During the National Day holiday in 2010, Lin Yingtao stood in the terminal of Hong Kong International Airport. She was carrying a backpack and holding a suitcase. She was reading the notes in her hand while talking on the phone with her aunt. Her aunt often came to Hong Kong to shop in recent years. She urged Lin Yingtao on the phone: "Have you bought an Octopus card? Go take the Airport Express! Your brother just transferred 100,000 to you. Buy whatever you like in Hong Kong! Little Yingtao is already 20 years old, and you carry a small schoolbag all day long. Think of it as a bag given by your brother! Call your aunt if you have anything! Don't be polite to her!"
Lin Yingtao pulled her suitcase and squeezed into the crowd during the Golden Week. She got on the Airport Express, sitting between the passengers on both sides, and nervously read the notes in her hand.
She changed trains in the middle and got off to take the Island Line. It seemed that Hong Kong also had a day off for National Day, but Lin Yingtao thought that Jiang Qiaoxi might appear in school - he loved studying so much, maybe he was studying on his own.
Even if he is not there, if he goes to HKU, he might be able to get some information about Jiang Qiaoxi.
As soon as she arrived in Hong Kong, Lin Yingtao immediately felt the difference in the surrounding environment. The unfamiliar language, the unfamiliar climate, the strangers, and the expressions on people's faces. She wore a small shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the collar unbuttoned, and shivered all the way from the airport to the subway.
But once we got out of the station, the weather outside was extremely hot and humid. My hair stuck to my neck and I started sweating after a while.
Lin Yingtao didn't understand Cantonese, and she regretted not watching as many TVB dramas as Qin Yeyun when she was young. But fortunately, she practiced oral English for a while in the English Association of Normal University. Most people in this city can speak English, and young people can speak some Mandarin.
Lin Yingtao stood on the street of Hong Kong University. She looked around and thought, this is where Jiang Qiaoxi has always lived.
Why, why didn't he even call her
"Jiang, Jiao, Xi," Lin Yingtao really didn't know how to pronounce these three words in Cantonese. She wrote them down on a piece of paper and asked a few students with backpacks passing by the steps of the Hong Kong University Art Museum. She asked in English, "Excuse me, do you know this person?"
They all shook their heads and looked at her.
Lin Yingtao asked: "Where do HKU students usually go to study during their holidays?"
A boy smiled and said, "It may be in Zhihua Hall, but you need to swipe your card, so you probably can't get in."
Lin Yingtao wandered around HKU during the holidays. She put her suitcase on the side of the road and mustered up the courage to ask anyone who didn't look like a tourist - students with backpacks, players wearing hockey uniforms, or people participating in club activities. Some people were friendly but apologized and said they didn't know such a person, while others hurried past and ignored her.
The campus is not big. Lin Yingtao dragged her suitcase inside. She was sweating all over. Her shirt was sticking to her waist and back. Sweat was oozing out of her eyes unconsciously. Perhaps it was because she was unfamiliar with the campus that she was so brave. If it was on the campus of the Normal University, Lin Yingtao would never dare to go to find someone so casually. Lin Yingtao suddenly remembered that Jiang Qiaoxi didn't like to contact people since he was a child. He was taciturn and liked to be alone. In fact, except in front of Lin Yingtao, he rarely smiled at people. If it was in middle school, at least he could be found in the classroom. Everyone would see him and the teachers knew him. But in college, there are so many classrooms, so many departments, so many majors, so many classes, and so many students from all over the world. Lin Yingtao walked forward with her head down. She asked herself how many people she knew in the Normal University, not to mention that it was a holiday today. She suddenly felt desperate.
Lin Yingtao passed by all the places with pictures and texts printed on them at HKU, and looked carefully at the bright smiles of the students in the pictures. She hoped to see Jiang Qiaoxi's figure and his name. HKU is a world-renowned university with a history of nearly 100 years. The students here always seem to be relaxed, comfortable, focused, and casual. Lin Yingtao looked at them on the side of the road, as if she was looking at someone from another world. She didn't know where Jiang Qiaoxi was, but maybe he was right in the middle of them.
Lin Yingtao somehow recalled the time when she was a child standing at the gate of the Experimental High School Affiliated to the Provincial Capital. She was the inappropriate red, mixed in with the blue uniform of the Affiliated High School, out of place.
