I know that Biwu had offended some people when he was working in a "one-man bar". Those people caused trouble for him, and Jian Chen helped him, so those people came to Jian Chen.
Anyway, I couldn't just sit there and do nothing, so I had to go to the bar and try my luck.
A bright flash of lightning struck the inky black sky, followed by a loud thunder, and then raindrops fell all over the head.
The rain was so heavy that I was soaked in less than a minute. When I turned the corner in the pouring rain and ran into the alley leading to the back door of the "One Person Bar", I was stunned by the scene in front of me.
I saw the dragon.
She was being cornered in an alley by a few strangely dressed and wretched-looking teenagers.
Someone reached out and grabbed her arm, threatening her, "Jian Chen's girlfriend, right? If you don't tell me where Jian Chen is today, don't even think about leaving the Other Shore Street. It's been a week, and he hasn't been seen at school or at home. I don't believe he can disappear out of thin air!"
I was shocked. It turned out that the "gang on the other side of the street" mentioned by Coin was exactly like the one in front of me.
Jian Chen probably didn't want to have a direct conflict with them, so he deliberately avoided them!
I heard Long Xuan's screams, and my mind went blank for a moment, then I remembered that I had downloaded a simulated siren sound on my phone. I turned up the volume on my phone, held up my phone, and rushed over desperately amid the simulated siren sound, shouting, "The police are here."
While those people were in a panic, I rushed to Long Xuan and pushed her out with force: "Run!"
I blocked the entrance of the alley, and only breathed a sigh of relief when Long Xuan disappeared around the corner of the alley, and turned around to face those people. They found out they had been tricked, and were so angry that they wanted to chase after me again.
"I'm Jian Chen's girlfriend." I straightened my chest and looked ready to die. "If you have any problems, just come to me."
"Really? You look quite arrogant! Your tone is so harsh!" A sudden slap hit my left cheek. It hurts so much. A sticky liquid drips down with the rain, and there is a hint of sweet and fishy smell in the air.
I staggered to my feet and looked them in the eye without fear.
"No matter how hard it is, can it be harder than a knife?" One of them looked around and said in a deep voice, "Jian Chen, I know someone has informed you, you must be nearby. If you have the guts, come out and let us settle this matter in front of you! Otherwise, let your girlfriend take the blame for you."
Is it nearby?
The man's tone was so certain, and Long Xuan was captured by them and blocked here. When the coin received the news, they would definitely tell him! So is Jian Chen really nearby?
only……
The rain blurred my vision, and I suddenly realized something. If Jian Chen was nearby, then he didn't show up when Long Xuan was in danger just now. What does this mean?
Suddenly, my heart seemed to be tightened by an invisible hand, and I couldn't breathe due to the pain. Perhaps Jian Chen had been beaten by their accomplices and was lying in a damp and dark corner...
I didn't dare to think about it anymore. I just hoped that Long Hong had enough time to take Jian Chen away.
I gritted my teeth and smiled: "I can deal with you by myself, there is no need for Jian Chen at all."
Later, I couldn't remember the chaotic scene at that time. I only remember that it was raining heavily, my vision was blurred by the rain, and the sound of the wind brought by the fists in the air seemed to be right next to my ears.
I suspected that the fierce fist would hit my temple in the next second, but strangely, I didn't feel any fear in my heart. I was even a little happy when I thought that this might buy Jian Chen more time to leave.
I almost curled up the corners of my mouth, preparing for that punch.
Jian Chen suddenly appeared at this time.
In the cold downpour of early spring, he stood alone at the end of the alley and said, "I'm out."
The rain didn't let up at all, but I suddenly didn't feel so cold anymore. Maybe it was because I was numb from the cold, or maybe it was just because of his calm and unhurried words "I'm out".
The fight happened in an instant.
I stood in a dim alley late at night, watching him being beaten by a group of people through the rain, but I opened my mouth, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't utter a single syllable.
