Chapter 7 The cold, delicate metallic texture of mate tea...
Why are you so unwilling to face me?
Ye Yuying herself wanted to ask this question as well.
Perhaps it was because she felt ashamed—not all criminals can be so open and honest in front of their victims after harming them.
Cheng Mingdu stared at her, a complex emotion flashing across his eyes, before softening his tone and glossing over the previous question with a new one.
"Going back to Jiangcheng tonight?"
The atmosphere between the two relaxed again, and Cheng Mingdu seemed to sense the disturbance in the air, as if someone had breathed a sigh of relief.
Ye Yuying nodded: "Yes, I have an appointment with investors tomorrow afternoon, so I'll go back and prepare."
"Instead of making plans with them, why didn't you ask me?"
His gaze fell upon himself, as if it had weight.
"This is a startup project of mine, it's a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, let's do it later."
She spoke with such humility that it carried a sense of distance, but to people in society, many "later" statements are usually just empty words and unlikely to come true.
Cheng Mingdu lifted his eyelids, looked at her quietly, then concealed the fleeting sharpness in his eyes and did not continue the topic.
"Let's go." The voice sounded like a sigh.
"Where to?" she asked, puzzled.
"I'll see you out."
She followed him silently, deliberately walking a half-beat slower than him, neither side by side nor getting closer, as if it were a conditioned reflex.
After all, neither of them were entirely aboveboard back then.
Now even the premise is gone.
She walked extremely slowly, and Cheng Mingdu stopped again. "Do you need help?"
She knew it was because she was too slow, so she explained, "This is the first generation product, so the reaction isn't that fast."
In fact, the first-generation product was already very responsive for walking; otherwise, it would have been almost impossible for someone like her, who relies on crutches, to walk at this speed without them.
It's just that her legs can only generate relatively weak electromyographic currents.
I thought I could get away with this, but then a hand suddenly reached out in front of me, which was quite unexpected.
She didn't want to hold his hand, but every muscle and cell in her body craved it.
The person in front of her was someone she had longed to be close to for many years. She would toss and turn countless nights, trying to reconstruct and build up his memory: his faint fragrance, his warmth, the feel of his skin, his voice, and his eyes...
The wind blew up dust from the playground. She stood there, staring at the hand for a long time. After a struggle between her mind and body, she finally gave in to her instincts and raised her hand to touch the palm.
The palm was warm, while the fingertips were slightly cool.
But the next second, she put her hand on his arm instead, perhaps that would be more appropriate.
He stopped talking and just glanced at her.
I guess she probably wanted to avoid suspicion.
The weather was gray and leaden today, but her profile seemed to gather more sunlight, her beauty was cool and refreshing, and she was still as clean, restrained, and obsessive as ever.
The two left the playground side by side. A brief ray of sunshine appeared in the sky, casting gray shadows that overlapped and lengthened, just like their lost yet dramatically intertwined lives.
As Ye Yuying approached the school gate, with the outside world all around her, she paused for a moment.
Cheng Mingdu glanced at the street and, seeing no cars parked there, asked, "Which direction?"
“There’s still a while…” She glanced at him, feeling a little guilty. “If you have something to do, you should go back first. She’ll be there soon.”
In fact, Ding Chu had something urgent to attend to and went to negotiate the rental of a temporary office. He was only just setting off from Jiangcheng to pick her up, and it would take him at least two more hours.
"I'm not busy, I'll wait with you. You have trouble walking."
This sentence is exceptionally short, but it is logically sound.
Although Cheng Mingdu was aloof by nature, he would not stand idly by even for a stranger with mobility issues, let alone for her.
Ye Yuying didn't say anything more, but took out her phone and pretended to be sending a message. In reality, she wanted to call a ride-hailing service to end the awkward situation in time.
Before the operation could be completed, a call popped up on the phone screen; it was from Ding Chu.
They arrived like saviors.
She quickly answered the call, but Ding Chu's voice was very noisy, with horns blaring and the signal was intermittent.
It seems like it's pouring rain over Ding Chu's place.
"I'm doomed, boss! I'm stuck on the highway. The car in front of me skidded and had an accident. Now I'm waiting for the police and an ambulance, and it might be..."
Ye Yuying immediately understood the seriousness of the situation and said decisively, "It's okay, I'll take a taxi back. Be careful."
"What's wrong?" Cheng Mingdu's gaze fell on her face, as if he had already noticed her predicament.
Ye Yuying smiled faintly and put her phone into her bag. "There was an accident on the highway, and she just happened to be stuck in the middle."
"An assistant?" he suddenly asked.
"?" Ye Yuying paused for a moment, then realized that she seemed to have mentioned it a few minutes ago, and nodded honestly.
"I'm going back anyway, I'll just give you a ride," he said casually, without bringing up the awkwardness.
Ye Yuying glanced at him, pondered for a while, and seemed unable to think of a better solution—after all, calling a ride-hailing service across cities isn't cheap.
Cheng Mingdu's car was parked across the street. As they were crossing, she had been holding onto his strong forearm, but the moment the light turned green, he grabbed her wrist through her clothes.
But it was enough to distract her for a while, and even her breathing became a little disordered.
