Chapter 47: A Bank Card Illuminated by a Pale Blue Flash of Lightning. p2
A quarter of an hour later, Huai Xing sat down in a chair in the waiting area.
Jingcheng Airport was very large, and the broadcast was switching between Chinese and English with various announcements. She held her bag in her arms and looked at the message from Chu Wantang on WeChat with a dejected expression.
They wouldn’t see each other again tonight.
And in the future, they would never see each other again.
But… what about her friends?
She switched out of her chat with Chu Wantang and opened her group chat with her friends. It was Saturday today, and her friends were not very active in the group chat, because they all loved to chat while slacking off at work. She scrolled up and saw that Tu Zhaoyu had asked in the group in the morning if they should find another time to practice music.
Huai Xing hadn’t replied. She didn’t know how to reply.
At this moment, she quoted Tu Zhaoyu’s message and said: [I can’t come.]
Tu Zhaoyu replied instantly: [Then when can you?]
Huai Xing: [I’m not in Jingcheng anymore.]
Huai Xing: [Tu Tu, if you still consider me a friend, please don’t tell Chu Wantang anything about me. I have nothing to do with her anymore.]
As soon as she sent that, Tu Zhaoyu called her, asking impatiently, “Huai Xing, what do you mean?”
“I’m moving to another city to live,” she said. A city without Chu Wantang.
“Why did you only tell me now?” Tu Zhaoyu asked with a nasal voice. “You don’t think I consider you a friend, but do you consider me a friend?”
Huai Xing looked at the overcast sky and said nothing.
“Actually, on my birthday, you wanted to say goodbye to us, right?” Tu Zhaoyu recalled and continued anxiously, “I wouldn’t have told Sister Wantang everything, Huai Xing. If you had told me, I definitely wouldn’t have told her. You’re our friend, and she’s my friend’s sister. That’s all. But why couldn’t you tell me earlier that you were leaving? Where are you now? I’ll come see you.”
Hearing these words, Huai Xing’s tears were forced out. She said with great difficulty, “It’s too late, Tu Tu.”
“I’m very happy to have met you all, but we probably won’t have the chance to practice music together again. I’m sorry… I really couldn’t tell you. If Chu Wantang comes to you, just say that I haven’t contacted you, okay?”
Hearing her sobs, Tu Zhaoyu slowly said her guess. “You and she are not real sisters, right?”
Huai Xing didn’t reply. The answer was obvious.
More than that, Tu Zhaoyu felt that she didn’t need to ask anymore.
She held her phone, took a deep breath, and said, “I’m sorry… we really just thought she was worried about you, but we ignored that it was a form of surveillance.” She then couldn’t help but confirm, “Will we still be in contact in the future?”
Huai Xing choked and then tried to part her lips. “Maybe only after I’ve settled down. I’ll delete this WeChat account, and I won’t use this phone number anymore.”
“Then I’ll wait for your friend request in the future,” Tu Zhaoyu replied, pretending to be cheerful.
Huai Xing smiled through her tears and said very freely, “I’m very happy to have met you all, Tu Tu. See you again if fate allows.”
“We will.”
They didn’t chat for long. Huai Xing hung up the phone.
She was crying her eyes out, her eyelashes wet again. But with Tu Zhaoyu’s words, the heaviness in her heart lessened a little.
Unconsciously, the boarding announcement sounded in the broadcast: “Dear passengers, hello. The xx flight of Haicheng Airlines…”
Huai Xing came back to her senses and took her bag to board with the queue.
She still liked the window seat. After she sat down and fastened her seatbelt, she ignored the noise in the cabin and looked at the scenery outside the window.
The sky was gloomy, and the ground staff were directing. The whole world was filled with a sense of oppression.
Before long, she switched back her vision. Before the flight attendant reminded her to turn on airplane mode, she deleted her WeChat and logged into a new WeChat account registered with her Haicheng phone card. In this new WeChat account, there were currently only three contacts: Wen Ruyu, Lu Xuerong, and Wen Shiwei.
There was no Chu Wantang, and there would be no Chu Wantang.
