The sunset at dusk is desolate and peaceful.
It watched over the days of morning bells and evening drums, without any sadness or joy.
You said goodbye, I said hello. My loneliness makes me strong.

After Jiang Huainan's showdown, Xia Chan was devastated.
He left without eating anything that day. Xia Chan ate everything by herself in a self-torturing manner, pouring a whole bottle of chili sauce into the pot, which was so spicy that it made her cry.
What kind of existence is she to Jiang Huainan ? She went from fantasy to disappointment and finally to hopelessness.
Going back to school and coming home from school, life seemed to be the same as before, except that she ran into Jiang Huainan much less often, almost never. He and she were like intersecting straight lines, moving further and further away in different directions.
The bell for the third class rang, and students entered the classroom one after another. This class was a math quiz, and the teacher came in and distributed the test papers before leaving. She stared at the densely packed exercises on the test paper and found that they had become simple without her noticing.
She let out a long sigh, resigned herself to picking up the pen and spent twenty minutes to finish the task. With plenty of time left, she lay down on the table and fell asleep.
After sleeping for a while, she felt a vague pain in her back, as if someone was poking her with something.
"Are you annoying?" Xia Chan turned around and stared at Monet, speaking impatiently, without putting down the pen he had raised.
"Tsk tsk, tigress." Monet propped up his head with his hands and looked at her. He glanced at her filled paper and blinked his eyes and said, "Okay, Xia, can you lend it to me to copy?"
"No." Xia Chan refused and dragged the stool forward, away from him.
The hair was pulled by the person behind him, but Monet said unwillingly: "Borrow it, it won't cost you a piece of meat."
Xia Chan turned her head frantically and whispered angrily, "What were you doing so far?"
Monet covered his mouth and laughed, and conceitedly lifted his bangs and said, "I slept in the first half of the class, and dreamed in the second half. Now I have ten minutes left to do the test. If the math teacher wasn't difficult to deal with, I wouldn't bother to care."
She was speechless.
"If you don't agree to me, I will quarrel with you, and quarrel with you as much as I can." He tilted his head to look at her and spoke with a smile.
Xia Chan just felt frustrated.
"Take it." She slammed the test paper on his desk as if to vent her anger, leaving him with an indifferent back. She still felt disgusted with Monet.
During the break, Xia Chan went to Ella's classroom to find her to find out about Jiang Huainan's recent situation.
When she got outside the classroom, Ella was holding her phone and laughing. When she saw Xia Chan coming, her first reaction was to quickly hang up the WeChat voice call.
Xia Chan smiled at her maliciously: "You are suspicious. Are you developing a relationship with a boy recently?"
Ella's chubby face suddenly turned red, and she waved her hands as if to tickle her: "I'm going to beat you up, look at me, Ella, I'm going to punch you in the chest three times!"
Xia Chan crossed her arms in front of her chest to resist, then stepped back and raised her hands in surrender, saying, "No more trouble, no more trouble. I'm afraid of you."
Ella withdrew her hand, crossed her arms, and snorted condescendingly: "That's better."
"Ella, has Jiang Huainan looked for you recently?"
"No. What happened? Did you have a fight?"
Xia Chan smiled and said, "No... I just haven't seen him for a long time. I just asked."
"Wait a minute." Ella frowned, as if she had thought of something. She suddenly slammed the table and said loudly, "I know! But I'm not sure, it seems... Hey, Xia Xia, there's something I don't know whether I should say or not."
Seeing her tangled face, Xia Chan couldn't help but go up and pinch her chubby cheeks with both hands: "Of course you should say it, and there are things you are afraid to say."
Ella looked at her, nodded, thought for a while, and said slowly: "Last week, I went to Tianma Market to buy seafood for my mother, and saw Jiang Huainan shopping with a beautiful woman! At first I thought I was seeing things, but the beautiful woman was tall, with beautiful features, and wearing a brand name dress. She stood out in the crowd. If you didn't know, you would think she was a star. Jiang Huainan walked side by side with her. They were a talented couple with a beautiful face, and they had their own aura. You didn't see the eyes of those crazy girls. Oh, they were all like perverts!"
Ella was gesturing with her hands and didn't notice Xia Chan's expression. When she reacted, she slapped her mouth.
