Screen projection
Smell is a stubborn anchor that can always be accurately thrown into the deepest waters of memory and salvage the sunken past.
Zhou Jianxing did not sleep well. His dreams were bizarre and strange, like a film soaked in water, with distorted and shaking images.
Some sequences feel incredibly real, with unmistakable detail and tactility.
Some are like illusions woven out of thin air by the brain for self-comfort, similar to placebos, vague and distorted.
She dreamed of a midsummer evening. The sky was pressed low by thick, lead-gray clouds. Heavy rain was pouring down, and dense rain lines were lashing at everything in the world.
Wen Lingyi drove to pick her up from work. Outside the car window was a blurry water world, with rainwater flowing in streams, meandering down the glass.
Inside the car, it was another world. The air conditioning was at a perfect temperature, insulating the noise and humidity outside, while soothing piano music echoed softly in the small space.
The sound of rain hitting the roof was filtered into a dull background sound.
Zhou Jianxing sat in the passenger seat, his fingers unconsciously scratching the edge of the seat belt, and he was thinking for several traffic lights.
The carriage was so quiet, with only the sounds of music and rain.
She finally mustered up the courage, tilted her head slightly, and spoke in a low voice, almost drowned out by the sound of the rain: "Wen Lingyi...the perfume you wore today smells great."
Calling him by his name made Wen Lingyi tighten her grip on the steering wheel slightly.
But this time, she didn't correct him. She just stared at the fan-shaped view created by the windshield wipers in front of her, and her voice was even lower than the music: "Like it?"
Zhou Jianxing nodded immediately, but then he realized that the other person might not be looking at him, so he quickly said "hmm" in a low voice.
The air in the car seemed to suddenly become sticky and flowed abnormally slowly.
The car stopped steadily in front of a long red light.
Wen Lingyi suddenly turned sideways, her gaze fixed calmly on Zhou Jianxing's face. Her fingers reached out, not touching Zhou Jianxing, but gently rubbing the Paraiba star pendant he wore outside the collar of his work uniform.
The cold fingertips occasionally brushed against the skin on the collarbone, causing a slight shudder.
Zhou Jianxing felt that his heartbeat was almost louder than the music in the car.
Then, Wen Lingyi leaned over without warning and placed a kiss as soft as a feather on Zhou Jianxing's forehead, and the kiss lasted for a moment.
Zhou Jianxing was stunned for a moment, his eyes wide open and his mind went blank.
Wen Lingyi had already sat back in the driver's seat, looking calmly at the traffic light in front of her turning green, as if the brief kiss just now was just an illusion caused by Zhou Jianxing's lack of oxygen.
Only her slightly red ears, in the dim light of the car, revealed some uneasy emotions.
"We're here." The car stopped at the gate of her community, and Wen Lingyi's voice sounded a little hoarse than usual.
Zhou Jianxing got off the car and went home, and the two parted ways.
So, this must be just a dream, Zhou Jianxing thought in his hazy consciousness before waking up.
Because in reality, Wen Lingyi drove her directly back to the villa in Lanyue Bay that day.
After returning, the first thing he did was to carefully blow away the moisture on her body with hot air.
·
I had just arrived at the company in the morning and hadn't even sat down at my workstation when the internal phone rang.
Zhang Qian's voice came from the front desk, saying that Ms. Wen from Lanyue Bay reported a problem with her home projector, and specifically asked Zhou Jianxing to come and fix it.
"Okay, I got it." Zhou Jianxing hung up the phone, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long, silent breath.
The heater was on in the office, but when she looked out the window, the weather was gloomy and the chill seemed to seep in through the glass, making her feel as if the breath she exhaled would condense into white mist.
This year's winter seems to have come particularly early and is particularly cold.
·
Repair the projector? Zhou Jianxing was carrying a toolbox as she walked towards the villa area. She couldn't help but think of the last time Wen Lingyi had asked her to "repair" a projector.
Before they developed that kind of relationship.
In the audio-visual room, Wen Lingyi was wearing a V-neck silk nightgown with a circle of delicate black crocheted lace at the neckline, the color of which was deep obsidian black.
She slumped lazily on the sofa, a document on her legs and a pen between her fingers, looking casual and charming.
While Zhou Jianxing was squatting in front of the equipment cabinet checking the circuits, Wen Lingyi stood up, poured a glass of water, and walked over to place it on the carpet next to her.
As he leaned over, his soft hair fell down, carrying the moist fragrance of a bath, and brushed across Zhou Jianxing's exposed forearm skin.
Later, during the test, the two sat side by side on the sofa, and the huge screen lit up, playing a beautiful art film.