After crossing the street, the hand on his arm was immediately released, leaving no room for speculation.
Cheng Mingdu opened the car door for her and then silently walked around to the driver's seat.
She slowly climbed into the passenger seat, carefully moving her legs in, her movements cautious, as if afraid of damaging her exoskeleton or her legs. She gathered her skirt, her posture overly prim and proper.
The enclosed carriage amplified the scent of Cheng Mingdu's perfume, and she could identify the brand in an instant, because he was quite fond of perfumes.
The car was so quiet you could almost hear each other breathing.
The car moved smoothly along the street, and the city lights swayed in through the window, as if each sway was cutting her shadow into indistinct fragments.
They stared intently ahead, trying to hide their inner tension, as if they were prepared for a cliff to appear at any moment, and for the two of them and the car to fall off.
Her mind is always generating strange and dangerous fantasies.
Cheng Mingdu remained silent, gripping the steering wheel intently and staring straight ahead, making it impossible to discern his current emotions.
The silence inside the carriage was like an invisible mist, along with a familiar scent—the patchouli notes that belonged to Cheng Mingdu, perfectly mixed with a hint of mate tea, enveloping her.
Mate is a popular drink in Germany. During Ye Yuying's school years, many people would bring a glass-shaped, yellowish-brown bottle of this beverage into the classroom in the afternoon, as it was a great way to stay alert.
However, she was always sensitive to these scents, especially when someone happened to be wearing a woody patchouli perfume, which, mixed in with her nasal passages, would bring her sadness and bitterness to her heart several times.
Although this fragrance cannot represent the entirety of Cheng Mingdu's life, she will still be drawn into a vortex of memories by it.
She would get lost in her memories, wavering in her resolve to pursue her studies. She was terrified that one day she would give up everything and return home with nothing, continuing the life that was destined to decay from birth.
So she only ever used coffee to stay awake and never touched mate tea.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself to detach herself from these useless sensory associations.
During her time studying abroad, Cheng Mingdu was not by her side, but he was everywhere—the fragrance, the temperature, the smell of old wood in the classroom were just like his retro villa by the lake, even the tone of a boy's voice in the hallway, and the occasional sound of his gentle English. As long as there was a slight overlap, it would completely destroy her concentration for the whole day.
She once thought that if she went far enough, she could get rid of the emotions that were entangled in her heart, just like a snake that eventually sheds its skin as it grows, she could peel away that intimacy from her youth along with her regrets.
Unfortunately, she underestimated the imprint that adolescence leaves on the human brain.
Those unspoken farewells and unfulfilled promises, like seeds, fell into her body, and even though she tried her best to ignore them, they still quietly sprouted.
As the car drove onto the national highway, the surrounding scenery began to blur.
It was cold outside, so she cracked open the car window to avoid being swept away by the past again.
She turned her head to look out the window, where her somewhat tired silhouette was reflected in the glass.
As night fell, she looked up at the thick clouds in the sky and the occasional raindrops drifting into the car.
"It's pouring rain in Jiangcheng right now, is it going to start raining here soon too?" she asked with extreme calm.
Cheng Mingdu nodded slightly, his voice clear and deep: "I just checked the weather forecast, there's a thunderstorm warning around 10 o'clock."
Ye Yuying gave an "Oh," her tone almost emotionless, showing no concern. "That's a pity."
Early winter thunderstorms are usually a tough time to endure, with fierce and biting winds that soak you to the bone the moment you step outside, and the added danger of billboards falling and hitting you.
After the car accident, her heart seemed to have grown calluses, making her insensitive to many potential dangers, such as extreme weather.
"Will we be able to get back safely before the thunderstorm hits?" she asked casually.
Cheng Mingdu paused for a moment, his gaze still fixed steadily on the road ahead: "According to the navigation, we should arrive in Jiangcheng in another two hours."
He continued, "But... once we leave the thunderstorms of Chengdu, we will enter the thunderstorms of Jiangcheng."
"Then... let's see." Ye Yuying nodded and didn't say anything more.
The rain outside the window gradually intensified, and the wind whipped the water droplets against the glass, making a dense and muffled sound, like a slow-paced whisper.
A few drops of cold rain, carried by the wind outside, fell into her palm, quickly slid down, and stung with coldness. She didn't wipe them away, letting the water droplets spread on her palm, turning into warm tear stains, as if giving the pain a vessel.
Her hand unconsciously rested on her leg, her fingertips rhythmically rubbing the seams of the exoskeleton.
She was fascinated by this cold yet delicate metallic texture.
The car continued driving, disappearing into the deeper darkness of the night.
Before getting on the highway, I found that the road ahead was filled with red taillights, and cars were lined up to make U-turns one after another. The electronic navigation system also indicated that the road ahead was closed.
Cheng Mingdu stepped on the brakes, gradually reducing the car's speed. Looking at the chaotic road conditions ahead, he frowned slightly.
“The road is closed,” he said, his tone still calm, but a hint of hesitation in his judgment could be heard. “It’s probably a landslide or an accident.”
A note from the author:
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50 red envelopes! [Sprinkling flowers]
There should be another chapter after midnight (I'll try to write it) [Cat emoji]
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