"Zhang Lili." I said.
It's not that it's strange that Zhang Lili appeared there, but that she was struggling with a man.
"The one you live with?" Bai Lin asked.
"Yeah. Who is that guy?"
Zhang Lili cried and argued with the man on the roadside.
"Who else could it be? Either her current boyfriend or her ex-boyfriend. Otherwise, why would she cry so heartbreakingly?" Bai Lin said indifferently.
At this time, the man broke free from Zhang Lili's hand and resolutely left. After walking five or six steps, he turned back and said something to Zhang Lili. Zhang Lili squatted on the ground and cried. People nearby looked at her from time to time.
"Why don't you go out and comfort your roommate?" Bai Lin asked.
"Forget it, maybe she doesn't want others to see her like this," I said.
Zhang Lili came back in the evening, her makeup was very delicate, she looked very happy, and there was no sign of crying. She bought a lot of clothes, snacks, and even braised food for supper. She usually spends money on clothes and bags, but is very frugal when it comes to food, which is exactly the opposite of me.
"Xue Tong, have a midnight snack," she said.
"Why buy so much?"
"We'll have military training tomorrow. If we don't eat now, where will we get a bite to eat? I'll go buy some beer." After she said that, without waiting for me to say anything, she picked up her wallet and went to the small supermarket downstairs.
She usually doesn't want to spend this money. Even though she looks so fancy, she has to weigh every dollar carefully. If her mother hadn't thrown away the pickled vegetables she sent her last time out of spite, she might have eaten them for several days.
I looked at the chicken wings and duck necks and sighed.
Zhang Lili was already drunk after less than two bottles of beer. Her tongue began to get tangled and she stuttered a bit. I couldn't persuade her to drink, but I was afraid she would drink more, so I coaxed her and said, "Let's play finger-guessing games and drink."
"How... row?"
"Rock, Paper, Scissors, if you win you drink, if you lose I drink."
"good."
“No need to play two out of three, one cup per game.”
"Oh." She burped.
Game 1: I played scissors and she played rock.
"I lost, I drink," I said.
Game 2: I played paper and she played stone again.
"If I beat you, I'll drink," I said.
She tilted her head and looked at her fist: "That's not right."
"What's wrong?" I drank a cup in a few gulps, wiped my mouth and said to her, "I win you, so I drink, right?"
"yes."
"I lost, if you don't drink, I will drink, right?"
"Yep."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Oh, I was wrong."
After several rounds of this, I almost finished the beer by myself.
She lay on the table and started to get bored.
"Xue...Tong."
"What?"
"He... looked down on me. We agreed... that if I graduated and stayed in City A, he would... marry me. But he ended up falling for someone better than me."
So that's how it is.
"I am a country bumpkin... right? I am not... why do they dislike me?"
"My mother is a farmer, but my father was also a teacher in the village before he was fired."
"My brother didn't even dare to spend money on medical treatment in order to allow me to go to college."
"I'm not very smart, but I'm hardworking. I took two..." She made a two with her fingers, "twice before I was able to get into a big city."
"I shouldn't... hang up on my mom. She's lying on the bed, just waiting to talk to me."
She picked up the glass again and poured the wine.
This time, I didn't stop her.
She took a sip and touched her tearful face: "Yo, why am I crying? Damn... Damn hypocritical."
Later, I put Zhang Lili on the bed, feeling suffocated. So I closed the door and walked around the campus. The night breeze sobered me up.
At this time, Mu Chenghe actually called. He had been gone for four days and was no longer in good health. Perhaps he was young and recovered quickly. But I felt that after each attack, his hearing in his left ear seemed to be gradually declining.
He didn't mind it at all.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"It's windy downstairs in the dormitory."
"Bad mood?"
"a little bit."
"What's wrong?"
"I missed you," I said.
The next day, Zhang Lili said nothing about her drunken chatterbox. I didn't know if she remembered it, so I just pretended nothing happened. The busy and fulfilling military training immediately diluted the impression of this incident in my mind.
Seeing these half-grown children leaving their parents to come here to study, I can't help but think of what I was like back then.
"Teacher, when you let your hair down, you look a bit like that wild girlfriend." said a boy.
"What's a wild girlfriend?" I wondered.
"It's the Korean actress who played My Sassy Girl."
"Actually, there's a big difference in their figures," I said modestly.
"It's not the height, it's mainly the chubby face."
"… "
This kid is trying to insult me in a roundabout way.
What chubby face? This is called baby fat, I complained silently in my heart.
