Chapter 57
After the hot pot, they, reeking of hot pot, once again walked on the street.
The old street was lively at night. Jian Xin had originally wanted to walk a little more, but today’s exercise was a bit excessive, and her disappointing right leg was already starting to tremble.
Yan Lu saw it and asked faintly, “Going back?”
“Uh-huh, let’s go back,” Jian Xin replied.
So the two of them, with a tacit understanding, slowed down their pace and walked leisurely in the direction of the parking lot.
After getting back in the car, Yan Lu dropped Jian Xin off at her building, watched her walk into the building, and then drove away.
Before she left, she looked back thoughtfully.
This community was still the same as it was back then, and even the small shop across from the main entrance was still open.
Suddenly, for a moment, Yan Lu really wanted to go and see a place.
So she drove to a place in her memory, about three kilometers away.
The street was still the same street, but the bubble tea shop that had once taken her in was no longer there.
Come to think of it, so many bubble tea brands had sprung up in recent years, and countless chains had opened, and many of them had closed in the past two years.
How could such an ordinary small shop without even a brand have survived until now?
The owner was a very nice person. After she graduated from high school, she hadn’t worked there anymore, but occasionally, when she passed by and bought two cups of bubble tea, if the owner herself was there, she would give her two more ice cream cones.
That ice cream was not expensive. The last time she went, it was only two yuan, but in her memory, it was particularly delicious.
But how delicious was particularly delicious?
She had liked very sweet things when she was a child, and the ice cream in her memory was very sweet, just like the various colors and flavors of bubble tea back then—if she were to eat it now, she probably wouldn’t like it that much, right?
Yan Lu couldn’t figure out the answer and just sighed as she returned to the homestay alone and made a meal for Xin Xin and Cauliflower.
A little after nine, she sat back down at her computer and started to revise her previous saved chapters.
As she was revising, Jian Xin sent a message.
Picked Up a Heart: Are you typing?
Perched by the Roadside: Mmm.
Picked Up a Heart: I’m arranging a song too.
Perched by the Roadside: Mmm
Picked Up a Heart: So boring, want to work together?
Perched by the Roadside: How together?
Just as Yan Lu had sent this, a voice call rang.
She hesitated for a moment, then accepted. Her first words were, “I don’t have time to chat with you, my train of thought will be broken.”
Jian Xin laughed. “You write yours, I’m wearing headphones. I won’t bother you, and I won’t talk.”
Yan Lu: “…”
Then I’ll just write mine.
Jian Xin on the other end of the voice call was indeed very quiet. Besides some keyboard and mouse sounds, there were only the occasional sounds of getting water and drinking it, or the slight friction of the chair turning.
These sounds were not noisy, and they even gave an inexplicable sense of peace.
Whether it was you or her, neither of them would talk, just quietly do their own thing. But the slight noises that would sound in her ear from time to time would let you know that no matter how late the night was, there was always someone staying up with you.
And so, a lonely late night became the company of two people.
Yan Lu rarely played any BGM, just accompanied by the noises from the other end of the voice call, silently writing her own things.
From time to time, she would hear the other person get up to get water and drink it, or go to the bathroom, and she would also follow suit and drink some water and go to the bathroom.
When she realized this, Yan Lu was taken aback for a moment, shook her head, and laughed softly.
It was as if a long, long time ago, she would always subconsciously imitate Jian Xin’s every move like this.
But it was different now.
She couldn’t say why, just that something was different.
This companionship lasted until two in the morning, when Jian Xin suddenly couldn’t help but let out a big yawn.
—This time was indeed a little late for her.
“Are you going to sleep?” Yan Lu asked.
Jian Xin thought for a moment, then gently said “mmm,” and saved the unfinished project. “I still can’t outlast you.”
Whether she was a person or a duck, she couldn’t outlast this night owl Yan Lu.
Yan Lu: “Don’t be so competitive about such an unhealthy thing.”
Jian Xin: “I think you’re right.”
Yan Lu: “Then go to sleep. I’m almost done too.”
Jian Xin: “Okay!”
She replied, but she didn’t hang up the voice call, just transferred the call from her computer to her phone and pressed the mute button.
Jian Xin didn’t hang up this voice call, so Yan Lu also didn’t take the initiative to hang up.
After Jian Xin had washed up, she lay down on her bed and opened her mic again. “I’m in bed.”
