It's only been less than a year, and Xiang Yu's surroundings seem to have changed.
The people who play sports in the tennis hall that I often go to have changed from batch to batch, but the gossip is still the gossip, nothing new.
Xiang Yu pieced up the reason why An Sui went to Tang Yuchi from the news that "unintentionally" reached her ears.
She hadn't stepped into that circle for too long, and she didn't even know that Li Mao was already in prison.
The specific reasons were rumored in various ways, but Xiang Yu didn't look into it in detail. He only felt that the last time he saw Li Mao and listened to him tell ghost stories in a hoarse voice, it seemed like it was not long ago.
But she vaguely heard that Li Mao was not the only one in prison.
And the rest of their Li family.
However, among these prisoners, there should be no Li Yu.
Because she met him once in the hotel under Li Hao's name.
It was the penultimate working day before the new year. At 10 o'clock in the evening, Zhou Lie called Xiang Yu, who had just fallen asleep.
In a very urgent tone, he said that he was going abroad and asked her to accompany her.
It is no longer possible to buy direct tickets for temporary bookings. They need to stay in Shanghai for one night, and then take the earliest flight to fly abroad.
The hotel that Zhou Lie booked in the Shanghai Stock Exchange was under the name of Li Hao.
Along the way, Xiang Yu was absent-minded, thinking that he would see the whole hotel mixed with various styles of various countries as before, such as European-style relief white columns with national style carved beams and painted ceilings.
She was even prepared to control her emotions in the face of that familiarity.
No result.
When she entered the hotel, she even suspected that she had gone wrong.
The whole hotel is no different from other five-star hotels, simple and clean.
The air was no longer the smell of warm toasted oranges, nor Tchaikovsky's tunes.
Zhou Lie asked for two double-bed rooms and swiped his credit card.
Xiang Yu was a little puzzled when he heard the staff report the room price.
When entering the elevator, she asked Zhou Lie, "Are you related to the owner of this hotel?"
So you got a big discount
Zhou Lie seemed to be worrying about work, his face was thoughtful, and he replied casually: "No, the owner of this hotel is not doing well right now. Everyone comes at this price, which is quite cost-effective."
Did not mix well.
Xiang Yu thought about this sentence carefully.
Before getting out of the elevator, Zhou Lie probably recovered from his work and comforted her by saying, "Don't worry, your boyfriend's shares should have been bought by the hotel owner. Someone in the family was in jail, and it had a big impact on him."
Xiang Yu happened to meet Li Hao when he was catching an early flight the next day.
He has changed a lot from before, and he looks thinner.
There was no fancy dress, and all the layers of jewelry were taken off, except for a wedding ring.
The woman beside Li Hao was his wife, and he helped her carry the bag.
His wife didn't know what to say to him, he nodded numbly, and seemed to obey.
That day, Xiang Yu went back to the hotel to pick up the dropped charger, ran down, and happened to see this scene.
She paused for a few seconds, and before Li Hao looked over, she hurriedly stuffed the charger into her bag and walked away quickly.
Li Hao also definitely didn't want her to see what he looked like now.
Sitting on the plane, the past is scene by scene.
She remembered Li Hao's dazzling pearls, like a mobile jewelry showcase, leaning on the rooftop of her company.
He drank coffee against the wind and said with a smile, "Who can agree with people like us that we live in such a poor state that we see other people's faces?"
After a long voyage to London, Xiang Yu almost used up all the voyages, trapping himself in a daze in the past.
It was not until the plane had arrived over London that she pulled away from the past and joked with Zhou Lie.
"This trip out, the company can't tell what the gossip will be like? Why did you think of taking me?"
Zhou Lie had been working on his computer during the entire voyage, so he should have been busy by now.
He closed the computer: "The scene is relatively big. I really can't think of anyone other than you who can behave in such a situation."
"Aren't you telling the truth? Could it be because everyone was busy except me, and I was the only one who brought me out?"
Zhou Lie didn't joke anymore. He looked at Xiang Yu and suddenly said, "I don't think you're happy this year. Taking you out is also a distraction."
Xiang Yu lowered his eyes and smiled: "Thank you boss."
Landed at London Airport, the plane taxied inside the airport.
Xiang Yu was sitting by the window, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a private jet.
What she didn't see was the word "JIN" printed on the other side of the private jet.
Jin Fubai was sitting in the private jet, watching the sky outside the window.
It was a dusk, and the figures and buildings became hazy, like a dream.
He remembered that he once drove Xiangyu to the beach to play. It was the same dusk that day, and the entire sea and beach were shrouded in hazy light.
Holding a bottle of blue nail polish, Xiang Yu sat in the co-pilot seat, saying that he should drive slowly and steadily.
In Jin Fubai's memory, when he took the driver's license test, he never drove so well.
