Zeng Li quickly took out her cell phone. She remembered that she should have saved Ai Jingchu's number. However, she looked through her address book and couldn't find it. It seemed that she really didn't save it. The only clue was the text message he sent her half a month ago.
Fortunately, she didn't like to send text messages, and she didn't often clean up the contents of her phone. She opened her phone's text message inbox and scrolled through the messages one by one. Finally, she found Ai Jingchu's doctor's advice among a pile of junk ads, work notices from the company, and bank account receipts and payments. She quickly dialed the number, and the call was connected after two or three rings.
"You left?" Zeng Li asked anxiously.
The voice on the other end of the phone hesitated and asked uncertainly, "Zeng Li?" She didn't save his number, and neither did he.
"It's me. Are you walking back alone?"
"Um."
"Are you okay?"
"It's okay, we can drive after walking a little further," he said.
“What if the car gets frozen?”
"It's not too far to keep going."
After hearing his answer, Zeng Li fell silent, not knowing what to say anymore. In the end, he could only repeat that sentence once more, "Thank you for sending me back."
After hanging up the phone, Zeng Li walked back to the west building. As soon as he opened the glass door, the sound of music, noisy conversations, and even mahjong mixed with the suffocating heating rushed in his face. There were also several children brought by colleagues playing back and forth, playing with the elevator door opening and closing.
She did not go into the chess and card entertainment room, but sat on the sofa outside. The waiter came over immediately, put a cup next to the coffee table next to her, and poured water in it.
A colleague passing by greeted her casually.
It seemed as if the night journey just now was a dream, so cold and so dark.
She had only been sitting there for less than two minutes when she felt hot. Someone else beside her said, "Isn't Zeng Li here? Wu Wanxia is missing again."
Another older colleague replied: "Xiao Wu said he had a cold and a headache, so he went back to his room to sleep."
"You caught a cold while playing outside when it was snowing just now, didn't you? Young people can't help but be careful in this weather."
Zeng Li looked up at the outside. Through a layer of glass, the inside and outside seemed like two completely different worlds.
She stood up slowly, made a decision, and went upstairs.
Ai Jingchu received Zeng Li's call not far from Dongshan Hotel. Zeng Li's last sincere thanks made him pause and reply, "It's just a piece of cake."
He left without waiting for her to come back, because he was always a little overwhelmed when faced with enthusiastic gratitude.
It's really a piece of cake.
When she said at the foot of the mountain that she wanted to go back to Dongshan Hotel, he thought the car might not reach the destination, but he was the only person she knew in such a place, and he couldn't just abandon a little girl like that. Who knew that he would receive a lengthy phone call on the way, which delayed him for another half an hour, making the situation worse, and he finally had to get off the car and walk.
Perhaps because he was walking alone without any scruples, he walked a little too fast, and he had a fever, so Ai Jingchu felt a little dizzy. He slowed down and walked a little further, and saw a long stone bench on the side of the road, so he dug through the snow and sat down for a while.
He turned off the flashlight, put it on the stool, took out the two boxes of medicine he had just bought from his jacket pocket, and after a little thought, put them back intact. He really didn't like the feeling of swallowing pills without water.
Then, Ai Jingchu took out a cigarette and lit it.
Yu Yi taught him about smoking when he was in the United States. He said nicotine can refresh the mind, wake up the brain, relieve pain, and cure all kinds of diseases.
He took a deep puff, which made his throat feel uncomfortable. If it wasn't for the purpose of dispelling the cold and refreshing the mind, smoking when you have a cold is really not a good idea.
The night is very dark.
It was a strange experience to sit in the snow and rest alone in the middle of the night.
At this time, there was a rustling sound not far away. Curious, he turned on the flashlight again and shone it over, and saw a squirrel running towards the road. As soon as the light hit it, the little thing suddenly jumped back into the bushes.
When the flashlight was retracted, it illuminated a large branch lying in the middle of the road, which was exactly where Zeng Li had broken the braces. Before he saw her chewing the snow, he wanted to remind her that the wire might break in the sudden cold, but he observed her reaction and it seemed fine. Unexpectedly, it broke after just a few steps.
Ai Jingchu recalled Zeng Li's expression after his braces broke, and the corners of his lips couldn't help but slightly raise. He shook his head, put out the half-smoked cigarette in his hand, and didn't continue smoking. He quietly rested in the dark for a while, and when he was about to get up and go on the road again, he heard something else.
The sound came from the direction he had just come from. It was different from the noise made by the squirrel, but a rhythmic creaking sound, which seemed to be the sound of human footsteps. Then, he saw a swaying beam of light approaching. It was probably someone who was walking at night like him.
The other person was walking very fast, almost jogging all the way, so he caught up with him in a short while. The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and the light of the flashlight was becoming clearer and clearer. After turning the last corner, Ai Jingchu finally saw the face of the person.
When Ai Jingchu saw that face in the light of the other party, he was stunned for a moment, and then he couldn't help but blurt out two words:
"Zeng Li!"
He was sitting there alone, without making any noise or turning on the flashlight, but the sudden sound in the darkness almost frightened Zeng Li, who was jogging along the way. She screamed, instinctively threw away the flashlight in her hand, turned around and wanted to run.