“Oh.”
“I’m going to sleep.”
“Mmm.”
“I forgot to tell you, around ten, Yang Tian and the others asked me in the group, and they also asked you—” Jian Xin said, and couldn’t help but yawn again, and finished the whole sentence in a mumble, “do you want to go eat skewers and sing KTV or something tomorrow?”
“Next time…”
“Alright,” Jian Xin replied softly, and unconsciously muttered, “but I don’t know if that shop will still be there next time.”
Just as Yan Lu was about to say something, she heard her say again, “But it doesn’t matter. It’s not like we can’t eat anywhere else. Actually, the taste of that skewer shop is just so-so, it’s just that the memory has added too much to it.”
“…”
“People have to look forward!” Jian Xin rolled over, grunted like a sleepy puppy, and laughed nonchalantly. “I’ll go by myself this time. Next time, when you’re interested, we’ll find a better place to eat!”
“Okay.”
“Then good night!”
“Good night.”
“Good night!” Jian Xin said, hung up the voice call, and fell asleep with her eyes closed.
She had another dream.
In the dream, Yan Lu had taken her to eat with her roommates.
They had chosen a very high-end restaurant, and the tables were the kind of large, winding stream tables. All the drinks, fruits, desserts, and dishes were floating by on the stream on the table.
There were even single-person small hot pots floating by!
But this stream was so fast, and she couldn’t get what she wanted at all.
Besides her, everyone at the table was quick with their eyes and hands, and they could grab whatever they wanted. She was the only one who hadn’t gotten a single plate, which made her very anxious!
Yan Lu was just watching on the side with a smile, not even helping.
She was so anxious, really so anxious. She simply took the things in front of Yan Lu and ate them.
But these things, although they looked good, didn’t seem to have much taste. After eating for a while, she felt that it was boring and got up and walked out of the shop in a huff.
Outside the shop, it was as if there was some kind of event, and there were many, many colorful balloons hanging.
Children with blurry faces were chasing and playing, and they were also blowing bubbles with bubble water, the kind she hadn’t seen in centuries, as if to fill this lively world.
Yan Lu came up behind her, suddenly took her hand, and without a word, she was about to lead her away.
They walked under the colorful balloons, through the colorful bubbles under the sun, through the crowded crowd—their steps getting faster and faster.
“Where are we going?” she couldn’t help but ask.
Yan Lu did not answer, just held her hand tightly and started to run in an unknown direction.
They ran to a shadow that the sunlight could not reach, into a long night market, and at the end of the night market, it led to a riverbank that was winding like a painting under the sunset.
Then what about the end of the riverbank?
She didn’t know, just followed Yan Lu’s footsteps, running tirelessly.
Until they entered a deep blue forest, shrouded in a thin mist, full of fireflies, like a dream.
She saw a pure white deer, with a faint glow like mist, leaping among the fireflies in the forest.
They chased the deer for a long way, and finally found a sea of pure white flowers.
Yan Lu turned to gaze at her, still not speaking, just looking at her quietly, a faint smile in her eyes.
“Are you taking me to see the flowers?”
Yan Lu nodded.
Her gaze passed over Yan Lu and looked at the sea of pure white flowers, and an unstoppable palpitation and joy rose in her heart.
“Yan Lu, I…”
“You what?”
“I know that you no longer need me, and I no longer need you.”
“…”
“But I still want to be with you…”
“…”
“Let’s start over, okay?”
“Okay.”
She had waited for Yan Lu’s answer, before she woke up from the dream.
The moment she opened her eyes, she savored it for a long, long time, then she climbed out of bed, and before the time her roommates had arranged to meet, she hurried to do a little more work.
In the afternoon, her roommates gathered together, and just like during the New Year, they found a place to sit and chat for an afternoon.
Someone asked why Yan Lu hadn’t come.
Jian Xin said, “She’s been busy saving up chapters lately, so she really couldn’t get away.”
Zhao Yiran: “So writing a novel is also that busy. I thought Yan Lu had it much easier than us teachers.”
Jian Xin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “When you’re busy writing a novel, you can be very busy…”
Although Yan Lu was not busy at all lately, or rather, she had not been particularly busy in the past six months since their reunion, she had indeed seen Yan Lu so busy that she would forget to eat to update more and earn more.
“By the way, at the party the night before last, when did you two sneak away?”
