crossroads
When Gu Zian opened his eyes, he saw the hand-painted ceiling of his house with dark beige patterns, and Qingwu's crisp laughter could be faintly heard outside the door.
He was in a trance for a moment, and the voice and smile of the palace maid An involuntarily appeared in his mind.
The barking of a dog brought Gu Zian back to reality.
Yes, he had returned home to Taipei. He was Gu Zian, Xia Zhitang's husband, Qingwu's father, and they had a dog named Qingluan...
When Gu Zian went downstairs, the expression on his face had returned to normal. His family members were playing in the yard.
The sun was shining brightly at this moment. In the blue brick courtyard, Xia Zhitang and Qingluan were playing frisbee, while Qingwu was standing beside them giggling.
Qingluan was the first to notice Gu Zian, and rushed to him with her tail wagging and the frisbee in her mouth.
Xia Zhitang stood up and dusted off his clothes: "Are you up?"
Gu Zian nodded and sat at the outdoor table, eating breakfast while watching them having fun.
Only occasionally he would feel dazed and sad. It was like he had lost something very precious in his life, making him feel lost.
It was a subtle and indescribable feeling, as if the time anchor of his world was floating between reality and illusion.
Xia Zhitang watched Gu Zian finish his breakfast absentmindedly, then squatted down and kissed Xiao Qingwu on the cheek.
"Mom has to go to work, can you let Dad play with you?"
"Mom." Qingwu held onto Xia Zhitang's clothes and was unwilling to let go.
"Dad said he can drive you to go swimming." Xia Zhitang squatted on the ground and looked at Qingwu at eye level. "Dad is a better swimmer than Mom. He can hold you up high."
Qingwu pouted and looked at Xia Zhitang eagerly.
"When you come back from swimming, Mommy will tell you a story tonight, okay?"
Qingwu nodded, and Xia Zhitang touched the top of Qingwu's head.
"Say goodbye to mommy, love you."
After Xia Zhitang coaxed Qingwu, he stood up and walked towards Gu Zian.
"I'm back to work."
Gu Zian looked at the fatigue in Xia Zhitang's eyes and said, "I'll take her to the amusement park this afternoon and come back after dinner."
"Going back to the city for lunch and rest at noon?"
"Well, go back to the flat over there. I'll ask Aunt Wang to make the arrangements later."
"Okay, I'll go camping with you the day after tomorrow." Xia Zhitang felt that he should participate more in family activities.
"Can you spare the time?" Recently, Xia Zhitang often stayed up late reading documents in the study.
"Well, there's only one bit left. I'll try my best to finish it in the next two days." Xia Zhitang stretched and said, "Okay, I'll go get busy first."
Gu Zian looked at Xia Zhitang's back and felt a little sad.
After the filming, there was something invisible between them, even though outsiders thought they were still in love...
Gu Zian even felt that if Qingwu and Qingluan had not served as the hubs for their daily communication, they might have felt a little awkward before.
Although they tried very hard to get closer to each other, it felt like they were swimming against the current. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't touch each other...
Xia Zhitang returned to the study and quickly reviewed the materials while organizing the document clues.
The shooting of the project at hand has been completed to a high degree, but the direction of the manuscript has never satisfied her.
She somewhat missed the days when she personally oversaw productions from shoot to post-production. Through personal interaction and interaction, inspiration flowed so naturally. She and Lin Jingming could easily grasp a key point and develop it. Unlike now, when she looked through the director's submitted proposals, she felt like she was standing behind a layer of glass. Even after detailed discussions with each director, she still felt like she wasn't getting far enough.
After discussing with Lin Jingming, Xia Zhitang decided that the two of them should quickly go through the initial project materials and then decide on the framework direction.
What Xia Zhitang is doing now is going through the transcriptions and categorized materials organized by his assistants. This work is a bit boring, but it is necessary to understand a project.
Only when the nanny knocked on the door and told Xia Zhitang that dinner was ready did she pull her thoughts away from her work.
I stood up to stretch my stiff shoulders and relax my nerves before clicking on Lin Jingming's avatar on the computer to sync with him about the progress of my thoughts for the day.
Not long after, Lin Jingming called.
Xia Zhitang simply left a message asking the nanny to bring the meal up, and chatted with Lin Jingming while eating.
As soon as he hung up the call with Lin Jingming, Gu Zian sent a message to Xia Zhitang saying that he was on his way back.
Xia Zhitang rubbed his temples and decided to take a bath to relieve his fatigue while there was still some time.
Lying in the bathtub, Xia Zhitang inexplicably thought of Lin Jingming's shoulders exposed under the quilt, and his greasy tongue and slightly rough fingertips in the Tibetan ward unconsciously flashed through his mind.
The next moment, Xia Zhitang scooped up a handful of water and splashed it on his face.
Xia Zhitang, can you please sober up? You have a family now, you shouldn't drag him into this situation. This is irresponsible behavior for anyone.
When Gu Zian came back, he didn't see Xia Zhitang.
The nanny said she was upstairs and hadn't come down yet. Gu Zian asked the nanny to take Qingwu to take a bath first, and he went upstairs to look for someone.
