Falling into vulgarity
11
Lin Ju hadn't had much rest these days. On the way home when Zhao Xingcan sent her home, she said a few words to Zhao Xingcan and then fell silent.
Zhao Xingcan slowly pulled the car to the side, adjusted the seat back, took a thin blanket from the trunk and covered Lin Ju with it.
When closing the door, a breeze blew into the car. Lin Ju shivered and frowned, probably because he felt cold.
Zhao Xingcan immediately closed the door. He didn't rush to get in the car, but smoked a cigarette outside. After finishing the cigarette and waiting for the smoke to dissipate, he got back into the car.
The car was driving very slowly. It was probably the first time that Zhao Xingcan drove the car at such a speed.
He still found it funny. He drove the car into the community, slowly found a parking space, and slowly stopped.
Lin Ju was still asleep.
Zhao Xingcan didn't wake her up. He took out his cell phone and took a look. Feng Longlu had sent him several messages.
One of them was a photo taken a few days ago when he took Lin Ju to a dinner party hosted by Zhao Ke. In the photo, his and Lin Ju's faces were almost touching, looking very intimate.
Zhao Xingcan raised a question mark.
Feng Longlu called, and Zhao Xingcan immediately hung up, got out of the car, leaned against the side of the car, lit a cigarette, took a puff, and called back.
"Why did you hang up on me?"
"What's up?"
Feng Longlu asked, "Why are you with that mural artist? I remember she was... deaf-mute."
For some reason, Zhao Xingcan felt that these last three words were too glaring.
His fingers drummed on the back of his phone and he said only four words: "She can hear it."
Feng Longlu probably still couldn't understand it. Even if Lin Ju was beautiful, there were so many beautiful girls. How could Zhao Xingcan choose a person with a physical disability?
However, he knew the situation well. After noticing that Zhao Xingcan didn't want to continue this topic, he immediately changed the subject and said, "There's something. Do you still remember that young General Zheng?"
"Um."
"Recently, there's a guy named Zhang Mao who's been gaining too much momentum. He wants to make Zhang Mao suffer a little."
Zhao Xingcan wasn't interested in this sort of thing. "It's up to you."
"Then it's a deal. When the time comes, the Zhao family won't interfere." Feng Longlu said, and suddenly smiled frivolously, "When are you going to bring your girlfriend out for dinner?"
Zhao Xingcan turned his head to glance inside the car, took a puff of his cigarette, shook off the ash, and said slowly, "Let's wait until the weather gets warmer. It's too cold and I don't want to go out."
"Tsk tsk, you are spending the night in the warm tent of Hibiscus."
Zhao Xingcan hung up the phone directly.
When Lin Ju woke up, Zhao Xingcan was still outside the car making a phone call.
It had stopped raining, but the ground was still wet. Although he had told Lin Ju that he had nothing to do, it wasn't really like that. This trip to Suzhou was completely outside his schedule. Work in Beijing wasn't finished yet, and there were a lot of people and things that needed to be dealt with.
So the messages and phone calls kept coming.
After finishing his last cigarette, Zhao Xingcan tugged at his collar irritably. When he looked up, he saw Lin Ju in the car pulling back the blanket and sitting up.
There was no trash can nearby, so he stuffed the cigarette butt into the cigarette box.
He walked to the car, opened the door, leaned half of his body in, and ruffled the hair on Lin Ju's forehead.
Lin Ju smelled the scent of wormwood on him, which was particularly bitter.
She smiled at Zhao Xingcan, as if to tell him that she was fine.
"If you don't want to laugh, don't laugh. It's okay." Zhao Xingcan almost hugged her and pulled her out of the car.
Lin Ju stood on the ground, resting her head on Zhao Xingcan's arm, and said sullenly, "Thank you."
Zhao Xingcan patted her back, coaxing her like a child. When the girl finally calmed down, he said, "I have to go back to Beijing tonight. If you need anything, call me."
Lin Ju's body tensed again, but she didn't move.
She knew in her heart that there was a distance between her and Zhao Xing.
Lin Ju was very clear-headed. She didn't think Zhao Xingcan liked her that much. He might have never come into contact with deaf-mute people, so he was curious about the novelty. Once this excitement wore off, he would forget about her.
She didn't believe that Zhao Xingcan would truly fall in love with her.
She always felt that talking about love with Zhao Xingcan would make him vulgar.
But people always say one thing and do another. Although she thought so in her heart, she took the initiative to hug Zhao Xingcan with her arms.
She bit her lip and whispered, "I'm not going to call you."
Zhao Xingcan smiled and hugged her for a while.
After Zhao Xingcan returned to Beijing, he would send messages to Lin Ju every day, telling her about some trivial matters in life.
Lin Ju looked at the messages sent by Zhao Xingcan, such as "It's hard to be a black coffee worker, the work is hard", "This stray cat is quite cute", "It's snowing in Beijing again", "I miss seeing you today", and she had the illusion that someone living in the divine realm had come down to earth.
It turns out that this is Zhao Xingcan's life. He is not as luxurious as the powerful people shown on TV. He is just an ordinary person and even complains about how hard his work is.
Lin Ju didn’t know whether Zhao Xingcan’s words “Lin Ju, please be with me” meant “Lin Ju, please be my girlfriend.”
She didn't dare to easily call herself Zhao Xingcan's girlfriend, so most of the time it was Zhao Xingcan who took the initiative to contact her.
If Zhao Xingcan is busy with work and has no time to send her messages or call her, she will not send him messages or call him.
This made Zhao Xingcan quite depressed.
Lin Ju stayed at her mother's house for two days. After finishing her final matters, she decided to return to Hai City.
