Jiang Qiaoxi hadn't been back to the provincial capital for four years. This city, where he was born and grew up, had changed rapidly over the past four years.
"Has this entire area been demolished?" He sat on the bus, looking out the window.
This was the place where he went to attend competition classes after school every day when he was in junior high school.
Lin Yingtao's eyes reflected the sunset outside. She said beside him, "It's been demolished for more than two years, and a Wanda building has been built. Cai Fangyuan said that the housing prices in this area have risen dramatically!"
Jiang Qiaoxi never felt that he had any attachment to this city. But being born and raised here, listening to the familiar accents of passers-by, looking at the billboards on the street, and even receiving a welcome text message from China Mobile made him feel deeply moved.
Yingtao held his hand and got off the bus at a street corner under the viaduct. Jiang Qiaoxi looked in the direction of the Power Construction Headquarters Community. The streets, tobacco, alcohol and restaurants nearby had all changed.
Lin Yingtao led him forward.
"Uncle Qin's supermarket is across the road," Lin Yingtao said in front, just like the first time she took him to visit the construction site in the mountains. "He bought the two shops that used to sell roast chicken and dried fruits. Look, it's right over there. Isn't it huge? It's three times bigger than the original small shop!"
As he was talking, a man walked out of the Qin family's store. He limped, wearing gloves, and carried out a box of broken fresh eggs from the store and put them in a small cart at the door. He looked over here from a distance and suddenly waved.
"Uncle Qin!" Lin Yingtao shouted from afar.
Uncle Qin was now much stronger than before. He frowned and said, "Why haven't you started university yet?"
Then he saw the young man next to Lin Yingtao.
It seems a little strange, but somehow it feels very familiar.
Lin Yingtao looked up and said to Jiang Qiaoxi, "Uncle Qin doesn't seem to recognize you."
Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his eyes and said, "Actually, I don't know him either."
Lin Yingtao held his hand and dragged him across the street. "Uncle Qin," she said, "don't you recognize Jiang Qiaoxi?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said softly, "Hello, uncle."
Uncle Qin stared at Jiang Qiaoxi in surprise, looking him up and down from head to toe. He looked at Lin Yingtao's smiling face again, and then looked at him again.
"Jiang Qiaoxi?" he said, "Why are you back?"
The guards at the gates of the community are different from those in 2008. On Sunday afternoons, the community is mostly populated by parents walking their dogs or babies, and elderly men gather at the street corners to play chess.
"Cherry!" an aunt asked, "Why are you back?"
Lin Yingtao smiled and said, "I'll go home to see my parents on Sunday!"
"Oh! Oh, Mr. Lin is so lucky!" The aunt smiled, glanced at Jiang Qiaoxi, frowned in confusion, and looked away. She nodded and smiled at Lin Yingtao, and walked away.
Lin Yingtao arrived at the door of her apartment, looked up at the window, and said to Jiang Qiaoxi, "Why can't the aunts recognize you?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Maybe I have changed too much."
"No," Lin Yingtao reached out and touched his face. She thought for a moment and said, "Maybe they didn't expect you to come back."
Lin Yingtao took the key to open the door of the unit and walked in. Jiang Qiaoxi, who was tall, stopped outside the door.
She suddenly turned around and hugged Jiang Qiaoxi's waist tightly, as if she remembered something.
Jiang Qiaoxi held Cherry's hand that was around his waist.
"Have you thought about it?" Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his head and asked suddenly.
Lin Yingtao raised her eyes and looked at him, shaking her head vigorously.
Jiang Qiaoxi took her hand away and squeezed it hard.
"You really won't go up with me?" Lin Yingtao asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his eyes. "I'll be waiting downstairs," he said. "If your uncle and aunt agree, give me a call."
"They will definitely agree," Lin Yingtao whispered. The sound echoed in the corridor. She was afraid that her parents would hear her when they opened the door upstairs. "They all like you very much."
"Just because you like me doesn't mean you'll marry me right now," Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his eyes and said, "I don't have anything yet."
Lin Yingtao pursed her lips. "You have me." She said angrily.
Jiang Qiaoxi couldn't help laughing.
Cherry went upstairs with brisk steps and soon disappeared from Jiang Qiaoxi's sight.
Jiang Qiaoxi stood there for a while, then closed the unit door next to him.
If he was a little more confident, maybe he could go upstairs with Lin Yingtao and strongly ask Uncle Lin and Aunt Juanzi to marry Yingtao to him.
