Chapter 68: That's Not Kidd's Magic
Sometimes he would push too far, and Chen Jizhou, afraid that she would really be uncomfortable, stopped teasing her and generously made some space, but still occupied the entrance, leaving a little gap to relieve her excessive pain and give her room to alleviate her discomfort. He leaned down to kiss her, the kiss burning from the corner of her mouth, leaving a scalded trail in the white snow, stopping on the precious fruit he was about to pick.
"Come on in."
Chen Jizhou placed his palm over her back and easily turned her around.
Jiang Meng sat up, and he quickly pressed her center with his thumb. As her consciousness drifted away, she was spun around. She twisted her waist back and forth, controlling the pleasure. Under several stimulations, she was finally washed ashore by the violent waves. She lowered her head and supported herself against his chest. All the intense and dizzying feelings slowly floated away. She and her senses were like a feather, slowly drifting down, and finally all of them fell into his arms.
Chen Jizhou put his arm around her trembling shoulders, wiped the fine beads of sweat on her neck with his fingerprints, and brushed aside the wet layer of hair to reveal a pair of luscious lips.
After hugging for a while, the food delivery bell rang, and it was Chen Jizhou's birthday cake.
After taking a shower, Jiang Meng changed into a Victoria's Secret white lace nightgown with a thin outer layer. It was a very sexy and feminine style, but she didn't hold back. She excitedly stepped forward, stole a piece of fruit, and stuffed it into her mouth, as if she was afraid that Chen Jizhou wouldn't leave her a bite.
He calmly watched her chew on cherries. Jiang Meng's elbows were still resting on the table, and her calves were sticking up in a smug way. Her emergency food-guarding behavior was just like a little kid's.
"Delicious, delicious," she exclaimed, licking her fingertips contentedly.
Jiang Meng glanced to the side and found Chen Jizhou looking at her with a half-smile, as if he was teasing her with his eyes, asking who was having a birthday party.
She explained, "I'm sorry, the first bite should have been left for you, but you seem happy watching me eat, so please let me have it."
She tilted her head, revealing a playful smile, using a very effective coquettish expression. Her still-steaming skin and smiling face made her look like an endearing child. She was clever and quick-witted, and in negotiation situations, she knew exactly what her trump card was, ready to use it at any time to utterly defeat the other party.
Jiang Meng hasn't acted coquettishly for a long time. She used to try to please others, but trying to please others is different from acting coquettishly. If you go back a little further, you have to go back to her childhood.
Although her parents sometimes lacked tact, they were still able to provide her with a little love that satisfied her during her childhood.
Children are innocent and carefree, with no sense of superiority or inferiority among themselves. Later, as studying becomes increasingly difficult, and grades determine one's worth, she gradually begins to receive unappreciated glances, sighs, or cold indifference. To put it bluntly, this child becomes less presentable. Her family will inevitably discuss her grades at the dinner table, causing them to lose face, but what they fear most is her sitting in the corner.
It took her many years to shed the fear and tension from her body before she could return to her pure self.
Some people grow up like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, blossoming into the person they aspire to be, like Su Yu.
Jiang Meng's growth has come from a profound realization: I am still me. I shouldn't be bound by any standards; I want to return to my own standards.
"Why did you come to Yunzhou?" She was the one who ate the first bite of cake, which Chen Jizhou even cut for her.
"For you," he blurted out, like a scumbag trying to coax a girl.
She laughed and exposed, "That's not true either?"
He laughed too; that wasn't really true.
Chen Jizhou confessed the truth: "Because my buddy's hometown is here. You've met Gao Yusen."
Jiang Mengxuan immediately said, "Okay, then go live with him."
Chen Jizhou should have said something flattering and tactful to appease her, but instead, he said rather frankly and sincerely, "It's just going with the flow. Even if he hadn't come, I would have considered it."
"Why is that?" Jiang Meng asked with a knowing smile, her eyes hinting at something.
"I want to be closer to you," he responded to her hint.
She still asked, "Why?"
"Because I love you, I can't let you go."
Jiang Meng watched him while biting her spoon, without making a sound.
Chen Jizhou: "Why aren't you saying anything? That's not what I wanted to hear."
