Chapter 33

◎ Paradoxical Showers◎

After a chaotic sleep, when I woke up, the blackout curtains were drawn, and warm light leaked through the gaps, indicating that it was not yet sunset. Du Ningyang moved his eyes.

The pillow next to him was sunken and tilted to one side. The old air conditioner blew cold wind with dust, and the outdoor unit outside the window rumbled, bringing the sound of pedestrians and bicycle bells on the road, faintly transmitted through the wall.

Is this here?

Ah, the gears that had stopped working in her mind slowly turned again.

This is Wu You and Zhu He's bedroom. It

's not big, but it's very square, about ten square meters, with brown square bricks on the floor, which doesn't look dirty. It's simply decorated, with a small wardrobe, a small desk and a 1.35 meter double bed. The gray and white plaid pillowcases are matched with striped air-conditioning quilts, and there is a straw mat. The curtains are old-fashioned dark patterns, the favorite style of the older generation, and they should be brought by the landlord. His

whole body is sticky from repeated sweat, his bangs are oily in strands, and his mouth is so dry that he can't speak. You can tell that he looks very sloppy now without looking at him.

Forget it, never mind. Du Ningyang stood up and planned to find her box to wash up. Fortunately, the box was not lost. In the box were her beautiful and fragrant clothes and skin care products.

Placed under the bed was a pair of light pink bath slippers. They looked very dry and should be newly bought.

Was it bought for her? Probably. Du Ningyang put her feet in and found that the size was just right. She secretly observed Wu You. Although she was not much taller than her, her shoes were several sizes larger, like a boat.

Her heart suddenly felt warm. They seemed to be taking care of her as Zhu Yao.

Pushing open the door, what came into view was a small and complicated living room, which was filled with all kinds of figures. It was a world away from the bedroom. She heard Zhu He on the phone.

"I know, I know. Don't worry. You're so nagging."

Zhu He didn't notice Du Ningyang standing behind him not far away. He was still trying to comfort Zhu Yao. "Why are you worried about leaving her with me? I'm worried about you too. When will you and Xu Zhaolin arrive? Send me the car number and I'll pick you up. Don't let you mess around anymore. If my parents know, I'll be implicated, okay?"

He seemed tired from walking. He leaned on the door frame connecting the living room to the balcony. "I won't talk to you anymore. You're too nagging. I'm going to get her bag now. When she gets the phone, let her talk to you herself... She's here with me. She's not awake yet. Do you need me to wake her up to chat with you?" He

looked up and saw Du Ningyang standing stiffly at the door of the room, looking at him awkwardly, like a stinky kid who was annoyed.

Zhu He stretched out his hand and handed the phone to Du Ningyang. "You talk to her."

This hot potato fell into Du Ningyang's hands. She said "Hi" with difficulty.

Zhu Yao's instructions before leaving were like a spell... She said, don't dress so ostentatiously, she said, just hide your phone in your socks, she said, check how to take the subway in advance to avoid being at a loss. Du

Ningyang didn't listen either, leading to such a tragic end, she was ready to be bombarded by Zhu Yao.

Who knew she just cursed her, "Stupid."

"Well," Du Ningyang didn't refute this bad interjection for the first time in her life.

Zhu Yao said again: "If your bag is lost, it's lost. How much is your broken bag worth? If you have the difference, I will steal my mother's wallet to make up for it. You also got into a fight with someone and got your face disfigured. Do you have money to get plastic surgery?"

The old flip phone leaked sound, and Zhu He typed beside him, "Hey, don't be so arrogant. You stole my mother's money. I heard it all."

Zhu Yao ignored Zhu He's words and said to Du Ningyang, "I've told Jin Zhenqi. He's very anxious anyway. You take the phone and call him. I didn't say anything about your parents."

"Thank you," Du Ningyang's face was very oily and his mouth was very smelly because he didn't brush his teeth. "I'm going to wash up. I'll hang up first."

In order not to dirty Zhu He's phone, the screen of his phone was a selfie of him and Wu You. It felt like they were kissing her when she was talking on the screen. It was weird.

Wu You just happened to come out of the bathroom and took Du Ningyang to the bathroom to teach her how to adjust the water heater to hot and cold and how to turn on and off the faucet.

It was a very small bathroom, shrouded in hot steam. On the left was a toilet and a shower head, and on the right was a sink. On the sink were wrinkled facial cleansers and toothpastes. Next to it was a three-layer plastic shelf, a little yellowed, with colorful short-sleeved shirts and shorts piled up.

