When Jiang Qiaoxi was eighteen years old, he discovered that life is impermanent.
Even his cousin, who was like a lighthouse in front of him, always guiding him on the way forward, would collapse overnight.
How confident does Jiang Qiaoxi have that he can find Yingtao after losing her
Once he figured this out, Jiang Qiaoxi no longer had anything to be confused about. He sat on the subway, holding the porridge he bought for his cousin and his wife, and holding Lin Yingtao's hand with his other hand. Jiang Qiaoxi told her that his cousin was a good man, very cheerful, confident, and kind. Before the accident, the whole family was proud of him, and after the accident, the whole family did not give up on him: "Some of his former partners, old colleagues, and old classmates sometimes came to see him. It's just that he has been recovering very slowly."
Lin Yingtao put on Jiang Qiaoxi's coat and walked out of the platform with him. "Why is it so slow?"
Jiang Qiaoxi shook his head. This kind of thing could not be explained by medicine. Once a person reaches this stage, everything depends on luck.
"Among those who were hospitalized with him at the time," Jiang Qiaoxi recalled as he boarded the city bus with her, "some were able to speak after half a year, some didn't wake up for a year and there was no hope for them, and some were not rescued because their family members didn't take good care of them..."
Lin Yingtao was listening nearby, and she held Jiang Qiaoxi's hand in hers.
"My cousin's wife is under a lot of psychological pressure." Jiang Qiaoxi said softly.
Lin Yingtao said: "It must be."
Jiang Qiaoxi turned his head and looked out the window.
When Lin Yingtao got out of the car, she said, “But we can help her!”
Jiang Qiaoxi was about to walk towards the hospital when he suddenly lowered his head to glance at Lin Yingtao beside him.
Jiang Qiaoxi had been used to coming to the ward alone for the past three years, and this was the first time someone was with him. His cousin's wife had received a call from him earlier, saying that Xiao Lin would come with him today. His cousin's wife kept two of the candied apples that Jiang Qiaoxi had brought over a few days ago, washed them, and made salad. She said to her young but weak husband in front of the bed, "Qiaoxi is here with Xiao Lin!"
Lin Yingtao was a little shy. This was her first time meeting other relatives besides Jiang Qiaoxi's parents. "Your cousin's wife is so beautiful!" she whispered to Jiang Qiaoxi.
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "She was my cousin's college classmate."
Lin Yingtao looked at the woman in front of her who had some wrinkles at the corners of her eyes but still had a graceful demeanor. "Hello, cousin, my name is Lin Qile," she introduced herself.
The cousin's wife looked tired and pale, but her eyes were watery and she looked at them with a smile. "Little Sister Lin!" She said in Mandarin with a typical southern accent, "I've heard about you from my brother a long time ago!"
Jiang Qiaoxi gave the porridge in his hand to his cousin's wife. He looked a little embarrassed. As he watched Lin Yingtao walk into the ward, Jiang Qiaoxi said to his cousin's wife sheepishly, "Lend me some more."
My cousin’s wife smiled and said, “This is not called borrowing. I’ve saved your money for you! Your brother doesn’t have surgery recently, so he doesn’t need much money. You can take your sister to play more in Hong Kong.”
Lin Yingtao walked past an empty bed and came to a sickbed. She was a little nervous and uneasy, seeing so many tubes connected to a person on and under the bed, maintaining his life.
The man was very thin, but his hair was shaved short and his chin was clean, which made him look much more energetic.
Jiang Qiaoxi walked in from outside at this time. "Brother," he stood beside Lin Yingtao and put his arm around her, "This is my girlfriend, Lin Qile."
Lin Yingtao's nose felt sore, and she said softly, "Hello, cousin, I'm Lin Qile."
My cousin was lying on the bed. His eyes first looked at Lin Yingtao, then raised their heads to look at Jiang Qiaoxi. His chest rose and fell faster, as if he was very excited. His hands were spread out on the edge of the bed. Jiang Qiaoxi first bent down and grasped his soft hands, and then squeezed them.
Lin Yingtao walked over and got closer to her cousin. She also held her cousin's hand and smiled at him: "Thank you for the gift you bought me before."
My cousin's wife said to Jiang Qiaoxi at the end of the bed, "You didn't take away the things you bought for Xiaolin before."
Jiang Qiaoxi walked over and said, "I got it. I got a Barbie doll."
Lin Yingtao told her cousin: "The doll is still on my desk. It used to be in the mountains. It looked very fashionable. I combed its hair every day."
My cousin's eyes were moist as he stared at Lin Yingtao's face closely.
Lin Yingtao felt her cousin's fingers suddenly move in her palm, as if he wanted to hold her hand back. He looked at her and wanted to say something to her.
