Chapter 1 Memories are like a slap in the face 04
I returned to the convenience store in a daze to get something. The proprietress looked at me worriedly and asked me if I was sick, otherwise why did I look so pale.
I smiled at her apologetically and said I was a little cold. After getting my things, I gritted my teeth and went back to the dormitory, took off my shoes, and hid under the thick quilt.
But the quilt couldn't give me warmth. What happened just now was not a dream. This cruel fact made me unable to deceive myself.
The boy whom I could never reach, had his heart set on a girl whom I had only met once. What was even more cruel was that the girl threw his heart on the ground and stomped it to pieces.
Thinking back to the day when I first met July, I witnessed the whole process of her losing her child. Although I have no right to ask about her private affairs, if, if that child is really theirs... I dare not think about it anymore.
I'm even glad that child never came into this world.
I feel ashamed of my selfishness and distressed by Lin Jiaxuan's impeccable concealment.
What am I to this boy who occupied my entire youth? I'm afraid he came to this city not just to see my past life, right?
My cell phone rang in the pocket of my jacket, and I was numb to the ringtone, which I would have felt happy about before. I hadn't adjusted my mentality yet and could pretend that nothing had happened.
The ringing stopped for a few seconds after no one answered, and then it rang again. I couldn't bear it anymore, so I reached out for my phone and saw the letter "A" flashing on the screen, and my nose suddenly felt sore.
He didn't know that I had never saved his name, but only a letter in the note, because this way he would always be in the first line of my contact list. He once used my phone to play games, and when he saw it, he asked me if I had any secrets, and actually saved a strange person in the contact list. I nodded and answered him at the time: "Yes, it's secret."
An unspeakable secret of liking Lin Jiaxuan.
Hot tears flowed down my cheeks into my neck. I answered the call, put the phone to my ear, and Lin Jiaxuan's muffled voice came into my ears.
He pretended to be relaxed and asked me out: "Want to come out? I'll treat you to fish."
"I slept." I answered calmly, without letting him hear anything unusual.
"It's not like you to go to bed so early!" He said with a smile, but I felt bitterness in his voice.
In fact, I used to go to bed before ten o'clock, but since I found out that he often suffered from insomnia, I chatted with him on the phone for a long time, and he always thought that I had the habit of going to bed late.
"Well, I'm a little tired today." I answered perfunctorily.
Normally, Lin Jiaxuan would have teased me if I spoke in this tone. Maybe he was really in a bad mood today, so he didn't even notice the alienation in my words.
He said awkwardly that it was okay, and then chatted with me about recent events. I responded to him in a disjointed manner until he realized that I didn't want to talk anymore, and then he hung up the phone.
Perhaps, from now on, I will feel so distant when facing Lin Jiaxuan!
After sleeping for an hour or so, I was awakened by stomach cramps. My stomach is not very good, probably because the food I ate at the restaurant was not hygienic, and I drank a lot of cold water because I was in a bad mood, which led to gastroenteritis.
Yang Liu hadn't returned from class yet. The street lights outside were shining in. There were clothes that had just been dried on the balcony. The undone water drops were making a thumping sound on the washbasin on the ground. Someone in the dormitory should have come in or gone out.
I struggled to get up and drank a cup of hot water. I felt better and decided to go downstairs to the pharmacy to buy medicine.
When no one cares about you, you have to take care of yourself, right?
The campus was shrouded in warm yellow lights, and the shadows were stretched out all the way. People walked around in groups of three or five. They were either besties or couples. There were very few people walking alone. Occasionally, one or two of them were talking on the phone with a smile on their faces. Loneliness swallowed me up all of a sudden. Even when walking in the crowd, I still felt confused about where to go.
I saw the bright red words "Baixing Pharmacy" from afar, so I quickened my pace, bought the medicine, paid the bill, and came out, only to see a man standing at the door. If I remember correctly, I had met him not long ago.
"Don't you want to say hello?" Seeing that I wanted to bypass him and leave, he spoke to me inexplicably like last time.
"I don't know you." My stomach was upset and my tone was not very good.
"Are you afraid of me?" He looked at me with a smile and successfully saw that my eyes widened after hearing this sentence.
"Who are you?" I frowned, as I really had no memory of this face.
"Fang Weiyang, I stole something so important from you, and you don't even remember me. You're such a failure." He smiled, took a few steps towards me, and stopped.
From the girl who confessed to him last time, I know his name is Lu Qiuhai, but should Lu Qiuhai be related to Fang Weiyang?
He suddenly smiled, looked at my blank expression, bent down slightly and came closer to me, close to my ear, and said in an extremely slow tone: "Maybe if I say my name is Fang Xuyu, you will remember it more easily ?"
I was nervous because of his approach, and when I heard his words, I opened my mouth and stared at him in disbelief.
The tide of memories suddenly rushed over me, and I finally figured out where came from.
It turned out to be him, Fang Xuyu - the boy adopted by Fang Chongyan.
I only remember Fang Chongyan calling him "Ah Hai" when I was a kid. Because of him, I lost my own bedroom and my father's love in my childhood. I couldn't understand why he could take away everything that belonged to me when he had no blood relationship with my father.
However, I didn't have many memories of him at that time, and I attributed all my emotions to Fang Chongyan. In my childhood memories, I only remember Fang Chongyan's neglect of me.
"You remembered? So surprised!" Fang Xuyu stood up again and said playfully.
I looked at the tall, handsome and unpredictable boy opposite me, and I felt a little complicated. After all, I had no contact with him for so many years, and I could not connect him with the beautiful little boy who wiped his tears in his bedroom when he was a child.
Apart from the bond with Fang Chongyan, he and I can be said to be strangers.
"I just don't know how to talk to you." Subconsciously, I didn't want to get too close to him, let alone call him a half-brother. That would be a joke.
"We are old friends, let's go for a walk together!" He invited nonchalantly, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Emotionally and logically, there is no need for him to recognize me. Fang Chongyan and I have had a very distant relationship over the years, and I even refused Fang Chongyan's financial compensation after I became an adult. I would not be so naive as to think that he was afraid that I would compete with him for Fang Chongyan's property.
"I have a stomachache and I have to buy porridge for my roommate." I lifted the plastic bag in my hand. I forgot the pork rib soup I brought for Yang Liu at the convenience store because of Lin Jiaxuan's incident. She didn't eat enough at night, so I bought her some porridge on the way back.
"Is that so—" Fang Xuyu laughed so softly that it was inaudible, and turned around decisively, saying, "Let's meet again next time."
It was easy to get rid of, and I relaxed as I watched him walk away. But for some reason, after returning to the dormitory, I always felt a vague sense of uneasiness.
There was no joy of reunion, no hysterical rejection. Fang Xuyu, or should I say Lu Qiuhai, I don't know what his purpose is in coming back. I heard that he has been studying abroad, and he gave up the favorable conditions to come here. What is the purpose? So, Fang Chongyan is back too?
But I didn’t know that once the gears of fate started turning, everything would be thrown into an unpredictable vortex that no one could stop and no one could escape.
