"But it's late now. Many people don't run on mountain roads anymore. You'll have to work hard."
"Oh, thank you."
"Why does a little girl just remember to go up so late? What were you doing before?" the old man muttered.
Zeng Li smiled, didn't answer, and walked towards the street he pointed to.
Finally, she finally managed to stop a taxi, but before she even asked where she was going, the taxi driver said that he was on his way home from get off work and did not want to pick up other passengers. A private car driver on the other side shouted, "Sister, where are you going? I'll take you! The price is negotiable. There are no taxis in our rural area. People are all going home."
Zeng Li didn't dare to get in the car, or even answer, and just walked forward. The car drove slowly and followed her for a while, then saw that she was determined and went to solicit other business. Zeng Li continued to look for taxis on the roadside. However, just as the fat driver said just now, it was impossible to get a regular taxi in this place.
It's raining again.
She was getting more and more panicked. She was reluctant to throw away the two bottles of mineral water, so she moved them to one side of her arms, and touched the money in her pocket with one hand, secretly blaming herself for being too careless when she went out. Finally, she made up her mind, went back to the private car, and asked, "Master, do you want to go to the Dongshan Hotel on the mountain? How much does it cost?"
The fat driver was smoking with the car window open. He was stunned when he heard Zeng Li's words and asked, "You said you wanted to go to the scenic spot?"
"Yeah." Zeng Li nodded.
"You mean you want to go up the mountain?" The fat driver said with a look of "why didn't you say so earlier?" He refused and waved his hands, "It's too slippery. No! No!"
Zeng Li was stunned. This was something she had never expected. She thought that even if the cable car and the scenic area sightseeing bus were off duty, even if Ma Yiyi couldn't come due to an emergency, even if she couldn't get a taxi, even if the black car ripped her off, it was all easy to negotiate.
Someone on the other side of the road also said, "It's drizzling now, so the mountain must be frozen. The tires are going to slip."
The fat driver added: "Besides, after giving you a ride, I have to rush back down the mountain overnight. Last time, a friend of ours gave a ride to a passenger on a snowy day for some money, but on the way back he slipped on a curve and almost lost his life." After saying that, he ignored Zeng Li.
Someone said, "Sister, if you are not in a hurry, I can recommend a place for you to stay and we can go up the mountain tomorrow, okay?"
Suddenly someone laughed, "You kid, if you don't pull a cart, when did you start the hotel business?"
"Didn't my wife's sister just open a hotel? Can you introduce her to some business?"
The man whispered, "Your wife is not at home, so you want to introduce this beauty to your home, right?"
The sound was very small, but extremely clear, and immediately made several people on the roadside burst into laughter.
Zeng Li stood there at a loss, and was about to call Wu Ying or her colleagues for help when someone called her from across the street. "Girl, I mean that little girl!" The old man who was guarding the mountain gate pointed at her and shouted breathlessly, "Hey - didn't you say you wanted to go up the mountain? There's a car, there's a car!"
It turned out that just as Zeng Li left, a car came down the mountain. The driver was coming down the mountain to buy medicine in the town, so he stopped and asked the old man which way the pharmacy was. As a result, the old man was cautious and asked if he was going back. So, after hearing the news, the old man rushed here to find Zeng Li in the drizzle without even taking an umbrella.
"I think the guy driving the car is quite decent and doesn't look like a bad guy. You can go and talk to him," said the old man.
Zeng Li was moved and thanked him.
"Don't waste time, go find the owner quickly. What if they leave when we're late?" The old man pointed in the direction and urged anxiously, "Hurry up! It's a black car with a license plate from City A."
Zeng Li didn't dare to delay and trotted towards the pharmacy at the far end of the street.
The light box at the entrance of the drugstore was brightly lit, and Zeng Li saw it immediately after turning a corner. When she ran closer, she found that there was indeed a black SUV with a license plate from City A parked not far from the drugstore.