Ella was stunned for a few seconds, took a few steps forward, took Xia Chan's hand and shook it: "Xia Xia... maybe I'm wrong, there are so many similar people in the world. Besides, even if it's Jiang Huainan, that woman could be his cousin, aunt, etc. Don't think too much, you still have a chance, I support you."
Hearing Ella say this, Xia Chan smiled indifferently and comforted her in return: "Well, I know."
There are so many similar people in the world, but there is only one Jiang Huainan.
Jiang Huainan doesn't have any close relatives since he moved here, so a girl who can be so close to him must be a very special person.
The uneasiness in her heart was like the silk spit out by a silkworm, which gradually surrounded and swallowed her.
She was not actually afraid of what would happen to Jiang Huainan and her, because at least she still had the courage to fight for what was between them. She was afraid that Jiang Huainan's world had too many secrets that she didn't know.
Those secrets that were once hidden under the moss of memory began to swirl and spread endlessly since they were revealed. She could not touch them, could not catch up, and could only kneel on the ground and cry.
One day, his world will drift away from her and never come back.
After returning to the classroom from Ella, Xia Chan's mind was full of Jiang Huainan and that beautiful girl shopping together. She ignored Monet when he talked to her.
Xia Chan waited absent-mindedly until school was over. After returning home, before she took out the key from her purse to open the door, she saw two pairs of shoes placed at the door. One pair was Wu Zhizi's red high-heeled shoes, and the other pair of men's leather shoes was unfamiliar.
Counting the days, Wu Zhizi and Ren Di will be back from their trip to Hangzhou soon. Xia Chan basically guessed who was inside.
She took back the coin purse, raised her hand and knocked on the door. A hoarse voice came from inside: "Coming."
The door opened, and Xia Chan saw Ren Di's surprised look. He saw Xia Chan's flattering smile and hurriedly greeted him, "You're back!"
"Hello, Uncle Ren."
She nodded wearily as a hello.
Ren Di had no intention of moving aside immediately. He looked at her from head to toe, lingering on Xia Chan's chest for a few seconds before finally landing on her face. He praised, "I haven't seen you for a while, Chanchan looks beautiful again."
When Xia Chan heard this, her heart skipped a beat. A strange feeling came over her, making her feel very uncomfortable. She frowned and looked at Ren Di's face. The sound of slippers clacking could be heard from the living room.
Wu Zhizi was wearing an apron, holding a spatula in her hand, and looked at Xia Chan with joy: "What are you standing there for? Come in! Mom made your favorite sweet and sour spare ribs and braised fish. Wash your hands and get ready to eat."
"Yes, come in quickly." Ren Di said as he tried to take the schoolbag from Xia Chan's hand. Xia Chan dodged his hand and put the schoolbag on the sofa without even looking at it.
Ren Di scratched his hair awkwardly with his hand frozen in mid-air: "Chanchan, go to your room after dinner. We bought you some nutritional supplements. You are under a lot of pressure from studying now, so it's better to eat more."
Hearing another man calling her a name that used to only be used by her parents, and thinking of his obvious manly gaze at the door examining a woman, she felt sick.
Xia Chan pretended not to hear, took Wu Zhizi's hand, and led her to the kitchen, saying with a smile: "Is Hangzhou fun? If you like it, I'll go with you again next time."
"Chanchan, I have something to tell you." Wu Zhizi's face was rosy and she seemed to be in a good mood.
Passing by the sink, Xia Chan walked over, turned on the faucet and washed her hands, saying, "You say."
"Your uncle Ren and I have obtained a marriage certificate."
The hands that were covered with hand sanitizer and were rubbing bubbles stopped, the sound of splashing water rang in the ears, the hour and minute hands on the wall were ticking, and the air was mixed with the sizzling sound of the stew pot in the kitchen.
Then, all the sounds suddenly seemed to be absorbed by those words, and everything around me instantly became incomparably dull, silent, and uncomfortable.
After a long time, the briefly silent world gradually recovered.
The water from the faucet had already reached the back of her hand, and the slow cooker made a shrill alarm sound. Wu Zhizi hurried over to turn off the gas stove.
Xia Chan began to scrub her hands again, again and again. She glanced through the mirror reflected on the sink and saw Ren Di sitting on the sofa in the living room with his legs apart, putting out his cigarette in the ashtray.
Wu Zhizi walked behind Xia Chan and looked at her secretly.
