1 01

◎Unexpected guest. ◎

The first time Chen went to a funeral home was to attend the funeral of his high school teacher.

When she got the news, she was on a business trip in Shanghai with her boss Qiao Sen. They had to visit several artist studios to select works for the upcoming exhibition.

She asked Qiao Sen for leave and had to rush back overnight.

Qiao Sen approved the leave, but didn't quite understand it.

"Teacher is very good to me." Chen Zui only left this sentence.

The funeral hall was located in a funeral parlor on the outskirts of the city. Not many people came. The school only sent a few wreaths, making it look deserted and empty. After the farewell ceremony, former classmates gathered outside in small groups to smoke.

It has been eight years since graduation, and the seventh class of senior high school students have never gotten together. I never thought that the first time they would get together would be such an occasion.

Someone spoke up to ease the dull atmosphere: "If Lao Zhang sees us like this, he will definitely curse us again."

Back then, Lao Zhang often squatted in the men's room and caught them smoking. Whenever a "suspect" is caught, Lao Zhang will always say, "You little bastards, you must make me angry to death."

Everyone stared at the scarlet between their fingers, and burst into small laughter, with tacit understanding and helplessness. Immediately, everyone fell into silence again, as quiet as stuck.

In fact, everyone has very complicated feelings towards Lao Zhang. It cannot be denied that he is indeed a good teacher with outstanding teaching ability, but at that time, there were always different versions of sexy news about him circulating among the students.

After the cigarette session was over, someone wanted to leave, but couldn't say it directly, so he asked, "Is there anyone else coming?"

"It should be gone. Everyone who talked in the group is here." The person who spoke leaned over. "Hey, squad leader, how many people are here today?"

The squad leader raised his chin and counted the number of people: "Thirteen."

There were a total of forty-seven people in the class. The news of Lao Zhang's death came suddenly, and the classmates were all stunned. From the south to the north, there are already quite a few who can arrive in time.

The man followed the squad leader in counting, and said in a slightly teasing tone: "Squad leader, how come your math has degraded to the kindergarten level? There are clearly twelve."

The squad leader quietly dropped a news bomb: "Liang Yuwei, move the car." "Yes."

"Liang Yuwei is here too!"

As expected, the effect is remarkable.

No one can forget Liang Yuwei's stunningly handsome face, even if he has graduated many years ago. From his appearance to his family background, everything seems to be favored by God and is impeccable.

After graduating from a prestigious school and then going abroad to study for a master's degree, Liang Yuwei lived up to the perfect start in life and performed his outstanding life.

Everyone thought Liang Yuwei was still on the other side of the ocean, but they didn't expect him to show up.

Soon, Liang Yuwei became a new topic of conversation.

"I didn't even know he had returned to China."

"He is not in the same circle as us. Will he tell you whether he will return to China or not?"

"I remember that the school uniform regulations were too rigid, and he stood up for everyone. . He's not as noble as you say..."

"He returned to China two years ago. He came earlier than me today and helped organize things for a while." The squad leader told a story, raising the suspense, "I thought he was such a big help. People, I can’t see the group messages. "

After all, no one has spoken to that old high school class group for a long time.

The squad leader raised his wrist and looked at the time. He tried his best to take everyone's eyes into consideration and asked for everyone's opinions: "Do you have any plans today? It's not easy to meet each other. How about we have a meal together when Liang Yuwei comes back?"

I thought He received an enthusiastic response. Unexpectedly, more than a dozen people fell silent.

It was so quiet that you could hear crying coming from somewhere in the distance.

Seeing that no one answered, the monitor felt a little strange. He looked up and found that everyone was silent and winking at each other in a tacit understanding.

Someone whispered: "Why is she here?"

The squad leader followed everyone's gaze and turned back, seeing a slender figure walking towards this side.

Chen Zui wore a black skirt, simple and clean, and held a bouquet of flowers in her hand.

This is an even more unexpected guest than Liang Yuwei.

Although everyone was silent, their attention was all on Chen Zui.

Chen can make people notice her at first glance and remember her without a second glance.

She has not changed much from before, her appearance is pure, her eyebrows are clean, and her skin is overexposed by the black clothes.

Everyone recognized Chen Zui, but no one came forward.

No one in her former classmates knew her well, and she had always been alienated from them.

Chen Zui saw the group of people in Class 7, but she was already late. Seeing the class monitor nodded to her with a hint of surprise, she responded expressionlessly but politely, and then walked straight in.

Someone whispered: "She actually dared to come here, she is quite fierce."

"By the way, was the incident between her and Lao Zhang back then true or false?"

"How many people did she get along with..."

"Lao Zhang is no longer here. Let's have some virtue on our lips."

...

Chen Zui put down the flowers and respectfully placed a stick of incense.

In the posthumous photo, Lao Zhang is as handsome and cheerful as he was eight years ago.

She calculated in her mind that the teacher was in her early thirties when she led Class 7. Even now, she is still in her prime.

Chen Zui stared at that face, always feeling a little unreal, as if those days were still close before his eyes.

The wife was crying so much that she lost her mind. Maybe she said the same thing too many times, which made her expression a little sluggish and her reaction was a few beats slower.

Chen Zui comforted his wife for a while. During the conversation, he learned that Lao Zhang died from cerebral hemorrhage. Because he collapsed at home, he only received a meager pension and no work-related injury compensation.

The school did not hold a memorial service for Lao Zhang, and no colleagues came to express their condolences. It can be seen that the teacher’s wife cares about this very much.

Chen Zui didn't ask for the specific reason, but he could probably guess it.

She recalled that after a night self-study class in her sophomore year of high school, Lao Zhang once told her: Don’t leave your evaluation of yourself to others. We don’t need to prove anything to others.

