Jiang Qihuai bit this bit with a bit of strength, and said nothing, as if he was a little unhappy and dissatisfied.
The red light turned green, and Tao Zhi pushed him away at the same time, Jiang Qihuai glanced at the road conditions, straightened up and followed the traffic.
His lowered brows and eyes were slightly raised, and he seemed to be in a better mood.
Tao Zhi raised his hand and touched his lips with his fingertips, the pain eased, but he still felt a little numb.
"You bite when you talk," she said speechlessly, "are you a dog?"
Jiang Qihuai said calmly: "It's not because I'm afraid you won't remember me."
As the car drove this way, the sky had already darkened at a speed visible to the naked eye, and January was about to come to an end. Seeing that there was only half a month left before the Chinese New Year, strings of lights in the shape of firecrackers and stickers had already begun to be arranged on the street. The red lanterns with blessings are full of New Year flavor.
Tao Zhi was reminded by this scene, and when she remembered something, she turned her head, wanting to ask him how to arrange for this year's Chinese New Year.
Just as he was about to speak, his eyes fell on his indifferent and cold side face, he hesitated for a moment, and swallowed back the words he hadn't said.
Grandpa Jiang is gone. I don't know what the current situation in his family is like, whether he celebrates the New Year alone.
Jiang Qihuai caught a glimpse of her movements from the corner of his eye, looked at the road ahead without turning back: "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." Tao Zhi turned his head, leaned back to the co-pilot lazily, and said casually, "Do you, Meishuo, want to study for two years?"
"Normally," Jiang Qihuai said, "but you can graduate if you earn enough credits."
Probably because Jiang Qihuai has always been a figure of the god of learning, and Tao Zhi has long been used to it, so she didn't really feel that he skipped a grade for his master's degree with good grades. She didn't realize it until today after encountering tin foil I realized that it is an incredible thing to be able to complete a two-year course at Penn University in less than one year.
"It's possible in theory, but it's almost impossible in practice," she said with emotion. "How did you manage to graduate in less than a year?"
Jiang Qihuai turned the steering wheel with one hand and got on the elevated road: "I don't rest."
Tao Zhi responded for a while before asking: "Then have you been studying and working?"
Jiang Qihuai let out a "hmm".
Tao Zhi couldn't imagine, she looked at him with wide eyes and asked, "Then how many hours do you sleep every day?"
"Three or four hours," Jiang Qihuai said casually, "I think it's always been very little."
Tao Zhi was stunned.
Even though she still had a lot of things to say in her heart, she couldn't ask, and she couldn't ask any more.
She didn't know if it was because of his words, or his indifference when he said this, but she suddenly felt that the tip of her tongue was drenched with carbonated soda, astringent and a little fried.
Although it was only a few words without further description, Tao Zhi could probably imagine what his life has been like these past few years. With the picture made up in my mind.
Can't think about it.
Whether he feels hard by himself, whether he will be lonely, whether he is tired or not, she can't think about it.
After reuniting with him, Tao Zhi never once asked Jiang Qihuai, how have you been all these years.
At first she thought she hadn't remembered it, but at this moment, she thought of Grandpa Jiang's faded kind smile in the cemetery, and Tao Zhi suddenly figured it out.
She didn't forget, she just didn't dare to ask.
She was afraid to hear him say that she has had a bad life in recent years.
For the rest of the journey, Tao Zhi didn't speak any more.
When he gave way, Jiang Qihuai glanced at her sideways. The little girl tilted her head against the car window, closed her eyes, her thick eyelashes cast a shadow, her breathing was light and even, as if she was asleep.
When the car stopped, she almost woke up with a start.
"Are you home?" she asked, rubbing her eyes and stretching.
Jiang Qihuai leaned over and stretched out his hand to help her unbuckle her seat belt: "Don't you want to eat?"
"Oh," Tao Zhi muttered vaguely, "I forgot."
She opened the door and got out of the car. The cold wind outside the car woke up her drowsy mind. Tao Zhi stood on the side of the street and glanced back and forth before realizing the street.
Walking along the street to the corner is Night Market Street, a convenience store at the corner of the street, and further forward is a barbecue restaurant, the one she brought him to before.
Tao Zhi: "Huh?"
Jiang Qihuai locked the car, grabbed her scarf and pulled it up: "Let's go."
Tao Zhi followed him to the barbecue shop. She hasn't been to this shop very much since then, and she doesn't remember when she came last time. Tao Zhi stood at the door and looked around.
