Lin Qile never thought about what her impulsive trip to the provincial capital alone to meet Jiang Qiaoxi would mean in the eyes of others.
"Jiang Qiaoxi..." Lin Qile called out his name.
Perhaps it was because it was too noisy around, Jiang Qiaoxi didn't hear her voice clearly for a moment, but the boys around him turned around.
Someone who had been talking all along glanced at Lin Qile. He probably thought it was some female classmate who wanted to talk to Jiang Qiaoxi, but after taking a look at Lin Qile's attire and then at Lin Qile's face, he realized that she was just a girl.
The boy's eyes suddenly widened. He stared at the school uniform on Lin Qile's chest, reached out and grabbed the person next to him, and shouted: "Qun, Qunshan No. 1 Middle School?"
Lin Qile stood there, and suddenly countless gazes were directed at her from all around.
The word "mountains" is now famous in the Provincial Experimental High School.
The boy yelled, pointed at Lin Qile, turned around and got close to Jiang Qiaoxi: "She, she, she came to my house—"
"Who is it?" asked a student passing by.
"Felinger, who do you think came to your door?" someone asked him.
Some people also walked around to the opposite side of Lin Qile, took a look at her, turned around and whispered, "It's the woman who wrote to Jiang Qiaoxi. She actually came all the way to the school—"
"Oh my god," it was a girl's suppressed laughter, "are you crazy?"
Lin Qile clenched the straps of her school bag with both hands, she looked like a lamb thrown into the Colosseum.
She insisted on coming here.
Jiang Qiaoxi was standing among those people, standing in front of Lin Qile. Although they were three to five meters apart, Lin Qile could still see his features and expression clearly. Jiang Qiaoxi had grown taller, much taller, so Lin Qile could only look up at him.
Although it was so noisy around that Lin Qile felt uneasy, the air around Jiang Qiaoxi was quiet, even a little lifeless.
Lifeless. Lin Qile didn't know why, but he always thought of this word when referring to Jiang Qiaoxi.
Jiang Qiaoxi wore a pair of black sneakers. He clearly told Lin Qile that he didn't like the color black.
At this moment, Jiang Qiaoxi stared at Lin Qile's face, and his painted eyes widened. After two years of not seeing him, he had a Adam's apple, which was obvious when he swallowed.
Feilinger mustered up the courage to walk up to Lin Qile and asked sternly, "Are you Lin Qile?"
His voice was so loud that Lin Qile took a step back unconsciously.
"Whatever you want to do here," Felinger said arrogantly, "could you please stop causing trouble for my friend Jiang Qiaoxi—"
"Cen Xiaoman!" A girl shouted from across the street, "Jiang Qiaoxi's mother's car is here, why aren't you leaving?"
The girl who left school with Jiang Qiaoxi was called Cen Xiaoman. She looked up at Lin Qile, and seemed to be at a loss as to what to do. She reached out and pulled Jiang Qiaoxi's school uniform sleeve: "Let's go. If the aunt sees us... the competition teacher will be waiting anxiously..."
Lin Qile turned around and wanted to leave.
The students from the Provincial Experimental High School who were gathered around her quickly made way when they saw what was happening. Lin Qile walked out from among the onlookers, carrying her schoolbag, and walked faster and faster.
“… Cherry?” Duchamp’s voice came first.
"Lin Yingtao!" Yu Qiao suddenly shouted from a distance.
Lin Qile was still walking, but when she heard someone she knew calling her name from behind, she became even more panicked.
The sky in the provincial capital gradually darkened.
Lin Qile was panting on the side of the road, his schoolbag strap slipping off his shoulders. The ice cream shop on the street was playing the animated film "Finding Nemo", in which Marlin the clownfish and Dory the blue tang were searching for their son Nemo in the vast ocean.
Lin Qile stood at the door of the store, mouth open, looking up blankly for a while.
She was very tired, so she sat down on the steps in front of the store.
Outside the ice cream shop, people were coming and going, men and women, old and children, and their clothes, accents and manners were very different from those in Qunshan City. Lin Qile opened her eyes, and her eyes were red. She had cried a long time ago, and she refused to cry again.
Jiang Qiaoxi didn't seem to recognize her. Lin Qile lowered her head and looked at the little red shoes on her feet under the light of the street lamp. From the fourth grade to the sixth grade, Jiang Qiaoxi stayed with Lin Qile for two years. Jiang Qiaoxi transferred back to the provincial capital, and almost another two years passed.
Two years seems like a long time, Lin Qile thought.
Everything is bound to change.
"Cherry!" a familiar voice suddenly shouted from behind.
Lin Qile was stunned for a moment, not daring to turn his head. The other party anxiously shouted again: "Cherry!"
