Tao Zhi never cried.
She felt that her lacrimal glands were developed enough during this time, like a faucet that was turned off, she would cry when she saw Tao Xiuping, and when she saw Ji Jin, but the only time she saw Jiang Qihuai, she didn't want to cry .
She was sure, and confidently felt, that she understood what he meant.
She listened to what he said, felt his breath and temperature, the lingering breath on the tip of her nose, the residual touch on her lips, and the echoing voice from her eardrums, like a conductor of a symphony orchestra, marking the final chapter of their relationship .
Tao Zhi always thought that between the two of them, the dominance was always in her hands, but it wasn't.
He watched her approach cautiously, racked his brains to test, rushed forward, and then chose to stay away calmly and silently.
The person who occupies the dominant position is actually always him.
Tao Zhi suddenly felt that the past few months had been like a joke.
She never doubted whether Jiang Qihuai liked her at all, she knew very well that he liked her, he was not the kind of person who would wrong himself, if he really didn't like her, he would not give her any chance.
It's just that his liking for her and her liking for him have probably never been of the same magnitude.
In fact, she still has a lot of things to say, she wants to ask him why, wants to refuse, wants to refute, just like every time before, she messes around and acts like a baby, and then looks at his helpless look with joy.
She wants to tell him that I can stick to it, so can you and don't compromise.
She stood on the edge of the cliff with her shattered self-esteem, tried hard to restrain so many thoughts and anger, and finally put them together and stuffed them all back into her body.
She is a proud princess.
The princess should come vigorously and leave simply.
Stalking was never in her character.
I do not want it.
I don't want to like this mood, and you who I like.
She lowered her head and smiled forcefully: "Okay."
The moment the voice fell, before Jiang Qihuai had any reaction, she suddenly raised her arm and wrapped it around his neck.
The distance that had already been opened was shortened again, Tao Zhi raised his head, and bit his lip hard.
Her lips were pressed together, her teeth were grinding, until the sweet taste of blood spread in her mouth, she relaxed her hands.
The young man's lips were stained with scarlet blood, which was a little more coquettish, and he looked at her with lowered eyes.
Tao Zhi licked his remaining blood on his lips, his dark and upturned eyes were as clear and bright as when they first met: "My father said that when adults face some temporarily unsolvable things, When you are in trouble, you always choose to compromise," she said softly, "Congratulations, you have grown up ahead of time."
Tao Zhi dropped his hands, jumped off the bed, and walked to the door without looking back.
When she opened the doorknob, she paused: "I wish you a bright future."
The door of the ward was closed with a soft "click", and the room fell into silence again.
The sound outside could be faintly heard from the closed doors and windows. The water vapor in the kettle had dissipated, and the scalding temperature dropped little by little, gradually cooling down.
Jiang Qihuai stood by the bed, watching the little sag on the snow-white sheet, where there was someone sitting there a minute ago, and there was even her remaining warmth and breath on it.
He raised his hand, and lightly touched the folds of the bed sheet with his fingertips, reluctant to smooth them out.
When Tao Zhi fell asleep in the hospital, Tao Xiuping came to talk to him a lot.
He told him about her when she was a child, her childhood, the first time she learned to speak, the first time she went to school, the first time she got full marks in school, and the first time she had someone she liked.
What Ji Fan said was right, she was a treasure held in the hands of the whole family, she grew up carefree, but why should she be wronged by him.
Tao Zhi knows everything.
His selfishness, his ugliness, and those dark messes that he didn't want to be seen by others, she has long been clear. What he hides, what he avoids, she accepts them all.
He really wasn't good enough for her.
But even the weather shone brightly on the days when she smiled at him.
He was originally a selfish person, and he couldn't let go of that deep-rooted greed. He didn't want to let go, and he would never let go.
Jiang Qihuai is not afraid of darkness, he has been feeling darkness, understanding darkness, and breaking free from darkness since he was born. He can work harder, struggle to the death, and never recover.
Not his rose, which should have bloomed in a greenhouse, protected by a strong glass cover.
He can wait, he has a lot of patience and time to spend. No matter how long it will take to get rid of it, no matter what the cost.
Whichever path you choose, I will follow you and I will find you.
So you don't come again.
I will step on the barren mountains and ridges, and walk across the rolling glaciers.
I'll be bright enough to touch the light one day.
And you just need to go forward and bloom to your heart's content.
Tao Zhi never went to 603 again, nor did he go to the small alley on that bustling street.
