During the New Year holidays, Qin Yeyun followed Yu Qiao closely. Wherever Yu Qiao went, she followed.
Yu Qiao came to Lin Qile's room to read the newspaper, and Qin Yeyun sat next to him and painted his nails.
Since Lin Qile sat so close to her, they stopped fighting.
Du Shang asked: "Cherry, you haven't seen Jiang Qiaoxi these days?"
Lin Qile grabbed the fur of the Bobby Elf in his arms and shook his head.
During the Lunar New Year of 2001, Jiang Qiaoxi's mother came to the Qunshan construction site. She was so out of tune with everything on the construction site, she didn't like visiting other people's homes, and she didn't socialize with other workers. Although Lin Qile didn't understand why, he was very nervous and scared when he met her.
"This is... the daughter of Manager Cai?"
When they first met, Jiang Qiaoxi's mother stood beside the father and son of the Jiang family, while Lin Qile sat in Uncle Cai's car with Cai Fangyuan. She smiled at Lin Qile, and when she smiled, she looked like Wu Zetian on TV. She looked like an empress.
Manager Cai said: "No, it's Lin Yingtao, the daughter of Lin Haifeng, the engineer from the Lin Construction Site!"
Jiang Qiaoxi's mother said "Oh" calmly.
Manager Cai's driver drove the car out of the construction site and took the two children in the back to the city to buy firecrackers. Lin Qile saw Jiang Qiaoxi standing expressionlessly beside his parents through the car window, and his eyes also turned to look at Lin Qile. Jiang Qiaoxi's face was pale - I don't know if it was because the weather was too cold or for some other reason.
Lin Qile recalled that when she first met Jiang Qiaoxi in the mountains, Jiang Qiaoxi had the same complexion, unrealistically pale and sickly, like winter snow.
This New Year, Lin Qile felt very lonely.
Although she was with Yu Qiao and Du Shang every moment, Lin Qile was always thinking about other things. She wore a bright red cotton hat, bright red cotton shoes, and bright red wool gloves. The uncles and aunts on the construction site smiled when they saw her and said she looked like a Chinese doll. Lin Qile carried the lotus lantern made by Du Shang's mother and walked along the countless roads and paths in the mountain construction site.
She walked past many houses without even bothering to count the icicles hanging upside down from the eaves. The children were making snowmen and having snowball fights, but Lin Qile felt that she had grown up and was no longer interested in those things.
She walked to the door of Jiang Qiaoxi's house, looked up, and saw the lights on and the closed door.
She hadn't seen Jiang Qiaoxi for several days.
During dinner, my mother asked, "Cherry, what's wrong?"
Lin Yingtao raised her head and saw half-eaten pork ribs in the bowl. She looked at her mother and then at her father.
Electrician Lin seemed a little helpless and said, "Cherry, have you heard something?"
What did you hear? Lin Qile looked at them and didn't know.
Mom pushed Dad with her hand and said, "These old ladies are talking nonsense. Why are you talking to Yingtao about this?"
Electrician Lin looked at Lin Yingtao's ignorant face, smiled, and said, "Our Yingtao is still young, right?"
After the meal, Electrician Lin held Lin Qile's hand and wanted to take her to Uncle Cai's house to play.
Coincidentally, as soon as I went out the door, I ran into Manager Jiang and his family next door who were also going out.
Manager Jiang called out, "Engineer Lin!"
Lin Qile felt her father let go of her hand.
Electrician Lin turned around and greeted Manager Jiang. Manager Jiang introduced him to his wife Liang Hongfei, saying that during the first six months after being transferred to Qunshan, he and Jiang Qiaoxi basically ate at Electrician Lin's house.
Jiang Qiaoxi was standing next to his parents, carrying his small schoolbag. Lin Qile, wearing a bright red coat, didn't dare to go over at first, but when she heard Jiang Qiaoxi's mother talking to her father, she hesitated and went over.
"Jiang Qiaoxi..." she said in a low voice.
It was no longer that reckless, unbridled way of calling him with a smile.
But be cautious.
Jiang Qiaoxi also looked at Lin Qile.
For a moment, neither child knew what to say.
Lin Qile said: "Do you know that there is a new seafood bun shop in front of the construction site?"
Jiang Qiaoxi shook his head.
"It's delicious. You have to get up early and queue up for a long time to buy it," Lin Qile said to him, as if she was greedy. She smiled and said, "Do you want to eat it? I will go to queue up with Yu Qiao and others tomorrow."
"Okay." Jiang Qiaoxi said softly.
It was strange, it seemed that only when she walked so close, listened to him speak face to face, and looked into Jiang Qiaoxi's eyes, did Lin Qile feel that this was indeed the person she knew.
Jiang Qiaoxi left quickly. With his back to Lin Qile, he was led into the night by his parents. Lin Qile could hear the sound of a car engine, driving away.
The next morning, Lin Qile jumped out of bed early, washed her face, brushed her teeth, put on her cotton coat, and went to the long queue at the breakfast stall at the entrance of the construction site with Yu Qiao, Du Shang, and Qin Yeyun. Qin Yeyun and she had been classmates since kindergarten, and they had never been as close as they were during this winter vacation.
After all, Yu Qiao was standing next to them, so whoever of them started the fight first would get hit on the head.
It was really cold in winter, and everyone in line was hunching their necks. Yu Qiao bought steamed buns, fried dough sticks, and sweet soybean milk for his whole family, which his little cousin Yu Jin had been crying for.
The workers queuing around praised Yu Qiao when they saw him, saying that as the son of model worker Squad Leader Yu, he was so tall and would definitely have a bright future!
