She did not walk with the crowd watching the sunrise, but went around the wall of Dongshan Temple on the top of the mountain and continued to walk towards the small peak over there. The snow on the top of the mountain was very thick, almost reaching her calves, and the altitude was high, so she walked very hard and was a little out of breath.
But she continued to walk faster and faster, until finally she could no longer lift her legs and she fell into the snow with a plop.
She lay face down with her cheek touching the snow, and for a long moment she did not want to move.
After a while, she heard someone shouting on the other side of the cliff, over and over again, as if dawn was about to break.
She struggled to turn over, sat up, and continued walking forward.
Finally, I saw the long-missed giant love lock sculpture. The chains around the sculpture and even the iron chain handrails on the cliff were all hung with copper locks. Every empty space was filled with locks, layer upon layer, so that you could hardly see the original appearance of the chains.
She walked over, then squatted down and looked through the locks one by one.
Almost every lock is engraved with "eternal love and a happy marriage".
But that's not all she was looking for.
The one she was looking for not only had these eight words on it, but also her and his names on the back. He had carved them one by one when they came that summer.
The gloves were too thick and she felt they were a bit of a hindrance, so she simply took them off and continued to flip through the pages one by one.
After a while, she suddenly realized something and began to regret her stupidity. After so many years, how could it still be on the outer layer of the chain? So, she broke open the new layer on top and looked for the old locks that had been eroded by wind and rain.
A pile of metal objects, cold and hard, had been hanging there exposed to the wind and sun for who knows how long, and many of the words on the locks were covered with rust and ice, making it impossible to tell their original appearance. She wiped them clean one by one with her fingers and moved closer to carefully identify them.
While she was doing all this, her thoughts were clear and she didn't feel like crying and didn't shed any tears.
Gradually, she felt her feet go numb from squatting, so she just sat down on the spot.
But, one, another, another, another... none of them.
The red sun had already jumped out on the other side of the mountain, and the excited cheers and shouts reached their climax.
Then, a figure stood in front of Zeng Li.
Zeng Li thought the person was going to pass by, so he moved to the side to make way. But the person did not leave, but asked: "What are you looking for?"
Zeng Li looked up when he heard the voice and saw that the person was Ai Jingchu. He was a little embarrassed and asked, "Why is it you?"
"I just got up and thought the time was right, so I came to catch the sunrise," he said.
"Then you are late." The first ray of dawn had already appeared, and he was still here arguing with her.
"What are you looking for?" He ignored her and asked again.
"The lock I put here before."
"How long?" he continued.
Zeng Li suddenly felt a little angry, "It's none of your business."
"I've seen them replace the chain every few months and throw away all the locks at the same time, otherwise they would be too heavy and the handrails would break."
After he finished speaking, Ai Jingchu noticed Zeng Li's hands. His fingers were black and dirty, and had been frozen red. There were many scratches on the back of his hands from the edges of the copper lock.
In fact, he had been watching her from a distance for a long time.
He was going to check out after getting up and packing, but when he opened the window, he found that the weather was good, and he remembered that she asked him about watching the sunrise last night, so he simply went out.
He did not take the cable car, but walked up the steps alone. When he was almost at the top, he saw Zeng Li walking up another path alone with a dazed look on his face. Feeling uneasy, he followed him.
Originally, Ai Jingchu didn't want to disturb her, but in the end he couldn't help it.
"Get up," he said.
"I won't look for it anymore. I'll just take a look."
"Zeng Li."
"The sunrise is almost gone, you'd better leave quickly, this place is not your business." She said impatiently, and moved a little, signaling Ai Jingchu to leave quickly, and then she continued to look through the locks without caring about anything else.
He squatted down and said to her slowly in a flat voice: "It's not my fault that you couldn't get back to the hotel last night, it's not my fault that the child got into an accident, and it's not my fault that you're doing something stupid here now. But, Zeng Li, I'm responsible for everything."
The mountain breeze blew, making a rustling sound in the ears of the two people.
"I don't know what happened to you, but you are no longer a child. Your hopes in life should not be pinned on things like this."
On the other side of the Guanri Cliff, people kept shouting various slogans, sentences and names towards the rising sun, one after another.
Suddenly, a little girl shouted to the sea of clouds in the sky:
"Hello, hello, hello—Xie Xiaoyu—I love you—"
Then, a male voice shouted out in a more excited voice: "I—know—"
This was followed by a burst of laughter from the others.
Amidst such a festive and lively atmosphere, Zeng Li suddenly felt something surging in his heart and tears quietly flowed.
"I'm sorry," she said.
He was such a good person, but she actually said hurtful words to him when she was sulking.
"I'm sorry," she said again.
Ai Jingchu silently handed her a tissue.
"Do I look funny?" Zeng Li asked.