The store is twice as big as before, probably because the neighbors have been taken down, and there are a few more waiters, so the boss is no longer busy in the front hall alone.
Tao Zhi and Jiang Qihuai picked a seat by the wall and sat down, then watched him order a fried rice first.
She suddenly remembered that when she was in high school, she took him out for barbecue, and the boy didn't eat anything, but quietly ordered a fried rice.
After ordering, Jiang Qihuai handed the menu to the waiter, took two bottles of beer from the back box, opened it and pushed it forward.
Tao Zhi: "?"
"I know your habits," Jiang Qihuai said, "Little drunkard."
Drinking must be drunk, she told him back then.
Although she hasn't drank for many years.
Tao Zhi only hesitated for a moment, then he took it straightforwardly, rinsed a clean cup and filled it up.
Jiang Qihuai wanted to drive without drinking, but Tao Zhi was very energetic, probably because he had quit drinking for too long, and he suddenly opened the gate, so he couldn't stop it.
She has been drinking poorly.
Before she had finished two bottles of beer, her eyelids started to turn red. She propped her chin with one hand and held the chopsticks in the other, trying hard to poke the grilled shrimp heads off the plate.
Jiang Qihuai just looked at her like this and poked for a long time: "What are you doing?"
"I'll undress him." Tao Zhi said.
"..."
Jiang Qihuai sighed, put her prawns on his plate, took out a wet towel to wipe his hands, and then pinched the prawns with his fingers to peel off the skin.
He tossed the peeled prawns back on her plate and pulled out a clean damp paper towel to wipe his sauce-stained fingers.
Tao Zhi silently glanced at the shrimp in his bowl, then raised his head and stared at him.
Jiang Qihuai wiped his fingers clean, raised his eyes: "What's wrong?"
Tao Zhi frowned and looked at him, and said dissatisfiedly, "Why did you take off my clothes?"
Jiang Qihuai: "..."
He squeezed the neck of her half bottle of beer and took it away expressionlessly, then picked up the teapot and poured her a small cup of tea: "Let's drink tea."
Most of the tea at the barbecue stand is very weak, almost no tea flavor, no different from warm water, but when Tao Zhi heard this word, he still wrinkled his nose: "I don't like drinking tea."
"Well, who do you share the tea with." Jiang Qihuai said clearly, while raising his hand to call the waiter.
Tao Zhi's mind was a little dull at the moment, and he didn't remember what he had said before to get angry with him, so he didn't understand his words for a while.
She glanced at the cup of tea with disgust, and then saw the waiter coming over with a plate of honey, and handed it to Jiang Qihuai.
Jiang Qihuai scooped two small spoonfuls of honey into her teacup with a small spoon, and placed it in front of her again: "It's sweet."
Tao Zhi was stunned.
She held the small cup and looked at it for a while, then said slowly: "My friend said that sweet tea is wrong, you won't be able to drink the taste of tea."
Jiang Qihuai lowered his eyes and said casually: "It doesn't matter, you can drink whatever you want, don't care what is right."
Tao Zhi looked at him and blinked his eyes.
She got a little red on her face when she drank, not only her eyelids, but also the tip of her nose and her cheeks were slightly red. She crossed her legs, and suddenly said without end: "I haven't been drunk for a long time, the last time I drank Drunk is the time to have dinner after the college entrance examination."
Jiang Qihuai raised his eyes and responded patiently: "It's been a long time."
Tao Zhi raised his chin slightly, looked at him and said, "I went looking for you that day, but I couldn't find you."
Jiang Qihuai was stunned.
Tao Zhi pushed the plate and cup in front of him forward, lay down on the table, and repeated in a low voice: "I didn't find it, you disappeared."
She rested her chin on her arm, tilted her head to recall, and spoke slowly: "It was very hot that day, and there were a lot of mosquitoes, so I just sat there," she pointed forward vaguely, "Sitting there and looking at the photos, You left me a lot of photos."
She looked at it for a long time.
His childhood, those times she never participated in, his precious secrets, the most important things he kept in his heart and never told anyone.
He didn't take it with him when he left, as if these things were no longer important to him.
Because it is no longer important, he discarded it like a shoe.
Because it's not important anymore, so he doesn't want it.
Tao Zhi suddenly raised his head to look at him, his eyes were a little red, his voice was choked up uncontrollably, with a bit of aggrieved complaint: "You don't even want the photos, are you planning to never want me again?"
Jiang Qihuai looked at her, his throat moved, but he didn't say anything.
