08 "Are you asking me to be responsible for you now?"
The interior of the car was dark, with only a little yellow light from the street lamp outside the window shining through.
He Yu couldn't see the expression on Tao Wanjia's face. She was clearly in front of him, and the pungent smell of perfume emanating from her body kept drilling into his nostrils. But in the long silence after he finished speaking, he suddenly felt that Tao Wanjia was still very far away from him.
She would never be like this before, she was always patient with him.
But at this moment, her words were full of disgust and impatience.
"I really don't understand you. He Yu, why do you have to be so persistent in looking for me?"
She finally spoke, her tone even worse than before, "Can't you see that I hate you and don't want to have anything to do with you anymore? I said it so clearly back then, didn't you understand?"
"We should just go our separate ways. You live your own life. Whether I'm in Rongcheng or not, what I do has nothing to do with you, right?"
Tao Wanjia was eager to escape, and he knew He Yu too well, so he knew where to stab him most severely.
He Yu was struck by these words as she wished, and her tone immediately became turbulent. "It's not that I have to be persistent, I just want an answer. I know that incident was a big blow to you, but why did you push me away? And, if I really am just something you can throw away at will, then three years ago..."
Tao Wanjia came back to her senses after being reminded by him. Thinking of that rainy and humid night in Qiayang, she suddenly realized and burst into laughter.
"So you're thinking about this. I really shouldn't have, but it was something we both agreed to. So, are you asking me to be responsible for you now?"
"Alright, I'll give it back to you once."
She raised her eyebrows slightly, and as she spoke, she moved closer to He Yu and pressed her lips against his thigh covered by his trousers.
Then he raised his hand and unbuttoned his coat, revealing most of his shoulders, a hazy white in the night.
He Yu was completely stunned. He was deeply hurt by her carefree yet ruthless behavior. His heart ached and he turned his face away in anger.
The car door closed with a loud bang. Tao Wanji pulled up his collar, looked at the angry back of the man outside the car window, opened the car door and escaped.
Darkness is a good cover-up, hiding expressions and demeanor, and can even blur the soft heart of a heartless and ungrateful person.
Tao Wanjia walked quickly, her heels wobbling and twisting her insteps, the pain and discomfort gradually being ignored. She also had a better way to leave, but only in this way would he despise himself and give up completely.
Unable to protect herself, she could only hide from He Yu.
Not far behind her, He Yu watched her walk out from afar.
Tao Wanjia's thin figure standing in the snow-covered ground has a chilling air, like a sharp and flickering bonfire in the strong wind of midwinter.
He Yu didn't dare act rashly. He felt like a snowflake, afraid that any overreaction would trigger another avalanche. He couldn't afford to lose her again, so all he could do was obey.
He obeyed all the harsh words she had just said in order to leave. He was angry, but he was only angry that she didn't tell him what happened. He wanted to know what had happened to her during these years away, and whether that wonderful new world she said she was going to had really arrived.
Xiao Zhang, who had been standing behind the car for a long time, was finally able to walk out.
He was overjoyed, thinking his boss's wish had finally come true. However, when he stepped forward and saw the gloomy face, he quickly realized something was wrong. So he quickly put on a different face and offered some unwise advice to his frustrated boss.
"Maybe Miss Tao still has some issues in her heart. You might be a little too impatient. You have to take your time when pursuing a girl. I think the correct process should be like this. First, after your enthusiasm is over, give her the cold shoulder for a while. Wait until she encounters some difficulties before rushing forward to show her charm. When Miss Tao looks at you with eyes full of stars, then reconciliation is not far away!"
Xiao Zhang is young and joined the group right after graduation. He was chosen as the secretary because he is lively, capable, and interesting.
But now, He Yu is very dissatisfied with this stupid secretary who is very strict in work but has a lax life, so much so that he listens to melodramatic novels all night after work.
He was still fuming with anger, so he raised his chin slightly and asked, "Where's your phone?"
"Here I am, what's wrong?"
He Yu turned around, opened the car door, and said coldly: "Uninstall all those rubbish novels on your phone."
It's a mess. Not only does it not help, but it also makes things worse.
Once the snow falls in Rongcheng, it never stops.
After returning from the club, Tao Wanjia continued to stay indoors and spent the few days with the lowest temperature during the cold wave warning. He only went out when the food in the refrigerator was exhausted.
There was a chain supermarket a few hundred meters from the complex, less than a ten-minute walk. It was cold, and after finally adjusting to the temperature in Velvet City, Tao Wangjia bundled himself up tightly. His boots crunched on the snow, and the air was chillingly cold.
The floor tiles at the supermarket entrance were muddy, and the anti-slip carpet was trampled black.
After finishing shopping, she was walking back with a big bag of vegetables and fruits. When she was passing an uphill road, she slowed down and her clothes were hit by a bicycle that suddenly came over.
Then, the tires slipped on the snow and the car tilted and fell beside her.
The man pushing the cart was an old man. He fell down and suddenly cried out, "Ouch! My red bean paste buns, freshly steamed!"
Tao Wanjia felt the voice sounded familiar, so he walked forward and helped the person up. It turned out to be Aunt Sun from that day.
