The driver asked us where we were going, and I casually replied: "Round the city."
The driver looked at me in the rearview mirror. I didn't look good, so I took out two hundred-dollar bills from my bag and handed them to the driver in the front seat.
When the driver saw the money, he said, "I'll charge the meter. You can pay me later."
Yin Ning looked back, and I asked her nervously: "Are you following?"
Yin Ning said: "Probably not..."
My fingers gripping the bag tightened unconsciously, always feeling like I was being chased for my life.
After Yin Ning watched for a while, he turned to me and said, "Zijin, is it really Luo Xiangdong who made Yuanzhe's family bankrupt?"
I couldn't say a word, because I knew too well that no one else would do this except him.
Yin Ning was silent for a while, and then said again: "Although Yuan Zhe was damaged and did something wrong, if Luo Xiangdong overturned a boat of people, would it be..."
In fact, I think the same thing as Yin Ning, most women are kind to women.
Just when I was hesitating about what to do, Yin Ning's cell phone rang. She handed it to me directly and said, "It's Yecheng's number."
I took it and saw that this number was already familiar to me. It belonged to Luo Xiangdong.
After hesitating for a few seconds, I answered the phone and said, "Hello."
Luo Xiangdong's voice came through the mobile phone, still low and sweet. He said, "You don't need to go to the police station anymore. I have already testified and will sentence him to two years."
My heart sank, it was indeed him.
Luo Xiangdong didn't mention what was going on at Yuanzhe's house. He just said to me directly: "I have booked a ticket for you to return to Winter City tonight. The information has been sent to this mobile phone. You can go back today."
I felt an indescribable feeling in my heart and wanted to ask him: Are you ordering me
But when the words came to my mouth, I couldn't say a word because my throat was choked.
Seeing that I was silent, he stopped talking for a while. The two of us held our phones like this and were silent for more than ten seconds. Finally, I tried hard to swallow the sourness in my heart and asked in a low voice: "Yi Yang... how is he?"
Among the three of us, I am most worried about Kuang Yiyang, because I know that Luo Xiangdong and I are both the kind of people who will grit our teeth and hold on even if the sky falls. But Kuang Yiyang... I really don't know how he will accept it, or... can he accept it.
But Luo Xiangdong was just silent. I thought he would not reply to me, but when I was about to hang up the phone, he said loudly: "We will never meet again. You, me, and Yi Yang, don't see each other again." "
A man said to me: We will never meet again.
This is the first and only time. But I remember it all my life.
Tears fell in large drops. I didn't know why I was still stubborn at this time. Gritting my teeth, I calmly replied with one word: "Okay."
Luo Xiangdong hung up the phone, and I was still holding the phone. The screen of the phone was dark, but I couldn't put it down.
Yin Ning looked at me crying and raised her hand in panic to wipe it for me. I was still in control at first, but at a certain moment, when the sourness in my heart swelled to the point of overflowing, I finally couldn't help it, so I sat directly in the back seat of the taxi and cried loudly.
I know Luo Xiangdong's character very well. He values Kuang Yiyang very seriously. If something like this happens, I'm afraid he will never see me again in his life.
And I know myself better. I have already lost my self-esteem once, and this time Luo Xiangdong preempted me from saying goodbye. Then from now on, I will never take the initiative to see him again.
China is so big, if we want to not see each other, we really can never see each other again in this life.
Less than three minutes after Luo Xiangdong hung up the phone, the screen lit up again with a text message. It shows the flight number and boarding time.
After Yin Ning saw it, she looked sideways at me and asked, "Are you going back tonight?"
I was so sad that I couldn't speak. I could only clench my fists and dig my fingertips deeply into my flesh. The pain in my palms could somewhat relieve the pain in my heart.
The flight was at seven o'clock in the evening. I originally asked the driver to drive around the city casually, but now I had to go back to Yin Ning's residence temporarily, pick up my luggage, and go directly to the airport.
Yin Ning said to me: "I originally wanted you to have a good time in Lanzhou and relax, but I didn't expect something like this to happen. Zijin, I feel really embarrassed."
I patted Yin Ning on the shoulder, tried my best to raise the corners of my lips, and replied carelessly: "Okay, why are we still talking about this?"
Yin Ning opened her lips slightly, took a deep breath, adjusted her emotions, and asked aloud: "Then you just go back to Liangcheng, how can you tell your family? They don't know about your resignation, right?"
I said a soft 'hmm', and then said: "Let's see, my parents didn't want me to go too far before, but I just happened to go back this time. Maybe I will stay in the province in the future."
Yin Ning has been waiting for the plane with me at the airport. At around six o'clock, I have to go through the security check. Yin Ning hugged me and said, "Da Jinzi, don't forget to tell me if you change your number when you go back."
I said: "It must be."
After waving goodbye to Yin Ning, I turned around and walked towards the security checkpoint. In just a few days, I said goodbye to Night City and then to Lianzhou. I thought that the world was huge, and even if I wasn't in Night City, there were many places I could go. But after just one stop, I had to go back home. It seems that only home is the most stable place.
