June passed quickly, they graduated successfully, and the curtain of youth fell briefly. Ban Sheng took Lin Weixia out for a trip, and in August, the two returned to Nanjiang together.
When her aunt's fruit shop was too busy, Lin Weixia would go to help. Occasionally, she would run into young high school students appearing in the shop. When she saw the blue and white school skirts worn by the girls, she would be in a trance for a moment.
It turns out that it has been a long time since I graduated from high school.
Usually in the evening, Ban Sheng would come over to accompany her for a walk, or take the girl to see a newly released movie and then send her home in the evening.
This is the most pleasant summer vacation for Lin Weixia. She is determined about the future and has the person she loves by her side. Nothing is better than the present.
On Saturday, after washing her hair, Lin Weixia wore a loose white shirt and PE pants, sat on the sofa, wiped her hair with a towel and watched variety shows.
The phone on the coffee table made a "ding" sound of a message alert. Lin Weixia picked up the phone and saw that it was a video sent by Qiu Minghua, with a note:
[Although I am a fan of Ben Ye, there is something I must tell you. ]
[Your partner is cheating on you.]
Lin Weixia was stunned, then clicked on the video. The location was in a dimly lit box, where a group of people were playing a dice game.
Ban Sheng told her during the day that he was going to a party with a group of friends tonight.
Since he recovered from his illness, Ban Sheng has not drunk much alcohol. Even if he goes to those places, he will not drink more than one glass of alcohol. But today, Ban Sheng in the video was obviously forced to drink.
It was still that cold yet bewitching face. Others couldn't tell that he was drunk, but when Lin Weixia saw his red ears, she knew that Ban Sheng was drunk.
"Come on, tell me a secret that none of your brothers know." Li Yiran was half lying on the sofa, looking lazy.
Cheng Wusuan said, "Ah Sheng, what's something you don't know? Change the question."
Li Yiran snorted and laughed, saying with an ambiguous meaning: "He definitely has it."
The camera panned to the other side. The lights were dim. Ban Sheng leaned his head back on the sofa, his Adam's apple slowly sliding down. He rubbed his eyelids wearily, and suddenly spoke amidst the noisy voices:
"Does having a crush on someone for many years count?"
The originally noisy voice suddenly stopped for only a few seconds, and the crowd was shocked, and they all laughed and cursed: "Well, that's too much!"
"Ban Ye, I remember that you were always chasing after Lin Weixia in high school, right? Then the girl you had a crush on was in junior high school?"
"Who the hell used to study in the attached middle school? Is there anyone who can tell me about the situation?"
"Mr. Ben, you actually still try this secret crush thing, that's awesome." Someone gave a thumbs up.
Who would have thought that Ban Sheng, a guy who would have countless girls throwing themselves at him with just a wave of his finger, would actually have a crush on a girl for many years.
Wu Suan was also confused by Ban Sheng's words. He tapped the glass with his slender knuckles and asked, "Isn't Wei Xia your first love?"
As soon as the voice fell, a man immediately refuted: "The definitions are different. First love refers to the first person you date, right? The person you secretly love is really the cinnabar mole on a man's heart, the white moonlight."
"You men are good at quibbling." Wu Suan sneered.
No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get any useful information out of Ban Sheng's mouth.
The three and a half minute video ended here. Lin Weixia stopped wiping her hair, her chest heaving slightly. She picked up the glass cup on the table, tilted her head back, gulped down a big gulp of water, and put the cup on the table with a "pop".
My aunt came out of the room, holding a wallet in her hand, and said, "Weixia, you look after the store. I'll go to Qingpu Market to keep an eye on the goods and come back to take over for you later."
"Okay." Lin Weixia responded slowly.
Lin Weixia stood at the entrance with her phone and keys, bending down to put on her shoes. Gao Hang was still sitting on the sofa eating cookies. She asked, "Sister, are you still having barbecue tonight?"
"I don't want to eat anymore. I'm full." Lin Weixia said in a calm voice.
I am full of energy.
The door slammed shut due to inertia, and the voice-controlled light at the stairs was broken. Lin Weixia took out the flashlight on her cell phone and walked down the stairs. She was concentrating on the road ahead when the screen of her cell phone suddenly lit up, with Ban Sheng's name appearing on it.
Lin Weixia clicked to answer the call, held the phone to her ear and said nothing.
There was a steady breathing sound from the other end of the receiver. Ban Sheng's voice was low and a little hoarse, like the low panting sound in her ear at night, and he shouted:
"Wife."
