"Sister Qi Jiao, thank you." Liang Shi said sincerely, "You're not some goldfish brain. You used to be a very, very smart person. You should live a good life and live every day carefree like you are now."
Qi Jiao looked completely bewildered: "What are you talking about? Are you drunk?"
Liang Shi smiled gently: "Then let's just say I'm drunk. But... I want to ask you a question, and you must answer me very seriously."
Qi Jiao was taken aback, but though she didn't understand, she played along with her: "What is it?"
"If you were to meet Chen Mian someday, what would you say to her?" Liang Shi asked.
After asking the question, he added, "Chen Mian is a lonely and melancholic painter who has been unhappy because she lost her lover. If... if you were her lover, what would you say to her?"
Qi Jiao hesitated and remained silent.
The countdown timer on the blue transparent screen in front of Liang Shi was 00:01:20.
Time is running out.
After hesitating for a moment, Qi Jiao answered her question very seriously, "Then tell Chen Mian to remember to listen to 'Lonely Bird Syndrome' before going to bed at night, and that someone will love her."
Countdown 00:00:43.
Liang Shi hung up the phone, placed it to the side, and clicked on the bottom option.
In an instant, the thick fog obscured her eyes, and the whole world became hazy.
The brightly lit night and the towering steel buildings were all shrouded in a layer of mist.
Liang Shi felt as if he were floating in the air.
At that moment, the universe and galaxies unfolded before her eyes, and all her past experiences flashed through her mind frame by frame.
Memories are being stripped from her mind.
Countless blue dots covered the black background, like shooting stars streaking across the sky.
She heard that deep voice ring in her ears:
The gates of the world are closing. Wishing you all a pleasant life.
//
During the same period, Sun Chengcheng also heard the same question and faced the same choice.
She chose C876 almost without hesitation.
Change is constantly taking place in several worlds.
The misty blue starlight scattered across the night sky, shattering the blackness of the night.
A spring rain fell silently upon the world. Bai Qi, who had just put on her coat and was standing in the entryway, felt a sudden darkness before her eyes and almost fainted. When she stood up, holding onto the shoe cabinet, she asked Wang Zhaozhao, who was standing in the living room, somewhat bewildered, "Sister, what was I trying to do just now?"
Wang Zhaozhao held her phone, watching helplessly as the name "Liang Shi" disappeared from the call log.
After a moment of confusion, he replied, "How should I know? Are we going to the supermarket?"
"Probably." Bai Qi continued putting on her shoes. "I want ice cream, do you want some, sis?"
"I'm not eating. It's raining outside." Wang Zhaozhao glanced out the window, where raindrops clung to the glass. "Remember to bring an umbrella."
"Okay." Bai Qi picked up the umbrella from the entryway. She stared at the somewhat unfamiliar yellow Pikachu folding umbrella and asked with a hint of doubt, "Sister Wang, I feel like I've never seen this umbrella before?"
"You bought it in Hengdian before, right?" Wang Zhaozhao glanced at it. "It cost two hundred and thirty."
Bai Qi accidentally pressed the switch, and the folding umbrella suddenly opened indoors.
Wang Zhaozhao frowned, "Can't you be a little more careful?"
Bai Qi closed the umbrella and pouted, "I remember now, it was the time I filmed with Lu Chenzhou, right?"
“That’s right,” Wang Zhaozhao said.
Bai Qi put on her hoodie hoodie, grabbed a folding umbrella, and went out.
But she forgot that Liang Shi had originally bought the umbrella to shield himself from the sun.
After Bai Qi left, Wang Zhaozhao stared at her phone for a while, feeling empty inside, as if she had forgotten something.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Qi Jiao, who was sitting by the window writing in her diary under a lamp, noticed rain drifting in and immediately got up to close the window.
Fine raindrops fell on the glass, condensing into large water droplets, enveloping the entire city in a misty haze.
Qi Jiao's diary entry contained only two words: 【Chen Mian.】
But just two minutes earlier, her diary had read:
Liang Shi asked me: If you were Chen Mian's lover, what would you say to her? I want to ask her: Why didn't you come to find me? I've been waiting for you for a long time.
Although I haven't seen her yet, I know she will come.
I just don't know if it's Chen Mian.
The name sounds familiar, as if I've heard it a thousand times, ten thousand times.
