After the last class on Friday, Wu Jincheng began to pack up his desk, looking like he was getting ready to leave.
Classmates asked: "Monitor, why are you packing up?"
Wu Jincheng said: "The college entrance examination is only a few days away. I have already asked for leave to review my studies. I will study at home from now on."
"Hey!!" The students were all in uproar, "Is this also possible?"
"Students, be quiet." Teacher Chen is in the classroom now, answering questions. "You can go home to review with your parents' signature. Of course, for most students, I still recommend that you stay in school and ask the teacher for help if you have any questions."
A classmate raised his hand: "Is it okay if the parents sign it?"
Teacher Chen: "I still have my approval. Only those who have someone to take care of them at home can do it. If no one is watching over you, can you still review well in the next ten or so days, which are the most critical days, relying solely on your own self-consciousness?"
She gave everyone a long speech, covering the last period of time before Wu Jincheng left.
The classmates were busy discussing whether to ask for leave, and no one noticed that the class monitor left.
Except Ji Yunyun.
She called him at the school gate: "Class monitor."
Wu Jincheng calmly turned around and asked: "What?"
“Really?” Ji Yunyun asked.
Wu Jincheng: "It's none of my business."
Ji Yunyun clenched her fists: "Why do you do this?"
"Do you think you are very righteous?" Wu Jincheng asked in reply, "Do you think Miao Tong is a good person? After she died, you insisted on finding out the truth. Have you ever thought that she is the culprit of the whole thing?"
Ji Yunyun was stunned.
"No one is better than anyone else. Don't be so naive." He turned around indifferently and crossed the road.
At the corner of the street, a police car was waiting for him.
"Ji Yunyun." Someone called her from behind. It was a tall and strong boy. "What did you say to the monitor?"
Ji Yunyun rolled her eyes: "What does it have to do with anything?"
The other party: "Are you planning to go home and review?"
Ji Yunyun: “No.”
The other person: “Me too.”
Ji Yunyun: "I don't have any money."
The other party: "Are you going to the library to review tomorrow?"
Ji Yunyun: "What?"
The other person: "My home is nearby. If you go, I'll save a seat for you."
Ji Yunyun: "Yes."
The other person: "Are you going home alone? Do you want to come together? I'll take bus No. 4 too."
Before the boy could finish his words, he heard a horn and a car stopped beside them.
The car window rolled down, and Ji Feng looked at him: "Who said Yunyun was going home alone?"
"Brother?!" Ji Yunyun's eyes widened, as if she had seen a ghost, "Why are you here?"
"Of course I'll take it, or else you'll think I'm just passing by after having eaten my fill?" Ji Feng glanced at her, "What are you waiting for? Hurry up and get in the car while I open the door for you."
"So fierce, so annoying." Ji Yunyun muttered, waved her hand, opened the car door and got in.
The boy opened his mouth, then closed it again, and watched her leave obediently.
Ji Feng looked at his sister: "Who is that?"
"We are the study committee member of our class."
"Wow, you're so big, I thought you were the sports committee member. Study committee member? Is that okay?" Ji Feng looked doubtful.
Ji Yunyun exploded: "Don't look down on him, his grades are very good, he is in the top five in the grade."
Monsoon hehe.
"Hello." Ji Yunyun suddenly turned her head and asked him, "I just saw the squad leader get on the police car. Is that him?"
Monsoon: “Yes.”
Ji Yunyun was silent.
Ji Feng: "Want to know the reason?"
"Will you tell me?"
"Yes," he said, "I found it."
Logically, Ji Yunyun should be excited by this sentence, but the fact is the opposite. She did not feel excited or expectant, but rather disappointed.
Ji Feng looked ahead and said calmly, "This is the truth. Sometimes it is absurd, sometimes it is cruel, and it is not often that we feel the joy of justice defeating evil. But no matter which one it is, we can accept it."
Ji Yunyun pursed her lips and gritted her teeth, "Okay, go ahead and tell me."
Ji Feng kept his word and told her the truth without reservation.
Ji Yunyun: “…”
The truth is so far from her reasoning.
"I didn't plan to tell you before the college entrance examination, but Teacher Jian insisted that you could do it." Ji Feng glanced at her, "I made a bet with her to treat her to a meal - and I took your brother's wallet. Isn't it shameful to cry?"
Ji Yunyun complained: "I just want to have dinner with her."
Ji Feng: “That’s not the case.”
The younger sister rolled her eyes, opened her wallet, and pulled out a red note: "Give me a hundred yuan to buy a bunch of flowers before dinner. I say, can you add some fuel? Look at the person that Teacher Jian is rumored to be dating, and then look at you, can you have a sense of crisis?"
Ji Feng laughed angrily: "Who do you dislike, you little bitch?"
"That's it, that's it!"
After the weekend, Ji Yunyun went back to school as if nothing had happened.
Ji Feng fulfilled his promise and invited Jian Jing to come for dinner.
She asked: "Do you want to eat?"
"Don't wear a skirt."
Jian Jing took the advice and wore an outfit of T-shirt + hot pants + baseball cap + sunglasses.
Ji Feng's comment: "It's like a celebrity on the street."
“I’m a celebrity now.”
Ji Feng: "You are too self-conscious."
Hearing this tone, Jian Jing said coldly: "If you don't want to treat me to a meal, just say so. I'll go back now."
"No, no." He held her arm and opened the car door. "Admit defeat, get in the car."
Jian Jing reluctantly sat in the passenger seat out of consideration for their past friendship: "Where are we going?"
"We'll know when we get there." Ji Feng said this in advance, "But it's not such an easy place, so be mentally prepared."