But Uncle Lin and his wife are both gentle people. Perhaps they would agree because they could not bear to disappoint the two young people.
It would be better to give them a chance to talk to Yingtao alone and talk about the doubts and concerns of their parents. Jiang Qiaoxi also hopes that Yingtao can think about it seriously before making a decision. After all, once they enter into marriage, their relationship will have legal effect. Even if Yingtao falls in love with someone else and wants to leave, Jiang Qiaoxi will not let her go easily.
"You are..." a girl's voice asked from behind, "Jiang Qiaoxi?"
Jiang Qiaoxi turned his head under the eaves.
It's a strange face.
Xin Tingting's face turned pale: "You...what are you doing here?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Who are you?"
Lin Yingtao opened the door and found her parents sitting on the sofa watching TV and making dumplings.
Mother Lin smiled and lowered her head to roll out the dough: "Oh, every time I hear Song Xiaobao shouting 'Cherry', I want to laugh - Cherry?!" She clenched the rolling pin and suddenly saw her.
Lin Yingtao glanced at the TV, which seemed to be a rural-themed TV series. She said, "Dad, Mom, don't wrap it up yet. I have something serious to tell you now."
The TV was also turned off.
Lin Yingtao stood in front of the TV, facing her father and mother on the sofa. Her father asked, "Why did you come back?" Lin Yingtao waved her hand at him, signaling him not to make trouble. She said as if she was going to give a speech: "I want to formally tell you that I plan to marry Jiang Qiaoxi."
Father Lin looked at her and was stunned for a moment, as if he had been mentally prepared.
Mother Lin noticed something was wrong and looked at Lin Yingtao's face with a frown.
Sure enough, Lin Yingtao said the next second: "We will go to the Civil Affairs Bureau tomorrow!"
"What?" Even the usually calm and composed Electrician Lin was shocked.
Mother Lin stood up at the side and said, "You came back from Beijing so suddenly without even calling me!"
Lin Yingtao said: "I want to give you a surprise."
The winter vacation had just ended, and it was obvious that her parents didn't miss her very much. Lin Yingtao sat on the sofa. She felt that her father had always liked Jiang Qiaoxi and would definitely agree, so she acted like a spoiled child to her mother. She covered her hands and leaned close to her mother's ear and said, "Mom, Jiang Qiaoxi and I are so good. We live together every day in Hong Kong. Jiang Qiaoxi will make a lot of money in the future. It's safe to get married now, but if we wait a few years to get married, what if he gets seduced by another woman and doesn't want me anymore—"
Her mother hit her head with a rolling pin, and Lin Yingtao cried out "Ouch". "You are really eager to do it!" her mother said disdainfully.
Dad took over his wife's rolling pin and continued rolling the dough. He said, "Cherry, you are so young, you are not old enough to get married."
Lin Yingtao said: "Jiang Qiaoxi will be 22 years old tomorrow and can go get the marriage certificate."
Mom asked, "How long have you been planning this?"
Lin Yingtao seemed a little embarrassed and smiled secretly: "He proposed to me during the winter vacation."
"Oh my," said the mother, "you are just kids, why didn't you tell me you were proposing during the winter vacation?"
Lin Yingtao said: "I hadn't decided when to get the marriage certificate at that time. I thought I would get it after graduation... He gave me all his bank cards and bought me a ring. His cousin's wife also gave me two big gold bracelets—"
Mom's face changed: "What do you want to give me?"
Lin Yingtao lowered her head and said, "I've already accepted the big gold bracelet, you can't ask me to return it..."
Dad moved the dumplings into the kitchen, washed his hands, came over, wiped his hands, and sat next to Lin Yingtao. He lowered his head and asked, "Yingtao, are you serious?"
Lin Yingtao nodded vigorously to her father like a chick pecking at rice.
"But how can you get the certificate by yourself?" Dad said with a headache, "To get the marriage certificate at the Civil Affairs Bureau, both of you need to be present, and Qiaoxi is still in Hong Kong—"
Mother Lin was wiping the table in the back and said, "Little brat, you don't know anything—"
Lin Yingtao said: "Jiang Qiaoxi is downstairs now!"
"Ah?" Father Lin and Mother Lin asked in surprise in unison.
Jiang Qiaoxi put his hands in his trouser pockets, standing in front of the unit door, still with his head down, lost in thought.
