The day of the birthday party happened to be Saturday. In order to pick up Liu Lingmei on the first day, Xia Qiu took half a day off. The thought of being able to sleep in tomorrow made her feel particularly happy.
She was woken up by Xiao Hei. On weekday mornings she usually got up early to walk Xiao Hei, but on weekends Xia Xuesong would want her to sleep a little longer. But after Xiao Hei and Xia Xuesong went home, as soon as they washed their paws, they would run to Xia Qiu's room and scratch her with their cold little paws.
It was the same this morning. It sniffed it with its nose, walked around where Liu Lingmei was sleeping, and went to Xia Qiu to wake her up.
"Are you back?" Xia Qiu touched Xiao Hei with half-closed eyes and asked.
"Woof!" Xiao Hei shouted happily in response to Xia Qiu.
This sound also woke up Liu Lingmei. She sat up with a pout, her hair messy, picked up the quilt from the bedside table next to her, took a sip of water, and then lay down again.
"Get up, didn't you say you wanted to walk around during the day?" Xia Qiu shook Liu Lingmei's shoulder and said.
Seeing no reaction from her, he had no choice but to get off the bed. She has long been accustomed to Liu Lingmei's habit of sleeping in. For her, getting up after nine o'clock is already quite happy, but for Liu Lingmei, she must sleep after twelve o'clock before it can be considered a lazy sleep. In addition, the sisters last night The two were lying on the bed talking happily, and she probably couldn't get up.
After Xia Qiu had breakfast, he planned to go to the small library near his home to return the books he borrowed two weeks ago. There was a shortcut from the community that led directly to the library. That road was not accessible to motor vehicles and was bordered by flower beds on one side. She couldn't help but slow down her steps every time she walked there.
Walking on this path again today gave her an indescribable feeling, as if this path was a confusing path leading to the demon world. If she took another step forward, she would enter another world, the world that belonged to him. .
She returned the books she had borrowed earlier and planned to borrow a few new ones. She wandered among the rows of bookshelves with novels and picked out those she was interested in and simply browsed them. She had read two novels by Natsuhiko Kyogoku before, and she happened to walk to the place where several of his works were placed in succession, planning to simply borrow "The Dream of Mad Bones" that she had not read.
Just as he reached towards the bookshelf to take down the book, Xia Qiu intuitively felt that there was someone on the opposite side. When she took the book away, the person opposite happened to take a book in the same position. For just a moment, through the gap between books, she vaguely saw the eyes of the person opposite.
The rare gray-blue pupils are like the quiet deep sea at night, or like the sky behind the bright starry sky. Xia Qiu felt that her heart stopped suddenly when she saw those pupils, and the book in her hand fell to the ground. She quickly walked around the bookshelf, wanting to check out the other side. Although it was only a few steps away, her mood was indescribably complicated.
Could it be him? ! ! she asked herself in her mind.
But when she walked around to the other side of the bookshelf, no one was there. There was only a book lying quietly on the ground, which seemed to prove that what just happened was not just her imagination. She searched the entire library like crazy, but in the end she couldn't find the person she was looking for. I felt like I had lost all the strength to borrow books, so I just walked out of the library empty-handed.
Her mind was empty and she lost the ability to think for a while. When he came back to his senses, he was already standing in Qiyi not far from home, holding a bottle of Coke in his hand.
The young man in charge of the cashier behind the counter shouted to her: "Miss! Miss! Do you want to pay?"
Only then did she realize that there were several people waiting in line behind her to pay. She quickly handed over the Coke and said, "I'm sorry! I was distracted just now!"
Walking out of Seventy-One with a can of Coke, I remembered that when I was sixteen years old, I was sitting on the steps in front of my grandfather's house, drinking Coke with Ouyang Xiaoleng, as if it happened yesterday. She was sitting on a bench in the courtyard of the community. The sky that was still sunny when she went out suddenly turned dark and cloudy. The children who were playing in the open space also began to go home one after another. Suddenly, the surrounding area became quiet. .
Xia Qiu felt that it was almost time to go back, but she still felt a little reluctant to leave. She couldn't tell what she was waiting for. Reason told her that the pair of pupils she bumped into in the library just now might just be her hallucination, or maybe it was another person with similar eyes, but she couldn't accept it emotionally.
During the three years of high school, four years of college, and the two or three years since she started working here, she had many suitors around her, but she never felt attracted to her. People who know her well will not dissuade her. They know who she is waiting for, and how irreplaceable the person she is waiting for is to her. But as time passed, she still kept her heart closed tightly, even to the point of airtightness, which made those who cared about her worried about her. But it is precisely because she is well aware of the worries of those around her that she feels conflicted and stressed.
