Chapter 222 Goodbye This is the only way I have to go
When Zhu Yingning's application to stay was approved, Chen Fei and Wen Wenxu had already packed their luggage and planned to return to the provincial capital.
They had originally bought different tickets. Wen Wenxu left three days earlier, but Chen Fei, who had some work to do and wanted to stay with Zhu Yingning for a few more days, bought a ticket three days later. However, Zhu Yingning persuaded her to leave on the same day as Wen Wenxu, saying she could help with some of the cleanup work.
She was quite rude when it came to driving people away, and under her urging, Chen Fei finally changed her ticket and bought the same flight as Wen Wenxu.
The take-off time is at 11:30 am. In the morning, they still get up at the same time as usual. No one gets up early or late. Their biological clocks have been tamed by the daily work.
Breakfast was a simple meal of soy milk, fried dough sticks and steamed buns. Zhu Yingning broke the barbecue pork bun in half and took turns eating it with Shen Fei - Shen Fei had also broken open a vegetarian bun. They had similar appetites and only ate a cup of drink and a palm-sized bun in the morning. Taking turns eating allowed them to taste different flavors.
Wen Wenxu picked up the fried dough sticks and sighed, "Oh my God, who bought such an unhealthy thing again?" Then he stuffed it into his mouth and ate it with relish.
After finishing his meal, he took a break for half an hour and started his daily muscle maintenance exercises. Shen Fei returned to his room to check his luggage again.
At half past nine, the two people took their respective carry-on luggage - the part that could not be taken with them had already been packed into large parcels and sent out by express delivery - and came to the open space in front of the Party and Mass Service Center to say goodbye to their colleagues.
Although there was no need to go to work today, Wang Shengju still brought Yan Zi and Er Zhu here.
The farewell wasn't as emotional as one might imagine. After loading the suitcases into the car, Wen Wenxu got behind the wheel and drove. Wang Shengju, hands clasped behind his back, walked to the driver's window and simply said, "Be safe and have a safe trip."
He wore a tan T-shirt, grey trousers and a black leather belt around his waist. It was an incongruous yet relaxed combination. He stood with his hands behind his back, his belly sticking out. He couldn't be said to have a big belly, but he was almost fat, looking like someone who had been in the system for decades.
Wen Wenxu narrowed his eyes, grinned, and said, "Okay."
Chen Fei got on the back seat and Zhu Yingning sat in the passenger seat, planning to accompany them to have lunch near the airport, send them off for the last time, and drive the car back.
The car started, drove out of the Party and Mass Service Center, and drove onto the road outside.
The figures of Wang Shengju and his two colleagues in the rearview mirror quickly shrank and receded. As they approached the bend, Wang Shengju raised his hand and waved in the direction their car was heading. Before Wen Wenxu could see clearly, their figures disappeared completely as they turned the corner, like ink spots thrown off rice paper.
The rural road was deserted, and Wen Wenxu drove slowly as usual. Occasionally, a few villagers, unaware that they were leaving, would come towards them on bicycles or electric scooters. Seeing them from afar, they would greet them loudly, "Going to town?"
The brief encounter didn't allow for a lengthy explanation, so Zhu Yingning simply replied, "Well, you're back from town?"
The other party replied: "No, the sun is really strong!"
Seeing Shen Fei sitting upright in the back seat, he greeted her, "Xiao Shen is here too."
Or laugh at Wen Wenxu's speed: "Xiao Wen is still so careful."
This kind of conversation died down only after we left the town.
Because there was no one they knew on the road.
Wen Wenxu adjusted the car music, and a song called "Ordinary Road" popped up, and the chorus part came directly -
I have crossed mountains and seas / and walked through crowds of people
Everything I once had/is gone like smoke in the blink of an eye
Wen Wenxu was stunned for a moment: "Oh, isn't this the song we sang during drills in high school?"
He said that there was a 20-minute break between the third and fourth classes in the morning at their high school, which was used specifically for running exercises. Every day, everyone would half-heartedly finish the three morning classes, and then half-heartedly gather on the playground across the mountains and the sea. Their physical education teacher and the physical education teachers of other classes would be like chicken blood, clapping and shouting beside the track: "Run! Run to the rhythm of the music!"
He couldn't say for sure whether they had actually crossed mountains and seas, but they certainly hadn't crossed the sea of people, because many people would slow down as they ran, deliberately letting others lap them, pretending they had completed the two 800-meter laps the teacher had ordered. Everyone was struggling to rise and fall in the sea of people.
"Is this song played during drills all over the country?" Chen Fei asked from the back seat. "We also play this song during drills at our school, but we don't do it during recess. We do it in the morning. At 6:50, all day students and boarding students alike must gather in the playground and run a few laps before returning to the classroom for morning reading."
Zhu Yingning also joined in the conversation with a smile: "We played this song on the radio at noon. Around 12:30, when the first wave of students finished lunch and returned to the classroom, the radio club started playing the radio, and the background music at the end of the broadcast was "Ordinary Road."
Wen Wenxu sighed: "Actually, I didn't think high school was that great when I was in high school. It was only when I went to college that I started to miss high school. I didn't think college was that great when I was in college either. It was only when I started working that I started to miss college. After I started working..."