He wanted to say something to comfort her, but he pondered for a long time and still couldn't come up with a suitable word.
She added: "I have been stupid, shy, timid and have a bad memory since I was a child. It takes me an hour to memorize a text that others can memorize in ten minutes. Sometimes I finally memorize it, but when I get to the teacher, I am so nervous that I can't pronounce a single word.
"I was playing basketball in physical education class once, and another boy threw the ball to me very hard. When I went to catch it, I sprained my finger, but I didn't dare to tell anyone because I was afraid that the teacher would say I was squeamish, and I was also afraid that my classmates would say I was a snitch. Even though it was very painful, I had to endure it. I didn't dare tell my mom when I got home because I was afraid that she would go to the teacher and the school. When I was in pain, I thought that I would be fine if I just endured it. As a result, the pain really went away after a while, but the joint of my finger swelled up. Later, my mom took me to see a doctor, and he said that it was too late and it couldn't be cured."
She narrated these trivial matters calmly, as if she would go crazy if she didn't speak them out and find someone to vent to.
"I have loved the same person since I was fifteen. With my personality, I was the first to like him and foolishly pursued him for many years. When we came here that day, he said that if we threw the key to the lock away, we would never be separated.
"It's silly, childish and ridiculous, isn't it? When you're in love, it seems like your IQ gets lower. Later, I went to Dongshan many times, but I didn't dare to come here. But last night I thought of this again, and I thought, let's take a look and see if that thing is really still there."
After listening to her words, Ai Jingchu looked away and did not speak for a long time.
Zeng Li smiled bitterly, "I really am..."
She regretted her outspokenness. Normally, she seldom talked about this with others, even with Ma Yiyi and the others, but under such circumstances, she complained to Ai Jingchu.
Some people had already walked down the cliff one after another, and some were heading towards the Sun-Watching Cliff, which was the only way to watch the sunrise. Occasionally, one or two passing tourists looked at Zeng Li and Ai Jingchu curiously. But most people were in a hurry to get to the east cliff, wanting to catch the last moment of the scenery, and didn't care about anything else.
"I'll be in trouble if I meet you," she said. "I'm so sorry."
At this moment, the sun had completely escaped from the cover of the clouds and jumped out, emitting a fiery red light, soft and warm. Ai Jingchu stood opposite Zeng Li, with his back to the sunrise and his entire face against the light, so he couldn't see his expression clearly. After a long time, he finally heard him sigh and say, "Let me see your hand."
"What?"
“The one that was sprained.”
Zeng Li raised his left hand and held it in front of Ai Jingchu.
She has a thin frame, so her fingers are long and thin, very beautiful. But the second knuckle of her ring finger is bulging like a knot on a tree trunk, which looks out of place.
He took it and read it over and over again.
At this moment, her hands were dark and wet, and they also dirty his hands.
"It should be a ganglion cyst." He came to this conclusion after letting go of his hand.
"It's been years, and besides being a little ugly, there's nothing special about it."
He said nothing more.
Suddenly, Zeng Li saw Wu Wanxia and several colleagues walking up, getting closer and closer to her and Ai Jingchu. Zeng Li suddenly became nervous. Wu Wanxia was the most famous broadcaster in the whole unit. Once she heard about something, the influence of the gossip would be doubled. If she saw her crying here, she didn't know what she would ask. What's more, there was Ai Jingchu standing next to her.
No matter which one, it's enough for her. The married and unmarried women in government units have two ways of killing time during work: first, introducing people to potential partners; second, spreading gossip around.
Zeng Li quickly rubbed his face, wiped away the tears, and then said to Ai Jingchu: "Where are you going?"
“Go up the mountain.”
"Then I'll go down the mountain." Then he walked in the opposite direction.
It was not yet eight o'clock when she returned to the hotel. She felt sleepy, so she took off her clothes and went to sleep. As a result, she slept until Ma Yiyi knocked on her door.
"Oh my God, are you here for vacation or to sleep? The sun is about to set and you haven't gotten up yet?" Ma Yiyi looked at her messy hair and frowned.
"What time is it? Is it getting dark?" She rubbed her face and yawned. The curtains were too thick and she couldn't see what was going on outside.
"Boss, the sun is setting is just a metaphor."
"Oh." She was still a little confused.
"It's time for lunch, and your colleague asked me to ask you to come down quickly."
Zeng Li got up slowly and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, wash his face, and go to the toilet.
"When will the handsome guy come back?" Ma Yiyi asked loudly while sitting on the bed outside.
"What handsome guy?" she wondered, holding the toothpaste foam in her mouth.
"Oh my god! Zeng Li! How come you've become like this after just one day of escaping from my sight?" Ma Yiyi used this word for the second time, then jumped up and said, "Don't be so secretive. I heard about your glorious deeds last night before I went upstairs. They said your boyfriend saved the world!"
