In the first semester of his first year in high school, Lin Qingle transferred from another school and returned to his hometown, Xicheng, with his mother.
This was her third time to transfer schools. Over the years, she had moved to several cities with her mother's job. Transferring schools was not something to be happy about. She was reluctant to do so the first two times.
But this time it's different.
In recent years, the development of Xicheng has increasingly focused on the south. The south has become the city center with tall buildings, while the old houses in the north have become short and dilapidated in comparison.
Lin Qingle's home is among these short and dilapidated houses.
This place has not changed much since a few years ago. She still has to go through a small path with a strong old street flavor to go home, and still has to climb stairs piled with a lot of debris. When she goes up the stairs, she can still hear the chattering and mahjong sounds coming from a room.
In fact, she didn't like walking this road before. But today, perhaps because she was in a good mood, she actually felt that everything was quite familiar.
"Xiao Qingle, is get out of class over?" When she was about to reach her home, she heard someone calling her. Lin Qingle looked up and saw a woman leaning against the window on the second floor opposite.
The woman was wearing a suspender dress, and her exposed arms were white and a little sagging.
"Auntie Liang." Lin Qingle stopped and called out obediently.
"How do you feel about your first day of class?" the woman asked.
"It's OK."
"That's good. You've grown more and more beautiful, and even cuter than before." The woman looked down at her and sized her up for a few more times. "Hey, you're not leaving this time, are you?"
Lin Qingle nodded: "Mom said she won't leave."
"It's better not to leave, our Xicheng is so nice." The woman said with a smile, "Look at the girl from the Li family, she studied and worked outside for a few years, but she still came back in disgrace, and she married a good man. It's better to marry well than to study well. Let me tell you, people in those big cities are very smart, I think they are not as good as here. Oh, do you still remember the girl from the Li family, the one who used to wear a yellow skirt, she was much older than you..."
"Aunt Liang, my mother is waiting for me to eat." Lin Qingle interrupted her.
The woman paused for a moment, with a look of regret on her face: "Oh, okay, then you can go home soon."
Lin Qingle nodded, turned around and went upstairs.
The woman on the second floor followed Lin Qingle's gaze until she could no longer see her. Then she showed a casual sympathy: "Ah, what a sin..."
Lin Qingle's home was on the third floor of this building. When he pushed the door open, he saw a mess on the floor. Because he had just moved back, he hadn't had time to pack up many things.
"You're back, let's eat." Mother Lin Yufen took off her apron and came out of the small kitchen.
Lin Qingle put down his schoolbag and sat down at the dining table.
"Don't listen to those people's nonsense."
Lin Qingle paused while holding the chopsticks and looked up in confusion.
Lin Yufen said, "Big cities are good, you must get into a big city. What do they know? The girl from the Li family couldn't make it because she didn't go to a good school. That was her own problem. You can't compare with them. You have to go to the best school and make a future in a big city. You should concentrate on studying. Studying is the most useful thing."
Lin Qingle had heard the “Theory of Reading” no less than a hundred times since she was a child. She took a bite of the green vegetables and hummed obediently.
"By the way, today is the first day of class. How is it? Are you keeping up?"
"OK."
"Then if you don't understand, remember to ask the teacher more often."
"I know, mom."
…
The weather in September was extremely hot and humid, and that year, Lin Qingle's family did not have the spare money to install an air conditioner.
"Why are you taking a shower so early in the morning? Be careful not to be late." When Lin Qingle came out of the bathroom, Lin Yufen was already preparing to go to work at the factory. Her workplace was a little far away, and it took an hour to get there by bus one way.
Lin Qingle wrinkled his nose: "Mom, it was so hot yesterday, I was sweating."
"I told you to sleep with the window open, did you open it?"
“There will be mosquitoes.”
"Tsk... I'll go buy some mosquito coils when I get back tonight." Lin Yufen put on her shoes hastily, "Hurry up and buy yourself breakfast."