They were so close even to their dirty clothes, squeezing together and piling them up.

Wu You suddenly said, "It's so funny that Zhu Yao always scolds him."

Du Ningyang nodded and couldn't help laughing, "Yes."

"You are also an only child, right?" Wu You asked.

"Yes."

"Sometimes I envy them for being able to bicker and having such a good family relationship," Wu You adjusted the water temperature, "Here, try it to see if it's hot."

"It's good," the water was warm, soothing the summer irritability.

Du Ningyang opened the window with the anti-peep film a little, and the air and fireworks of Shenzhen rushed in, pouring on her body with the warm water from the shower head.

The stickiness and dampness on her body finally faded away. She had an indescribable contradictory feeling towards Shenzhen, and the same for Wu You and Zhu He.

When she came out of the shower, Zhu He had already left. Wu You sat on the game chair in front of the computer and handed the hair dryer to Du Ningyang, "Blow your hair dry and I'll take you out for a delicious meal."

That contradictory feeling came again. Wu You was so nice, so thoughtful and impeccable.

After walking for ten minutes, Wu You took Du Ningyang to a rice noodle roll shop and treated her to a full meal with minced meat, eggs, lettuce, shrimp, squid and small oysters. Wu You ate ordinary rice noodle rolls with egg and meat, which cost three yuan, and the one he treated Du Ningyang to cost fifteen yuan. He

hadn't eaten for most of the day. Maybe he was hungry, or maybe he was greedy. Du Ningyang ate all the delicacies on the plate in front of him for the first time.

Wu You said, "Is it delicious? We always come here to eat, but it's a little far. It would be nice if they could open downstairs."

"It doesn't seem to be that far," Du Ningyang took a sip of the tea sent by the boss to relieve his full stomach. "It took about ten minutes to walk?"

"We don't go out very often," Wu You explained, "After all... we have to play games to make money, and we have to compete with other players for time."

Wu You and Zhu He almost live a life of day and night reversal. There are many people who stay up all night to play dungeons, but there are not many people who stay up all night like them, so others can't make a living from this, but they can, and they enjoy it.

Night is their home.

This is why they can receive Du Ningyang's call immediately in the middle of the night.

In fact, when the curtains are drawn, you don't know the day and night, and you have no substantial feeling of the passage of time and the change of seasons. When you go out of the house, you often feel a sense of emptiness and unreality.

Which world is the real world?

Which world is the world they live in?

Later, Du Ningyang wanted to figure this out.

"I'm sorry... I've kept you here from last night until now. Zhu Yao and the others will arrive tomorrow afternoon, and I should be able to go to the hotel to wait for them in the morning."

Du Ningyang lowered his eyes embarrassedly, and Wu You quickly said, "No, that's not what I meant, don't think too much. During the few days you've been here, we've just changed the air and taken you around, just treat it as a holiday for ourselves."

The loud "boom" and "boom" sounds coming from outside the store attracted Du Ningyang's attention. Half an hour ago, the sun was still shining, and she was still complaining that "I just took a shower and now I'm sweating again." Now the sky has completely darkened.

The air was filled with lead gray, and she saw the pencil marks from the studio a few years ago, swishing on the canvas.

Then, bean-sized raindrops fell obliquely, getting more and more intense, and small puddles suddenly accumulated on the potholes on the roadside. Some passers-by struggled with umbrellas, but were still soaked by the rain.

"It's okay, the shower will pass soon," Wu You is a genuine Shenzhen girl, accustomed to such phenomena, "Shenzhen is like this, let's sit in the store for a while."

"Did Zhu He bring an umbrella when he went out?" She asked this, and she felt that something was wrong when she said it. Maybe she shouldn't ask this.

"He took the subway, so he won't get wet, don't worry," Wu You didn't take it to heart.

This rain showed no sign of stopping. The fan in the rice noodle shop was spinning feebly, the hot wind was fighting against the influx of moisture and humidity, mosquitoes were flying low, attacking the girls' fair calves and ankles.

Du Ningyang half bent over and scratched his legs, which suddenly turned red, and his whole body fell into that sticky, boring state again.

Wu You seemed to be impatient, looking at the heavy rain outside the window, he suddenly had an impulse in his heart, "Why don't we run back, we have to take a shower again anyway."

Du Ningyang looked at the newly bought canvas shoes on his feet, feeling a little reluctant, but waiting here, endlessly waiting for a rain that he didn't know when it would stop, was a torture.