“Uh-huh, it was probably… eight or nine, right?” She really couldn’t remember.
“You didn’t even tell us!”
“Sigh… wasn’t it too noisy? I couldn’t even find you.” Let me go, let me go, don’t dwell on this topic anymore.
“So what are we eating tonight?”
Thank you, God of changing the subject!
Jian Xin secretly breathed a sigh of relief and started to discuss what to eat with everyone.
That night, they still partied until late at night, just like last time.
Jian Xin took a taxi home by herself, and just like last time, she called Yan Lu’s voice call.
But this time, she was not so talkative, just turned the volume to the maximum, and quietly looked out the window, listening to the sound of the keyboard typing on the other end of the voice call.
Until she got home, washed up, and lay back in bed, she only said “good night” to her.
On May 4th, she once again got into Yan Lu’s car, with a duck on her lap and a dog by her hand, and looked at the cloudless sky outside the window.
A little after nine that night, they returned to their familiar home.
Xin Xin and the duck, who had been cooped up in the car all day, were full of energy and started to chase each other as soon as they entered the house.
Jian Xin sat back at her computer, wanting to work for a while, but she felt that her head was dizzy, and she didn’t want to work. She simply held her phone and lay on the bed, re-reading Yan Lu’s novel for the third time.
When she once again saw the part in Endless Rain where Xiang Xiaoqiu decides to leave Jiang Yan and run towards a vast world, a new taste that she had never had before appeared in her heart.
This part, the first time she read it, it was heartbreaking, and the second time, her knees hurt.
Now, on her third read, she actually felt a sense of relief.
It was as if there was a voice in her heart, sighing—it’s so good, that very good flower did not wither in her hands.
It’s already May.
Yan Lu’s birthday is coming soon.
She had once said that she would celebrate her birthday with her for a lifetime, but she had accidentally missed so many years.
But she had heard people say that the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago, and the second best time is now.
Those unfulfilled promises, from now on, it should still be in time, right…
*
So anxious, so anxious, Jian Xin felt that she was the king of anxiety.
It was only mid-August, and school hadn’t even started, but she couldn’t wait to go to the Capital.
The reason was simple. All her bandmates had already arrived in the Capital, and now they were just waiting for her, the lead singer, to go and rehearse with them.
“You’re booking a plane ticket so early? Doesn’t your school start in early September?” Huang He muttered, but she still followed Jian Xin’s wishes and looked at the plane tickets for the next few days. “You didn’t say earlier that you were in a hurry to go back.”
“I just found out! They’re all waiting for me!” Jian Xin said, hugging one of Huang He’s arms and leaning on her shoulder coquettishly.
Yan Lu sat on the side, her gaze a little distant, clearly wanting to say something but stopping.
Huang He looked up at Yan Lu, and seeing her strange expression, she asked, “Xiao Lu, do you have something to say?”
“Ah?” Yan Lu came back to her senses, and when her gaze focused, she met Jian Xin’s curious gaze.
“What’s wrong, Yan Xiaolu?” Jian Xin asked, her eyes full of concern.
“I just feel that you’ve been at home for so little time this summer… you’re leaving before your birthday.”
“Hey… this, isn’t it because there’s something going on with the band? They’ve all arrived, and I can’t just keep dragging it out.” Jian Xin waved her hand and said with a laugh, “Birthdays and stuff, they’re not important!”
“Mmm, not important,” Huang He’s tone was somewhat passive-aggressive. “I don’t know you? A birthday is definitely important, but who you spend it with is not important at all, as long as it’s lively enough.”
“…Madam Huang!” Jian Xin couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “You’re really hard to listen to sometimes!”
Huang He: “Just bear with it. We’ll just make do, right? It’s not like we can break up.”
Yan Lu couldn’t hold it in and the corners of her mouth lifted for a moment.
The next second, Jian Xin frowned and glanced at her, and she immediately pursed her lips and returned to her original state.
“I don’t want to celebrate my birthday outside either. It’s just that something came up,” Jian Xin pouted and complained softly, “Why did you have to give birth to me at a time so close to the start of school? If you had given birth to me in the middle of summer vacation, wouldn’t I be able to celebrate it at home every year…”
Before her words could fall, her cheek was pinched by Huang He.
“Ahhh ahhh, it hurts, it hurts—Mom!! This is domestic violence!!!”
