Lin Qile dreamed of Hong Kong. She slept next to Jiang Qiaoxi and heard the sound of a tram passing by outside the window. There were many people living in the cheap apartment, and the soundproofing was poor, so any noise going up and down the stairs could be heard. Lin Qile stayed in Jiang Qiaoxi's arms, and she could clearly hear his heartbeat.
Jiang Qiaoxi often changed into new T-shirts, he liked to be clean. But Hong Kong was very hot, and Lin Qile had a fever, so the air conditioner in the house was not turned on very high. They slept together and soon sweated. It didn't take Lin Qile long to get used to the slight smell of sweat on Jiang Qiaoxi's body, and the feeling of hugging him. She realized again and again that Jiang Qiaoxi was a man, and they were no longer children.
On Lin Qile's first night in Hong Kong, she was dizzy with fever. On the second night, she cried herself to exhaustion. On the third and fourth nights, she finally had a good sleep, but she kept waking up.
Sometimes she woke up by herself. She looked out the window, listening to the sounds of Hong Kong at night, and then she turned her head back to look at him sleeping beside her.
They no longer lie together like they did when they were children, just to listen to a tape. Lin Qile got up from the pillow, her long hair sliding down her shoulders, and Jiang Qiaoxi's hand around her waist. She looked down at Jiang Qiaoxi's sleeping face and thought, he is my boyfriend now.
Sometimes, she was woken up by Jiang Qiaoxi's embrace. When Lin Qile opened her eyes, she found her cheeks were wet. She might have dreamed, had a nightmare. But when she woke up and saw Jiang Qiaoxi, she forgot the dream. Jiang Qiaoxi was sleepy and bent down to kiss her. Lin Qile's mind was filled with nothing.
It was not until he returned to Beijing that Lin Qile remembered his dream in the middle of the night while lying on his bed in his dormitory.
She dreamed that he left and she was left alone in the four square meter rented house.
"Jiang Qiaoxi," Lin Qile wiped the tears from her face in the middle of the night. Her roommates, all graduate students, had graduated. Lin Qile was afraid of disturbing her new roommate, so she turned around and sent him a message, "Did I really find you?"
Jiang Qiaoxi should still be sleeping. Lin Qile put her phone next to her pillow. As soon as she lowered her eyes, tears fell into the pillow again, making it wet and uncomfortable. Lin Qile turned over and lay flat on her back. She closed her eyes and recalled the time in Hong Kong and the time she was with Jiang Qiaoxi.
It was strange. When Lin Qile was with him, she always felt shy unconsciously and wanted to hide away. But once they were apart, Lin Qile missed him and everything about him.
She missed his breath, the feeling on her cheek when they kissed, the feeling on her neck. She missed the strength of his arms. That night, downstairs of the apartment building, when the taxi drove away, Lin Qile felt as if he was in a state of stress pain. Lin Qile could do nothing except being hugged by him, hugging him, and waiting for him to calm down.
Lin Qile suddenly sat up from her bed in the dormitory. Her hair was disheveled, and she reached out to scratch it, pulling it behind her head. She turned back to look out the crack in the curtains at Beijing at around five in the morning.
Lin Qile recalled how upset she was that she couldn't spend more time with Jiang Qiaoxi during the summer camp in Beijing after he disappeared, even though she had agreed to go to the United States to study with him.
"What a coincidence," Jiang Qiaoxi replied, "I didn't fall asleep either."
Lin Qile lowered her head, reached out from her pajamas sleeve and took the phone.
Jiang Qiaoxi said inexplicably: "Cherry, how can I sleep?"
Lin Qile went to his aunt's house on a weekend in late October, carrying Hong Kong-style dim sum and Tiger Balm as gifts. His aunt prepared a large table of dishes at home, including Peking duck, pork elbow in rock sugar, and Aiwowo and Donkey Roll, which Lin Qile liked. Lin Qile sat at the table and finally explained where the 100,000 yuan went.