Lin Qile was relatively unsuccessful in comparison. She bought two buns for her father, two buns for her mother, one for herself, and four shrimp buns for Jiang Qiaoxi.
Maybe his parents would want to eat together? Lin Qile guessed.
It was the dead of winter in December, and the wind was biting cold. Lin Qile was wearing a cotton coat. She looked at her pockets and saw that they were full, so she unzipped her coat and put the four shrimp bags in her arms.
It was Jiang Qiaoxi’s first time eating it, and Lin Qile felt that it tasted best when it was hot.
Yu Qiao looked at her: "What are you doing?"
"I'm leaving first!" Lin Qile said and ran away.
Lin Qile came to Jiang Qiaoxi's door. She took out the buns, held them in her hands, plucked up her courage, and knocked on Jiang Qiaoxi's door.
She knocked for a long time before the door opened.
Jiang Qiaoxi was wearing plaid pajamas and a coat, standing at the door.
Lin Qile suddenly laughed and said, "Jiang Qiaoxi, I bought some fresh shrimp buns!"
Jiang Qiaoxi frowned slightly, but before he could say anything, a woman behind him spoke.
"Who is it?"
Then it was Manager Jiang's voice: "Jiang Qiaoxi, who's here?"
Lin Qile was stunned. She saw that Jiang Qiaoxi didn't say anything. Jiang Qiaoxi was always in a state of tolerating his parents for a long time. Lin Qile said loudly: "Uncle Jiang, I bought some shrimp buns. Do you want to eat them?"
"No need," Jiang's mother said unexpectedly in the room, "Thank you, you can take it back and eat it yourself."
Lin Qile was stunned outside the door.
Manager Jiang said from inside the room, "Cherry, bring it in."
Mother Jiang said, "Why did you bring it in? Do you know what kind of meat the buns outside are made of?" She then called out, "Qiaoxi, Qiaoxi, come in. It's too cold. Close the door."
Jiang Qiaoxi raised his head at his mother's voice and glanced at Lin Qile. For some reason, Lin Qile felt that Jiang Qiaoxi seemed to be laughing, as if he was making fun of himself.
Jiang Qiaoxi closed the door and went back to his room.
That morning, after finishing breakfast, Squad Leader Yu was going to take Yu Jin to the dental clinic by bike. When passing by the door of Lin Yingtao's bungalow, Squad Leader Yu remembered that Qin Yeyun told him this morning that Lin Yingtao bought nine buns and secretly hid four of them in her clothes: "She must be doing something bad!"
He pushed open the door of Electrician Lin's house, and unexpectedly heard his daughter crying as soon as he entered.
Electrician Lin was sitting on a small stool next to the radiator, coaxing Lin Yingtao, who was sitting on his lap and crying, while eating shrimp buns with his daughter.
"So delicious!" Electrician Lin broke open the tender white bun skin, "I didn't know the shrimp buns were so delicious!"
Lin Yingtao leaned her head on her father's shoulder and sobbed softly: "Isn't it... delicious..."
Lin Yingtao cried from seven to eight in the morning, and she was still crying when Yu Qiao came to her house. Yu Qiao walked out and glanced at the closed door of Jiang Qiaoxi's house next door.
Cai Fangyuan slept in at home every day during the winter vacation, and was dragged out of bed by Yu Qiao and Du Shang. When Manager Cai heard that Yu Qiao wanted to take Cai Fangyuan to do math homework, he was very happy. He stuffed a big bowl of strawberries for the boys and poured another big bowl for Yu Qiao to send to Lin Yingtao.
Cai Fangyuan had no choice, Yu Qiao asked him to come, so he had to do it himself. He rubbed his sleepy face, held the math textbook in his arms, and knocked on the door of Jiang Qiaoxi's house.
Lin Qile was wearing a light yellow sweater, sitting in her little room eating strawberries that her mother had washed. Yu Qiao was reading a sports newspaper nearby, and Qin Yeyun was playing with the Barbie doll that Lin Qile had bought from Hong Kong and placed beside her bed.
Duchamp was anxious and punched the air.
Cai Fangyuan entered Lin Qile's house. He was still sleepy, so he threw the math textbook in his hand to Lin Qile, and then he lay on Uncle Lin's bed and began his second sleep.
Lin Qile opened the math textbook and saw a line of words written by Jiang Qiaoxi:
“Before my mom leaves, just pretend you don’t know me,” Jiang Qiaoxi wrote. “I’ll play with you again after school starts. I’ll buy you as many buns as you want.”
Cai Fangyuan was just dazed for a while when Lin Qile shook him awake.
Cai Fangyuan waved his hand to ask her to calm down for a while: "Alright, alright, I heard his mother asked him to transfer back to the provincial capital, but he didn't want to..."
That night, someone knocked on the Jiang family's door again.
Lin Qile was still wearing the red jacket he had worn during the day, holding a plate of hot date flour buns in his hands.
"Uncle Jiang!" she said, "My mother steamed some jujube flour buns and asked me to bring some to you."
Manager Jiang said in the bedroom: "Thank you, Cherry. Put it on the table."
Liang Hongfei said, "Little girl, take it away. We don't like steamed buns."
Manager Jiang said: "Liang Hongfei! Are you done—"
"Uncle and aunt, I put the steamed buns on the table." Lin Qile said loudly through the bedroom door.
Her voice was so sweet, crisp and innocent that the adults didn't know how to respond.
Lin Qile walked over to Jiang Qiaoxi who came to open the door. "Uncle and aunt, I'm home!" she said.
She raised her eyes and looked at Jiang Qiaoxi. It was like an underground party meeting. Jiang Qiaoxi looked at her with his coat on and couldn't help but smiled quietly.