Lin Yingtao dragged her suitcase to the intersection. She heard the urging sound of a wooden fish in her ear and looked at the people coming and going around her. Before coming here, she was too optimistic. She always felt that as long as a person was there, she would be found no matter what.
She felt so depressed, so hot, so miserable. Maybe she should come back tomorrow, since tomorrow would not be a holiday.
The hotel was booked for her by her cousin, near Tsim Sha Tsui. Lin Yingtao walked into the subway station, feeling the coldness creeping into her clothes and scalp through the gaps in her hair. Lin Yingtao's cell phone rang, it was her new Hong Kong phone card.
Cai Fangyuan asked: "Did you find him?"
As soon as Lin Yingtao heard Cai Fangyuan's voice, that northern Chinese Mandarin accent, she said aggrievedly, "No..." She pulled her suitcase and ran out of the subway station.
The sweat in her shirt was cold, and the shirt was tightly tied around her waist by her skirt, and the belt was full of sweat.
Cai Fangyuan said anxiously: "Look at your QQ. I sent you four addresses. They were asked by a senior from our studio who is a student at Hong Kong University."
"What?" Lin Yingtao asked.
Cai Fangyuan said, "Oh, I've been searching the information groups at HKU for a long time, but I can't find anything. Jiang Qiaoxi doesn't participate in any activities or clubs. This senior went to HKU for an exchange last year and joined a cheap rental group for mainland students. He just asked the group leader, who said that someone named Jiang Qiaoxi seemed to have rented an apartment there, but the leader wasn't the landlord, so he didn't know whether Jiang Qiaoxi had moved out or not, nor did he know which building or apartment he rented. I'll ask for you in detail!"
Lin Yingtao dragged the box and she no longer felt cold. "Okay... I'll go check it out!" she said excitedly.
Cai Fangyuan said: "Have you eaten? Eat first! I'll call you if I have any news!"
It was ten o'clock when we landed in Hong Kong. At this moment, Lin Yingtao didn't feel hungry. She just sweated too much. She stood in front of the vending machine and bought a bottle of water. Lin Yingtao lowered her head to read the message Cai Fangyuan sent her. She blinked, and the sweat on her eyelashes suddenly seeped into her eyes, stinging.
Lin Yingtao got on the red double-decker bus. Maybe she should go back to the hotel to put her luggage first, but Lin Yingtao was looking forward to seeing Jiang Qiaoxi right now. She turned her head and looked at the street scene of Hong Kong outside the window. She took out a mirror from her backpack and tried to tidy up her sweaty bangs and hair.
Before coming, Qin Yeyun asked Lin Yingtao to put on some nice makeup.
But Lin Yingtao didn't know how to put on makeup in such weather.
It is too hot in Hong Kong. It is still like summer in early October. It is not as hot as Beijing, which makes people breathless.
The cheap student apartment was a long, narrow strip sandwiched between two old buildings. Lin Yingtao stood below and looked up, seeing the densely packed window panes like a honeycomb. She tried to look inside through the first-floor door.
The apartment manager was an old man in his sixties. He was watching the horse racing news and speaking Cantonese from the window. Seeing that Lin Yingtao didn't understand, she looked at him pitifully with her two big eyes from outside.
"I'm just the one who holds the key." He turned around and said in broken Mandarin, pointing to the key on the wall.
"Excuse me, does anyone know someone who knows?" Lin Yingtao asked with a frown, "I just want to find a friend. Jiang Qiaoxi is my classmate. We are from the same hometown!"
The old man watched the horse racing news for a while, as if he didn't hear what Lin Yingtao said.
Suddenly he turned around and saw Lin Yingtao still staring at him persistently outside the window with her big watery eyes.
"You are not sent by the loan shark?" he asked her.
Lin Yingtao shook her head vigorously.
The old man manages a cheap apartment full of mainland students, all of whom can more or less understand Mandarin.
"I'm from Beijing Normal University. My name is Lin Qile," Lin Yingtao explained hurriedly. "I can show you my ID. I'm not a bad person. I'm here to see a classmate of mine named Jiang Qiaoxi. Do you really not know him?"