Lin Yingtao stood up, carrying her schoolbag miserably. Her big eyes saw the face of the person coming and her vision suddenly became blurred.
"Dad..." Lin Yingtao opened her mouth wide and burst into tears.
Electrician Lin, who was wearing a simple dark blue work suit, came over quickly, squatted down and picked up his daughter.
Yu Qiao's mother opened the door and warmly invited Lin Yingtao and Lin the Electrician to come in. Team Leader Yu walked behind Lin Yingtao, covering her red face with his two big hands.
As soon as he entered the door, Uncle Yu shouted, "Yu Qiao, come and find a pair of slippers for your Uncle Lin!"
Electrician Lin had obviously rushed from the mountains to the provincial capital on his way to work. He was wearing work clothes and had a work badge hanging around his neck. Seeing Yu Qiao coming over, Electrician Lin said with emotion: "Yu Qiao, I haven't seen you for only a year, and you have grown so tall!"
"Hello, Uncle Lin!" Another little boy came over, speaking in a baby voice.
Electrician Lin lowered his head to put on his slippers, and reached out to touch Yu Jin's hair: "Oh, our Yu Jin has grown taller too!"
Mother Yu was frying crispy pork in the kitchen and said, "Cherry! Put down your schoolbag and go eat first!"
Lin Qile was still standing by the door and said "Oh" softly.
Electrician Lin walked into the living room, wanting to use Yu Qiao's phone to call his wife who was far away in the mountains to let her know that she was safe. Lin Qile took off her little red shoes, but since she had no slippers to wear, she had to walk into Yu Qiao's bedroom with her socks on.
"Put it down wherever you want." Yu Qiao was still wearing the blue and white school uniform pants of the Provincial Experimental High School, and a basketball vest on the upper body. He watched Lin Qile put the dirty and dusty schoolbag on the floor.
Yu Qiao looked down at her, and Lin Qile now looked up at him with red eyes.
Outside in the living room, the adults were arguing loudly, but the children couldn't hear any of it because they had closed the door.
Yu Qiao asked softly, "What are you doing here?"
Lin Qile was still crying as she spoke. She looked at Yu Qiao and asked, "Who are you?"
Yu Qiao suddenly raised his foot and kicked her.
Lin Qile dodged subconsciously and she laughed.
Mother Yu called out from outside: "Yu Qiao! Yingtao! Dushan is here!... Come on, come on, Dushan, come in! Yingtao is here, come and have dinner with us?"
Lin Qile stood at the door of Yu Qiao's bedroom and saw Du Shang coming in. Du Shang was also wearing the school uniform of the Experimental High School. His face was covered in sweat and he looked like he had run very hard. As soon as he saw Lin Qile, Du Shang grinned.
Yu Qiao's family moved to the provincial capital. Although it was much more spacious than when they lived in the construction site in the mountains, it was still crowded for the family to eat around the table. Team leader Yu kept asking Lin Yingtao how she could buy a ticket and run to the provincial capital by herself: "What a guy! You are not big, but you are very brave! Do you want to scare your uncle to death!"
Mother Yu next to her said that Yingtao used to be very brave. She went to the mountains to explore with Yu Qiao, Du Shang, Cai Fangyuan and others.
Although everyone was laughing, Lin Qile still felt very guilty.
No one asked Lin Qile why he came to the provincial capital.
After dinner, Yu's mother pulled Lin Qile to sit next to her.
She asked Yingtao to sleep in Yu Qiao's room tonight, and asked Yu Qiao to sleep on the sofa in the living room. "Yingtao has lost weight," Yu's mother pinched Lin Qile's face and teased her with a smile, "You still have to go back to school. Next time, find a winter or summer vacation, come with your parents and stay at your aunt's house for a few more days!"
Lin Qile hadn't been to school all day, so naturally he didn't have any homework to do. Yu Qiao and Du Shang copied each other in the bedroom and did their homework in a makeshift way.
Lin Qile was lying on Yu Qiao's bed flipping through his comic book. He had only read two pages when Yu Qiao pulled him over to help him with his Chinese homework.
At nine o'clock in the evening, Cai Fangyuan arrived.
He had attended the competition cram school for the entire night and felt dizzy. After saying hello to Uncle Yu, Uncle Lin and Aunt Yu, he walked into Yu Qiao's bedroom with his fat body.
As soon as he saw Lin Qile, Cai Fangyuan smiled: "Lin Yingtao, I admire you very much. You have become famous in our provincial competition class this time—"
Duchamp began to cough violently, and because his cough was unnatural, it sounded like asthma.