She took a deep breath, hoping that the evening party could take away these unpleasant feelings. She planned to take advantage of her birthday to indulge herself. After all, her long-term self-repression made her life very hard.
Before going to the , it’s really a brand new look. Liu Lingmei was wearing a green dress. In her words, she was here to be a green leaf tonight.
Xia Xuesong insisted on driving them to the door of the bar. In fact, Xia Qiu was a little worried that her father would not be used to her makeup when he saw her, but Xia Xuesong was very satisfied with her image.
He almost stared at it, then winked at Liu Lingmei and said: "Good Job!"
"Uncle is so fashionable, hahaha!" Liu Lingmei smiled from ear to ear after receiving the affirmation.
The bar was located on the top floor of a building and had foreign bands performing every night. After Xia Qiu reported her name at the door, a dedicated waiter led her and Liu Lingmei to her scheduled activities. Several colleagues and friends had already arrived early, and when they saw Xia Qiu and the others from afar, they started waving.
A girl of medium height stood up and said: "The protagonist is really late!"
The seat Xia Qiu reserved was surrounded by three couches, which could accommodate about a dozen people. In the middle of the glass table was pink Moët & Chandon champagne in an ice bucket, and around it were placed five bottles of red wine. It was just after nine o'clock, the band's performance hadn't started yet, and there weren't too many people in the bar.
The girl who stood up first just now is called Zhao Xiaoyue, a colleague of Xia Qiu Company. Although she is a few years older than Xia Qiu, she is already the deputy director of the human resources department. When Xia Qiu entered this company, the first person she interviewed was Zhao Xiaoyue, and the relationship between the two has been good ever since.
The other two male colleagues met when they were preparing a program together at the annual meeting. Because they rented together, they always acted together, and because they had a perfect tacit understanding, they often caused the screaming girls in the company. .
There is also a girl with glasses who has arrived, who is Xia Qiu's college classmate. Because they both like reading, they have something in common. After graduation, the two of them didn't meet many times. Most of the time they communicated through WeChat about the books they read and their feelings. It felt particularly cordial to meet each other after such a long time.
Later, several more people came one after another, basically either colleagues or college classmates. Seeing that people had almost arrived, Xia Qiu was about to ask the waiter to open the champagne.
"Hey, hey, wait! The hero hasn't appeared yet, how can he open the champagne so quickly!" Zhao Xiaoyue waved her hand to stop him.
"That's right!"
"We have to wait for Zhang Ke!"
The two male colleagues who looked like conjoined twins also started to boo.
"Who is Zhang Ke?" Liu Lingmei suddenly grabbed Xia Qiu, blinking her big eyes, and asked with a serious expression, "You have something going on, don't tell me!"
"Don't listen to their nonsense, Zhang Ke is the head of my department." Xia Qiu responded with some embarrassment.
"Zhang Ke said it was because he had to have dinner with a client. He probably went back to take a shower and change clothes after dinner. He is so particular every time he appears, not to mention celebrating the birthday of his princess!" Zhao Xiaoyue said with a bad smile. .
"Sorry, sorry! I'm late!"
At this time, a tall and thin figure suddenly appeared and began to apologize profusely before the person arrived. Everyone focused their attention on the late arrival. He was holding a bouquet of lilies in his left hand and a gift bag in his right hand.
"If you really say Cao Cao, Cao Cao will be here!" one of the conjoined twins joked.
"Zhang Ke, you're late! I have to drink as a punishment!" Zhao Xiaoyue pointed at the three red wine glasses in front of her and waved, "Pour these three glasses for him!"
Although the lights in the bar were relatively dim, Liu Lingmei still saw that the man with glasses named Zhang Ke was quite handsome. She couldn't help but patted Xia Qiu and said, "Handsome guy!"
"No problem! No problem! Just wait until I deliver the gift first!" Zhang Ke smiled at Zhao Xiaoyue, then turned to Xia Qiu and said, "Xia Qiu, I wish you a happy birthday!"
"Thanks!"
Xia Qiu accepted the flowers and gifts from Zhang Ke, and was greeted by cheers from the seats.
The performance in the bar happened to start at the same time. The sound engineer on the stage helped the musicians adjust their instruments and equipment before walking off the stage. The lights on the stage changed. A petite and sexy female singer walked onto the center of the stage first and said to the standing microphone: "Welcome everyone to come to X on weekend nights. X means unknown. I hope that on this night you can I encounter unknown surprises here. Before the concert starts, I also want to wish a lady named Xia Qiu a happy birthday! I know you are sitting in the audience, HappyBirthday!"
There was a cheer below the stage, and the drummer of the band beat the rhythm in the cheers. When the performance started, what people didn't expect was that this petite singer had a shocking voice as soon as she opened her voice.