Chapter 310: Catching the Girl That Summer Night
"What's going on? You just said a few words and then ignored me again."
Lin Wanzhou held the phone and waited for a long time, but never received a reply from Xu Cheng.
I was furious inside, but thinking that this guy might be too busy outside, I temporarily forgave him.
"Zhou Zhou, look outside, the rain has stopped." Guo Zining exclaimed slightly.
Lin Wanzhou looked out the window. There were residual water droplets on the window, leaving streaks along the glass, and the sky was emerald blue.
"Where else do you want to go later?" Guo Zining asked again.
Lin Wanzhou twisted the soup spoon in his hand around in the cup a few times, with a look of fatigue between his brows.
"I've been playing for a whole day and I feel a little tired. Let's not go anymore and go home."
"Yeah, that's fine."
After drinking up the coffee, they took a lot of photos in the hotel and dawdled for a long time before they reluctantly packed up their bags and left the hotel, then took buses in different directions to go home.
At this time, there were not many people on the bus and there were many empty seats.
Lin Wanzhou found his usual seat in the back row and sat down.
As the sky gradually darkened, the carriage gradually became darker. When passing through the tunnel, the light from the window could still be seen passing by quickly.
The scene in the evening after the rain was gorgeous, but also carried an indescribable chill. Looking at the empty seat beside her, the girl felt lonely, which was rare on the bus.
The journey home became so long.
I was too lazy to go home and cook, and her food wasn’t tasty anyway, so I went to eat noodle soup at the fly-in-the-wall restaurant at the entrance of the community that I often went to these days.
This store does very good business and there are a lot of people. There is also a small square box TV with a large bottom inside. Many people eat noodles while watching TV.
This made the girl feel lively, so she stayed here for a long time and watched two episodes of the popular TV series "Magic Phone" before standing up and going home.
At this time, it was already dark outside. It stopped raining and the air began to feel warm again. A few cicadas started working the night shift, hiding in the bushes in the community and making noisy noises.
However, disrupting residents' nightlife comes at a price.
The girl could vaguely see several talented people in the community, moving through the grove with bright flashlights, carrying a woven bag in their hands and moving slowly with a hunched back.
I remember when she was a child, she and Xu Cheng went out to play together at night. When she saw these lights, she curiously asked Xu Cheng what they were.
Xu Cheng said it was a ghost fire, and she was so scared that she turned pale and burrowed into his arms. She kept burrowing into his arms for a long time. Then this guy said embarrassedly that he was lying to her and was actually a cicada catcher.
She had a good temper when she was a child.
If it were now, I would have to stuff a few socks in his mouth and see if he would still talk nonsense.
However, it seems that you can make a lot of money by catching cicadas. I heard from Xu Cheng that if you are lucky, you can catch several kilograms in one night.
But not everyone can make this kind of money.
Lin Wanzhou really admires these uncles and aunts. If it were her, it would be hard to say who would catch whom.
After all, she didn't dare touch insects like cicadas, and she wasn't the only one. As far as she knew, Xu Cheng didn't dare touch them either. Even many people of this age didn't dare to catch them.
The girl had a rich imagination and couldn't help but imagine the future. When those who dared to catch cicadas grew old and could no longer do so, the competitive pressure in catching cicadas among their generation would definitely be reduced a lot.
Maybe it's a way to get rich.
As I was thinking, I walked into the corridor.
When she arrived at the door of her house and just inserted the key into the door, the girl felt that she was hugged by a figure and her mouth was covered by a big hand.
This scared her. Several stories about single girls who were stalked and killed flashed through her mind. She struggled violently in his arms as if she had been electrocuted.
Hitting with elbows, stepping with feet... the fighting power is super high.
“Hmm…Hmm…”
"Hiss... Stop hitting me, stop hitting me, it's me, it's me."
A familiar voice sounded in the girl's ears, and Lin Wanzhou turned around with a slightly incredible look.
The boy was wearing a more mature black suit, with a few more buttons of his white shirt open, revealing more of his chest.
“You, you…”
Seeing that it was Xu Cheng, Lin Wanzhou became even angrier and slapped him with her hands, stomped on his feet with her little feet, and even wanted to bite his chest with her shiny teeth, leaving a row of small tooth marks.
Xu Cheng didn't resist and let her hit him. It didn't really hurt, but he had to pretend that it hurt.
The girl hit him a few more times, and when she felt she had almost let go of her anger, she turned around and stopped hitting him.
She was also afraid that if she hit Xu Cheng too much, she would hurt him. After all, although she didn't use much force, she heard that some parts of boys' bodies were very fragile, and she didn't know much about the body structure of the opposite sex, so it was better to be cautious.
Afraid that the neighbors would see the two of them having a passionate fight, the girl pushed the door open and went into the house. Xu Cheng walked in behind her, dragging the suitcase.
"Lin Wanzhou, did you hit me simply because you were scared, or were you angry because you haven't seen me for a long time?"
Feeling the familiar shamelessness of the boy, the girl could confirm that the guy in front of her was definitely Xu Cheng, and she was not worried at all that he was the transformed Six-Eared Macaque.
