"I know."
The words startled even herself, and Song Jianan quickly explained, "I mean, the director just told me that Fang Yanyan has been temporarily transferred to the entertainment section, so I thought you would call to confirm."
"kindness."
The conversation suddenly hit a dead end, and an uncontrollable sense of unease and tension slowly spread. Song Jianan gripped her phone tightly, her breathing becoming unusually cautious. She wanted to hang up immediately, or she hoped that their conversation would forever revolve around a third person, such as Fang Yanyan, so that she could face him in the same way she was now.
“This place seems to have changed a lot.” Su Li’s deep voice slowly came over. Song Jianan was taken aback. The other party continued, “Every time I come back, I just pass by in a hurry and don’t think too much about it. Today I suddenly discovered that Zhongchang Road has been widened to Hanning Road, and the former Maocheng Building has moved to Jianye Road.”
Song Jianan recalled carefully, "Yes, and the Longpan Avenue ramp has been widened to... Oh, to the convention center area. Our newspaper office has moved twice already. The Wensi Bridge area will be completed soon, and we'll be moving there again."
"The changes are too great. I was wondering where the foreign language bookstore on Jinyuan Road went last time."
“It moved to the opposite side of the city library a long time ago. You can see it there. It’s a very big sign. I even bought books there last time.” Song Jianan became more and more excited as she spoke, and her tone became louder. “This place changes almost every day. Last time I went to the museum for an interview, I remembered that I wanted to go to the little shop where I used to eat snacks. But when I went around, it had completely changed.”
"What about that little shop?"
“I can’t find it anymore.” Song Jianan replied dejectedly. “Sometimes I think change is a good thing, but the ending is always frustrating. It’s like the roadside stalls outside the school are gone, and more and more fast food restaurants are opening up. I can’t describe the feeling. It’s like everything has changed, like people and things are different.”
Her voice was muffled, tinged with a sigh and a hint of helplessness, "Song Jianan, I was thinking, after leaving the Press and Publication Bureau, to get to Nandu Garden, shouldn't we take Mingguang Road? Am I remembering it wrong?"
“Uh, wrong, it’s Mingchong Road. After you come out of the Publishing Bureau, turn right. Go north at the intersection near the Yuyuanyuan subway station, and then you’ll reach Huayan Road, Nandu Garden—” She paused, “Where are you now?”
There was a long silence on the other end, and just as she was about to speak, a soft laugh came from behind her. "Song Jianan, what should I do? I think I'm lost."
Her heart tightened with anxiety, and she frowned. "Where are you now?"
"have no idea."
There seemed to be the sound of a car door closing, followed by a sudden rush of wind, making his voice muffled, but he sounded to be in a good mood. "The weather is so nice today. I'm stealing a half-day of leisure. Getting lost is fine, it doesn't matter, don't you think?"
Song Jianan felt a slight jolt in her heart and smiled. Her thoughts drifted back to the boy in her memory, whose image completely overlapped with that of Su Li in reality.
He used to be like this too. When he wrote to her, his words were seven parts cautious and three parts carefree. He said he liked to sit alone on the high platform of the playground, looking at the blue sky and basking in the afternoon sun. When he was in a good mood, he would run a couple of laps in the wind. Now, his tone of voice is no different from his lively and agile handwriting back then.
It seems like nothing has changed. Su Li is still Su Li, still that pale boy who would quietly look up at the sky and bask in the sun. But it seems like everything has changed. The thin shadow of the past has become a real presence, arriving unexpectedly.
The distance between them was both so far and so close.
Author's Note:
Let the sun shine in~
----------------------------------------------Benefits, benefits
This is a new story!! It's about a female protagonist who often has a blank expression but is actually full of inner turmoil, and a young, handsome man—a story that can't be told without her.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Why am I standing in this weird spot?!
The photographer was still excitedly directing, "Bride and groom, that's perfect! Bridesmaids and groomsmen, move closer! Oh, even closer! Make your expressions sweeter!"
After several calls, the photographer finally couldn't take it anymore and said, "Why don't we separate the bridesmaids and groomsmen and have them stand separately?"
Wen Xin glanced casually at the best man and maid of honor, her heart filled with longing. Fan Chen's lips were becoming increasingly red and his teeth white, so luscious and tempting to touch. However, he seemed to have someone else in his heart.
No, it's that the body has its own form. Who says men don't need a woman's nourishment?
Wait, it could also be a man.
Hmm, it's safer to avoid messing with this kind of man. Just as she was thinking this, her eyes met the bride's in a flash, and then she heard the bride's soft voice, "Wenxin, come stand here with me. Why are you all squeezed into the corner?"
