When He Jingsheng was about to leave that day, Jiang Que told him to go back and focus on his own affairs and not to come to see him specially. But He Jingsheng was not at ease. Finally, after much persuasion, Jiang Que reluctantly agreed to let him come once every one or two months.
It was said to be one or two months, but He Jingsheng went there much more frequently than agreed, and he flew there almost every few weeks.
However, Jiang Que never let him go directly to his home again. Every time, he just asked him to wait in a coffee shop near the community and he would go to meet him.
Jiang Que is not a sociable person, and the only person who can be called a friend around him is He Jingsheng.
He Jingsheng was also very clear that in the current situation, he might be Jiang Que's only connection with the outside world, so every time he went there, he would take the initiative to talk about many interesting things that had happened recently, news and gossip, trying to make Jiang Que feel that he was still connected to the outside world.
However, he soon discovered that the effect of this contact was not very good.
At first, the two could still chat a few words every time they met, but as time went on, Jiang Que would appear more haggard each time, and he spoke less and less, until he was almost silent.
There were even a few times when He Jingsheng saw obvious bruises and scratches on his cheeks and neck. However, no matter how He Jingsheng asked, he just shook his head lightly, as if he didn't want to say a word.
By the end, he had begun to directly refuse to meet.
Every time He Jingsheng expressed his desire to visit him, he would receive a reply like "I have something to do tomorrow."
At first, He Jingsheng thought that he really had something to do, and he felt a little relieved. He thought that it turned out that he was not idle. As long as there was something to distract his attention, no matter what it was, it was better than staying at home all day and suffering.
But as this kind of reply happened more and more often, He Jingsheng finally realized it even though he was slow to react - Jiang Que had nothing to do, he just didn't want to meet him.
This realization made He Jingsheng feel a little uneasy.
If the other person was not Jiang Que, he might have interpreted this rejection as coldness and alienation, a signal that the relationship between friends was fading. After all, everyone had their own lives, and it was normal to gradually lose contact as they became busy.
But he knew clearly what kind of life Jiang Que had been living for the past six months, and knew that his condition had been continuously declining. He was his only connection with the outside world, and now he wanted to cut off even this connection, which made He Jingsheng worried.
Therefore, he didn't even consider the question of whether he was cold or not. After receiving Jiang Que's reply of "something" again, he very "untactfully" asked him what was the matter and when he would be free.
The first question was answered, but the second one fell into oblivion. He Jingsheng continued to ask, but all he got was a perfunctory reply like "Let's talk about it later."
After that, even the perfunctory attitude disappeared.
As He Jingsheng asked more questions, Jiang Que simply ignored the messages and phone calls, as if he was determined to completely isolate himself from the world.
This made He Jingsheng feel powerless.
As a friend, he certainly hopes to pull Jiang Que out of his misery, but Jiang Que is an adult after all, and the decisions he makes do not require others to interfere. All he can do is try his best to persuade him a few more times every time they meet, but he cannot force anything to change.
But now, Jiang Que simply avoided him, and he couldn't even persuade him.
During that time, He Jingsheng was really conflicted, but after much hesitation, he finally felt that he couldn't let him be depressed like this. He gritted his teeth, opened the ticket booking software, and prepared to fly over again to find the person directly.
However, just when he had already selected his flight ticket and was about to confirm the payment, he received a call for the first time in his life -
Staring at the name on the caller ID that popped up on the screen, He Jingsheng was stunned for several seconds before he reacted and quickly answered the phone: "Hello, Jiang Que?"
The person on the other end hummed softly, his voice filled with fatigue and hoarseness from not speaking for a long time: "Have you been busy these past two days?"
He Jingsheng realized something and quickly said, "I'm not busy. What's wrong? Are you free?"
Jiang Que responded again and asked, "Are you free to come over the day after tomorrow?"
"The day after tomorrow?" He Jingsheng looked down at the date on his watch, pushed it back two days, and suddenly realized, "Isn't the day after tomorrow... that thing?"
"Well," Jiang Que replied calmly, "It's my father's memorial day, and I want to go to the cemetery to see him."