"Don't get me wrong, I just don't want to see you and want to get rid of you."
Of course Xu Cheng ignored the girl's words. He changed his shoes, sat on the sofa, and rubbed the collar of his shirt.
"Lin Wanzhou, where did you go today?"
"It's none of your business."
The girl calmly threw the camera on her shoulder onto the sofa, and as if afraid that Xu Cheng wouldn't notice it, she picked it up again and adjusted its position.
“Did you capture it on camera?”
"……No."
"Give me Kang Kang."
When Xu Cheng went to take it, the girl pretended to be reserved and snatched it away.
"No, no."
"Bring it here."
He snatched the camera bag from the girl's hand and dragged her so close to him that their arms were touching.
Feeling the familiar touch on his arm, Lin Wanzhou happily pressed his arm even closer.
"You took quite a lot of photos. Let me see what you did today." Xu Cheng turned on the camera and checked the photos taken by the girl in chronological order.
The first photo is of a residential community in the early morning, with clear light, emerald green leaves, and the asphalt road of the community. With the wide-angle effect, the girl's feet also appear in the camera, and the cute little white shoes give a lively and refreshing feeling.
"You're quite good at taking photos." Xu Cheng couldn't help but turn around and compliment him.
The girl turned her head away embarrassedly and snorted.
I had a thousand hopes in my heart. I wanted Xu Cheng to continue watching and share with him everything that happened today.
"Is this a movie theater? What movie are you watching?"
"Let's go today."
"oh."
Xu Cheng had some impression of it. "Does it look good?"
"It's great. Let me tell you about this movie..."
The girl was very interested in telling Xu Cheng the plot of the movie, and it seemed like she couldn't stop talking.
Xu Cheng pulled her little hand and said, "Lin Wanzhou, let's close our eyes and tell me again."
"Why?"
"Just imagine we're watching it together in a movie theater."
"……childish."
Although she looked down on Xu Cheng's childish tricks, Lin Wanzhou still obediently closed her eyes. She felt that Xu Cheng seemed to have turned off the lights in the living room. There seemed to be only the camera on the coffee table in front of her eyelids, emitting a faint fluorescence, just like the screen in a dark movie theater.
"Do you want popcorn?" Xu Cheng asked her seriously.
The girl said "eat", wanting to see how this guy could make popcorn, but he pulled out a small bottle of Kopiko potato chips from his bag and stuffed it into the girl's mouth.
"Eat some popcorn."
"Why does it feel like playing house?" the girl muttered, and suddenly recalled her childhood when she cooked with instant noodle seasoning and foxtail grass.
She opened her little mouth slightly and put the "popcorn" into her mouth. It was crispy and had a tomato taste.
"The opening scene is a fat man bathing in a pool..."
"Lin Wanzhou, are you watching other men take a bath? I'm going to be jealous."
After hearing what Xu Cheng said, the girl still felt a little guilty, so she said in a soft voice, "...I closed my eyes at that time."
"Then how did you see the plot?"
"Do you want to hear me? No talking in the cinema."
Xu Cheng obediently shut his mouth. The girl softly narrated the development of the plot. From time to time, she would think of the parts she had missed and immediately fill them in. Sometimes when she talked about the funny parts of the movie, Xu Cheng, who was listening, didn't even understand yet, she would laugh and bend over.
The two people sitting on the sofa held hands without knowing when.
"That's it in the end. The movie is over. Wasn't it great?"
"Yeah, it looks good."
They both opened their eyes.
The girl looked at him beside her, and the little hand he held in his palm, and suddenly felt that all the regrets of the day had disappeared in an instant.
"I want some popcorn, too."
"for you."
Xu Cheng picked up a piece of tomato-flavored "popcorn" and put it to the girl's mouth, and Lin Wanzhou swallowed it in one bite.
"After watching the movie, what did you do afterwards?"
"Look, look."
The girl who had told the whole story didn't feel thirsty anymore. She pointed at the camera on Xu Cheng's lap and told him about the two girls buying ice cream cones, clothes, eating hot pot, then visiting the park, watching the musical fountain, and finally getting caught in the rain together. The last photo was taken by someone else wearing a wedding dress.
"What a beautiful wedding dress." Xu Cheng couldn't help but admire.
"Yeah, the Chinese-style phoenix crown is much more beautiful than a wedding dress."
Xu Cheng looked in the direction of the girl.
"Do you want to wear it too?"
Lin Wanzhou felt as if his secret plan had been exposed and nervously hit him on the arm.
"I didn't."
It seemed to be drizzling outside again, and the crackling sound of drops of rain hitting the leaves was very pleasant.
Xu Cheng looked out the window and said, "Let's go out for a walk together, Lin Wanzhou."
“But it’s raining.”
"Then hold an umbrella."
The girl stood up and went to look for her umbrella, her little pink umbrella, and she wanted to find one for Xu Cheng, but was stopped by the boy.
"We only have this one umbrella."
“This umbrella is very small.”
"It's okay."
"What if it rains?"
