Chapter 46 Chapter 46 She can't escape anymore
"Li Fei, Li Fei, are you home?"
Hearing this familiar voice, Guan Mi's heart suddenly dropped. Outside the door was her opposite tenant, Sister Bai, a northern woman of the same age as Li Fei, who had moved here last November.
She opened the door and saw Sister Bai in her pajamas, holding her wet hair wrapped in a towel with one hand.
"You have a power outage?" Sister Bai complained. "I was washing my hair when it suddenly went dark. I thought it was just my fault."
At this moment, the neighbors' chatter could be heard from up and down the hallway. Someone was shouting, "Has the whole neighborhood been shut down?" A child's cries could be heard faintly from downstairs.
Guan Mi wiped his forehead and said, "Maybe someone used a high-power electrical appliance."
The circuit load of this old house is limited. When the weather gets hot, the circuit breaker will easily trip if everyone turns on the air conditioner too much.
"I don't know when the phone will ring." Sister Bai looked into the dark corridor. "It's pitch black everywhere. I don't even dare to close the door." She turned to look at Guan Mi. "Why don't you leave it on?"
At this time, Guan Mi dared not leave the door open. If she turned around and saw Shen Yanfeng standing at the door, she would definitely faint from fear.
She asked Sister Bai to wait at the door for a moment, turned around, took out the candles she bought last time from the cabinet in the living room, and handed her two.
Sister Bai took the candle and finally returned to the house opposite with peace of mind.
Guan Mi closed the door gently and locked it.
She was about to continue calling Li Ke when Li Ke's voice was heard outside the door.
Li Ke went to the kitchen carrying two large bags of meat, vegetables and fruits.
"The meat should be enough to last a week, but the green leafy vegetables won't keep long, so I didn't buy too much."
"Thank you for your hard work. Please sit in the living room for a while and I'll give you the money." Guan Mi walked into the bedroom, opened the bedside table with the help of the flashlight on his mobile phone, and took out the old wallet inside.
This wallet was given to her by Qiao Qiuying. She has been using it since her sophomore year and has developed a special affection for it. When she left Beijing, she was reluctant to leave it there.
Just as she turned around with the wallet in one hand, her fingertips slipped and the wallet fell to the ground with a "bang".
A card slipped out from the compartment. She thought it was Li Fei's ID card, but when she bent down to pick it up, she froze.
The card in her hand was actually the one she had deposited 360,000 yuan into to repay Shen Yanfeng!
She stared blankly.
How did this card end up here? She almost never used the innermost compartment of her wallet, so he must have slipped it there. She was in such a hurry, she didn't check it carefully.
When did Shen Yanfeng return it to her?
"Li Fei, I'm going back first. Call me anytime if you need anything."
Li Ke's voice pulled Guan Mi back to her senses. She hurried out, called Li Ke who was opening the door, and gave him the money for buying groceries.
Half an hour later, the phone finally rang from the building.
Guan Mi walked into the bathroom and took off her clothes in the bright light. When she lowered her head, she accidentally caught a glimpse of the faint mark on her left chest.
It was done by Shen Yanfeng. I don’t know why it hasn’t been used up for so long.
She raised her hand, intending to poke at the mark. The moment her fingertips touched the skin, a shudder suddenly ran down her spine.
Her ears felt hot, and she began to frantically wipe them, as if that could erase all the past. But the more she did this, the more a familiar hot flush rose from deep within her body, betraying her.
This body still remembers him, remembers those passionate nights, remembers the warmth of his lips and teeth. But the more vivid the memory, the more piercing the chill in my heart.
Will she never be able to escape the shadow of this man in her life?
Guan Mi quickly finished his shower, turned off the lights, and without doing anything else, he just lay down in bed.
She tried to clear her mind, but the feeling that had just been evoked lingered and became even clearer.
A familiar feeling of emptiness spread between her legs, causing her to let out an irritated breath.
She simply pulled out the pillow and stuffed it under the quilt. The soft pressure slightly eased the unspeakable restlessness. But she felt it was not enough, far from enough. She quickly put her hand under the quilt.
Outside the window, the night in Sanya was humid and warm all night long.
The next morning.
As soon as the sky turned pale, Shen Yanfeng had already set out to sea on the old man's yacht.
Mr. Shen was sorting out his fishing gear at the stern of the boat, while two plainclothes guards were quietly standing on both sides.
Shen Yanfeng stood at the bow, the sea breeze lifting the corners of his clothes. The morning light fell on the sea, but his gaze was fixed on something farther away.
When Mr. Shen turned around, he saw Shen Yanfeng leaning against the side of the boat, looking absent-minded. He casually threw a coil of fishing line over and said, "Pay attention, you scared the fish away."
Shen Yanfeng caught the fishing line and said with a casual smile: "I really can't take my heart back."
"If you can't get it back, forget it." The old man came over and sat down next to him. "With time, it will naturally fade away."
Chen Yanfeng stared at the sea in silence. He couldn't agree with that statement. If time could truly erase everything, why, after half a year, had that figure not only not faded, but instead taken deeper root in his heart?