I saw him staggering and wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand. When he looked up again, he tilted his head and raised the corner of his mouth slightly towards me, and mouthed: So stupid.
My tears flowed instantly, silently and intensely.
I wanted to rush over, but someone grabbed me from behind. It was Long Xuan who had returned.
"Come with me quickly, staying here will only be a burden to Jian Chen." Long Xuan was soaked all over, her long hair stuck to her face, she looked disheveled, but her eyes were as bright as stars.
There was a firmness in her bright eyes that could not be resisted , but I hesitated at this critical moment. Jian Chen stood up for me, so how could I abandon him?
When he was still a small stone, he stood in front of me countless times without hesitation, like a small glowing protective shield, holding up a sunny sky for me; but now, I just take his shelter for granted, and even leave him for the illusory warmth of home.
Ten years later, when Xiao Shitou became Jian Chen, how could I leave him alone again?
Even if it turns to ashes, I can't do that.
I shook my head.
Long Xuan was so anxious that he tightly hugged my arms and said to me sternly: "Ai Banxia, ​​do you want to implicate him? If not, come with me, right now, right now!"
God knows, I certainly didn't want to. I was stunned and let Long Hong drag me away. When I came to my senses, Long Hong had already stuffed me into a car parked in a dark corner on the side of the road.
"What should we do now?" I grabbed Long Xuan, "We can't leave Jian Chen there alone."
"I... I don't know." Long Xuan's voice was trembling, not sure if it was because of the cold or fear. "Jian Chen won't let me tell anyone. I don't know what to do. Banxia, ​​what should we do?"
What should we do? No matter what, we should do something and not just sit there and wait for death.
I used my hands and feet to crawl from the back seat to the driver's seat, and said to Long Xuan: "Give me the car keys quickly."
"You...can you drive?" Long Xuan questioned with a trembling voice, but handed me the car keys without hesitation.
At the moment I stepped on the accelerator, I comforted Long Xuan and said, "I have passed the American driver's license test."
I gritted my teeth and gripped the steering wheel tightly. Under my control, the car rushed towards the alley like a mad leopard. Fortunately, although the alley was narrow, it could still accommodate one car.
I turned on the headlights, honked the horn, and drove towards the group of people without slowing down. Finally, the people got scared and moved aside to make way. In the bright headlights, I quickly caught sight of Jian Chen running forward. The moment the car passed by him, I shouted to Long Xuan, who was sitting in the back seat: "Open the door!"
It was just so magical. Long Xuan and I completed a difficult move that could only be seen in movies and got Jian Chen into the car.
I drove the car at high speed without making any noise, but my eyes were fixed on the rearview mirror. In the mirror, Jian Chen's sharp chin and the corners of his pursed mouth were covered with a faint and shocking trace of blood, and my heart suddenly felt like it was pierced by a very thin needle.
In less than three minutes, the car had entered the busy street, which should be safe. I let out a long breath, and my tense nerves relaxed. Thinking back to the scene just now, I was terrified.
The clothes soaked by the rain clung to my body, and the wind blew through me, chilling me to the bone. I couldn't help but shiver, and my hands on the steering wheel were shaking uncontrollably.
Then, Jian Chen, who had been silent in the back seat, said in an unquestionable tone: "Pull over."
"Parking is not allowed here." I didn't know what he was going to do, so I turned my head to look at him in confusion.
As soon as I tilted my head a little, Jian Chen’s hand reached out from behind and forced me to straighten it: “Ai Banxia, ​​stop the car.”
I was stunned. This was the first time I heard him call my name.
It turns out that he has always known my name.
In the blink of an eye, the car pulled over and turned off the engine. Before I could react, Jian Chen swiped me out of the driver's seat like an eagle catching a chick and stuffed me into the back seat.
"Huh?" I didn't know where his anger came from.