After washing her hands, Xia Chan looked at the dirty water in front of her and rinsed them away. She turned back to look at Wu Zhizi and asked calmly, "Mom, what do you want to hear from me?"
Wu Zhizi breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that Xia Chan was not angry, she explained awkwardly, "No, no, you don't have to say anything. We have received the certificate for a week, but we didn't tell you because we were afraid you would be angry. Your uncle Ren's hometown is Hangzhou. This time we went to Hangzhou to have fun and to meet his family."
Wu Zhizi's cautious voice was in her ears. Xia Chan tried her best to look normal and said, "Well... is everything going well?"
"It went smoothly." Ren Di's voice came from behind. He raised his eyebrows and smiled on his stern face. "My family has no objection. Your mother wants to hold the wedding later. We are both old enough and there is no need to pursue the romance of young lovers. We just need to live our lives. It's good enough that your mother and I get along well. Of course, you can tell us if you have any ideas."
Haha, ridiculous, what else can I think about? You have already decided everything.
Xia Chan felt lost, as if her head was filled with balls of wool, messy and painful. Too many things had happened recently.
First it was Jiang Huainan, then her own mother. They were all people close to her, but they seemed to be unconsciously destroying everything she had worked so hard to build.
She looked up at Ren Di and asked them one last question with difficulty: "Are you living together at home?"
"No, no, no." Ren Di looked back at the small house and explained to her with a smile, "This place is too small, it's not suitable. The Hangzhou branch has a good development momentum this year. The head office is optimistic about me and plans to transfer me there to take full charge. They promoted me and allocated me a house. This time when I went to Hangzhou, your mother and I also looked around. She liked the environment and location. We want to take you there to live with us."
Ren Di and Wu Zhizi looked at Xia Chan at the same time, with calm and happy expressions on their faces, as if they were sure that she would agree.
"I don't want to go." She refused directly.
All the time of her life is here. Wu Zhizi can abandon everything and live in another city, but she can't. The string of her kite is tied tightly here.
A cold light flashed in Ren Di's eyes, and then he remained silent.
Wu Zhizi came up and patted her arm: "Okay, we'll discuss this later. Let's eat first."
The dinner that day was very sumptuous, with the table full of her favorite dishes, but she just took a few quick bites and fled into her little room.
The light in the room was dim. She did not turn on the lights. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks in the darkness. She buried herself in the quilt, suppressing her cries until the next morning.
Fate seemed to have dragged her mercilessly into a dark abyss, and she could no longer control what would happen in the future.
How to describe the relationship between her and Wu Zhizi? They had never communicated with each other, but they were used to each other's presence, used to the breath of another person in the house, just like you know you have to brush your teeth and eat every day, it's not a big deal, but it exists inevitably in your life. And now this home where they have lived for more than ten years has slowly changed because of the addition Everything has become strange, and what's even stranger is that the man seems to have other purposes for her.
She didn't know when she started to want to escape from this so-called home.
The split-leaf sycamore outside the window was tall and sturdy, with its yellow-brown leaves swaying in the wind, and thick piles of fallen leaves under its thick trunk. The teacher's voice seemed to come into my ears from another world.
It's late autumn.
"The leaves of the phoenix trees have fallen in deep autumn, and the cold moonlight brings infinite sorrow." Xia Chan opened the text message and wrote down this sentence. The recipient showed as Jiang Huainan, so she didn't send it.
In the past, when she felt sleepy during class, she would secretly send text messages to Jiang Huainan. Sometimes the content was poems, sometimes it was about the weather, meals, or boring jokes. Jiang Huainan rarely replied to her. She only cared about her own happiness and never tired of sending text messages. Sometimes Jiang Huainan had no choice but to call her after class to chat.
She looked at the screen in her hand, and her heart grew colder.
Suddenly, her phone vibrated several times, indicating that there were unread text messages. She couldn't wait to exit and click on it, but when she saw that it was from an unfamiliar number with no notes, her face was full of disappointment.
"Go to Ziwei North Road after school."
She stared blankly at the sentence above, thinking about something, unmoved.
"Listen to me sing."
Then another message came in.
She simply exited the page, pressed "Delete" directly, and then opened the e-book to read.
Monet saw that she was ignoring him and opened his hand to slap her, but suddenly his dark eyes turned, a calculating smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and the hand he stretched out was raised high.