"Who did you give it to?" asked my aunt from the other side.
My cousin understood and explained, "Mom, it's the boy who came to our house in 2007. His last name is Jiang. He's quite tall and handsome, right?"
My uncle said, "Oh, oh, Jiang Zheng's son!"
The eldest aunt said without temper: "This girl who hasn't even married yet is like spilled water!!"
Lin Qile sat opposite him and muttered, "My cousin transferred too much money to me! I'm afraid to put it in my card!"
"What a waste!" The eldest aunt rolled up the roast duck for her and asked Lin Qile to eat it. "Didn't I ask you to go to Hong Kong and buy a bag? Just think of it as a gift from your brother."
Lin Qile was eating roast duck with roast duck sauce on her lips. She wondered, "Where can I find a bag worth 100,000 yuan?"
Everyone at the table laughed.
"You are ignorant, cousin," said my cousin, who was wearing an even more fancy shirt.
The eldest aunt said, "The bag your brother bought for your sister-in-law last week cost 70,000 yuan!"
Lin Qile's expression suddenly changed: "Hey!!"
My uncle drank some wine and said politely: "It's a famous brand, called Hermes!"
"Hermes!" his cousin corrected him.
Lin Qile didn't care what they were talking about. The blue cat raised by his cousin came over, jumped on Lin Qile's lap, and wanted to lick the Aiwowo in Lin Qile's plate, but Lin Qile hugged it and stopped it from licking. The eldest aunt asked about Lin Qile's 100,000 yuan again, after all, it was not a small amount.
"That kid named Jiang, why did I hear Haifeng say that he's missing? Lost contact?"
Lin Qile held the cat and told his aunt's family about Jiang Qiaoxi's current situation and the situation of his cousin's family.
"Oh, you went to Hong Kong to find him this time?" my cousin realized belatedly.
Lin Qile nodded awkwardly and said, "He is currently studying at the University of Hong Kong, pursuing a double degree in business and law."
My uncle put down his chopsticks and said, "Oh my! This is incredible, the University of Hong Kong?"
Lin Qile happily told his uncle: "He told me a few days ago that he passed a... Morgan Stanley phone interview?"
My uncle said that Jiang Zheng was a trustworthy person and it would not be a problem to lend the money to his son, as the child seemed to have a promising future.
But he repeatedly told Lin Qile that it was dangerous for a little girl to run so far to look for someone: "I will have to call and criticize Lin Haifeng next time."
Lin Qile is already a junior student majoring in early childhood education. In November, she went to a real kindergarten for her first internship for half a month.
Lin Qile likes children, and children like her too. They surround her and shout, "Hello, Teacher Lin!" They grab her sleeves and hug her: "Teacher, you are so beautiful!"
Just this one sentence is enough to make Lin Qile happy for the whole day.
The internship days were very busy. Lin Qile didn’t even have time to drink water during the day, running around to take care of the babies like a nanny. She was also criticized by the head teacher, who said that her voice was too soft and gentle when talking to the children: "Speak louder! You can’t lead the class with such a slow and soft voice! The children won’t obey the management!"
Lin Qile gradually noticed something strange, the gap between his ideals and his work.
She returned to the dormitory at night and took a shower first. Because her cell phone was out of credit, she sat on the bed and turned on the computer video to chat with Jiang Qiaoxi.
"Today there was a little boy who kept crying," Lin Qile said to Jiang Qiaoxi while wearing headphones and wiping his hair. "He couldn't get the movements for his performance report right. The more the teacher yelled at him, the harder he cried on the stage, and he also made the children next to him who were ready to cry. I had no choice but to hold him down. The child is quite heavy, so I wanted to hold him for a while and then put him down, but he hugged my neck tightly and didn't let go until his father came to pick him up after get off work."
Jiang Qiaoxi used to study in the library, but now he goes back to his rented house at nine o'clock in the evening, reading while chatting with Lin Qile on the screen.
