After a few seconds, Xu Qingzhu put her hands to her mouth and shouted, "Liang Shi!"
Liang Shi turned around, the wind blowing her hair so it obscured her eyes. She brushed her hair down with one hand, and smiled faintly as she looked at Xu Qingzhu. "Hmm?"
Her thin voice was swallowed by the waves. Wave after wave rolled in with the wind, bringing with them a bunch of sea creatures that soaked Liang Shi's feet. When the waves were high, the seawater even reached her ankles.
Xu Qingzhu didn't hear her reply, but she walked all the way to her side and stood side by side with her.
Xu Qingzhu asked her, "Why did you suddenly want to come see the sea?"
Liang Shi walked along the beach with her coat in her arms and asked Xu Qingzhu, "What is your dream?"
Xu Qingzhu was taken aback and glanced at her sideways, "Are you still drunk?"
Liang Shi stopped in her tracks. She smiled and shook her head, a stark contrast to her usual self. "I don't know."
Xu Qingzhu found out and was half-drunk.
They're not as crazy as before.
"Do you remember what happened just now?" Xu Qingzhu asked.
Liang Shi let out a soft breath. "What is it?"
Xu Qingzhu: "..."
Forget it, she gave up.
Let's wait and see how Liang Shi looks back on it tomorrow after he's fully sober.
Xu Qingzhu shifted the topic to her earlier question, "So, what about your dream?"
Liang Shi chuckled, "You're cheating. I asked you first."
Xu Qingzhu: "Then you answer first."
Liang Shi: "..."
Liang Shi paused for a moment, then said, "How childish."
“You’re the one who’s immature,” Xu Qingzhu said.
After a while, Liang Shi kicked a sand and said, "My dream is to have lots and lots of love. I want everyone to like me."
Xu Qingzhu suddenly stopped and looked at Liang Shi. "Liang Shi, were you kidnapped when you were a child?"
Liang Shi stopped in her tracks, turned around and looked at her from a short distance away, then shook his head and said, "I don't know."
"What do you mean?" Xu Qingzhu asked.
Liang Shi pursed her lips, "I have no memory of anything before I was eight years old."
Xu Qingzhu frowned: "Be more specific."
“I don’t remember anything that happened before I was eight years old,” Liang Shi said. “I remember Mrs. Qi and Qi Jiao, but I only remember them in my dreams. I have no memory of anything before I was eight. I don’t even remember my parents. They passed away before I was eight, and I grew up with my grandparents.”
Liang Shi suddenly squatted down, and Xu Qingzhu squatted down with her.
This was the first time Xu Qingzhu had heard her talk about things "over there".
Actually, I've always felt that Liang Shi's statement that she wasn't the original Liang Shi didn't quite resonate with me.
Xu Qingzhu has now forgotten what Liang Shi was like before, and only remembers that he was "very bad" and very annoying.
But the Liang Shi of today is completely different. In fact, if you think about it carefully, it hasn't been that long, but she has completely adapted to the Liang Shi of today.
It seems that Liang Shi should be just like this.
The one before was someone else.
It wasn't her older sister who was kidnapped with her when she was little, nor was it the person she wanted to marry.
Xu Qingzhu was quite busy with her own affairs, and since she felt that Liang Shi didn't really want to talk about the past, she deliberately suppressed her curiosity.
So I never asked, and therefore had no way of knowing.
After drinking too much, Liang Shi seemed to have a strong desire to share. She took the initiative to bring up the past and her family who grew up with her.
This wasn't the first time Xu Qingzhu had heard her say, "I want to have a lot of love."
Xu Qingzhu went to see that movie and had also heard others say that phrase.
But only Liang Shi used the same intonation and the same ending tone.
The words she uttered felt incredibly familiar to Xu Qingzhu; no one else could have said them.
Xu Qingzhu even discussed this with her psychologist.
The other party advised her to observe slowly, and if more small details came to corroborate the evidence, it would prove that the two were the same person.
Because Xu Qingzhu has a very vivid memory of being kidnapped, especially of the person who saved her, that memory is particularly clear and unlikely to be wrong.
Xu Qingzhu asked her, "What kind of people were your grandparents?"
Liang Shi suddenly smiled, a smile filled with nostalgia and longing. "They were very simple people, they didn't have much money, but they wanted to spend every penny they earned on me."
“When I was in junior high school, I went to the county town to participate in a running competition, and my grandma bought me a pair of shoes that cost 500 yuan.” Liang Shi said, “Maybe 500 yuan is nothing to you, and it is nothing to me now, but back then, 500 yuan was money that my grandma would have to save for two months to earn.”
"And then there's my grandpa. He's really fierce, but he'll take me on his bicycle to faraway places. He'll take me to catch dragonflies and fireflies. He'll show me a world map and tell me that the world is big and I shouldn't just stay here."
With tears welling up in Liang Shi’s eyes, she looked at Xu Qingzhu and said, “So after they passed away, I went to the big city and became an actress. I wanted many people to like me because they once told me that I would definitely become a shining person.”
Xu Qingzhu raised her hand, her palm landing on her cheek.