She seemed to have grasped a glimmer of hope, and she quickened her pace, breathing heavily.
She was getting closer and closer to the pharmacy, and could basically see the counter and the figure in front of the door. The man had his back to her, so she couldn't see his face clearly, and there was no way to verify whether what the old man said, "He doesn't look like a bad guy," was true. Then, the man turned around, walked down two steps, and walked out of the pharmacy. Then, Zeng Li saw the other person's side profile.
Handsome eyebrows and tightly pursed lips.
That person turned out to be Ai Jingchu.
For a moment, Zeng Li felt as if he had been lost in a dark and claustrophobic underground cave for a long time, and suddenly found a passage with bright sunshine. It was also like being forced to be bound in the sea, and when he was almost suffocated, there was suddenly fresh oxygen.
She trotted and called out, "Teacher Ai."
He seemed to have heard it, but also seemed not to have heard it. He slowed down his pace and looked back uncertainly. Zeng Li was standing in the dark across the street, with the road between them, and the people and trees just blocking his view.
Then she called a second time as she crossed the street.
A motorcycle equipped with a subwoofer happened to pass by, with the music played at a deafening volume. It just happened to cover up Zeng Li's voice as it passed by.
He was tall and had long legs, and it seemed that he was about to take a few steps back to the car and drive away in a cloud of dust.
Zeng Li panicked and didn't care about anything else. He quickly chased after him, gathered all his strength, grabbed his sleeve from behind, and called out his name:
"Ai Jingchu!"
Ai Jingchu turned around in surprise and saw Zeng Li.
Many years later, Ai Jingchu can still recall this scene. On a rainy winter night, in a small town overdeveloped by tourism, the girl with a red nose and face, panting, stood in a panic on the chaotic and muddy sidewalk, pulling his clothes and shouting his name. Her eyes, probably because of running fast in the cold wind, had a kind of moisture as if they were filled with tears, sparkling, a few strands of hair on her forehead stuck to her skin in a mess, and she was holding two bottles of mineral water in her arms strangely.
I don’t know if it’s because doctors are afraid of doctors or what, but he always hates seeing a doctor and taking medicine. Just like many doctors in the respiratory department, when they are at work, they keep telling patients that smoking is harmful to health and they must quit smoking, but when they get off work, they take out a pack of cigarettes and smoke happily. So he originally arrived in Dongshan at noon and didn’t plan to drive out after dark, but his cold became more and more serious, and his body temperature did not drop for a long time. He was afraid that he would have a high fever in the middle of the night and make the old man worried, so he reluctantly went to the town to buy medicine. But he had just walked a few steps out of the pharmacy when he was grabbed from behind.
He was stunned for a moment, still not quite understanding what was going on.
Zeng Li came back to her senses, quickly retracted her hand, loosened his clothes, and stuttered to correct the address to "Ai... Teacher Ai," she then explained, "I heard from the old man at the mountain gate that you are going to drive up the mountain. Can I take a ride? I was waiting for my friend to go to Dongshan Hotel together, but I missed the time."
She continued a little incoherently: "I was planning to take a taxi, but no one was willing to get in. I called you twice over there, but you didn't hear me, so I got anxious, afraid that you would leave. I... I..." In fact, what she almost said was: I can give you the fare.
Fortunately, Zeng Li knew the situation and shut up before her brain went haywire. She glanced at his car, four circles, the younger brother of the Olympic Games. In City A, the starting price for a regular taxi is eight yuan, and if you encounter a Volkswagen Pentium, because the car is good, it will go up by two yuan. Zeng Li was thinking by herself, there was no Audi in the taxi, so she didn't know what the starting price should be.
At this time, he took the key out of his coat pocket, pressed the remote lock, and said lightly: "Get in the car."