The direct flight from Lanzhou to Winter City takes four and a half hours. I started to sleep with my eyes closed as soon as I got on the plane, and I didn’t even eat during the flight.
When the plane landed in Winter City, it was almost twelve o'clock at night. I got on the bus with two suitcases and headed straight to the station.
All I wanted to do was go home, and once I got home, nothing happened. But I forgot to take the train from Dongcheng back to Liangcheng. The latest is eight o'clock in the evening.
I walked all the way to the station, it was already one o'clock in the morning. In January in Winter City, the temperature was -20 to 30 degrees below zero, and it was freezing and snowy outside. All the drivers were holding their thick coats and stamping their feet on the spot.
Many people holding small signs came to me at the station entrance and asked: "Would you like to stay in a hotel? It's very cheap, with hot water, internet and TV."
I was wearing half-sleeved jeans, and a temporary coat on the outside. The coat was unbuttoned, and a gust of north wind blew in my face, almost freezing me to death.
I quickly put down my suitcase, buttoned my clothes first, and then dragged my suitcase to the hotel diagonally opposite the station, muttering: "I can't stay here, I can't stay there."
My home is in Liangcheng, and the provincial capital is Winter City. Since I started studying in college, I have been going back home at least once a year, and the place I must pass every time is near the station. Even though Winter City has changed a lot in recent years, the area around the station is still the same. I dragged my luggage into the hotel with ease and booked a room.
After I entered the room and sat down on my bed, I breathed a sigh of relief. This journey was like a war, spanning thousands of kilometers and temperature differences of 50 to 60 degrees. Northeast China, I am back.
Sitting alone in a strange hotel room, I thought that exhaustion would make me forget everything for a short time, but when I thought about why I came back, the sourness mixed with sadness rushed up in my heart, and I still couldn't bear it. He burst into tears.
Since I came back from the United States, I have almost cried all the tears in my life.
I cried until I couldn't cry anymore, so I lay on my bed in a daze, thinking about how to fight with my parents when I got home.
I can't go back to Night City, but I don't want them to know what happened, so the only option is to lie.
I lay in bed until about three o'clock in the morning. I took my mobile phone to book a train ticket back to Liangcheng in the afternoon, and then I closed my eyes and went to sleep.
I don't know what time it was, but I was woken up by the ringing of my mobile phone on the bedside. I could only see a string of unnamed phone numbers. I answered the call and said "hello" hoarsely.
Yin Ning's voice came from the phone. She asked, "Da Jinzi, have you arrived in Winter City?"
I said, "It arrived last night."
Yin Ning said: "It was too late yesterday. I wanted to call you, but I fell asleep all of a sudden. When do you plan to return to Liangcheng?"
I had been woken up by her, and my consciousness gradually became clear. Rubbing my eyes, I replied aloud: "I booked a ticket for 1:30 in the afternoon."
Yin Ning said: "Have you thought about how to tell your uncle and aunt when you go back?"
This was also the topic I was thinking about last night. I said, "Just say that there is too much pressure in Night City and I want to go home to work. What do you think of this reason?"
Yin Ning replied in a long voice: "Listen, it's okay, it's just too sudden. You stayed in Night City before, why didn't you feel a lot of pressure at that time? Now that I have come back, I'm afraid that my uncle and aunt will still do it. I went back because I was worried something might happen to you.”
I asked, "What should I say?"
Yin Ning said: "Why don't you give me a half-truth and half-false answer, saying that you were heartbroken and that you came back directly because of the heavy work pressure."
I was in a low mood and didn't speak for a long time.
Yin Ning said "Hey" twice in a row, and then said: "I can guess what your face is like without looking at it. With your kind of character, it would be weird for you to pretend to be fine when you go home. It's better to just go straight to the house." Say it, everyone will believe it, and they won’t ask you again, once and for all.”
I said, "You are asking me to rub salt into the wound."
Yin Ning said: "It's okay. If it hurts, you will die. If you die, you will not be far from recovery."
She is always so big-hearted that it makes people speechless, but inexplicably makes me feel that falling out of love is not that big of a deal. Yes, sooner or later there will be a good day.
Thanks to Yin Ning's great heart, the first morning I opened my eyes in Winter City, I felt much better than yesterday and the day before yesterday.
I promised Luo Xiangdong not to see each other again, nor to see Kuang Yiyang again. And I may not have a chance to go to Night City again in the future, so there is a high chance that we will never meet again in this life.
Although I feel uncomfortable in my heart, I keep telling myself that life is very long and anyone can stay with someone for a while, but no one can stay with someone for a lifetime.
I mustered up the courage to tell Luo Xiangdong that I loved him. As for us not being able to be together in the end, there was nothing to regret. It was just fate.
Before leaving the hotel and going to the station, I spent forty minutes in the bathroom applying very delicate makeup. I still look so young in the mirror, and I look better after losing weight than when I gained weight a few years ago.
I raised the corners of my lips at the mirror, and the person in the mirror also smiled beautifully at me.
As if I was mentally ill, I tried my best to smile and whispered: "Liang Zijin, when it's over, it's over. Don't think about it anymore. You have to look forward!"