Huai Xing’s lips were pressed together tightly. She turned on airplane mode, put her phone back in her bag, and held the jade comb tightly, adjusting her breathing. But her fingernails still couldn’t stop pressing until they turned white.
A few minutes later, the roar of the engines sounded.
The plane trembled and accelerated on the runway. The back of the seat suddenly pressed against the passengers’ spines, and their eardrums tightened slightly with the change in air pressure.
Soon, the plane to Haicheng leaped from the ground, and the horizon under the wings began to tilt.
At the same time, on the other end of the runway.
The landing gear of a plane from Yuncheng had just touched the ground, and the tires screeched sharply against the runway. The passengers in the cabin were either excited or tired.
Chu Wantang listened to the flight attendant’s reminder that the plane had safely arrived in Jingcheng and slowly took off her eye mask.
She adjusted to the light and looked out the window at the speeding scenery. The weather in Jingcheng was really not good. The sky was dim, but it was much better than the last time her flight was delayed. At least this time, the storm hadn’t fallen yet, and she had landed in Jingcheng on time.
After a long while, the roar of the engines ended, and the plane finally calmed down from its high-speed state and slowly taxied to the parking bay.
Chu Wantang also slowly took out her phone, turned off airplane mode, and opened WeChat for the first time.
Huai Xing hadn’t replied to her message yet. Was she not awake yet?
According to her understanding of Huai Xing, Huai Xing didn’t usually take long naps. On second thought, the weather today was very suitable for sleeping, and it was also Saturday, so it was reasonable that Huai Xing was not awake yet.
Perfect. When she got home, she would see the just-woken-up Huai Xing.
She could take this time to tell Huai Xing about their impending relationship. She thought that Huai Xing would wake up very quickly.
Thinking of this, the corners of Chu Wantang’s lips curled up. She didn’t stay in the cabin any longer. After saying a word to her assistant, she strode out, the ends of her wavy curly hair swaying gently.
Just as she got into a taxi, the sky suddenly split open with a silver-white crack. A winding bolt of lightning suddenly appeared, and a clap of thunder fell with a roar, drowning out the roar of any plane at the airport.
The thunder echoed back and forth throughout the city, and the power of each clap of thunder was boundless.
Chu Wantang’s heart suddenly raced. She sat in the back seat, her eyes tightly closed, her breathing losing its rhythm.
There was nothing to be afraid of, she told herself again.
She hadn’t been afraid of thunder before, until the day Chu Lingyi died in August 2013.
Chu Lingyi had severe depression, and her health had been getting worse and worse over the years. The doctor had said that she didn’t have much time left, maybe a few more years, and she was currently hanging on by a thread.
There were many thunderstorms in Jingcheng in July and August. That day, the wind was strong and the dark clouds were heavy.
She had gone to the private hospital after work. Before she even entered the ward, she heard Chu Lingyi weakly talking on the phone. She went in quietly and did not disturb her.
She heard Chu Lingyi call out “Ah Zhao” over and over again. At that time, she had long been used to Chu Lingyi calling out Huai Zhao’s name to the air. She hadn’t expected to be able to contact her by phone this time.
Gradually, she saw Chu Lingyi’s tears streaming down her face, crying so hard that she couldn’t breathe, her hair messy. But she still found a gap to laugh loudly, without a trace of elegance.
At this moment, a clap of thunder struck.
Chu Lingyi closed her eyes in the next second, her hand stiffly holding the phone, a dimple still on her lips.
Chu Wantang looked at her appearance and walked over in a panic, first pressing the call bell.
She called out, “Mom…”
The only response she got was the second and third terrifying claps of thunder.
The doctor quickly arrived and began to resuscitate her.
But it took almost no time for the doctor to fill in Chu Lingyi’s time of death on the medical record and leave the ward.
The thunder was still continuing, and the downpour followed closely.
Chu Wantang knelt by the bed, her face pale, her expression dazed, and tears fell one by one.
She tentatively reached out to take Chu Lingyi’s hand, but Chu Lingyi couldn’t hold it back.
To her surprise, Chu Lingyi’s call with Huai Zhao hadn’t been disconnected. In a daze, she heard a female voice from the phone.