Zeng Li opened the rear door and sat in the back seat. Usually, except for riding in Ma Yiyi and Wu Ying's car, she likes to sit in the back seat of many people's cars. She has to wear a seat belt in the front seat and can't stretch her limbs, so she likes to sit in the back seat even when taking a taxi. So, Ai Jingchu drove in the front and she sat behind the driver's seat.
As soon as she looked up, she could see Ai Jingchu's eyes in the rearview mirror.
So does he.
After the car started moving, Zeng Li remembered that he had forgotten the most important words, and hurriedly added to Ai Jingchu in the rearview mirror: "By the way, Teacher Ai, my name is Zeng Li."
"I know." When he said this, he was turning the steering wheel to move the car, his eyes staring at the rearview mirror seriously. He didn't look at her, and there was no expression.
When they arrived at the mountain gate, Zeng Li asked Ai Jingchu to stop the car for a while. She ran to thank the old man and told him not to worry.
The old man said, "It's good to be seated here. The young man has a kind face and is obviously a good person."
Zeng Li smiled and looked back at the car, trying to see how this cold-looking man could make the old man feel friendly. However, as soon as her eyes fell on him, he happened to look over at her. Zeng Li immediately looked away, not daring to look at him again.
When we said goodbye, the old man said worriedly, "But little girl, you should be on guard against others, even if they are acquaintances. I wrote down the license plate. You should also write down our phone number. If anything happens, call me."
Zeng Li agreed happily, but she didn't agree in her heart because she knew that Ai Jingchu was really a good person.
When he returned to the car for the second time, Zeng Li struggled in his mind, hesitated and went around to the other side, opened the passenger door, and sat next to Ai Jingchu.
"Is it okay?" Ai Jingchu asked.
"Okay." Zeng Li nodded.
The heater in the car was on full blast, and music was playing on the stereo, probably because he had turned it on while waiting for her. He shifted into gear, stepped on the accelerator, and the car slowly increased in speed. After half a minute, the alarm started beeping.
“Seat belts,” he said.
"Oh." Zeng Li just remembered and tied it up quickly.
It was still raining outside, and the rain fell on the car window in thin drops, gradually blurring the vision, and then disappearing immediately as the wipers moved.
Visibility outside the window was extremely low, and the curves were numerous and sharp, so he drove very cautiously, and was very careful at every sharp curve where he couldn't see the road ahead. She didn't often get carsick, but she would feel uncomfortable with tinnitus and hiccups on mountain roads, especially when she was riding in Wu Ying's car. Wu Ying was reckless, and when she saw that there was no one or car next to her, she drove very fast, and slammed on the brakes when turning. Once, Wu Ying's mobile phone fell under her feet, and she actually bent down to pick it up while driving, which scared Zeng Li and she shouted: "You are going the wrong way! There is a car coming from the opposite direction, let it pass!"
By the time Wu Ying looked up and asked, "Where, where? I can't see you?", the other party had already run behind her.
Zeng Li said unhappily: "It's a good thing that people saw you."
To use Ma Yiyi's unethical words: If she gets a terminal illness one day, she will first buy a high-value insurance policy and then take Wu Ying's car. This way, all will be settled once and for all, and her parents will still have the insurance company to rely on for the rest of their lives, so it will be worth it.
But Ai Jingchu's calmness and steadiness are completely opposite to Wu Ying's.
They hadn't spoken a word, and the music in the car appropriately covered the silence.
At this moment, the song in the stereo suddenly stopped, and a ringtone rang instead. The DVD navigation screen on the console indicated that there was an incoming call. Ai Jingchu glanced at the number on the screen, pressed the call button at hand, and answered it.
"Hello," he said.
"Hello, Doctor Ai. I'm Xue Xiaomei, the cousin of Mu Chenghe who came to see you yesterday."
Ai Jingchu's mobile phone was linked to the car's Bluetooth, so the sound of the call came through the speaker via the hands-free function, and Zeng Li could hear it clearly.
Zeng Li heard that the woman's voice was very nasal, either she had a cold or she had just cried. If she hadn't called Doctor Ai first, she would have thought that she was here to ask Ai Jingchu for a debt of love.
