Chapter 20
Sitting in the taxi on the way back, Yang Ye looked at the scenery passing by outside the window.
She traveled this road every year, and the scenery had changed a lot over the years. Some places looked familiar at first glance, but upon closer inspection, she couldn't recognize them.
The small bungalows that existed before had long been demolished by excavators, and the newly built high-rise buildings had dazzling glass curtain walls. The whole city was as dry as an iron cage, and you could see almost the same scenery wherever you went.
Traffic jam started again at the intersection of the elevated road. The driver stepped on the brakes intermittently until the traffic in front stopped moving. He picked up the mobile phone next to him that he had thought about many times. Yang Ye lowered the window, and the restless heat rushed into the car. She saw the SUV with cartoon patterns next to her. The little girl in the back seat also rolled down the window and waved to her. As soon as she raised her hand, the window of the car opposite was pulled up by the person in the driver's seat.
Yang Ye looked outside for a while. Before the temperature in the car rose, she rolled up the window and shifted her gaze to the congested lane ahead.
Before it was completely dark, the abbot found Yang Ye.
Looking up at the sky that had lost its color, the abbot said, "Boss Yang should now understand what Master Chu Fang said."
Yang Ye sat on the ground and asked: "What do I understand?"
The abbot said: "Life is ordinary"
"Ordinary people are ordinary, but I am not ordinary." Yang Ye smiled, seemingly mocking, or perhaps helpless.
For Yang Ye, her life is worthy of the phrase "ill-fated".
She had said goodbye to so many people, and had seen off so many others. To this day, she couldn't count how many close people she had buried. Not counting the war years, but even after the war, she had watched people around her, about her own age, grow old before her, young and old, and eventually, one by one, they left her.
"Boss Yang, maybe you can look at it from a different direction."
Just as Master Chu Fang once said, people will naturally leave when they have time. If they don’t leave, it just means that God wants you to see that your time in this world has not come yet.
"Master, do you have any cigarettes?" Yang Ye suddenly asked the driver after looking back.
The driver put down his phone, glanced at her through the rearview mirror, and tapped the camera on the car window with his finger. "You can't smoke in the car. Smoking will be fined 200 yuan."
"oh"
The traffic jam ahead seemed to have improved and the car started moving again.
Yang Ye touched the bag next to her. There should be a remaining cigarette box in the bag. Even if she didn't smoke it, it would be good to turn it around in her hand. She rummaged through the bag. The driver looked at her actions from time to time through the rearview mirror.
From the pocket of her bag, she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.
It seemed like the abbot gave it to her on her first day on the mountain.
Yang Ye took it out and unfolded the paper.
It was a little too wrinkled, and she stared at the tattered piece of paper for a moment, not sure what to feel, before she sighed, resting her head back and tossing the paper back into her bag.
"What? They're arguing again!"
After finishing his meal, Xu Jingzhe, who wanted to sit down and rest for a while, received a call from the bureau. He stood there, listening to the urgent voice on the phone, and frowned in distress.
Xiao Xiao brought out some fruit and saw his irritable look. "What's wrong?"
Listening to the noise on the phone, Xu Jingzhe responded, "Okay, I'll be right back."
"Are you leaving?" Xiao Xiao put down the fruit plate.
He took the jacket from the sofa and said, "The guy who reported the case last night is here to make trouble again."
"What's going on?"
Xu Jingzhe said as he put on his clothes, "Didn't we catch a thief yesterday? He stole a bird cage from someone's house."
He was so anxious that he searched for the cuffs with his left hand several times but couldn't find them. Xiao Xiao picked up the clothes for him and asked, "Did you find that thing?"
"We found it, but they insisted that the birdcage we found was fake and refused to acknowledge it. They also said that if we couldn't find it, they would make us pay for it."
"What kind of logic is this? What did the person who was caught say?"
"The thief said that he took the same thing we found, and now the person who reported the case is making a big fuss in the police station." Xu Jingzhe felt a headache just thinking about it.
Xiao Xiao was puzzled. "It was real originally, how come it became fake after being stolen? Could the thief be a magician? Hey, is that birdcage expensive?"