“So violent, I’ve already been violent to you, and I still have to spend money to buy you a plane ticket.”
Just as Jian Xin was about to say something, she saw Huang He hold up her phone screen in front of her.
Huang He: “The day after tomorrow, at eleven in the morning, is that okay?”
Jian Xin: “It is!”
Just as Huang He was about to pay, her gaze unconsciously swept over Yan Lu again, and she couldn’t help but ask, “School hasn’t started yet, where are you going to stay?”
Jian Xin: “I’ll just find a homestay for now. It’s only for about ten days!”
Huang He: “Alone?”
Jian Xin: “It depends. Maybe I’ll go and crash in Zheng Xinyue’s hotel room?”
Yan Lu: “…”
Huang He looked at the flight for the day after tomorrow and asked faintly, “Xiao Lu, do you want me to buy you a ticket too?”
Yan Lu: “Huh?”
Huang He: “You were just hesitating to speak. Don’t you want to spend Jian Xin’s birthday with her?”
Jian Xin blinked and tilted her head to look at Yan Lu.
Yan Lu was in a daze for a while, then pursed her lips and slowly lowered her head, and said “mmm” very softly and delicately.
She had celebrated every one of Jian Xin’s birthdays in the past years, and this time she had even prepared a surprise, thinking that she would give it to Jian Xin with her own hands. Who could have known that Jian Xin would leave Nanjiang early this year?
She had been sitting on the side for a long time, and she was indeed hesitating whether to go to the Capital with Jian Xin.
But the plane ticket was quite expensive, and Jian Xin would probably be very busy over there, and would most likely not have much time to spend with her.
So she was also struggling in her heart. If it really didn’t work out, it seemed that it would be the same to just send the gift at a fixed time… right?
Perhaps, for Jian Xin, there was not much of a difference.
But the thought that she couldn’t give this surprise in person made Yan Lu feel a little disappointed that she couldn’t say out loud.
But she had thought that she had hidden her thoughts quite well. Now it seemed that it was quite obvious in Auntie’s eyes, and only Jian Xin hadn’t noticed at all.
“Yan Xiaolu, you want to spend my birthday with me that much?”
“…Not really.”
Jian Xin didn’t take this retort seriously and just invited her to go to the Capital with her for a while with a grin.
In the end, Huang He booked two plane tickets and sent the two of them to the airport together.
Jian Xin was indeed busy, busy writing songs, busy adapting, and busy rehearsing with her friends in the band, running back and forth between the homestay and the practice room every day.
Perhaps because they had just had a fight not long ago, both Jian Xin and Yan Lu were a little more cautious in their hearts.
No matter how busy Jian Xin was, she would at least have a meal with Yan Lu every day, and after nine at night, she would try her best to go back and keep Yan Lu company.
She thought, when Yan Lu went back to school, she and her bandmates could play whatever they wanted. There was no need to be in a hurry, because Yan Lu didn’t like those lively places, and she couldn’t just leave Yan Lu alone.
Because she knew that Yan Lu didn’t like it, she would at most ask Yan Lu when everyone was going out for a meal, and Yan Lu was always willing to go to her friends’ gatherings with her.
From Yan Lu’s perspective, since she hadn’t started a new book recently, whatever Jian Xin wanted to do, as long as she wanted to take her along, she would try her best to go.
Although she didn’t like such a crowded atmosphere, and it was hard to get to know Jian Xin’s friends very well, as long as Jian Xin was happy, she would try her best to cooperate.
Time flew by, and it was August 27th.
On Jian Xin’s birthday, her bandmates held a lively birthday party for her in the practice room.
The practice room was decorated beautifully, with balloons and colored lights.
In her junior and senior high school years, the parties organized by the class were not much different.
There was no need to go to a KTV, a bar, or any other lively scene. The band could play music and sing for her.
A simple and unremarkable “Happy Birthday” was sung in so many different ways by these music people.
Yan Lu, as a family member, also attended this party.
She watched Jian Xin laugh happily, and she also laughed as if she were happy—thus, it was as if she had also blended into this liveliness that belonged to Jian Xin.
For a moment, she even felt that she had really blended into this atmosphere.
But after the lively party was over, the breath she let out still exposed the fact that she was not used to this.
But it didn’t matter, as long as Jian Xin was happy.
That night, Jian Xin only had a little to drink.
