Chapter 32: She Was Pulled into a Familiar Woody Embrace. p2
The busy Labor Day holiday finally came to an end at this moment when the performance ended. Huai Xing thought of Chu Wantang, and her mood was inevitably heavy.
But just as she came out of the restaurant and was about to hail a taxi home, she received a call from Su Cheng.
Seeing this call, Huai Xing was stunned for a moment, then answered, “…Sister Su Cheng?”
“Xingxing,” Su Cheng asked on the other end, “are you in a car yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Then are you free now?” Su Cheng sighed. “Wantang and I had a little to drink. I was thinking of getting a designated driver, but then I thought you could come back with us, so I called you.”
Huai Xing was frozen in place and didn’t agree immediately. “The person you should be asking if it’s convenient is not me, Sister Su Cheng.”
If Chu Wantang found it difficult to be in the same space as her, then she would not agree.
“It’s okay.”
Su Cheng replied, “Then let’s go back together?”
“…Okay.”
A few minutes later, Huai Xing opened the door of the familiar silver car and sat down in the driver’s seat.
The person in the passenger seat was Su Cheng, who was propping her head on her hand and greeting her with a smile. “Xingxing, long time no see.”
“Long time no see, Sister Su Cheng.” As she said this, Huai Xing did not look at the person sitting in the back seat through the rearview mirror.
But…
Long time no see, Chu Wantang.
The car soon got on the road. Huai Xing held the steering wheel. She had to drop Su Cheng off first.
The person in the back seat made no sound. Su Cheng was replying to work messages on WeChat in the passenger seat. Huai Xing looked straight ahead, her expression calm.
After a while, Su Cheng looked at Chu Wantang and informed her, “Wan Yi said she’s coming back on the 15th. She wants us to pick her up then. If we don’t, she’s going to break up with us.”
Only then did Huai Xing hear Chu Wantang’s voice.
It was a very soft “mm.”
Su Cheng then took the initiative to ask Huai Xing, “Xingxing, are you coming with us then?”
“No, Sister Su Cheng. It’s my friend’s birthday that day. We’ve already made plans.”
Zhuo Xin’s birthday was coming up, which reminded Huai Xing of what had happened on the day of Zhuo Xin’s wedding.
It was in this same silver car that Chu Wantang had said they were the closest people in the world, and that she hadn’t hugged her tightly enough…
At this moment, they were even sitting in the front and back seats.
They hadn’t exchanged a single word since they got in the car.
The contrast was very strong. Every time she thought of a scene, she felt as if a knife were stabbing her heart.
It hurt so much that she had to put on a mask to survive.
Su Cheng didn’t insist. “Alright then.”
“Mm.”
The space returned to silence. More than twenty minutes later, Huai Xing parked the car on the side of the road in the complex where Su Cheng lived.
She waved goodbye, and in less than a minute, she was back on the road.
The two people in the front and back remained silent. Only the rushing air brushed past the car, and some of it came in.
The streetlight shone through the car window, covering the interior with a faint golden gauze. The constantly changing light and shadows were more active than them.
This atmosphere continued until the car drove into the familiar underground garage.
Huai Xing pressed her lips together, unbuckled her seatbelt, and got out of the car first.
There was a place for the car keys in the entryway, so she didn’t have to face Chu Wantang. She took the car keys and walked inside first.
The crisp sound of high heels followed behind her.
One after another, they all struck her heart.
Bad luck, she had to wait for the elevator for a while.
Huai Xing stood at the elevator entrance with her violin. She stood up straight, her posture proper, her eyes straight ahead.
The sound of high heels paused beside her.
During a cold war, even waiting for the elevator was an ordeal.
Huai Xing stared at the descending numbers of the elevator.
Finally, after more than twenty seconds, the number showed “-1.” With a “ding,” the elevator doors opened, and a few residents came out, chatting and laughing as they passed them.
The elevator was empty, and Huai Xing went in first.
She lowered her head and pressed the number she had been familiar with for the past few years. Within her field of vision were only the woman’s long legs in suit pants. But until the elevator doors closed, Chu Wantang still hadn’t come in.