Lin Yingtao guessed that Jiang Qiaoxi loved her cousin's family, and her cousin must also love Jiang Qiaoxi, so her cousin was very happy to see her. Although the man in front of her couldn't speak, his eyes were full of emotion.
"Cousin," Lin Yingtao said to him sweetly before leaving, "I'll come to see you during the winter vacation!"
The cousin's hand was in her palm, no longer moving. The cousin raised his eyes and looked at Jiang Qiaoxi who was standing at the head of the bed. His eyes were full of tears. His cousin's wife wiped his eyes with paper and smiled bitterly, "You are still like a little baby. You cry easily when there are guests."
Jiang Qiaoxi whispered, "Brother, Yingtao will go home tomorrow, I will come over the day after tomorrow."
His cousin looked at him and blinked slowly.
Jiang Qiaoxi touched his hand again and found nothing unusual. Jiang Qiaoxi talked to the nurse for a few words, took the unfinished salad from his cousin's wife, and left the hospital with Yingtao.
Lin Yingtao asked Jiang Qiaoxi how her cousin usually ate and drank. Jiang Qiaoxi said that the food was made into liquid and directly injected into the stomach through a tube.
Lin Yingtao immediately lowered her eyebrows, probably because she felt that her cousin was too pitiful.
They sat together on the city bus, and Lin Yingtao looked out the window. The sun was shining brightly on the streets of Hong Kong, and people were coming and going, eating, shopping, chatting, going to work, or dating their lovers. It seemed that everyone had different worries. But in the hospital, some people were living another life, where even worries were a luxury.
Is there a boundary between these two kinds of life? In the last second, he was the cousin who could solve all problems in Jiang Qiaoxi's mouth, and in the next second, he was pushed down the stairs by his subordinates who lost their jobs.
So life changed completely.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Qiaoxi turned his head to look at her.
Lin Yingtao's eyes were filled with tears. She turned around and said, "I suddenly got scared. What if something happened to my parents?"
Jiang Qiaoxi looked down at her.
He reached behind Lin Yingtao and held her tightly in his arms, hugging her on his shoulders, which were no more than twenty years old.
They went to eat the famous beef brisket noodles at noon. Jiang Qiaoxi ordered a can of beer and Lin Yingtao drank soda. She watched Jiang Qiaoxi gulp down his drink and asked, "Have you quit smoking?"
Jiang Qiaoxi put down his beer and said, "Hong Kong's smoking ban is too harsh. I can only smoke occasionally."
Lin Yingtao took his iPhone and took a picture of her beef brisket noodles. She played Angry Birds for a while, but then she couldn't play anymore, so she started playing Fruit Ninja until the battery ran out.
They went to the supermarket together to buy some beer, drinks, shrimp chips and other snacks, and returned to Jiang Qiaoxi's rental house. Jiang Qiaoxi was charging his phone when the landlord called. It turned out that the landlord had to hand in his homework tomorrow, and Jiang Qiaoxi was busy picking up girls and hadn't given it to him yet.
"I'm going to talk to the landlord about my homework," Jiang Qiaoxi took out a computer from his schoolbag and said to Lin Yingtao, who was sitting on the bed changing into slippers, "Call me if you have anything."
What could happen to Lin Yingtao? She felt sleepy soon after eating. She had the habit of taking a nap since she was a child. Her mother called her and asked her what time her flight would be tomorrow: "Where have you been staying these days?"
Lin Yingtao lay in Jiang Qiaoxi's bed. She was a little embarrassed, but she tried to be confident and said, "Living here with Jiang Qiaoxi..."
Sure enough, my mother was silent on the other end, probably with a stern face, as if I was about to say something to her over the phone.
"Mom," Lin Yingtao said, "I went to the hospital to see Jiang Qiaoxi's cousin this morning."
Mom snorted coldly: "And then."
"Then I hope our whole family is safe and sound, and no one will encounter any accidents," Lin Yingtao said. She thought for a moment, "But don't be afraid if something happens, I'm here with you!"
My mother didn't appreciate it at all: "Don't you know how to say something auspicious when you go out?"
When Jiang Qiaoxi opened the door and came in, he saw Lin Yingtao sitting on the clean floor, helping him fold the T-shirts and jackets in the closet that he usually didn't have time to fold.
"What are you doing?" He put down the laptop in his hand.
Lin Yingtao looked up at him: "I see your closet is so messy, you don't usually fold your clothes."
Jiang Qiaoxi looked down at Lin Yingtao spreading a large T-shirt on the floor. She leaned over, supported herself on the floor with her hands, folded the two short sleeves over, and then carefully folded the T-shirt vertically. How much she liked Jiang Qiaoxi could be seen from the way she carefully folded his clothes.
