Suddenly, the light snow stopped.
The sun had not yet risen, and the surrounding black tiles and yellow bricks were damp, bathed in the bright moonlight, giving them the moist feel of a freshly painted ink painting.
When Xue Jing got out of the car, Ha Yue hadn't left the house yet. By the time Ha Yue stood at his door and peeked half her head in, Xue Jing had already taken off his mask and started washing his hands with running water and hand sanitizer inside the house.
The bungalow that Xue Jing rented had the same layout as Ha Yue's house.
However, even with the same type of room, different owners will result in different dirty and messy conditions.
It's hard to keep Ha Yue's house clean. Animal feces, food scraps, and kitchen grease, no matter how frequently you scrub, will always leave a thick layer of dirt in various corners.
In addition, Zhao Chunni often accumulated beverage bottles and cardboard boxes in the yard, and these miscellaneous items became a playground for rats. No matter how many sticky rat traps were placed, a few rats would still occasionally escape in the yard.
But Xue Jing's room was simply renovated and so clean it resembled a back-to-basics guesthouse.
In a corner of the courtyard, there is an outdoor stove where one can watch the fire burn. Under the white sky, in addition to bundles of wood, there is also a complete tea set on the outdoor dining table.
As for the interior, Ha Yue only glanced through the window and caught a glimpse of several plum branches on Xue Jing's dining table, which were meant to be admired.
In her family, there are dishcloths, toothpicks, tissues, and all the opened but unfinished food on the dining table. Even when eating, you have to squeeze to put down the bowls and chopsticks. But in Xue Jing's house, the space is spacious and beautiful, and there are even water-cut plants in the dining area.
Although separated by two doors, the feel and aesthetics here are very fashionable, and very Xue Jing-like.
A pang shot through her heart, just like when she discovered Xue Jing never licked the yogurt lid when they were dating. They lived in the same world, but even though they lived across the hall from each other, it was like they were in parallel universes, always separated by some unseen medium.
This thing that she could see but couldn't touch made her uncomfortable.
The thermos in her hand was quite heavy. Ha Yue glanced down at her mud-covered rubber boots and reluctantly took two steps into the yard. She called out "Hey!" and reached out towards the house, but Xue Jing didn't take it. He frowned, seemingly dissatisfied with the distance between them. His voice was a little hoarse as he stood inside the house with the door open and spoke to her: "Come closer, I can't hear you."
Ha Yue rolled her eyes, thinking, what's so special about delivering food? She didn't move, but just yelled loudly, "I said take the thermos. I'm not going in."
"Why?"
Why?
Because she had stayed up all night and needed to go home to catch up on sleep, because it was inappropriate for a man and woman to be alone together, and because she was a little afraid that in the darkness of the night, Xue Jing looked so delicious like a sweet treat, and that she might have grown sweet teeth again.
But these reasons couldn't be spoken aloud, so she said impatiently, "I stepped in mud." His house also happened to have hardwood floors that couldn't stand water.
Upon hearing this, Xue Jing bent down, took out a pair of women's slippers from the shoe cabinet, and placed them on the ground in front of her.
When she opened her mouth again, she still declined, saying, "I can't stay long, I'm worried the pigs will run away."
Xue Jing glanced past her and looked across the street. "I saw you lock the gate with a chain just now."
Ah, yes, because she's worried that her mother might wander around when she's delirious, she now makes it a habit to lock the door from the inside whenever she goes out, not even for a few minutes.
Seeing that Ha Yue remained motionless, her whole body radiating apprehension, Xue Jing's eyes also revealed a hint of weariness. He spoke bluntly, "Ha Yue, hospital chairs aren't very comfortable, and it's cold right now. I'm also hungry. If you're worried about that matter, you can rest assured, I'm very tired right now."
"real."
"Xiaoyu is someone you care about, right? Jinzi said you two are usually very close. Don't you also want to know how she's doing? I'll tell you while we eat, okay?"
"Standing in the wind is quite uncomfortable."
Having said all that, Ha Yue was in a bind and had no choice but to obediently come over and submit.
