That wasn't a spur of the moment decision.
I dug out a photo from the bottom of the drawer. It was really an old photo.
We were in the third grade at that time. Du Juan had a pair of long ponytails. Xu Chenxi stood beside me shyly, and I smiled so happily. Jiang Huai stood behind me, and he mischievously put his scissors hand on top of my head. Ming Qinghe stood beside Jiang Huai.
Ming Qinghe is not a child from Qingtang Street. His grandmother's house is on Qingtang Street. Every year he comes here to spend his winter and summer vacations and has a lot of fun with us.
Ming Qinghe also had a smile on his face.
At that time, we were so happy that it seemed as if we would never experience pain and suffering.
My fingertips slid across the photos, and every smiling face was close at hand, but now, when we were together, we felt so restrained, awkward, unnatural and unhappy.
I want to go back to that time, I want everyone to be happy again.
I put the photo back and started thinking, is there any way I can do this?
"Shan'er, come out quickly and see who's back!" Grandpa's voice came into my room with a smile.
"Coming!" I closed the drawer, put on my slippers and went out.
The summer night sky is beautiful, and the stars are like diamonds scattered on the black curtain. The comfortable night breeze blows the hair around my ears and touches my face, which makes me feel a little itchy.
I reached out to push aside my hair and pushed open the door leading to the outside.
“Big surprise!”
In the outer room, there were two people, a man and a woman, with large suitcases at their feet.
My eyes widened immediately. The person who opened her arms towards me and shouted in English was none other than my mother who hadn’t been home for two years.
No need to introduce, the man next to her is her father who has not been home for two years.
"Mom!" This surprise was so great that I ran over and hugged her. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back? This really caught me off guard!"
"Wouldn't it lose the effect of surprise if I told you in advance?" Mom patted the back of my hand, "Let me see, the fan seems to have grown taller."
"You've grown taller." Dad smiled warmly. He stroked my hair and ruffled my neat bangs. "I haven't seen you for two years. Shan'er has become a beautiful girl."
"She has to be beautiful. Shan'er looks like me, so it would be strange if she wasn't beautiful!" Mom said with some pride, "Like mother, like daughter! Come, Shan'er, look at what gift Mom has brought you."
"You're so conceited!" Dad said without giving me face. "Shan'er's eyes look like mine, with double eyelids and big eyes. That can add a lot of points."
Dad and Mom started arguing again.
I ignored them, walked to the box my mother opened, and squatted down to see what she had brought back for me.
My parents both work abroad and are very busy at work. It is normal , so I was brought up by my grandfather. But I didn't feel lonely when my parents were not around, probably because Du Juan and Xu Chenxi were around.
On the top of the box was a very beautiful dress. When I lifted the dress, I saw a music box underneath. I have loved the sound of music boxes since I was a child: "Ding Dong Ding Dong", it sounds very nice.
I was about to open the music box when my eyes caught sight of a poster in the corner of the box.
I put down the music box, took out the poster and spread it out. The first thing that caught my eye was the endless blue sea, followed by a few huge words - Hot summer, journey to the sea.
"Mom, what is this?" I held up the poster, and my parents, who were originally arguing, finally turned their attention to me.
My mother was stunned for a moment, then she pointed at the poster and said, "This is a promotional poster for the plane. I guess it accidentally fell in when I was packing my suitcase on the plane."
"I see."
I stared at the blue sea on the poster, and suddenly an idea came to my mind: it would be great to go to the beach during the summer vacation after the exams!
"Hmm? Shan'er, do you want to go to the beach?" Seeing me staring at the poster, my mother pointed at it and said with a smile, "It's time to say goodbye to middle school. You should relax this summer vacation."
"Okay, Mom, I'm going out for a while!" I grabbed the poster, said hello and ran out.
My mother's voice came from behind: "Where are you going at this time of night?"
"I'll be back soon!" I turned around and said to my mother, then continued running forward.
I ran out of the house in one breath, and instinctively ran a few steps towards Du Juan's house, but I soon stopped. I stood there and thought about it, and finally I turned around and walked towards Xu Chenxi's house.
Going to the beach is only meaningful if you go together.
If I want everyone to return to the close relationship they once had, I think Xu Chenxi must help.
Because the other end of Xu Chenxi's body was tied to Jiang Huai.
Even though I could say "long time no see" to him calmly before, I didn't have the confidence that he would agree to go to the beach without me asking him out loud.
Walk along the alley lined with plane trees, pass by the paper umbrella shop, the round flower shop, and the cheongsam shop, and then turn a corner and you will see clusters of flowers in full bloom.