She stood up and said, "Okay, let's run back."

Wu You said, "Then follow me and don't get lost."

"I'm a fast runner," Du Ningyang said, "and I almost remember the way."

Then the two of them ran in the rain, trying to avoid puddles, but found that it was of no use, so they simply stepped on the water and splashed it everywhere. There was rain everywhere, and they could also create rain. They felt funny while running, feeling happy and refreshed.

Du Ningyang's canvas shoes were completely soaked in water. Wu You stopped at the door of the grocery store at the entrance of the alley leading to the village in the city, pointing at a row of flip-flops hanging at the door, "Do you want to buy some?"

Du Ningyang's eyes were sharp, and her eyes fell on a pair of leopard-print, rose-red flip-flops. She raised her chin and said to the proprietress, "I want this pair."

"You have good taste, little pretty girl," the proprietress looked down at her shoe size, and helped her take it off with a smile, "A medium size should be enough?"

Wu You answered for her, "Yes, a medium size is fine. Do you have nail polish in this color?"

"Rose red?" "Yes." "Yes, wait a minute, I'll get it for you."

While the proprietress was getting the nail polish, the rain stopped and the sky cleared up. They were like two soaked chickens, feeling heavy all over, and walked back slowly.

Wu You told her that flip-flops would look good if she applied shiny nail polish, and she could apply it after she finished taking a shower and dried her feet.

Du Ningyang seemed to have figured out where the contradiction came from. She should have hated Wu You, but she actually liked Wu You very much. She should have cursed this transference, but she couldn't help but want to bless this soulmate.

Just like this afternoon rainstorm, it should have stopped soon, but it lasted longer than expected; when they all thought that the rain would not stop, it stopped abruptly. It

never went as she wished.

Du Ningyang walked around Zhu He and entered the store. Wen Xu followed in, closed the door, and locked it without hesitation.

Zhu He stood outside the door blankly for a long time before he came to his senses. He walked to the street and saw that the window upstairs was open. He asked loudly, "Wife, do you really not want me anymore?"

Du Ningyang answered irrelevantly, "It's not me who likes daisies and roses."

Zhu He was still standing downstairs. She leaned against the window frame, lit a cigarette, smoked it, extinguished the cigarette butt, threw it out of the window, and then closed the window to isolate the decayed fragrance of the broken flower basket.

"You never give him a definite answer," Wen Xu said to her, standing two or three meters away from Du Ningyang, "You leave him a way out." Du Ningyang

was startled, glanced at him calmly, and walked towards him, "You think too much, get out of the way, I'm so tired, I need to take a shower first."

Wen Xu straightened up and blocked her.

"Really? He asked you 'do you want him anymore', you only need to answer 'yes' or 'no', but you said 'it's not me who likes daisies and roses', you are giving him a chance to figure it out - you, Du Ningyang, Zhuge's ex-wife, what kind of flowers do you like, am I wrong?"

"I don't want to argue with you, I'm very tired," she raised her head and looked at him, her eyes were indeed red with fatigue, and then she raised her foot to squeeze through the gap between him and the railing.

"Don't avoid these topics," Wen Xu held Du Ningyang with one hand, "When will you face your heart? Just cut me off with a knife."

"What is our relationship? Why should I cut you off?" She pointed to the stairs, "You can leave at any time, I won't keep you, you can do whatever you want."

His expression suddenly became painful, revealing a fragility that was not in line with his age, like a piece of amber-colored thin glass, gentle but fragile.

"Please, give me a quick death, tell me why you insist on loving him, tell you why you can't open your heart and try to like me, I am no worse than him, I even liked you earlier than he did."

"I said I don't love him anymore--"

Did she say that? She didn't remember, but she had been trying to peel off the past, like a snake shedding that layer of light white soft skin, and then becoming indestructible.

But the real Du Ningyang was indeed very fragile.

Soon she was like a deflated ball, but she opened her heart to him again, "Wen Xu, I know your feelings, and the three-year marriage is not fake, but it is not easy for me to get over it right now. I am not angry with you, and I don't want to quarrel with you. If you are tired or feel unfair, you have the right to leave at any time. I will not blame you, I will be grateful to you, really."

Wen Xu did not say anything, probably thinking, she leaned forward, motioning him to make way for her in the narrow corridor so that she could go over to take a shower and calm down.

But he suddenly opened his arms and hugged her tightly.

He said, "We both need time."

Who let fate play a joke on them, letting them meet again when they were both scarred. Her tears wet his chest with a warm and salty taste.