As soon as she reached the eaves, Xue Jing took the thermos from her and hung the down jacket she was wearing in the entryway's secondary laundry area, along with the down jacket she was draped over her shoulders.
Ha Yue lowered her head as she changed her shoes on the doormat. Her gaze fell on Xue Jing's ankles, and she frowned. She noticed some small, overlapping old and new scratches on his ankles that flashed under his trousers. Glancing to the side, she saw that, sure enough, most of the sneakers in the shoe cabinet were delicate light-colored.
The thorn in her heart had melted into a soft, tender feeling, because she knew that Xue Jing must have been bitten by her goose while wearing those expensive sneakers, and probably more than once.
Xue Jing, a man from Jicheng with impeccable taste, would never have known that geese, besides looking down on tall humans, also particularly dislike bipedal monsters wearing white shoes.
But it doesn't matter, the geese for this year have been eaten up, and Xue Jing will definitely not stay here next spring.
Xue Jing walked to the dining table, opened the thermos, and paused when she saw the first layer of braised goose meat. Her eyelashes drooped. She peeled off another layer and found several kinds of home-style pickles. The bottom layer was a full bowl of almond porridge.
He didn't expect that the food Ha Yue brought him was freshly made. When he saw Ha Yue carrying a thermos, he thought it contained frozen dumplings, steamed buns, or other semi-finished products.
During their cohabitation after graduation, Xue Jing often fought with her for the kitchen in order to show off. During those dozens of days of living together, he brought Ha Yue more than a dozen different sandwiches for breakfast, following the recipes in the cookbook. He could even cut an avocado into a heart shape. But even the most difficult stir-fries really require practice, so they always ate out at night.
This was the first time he had ever seen food cooked by Ha Yue herself.
His fever had probably subsided by now; his throat wasn't itchy anymore, and he felt as refreshed as if he'd taken some kind of narcotic. He felt he could stay in the hospital for another day and night if Ha Yue gave him a word.
His actions today were a complete accident. If he had known that Ha Yue cared so much about the neighbor's family, he might have looked for an entry point through Cao Xiaoyu earlier and tried to persuade Ha Yue on all the possible avenues of interest.
Thinking this to himself, Xue Jing solemnly said to Ha Yue in the entryway, "Thank you. Actually, I didn't do anything for you..."
Calling Cao Xiaoyu "Xiaoyu" might seem too intimate, so Xue Jing immediately corrected himself after uttering the word "Xiao" when addressing his female neighbor.
“I really didn’t do anything for Jinzi’s wife. I’m not a doctor, I just ran errands for her.”
The word "thank you" was not enough to express his gratitude. Before picking up his chopsticks, Xue Jing went to the kitchen and searched through his supplies. But after searching, he found that he only had dark chocolate and coffee powder left. He didn't even have the fruit that Yang Hayue liked.
It's not a good time to drink coffee in the early morning. Right now, the only things he can share with Ha Yue are the meals she makes and the multivitamins piled up by his bedside.
Inviting someone to dinner is a gesture of goodwill, washing fruit is just politeness, but inviting a guest to eat health supplements is just plain crazy, isn't it?
When Xue Jing came back from the kitchen, he had two sets of bowls and chopsticks with him. He asked her a little embarrassedly, "Why don't you eat some too? Cooking must be tiring. Thank you so much."
After being rejected by Ha Yue, he suddenly realized and rubbed his forehead, "Then would you like some tea? Would the Imperial Eighteen Teas be alright? I'll go boil some water."
Ha Yue pulled out a dining chair and sat diagonally opposite Xue Jing, the furthest away from him in a straight line. She wasn't Emperor Qianlong, drinking exorbitantly priced imperial tea in the middle of the night. Having a late-night snack with Xue Jing was already the limit of intimacy she could tolerate. So she wrinkled her nose, raised her right hand, and pointed to the food that was getting cold, pretending to scare him, "I said, are you going to eat or not? If you keep dawdling, I'll take it away."
Of course, he had to eat. He didn't even bother to look at who had made it. Xue Jing sat down and slowly drank the porridge.
He rarely speaks while eating, so his narration is also very slow.
