Qi Beisong went abroad.
Chen Chuan and Wang Beifeng also went abroad.
Cheng Ji received a call from Lei Jing, saying that Zhao Xiaojing insisted on winter swimming on a snowy day and got frozen. After coming back, he had a headache, runny nose, fever, cough, and pneumonia. The disease was like a mountain falling on him.
It was also said that Zhao Xiaojing and his accomplices were exercising together, but since they were not good at swimming, they almost drowned.
Especially the one named Liangzi, who drifted on the sea for several hours before being found by the patrol team. He still had 5% of his life left when he was found. It was really a blessing in disguise.
Cheng Ji is a bit slow in emotions, but he is quite sensible in other aspects. When he knew that Lei Jing helped him, he thanked him immediately.
Lei Jing said, "You're welcome. If you need anything, tell Zheng Haiping. I'm not at home these days."
How could Cheng Ji dare to look for Zheng Haiping? He had offended him last time, but he always took care of him. The more he thought about it, the more ashamed he felt.
In short, Lei Jing, Chen Chuan, Wang Beifeng and others disappeared with Qi Beisong, and Cheng Ji returned to taking care of Ms. Cheng alone.
He didn't ask where they had gone, but the nurses and the patients' families came to ask repeatedly, trying to get Qi Beisong's personal information from him, but he rejected them one by one and said he didn't know, didn't know, and was not familiar with them.
In the first two days, Cheng Ji only did some small things, such as wiping Ms. Cheng's body, washing her hair and cutting her nails, helping the hospital logistics staff to sweep snow, blowing up balloons for the little girl who visited the patient next door, etc. It was quite relaxing.
Ms. Cheng also worked hard. Her condition was actually more stable than before, and even the swelling had subsided a little. However, the doctor was still not optimistic and reminded her to be mentally prepared during daily rounds.
I have a clear idea of the process and have contacted businesses that specialize in funeral arrangements to avoid being at a loss when the time comes.
It was another day after the snow, and everything was quiet. He was sitting next to Ms. Cheng reading a book when an absolutely unexpected person broke into the ward.
—Shen Zimo, the bar waiter who was almost kidnapped home by Qi Beisong, one of the protagonists of the original book.
These days, not only Qi Beisong forgot about him, but even Cheng Ji, his savior, almost forgot about him.
Shen Zimo rushed over and hugged him, saying excitedly: "Oh my God! I've been looking for you for a long time, and you are here!!"
Cheng Ji was surprised, and finally broke free from the other person's arms and said, "You...what do you want from me?"
Shen Zimo spoke rapidly, "I'm just looking for you! Did you know that I'm in the university next to yours? You're from K Polytechnic, and I'm from Y Fine Arts College! You should be a junior but you're on leave, right? I'm also a junior! But I'm one year older than you, and your birthday is younger than mine! I have a friend who knows you, he went to the same high school as you, your name is Cheng Ji, right? Do you know Guo Hua?"
Of course Cheng Ji didn't know him. He smiled and said to Shen Zimo, "Come in and sit down. Don't stand in the wind. It's quite cold."
Shen Zimo then moved the large and small bags of nutritional supplements into the ward and then closed the door.
Cheng Ji said: "Don't buy these. My mother is in a deep coma and can't eat anything. Besides, you are a student and you are not well off..."
Before he could finish his words, Shen Zimo hugged him from behind again.
Shen Zimo was almost the same height and build as him. He felt like he was being hugged by a twin brother, the kind that had been separated at birth because of their parents' divorce and had been raised by their father and mother for twenty years. He felt so uncomfortable!
Shen Zimo put his arms around his waist, and his woolen hat rubbed softly against his neck, which was very itchy.
"I finally found you..." Shen Zimo murmured.
"…" Cheng Ji awkwardly patted the other person's arm and said in the approachable tone of an old leader, "It's good to find it. Nothing is difficult in the world as long as you are willing to climb. Is there anything you want to talk to me about?"
"Something happened." Shen Zimo probably caught a cold and his nose was a little stuffy.
"What's the matter?" Cheng Ji asked softly. He felt that the other party must have regarded him as someone he could rely on, which was no wonder, as he had saved him twice.
Shen Zimo said, "I asked around before I came here. I know you're having a hard time right now, especially after your mother got sick. You couldn't make ends meet, so you went to Shuiyue Villa. That's why you were dressed so strangely when I first saw you."