The history teacher looked up and saw the "king of skipping classes" Monet raising his hand. There was a look of disbelief in his eyes: "Huh? Monet wants to answer this question? It's unexpected."
Monet stood up slowly. The gray-haired teacher walked towards him expectantly. He pointed at the page of Xia Chan's book and said, "Teacher, I report Xia Chan for playing with her cell phone in class."
Xia Chan's back stiffened, and she thought she had traveled back to an elementary school classroom. What a childish boy! Isn't it too mean to tell tales?
The teacher remained calm, followed the direction of his finger, found Xia Chan's cell phone which was covered by the pages of the book, and confiscated it.
"Wait for the class teacher to notify you."
The teacher looked at Xia Chan and shook his head, feeling a little disappointed for no reason.
"Okay, Mr. Fan."
Watching the phone being put into the teacher's pocket, Xia Chan replied weakly with an expression that said "I'm sorry".
Then, under her hateful gaze, Monet said nothing, made a victory gesture to her, and fell asleep among his messy textbooks.
It took two days to get the phone back, and the price was a 3,000-word self-review plus a verbal warning from the head teacher. While yawning and writing the self-review during the afternoon self-study session, Xia Chan wanted to tear Monet's face apart.
After school that day, Xia Chan didn't want to go home, she planned to go to the bar "Zero" on Qingshi Road. Monet followed her like a clinging fly.
He walked around to the front of Xia Chan, walked backwards, and asked her: "Are you unhappy recently?"
Haha, you have the nerve to ask, she hasn’t forgotten the grudge against the cell phone.
Xia Chan looked at the intersection, thinking about how to get rid of him.
Monet smiled at her, whistled, and suggested, "If you are unhappy, you can listen to me sing. It's free anyway."
Xia Chan turned a deaf ear and didn't even bother to look at him.
Monet shook his fist and pouted, "If you don't say anything, I'll hit you!"
"Are you sick?" Xia Chan yelled at him angrily.
She didn't know why there would be such a shameless person, and his shamelessness bottom line was being refreshed again and again. Not only did he cling to people , but he also had no sense of shame at all. Didn't he see that she hated and despised him very much?
What bad luck!
This roar seemed to scare Monet, and his face looked very bad. During all the time he had known Xia Chan, he had never seen her lose her temper so badly.
Xia Chan glanced at Monet nonchalantly. He pursed his lips slightly and said nothing, as if he was trying hard to endure something, with a hurt and lonely look.
Lonely? Damn it, he would be hurt and lonely?
Sure enough, the next second Monet said with a smile: "Yeah, I'm sick, do you have medicine?"
ill!
"It's so annoying." Xia Chan was so angry that her face turned pale and she was very thirsty. She glanced at a newsstand diagonally opposite, took out her wallet from her schoolbag, trotted a few steps to shake off Monet, and wanted to go over to buy a bottle of water.
Just as she was about to reach the newsstand, a motorcycle suddenly appeared from the left turn and rushed towards her at the speed of the wind.
Monet was shocked: "Asha!"
The wind blew past her ears and the strap of her schoolbag was pulled hard by a man with braided hair on the back of a motorcycle. Before Xia Chan could figure out what was going on, the world was spinning in front of her eyes and she fell heavily to the ground.
"Axia." Monet strode over and squatted on the ground to check if she was injured. His voice was hoarse, "Are you okay?"
"Wallet...my wallet..."
Xia Chan was panting, her temple was throbbing, her arms were burning with pain, and she stared at the motorcycle passing by, wanting to get up from the ground and chase it.
"Where are you going? Forget it." Monet stared at her bruised right arm and pulled her.
Seeing that she was determined not to do so, he probably knew that there was something very important inside, and without waiting for her to speak, he put his hands on her shoulders and said, "Wait for me."
With that, he stood up and walked away, making a phone call.
A few minutes later, he came over and said, "If I don't come back before dark, you should go home first. I will bring the wallet back intact by tomorrow morning at the latest. You have to trust me."
His voice was as heavy as a drumstick hitting her heart. At that moment, his serious expression did not show any joking. Xia Chan looked at him in the backlight, nodded as if possessed by a ghost, and said, "Okay."
He nodded, looked at her and smiled, then hailed a car on the side of the road and left.