A few days later, Zhang Lili and I took a leave and hitchhiked back to the city to buy some things. Unexpectedly, we met Chen Ting outside the professorial college.
"Teacher Chen." Seeing that I couldn't avoid him, I called him anyway.
"Oh, Xue Tong, what a coincidence." He walked closer, "I brought some local specialties from my hometown to Mu Chenghe. They said he went on a business trip when school started. I thought you were there, so I brought them. I didn't expect that no one was there after I came twice."
I glanced at what he was holding. Let's be frank, it seems he knew I lived here, and since he avoided Mu Chenghe and came to see me alone, he must have something to talk to me about.
"Teacher Chen, please come up and sit down." I said.
I opened the door, entered the house, poured him some water, and sat down with him awkwardly.
Chen Ting looked around the living room and said nothing for a long time.
I feel a little guilty towards Chen Ting about the matter between Mu Chenghe and me. He gave me so many earnest advice and warnings, but now it seems that they all fell on deaf ears.
"Mu Chenghe told me about you." He spoke first.
I didn't expect that what he heard was not rumors, but Mu Chenghe's confession. I felt a little comforted.
"Yeah." I said.
"Mu Chenghe seems to be smiling all the time and can get along with everyone, but he's actually not very sociable. Since you're together, you must not let him down. He can't stand that kind of blow."
After listening to Chen Ting's words, I thought, why do these words sound like a father-in-law's advice to his son-in-law? As a woman, what can I do to him
Chen Ting lit a cigarette: "You haven't lived here recently?"
"We are in military training at school, and when Mu Chenghe is not around, he wants me to go to the school dormitory instead of living here alone." Maybe he was worried that I would be scared.
He put the cigarette in his mouth and took a puff, then looked around the room.
"Xue Tong, Mu Chenghe and I have known each other for more than ten years. I am an only child and have never had any brothers or sisters. He is four years younger than me, so I have always treated him as my younger brother. Maybe he thinks so too."
"He often talked about your study abroad together."
"I'm telling you this not because I regard you as my student, but as a friend or a younger brother or sister." His brows knitted in the smoke, "So we are talking to you as adults."
"I see."
"I went to Russia after graduating from high school. I didn't do well in the college entrance exam, and since we had relatives doing business there, they sent me there. I first studied in the preparatory course, and then took the entrance exam for a general college."
I listened intently, not understanding what he was trying to say by recalling these things.
"It was two years later that I officially got to know Mu Chenghe. At that time," Chen Ting pondered, "he was about sixteen years old. It is said that he is very famous in the circle. First, he is smart. The highest scholarship of the University of Mozambique is rarely given to foreigners, but he is the only one who is older than me at such a young age. He has a bright future. Second, he is good-looking. There are quite a few girls who are seven or eight years older than him who have a crush on him. We hate him so much. Third, he has a good temper, so good that it is weird. Even if you slap him for no reason, he will not be angry but smile at you, as if nothing happened."
"I just think it's so strange that a half-grown child has such good family education. Is this normal? He is either dead or mentally ill."
"Until I saw him smoking a joint."
My heart skipped a beat. “Marijuana?”
"He hid himself very well. If I hadn't lived with him and observed him carefully, I might not have discovered him. If I hadn't been discovered at that time, you might not have met Mu Chenghe now."
"Some playful kids come here to study, maybe they don't even graduate, but squander the tuition and living expenses given by their parents, and then make a fake diploma to deceive their families when they graduate. There are many such people, but Mu Chenghe is not one of them. We know that his family has a background, otherwise the people from the consulate would not come to see him during the Chinese New Year. But he is surprisingly well-behaved, quiet and docile. How could we have thought that such a good kid would smoke marijuana behind his back, and for quite a long time." Chen Ting said.
"But why did he do that?"
I am asking Chen Ting, but I want to ask Mu Chenghe more.
Chen Ting stood up and looked around the living room.
"Do you know why he doesn't want you to live in this house alone when he's not around?"
I shook my head suspiciously.
"It is said that this room has been renovated twice. Before, the door was not the anti-theft door like the current one, but the old-fashioned one with a glass window on top and a wooden door on the bottom." Chen Ting described.
"I know the kind you're talking about. The glass window on top can be opened a little bit." I replied.
"It's just right to hang a short rope, tie a knot, and hang it on the door frame. It's very convenient for hanging."
I also know this. Two years ago, a female prisoner in my mother's prison committed suicide with shoelaces in this way. At that time, I also met the woman who attempted suicide in the hospital where my grandfather was lying. But when I thought of what Chen Ting said to me and the truth that was about to be revealed, my hands began to tremble uncontrollably.