Apart from going to the hospital to accompany Ji Jin every weekend, her life has not changed.
Still get up half an hour earlier than before to listen to English every day, and then wake up Ji Fan with the beautiful and noisy female voice, and the two go to school together.
Song Jiang would come to look for her in Class 1 from time to time. After half a semester of harassment, Song Jiang and Li Shuangjiang had become familiar with each other. The boys were already familiar with each other, and later they often went to play ball or games together.
Wang Foldzi still likes to make cold jokes with a serious face, Zhao Mingqi is so angry that Wang Er will hold his chest from time to time and say that he will have a heart attack sooner or later, Fu Xiling has become more courageous, and will be when Ji Fan snatches her pen Slapped him on the head angrily.
The little girl was weak, and her soft hands felt like a massage. Ji Fan was not annoyed, and smiled and apologized before returning it to her.
It's just that Jiang Qihuai's seat was always vacant, and no one came again.
His desktop was tidy, as if it had been in this position for half a year.
At the beginning, Li Shuangjiang wanted to ask about it a few times, but Fu Xiling stopped him with a look, and he didn't mention it anymore.
No one is at a loss because of the sudden disappearance of a classmate, the earth is still turning, and life is going on.
Only occasionally, when Li Shuangjiang habitually turned his head and stretched his neck in the early morning when he hadn't finished his homework, he shouted, "Brother Huai, let me copy your physics homework." , then turned around muttering "my brain" again, and gave her a wary look.
Tao Zhi lowered his head and wrote the paper, as if he didn't hear it, he didn't respond.
Everyone knew what happened between them, but no one asked what happened.
Tao Zhi seems to be okay every day, but very occasionally, when she is eating or curling up on the sofa to read a book, she will be in a daze for a very long time.
She never asked Tao Xiuping how Jiang Qihuai was doing now, whether he transferred to another school or where, and Tao Xiuping would not take the initiative to talk about it with her.
It was just that during dinner one time, he asked Tao Zhi if he wanted to transfer schools.
Tao Zhi poked the rice, raised his head blankly and asked, "Why?"
Tao Xiuping looked at her with some distress, but didn't speak.
She actually knew why.
The teaching building, cafeteria, water room, classrooms, and stadium in Experiment 1.
In front of the glass counter in the canteen, the honor wall in the lobby on the first floor, the school doctor's room full of disinfectant smell, and under the desks that secretly held hands to hide people's eyes and ears.
His shadow is everywhere.
After a long silence, Tao Zhi asked slowly, "Where are you going?"
Seeing her let go, Tao Xiuping also heaved a sigh of relief: "Should I go to No. 3 Middle School? After this final exam is over, the next semester will start. I asked someone to find out, and the teaching staff is a little stronger than the experimental staff." He I deliberately avoided the option of the attached high school, saying, "It's not far from home, and it's on the same road as the experiment. From now on, you can still go to school with Xiaofan every morning."
Hearing this, Ji Fan raised his head: "Aren't I going?"
"You just stay in the experiment and be honest," Tao Xiuping raised his hand and knocked him on the head, "You have to check your grades when you transfer to No. 3 Middle School. Look at your grades, it doesn't make you pass the exam too much, right? Whenever you can get five hundred in the exam, I will put it in for you."
Ji Fan curled his lips: "Then I'm still experimenting, at least I have more friends, so it's more fun."
The matter of transferring schools seemed to be settled just like that. Tao Xiuping took time out to help her contact contacts and prepare for various procedures. Tao Zhi was always very cooperative throughout the whole process.
Near the end of January, after the end of the final exam, it is a long winter vacation in the north.
Tao Zhi's final exam score dropped by nearly 100 points compared with the previous monthly exam, and his originally top-notch English was also miserable this time. After the parent meeting, Tao Xiuping came back, but he didn't say anything.
Tao Zhi sat in front of the sofa, was pulled by Ji Fan to play mobile games, watched Tao Xiuping make a cup of tea and put it on the coffee table, then sat across from them with a notebook in his arms, and carefully asked, "What will happen to the parents?"
"Huh?" Tao Xiuping raised his head, "It's good. Your teacher Wang even talked to me alone, saying that you will transfer away next semester, and he is very reluctant to part with you."
Tao Zhi pursed his lips and said in a low voice, "My total score this time is almost 100 points lower than last time."
Tao Xiuping was overjoyed. With a straight face, he suddenly said seriously, "Father was also shocked when he saw it."