"good."
Time was not actually tight, so Lin Qingle put on his school uniform, picked up his schoolbag, and dawdled for half an hour before going out.
There was a breakfast stand at the intersection leading out of his home. Lin Qingle bought a custard bun and ate it while walking towards the school.
"Give!"
Suddenly, a bottle of milk appeared next to him.
Lin Qingle looked back along the hand holding the milk and saw a girl with short hair, single eyelids, slightly narrow eyes, and a heroic look.
"You don't know who I am, do you?" The short-haired girl's eyes widened when she saw that she didn't say anything. "I'm your classmate. Um, I sit in front of you."
Lin Qingle took two seconds to react, but this person still didn't come to his mind: "I'm sorry, I can't remember everyone in the class."
"I was the one who got you the book yesterday, and you forgot about it." Jiang Shuyi said this, but he obviously didn't care. "I'm the monitor of our class, my name is Jiang Shuyi."
After hearing this, Lin Qingle had some impression. It was indeed her classmates who helped her pick up the new book yesterday.
"Ah... Thank you for yesterday."
Lin Qingle has a pair of peach blossom eyes, and logically she would have a bright appearance, but she has bangs, fair skin, and a round face, which neutralizes that bright aura and makes her look very well-behaved and gentle.
When she said thank you sincerely, she looked so pure and cute.
Jiang Shuyi stared at her for a few seconds, and inexplicably felt a desire to protect her.
"What's wrong?" Lin Qingle asked.
Jiang Shuyi came back to his senses and smiled: "It's okay, it's okay. Well, I saw your information in the office before. You went to the third primary school, and I went to the fifth primary school. Our primary schools were only three blocks apart."
"Yeah."
Jiang Shuyi pushed the milk into her hand: "Yes. Here, drink it."
Lin Qingle didn't take the milk and said apologetically, "Thank you, I don't drink pure milk."
"ah?"
“I’ve never liked it since I was a kid.”
"Then I'll buy you some juice next time." Jiang Shuyi said, "My home is pretty close to yours, and we're in the same class now, so we can go home together in the future. New classmate, I'll take good care of you."
Lin Qingle glanced at her and said softly, "Okay."
Lin Qingle’s home is not far from No. 4 Middle School, and it only takes more than ten minutes to walk there.
No. 4 High School is the best high school in this small city, and Lin Qingle was able to transfer in because of his excellent grades.
"Our class is the first one to be on duty this semester." When the two came in from the school gate, Jiang Shuyi greeted the classmates who were on duty standing next to him.
Lin Qingle wasn't familiar with his classmates yet, so he just watched.
"How about it, handsome, right?" After walking past the inspection team at the school gate, Jiang Shuyi suddenly leaned over to her ear and said something.
"What?"
"The last person I greeted was Yu Jiayou."
Lin Qingle looked back in the direction Jiang Shuyi pointed. There were two rows of people standing by the school gate. Among the two rows, there was indeed a tall figure that stood out the most.
"Hmm...it seems..."
"What do you mean by 'seemingly'? He is the most handsome boy in our school and the most glorious figure in our class."
"School hunk?"
"Yes." Jiang Shuyi smiled proudly, as if it was a great honor for the school hunk to come from her class. "This was voted for by all the girls in our school. The number of votes was an overwhelming victory."
The morning self-study bell began to ring, and the students who were still walking on the road quickened their pace. Lin Qingle hesitated and stopped. She looked at Jiang Shuyi's back and tried to make her question sound casual and unintentional.
"Then... where is Xu Tingbai?"
"Huh?" Jiang Shuyi turned his head, with a look of confusion in his eyes.
Lin Qingle was stunned for a moment when he saw her reaction, and a trace of nervousness arose in his heart.
Is he not in this school
"You just mentioned Xu Tingbai? Is that the Xu Tingbai from your third child?"
"Um."
