On the way home from school that day, Jiang Qiaoxi saw the portrait of "Jiang Junlu" which had become wrinkled because of the dispute between Duchamp and Lin Qile.
Lin Qile, carrying a small schoolbag, walked beside him and ate a small milk cake.
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Cherries."
"Um?"
Jiang Qiaoxi glanced at her and said hesitantly, "Someone from the construction site in Qunshan told my mom..."
"What?" Lin Qile also looked at him.
Jiang Qiaoxi looked at Lin Qile's appearance, and thought that even if he ate milk ice cream, it would be all over his face. The ice cream melted and dripped down the ice cream stick onto his fingers, but Lin Qile didn't mind.
Jiang Qiaoxi shook his head and stopped talking.
"What to tell your mother?" Lin Qile asked.
"You wouldn't understand even if I told you." Jiang Qiaoxi said in an unfathomable way.
The uncles and aunts, grandpas and grandmas at the construction site in Qunshan really love to gossip. But it's not just Qunshan. Jiang Qiaoxi, who is at the provincial capital headquarters, has also heard neighbors discussing and exaggerating the tragic story about him and Jiang Mengchu.
As June approached and the weather got hotter, Lin Yingtao began to wear flowery skirts. She rode her bicycle in her flowery skirt, chased and fought with Yu Qiao on the construction site in her flowery skirt, played computer games at home in her flowery skirt, and taught Du Shang how to pass Black Water Town and General Tomb.
She sat next to Jiang Qiaoxi wearing a floral dress with a square collar that revealed part of her shoulders.
Lin Qile lowered her head to play with the Poppy Elf. She held the watercolor pen and tried to dye the Poppy Elf's hair into colorful colors.
Jiang Qiaoxi tilted his head to look at her, from a very special angle, he discovered that there was a very small brown mole behind Lin Qile's right shoulder.
"Am I good-looking?" Lin Qile suddenly turned around and noticed Jiang Qiaoxi's gaze. "Why do you keep looking at me?"
Jiang Qiaoxi was stunned.
"Cherry," Jiang Qiaoxi said, "your amber string is about to break."
"Ah?" Lin Qile quickly touched the thread on his neck, "No."
The final exams were approaching, and Manager Cai locked the computer case at home to prevent Cai Fangyuan from playing computer games and delaying his studies. Yu Qiao had both old and young people at home, so he couldn't do anything. So a group of boys ran to Lin Qile's house to play computer games after school.
A group of them gathered around a computer, each playing for a few minutes, and taking turns to run the map together.
Only Jiang Qiaoxi seemed to have little interest. He sat in Lin Qile's room and continued to study his Olympiad mathematics.
Lin Qile asked, why don’t you play computer games.
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "There are too many people."
He liked to play games when there were few people around, such as in the middle of the night. When Jiang Zheng was already asleep, Jiang Qiaoxi would sneak out of the house. Taking advantage of the night, he went around to the back of the row of brick houses and knocked on a small window covered by evergreen leaves.
That was not any other window, but the small window next to the bed in Lin Qile's bedroom. Jiang Qiaoxi knocked three times and heard someone in the window wake up. It was Lin Qile who mumbled "hmm".
Jiang Qiaoxi followed the path and walked back to the row of brick houses under the dim moonlight that spread over the factory area.
He stood outside Lin Qile's house, waiting for Lin Qile to open the door for him.
There was still a month left before the final exams. Liang Hongfei called from the provincial capital and reminded Jiang Qiaoxi to pack her luggage in advance. As soon as the final exams were over, Jiang Qiaoxi would return to the provincial capital to attend the summer course at the Foreign Language Primary School.
After this departure, Jiang Qiaoxi felt that he would never return to the mountains in his lifetime.
He sat in front of the computer at Lin Qile's house and played games, which were actually not fun, because there were no maps he couldn't walk through, and no levels he couldn't pass. Lin Qile was amazed, sometimes discussing moves with him, sometimes discussing the plot with him, and they drank juice together and ate the sweet jujube buns that Lin Qile broke open.
Jiang Qiaoxi had played almost all the games on Lin Qile's computer: Red Alert, Freedom and Glory, Age of Navigation, The Chinese Paladin, Swordsman Love, and Fantasy of Wind...
"These games are all pirated." Jiang Qiaoxi once said to Lin Qile.
"What do you mean by pirated?" Lin Qile looked at the blue crystal on the screen.
Jiang Qiaoxi blew up an invading aircraft without saying anything. But Lin Qile thought that Jiang Qiaoxi probably wanted to say that you wouldn't understand even if he told you.