Jiang Meng asked him with a hint of suspicion, "I'm judging, is that what you really think?"
"Of course that's what I think."
Her lips curved into a sweet smile as she admired his affectionate face for a while before saying, "You're quite gentle when you're not being a jerk."
Chen Jizhou's phone was still with her. He unlocked it for her, and judging from Jiang Meng's expression, she planned to play with this phone tonight.
Chen Jizhou indulged her to the point that he let her do whatever she wanted with her game account. Of course, Jiang Meng wasn't the type to squander someone's past achievements unreasonably; she had no interest in games.
The first thing she noticed was that his screensaver was her picture.
During the summer, Jiang Meng and Liang Shanshan traveled to another city and took this picture at a museum. It's a side profile photo.
In the photo, Jiang Meng is wearing an elegant black dress, her hair is loose over her shoulders, and she is looking up at an oil painting on the wall.
The painting depicts a young girl running in a golden field.
Jiang Meng later sent this picture to Chen Jizhou, and said to him in a condescending tone: Hurry up and change your handsome black guy picture, replace it with my picture, you promised me.
Chen Jizhou denied it and lazily asked her: "When and in what month did I agree to that?"
She shouted: "You're renege on your debt! You're renege on your debt! Men's mouths are deceitful!"
He didn't listen, but secretly used her as his screensaver.
At that time, Chen Jizhou asked her with some curiosity, "I remember you don't like visiting museums."
"What's wrong? Do I not look like an intellectual?"
Jiang Meng smiled and pressed him for answers, her eyes bright and confident, as if she were about to reveal a stack of certificates she held as a proper intellectual.
Chen Jizhou almost laughed.
Not really.
But Jiang Meng isn't really the type to calmly appreciate words or works of art. She enjoys traveling, excitement, thrills, finding beautiful scenery to photograph, and posting lots of pretty pictures on her social media.
She said, "I learned it from you."
“I’ve learned a lot from you, and I’ve even kept your habits, you didn’t know that, Teacher Chen.”
She merely raised an eyebrow and teased him in a playful tone, without explaining his influence on her or mentioning her enduring affection over the years.
Chen Jizhou could understand it.
He remembered that she posted this photo separately on her WeChat Moments, setting it apart from the other exquisite and colorful nine-grid photos.
This approach makes the copy and photos seem unique and significant.
Those who cannot get close to her will inevitably speculate.
Those who know everything about a person will see themselves at a glance.
Jiang Meng used a quote she saw online: "The meaning of our meeting is that the part of me that you changed will stay by my side forever in place of you."
She watched the girl in the painting running across the wilderness.
The highly saturated colors of the oil painting, in turn, illuminate her deep eyes as she gazes at the wall. The girl's struggles, passion, pain, and torment, in the peaceful gaze of years later, have all become fleeting clouds, leaving only an endless wilderness where she will eternally welcome the magnificent sunset.
Chen Jizhou likes this photo, not because she is particularly beautiful in it.
What's most tacit is that Jiang Meng also knows he likes her.
He saved one copy, and she sent him another.
Jiang Meng turned on a small night light, played around with his account on social media for a while, and after a moment, she rolled over and draped her long legs over Chen Jizhou. "I suddenly remembered that I saw a guy's crush diary on Xiaohongshu today, although it seemed like a clickbait post—have you ever written a diary?"
Chen Jizhou buried half his face in the pillow, trying to fall asleep, and slowly uttered a few words: "I hate writing the most."
He opened his eyes and looked at her, his calm eyes conveying a single sentence: "You can't even write an 800-word essay, yet you want to write a diary."
Jiang Meng chuckled and said, "Oh."
It rolled back again.
She didn't even ask many questions, naturally because she knew him inside and out, and she didn't expect him to reveal any concrete secret feelings of unrequited love.
Chen Jizhou wouldn't write something like this. His love and companionship are all in his heart and deep in his soul. Because he doesn't insist on seeking an outlet, his forbearance and secrecy are all the more apparent.
"Can I look at your photo album?" she asked, flipping back to the previous page.
He closed his eyes and said without hesitation, "Look."
