The cleaners on the night shift were fiddling with the collected beverage bottles. Almost all the surrounding shops had begun to close, and the sound of zippered and rolling doors could be heard frequently. Only a 24-hour convenience store was still open; it was the only bright place on this long street.
The sanitation worker next to him had already walked back and forth. Seeing Ai Jingchu still standing there, he finally couldn't help but show concern for him: "Young man, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Ai Jingchu shook his head, stomped his numb legs, walked towards the convenience store and bought a pack of cigarettes.
After walking out, he found that he had no fire, so he went back and bought a lighter.
When taking the first puff of cigarette, Ai Jingchu glanced at his phone. He wondered if she had arrived, if she had seen Yu Yi, and if she had forgotten to send him a message when she arrived.
He took a second puff and a puff of green smoke came out from between his nose and lips. He frowned and looked at the screen again through the smoke, then opened his text message box. The last text message was also sent to him by Zeng Li in the afternoon, telling him that she had gone out.
Ai Jingchu raised the cigarette in his left hand again, put it in his mouth and took a deep puff. The spark on the cigarette flickered brightly and burned rapidly.
He always had a feeling that if she went to see Yu Yi, he would lose her. The girl who brought him medicine on a snowy night in Dongshan would never appear for him again. And the same Dongshan, for her, sealed another memory. He remembered her crying in the early morning sunrise, but those tears were not shed for him.
It turns out that Yu Yi is more important than him
Hesitantly, he pressed the reply button on his phone. When his fingertips touched the screen again, he didn't know what to write. Should he ask her not to go? Ask her to come back? Tell her that he was reluctant to let her go
Even beg her
He was startled and suddenly felt like a stranger to himself.
How could he be that kind of man
Ai Jingchu has lived for thirty years, but when has he ever been so humble to others in his life
Ai Jingchu put away his phone silently and stood upright under the street light, looking lonely and desolate. He suddenly wondered if he was wrong. The person who was supposed to accompany him for the rest of his life did not actually exist. It was just his wishful thinking.
He put out the cigarette butt and threw it into the trash can on the sidewalk. As he turned around, he heard a call.
"Ai Jingchu!"
The sound was extremely loud, and in the middle of the night, on the empty road, it seemed so abrupt and crisp. He looked back in disbelief in the direction of the sound, and saw that the figure on the other side of the road was Zeng Li who had returned.
There was a road between them, Zeng Li was on this side and he was on the other side.
He didn't say anything, nor did he move. He just stared at her blankly, somewhat incredulous.
She called him again: "Ai Jingchu!" This time her voice was softer than before, less anxious, but the emotions in her heart were still revealed.
As the driver drove back, Zeng Li thought about which intersection she would get off at, how to explain to the guard at the door, and how to find the small courtyard with the yellow jasmine. However, she never expected that after so long, he would still be standing there, smoking alone.
The road between them was the main road of the city, and the exit of the sunken passage was right in the middle. There was no crosswalk, so she wanted to cross, but couldn't. She went down the steps of the sidewalk and wanted to cross the lane and climb over the railing in the middle. However, although there were not many vehicles passing by, the speed was too fast. She took two steps and was forced to retreat. When she rushed forward again, Ai Jingchu became anxious and yelled at her: "Zeng Li!"
She stopped and looked at him.
He was a little angry. He raised his hand, pointed to the pedestrian bridge more than a hundred meters to the right and said, "Go that way!"
She looked at it, and hurriedly did as he said. She walked a few steps and looked over there again. He was also walking and looking at her.
The two people ran in the same direction on these two parallel lines.
But he was tall, had long legs, and took big steps, so he walked much faster than her.
She quickly trotted a few steps.
A distance of one hundred meters seems so long.
She had never wandered the streets alone at such a late hour, so she would look at Ai Jingchu from time to time to give herself courage. But Ai Jingchu's eyes never left her. In such a dark street, he was afraid that she would disappear if he blinked, and he was also afraid that she was just an illusion he made up to comfort himself.
They walked up the stairs one after the other, walked up about ten steps, turned 180 degrees, walked up another ten steps, then stepped onto the overpass and saw each other.
She walked too fast and was slightly out of breath. When she got there she felt a little timid and didn't know how to explain why she had gone there and then come back.
But he didn't hesitate at all. He walked quickly forward, pulled her to his chest, and kissed her without saying a word.
He kissed her so hard, so fiercely. One hand tightly grasped her wrist, and the other hand pressed the back of her head towards him. There was a metal brace in her mouth that he had glued in with his own hands, but he didn't care about all that. He just wanted to kiss her hard, crush her, and then stuff her into his chest, so that no one would covet her anymore.