He raised his head and looked at Lin Qile's obviously tired eyes and smiling lips. It was such a troublesome thing, taking care of dozens of children, and being pestered by a little boy for so long, but she looked quite happy.
"That little boy trusts me so much, I feel like I'm his mother!" Lin Qile looked up and told him, as if they were playing house.
Jiang Qiaoxi said unhappily, "Why did you choose such a major?"
Lin Qile applied the cream in front of the camera, and her big eyes suddenly closed. She rubbed her cheeks and nose bridge around her eyes with her fingers for a while, and then opened them again. She said, "I feel pretty good."
Lin Qile taught the children to dance in the class. She didn't speak too loudly because she didn't want to scare them. She didn't want to use the majesty of an adult to scare and make the children obey. Of course, this also has disadvantages. The children she taught had different levels. They jumped happily and had their own way of dancing. After all, not every child is good at dancing. Some parents came to see and said that Teacher Lin was partial and didn't teach her children well. Some parents also said that this trainee teacher was not good and useless. Look at the teacher in the next class, who is more uniform.
It is a joy to communicate with children, but facing parents and principals is another matter entirely.
The day before the performance, the kindergarten was rehearsing. Lin Qile was standing in the audience taking a video, wanting to send it back to Jiang Qiaoxi to see the first group of cute children she was leading during her internship.
But in the middle of the rehearsal, another child had a problem. This was a performance that all parents would come to watch. The teacher leading the group was so angry that he yelled at the stage and pulled the crying child to make him stand straight. Lin Qile quietly put away his phone in the corner.
After graduating from graduate school, senior sister Meng Lijun went to the United States to pursue a doctorate. She laughed on the phone and said, "So you see why everyone in our dormitory went to graduate school before. It's hard to work in a kindergarten! You only get 2,000 to 3,000 yuan, 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, and you still feel guilty."
Lin Qile said: "The teachers there all advised me to change my career."
Meng Lijun laughed out loud on the phone.
When she was young, her parents enrolled Lin Qile in various interest classes at the Children's Palace, but she would only learn a few and then stop. Especially dance, she stopped going after she fell on her buttocks under the horizontal bar in public. Now, because of this major, in order to pass the exam, Lin Qile has seriously practiced dancing, piano, and painting. She has picked up everything she left behind when she was a child.
In late November, Lin Qile posted a photo of herself practicing splits on the dance studio floor in her school photo album. She was wearing a light pink sweater, and as she leaned forward to hug her legs, a necklace dangled from her collar.
Du Shang and others gave thumbs up. Du Shang commented: "It was not in vain that I went to the Children's Palace when I was a child, Cherry! Awesome!" He also stole all the vegetables from Lin Qile's farm.
Yu Qiao was in Canada, it was morning. He had a profile picture of himself standing on a snowy mountain with the blue sky behind him, and commented: "I am so relieved!"
Cai Fangyuan said: "Damn, Lin Yingtao can do the splits now!"
Qin Yeyun replied: "Send it to that person quickly!!"
Jiang Qiaoxi was in class when suddenly a message popped up on his phone. He held the phone under the book, clicked it, and found that it was a photo sent to him by Lin Yingtao.
Jiang Qiaoxi stared at the screen of his mobile phone. This class is difficult, he thought, he must listen carefully. He raised his head, but his eyes could not help looking down, Lin Yingtao's legs pressed against the floor, her slumped waist, and the necklace that fell out of the collar of her sweater. Jiang Qiaoxi raised his eyes and listened carefully, he said to himself.
In December, Jiang Qiaoxi called Lin Qile and mainly talked about two things.
One is that he officially passed the four rounds of interviews at Morgan Stanley and can do an internship next summer. The second is that my cousin suddenly regained control of his fingers a while ago.
Lin Qile took the phone and was stunned for a moment.