This is Xu Chenxi’s home.
I stood next to a pot of baby's breath. The soft white light shone from the shop, like a layer of gauze covering the flowers outside the flower shop. Xu Chenxi was sitting on a small stool, holding a pair of flower scissors in her hand, trimming a purple lily.
"Chen..." I took a step forward and was about to call her when I suddenly saw someone sitting next to Xu Chenxi.
Under the soft white light, his face came into my sight through a bush of irises. He held his chin with one hand, and his expression was very gentle. From my perspective, it looked like he was smiling.
Somehow, my foot, which had already stepped forward, turned backward. I think I must have lost my composure, because when I ran a long way and stood in front of the paper umbrella shop, I realized that I had lost the poster in my hand somewhere.
"Su Shaner." The young man's slightly restrained voice came from behind me. My heart trembled and my eyes turned red in an instant.
I took a deep breath, and when I turned to face him, my face had turned into a big smile.
I said, "What a coincidence, Jiang Huai."
The small light at the entrance of the paper umbrella shop was reflected in his eyes, like the light of flowing water. Seeing him pursing his lips and lowering his head, my eyes followed him down.
He held a poster in his hand, a poster that looked so familiar—
The poster I accidentally lost.
"What a coincidence." Jiang Huai whispered, looking up slightly and smiling at me, "It's so late, where are you going?"
"Take a walk!" I said hastily, feeling a little surprised and disappointed.
Why didn't Jiang Huai expose my obvious lie?
He said, “I came out for a walk, too.”
"I'm going home." I said, turning around and trying to walk away from him.
However, he followed me and soon caught up with me, saying calmly, "That's great. I'm also going home after my walk. Let's go together."
"Okay." I lowered my head and looked at my toes.
Jiang Huai didn't say anything else. He slowed down and walked beside me. This feeling was so familiar and yet so strange.
It turned out that three years had passed in a flash.
"I'm here." I stopped in front of the fan shop, smiled, and waved at him, "Be careful on the road."
"Yeah." He nodded, and hid his hand holding the poster slightly behind his back, "Good night."
I turned and went into the shop without looking back at Jiang Huai.
Just as he didn't expose me, I didn't expose him. It seemed that we were like this, being cautious with each other, trying not to break this hypocritical peace every minute and every second.
Neither Jiang Huai nor I mentioned the unexpected encounter that night.
Two days later, Xu Chenxi came to see me. At that time, Du Juan and I were sitting in the corridor playing Gobang.
Xu Chenxi watched us play chess and peeled the grapes she brought for us. She fed Du Juan and me one at a time and then took away the grape seeds.
After Du Juan lost several games in a row, he put away the chessboard and said, "Oh, it's so boring. I always lose."
I knew she couldn't sit still anymore, she was distracted all the time. This guy has been like this since he was a child, he can't stand sitting for a long time. At that time, everyone often joked that Du Juan must have ADHD.
"It's quite boring! Why don't we go to the beach?" I continued Du Juan's topic, "It's rare to have such a long summer vacation, and there's no summer homework. How about we all go to the beach together?"
"Huh?" Xu Chenxi was stunned for a moment, his eyes a little surprised.
I looked at Xu Chenxi and asked, "What's wrong?"
"No, no." Xu Chenxi waved his hand and said, "The weather is so hot, it's nice to go to the beach. Let's go to the Silver Beach in Q City!"
"Okay! Why not..." I was a little nervous, but pretended to be nonchalant and said, "Call Jiang Huai and the others to go with us. This summer vacation will be very memorable."
Xu Chenxi nodded and said, "That's a good idea. My aunt has a small beachfront villa over there. She's very busy with work and rarely lives there. We can borrow it and have a good time at the beach for a few days."
"Villa? Beach?" Du Juan shouted, "Wow, Chenxi, your aunt is rich! I want to go, I want to go, I want to wear a bikini, and I want to swim in the sea!"
"Haha, she is indeed quite rich." Xu Chenxi laughed, "Since Shan'er and Du Juan both want to go , how about letting me arrange it?"
"Over at Jianghuai..." I hesitated and didn't know how to start.
"Well, I've also contacted Jianghuai." Xu Chenxi said straightforwardly. I don't know if she saw my hesitation, "Leave it to me! We'll leave the day after tomorrow, and let's go buy the things we need together tomorrow."
"Chenxi, you are so efficient." I smacked my lips. "However, you are so careful. We feel relieved to leave it to you."
