See you again
7
There was a pile of documents and half-finished paper models on the passenger seat. Xu Gaoyou sighed.
Lin Ju smiled, pointed behind him, opened the door and sat down.
Lin Ju put on her hearing aid, tilted her head, leaned forward slightly, and asked, "Are you studying architecture?"
Xu Gaoyou looked at her in the rearview mirror and answered irrelevantly, "Sister, you are really beautiful."
Lin Ju tilted his head slightly, sneered, and said slowly: "I know."
Xu Gaoyou's grip on the steering wheel tightened, his throat itching. He coughed a few times, then started the car. Listening to the engine revs, he regained consciousness and said, "I'm a junior in Beijing studying architecture." His brow furrowed again as he complained, "Architecture is such a tough subject. I worked on it all week, and last night the professor told me to redo it."
Lin Ju thought of the complaints she often saw online about people who would rather not study architecture and that if they did, they would have to work at construction sites carrying drills or something, and she couldn't help but look at Xu Gaoyou with sympathy.
Xu Gaoyou is a native Beijinger, and he was introducing interesting places in Beijing to Lin Ju along the way.
Lin Ju listened to his authentic erhua sound and could not help but said with a curled tongue: "I want to eat candied haws."
Her pronunciation was too deliberate, sounding out of place and particularly amusing. Xu Gaoyou shook his shoulders and laughed as he said, "Sister, that's not how you pronounce a candied haws. You're curling your tongue too much."
"Oh, it's too difficult." Lin Ju leaned back and gave up decisively.
It was already three o'clock when Lin Ju got off the plane. She took a while to get her luggage out. When she drove out of the airport, she thought there would be a traffic jam, but there were hardly any cars on the road.
Driving to Jingshun Road, Lin Ju looked at the scattered shops near the road and couldn't help asking, "Why does this place look so desolate?"
"It's Chinese New Year, and many people from other places are going home for the holiday. All the shops are closed. Plus, several people have been admitted to the hospital with fever recently. Everyone is panicking and afraid to go out." Xu Gaoyou glanced at the rearview mirror. "But our neighborhood is quite clean, sister, don't worry."
Lin Ju hummed, the situation in the country has indeed not been very good in the past two years.
Whenever she saw in the news that a certain place was under control, a hospital had a death list, and supermarkets were out of food, she would feel a sense of helplessness and sadness, and she would be unwilling to accept her own weakness and uselessness.
My wandering thoughts disappeared in an instant, and the car stopped.
Lin Ju opened the car door, looked at the unfamiliar house in front of him, turned around and asked, "I remember not living here when I was a child?"
Xu Gaoyou took his luggage and closed the trunk. "Sister, it's been more than ten years since we last met. We sold the house a long time ago."
"Oh, I don't know." Lin Ju thought of the occasional calls her father made to her. He asked about her recent life and whether she was still healthy. He did not mention anything about her future plans, including selling or buying a house.
But this is normal. After all, my father already has a new home, and his ex-wife's daughter will definitely not live in this new home.
Lin Ju never gets sad about these little things. She just smiles to herself and follows Xu Gaoyou into the house.
The house is a three-story villa with a pointed roof. Those who can afford such a house in this area are mostly rich or noble.
Lin Ju's parents had a huge fight when they divorced, and every time they saw Lin Ju after the divorce, they couldn't help but criticize each other in their hearts.
Lin Ju often heard from her mother that her father had married a rich girl, made a fortune, started a business, and made a lot of money. What she often heard from her father was that her mother had married a man five years her junior and was shameless.
They were all quite ridiculous. Most of the time, Lin Ju just listened and let it go, not taking it to heart.
After not seeing each other for three years, Lin Ju's father looked much older than he remembered, with his hair gradually turning white at the temples. However, his wife had not changed much. Her well-maintained face was tight and there was no trace of wrinkles.
"Our Jiujiu has grown up. Is she about to graduate?" Father Lin held Lin Ju's shoulders and looked her up and down.
"Jiujiu" is Lin Ju's nickname, but because it was given by her father, her mother doesn't call her that. She hasn't heard that nickname in a long time. She blinked, and after a few seconds, she smiled at Lin's father, "Dad, I'm a senior now."
"Let's stop talking for now. Come and eat. The food is almost cold." Lin Ju's stepmother stood by the round table and smiled, inviting Lin Ju to sit down. "Don't be polite. Just treat it as your own home."
Father Lin frowned and looked at Lin Ju.
Lin Ju seemed to have heard nothing. She tied up her loose hair again, tilted her neck slightly, and the hearing aid on her ear was exposed.
Father Lin stared at her in a daze. Lin Ju noticed his gaze but looked away as if nothing had happened.
Lin Ju had little appetite. At her mother's house, dinner was a time for gossip. The old lady loved to go to the seniors' activity room to listen to music and chat with a few old friends. When she came back in the afternoon, she would recount all the stories she had heard at the dinner table, reciting them one by one like treasures. Sometimes she would forget whether she had said them or not, and would repeat the same thing several times.
Lin Ju's mother couldn't help but interrupt, but Lin Ju never got tired of listening and let her grandmother continue.