Jiang Meng turned back, as if she were secretly conducting some kind of examination.
Chen Jizhou couldn't help but laugh: "Can't you flip it over in front of me?"
She said seriously, "I'm afraid I'll see something strange and weird. I'll have to take some time to think about how to torture you."
As she spoke, Jiang Meng, having somehow stumbled upon some beautiful scenery photos, exclaimed, "Your photos are really nice."
Chen Jizhou gave a low "hmm": "I studied photography and even bought a camera, but I really didn't have the talent, so I sold it."
Jiang Meng chuckled, slightly surprised: "You also do photography?"
Yes, he also does photography.
Why?
The magnolias in the lakeside pavilion of No. 1 Middle School have already withered. Spring comes and autumn goes, I don't know how many cycles of growth and decay have passed, or how many years have passed.
But he could never forget the June rains of the previous year, nor could he forget the awkwardness he felt when he had to look down at that pond, the surface of which seemed to be filled with unhealable brokenness.
At that moment, she smiled broadly at a boy's camera.
Chen Jizhou mistakenly thought she liked someone else. He thought that perhaps she liked the artistic type, and she had even done silly things like painstakingly studying art.
He didn't expect to gain favor points this way, but perhaps it would bring him closer to her.
Even if they meet again in the future, and she needs to find a photographer to show off her beauty, he can confidently say, "Taking photos isn't that hard! I'll take them for you."
He can hold all the power to be close to her.
But Chen Jizhou was still not artistic enough; he found writing in his diary tiring and carrying his camera too heavy.
Foolish things become foolish because people lack common sense, are inflexible, lose themselves, and are reckless, clumsy, and stubborn.
No adjective should be used to describe him.
He's best suited to be Chen Jizhou, free as the wind.
So, after playing with the camera for three months, I sold it; my phone was still the most convenient.
More importantly, no matter which face he points his camera at in this world—young, beautiful, or friendly—he will never again possess the girlish face of that year, in the rain when the plums were ripe.
The rainy season is long over.
Jiang Meng looked at some photos of his travels abroad for a while.
Chen Jizhou's phone album contains very few photos of himself; they are mostly landscapes, sunrises and sunsets, starry skies and the sea. Some of these he posted on social media, which she had also seen, along with some videos.
Jiang Meng tilted her head and noticed that his breathing was steady; he was probably asleep. She reached for her earphones and put them on.
According to the time, Jiang Meng clicked on his video of his round-the-world trip.
The video was unedited; it was just a series of clips he filmed as he saw things, without any special techniques.
He departed from Singapore.
A garden city all year round, with tall trees that block out the sun, lush and fresh.
He sat in the airport waiting area, pointing his camera at the sunrise outside the glass. The morning sun rose above the wings of the planes on the tarmac, slowly illuminating the entire airport space.
Off-camera, Chen Jizhou spoke very softly, like a narrator starting a story, solemn and gentle: "Jiang Meng, you once said that you really wanted to travel around the world."
"..."
Jiang Meng was taken aback when she heard her name.
She quickly paused the video, needing a few seconds to recover from the sudden shock that had struck her.
The moonlight outside the window was hazy, filtering through a veil and falling on her eyelids. The gentle moon always brought a soothing power. Jiang Meng gently removed one earphone, turned around to look at the person behind her, and made sure he had fallen asleep.
She pondered slowly, how old was he at that time?
Graduation in your senior year.
That year, they had very little contact with each other.
He visited her once at her graduation ceremony, but she was completely unaware of it.
Jiang Meng looked away from Chen Jizhou's face, listened to her own heartbeat, closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened the video again. His voice continued, with a mocking smile—"I don't know if you still want to, but I think you don't have the guts or the energy."
Then, he switched the camera from shooting the sunrise to the front, and she saw him looking like he was in his early twenties, fair-skinned and roguish, full of youthful vigor and spirit.
Chen Jizhou slightly curled the corners of his mouth, his student-like smile unchanged from before, still retaining the youthful arrogance. He said, "I'll set off for you."
Jiang Meng, off-camera, drifted into aimless thought: When did she develop this wish?
