Chapter 6
"Why are you here?"
Zhang Jusong was a little surprised.
Xia Zhiheng tilted the umbrella towards her and said, "Some things are going on. Anyway, the college entrance examination is over. Let's just relax."
He walked towards the dormitory naturally: "Back to the dormitory?"
"Ah, yes."
With an umbrella to shelter from the rain, Zhang Jusong slowed down his pace and chatted casually.
"I have a ticket for half past one, going home."
"What a coincidence?" Xia Zhiheng laughed, "I'm on this train too. How about we share the ride?"
Zhang Jusong hesitated for a moment. Because he was going home for the holidays and had large luggage, it was inconvenient to take the bus or subway, so someone in the student group had carpooled early in the morning to save on fares.
She had already talked to two other unfamiliar classmates, and if she shared a car with Xia Zhiheng alone at this critical moment, it would probably make them feel embarrassed.
Zhang Jusong was a little embarrassed: "Well...but I had agreed to carpool with two other classmates before."
"Well," Xia Zhiheng pondered for a moment, "It seems like it's okay for four people to ride in one car? I only have a schoolbag, no other luggage."
"Then I'll ask."
Fortunately, they were all reasonable people, and after confirming that there was no concern about not having enough space for the luggage, they had no objection.
When they reached the foot of the girls' dormitory, Zhang Jusong said to Xia Zhiheng, "Wait a moment, I'll come down after I get my luggage."
"good."
Xia Zhiheng closed his umbrella and watched her figure disappear behind the glass door.
After confirming that he couldn't see it, he immediately took out his mobile phone and searched for the ticket.
No tickets.
The departure time was very close, and it was a popular travel date for students on vacation, so how could there be any tickets left? He refreshed the page several times, but it still showed "sold out".
…
When Zhang Jusong came out dragging a 24-inch suitcase, he saw Xia Zhiheng staring at his phone with a serious look on his face.
"What's the matter?" she asked softly.
Xia Zhiheng put away his phone and said nonchalantly: "My friend had a little trouble, but luckily it's been solved. Are we going to wait for the bus now?"
Zhang Jusong nodded: "Yes, it's almost time for the appointment."
As she spoke, she took out an old umbrella from her schoolbag and opened it. After being used for a long time, there was a small hole in the umbrella, and occasionally a drop of water would condense and fall on her hair, but at least it could be used.
"Sister, give me the suitcase."
“No, no.”
Zhang Jusong quickly refused. She never liked to trouble others.
"That's too much trouble. It's just two steps. My box can be placed flat on the ground without any effort."
As she spoke, she held the umbrella in one hand and pulled the box forward with the other.
After arriving at the agreed location and waiting for a few minutes, the classmates who were supposed to carpool with me showed up, a boy and a girl.
As soon as he saw them, Zhang Jusong said apologetically, "I'm so sorry, I didn't make the arrangements well, it might be a little crowded."
"fine."
"We can save some money if we share the fare with more people."
The two students didn't know each other. The male student was quite strong, so he naturally opened the front door and got in. The back seat was left for Zhang Jusong and the others.
In carpooling, the most uncomfortable seat is the middle seat in the back row. Fearing that the female classmate would be embarrassed, Zhang Jusong rushed to sit in the middle, leaning forward as much as possible, trying to reduce the space he took up.
The car was full, and the five people, including the driver, were not familiar to anyone except Zhang Jusong and Xia Zhiheng. Therefore, there was only silence in the car, the windshield wipers were scraping the windows, and an unknown song was playing on the car radio.
After sitting in a stiff posture for a long time, Zhang Jusong felt her legs were numb. However, Xia Zhiheng was sitting on her left, and a female classmate she didn't know was sitting on her right. If she moved, her legs would inevitably stick together. She could only stay where she was.
The red light turned green, and the car just started, when suddenly a motorcycle with a canopy on it jumped out from the blind spot and was about to hit -
With a sudden brake, the inertia was broken and Zhang Jusong subconsciously grabbed the nearest object.
"Fuck you! You have no eyes!" The driver started driving again, cursing.
The boy in the front seat also chided in, "What kind of character is this person?"