When she was about to leave, Lin's mother grabbed Lin Ju's hand. She had always been brooding over the fact that she had slapped Lin Ju.
But when she saw Lin Ju's indifferent expression, the complicated emotions became stuck in her throat again, making her unable to say the words of apology.
So until Lin Ju got on the high-speed train, she could only utter, "Come home when you have time," and that was all.
The subway was filled with the smell of disinfectant. Lin Ju was wearing a mask and a hat, sitting by the window.
The sound of a child crying echoed in the carriage, one after another, followed by a woman's curse, as if to say, "Why bring such a young child out here? Don't you know it's not safe now?"
Then the child's mother apologized, saying that the child had to go to Hai City for medical treatment and had to be brought out.
These are all human sufferings, especially at this moment.
Lin Ju felt a dull pain in her heart. She turned off her hearing aid and all the sounds disappeared.
She let out a long sigh and closed her eyes.
After returning to Hai City, the Spring Festival had already passed. Lin Ju contacted the workers and spent more than ten days laying electrical wires in the warehouse, painting the walls, laying floor tiles, replacing the doors and windows, and organizing and displaying some of his oil paintings and sculptures.
Although it's still a bit messy, it's much better than the rough version before.
She stood in the middle of her work, with stains on her face and clothes, a messy bun on her head, and picked up her phone while smiling at the camera.
Zhao Xingcan leaned against the office window. He'd been working nonstop for thirty-six hours, and even his coffee tasted bitter. He held his ink pen, absentmindedly fiddling with the cap. His phone vibrated, and he picked it up to check.
The secretary next to him was reporting on his work when he suddenly heard Zhao Xingcan laugh. He was startled, thinking he had said something wrong, and asked anxiously, "Mr. Zhao, did I say something wrong?"
Zhao Xingcan raised his eyebrows and stopped smiling. "You're fine, go on."
The photo was clicked and enlarged. The dirty little girl was still very pretty. She was not wearing a hearing aid, her ears were bald, and she was grinning like a little fool.
There was a line of words under the photo, "Zhao Xingcan, my studio, welcomes you to be the first guest."
Zhao Xingcan flicked the pen cap and tapped the screen quickly with his finger.
"One day I'll visit you with gifts, and we'll chat and talk about everything."
…
The warehouse has just been renovated and there is still a smell. Fortunately, school has started, and although I haven’t received a notice to start classes yet, the dormitory building is already open.
Lin Ju had lived in the dormitory for a week and had not yet started classes. Several roommates asked her in the group whether she would have to take online classes again this semester.
Lin Ju said she didn't know either.
At this time, news had spread that someone else had started coughing and having a fever, and many residential areas were sealed off. Lin Ju was afraid that something might happen at school as well, so she moved out immediately.
She bought some food and put it in the warehouse refrigerator. Fortunately, there was electricity and the second-hand refrigerator was running smoothly.
The day after she moved out, someone in the school had a fever and was sealed off.
Then, just like before, people with fevers popped up everywhere like mushrooms after rain.
The personnel facts are updated every day, the number of people is constantly increasing, and the community is closed every day.
The warehouse where Lin Ju was located survived because of its remote location and the lack of residential areas nearby.
The food in the refrigerator was almost finished, so Lin Ju went to the supermarket to buy some. When she came out with the bag, she received a call from Zhao Xingcan.
He asks her to pack her bags and wait, he will come to pick her up.
Lin Ju asked him on the phone what happened?
Zhao Xingcan told her that he had just received the news that Hai City would be closed.
Zhao Xingcan seemed to have something else to do, so he said something to Lin Ju quickly and then hung up. When Lin Ju called him back later, he got a busy tone.
Lin Ju was worried. People on the street were wearing masks and walking quickly, carrying large and small shopping bags.
She returned to the warehouse, packed her luggage, and had no idea when her pick-up would arrive. The place was difficult to find, so she dragged her luggage to the intersection and waited there.
This year's winter was exceptionally long and cold, and the roads were covered with slippery, thin ice. Lin Ju stood at first, but then, tired, she sat on the curb.
She waited from dusk until dark, the street lights shining brightly, her shadow was infinitely stretched, she lay on the suitcase, pulled up her clothes and hat, her long hair loose at her waist, and her ankle-length down jacket completely wrapped her. From a distance, she looked like a white cocoon that was about to break out.
A black car slowly stopped by the roadside.
Zhao Xingcan pushed open the car door, and two shadows overlapped. He squatted down quietly and lifted up the wide hat.
Lin Ju shuddered, opened her eyes, and when she saw Zhao Xingcan, she froze.
She thought Zhao Xingcan would ask the driver to pick her up, but unexpectedly, Zhao Xingcan came by himself.
She whimpered in surprise, opened her mouth, and her voice was hoarse from the cold, "I thought... you were still in Beijing."
"I'm worried about you." Zhao Xingcan put the hat back on her and covered her face with his hands. "How long have you been waiting here?"
"Not long. I just got here too."
Lin Ju's hand was held by him. When she stood up, her legs, which had become numb from squatting, suddenly went limp and she almost fell. Fortunately, Zhao Xingcan grabbed her.
"My legs are numb, and you said it wouldn't take long." Zhao Xingcan picked her up horizontally.
Lin Ju felt nervous and subconsciously hugged Zhao Xingcan's neck.
Her hands were frozen cold, and when they touched Zhao Xingcan's skin, he couldn't help but frown.
"Lin Ju, your hands are frozen like ice cubes."
Lin Ju said nothing, leaned over, and her warm breath sprayed on Zhao Xingcan's neck.
Zhao Xingcan carried Lin Ju into the car and then went back to get the luggage.
Lin Ju turned around and looked at his figure through the glass
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