On their right side is the setting sun gradually sinking into the horizon, and on the left side is a row of red-roofed homestays. It takes more than 20 minutes to drive for more than ten minutes.
As a result, when he got out of the car, Xiang Yu held up his unevenly painted hands and said that he was not good at driving, which caused her nail polish to be applied crookedly.
Her fingers were slender, and the blue nail polish went in and out, as if she had been stuck in a paint bucket.
After he made such a comment, Xiang Yu was thrown on his back, biting and beating.
In the end, I drove in that small seaside city for nearly an hour, found a nail salon, and removed the nail polish.
Out of the door of the nail salon, Xiang Yu suddenly raised his hand, Jin Fubai conditioned reflex to hide.
Xiang Yu stomped his feet in anger: "Jin Fubai, what are you hiding?!"
He smiled and said, "Can't you hide? I thought my little aunt had something wrong and wanted to beat someone."
Xiang Yu glared at him, and announced with his arms on his hips, "I'm tired, carry me."
In fact, he liked it very much, with Xiang Yu's coquettish eyes.
The cunning and dependence in his eyes showed him so brightly.
There was a song on the plane, which was popular two years ago, "Nan Shan Nan".
"He said that whatever beauty you were praised for,
Not as good as the first time he met you. "
When the cabin door was opened, Jin Fubai didn't notice it, he just lowered his head and smiled.
The person standing at the door of the cabin was a young man in his 20s. Seeing Jin Fubai's smile, he was stunned: "Cousin?"
Jin Fubai raised his eyes lightly: "Come and sit."
The boy walked over and sat down to Jin Fubai, sat down carelessly, took a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, and took a few sips: "Cousin, what's the matter? Did you come to London to pick me up?"
"Take you back and see someone." Jin Fubai said.
"Men and women?"
"Do you want to be a man or a woman?"
The boy had an obvious smile on his face: "Of course it's a woman, what are you doing with so many men?"
Jin Fubai's tone was as usual: "Women of the Chu family, can you do it?"
"Look after you, women, you're soft-hearted."
It was 8 hours after flying back to Los Angeles, and it was already 10 o'clock in the night in Los Angeles. Jin Fubai drove the boy to a private hotel.
With both hands in his trouser pockets, he slowly walked into the private room.
The woman in the private room hurriedly got up, straightened her hair, and came over.
Chu Linlang waited for 2 hours, but when she saw Jin Fubai, she still smiled: "Jin..."
Before she finished speaking, Chu Linlang saw the boy behind Jin Fubai, she frowned, "What do you mean?"
Jin Fubai didn't look at her, his hands were still in his pockets.
He hooked up a chair with his foot and sat down casually: "It's nothing interesting, it's not that I like Jin. This is my cousin, bring it here and introduce it to you."
When Xiang Yu returned to China, it was already New Year's Eve, and it was rare for Xiang's father and mother to be at home.
There was a courier box stacked at the door, Xiang Yu asked about it, and Xiang mother said that Tang Yuchi had brought it from abroad.
Aunt Chen went home for the Chinese New Year. Both Xiang mother and Xiang father are good at business, not good at cooking.
So this year's New Year's Eve, there is no warm family feast, dumplings are all frozen.
Xiang Yu didn't have any opinion on these things. After dinner with his mother and father, he muted the Spring Festival Gala, and got together to discuss the project plan for the next year.
She said, "Mom and Dad, I'm going back to my room."
"Don't watch the Spring Festival Gala? Mom and Dad go to the study to chat? Give you the TV?"
Xiang Yuyang raised the tablet in his hand: "I use this to watch, it's the same."
Back in the bedroom, she didn't turn on the tablet, but just watched the night quietly.
The night of New Year's Eve every year is almost like this, lively, full of lights, and fireworks on the horizon.
She remembered that she and Jin Fubai were in such a night, watching the fireworks in the distance side by side.
Jin Fubai leaned close to her ear, with a warm breath lingering in her ear, he asked her, "It's the new year, what are you doing?"
Xiang Yu smiled silently, and opened Tang Yuchi's courier. Unsurprisingly, it was a bunch of Sonny Angel's blind boxes.
She took it apart all at once, and it turned out to be the ugliest two in this series.
That hippo, she actually took out three more.
Xiang Yu took the photo for Tang Yuchi to see, and Tang Yuchi responded with a full 30 seconds of laughter.
He messaged back:
[You are also very lucky, it seems that you have only one year to dismantle what you want? Hahahahaha.]
Xiang Yu hadn't read this message yet, and she didn't even have time to count the number of "ha" in the string of "hahahaha" that followed, so Tang Yuchi withdrew the message.
She paused and suddenly remembered that it wasn't her who took out the blind box she wanted that year, it was Jin Fubai.
