But now, there are only her and Ai Jingchu, so she would rather choose to go in front and leave the safety of her back to him.
They walked on the main road. Although there was snow, it was not too difficult to walk. She was in front and he walked behind with a flashlight. The light of the flashlight just shone behind Zeng Li, casting a long shadow on the snow in front of him.
It was a very quiet snowy night.
It seemed that apart from his and her breathing, and the crunching sound of the snow under their feet, the only sound was the falling snow.
Suddenly, Zeng Li's ears caught something strange in the woods, and fear made her freeze.
She said, "Listen." There was a sound, it sounded like someone was crying. When Zeng Li thought of this metaphor, he began to feel scared.
Ai Jingchu also stopped.
"what sound?"
Ai Jingchu identified it and said, "It should be an owl."
Zeng Li continued to walk forward doubtfully, but he felt that the voice seemed to be right in front of him. After walking a few steps, he couldn't help it and changed his way to walk beside Ai Jingchu.
In the past, when she felt scared, she would sing quietly. But since Ai Jingchu was beside her, she had to pay attention to her image, so she spoke instead.
Zeng Li suddenly remembered the phone call just now.
"Do patients often call you during their rest time?" He continued talking for more than half an hour.
"Occasionally."
"That person...what happened to her child?" She sounded so sad that she started crying on the phone.
"It's a pregnant woman. The fetus is more than six months old and was diagnosed with cleft lip and palate."
"Ah?" Zeng Li asked, "Is this what everyone calls a cleft lip?"
"yes."
"What should we do then?"
"At first she wanted to give birth to the baby, but then her family objected."
"Finally gave up?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Can the child be cured if he is born?"
"It depends on what your standard for 'good' is. Just like when you come to get your teeth straightened, if you only expect 80 or 90 points for the result, maybe you will end up with 100 percent good. On the contrary, you will always feel it is not perfect enough."
The topic seems a bit heavy.
Zeng Li's cell phone beeped, she took it out from her pocket and saw that it was a text message from Ma Yiyi: I suddenly realized, there must have been someone next to you just now.
Then came another message, also from Ma Yiyi: I will come tomorrow, but I won't be able to make it to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise. You are allowed to go first and watch it again with me the day after tomorrow.
Zeng Li was looking at her phone while glancing at Ai Jingchu, afraid that if she wasn't paying attention, Ai Jingchu would leave her behind.
"Will we be able to see the sunrise tomorrow?" she asked.
"It'll be fine if the weather clears up."
Zeng Li looked around and felt that there was little hope of waiting for the weather to clear up. At this time, a branch of a tree broke in the middle of the road ahead, so they had to go around it.
There was thick snow on the branches, Zeng Li couldn't help but reach out and grab a handful of it. She walked a long way with Ai Jingchu, and because of the uphill climb, she was still sweating a little. At this moment, she didn't feel cold when grabbing the snow, but found it interesting.
Ai Jingchu glanced sideways and saw the little movements of her hands.
She squeezed the snow in her hands, and finally it became a snowball the size of a ping-pong ball.
Zeng Li brought it to his nose, sniffed it, then opened his mouth and took a bite.
That thing really froze my teeth, and then melted when it touched the tip of my tongue. It was icy cold and had no taste at all.
Ai Jingchu looked at her hesitantly, "You..."
She smiled sheepishly.
He observed her for two or three seconds, then turned and continued walking forward.
Before Zeng Li threw away the snowball, she lowered her head and secretly tasted it. After taking two steps, she suddenly heard a very subtle popping sound.
She was a little surprised, because the sound seemed to come from her mind, not her thoughts, but her real mind. She stopped and recalled it carefully. It was a very strange feeling, as if a string broke, or a screw fell off.
screw
She was a little nervous and thought of the braces in her mouth. She checked it with her tongue. It was fine. But she checked it again and found that the metal pin on the front tooth was loose.
Her stagnation made Ai Jingchu look back in confusion. Then, he saw Zeng Li standing there, touching the braces on her front teeth with her hand, with a look of something bad happening.
He walked back.
"Teacher Ai." She looked at him as if she was about to face a disaster.
"Which one?" He wanted to remind her just now that the sudden change of temperature would cause the steel wire to break, and sure enough, it happened.
"front teeth."
She was wearing flat boots and no high heels. When she stood with her mouth open, Ai Jingchu had to lower his head to adjust to the height difference.
He adjusted the aperture of the flashlight and shone it on Zeng Li's mouth, then discovered that the upper left brace bracket that was supposed to be glued to the teeth was loose, and the thin wire connected to it was broken.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"have no idea."