"Stop." Chen Fei stopped his sentimentality in time, "My eyeliner is not waterproof today."
Due to the numerous tasks she'd been handling over the past two days, coupled with the complexities of leaving, Chen Fei hadn't slept well last night, and her face looked rather haggard. Her mother was very strict with her, especially regarding her health, believing that anyone who couldn't manage their own health couldn't manage their own lives. To avoid such sermons, Chen Fei took out her makeup, which she hadn't used since the day she arrived in the village, and with a clumsy touch, applied a full coat of makeup, bringing a touch of vitality to her haggard complexion.
However, she had not used them for a long time and was not sure whether the cosmetics she brought had expired. As for whether they were waterproof or not, she could only leave it to fate. So as early as last night, she repeatedly told Wen Wenxu that they should say goodbye and part ways quietly today, and all sentimentality was prohibited.
Wen Wenxu had no choice but to shut up awkwardly.
But the artistic spirit of a liberal arts man cannot be easily suppressed. After a few minutes of silence, catalyzed by the music, Wen Wenxu said melancholy: "Alas, this is the last time I drive you."
Chen Fei: “…”
She shot him a glare in the rearview mirror, and Wen Wenxu got the signal and had to stop expressing himself again. He shrank his neck and timidly admitted his guilt: "I was wrong."
The car was approaching the airport, and the road was a bit congested, so Wen Wenxu slowed down even more. Chen Fei took the opportunity to use Zhu Yingning as an example for him: "Look at how rational and calm the captain is. She doesn't even need me to stay a few days to accompany her. Can you learn from the captain?"
Wen Wenxu laughed weakly twice: "Okay."
The car music played for a while and then returned to the song "Ordinary Road". The male voice sang -
I once destroyed everything I had/I just wanted to leave forever
I once fell into the endless darkness / I wanted to struggle but couldn't get out
Looking at the road ahead, it is densely packed with steel cubes. Each cube carries a different person, and each person carries a different life. Bit by bit, they all converge neatly towards a common temporary resting place on the road.
Strangers who meet by chance meet and separate here.
From now on, we may be like parallel lines running side by side yet unrelated, or like intersecting lines gradually drifting apart. You go your way, and I go mine.
Life is like the sea, nothing more than this.
The melody continued to play. Zhu Yingning rested her chin on her hand and stared out the window, speechless for a long time. Only when the car pulled into the airport's underground entrance did she open her mouth and mutter to herself, "...Actually, I'm not that great."
She shifted her gaze and looked through the rearview mirror at Chen Fei and Wen Wenxu, who were looking at her at the same time because she spoke. A distant, faint smile remained on her face, but her eyes were filled with glittering ripples that would disperse in the wind. "If you leave separately, I'll be heartbroken twice. I let you go at the same time so I only have to be heartbroken once."
I've asked the whole world/never got an answer
I am just like you, like him, like the wild grass and flowers
Somehow/this is/the only path I have to take
The song ended with her words, leaving only the lingering sound.
No one spoke anymore in the fading music.
The car stopped at the designated spot at the entrance. Since it couldn't stay there for long, Zhu Yingning quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and got out to move to the driver's seat. Before doing so, she opened the trunk and took out the suitcases of Chen Fei and Wen Wenxu and placed them on the ground.
However, the two people in the car didn't move, and the security guards who were maintaining order kept urging them to leave. She had no choice but to walk around to the side of the car, open the door for them, and say, "There are a lot of cars behind, you have to leave quickly."
Only then did they get out of the car in a daze and each took their luggage.
Zhu Yingning patted one person's shoulder, then another's arm, raised his chin slightly, and pointed to the escalator on the side of the road leading to the first-floor terminal: "Go, there's only more than half an hour left before boarding. Security will also take time, so don't delay."
Wen Wenxu uttered an "oh" and said, as if he was embarrassed, "Then... goodbye, Captain."
"Goodbye." She nodded.
Chen Fei also said: "Goodbye, Captain."
"goodbye."
The two of them pushed their suitcases forward, one in front and one behind, crossing the zebra crossing and heading towards the escalator.
Zhu Yingning watched for a moment, then retracted her gaze. She braced herself on the driver's seat, about to step over. Just as she was about an inch off the ground, Shen Fei, who was walking in front of her, suddenly put down her suitcase and turned to run towards her. Startled, she froze in her tracks, one foot inside the other, suspended in mid-air. Thinking Shen Fei had left something important behind, she instinctively looked towards the back seat where she had sat.
But Shen Fei didn't go to the back seat. She ran straight towards her, hugged her and started crying.
Zhu Yingning:?
Before she could react, Wen Wenxu ran back, opened his long arms and hugged them both, also crying loudly.
Zhu Yingning:?
They acted like this, and she couldn't help but want to laugh. She was sandwiched between them, her cheeks squeezed flat, her shoulders hunched, and she giggled unbearably. Under the security guards' fiery gazes, she reminded them, "Alright, alright, you really have to leave."
In the end, she smiled, but the two of them went up crying.
Zhu Yingning also came to a conclusion——
The eyeliner that Chen Fei bought is very waterproof and can be used even after it expires.
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