"Can you please stop making such strange noises? Otherwise, I'll throw you out of the car right now." Jian Chen sat in the driver's seat and slammed the door shut angrily, "I've never seen anyone as stupid as you."
I wanted to argue, but Long Xuan quietly grabbed my arm.
Jian Chen drove the car very fast without saying a word.
In order to break the unspeakable silence in the car, I nudged Long Xuan with my elbow and said half-jokingly, "Sorry, I stole your limelight today."
"I should be the one thanking you." Long Xuan's face was more serious than I had ever seen. "Banxia, ​​thank you. If it weren't for you..."
"Hey!" I interrupted her, blinking my eyes and said, "There is a price to pay for competing to be someone's girlfriend. I'm lucky that you don't blame me for competing with you, so why are you thanking me?"
It can be seen that Jian Chen still cares about Long Xuan very much. How could I let the person he cares about get hurt?
The car forced a left turn and braked suddenly at this time. Because it was too sudden and the speed was too fast, the huge inertia pushed my body hard towards the right door. Before I could scream, Jian Chen got out of the car and opened the door on my side.
He pulled me out of the car with a gloomy face, staring at me with a pair of narrow eyes, as if he would burst into anger at any time: "Who asked you to stand up for me? You are meddling in other people's business. Who do you think you are? A hero? Stay away from me in the future, and don't let me see you doing such stupid and hurtful things again. Now, take a car home by yourself, and remember, stay away from me."
This was the first time that Jian Chen spoke such a long paragraph to me. I blinked and blinked again. I couldn’t even remember what he said exactly what happened just a second ago. I only remembered that he had a face full of anger, mixed with some inexplicable emotions.
What exactly is it? I don't want to go into it. Standing on the busy street and watching the car go away, I would rather deceive myself and regard it as Jian Chen's concern for me.
I was so angry because I cared about him. I would rather believe that this is the case.
Because of the rain, I fell seriously ill. Two days later, when I returned to school, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the tulips on campus had bloomed. Passing by the flowerbed behind the classroom, I found a large area of ​​blooming white tulips. I couldn't help but stop, and then I saw Jian Chen standing sideways.
In the still somewhat cold weather, he was only wearing a white cotton shirt, standing sideways across the large sea of ​​flowers. He was tall and thin, with an incredibly handsome face bathed in the soft morning light, which made him look much warmer. The words "The man on the street is as beautiful as jade, and the young man is unparalleled in the world" almost instantly popped into my mind.
Perhaps my gaze was too focused and made him feel something was wrong. He turned his head slightly towards me and when his eyes swept across my face, he was stunned for a few seconds. Then, as if someone had discovered his secret, he turned around and strode away very unnaturally.
I chased after him and gently pulled his sleeve from behind, "Why are you here? Are you looking for Long Xuan?"
He didn't answer and continued walking, but he didn't shake off my hand that was holding his sleeve.
I took advantage of the situation and said with a playful smile, "No? Then, are you here to see me?"
Perhaps annoyed by my unreasonable behavior, he turned his head and glared at me fiercely, then continued in silence.
"Huh? I wasn't wrong. You were clearly standing at the back door of our classroom, at the front door of Long Huan's class! You don't know anyone else except me and Long Huan. If you were not looking for Long Huan, were you looking for me? So, you came to find me, right? Huh? Are you looking for me because you are worried about me? Right? Right? Definitely." I asked myself and answered myself, muttering to myself.
Not long ago, I found out that Long Xuan and I were in neighboring classes.
"Ai Banxia." He stopped and faced me with a serious look on his face.
"Um?"
"Has anyone ever told you that you really are like a noisy summer cicada?" He frowned slightly, "Also, you're still stupid even when you pretend to be smart."
I blinked, decided to ignore his words, and continued to ask questions: "Is it true or not? Is it? Is it? Is it not?"
"You're noisy." He walked faster and faster.
"Yes, I am noisy." I followed, not intending to give up, "But, is it or is it not?"