"Puff—" Zeng Li spat out a mouthful of water.
She wiped the foam from her mouth with her hand, rushed out and asked, "What did you say?!"
So, Ma Yiyi vividly repeated to her what Zeng Li had just said.
Zeng Li screamed, "Wu Wanxia, you big mouth, I only admit that I know Ai Jingchu, and everything else I said is not true."
"They also said that you mysteriously went down the mountain alone just to pick him up to come to Dongshan to accompany you."
"I was going to pick you up!" Zeng Li was angry.
"Yes." Ma Yiyi recalled, "But didn't you say that you had many colleagues with you?"
"I'll explain this later."
"They also said you guys were going to watch the sunrise together."
“Bullshit!”
"They also said..."
"say what?"
"You've been hiding it. You didn't introduce such a tall, rich and handsome boyfriend to anyone. If it weren't for the unexpected situation yesterday, you would have fooled everyone again. No wonder you didn't like so many people I introduced to you before. It turns out that you're already taken."
After Ma Yiyi finished speaking, she saw Zeng Li quickly combing his hair, getting dressed and changing his pants.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to find Ai Jingchu to testify for me and explain it clearly to them."
"They've already left." said Ma Yiyi.
"gone?"
"Yeah, I checked out after breakfast."
"how do you know?"
"Oh, now this is another story." Ma Yiyi said proudly, keeping the suspense.
"explain!"
"He came back from outside and went to have breakfast. He met a colleague from your company in the restaurant. A group of aunties surrounded him and asked for his cell phone number. They said that he no longer had to get up before dawn to queue up for an appointment. If he wanted to be hospitalized, he could say that he had an acquaintance in Hospital A. To express their gratitude, they promised to take care of you for Ai Jingchu and not let you suffer any loss in the company. Guess what he said in the end?"
Zeng Li thought for a moment and replied, "I don't know Zeng Li?" Especially when Ai Jingchu said it with that expression and tone, it would definitely shatter the dignity and hope of those aunts in an instant.
"wrong."
"Who is Zeng Li?"
"Wrong, wrong, wrong."
"What did you say?"
"He said 'thank you'."
"Thank you?" Zeng Li was stunned.
"So, you should plead guilty and accept the punishment." Ma Yiyi pinched Zeng Li's cheek with a smile.
Ai Jingchu walked back to where he had parked last night alone. Along the way, there were staff from the scenic area clearing snow. When he reached the middle of the mountain, he saw his car.
There was snow on the hood and roof.
I don't know which child drew a big heart on the snow on the hood, and a few students-like tourists nearby added an arrow through the heart. He walked slowly over, and a girl with big eyes noticed him. When he took out the key and pressed the remote control, the car beeped and the lights inside the car came on. The tourists realized that Ai Jingchu was the owner of the car, so they exclaimed one after another and ran away.
The girl with big eyes didn't react so quickly. She just stayed where she was and was caught red-handed.
After running for a distance, several people looked back and found that Ai Jingchu had no intention of paying attention to them. So they stopped where they were, pointed at the girl, and laughed happily.
A boy who was suspected to be her boyfriend came over to pull her, who was slow to react, while laughing: "Nannan, let's go."
Only then did she come to her senses and ran away quickly.
As soon as she moved, the cell phone fell out of her pocket. She ran a few steps before she realized it. When she turned around, she found that Ai Jingchu had picked it up for her.
"Thank you," the girl said. "We didn't touch your car."
Suddenly, Ai Jingchu asked a strange question: "How old are you?"
The girl was stunned for a moment, "Nineteen."
Ai Jingchu stood for a while, then calmed down, opened the door and got into the car.
Nineteen…
It's really an age that is very far away from him.
Most of the graduate students he supervises are in their twenties, and some are even in-service doctors sent from lower-level hospitals for training and further studies, so some of them are much older than him.
He was smarter than the average person in studying and spent more time on studying, but he didn't have time to think about anything else. What did other people do when they were 19? The first and second years of college were the age when one could fall in love freely.
And what about fifteen years old
When he was fastening his seat belt, Ai Jingchu turned around and saw the bottles of mineral water on the passenger seat. One was full, and the other was half drunk.
He couldn't help but reach out and pick up the half bottle of water and look at it.
Like many of his peers, he had a mild obsession with cleanliness, whether it was eating utensils or other aspects. For example, in the morning, Zeng Li had stained his hands, and the first thing he did after reaching the top of the mountain was to go to Dongshan Temple to get a basin of cold water and wash his hands. As for overnight water, he never drank it, so he almost never drank the bottled water in the water dispenser after it was opened.
But at this moment, he unscrewed the bottle cap, tilted his head back and took a sip.
The clear liquid slowly flows from the bottle into the mouth, and slides into the body along the esophagus as the throat swallows.
cold!