Chapter 4 Summer is short, dreams are long (New)
Cheng Ti walked into the house in a daze. Ye Siheng was not there, but Aunt Chen flashed out from the dark living room, which scared her awake.
Aunt Chen smiled and said, "Young Madam, you're back. It's late at night, thank goodness someone brought you back. Didn't you invite us in for a chat?"
Cheng Ti glanced at the living room. The floor-to-ceiling windows faced the driveway outside, making it a perfect spot for spying. "How much did Aunt Chen see just now?" Shao Mengdong's car looked quite expensive. "It should have privacy film on it..." "No, it's not."
She nodded perfunctorily, "I'm on my way to meet friends who are having a party tonight. You're busy, I'll go take a shower first." Then she went upstairs.
After taking a shower, I felt thirsty, so I went downstairs with my hair wrapped up to get some water. I ran into Aunt Chen again, and it seemed like she had been lying in ambush for me for a long time.
"Madam, did you have enough to eat tonight? I made some chicken soup. It's not frozen yet. If you drink alcohol tonight, it's better to drink some soup to relieve it."
Cheng Ti smiled knowingly: "Don't bother Auntie, I didn't drink."
Aunt Chen half-closed her eyes and smiled, "Oh, I see your face is all red. Thinking about a party with friends? It's normal to have a few drinks... Was it someone I know who brought you back? I was just sewing buttons by the window when I happened to see a car parked there. It must have been parked for quite a while. I was still wondering what it was doing when I saw you get out. What a coincidence."
When Cheng Ti finally got away and returned to her room, her hair was almost half dry. She breathed a sigh of relief, feeling helpless and exhausted.
In order to reduce contact with Aunt Chen, she simply stayed out during the day, even if it meant taking her computer out to a coffee shop to brush up on some code.
They'd go find Zhao Yu after work, and she'd drag them all over the city to find the little restaurant she'd been keeping. The halal restaurant's lamb steamed buns were fragrant, and the sizzling hot juices gushed out as they bit into them, making them scream.
After two weeks of eating and drinking to their heart's content, Zhao Yu was in great shape and looked radiant, but Cheng Ti encountered a hurdle that many people have to go through after returning to China - she collapsed due to gastroenteritis and had to go to the hospital and get intravenous drips for three days before she recovered.
Zhao Yu expressed deep apologies: "I forgot you just came back from abroad. You can't start with a high-intensity workout. If I had known, I wouldn't have gone to eat that skewers in the toilet the day before yesterday."
Her job didn't require her to work in the office, so she had to accompany Cheng Ti on the IV drip for three days. Everything was fine at that time, but when she went for a follow-up checkup a week later, Cheng Ti noticed that she was looking around furtively.
Cheng Ti smiled and said, "If you have any information, tell the truth."
Zhao Yu still said stubbornly: "What could be the situation?"
"Tell me, who are you interested in now, the doctor or the patient?"
Zhao Yu blushed and couldn't help but chuckle: "The last time I accompanied you here, I met a doctor on this floor. His appearance and figure are not important. The most important thing is that white coat. This man is the most handsome when he is serious. His work clothes are much sexier than suits--"
Cheng Ti smiled but said nothing, thinking to herself, the man in the white coat running around in the hospital with dissatisfaction, how did you notice him if he is not handsome?
"Okay, okay, let's skip the lyrical part," she asked. "What's his last name?"
"Science and engineering girl." Zhao Yu rolled his eyes. "Last name: Wu, gastroenterology. I spent the whole night looking up appointments on their hospital's online registration website."
Cheng Ti smiled and said, "You're quite well prepared. The specific action is just to wait and see?"
"What should I do? I'm not sick. I can't pretend to be sick just to see a doctor. It would be a waste of national medical resources."
Until Cheng Ti finished the infusion, they didn't see any handsome Wu. Instead, Cheng Ti met Lu Cheng in the elevator - the guy who sent her the check.
Lu Cheng was a classmate of Shao Mengdong. When the dormitory was being renovated during Shao Mengdong's junior year, he was his roommate for a year.
In fact, it is normal to see him here. This hospital is the affiliated hospital of S University. He studied for a master's and doctoral degree in medical school for eight years. Now he is here in white coat, saving lives.
When the two met, they exchanged greetings.
Lu Cheng had heard from Xun Mei that Shao Mengdong's sister had returned, but he had never met her. He happened to remember the party this Saturday and wanted to invite her.
"By the way, we're having dinner this Saturday night. It's the same old group, your brother will be there too, and this time there's a girl too." He raised his eyebrows and smiled amusedly, "Why don't you come and check on him?"
Cheng Ti was stunned for a moment: "What about Sister Xunmei?"
"Xunmei? Of course she's going too."
Cheng Ti hesitated to speak, and Lu Cheng laughed, "You must have heard those rumors back then, about your brother's failed pursuit of Xunmei and his confession of love being rejected."
Cheng Ti lowered her eyes and frowned slightly: "I met them at the wedding and thought they..."
Lu Cheng said, "That would be great if it were true! As for the rumors back then, some people with ulterior motives have verified them, but your brother's personality means he would never pay attention to such a boring and worthless topic. Your sister Xunmei has repeatedly denied it, saying it's nothing, but I always feel that there's no smoke without fire..."
Seeing his incessant talk, Cheng Ti thought that this busybody might be himself.
Lu Cheng was a passionate and nosy person, but he was also quite perceptive. Xun Mei was a respectable and gentle woman, and she probably said that to save Shao Mengdong's face.