Cheng Ji's face turned red, and he waved his hand and said, "Don't mention that. Why did you go to Shuiyue Villa? Aren't you afraid that Qi Beisong will catch you?"
"It doesn't matter. I have friends who are familiar with that place. Otherwise, I wouldn't go there to work."
Cheng Ji explained in general terms: “Difficulties are temporary.”
Shen Zimo said: "No, you are having a hard time and are too lonely! You even lost your job because of me, and it will be even harder for you to find a foothold in the future, so..."
"so?"
Shen Zimo tightened his arms and said solemnly: "So I think you need a friend."
"… "
Cheng Ji thought, friends are just friends, can you let go first
"Thank you." He broke away calmly and said, "You shouldn't have looked for me. You should hide for a while. After all, the people we messed with are not ordinary people."
Shen Zimo said: "I don't care! I stayed in the small hotel alone for five days. When I came back, I wanted to hide in the dormitory like a hamster. I thought a lot... I think that person - Qi Song - is not the calamity in my life, but my benefactor and opportunity, because it was through him that I met you!"
He put his hands on Cheng Ji's shoulders and turned him around, his eyes burning with eagerness and desire.
"I don't want to hide anymore. I just want to come back and find you, but I don't even know your name, so I took the risk to go to Shuiyue Villa to ask. Fortunately, we are from nearby universities, and even more fortunately, we both know Guo Hua. I promise you here that no matter what happens, we will face it together! You and I!"
"… "
Cheng Ji thought to himself that Lao Qi was actually a nice person, not as bad as I had previously thought, and I was closer to him than to you.
Shen Zimo said: "Is there anything I can do?"
Cheng Jizhen had something to say: the boiler at Changkang Hospital was under maintenance today and there was no hot water, so he wanted to go home and take a shower. Although it was okay for Ms. Cheng to be alone, it would be better if someone was there.
Hearing the word "bath", Shen Zimo's eyes suddenly warmed up: "Okay!"
Cheng Ji was still worried: "This is my phone number, contact me anytime."
"I can do this kind of thing." Shen Zimo said with a smile, "Don't forget that I am one year older than you."
Cheng Ji doesn't think so. Shen Zimo is the person in the original novel who was physically and mentally abused but ended up falling in love with the abuser. He is too unreliable.
Cheng Ji left.
He rushed home from the hospice and noticed immediately that the door lock had been changed. He roughly knew who did it and went straight to knock on the door of his downstairs neighbor.
Behind the door was the same obese middle-aged woman, still wearing the bulky and tacky home cotton coat, with a look of accusation written all over her fat face.
Cheng Ji knew that it was futile to say anything, so he got straight to the point: "Auntie, please give me three more days, and I will definitely move out within three days."
The fat woman said, "Xiao Cheng, I bought this house for my son's wedding. Although it needs to be renovated, it can't be messed up before that, right? I didn't charge you a penny for rent. You should be aware of the situation and understand the basic social etiquette! There were several unidentified people that day, right? They all looked fierce and noisy. Did you borrow money from loan sharks? Did you offend the mafia? Our neighbors upstairs and downstairs are all very scared!"
"Two days." Cheng Ji said, "The first day is for packing, the second day is for moving. Today doesn't count because I have to go back to the hospital later."
The fat woman handed him the newly replaced front door key: "Today counts as one day! I'll go upstairs to clean up tomorrow night. You won't delay it overnight, will you?"
"No." Cheng Ji said.
The fat woman said, "Tell your mother about it. I'm not going back on my word. I don't have to kick you out at this time. We've been neighbors for decades. She knows what kind of person I am. There's really nothing I can do! I've already confiscated your rent. You can't make a lot of noise in the house. The transfer procedures have already been completed!"
"My mother is in a deep coma and has no consciousness or hearing," said Cheng Ji.
"Oh." The fat woman said, "Then you should take all her things away. Don't leave any photos or clothes behind. It's like leaving bad luck behind. We have been neighbors for decades. You shouldn't do such a wicked thing!"
Cheng nodded and turned to go upstairs when the fat woman called out again, "Oh, by the way, you can leave me some of your stuff, like old appliances and furniture. I don't want them myself, and your mother isn't a particular person. I know she doesn't have good things, but I can sell them to someone who collects junk. They're worth three to five hundred yuan at least, which can help cover the rent!"
Cheng Ji went up the stairs in two steps at a time. His anger made his jaw muscles clench and his eyes red.