After sharing the good news that Xiaoyu was pregnant, Ha Yue and Xue Jing tacitly remained silent. When ex-partners discuss the marriages and happiness of others, it always evokes a deep sadness.
Once his appetite warmed up, Xue Jing began to eat. He didn't find anything wrong with the first bite of meat, and quickly picked up a second bite. Because he really wanted to continue his conversation with Ha Yue, he made small talk: "The duck meat is quite fresh. Did you just buy it today?"
Freshly slaughtered poultry is of course fresh. Ha Yue looked at Xue Jing, who even ate like a painting, across the table and said casually, "These are geese raised by my family. They were just slaughtered, so they must be very fresh. They bled them for a long time, and even after washing my hands several times, they still smell of blood."
After Ha Yue finished correcting him, Xue Jing's teeth, which were chewing, suddenly stopped moving. He looked slightly unwell, and even the chopsticks in his hand were suspended in mid-air.
Although Ha Yue's geese attacked him every day, the feeling of suddenly swallowing these animals he had met just yesterday was not pleasant. To put it simply, it was because he had witnessed the sale of donkey meat in markets along the eastern coast of China over the years.
To prove their freshness, butchers would strike a live donkey's head with a hammer right in front of it, and the scene of the dying donkey falling to the ground, being skinned, and cut into pieces would be reflected in detail in the eyes of its still-breathing brethren.
Because of the subversive nature of the scene, Xue Jing found it difficult to swallow even the delicious donkey meat dish.
This reason sounds very plausible, just like his refusal to eat animal heads, internal organs, and claws.
Even though they had been separated for years, the couple sitting diagonally across from each other at the table were so familiar with each other's subtle movements that when Xue Jing merely tensed his facial muscles a little, Ha Yue had already discerned his inner aversion.
Judging from his trembling pupils, she guessed that if she weren't there, Xue Jing might immediately spit out the food in his mouth.
People in big cities keep pets at home as emotional support or as babies, but what they raise is a delicious dish.
Their upbringing has led to a fundamental misunderstanding of their underlying logic.
Thinking about this, the emotions that had been troubling Ha Yue these past few days suddenly eased. She stood upright on the stool, but her eyes were shallow. She looked at Xue Jing with a compassionate yet ruthless expression, like Guanyin: "Xue Jing, do you think slaughtering animals is terrible? But there's nothing we can do. That's how people like us are. We even raise pigs at home. They'll be ready to eat next year when they're bigger."
"Of course you've eaten pork, pre-processed at the supermarket, but you've never seen a pig being slaughtered, have you? When I was a child, my family was even poorer, and we looked forward to the pig slaughter every year. The pigs would squeal so loudly during the slaughter, it was so pitiful, but every neighbor who helped by tying ropes, stabbing the pigs, and collecting the blood in a basin was all happy. Even the children would cheer and clap along. Nobody cared about the animals' feelings because people would soon have meat to eat."
Xue Jing wouldn't like to hear these things discussed at the dinner table. He had many taboos.
Ha Yue felt that Xue Jing must have lost his appetite again. This time, just like at the last dinner table, it must be her fault again, she admitted.
But this time she didn't want to apologize. Apologizing too much would be exhausting, and besides, as Xue Jing said, the purpose of an apology is to set things right. So how could she change her background? There was nothing she could do about it.
No matter how much you try to make amends, it's useless.
Turning her gaze away, Ha Yue got up and went to the kitchen to tear off a piece of kitchen paper, which she then placed on the dining table in front of Xue Jing. She then reached for the thermos.
Ha Yue's voice was soft and melodious, and her hair was also very obedient, gently brushing against his shoulder like a willow branch. But this kind-faced woman was reading the final verdict to Xue Jing.
"So, Xue Jing, go home. Stop wasting your time. No matter what, someone like you doesn't belong here."
Xue Jing really shouldn't waste any more effort in Suicheng.
He lived a life of luxury, his spirit was too rich, and he could extend his pity to all living beings everywhere. She was still struggling to survive in the cracks of the eighteenth level underground, and she really couldn't bear his tenderness and charity.
"Don't waste your time. We're not kids anymore, are we?"
Four years later, the appeal was unsuccessful, and she still sentenced their relationship to death.
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