Maybe Tang Yuchi also thought of it, and then withdrew the information.
It was a night that couldn't help but think of him.
He used to spend three New Year's Eves with her, and became the person who spent the most New Year's Eves with her since she was an adult.
At 11 o'clock in the night, Xiang Yu walked out of the bedroom. My parents have been abroad for many years, and they have long since stopped keeping an eye on the age. Maybe they have already slept.
She put on her coat, picked up the car keys, and prepared to go out.
"Yaoya, where are you going?" Mother Tang came out wearing pajamas and asked in surprise when she saw her standing by the door.
Xiang Yu held the car key and shook it: "One, a place I like very much."
She went to "Dream Club".
The car navigation guided her all the way, and when she drove to several intersections, she suspected that she had lost her way, and felt that this road had never been traveled before.
After thinking about it later, also, when Jin Fubai brought her here, she once fell asleep on the road, maybe she didn't remember.
The dream club is still the same, brightly lit.
It's past 12 o'clock and there are still people everywhere.
The proprietress was leaning against the bar, playing Xiaoxiao in high spirits.
Xiang Yu glanced at him, um, not as high as her.
"Ma'am, is there only hot chocolate as a hot drink? Is there any coffee?"
"No."
"Aren't there any instant ones?"
"Turn right when you go out, go to the convenience store and buy it yourself."
The familiar conversation made Xiang Yu stunned for a long time. She seemed to have crossed time and space and walked back to New Year's Eve in 2013.
Maybe it's because she's been stunned for too long, and she doesn't seem to have the desire to chat with other people.
After the proprietress finished a game of Xiaoxiaole, she took the initiative to say, "Hey, do you want to drink hot chocolate?"
Xiang Yu looked back and smiled: "Okay, thank you."
On the contrary, the proprietress stared at her for a while, and then took her a cup of hot chocolate: "I seem to have seen you."
At this time, a group of men walked in: "Sister Xu, where's my brother-in-law."
The proprietress raised her head towards the upstairs terrace: "I'm drinking upstairs."
After they finished speaking, Xiang Yu took a sip of the hot chocolate and made a high gesture: "I've been here before, in 2013, when your son was so tall, he seemed to like chocolate."
Also on Jin Fubai's coat, a chocolate handprint was printed.
The proprietress laughed: "My son was still cute back then. Now he is in the first grade of elementary school. He wants to play all day and doesn't want to do his homework. The teacher called me several times, and the headache died."
After speaking, she suddenly paused, "I remember who you are."
"Dream Club" has a lot of people who come to watch the New Year together every year, from all over the world, homeless.
But they all have their own hobbies and specialties. Xiang Yu didn't know that he had been photographed and hung on the wall of the "Dream Club".
The proprietress took Xiang Yu to the wall, and Nunuzui said, "Well, this is the photo wall. There used to be a young man who would take some photos every New Year's Eve. This year, he won't be here. ."
Xiang Yu's eyes fell on the wall, it was her in 2013.
It was her who tried her best to hide her temptation and tried her best to pretend to be rational in front of Jin Fubai.
Wrapped in a thick white blanket, she sat on the patio, half of her face lit by the bonfire.
Behind her is Jin Fubai, holding two cups of hot chocolate, looking at her deeply.
A woman who had been drinking too much stumbled down the stairs, speaking loudly: "I liked him for so long! For so long! There will always be other women around him! There will always be other women! Then what is my love? Ah? What is my love?"
The woman bumped into Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu's figure was slightly tilted.
Another woman hurried over, grabbed her companion, and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, my friend drank too much."
Xiang Yu smiled and turned sideways to make way for them.
Two women passed by and the drunk woman was still saying, "I love so much, but I'm so tired, I can't hear an echo, you know what I can't hear..."
Xiang Yu's eyes searched in the photos in 2013. In the corner of a photo of people playing guitar and singing, she saw Jin Fubai's figure.
He was wearing that off-white coat, squatting in front of the proprietress's son, the little boy's expression was not clear, but he could tell that he was reluctant.
That was when he was Jin Fubai, when he threatened the children with fairy stick fireworks.
Xiang Yu smiled.
At this time, the proprietress suddenly called her: "Hey, the girl downstairs looking at the photos."
Looking back at Xiang Yu, the proprietress was already sitting on the terrace, holding a man's arm and holding a beer bottle in her hand.
The proprietress said, "My husband just said that he received a call today. Someone asked to write a sentence on the back of your photo. Take a look. Maybe it will make you happy."
When I picked the photo from Xiang Yu, my hands trembled a little.
The photo frame is a light wood color, turned over, and the boss used a marker on the back to write a sentence on behalf of the person:
"I'm where you can't see and love you forever."
In the first hour of 2016, Xiang Yu heard the echo that belonged to her.