Year-end (Part 1)
By the time Zhou Zeyu finally finished packing her luggage, slowly bought her plane ticket, and boarded the plane just in time, she had already delayed it for another two weeks. The end of the year was approaching, and there were only a few days left until New Year's Eve.
Actually, if it weren't for Coach Xu's remote supervision and Aunt Chen's enthusiastic urging with three phone calls every day, she could have compressed the time even later, preferably until the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. At that time, there wouldn't be too much to deal with, and everyone's enthusiasm for the New Year would gradually dissipate. She wouldn't have to rack her brains to figure out how to deal with things, which would be much easier.
However, as if he had guessed what she was up to, Coach Xu had warned her long ago not to do this, and even thoughtfully listed the recent flights for her. It was as if he was afraid she would run away at the last minute and wanted to force her onto the plane.
The days in the new place passed uneventfully. Aunt Chen was as polite as ever. Her father seemed quite happy and gave her a large red envelope. The twins weren't familiar with her, but apart from clamoring for her to teach them ping-pong, they were generally well-behaved.
Of course, none of this was perfect. For example, she could never participate in the topics discussed at the dinner table, and she felt somewhat of a burden during the twins' and parents' parent-child activities. The makeshift cot in the study was a bit shaky, and her water glass clashed with the family's outfits. These details constantly reminded her that she was just an outsider who was only staying occasionally.
But it couldn't be called very bad; it wasn't as terrible as she had imagined. At least she could accept it.
And before we knew it, it was New Year's Eve.
The New Year's Eve dinner was lively. The twins did their best to make her laugh, including changing into Ultraman bodysuits and pretending to be two ping-pong balls hitting each other. Zhou Zeyu was fine at first, but after watching for a while, she couldn't help but laugh along with the others.
After a hearty meal, the room was a bit too hot due to the underfloor heating. Zhou Zeyu felt dizzy and quickly escaped to the balcony, where he sat in a rattan chair and began to stare blankly.
She called Coach Xu, who was finally not busy and was leisurely drinking at the hotel. He told her not to catch a cold. Zhou Zeyu felt sorry for him being alone on New Year's Eve, but after thinking about it, she decided not to bring up this sad thing, so she shook her head and changed the subject.
"When are you going back to Beijing? Are you planning to stay in Nanjing until after the New Year?"
"Yeah, that's right," Coach Xu replied with a hint of sadness, "There's nothing we can do, we're just poor laborers. How have you been lately?"
Zhou Zeyu shrugged, somewhat at a loss for words, "How am I? I'm actually fine, it just might take some time to adjust."
"Adjusting to what? The new home?"
Zhou Zeyu shook his head. "No, it's about getting used to the weather."
It wasn't that she was pretending to be strong. Since she hadn't had any expectations beforehand, her days here weren't difficult at all; in fact, they were quite comfortable. And in this leisurely atmosphere, the most difficult thing to adapt to was the climate.
Because she hadn't been back for so long, she had completely forgotten how humid the South was. As soon as she got off the plane, she could feel a wave of dampness hit her face, and her face quickly became covered with a greasy sheen. She even felt uncomfortable all over.
Coach Xu laughed: "See? I told you you hadn't been back for a long time, and you didn't even remember what the climate was like. How was it? Not as dry as Beijing, right?"
Zhou Zeyu shrugged: "How can this be compared? I feel like I'm about to drown."
The two chatted for a while longer, until Coach Xu suddenly said excitedly that she wanted to watch a skit and couldn't continue chatting with her. Only then did Zhou Zeyu hang up the phone.
She exchanged a few more text messages with Fang Xiaocan, who was far away. When she looked up again, her father was pushing open the sliding door of the balcony and hesitantly sat down in the chair opposite her.
Zhou Zeyi subconsciously felt a little uncomfortable, touched his hair, and then unconsciously started picking at the edge of his phone case. "What's wrong?"
Her father seemed hesitant to speak, "How are things abroad? Are you adjusting well?"
Regardless of whether they're used to it or not, they're back now. This sounds like a question that should have been asked months ago, and Zhou Zeyu is somewhat noncommittal.
She looked at his face, waiting for him to say something next, but nothing came of it. The taciturn middle-aged man just stared at her knees for a while, then sighed almost imperceptibly.
"If there's anything you're not used to, remember to say so. Since you're back, why not stay a little longer before you leave?"
Zhou Zeyu nodded.
However, neither of them said anything more. Her father went inside after saying that, leaving Zhou Zeyu sitting there watching his back, somewhat at a loss.
It's undeniable that because we haven't been in contact for so long, we've even become strangers to each other.
Zhou Zeyu let out a slight sigh of relief and turned his head away.
But the moment she looked away, the glass door was pushed open again, and she turned her head to look, only to meet four big, watery eyes.
"What are you standing there for?" she laughed. "Why don't you come out?"
The twins, as if granted a pardon, immediately rushed out, squeezed together on a chair, and began chattering away.
For a moment, Zhou Zeyu felt as if countless flies were buzzing around in his mind. Before his brain completely went haywire, he quickly reached out his hand and said, "Speak one by one, I can't hear you!"
After exchanging glances, the older twin spoke first, "Sister, Dad said you were abroad before, did you meet any foreigners?"
What kind of question is this? Zhou Zeyu was a little confused, but after thinking about it, he realized it was normal that he couldn't understand the thought process of a five-year-old, so he honestly answered, "I've seen it before."
The younger of the twins immediately spoke up: "What's the difference between foreigners and us? Are they like aliens?"