When Ai Jingchu saw this, he hurried over and grabbed her.
But the more I tried to stop her, the harder she struggled.
"It's me." Ai Jingchu said.
"Go away! Go away! Don't catch me!" She begged while struggling.
"It's me, Zeng Li, I'm Ai Jingchu!" He held her wrist tightly, not daring to let go, for fear that she would panic and fall off the steep cliff on the side of the road.
Zeng Li finally took these words in. She calmed down a little, turned around, and asked with a trembling voice: "Ai Jingchu?"
"It's Ai Jingchu." He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Alive?" she asked again.
This was a sentence that made Ai Jingchu laugh and cry.
His flashlight was left on the stone bench, and her flashlight had just been thrown to the ground and had rolled several meters away. The two of them were panting in the darkness with weak light. Under such conditions, he couldn't tell whether he was alive or not, so he reluctantly grabbed her hands and put them on his face, "I promise, you are alive."
Zeng Li hurriedly touched him with her hand. His cheeks were really hot, and his chin was also breathing. She even moved forward and sniffed him with her nose to identify his scent.
Gradually, she calmed down, tremblingly took out the phone from her pocket, and used the light of the screen to make a final confirmation. After seeing Ai Jingchu's face clearly, her tense heartstrings finally relaxed, and she cried.
"Ai Jingchu, why did you scare me? Do you know that you almost scared me to death?" she cried.
"I was wrong," he apologized.
He really didn't think that much and shouldn't have called her directly.
Only after making sure that she was calm did he dare to let her go, then turned back to get his flashlight and the things she had thrown on the ground.
She wiped her tears and didn't want to cry anymore, but she was still frightened and couldn't stop crying.
He handed her flashlight back to her and asked, "What are you doing here?"
It was really unbelievable. He never dreamed that the person he met on the road would be Zeng Li.
"Looking for you."
"Looking for me?" Ai Jingchu asked back.
"You had a high fever and still sent me back. It's really unkind of me to let you go like this. I brought you a cotton coat and a hat, as well as cold medicine, fever-reducing medicine, a cooling patch and boiled water." Zeng Li wiped his tears with the back of his hands and sleeves, took off the backpack behind him and handed it to Ai Jingchu.
She came prepared. After she made up her mind, she went back to her room to get the cold medicine she always kept in her luggage, asked Dr. Wang from the company's medical office for some more medicine, and borrowed clothes and hats for Ai Jingchu from a male colleague she had a good relationship with. She herself wrapped herself in a thick scarf and hat and chased after him in the wind and snow.
Ai Jingchu was stunned for several seconds before taking the bag from her hand.
She actually walked such a long way alone at night just to catch up with him and give him these things.
When she came just now, although she never mentioned that she was afraid of the dark, she wanted to walk in front, walked side by side with him, and hesitated and dared not move forward when she heard the slightest strange noise. Ai Jingchu saw all these actions and expressions. But such a timid girl actually walked alone in the wilderness at night to bring these things to him.
How scared must she have been? How much courage did she have to come here? To the point where he called her and frightened her out of her wits.
What a silly girl.
She sent him here, so he must send her back, right
Ai Jingchu looked at her and didn't say a word for a long time.
Zeng Li seemed to see what he was thinking, and waved his hand hastily, saying, "Don't worry about me, just keep going forward, I'll go back by myself. If you get to Dongping Temple, just send me a text message to let me know you're safe."
He was actually speechless for a moment.
"I'm not afraid. I came here alone, so it's easy for me to go back alone now." She said this with a forced smile. The tear marks on her face had not yet dried. After she finished speaking, she turned around.
Ai Jingchu stared at her departing back, and suddenly felt as if something was gathering around his heart and then slowly dispersing to his limbs through the blood.
He stood there, his thoughts turning over and over, and then he sighed lightly.
"Zeng Li." He called her.
She stopped, turned around and looked at him strangely, waiting for his next words.
"There should be some rooms available in the hotel now, right?" he said.
Zeng Li was a little puzzled and didn't understand why he suddenly asked this.
"You have to go to the front desk and ask."
"Let's go." He walked towards her.
"I really don't need you to send it again, otherwise I will cause trouble for you." Zeng Li said.
"It's none of your business. I just can't walk anymore." Ai Jingchu said.
Zeng Li opened her mouth when she heard that. She didn't expect his situation to be that bad. But after thinking about it, she felt embarrassed to say anything to show her concern for him. Men and women are different. They should know when to stop. If she showed concern too much, people would think she was crossing the line. She couldn't do that.
I don’t know if it was because she had gained courage from walking alone just now or what, but she was not as scared as last time. She walked forward calmly side by side with Ai Jingchu, keeping a distance.
"What were you doing sitting there just now?" She couldn't help asking him. Isn't it scary to sit alone on the roadside in the dark
He wanted to answer honestly: "smoking". But after thinking about it, he changed his answer to "resting".
The logic is correct, because you can't walk anymore, so you take a break.
"I thought you were looking at something."
“That’s kind of the case,” he said.
"What are you looking at?"
"There is a grave on the side of the road."