"Boring." I noticed with my sharp eyes that the tips of his ears sticking out from his black hair suddenly turned bright pink.
I smiled maliciously: "So, you were standing outside our classroom just now, to see me, right?"
"have no idea!"
He said this in a muffled voice with gritted teeth, as if he was going to eat someone in the next second.
I wisely ran away before the Ice Prince completely exploded, but I couldn't help but think back to how he looked with his ears red and he was at a loss but trying hard to pretend nothing had happened, and I laughed to myself. Was that guy actually shy?
The events on the other side of the street seemed to have faded away. A calm factor floated in the air, making people feel very comfortable. So comfortable that they forgot about the chaotic events not long ago and thought that the storm had stopped. However, they did not know that the storm often hides behind the calm.
It was the next morning that I saw Jian Chen again.
It was an ordinary morning on campus. The sky was ice-blue, and the white emerald dewdrops were swirling on the newly sprouted tender green leaf buds like elves that loved dancing, as if they could not wait to rise into a mist moving with the wind in the colorful sunlight that passed through the treetops. From the mist, a number of calm "Baisha-like" faces slowly emerged.
Here, everyone is an elite among the students of City C, and everyone has a face that is either wise, calm, distant, or indifferent.
The only difference is that their gazes stayed on me for much longer than usual, and it was no longer a look of "she happened to pass by where I could see her, so I accidentally saw her", but a look of "it turned out to be this person". I don't know if I was being too suspicious, but the look that seemed to want to rip someone's coat off was faintly filled with a hint of gloating.
I felt strangely uneasy under those stares. Was there something wrong with my clothes? Or was there something on my face?
Aixi was not with me, so I could only tilt my head and check myself up and down, front and back, but I didn't find anything abnormal.
It wasn't until I walked to the notice board that I realized what the problem was. The curious people surrounded the notice board, and the discussion was like the chirping of cicadas. The people at the outermost edge immediately shut up and made way for me when they saw me approaching, but they refused to leave. They all stood aside with their arms folded, with excited expressions on their faces waiting for the show to begin. There were also people who had not yet discovered me, and they were discussing it enthusiastically in exaggerated tones comparable to opera, as if they had discovered a new continent.
"Oh my god, oh my god, that arrogant Ai Banxia turned out to be an orphan."
"That's right, she always calls herself the eldest daughter of the Ai family. Haha, I never thought that she was just an orphan adopted from an orphanage by the Ai family."
"Ah, this isn't true, is it? Come on, one of you should pinch me."
"Psycho, of course it's true. Haven't you noticed that our Miss Ai and the iceberg prince Ai Xi look nothing alike? So, it must be a fake."
"Am I the only one who grasped the main point of this big-character poster? The main point is not that Ai Banxia is an adopted daughter, but that Ai Banxia's biological parents turned out to be murderers! How terrifying!"
"Don't scare me, the daughter of a murderer... that's so scary."
"Maybe... maybe it's not true..."
"It is better to believe it than not to believe it. Anyway, I believe it 99.9%. Otherwise, why would parents throw their children into an orphanage when they are healthy?"
"Ah, after hearing what you said, why do I suddenly feel that Ai Banxia is very pitiful? She's an orphan, and her parents are murderers."
"That's right, that's right." The self-proclaimed ladies echoed each other, and seemed never to hesitate to show their sympathy. However, I could not find a trace of pity and sympathy on their inexplicably excited faces.
But there is nothing strange about it. Pretending to be compassionate and acting like a saint are their usual tricks.
What surprised me was that there was someone in Baisha who knew about the little-known fact that I was an orphan.
Are the biological parents murderers?
I couldn't help but sneer inwardly. Someone was so confident in talking about something I didn't even know, as if he had seen it with his own eyes. If that was really the case, I would have to ask him who my biological parents were.
Perhaps my aura was too strange. Those who had been talking loudly before finally noticed the weird atmosphere. They turned around and saw me, as if they had seen a ghost. They avoided me in fear.
