Karma and Reincarnation
The trees outside the entrance of Yulanyuan Community cast sparse shadows. The evening breeze, carrying the lingering summer heat, ruffled Wen Lingyi's hair hanging on her shoulders.
The mask tightly covered most of her face, and the large sunglasses obscured the rest.
Through the dark lenses, everything in her vision was covered with a layer of gray. She saw Zhou Jianxing walking towards the entrance of the residential complex, and just before stepping in, he suddenly turned around.
From a distance that was neither too far nor too near, Wen Lingyi could clearly see the usual, somewhat flattering and docile expression on Zhou Jianxing's face.
She waved gently in the direction of Wen Lingyi, and moved her lips, as if she said "Go back" or "Be careful on the road", but it was not clear, and her lip movements were blurred in the dimming light.
Wen Lingyi opened her mouth, and the hot and wet mask fabric immediately stuck to her lips, blocking all the words that were not spoken. Her voice was stuck in her throat, as if it was being strangled by something.
The eyes behind the sunglasses stared at the disappearing figure without blinking.
The tangled emotions, the tacit closeness, and the countless days and nights of tenderness between them have long accumulated to the point where they cannot be easily sorted out.
Yet, above all of this, something else loomed. Like a hard fishbone, it was stuck stubbornly in a vital spot, unable to move up or down. Every breath, every attempt to swallow, brought a distinct feeling of obstruction and a subtle, sharp pain.
In the end, she couldn't say anything.
·
About a week ago.
Wen Lingyi got off work on time and drove to pick up Zhou Jianxing to go to the supermarket to buy groceries.
Zhou Jianxing was pushing a shopping cart, while Wen Lingyi was walking leisurely beside her, her eyes sweeping across the dazzling shelves.
The little fool would pick up a vegetable or fruit from time to time, childishly cover the price tag with his hand, turn his head and look at Wen Lingyi with sparkling eyes, asking her to guess the price.
She thought the game was a bit childish, but seeing that she was so excited, she cooperated and casually said a number.
"Is there any reward for guessing correctly?" Wen Lingyi raised her eyebrows slightly.
Zhou Jianxing was stunned for a moment, having obviously not thought about the reward mechanism beforehand. She blinked and asked honestly, "So...what reward does Sister Wen want?"
Wen Lingyi pretended to be in deep thought, lightly tapping her chin with her fingertips, then turned her face to the side and tapped her cheek with her fingertips. The meaning was self-evident.
Zhou Jianxing's face flushed, her eyes wandered for a moment, and then she nodded shyly: "...Okay."
As Miss Wen, who has never done any housework, Wen Lingyi rarely goes to the supermarket in person. She has no idea about the prices of fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, eggs and milk. The numbers she guesses are often so outrageous that they are laughable, but she can occasionally guess a few correctly.
Hearing the shockingly high prices she quoted, Zhou Jianxing couldn't help but smile, his eyes curved into crescents.
As they strolled around, they discussed what they were going to eat. Zhou Jianxing's voice lit up as she discussed the dishes she was going to make, carefully explaining the cooking process and timing for each dish, describing the desired color and flavor.
Wen Lingyi occasionally asks a few questions, mostly the kind of almost "idiotic" questions that only a kitchen novice would ask, such as "Why do we need to blanch the spinach?" and "Why do we need to fluff this piece of meat with the back of a knife?"
This made Zhou Jianxing laugh even more, but he still patiently explained everything one by one.
·
Just as the two of them stopped at the aquatic area and were discussing whether to eat chopped pepper fish head or cold-mixed crucian carp, a little boy who looked no more than three or four years old rushed over like a runaway cannonball and hit Zhou Jianxing's calf hard.
The child fell backwards to the ground with a thud due to the reaction force. He was stunned for two seconds. Maybe he was hurt or scared. He opened his mouth and burst into tears without warning. His cry was so loud that it instantly attracted a lot of attention.
Wen Lingyi hated children, especially those who were noisy and uncontrolled. This little kid, who had appeared out of nowhere, had not only bumped into someone but also collapsed crying. Her brows immediately furrowed, her eyes sweeping across the child's tear-wrapped face with displeasure, ready to wait for the other parent to arrive and have a proper argument.
