"Smoking is harmful to your health."
"Then why are you still smoking?" This person is truly unreasonable; he only allows officials to set fires while forbidding ordinary people to light lamps.
"Men are different."
The way he exhaled smoke was quite captivating; he took a deep drag, and smoke billowed from his nostrils. I felt a pang of envy for the smoke he inhaled.
"What are you looking at?" He turned his head and stared at me.
"Look at you."
"Bring me into your home, and you'll be able to look after me for the rest of your life." He was a very good negotiator.
Give me a cigarette.
This time he didn't object and handed me one. He leaned over and lit the cigarette in my mouth with the one in his.
"Well, I graduated from the School of Business and Economics."
Open the door called memory, and past events float before your eyes like scenes from a movie.
"That's right, so why are you still working in the factory?"
"Because my diploma was bought, I never really graduated. Give me another cigarette." He gave me another cigarette and lit it for me.
In my final year before graduation, I became pregnant. With only one year left, my grandfather scraped together all his money and went to the school, begging the principal to give me another chance. In the end, the money moved the principal.
It feels like it happened just yesterday; I remember everything.
Those people, those events, can't be forgotten so easily. After becoming pregnant, I stayed home to prepare for childbirth. I've never regretted it.
The child's father... The child's father...
"That's fine, Zhang Qian."
He hugged me, and we kissed.
A bittersweet feeling.
Anqi
Anqi
I keep asking you, when, where, and how?
You always answer, maybe, maybe, maybe.
Time passed,
I gradually became desperate.
And you still answer, maybe, maybe, maybe.
Quizas Quizas Quizas......
How do you know this song?
"I learned it specifically after watching the movie."
Zhang Qian
In the early morning, the sounds of elderly women doing their morning exercises and the calls of vendors selling fried dough sticks and pancakes drifted from the old-style residential area downstairs.
The man beside me was fast asleep, and I touched his lips with my fingers.
It was this mouth that bit my lip until it bled profusely.
The more I look at it, the more tempting it becomes. I open my mouth and take a bite.
Who says blood is sweet? It should be salty, fishy and salty.
He woke up, and we bit each other's lips, finally having to give up the competition when we accidentally bit our tongues.
"I want to eat crab roe soup dumplings," I said.
Where can I buy it?
"City God Temple".
"That far? Is something else okay?"
Spiced beans!
"Still the City God Temple," he pinched my nose and gave me a hard, ticklish kiss until he was breathless too. "Tell me, are you sure you've got me all figured out?" he said with a fierce expression.
"This is a fact known to everyone in the country. Quick, change to a higher-quality question."
"Would the 'Four Heavenly Kings' work?" he asked another low-quality question.
"no!"
"It was cold when I brought it back." He was making a last-ditch effort, though he was growing weaker and weaker.
"Hehe... I have a thermos."
I helped him get dressed, shooed him out of the house, and blew him a kiss from the balcony.
Goodbye, my love.
Zhang Qian
Anqi
Sitting on the steps, the thermos next to me contained crab roe soup dumplings that had already gone cold.
Like a cheesy soap opera, when the male lead returns, the female lead is nowhere to be found.
They smashed open her door like madmen, but there was no one there.
This heartless woman left just like that, silently, without even saying goodbye, without any prior warning.
My hands were shaking so badly I couldn't hold the cigarette.
If I see her again, I will cut open her chest with a scalpel to see what her heart looks like.
Zhang Qian
I stood downstairs, looked up, and saw An Qi sitting on the stairs.
Anqi looked terrifying.
Do we really have to take this step?
Can I?
Haven't I already taken that step? Look at Anqi in front of me, it's all my fault.
I can't leave, can I?
I did escape; I really did run away.
But I couldn't let go of Anqi, so I came back.
I'd rather die than give him up.
A person sat on the dark staircase; if it weren't for the lit cigarette in his hand, you would never have guessed that someone was sitting there.
The high heels echoed on the stairs with each step, striking the ground and striking my heart.
I don't regret causing you this.
I'm selfish; if I hadn't escaped, I would never have known how important you were to me, even though it would have hurt you.
I'll tell you my last secret.
I'm handing you the key; from now on, it's up to you to decide whether or not to open this door.
"Anqi?"
Two steps from Anqi, I called out to him. I was terrified of him. If I pretended nothing had happened, if I pretended I had some urgent business, maybe all of this would have passed, and it would have been forgotten. But I won't say it again, maybe, maybe, just maybe.
"Anqi?"
I took two steps forward and accidentally kicked over a thermos bottle on the ground.
These are crab roe soup dumplings that he bought for me.
If he grabs my hand, my hand bones will break.
"Anqi, let's go home, let's talk. Can you let go first?"
"Where did you go?"
He pinned me against the wall, his breath reeking of tobacco. Just then, our neighbor across the hall opened their door and warned us to stop causing trouble or they would call the police.
He threw me into the house and slammed the door shut behind him, if it could even be called a door.
"Why is the door broken?"
"Where did you go?"
What happened to your hand?
"Where did you go?"
He had a stubble of new hair on his chin, and his hair hung loosely on his scalp, looking both decadent and dangerous.
This was the first time I'd ever seen him angry; I'd always thought he was a nice guy.
"Where did you go?"
"I'm going to find boat tickets." I said with a smile, revealing the answer to the question I had spent a day pondering.
"What?"
"I'm going to find boat tickets." I touched the hand that was holding my right wrist, blew on it, and tears dripped onto his wound. "I want to be with you, Anqi."
He didn't speak; he looked into my eyes, and I looked into his.