selfishness in love
Li Guorong reached down and covered her knees. Her legs were aching slightly, and goosebumps were rising all over her body. She wrapped her arms around herself.
Lin Shaocheng stood up, walked behind Li Guorong, bent down and hugged her, "What's wrong?"
Lin Shaocheng picked up Li Guorong from the station and felt that she was acting strangely, but he didn't dare to ask.
With tears in his eyes, Li Guorong turned and threw himself into Lin Shaocheng's arms. "I had a nightmare. I dreamt that I was abducted on a train, my legs were broken, and I ended up burning myself and that family to death."
Lin Shaocheng hugged her tighter, "No, I will find you no matter where I am."
Li Guorong pressed his hand against Lin Shaocheng's heartbeat and said, "I'm sorry, I'm very scared. Your family is better off than mine and you have a higher education. I'm worried that once you get into university, you'll meet someone better and won't want me anymore."
Lin Shaocheng said, "You can live a good life even without me."
Li Guorong nestled in Lin Shaocheng's arms. She had always been able to support herself, but without Lin Shaocheng, she was like an empty shell, living out of instinct. Love is mutual; she couldn't just take from him all the time. Even a saint would get tired of it. She had to cherish it.
"I don't want to stay in Beijing anymore. It's too dry and there are too many people. Let's go to the south."
Lin Shaocheng nodded, "Okay."
Li Guorong recalled the letter, “Look who’s up to this. We can’t let her get away with this. Shaocheng, if I were to get on that train, I would just sleep as soon as I board, and then get off 10 minutes later. There are relatively low mountains and relatively flat, fertile fields over there, mainly for growing corn. Right now, only some of the grass has turned green again. It’s in the central and northern part of the country, somewhere like that.”
Lin Shaocheng frowned in thought, "Any other characteristics?"
Li Guorong carefully recalled the details before he fell into a coma last time: "There were cooked chickens for sale at the train station."
Lin Shaocheng replied, "Then I guess the only place near the Xizhou Station in Dongshan Province that has both mountains and fertile fields is Longshan Town. The cotton quilts and apples from that area are of very good quality."
A cotton quilt. Li Guorong's eyes lit up. A clothing factory, what was it called again? "Isn't there a place called Xinxing Clothing Factory over there?"
Lin Shaocheng raised an eyebrow slightly. "How did you know?"
Li Guorong lowered his head and said, "I dreamed about it. Let's eat the noodles first, or they'll get cold."
The oil-splashed noodles on the table have a strong, smoky aroma of chili peppers, and the combination of minced garlic and chopped green onions makes your mouth water. Mix the noodles well.
The first taste is spicy, but unlike the aroma that is amplified when chili oil is mixed with hot noodles, this chili is more oily, salty, numbing, and sour. The complex flavors dance on the tongue, while the chewy noodles hit the mouth and teeth, soothing Li Guorong's anxiety after returning from his second rebirth.
She swallowed a large mouthful of noodles, feeling a sense of grounded rebirth. "What if I want to make a phone call but don't want to expose myself?"
Lin Shaocheng paused in his eating, "You can buy an anonymous phone card and make calls from public phones at Beijing Railway Station, where there's a huge flow of people."
Li Guorong was already full after eating a bowl of noodles. She stood up and said, "I have something to do. I'll be back in a bit."
Lin Shaocheng grabbed her hand. "Can't I know?"
Li Guorong looked into Lin Shaocheng's eyes. She had carried everything on her own in both her past and present lives. She was really tired. She needed to believe in love and believe that she deserved to be loved.
She sat down again. "Didn't I say I had a dream? I dreamt that many women in that village were abducted. One of the women had both legs broken, and she was in a terrible state. She gave me a phone number and wanted me to call it."
Li Guorong turned her head, a hint of anticipation mixed with a hint of fear. She stared intently at Lin Shaocheng's expression, ready to retreat into her shell if he showed even the slightest disbelief or opposition.
Lin Shaocheng hesitated for a moment, then asked, "What's the phone number?"
"XX-XXXXX"
Lin Shaocheng was serious for a moment. "If it's true, this person's identity is not simple, and they can provide you with a lot of help."
Li Guorong couldn't tell others that she was a dream come true, because not everyone is Lin Shaocheng and would believe her, no matter how absurd it sounds.
It was getting late, and the business hall had long since closed. Li Guorong was anxious. She gripped Lin Shaocheng's hand tightly. If she had remembered sooner, those women would have suffered less. "What do we do now?"
Lin Shaocheng went to the sweet potato stall next door to exchange some coins. "Coins are fine too."
Li Guorong, clutching the coin, returned to the vicinity of Beijing Railway Station.
At that time, public telephones were still a rarity. They were made of green metal boxes fixed to the ground. Coin-operated telephones were available, but anonymous telephone cards were only available in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
There were four or five people queuing outside. Lin Shaocheng was watching Li Guorong from a distance next to the newsstand. Li Guorong was at the very back of the line. Inside, a man with a smile on his face shouted loudly, "Get on the bus right away, I've got him, I've got him."
The people behind spoke softly, so it was hard to hear them, but the louder ones could be heard clearly from outside. Li Guorong held a piece of paper tightly in her hand, on which was a phone number and what she planned to say. The last person came out, and Li Guorong opened the door. Lin Shaocheng stood at the door with a newspaper, keeping a long distance between the people behind and the door.