When eating at my father's side, no one spoke.
Lin Ju recalled that when she was a child, her father told everyone here not to speak in front of her because she was deaf, for fear of upsetting her.
But now she wears hearing aids, and they still don't talk in front of her.
Lin Ju tilted her head after her arm was poked. Xu Gaoyou pointed to the door and pressed his palm downwards, making the shape of a candied haws.
He asked Lin Ju if she wanted to go out and buy some candied haws.
Father Lin noticed the movement on their side and asked, "What's wrong?"
Without waiting for Lin Ju to answer, Xu Gaoyou took Lin Ju's hand and said, "We are full. I will take my sister out for a walk."
After saying that, he grabbed Lin Ju and ran out.
Xu Gaoyou took Lin Ju to a shopping mall. There were not many people in the mall, but all the shops were open.
They bought a bunch of delicious food, including grilled sausages coated with cheese powder, candied haws made from strawberries, and hot milk tea.
Walking in the underground garage, not yet in the car.
Lin Ju couldn't wait to take off her mask, tear open the package, and take a bite of the strawberry.
Xu Gao walked behind her, took a look, and came over, "Sister, give me one."
Xu Gaoyou has the appearance of a popular male idol nowadays, with distinctive facial features and fair skin, but he has a pair of peach blossom eyes, and there is always an unexpected coquettish look when he looks at people.
Lin Ju handed him the candied haws without thinking much.
Xu Gaoyou lowered his head and bit the top strawberry, "Hey, so sweet."
Lin Ju blinked, not reacting for a moment. She thought Xu Gaoyou would take the candied haws and eat them, but she didn't expect him to just lean over so naturally.
At this moment, a short horn sounded from the side of them. A black car was about to come out of the parking space, but was blocked by them.
Lin Ju was startled. The sharp sound that was too close made her ears feel like they were pricked by needles, causing unbearable pain.
Xu Gaoyou protected Lin Ju's shoulders and helped her to the side.
Lin Ju covered her ears. The pain didn't stop, but spread like a virus, making her feel dizzy and nauseous. She squatted on the ground, gasping for breath.
There was a constant roar in her ears, and the feeling frightened her.
She thought of her childhood home, the dark room on a typhoon day, black clouds outside the window, the howling wind, and the rapid rain.
The young girl leaned against the window, feeling the damp cold through the glass, and then she sobbed, begging her quarreling parents to stop. But she could not speak, could not hear a sound.
She could only endure these bombardments over and over again, razing her life to the ground bit by bit.
The black car drove a few meters and then turned back. The rear door was pushed open, and Zhao Xingcan got out of the car in a hurry with a serious expression.
The driver didn't expect that just honking the horn would make Zhao Xingcan angry.
His face turned pale, and he got out of the car immediately, whispering to Zhao Xingcan, "Mr. Zhao, if something happened, I'll take care of it. You don't have to..." His words stopped abruptly when Zhao Xingcan turned around.
"Who are you?" Xu Gaoyou looked at the man who got off the car in surprise and suspicion.
The other party glanced at him indifferently and said, "I am Lin Ju's friend. Let's send him to the hospital first."
Zhao Xing picked up Lin Ju directly. Xu Gaoyou was about to stop him, but he saw that Lin Ju had already opened her hands and tightly locked the stranger's neck.
Zhao Xingcan was shocked and hugged the girl tightly in his arms.
After leaving Wanning, I spent the Lunar New Year with my family in France. The three generations of the Zhao family usually fly around the world, only getting together during the Lunar New Year.
There were many people in the hall, many of them were Zhao Xingcan's elders, but Mr. Zhao specially called Zhao Xingcan over and asked him to sit next to him.
The uncles looked at each other, and the younger ones looked at Zhao Xingcan with envy.
Zhao Xingcan remained calm, leaning back in his chair and listening attentively to the old man's question, "Is your mother okay?"
"It's pretty good. She sent me a video of herself performing at the Grand Theatre the day before yesterday."
Zhao Xingcan's mother was a dancer. After giving birth to him, she was unwilling to give up dancing. Between the two identities of being a rich family's daughter-in-law and a dancer, she chose the latter and divorced Zhao Xingcan's father.
Zhao Xingcan didn't think his mother had done anything wrong, even though countless people had criticized his mother since he was a child.
Old Master Zhao certainly didn't like his former daughter-in-law either. After Zhao Xingcan finished speaking, he frowned and scolded her, "Showing off in public is unruly. Xingcan, when you get married in the future, don't listen to your father's pursuit of true love. It's causing a lot of trouble and is nothing but a joke. A woman's role in the Zhao family is to carry on the family line, support her husband and raise children. Chasing dreams is just wishful thinking."
Zhao Xingcan listened absentmindedly to Mr. Zhao's endless chatter. That's what happens when you get old, you keep repeating the same thing over and over again.
As he listened, he somehow thought of Lin Ju.
The girl walked in the scorching sunshine of Wanning with a bright smile. She said that she wanted love, lots of love, and she would not accept it if the person she loved could not give it to her.
When Zhao Xingcan heard this, he suddenly felt very poor.
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