Since the last incident, Fang Jiabei took the initiative to invite Lin Weixia to her house after school on Friday, which Lin Weixia did not expect.
"I have a cat. Do you want to... come to my house to play?" Fang Jiabei looked a little uncomfortable and turned to look at her toes.
Lin Weixia raised her eyelashes and looked at her, then nodded: "Okay."
On Friday, Lin Weixia was doing homework at her desk when she suddenly felt a cold touch on her cheek and a clear shadow of her wrist bone fell on the green checkered notebook.
Lin Weixia held a pen, Ban Sheng put one hand in his pocket, and with the other hand held a glass of salty lemon juice and iced it on her face, asking her, "Will you come to my house after school?"
"I'm going to a classmate's house soon." Lin Weixia took the cold drink, inserted a straw and took a sip.
Ban Sheng nodded and paused: "Do you want me to pick you up?"
Lin Weixia laughed out loud: "No, I'm not a three-year-old child."
After school, Lin Weixia and Fang Jiabei stood in front of the bus stop, carrying a black schoolbag, waiting for the bus. Soon they both got on the bus.
The car stopped and started along the way, and finally arrived at the bus stop near Fang Jiabei. Fang Jiabei's home is in an alley away from the city, and it is a self-built house of a certain age.
The alley was crowded with people, and takeaway cars kept coming in, making brake noises. Fang Jiabei used her key to unlock the door, and light from outside shone in.
"Meow-meow-meow..."
Lin Weixia was standing at the entrance changing her shoes when she saw a white short-legged cat coming towards her from a distance. Fang Jiabei immediately put down her schoolbag, held the cat at her feet, and brought the basin of water to her.
"What's its name?" Lin Weixia leaned over and touched its head.
Fang Jiabei stroked her fur vigorously and replied, "My name is Jude. It's a birthday present from my father. He's working in South Africa now."
"Jude by the Beatles? Do you like this band?" Lin Weixia guessed.
"Well! Come to my room and take a look." Fang Jiabei picked up Jude with great effort.
The cat was lying on Fang Jiabei's shoulder. Jude was not shy at all. He looked at Lin Weixia with his round eyes. The cat was well raised by Fang Jiabei. It looked round and had bright fur.
She also discovered that Fang Jiabei became much more lively when she was with the cat. She kept talking to it with some coquettish tones and was no longer the gloomy person she was at school.
Although the room is small, it is clean and tidy. What catches the eye is a tall stack of comic books next to the bookshelf. The walls are covered with posters of various rock bands from the era. Lin Weixia stood in front of the wall and took a look, and found posters of The Beatles, Queen, and Shiina Lin Qin.
"I also like Shiina Lin Qin, and my favorite song is "Stem." Lin Weixia pointed at the cool singer on the wall.
Fang Jiabei felt a little embarrassed and touched her nose: "Me too."
The two girls sat side by side on the carpet, reading comic books and listening to rock songs all night. Fang Jiabei suddenly said:
"It's been a long time since someone has read comics with me and discussed the plots with me."
"Then you can come to me later." Lin Weixia turned a page of comics and said naturally.
Fang Jiabei pressed her thumb on one of the pages of the book, and the cartoon stopped at a scene where each character was explaining to the judge the facts they had seen, and in a small round frame in the distance was someone stabbing someone with a sword.
"Actually, I've seen you before." Fang Jiabei said, staring at the cartoon above.
Lin Weixia looked surprised and raised her eyes to ask her: "Where is it?"
Fang Jiabei mentioned a location, and Lin Weixia's thick eyelashes moved and drooped: "Then why don't you expose me?"
"What should I expose? You've helped me so many times." Fang Jiabei held her hand.
The light shone down on the girl's clasped hands. She was clenching them tightly, blood rushing to her hands, but she refused to let go, as if she was trying hard to control her emotions.
Fang Jiabei asked her: "When you were sad, did you ever think about leaving?"
Lin Weixia let go, she sat on the carpet with her head leaning back against the bed, the incandescent light shone down, because the light was too bright, it hurt her eyes, a tear rolled down, and she said softly:
"I have thought about it, but I have never seen snow. I will have to raise a puppy that can lick my palms in the future."
“So let’s not give up.”