He couldn't wash his hands and disinfect them, and he didn't have disposable rubber gloves, so he didn't dare touch her mouth to check the inside of her mouth, and could only use the light of a flashlight. He and she were not at the right height, and the angle of sight and the light were a little off. Even if he moved the flashlight, it wouldn't help, and he was afraid that the strong light would make her eyes uncomfortable. So he had to raise his hand and gently lift her chin with his index finger, and then support it to the upper right side, which made it a little better.
His fingers were very hot. This was the only feeling Zeng Li had, apart from the discomfort of tilting his neck and opening his mouth.
The skin touched the skin, and it wasn't the warm touch, nor the hot and humid feeling from sweating while climbing a mountain, but the body temperature was really hot, so much so that Zeng Li began to wonder, could he be having a high fever
"It should be only one that fell off," he said.
"what to do?"
"Stick it again next time." Ai Jingchu withdrew his hand and let her go.
"You have a fever." Zeng Li said hesitantly.
"Yeah." Ai Jingchu responded lightly, then dispersed the aperture of the flashlight, illuminating the road ahead, and continued walking as if nothing had happened.
"Is it serious?" Zeng Li followed and asked.
"It's okay." he replied.
Every time she caught a cold, she would cough and have a runny nose, and only once or twice would she have a fever when it was serious. Once she had a fever, she would feel dizzy, her hands and feet would ache, and she would feel like she was going to fall down at any time when she walked. It was a terrible feeling.
She was a little worried about Ai Jingchu. However, due to the difference between men and women, and the fact that they were not familiar with each other, Zeng Li's personality made it too much for her to ask "Is it okay?" So, she kept silent and did not talk to him anymore, wasting his energy.
She slowed her pace, and he matched her pace.
Fortunately, after turning a corner, Zeng Li saw the long-lost lights of the hotel in front.
"We're here!" She felt happy.
Upon hearing this, Ai Jingchu raised his eyes and looked at the place where there was light.
The two men walked to the gate, and the security guard on duty looked at them in disbelief.
Dongshan Hotel has four courtyards, divided into east, south, west and north. The north building is the main building. In the middle is a courtyard garden and entertainment area. Behind the south building is a hot spring, and behind it is a single-family villa, which also has a hot spring.
Zeng Li asked: "We all live in the west building, which one do you live in?"
Ai Jingchu said, "Let's go to the west building."
He followed her to the lobby downstairs in the west building. The first floor was a bar and entertainment room, and there seemed to be quite a few people inside. A short and fat man in his thirties or forties was just coming outside. When he saw Zeng Li as he walked down the stairs, he greeted her and said, "Xiao Zeng, I was just talking about you. Where have you been?"
"Director Li." Zeng Li smiled.
"Hurry up, everyone is playing cards inside." After saying that, the man went to the other side.
"Are those all colleagues over there?" Ai Jingchu asked as he looked at the people coming and going inside.
"Yes." Zeng Li walked forward, and after a few steps, he found that Ai Jingchu did not follow him.
"Now that you're here, I'll go back." Ai Jingchu said to her a few steps away.
"Thank you."
He nodded and went back the same way. Zeng Li looked at his back and felt that the direction he was walking was getting more and more wrong, and he was heading out of the hotel.
"Teacher Ai, where do you live?" Zeng Li asked suspiciously.
"Dongping Temple," he said.
At this moment, Zeng Li was stunned.
She never asked him where he was going or where he was staying, because the old man said he was going back to the mountain, and there was no other hotel in the entire Dongshan Scenic Area that could provide accommodation except the Dongshan Hotel, so he didn't mention it, and she didn't ask, and she never doubted it.
Who would have thought that he would not go to the same place as her.
Dongping Temple.
Zeng Li knew this place. Even if she only remembered it roughly before, she could clearly remember it after passing the road just now. Because she counted the first altitude sign in the car, which said the fork in the road at 1,800 meters, to the right was Dongshan Hotel, and to the left was Dongping Temple less than 500 meters away.
Ai Jingchu had actually arrived at that time.
But he said nothing and continued to drive her up the mountain until the car could not get in. He had a high fever but accompanied her in the snow all the way to their destination until he took her to find her colleague.
For a moment, Zeng Li was overwhelmed with emotions and didn't know what to do. It seemed that he would not agree to send him back or keep him here.
Finally Zeng Li said, "Wait for me, I'll get you an umbrella."
After saying that, she quickly ran into the west building and pressed the elevator button. The elevator had been stopped at the fourth floor and had not come down. She was anxious and ran up the stairs first. The west building had six floors in total, and she lived on the fifth floor. She climbed up in one breath, took out the room card, opened the luggage bag on the dressing table, took out the umbrella she had prepared, and then ran down the stairs again without bothering to close the door.
When she returned to where Ai Jingchu had just stood, he was no longer there.