His actions were too brutal, and she instinctively dodged. But her head was already in his hands, so there was no freedom to escape. And no matter how she struggled, he did not let go of her wrist.
Zeng Li groaned in pain, and then placed her other hand, which was still able to move, on his chest, separating their bodies, and finally opened a small gap. With this gap, she took the opportunity to force her face away, and the angle was slightly off, so the metal nails on the braces scratched his lip, leaving a bloody mark.
She didn't notice at all.
He also became stubborn and didn't stop. He exerted force with his hands and made her lips return to their original position.
He indulged himself in it greedily and didn't let her go for a long time.
Zeng Li calmed his rapid breathing and said, "You hurt me."
The stitches on her wound had been removed not long ago, so the flesh was still fresh and it would still hurt if it was pulled carelessly. It also seemed as if his wrist bone had been broken.
But he said cruelly: "If you don't feel any pain, how can you know how miserable I am."
"If you don't tell me, how would I know?"
"I like you, don't you know?" He had injured his throat during the day and was forced to drink at night. His voice was hoarse and lacked his usual charm, but he said this slowly, with a slight pause in the middle, and then at the end of the sentence, the ending tone rose again, like a feather gently touching her heart.
She replied, "I don't know."
As she spoke, her expression was slightly angry, her eyes were full of sparkle, and her lips, which had been ravaged, were bright red and still stained with the moisture he had left.
He couldn't help but lower his head and wanted to do it again.
Due to the situation, she retreated a little, but this time his movements were much softer. He gently put his arms around her waist and pressed her against him.
"What if someone..." She stopped him.
"Hush."
As soon as the words came out of their mouths, their lips touched, warm and soft, and their chests were immediately filled with each other's breath.
Her mind gradually went blank, and her perception of the outside world was closed. She forgot the sound of traffic and the place where she was. It seemed that there were only her and him in this world.
She didn't know how much time had passed before those warm lips were willing to leave her.
After they were two inches apart, he held her face and asked, "Do you understand now?"
She then discovered that the wound on his lower lip seemed to be scratched by her braces. Although it stopped bleeding, the skin was actually scratched, leaving a small cut. The wound was red, and it seemed that blood was eager to seep out. It had a strange magic that made Zeng Li feel tempted as soon as her eyes touched that place.
She had already blushed from his kisses, and when he asked her that, she said stubbornly, "I just don't know..."
But before she could utter the last word, his lips covered hers for the third time, so tenderly and lingeringly, as if he would kiss her forever and ever unless she admitted it herself.
When she thought of the wound, her heart trembled slightly, and she responded to him shyly and tenderly.
In an instant—
Something was lit up.
It was as if an electric current spread from each of their hearts, transmitted to every part of their limbs, and those parts of their bodies that were tightly entangled and gently rubbed against each other seemed to be electrocuted.
His hands slowly loosened their grip around her waist, and moved along her arms to find her hands hanging at her sides. He guided her hands to wrap around his waist, while his hands were freed and moved upwards, one hand caressing her back, and the other hand inserting five fingers into her hair. His fingertips entangled in her hair, which felt delicate and soft, causing him to gently caress it with his fingertips, extremely gentle.
The alluring scent of her mouth blended with the taste of tobacco and alcohol on his lips and tongue.
Closely adhere and rub against each other.
Sucking and tossing.
Licking, biting, and entanglement.
It was getting deeper and hotter, almost melting each other, and neither of them was willing to push away.
At this time, voices were heard. This place was not a busy place, and there were few people coming and going in the early hours of the morning, but there were still people crossing the road on the overpass. Not just one person, but a bunch of people, and the sound of laughter and laughter could be heard from afar.
The noise brought Zeng Li back to her senses suddenly. She quickly left his lips and shrank into his arms.
He turned around, holding her against his chest, and turned his back to the person who was coming.
The noise of the people's quarreling gradually died down. They became curious about the couple on the overpass and started whispering after walking a few steps away. They kept talking until they got off the overpass.
Zeng Li had never done such a thing in his life. His face turned red all the way to his neck, and he buried himself deeply in Ai Jingchu's arms.
"Why did you come back again?" he asked her.
"On the way, I called Yu Yi and told him that I had other things to do and asked him not to wait for me." She answered irrelevantly, her nose pressed against his clothes, and her voice was muffled.
"Hmm." He didn't correct the question.
"Ai Jingchu," she raised her head and looked straight into his eyes, "Are you jealous?"
"No." He denied bluntly and turned his head away. He looked extremely uncomfortable, and there seemed to be a thin layer of shyness on his face. This expression was not at all similar to his overbearing behavior just now.