Li Guorong picked up the heavy receiver and heard a buzzing sound. She took out a coin and put it in. The coin hit the machine with a clanging sound. Li Guorong pressed her finger to the corresponding number and rotated it clockwise. Her heart pounded and rotated with her. The spring compressed and rebounded, and her heart compressed and rebounded with her. Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.
"Beep beep beep—"
"Thump thump".
"Hello," came a deep, middle-aged man's voice from the other end.
Li Guorong's fingers turned white as he wiped the microphone. "I know where your daughter is."
There was a moment of silence on the other end. "What do you want?"
Li Guorong looked at the gentle and kind words he had prepared on the paper, which now sounded like those of a robber, and fell silent for a moment. "She is in Longshan Town, Xizhou City, Dongshan Province, roughly around this location. There is a Xinxing Clothing Factory there, and there is a guy named Liu Da Nao in the factory. He might know something. There are two uncles named Wu Jun and Wu Hai in a village. There are many trafficked women in their village. There is a rock cave on the mountain north of the village. Your daughter is in there."
"you…"
"Beep...beep..." The phone went dead. Liu Zhiguo's heart pounded like a drum. He had never been this nervous, not even on the battlefield. Two years ago, his youngest daughter, Liu Shiyin, had some conflicts with her family and secretly went to her grandfather's house. Unexpectedly, she disappeared without a trace, and no matter how many favors she asked, there was no news.
Liu Zhiguo's fingers flew across the phone screen. "Xiao Li, check this number for me."
Li Guorong led Lin Shaocheng home, and the two were as close as ever. Li Guolan hid in the house and chuckled to herself, thinking, "It's good that they've made up, it's good that they've made up."
Lin Shaocheng was reading under the lamp. Li Guorong looked at the dim light and candlelight. Shaocheng squinted slightly, thinking that it wasn't so convenient for nearsighted people to get glasses these days. She quietly went out and found Li Guolan.
Li Guolan took out the money, "The money from today's sales."
Li Guorong counted the money; it was over three hundred. He took out half and gave it to his eldest sister. "Sister, I've discussed with Shaocheng about having him apply to a university in the south. We're going to develop our careers in the south in the future."
Li Guolan opened her mouth wide, "Why go to the south? Do you think I'm in the way? I can go home."
Li Guorong grabbed Li Guolan's arm and said, "Sister, what nonsense are you talking about? The south is opening up its economy, and I'm going to go and try my luck with Lin Shaocheng."
Li Guolan covered Li Guorong's hand with her other hand, "I know you suffered a lot of grievances in Beijing, but you've made it through now. You have your own stall and two courtyard houses. This is a life you wouldn't even dare to dream of in the village. Lin Shaocheng also has a formal job, which is a secure job."
Li Guorong knew that there were no more secure jobs these days. Lin Shaocheng's factory wasn't doing well, and the family's savings came from selling medicinal herbs all over the country. "The South is different. Things change every day. You haven't come to Beijing, so you don't realize how convenient the city is. You haven't been to the South, so you don't realize how many ways there are to make money."
Li Guolan felt uneasy. "Your brother-in-law has all the connections here. Why are you making things difficult for yourself?"
Li Guorong couldn't reason with Li Guolan, but Lin Shaocheng supported him and also felt that there was great potential in the South. "I was so busy telling you things you don't need that I almost forgot the important thing. There's a secondhand shop behind the alley; I need to buy Shaocheng a desk lamp."
The two arrived at the alley, which was bustling with activity. There were many comic books, and children were squatting on the ground engrossed in reading them, while their parents scolded, "It's bad for their eyes."
There were also vendors selling small toys, and the children were crying and fussing to buy them.
At a stall selling secondhand appliances and watches, there were several watches with varying degrees of wear and tear on the dials, glass, and straps. A black radio was black on the front and silver on the back, clearly pieced together. There was also a desk lamp with a cartoon shade on top and black underneath, resembling a man in a suit wearing a rabbit head.
Li Guorong pointed to the lamp and asked, "How much is this?"
The boss, hands in his pockets, said, "30."
Li Guolan tugged at Li Guorong's sleeve, "The new ones only cost 50 at the state-run store."
Li Guorong said, "Your top and bottom aren't a set, yet you're selling it for such a high price. It's worth at most 10 yuan."
The shop owner glared at him and said, "You're overcharging! This is a brand new light bulb."
"Then take the light bulb off and sell it to me."
Seeing the younger sister's meaningful glance, Li Guolan tried to smooth things over, saying, "My home is in the alley ahead, boss, let's each compromise."
The boss said, "20, no less."
Li Guorong looked up and said, "At most 12 yuan."
Seeing the hesitation in the boss's eyes, Li Guorong pulled Li Guolan towards the house.
The shopkeeper said, "15, 15 is the minimum."
Li Guorong entered the room with the desk lamp, satisfied. Lin Shaocheng was rubbing his temples. Li Guorong quickly put the lamp on, and the warm light illuminated the words on the book. Lin Shaocheng reached out and poked the light bulb, showing a rare hint of childishness. Li Guorong held his fingertips and said, "Don't burn your hand."
Under the warm light, Lin Shaocheng's eyes seemed to be filled with a galaxy. For the first time, Li Guorong felt as if her heart was filled with something. This was completely different from when she asked her parents for favoritism, her daughter for sacrifice, and Lin Shaocheng for attention. It was also different from when she bought her mother a gold ring and her daughter things she thought were good out of politeness.
Lin Shaocheng said, "I'll ask Xiangxi tomorrow and we'll know what's going on with this letter. Don't worry."
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