Jiang Qiaoxi knew many things that Lin Qile didn't know. Sometimes Lin Qile even felt that he was not an eleven-year-old boy at all. During school, Duchamp secretly drew a portrait of Lin Yueru on his homework book, Cai Fangyuan carefully studied the secret book of "Wind Fantasy" in his textbook, and even Yu Qiao was thinking about the planes, tanks and even Yuri in Red Alert.
Only Jiang Qiaoxi listened to the lectures seriously. Even when he was not listening to the lectures, he was reading his books and was not distracted by electronic games at all.
June 24th was a Sunday. Electrician Lin and his wife were working overtime at the construction site, so Lin Qile went to Yu Qiao's house for dinner.
Qin Yeyun is here too.
The boys ran outside to play football. Yu Qiao's mother ate while Lin Yingtao gave a speech at the table, titled: Why Jiang Qiaoxi is the most reliable boy she thinks.
Yu Qiao's mother laughed as she listened. Qin Yeyun, who had curly hair, looked at Lin Yingtao as if she were a fool.
Lin Yingtao said, "… He only plays all the computer games once and then stops. He also studies hard during the day and is not addicted to games. This shows that he will not become a smoker or a drunkard in the future."
Yu Qiao's mother laughed even harder when she heard this. Qin Yeyun interrupted and said, "I think he would abandon girls after having sex with them."
Lin Qile was stunned: "Why?"
"Because he won't play a game again once he's played it once!" Qin Yeyun said as a matter of course.
Lin Qile came home at night after her parents got off work. When she walked out the door, she heard her father asking, "Qiaoxi is going back to the provincial capital to study in the sixth grade?"
Manager Jiang said, "Hmm," "His mother has arranged work for him, so just ask him to go back. Look at him here, disturbing you all day long."
The adults were standing in the small room chatting, and the bedroom door was open. Lin Qile went in and saw Jiang Qiaoxi wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and packing the Olympiad mathematics books sent from Hong Kong that were piled on Lin Qile's desk into a box.
Lin Qile stood there stupidly, tears suddenly welling up in her eyes.
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't plan to tell Lin Qile so early, maybe he knew that Lin Qile would be unhappy. From the end of June to the beginning of July, Lin Qile was listless every day, with red eyes, as if the sky had collapsed.
Why on earth was she so sad? She was only eleven years old, what could she understand
Cai Fangyuan said to Jiang Qiaoxi, "Lin Yingtao is like this! She cries whenever someone moves away from the construction site! She also cried like a ghost when Chen Minghao moved away before. Don't pay any attention to her!"
Yu Qiao also said: "No need to coax her, just let her cry until she finishes."
On the way to school, Lin Yingtao pouted, stomped her feet as she walked, and didn't say a word. In the afternoon, when she got home from school, she squatted in front of the rabbit cage in the backyard and sobbed. Her eyes were redder than the rabbit's eyes.
Jiang Qiaoxi thought about it, walked over and squatted beside her.
When Lin Yingtao saw him coming, she ignored him.
Jiang Qiaoxi reached out and snatched the little rabbit that Lin Yingtao was holding tightly in her arms.
"Why did you steal my little rabbit..." Lin Yingtao choked.
It seems as if Jiang Qiaoxi is a bad guy.
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't even look at her. He put the soft, adorable little white rabbit on the ground, turned it over so that its belly was facing up, and reached out to touch the rabbit's white and furry belly.
Lin Qile watched the little white rabbit, which was jumping around just now, turn upside down and suddenly became quiet and motionless.
"It's dead?" she collapsed.
"It fell asleep." Jiang Qiaoxi said.
"Why did it suddenly fall asleep?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Guess."
Lin Yingtao's mother pushed open the door to the backyard. She heard that Lin Yingtao had stopped crying and sobbing. Lin Yingtao asked Manager Jiang's son, "How do you guess this?"
The final exams for the power plant primary school were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, two consecutive days. On Thursday night, Jiang Qiaoxi came to Lin the electrician's home again.
Electrician Lin and his wife talked to him in the living room for a while, asking him if he had packed his luggage, what time he would leave tomorrow morning, how long it would take to get to the provincial capital, and so on.
Jiang Qiaoxi stayed at the Qunshan construction site for two years and was taken care of by Electrician Lin and his family. He was naturally grateful to Uncle Lin and Aunt Lin.
Mother Lin smiled and said that Cherry was in the bedroom, probably reading a comic book: "She probably didn't do well in the final exam again, so she hid herself as soon as she got home."
Jiang Qiaoxi pushed open the bedroom door and heard the little girl sobbing again as soon as he entered.
Behind the big wardrobe was Lin Qile's little world, with a small desk and a small bed. Through the hazy white mosquito net, Jiang Qiaoxi couldn't tell what Lin Qile was doing inside.
