"It's okay, I'll be fine after a while of sleep," he replied.
"Would you like to have something to sober you up?" she couldn't help but ask again.
"Need not."
"Are you feeling bad?"
"Yeah." He answered with his eyes closed.
Hearing this word, her heart tightened again, and she couldn't help but reach out to touch his forehead to see if it was still as hot. Unexpectedly, as soon as her fingertips touched his skin, they were caught by his hand. He held her fingertips in his palm, put them on his lips and kissed them gently. If he was sober, he would never do this.
Zeng Li blushed and pulled his hand away.
"Would you like some water?" she asked again.
"No." He said these two words in a childish tone.
She remembered that he was drunk last time and he was like this when she was sending him home.
He seemed to be aware of it and said, "Don't pay attention to me. I will talk a lot when I drink. Just let me talk to myself."
"Then I'll take you home."
"No," he said.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"I have something to tell you."
"Don't you want me to pay attention to you?"
"Why are you ignoring me?" he asked.
"You told me to ignore you." She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Zeng Li," he said, "I don't eat peanuts, why did you give me peanuts just now?"
When he asked her this, she remembered that he had not eaten a single bite of the cabbage and peanut paste, even though she had served him a bowl of it and placed it in front of him.
"I don't know." She explained.
"Besides, you just ignored me."
The question came back to the starting point. Zeng Li found it funny and had to repeat, "You told me to ignore you." It turned out that this was how he nagged.
I only heard him mutter, "You came so late, and you didn't talk to me all the way. I asked you, but you ignored me."
She was stunned for a moment, and only after listening did she understand what he meant.
Suddenly, she suddenly thought of Yu Yi.
What she had been thinking about was completely forgotten after she saw him being forced to drink. She checked the time and it was almost nine o'clock.
But what should Ai Jingchu do
"Hey—" she called him.
"If you call me 'Hey' again, I'll get angry," he said.
"Can I take you home?" she asked.
This time he didn't continue to talk to her. He leaned his head on the headrest, his eyes still closed, and put his index finger in front of his lips, making a "hush" gesture.
She had to keep silent.
In just a few seconds, as soon as he put his hand down, he fell asleep.
Zeng Li didn't know what to do.
She couldn't contact Yu Yi, and Ai Jingchu's situation also made her worried.
After a moment, she thought quietly, opened the car door, got out and made a phone call.
The number Yu Yi called her that afternoon was a mobile phone number. She didn't know whose number it belonged to, so she dialed it with a fluke mentality. But a female voice answered the phone.
"Excuse me, could you please find Yu Yi?" Zeng Li asked.
"He just went out," the female voice on the other end paused, "Are you Zeng Li?"
"Yeah." Zeng Li also felt that the voice was familiar. When she heard the other party calling her name, she asked in confusion, "Aunt?"
"It's me." She is Yu Yi's elder sister, Yu Nan.
"You're here too?"
"You don't know, do you? For your cousin's high school entrance exam, we came to City A this year and bought a house. I also resigned from my job to look after him, and found a job for myself by the way." Yu Nan is the person in the Yu family who is closest to Zeng Li, but due to the large age gap, the two people have little in common.
"If you need any help, just let me know. Here is my number," Zeng Li said.
"Thank you, you've always been a good kid." Yu Nan said, "Didn't Ayi go to see you?"
"I have something to do and can't leave, and I don't know his phone number."
"Oh. He has been back for a long time. He stayed in his hometown with his mother a few days ago and just arrived in City A this morning. In fact, he bought this house for his children. He came to see us today. He said he would leave early tomorrow morning and we don't know when he will come back."
The meaning of Yu Nan's words was very clear.
She got in the car and stared at Ai Jingchu's sleeping face. After a while, she turned sideways, put her hand around, pulled out the seat belt from the side window, fastened it for him, and then drove out of the hotel parking lot. She had sent him off once and remembered his home address.
Zeng Li drove the car to the parking space he asked her to park last time, but she was in trouble. She didn't know which building he lived in... There were a row of houses on each side, and she couldn't ask them one by one.
She called him softly, but he was sleeping so soundly that she could not bear to do anything.
So she got out of the car again and called Yu Yi according to the number given by Yu Nan.
"I have something to do and can't come." Zeng Li explained.
"It's okay, I'll wait for you." Yu Yi said.
"I don't know when yet, so..."
"You did this on purpose?" Yu Yi said, "You don't want to see me."
"No, I really can't get away."
"Where do you live?" Yu Yi asked, "I'll wait for you at your house."
Zeng Li thought about it and decided that this was a good idea. If she came back in the middle of the night, at least he would have a place to sleep. So he told him the address and house number, "I have a spare key."
He interrupted her, "Under the doormat?"
"right."
After settling Yu Yi, she felt more stable and returned to the car to look after Ai Jingchu. His head was tilted towards her, and with the orange light from the roadside, she could finally see his face clearly. His eyelashes were not long or curled, but they were very thick. No wonder his black eyes looked like he was wearing eyeliner when he stared at people...