"It's expensive." Xu Jingzhe nodded. "It seems to be from the Qing Dynasty or some other dynasty. I forgot. I don't want to ask Yang Ye to help us take a look. Isn't she an expert in this field?"
Xu Jingzhe put on his clothes and said, "I won't say any more. I'm going back to the bureau first. When Yang Ye comes back, remember to tell her about this. If we don't finish it, there will be more quarrels."
Xiao Xiao sent her to the door and said, "Okay, wait until she comes back and I'll tell her."
When Yang Ye came back, it was already afternoon.
Xu Jingzhe called Xiao Xiao less than half an hour after he returned. He really couldn't solve this problem. Thinking that since Xiao Xiao had worked for Yang Ye for several years, she should have some ability to identify things, he called her over to see.
The grocery store was very quiet. She opened the door, put her luggage and bag at the door, and prepared to go upstairs to take a shower to wake herself up.
Passing by the two desks, Zhou Yi lay down on one of them and fell asleep.
The computer was still playing the anime he was halfway through, and intermittent sounds came from the headphones hanging around his neck.
My pace slowed down inexplicably, and I saw him sleeping. I had no thoughts in my head, but I couldn't help but walk closer to him.
His head was tilted to one side, his face pressed against his pillowed arm. His eyes were closed, his eyelashes were long, casting a small shadow under his eyes, and his breathing was light, slow and steady.
Yang Ye looked at the sleeping face and tried to reach out.
Zhou Yiheng rubbed his face and hummed.
His hand froze in mid-air.
Zhou Yiheng was half asleep, half awake, when he felt something blowing on his face. He looked over with sleepy eyes, and his gaze happened to meet Yang Ye who was looking back at him. Yang Ye's clear eyes were beautiful, and her eyes were big. Her eyes were full of him, and she was looking at him too.
The moment their eyes met, Yang Ye smiled at him, very gently, but with a little sadness.
Zhou Yiheng was still a little confused when he woke up. In a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness, he didn't react for a while. He just said to Yang Ye with a tired look: "You're back."
Yang Ye was stunned and looked at the young man in front of him.
The faces of Xue Shangyang and Zhou Yiheng flashed across her mind, and if she was distracted, she would hardly be able to tell who was who. She had seen Xue Shangyang when he was young, and Zhou Yiheng was the replica of the young Xue Shangyang in her memory.
Even the small mole on the tip of the nose is in the same position.
"You have to know that no matter how similar they are, they are not the same people as before."
Yes, Xue Shangyang has been dead for almost a hundred years, what kind of daydreaming am I doing?
She reacted suddenly, her eyes dimmed, and she stood there blankly like a soulless puppet.
Zhou Yiheng woke up and saw Yang Ye standing beside his desk. He looked at Yang Ye. Yang Ye's expression was a little strange. He suddenly realized that he was sleeping during working hours. He stood up and wiped off the red marks on his face left by sleeping. He was embarrassed and a little at a loss.
"Boss, you're back." He laughed innocently. "I've finished everything. I don't have anything else to do, so I just took a nap."
"Hmm." Yang Ye felt that his voice was a little uncomfortable.
Zhou Yiheng continued, "Boss, you haven't eaten yet, right? I just ordered takeout, and it will be delivered soon. Why don't you go back to your room and rest? I'll call you when the takeout arrives."
"No need," Yang Ye said
She walked away, and Zhou Yiheng seemed relieved. But Yang Ye said, "I'll just wait here for a while."
Seeing her sit down on the sofa, Zhou Yiheng's originally relaxed mood was lifted again. He could only respond awkwardly, "Okay."
Yang Ye didn't say anything, and the conversation between them fell silent again.
This lull wasn't as awkward as the previous two. Yang Ye figured out Zhou Yiheng's personality over this period of time. He wasn't a talkative person, rather rather shy, or perhaps even slow to warm up. But with people he was already familiar with, like Xiao Xiao, he'd actually be quite talkative. It was just that he was always afraid of himself, and he didn't know what he was afraid of.
Seeing the several atlases on the coffee table, Yang Ye asked, "Who took these out?"