Tao Zhi fell silent.
Tao Xiuping continued: "My daughter can score more than 400 points in the test now, how can she study so well without telling her father?"
Ji Fan rolled his eyes, and said quietly, "Don't worry, even if you go to the toilet and get clogged with constipation one day, Lao Tao will say—" He paused, imitating Tao Xiuping's tone and said vividly: "I My daughter can block the toilet now? It's too awesome!"
Tao Zhi slapped him on the head, and Ji Fan exaggeratedly called out: "Old Tao! Your daughter beats me every day! Does she have violent tendencies?"
Tao Xiuping: "Don't swear."
Ji Fan dropped the phone, and sighed bitterly: "I finally understand, I just have no status in this family."
Tao Zhi couldn't help but pursed his lips, raised his hand to brush his hair, Tao Xiuping also followed suit.
He looked at the two children who were making a fuss on the opposite sofa, and suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Xiao Fan, Dad is really happy that you can come back."
Ji Fan's hand was still in Tao Zhi's creaking hole, he paused when he heard the words, he turned his eyes uncomfortably: "Why are you doing such sensational things all of a sudden..."
"I used to be afraid of being poor, so I felt that financial conditions were more important than anything else. I have a family, a wife and children. I want to make money and give you the best life, and I have the ability to do it." Tao Xiuping sighed Tone, "But now, maybe it's because you're old, and people will change their minds when they get old. You don't have too much money, you just need to spend it. Dad now, I just want to see you grow up happily."
Ji Fan looked at him suspiciously: "Old Tao, are you really going to go bankrupt, why don't you put it here and give us a vaccination in advance? Then I have to ask for money, I just took a pair of limited-edition sneakers online Woolen cloth."
Tao Xiuping: "..."
When I was in school, I always felt that the days passed too slowly, and when it was winter vacation, time always passed quickly.
Tao Zhi's student status files and various procedures have all been completed one after another. In the next semester, she will start a new life in a new environment.
The night before the start of school, she sorted out all the study materials, papers and notes used in the past six months in her room.
Her previous papers were always blank, and she could hardly write on them, and most of them were copied. Now, almost every paper is full of words.
The answers are written with two colored pens, the black one is flamboyant and the red one is elegant and concise.
She stared at the red handwriting for a moment, the first time in months that she had actually seen his mark.
They all speak like their own.
Tao Zhi has always felt that Jiang Qihuai's handwriting has a contradictory restraint and arrogance.
So she never felt that he was the kind of person who would succumb to fate. The only reason for compromising was probably because he didn't like him enough.
She lowered her eyes, stacked the test papers one by one, knocked them together, pushed the thick stack to the corner of the table, and then went to sort out the information books.
She piled up the full information books one by one, and opened the last mathematics lecture, revealing the selection of English compositions below.
Tao Zhi's fingers paused.
She had planned to give it to him that day, but then she hid it secretly like a thief, and both of them forgot about the book.
Forget it, and never think about it again.
Tao Zhi dragged the book to her face, remembering the night when the boy gave it to her.
The bedroom is small and tidy, the lamp on the desk is bright, the strawberries are big and big on the plate, and the photos on the wall tell the unknown secrets one by one.
The room that hides and exposes too many childhood thoughts is no longer a field she is qualified to set foot in.
Tao Zhi sucked the sour tip of his nose, and slowly opened the frayed book cover, revealing the title page inside.
There are four words on it.
She used to write her heart on it seriously, contentedly and piously.
She passionately split open her heart full of love that was almost overflowing and held it in front of him. Looking at it now, every word seemed pale and absurd.
Tao Zhi grasped the edge of the book tightly, lowered his head, and stared at the row of words that seemed to be written yesterday with his eyes wide open. Finally, the tears that he had suppressed for several months were completely uncontrollable. Big drops fell.
Tears dripped on the thin paper, she took out the pen, and wanted to scratch off her self-righteousness, but the tip of the pen hung on the paper, reluctant to drop it for a long time.
She raised her hand to wipe her eyes, stroke by stroke, and slowly wrote a few more words in front of those four words.
The handwriting fell on the wet paper, and it was a bit difficult to write. She went back and forth, tracing the handwriting of the previous time over and over again, as if she wanted to force herself to recognize some facts.
Until the last time, the page of the book was too fragile to bear, and the sharp pen tip pierced through the page, scratching bluntly on her heart.
She only added three words in front.
— Doesn’t belong, Zhizhi’s, Jiang