra.
"Did you bring everything?" Cheng Mingdu glanced at her bag.
"Hmm!" She nodded, then added softly, "...Actually, there's nothing special I need to bring. I just brought her favorite cookies and my homework. My grandma's house usually has more supplies than this place."
In a single sentence, she involuntarily revealed her preference for her maternal grandmother's family—a preference that surpassed that for the Cheng family.
She loved that place, and even though it couldn't give her wings, she still loved it.
Cheng Mingdu gave a noncommittal smile, seemingly a smile without any deeper meaning, but the spring sunlight was so bright that Ye Yuying found it somewhat dazzling.
"Give me the bag." Cheng Mingdu opened the trunk.
She snapped out of her daze and handed him the bag. Only then did she realize that Cheng Mingdu had switched to a low-key black sedan, which had more space in the back, but she didn't have anything to bring.
Although she usually wears an arrogant mask, her life is actually so simple that it doesn't take a single glance to see the whole picture.
"Do you know the exact address?" Cheng Mingdu asked, sitting in the driver's seat, operating the navigation system with his right hand.
Ye Yuying shifted her gaze from his slender, fair hand and said, "There have been new road planning projects in recent years, which I'm not very familiar with. You can navigate to the county hospital first, and once you get there, I'll know how to get there."
The car drove off the private road, and the sky began to darken.
At first, neither of them spoke, and the only sound inside the car was the occasional navigation from the GPS.
Ye Yuying leaned against the passenger seat, her right hand gripping the seatbelt, her eyes fixed on the unfamiliar road ahead through the car window.
Her thoughts were in turmoil; she should have imagined the scene at her grandmother's house countless times beforehand.
When her grandmother saw the reproachful look on her face when she suddenly visited, she turned around and went to the kitchen to ask her if she was hungry. Without saying a word, she made her a bowl of egg noodles with half a spoonful of lard, as well as freshly picked green vegetables and scallions.
But his mind was filled with more than just those images; there was also Cheng Mingdu's strong, distinct hand that had been placed in front of the touchscreen, and the sensation of grabbing his wrist in a moment of panic.
In such a tense situation, she was still able to notice the delicate, smooth touch, with a slight coolness like fine jade, but the hand bones were clearly wider than hers, an impressive and somewhat noble elegant male hand.
And the laurel tree in the yard, and the image of him tilting his head back while drinking water...
She seemed somewhat slow to realize at this moment that there were indeed many differences between them, such as her lack of an Adam's apple, her tall stature, and her well-defined features...
As she was thinking, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Cheng Mingdu's right hand was gripping the steering wheel, and that there was a small red mole on the prominent wrist bone.
For the first time, she felt that the mole was not a flaw, but rather a more memorable feature and focal point for people to look at on an extremely beautiful face.
The hand moved, turning the steering wheel to the left. Her eyes, like still water rippling with gentle waves, immediately became clear, and she turned to look in a completely different direction.
In the rearview mirror, she caught a glimpse of her silver hair and quickly said, "Wait, I can't go to see Grandma like this."
Cheng Mingdu smoothly turned the corner, and while waiting at the red light, he asked softly, "You mean hair?"
Ye Yuying nodded, then said in a slightly awkward low voice, "She can't quite accept this..."
In everyone's eyes, she transformed into an aggressive and delinquent girl in just one semester, but she couldn't face her grandmother like that.
She subconsciously scratched the ends of her hair, the overly soft short hair slipping through her fingers like slippery seaweed. She paused for a moment, not wanting her grandmother to think that she had gone astray.
She hesitated for a long time, then asked cautiously from the side, "Brother, do you have time tomorrow? If so, I'll go get my hair dyed back tonight..."
I'll go to Qingcheng tomorrow.
Before he could finish speaking, the green light came on. After crossing the traffic light, Cheng Mingdu changed lanes and said casually, "Okay, we'll set off again tomorrow morning."
Ye Yuying was secretly delighted, but then said shyly, "Thank you for your trouble..."
The car became quiet.
Cheng Mingdu gripped the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the road ahead, but his voice was extremely soft: "It's nothing."
Finally, Cheng Mingdu took her back to the city and stopped at a hair salon.
Ye Yuying got out of the car, seemingly realizing that she had taken up too much of Cheng Mingdu's time.
"Brother, you go ahead and do your work. I'll take a car home after I finish dyeing my hair."
Cheng Mingdu turned off the car, casually unbuckled his seatbelt, and then turned his head to look at her. His eyebrows and eyes were bathed in a pale light in the setting sun.
"It's okay, it'll only take half an hour. It's not easy to get a ride around here."
Ye Yuying quickly lowered her eyes, and the mountains in her eyes began to undulate.
After hesitating for a moment, he didn't say anything more, nodded, and whispered "thank you".
The barbershop was brightly lit, and the smell of the hair dye was indeed pungent.
The hair colorist was slightly surprised to see her silver hair and spoke with a Cantonese accent, "Beautiful lady, the color bleaching is pretty good. You dyed it black so easily, why not change to a trendy color?"