"Xiao Xiao" Zhou Yiheng looked up from behind the computer. "Her boyfriend came this morning and said he had a difficult matter, so she took it out to look for information."
Yang Ye asked, "Where is she?"
"I took a phone call and went out."
Yang Ye had no expression on his face and just nodded lightly.
Zhou Yiheng couldn't think of what to say, so he nodded silently. He shrank behind the computer and tried to reduce his presence as much as possible.
Yang Ye looked towards Zhou Yiheng's position. The large computer screen completely blocked his view. She suddenly asked, "Are you afraid of me?"
"No," he quickly answered, sticking his head out.
“Every time you see me, you hide.”
Trying to hide only makes things more obvious. He smiled at Yang Ye and said, "I wasn't hiding either."
The look on Yang Ye's face almost confirmed her guess. She went into the kitchen, poured a glass of water, and placed the glass next to Zhou Yiheng.
"When I said it was okay, it really was okay," Yang Ye said, "You don't need to feel any more burdened, and you don't need to be so nervous when doing things. You can be like Xiao Xiao and not treat me as your boss, and you don't need to be so reserved when facing me."
"Hey," she gestured to the glass of water on the table.
Zhou Yi held the glass horizontally in his hand, and there was still a faint trace of steam coming out of the warm glass.
"Thank you," he said gratefully.
"Xiao Xiao should have told you that there aren't that many rules for doing things here, and I'm not the type to find fault or stir up trouble. Just do what I tell you to do, and don't tell anyone else what you see here. That's all. When you're not working, you can do whatever you want, play games, watch TV, or sleep. You can treat working here as a relaxing thing, or as a temporary transition point between you and society after graduating from college."
Yang Ye teased him about the little shaking figurine on the table and said with a smile, "Thinking too much and carrying too much burden is actually not good for your mental health."
She had just finished speaking when the takeaway was delivered.
Zhou Yiheng answered the phone, went to the door to get the takeaway and put it on the coffee table.
Yang Ye walked over and saw the lonely takeaway, "Just one?"
"I've eaten," Zhou Yiheng said. "Xiao Xiao said you were coming soon, and I thought you might not have had lunch, so I ordered one."
Yang Ye nodded, "Thank you."
She was hungry and hadn't eaten anything since morning.
There are only two meals in the temple, one after the morning class and one before sunset.
During the morning class, the sky outside might just be getting light. Yang Ye had never gotten up, so she had almost only had one meal before sunset these days. However, she had never felt as hungry as she did today in the mountains during these days.
It was as if her stomach had a switch. When she was hungry, she'd suddenly become restless, her thinking and reactions slowed, and she'd gurgle and feel a sour taste. But once the hunger wore off, she couldn't eat anything. Even when she was hungry, she still ate very slowly, picking up a little vegetable and a few grains of rice, chewing each mouthful for ten or twenty times before swallowing. Watching her eat gave me the illusion of suppressing my appetite; she struggled to eat, but didn't eat much.
It took Yang Ye more than half an hour to finish picking up the food on the noodles. When she stood up, her shoulders slumped a little and her calves felt numb. She sat cross-legged in front of the low coffee table, maintaining the same posture out of inertia, and always felt a little uncomfortable when she wanted to stand up.
Zhou Yiheng happened to come to get something, and before she fell, he quickly helped her up and asked, "Are you okay?"
Yang Ye grabbed his arm and said, "It's okay, my legs are numb."
"Give me the trash, I'll throw it away." Zhou Yi helped her sit down and took the takeaway bag from her hand.
Yang Ye sat on the sofa. The tingling sensation in her legs hadn't completely subsided, but it was much better than the soreness and swelling that had made walking difficult. She pressed her knee joint, feeling a little uncomfortable with the sudden silence in the room.
Her eyes fell on the picture album that Xiao Xiao had flipped through. It was a gift from Liu Guoxing a long time ago. It was a commemoration of something or a birthday gift, she couldn't remember clearly.
The phone vibrated in my coat pocket.
Yang Ye picked up the phone.
"Boss," Xiao Xiao asked on the phone, "Is it convenient for you to come to the police station now?"
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