The old man shook his head. He picked up the cup and drank some water. He opened the drawer and took out a business card. "Call this person. He's the landlord."
Lin Yingtao sat on the bench. She felt dizzy, perhaps because she had walked for too long. Her feet were sore and she couldn't walk anymore. She also had a little heatstroke.
Her aunt once told her that she should wear sneakers when going to Hong Kong because shopping is very tiring.
Lin Yingtao drank the bottle of water and ate some biscuits while she was on the phone. She hadn't even started shopping yet, but her feet felt heavy.
The landlord finally answered the phone.
Lin Yingtao put the phone to her ear and looked at the Hong Kong people hurrying along the road in front of her. She didn't know how to face everyone's vigilance.
She thought about it for two seconds.
"Hello, I want to look for Jiang Qiaoxi." She said in English, a little timidly.
The other party was stunned for a moment. It was a very young man's voice, and he also sounded like a student: "You dialed the wrong number. This is not Jiang Qiaoxi's number."
Lin Yingtao suddenly held her breath.
"He...he left me this number..." Lin Yingtao said guiltily, "Are you his friend?"
"Friend? I think you can say that," the other party asked casually, "Who are you?"
Lin Yingtao said: "I... I am a student of his tutoring class, and his book was left at my house. Because I... I am going to travel tomorrow, so I want to give the book to him today!"
"Okay," the landlord said, "then just take it and put it downstairs."
Lin Yingtao stood up from the bench at once: "Can you tell me the detailed address?"
The cold wind was blowing in the subway. Lin Yingtao stood beside her suitcase and hugged her arms unconsciously. She felt very cold and uncomfortable, but when she thought about seeing Jiang Qiaoxi soon, she could endure it and hold on until the subway arrived.
Lin Yingtao followed the address and walked down the ramp. She had already walked out of the subway station, but strangely, her arms were still cold. Lin Yingtao thought she should buy another bottle of water to drink. She felt a little dizzy, maybe she really had heatstroke. She lowered her head and put her backpack on the box, endured the dizziness, and took out a math book from it.
She brought this from home, and she didn't know why she took it. Maybe this was a proof that Lin Yingtao had obeyed Jiang Qiaoxi's request for the past three years and had never forgotten him.
When they reached the foot of the old-style apartment building, Lin Yingtao wanted to carry the box up the stairs, but she lowered her head and nearly fell down.
"Hello, may I ask which floor and household does Jiang Qiaoxi live in?" she asked.
The administrator was a young man who seemed to work here in his spare time after school. He looked up at Lin Yingtao and asked, "Who are you?"
Lin Yingtao frowned and said, "I just gave..." She took out her cell phone and looked for the landlord's phone number, "I just called him and he asked me to come over."
The administrator was unmoved and said in Hong Kong Mandarin: "If you have a card, swipe it to enter. Otherwise, we won't allow you to enter."
Lin Yingtao sat at the foot of the long staircase leading up to the apartment, with her suitcase at her feet. She held her backpack in her arms, trying to support her heavy forehead, and called the landlord. The landlord said, "Just leave the books downstairs."
Lin Yingtao said: "I want to meet him in person."
The woman in the room suddenly smiled.
"Do you know why Jiang Qiaoxi always gives you my phone number?" he said, "Because there are so many female students like you."
Lin Yingtao was stunned.
"Can you speak slower?" she said.
"What?"
"I didn't hear it clearly." Lin Yingtao said honestly.
The landlord said softly, "Honey, don't wait in front of the building. Your teacher Jiang may not come back until the early morning. He may not stay in the hospital or school until a certain time. He may also be working at another student's home. Go home and be with your parents."
The call ended, but Lin Yingtao didn't realize it. Her forehead drooped, her whole body felt cold, and her toes unconsciously leaned together.
From time to time, someone would pass by Lin Yingtao through the door behind her. Her skirt would be caught on the steps and someone would step on it. The other person would hurriedly say sorry, but Lin Yingtao would not respond.
The author has something to say: I'm sorry, my friends, I started writing quite late today. I had originally planned that the first half of this chapter would be about Cherry and the second half would be about Jiang Qiaoxi, but it turned out that I have already finished the first half, which is more than 3,000 words, and it's already this time. I'll go out of town tomorrow to write the second half.
We'll meet in the next chapter.