Before...cousin couldn't move his fingers
Jiang Qiaoxi spoke quickly: I didn't tell you right away because I wasn't sure whether this was temporary or if there was another problem. I just had a check-up today and the doctor confirmed that there are indeed some signs of recovery. If necessary, I may have another surgery to see if there can be further improvement.
"He can only move his hands now," Jiang Qiaoxi laughed, genuinely happy, "he can't hold anything yet!"
Lin Qile listened, put the phone to her ear, lowered her head, and suddenly wanted to hug him very much.
At the end of December, HKU was on Christmas vacation. Jiang Qiaoxi called Lin Qile. Lin Qile said coquettishly, "Don't come, I still have classes. The air tickets are so expensive, I'll go during the winter vacation!"
Jiang Qiaoxi said, "You haven't been dancing recently."
Lin Qile went to the piano store to practice in the evening. She already knew how to play many nursery rhymes, and when she went to work in the kindergarten, she would have to accompany the children. She picked up her phone and learned that Jiang Qiaoxi was in the hospital with her cousin for the holiday, so she played a Merry Christmas song for them.
"I can also play 'Dark Sky'," she whispered to Jiang Qiaoxi, as if telling a little secret between the two of them, "I saw the score on the Internet..."
She played it for him. There was no one else in the music store. Christmas Eve was a date night for college lovers. Even singles would go shopping, watch a movie, have dinner together, or just stay in the dormitory and watch TV series.
Lin Qile played and sang, and she seemed to not need anyone's company, but Jiang Qiaoxi was listening in Hong Kong. Thinking of this, she felt even happier.
In January, Lin Qile had winter vacation.
She was reading an emotional column in a women's magazine on the high-speed train. The column said that in ancient times, people lived in the same village, men farmed and women weaved, and from birth to death, they shared the same fate and were difficult to separate throughout their lives.
But in modern society, with the development of science and technology, everyone can enjoy their own life. People are destined to separate, and only those who need each other more can come together in the dark.
Lin Qile booked a flight ticket and was going to fly to Hong Kong in four days. Her mother was unhappy at first because Lin Yingtao had always stayed with her parents during the Chinese New Year since she was a baby and had never been separated from them.
"It's okay," Lin the electrician consoled his wife, "this day will come."
"Cherry is only 20 years old..." Mom said reluctantly, full of worries, "Jiang Zheng and his wife didn't go to see their children during the New Year, but Cherry foolishly went there by herself."
Electrician Lin rolled up his sleeves and helped his wife knead the dough with brown sugar and chopped dates. He said, "How do you know that Manager Jiang doesn't want to go?"
"You will understand," said my mother with a smile, "Jiang Zheng is no longer working here, so you are still 'Manager Jiang'."
Lin Qile sat on the floor of her small bedroom, packing her suitcase. Her laptop was open and she was video chatting with Jiang Qiaoxi.
"I'm going to have dinner with Cai Fangyuan and the others tomorrow," Lin Qile said as she lowered her head to fold clothes. "Yu Qiao is on leave to visit her family. She finally came back from Canada, so we got together before I leave." She stood up and rummaged through her shoe box under the closet. She wanted to get an extra pair of sneakers, but accidentally found a pair of roller skates that she wore as a child.
"Look at my roller skates!" She turned around and held up the bright yellow shoes towards the computer camera.
She muttered again, "Qin Yeyun said he would take me shopping the day after tomorrow, and I will buy some more things then, so the box can't be filled too full."
Jiang Qiaoxi was struggling to finish his homework, making little progress. He said, "What do you want to buy? I'll go get it for you."
Lin Qile picked shoes with her back to him, and without turning back, she said shyly, "I won't tell you."
The author has something to say: －－－－－－－－－－－－－－
Notes to this chapter:
* “Stole all the vegetables from Lin Qile’s farm”: Happy Farm, a social web game focusing on farming, was launched in 2008 and discontinued in August 2013.