It is not easy to do this.

There are very few people who understand her, Lao Zhang is one of them.

Chen Zui had mixed feelings in his heart. She took out a thick envelope from her shoulder bag and handed it to her wife.

The teacher's wife refused to accept it, saying that she had a job and could live a comfortable life.

Chen Zui said: "When I was in high school, my family was in trouble, and Teacher Zhang gave me some help. Let's just

consider returning it to him." This story was not made up, but she changed the characters without authorization. Lao Zhang did help classmates with family difficulties, but not Chen Zui. Chen was most in need of money. He said this just to make his wife feel more at ease accepting the money.

Chen Zui told her: "He is a very good teacher."

-

Chen Zui came out of the mourning hall, and the sun was shining brightly at noon.

A girl was discussing her valuable bags and shoes in a low voice. No logo could be seen, and they were both decent and high-quality.

Chen has no time to pay attention to this.

Her work, which involves dealing with the art world, requires her to be low-key, refined, and professional. Her outfit is not motivated by personal material desires, but by work needs.

The squad leader looked embarrassed and moved over to greet Chen Zui.

He felt a little guilty because he was notified of Teacher Zhang's death in the Class 7 group, but Chen was not in the group.

"You're here, Chen Zui. Well... how did you know?"

Chen Zui didn't leave many contact information of his high school classmates. She no longer uses QQ, and has only added a few people on WeChat, almost never talking to them, and she has forgotten how she added them in the first place.

If her friend Sheng Hui hadn't spilled the beans during the phone call, she might not have known about it at all.

Sheng Hui didn't want her to know, but she insisted on coming to give Lao Zhang a ride.

Chen didn't pay the most attention to the apologetic face of the squad leader. She said, "Sheng Hui told me."

The squad leader seemed to have remembered something and quickly continued: "Yes, yes, you three had the best relationship at that time."

They. The three refer to Chen Zui, Sheng Hui and Jiang Siyao.

At that time, Chen Zui was not gregarious in her class. Among her high school classmates, her only friends were Sheng Hui and Jiang Siyao. After graduation, she only interacted with these two people.

After a back and forth, the conversation between the two fell into silence.

He glanced down and saw that Chen Zui's fingers were empty and he was not wearing any rings.

Perhaps because he didn't know what to say to her, the squad leader scratched his head: "By the way, why didn't Jiang Siyao come?"

Chen Zui did know Jiang Siyao's current situation.

But at the moment, she was unhappy with the monitor's gossipy face.

Chen Zui frowned and said with a half-smile, "Why are you asking me?"

On a sunny day in May, the temperature was close to 30 degrees. The squad leader was slightly stout and sweating all over his body, but facing Chen Zui, the sweat quickly turned cold.

Chen Zui is very thin and looks weak, but he makes people feel cold in the back for no reason.

Her guard was as strong as ever.

The monitor's expression froze and he laughed twice.

Someone came over to help the squad leader, and said jokingly: "We are all adults, and it is not puppy love, so there is no need to act."

Chen Zui's unhappiness has already emerged: "Who acted?"

When old classmates met, most of them were polite and harmonious, but that person was aloof. Being choked, San San stepped aside and muttered to others: "She's quite good at pretending. Who doesn't know that she was in love with Jiang Siyao and seduced the old man——"

The squad leader quickly stopped in front of Chen Zui and asked her: " We plan to have a dinner together soon, will you go?"

The monitor was polite from beginning to end, but he didn't seem to regard her as a member of Class 7. He grasped this delicate balance very well.

Chen Zui glanced behind him.

The scene was quite comical, as if she was alone against a group of people.

The cell phone rang at the right time, and the squad leader gestured for her to answer it first.

It was a call from my boss, Qiao Sen.

Qiao Sen said that a local supplier happened to be free this afternoon and asked her if she was free to meet him.

The boss did not give up any opportunity to "exploit" her, but she was somewhat grateful for the call.

"You can apply for your air ticket back last night as usual, and today's personal leave will be used as field work for you." Qiao Sen proposed a condition that he thought was tempting.

Chen Zui said he was free.

What she had to do was done, and there was no need for her to pretend to be gregarious.

She pointed at the phone, said hello to the monitor, walked away while talking on the phone, and left.

After turning the corner and out of sight of his classmates, Chen was most relieved.

Qiao Sen was asking for details on the other end of the phone, and Chen Zui took out a pen and notebook, holding his phone between his ear and shoulder, taking notes in a skillful manner.

After walking a while, Chen didn't pay attention and bumped into someone head-on.

The impact was so strong that her phone case scratched her earlobe, and a burning pain shot from her ear to her brain.

Chen subconsciously saved the phone first.

The man held her arm appropriately to stabilize her from falling, and said to her

politely and calmly before her: "I'm sorry."

The other person was much taller than her, and she had already passed by him before she could even raise her head to see his face clearly.

Chen Zui glanced briefly and only noticed the other party's hand.

The five fingers are long and slender, with distinct knuckles. There is a faint mole near the tiger's mouth. The veins on the back of the hand protrude with clear veins, and they are thin but full of vitality.

Good-looking people often have good-looking hands. You don't need to move your eyes upward to know that the owner of the hand has absolutely no bad facial features.

Qiao Sen was still talking on the other end of the receiver, but the inconspicuous mole took root in Chen Zui's mind, spreading silently like the veins on his hand.

Chen couldn't help but look back and found that the other party was also on the phone.

A straight figure in a suit and tie was walking in the opposite direction to her.

The author has something to say:

Long time no see, I miss you so much, let’s spend a summer of secret love together!