She was a little afraid that if she got drunk, she would inexplicably have a fight with Yan Lu again.
Fortunately, this worry did not happen. When everyone had dispersed, Yan Lu stayed by her side.
It was less than two kilometers from the practice room to the homestay. Jian Xin felt stuffy and didn’t want to take a car, so she took Yan Lu’s hand and walked with her on the way back to the homestay.
As Jian Xin was walking, she couldn’t help but sigh, “Two kilometers is a little further than I thought…”
She was so hot that she was sweating all over, and the stray hairs on her forehead were stuck to her face. Yan Lu held a small fan and fanned her, her eyes full of smiles.
Actually, fanning was useless. On an August night, there was a stuffiness that even the wind felt hot.
The streetlights along the way alternately stretched their shadows—swaying, short and long.
This street was so quiet, and only the two of them were walking quietly.
When they got a little bored, they would count the streetlights one by one.
When they lost count, they would just laugh foolishly.
It was very strange. It was clearly such a hot night, but they seemed to be unaware of it. Even though their palms were full of sweat, they never let go of each other for a single second.
This road seemed to be very long, but it was not very long. No matter how slow their steps were, they still made it back to the homestay, took off their sweat-soaked clothes, and playfully went into the shower together.
The water splashed on the glass, blurring and distorting their intertwined figures.
Until the hot water was almost gone, the two of them, wrapped in a bath towel, came out of the bathroom.
The deep purple curtains were tightly drawn, and the bedroom only had a dim table lamp on, illuminating their flushed faces.
Just as Yan Lu had put on her nightdress and dried her hair, she was gently hugged from behind by Jian Xin.
“Is it you or me tonight?” she asked softly in her ear, her breath so warm that it made her ears hot.
“Anything is fine…”
Before Yan Lu’s words could fall, she felt a force pulling her towards the bed. She lost her footing and fell sideways onto the bed with Jian Xin.
“Wait a minute,” she said, grabbing Jian Xin’s wrist.
“…Wait for what?”
“I have something for you.”
Yan Lu rolled over, hugged Jian Xin’s back, and gently nuzzled her forehead as if to coax her. She smiled and slipped out of her arms.
She went to the wardrobe barefoot, opened the door, lifted several layers of plastic bags, and took out a very large, long box from inside.
“What is it, so big!” Jian Xin couldn’t help but stare in a daze.
Their things were all in their suitcases, and Jian Xin had never opened the closet in the homestay. She really hadn’t expected that Yan Lu had secretly hidden such a large thing in the closet!
Jian Xin jumped off the bed, squatted by the big box with a curious expression, and after a lot of effort, she opened the outermost yellow express box and finally saw what was inside.
It was a keyboard, a MIDI keyboard she had been longing for for a long time.
Jian Xin: “Oh my god, Yan Lu… you’re giving me this?!”
This thing costs almost seven thousand…
“Mmm!” Yan Lu squatted on the side, hugging her knees, and looked at Jian Xin, tilting her head to ask, “Do you like it?”
“Oh my god! This is too much!” Jian Xin said, but her hand was already very honestly touching the keyboard, her eyes full of the joy of getting what she had wished for.
When she came back to her senses from this surprise, the next time she spoke, her coquettish tone was even tinged with a hint of an excited cry.
“Yan Xiaolu, you’re too good to me!”
“I said I would support you. If there’s anything you want in the future, just tell me!” Yan Lu said, her eyes curving as she gazed at Jian Xin, her gaze as serious as if she were proposing. “My manuscript fees are not low now. As long as you want it, I will definitely give it to you!”
“So I’m really going to live off you?” Jian Xin asked back, as if in a joke.
“Mmm!”
Jian Xin pursed her lips, took Yan Lu’s hands, and said with a smile, “Then let’s eat tonight’s first!”
She said, then pulled her back to the bed.
Her fingertips gently caressed her long, slender fingers, a smile in her eyes as she muttered, “Rich woman, I don’t want to work hard anymore.”
She knew that Yan Lu would indulge her.
No matter what she wanted, Yan Lu would indulge her.
The cool hair slipped from the person in front of her shoulder, blocking the dim light of the table lamp.
The world seemed to darken in an instant.
Putting aside all the displeasure, what was constantly intertwined was only their love.
Just like two flickering hearts, like a candle flame flickering in the flickering night.
Still burning hot, unwilling to be extinguished.
