Chapter 115 A Sudden Flutter of the Heart: The Half-Beat of the Heart That Was Missed That Snowy Night...
The call was answered on the fourth beep.
"Hello, Liu Shuang?" He Ming spoke first.
Her tongue swirled around in her bitter mouth before Zhu Liushuang finally found her voice: "Senior, are you free now? Could you pick me up at Wanhui Shopping Mall...?"
At this hour, He Ming should still be working overtime at the institute.
He had just returned from a business trip to Yunhe that afternoon, and before he even got home, he received a call from his boss, so he rushed to the firm without stopping.
He heard soft whispers coming from the other end of the receiver, and people were calling his name every now and then.
They must be very busy.
Zhu Liushuang looked somewhat dejected and said with her head down, "If you're... busy... then forget it."
The shopping mall is located between Zhonghe Office and Chunhua Lane. If you really want to calculate the distance, it's actually closer to Chunhua Lane. She could actually take a taxi back, which would only take about ten minutes.
Normally, given her understanding nature, she wouldn't have bothered with He Ming like that. But tonight, her emotions were too volatile, and Zhu Liushuang secretly wanted to be willful and dramatic. So, although she tried to hide her disappointment, she still hoped that He Ming would put down his work and come pick her up.
Perhaps her low spirits were too obvious, so obvious that the person on the other end of the phone noticed something was wrong as soon as she opened her mouth.
He seemed to have completely ignored her curt "Forget it." Amidst a flurry of mouse clicks, she heard him tell her with perfect clarity, "Okay, I'm leaving the company now, it'll probably take about twenty minutes. Find a place to sit for a while, I'll call you when I get there."
His words drifted into her ears, and Zhu Liushuang's dim eyes suddenly lit up with disbelief.
"Liu Shuang, are you listening?" He Ming asked, his leather shoes clicking on the floor as he walked to check on her.
"Oh...I...I heard it." She rubbed her swollen calves and said softly.
"Okay, I'll hang up now. Remember to find a place to sit down, don't wait outside, it's too cold."
His voice was exactly the same as usual, but Zhu Liushuang found it extremely gentle at this moment.
After hanging up the phone, she put it in her pocket and suddenly felt a cool sensation on her face. She wiped it and found a wet streak.
Are you crying again, being so pathetic?
Zhu Liushuang couldn't be sure when she started crying. Perhaps it was the moment she burst through the windproof curtain and fled the mall, or perhaps it was the instant He Ming told her to find a place to sit for a while.
In short, after half a night of ups and downs, in this dark and deserted corner, she was finally able to vent her suppressed anger, grievances, and resentment.
Her fingertips lingered on her cheek, the remaining water droplets gradually drying before being replaced by another damp spot. Helplessly, she touched the corner of her eye, trying to wipe away the uncontrollable tears. Only when she touched the dry corner did she realize that she hadn't actually stopped crying.
What is this newly added watermark?
Zhu Liushuang subconsciously looked up at the leaden-gray night sky.
In the soft, dim light of the streetlights, countless glistening white snowflakes drifted down gently. They twirled playfully in the air before joyfully hopping towards the ground.
She stared at them blankly, letting them fall on her hair, eyelashes, and the tip of her nose, feeling no cold at all.
Gradually, the snow fell thicker and thicker. It was as if someone was shaking goose feathers from the clouds, determined to adorn the earth with a crystal-clear white.
It doesn't snow often in Gucheng in winter, and it's even rarer to see such a sudden heavy snowfall in January like this year.
As a southerner who longs for snowy days, Zhu Liushuang was both surprised and delighted, and most of the gloomy emotions in her heart were washed away by this rare "first snow".
She finally mustered the courage to stand up from the ground.
After squatting for a while, her feet became numb and cold. She stomped her feet hard, lifted the snow-stained hem of her skirt, and ran to a camphor tree by the square.
With no one around, the empty, open square became her playground for chasing snowflakes. Like a child who hadn't grown up, she tiptoed and twirled back and forth on the ground covered with a thin layer of snow.
Joy melted away the gloom, and the smile on her lips grew wider and wider. Zhu Liushuang simply tilted her head back, opened her arms, and embraced the swirling snowflakes.
The night was still, and the woman's soft, lingering song could be faintly heard. At first, it was just a few notes escaping from her lips, intermittent and muffled by the rustling of the snow. Gradually, the melody became more coherent, and her melodious voice, along with the white breath, emerged from her mouth.
Time seemed to stand still, and it was as if she were the only person left in the entire world.
Zhu Liushuang was immersed in her own world, swaying and singing freely...