I deliberately chose this spot, okay? Although it got a bit weird and distorted from being squeezed in later, I still didn't want to stand close to the camera. In those places, you're guaranteed to be in the photo, your eyes will get burned by the flash, and you'll be embarrassed by your own expressionless face when you get the picture. Such a place, which is not conducive to mental and physical harmony, will never belong to me.
But Ning Yan, oh my god, why can you always tell what I'm thinking?!
With someone else on her mind, she was tearfully protesting by gripping the wall, her face still bearing that unchanging expression. Wen Xin silently walked to Ning Yan's side, then pointed and asked softly, "Here?"
“Yes, here.” Ning Yan grabbed Wen Xin’s hand and said with a smile, “I was wondering where you ran off to. I looked for you for a long time. I asked your brother and he said it was you. You must have run to the back again.”
I hate it when people hold my hand, it makes me sweat so much! And I hate the person who betrays me even more.
Her cool gaze silently shifted from Ning Yan's grasp on her hand to the beaming groom beside her. "Wenran, you really do know me well."
"I wouldn't say I know her well, but I'm fairly familiar with her," Wenran said with a gentle smile, lightly pulling Ningyan's hand. "My little sister is rather shy. I showed you her old photo album last time, and she always hides at the back when it comes to taking pictures."
Shy, or perhaps expressionless, she gave Wenran another meaningful look, only to find that the latter didn't react at all. Ning Yan smiled and said, "Wen Xin is so beautiful, it's such a waste for her to stand in the back. Come, stand next to me."
"Really? No one is prettier than you." Not at all finding such a statement inappropriate, Wenran laughed, "For so many years, I've always thought you were the most beautiful."
Alright, alright, you really don't care about other people's feelings at all. I never thought you were so mushy, but now I've fully experienced your magnanimous sentiments and your ability to deliver such shocking blows.
If you attend a wedding in the future and they don't provide a lightning rod, be sure to bring your own.
Fortunately, she was used to using disposable lightning rods, which have increasingly higher lightning resistance ratings.
She turned her face away expressionlessly, waiting for the two people beside her to finish their lovemaking, and then for Fan Chen to finally stop arguing. She breathed a long sigh of relief. Just then, the photographer shouted, "One, two, three, cheese!"
Everyone was laughing, and a slight pain came from her hand. Ning Yan was also laughing, but Wen Xin clearly heard her voice, "Wen Xin, Han Tianyuan is going abroad."
In an instant, he couldn't even manage a blank smile.
This isn't my fault!
Wenxin silently shed tears in her heart. Ningyan, Ningyan, why do you always hit my sore spot, especially at such a crucial time as taking a photo? I sincerely wanted to leave a once-in-a-lifetime smile on this precious photo.
In the future, my ancestral hall will enshrine my most radiant smile, so that my descendants will know what an approachable, lively, and radiant old lady I, Wenxin, was. But you have ruined it all.
It's blatant jealousy, definitely jealousy—jealous that I'm taller than you in heels even in flats.
See you on Christmas Eve!
"Time's Edge" by Sheng Li, Chapter 27 — Jinjiang Original Website [Works Library]
"So he got lost?"
"Yes, we drove in the opposite direction for most of the city, and then we just parked in Pulin Hongshan and went to sunbathe."
"Really? Is he really that useless? It's his hometown, after all. How come he suddenly acts like a country bumpkin?" Fang Yan clicked his tongue in disbelief. "I suspect he skipped class."
Song Jianan shook her head. "Who knows? Go ask him. But Fang Yanyan, we people who live in this city every day never feel that anything has changed around us. But think about what it was like ten years ago?"
“Hmm—” Fang Yanyan nodded, “That makes sense. Quantitative change leads to qualitative change. I remember now, I’m always the one sitting next to him giving him directions, or my sister is driving. Now I’m starting to suspect that he’s just hopelessly directionally challenged.”
"I don't think I know the way very well either."
"So how did you give him directions?"
"Google Maps, it was just a click away. Luckily, I had my laptop on at the time, or I would have been embarrassed. Next time, if there's no GPS in the car, I must bring a laptop with internet access." Song Jianan laughed, casually unfolding the newspaper on the table. Seeing the entertainment section about Cecilia Cheung's post-marriage gossip, her mind immediately drifted to the newspaper.
Fang Yan laughed heartily, "Sister Jia Nan, you're so informative!"
Unconcerned about her pride, she replied smugly, "That's right! I want to apply to be a database. It doesn't require maintenance and can be updated in real time. It's practically the perfect biological database."
Fang Yanyan couldn't hold back and spat all her water onto the ground. "Keep lying. I didn't know you were so shameless."
She closed the newspaper, got up to pour water, and then looked down at Fang Yanyan's wound. "The incision is quite long, but fortunately it's not deep. When can the stitches be removed?"