At this point, He Jingsheng certainly understood what it meant. He hadn't expected Jiang Que to take the initiative to ask for his company. Although he was surprised, he was also somewhat relieved, so he agreed without hesitation: "Okay, then I'll take the earliest flight there the day after tomorrow."
Two days later.
He Jingsheng arrived in Sucheng as promised. This time Jiang Que did not stop him from going home, so he went straight upstairs after arriving at the community.
When I stepped out of the elevator, I happened to meet Jiang Que coming out after closing the door.
Jiang Que was dressed unusually formally that day. Against the backdrop of the dark fabric, his already haggard and thin face looked even paler.
But he didn't know if it was He Jingsheng's illusion. The moment their eyes met, he felt that Jiang Que's state today was different from before. It was no longer the gray silence and decadence, but a strange tranquility.
This kind of tranquility was a little hard for He Jingsheng to understand, and even made him feel a little weird. However, it was only a fleeting feeling, and he quickly came to his senses: "Just the two of us?"
He pointed towards the door: "She...isn't going?"
Jiang Que shook his head.
Ye Ying did not participate in Jiang Di's funeral at all. Later, from the seventh day to the seventh day, and then to New Year's Eve and Qingming Festival, she never went to visit the grave.
It was the same today. Even though she knew what Jiang Que was going to do, she was completely indifferent.
He Jingsheng was aware of this, so he was not too surprised when he got the confirmation. He even thought it was the best, so that she wouldn't get stimulated and go crazy when she went to the cemetery.
"Let's go, then?" he said.
Jiang Que nodded and walked into the elevator with him.
That day was a weekday and not a traditional sacrificial festival, so there were not many people visiting the cemetery to pay respects to the deceased.
After He Jingsheng accompanied Jiang Que to complete the tomb-sweeping process, he deliberately left him some time alone in front of the tombstone, and went to wait under the shade of a tree in the distance.
The clothes for late autumn are obviously very thick, but from a distance, Jiang Que's back as he sat in front of the tombstone still revealed a sense of thinness, as if he was emaciated.
He Jingsheng sighed softly, hoping that Jiang Que could stay a little longer. After all, he had a terrible year, and the tombstone was the memory of the person who had loved him the most in the world. Whether it was mourning or complaining, even if it was just a one-sided conversation, it could be regarded as a way to vent his emotions.
However, Jiang Que did not delay for too long.
He just sat quietly in front of the tombstone for a while, then stood up and walked towards this side.
"Okay?" He Jingsheng asked.
Jiang Que nodded and walked with him down the hill to the cemetery along the shade of the trees.
It was a cloudy day.
Low-hanging dark clouds covered the sky, the air was filled with moist water vapor, and the late autumn wind blew the dead leaves, adding a bit of coldness and desolation to the silent cemetery.
Amid the rustling sound of falling leaves, Jiang Que walked silently for a long distance. As he walked, he suddenly called out softly, "He Jingsheng."
"Hmm?" He Jingsheng turned around and responded.
Jiang Que didn't look at him, but stared ahead calmly, his eyes seemingly unfocused: "I'm a little tired."
He Jingsheng didn't expect him to say that. He looked around blankly and found a wooden chair not far away. "Why don't we go over there and rest for a while?"
However, Jiang Que just shook his head and continued to walk slowly forward. After a moment, he actually smiled lightly.
He Jingsheng hadn't seen him smile for a year, and he couldn't help but be dazed when he saw him smile. However, the smile was very light and shallow, and accompanied by his haggard and pale face, it inexplicably revealed a hint of sadness.
Before he could think about it, Jiang Que took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to him.
"What is this?"
He Jingsheng took it and flipped the page open. When he saw the contents clearly, he suddenly turned his head and looked over: "What do you mean?"
It turned out to be a gift contract.
The content of the contract was that Jiang Que would donate his apartment in the capital to him free of charge.
"Aren't you going back?!"
This was the most intuitive meaning he saw from the contract - Jiang Que bought the house in the first place in order to stay there, but now he didn't want it anymore. Does that mean he doesn't plan to go back?