I thought it would take at least three to five days to prepare after the proposal was made, but I didn't expect Xu Chenxi to be so efficient. After the matter was settled, she went home first, and she also took charge of all the preparations for going to the beach, even buying tickets.
"Ah, the sea." Du Juan lay back, leaning against the mat and said with longing, "Shan'er, why do I feel like Chenxi has been preparing to go to the beach for a long time? What she said just now sounded like she had already done her homework."
I was stunned for a moment. Yes, I just suggested going to the beach, but Xu Chenxi quickly talked about going to the Silver Sand Beach in Q City. She also said that her aunt had a villa there, and even knew that no one had lived in the villa recently.
Is it true, as Du Juan said, that Xu Chenxi had already prepared to go there to play?
I remember the moment when I suggested going to the beach, Xu Chenxi was very surprised, like...
My proposal coincided with her plan.
Why?
The scene of that night emerged in my mind. Jiang Huai called me from behind, and the poster in his hand was -
Could it be that Xu Chenxi knew about this?
"Shan'er, Shan'er!" Du Juan suddenly pushed me, with a complaining look on her face, "Don't be in a daze, I called you for a long time and you didn't respond."
"I'm a little sleepy. Maybe it's because my parents came back last night and I was too excited, so I didn't sleep well." I made up an excuse.
Du Juan nodded in sudden realization: "Is that so? I'll go back first, and you can take a nap."
"Yeah." I responded, sent Dujuan away, and went back to the corridor to sit down. I felt very confused for a moment.
Will it go smoothly?
Will everything go according to my ideas?
Can we go back to the close relationship we once had?
With this thought in mind, I actually fell asleep. In my short dream, I seemed to hear the laughter of children coming from the corridor, and in front of me was bright sunlight, illuminating everything.
In the dream, I seemed to be only eight or nine years old. Xu Chenxi was wearing a beautiful dress with a butterfly hairpin in her hair. Du Juan was dancing and laughing, and Jiang Huai was standing on a stool, tiptoeing to pick purple grapes from the grape rack.
"Hey, Su Shan'er!" Jiang Huai called my name, shaking the grapes in his hand, "This is the best one for you, it must be very sweet."
"Jiang Huai is biased!" Du Juan shouted immediately, "I want the sweetest one too!"
"Haha!" I laughed raised the grapes high, but at this moment, everything disappeared. It was dark all around, the playing children disappeared, and only I was left with a circle of light purple halo.
It was a bunch of grapes hanging in the darkness, so beautiful, so beautiful that it seemed unreal.
"Fan'er, Fan'er, wake up quickly."
Someone rocked me gently, and I slowly opened my eyes. The darkness shattered like broken glass, and was soon replaced by the white light of the sky.
What caught my eye were my mother's smiling eyes.
"Mom?" My mind was still blank.
"Hurry up and see what your father brought you." Mom smiled mysteriously and pulled me up from the mat. I was still sleepwalking and let her pull me forward.
When I walked into the shop, I saw my father with a bright smile on his face. When he saw me coming out, he waved at me and said like offering a treasure: "Come and see."
I walked over curiously and saw a big paper box on the table.
I opened the box and a furry head immediately popped out.
My eyes widened immediately, and all my sleepiness disappeared: "Puppy!"
"How is it? Do you like it?" Dad looked at Mom proudly, "See, my gift is still the one that the girl likes the most."
"This was clearly sent by Shan'er's grandmother. You just went to pick it up. How did it become your gift?" Naturally, Mom was not convinced.
I ignored their bickering and took the puppy out of the box. It was a small husky, and it jumped around excitedly after it came out of the box.
"Your grandma knows that you have finished your exams, so the big dog at home gave birth to puppies, and she specially left one for you. " Mom said with a smile, "Give the puppy a name, Shan'er."
The name...
Somehow, I suddenly remembered the dream I had before.
"Call me Grape." I reached out and touched the puppy's head. "My Grape."
Dad and Mom looked at each other and said with a smile, "Just call me Grape!"
I walked into the yard and Grape followed me in. It seemed to have endless energy, and its eyes were full of novelty of being in a strange place. It ran around in the yard, seeming very excited.
I squatted in a corner of the yard and reached out to touch the sun-warmed soil.
There used to be a big grape vine growing in this place. We were always . However, three years ago, in that summer when we lost our smiles, the grape vine that belonged to us never grew a single green leaf again.
Grape came to my side and rubbed my hand with its head. New grapes began to take root in this yard. So can I expect that the laughter under the grape vines will also return?
This should be a good start! Even if it is a start I created myself, as long as it is good, why not?