The man continued, "Regarding the child, my husband and my mother-in-law want to consult you in person. We..." At this point, the person on the other end of the phone stopped talking and seemed to be crying.
Zeng Li glanced at Ai Jingchu secretly.
Ai Jingchu said: "Ms. Xue, please wait a moment. I will call you later."
After hanging up, Ai Jingchu pulled the car over to the side of the road, opened the door and got out, walked forward to a tree, and called back.
He stood in front of the car lights so Zeng Li could slowly observe his every move.
Most people who answer the phone while standing will pace back and forth while talking, or shift the support of their body to the left foot and then to the right foot. But Ai Jingchu was different. He just stood there, neither changing his center of gravity nor moving his feet. He stood straight and motionless.
The place he chose happened to be where the leaves were the densest. The surrounding ground was wet with rain, except for his circle which was dry and light in color.
At first, when he opened his mouth, a cloud of white mist would come out, but gradually the hot mist disappeared.
The car was still running, and the windshield wipers, heater, and stereo were still working. Zeng Li sat in the warm car, while he stayed in the freezing night.
Suddenly, he looked up at Zeng Li, and his eyes met Zeng Li's, and then he walked towards Zeng Li.
Zeng Li felt very strange. Even if he was ready to get in the car after talking, he should go through the other door instead of coming to her side. What was he going to do? Seeing him getting closer and closer, Zeng Li suddenly remembered what the old man said, "You must be on guard against others." Did she misjudge him and trust him for nothing? Was he going to circle and cross her while talking on the phone, or cut her into pieces and abandon her body in the wilderness
Ai Jingchu stopped in front of Zeng Li's door and knocked on the car window.
Zeng Li pressed it suspiciously.
"It's hard to say how long after the birth to have the surgery. It depends on the weight and condition of the baby." While answering the other party's question, he gestured to Zeng Li to open the passenger seat drawer in front of his knees.
She did as she was told.
The drawer was opened, revealing several document bags and a pack of cigarettes.
He bent over and stuck his head in, bringing in a hint of cold and damp air. Then, he reached past Zeng Li and took a pack of cigarettes from the drawer. So, he and she were very close, so close that she could breathe in the cold air he exhaled. She saw the roots of his hair and the mole on the skin behind his ear.
Ai Jingchu stood up and returned to his original position, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, then took out a lighter from his pocket and slowly lit it. He only used one hand for the whole process, but he was very skilled and experienced.
Gradually, Zeng Li saw that the rain had wet the road beneath his feet. He smoked one cigarette after another, sometimes he was talking, sometimes he was listening silently. Occasionally he would talk for a long time, and the cigarette between his fingers would burn freely, the spark flickering, and after it burned into ash, he would lower his head and flick it with his fingers.
Finally, he hung up the phone, but the cigarette in his hand was not yet finished. So he stayed where he was and smoked it quietly. As a result, on the way back to the car, the phone rang again. This time, the conversation was very brief and ended in a few sentences.
He opened the door and got back into the car, saying to Zeng Li, "Sorry for the long wait." As soon as he opened his mouth, the air in his throat suddenly alternated between hot and cold, and he coughed several times. His fingers on the steering wheel had already turned red from the cold.
Zeng Li couldn't help but say, "If you have a cold, it's best not to smoke. You're a doctor." She didn't know why she blurted out this sentence. It was a bit complaining, a bit caring, and a bit incomprehensible. This concern might be for his late-night rescue, or it might be warm-hearted advice. But she regretted it as soon as she said it.
Ai Jingchu did not answer. He just stretched his frozen fingers and released the handbrake. After the car drove a few meters, he suddenly said, "Doctors would also say that women should not smoke at any time."
Zeng Li suddenly turned his head to look at him, was surprised for several seconds, then slowly turned his head back, his cheeks flushed.
He was talking about her.