Jiang Que still stared ahead. Compared to He Jingsheng's surprise, his eyes and tone were as calm as still water: "I guess we can't go back."
"Nonsense, how can she not go back? She will get better one day, right?" He Jingsheng said anxiously, stuffing the contract back to him without saying anything. "Put it away quickly, and stop messing around."
Jiang Que didn't get annoyed. He took the paper and gently smoothed out the wrinkles that had been pushed out. He said calmly, "You've been busy running around for me this year, and you've delayed so many things. But when I think about it, it seems like you have everything you need, and I have nothing to repay you with."
The last wrinkle was smoothed out patiently. Jiang Que folded it in half again and put it directly into He Jingsheng's pocket: "I'll leave this house to you as a souvenir."
He finally raised his eyes, which had been lowered, and met He Jingsheng's gaze sincerely and gently.
And just as He Jingsheng looked into those eyes, he suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart.
He felt that Jiang Que in front of him suddenly became very "light", not light in weight, but in a kind of ethereal feeling that was not tangible and could not be touched or retained.
Like a feather.
It is about to fly away on the autumn wind.
Hospital duty office.
Song Yecheng's expression changed slightly when he heard the words "I'm a little tired", and the same was true for Zuo Jianqing beside him. After listening to the next few sentences, he could no longer help but interrupt and said, "What does he mean by this? Why does it sound like..."
He glanced at Song Yecheng and soon saw the same surprise and doubt as himself in his frown and worried eyes.
Jiang Que's words sounded too much like a farewell, and that gift contract... was simply like dealing with an inheritance.
He Jingsheng looked at their reactions and couldn't help but smile bitterly: "You all heard it, right?"
His expression was filled with self-mockery as he said, "But I was really stupid at the time. I didn't even get that part. I was even angry that he was so distant with me. He actually wanted to talk about repaying me for doing a favor between friends."
Jiang Que had always left him with the impression of being calm, resilient, and sometimes even powerful over the years, so when he heard those words, his habitual impression prevented him from thinking about anything else and he understood them only literally.
He Jingsheng was still annoyed for a while, and then he continued where he had been interrupted, changing the subject and saying, "But before I could say a few words to him, his phone rang."
The melody played by the god of death is always the same.
When the bells rang in the silent cemetery, just like the source of the disturbing dreams in the early morning of a year ago, they only felt abrupt and harsh, but no one could have anticipated the implication of death.
It wasn't until Jiang Que picked up the phone and froze in place when he heard the other party's words, until the call was hung up, he stared blankly at the time on the screen and recounted the content of the call in a dreamlike manner, that He Jingsheng realized what kind of nightmare this was repeating -
On the same date as last year, almost to the second, Jiang Que received a call from the traffic police and learned about a sudden car accident.
Everything seems to be a repeat of the past.
Even the heavy rain that had been brewing for a long time and finally poured down, beating on the windshield as they rushed to the scene, was diligently playing its original role.
A crowd of onlookers on a busy street.
The road is blocked by cordon and police lights are flashing.
The scene is obviously different, yet it feels strangely familiar.
Especially when the huge advertisement printed on the bus parked in the middle of the road came into view, the two people who had just arrived at the scene could not help but stop in their tracks, feeling a tremor and horror as if time and space were distorted.
But He Jingsheng didn't expect that this was not all.
On this day last year, it was Jiang Di who died in a car accident. As a family member, Ye Ying vented all her anger on Jiang Que, accusing him of being the culprit.
Now the person lying in a pool of blood was Ye Ying.
He Jingsheng originally thought that at least the plot of forcing him to commit a crime would not be repeated, but he did not expect that fate would also "perfectly" reproduce this scene -
In the pouring rain, the crowd was in chaos.
Ye Ying's father held his daughter's body, which had been confirmed dead, in his arms, while her mother rushed over crying, ripping at Jiang Que's clothes like a madman. She screamed at the top of her lungs, turning all her hatred into a sharp knife and stabbing it fiercely into Jiang Que's heart: "It's all your fault... It's all your fault! You had no good intentions from the beginning. You pretended to be a filial son and took care of her while she recovered. You just wanted her to die--!"