The heat seemed to penetrate through the phone, making her ear numb. Lin Weixia couldn't help but reply, "What?"
Ban Sheng's Adam's apple rolled, his voice was sleepy, his tone was very low, and he whispered softly: "I'm drunk, can you come pick me up?"
He was actually acting like a spoiled brat.
Lin Weixia moved the phone a little further away, calmed herself down, and spoke again: "No."
Let the person you secretly love take it. Although this idea was naive, Lin Weixia couldn't help but say it.
Lin Weixia came to the fruit shop and worked for more than an hour in the shop before her aunt came back from Qingpu Market to take her place. On her way home, Lin Weixia couldn't bear it after all, so she walked out of Shuiwei Lane and hailed a taxi on the side of the road.
After Ban Sheng returned to Nanjiang, he still lived in the original villa. He would go back to that house for a meal once every two weeks, mainly to see his sister.
Lin Weixia had the key and induction card to his house. After walking through the gate, she walked through the courtyard full of green plants, pushed open the door, and turned on the lights with the help of the warm street lights outside the yard.
At first glance, I saw a man lying on the sofa, the light was shining on his cold face, and his breathing was even.
Lin Weixia sighed softly, walked over, shook Ban Sheng's shoulder, and tried to wake him up: "Go back to your room and sleep."
Then Lin Weixia carried the half-asleep Ban Sheng upstairs. He was too heavy, and half of his body was leaning on her. It took her a long time to help him back to the room, and they both fell on the soft bed.
Lin Weixia was pressed down by the man, Ban Sheng lay on top of her, buried his face in her neck, his lips began to wander, and he began to make moves.
Lin Weixia struggled to hold down the man's hand on his fair thigh, looked at him, and asked, "I heard that you have a crush on a girl. Do you still remember her now?"
Ban Sheng paused, chuckled, and asked, "Who told you?"
"Don't change the subject," Lin Weixia held down her skirt to prevent him from lifting it up, coughed, and asked, "Is that girl pretty?"
Girls always care about strange things. Although that girl is a thing of the past, those who know that Ban Sheng had a crush on her in the past feel a little jealous. She even wonders what kind of girl Ban Sheng would remember until now.
The dark eyelashes drooped, casting a shadow under the man's eyelids. He seemed to be thinking seriously and commented seriously:
"nice."
The next second, Lin Weixia pushed Ban Sheng away, stood up, and said in a voice without any attachment: "Then you sleep alone tonight."
The next morning, Lin Weixia got up and opened Ban Sheng's refrigerator. It was empty except for a few eggs. Lin Weixia cooked some porridge and boiled three eggs.
Lin Weixia was standing in front of the sink washing dishes when she heard a slow and unhurried sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. She knew who it was without even looking.
Ban Sheng had just finished washing up. He was wearing a black cotton T-shirt. His jet-black hair was a little messy. His thin eyelids drooped, and when he rubbed them with his hands, they immediately turned red.
He obviously looked hungover.
Ban Sheng opened the refrigerator and took out a long grid of ice cubes. He stood in front of the dining table and poured a glass of water, then put the ice cubes in. Lin Weixia looked at him and said, "Don't drink ice water in the morning."
"I forgot." Ban Sheng changed the cup of hot water.
Lin Weixia was standing in front of the rice cooker, filling a bowl with porridge. She suddenly remembered Ban Sheng's answer last night and was still feeling a little irritated. So she added an extra spoonful of salt to his bowl of porridge without hesitation.
Ban Sheng lazily pulled out a chair and sat down, peeled a boiled egg and handed it to Lin Weixia, looking at her and examining her: "You slept in the guest room last night."
"Yes." Lin Weixia's tone was even a little arrogant.
Lin Weixia took the boiled egg handed to her by Ban Sheng, ate the egg white, and felt a little embarrassed as the yolk lay in her palm.
Lin Weixia hated eating egg yolks since she was a child, but her aunt would always make her eat them and scold her harshly, saying that the family's conditions were not good to begin with and there was one more mouth to feed, so she shouldn't waste food.
So every time Lin Weixia had to force herself to eat the egg yolk, and later she learned to force herself to get used to things she didn't like.
After hesitating for a long time, he frowned and wanted to eat the egg yolk, when a slender hand with clear joints reached out, stuffed the egg yolk in Lin Weixia's palm into his mouth, and said nonchalantly:
"From now on, give whatever you don't want to eat to your boyfriend."