The writing disappeared, just as a clock that had been turned forward suddenly returned to its original position.
The hashtag #LiangShi'sFriendsCircle# on the trending topics list disappeared instantly.
Someone was discussing with a friend: "Do you remember what was the third most searched topic before?"
"Hey...now that you mention it, what was it again?"
"I forgot, this is the one right now, isn't it?"
Wasn't this fourth before?
"And what about the third one?"
"I don't remember."
"never mind."
"..."
Beneath the drizzling spring rain, a bustling crowd gathers.
A sudden ray of light tore a huge gap in the black night sky in an instant, and then closed it again in an instant, as dark clouds gathered.
The dappled starlight disappeared into the darkness.
The rain intensified.
//
Perhaps due to its coastal location, Haishu City is always swept by a biting sea breeze in winter.
The air was very humid and had a faint salty, fishy smell.
It's much better than summer.
Xu Qingzhu sat by the window, holding a cup of coffee in both hands. Sally and Lin Luoxi were bickering as usual, and as always, Sally lost.
The weather has cooled down these past few days, and Xu Qingzhu has already put on a turtleneck sweater, her long hair hanging down her shoulders, making her look quiet and warm.
There was a faint red lipstick mark on the coffee cup. Xu Qingzhu took a sip of the steaming coffee and, as she put the cup down, gently ran her fingertips along the cup to wipe away the red mark.
She lowered her eyes, and Sally and Lin Luoxi immediately fell silent.
Sally couldn't help but say, "Blanche, how long are you going to stay sullen? When Liang Shi wakes up and sees you like this, he'll scold us."
Xu Qingzhu frowned slightly, her eyes shimmering with tears, and the corners of her mouth curved upwards into a beautiful arc. "Why are you cursing me?"
“You’ve lost weight,” Sally said. “You must be saying we haven’t taken good care of you.”
Lin Luoxi agreed, "That's hard to say."
Xu Qingzhu spoke softly, her gaze sweeping across the crowd outside the window, where groups of two or three people strolled by leisurely.
Her slender white hand gently landed on the light-colored wooden table, her eyelashes fluttering softly as she whispered, "I've been eating quite a lot lately."
"You vomited after eating?" Lin Luoxi asked, "Do you have a stomach problem?"
Xu Qingzhu shook her head: "No, I only threw up that one time."
Last time I ate a bowl of rice noodles outside the school with Lin Luoxi and the others, I threw up on the way back.
There was no fever or cold.
It simply means that I vomit after overeating.
Lin Luoxi still considers this a normal part of her life.
In fact, Xu Qingzhu only experienced that one time. It was because they mentioned Liang Shi during a meal, and she ate too much in order to gain more weight. In addition, the road was bumpy, and Sally drove recklessly, so she couldn't help herself.
The rest of the time she eats well and sleeps well.
Liang Shi was in a coma for more than half a month. Apart from being in a bad mood, she was otherwise doing quite well.
They are even busier at work.
Su Zhe intends to let her get involved in Haiwei's business, and they are currently working on a new winter collection together.
Her increasingly busy career allows her to temporarily forget about Liang Shi's coma.
But memories related to Liang Shi always resurface unexpectedly.
Ever since Sun Chengcheng sent her that message, the question she whispered most often while sitting by the hospital bed was: "How are things over there? Are you happy?"
If Liang Shi can be happy, then she will accept it.
In the long, sleepless night, I inevitably think about many things.
She had imagined Liang Shi's world again and again in her mind.
But they could never quite find the right method.
How can one know how prosperous her place is without seeing it for oneself?
Seeing that she was lost in thought, Lin Luoxi waved her hand in front of her eyes and said, "Then you should drink less coffee."
Xu Qingzhu's scattered thoughts slowly came together, and she smiled lightly, "I understand."
"Coffee is only suitable for people like Sally who would die if they didn't get at least ten hours of sleep a day." While comforting Xu Qingzhu, Lin Luoxi didn't forget to put down her girlfriend, which aroused Sally's resentment. But with just one look from Lin Luoxi, Sally immediately became as quiet as a quail.
Lin Luoxi said, "You already have insomnia, and you're drinking coffee. How can you possibly sleep at night?"
"It's alright," Xu Qingzhu said. "Now I can sleep for more than seven hours every night."
It means that the light sleep state lasts for a relatively long time, and you always sleep intermittently.