Amid the scolding, Zhang Jusong realized that she was holding Xia Zhiheng's arm tightly, so he quickly let go and moved his body forward, sitting on a tiptoe.
It’s a bit embarrassing, Zhang Jusong thought.
She was most afraid of embarrassment. Once something embarrassing happened, her mind would automatically replay the embarrassing scene in a slow-motion loop.
She prayed in her heart that no one would mention it or make a joke about it.
The car continued to move forward.
Fortunately, Xia Zhiheng never spoke.
When we got off the bus, the rain had almost stopped.
After settling the fare, the people in the car tacitly chose a direction to go.
Xia Zhiheng still followed behind Zhang Jusong, keeping a distance from him that was neither too far nor too close.
There were a lot of people at the station, and even though there were many security checkpoints, the line was very long.
After entering the station, it was very close to the departure time.
Although he could enter the gate by swiping his ID card, Zhang Jusong was still used to taking a paper ticket. Otherwise, it seemed that such a long journey would not leave any trace at all.
She was dragging her suitcase and queuing in front of the ticket machine. She caught a glimpse of Xia Zhiheng from the corner of her eye. It seemed that he had been holding his phone since she got off the bus.
Maybe there was some trouble, Zhang Jusong thought. She was not the kind of person who liked to meddle in other people's affairs. All she could do was to keep herself quieter so that she could leave him some peace.
The ticket-dispensing speeds of the two ticket machines were not exactly the same. Zhang Jusong took the ticket first and found a place to stand that would not block the way.
There are many restaurants on the second floor of the waiting hall. Just after lunch, there are still many customers in the shops, and it is very lively with people bustling around.
Her eyes fell on the sign of a fried chicken shop for a long time. She hesitated for a moment, looked down at the time, and found that there was only half an hour before departure, so she gave up the idea of ordering fried chicken.
Forget it, I’ll just eat something in the car later.
"Sorry for the wait."
Xia Zhiheng's voice came from the side, obviously a lot lighter.
"Would you like to find a place to sit?"
Zhang Jusong shook his head: "Just go and queue up."
"good."
The queue had already formed before the train inspection.
When she was young, Zhang Jusong always wondered why passengers had to queue up at the ticket gate in advance. There were seats for everyone, and the bus would not leave early if they arrived early. After she went to college and took the bus alone, she realized that queuing early was to grab a place to put the gift. If she arrived late, she could only lift the suitcase over her head and put it on the luggage rack by herself, which was very tiring.
While waiting for the bus, Zhang Jusong suddenly thought of a question.
"By the way, I'm in car 3, which car are you in?"
Xia Zhiheng covered the ticket with his fingers and took a look: "I'm in carriage 5."
Zhang Jusong felt a little annoyed when she heard that they were in different carriages. When she was alone in the train, she didn't like the behavior of changing seats by herself. She didn't want to do something she didn't like to others.
She hesitated and said, "Well...it seems we have to sit separately."
The implication is don't swap seats with strangers.
Xia Zhiheng obviously understood and smiled: "Okay, see you when you get off the car later."
The carriage was noisy as usual. A child in the front seat was watching cartoons, and a middle-aged man in the back seat was watching short videos. They were all playing loudly, competing to see whose device was the loudest.
There's a "Paw Patrol" on one side and a "Like" on the other, like a double act.
The car started to move steadily, and the attendant held a tray of boxed lunches and shouted to sell them.
When the person sitting next to her was ordering food, Zhang Jusong observed for a while and saw that there was no dish she liked, so she simply didn't order anything and took out a red bean bread from her bag.
While chewing the bread, I was still thinking about fried chicken.
The long journey was boring, so Zhang Jusong prepared a novel to kill time. After flipping through two pages, she felt a little sleepy, so she dozed off leaning against the seat, holding her backpack in her arms, which could keep her warm in the strong cold air conditioning and also prevent theft. This was a principle she had learned after taking a few buses.
With my eyes closed, I can still feel the background of sunlight. The noisy voices, the speeding train, the smell of instant noodles or boxed lunches make it difficult to sleep comfortably. I can only close my eyes and rest.