The space was dim, lit up and dimmed by the light from the screen, and it was so private that it made people feel uneasy.
Wen Lingyi's legs "accidentally" touched her legs. The texture was like warm jade, and she could feel the temperature through the fabric of her overalls.
Zhou Jianxing's heart was beating wildly and his body sat straight, almost stiff.
Wen Lingyi, however, seemed completely absorbed in the plot of the movie, her eyes fixed on the subject. The next moment, her hand "accidentally" rested on the back of the sofa behind Zhou Jianxing, the movement like a silent gesture of circling him.
Completely captivated by this secret and intimate atmosphere, Zhou Jianxing's heart was beating like a drum.
That so-called maintenance also ended with her running away due to tachycardia.
As for the projector, there was no substantial malfunction at all.
·
Standing in front of Wen Lingyi's villa again with the toolbox in his hand, Zhou Jianxing rang the doorbell.
The door opened quickly, and a warm breeze blew towards me. The furnishings in the room had not changed much, it was familiar yet vague.
Wen Lingyi stood inside the door and looked at her with complicated eyes.
Zhou Jianxing avoided her gaze, whispered "Sorry to bother you", then walked sideways and headed towards the audio-visual room as if he was familiar with the place.
Wen Lingyi followed behind her, her eyes falling on Zhou Jianxing's dark blue fleece work jacket.
Autumn and winter work clothes were much thicker than summer ones, making her back seem a little bigger than she remembered, with only the shape of her shoulder blades protruding slightly under the fabric.
Pushing open the door, Zhou Jianxing walked straight to the projection equipment cabinet, put down the toolbox, opened it, and took out the tester and flashlight.
The problem is not complicated. The metal spring of the HDMI interface is slightly deformed, resulting in poor contact. This failure is usually caused by improper insertion and removal of the cable, shaking it left and right, and repeatedly causing metal fatigue and deformation.
It is a common human error.
As to whether it was accidental or intentional, Zhou Jianxing didn't want to think about it too much.
She squatted down and gently fiddled with the slightly crooked connector with her fingertips. The deformed metal reed tilted weakly, like a dead leaf blown by the wind.
Zhou Jianxing frowned and picked out a pair of precision tweezers with a long and thin head from the toolbox.
The tip of the tweezers carefully inserted into the narrow gap of the interface, and Zhou Jianxing turned his wrist very slightly to adjust the force.
The subtle scraping sound of metal against metal was amplified exceptionally clearly in the unusually quiet audio-visual room.
She could feel a gaze on her back, focused and heavy, like falling snowflakes, silent but gradually accumulating weight.
Without looking back, she continued with her work, using tweezers to carefully move the deformed reed back to its original position bit by bit.
"Okay." Zhou Jianxing stood up and stretched his shoulders and neck, which were a little stiff from maintaining the same posture for a long time.
She still didn't look at Wen Lingyi standing beside her. She just lowered her head and began to pick up the scattered tools. "But the metal plate of this interface is a little tired. It's not as elastic as before. Please be careful when plugging and unplugging the cable next time. It's best to pinch the interface tightly and apply force vertically."
For a moment, the only sounds in the air were the slight clinking of tools as they were retracted, and the somewhat stagnant breathing between the two people.
Wen Lingyi looked at her drooping eyelashes and suddenly remembered that night when Zhou Jianxing was also concentrating on repairing her old vinyl record player, while she sat beside him, watching her shoulder blades faintly visible under her clothes.
"Master Zhou," Wen Lingyi approached, the scent of perfume pressing in, "Don't you need to test it?"
Zhou Jianxing took half a step back, nodded, and said nothing. He just walked to the sofa, picked up the projector remote control, and pressed the power button.
The screen lights up and begins playing a foreign language film.
Two people sat at the two ends of the sofa, and there was enough space in the middle for two more people to sit.
The original dialogue of the movie flowed in the room, but Zhou Jianxing could not understand most of it. He could only stare intently at the Chinese subtitles at the bottom of the screen, trying to focus on the plot.
The sofa beside her suddenly sank slightly. It was Wen Lingyi who adjusted his sitting position and moved closer to her.
Zhou Jianxing's body also slid a little towards her.
They had been much closer than this.
The next second, Wen Lingyi reached out sideways, pressed Zhou Jianxing's shoulder blades, and pushed her backward onto the back of the wide sofa.
Wen Lingyi's upper body pressed down, and her lips painted eye-catching red moved towards Zhou Jianxing's lips, just like before.
Zhou Jianxing's breath hitched, and his body reacted faster than he thought.