I found her room from the study, and finally saw her sleeping in the bathtub in the bathroom.
The water in the constant temperature bathtub is still very comfortable, but you can't soak in it for a long time.
When he reached into the bathtub, his mind flashed by the scene in the play where the palace maid An was bathing the third prince who had been punished to kneel all night during the intense court struggle before the third prince ascended the throne. He pulled the palace maid An into the bathtub and kissed her.
Gu Zian closed his eyes in pain. When he opened them again, the hem of his clothes was wet by the water in the bathtub. He simply took them off.
When Xia Zhitang woke up in a daze, she was already wrapped in a bath towel and carried to the bed by Gu Zian.
She yawned: "Where's Qingwu?"
"Take her to take a bath, sister." The image of another sister flashed through Gu Zian's mind, and he felt that he had to find a deeper connection with the real world.
When Xia Zhitang realized something was wrong, Gu Zian had already leaned over. She subconsciously turned her face to the side and the kiss fell on her temples.
"Zi'an, I'm very tired." At this moment, she suddenly realized that there was only a thin bath towel between her and Gu Zi'an.
Gu Zian grabbed Xia Zhitang's hands that were pushed against her chest and fixed her slender wrists above her head with one hand.
"Sister, I want it."
Gu Zian's sigh sounded in Xia Zhitang's ears, followed by a moist and tingling sensation.
Xia Zhitang's voice softened: "Zi'an, can you wait for Qingwu to fall asleep first? I promised to tell her a story."
"Sister, don't run away." Gu Zian longed to return to the state where they were in tune with each other.
"Just wait a moment." Xia Zhitang made a final struggle while feeling dizzy.
"Sister, I feel so uncomfortable." Gu Zian pinched Xia Zhitang's chin and silenced all her words with a kiss.
It was difficult for Xia Zhitang to describe how he felt. A feeling of grievance rose from the bottom of his heart.
The world is big, but she feels like a tiny speck of dust in the vast universe, rising and falling with the waves of emotions, but she cannot feel happiness and joy.
Gu Zian finally stopped moving. He hugged Xia Zhitang tightly, buried his face in her neck, and tried hard to feel the feeling of being fully embraced and accepted from the bottom of his heart to his body.
Xia Zhitang stared blankly at the intricate dark patterns on the ceiling, and suddenly felt that this extreme exquisiteness was like a huge cage.
When she finally stepped out of the room, Xiao Qingwu, who had been playing all day, had already fallen asleep due to sleepiness.
Xia Zhitang looked at his daughter's peaceful face through the bed rails with the dim night light, and gently stroked Qingwu's face with his index finger.
Looking at her adorable, childish daughter, she suddenly felt somewhat relieved that she had made the inexplicable decision to flee. Even if the world couldn't understand her and thought she was worrying too much, the lucky few who were favored by fate were ultimately few and far between, and the public's inexplicable support ultimately became her confidence in the future.
Lin Jingming was a little shocked when he received Xia Zhitang's camping invitation. He had already prepared himself for Xia Zhitang to avoid him for a long time before the divorce - after all, her moral bottom line was so high.
Lin Jingming resisted the urge to agree immediately, forced himself to put down his phone, take a shower, and then come back to reply her.
In a very good mood, he opened the wine cabinet, poured himself a glass of brandy, and scooped a few cubes of ice from the ice maker and threw them in.
Lin Jingming sat at the bar, shaking his wine glass. The spiciness of the ice wine exploded in his mouth, and then turned into a warmth that flowed into his body.
After taking a few sips of wine, Lin Jingming suddenly laughed softly.
It seemed like his earlier move had finally paid off, but what did it have to do with him? He had been the one who arranged the book, but the rest was Gu Zian's own decision. He was influenced by the plot because he wasn't strong enough mentally; one couldn't have it all.
He finally laughed enough, put down his wine glass, walked to the mirror, and opened the photo of Xia Zhitang in his phone favorites.
This photo was taken secretly by Xia Zhitang when she collapsed into his arms the next day in Tibet after he and Xia Zhitang reviewed a manuscript with her for half the night. In the photo, she rested her head on his shoulder, as serene as an angel.
Lin Jingming held his phone high in front of the mirror, looked at himself in the mirror smiling like a flower, and suppressed his worthless smile.
When he adjusted his expression to a point where he no longer looked happy, Lin Jingming turned to look at Xia Zhitang on the phone, recalling the scene at that time.
Then he continued to look at himself in the mirror and deliberately pressed down the corners of his slightly raised mouth.
After practicing repeatedly for half an hour, Lin Jingming began to feel a little tired. He patted his stiff cheeks and prepared to continue practicing tomorrow.
He picked up his wine glass and sat down at the computer desk, opening an encrypted document with a top-secret plan written on the first line.
He clicked on the historical location and punched in the date on the progress bar. Lin Jingming pondered for a moment before typing in the content column: Willing to reconnect, suspected relationship discord with Gu Zian.
After finishing writing, he jumped to the follow-up plan column, deleted and revised it, and finally finalized a line of words.
He looked at the form with satisfaction, took a sip of wine, and added another item to the list of precautions: Pay attention to all the potential single men around you!!!
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