"Then let's get wet in the rain together."
Lin Wanzhou was stunned for a few seconds, then stopped looking and stood up to change his shoes, wanting to go out with Xu Cheng.
But before leaving, he remembered something and ran back to his bedroom and locked the door.
"I'll change my clothes."
Not long after, the door of the girl's bedroom opened. She was wearing a beautiful dress with small floral patterns and a pair of brand new thin-strap sandals. Her cute toes, like pearls, were painted with glowing light pink nail polish.
The whole person was fiddling with his hair in an unnatural way.
"So beautiful!" Xu Cheng looked and couldn't help but exclaim.
The girl patted his arm proudly.
"Let's go, let's go."
"But aren't you afraid of the cold?"
"Stop talking nonsense."
It was drizzling outside, neither heavy nor light.
The sound of raindrops falling on the pink umbrella was particularly clear to their ears.
When the wind blew, the moisture mixed with water vapor made the girl shiver.
Beauty does come at a price.
Xu Cheng considerately opened his suit jacket towards her and said, "Hide in my arms, Lin Wanzhou."
The girl hesitated for a moment and then went in.
Her body felt indescribably warm and comfortable, so comfortable that she could close her eyes at that moment.
The two walked in the rain for a long time and passed by the government kindergarten where they once attended together. There were only sporadic lights in the building in the dark night, and the newly built children's playground was wet from the rain.
Passing by an abandoned construction site again, it seemed that nothing had changed after so many years. Xu Cheng glanced over there and tried to catch the girl's eyes. He found that she was also looking at him. The two just smiled at each other, with an indescribable tacit understanding.
The girl felt some cramps in her calves and a little pain in her feet, so she patted Xu Cheng's arm, then squatted down and gently rubbed her ankles.
“Although these shoes look nice, they are very uncomfortable to walk in.”
"I'll carry you."
Xu Cheng handed the umbrella to the girl, then took off his coat, put it on the girl, and squatted down.
Lin Wanzhou happily jumped onto his broad back, and when she felt something was squashed somewhere, she quickly climbed up to not give Xu Cheng a chance to discover her.
Through the thin layer of T-shirt, she could feel the burning temperature of his back, which helped her dispel the chill of the rainy night.
There were fewer tall buildings on the roadside, and the girl lay on Xu Cheng's shoulder.
"Xu Cheng, where are we going? Are we just going to walk aimlessly?"
"Of course not."
Then gradually, noisy music began to sound in my ears and colorful lights flashed in my sight.
The girl had vaguely guessed something, so she kept silent and buried her head in Xu Cheng's shoulder until he carried her to the huge Ferris wheel.
"Lin Wanzhou, do you dare to sit down?"
"Do you dare?"
"I certainly do."
"Then I dare too."
It was just a drizzle, but the Ferris wheel didn't stop running.
There seemed to be few tourists around, so the two of them easily got into an independent cabin.
Looking at Lin Wanzhou sitting across the table, Xu Cheng asked.
"Won't you come sit over here?"
"I...I don't."
The girl looked out the window curiously.
However, as the altitude increased, she began to become visibly nervous, and Xu Cheng took the initiative to sit next to her. The girl no longer cared about being reserved and buried her head in his arms, clutching the corner of his clothes and not daring to move, for fear that she would fall because of some of her movements.
"Are you still going to sit here even if you are so scared?"
“…”
The girl hid in his arms and did not answer, but asked tremblingly.
"Where are we?"
Seeing her like this, Xu Cheng patted her back gently, as if coaxing a child.
"It's a very high place. I can see our neighborhood."
“Did it reach the highest point?”
"It's almost there, at the highest point...can I do that, Lin Wanzhou?"
“…”
The girl didn't answer.
After just a few seconds, she suddenly raised her head bravely and opened her eyes that had been closed for a long time.
Before my eyes is the darkening night, the dazzling and sparkling light, and the lights of thousands of homes like clusters of flowers.
It’s her Xu Cheng.
It’s that dream!
The girl felt her heart beating rapidly.
"Why did you raise your head? Aren't you afraid anymore?" Xu Cheng asked in surprise.
“…”
The girl just looked at him without saying anything.
So Xu Cheng tried to ask her again.
"Can I, can I do that, Lin Wanzhou?"
His tone was immature and nervous.
This time the girl finally spoke.
"Wh-Which thing…"
"It's what you wrote in the letter... Hmm."
Eyes met.
The girl didn't let him finish.
At the moment when the Ferris wheel was running at the highest point in the sky, the boy seemed to see a gorgeous meteor streaking across the sky from the corner of his eyes, and then the entire sky was dyed into colorful colors by this meteor.
He wanted to make a wish, but no words came out.
There is no need to make a wish, perhaps his most desired wish has already come true at this moment.
So he closed his eyes, and the girl seemed to have kept them closed from the beginning.
Her delicate body was trembling slightly because of her fear of heights, like a shivering little animal.
Even so, they remained firm and proactive in not separating.
This time.
She would not let this dream escape again.
This time.
The girl took the initiative to capture that summer night...