He opened the door, slammed it shut, and sat down at the table.
The table was a beech octagonal table, which was quite old and all the corners had been rounded; the stools under him were still the square stools from the early years, three of which had backrests, but the other one did not, so they did not form a set.
Cheng Ji turned on the lights in the living room and scanned the electrical appliances and furniture in the house one by one: refrigerator, color TV, bed, cabinet, desk... All of them were old, repaired and reused, but they were clean and cherished.
Every defect on the wood was carefully painted with the same color, the broken tiles were carefully glued with glass glue, and the curtains were still new, with pink and purple florals on them...
A drop of water fell on the back of Cheng Ji's hand. It took him a long time to react and touch his face.
He was just angry and didn't want to cry. Perhaps it was another person in his life who was crying, regretting the imminent loss of this home, and all the lives and memories contained in it, all the beauty and reluctance.
The three of them - him, the original owner, and Ms. Cheng - are all dead in a sense. Death means unconsciousness and loss of everything, so one should not linger on them, even though it is worth cherishing.
"She helped. If she hadn't bought the house, we wouldn't even have the money for the hospital." He imagined the other two people standing in front of him and whispered, "Don't cry."
In fact, if she had waited a few more days, someone else might have come to buy the house, and she might have sold it for hundreds of thousands of dollars more. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as maybe in life. After Ms. Cheng's surgery failed and she was pushed into the ICU, her daily medical expenses were at least 15,000 yuan, and she couldn't wait even for a day.
Jiang Shiquan of the Qing Dynasty wrote a scene of sewing for the poor. He said that a lone guest with thin clothes and exposed elbows found a poor woman sewing clothes. The woman's hands were full of cracks due to the cold. She sat on the ground under the eaves on a snowy day, sewing clothes for the poor man, and there were starving children crying beside her.
Ordinary families only need to have one seriously ill family member to be strapped for cash, just like this poor guest and this poor woman sewing. One has to rely on thin clothes to get through the winter, while the other has to wait for copper coins to buy rice for emergency use. They almost lost their lives.
Cheng Ji walked through the rooms one by one and saw a lot of things. Apart from some valuables, he couldn't take any big items with him. He roughly calculated in his mind and felt that he would need at least 40 or 50 cartons. But the more important thing at the moment was to find a place to stack the boxes. He couldn't move his home to the street.
He had forgotten about taking a shower and sat on the edge of the bed, thinking it over. In the end, he was too embarrassed to bother Zheng Haiping, even though he knew that man could probably solve the crisis with just a few words.
He had no choice but to turn to Shen Zimo for help.
"Can you come help me pack my things? I'm moving."
The matter happened rather suddenly, so Shen Zimo asked a few questions, but still rushed there as quickly as possible.
Cheng Ji spread his hands and said to him: "I was just kicked out by the landlord."
"Landlord?" Shen Zimo looked around. "This wasn't your home originally? Then why is there a line of your height drawn on the wall, from two years old to eighteen years old?"
Cheng Ji smiled bitterly and said, "Yes and no, it was before, but not now. Anyway, let's start cleaning from my mother's room. Throw away all the heavy things and only keep the personal belongings."
"Where are you moving to?" Shen Zimo asked.
"have no idea."
"Don't know?" Shen Zimo raised his voice.
"I'm not mentally prepared," Cheng Ji opened the closet and looked inside, "and of course I'm not materially prepared either. I don't even have an empty cardboard box. I can only pack my belongings with bed sheets."
Shen Zimo paused for a moment: "I have a way."
"you?"
Shen Zimo said, "There are some vacant studios in our school, and the keys are kept by a school worker I'm very familiar with. Now I'm going to ask him to lend me a studio to store my things, and we'll discuss the rest later!"
Cheng Ji looked at him: "Can you do it?"
"It's possible!" Shen Zimo said.
As he spoke, he went to the corridor to make a phone call. Cheng Ji watched his back and felt that he might not be as weak, independent-minded and dependent on others as described in the original novel.
Shen Zimo quickly dealt with the school work and came back to sort things out with Cheng Ji.
Cheng Ji thanked him, and he said, "I also know that it is not safe to leave things at school, but unfortunately I also have no home, and my mother passed away a long time ago."
Cheng Ji remembered this. A miserable life experience is a standard feature of the protagonist. The plot manager who had long since turned to dust once mentioned that Shen Zimo was an illegitimate child, his mother died young, and his biggest goal in life was just to open a flower shop.