"Grave?" Zeng Li's face was filled with black lines. "Isn't it just a mound of earth?" There was no tombstone.
"I saw paper money and incense."
Hearing what Ai Jingchu said, Zeng Li suddenly remembered the women who were trying to attract business at the foot of the mountain, claiming that they could not only consecrate the deceased but also look at the Feng Shui and move the graves. They said that Dongshan has had good Feng Shui since ancient times, and that burying one's family in a good place here would make the family rich for three generations.
At the time, she was still wondering how they could do this since there was no cemetery in Dongshan. Now that she thought about it, could it be that they had buried their family members here privately
Zeng Li suddenly lost her courage and even felt scared for her reckless act of chasing him alone. She looked around and suddenly felt a chill on the back of her neck. She hurriedly stopped and looked back. There was nothing but darkness behind her. She felt even more uncertain and hurriedly followed him nervously.
"Aren't you afraid?" Zeng Li asked.
"What are you afraid of?"
"A grave. There are ashes there. Maybe it's a dead person buried there." Zeng Li felt his tongue tremble.
"Actually, people..."
"Stop!" Zeng Li hurriedly asked him to stop and didn't dare to listen any further.
She was really confused. How could she discuss whether death was scary with a senior doctor who taught medicine? He must be the kind of person who could sit and eat meat without spitting out bones while looking at a broken corpse!
When the word "corpse" popped up in Zeng Li's mind, he couldn't help but look around again and leaned closely towards Ai Jingchu.
The distance between the two people was instantly shortened.
When we got to the hotel, the front desk said that the standard rooms and king-size rooms were all sold out, and only business suites and above were available. The prices of this kind of hotel in the scenic area that does exclusive business are not very affordable. Zeng Li looked at the Arabic numbers on the price and felt really painful.
Ai Jingchu took out his wallet without saying a word.
Zeng Li suddenly felt guilty. If it weren't for her, Ai Jingchu would have returned to Dongping Temple and fallen asleep long ago. How could he be slaughtered here
At this time, a clear female voice called out tentatively: "Senior Brother?"
Ai Jingchu and Zeng Li turned around at the same time.
After confirming that it was Ai Jingchu, the other party came up to him with a smile and said to him, "Brother, didn't you say you lived in Dongping Temple?"
"Something urgent happened and I can't go back, so I'll stay here for one night." Ai Jingchu answered as he watched the waiter take his ID card for registration.
The visitor was Ge Yi, who was Ai Jingchu's colleague in the medical school. Because she also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and returned to China, she habitually called him senior brother. Ai Jingchu always felt that if he was a student, he could only call him teacher, respect the teacher and not break the rules. For other people, they could call him Doctor Ai or Ai Jingchu, or even call him senior brother or junior brother in a friendly way. It was their right.
Ge Yi's father was one of the shareholders of Dongshan Hotel. He happened to meet Ai Jingchu at Dongshan Toll Station in the afternoon and knew where he lived. He had originally invited him to come and play, but he refused because he said he had other things to do. Unexpectedly, they met again by chance in the evening.
The waiter returned the ID card to Ai Jingchu after registering it, and then asked Zeng Li: "Madam, do you need your ID card?"
Zeng Li suddenly became embarrassed and said with a blushing face: "We... are not together."
"She has a room." Ai Jingchu replied.
The waiter nodded and began to explain the deposit, room fee, etc. to Ai Jingchu. Then Ai Jingchu handed the credit card to him.
Seeing this, Ge Yi said to the waiter, "No need. I'll ask Manager Wen to sign the bill later."
"No need to trouble you." Ai Jingchu still insisted on handing over the card, but the waiter didn't dare to take it.
Zeng Li stood to one side, thinking that it was Ai Jingchu's own job to deal with from now on. However, being called senior brother could save her a four-digit bill, which was not too bad after all. She felt relieved, so she said goodbye to him in a hurry and slipped back.
Back in the west building, most of the colleagues were still playing cards enthusiastically. Some of the children who were making a fuss around the elevator had been coaxed to sleep, but there was still a fat boy who was still running around tirelessly. The fat boy was the son of Director Li who had greeted her and Ai Jingchu outside just now. He was a well-known naughty boy in the whole unit.
She took off her scarf and hat and entered the elevator, ready to go back to her room to sleep. She picked up her cell phone in the elevator and saw that it was only a little after eleven o'clock, but it felt like a century had passed.
After taking a shower, she was so tired that she fell asleep immediately. Soon after she fell asleep, she heard a noise in the corridor, accompanied by the crying of children and adults.
She was in a daze and didn't want to pay attention to it, but the noise was too loud. Someone passed by her room and was caught on her door handle and hit hard.
"Who's driving? Who's driving?" someone shouted.
"We have a car at our hotel, but we can't get off."
Zeng Li finally got dressed and got up. He opened the door and saw Director Li and his wife holding their child with several other people standing at the elevator entrance across from them. All the guests leaned out to see, and many of Zeng Li's colleagues gathered around anxiously. Zeng Li walked closer and was stunned when he saw the child in the arms.
There was a stainless steel fork stuck vertically in the little fat boy's mouth.