Huai Xing’s eyes were sore, and her eyelashes quickly became wet.
So her feelings made Chu Wantang not even want to take the same elevator as her. Then during the return trip, did Chu Wantang feel very tormented?
At this moment, it was as if an invisible hand in the elevator was holding a vacuum machine, sucking away all the oxygen she needed to survive, making her unable to breathe.
Tears streamed down her face.
And just as her vision became blurry, the elevator doors opened again.
She was pulled into a familiar woody embrace.
Chu Wantang turned her head slightly, smelled the scent of the girl’s hair, and said in a hoarse voice, “I drank. I’m not very steady on my feet.”
She then couldn’t help but ask, “What are you crying about?”
“…” Huai Xing couldn’t answer this question. She was still holding her violin, so she could only reach out her other hand to hug her back.
But when she really hugged her back, not only did her tears not stop, but they flowed even more fiercely because of her grievances.
But she didn’t dare to cry out loud, nor did she dare to call out Chu Wantang’s name.
The elevator doors closed again, and it slowly went up.
During her university years, she had often wanted to come back early to see Chu Wantang, so she had once felt that they lived a bit high up. When she felt it was a long wait, she had even specially timed it. It turned out that this elevator ride, without being disturbed, actually took a full twenty seconds. She had even told Chu Wantang about it, “Jiejie! It takes twenty seconds to come up from downstairs.”
At that time, Chu Wantang had asked with a smile, “Why did you think of timing it?”
She could only make up an excuse. “I was bored.”
But this time, she wished that these twenty seconds could be infinitely extended.
But time, just like her tears at the moment, was uncontrollable.
The tears dripped down onto Chu Wantang’s thin shoulder and continued to spread. She clearly felt the scorching tears and slowly lowered her long lashes.
She remembered that Huai Xing had said that this journey was twenty seconds.
She didn’t feel drunk at all, but at this moment, she indulged herself in these twenty seconds. She knew very well that she shouldn’t be in the same elevator as Huai Xing.
She knew even more clearly that when she saw Huai Xing’s tears, her first reaction should not be heartache. It should be as exhilarating as before.
But, why…
There was no extra time to think about the answer. The destination floor had already been reached.
A “ding.”
It reminded them that they should both wake up.
Chu Wantang’s shoulder was covered in Huai Xing’s tears. Her thoughts returned, and she released her arms without hesitation, turning to leave this suffocating space first.
The warmth in her arms disappeared in an instant. Huai Xing wanted to speak, but her throat felt as if it were blocked by mud. She lifted her heavy legs and then raised her hand to skillfully wipe away her tears with the back of her hand.
The door to what she didn’t even know if she could still call “home” was ajar.
Huai Xing went in and put the keys away first.
The lights in the living room were on, and the high heels she had seen tonight were neatly placed in the shoe cabinet.
But the owner who had worn them was nowhere to be seen.
Huai Xing took two deep breaths and returned to her room with her violin to hang it up.
She sat at her desk and lay her head on it, staring at the runway photo in the frame in a daze. These were all photos that Chu Wantang had specially asked the photographer for, saved, printed, and then given to her.
She remembered all of this. Chu Wantang seemed to have forgotten.
Or rather, Chu Wantang didn’t want to remember.
Her love had cast a layer of frost on their relationship. She had made Chu Wantang uncomfortable.
Was it the best choice not to be at home, like last time?
Having thought this through, Huai Xing began to pack her things. But this time, she didn’t know how long it would be.
She packed silently, and finally filled her suitcase.
Before long, she came out of the guest room with her suitcase, the sound of the wheels muffled.
She wasn’t sure if the person in the master bedroom could hear, but she was sure that the person in the master bedroom no longer cared.
This realization once again made her heart feel heavy.
Huai Xing silently changed her shoes in the entryway, just wanting to quickly make way for Chu Wantang to breathe freely. The consequence of being too focused was that she didn’t even hear Chu Wantang’s footsteps.
Until Chu Wantang’s somewhat cold voice sounded from two meters away—
“What.”
“Are you going to abandon me and go stay at Wen Shiwei’s again?”