————
The car sped along in the snowy night, the windshield wipers swaying rhythmically from side to side.
After passing an intersection, He Ming increased his speed to 70 miles per hour.
When I answered Zhu Liushuang's call, he was busy with a new round of annual report audits. All his colleagues in the team were working hard in front of their computers, and it was really a bit unreasonable for him to leave work early.
But he couldn't rest easy about Zhu Liushuang.
She rarely begged him; most of the time, she was strong-willed, considerate, and always thinking of him.
Even through the receiver, he could still hear the frustration in her voice.
Something must have happened to her, given how unusual she was acting.
He Ming was quite certain of his guess.
Therefore, Gu Xufeng labeled him a "workaholic," and he abandoned his colleagues and his hectic work, quickly leaving the office building and heading to Wanhui Shopping Mall.
The snow outside the window was falling even heavier, unusually thick and unmelted, but he had no time to appreciate it.
He drove extremely fast along the way, and the journey that was originally expected to take twenty minutes only took fourteen minutes.
As the car rounded a corner, he stopped by the roadside to call Zhu Liushuang and ask her which gate she was waiting at.
I had just taken out my phone when my gaze was drawn to a fleeting glimpse outside the window.
Through the water-stained windowpane, he could vaguely make out a petite figure.
Even though they were separated by a whole street, his intuition told him that the girl skipping and jumping under the camphor tree was Zhu Liushuang.
I told her to wait for me at the mall, why isn't she listening to me?
His gaze deepened as he looked out the window. He frowned, turned his head, turned off the engine, and brought the car to a stop.
He turned off his phone and casually stuffed it into his pocket. He got out of the car and took a long-handled black umbrella from the trunk.
The woman hiding under the camphor tree was completely unaware of his arrival, even though they were only separated by a road.
He Ming opened his umbrella and strode towards the square.
His leather shoes made a soft "crunch" sound on the snow-covered road as he walked, glancing at the figure with its back to him in the distance. As he drew closer, the woman's light, soft singing drifted into his ears.
"A melancholy sky, with snowflakes falling in abundance. This hot spring in Izu, soaks my lonely longing..."
Suddenly, he swayed and stopped walking.
The hand gripping the umbrella handle unconsciously tightened, and a sudden, steady heartbeat skipped a beat.
Snowflakes fluttered down, blurring the woman in my vision into a small white silhouette.
Long-lost memories suddenly flooded his mind, and he stood there stunned, the soft, melodious singing of her drifting in and out of his ears.
He had heard this song once before, on the campus of Gucheng No.1 Middle School.
The floodgates of memory opened, and He Ming suddenly recalled that snowy day many years ago.
The snow that day was even heavier than tonight's.
That year, he was in his senior year of high school, and the academic exams were approaching, making the atmosphere in the classroom increasingly tense.
It was at that tense moment that a sudden heavy snowfall disrupted everyone's plans.
The snow first fell at noon. When the bell rang, he, like most students rushing to lunch, hurried to the cafeteria.
Excited discussions could be heard all along the way.
Snowflakes melted on people's faces in seconds. He Ming didn't care much about this light snowfall. After all, most of the snow that fell in Gucheng in winter was sleet, which didn't accumulate at all.
But things seemed to have exceeded everyone's expectations. In just the time it took to have lunch, it started snowing heavily outside, and the snow seemed to be getting heavier and heavier.
Within two or three hours, the trees, rooftops, and playground were all covered in white.
At first, the students were still immersed in the joy of the snowfall, secretly discussing having a snowball fight on the playground after school. But when the overwhelming snowflakes swept across the entire campus, they began to panic.
During the third period of physics class in the afternoon, the physics teacher was standing on the podium with chalk in his hand, lecturing fluently. He Ming was called on to answer a question, but before he could speak, the classroom door was suddenly pushed open.
All eyes turned to the door.
The homeroom teacher, Ms. Qin, walked in hurriedly.
"Okay, everyone stop for a moment." A few snowflakes were still clinging to her head. "I just received a notice from the Education Bureau that due to the blizzard warning, school will be dismissed an hour earlier today, and classes will be suspended for the next two days."
The moment the words were spoken, the classroom erupted in excitement.
"Quiet!" The homeroom teacher slammed his hand on the table and shouted, "Day students, pack your bags now! Boarding students, especially those who live far from school, come up one by one and call... If you really have difficulties at home, you can apply to stay at school."
The classroom erupted into chaos, while He Ming sat by the window, motionless.
He made up his mind to stay at the school.