The longer and deeper a person is suppressed in their youth, the more desires they have.
When desire is applied to a young girl, it manifests as endless fantasies and abundant expectations.
For example, even before the college entrance exam is over, they can't wait to look forward to the holiday, imagining what kind of pretty dress to wear, what kind of perm to get, and how they can play on their phones and read novels day and night. If they want to see their idols, they'll set off immediately.
The world is vast, but looking at plums can quench thirst.
In the video, Chen Jizhou goes to the boarding gate to check in, and he and Jiang Meng, who are years later, have a telepathic connection.
He understood her better than Jiang Meng understood herself.
"Don't you remember?"
He smiled calmly and said, "Let me help you remember. On your birthday in your first year of high school, you were sullen and unhappy. I asked you what was wrong, and what did you say?"
He handed the ticket to the ticket inspector.
Jiang Meng spent her first birthday in high school in Wang Jingbo's courtyard. At the end of winter break, she and Chen Jizhou were petting the neighbor's cat. She bent down and ran her fingers through the soft fur on the cat's back, thinking melancholically about how she had just made a wish on the cake.
She clearly wanted to have dinner with her family and celebrate her birthday together, but her parents were both busy and didn't care about her, so she had to go out and find friends.
Jiang Meng, her slender body encased in a bulky coat, silently stroked the kitten with her head down. Her delicate fingertips traced the surface lightly, as if conveying sorrow through her actions.
Anyone with eyes could see that she had something on her mind.
Chen Jizhou was holding a humanities lecture note and reciting it from memory. He was lounging in his grandfather's rocking chair like an old man, swaying back and forth with great interest. He didn't even need to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. He just couldn't hear her making a sound. After she had been quiet for more than half a minute, he realized that something was wrong.
The lecture notes were rolled up and placed on her head.
He tapped twice, making Jiang Meng look up at him.
Chen Jizhou: "Making a wish and getting heartbroken?"
Jiang Meng looked up and saw that his expression was indeed extremely sad, as if she had put herself in the shoes of the female protagonist in those melodramatic youth movies, with a self-pitying and sorrowful air: "Chen Jizhou, I don't want to stay here anymore."
He didn't immediately grasp her artistic quirks: "What do you mean? You don't want to stay at my house?"
She said, "I don't want to stay at school, I don't want to stay in Pingjiang, and I don't want to go home."
Jiang Meng lowered her head again.
She sat on a very low round stool, her chin resting on her knees, rubbing against the smooth surface of her down jacket. The chilly fabric against her chin made her feel completely frozen.
After finishing her story in a low voice, she suddenly seemed to have a good idea. She smiled and said to him, "How about we save money together and travel around the world after graduation?!"
Chen Jizhou did not enthusiastically agree with her.
All I can do is see through it all.
He lay back down unmoved and continued flipping through his lecture notes, not forgetting to tease, "Given your short attention span, once I've actually saved up 100,000 yuan through frugality, you'll at most offer me the price of a meal to join the fun, let alone travel together. Your tricks are even more ingenious than mine."
Jiang Meng pouted, indignant, but didn't argue back, only saying that he was really annoying.
He understood all her thoughts at a glance.
Beyond that fleeting enthusiasm, there are more important concerns.
He said he didn't want to stay here, but what he really longed for wasn't a long journey, but the warmth of family.
...
Jiang Meng struggled to recall this insignificant wish, but soon turned her attention back to the camera.
Chen Jizhou boarded the plane smoothly and then patted the vast strait filled with ships outside the porthole: "Actually, I really wanted to invite you, but—"
His voice was soft and low, seemingly calm, yet tinged with a hint of helplessness: "You should have a boyfriend by now."
He said, "I won't bother you anymore."
He flew from Singapore to Penang, and from Penang his next stop was Pattaya, before finally traveling from Thailand to the Philippines for diving.
Emerging from the money exchange window at the airport, Chen Jizhou cheerfully flicked the banknotes in his hand at the camera: "Jiang Meng, I've been collecting banknotes from various countries lately. I won't exchange them all; I'll keep some for when I'm broke. I'll exchange them all for RMB later, and tens of thousands will be within my grasp."