Such a cherry, loved by everyone, actually waited for him for three years.
Lin Yingtao's shirt was very thin, and it was easy to feel the bra straps through the fabric. Jiang Qiaoxi sat on the floor and held her in his arms. "Yingtao..." He kissed her hair from behind and said to her.
"Hmm?" Lin Yingtao blushed, her long hair hanging loosely around her neck, and she looked back in his arms.
"You said the other day that you've loved me since you were a child," Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly brought this up, and he asked her softly, "Is that true?"
Lin Yingtao lowered her eyes and thought for a moment: "Could it be that you only liked me?"
Jiang Qiaoxi looked at her: "Yes."
Lin Yingtao turned her head and looked directly into Jiang Qiaoxi's eyes.
Jiang Qiaoxi stayed in Hong Kong for three years. He had a hard time during these three years. But maybe because he had never enjoyed much happiness in the past, he did not seem angry or restless. He went to school, went to the hospital, worked as a tutor... He lost weight, but the expression in his eyebrows did not change. His skin was still so pale. When he looked at her, his eyelashes drooped down, which always made Lin Yingtao a little absent-minded.
She said to him, "Jiang Qiaoxi, as long as you don't leave me, I will only love you in the future."
Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly lowered his head and kissed her.
When Jiang Qiaoxi's landlord knocked on the door, Lin Yingtao knelt on the floor and hugged Jiang Qiaoxi's shoulders with both hands. She raised her head hastily, and the collar of her shirt was untied, and the pink spaghetti straps slipped off her shoulders. Jiang Qiaoxi raised his head from her and closed his eyes in disappointment.
The landlord said outside: "Teacher Jiang, I bought some midnight snacks. Do you and Jun Ji-hyun want to eat some?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "We have eaten, thank you."
The landlord shouted, "Open the door, honey, I got everything."
Lin Yingtao buttoned her shirt hastily, her face flushed. Jiang Qiaoxi went out. She could hear Jiang Qiaoxi talking to the landlord outside the door, it was nothing more than the landlord wanted to ask him for some homework. "I want to see Jun Ji-hyun." The landlord said. "She's very shy." Jiang Qiaoxi said.
"Okay." said the landlord disappointedly.
Jiang Qiaoxi came in with a 12-inch seafood pizza in his hand. He put the pizza on the retractable table and walked towards Lin Yingtao.
But Lin Yingtao pushed him away. She began to feel embarrassed. She kissed him in Jiang Qiaoxi's arms and hugged his neck for a long time to end it.
All the folded clothes were put back in the closet. The pizza box was opened on the floor. Jiang Qiaoxi sat on the floor, drinking the opened beer, and he watched Lin Yingtao eat pizza.
Lin Yingtao said: "Your landlord is very nice, he even sends you midnight snacks."
Jiang Qiaoxi was still a little upset.
His landlord, a Singaporean, was from Hong Kong and his ancestors did business there. His family owned several buildings from which they collected rent.
Jiang Qiaoxi is a student who is in urgent need of money. He rents a 50-square-foot house in Hong Kong. If he didn't help the landlord with homework and daily chores, he would not be able to afford the rent alone.
At the same age of 20, some people work hard every day, while others rely on the support of their ancestors and never have to worry about their livelihood all their lives.
Jiang Qiaoxi was originally the latter.
He hugged Lin Yingtao to sleep. Yingtao liked kisses, and liked to cling to Jiang Qiaoxi and be held by him, just like she clings to her parents.
"What is Jun Ji-hyun?" she asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi was silent for a while, then recalled that when he first came to rent the house, he had no money and could only write homework for others.
He had dinner with his landlord several times, and the landlord once asked him how he got the scar on his head.
"I said, it was done by a girl," Jiang Qiaoxi said softly, "and he said, it was a wild girlfriend, like Jun Ji-hyun."
Lin Yingtao smiled and blushed when she heard Jiang Qiaoxi say, "I said, she is much prettier than Jun Ji-hyun."
"Jiang Qiaoxi."
"Um?"
"If only my parents and I could help you in these three years..."
Jiang Qiaoxi listened to her sobbing and hugged her waist tightly: "It's fine now."
Jiang Qiaoxi is twenty years old.
When he was young, he never had any holidays and all he did was compete.
When he grew up, he still had no holidays. While other students went traveling and having fun, he had to continue working to save some money.
During the National Day in 2010, Jiang Qiaoxi felt like he had a long vacation.
He did not regret not contacting Lin Yingtao earlier, because he had known Lin Yingtao since he was nine years old. She might not be willing to go to the United States with him, but if she knew where Jiang Qiaoxi was having a bad time, she would definitely come to find him.