Therefore, I saw the big poster posted in the most conspicuous place on the bulletin board.
On the white paper were huge, bright red words - the biological parents of fake daughter and real orphan Ai Banxia were murderers.
There was only this one sentence, nothing else. Perhaps the person who started it thought that its lethality was enough to make my flesh and blood fly apart.
Unfortunately, I am not an ordinary person. I am the invincible Artemisia annua.
I raised my head slightly and smiled nonchalantly. In my dictionary, "orphan" has never been a derogatory word, so no one can hurt me in the slightest with the word "orphan".
As for my biological parents, even if they are murderers, what does it have to do with me? Does the daughter of a murderer mean she is a little murderer? Is she guilty of a heinous crime? It is ridiculous to slander and defame a person with such a reason.
I clenched my fists and let a smile spread from the corners of my mouth. Then I heard a sharp female voice shouting in my ear: "Ai Banxia, ​​have you laughed enough? Do you think you can deny the facts by pretending to smile calmly? I'm not afraid to tell you that I wrote this big-character poster."
Doesn't that just mean you're admitting your guilt?
I turned my head and looked sideways. The girl's fair face became distorted in my eyes.
She turned to the crowd, her chest heaving violently with excitement, "Shameless! The daughter of a murderer! I have evidence. Her adoptive mother told my mother that Ai Banxia's parents are murderers. If I tell a lie, I will die a miserable death."
Do you want to die a miserable death? You even said something so vicious? It's like you have an irreconcilable hatred towards me!
But I don't seem to know her.
"I'm warning you !" The girl approached me and said aggressively, "Stay away from Jian Chen. How can the daughter of a murderer stand with him?"
"Why am I not qualified? Do you think that if I am not qualified, you will be qualified to be with Jian Chen?" I asked calmly with my arms folded. Her unquestionable look suddenly aroused my evil taste for playing tricks on her.
Probably because she didn't expect me to ask this, the girl's face turned red, and she bit her lips for a long time before angrily saying, "Your parents are murderers."
"so what?"
"Who knows what your parents did back then. Anyway, the daughter of a murderer can't be a good person. You are not worthy of Jian Chen."
"Oh, I see." I waved at her with a smile.
After being obviously stunned, the girl approached me with a wary look on her face.
I put my lips close to her ear and said in a voice that only the two of us could hear: "Be careful when you walk at night next time. I am the daughter of a murderer."
"Ah!" The girl screamed and jumped away, obviously scared by me.
I laughed in glee, and then realized with shock, why had I become so petty?
It turns out that deep in my heart, somewhere that even I don’t know about, there has always been a place for my parents.
Even though I don't remember what they look like, even though they once abandoned me, even though I feel like I have always hated them, but in the secret place of my heart, they do exist, and at some point they will suddenly appear without warning and easily manipulate my words and actions, just like now.
Is it because of them that I fight back? No, that's not the case. They abandoned me, why should I defend them?
It felt like there were millions of bees buzzing in my ears, and the comments about how vicious my biological parents were seemed to be about to pierce my eardrums. I consoled myself, not to defend them, but because no matter how bad my parents were, only I could say so, and no one else could.
Yes, that's just it.
The wind blew through the treetops and toward me, passing close to my ears with the chill of a cold weapon. Amid the growing laughter and scorn, I clenched my fists and hunched my shoulders, like a cat with its fur standing on end and ready to extend its claws at any moment.
At this moment, the bright light in my field of vision suddenly dimmed, and then a hand reached out to me and held my hand tightly before I could react.
I don’t know why, but the moment our skin touched, what appeared in my mind was the red roof and white walls and the little boy under the camphor tree who gave me candy and called me Banxia.
Maybe, it’s just because I’m greedy for the familiar warmth in my palm.
I looked up and met Jian Chen's eyes, which were as deep and unfathomable as a dark pool.