"What evil did they do to take you in? Bringing you home and raising you to this age, only to end up raising a disaster! Killing one wasn't enough, you had to kill them all before you were satisfied!"
"You're a beast—!"
The movements of her hands were far less violent than those of Ye Ying, but the curses in her mouth were even more heartbreaking than what Ye Ying had said before.
He Jingsheng was filled with anger when he heard this, but he couldn't say anything bad to a mother who had just lost her daughter. He had to grit his teeth and pry open her hand that was holding Jiang Que's clothes, and pulled Jiang Que away.
"Don't listen to her nonsense," He Jingsheng said angrily, "What she said is bullshit. It has nothing to do with you."
Jiang Que did not respond.
He was extremely silent that day and never gave a single response from beginning to end.
He didn't say "I'm fine", nor did he pretend to be indifferent. He just stood in the heavy rain, letting the rain drip from the ends of his hair. His expression was neither sad nor happy, and there was no light in his eyes. There was no trace of emotional fluctuation.
He was still like a feather.
But it seems that it will never fly away with the wind again.
Instead, it was trapped on the lake surface by the rain, soaking and seeping in bit by bit, gradually becoming as heavy as a thousand pounds, and slowly sinking, about to sink to the dark and silent bottom of the lake.
At the end of the day, Ye Ying's body was taken away from the scene by a funeral home car, and her parents also left with the car. Jiang Que, as a nominal direct relative, was taken back to the traffic police brigade by the traffic police. Together with He Jingsheng, he learned the details of the accident from the surveillance video of that section of the road.
Ye Ying rushed towards the car by herself.
According to the time calculation, she should have left home and arrived at the intersection shortly after Jiang Que left.
She stood at that intersection for a long time, but neither crossed the road nor left. She just stood there, her eyes seemingly looking towards the clock on top of the Post and Telecommunications Building opposite.
Time passes by every second.
When the minute hand jumped to a certain moment, she withdrew her gaze and turned to look at the road. Then, just a few tens of seconds later, she rushed out without any warning, as if she had already chosen it, and rushed towards the bus that was running normally.
Crash, fall, roll.
He died on the spot.
This surveillance video is enough to prove that Ye Ying committed suicide, but the traffic police did not know why she looked at the clock before committing suicide, nor could they be sure whether she deliberately chose that bus or just picked one at random.
The traffic police didn't know, but Jiang Que and He Jingsheng both knew it - because that was the time when Jiang Di had a car accident last year, and the bus she chose had the same poster as last year's billboard.
She is doing everything in her power to "repeat the old ways".
Ends with death.
This may be due to her feelings for Jiang Di, and she regards this as a ritual of love suicide, or perhaps it is just to express the hatred that has not yet dissipated, and she wants to use this replay to give Jiang Que a final blow before her death.
But none of this matters anymore.
Regardless of her real intention of committing suicide, as long as it can be confirmed that she deliberately crashed into the car to commit suicide, she needs to bear the main responsibility in determining the traffic accident liability.
Moreover, in this accident, the bus driver was driving normally, and immediately called the police for rescue and protected the scene after the collision. He did not commit any violations, so Ye Ying was not only primarily responsible, but also fully responsible.
After confirming that the bus driver did not have to bear any responsibility and that no passengers on the bus were injured in the accident, Jiang Que seemed to be slightly relieved.
But he did not let the matter go. Instead, he took out a bank card from his wallet and asked the traffic police to pass it to the bus driver as compensation for his mental damages.
The traffic police couldn't help but be stunned.
He had seen many families of the deceased who were unreasonable and demanded compensation after the incident, but he had never seen one who not only did not make a fuss, but instead took the initiative to ask for compensation from the other driver. It was a bit unexpected for a moment.
He was stunned, but He Jingsheng beside him could fully understand Jiang Que's intention——
Ye Ying's suicide was an unexpected disaster for the bus driver who was driving normally. Even if he did not have to bear any responsibility, the psychological trauma of killing someone was enough to accompany him for a lifetime.