Jiang Shuyi reacted, her face a little strange, and said: "He is not in our school."
Lin Qingle's heart sank: "Did he move away?"
Lin Qingle believed that with Xu Tingbai's grades, he would definitely be in the best high school as long as he was still in this place.
Jiang Shuyi took two steps back and walked to her side, and asked mysteriously: "Don't you know?"
Know what.
She transferred to another school after graduating from elementary school and never came back to this place. It was not until this year that she moved back here because of her mother's job. She had been blank about this place for three years, and naturally, she had been blank about that person for the same amount of time.
"He can't see."
The bell was still ringing, passing through the corridors and floating back and forth throughout the college.
Lin Qingle tilted his head slightly, obviously confused, "What?"
Jiang Shuyi sighed and whispered, "Oh, it means to become a blind person."
**
Lin Qingle thought of many scenes in which Xu Tingbai would see her again. He might be very happy. The handsome and sunny boy would look at her with a smile and say, "You're back."
Maybe he was a little distant. After all, they hadn't been in touch for several years, so people would feel strange. But no matter how strange they were, she thought that someone like him would say "long time no see" so that it wouldn't be awkward.
Many, many things... In short, before she came back, she always imagined the scene of meeting him in her mind, with a faint sense of joy and excitement in her heart.
But she never thought that Xu Tingbai might not be able to see her.
So ridiculous.
"Little girl, we've arrived at the Yueqian Road intersection." said the taxi driver in the front row.
"Thank you, master." Lin Qingle paid the money and got off the car quickly.
It was the break between the afternoon get out of class and the evening self-study. She used the money from dinner to take a taxi directly to the place where Jiang Shuyi had heard Xu Tingbai was currently living.
In front of you are an area of old buildings and alleys, which belong to the old town area of Xicheng.
It wasn’t far from her home.
But in my impression, the boy's family was very wealthy...
Lin Qingle frowned and walked into the alley.
The alleys were crisscrossed, uphill and downhill. Jiang Shuyi didn't know where he lived, so he couldn't tell her exactly. In addition, there were no passers-by on the road, so Lin Qingle could only circle aimlessly.
In fact, she didn't know what she would say if she met Xu Tingbai today, and she didn't know whether it was appropriate for her to rush out to get a taxi as soon as the get out of class was over.
If she hadn't heard the news from Jiang Shuyi today, she would have waited for a "fateful" encounter at school. If he didn't recognize her at first, she would chase him, pat his shoulder, and then say to him with a smile, "Long time no see."
But Jiang Shuyi said that he was blind, which made it impossible for her to wait calmly for that chance encounter.
Time passes by every second.
Lin Qingle stopped and leaned against the wall of the alley. She looked at her watch—it was almost time for evening self-study, and she had to go.
Maybe, she won’t be able to see Xu Tingbai today.
Lin Qingle sighed in frustration and turned to walk back to where she came from. But just as she turned around and was about to leave, she heard footsteps behind her. Not fast, one step at a time, with a hint of hesitation that was barely noticeable.
As if he suddenly sensed something, Lin Qingle immediately turned around.
Then she saw him coming around the corner.
A solid black T-shirt and simple black pants. Compared to the younger Xu Tingbai, the young Xu Tingbai is taller and his figure is completely different from before.
But she recognized him at once.
For a moment, my heart was filled with endless joy.
But when I saw his eyebrows, my joy seemed to be pulled back to my heart.
The eyebrows and eyes are his, but it seems that they are not him anymore.
The eyes that were as gentle as the sun in my memory were now so calm and indifferent that they could not spark a single spark. They were shockingly empty.
Hearing it is one thing, seeing it with your own eyes is another.
Lin Qingle looked at him in silence, feeling half of her body go cold. She couldn't even utter a sound when he walked past her.
All I could feel was a light breeze blowing as he passed by, bringing with it the unique chill of the alley.
Xu Tingbai passed by and really couldn't see her.