He looked at the camera, smiling brightly, as if he were narcissistic about his flourishing business acumen.
As he walked, he called her name softly: "Jiang Meng, do you record videos when you go out to play? I saw that other people do, so I'll record some too. Recording videos is to commemorate the trip, but I don't want to just film the scenery. I want to say something, so I'll record my voice too. When we're older, we can look back and feel like we've traveled the world with the girl we like."
He had been looking down, but when he got to this point, he glanced at the camera again and smiled wryly: "If I carry your name with me wherever I go, wouldn't that mean I've fulfilled your wish?"
What do you think of this idea?
Am I very smart?
When Chen Jizhou smiles, there are two handsome cheek folds on either side of his mouth, like small parentheses. They are much cleaner and fuller than thin, withered lines. They are natural and can make him look cute at times and roguish at others.
The occasional time travel made her feel a little regretful; she could have loved him sooner.
He took pictures of the stars on the plane at night, his voice languid, like the tranquility before falling asleep. No matter where he was going next, he had a peaceful and contented heart.
"Jiang Meng, I will never forget you."
She gazed at the romantic night sky and heard him speak softly, as if in a dream.
"I won't when I'm old."
Chen Jizhou set off alone, but he met many people along the way. Foreigners of different races appeared in his photos, took pictures with him, and became friends with him. They were warm, friendly, and full of vitality.
He traveled from the tropics to the frigid, went to St. Petersburg, went to Moscow, took a train through the North, went to the UAE, and then trekked in Nepal.
During the long climb, Chen Jizhou didn't talk much in order to conserve his energy. The camera was focused on the magnificent snow-capped mountains. She watched the snow-covered landscape and accompanied him step by step to the summit.
After taking the final steps, Chen Jizhou, wearing a down jacket, lay down in the vast snow.
He pointed the camera at the halo of the clear sky, showing her the best scenery at the mountaintop.
Instead of filming his own exhaustion, he lifted up the pumpkin carriage hanging from his backpack. In the lens, in the spot closest to the sunlight, the pendant dangled from his finger bones, swaying gently.
He cherished the years of companionship immensely.
Chen Jizhou's voice was hoarse as he spoke: "I walked a lot today."
His speech was halting and he was slightly out of breath, but when he called her name, it was clear and firm: "Jiang Meng."
Exhausted, as if he had reached the end of the world, he should have been talking at length about how he climbed to the top of the mountain, what interesting things he had encountered, and what kind of allies he had met.
However, the air at the mountaintop was too thin, and his strength was also weak. If he had difficulty speaking, he would only be able to utter a few words. So he chose the three most precious words.
"I love you."
...
In a Toronto tattoo shop, Chen Jizhou asked the tattoo artist to bend down and carve a rose on his finger.
Tattoos on the fingers are considered to be of a very high level of pain, due to the dense nerves and thin skin.
Chen Jizhou pointed his phone camera at the tattoo artist's work area, capturing this solemn moment.
The other person would occasionally look up and ask him if it hurt. Chen Jizhou, behind the phone, seemed to chuckle faintly, or perhaps he shook his head. The tattoo artist also smiled, raised an eyebrow, and praised, "You have a lot of patience."
Chen Jizhou smiled and said, "Because of love."
He walked alone on the desolate street, took a picture of the freshly tattooed design and showed it to her. "One Children's Day, I gave you a flower, have you forgotten?"
Holding her phone, Jiang Meng was momentarily dazed, then frowned, wondering which year's holiday it was.
Then I heard him say, "It's not that you forgot, you just didn't know."
Facing the lifeless camera, Chen Jizhou recounted the truths she would never recall again.
"That's not Kidd's magic, that's the happiness I want to give you."
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Babies, I can't write many extra chapters. The data is poor, and I haven't been able to get on any good rankings. It's impossible for me to get hundreds of thousands of views. I'll just write a few chapters.
I can write a bit about the daily life and married life that you want to see. There probably won't be any "what if" scenarios. I originally planned to write them, but I think Chen Jizhou was already living a very comfortable life in the later stages.
Although the writing is a bit messy, I received a lot of love. Happy Little Hill~
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