Jian Jing pressed her forehead and said calmly: "Fortunately, I didn't have any expectations for you."
The car drove for half an hour and stopped on a tree-lined one-way street. Ji Feng bought two bottles of water and parked the car at the back door of the grocery store.
"Let's go. This way you won't get a ticket." He handed her a bottle of water and said, "Follow me."
Jian Jing's curiosity was aroused. This didn't seem like a good place to eat, so she quickly followed.
The monsoon cut into a small path, and the shade of trees blocked most of the sunlight, and the wind became cool. There was a low wall on the side of the road, shrubs grew from the gaps in the bricks, and unknown wild flowers bloomed.
He said, "Can you get in?"
"Who are you looking down on?" Jian Jing said, "It's only this high."
"As expected of Teacher Jian." Ji Feng praised her and walked in quickly. "Don't worry, this place is deserted and there's no one inside."
Jian Jing didn't need to activate the white kitten state. Her own strength and agility were enough to deal with the two-meter low wall.
She climbed up swiftly and looked down. There was a cracked cement road below. Although it was covered with weeds, at least she wouldn't step on mud. She then jumped down with confidence.
"Where is this?"
"My high school. The school has moved because the developer went bankrupt and half of it was demolished and is now rotting here." He raised his chin. There were two teaching buildings standing in the distance, their exterior walls were gray and weathered.
Jian Jing glanced at him and didn't think there was any reason for him to come here for dinner.
Once human footprints disappear, nature will flourish. The weeds are extremely dense, and the rough stems and leaves can easily cut exposed skin.
At first, Jian Jing regretted wearing shorts, but soon she found it very interesting. Her agility and flexibility allowed her to easily avoid all obstacles, as if she was on an adventure.
However, the dense bushes soon disappeared.
The playground was still there, and no matter how hard the weeds tried, they were no taller than the ankles. The concrete steps were still solid, and only a few stubborn weeds managed to poke their heads out and flutter in the wind.
Ji Feng walked to the top floor and looked out over the deserted campus. After a while, he suddenly said, "Teacher Jian, the day I received the news of my father's death, the school was lucky enough to hold a sports meet here."
In October, the golden wind brings coolness and the sweet osmanthus is fragrant. To this day, he can still remember the principal's speech at the opening ceremony, which was not quite standard.
"Every year at the sports meet, the class monitor would find someone to sign up for the 1,000-meter race. I still remember her. She was a pretty girl with good grades."
He mentioned it casually and changed the subject. Jian Jing rolled her eyes at him, but replied, "First love?"
"Curious?" Ji Feng looked at her and smiled, "I won't tell you."
Jian Jing was speechless: "I'm not curious, thank you. Let's continue talking about the sports meeting."
"Sports meet..." He thought about it and sighed, "I was really too naive back then. One thousand meters? When I was in college, I ran a thousand meters every day, and I also had training. It was miserable."
“Then why don’t you study at OUHK?” she asked.
Ji Feng said: "Serve the people."
Jian Jing: "Bullshit."
"If you don't believe me, forget it." He turned around and said, "Let's go. You must be hungry. Let me think about it. It should be here."
He took her through the crumbling teaching building and climbed over the wall next to it.
Strangely enough, the quietness of the deserted garden suddenly turned into a bustling street just across the wall. Walking down this road, about 100 meters away, you can see a small market.
Ji Feng found a rice noodle shop, ordered two bowls of beef offal rice noodles, and said to her, "Come and try it."
"If you don't taste good, I will beat you into a pig's head." Jian Jing sat down and picked up a rice noodle.
"Why did you come all the way here to reminisce when I was free?" He sneered and said firmly, "I guarantee it will be delicious."
Jian Jing took a bite with some doubt.
It was actually really good. It was one of those typical restaurants with a bad environment and a plain appearance, but the owner may have been practicing his craft for decades.
A bowl of ordinary beef offal rice noodles, the soup is clear but fresh, the rice noodles are chewy and bouncy, the beef offal is crispy and fresh, and it has a rare flavor.
"When I was in school, it was only 12 yuan a bowl. The price has increased." He ate half a bowl in one breath and waved, "Boss lady, another serving of braised beef."
"Okay." The proprietress walked into the kitchen, scooped up a piece of braised meat with a spoon, cut it a few times on the chopping board, chopped it into a dish of braised beef and brought it over, "Eat slowly."
Ji Feng pushed the plate over: "Eat more, you'll be full."
Jian Jing poked it with chopsticks and found it very flavorful.
But she still found fault: "I won't bet with you anymore. You're so stingy. You treated me to rice noodles but didn't even give me a soda."
Ji Feng: "...get another bottle of Coke."
"icy."
"It's so cold." He looked like he had lost all hope in life.
After eating and drinking, we went home.
Ji Feng went back to work, and Jian Jing went home and took a nap.
After waking up from a nap, the sun was shining brightly outside. She petted the dog for a while, played a few games of throwing the ball with it, and then slowly walked to the study to create a new document.
In the past two days, she has been thinking about writing a new book. There is no other way, the money is spent too easily, and she must work hard to earn it back, but she has no inspiration for the Demon Doctor series, so she doesn't want to write the fourth part for the time being.
The author is just that fickle.
Write a new story.
Reasoning is still reasoning, of course, but it is lighter, more interesting, and not too heavy.
What to write
Scenes appeared before my eyes.
A young couple dating under the wisteria, a girl falling from the rooftop, students walking into the police car at the school gate, and the desolate and quiet old campus under the sun.
Young people do not know the taste of worry and always take life and death lightly.
Murder and youth, that's pretty interesting, isn't it
She finally typed the new title on the document.
— "The Sleepwalking Girl Case Files"