Chapter 9 Cosmos (8) She thought, He Chuan and she were probably also...
Lin Xia just ate and waited... uh no, the days of recuperation began like this.
Because of his injured knee, it was inconvenient for him to walk, and because of his injured arm, it was inconvenient for him to pick up things. Lin Xia just lay on the sofa all day, with clothes to wear and food to eat, and he lived a very comfortable life.
Perhaps out of guilt, or perhaps for something else, He Chuan treated her better and better, completely obedient and accommodating to her every request. He bought her a lot of snacks, chocolate chips, Want Want rice crackers, AD calcium milk, whatever she wanted, and all three meals a day were prepared according to her taste. He also kept his word and helped her wash the skirt, carefully rubbing off all the stains with his hands, and then asked Aunt Hao to sew up the torn parts. Aunt Hao's hands were very skillful, and she sewed a wheat ear pattern, which contrasted with the green small floral pattern of the original skirt, and it didn't look ugly at all.
But no matter how perfectly it was sewn, it would never be as new as it was before. Lin Xia was the type of person who preferred to have nothing rather than something mediocre, who pursued perfection and was very picky, so she didn't plan to wear this skirt again.
But she won't throw it away, she will keep it and treasure it.
She finished reading Tan Zhizhou's comic book in two or three days. Bored, she could only watch TV. Every day, from the Cross-Strait Program in the morning, to the China News at noon, to the Hundred Schools Forum and Global Times in the afternoon, to the Golden Theater and Overseas Theater in the evening, Lin Xia had never stared at CCTV-1 for such a long time. She basically knew all the hosts by heart.
He Chuan's daily life was simple. He didn't hang out with friends or play games. Besides cooking, chopping wood, and doing housework, he practiced calligraphy and English, listening to some foreign radio station and reading aloud in the yard. Lin Xia admired him deeply, his perseverance and hard work. She said his dream would definitely come true, and it wasn't just groundless comfort.
It was one of the hottest days of the year in Northeast China. The air was so stiflingly hot, not a breath of wind. Just sitting still made you sweat. He Chuan moved the electric fan from the bedroom to the living room. Lin Xia, eager to cool down, sat in front of the fan in a small vest and shorts, enjoying the cool breeze. A watermelon was chilled with cold mountain spring water, cut in half, and the two of them each scooped out a half and ate it with a spoon. The shabby little shop near their home sold unpackaged popsicles for fifty cents each. At first, He Chuan made a daily trip to buy them, but eventually he bought a large bag and froze it in the humming old-fashioned refrigerator in the kitchen, ready to eat whenever he wanted.
No one called, whether it was Lin Haisheng, He Ping, Lin Xuedong, or Zhao Qianyi. Lin Xia and He Chuan seemed to have been forgotten in this big house nestled in a dense pine and birch forest, isolated from the world and dependent on each other for survival, as if they were the only two people left after the nuclear explosion of the earth and the destruction of modern civilization.
There are no homework, no exams, no pressure to get into higher education, no nagging from parents, and no endless fruit snacks. This summer is clean, hot, bright, and long, and the happiness seems to have no end.
.
One day, Lin Xia, tired of watching CCTV, switched to Wangchun Channel and discovered they were showing a movie. Since it was just the beginning of a new series, she decided to watch it. It was another Hong Kong film, starring Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng. The plot was intriguing, and she gradually became captivated. Unexpectedly, just as she was enjoying the show, the movie abruptly ended and the station suddenly started broadcasting the local news.
"Ah! Why is this happening?"
Lin Xia was very dissatisfied.
He Chuan came over and asked, "What's wrong?"
Lin Xia complained to him about the TV station's misdeeds, but he was not surprised. "Wangchun TV is always like this. They broadcast the news at noon. Let's eat first. Maybe they will continue broadcasting later."
Lin Xia nodded doubtfully, but was afraid of missing it. She really wanted to know what happened next, so she sat in front of the TV with her bowl and ate.
However, after the news was over, a long and messy advertisement was played. After the screen was black for two hours, another movie started playing directly.
“That’s outrageous!”
Lin Xia found it hard to understand.
Did they have a change of staff this afternoon? Was the program actually being controlled by a real person at the station? How could it be so random?
"I still want to know the ending! Do they end up together?"
He Chuan asked: "What's the name of the movie?"
“No.”
Lin Xia briefly recounted the plot to him.
"I've seen this. Wangchuntai plays it every now and then." He Chuan thought for a moment and told her, "The male protagonist dies in the end."
"How is this possible?!" Lin Xia's eyes widened in disbelief. "Why? How did he die? They were clearly still in love!"
