There was no reply for a long time, as if he was dizzy by this information.
Before he could reply, I put down my phone and went to take a shower. When I came back, I found that there were already many unread messages.
[What do you mean?]
[What kind of liking do you mean by "like"?]
[what do you like about me?]
[Is it because I made you stand up again?]
[Because of the exoskeleton?]
[What about people? ?]
I went back unhurriedly.
[It means literally.]
The other party replied in seconds, and I was surprised that he had such a fast typing speed.
[No, you can't like me!]
But soon, the message was retracted. After a while, he sent another tone that didn't seem so strong.
[You don't like me before you meet me?]
[You have an interesting soul.]
[Quasimodo is also very interesting.]
[I like whatever you look like, appearance is not important. If you were Quasimodo, I would be your Esmeralda.]
Shang Muxiao didn't reply for a long time. I went to the kitchen to take a look, but the lights were dimmed and I couldn't see anything.
Leaning against the window, he observed the opposite side from a street lamp outside, imagining how anxious Shang Muxiao should be at this time, tossing and turning, the depression accumulated because of him in the past few months gradually dissipated.
Life is a constant swing between pain and boredom. When one is free from pain, one is bound to become bored. Schopenhauer did not deceive me.
The phone vibrated, and Shang Muxiao finally came back with a message, with a refusal between the lines.
[But I already have someone I like.]
[So it's a pity...]
I stopped teasing him and answered his original question with a little hint.
[People have different sensitivities, and in a sense, the bond between them is like a fragile and strong glass. When you can't achieve "painful" empathy with the other person, the bond will crack and your relationship will be in jeopardy. It's very difficult to repair damage, you need to let the other person know that you will never make the same mistake again, and convince the other person that you will do your best for it.]
[The bond needs to be calcined with sincerity to become strong again.]
Until I fell asleep, Shang Muxiao still didn't make any movement.
I put my phone on silent and left him alone.
I slept in the middle of the night, suddenly woken up by the knock on the door, and glanced at the alarm clock, it was already one o'clock in the morning.
Not knowing what was going on, I hurriedly moved to a wheelchair and hurried out of the bedroom.
"Who?" I came to the door and asked the people outside through the door panel.
There was silence outside the door for a while. Just when I thought it was some drunk who went through the wrong door and was about to call the security guard over to check, Shang Muxiao's voice slowly rang from the other side.
"it's me."
I was really relieved to learn that it wasn't someone strange.
After the He Weizhou incident, I realized that the danger is everywhere, I specially bought the door blocker online, and I carefully block it every night before going to bed. I don't want to be perverted and not blocked, but to block Shang Muxiao.
"It's so late, why are you here?"
Just as he put his hand on the doorknob, Shang Muxiao said again, "I have something I want to give you. You don't need to open the door now. When I'm gone... you can open the door again."
After saying these words, there was no movement outside.
What is it that is so mysterious and has to be delivered in the middle of the night? I was full of doubts and waited for a while before opening the door.
The sensor light outside was dimmed because of the long silence, and only a little light in the room could dimly illuminate what Shang Mu Xiao left on the ground.
I was stunned, unable to believe my eyes.
After a while, I carefully picked up the thing, although it was beyond recognition and even though it was broken, it... was indeed the crystal trophy that was smashed by Shang Muxiao.
Maybe it's not strong enough, starting from the base, it is wrapped with a circle of Scotch tape, which at first glance looks like a mallet.
That's not what I mean by "repairing the breakage".
Shaking my head amusingly, I glanced at the dark corridor and made sure that Shang Muxiao was no longer there. I closed the door with the trophy and went back into the room.
Put the trophy back in its original place, and the box of "Retrograde Wind" that was pressed under it before told me to throw it into the trash - now I can no longer appreciate this film with an artistic eye, fans and idols It's better to keep your distance.
Back in the bedroom, I checked my phone and found that Shang Muxiao had called me several times, but I didn't hear it.
Not only did he make a phone call, he also texted me using his own number. There are not many words, it is concise and clear, and the subject is clear.
[Sorry, I was wrong.]
I sent a "um" in the past.
Before I could lie down, Shang Muxiao's call came.
"What do you mean 'um'?"
I was awakened from sleep by him, but now when I touch the pillow, drowsiness will come again.
"It means to know."
"You..." He suppressed his temper and asked without any confidence, "Then are you forgiving me or not?"
"Why don't you show it to me?"
He dawdled and spit out four words: "I'm afraid you won't."
"You're too ugly to stick."
"I was glued for four hours all night!"
My thoughts drifted away from my body slowly, I rubbed against the pillow, closed my eyes and said, "Who made you break yourself..."
His voice continued, showing uncertainty: "Is it really ugly? Then I... Then I take it back and stick it again?"
Wouldn't that be broken again? This trophy is already pitiful enough, why bother with it all the time.
"No, give it to me..." I lowered my voice, "It's mine."
"Then you accept it, you forgive me."
My brain can still understand his words, but my body has involuntarily surrendered to the soft bed, responding to Duke Zhou's call.
"… teacher?"
"North mustard?"
He didn't get my answer for a long time. He tried to call me by my name. Seeing that it didn't work, he said annoyed "tsk".