On the other side of the hospital, Liu Sijia was lying on the bed. She had lost a lot of weight and was so skinny that the blood vessels on her wrist were clearly visible through her sleeve.
Liu Sijia stared at the wall clock with empty eyes, wondering how time was passing so slowly.
The nanny held the luggage bag and said awkwardly, "Miss, the madam said something urgent happened and the chairman is also on a business trip, so let me pack your things today."
"oh."
The door opened with a creaky sound, and a tall, thin figure walked in. His voice was cold and cold like a teenager's: "Let me clean up, you go and rest."
"Oh, okay, thank you for your help, classmate."
After the aunt left, there were only two people left in the ward. Ning Chao folded her clothes neatly and put them into the storage bag. He then packed up other things, threw her perfume and lipstick into a bag, and took out a blue triangle bag from it, strung it on his finger, and asked her:
"What is this? It looks old. Why don't you throw it away?"
Liu Sijia was lying on the bed, looking over lazily. Her eyes paused, and she jumped up from the bed, walked to Ning Chao, snatched the triangle bag, and said:
“Can’t lose it.”
Ning Chao's eyes changed when he saw her nervous look, and he asked casually, "Did the pretty boy give it to you?"
"No, your desk mate gave it to me." Liu Sijia wiped the lucky charm carefully.
At this point, she didn't even dare to call out the three names Lin Weixia.
Even though it is old, there are still some fine lines leaking out.
Still can't throw it away.
This was the lucky charm that Lin Weixia had asked for Liu Sijia. They each had one. Hers was always hung on her schoolbag, and the other was always carried by Liu Sijia.
The scene brought back memories. Liu Sijia sat on the bed, holding the blue lucky charm, raised her foot and lightly kicked Ning Chao who was packing his things, and asked:
"Hey, how is she?"
"If you want to know," Ning Chao showed his white teeth and spoke in a sly voice, "Go contact her yourself. What's the point of hiding?"
Rarely, Liu Sijia did not retort, her eyelashes drooping: "She probably doesn't want to see me."
A serious illness in life can help you think more clearly about many things and wake up. During that period, she was on the most severe diet. Her father was often away on business trips. Sometimes she wanted to see him, but she could only contact him on the phone. As for her mother... During that period, she felt the most out of control, so she desperately grasped everything.
So hurtful to her best friend.
Liu Sijia blew her nose, put the lucky charm in her pocket, kicked Ning Chao again, and said:
"Ning Chao, please take me away. I don't want to go to that stupid sanatorium in the suburbs at all."
It was called a sanatorium, and it cured her illness, but in fact it was just a closed treatment room, just like a mental hospital, and she became a guinea pig controlled by that gang.
"I don't have any money." Ning Chao replied.
"I do." Liu Sijia looked straight at him.
"I don't know where to go?" Ning Chao said.
"Anywhere is fine." Liu Sijia said.
"My ID card has expired." This statement is a lie.
"Forget it." Liu Sijia replied.
The atmosphere fell silent. After Ning Chao finished packing his luggage, the sound of the zipper seemed particularly loud in the quiet space. Liu Sijia felt powerless and threw herself heavily on the bed. She felt that the sound sounded like lingchi.
After Lin Weixia came out of Fang Jiabei's house, she was extremely tired, her head was dizzy, and her internal organs felt like they were broken.
After returning home, Lin Weixia opened the green refrigerator door and poured herself a glass of ice water. She squatted in front of the refrigerator and drank the water in small sips, her eyes dull and no one knew what she was thinking.
At this time, my aunt just got home from get off work. She hung her bag at the door and saw Lin Weixia squatting there like a stray cat, nagging:
"Oh, my dear aunt, didn't I tell you that you can't squat because your blood sugar is low? You'll faint again soon—"
Before my aunt could finish her words, a stream of cold water was poured towards her. With a clang, the white glass windshield cup rolled to the ground, and Lin Weixia fell to the ground with it.
My aunt called Gao Hang immediately and rushed her to the hospital. Lin Weixia had a high fever, which had just subsided in the middle of the night, but came back again, keeping her family busy all night.
After Lin Weixia recovered from her illness, she rarely spoke and became even colder than before. Her aunt thought she was stressed out by the college entrance exam and cooked soup for her every day.