He sat down, his thoughts unconsciously returning to the second time he met Guan Ya.
May 17, 2011, Beijing.
Today was a cloudy day, with low gray clouds hanging low, and not a ray of sunshine in sight. The air was thick with the sticky feeling that precedes rain, but it hadn't fallen yet.
Shen Yanfeng's car stopped at the door of a building, and the people standing on the steps immediately came up to greet him.
“Boss Shen, Boss Zhang is already waiting for you upstairs.”
It has been almost half a year since last Christmas. Shen Yanfeng looks at the cat at home that is becoming more and more plump, and occasionally thinks of the pair of clear eyes on the snowy night.
I wonder if she's still in Beijing, and if her internship is going well. Fengbo is in need of people right now, and needs young people like her who are attentive and willing to contribute.
Shen Yanfeng didn't expect to meet her in a friend's company.
In the open office area on the 23rd floor, scolding pierced the oppressive atmosphere. Inside the glass partition, a girl in a white shirt lowered her head, a document tightly clutched in her hand.
"Guan Mi, you're responsible for this contract! Now the client says the numbers are all wrong. Do you know how much the company will lose?" The supervisor slammed the table vigorously. "Interns are unreliable!"
The girl looked up suddenly, her eyes red but her back straight. "I checked the numbers three times, the original text is exactly like that..."
"You still dare to talk back?"
Shen Yanfeng retracted his gaze and turned to walk upstairs.
After finishing the business, Zhang Hui asked Shen Yanfeng to have dinner together in the evening.
Chen Yanfeng said he was busy, took a puff of cigarette, narrowed his eyes, and casually mentioned: "There's an intern downstairs who was wrongly accused."
Zhang Hui raised an eyebrow. He had known Shen Yanfeng for so many years, but he had never seen him care about such trivial matters. He pressed the intercom: "Secretary Lin, go find out what's going on in the office area downstairs."
After hanging up the phone, he smiled meaningfully and asked, "How do you know that the intern was wrongly accused?"
Shen Yanfeng dusted off his cigarette ash and said after a while, "Intuition."
Zhang Hui wanted to ask more, but Secretary Lin knocked on the door and came in. "Mr. Zhang, I've clarified. The client made a last-minute change to the data. It was an email sent in the early hours of the morning, and Manager Liu didn't check it in time, so he put the blame on the translation department."
Zhang Hui frowned. He had never expected that there would be such an irresponsible grassroots manager in his company. "Got it. Get out."
"How to deal with it?" Shen Yanfeng asked him.
Zhang Hui hadn't planned to deal with it immediately, and he hadn't expected Shen Yanfeng to say that. He pondered for a moment and said, "There's no need to keep this kind of person."
Not long after, Shen Yanfeng left Zhang Hui's office. He pressed the elevator button, but changed his mind after the door opened. He turned around, opened the door to the emergency passage, and walked down the stairs slowly.
The office area on the 23rd floor was unusually quiet at the moment, with only the sound of keyboards tapping.
Shen Yanfeng was about to leave when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a white figure walking towards him.
The cardboard box in her arms almost covered her thin shoulders. She wore a white shirt and a black skirt, but on her feet were a pair of washed-out canvas shoes. Her hair was tied up high, and her palm-sized face was lowered. As she passed by him, he saw tears in the corners of her eyes and smelled a light scent with the fragrance of soapberries.
He turned his head, his eyes followed her, his footsteps unconsciously following hers until he was standing in the elevator, while the girl in front of him on the right still lowered her head, as if she had lost her soul.
The elevator went straight from the 23rd floor to the first floor, surprisingly without stopping. In less than a minute, the elevator door slowly opened.
The girl walked out and finally raised her head.
Shen Yanfeng walked past her with an indifferent expression, his eyes glancing at her fair profile.
He got into the car and was about to start the engine when his cell phone rang. It was a call from work.
After he finished his call, a sudden gust of wind blew up outside the window, and rain pelted the car. He started the car and drove onto the main road. Looking up at the crowded bus stop, he saw a figure squatting by the platform. She was clutching her bag, her phone in hand, half her body soaked by the rain, her frail figure looking helpless in the wind and rain.
The car stopped abruptly on the side of the road. Shen Yanfeng grabbed the umbrella in the car, opened the door, strode into the rain, and stopped in front of her.
The girl looked up at him, her wet eyes full of confusion.
He held up the umbrella to shield her from the heavy rain, and with the other hand he took out a business card from his trouser pocket. Rainwater slid down the ribs of the umbrella and dripped onto his shoulder.
"We're hiring here. If you're interested, feel free to call us anytime."
After saying that, he stuffed the umbrella into her hand and drove away.
/
It was already past five in the afternoon when he returned from the sea. Shen Yanfeng drove alone to the beach ten kilometers away.
He wandered aimlessly along the coastline until he stumbled into a strange town. Street vendors were hawking coconut cakes and shrimp crackers in the local dialect. The air was thick with the aroma of grilled squid. A few elderly men sat beneath a banyan tree, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans and playing chess.