Liang Shi's face twitched slightly as he stroked her palm. "The thing my grandparents wanted to do most was to see the sea, but they didn't get to see it, so I'm here to fulfill their dream."
Chapter 84
The word "dream" is frequently mentioned when you are in school.
From elementary school to high school, all of Liang Shi's essays about "dreams" were about wanting to take his grandparents to see the sea.
But it's been mentioned all along, yet it's never been implemented.
They had actually made a promise to go see the sea together after Liang Shi finished his college entrance exams.
Liang Shi made the travel plans and took the two of them on the trip.
Then, when Liang Shi went to university, they would go on a trip every year.
Unexpectedly, before Liang Shi could take the college entrance examination, his grandfather fell seriously ill. The family spent all their money on his treatment. At that time, his grandfather was lying in the hospital bed and no matter what they said, he would not listen. He insisted on going home and kept saying that the hospital was no use and that he was fine.
But at that time, he was in so much pain that he couldn't sleep at night.
Grandma even tacitly approved of his actions.
Liang Shi knew that they wanted to leave the money for her to go to university.
In the end, they spent all the family's money, but they couldn't save Grandpa. Grandma also collapsed in the kitchen one morning and never woke up again.
It's a pity that Liang Shi couldn't afford to go to university.
But I don't regret it.
Even though they couldn't save Grandpa, they did their best.
But if she used that money to go to university, it would be like stepping over her grandfather's corpse to see the outside world.
That's too cruel.
Liang Shi stood up and looked out at the sea, watching the waves rise and fall. The sea stretched endlessly, connecting with the distant horizon.
Liang Shi and Xu Qingzhu said that they had never been to university and felt particularly inferior when they first started acting, feeling that they were not worthy of their positions. So they worked hard and wanted to be worthy of other people's affection.
She kept moving forward, never stopping.
Liang Shi said, "I never thought I would be standing in the spotlight. It all feels like a dream."
“But you did it.” Xu Qingzhu patted her shoulder. “You are destined to be a shining person, loved by many and showered with love.”
"But later, the dream shattered," Liang Shi said softly.
"Why?" Xu Qingzhu asked.
"Where we live, it's not really allowed for girls to date each other." Liang Shi's memory went back to before she left that place, to the overwhelming amount of negative information, countless insults and abuse, digging up all her past, mocking her poor family background, her lack of manners, her failure to go to university, and her being a toad trying to eat swan meat.
“I’ve always liked girls, but I know my profession doesn’t allow me to do so, so I keep my distance from many people,” Liang Shi said with a slight smile, tinged with bitterness.
Her light brown pupils shone brightly, and Xu Qingzhu stood in the circle of light opposite her.
“I’m prepared to never love anyone for the rest of my life.” Liang Shi sniffed, the sound of the waves seemed to accompany her, and the seawater kept crashing over her and Xu Qingzhu’s ankles. After the waves receded, soft sand clung to their ankles. “I’m used to traveling alone, sleeping alone, and eating alone.”
Xu Qingzhu's hand moved to the area under her eyes, her fingertips gently caressing her cold skin.
Liang Shi smiled gently, “I can live in the midst of excitement for a lifetime, and then return to solitude.”
Xu Qingzhu's heart suddenly ached, and her voice softened, "And then? Who shattered your dream?"
Liang Shi pursed his lips. "I can't really say who it is."
"I can only say that this is a weakness for me, so when others throw mud at me, I can't explain myself." Liang Shi's tears fell directly down her cheeks, landing on the sand, burying themselves in the soft mud, and then being swept away by the waves. "But Teacher Xu, I really didn't do it."
"What are you doing?" Xu Qingzhu asked gently.
Liang Shi frowned, his voice choked, "I didn't grope her during filming, I never liked her, I didn't stick my tongue out during kissing scenes. In fact, we only faked kisses. I never had any improper thoughts about her. At first, I think I had a little bit of affection for her."
“She’s quite cute, and she’s very considerate, calling me ‘sister’ and bringing me snacks and hand warmers. She even brings me steam eye masks when we’re filming night scenes,” Liang Shi said. “So I did have a little bit of a crush on her, but I knew I couldn’t. I couldn’t like any girl, so I kept my distance from them.”
“But I didn’t know that after the show ended, she would say that I…” Liang Shi paused, “and then everyone was cursing me, saying why I was so disgusting, why I would use the show’s popularity to create a CP (couple pairing), saying that I was trying to get close to her. I saw all those comments, they…”
Xu Qingzhu's fingers landed on her eyelashes, and she sighed softly.
Liang Shi stared at her intently.
Xu Qingzhu placed her hand on her back, patted it slowly and gently, and leaned forward to hug her.
He buried his head in the crook of her shoulder, and gently kissed the skin of her neck.
It was a restrained kiss, simply expressing heartache.
Liang Shi's body stiffened, and Xu Qingzhu whispered, "Teacher Liang, I'm so cold, can you hold me tighter?"
A moment later, Liang Shi draped his coat over her shoulders, then slipped his arms through the narrow gap inside the coat and hugged her tightly as she asked.
The sea breeze blows from the distant sea, stirring up waves, yet it only gently caresses their bodies.