Chapter 22
With the start of winter vacation, the pace of the city seemed to slow, but the chill in the air remained undiminished. The tension of final exams had just subsided, and for Zhao Jinglu, who was about to enter her senior year in half a semester, the brief respite was followed by make-up classes scheduled by the school. Her days continued to flow between books and exams.
That afternoon, after supplementary lessons, the sky was already gray. Zhao Jinglu, carrying a heavy schoolbag, followed the crowd to the familiar bus stop. The cold wind blew against her face, and she subconsciously buried it in her scarf, stamping her feet to keep warm, her eyes fixed on the direction of the bus.
At this moment, the scene across the street inadvertently caught her attention.
It’s Ling Peng.
And there is also the thoughtful rain.
They seemed to be engaged in a heated argument. Shen Siyu was agitated, speaking rapidly, one hand tightly gripping Ling Peng's arm, the other occasionally waving. Ling Peng's back was to the road, and Zhao Jinglu couldn't see his expression. She could only see a stiff, exhausted look on his upright figure. He tilted his head slightly, as if avoiding, or perhaps enduring, something.
The distance was too great, and the clamor of traffic drowned out any concrete words. Zhao Jinglu saw only a silent, tense scene. Her heart tightened involuntarily. She remembered Zhang Hao's words on the campus network: "a quarrel." It seemed the situation was far more serious than that.
Suddenly, Shen Siyu lunged forward, pushing Ling Peng so hard he staggered and turned around. She hugged him tightly, her shoulders twitching slightly, as if she were crying, or perhaps making a final plea to stay. Ling Peng's body seemed to stiffen even more. He didn't hug her back, his arms hanging at his sides like two heavy logs.
At this moment, Ling Peng's gaze unconsciously swept across the street and suddenly fixed on Zhao Jinglu in the crowd on the platform.
Their eyes met.
The air seemed to freeze for a second.
Zhao Jinglu's heart skipped a beat. She clearly saw the flash of astonishment in Ling Peng's eyes, and then the embarrassment and shame that surged and threatened to overflow. It was a kind of embarrassment that he didn't want anyone, especially her, to see.
Almost instinctively, Zhao Jinglu quickly, almost hastily, looked away. She whipped her head around and pretended to concentrate on studying the route map on the bus stop sign, as if the terrifying glimpse had never happened. Her cheeks flushed, and a complex wave of emotions welled up within her—heartache for his predicament, regret for accidentally intruding into someone's privacy, and a subtle discomfort she couldn't even clearly define. This discomfort didn't stem from any sense of entitlement, but from the simplest empathy: seeing someone she cared about and admired trapped in such an unbearable and painful situation.
Across the street, Ling Peng, after Zhao Jinglu quickly averted her gaze, whipped his head around as if scalded. A surge of humiliation and irritation instantly washed over him. His last ounce of patience was gone.
He struggled forcefully, almost violently, to break free from Shen Siyu's embrace, his voice suppressed yet cold. Shen Siyu froze, her face filled with disbelief. Ling Peng didn't even glance at her. He turned and strode off in the opposite direction, his back resolute as he quickly disappeared into the dim winter evening street corner.
Chen Siyu stood there alone, looking in the direction where he disappeared, and finally turned around and left angrily.
Zhao Jinglu noticed from the corner of her eye that the situation across from her seemed to have subsided, and she slowly breathed a sigh of relief, but the heaviness in her heart remained. The outcome she envisioned was separation.
The bus finally lurched into the station. Zhao Jinglu joined the crowd and squeezed onto the bus, taking a seat by the window. Outside, the street was lit up, but the warm glow couldn't dispel the chill in her heart.
She couldn't help but wonder how awful he must be feeling right now. His academics had suffered, and his relationship seemed to have ended in such a disastrous way. Ling Peng, the sunny and confident man on the court, the dedicated and diligent man in the lab, the man who could even easily comfort her, had been driven to such a corner by life.
And what she "saw" just now was undoubtedly that when he fell, she accidentally saw the wound that he least wanted to show to others.
A silent sigh spread in her heart.
Meanwhile, Ling Peng practically fled home. The cold air pierced his lungs, but it couldn't suppress the burning shame and anger within him. Zhao Jinglu's final, averted glance was like a fine needle, repeatedly pricking his sensitive pride. He would have preferred she hadn't noticed, or if she had, she'd have greeted him openly, rather than hastily and considerately avoiding him—a consideration that only served to further reinforce the sheer abjectness of his predicament.
The long-simmering problems between him and Shen Siyu finally ripped apart in this outburst, leaving no room for reversal. But at this moment, the pain of the breakup was even temporarily overwhelmed by the shame of being caught in such an awkward situation.
He locked himself in his room, his mind in a mess. His phone screen lit up, revealing the last text message from Shen Siyu, filled with anger and accusations. He deleted it without even reading it.
The whole world seemed to be shrouded in a gray haze.
And in this haze, the figure standing across the street, in school uniform, hurriedly looking away, was engraved extremely clearly in his mind, bringing an indescribable, complex and piercing feeling.
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