After all, Cheng Ti had asked Shao Mengdong in person in the year when the rumor started to ferment.
... ...
She was eighteen years old that year, the summer vacation after the college entrance examination, the most youthful and beautiful time of her life. Her hair was as black as sesame seeds, her skin was as white as milk, and her lips were as red as cherries.
She only remembered that it was so hot that summer, and there was no air conditioning in the rental house. The electric fan was crackling. She braided her long hair into two pigtails to keep cool. She cut half of the watermelon into small pieces, put them on a plate, and knocked on the door of Shao Mengdong's room.
The room had a window open, but there was still a faint smell of cigarette smoke.
He was hunched over documents, writing, and no one knew what he was busy with. He was about to enter his senior year that year, and he had just turned down the opportunity to go straight to a PhD. He also had internships, work, student union handovers, and his advisor's lab. He had too much to do.
He only glanced at her and paused, "I don't want it, you eat it."
She didn't leave, but hesitated to speak.
He finally stopped writing.
Cheng Ti said softly: "I heard something recently."
He raised an eyebrow, beginning to get impatient.
Cheng Ti had no choice but to quickly say: "Say that you... like Sister Xun Mei."
He frowned slightly: "Do you have any serious work to do all day-"
She quietly interrupted him: "You expressed your feelings to her, but she didn't agree, right?"
"What does this have to do with you?"
She choked. "Just tell me if you are."
I can't remember how long he was silent. The air was suffocating, and only then did I realize what it meant to feel like an eternity. Finally, he raised his lips slightly and said, "Yes."
He just looked at her, his eyes handsome and bright, but distant and indifferent, without any guilt.
Cheng Ti was stunned.
There was a half-smoked cigarette on the edge of the cigarette tray. He picked it up and flicked off the ash. Through the light blue mist, he actually smiled, with an extremely evil look, stabbing her heart again.
"Hate me?"
After a while, Cheng Ti smiled softly: "How could it be."
She stood there, speaking each word with incredible sincerity: "My father did such a terrible thing to your family, but you saved me, took me in, gave me food to eat, a safe place to study, and the opportunity to choose my own future like an ordinary person. Even if you kicked me a few times, hit me a few times, I wouldn't feel wronged, not to mention... that night... you were drunk..."
She was reluctant to admit it because she responded enthusiastically.
The process was more painful than she had imagined. The screams and cries woke him up, and he seemed to suddenly realize it, propping up his arms and looking at the girl beneath him in shock. His beautiful long eyes glowed with an embarrassed and blazing light in the dark night, fierce and fragile. Cheng Ti looked at him timidly, but felt a strange pleasure burning in her body, an unprecedented heat, and it seemed that the pain was not so severe.
But then she heard him say, "I'm sorry."
It was at that time that Cheng Ti saw his panic for the first time and heard his apology for the first time.
He said he had recognized the wrong person.
Who did you mistake her for? Now I know.
The two braids rubbed against Cheng Ti's shoulders, causing a slight sting on her sweaty skin. She suddenly hated her braids, hated the white cotton skirt she was wearing, hated the thin, delicate figure beneath it, and wished she could grow up immediately—a real woman as elegant and bright as Xun Mei.
Cheng Ti gripped the watermelon plate tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white, but her face held a sweet and pure smile as she continued, "How many people in this world can raise the daughter of their enemy? No matter what, I will always be grateful to you, brother."
He lowered his eyes and took out another cigarette from the cigarette box on the table.
Shao Mengdong started smoking at a very early age, but he was not a heavy smoker.
Cheng Ti never thought that this little flaw was his Achilles' heel, and was even once addicted to his relaxed demeanor when smoking.
In her eyes, Shao Mengdong is the most reliable adult in the world, as solemn and mysterious as a snow-capped mountain, as precise and rigorous as a precision instrument, and even his troubles are adult-like:
How did he make money outside of his studies over the years to support himself and a teenage child?
It's simply unimaginable.
It was not until recently, when he started smoking heavily and seemed to have encountered some unprecedented trouble, that Cheng Ti began to worry about his health.
Is it because of Xun Mei? Cheng Ti wanted to ask, but unfortunately she couldn't say it, and she would never have another chance.
Shao Mengdong said calmly: "Do you have anything else to do?"
She felt as if she'd been pricked by a needle again. She clasped her hands behind her back, lowered her eyes, and said, "A few days ago, my mother came to see me. She's been in Canada, and her life has been very difficult. It's only in the past two years that things have gotten better, and she's finally got her citizenship. She wants to take me over and sponsor me to go to university there."
"What do you think?"
"I'm applying for a visa."
Cheng Ti didn't wait for his response, turned around, closed the door, walked back to her room, and dragged out the suitcase.
She had found her true family, and he had found another girl he loved. She was no longer an orphan with no one to rely on, and because of some unforeseen circumstances, she had ended up in a relationship with her so-called brother. There was no reason for her to stay with him any longer.
No matter how long a dream is, it will end one day.
Cheng Ti moved out of the rental house three days later.
When her college entrance exam results came out, she did very well. She spent the next six months working part-time while taking the IELTS exam. It wasn't until winter six months later that she finally got accepted into university.
At that time, Shao Mengdong was about to graduate, and whenever his friends gathered, they would always invite her along. They were both unwilling to cause trouble, so they had a tacit understanding and still met occasionally as brother and sister.
They did it but they didn't know which time it was.
But until the end, we didn't say goodbye properly.
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