She found the phone that had been placed on the cabinet, thought for a moment, and put the phone to her ear.
Huai Zhao was still shouting in a panic, “Chu Lingyi! Chu Lingyi, speak!”
“Auntie Huai…” Chu Wantang’s whole body was trembling, and she choked as her consciousness collapsed. “Why did you have to make this call to her… she could have lived for a few more years…”
Huai Zhao couldn’t say a word.
The call ended there. Chu Wantang knelt and turned around, her body cold. She tried to take Chu Lingyi’s hand again.
What she touched was the rapidly cooling skin. Chu Lingyi was even colder than her.
She pressed her face against Chu Lingyi’s palm, her closed eyes unable to stop her tears. Amidst the claps of thunder, her tears soaked her mother’s palm.
Now, it was still Jingcheng, and the thunder was still rumbling.
She was no longer so afraid.
The rain outside the car window blocked her vision, and the windshield wipers were working hard. The taxi driver’s speed slowed down a little, and her breathing also gradually became steady.
Twenty minutes later than expected, the car stopped on the side of the road.
The rain curtain was so thick that it was almost impossible to open one’s eyes. The world was only a chaotic gray and white. Chu Wantang had opened the umbrella she had prepared in advance, got out of the car, took her suitcase, and entered the familiar complex in the wind and rain.
The rain was really heavy, and it was also slanting with the wind. She could only barely cover her upper body, and her pants and suitcase were soaked.
When she entered the unit building, she looked down and felt that she was in a mess.
Not many people were coming in and out in this weather. She pulled her suitcase and entered the elevator.
Looking at the ascending numbers of the elevator, she thought of how Huai Xing had once told her that it took twenty seconds to get from the first floor to their floor.
What kind of mood was Huai Xing in when she told her that? Was it the same as her now, feeling that twenty seconds was too long?
So this was what it was like to be eager to see someone. Even twenty seconds felt like a long wait.
Huai Xing really liked her…
Chu Wantang realized this again, a smile in her eyes.
Before long, she entered the password at the door. In order not to wake the person up, she tiptoed in with her suitcase.
She changed her wet shoes, but her calves were also stuck to her pants, which was uncomfortable.
So she paused her intention to go to the guest room to see the person and gently returned to the bedroom, changing out of this set of clothes into loungewear.
On the desk, the spring letter Huai Xing had given her was already withered beyond recognition, the petals all a dull earthy yellow.
She blinked, walked over, and reached out to stroke the petals.
When Huai Xing woke up, she would remember to remind her to change to a new bouquet of flowers. That would also be the first bouquet of flowers she had received since they had started dating.
She looked up again, and the rain outside the window seemed to be getting heavier. Another flash of lightning fell.
She gathered her slightly damp hair and only then realized with a stiff expression—
If Huai Xing was also afraid of thunder, she should have woken up long ago, instead of still being asleep in this weather and not replying to her messages.
Thinking of this, she immediately turned around and came to the guest room door to stand.
She knocked, but there was no response. She pressed her lips together, raised her hand, and turned the doorknob. The door opened wider and wider until the entire space fell into her sight.
In the room, everything was there.
The person she wanted to see was not.
Chu Wantang did not step in. She looked at the neatly folded, untouched comforter, and her throat rolled nervously, her brows tightly furrowed.
Her heart was in her throat at this moment. She told herself to calm down and unlocked her phone with a composed expression, dialing the number.
The “beep” continued, but no one answered.
She didn’t even think of turning on the lights. Her heartbeat was amplified at this moment, louder than the thunder outside, and it was beating irregularly in her ears.
Chu Wantang recalled the various events of the past few days, her lips pale, her long lashes trembling violently, and her body couldn’t help but feel a little cold.
After the call was cut off, she dialed again and went to check the bathroom, kitchen, and study.
There were traces of Huai Xing’s life everywhere.
And only traces.
She still maintained the posture of making a phone call, and what she heard in her ear was always the tired mechanical female voice: “Hello, the number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”
After almost turning the house upside down, just before another clap of thunder sounded, she stood in the dim living room and saw on the living room coffee table—
A bank card illuminated by a pale blue flash of lightning.