Gao Hang felt that his sister had become a little strange, but he couldn't put his finger on it. In the end, he could only blame himself for being suspicious.
Ban Sheng was the first to notice the changes in Lin Weixia. She didn't even tell him about her illness. He only found out about it after Gao Hang told him.
"Why didn't you tell me you were sick?" Ban Sheng handed her the milk.
Lin Weixia shook her head: "It's not a big deal, and I'm well now."
Another weekend, Lin Weixia was sitting at her desk at home writing a test paper when her phone vibrated. She clicked on it and saw a message from Ban Sheng:
Ban: [Would you like to go surfing? I'll teach you. ]
Lin Weixia typed "I won't go" in the dialog box, thought for a while and then deleted the word "I won't go".
Xia: [I’m not going.]
After the message was sent, Ban Sheng didn't send any more messages. He was such a proud person, and he would not lower his pride to look for her again after being rejected once.
Lin Weixia continued to do her homework. When she finished it was just evening, she would start cooking for the family. After dinner, she would go out for a walk with her aunt as usual.
Ban Sheng would send her messages over the past two days. Lin Weixia didn't often carry her cell phone with her, so it was already very late when she saw Ban Sheng's messages when she got home.
Sometimes she would reply, sometimes she chose not to.
On Monday, the weather was getting hotter and hotter, and the heat was hard to dissipate. Lin Weixia was carrying her schoolbag to the classroom. She was standing in the corridor and was about to move forward when she bumped into a hard chest with a "bang".
What I could see was the nameplate on the boy’s left chest, with the words “Ban Sheng” engraved on it.
Familiar ebony scent, looking up, she saw that his white shirt and uniform had two ties loosened, revealing a section of his throat bone. Ban Sheng came up to her directly, pulled her arm, lowered his neck to look at her, and said:
"You're busy."
"No." Lin Weixia replied.
“Don’t reply to messages,” Bansheng pointed out.
Lin Weixia then looked him straight in the face, and her words were gentle but hurtful:
"There's no law that requires me to reply to your message."
Ban Sheng gradually loosened his grip on her wrist, looked at her, and asked directly:
"What's the meaning?"
Lin Weixia lowered her shoulders and shook her head, the aggressive aura on her body disappearing: "Sorry, I've been sick and tired recently."
After this conversation, the two of them communicated less and less. They were no longer as close as before, going in and out together, and became more distant.
Although the two would still go home together and Ban Sheng would still give Lin Weixia his milk, the relationship between them became increasingly silent, as if something was standing between them.
There are more than 100 days left before the college entrance examination. Most people are busy preparing for the final sprint. However, some students whose parents have prepared a good backup for them are relatively less nervous.
Soon someone noticed something was wrong between the two.
When Lin Weixia and Fang Mo were discussing the questions together, a burst of laughter came from the corridor not far away. Lin Weixia quickly glanced at the questions on the test paper, reading as she read: "As shown in the figure, the straight wooden board AB is tilted and placed, and point P on the board is closer to end A—"
"Brother Bansheng, look at him!"
It was Li Shengran's voice.
Lin Weixia caught a glimpse of a hand with glittery nail polish resting on the protruding bone on Ban Sheng's wrist, and the white fingertips were pressing on his light blue blood vessels.
I didn’t read any further and continued doing the physics questions.
Ban Sheng stood there lazily, withdrew his hand unnoticeably, and glanced at Li Shengran, who guiltily distanced himself from them.
Ban Sheng then raised his hand disrespectfully and asked another boy to come over.
"The friction coefficient between the small wooden block and the power gradually decreases from A to B—"
"What did you do to her?"
The voice of Bansheng.
His pronunciation was always clear, like ice cubes in a cup, cold yet with a unique accent. With just this one question, the other party was speechless for a long time and couldn't say anything.
[Ban Sheng is very kind to you and stands up for you.]
[Of course, he is my brother.]
[Why don’t I have a brother? I also want a brother like him.]
Lin Weixia withdrew her gaze indifferently. She looked down at the test paper and found that the quality of the test paper printed by the school itself was not very good. It had a strong smell of ink and there was a black dot at the bottom of the letter A.