She lowered her voice, with obvious impatience: "Stop crying."
The child was frightened by her slightly cold tone, and his crying not only did not stop, but became louder and sharper, almost piercing the ceiling.
Zhou Jianxing's reaction was completely different. She squatted down, reached out, and gently picked up the crying little boy, whose face was covered with snot and tears, from the ground. She gently patted the dust off his back and pants.
She turned to Wen Lingyi and smiled, her tone a little helpless and soothing: "Sister Wen, don't be so fierce. He is still a child and doesn't understand."
As she spoke, she hugged the boy into her arms, her voice soft and gentle, coaxing him clumsily but patiently: "Be good, don't cry, don't cry, where did you fall and hurt? Sister can take a look..."
He even made a face and hummed a few lines of a discordant nursery rhyme. After several attempts, the boy's crying gradually stopped and turned into soft sobs. Finally, he looked at Zhou Jianxing curiously with his big wet eyes, and grinned with a tearful smile.
"Where are the baby's parents?" Zhou Jianxing saw that the child had been crying for a long time and no adults came to look for him. He couldn't help but feel anxious and asked the boy in his arms softly.
"Um... Mom... look for..." The child spoke incoherently, holding a finger in his mouth, tilting his head and thinking for a long time, but he couldn't make any clear words.
"Sister Wen, let's take him to the information desk and make an announcement," Zhou Jianxing held the child firmly in one hand, letting him sit in her arms, and gently patted his back with the other hand. "His parents must be very worried because they can't find him." She lowered her head and said softly to the boy, "Sister will take you to find your parents, okay?"
"Okay..." The child sucked his fingers, his eyes narrowed into slits with laughter, and he seemed to have completely forgotten the pain and fear just now.
Wen Lingyi looked at this scene and felt inexplicably uncomfortable in her heart, but she couldn't say anything. She could only helplessly take the shopping cart from Zhou Jianxing and push it.
On the way to the service desk, she couldn't help but glance at the child again.
The little fellow seemed to be particularly fond of Zhou Jianxing. His dirty, drooling little mouth leaned forward and kissed Zhou Jianxing's cheek several times, calling her vaguely as he did so: "Sister... Xiangxiang..."
Zhou Jianxing not only did not dodge, but was amused to laugh even more happily, and the corners of his eyes and eyebrows relaxed.
Wen Lingyi watched quietly, her eyes darkened, and her fingers pushing the shopping cart tightened slightly.
When I arrived at the service desk, I saw a young couple anxiously gesturing to the staff to describe their child's characteristics.
As soon as she saw Zhou Jianxing coming with the child, the woman rushed over immediately, hugged the child in her arms, and thanked him repeatedly. The man also bowed repeatedly with red eyes, and even took out his mobile phone to send a red envelope to Zhou Jianxing to express his gratitude.
Zhou Jianxing repeatedly waved his hands to refuse, and only gently reminded them: "In the future, when you are in crowded places, you must hold the child tightly and don't let him run around. It's too dangerous."
The child was held hand in hand by his parents on either side as they walked away. Even after they had walked some distance, he kept looking back, waving vigorously at Zhou Jianxing, giggling, and completely ignoring Wen Lingyi, who had an unhappy expression on her face, as air.
·
Wen Lingyi took out an individually wrapped wet wipe from her bag, unwrapped it, and handed it to Zhou Jianxing, motioning her to wipe her face. Her tone was filled with obvious disdain: "It's so dirty, it's all saliva."
Zhou Jianxing took it and wiped his cheek carefully, looking nonchalant. He smiled and said, "No, children are very clean. He just told me his name is Pengpeng. He's very cute."
"You seem to like children very much?" Wen Lingyi asked casually, his eyes fixed on the shelves in front of him. His tone was flat, as if he was discussing the weather. "I don't know where this person came from. Not only did he bump into someone, but he also fell to the ground and started crying."
"It's like an alarm. It's giving me a headache."
Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, Zhou Jianxing moved closer to Wen Lingyi and said in a low voice with a smile, "Please be considerate. Who didn't grow up as a child? Maybe I was even more mischievous than him when I was a child."
"If Sister Wen met me as a child, she would probably have a headache."