Perhaps usually in similar accidents, he, as the victim, has to face the harassment and compensation from the family of the deceased, and is even advised by the traffic police that "the other party is dead", and in the end he has no choice but to swallow his loss.
But Jiang Que obviously didn't think this was natural.
He could tolerate Ye Ying's anger, revenge and even abuse towards him, but he could not ignore the fact that an innocent person was implicated. Since the harm was already a fact, all he could do was to try his best to make amends.
When I came out of the traffic police station that day, it was already dark.
The rain showed no sign of abating and continued to fall outside the eaves.
Jiang Que stood at the top of the long steps at the door, took out his phone and fiddled with something, then turned to He Jingsheng and said, "The latest flight is at 8 o'clock. I've booked a ticket for you."
He Jingsheng was stunned for a moment: "What about you?"
Now that Ye Ying has passed away, in his opinion, the shackles that trapped Jiang Que no longer exist.
Moreover, before leaving the accident scene today, Ye Ying's parents left a message saying "We never want to see you again", which means that Jiang Que doesn't even need to interfere in Ye Ying's funeral, so there is no need for him to stay in Sucheng at all.
Jiang Que looked at the gloomy rain outside the eaves, not knowing what he was thinking. After a while, he said softly, "I want to take a nap."
His voice was weak and tired, and He Jingsheng instantly realized that he might not have had a good night's sleep in the past year. Now that he would not be disturbed by any external forces, he should really take a good rest and adjust for a while.
Thinking of this, He Jingsheng no longer hurried to persuade him to leave Sucheng. He nodded and said, "Then I'll take you back?"
"No need," Jiang Que said, "I'll take you to the car."
He Jingsheng didn't think much about it. It was difficult to get a taxi on a rainy day, so he simply called one on his mobile phone.
In a few minutes, the car arrived, stopped at the foot of the long steps and honked twice.
"Then I'll leave?" He Jingsheng turned around and said.
Jiang Que nodded.
He didn't say goodbye, but just watched He Jingsheng walk down the stairs, open the car door and get in.
It was inconvenient to open the window because of the rain, so He Jingsheng waved at him through the glass. Jiang Que looked at him from afar, and then a very light smile appeared on his face.
The car started and slowly moved forward.
Jiang Que's figure gradually disappeared from He Jingsheng's sight and became a silhouette in the rearview mirror.
The silhouette was really blurry.
Standing quietly on the steps under the eaves, separated by the mottled rain curtain, surrounded by the deep night and the bright hall as the background, the outline is gradually covered with a halo by the rain, becoming both real and illusory, hazy and unclear.
From a distance, it seems as if it has no entity.
It was as if the wet feather had sunk to the bottom of the lake.
What remains on the lake now is just a vague shadow of its past.
Hospital duty office.
He Jingsheng's eyes were a little dazed, as if he was still immersed in the scene he saw in the rearview mirror that night. After a moment, he regained focus and blamed himself, "If I had heard the hidden meaning in his words in the cemetery that morning, I would definitely not leave that night and would have kept a close eye on him no matter what."
"But I didn't hear it at all. Not only did I not hear it, I even felt a little happy on the way back, because I think his adoptive mother's death is actually a good thing - although it may not be moral to think so, but in my opinion, she is a selfish and vicious burden. Only when she is gone can Jiang Que be relieved."
Song Yecheng and Zuo Jianqing listened quietly and did not think that there was anything "immoral" about this, especially Song Yecheng. He felt that based on what Ye Ying had done to Jiang Que, even if she was not dead now, he wanted to send her a wreath.
However, he did not comment or blame anything. After all, the person was gone and there was no point in saying more. He was more concerned about what happened next.
The same goes for Zuo Jianqing.
Although they all knew that Jiang Que would not get into trouble at that time, after all, he was still alive and well, but from He Jingsheng's recollection, Jiang Que's condition at that time was not just "haggard", but had reached the end of his strength, and even showed obvious tendencies to commit suicide.
This makes people think deeply about what kind of turning point made him give up the idea of committing suicide.
But what they didn't expect was that the "turning point" He Jingsheng mentioned next would be so abrupt, so abrupt that it almost caught people off guard.
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