A warm current surged in her heart. Lin Weixia lowered her eyes and didn't look at him, hiding the emotions in her eyes, and said, "Yeah."
After Ban Sheng finished chewing the food, he took the spoon in his hand and slowly put a mouthful of porridge into his mouth. After a pause, his originally relaxed expression became stiff in an instant.
"What's wrong? Is it not delicious?" Lin Weixia asked him with a puzzled look.
Ban Sheng shook his head, his cheek twitched, and he could be seen biting his back teeth silently, and smiled casually: "No."
Then Lin Weixia stared at Ban Sheng, and only took the bowl away after seeing him finish all the porridge in the bowl without changing his expression.
On Wednesday afternoon, Nanjiang residents received calls from the Meteorological Bureau, saying that a typhoon was coming today and tomorrow, and that all units and schools were asked to pay attention to their work. Gao Hang howled, saying, "If it doesn't rain, I'm going to be fucking burned to ashes."
"Accompany me to the mall to buy some things." Lin Weixia said.
Gao Hang put down the basketball in his hand, followed him resignedly, and said, "Okay, let the coolie Xiao Gao serve you."
When Lin Weixi was standing at the entrance taking her hat, she received a text message from Ban Sheng, saying that he had something to do outside and asked her to go to his house in the evening to find a document, take a photo and send it to him.
Lin Weixia replied "OK".
Arriving at the mall, Lin Weixia spent most of the day choosing a shoulder and neck device for her aunt, and also bought some daily necessities. At the back of the mall, Gao Hang was crying for milk tea.
Lin Weixia pushed open the door of the dessert shop, and the cold air hit her face. Gao Hang immediately ran to the sofa and sat down to play games. She stood in front of the cashier with her phone in her hand, looking up at the new product recommendations written on the roll-up banner, thinking about what milk tea to order.
While I was thinking, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice interrupted me: "Lin Weixia?"
Lin Weixia followed the source of the voice and saw a vaguely familiar face, but she couldn't remember the name. The other party didn't mind and immediately said:
"Me and Zhong Lianghao, we were in the same class in the first grade of high school."
"Oh, I remember." Lin Weixia remembered this person and realized that he was indeed her high school classmate.
After the two exchanged a few pleasantries, Zhong Lianghao took the two cups of fruit tea handed over by the waiter and remembered something, and said, "By the way, how are you and that Ban Sheng from Shen Gao doing? Did he pursue you?"
"Ah, how do you know I'm with him—" A flash of surprise appeared in his amber eyes.
…
Dusk fell, like syrup spilled in a candy store, and rich colors spread over the soft sky. Lin Weixia came to Ban Sheng's house, followed his instructions to go to the study, found the document with the blue label, took pictures of each page, and sent it to him.
Ban Sheng's house is big, but also empty. Lin Weixia walked out and found a bunch of cacti planted in the apple-green courtyard. It seemed to be the green plant that Ban Sheng had forcibly snatched from her arms.
Still alive.
Bansheng transplanted the cactus to the ground, firmly rooted it in the ground, and protected it from the earth and the sun. The leaves of the cactus became thicker and more small cacti were derived.
Lin Weixia was pleasantly surprised. She found a watering hose in the courtyard and watered the cactus and the surrounding green plants. Due to the large workload and her excessive concentration in watering, her skirt soon got wet and she broke out in a sweat.
After watering, Lin Weixia returned to the villa, went upstairs, went to Ban Sheng's room, found his T-shirt and sweatpants, and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
Lin Weixia took one of his towels and wiped her wet hair. She didn't see a hair dryer in the bathroom, so she had to come out to look for it. She bent over and opened one drawer after another, and finally saw a white hair dryer at the bottom.
Squatting down, Lin Weixia was just about to pick up the hair dryer when her eyes accidentally caught a square box next to her. She paused, took it out and opened it.
Inside the box was a paint-less cat hairpin and twelve old library cards with her handwriting on them: Senior 2 (1) Class Lin Weixia, borrowing Takagi Akimitsu's "The Tattoo Murder Case", Senior 2 (1) Class Lin Weixia, borrowing Kakumitsu Tadai's "The Cicada on the Eighth Day", borrowing Stefan Zweig's "The World of Yesterday"...
Ban Sheng preserved all the library cards with her handwriting.
The hairpins were made when Lin Weixia was in high school. She didn't want people to talk about her ears, so she grew her hair to her waist to hide this defect and never tied it up. However, she had a lot of loose hair on her forehead, which got in the way when she was doing her homework in the evenings, so she prepared a box of small hairpins in her drawer.