Zhou Zeyu thought for a moment, "It doesn't seem like it... But I don't know what aliens look like either, but they probably don't look much like humans."
The older brother stared at her longingly, his tail practically wagging from behind him the next second. "Can you let us meet the foreigners? Please!"
Zhou Zeyi really couldn't figure out what the two brothers were curious about. He originally wanted to brush it off by just searching for a picture on Baidu, but after thinking about it, he realized he couldn't just dismiss the little brats' precious curiosity like that.
Adhering to this superior educational philosophy, Zhou Zeyu decided to connect live, quickly turned on his phone, and made a video call.
However, the two brothers continued their incessant bickering. When they saw her take out her phone, it was as if a fuse had been lit, and their voices began to rise rapidly without end. They even had an excited urge to pounce on her.
Zhou Zeyu was terrified and quickly tossed his phone onto his lap, narrowly catching the two boys. After much persuasion, he finally managed to convince the two timid boys to sit down obediently. When he picked up his phone again, he was suddenly struck by an unexpected face on it.
"Oh dear." She was startled again, quickly moved the phone away, and looked at it carefully again. "How come it's you? Didn't I call Eric?"
Without looking up, Sorkov said, "Guess what my name is."
Zhou Zeyu belatedly realized that the nickname she had given to Sorkov, which included his full name, started with the letter A. Coincidentally, it was the same as Erikev's nickname. She probably misread it when she clicked too fast.
However, since the connection was established, this foreigner was barely sufficient. Zhou Zeyu cleared her throat and gestured for the twins to come to her side.
Before she could even finish speaking, two rocket launchers appeared in a flash, one on each side, pressed tightly against her, their big eyes fixed on the person on the screen with great interest.
Now it was Solkov's turn to quickly distance himself from the screen. He leaned back abruptly, squinted, and reached for his glasses, putting them on. "Zhou Zeyu, what's going on?"
Seeing his flustered appearance, Zhou Zeyi couldn't help but burst into laughter, "It's nothing, just showing these two kids what aliens look like."
The other person chuckled indifferently, "You're so boring."
Zhou Zeyu was about to retaliate when he forgot that he was surrounded by a pair of twins. The two of them finally saw the foreigner and started shouting excitedly.
"Sister, is he any different from us? Why is his nose so high?"
"Sister, he's not an alien! I've seen aliens, and they're nothing like him!"
"Sister, can I talk to him? Does he not understand what I'm saying? Can I speak Hangzhou dialect?"
"Sister, sister!"
She chattered away trying to maintain order, glancing left and right repeatedly. After several rounds, her neck ached, and she finally lost her patience and issued an ultimatum: "Quiet!"
The two of them immediately stood up straight and remained silent.
Zhou Zeyu nodded in satisfaction, picked up his phone again, only to see Solkov watching the scene with interest, arms crossed. "You've become a kindergarten teacher?"
"You're the kindergarten teacher!" Her mind was a mess, and she retorted irritably, "Now you finally understand why I went to find Eric, right?"
Yes, although they don't speak the same language, are of different races, and have different nationalities, Zhou Zeyi firmly believes that with Erik's personality, he will soon be able to get along well with the two boys, which will save her a lot of trouble.
However, since we've stumbled upon this rather taciturn foreigner, there's no reason to let him go.
Zhou Zeyu cleared his throat: "Foreigner, you learn from me, you--hello--NI--HAO--"
The foreigner on the screen raised an eyebrow, his expression still expressionless: "Why should I learn from you?"
Zhou Zeyi glanced quickly at the two impatient young men beside him, feeling like he was on the verge of a fire: "Please, just consider it a contribution to the friendly exchanges between the two countries!"
Solkov finally relented, "Okay, hello."
Two sparrows nearby immediately started chirping, "Hello! Hello!"
After finally seeing the two troublemakers off, she felt like the accumulated A4 bomb in her head was about to explode. Exhausted, she picked up her phone and said, "This is killing me... I wish I could switch places with you right now."
Sorkov shrugged. "Really? Actually, I'm quite good at coaxing children."
Zhou Zeyu laughed for real this time, and the image of him wearing a pink apron, holding a doll in one hand and an Ultraman in the other, coaxing a child in a high-pitched voice: "Don't scare me, I'll have nightmares today."
The other person chuckled, and said in a very soft voice, "What are you doing right now?"
"I didn't do anything. Today is Chinese New Year's Eve. I just finished eating and taking care of the kids. I have nothing to do."
Zhou Zeyu stared at the screen. "So what are you doing now?"
The camera panned to reveal the swimming pool in front of him, and Zhou Zeyu immediately understood: "Ah, you're training."
"how are things?"
"I'm fine, how about you?"
"Well enough."
"..."
Seeing the conversation rapidly veer towards awkwardness, Zhou Zeyu was so embarrassed he almost fainted. He cleared his throat, pretending to be calm, and then looked around casually for a while, racking his brains for what to say.
"Is there anything else?"
Zhou Zeyu was taken aback. "Oh, I'm fine."
"Then I'll hang up."
So fast? You can't even wait for a few pleasantries? Zhou Zeyu was a little surprised, and even a little annoyed, but she really had no reason to stop them from training, so she nodded reluctantly with her lips pursed.
Whether it was her imagination or not, just before hanging up, she seemed to hear a voice with a faint laugh, but the voice was so soft that she was still confused after hanging up, so she sent a voice message to ask again.
What did you just say?
She waited a while, and finally the other party replied to the message sparingly.
“It’s nothing,” he paused, “Happy New Year.”
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