It's as if the body has been numb after sitting for a long time, and the limbs and bones, including the heart, seem to be pricked by rows of extremely small needle points, which are densely packed and tingling with pain.
Jiang Qihuai didn't know what kind of psychology he was holding at that time.
On the day they parted, he wanted to tell her so much, but in the end, he couldn't say a single word.
He didn't want her to wait, he wanted her to stride forward chicly all the way to the wider sky.
But just in case, she still has a little nostalgia for him.
If there is such a one-in-a-million possibility, one day she suddenly turned around and looked at him on a whim.
He took down the photos one by one, and pasted them back one by one. They were neatly stacked on the wall, waiting patiently for the person their owner wanted to come.
That was the expectation he couldn't tell anyone, it was the hand he held her that he didn't want to let go no matter what, it was the last bit of him, the only remaining darkness and selfishness.
He wants her to know that I like you so much.
I liked you long ago, before we were together, before you liked me.
When Jiang Qihuai was a teenager, he always thought that in their relationship, Tao Zhi was very capable.
She had a boyfriend before, she approached him with ease, made him intimate naturally, and then made him submit easily.
So he chose to leave at that time.
He thought that he was not that important to her. Jiang Qihuai had never felt what it was like to be the "most important person" of other people. Even Jiang Qinghe, he knew very clearly in his heart that for Jiang Qinghe For me, the most important person is actually Jiang Zhi.
He didn't expect that there was really a person who would feel that he was such an important existence.
It was he who did something wrong.
He completely underestimated and underestimated her determination and sincere love at that time.
Tao Zhi's eyes were red, and she looked at him stubbornly and persistently, as if this was a thorn in her heart, which she planted on the day she was drunk, so since then, she never drank any more.
Until she got drunk again, she stubbornly wanted to pull it out.
Jiang Qihuai didn't know how to explain it to her.
He couldn't say anything, and after a while, he said in a hoarse voice, "I want to leave it to you."
Tao Zhi sniffed and looked at him for a while, then hiccupped.
"Do you want me, waiting for you to come back?" she stammered.
"Yes," Jiang Qihuai said, "but I hope you don't wait for me."
Tao Zhi looked at him inexplicably, not understanding what he meant by that.
She struggled to sort out her thoughts, but found that she couldn't straighten them out.
She gave up, pursed her mouth unhappily, and said with a choked voice, "but you haven't come back for so long, you haven't wanted to come back for so long."
Jiang Qihuai's eyes fell on her lightly, and his voice was low: "Zhizhi, I want to come back to find you quickly every day."
So compress the sleep time to the limit, and then use all the remaining time for study and work.
During the days when he was away from her, even if it was only one month earlier, or one day earlier, he wanted to come back quickly.
But he can't be impatient, since he has decided to take this road, he can only walk all the way towards the exit, he can't look back, he can only do his best to go faster, and then go faster to the end of the road run.
For a period of time after Jiang Qinghe's death, maybe a few weeks, or maybe a longer period of time, Jiang Qihuai once felt that he had entered a desperate and paranoid dead end.
The color disappearing from his life was so sudden and unexpected that it happened before he even had time to react.
He suddenly felt that his ten years had passed like a joke.
All his persistence seemed to be useless, he couldn't protect anyone, and he couldn't do anything in the end.
Jiang Qihuai suddenly didn't want to run any further.
He let himself be swallowed by the swamp bit by bit, so tired that he didn't even bother to struggle with his fingers.
Until he received a call from Ji Fan.
He told him that Tao Zhi didn't listen to his family and went to C University to study a strange major, that she spent almost all of her pocket money on expensive cameras and lenses, that she spent all day with friends from the university club all over the world I ran around and took a bunch of messy photos.
Said that she participated in a photography auction with great enthusiasm, confidently felt that her photos could be competed by famous artists, and felt flattered that she was really a talented photography girl.
That day, Jiang Qihuai sat by the bed and waited until dawn.
He raised his head blankly, and then saw the faint morning light outside the window.
He went to the auction photography exhibition that Ji Fan mentioned.
At that time, he didn't know how many nights he had survived, and his state in all aspects was actually very poor. He didn't know why he went, it was probably just the last bit of strength, and he subconsciously wanted to grab something.
Even how he looked at the map to find it, and whether her photo was taken at dusk or dawn, he was a little confused to recognize.
All he knew was that she took two rounds of the sun.
A round of rolling red clouds hangs far away on the horizon.
Another round treads water, treads light.
Then, once again, it shone brightly into the muddy chaos, walking towards him.