"Jiang Qiaoxi, why are you still here?" Xin Tingting saw him as if she had seen a plague god. She glanced at the door of Lin Qile's apartment and said indignantly, "Do you know how much Qile has suffered because of you? She was accused of premature love in elementary school, and was ostracized by people in high school. In college... How many years have she been gossiped about by people in the headquarters who were experimenting? When you left, Qile chased you to the street in the middle of the night, squatting at the intersection in her pajamas and slippers and crying. Everyone in the community knew about it and laughed at her..." Xin Tingting looked at him, puzzled, "Why are you still here?"
She looked at the nearby intersection again, as if she was afraid someone would find them: "You should leave quickly. Qile already has a boyfriend in college. She is doing well now. If you come to see her again, no matter what you do, others will gossip about her. Even though your family has moved away, Qile and Uncle Lin will still live here."
Jiang Qiaoxi lowered his head and stared at the patterns on the floor tiles. His mind suddenly recalled that night when Cherry was wearing pajamas with a key chain hanging on her wrist and was kissed in his arms until she was speechless and understood nothing.
"Qile chased me out to the street in the middle of the night, squatting at the intersection in my pajamas and slippers and crying..."
"… Everyone in the neighborhood knew about it and laughed at her…"
Jiang Qiaoxi took a deep breath and suddenly felt a pang in his heart.
He looked up through the gate of the community. He suddenly thought that if he had lost her, then when he came back, he might have heard Xin Tingting's words.
Go away, she has a boyfriend.
There were footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Jiang Qiaoxi!" Lin Yingtao hastily opened the door. She had taken off her coat and was wearing slippers. Her cheeks were flushed with joy. She held his hand and said, "Hurry up, my parents want you to go upstairs!"
Jiang Qiaoxi walked into the warm home. He looked up and saw Uncle Lin Haifeng and Aunt Juanzi standing in the doorway, looking at them at a loss.
Jiang Qiaoxi reached out and hugged Lin Yingtao. "Uncle, aunt," he raised his eyes to look at them, his throat tightened, he took a deep breath and said, "Please let Yingtao marry me... I will treat her well for the rest of my life."
Electrician Lin stood in front of them. He was stunned for a moment, looking at the child Jiang Qiaoxi who really appeared in front of him, and then looking at Qiaoxi's daughter Yingtao with tears in his eyes.
"Qiao Xi," he said with a helpless smile, "your aunt and I happened to make dumplings today. You guys don't eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, right?"
Mother Lin was a little angry just now, thinking that the two children were too reckless. Seeing Jiang Qiaoxi's overly nervous look, her tone unconsciously softened: "How long have you been waiting downstairs? Take down your travel bag first."
While eating dumplings, Lin Yingtao turned to look at the TV series her parents were watching. She frowned and found that the TV series was called "Cherry", which tells the story of a mentally retarded mother named Cherry and her lame husband.
Jiang Qiaoxi is tall, so he always needs to bend down to eat dumplings on the tea table at Lin's house. He drank a little wine with Uncle Lin, which was half a bottle of Wuliangye that Uncle Lin specially found. Jiang Qiaoxi rarely drinks liquor. Uncle Lin said that there is usually no one at home to drink with him. This was a bottle that Uncle Yingtao brought from Beijing last time.
Lin Haifeng and Jiang Qiaoxi drank and chatted about Jiang Qiaoxi's experience of living alone in Hong Kong in the past few years, the illness of Jiang Qiaoxi's cousin, Lin Yingtao's personality, strengths, weaknesses, and the major she studied in college, and then talked about Jiang Qiaoxi's father. Lin Yingtao secretly listened at the side, looking at them from time to time. She said worriedly: "Dad, eat quickly, the dumplings are cold—"
Dad turned around and said with a smile: "Cherry, now you know how to fry peanuts? Can you help dad fry a plate?"
Lin Yingtao secretly looked at Jiang Qiaoxi.
When I was young, at a construction site in the mountains, the adults would eat together, drink, and smoke, and they would always send the children away.
And now, in Dad's eyes, it seems that Jiang Qiaoxi has already sat down at the adult table.
Lin Yingtao didn't know whether this was good or bad, but it seemed like a family ritual: there were some things that Dad wanted to say to Jiang Qiaoxi alone.
She stood in the kitchen, peeling dried peanuts. Her mother came in from outside, came to Lin Yingtao, and asked in a low voice, "Has Qiaoxi booked a hotel tonight?"