He bent down and gently brushed the snow off her body, "Are you okay?"
"My buns!"
The old lady answered the question irrelevantly and hesitated to go down. Tao Wanjia followed her gaze and saw the steamed buns that rolled out of the trunk of the car bouncing in the snow.
No one was out in this awful weather, unless they had to to make a living. Without hesitation, Tao Wanjia dropped what he was holding and trotted off to pick up all the fallen buns. Handmade buns were no longer popular these days; it was time-consuming and laborious, and unprofitable, so few people would likely buy them. But thinking this might be the only source of income for the old lady, Tao Wanjia carefully picked them up and blew off the snowflakes that had clung to the wrappers.
"How's your leg? Can you walk? Do you want to go to the hospital?"
The old lady was a bit stubborn, completely different from the kind person she was at home that day. She muttered something, stood her bicycle upright, and rejected her kindness in a tough attitude.
"I can walk on my own."
He took the bun from her hand that had been rolled in the snow, and his wrinkled face was full of heartache. "What a shame! I got up early to make these."
Tao Wanjia took a look and felt sorry for himself. "I've bought them all. You should go home early. It's snowing."
The old lady's gloomy face immediately brightened up, and a smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.
"You want to buy it? Okay, okay, then you can send it home for me."
The urban village was not very close to here. Tao Wanjia had been carrying things and walking for too long and was already exhausted. He finally breathed a sigh of relief when he arrived in front of the familiar dark green door.
She took out her wallet from her pocket and planned to pay and leave, but the old lady pushed open the door and welcomed her in.
The room was still dimly lit, but a bit warmer than last time. A layer of white mist still hung over the kitchen ceiling, and upon closer inspection, an all-too-familiar sweet fragrance filled the air.
"Since you're here, eat something."
The lid of the steamer was opened, and several steaming cornmeal dumplings were placed on the table.
"I know who you are."
"I recognized you on your first day delivering gas canisters here."
The old lady took her chopsticks, filled two bowls of porridge, and sat down at the long, narrow table. She placed the porridge in front of Tao Wanjia, her eyes filled with emotion. "Tao Liqing's daughter, the fastest runner in the factory, I remember her!"
As soon as Tao Wanjia stopped moving, his eyes seemed to be covered in smoke.
"You...you remember me?"
She had long forgotten those people from the past, or rather, she didn't dare to remember them.
The old lady's original name was Sun Xiuqin. Her husband was a switchman who had worked in the factory for many years and lived next door to their building. She used to see their group of children running around in the yard often. Tao Wanjia was the noisy leader of the children and he was such a pitiful person, so how could she not remember him?
But looking at her worried eyes, he finally changed his original answer.
"You haven't changed much since you were a kid. Your face is like your mom's, and your personality is like your dad's, so I have some impression of you."
Tao Wanjia suddenly realized something, as her parents flashed through her mind. The old lady saw her lower her eyes and spoke to her in a serious and comforting tone.
"When you are alive, you should accept whatever comes your way. A temporary setback doesn't mean you will be set back forever. Just accept what comes your way and there is nothing you can't get through."
Her eyes were sore and her chest was filled with emotion. When her tears were about to fall, the old man opposite her stood up and moved away considerately.
"Let's eat. I haven't eaten with anyone in a long time." He took out a bottle of beef sauce from the refrigerator, opened the lid and placed it in front of her, "Eat more. You look so skinny."
Tao Wanjia quickly composed himself, letting himself get over the past. He looked up at the iron-pot-sized steamer in the kitchen and asked, "Do you make so many every day to sell?"
"Not every day, I sell three or four times a week. Sticky rice dumplings are easier to sell, but it's not convenient for me to make them now that I'm older. I usually just steam some flower rolls or red bean paste buns."
She couldn't sit still, so she did what she could. When sales were good, she could make a little money after deducting the costs, which was an income. At her age and without a partner, if she didn't find a way to live a good life, she would just have to wait for death.
But the people of this land never seem to be so pessimistic. Even if life is a road leading to downhill, they can still struggle forward against the headwind.
The heroic epic of ordinary people is nothing more than living in the present and dealing with whatever comes their way.
Tao Wanjia hadn't eaten the food from her hometown for many years. Sorghum porridge and cornmeal buns soothed her stomach, which had been soaked in frozen food for a long time. Before leaving, she even took out her old cell phone to save a string of numbers.
"I should be here soon. If you make buns again, remember to call me and I'll come over to help you."
After saying that, he took out a few brand new red banknotes from his wallet while she wasn't paying attention and stuffed them under the yellowed transparent table mat.
It came in a hurry, but it was the only way to make her feel better, although this method could be easily discovered.
Sure enough, before I walked out of the alley, the old lady came trotting out with money in her hand.
"What are you doing, girl? Do you have so much money that you don't know where to spend it?"
She smiled, folded the money and put it in her pocket. "I am an old lady, but my hands and feet can still move. If you have time, come often!"
The snow was still falling, and the swirling snow particles were blown into my face by the wind.
Again and again, like a blade scraping against thin skin, the coldness penetrates the bones.
Thin and dense, they cut open the memories of another snowy day in the past.
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