This scene full of life gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
After walking for a while, he felt thirsty. He looked around and saw a small shop across the street, so he crossed the street and walked over.
After leaving the shop, Chen Yanfeng didn't return the way he'd come, but continued walking down the street. The street was bustling during the day, with all the shops open for business, save for one that remained firmly closed. He casually glanced up at the shop sign—"Gossip Bookstore."
At first he didn't care, but the next second, his eyes suddenly fixed on the handwritten recruitment notice on the wall.
The handwriting is elegant yet graceful, and every stroke of the pen is so familiar.
The water bottle suddenly deformed in his palm. He stood there for a long time without looking away.
After an unknown amount of time, two little girls clutching five-dollar bills ran to the door of the bookstore. They stood on tiptoe to peer through the closed door, their crisp conversation drifting into Shen Yanfeng's ears:
"Hey, isn't Sister Feifei opening the store today?"
"What should I do? I want to drink the lemonade she made."
"How about we go to her house and find her?"
Shen Yanfeng pulled himself out of his emotions and looked down at the two little girls beside him.
He half-knelt down, looked them in the eye, and said gently, "Is the Sister Feifei you're talking about the owner of this shop?"
The little girls looked at the strange man warily, but nodded subconsciously.
"Then do you know," he said calmly, lowering his voice, "where she lives?"
The two little girls looked at each other and shook their heads. The one with the ponytail took a half step back, her eyes filled with a child's instinctive alertness.
Shen Yanfeng smiled: "Uncle is not a bad person."
The little girl with ponytails stared at him for a while, then suddenly grabbed her companion and ran away: "Mom said we can't talk to strangers!"
The two small figures quickly disappeared at the intersection.
Shen Yanfeng stood up, took out his cell phone and made a call.
"Go check out a bookstore called 'Gossip Bookstore' right away."
As he spoke, he stared at the mobile phone number on the job notice.
Guan Mi woke up before dawn, sat at the workbench and started weaving bracelets. He almost never left the balcony during the day.
When she heard the aunt selling ice jelly downstairs was about to set up her stall, she stood up to drink some water and then returned to her seat to continue working.
Suddenly, the fingers trembled uncontrollably, and a light blue bead slipped from between the fingers, bouncing on the floor and rolling away.
Recruitment notice!
She actually forgot to take back the paper she had written by hand and posted on the wall.
Her back tensed instantly, and her breathing stagnated. After a long moment, she slowly exhaled, trying to calm her pounding heart. No way, someone like him...why would he set foot in a place like this? And even if Chen Yanfeng saw it, he wouldn't necessarily recognize it as her handwriting.
However, Guan Mi still sent a text message to Li Ke, asking him to help tear it down if he was free.
Li Ke: [I’ll go right away.]
When it was getting dark, Li Ke called.
"The recruitment notice has been torn up?"
interrogative sentence.
Guan Mi's heart skipped a beat, "I really didn't tear it."
Li Ke pondered for a moment: "He accompanied Mr. Shen to the sea this morning, and went out again after returning. He didn't let anyone follow him."
Guan Mi stood up suddenly, turned around quickly, and looked down with his hands on the balcony railing.
If she hadn't received this news, she might have been able to console herself by thinking that an applicant had torn up the notice, but now...
The lights downstairs were dim and there were few people around. Even the old man who was playing chess had gone home for dinner.
On the other end of the phone, Li Ke seemed to be talking to a little girl.
"Li Fei, he and I might just be there at the same time. Be prepared, he was probably the one who tore up the notice. I just ran into Lulu, and she said a man was asking where you live a while ago." Li Ke's footsteps became hurried. "He might be checking right now. I'll hang up first, and I'll be downstairs waiting for you."
Guan Mi's throat was dry: "Okay."
The moment the call ended—
Knock, knock, knock.
Three rhythmic knocks on the door sounded slowly and steadily.
Guan Mi's heart tightened, and she tiptoed to the door. Before she could stand still, her phone suddenly vibrated.
She lowered her head and looked at the familiar Beijing number on the screen.
The last glimmer of hope was completely shattered.
At this moment, she was very sure that the person outside the door was Shen Yanfeng.
What should she do? Hide or open the door?
But the result seemed to be the same, she could no longer escape.
"Mimi." A deep and familiar voice came from the other side of the door.
Her eyelids trembled heavily, cold sweat broke out on her back, and she dared not say a word.
"Mimi." He called again, his voice so gentle that it could drown someone.
"Mimi, guess what," he said slowly, "how many kicks can this broken door withstand from me?"
"I'll give you three seconds to think of the answer."
"three."
"two--"
The door was suddenly opened, hitting the wall with a dull thud. Guan Mi met those deep, smiling eyes.
The old corridor lights cast a hazy halo behind him. Chen Yanfeng leaned lazily against the side of the door frame, deliberately leaving the middle passage. The corners of his lips curled up slightly, staring at Guan Mi's face that he hadn't seen for a long time, and there was a faint smile in his voice:
"Run. Why don't you keep running?"
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