"As long as it's for you, I will find a way even if there is no other way!" Shen Zimo swore.
"..." Cheng Ji asked, "For me?"
"You!" Shen Zimo emphasized.
Cheng Ji retreated slightly, squinting his eyes and thinking: This buddy is really grateful. If I had known, I would have saved him a few more times. Maybe he could have provided for me in my old age. The disease is really ruthless, but there is love in the world. There are still many good people in the world!
The two were busy until late at night, during which time they had two takeout meals, one for dinner and one for a midnight snack.
Shen Zimo seemed to be afraid that Cheng Ji would be hungry, so he always put meat and vegetables into his lunch box, either chicken legs or steaks. Cheng Ji asked, "You don't eat meat?"
"I eat, but you should eat more. I think you are too thin." Shen Zimo said.
Cheng Ji laughed: "You don't seem to be fatter than me."
"But I'm not as busy as you." Shen Zimo picked up another beef ball and said, "Besides, I'm richer than you."
"Are you wealthy?"
Shen Zimo said: "I won several awards in high school, was an outstanding student in the city, had some tuition waived in college, and received quite a few scholarships. I didn't go to Shuiyue Villa because I was short of money, but just to experience a life I had never seen before. Although I didn't expect something like that to happen, I feel really lucky when I think about it afterwards."
Cheng Ji was concentrating on eating. He raised his head when he heard the words, not understanding what he meant.
"If I didn't go, I wouldn't have met you, so I'm really lucky." Shen Zimo stared at him, his eyes gentle but warm.
Cheng Ji almost choked on his food!
Shen Zimo quickly reached out to pat his back and said angrily, "Eat slowly, no one is snatching it from you!"
Cheng Ji slightly moved away, covered his mouth and taught him a lesson: "Can you please speak properly? If I were an innocent girl, I would have thought you were confessing to me!"
Shen Zimo smiled: "I'm sorry~"
Cheng Ji looked at the wall clock and asked, "Why don't you go back to school so late? Won't the dormitory manager check your room?"
"Is it late? It's fine, and I'm on winter vacation." Shen Zimo smiled and said, "You've been on leave for a few months, and you even forgot about winter vacation?"
Cheng Ji was stunned and quickly continued eating.
Of course he forgot that police officers don’t have winter or summer vacations!
Moreover, he belongs to the commando team, so either nothing happens, or if something happens it's a big deal. He usually works a shift of 72 hours, and he has to eat, drink, defecate, urinate and sleep in the team. The more holidays there are, the more he cannot let his guard down. How can he expect to go home and rest when the weather gets cold
Shen Zimo said, "By the way, how should you pack your books and notes?"
"No packing." Cheng Ji said, "Throw away the ones without words, and burn the ones with words."
"Ah?" Shen Zimo was surprised, "So many diaries were burned? I saw that you started writing diaries in elementary school and continued until college. They are very precious..."
Cheng Ji's expression froze and he interrupted: "Have you seen it?"
"No!" Shen Zimo said quickly, "How could I read your diary without your consent?"
"Don't look at them. Pack my diary and my mother's notebooks into boxes and burn them at the garbage station downstairs. I'll do it, don't worry about it." Cheng Ji said as he threw the empty lunch box into the garbage bag and walked into the room.
Shen Zimo said behind him: "You..."
"Me what?"
Shen Zimo said: "These days I have been recalling you over and over in my heart. I always felt that you were as strong and passionate as the sun. Now I know that you are very resolute. You are not the sun, but the strong wind in summer, whistling with heat and not wanting to leave anything behind."
"..." Cheng Ji leaned against the door frame, frowning, "Talk properly..."
"Isn't that right?" Shen Zimo asked.
Cheng Ji sighed in distress!
The original owner of his body has disappeared, and Mother Cheng is about to pass away. He just doesn't want anyone to peek at their diaries in the future. It's that simple!
The diary should be buried with the deceased. Otherwise, if it falls into the hands of others and is ridiculed, the deceased will not be able to rest in peace. He forgot to burn the diary in his previous life, and he still regrets it. What does this have to do with the sun and the summer wind
"If you are tired, go back to school." Cheng Ji said.
Don't recite poems here and ruin my busy working scene.
Shen Zimo did not leave. While working, he followed Cheng Ji's back with his eyes, watching him climbing up and down, rummaging through the drawers.