Lin Yingtao glanced at her and muttered softly, "It's settled, but I want him to live at home..."
Her mother was watching her.
Lin Yingtao's ears turned red: "What are you doing? It's just right that we can go to the Civil Affairs Bureau together tomorrow..."
Her mother knocked her on the head again: "You keep talking about the Civil Affairs Bureau!"
When she was young, Lin Yingtao wanted to be everything.
She wants to be a little star, a little painter, a little dancer... There are ten million possibilities in her life. In Lin Yingtao's heart, the whole world is open to her with its arms open.
But slowly, tangibly or intangibly, she embarked on her own long road, passing by her childhood wishes and visions about the future one by one.
Among these wishes, there is one called, "I want to marry Jiang Qiaoxi."
And this wish is about to come true.
Lin Yingtao squatted on the balcony, combing the hair of the lazy Mimi. She looked up and saw Jiang Qiaoxi wearing his father's slippers, appearing in the balcony door.
"Did Dad finish talking to you?" she asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi sat on the armchair on the balcony, hugged Yingtao and let her sit on his lap. "Yeah." He nodded with a heavy heart.
"What did you talk about?" she asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi's eyes were moist, and he didn't know if it was because of drinking or something else. "Let's talk about... the past and the future."
"Jiang Qiaoxi."
"What's wrong."
"When can we start living together?" Lin Yingtao tilted her head and leaned on Jiang Qiaoxi's shoulder. He held her hand. "Like those couples, living together, eating together, and going to work together, always together..."
Jiang Qiaoxi thought for a moment and said, "If you insist on going to the United States now, I will work in Hong Kong for another two years. When I come back, I will be 24 and can buy a house."
"Jiang Qiaoxi."
"Um?"
"Are you my husband already?"
Jiang Qiaoxi said: "Legally speaking, we will get the certificate tomorrow."
Lin Yingtao said, "I really want to go to tomorrow right away."
There were clouds in the sky covering the moon.
Jiang Qiaoxi whispered, "Wife."
Lin Yingtao blushed with embarrassment: "Don't yell now... wait until tomorrow, otherwise it won't feel fresh anymore."
Jiang Qiaoxi suddenly put his arm around her waist and put his other hand under her knees. He lifted her up and held her high.
"Then go to sleep now. When you wake up it will be tomorrow."
In 2004, in Lin Qile's hut, Evergreen from the mountains and Barbie from Hong Kong held a wedding. The wedding was very lively, and although Lin Qile was the master of ceremonies and the band, it lasted from morning till night.
Lin Qile's hand went around Jiang Qiaoxi's waist, and she curled up in his arms on the small bed in the boudoir. Lin Qile muttered the three words "Jiang Qiaoxi" in her sleep, and her fiancé hugged her tightly.
"Mom!! I want to wear that Olympic T-shirt I bought in 2007! Why can't I find it... Ah mom!!!"
Lin Yingtao had been feeling very unhappy since early morning: her mother did not agree with her wearing Olympic couple T-shirts to take marriage registration photos with Jiang Qiaoxi.
"Oh no, I don't think I brought my household registration booklet..." Lin Yingtao sat in the back seat of her father's old Santana, rummaged through her small bag, her face turned pale, she turned to look at Jiang Qiaoxi, then watched Jiang Qiaoxi take a deep breath. Jiang Qiaoxi was also very nervous, and he showed her the two books in his hand.
When they arrived at the marriage registration office, Lin Yingtao stayed beside Jiang Qiaoxi nervously. She sat down and calmly filled out the marriage registration declaration with him. Suddenly, Lin Yingtao's nose began to feel sore. She pressed the red handprint with him, and after pressing it, she unconsciously raised her hand to wipe away tears.
When she stood with Jiang Qiaoxi and read the oath given by the Civil Affairs Bureau, Lin Yingtao tried to hold back her tears, but she was already sobbing. She used to be a little announcer at the radio station of Qunshan Primary School, but it was no use.
Jiang Qiaoxi hugged her and read for both of them. His voice was low and not smooth, but he finished reading such a long paragraph.
"We two have voluntarily become husband and wife. From today on, we will shoulder all the responsibilities and obligations that marriage has given us: to be filial to our parents, to educate our children, to respect and love each other, and to support each other.
From now on, no matter good times or bad, rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old, we will stick together through thick and thin, share the joys and sorrows, and stay together for life.
The person taking the oath is Jiang Qiaoxi.
The person who took the oath is Lin Qile. "