Ji Li looked down at his right hand. He was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt that day. The gauze had been removed and replaced with a sterile dressing that completely covered the scar underneath.
He reached out and touched it.
Ying Yunsheng was stunned for a moment, but did not dodge. The other person's fingertip traced the shape of the scab under the cotton cloth through the thin sticker, with a rough, frosty feel, causing the blood vessels under the skin to tremble slightly.
Ji Li didn't touch it much, and withdrew his hand: "Apply the medicine properly."
The atmosphere was probably just too good.
Looking into his smiling eyes, Ying Yunsheng suddenly asked the question that had been on his mind for years: "Why did you transfer schools back then?"
“Go to Tingfeng Lane?” Ji Li said. “Didn’t I tell you? It’s because my mother’s hometown is there.”
Ying Yunsheng: "I was talking about when you left later."
Ji Li: "Due to health reasons."
A note from the author:
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Rain at dusk
During the three-day National Day holiday, the class received more than twenty homework and test papers contributed by various subject teachers.
Ye Ruhui kept a sour face on his face as he passed on the message.
Jian Mingyuan looked at him with disdain: "Are you really that serious?"
Ye Ruhui retorted, "With so much homework, how can it feel like a holiday at all?"
Jian Mingyuan felt that the person sitting in front of him was really an oddball.
Everyone in the experimental class worked themselves to the bone for their grades. Those at the top were afraid of falling behind, while those at the bottom were even more afraid of being squeezed out of the main group. Even though I barely made it in and didn't have the same level of self-discipline as the others, I would still give up sleep and get up to study when I saw my roommates all studying late into the night.
Only Ye Ruhui, who was constantly outwitting his homeroom teacher, was nonchalant in class, became irritable at the sight of homework, and was always on the front line rushing to the canteen after school. His whole being seemed to scream: I don't want to study.
"But didn't you still get up to do your homework at night?" Jian Mingyuan asked.
Ye Ruhui rolled his eyes: "If it weren't for dealing with my parents, I wouldn't bother getting up."
"Don't you want to let them down?"
"They use the excuse of not wanting them to achieve results to control me."
"Well……".
The same situation also occurred with Lin Chengshuang.
Unlike Ye Ruhui, this student didn't even have the initiative to do the problems. He had been used to being left to his own devices for the past year, but now he suddenly had a tutor who forced him to study every day with the authority his mother had given him. When he finally found a chance to escape, the first thing he did was run to the house across the street.
"I really can't take it anymore." Lin Chengshuang said with tears in her eyes, "Brother, Brother Ji, try your best and do well in this monthly exam. As long as you improve your ranking, my mom will definitely not think that I am holding you back, and she won't make me study anymore."
Ji Li brought out a plate of sliced watermelon and placed the fruit bowl in front of him: "But if my ranking really improves, won't your mother think even more that you're the one who corrupted me?"
Lin Chengshuang: "?"
"Now that I'm not in the same class as you anymore, my grades have improved. Shouldn't that be the logical explanation?"
“Uh…” Lin Chengshuang banged her head on the edge of the table.
The phone call came at that moment.
It was an unfamiliar number.
Ji Li swiped to answer the call: "Hello."
The air was silent for a few seconds. Just as he was about to ask again, suspecting he had dialed the wrong number, the person on the other end finally called his name.
“Ji Li”.
That sound...
Ji Li asked, "Ying Yunsheng?"
Lin Chengshuang had just picked up a slice of watermelon when she heard this sentence. She choked on a piece of naan bread, seeds and all, and coughed for a long time before she could catch her breath and looked up, her face full of shock.
Who are you talking about?!
Ji Li walked towards the balcony with her phone in her hand: "Why did you suddenly call me?"
A longer silence followed, before a question was asked: "How do you fold a rose out of gauze?"
"Uh..." What?
A light rain started falling on Tingfeng Lane. After the lingering heat of late summer, the weather finally brought a refreshing coolness. The raindrops, like silk threads, slid across the transparent windowpanes, outlining the weeping sky.
Ying Yunsheng sat on the floor, leaning against the cabinet, staring at the piece of white gauze that had been spread out in his palm: "The roses have fallen."
.
Ji Li gave Ying Yunsheng his phone number before the holiday.
The original words were that old friends were reuniting and exchanging contact information, but because Ying Yunsheng did not have his own mobile phone and the only communication tool in his house was a landline, the so-called exchange was actually just Ji Li's one-sided notification.
He said I could call him anytime if anything happened.
Since being admitted to a key middle school in the provincial capital after junior high school, Ying Yunsheng has rarely returned to Tingfeng Lane. Firstly, the two places are too far apart and it is inconvenient to travel back and forth. Secondly, the cost of traveling back and forth is too high for him.
Ying Yunsheng last appeared here during his first year of high school summer vacation. If the school hadn't prohibited overnight stays during the National Day holiday, he wouldn't have planned to come back at all.
The tenement building was very small, so it was impossible to keep anything that happened between the neighbors a secret. When people saw him, they would point and say, "That's the grandson of the old lady Ying who died a month ago."
The scene of being the center of attention was just like when his parents had just divorced, and he came home from school to find countless eyes looking at him from all directions, curious and inquisitive about the farce.
That day, Ji Li's mother, who rarely came home, told him in advance that she would pick him up from school. Upon hearing this, Ying Yunsheng, without waiting for her to speak, took the initiative to say that they wouldn't walk together after school that day. He left immediately after class, a rare occurrence for him, and went straight home without even wandering around outside.
