Luo Pingjiang still remembers that night clearly. The girl's voice and smile have not faded with the passage of time. Instead, they are as clear as if engraved in his heart by a knife.
Before he met her, his love life was blank, without even a ripple.
The family was poor, his mother was ill all year round, and his father worked like a workhorse, barely supporting him to finish high school.
Since elementary school, he has been helping with housework, picking up trash, and doing odd jobs to earn money in addition to studying.
So, even though Luo Pingjiang is good-looking, popular, and has a wild personality, and there are a lot of girls chasing after him in school, he has never accepted any of them.
Because he knew very well that the so-called "love" of youth was like a flower made of thin paper, which would break if torn. Behind him is his heavily burdened family.
The situation did not improve until Luo Pingjiang was admitted to the police academy. Because of his excellence, the police academy waived his tuition and provided living allowance.
He also receives scholarships every year. After graduation, he joined the most elite armed police force. He was brave and alert, made many contributions, and had a promising future.
However, he was impatient to be introduced by his comrades' relatives. Having been single for a long time, he had long been accustomed to the ascetic life of a monk, and when it came to love, he had developed a certain kind of cleanliness obsession.
On that rainy night five years ago, when he drove his speedboat to the house, he raised his head in the wind and rain and saw her face clearly.
In fact, I didn’t feel thrilling, but just a sudden light in my eyes and a sudden excitement in my heart, just like a person who always trudged through the wilderness and looked up and saw a fresh flower;
Just like a person who is always awake and refuses to dream, he also has a moment of trance and heart shaking.
She got on board.
She is very nervous.
She always talked to him.
She grabbed hold of his trouser leg and refused to let go.
He came to rescue the people, and his military duties warned him to keep his distance from single girls.
So at first he was cold and indifferent, and remained silent perfunctorily. But she was like a frightened little rabbit and simply hugged his waist.
Although Luo Pingjiang was stiff, he couldn't help but talk to her because he felt sorry for her.
As expected, she relaxed quickly, and later even boldly asked him his age and name, with a shy yet brave light in her eyes.
At that time he thought, well, it’s true that if you give it some color you can open a dyeing factory.
He and the girl never talked so much, but that night it was as if a switch was turned on by God. The two of them kept talking and talking. They talked when it was windy, when it was raining, when the waves rocked the boat, and when it was pitch dark, they whispered...
She was clearly still a high school student, and it was clearly the first time they met.
He knew clearly in his heart that they would never see each other again after that night.
Later, Ruan Qingqing sang a popular song for him. Amid the sound of the river, her singing carried a certain sense of peace and tenderness. When they finished singing, neither of them spoke for a long time.
That was the most moving and clearest singing Luo Pingjiang had ever heard in his life.
Along the way they chatted so happily, impulsively, ambiguously, tentatively... but also with a certain similar shyness, so that when the boat reached the destination, they had not yet asked each other's name and contact information.
Later, they arrived at a temporary resettlement site by the river. Luo Pingjiang stood on the boat and watched her rush off the boat and hug a middle-aged man and woman, who must be her parents.
He made up his mind that when she remembered him and turned around, he would walk over, pretending nothing had happened, and quietly tell her his phone number.
Unexpectedly, more and more people gathered around her, and her figure was gradually obscured by the crowd. Luo Pingjiang was anxious and was about to jump off the boat to look for her, but his comrade next to him pulled him back and said, "Pingjiang, why are you still here? Gather together! There is a new mission!"
In the face of danger, time is life and the mission is more important than anything else. Luo Pingjiang looked back again, and saw that she in the crowd hadn't looked back yet, so he turned around and drove the boat away. Into the flood, among dozens of rescue boats exactly like his.
…
Later, he made more and more contributions and his military rank rose step by step. I also introduced him to a girlfriend, but when he thought of that night, he always felt reluctant to miss it.
The work was already busy and the training tasks were heavy, so I hesitated for several years without realizing it.
Then something happened.
During a mission, he led his team to support local police and capture a group of criminals.
In order to protect two civilians, he faced several gangsters alone and was stabbed several times all over his body. He survived after two days and two nights of rescue, but his left hand was left with a lifelong disability, and he was awarded a second-class individual merit.
…
His superiors wanted him to stay, even if he could no longer stay in the front-line troops, at least he could stay in the armed police system as a civilian.
But he left without hesitation and left the army.
The superior said that you are a proud person who sticks to your principles and refuses to compromise.
In the winter of the year before last, on the third day after Luo Pingjiang returned to Huaicheng, the bandages on his hands had been removed.
It started snowing and the whole city was cold and quiet. Huaicheng is not big to begin with, and at his speed he could walk around the city in one day.
So he began to walk aimlessly, wanting to travel through this city where he grew up as a child, left as a teenager, and retreated to as a young adult.
Later, he walked to a relatively quiet street. He knew there was a center for deaf and mute children ahead, but he had never been there.
Today he suddenly had the urge to go and take a look. He thought with self-mockery that it was probably because he was now disabled as well.
Hundreds of meters away, Luo Pingjiang stopped.
A girl came out of the gate, carrying two large bags of garbage, and placed them at the door waiting for someone to collect them.
The girl was wearing a white down jacket and jeans. Despite the gloomy weather, she looked as clean and fresh as ever.
The girl had grown quite a bit taller, now probably reaching his ears. She looks much more mature, she has grown up.
Luo Pingjiang looked at her quietly.
Over the years, I knew you were in this world, but I didn't know where you were.
Even after Ruan Qingqing walked back into the gate, Luo Pingjiang did not take a single step forward to greet her or let her see him.
He went home, lay on the cold bed, looked at the old ceiling, and smiled first.
Later, the smile gradually disappeared. He raised his arm and looked at the hideous scars.
She must be a very, very good girl. He has nothing now, except a pension. He has no job, no income, no place in this society, and he is disabled.
How could he stand in front of her again and gently ask, "Hi, do you remember me?"
Maybe, when God closes a door for you, he will definitely open another window for you.
At this turning point in his life, she happened to appear outside the door, like a call and comfort given by fate.
Luo Pingjiang cheered up like crazy. He ignored his parents' worries and dissuasion, and refused the well-paid, leisurely and stable job arranged by the local authorities.
He went out of town for two months, and when he came back he spent all his pension on buying an old house by the river and opened a restaurant.
He personally picked every bundle of building materials;
Every dish is carefully considered and adjusted.
Every day, he was busy until two or three o'clock in the morning, observing, learning, adjusting, and improving... From the initial mediocre business to the constant flow of customers, and then to the place being packed every day.
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