The bus stopped at a station, and people were getting on and off the bus coming and going beside their seats. She opened her eyelids, confirmed that the people sitting inside showed no signs of getting off, and then continued to close her eyes.
Half asleep and half awake, the rich aroma of fried chicken wafted into my nose.
She suddenly opened her eyes and saw Xia Zhiheng holding a family bucket.
"Want some fried chicken?"
Zhang Jusong blinked, suspecting that he was still dreaming: "Where did you buy it from?"
"I ordered a high-speed rail takeaway at the last minute."
He smiled and leaned over to put the bucket of fried chicken on the small table. "Come on, eat it while it's hot. Crispy chicken won't taste good if it's cold."
The most essential part of crispy chicken is the golden scaly coating. When you take a bite, the slightly flowing fat and the tenderness of the chicken make it both fragrant and crispy.
She sat and he stood, and they each grabbed a chicken leg to eat.
This scene was quite funny, and some distant memories were awakened. It seemed that once when she was a child, after school, she secretly used her pocket money to buy a bucket of chicken and ate it in the yard. After eating a few chicken legs, she found that she couldn't finish them, but she didn't want to waste them, so she went to find Xia Zhiheng next door and coaxed him to eat with her.
Zhang Jusong smiled unconsciously: "It seems like we also secretly ate the whole bucket together when we were kids."
"Yes," Xia Zhiheng said helplessly, "My sister has always been a bully since she was young. She said we should eat together, but in the end I ate most of it. I was so full that I didn't eat for the whole day."
"Haha, I'm sorry."
Zhang Jusong took out a napkin from the paper bag and handed one to Xia Zhiheng.
"Time flies by so fast. You were just a little bit taller then, and now you have finished the college entrance examination."
The happy childhood was too short. She felt a little sad.
"By the way, when will the results be released?"
"Next week."
She said with a smile: "Your grades are so good, maybe you can actually see the scene where A and B fight for someone downstairs of your house."
When she was in high school, Zhang Jusong's favorite dream was this: once the scores were released, the admissions teams of two major universities would come to compete for her admission. She even thought about how to respond, and said - "I'm sorry, after careful consideration, I still want to go to medical school at University B."
But dreams are just dreams after all. After the results are announced, the dream ends.
Zhang Jusong lowered his eyes and took another piece of fried chicken.
While eating, she said, "But you should be very determined, right? I mean, you want to go to University A?"
Xia Zhiheng looked at her and nodded: "Of course."
…
After eating the fried chicken, Xia Zhiheng left carriage 3 and stopped at the connection between carriage 5.
Standing by the car door, he took out a book on advanced mathematics from his bag and started to read it.
Outside the car door, the scenery is constantly receding.
Before boarding the bus, Xia Zhiheng bought a short-distance ticket. Although he bought a ticket for the rest of the trip after boarding the bus, the seat was only good for one stop. He had to stand for the remaining hours.
But it doesn't matter, at least I can ride in the same car with her.
The time spent solving math problems always passes quickly, and when we are almost at the station, the view outside the car door is already pitch dark.
Xia Zhiheng packed up his things in advance and wanted to find Zhang Jusong, but he took two steps and then stopped.
Wouldn't it seem a bit too deliberate to go find her like this?
After thinking for a moment, Xia Zhiheng stayed where he was.
When the train arrived at the station, he finally saw Zhang Jusong on the busy platform. He immediately called her name and squeezed towards her.
Zhang Jusong waited for him to come over before they walked towards the exit together.
Xia Zhiheng smiled and asked, "Shall we carpool together later?"
"No need." Zhang Jusong said, "Someone is here to pick me up."
As he spoke, he arrived at the exit.
"Hey, Zhang Jusong."
A tall and thin boy was lying on the railing, wearing headphones, looking quite free and easy.
Zhang Jusong waved at him: "Got it!"
She hurriedly picked up her suitcase and said goodbye to Xia Zhiheng.
"Goodbye then, I'll contact you later."
As soon as she finished speaking, she trotted towards the young man with a smile on her face.
She never looked back.
Standing in the distance, the smile on Xia Zhiheng's face disappeared without a trace.
In the dim light of the exit hall, Zhang Jusong naturally pushed his suitcase to the man.
She even touched his hair.
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