His father, He Guanshan, lived very close to the No. 1 Middle School. If he were to call him now, he might come to pick him up. But he didn't want to set foot in that home that didn't belong to him again, nor did he want to suffer his stepmother's open and subtle ridicule.
As for my maternal grandparents, they are old and live in the countryside, so they have difficulty moving around.
He was even less willing to disturb the elderly couple.
Staying at the university, though a bit quiet, is the best option.
Four or five students in his class, like him, chose to stay at school. Most of them had parents who worked away from home, leaving only elderly relatives at home. The school has comprehensive safety measures for its students, with dedicated security guards and dormitory supervisors on patrol. The school cafeteria also provides three meals a day for students staying at school at set times.
At six o'clock in the evening, the entire campus was deserted.
Because too few students chose to stay on campus, the school canceled evening self-study sessions. Considering the slippery roads due to snow, security guards dispersed all students, sending them back to their dormitories.
He Ming stayed in the classroom a little longer before packing his bag and heading back to his dormitory.
He could have taken a shortcut from the senior high school building to the boys' dormitory, but the stone path was buried in snow, so he had to take the main road. That main road required him to go around in front of the junior high school building and pass by the girls' dormitory.
He walked past the dark school building, carrying his schoolbag and holding an umbrella. Because it was late, there were hardly any people around, only a few blurry black shadows flickering under the streetlights ahead.
The sky was overcast and the wind was howling, so he quickened his pace.
The people walking back in groups were getting further and further away from him, and there was only one figure who seemed to be overtaken by him.
She was a petite girl with short, ear-length hair, wrapped in a large winter school uniform. Despite the heavy snowfall, she strolled leisurely without even using an umbrella.
The gray, tree-lined path concealed no one; she was alone, yet seemed neither lonely nor afraid. Snow covered her hair and shoulders, but her steps remained gentle. Occasionally, she would skip a few steps in deeper snow, leaving behind a few deep and shallow footprints.
As he got closer, He Ming heard her singing.
"A melancholy sky, with snowflakes fluttering down. This hot spring in Izu, soaks my lonely longing... Why do my tears keep flowing, sliding down the cheeks you once kissed..."
She sang a sad love song for adults with a unique feeling.
The girl's voice was clear and melodious. When she sang the climax, she went slightly off-key because she couldn't reach the high notes, but that only added to her cuteness.
cute?
Even He Ming himself found it unbelievable that he would use this word to describe a complete stranger.
What he couldn't understand was that he had followed her closely the entire way. Only when the girl's figure disappeared in front of the girls' dormitory did he come to his senses.
The snow had piled up even thicker, but the streetlights remained bright.
And this dim street lamp, standing in the long river of his life, was extinguished in his senior year of high school, and was relit tonight.
At this moment, the light is dimly shining on a woman.
That woman was none other than his nominal wife, Zhu Liushuang.
Time seemed to tie a knot in the midst of a heavy snowfall, overlapping the past and the present.
Gazing at that bouncy, charming figure, a smile spread across He Ming's lips.
"Liu Shuang—" he called out to her, his heart surging with emotion.
The woman singing under the camphor tree turned her head and stared back at him with her bright eyes.
Her cheeks and nose were red from the cold, and even the corners of her eyes were tinged with pink.
As the surprise faded, a radiant joy lit up the woman's face.
"Senior... Senior, why did you come here... without even calling me?" She seemed to be complaining, but her body couldn't help but run towards him.
The night was gentle, and the snowflakes drifted down, just as I remembered, covering her slender shoulders.
Even he, slow to realize, finally understood—
It turns out that the half-beat of heartbeat missed that snowy night was called "heart palpitation".
It was the only time his heart fluttered during his barren and impoverished youth.
-----------------------
The author writes: "A melancholy sky, with snowflakes fluttering down. This hot spring in Izu, soaks my lonely longing... Why do my tears keep flowing, sliding down the cheeks you once kissed..." —Song "Snowflakes"
[Please] This is a rare glimpse from the male protagonist's perspective, a past that even Shuangshuang doesn't know. [Sprinkling flowers] Recently, the crape myrtle flowers along the roadside have bloomed—pink, magenta, light purple, white…like bursting fireworks, so beautiful. On my way to and from work, I always unconsciously slow down to admire them. Whenever I see crape myrtle flowers, the scene of Shuangshuang and her senior getting their marriage certificate flashes into my mind. The crape myrtle flowers witnessed their vows. [Please] It's so magical; it's as if they truly became real people in my life.
[Crying] Finally, it wasn't an unknown error, it was released!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