Lin Yingtao ignored Cai Fangyuan and continued to make up stories on Yu Qiao's Chinese homework book with her head down.
After they finished their homework, Yu Qiao's mother brought in freshly fried shrimp chips and crispy pork as a midnight snack for the children.
Lin Qile sat on the floor, looking through Yu Qiao's report card.
"Cherry," Dushan has grown taller now, with more mature eyebrows and eyes, "We haven't seen each other for a year."
Cai Fangyuan sat opposite him, stuffing fried crispy meat into his mouth: "You haven't changed at all from what I see."
Yu Qiao snatched Lin Qile's report card back from his hand and said impatiently, "What's so good about this?"
When Lin Qile saw that Yu Qiao ranked 72nd in the grade, she asked, "How many people are there in your grade?"
Cai Fangyuan said: "More than 500 people."
Lin Qile exclaimed “Wow”.
Yu Qiao did very well in the exam.
Cai Fangyuan looked at Lin Qile's expression and said, "Jiang Qiaoxi is ranked first in the grade again this time."
Duchamp's asthma was about to flare up again, and he almost choked while drinking Coke.
Cai Fangyuan said directly to Lin Yingtao: "I came back with him today."
Seeing that Lin Qile didn't say anything, Cai Fangyuan said, "Actually, he usually goes home with Feilinger, Cen Xiaoman and the others. I don't know what happened today, but he called me over after class."
There was only one piece of fried crispy meat left. Lin Qile's eyes were red as he stared at Yu Qiao and swallowed the piece of crispy meat into his mouth.
Du Shang said unhappily from the side: "Then he didn't come to see, Cherry finally came to see him."
Cai Fangyuan said: "What are you looking at? His dad was driving the car, and his mom was in the car. She was like a plague, and she didn't say a word the whole way."
Lin Qile and Yu Qiao fought over the remaining fried shrimp chips. Cai Fangyuan was chatting with Du Shang. Cai Fangyuan said that Jiang Qiaoxi's mother was really sick. Cai Fangyuan lived close to his family. When he first transferred to the school, one night in the middle of the night, Jiang Qiaoxi's mother suddenly tore up all of Jiang Qiaoxi's math books, opened the window and threw them out, making a noise that could be heard by the whole building.
"Tear up the book?" Duchamp didn't understand. "Why?"
Cai Fangyuan hesitated to speak. He raised his eyes and glanced at Lin Qile.
Yu Qiao had just given the last piece of fried shrimp chips to Lin Qile, who was eating with a squeaky sound, as if he didn't hear anything.
Cai Fangyuan sat for half an hour and then left. He had grown up now and didn't like to fight with Lin Yingtao as much as before. Du Shang also had to go home. He told Lin Qile that he missed Qunshan very much, but Uncle Yu said that the construction site dormitories in Qunshan had been demolished almost completely: "Yingtao, has the eleventh row where I used to live been demolished?"
After her friends left, Lin Yingtao went to the bathroom alone to brush her teeth. Yu Qiao came in a while later, also with a toothbrush, and pushed Lin Yingtao aside.
Yu Qiao bit his toothbrush and said, "When did your rabbit die?"
Lin Yingtao was startled and looked at him through the mirror.
She had not told anyone except Jiang Qiaoxi about this matter. But it was obvious that what she wrote in the letter was known to almost everyone, including Yu Qiao.
Yu Qiao would definitely laugh at her.
Lin Yingtao finished brushing her teeth and bent over to rinse her mouth. She washed her face, which was still wet. She opened her eyes and said to Yu Qiao, "When I was in the first grade of junior high school."
Yu Qiao saw Lin Yingtao talking with a smile on her face.
"What's so funny about this?" Yu Qiao frowned.
"Then I can't cry either." Lin Yingtao made a mournful face at him.
Yu Qiao hugged a pillow. He had to spend the night on the sofa. Lin Qile wiped his face and prepared to go to bed.
When walking past the kitchen door, Lin Qile could hear the adults drinking and talking inside through the crack in the door.
Squad Leader Yu hasn't seen his father for a long time.
"Honest people always suffer in silence. Old Lin, you have suffered too much." Uncle Yu said as he lit the ash from his cigarette.
Electrician Lin just smiled.
Squad leader Yu said: "I didn't feel anything before I came here, but after coming here, I feel that the environment of the provincial capital is really helpful for the growth of children..."
Yu Qiao's mother responded, "You have already got the house, so once the construction is finished, you three should come here quickly—"
Before Electrician Lin could speak, Team Leader Yu said, "You two can come or not, but I tell you, Lin Haifeng, Yingtao must come! At worst, she can live on campus! You can't let her fool around in the mountains in high school!"