But He Chuan didn't remember much of the subsequent plot, and just said to her:
"Just wait a little longer. Maybe they'll release this again in a few days."
"Then how long do we have to wait? I want to know the ending now, especially since you told me the hero died. I want to know the reason even more." Lin Xia was very depressed. "Maybe I won't be able to sleep tonight."
In that era, there were no program previews or online searches. The audience could only watch what was on TV. It was very random. If you missed it, you might never see it again.
"Can't sleep again?" He Chuan said with amusement, "Don't go to the bathroom under the covers in the middle of the night this time."
Lin Xia knew that he was making fun of what happened on her first night, and she glared at him angrily:
"You're making fun of me! I'm ignoring you!"
This was the worst punishment she could think of for interacting with someone.
When this girl's catchphrase came out when she was upset, He Chuan laughed even harder, but when he saw her turn her head and limp into the room, it seemed like she really intended to ignore him, he had no choice but to coax her.
He walked to the door of Lin Xia's room and knocked seriously.
"Xia Xia?"
Lin Xia lay face down on the bed, motionless, pretending not to hear.
He Chuan sighed:
"I'm going to the city tomorrow to get a pass from the Public Security Bureau. I remember Tan Zhizhou said there's an old store near the school that rents DVDs. They have a lot of Hong Kong and Taiwan movies. I'll go ask them for you."
Lin Xia finally reacted after hearing this. Without moving her body, she slowly turned her head and asked in a low voice:
"Really?"
"Really?" He Chuan said helplessly, "Why would I lie to you? So, just be patient for one night."
"good."
Lin Xia agreed obediently, then she smiled and whispered in a voice that only she could hear:
"He Chuan, you are so nice."
A child who grows up being spoiled is born with a certain ability. She knows who will be nice to her, who will indulge her and tolerate her. In the silent step-by-step testing, she gradually explores the other party's bottom line, and feels at ease to act willfully and spoiled within a safe range, just like a cat.
Lin Xia is such a cat.
He doesn't usually get close to people, but once he gets close to them, he will stick to them and can't be driven away.
.
The next day, when He Chuan came back from the city, he had indeed rented the movie disc, along with seven or eight other films.
Lin Haisheng's family had an old VCD player that wasn't working very well. He Chuan and Lin Xia spent a long time working together to get it working properly. After playing the movie, they discovered it wasn't dubbed in Mandarin, but in Cantonese. It was Lin Xia's first time watching a movie in its original language, and she found it odd. Fortunately, there were subtitles, in traditional Chinese, but she could still make sense of it.
But the more I looked, the more uneasy I became.
He Chuan was right. In the story, the hero and heroine were intrigued by each other and although neither of them was willing to admit defeat, they truly loved each other. However, in the end, the hero really died. There was no big storm, it was just because of illness.
Lin Xia was as incredulous as Sammi Cheng on the screen. Until the last second before the end of the movie, she still naively believed that all stories in the world should end happily and lovers should eventually get married. She didn't expect that people in love would also be separated, and no one can fight against fate.
How cruel.
Lin Xia cried, and He Chuan was not surprised. He knew that she would be sad after reading such a tragic ending, so he handed her another CD:
"The boss said this is a happy ending. Do you want to see it?"
Lin Xia was wiping her face with a towel. She looked up with tears in her eyes. The actors on the cover were still the two of them. She thought for a moment and said in a low voice:
"All right."
In this way, it can be considered that the two of them are together again in another world.
Just how many films had Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng collaborated on, and how many times had they played a couple in them? Lin Xia couldn't quite recall, but she did remember that summer, He Chuan rented every movie they'd starred in from that rental store. They watched comedies, tragedies, and more. Then they watched other Hong Kong films: Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow, Tony Leung, Johnnie To, Wong Kar-wai... The discs at the time were all pirated, of poor quality. They'd jam constantly, requiring manual ejection and restarting. A 90-minute film could take over 100 minutes, but they kept going.
Often, adolescence is a crucial period for the formation of one's values. The things one encounters can have a lifelong impact, becoming an indelible foundation of one's character. The period around the turn of the millennium marked the final golden age of Hong Kong cinema, producing works that went far beyond simply catering to marketable clichés and captivatingly handsome men and beautiful women. Lin Xia may not have understood many stories at the time, and many details have faded into obscurity as she grew older. However, she was always guided and informed by the core messages conveyed by those films, a lesson only dawning on her many years later.
You have to accept the impermanence of fate and the great changes of the times, end your relationships amicably, work as a white-collar worker in a glamorous office building, and in the end, you will be alone in life.
She thought that He Chuan was probably the same as her.
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