Zeng Li was afraid that it would be unhealthy for him to breathe the air in a small space after falling asleep, so he turned off the air conditioner, opened all the windows, and turned off the engine.
She turned off the sound of her phone and played some games with him.
Later, even her cell phone sounded low on battery, so she didn't dare to continue playing and had nothing to do.
The moonlight was very light, and the night wind carried the scent of yellow jasmine blooming in someone's yard. She liked this flower very much. When she was young, there was also such a tree planted in the courtyard of her grandmother's house. It grew very fast, getting taller every year, and before she knew it, it had become a big tree. Every summer, the tree was full of yellow jasmine, and her brothers and sisters would use footstools to pick them. She was timid and only dared to look from below. Sometimes she picked a lot of them, strung them together with thin threads and hung them on their clothes, and the fragrance of flowers filled her body.
In such a quiet and silent night, accompanied by the moonlight and the fragrance of flowers, she recalled the past of her childhood. Some scenes had Yu Yi, and some did not. She seemed to feel that time and memories were slipping away from her. She was afraid that he would catch a cold if he fell asleep like this without anything to cover himself, so she couldn't help but reach out to feel if his skin was cool.
However, this disturbed his good sleep. He moved and opened his eyes.
He slept so soundly that he was a little confused when he opened his eyes. After a moment of stunned silence, he remembered where he was.
"Awake?" she asked.
He rubbed his eyes and took a few seconds to ask, "How long have I slept?"
Zeng Li opened the phone screen and checked it. "About two hours."
"Are you feeling better?" she asked.
He didn't answer again, his eyes were half asleep.
The first time Zeng Li saw him after waking up, it seemed like a long time had passed and his thoughts were still a little slow. He was nothing like the usual Ai Jingchu.
Seeing him sitting there in silence for a long time, he spoke again: "Did you drive the car back?"
"Yeah." Who else could it be.
"Why don't you go home?"
"I don't know where you live."
Upon hearing this, Ai Jingchu pointed to the left and said, "Isn't this it?"
Zeng Li looked in the direction he pointed, and saw the small courtyard in front of the house with yellow jasmine planted.
"Come in and sit down?" Ai Jingchu asked.
"No."
He used to have a good alcohol tolerance, but he had not eaten much at the table just now, and the white wine and red wine were mixed together, which made him a little drunk. After sleeping for a while, the alcohol had mostly gone. He felt his throat was dry and unbearable, as if it was on fire, so he got out of the car, opened the back door, took out a bottle of mineral water from it, and drank it down with his head tilted back.
Zeng Li also got out of the car with him, "I'll take a taxi back by myself."
"Let me go back with you," he said.
"No!" She refused firmly.
He was stunned for a moment. Zeng Li's abnormal behavior gave him a very strange feeling. Then he said calmly, "Then I'll take you to get a taxi."
The two men closed the windows, locked the car, and walked out along the path side by side.
The night breeze blew on her face, and the scent of the yellow jasmine floated in the air again. Zeng Li couldn't help but look back at the tree. She remembered what he had said to her in his drunken state just now: "You came so late, and you didn't talk to me all the way. I asked you, but you ignored me." That tone was not angry or complaining, but a child's murmur, revealing a trace of imperceptible loneliness and sensitivity.
Thinking of this, she suddenly stopped.
He was a little surprised, took a few more steps, and then turned back to wait for her.
She stood still.
"I have something to tell you," she said.
He tilted his head, waiting for her next words without saying a word. Whenever she had this expression, it must be something very serious.
"Yu Yi is back. He called me this afternoon and asked me to meet him. You were drunk just now and I couldn't wake you up, so he kept waiting for me. He is leaving tomorrow and I have to go." She said all in one breath, afraid that she would back down if she paused for a moment.
After listening to it, his eyes moved slightly, his eyelashes trembled, hiding all his emotions, and after a long while he slowly asked: "Do you have to go?"
"I promised him." Zeng Li didn't dare to look at him.
Ai Jingchu stared at her.
a long time.
"Let's go, then."
Finally, he said.
After that, they walked out of the military compound and walked a little further to the street. It was already past eleven o'clock, and there were fewer vehicles on the road.
The two of them spoke in silence along the way.
When Zeng Li got into the taxi, he pulled her.
She looked at him.
Ai Jingchu let go of his hand and said, "Call me when you get there."
Zeng Li agreed and closed the car door.
After seeing Zeng Li off, Ai Jingchu stood there for a long time.
He felt his chest was filled with unspeakable emotions, which made him feel uncomfortable, as if a pair of hands were constantly kneading him, as if the action would not stop until it was destroyed. He stood there, and taxis kept stopping because they thought he was trying to stop them. Even private cars that came out to pick up people at night could not help but slowly drive by and ask him if he wanted to leave.