"It'll be fine in a couple of days." Fang Yanyan drooped his head, his docile appearance making Song Jianan find it adorable. She casually ruffled his messy hair. "Be careful next time you go out. This 'hero saves the beauty' act isn't for you."
"Then what kind of role am I suitable for?"
Song Jianan dragged a chair over and sat down. "You're only good at being a passerby, you're just not destined to be the main character."
She thought for a moment and added, "Still the kind of minor role that gets you killed off as cannon fodder."
Fang Yanyan laughed, but then her face immediately turned serious. "Jianan, have you ever encountered this situation as a reporter?"
Song Jianan thought for a moment, "Yes, I remember it very clearly. Last January, I was also reporting on the illegal water-injected pork incident. At that time, I was still interning at the provincial TV station. I secretly filmed the footage. After filming, we happened to spot the truck that was buying the goods. Our boss ordered the truck to chase after it to see where the pork was being transported, but we couldn't catch up no matter what we did."
“We had just gotten onto the ring expressway when our informant called to tell us that someone in the village had told him that as soon as our car started chasing us, the pork vendor noticed us and then called a dozen or so of his butchers, armed with big iron bars and butcher knives, and they chased us like crazy in two cars, but they still couldn’t catch up.”
She spoke casually, but Fang Yanyan's eyelids twitched as she listened. "After we got to the provincial TV station, we thought about it again and realized it was a good thing we didn't catch up with the car in front. If we had, we would have been filming and interviewing them, and the person behind us might have been knocked down with a stick. It's not impossible that those heartless beasts would have been stuffed with sausages."
Fang Yan sighed, "This is so serious, it's much more terrifying than my mere injuries."
"I still feel lingering fear when I think about it now. Later, when I got a job at the newspaper, there were fewer dangerous jobs like that, but they weren't unheard of either." Song Jianan was about to remind Fang Yanyan about safety again when she heard Fang Yanyan speak, "Brother, when did you get here? Why are you standing at the door and not coming in?"
Su Li is here?
Song Jianan turned to look at him. He was dressed in light-colored casual clothes, which made him look even thinner. His fair face seemed to have a slight blush from the cold night wind, adding a lot of vitality to his appearance.
"What are you talking about?" he asked casually, standing down next to her as well. He also looked down at Fang Yanyan's wound, which made Fang Yanyan protest in frustration, "Why does everyone have to rummage through me like a pig about to be taken to the slaughterhouse when they come in?"
Having always joked around with Fang Yanyan, Song Jianan blurted out without thinking, "I'm afraid you've been padded with water!"
Fang Yanyan immediately burst into laughter, probably thinking of Song Jianan's escape from the pork earlier. He laughed even more uncontrollably, and the laughter aggravated his wound. He held his waist, groaning and laughing. Su Li, on the other hand, was slightly taken aback, then quietly turned his face away. When Song Jianan saw him purse his lips, the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up, and a smile quietly bloomed.
After laughing, Fang Yanyan lay on the quilt and refused to get up. He squinted and looked Song Jianan up and down. "Sister Jianan, I've discovered that you're so funny. When I first saw you, I thought, 'Oh no, what a boring person you are. You're going to be depressed to death.'"
Ignoring Su Li's presence, she pressed on, "Why did you find me boring at first?"
“You look like the kind of person who preaches grand principles, the kind who is well-behaved and obedient to parents and teachers since childhood. People like that are usually quite boring.” Fang Yanyan blinked. “Later, after getting to know you better, I realized that.”
“You only joke with people you consider close, like I’m the one lying here today, that’s why you joke with me. If it were my cousin,” Fang Yanyan pouted, “you definitely wouldn’t.”
Their eyes met in mid-air, then simultaneously turned to Fang Yanyan, who continued with a smile, "You two aren't familiar with each other."
It was an unintentional remark, but my heart immediately turned cold.
She feigned indifference, giving a slight smirk, and said, "Really?" It was a statement, not a question.
Meanwhile, Su Li seemed completely unfazed, flipping through the newspaper a couple of times before asking, "Fang Yanyan, after you're discharged the day after tomorrow, you can stay at my place. I have an apartment in Country Garden, which is close to both the hospital and the newspaper office."
"So where do you live?"
“I’m going to Guangzhou and Beijing in the next few days. I guess I can send you back to school when I get back.”
“No wonder you can’t find a wife, you heartless and ungrateful man.” Fang Yanyan curled his lips. “Even the pretty girl that someone finally introduced to me last time was driven away by you.”
The cold voice already carried a hint of impatience, "You talk too much."
Song Jianan stood awkwardly to the side and quickly stepped in to smooth things over, "Fang Yanyan, you should rest well. I'll be going now. The newspaper office has been quite busy these past few days, but I'll try to come see you when I have time."
Before Fang Yanyan could say anything to stop him, the man beside her said, "I'll see you out."