She paused, her eyes softening. "I really like children. They are simple-minded and don't have many worries. Even if they are angry, adults can patiently comfort them and they will be fine. Children who are well-educated at home are really like little angels, lively and polite."
"Pengpeng is very cute. Although he is a little naughty, he still remembered to say goodbye to me when he left."
"Then in the future," Wen Lingyi's fingers unconsciously clenched the metal handle of the shopping cart, her fingertips turning slightly white, and she finally asked the question that was lingering in her heart, "Will you want to have children?"
After meeting Xingxing, does Zhou also want to follow the seemingly natural path of getting married and having children, like most people?
"I do." Zhou Jianxing blurted out almost subconsciously, and as soon as he said it, he noticed that Wen Lingyi's face suddenly turned cold and her lips were pursed.
She panicked and quickly tried to make up for it: "I just feel that giving birth is a very special gift and ability for women."
Women are truly great human beings.
"If I could personally bring a little life into this world, watch her grow up little by little, and experience all the ups and downs, it would be like a part of myself is relived with her, and my life would become more complete."
His voice gradually lowered, with a hint of confusion: "Sometimes I feel that if a person goes from birth to death without bringing new life, it's like a cycle suddenly broken, and it can't constitute a complete reincarnation..."
Having said that, she herself felt that her words seemed a bit old-fashioned and not like what a modern young girl should think, so she couldn't help but stop awkwardly.
She secretly glanced at Wen Lingyi's expression and quickly added: "But it's also good not to have children! Really!" She tried to make her tone sound more serious and sincere.
"Having no children saves a lot of money and worry. I believe that if two people love each other enough, even without children, their lives will be fulfilling and complete."
"Two people who love each other enough?" Wen Lingyi keenly grasped the key point in her words. She raised her eyebrows slightly and turned her gaze back to Zhou Jianxing's face. "What do you mean?"
Zhou Jianxing met her gaze and said word by word, "Sister Wen, if it were you, I would think... it's okay not to have children."
In reality, she meant much more than that. It wasn't impossible for two women to have a child together. But the future this thought pointed to was too distant and too heavy, filled with unknown difficulties and complex practical considerations.
The words rolled around on the tip of his tongue for a few times, but Zhou Jianxing finally swallowed them back and couldn't say them out loud.
Wen Lingyi looked at her silently, and suddenly didn't know how to continue the topic. The air became inexplicably heavy.
Finally, she looked away, reached out to hold the shopping cart again, and her tone became deliberately relaxed, with a hint of urging: "Okay, let's buy the groceries quickly and go back. I'm a little hungry." As she said that, she pushed the cart and walked forward first.
Zhou Jianxing looked at her back, breathed a sigh of relief, but also felt a little lost, and hurriedly followed her.
·
Wen Lingyi returned to the underground parking lot and got into the car, but she didn't start the engine immediately. The car was small and quiet, with only the faint sound of the air conditioner blowing air. She turned sideways and her eyes fell on Zhou Jianxing, who was buckling his seatbelt in the passenger seat.
Zhou Jianxing noticed her gaze and paused in fastening his seatbelt. He raised his eyes nervously, his eyelashes fluttering slightly. "Sister Wen? Didn't you say... to go back quickly?"
"Yes," Wen Lingyi tilted her head slightly, with an ambiguous arc at the corner of her lips, "but now, I want you to pay me the reward you owe me first." As she spoke, she leaned over slightly, put one cheek close to Zhou Jianxing's lips, and closed her eyes.
Zhou Jianxing was stunned at first, then chuckled softly as she looked at the profile so close. She reached out and gently held Wen Lingyi's shoulders, then lowered her head and placed several soft and brief kisses on that skin.
Her eyelashes were very long, and when they drooped, the tips would occasionally brush against Wen Lingyi's cheek, bringing a subtle but distinct itch.
"Okay." Wen Lingyi opened her eyes contentedly, sat up straight, a smile of success in her eyes, and her mood seemed to be much brighter.
The car started, the engine humming steadily as it slowly pulled out of the parking space and merged into the evening traffic. Wen Lingyi looked ahead and said softly, "Go back, I'll give you a star too."
However, some problems eventually became problems.
I don’t dare to ask, and even if I do, I don’t dare to go into it further.
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