Lin Yingtao carried her luggage and sat downstairs with Jiang Qiaoxi to eat breakfast that morning. She logged into her account using the newly downloaded QQ on Jiang Qiaoxi's phone. Her profile picture turned from gray to bright, with a cool suffix behind it: iPhone online.
Duchamp instantly said: "Damn, Cherry is a rich man! iPhone is online!!"
Lin Yingtao said happily: "You are envious!!!"
Duchamp asked: "How much is an iPhone 4 in Hong Kong?"
Lin Yingtao raised her head and asked Jiang Qiaoxi. Jiang Qiaoxi ate his shrimp dumplings and said, "I really don't know."
Lin Yingtao logged out of her QQ account. She asked Jiang Qiaoxi to log into his so that she could join the small dining table group at the Qunshan construction site created by Cai Fangyuan.
Jiang Qiaoxi hadn't logged into his QQ account for nearly three years. He told the person on the other end the password and asked Lin Yingtao to help him join the group. The password was the title of a Cohen song, plus the six digits of Lin Yingtao's birthday.
His friend list is full of teachers and classmates from the provincial capital, as well as students from other schools whom he met in previous competitions.
As soon as I logged in, the software interface was immediately filled with various historical messages that had accumulated over the past three years.
Lin Yingtao felt very embarrassed: "So many people are looking for you." She looked up at Jiang Qiaoxi and found that Jiang Qiaoxi was drinking porridge with a spoon opposite her, not very concerned, as if this had little to do with him.
Jiang Qiaoxi is essentially still a very unapproachable person.
At this moment, perhaps because Jiang Qiaoxi's profile picture suddenly lit up, more messages poured in. Lin Yingtao swiped the screen and found herself in it. Her name was "Cherry" as Jiang Qiaoxi had noted. She clicked on her message history and took a quick look. All that popped up were long paragraphs of mushy messages sent in the middle of the night while crying. Lin Yingtao quickly deleted them all.
Once people become happy, they tend to forget how desperate they were when they were unhappy. At least Lin Yingtao is too forgetful.
She shed those unhappy shells. Even if there is more unhappiness waiting for her in the future, she can still survive stubbornly.
The Qunshan Construction Site Canteen Group was created by Cai Fangyuan the year he graduated from high school. There are five people in the group: Cai Fangyuan, Du Shang, Yu Qiao, Qin Yeyun, and Lin Yingtao. Old classmates are scattered all over the world, and they get together in the group every year during the holidays, and usually just chat.
On October 5, 2010, Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly joined, and the six people at the Qunshan construction site were finally together.
Lin Yingtao stood in the Airport Express, carrying a schoolbag and a suitcase filled with Hong Kong-style dim sum to bring back to her parents, Uncle Yu, and Auntie. She came alone, and when she left, she hugged Jiang Qiaoxi, the boy who had become sand and fireflies in her dreams. Jiang Qiaoxi's hands were warm as he hugged her back. The subway was moving too fast. Lin Yingtao raised her head in his arms and talked to him. After a few words, they arrived at the airport.
"I want to see your bank card." Lin Yingtao asked.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his eyes and looked at her.
Lin Yingtao said, "Let me see it."
Jiang Qiaoxi took out his wallet, which contained a CCB card issued in Shenzhen, and was seen by Lin Yingtao.
She wrote down the card number.
"My cousin gave me 100,000 yuan," she said.
Jiang Qiaoxi looked down at her.
"His house was demolished at the end of 2008," Lin Yingtao said. "My aunt now has several houses in Beijing and a lot of money from the government."
In 2008, some people fell into the abyss, while others flew into the clouds.
Lin Yingtao got her boarding pass and said to Jiang Qiaoxi, "I'll lend you this 100,000 yuan. I don't need it. If your cousin needs it, you can use it."
Jiang Qiaoxi frowned and said, "We have money."
Lin Yingtao pursed her lips and said, "I'll leave it with you first. When I come back during the winter vacation, you can give it back to me."
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Are you still afraid that I will run away?"
Lin Yingtao came forward and hugged Jiang Qiaoxi's waist tightly, and she pressed her face against Jiang Qiaoxi's T-shirt.
"You can't leave again," she raised her head, and suddenly tears welled up in her eyes again, "I'll come back during the winter vacation. If you leave again, I will never look for you again."
Jiang Qiaoxi blinked, lowered his head and hugged her. He kissed her nose.
The author has something to say: －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
Notes to this chapter:
*Fruit Ninja: A casual puzzle game developed by the Australian company Halfbrick Studios and launched on the iOS platform on April 20, 2010.