Today she wasn't wearing her school uniform, and with her silver hair, she attracted some teasing from the hairdressers.
She felt somewhat lost, wanting to argue and be angry but also feeling that it wasn't that bad.
She realized for the first time that once she was no longer a junior high school student, her flamboyant hair might not offer her any protection.
She didn't mean to ask for help; she just wanted to see what Cheng Mingdu would do while waiting for someone, and secretly looked for his figure in the store through the reflection in the mirror.
When Cheng Mingdu got out of the car, he casually took a tablet with him and put it on his lap to handle some things.
Seemingly noticing her gaze and the surrounding laughter, he slightly raised his head.
She didn't even change her posture; she just looked up from the tablet.
His eyes were extremely calm—so calm that they made him even more enigmatic.
His gaze was lowered by an inch, without any emotional fluctuation or extra ripples, but that one glance made people subconsciously shut up and dare not say another word.
The few apprentices who were laughing and joking in the barbershop suddenly lowered their voices as if they had realized something under that one gaze.
That wasn't indifference or a warning, but rather a very high sense of boundaries.
Cheng Mingdu slightly withdrew his gaze and continued to flip through the pages in his hand, as if nothing had happened—he didn't even frown, but the unspoken intimidation was more silencing than any reprimand.
It was as if his aura had disrupted the atmosphere of the entire space.
Ye Yuying saw that scene through the mirror, was startled, and looked away, still somewhat shaken.
It seemed that only at this moment did she realize what Cheng Mingdu's sense of alienation was at its most intense.
Although Cheng Mingdu helped her a few times at crucial moments, a single glance from him would often make her feel that their relationship might not be as good as she imagined.
He is a person who doesn't easily offer kindness or trample on the dignity of others; such a person seems to shut everyone out.
He didn't speak, yet he knew everything. He wasn't angry, yet he silenced everyone. He remained silent, but everyone knew he was there.
*
In fact, including the waiting time, it had been more than an hour by the time I walked out of the barbershop. It was completely dark by then, and the streetlights in Chengdu were all lit up.
With her hair dyed black, Ye Yuying seemed to have removed her mask, and even her eyebrows and eyes regained the youthful innocence unique to her age.
Although it was dark when we got back to the Cheng family home, it was still a while before we could actually fall asleep.
As usual, Cheng Mingdu placed her in the spot closest to the attic, but added, "Wait here for a few minutes, I have something for you."
Ye Yuying gave a soft reply and stood aside watching him drive the car down into the underground parking garage.
When Cheng Mingdu reappeared, he had something in his hand, which didn't look very big.
As he approached and handed her the thin disc, his expression was as calm as if he were explaining something utterly mundane.
"Here, take it." he said.
Ye Yuying glanced down at it, then subconsciously reached out and took it.
He wore an old-fashioned suit, with a briefcase beside him. In the upper right corner was a title spelled out in English letters—Forrest Gump.
"This is……"
She hesitated before raising her eyes to look at him.
"The Chinese title should be 'Forrest Gump'." Cheng Mingdu withdrew his hand without offering further explanation.
"Actually, I haven't watched many foreign films." Her voice was a little weak, as if she was hiding a more real reason.
He responded casually, "Keep it."
She held the disc, and for some reason suddenly felt a little afraid to look up.
There were several lines of small English text printed on the back of the disc. She couldn't quite make them out, but she could vaguely make out one line:
"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
(Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.)
At that moment, she couldn't even understand the meaning of those words. Years later, when she recalled it, she could still vividly recall the tingling sensation in her fingertips.
"My English isn't good, so I can't understand it," she mustered up the courage to tell the truth.
“I’ll translate it for you once, but only once. After that, you’ll have to learn to read it yourself,” Cheng Mingdu said in a deep voice.
She held the disc in her hands, knowing full well that it was just a combination of plastic and paper, yet she suddenly felt as if she were holding something burning hot.
Ye Yuying was speechless for a moment, her fingertips clenching, the plastic edge of the disc digging into her palm, causing a dull pain.
She instinctively wanted to say that she wasn't skilled enough to do those things, but ultimately she didn't say it.
Before going to bed tonight, Cheng Mingdu took her to a screening room in a house and played the DVD once.
He kept his promise and stayed in sync with every line of dialogue in the movie, almost like a simultaneous interpreter, helping her understand Forrest Gump for the first time.
Several times tonight, she didn't realize until she looked away that her gaze had been fixed on Cheng Mingdu's profile.
She was curious about his vocal cords beneath his skin, wondering how they could produce such a consistent and delicate sound, like a string instrument. The vibration frequency of his vocal cords should not fluctuate much.
The first time she encountered Forrest Gump was through Cheng Mingdu's personal translation, which may have been accompanied by a great deal of pity.
But she's not a very self-reliant person, so if this is pity, then it's fine.
This is a disc, and also a tender and secret bond between her and Cheng Mingdu, a bond that is not based on blood ties, responsibility, or right and wrong.
It was as if some kind of destiny had quietly slipped into her palm.
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Author's Note: 50 red envelopes [Cat emoji]
My voice has completely gone hoarse lately, I've become a real mute QAQ
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