He reached out and pulled open the mosquito net.
When I looked down, I saw Lin Qile's red face from crying. Lin Qile was wearing a nightgown, holding the colorful Bobby Elf in her arms, and listening to music with earphones.
The tape of the new female singer was playing in the tape recorder.
Jiang Qiaoxi crawled into the mosquito net, just like he did every day in Lin Qile's house over the past year. He sat in front of Lin Qile and asked, "Why are you crying again?"
The bed was originally a small bed, and with the mosquito net covering it, it looked like a small tent. Both of them could hear the sound of a pin drop.
Lin Yingtao took off the earphones from her ears. She sniffed, raised her big wet eyes, and said in a crying voice: "Jiang Qiaoxi..."
Every time she pronounced the word "west", dragging out the sound, it always seemed to contain infinite emotions.
"Why aren't you sad at all?" Lin Yingtao asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi raised his eyes and looked at Lin Yingtao's face.
Lin Yingtao's eyes were swollen from crying, and the tip of her nose was red from crying. Lin Yingtao was sweating from crying, and her long hair was wet from crying, sticking to her forehead and round face.
Lin Yingtao is a little girl who has lived in love since childhood. She is open and frank and not afraid of expressing any emotions.
"I'll leave at nine tomorrow morning," said Jiang Qiaoxi.
Lin Yingtao pursed her lips tightly.
Jiang Qiaoxi said, "What do you want? I'll go buy it for you now."
Lin Yingtao shook her head.
Jiang Qiaoxi said, "So what do you want to do?"
What he meant was, I will accompany you.
Lin Yingtao sat in front of him with her knees hugged. In the small mosquito net, the two children were very close to each other.
Lin Yingtao asked, "Do you want to listen to the tape?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said nothing.
Lin Yingtao turned on the tape recorder in her hand, took out the tape of Stefanie Sun that Jiang Qiaoxi gave her, and replaced it with the one of Cohen.
Jiang Qiaoxi had just put an earphone in his ear when he heard Lin Yingtao sitting next to him ask, "Do you want to watch Mickey Mouse?"
He obeyed and took the latest issue of "Mickey Mouse" handed to him by Lin Yingtao.
Lin Yingtao pulled him: "Why don't you lie down and see."
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't understand what Lin Yingtao was asking for.
But he still lay down on the small bed, resting his head on Lin Yingtao's scented pillow, and opened the "Mickey Mouse" in his hand.
Lin Yingtao knelt on the bed. The comic book blocked Jiang Qiaoxi's view, so he couldn't see what she was going to do.
Jiang Qiaoxi had just read two lines when he felt a pair of soft little hands rubbing his belly through a layer of clothes.
He put down the "Mickey Mouse" in front of him, sat up suddenly from the bed, and grabbed Lin Yingtao's hand that was about to retract.
Lin Yingtao was so scared that she held her breath.
"Cherry," Jiang Qiaoxi said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "Itchy."
Even if Lin Qile "hypnotized" Jiang Qiaoxi by rubbing his belly like he hypnotizes a little rabbit, Jiang Qiaoxi still had to leave the next day.
It was like Jiang Qiaoxi, no matter how relaxed and happy he was in the mountains, he knew that he would have to return to the provincial capital sooner or later. He had to go through layers of rigorous selection for further studies. If Jiang Qiaoxi wanted to leave, if he wanted to leave this "family of three" that had nothing to do with him, he had to do this.
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't sleep well that night. He got up at around seven the next morning and sat at his desk reading. He was thinking about what to say to Lin Qile before leaving.
He also needed to say goodbye to many people: Yu Qiao, his deskmate for two years; Cai Fangyuan, the fat boy at the Qunshan construction site who best understood his situation; Duchamp—Jiang Qiaoxi always knew that Duchamp actually didn't like him.
Jiang Zheng came into the bedroom and asked Jiang Qiaoxi: "Have you packed all your things?"
Jiang Qiaoxi was stunned and nodded.
Jiang Zheng glanced at the black watch on Jiang Qiaoxi's wrist.
His tone softened: "Your uncle had something urgent to do today, so he came here early. Now go say goodbye to your classmates and then leave."
Now
The lights were off at Lin Qile's house, and no one opened the door no matter how hard he knocked. Lin the electrician and his wife had obviously gone to work. Jiang Qiaoxi turned around an intersection and headed towards Yu Qiao's house.
Even Yu Qiao was not at home. When Grandma Yu saw Jiang Qiaoxi, she was surprised and said, "Oh! Yingtao asked Yu Qiao to go to the city early this morning before dawn. She said she wanted to buy something for you!"
Jiang Qiaoxi was even more surprised and asked, "When did they go?"