She twisted her hips suddenly and exerted force with her waist and abdomen. She used the force of Wen Lingyi's pressure and her own body's flexibility to flip out from between Wen Lingyi's arms and the sofa in an extremely awkward but extremely fast manner.
Finally, she lost her balance and rolled onto the carpet with a dull thud. Fortunately, the carpet was thick enough and she was wearing plenty of clothes, so she didn't feel any obvious pain.
"Mrs. Wen." Zhou Jianxing supported himself on the ground with his hands, slowly sat up straight, and raised his hands to gently pat the shoulders on both sides that Wen Lingyi had just pressed hard, as if to brush off some non-existent dust.
Her voice sounded relatively calm, just a little breathless: "Please respect yourself."
Wen Lingyi still maintained the posture of leaning forward, her arms frozen in mid-air, the expression on her face frozen.
After a moment, she slowly withdrew her hand, and subconsciously pressed one hand lightly on her chest, where a weak but rapid beating came, hitting her palm again and again.
"Zhou Jianxing." Wen Lingyi got down from the sofa, walked to Zhou Jianxing who was still sitting on the carpet, squatted down, grabbed one of Zhou Jianxing's hands without any explanation, and pressed it forcefully on the left side of her chest.
"Did you hear that? It's crying out in pain." She looked into Zhou Jianxing's eyes.
Like an old machine, its parts lack lubrication and make creaking sounds. It is about to be eliminated by its owner, and it is sighing because of this.
"I lied to you before," Wen Lingyi held Zhou Jianxing's hand tightly, not letting it slip away. Her beautiful peach blossom eyes quickly became moist and red. "I like you, I miss you."
"Let's start over again, okay? Please." His voice was obviously choked with sobs.
The heartbeat coming from his palm was intense and real. Zhou Jianxing was very familiar with the frequency and strength. He even had the illusion that they resonated with the rhythm in his chest during those moments when their ears were close together.
As Wen Lingyi spoke, the rhythm of her heartbeat became disordered and fluctuated.
It was as if he was trying to knock on the door of her heart again in this way.
Zhou Jianxing stopped struggling, just lowered his head and looked at his chest.
Wen Lingyi said she was heartbroken? Could her heart really understand what pain was?
But why, she didn't feel any pain in her heart at this moment, just a numb emptiness.
In fact, when the pain becomes numb, it no longer hurts.
"Mrs. Wen," Zhou Jianxing's ears flushed slightly, but her mind remained clear. "Is your husband going abroad again?"
Because her husband was not around, she came back to her, saying that she loved her and lied to her like before.
Unable to bear the emptiness and loneliness, she thought of the idiot who was thrown aside by her and sent away at will.
Wen Lingyi missed her? What did he miss about her? Her body?
So what exactly was she to Wen Lingyi? A doll with a specific purpose?
"There is no love between Su Zhe and me." Wen Lingyi knew what Zhou Jianxing was thinking. "My marriage to him was just a formality, to satisfy my family. I have never liked men, and he doesn't like women at all."
My husband cheated on me before, and now it has become a formal marriage.
Zhou Jianxing thought that Wen Lingyi's lies were constantly being upgraded and sounded more "reasonable".
"Can I show you the agreement?" Wen Lingyi let go of Zhou Jianxing's hand and hurriedly stood up to find the sham marriage agreement that could dispel Zhou Jianxing's doubts.
"I don't want to see it." Zhou Jianxing also stood up and turned to his toolbox. "What's your situation? Are you married or not? Who are you marrying? Is it true or false? It has nothing to do with me anymore."
She picked up the toolbox, walked to the door of the audio-visual room, and took hold of the brass door handle.
"Wen Lingyi, it's completely over between us." She didn't look back. "You said this yourself."
It was still summer when Wen Lingyi said that.
She stood at the door of the villa like an emotional beggar.
The night wind was already cool, blowing into her pores and rustling the leaves around her.
But she could no longer hear the external sounds. Only Wen Lingyi's words echoed in her ears and mind.
During the period after the breakup, it seemed as if the whole world had turned into the shape of Wen Lingyi.
The wind blowing by is her breath, the clouds floating by are her outline, and even the cold moonlight at night is like her distant eyes.
But when she thought of this sentence, those shapes were shattered, and it was her broken heart.
"I'll have Zhang Qian calculate the cost for this time and let you know when the time comes," Zhou Jianxing turned the doorknob and pushed open the heavy soundproof door. "It's the same if you transfer it directly to her."
The door closed gently behind her with a dull sound, completely isolating the two spaces inside and outside.
Wen Lingyi still stood there in a daze.
As expected. She vaguely thought that someone who had loved so sincerely and passionately in the past would withdraw from her completely without leaving any room for compromise once their heart grew cold.
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