But to his surprise, upon entering the house, he found no smoke of battle, only an empty house.
Literally empty.
Because almost everything that could be moved had been moved, leaving only large items that were simply impossible to move.
And him.
Initially, there weren't any major conflicts between the parents. They fell in love in middle school, slept together in college, had a child out of wedlock, and naturally formed a family. However, the trivialities of life wore down their feelings, and the daily grind became a catalyst for conflict. After years of arguing, the greatest tenderness the once close people could offer each other was to forgive each other.
Only Ying Yun generated that extra element.
Neither of them wanted him, nor did they want to be burdened with a child forever. They fought for a long time over the custody of their own flesh and blood but couldn't reach a mutually agreeable solution. Unwilling to spend money on court, they both chose the most despicable method: packing their bags and disappearing.
Everyone assumed that the other person would reluctantly take in the child out of consideration for their feelings, but no one expected that the other person would make the same choice as them.
Ying Yunsheng wasn't exactly surprised. He had probably prepared himself mentally by the changing atmosphere at home and the hushed whispers of the neighbors. When he opened the door, his biggest feeling was that everything had finally settled down.
He rummaged through the leftovers in the refrigerator, cooked himself a bowl of noodles, ate it quietly, took out his homework and wrote it down stroke by stroke. He finished all his homework before dark, and then took out his Chinese textbook.
They had just learned a new ancient poem today. Ying Yunsheng didn't like to speak, so he looked at the textbook and recited it silently in his mind over and over again.
The sky outside changed from orange-red to dark blue, and finally turned into deep darkness.
Ying Yunsheng didn't know when he fell asleep, and he never expected that he would wake up in the clinic at the end of the alley.
A doctor in a white coat came in, removed the needle, and left with the IV bag. The person who had just parted ways with him in the classroom that afternoon walked in right after.
Ji Li stopped in front of the hospital bed, holding a glass: "You had a fever and didn't know?"
"Well……"
"If I hadn't remembered that you hadn't finished reciting the poem we learned today and hadn't come to find you, were you planning to stay home alone and burn your brain out?"
"Well……"
"When I saw you, you were asleep with a book in your hand. It took me a while to pull it off. Why have I never seen you so studious before?"
"Well……"
"Since you remember to recite the text, why don't you remember me saying that you have to recite it in front of me to make it count?"
Ying Yunsheng finally spoke, his voice low and hoarse: "Isn't your mother home today?"
Ji Li paused for a moment before saying, "She's not here."
Ying Yunsheng blinked very, very slowly.
“She left after dropping me off,” Ji Li said. “That’s why I went to find you.”
When Ying Yunsheng later recalled this incident, he felt that it was probably because of that fleeting moment of sadness he sensed from the other person that he dared to have the illusion that he could help them.
The relationship between the two changed at this moment. Before, Ji Li would chase after him to fill the cold and empty time when he was afraid to go home after school. Later, it became Ying Yunsheng chasing after Ji Li, afraid that the other would be surrounded by loneliness because of being alone.
The way the two got along took a dramatic turn, yet it seemed like nothing had changed.
The two continued to go to school together, come home together, do their homework together, review their lessons together, and quiz each other on newly learned words and formulas.
At this time, Ji Li always liked to hold something in his hand. Ying Yunsheng even suspected that the other party had developed a habit of origami during this period. After reading a text, he would have a five-pointed star or a paper crane in his hand.
More often than not, he's spinning things—pens, finger cookies, even lollipop sticks—he can make anything look amazing in his hands.
Ying Yunsheng was engrossed in reciting classical Chinese texts on a small stool when the other person would grab an ice cream. He would smell the creamy, light, sweet aroma in the air, and when he looked up, he would see the other person sitting on the sofa with their back to the balcony, swinging their legs. When their eyes met, the other person would smile and raise their eyebrows at him.
That was the clearest memory of everyday life he still had.
From the moment he discovered his parents had abandoned him, to the moment his grandmother learned of the outrageous things her son had done and came to take over his custody, and then to the moment before the other party abruptly left Tingfeng Lane.
Just when Ying Yunsheng was questioning whether his existence was superfluous, Ji Li gave him timely and accurate recognition that there were still people in this world who needed him, and that he was actually still somewhat useful.
By the time he belatedly realized that he should actually be sad, it was long past the time to express his emotions through crying.
.
Ying Yunsheng pushed open the door.
The place where someone died just over a month ago doesn't look much different now. The furniture is just what's needed, and there are very few decorative items. Because it was cleaned after the funeral, there's only a thin layer of dust on the floor now, and it's still clean after mopping it twice.
The only difference was that after that, no elderly person with gray hair came out to greet him with a smile and say, "You're back."
The elderly man didn't actually have any serious illness; he was just old. After an accidental fall and falling into a coma, he was alone and missed the window for rescue. By the time he received the news, it was too late to save him.
Shen Huai had wondered why he had changed so much in just one summer vacation. He had gone from being a quiet, reserved, and unassuming classmate who never fought back or talked back to a cunning and scheming person who dared to climb walls, get into group fights, and was capable of causing someone to be expelled just to get revenge for spilling a box of desserts on him.
There's no particular reason. In the past, when there was an elderly person in the family, he had to worry about whether his troubles would reach the elderly person's ears, so he had to try his best to control himself. But now that the person who used to worry about him is gone, he has no worries and begins to let his true nature run wild.