I reluctantly withdrew the hand that had been handed to Duke Zhou, tried hard to wake up, and was still in a daze when I heard him let out a long sigh.
"I used to think that love should not be for a lifetime, but to be happy. If you are happy together, you will separate when you are unhappy, so it is normal to break up." Give me the volume without waking me up.
"There is no one in this world who can't live without anyone. I will never indulge in an inappropriate relationship, nor will I have any nostalgia for the person who left me. It is indeed very relaxed and happy to be with you, but It's no big deal, I'll always forget you over time. I've always, told myself this."
"I'm too self-righteous..." He said it several times in a row, listening to this sentence especially unforgettable, "I'm too self-righteous."
I was actually awake at this point, but I held back my voice, wanting to hear what he had to say next.
"Beida, can you stop liking others? I'm younger than them, better-looking than them, and I don't have any bad habits. If you like me, you should like me." At the end, his tone was a little resentful, Can't seem to understand why I want to like "Representative Shaw".
I endured so hard that I almost didn't laugh out loud.
He sighed again, and when he spoke again, the tone became very soft.
"Good night, my gem."
The strength of holding the phone increased, and my heart seemed to be clenched by this force. It didn't hurt or itch, but it was just pulling on my chest, which made people panic.
Afraid that my heartbeat would be too loud and the other party would notice, I grabbed the clothes on my chest tightly, until he hung up the phone and realized that I forgot to breathe.
He took a big breath in, and then slowly exhaled it. After several times to calm his heartbeat, he felt hot again, and he got out of bed and wanted to wash his face with cold water.
In the mirror, my appearance at this moment was faithfully reflected—the cheeks and even the tip of the nose were stained with reddish color, the eyes were covered with water, and the expression of frowning, it was not an exaggeration to say "I want to cry."
I can't tell if it's because of the old problem, the red eyes when I get excited, or because of suffocation, or some other reason.
I just felt the heat, and the sleepiness of the heat disappeared. I thought of walking around, I wanted to open the window, shouted to the outside, and I even wanted to take out every record in the house and wipe it.
The heat seemed to have turned into some kind of magical "motivation" that drove me so energetic that it was hard to fall asleep, and I had to do something to drain it so that I could calm down.
So I got up and turned on the computer. With this "power", I wrote my own "Eastern Philosophy of Mind: Tradition and Change" in one go, and submitted it to a core journal of CSSCI.
After the screen of the computer showed that the email was successfully sent, I moved my sore shoulders and neck, and then looked out the window, the sky was already white with fish belly.
It's okay in the morning, it's not too sleepy, maybe the "power" is not exhausted, but it won't work until noon, and the feeling of exhaustion blows. Fortunately, there was only one class in the afternoon, so I didn’t dare to drive back after the class, so I fell asleep on the sofa in the office, and slept until six o’clock, and was woken up by the message from Representative Xiao.
He ding ding dong dong, and the general meaning is no more than two points.
First, he is very grateful for my cooperation with his work; second, he is going to be transferred, and this number will be given to his colleague, a middle-aged man in his fifties.
I sat on the couch and laughed at his message for a good two minutes. After laughing and wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes, he got up and went to the parking lot.
When my car drove out of the school gate and turned a corner, it almost collided with a familiar blue and white heavy aircraft.
Both I and the other party were a little surprised, and no one left for a while.
The other party pushed up the helmet goggles, revealing a pair of sullen eyes. I also lowered the car window and made eye contact with him.
"Zhou Yanyi?" I recognized him.
"Sorry, Professor Bei, I drove a little faster just now." He simply took off his helmet and smiled at me embarrassedly.
I looked at the blue and white heavy machine under his seat and asked, "How much did Shang Muxiao sell you for?"
He was stunned for a moment, patted the head of the heavy machine, and said: "The original price is one million, and it could have been sold for seven hundred thousand, but he said he was in a hurry to use the money. If I can transfer money to him immediately, I will sell it to me for five hundred thousand. ."
I thought it was strange before, given how much Shang Muxiao liked this car, even if I couldn't sit, he wouldn't sell it as a large ornament. Now listening to Zhou Yanyi say this, I am more certain of my thoughts.
He was in a hurry to use the money, so he had to sell his car. And during that time, he did buy a very expensive thing - my exoskeleton.
When it comes to selling cars, he can be said to be… giving everything he has. In this way, he would rather let Representative Xiao "transfer" rather than tell me. What are you doing, afraid that I will think that he is taking favor in return
"Are you all right?" Zhou Yanyi saw that I had been silent, so he deliberately said, "This semester he suddenly broke down with Yin Nuo, and no one said why, but I guess... It should be related to you."
This is the gate of the school. Although it is night, it is inconvenient to say more. I used the most concise words to include the current situation of me and Shang Muxiao.
"we broke up."
"what… "
"But it should be back together today."
"Ah?" Zhou Yanyi held his helmet and stared at me blankly, looking like he couldn't return to God.
I didn't explain much to him, I said "goodbye" and raised the window and left.
Driving back to the community, instead of taking the elevator home as usual, I entered the opposite building and went up to the 11th floor, 1102.
As the elevator went up, I sent a message to "Representative Xiao".
[Open the door.]