Lin Weixia remembered that she threw this cat hairpin into the trash can at the back door during an evening study session because she thought the paint was peeling and it looked ugly.
Unexpectedly, Ban Sheng picked it up and kept it until now.
The library cards were used by everyone in the class to set up a reading corner. Lin Weixia would leave her name every time she borrowed a book, but he didn't know how many books she borrowed and how many library cards she wrote, so he secretly kept them all.
Lin Weixia stared at these objects in a daze, and the words of the high school classmate she met in the afternoon rang in her ears. Zhong Lianghao touched his head and said:
"Oh, didn't you transfer to another school after finishing your freshman year? One day, the class leader from Shenzhen High School came to me and gave me some benefits to find out about you."
At that time, Lin Weixia was admitted to No. 13 Middle School from the junior high school where she was bullied. The original high school did not know about what had happened to Lin Weixia in the past, so Zhong Lianghao only told him everything he knew about being in the same class with Lin Weixia in the first year of high school.
"He also asked me what kind of boys I like, and I told him that I like sunny and enthusiastic boys."
So the person that Ban Sheng has always had a crush on is Lin Weixia. He knows that Lin Weixia likes to drink Salty Lemon Seven, knows where her home is, and knows that when she is unhappy, she usually keeps silent.
Knowing that Lin Weixia likes the sea, he took great pains to take her to the beach to relax and performed a band show.
Ban Sheng always thought that since Lin Weixia liked sunny and enthusiastic boys, he would try his best to hide the darkness in his heart and participate in basketball team competitions. When she wanted him to take the relay, he would run for her to see.
Since he was not the type of person she liked, he would try his best to become the type she liked.
But after they separated in college, he was too tired to hold on any longer, and exposed the gloomy Ban Sheng, whose emotions were repeatedly devoured by monsters, to her.
Lin Weixia squatted there in a daze, tears falling drop by drop on her library card. On her birthday, she accidentally joked that Ban Sheng had liked her since she was ten years old.
She didn't take it seriously after she said it, but it turned out to be true.
So Ban Sheng really had a crush on her for twelve years.
He never forgot her.
Lin Weixia cried until her nose turned red and her vision was blurred. Not far away, there was a sound. It was Ban Sheng who came home. The man was startled when he saw her crying, and walked over quickly. When he got closer, he realized what she was looking at.
The tall shadow fell down, half-knelt in front of her, raised his hand to wipe the little girl's tears, deliberately teasing her, and raised his eyebrows:
"Tsk, can I have a little privacy?"
"You are truly the dumbest person in the universe! And you're a genius!" Lin Weixia raised her face and kept hitting his shoulders with her hands. Her chest rose and fell violently, and she said in a muffled voice, "I was lying when I said I liked sunny and warm boys—"
When she was in the first year of high school, Lin Weixia was very popular and many boys pursued her, but she lived a very depressed life and didn't put her mind on love at all.
There was a boy who said that he followed her every night, and he never tired of saying that he would take her home, and he even forced others to say that she was his girlfriend.
Lin Weixia was fed up with being chased and was disgusted by this behavior. She said to the skinny boy with bangs that were too long to be seen clearly and wearing a pair of glasses: "Let me be direct. You are not my type."
"Then what kind do you like?" the other party insisted.
Lin Weixia's tone was a little cold when asked. She thought of a foreign actor she liked at the time and said something random: "I like sunny and warm boys who can play basketball, run fast, and have a cheerful personality..."
The boy knew what Lin Weixia meant, and after being rejected, he turned around and left.
There are not so many standards for liking someone. This is just an excuse Lin Weixia used to evade others. She didn't even know what kind of boy she liked at that time.
I didn't expect that someone would take it seriously.
"It's not a big deal. Why are you crying like this?" Ban Sheng stretched out his fingers to wipe her tears and said to her.
It doesn't matter, I like you.
"I want to apologize to you--" Lin Weixia wiped her tears randomly, and her nose was as red as a rabbit's from crying.
Ban Sheng tucked her hair behind her head and asked patiently, "What?"
"It's just... the bowl of porridge I served you this morning, I... I put an extra spoonful of salt in it, two spoonfuls of salt in total. I did it on purpose to make fun of you." Lin Weixia said while burping.
In the morning, when she thought that Ban Sheng had a crush on a girl, she felt a little angry, but she didn't expect that girl was herself.
The man laughed softly, reached out to wipe away the last tear from the corner of her eye, and said softly:
"I know."