The wind blew in through the open window, sweeping away all the warmth in the living room and rustling the curtains.
The wine in his hand seemed to have cooled a little. Lai Yang lit a cigarette, but Yuan Shengda's eyes fell on the silver lighter.
After a few seconds, she smiled, raised the bottle and took a big sip. The yellow wine dripped down her pointed chin. After she wiped it off, her eyes began to become firm.
"You know what? I found out I had lost my key after I got home that night after the performance. I couldn't get in, so I had to call the landlord to ask for a spare key. He lived four kilometers away from here, and I couldn't get a taxi that night. Aru was afraid that the landlord was asleep, so he ran over to get the key and then ran back... It took him less than twenty minutes to travel eight kilometers, and when he came back..."
Yuan Shengda paused and took a deep breath: "He looked like he had just been caught in the rain, with sweat dripping down his face in lines... From that moment on, I suddenly realized that I seemed to like him."
Lai Yang opened his mouth slightly and looked at her.
He had participated in short-distance running competitions when he was in college. For an average person, running one kilometer in three minutes and forty seconds is considered acceptable, while professional athletes can finish it in two and a half minutes.
According to Yuan Shengda, Aru was basically in a state of frenzy.
If you don't have a passionate love for someone, you can't do such a thing.
Lai Yang didn't know what to say, so he took a sip of wine and asked, "So... you were moved? You went out drinking with him last night?"
"Laiyang... do you know what I was thinking of at that time? Before, when we went to Huashan, I was so thirsty halfway through the journey, and you... you ran up the mountain like a fool, and then ran down to buy me a bottle of water ten minutes later. Later, we walked that section of the road for forty-seven minutes..."
Yuan Shengda seemed a little drunk, her face turned red and her chest heaved violently.
"Laiyang... I'm sorry, I liked you."
"… "
I have thought about our future countless times before. Like a fool, I thought you would confess your love to me. I waited for that day for a long, long time, but in the end, after you went to college, I heard the news that you and Gu Qian were together. "
Yuan Shengda burst into tears. She wiped them away, but the tears continued to flow.
"The thing I regret most in my life is that I didn't study hard in high school. I couldn't get into Shaanxi University of Science and Technology and couldn't go to the same school with you. When I heard that you were with Gu Qian, I... cut my long hair and slowly started to distance myself from you. The four years in college were the time when we had the least contact since we were young, because... I wanted to forget you!"
The cigarette had burned out, and the sparks burned Lai Yang's fingertips. He let go of his hand in pain and let the cigarette butt fall.
He was not touched by what Yuan Shengda said.
At that time, his energy was all on Gu Qian, and he also thought that Yuan Shengda had a new friend, so...
“Later, after I graduated, I contacted you again. You told me that you were doing a talk show in Shanghai and asked me if I wanted to come over... I, I... I thought about it for two days and one night. I knew that coming to Shanghai would mean that I would have to see you together every day, which would drive me crazy, but... but in the end I still came, because... I wanted to see you, even if it was just as a childhood friend... Ha, just as a childhood friend, that would be enough.”
General Yuan Sheng drank the wine in his hand, then threw it heavily to the ground and glared at Lai Yang fiercely.
"I admit that I lost to Gu Qian, because she was the one who accompanied you in college, but... what about Tian Jing?... She just appeared suddenly and took away everything from you. I asked me countless times... what did I do wrong? Why didn't you feel anything after all I did, and she just stood there... You, you completely fell in love with her... Why?"
Lai Yang wanted to say something, but his throat seemed to be pinched by a big hand, making him speechless.
"... Laiyang, let me tell you, I don't like talk shows at all, not at all, and I don't like standing on the stage and forcing myself to smile. I do this just because you like it, and I want to be the way you like... But one day I saw the clay pot for cooking soup in your room, and I thought you were cooking it for me. I waited for a long time, and finally I found out that you were cooking it for Tian Jing. At that moment, I felt like the sky was falling."
Yuan Shengda slapped his head with both hands and said heartbreakingly: "The only person I care about in this city... only cares about another woman. Do you know... know... how heartbroken I am? So from that moment on, I told myself that I... should give up..."
Lai Yang remembered that it was that night that she took the initiative to become friends with Tian Jing, and when they returned to the community that night, she even talked about their childhood.
She said
I used to be full of imagination and would fantasize about a flying saucer or a dragon hidden in space, but not anymore.
It turns out that sentence means... My childhood fantasy was completely shattered.
Not only myself, but also her.
But what Lai Yang didn't expect was that Yuan Shengda said he didn't like talk shows... He had never thought of this.
Yuan Shengda covered his face with his hands and buried his head in his legs and sobbed.
Such a scene of a man being silent and a woman crying appeared in the room. Lai Yang felt as if his heart was being pressed down by a slab of bluestone, feeling extremely depressed!
After a long time, Yuan Shengda took a deep breath and looked up. Her beautiful hair mixed with tears stuck to her cheeks and corners of her mouth. She bit her lips and her voice trembled.
"I'm sorry... Laiyang, I shouldn't have said this... I'm completely relieved now. When Tianjing came to dinner the night before last, I found that you had changed... You were no longer as self-deprecating as before. When you were competing with Yu Bo, I saw a... new you. You also started to become more generous and confident, but..."
Yuan Shengda cried again, her heart was struggling between control and release, giving up and unwillingness.
This entanglement was like a chain that tightly bound her neck, loosening it a little when she was about to suffocate, and tightening it a little when she was about to breathe...
"But this change... was not brought to you by me, nor by Gu Qian. Only Tian Jing made you change, so I... really really really knew it! I was the one who went to drink with Alu, and I wanted to give myself to him while I was drunk, so that I would never think about you again, but... I couldn't do it, because when I was drunk, my mind was full of you, and I regretted why I didn't confess to you when Gu Qian just broke up with you. I thought you would tell me one day, and then I... I will be with you forever. I don't want a house, I don't want a car, I don't want anything, I don't want a betrothal gift, I will go wherever you go? When we have no money, we can do a talk show on the street. When we have money, you take me to a good meal, just like when you took me to Pizza Hut in junior high school, that's enough... This is what I want, that's it..."
Night filled the entire Shanghai.
In this brightly lit city that never sleeps, a heart that has been devastated before it even bloomed is shedding endless sobs, and the sobs turn into a raging fire, burning another icy heart.