Grandma Yu couldn't remember clearly. She stood up and wanted to give Jiang Qiaoxi some fried shrimp chips. "Why don't you wait here? They said they must be back before nine o'clock!"
Lin Qile remembered July 13, 2001 clearly. It was a Friday. She got up early in the morning, took all her pocket money, and went to the city with Yu Qiao and others. Lin Qile hoped that Jiang Qiaoxi would not forget them and the mountains when he returned to the provincial capital.
She and Yu Qiao walked around the temple fair. It was crowded in the early morning, so Yu Qiao held her hand the whole time for fear that she would get lost. Lin Qile stood on tiptoe and looked in front of each store.
Cai Fangyuan ate four circles of ice cream in his mouth and said, "Jiang Qiaoxi doesn't have anything in the provincial capital. What can I buy for him here?"
Duchamp said from the side: "Let's buy some special products from the mountains!"
Yu Qiao frowned and followed Lin Qile. Lin Qile wanted to look here and there, squeezing in the crowd. Yu Qiao suddenly said, "Lin Yingtao."
"Ah?" Lin Qile heard his voice and turned around.
Yu Qiao stared at Lin Qile's chest.
"Where's your amber?" he asked.
Electrician Lin got off work at noon and rushed home. He knew that the son of the neighboring Jiang family would transfer back to the provincial capital, and his daughter would be sad, but she had been sad for so many days, why was she still so upset
Lin Qile sat on a small stool at home and cried. When his father came back, Lin Qile opened his mouth wide, walked over crying, and threw himself on his father.
“… Amber is lost?” Electrician Lin heard Yu Qiao and several other little boys saying this, and he reached out to hold his daughter’s head.
Yu Qiao was very calm and said, "I guess someone picked it up at the temple fair."
Cai Fangyuan was helpless and sweaty: "Uncle Lin, we looked there for a long time, but there were too many people! The place is too big, we can't find it!"
Electrician Lin said in embarrassment: "The amber is so small, it is really hard to find."
Du Shang saw that Lin Qile was about to burst into tears. He said, "Cherry, don't cry... It's just an amber. We'll buy it later!"
In the afternoon, Lin Qile sat on the steps in front of his house and watched Duchamp walking up and down the path, performing "Selling Crutch": "Look, Cherry, look, it's lame!"
In fact, Lin Qile didn't want to laugh, but when she saw Duchamp looking so funny, she couldn't help but laugh while wiping away her tears.
She cried and wanted to laugh, and laughed and couldn't help crying. She turned her head to look at the door next door.
Grandma Yu said that Jiang Qiaoxi left the construction site at around 7 o'clock: "I wanted to keep him, but Manager Jiang was very anxious and took him away."
At dinner time, all the workers at the Qunshan construction site rushed back home as soon as they got off work. They gathered around the TV to watch the live news.
Lin Qile stood next to Uncle Yu and heard a white-haired old man on TV announce: "… 2008 are awarded the citybeijing!"
Uncle Yu was overjoyed and took out his treasured liquor to invite several families to share a table for dinner. Lin Qile sat on a small stool and looked very well behaved. Uncle Yu said during the meal: "You girls, by 2008, it will be just right for you to take the college entrance examination, right?"
Uncle Cai picked up the beef slices with chopsticks and gave each of the children a piece. He said, "When the time comes, all of you should study hard and get into Peking University or Tsinghua University! Then go to Beijing to watch the Olympics!"
Many things happened in 2001, some happy and some sad. Lin Qile waited at the construction site in the mountains for the entire summer vacation, but never received a call from Jiang Qiaoxi.
He seemed to have disappeared from Lin Qile's life like all his brothers and sisters who had moved away.
School started in September, and Lin Qile would be in grade 6. On the way to school, Du Shang asked, "Cherry, aren't you happy? The Olympics will be held in Beijing in 2008!"
Lin Qile said: "It's only 2001 now, isn't 2008 too far away..."
She is only eleven years old now.
To her, seven years later seemed like something that would happen in the next lifetime.
"It seems a little far away," Du Shang muttered, "Cherry, are you still sad about Jiang Qiaoxi's matter?"
Lin Qile shook his head.
"He didn't even call you!" Du Shang was indignant, "And yet you still remember him all day long!"
Cai Fangyuan told Lin Qile that his father sold all of his shares of Qilu Software and only kept 100 shares, saying that it was a souvenir: "It's for you."
"What is 'Qilu Software'?" Lin Qile asked puzzledly.
"'Qilu Software' is 'Taishan Tourism'," said Cai Fangyuan, "It has changed its name!"
After a long while, Lin Qile asked, "Can the name of the stock be changed?"
Cai Fangyuan didn't care: "What can't be changed? Just change it if you want to."