Chapter 34

◎Good things are fleeting◎

Before leaving Shenzhen, they sat in the waiting hall with poor air conditioning, tore off the pages of magazines and folded them into fans, fanning themselves with tissues and wiping their sweat.

There were still ten hours to get home, and their clothes were soaked with sweat, smelling sour and covering up the joy and excitement of watching the concert.

"It's too hot, the damn weather can suffocate people," Xu Zhaolin complained, "I will never come to Shenzhen again. In ancient times, this was a place where prisoners were exiled - how did you say that? Oh, 'exiled to Lingnan'."

Zhu Yao agreed, "I won't come either. I've never been so smelly in my life."

Although they all agreed a day ago that this was a good place - the food in Shenzhen was delicious, the shopping malls were prosperous, and there were many fashionable and exquisite coffee shops and plaid shops.

Du Ningyang was busy texting Jin Zhenqi and had no time to pay attention to them. She wanted to share with him more than before. It was probably just as Zhu Yao said, the warming of feelings requires time. When you spend more time together, you will naturally have something to say.

A text message costs two cents, so she would save up everything she could say in one message and send it:

[It’s so hot in Shenzhen. I’m going to be roasted. There’s still an hour before I can get on the bus. When I get on the bus, I’m going to lie down and sleep all the way back to Huaicheng without opening my eyes for a second! Humph, what are you doing, husband? Do you miss me? If not, I’ll punish you by making you miss me.]

His message came back almost immediately:

[I miss you, I miss you, of course I miss you. I’m in the classroom for a ten-minute break, but I’m always thinking about you in my heart, hehe. School will start in thirteen days. When I get to school, I’ll pick you up downstairs of the dormitory and take you to the third canteen to eat barbecued meat and rice, and then go to the back street to get two taro cones. How about that?]

She smiled foolishly at the phone.

Zhu Yao turned his head to look at her, and insisted that she express her opinion, "My dear, will you come in the future?"

"No," she blurted out, and then regretted, "Oh, I will still come."

"Why come?" Zhu Yao was shameless and put his hand on Du Ningyang's arm, their skin stuck together, "Come to see Zhu He and Wu You's happy life?"

"Go to hell," Du Ningyang impatiently shook off Zhu Yao's hand, "I want to come and play with Jin Zhenqi, I told him."

She always kept her words. On the way here, she said to Jin Zhenqi, "Let's play together in the future", so she kept her words and kept this sentence in her heart.

As for Wu You and Zhu He's happy life, whether she came or not, they were very happy, there is no doubt about that.

It was not fast or slow, and the train rumbled and soon took them north.

After returning to Huaicheng, the busy junior year began. Professional courses increased like mushrooms after rain. At the same time, Du Ningyang began to prepare for the teacher qualification examination. She was quite resistant to pressure, but her mind was not so sharp when facing study

. She was overwhelmed by dealing with multiple difficult things at once. Fortunately, the result was good, but when she looked up from the library, she saw the fallen leaves falling from the dead branches, and received the express delivery of the certificate and a good midterm exam transcript.

Winter is coming.

Followed by the final exams and winter vacation.

During this winter vacation, she and Jin Zhenqi fulfilled their promises to each other. They took the train to Shenzhen in the south. At that time, Jin Zhenqi had already defended his thesis, and was interning in the school-enterprise cooperation office of the college, submitting resumes, and waiting for graduation.

The school-enterprise cooperation office will lead a team to Shenzhen to participate in the art exhibition at the end of January, and they need manpower to set up a booth. Travel and accommodation are included, and there is a meal subsidy of 100 yuan per day. Jin Zhenqi is not inferior to this good opportunity and signed up early.

He brought Du Ningyang with him. When he was busy, she would wander around and entertain herself. After the exhibition, they would meet again and have free time.

In order not to live with other classmates, Jin Zhenqi specially asked for a single room. The two of them squeezed into a small bed of 1.2 meters. They had to hold each other tightly to avoid falling off. They slept like this for several days. Their backs ached but they felt inexplicably happy.

He got up at dawn to take the bus to the exhibition, and she slept until she woke up naturally, leaning against the head of the bed and reminiscing about the wonderful time they spent together, kissing and hugging, rising and falling breathing, skin to skin, blending sweat, and deep contact.

It was as if they had entered into cohabitation after graduation in advance, oh no, married life. Two people, a small room, warm and tidy; a career that had just started, thriving efforts, and naturally one step closer.

In the middle of a busy day, he called her to wake up, "Are you up? What are you going to eat for lunch?"

"I'm awake, but not yet," her voice still carried the coquettish tiredness of just waking up, "I don't know, I'm so tired."

She didn't work hard, so she didn't know what she was tired of. Jin Zhenqi pursed his lips and smiled.

"Get up, lazy pig," he was still embarrassed to call her "lazy pig" in public, so he lowered his voice, "Today is the last day, you can go early in the afternoon. The stall next door recommended me a special food stall, saying that it's delicious, but it's a bit far. I'll take you there in the evening."

"Got it," she rubbed her misty eyes and looked in the direction of the dressing table. Jin Zhenqi had already taken out the clothes she was going to wear and folded them neatly on top.

He took care of her in every detail and held her in his heart completely. In this regard, she did far less than him, but she accepted it with peace of mind.

Counting carefully, there are still ten days to their two-year anniversary.

Du Ningyang got up and sat in front of the dressing table, slowly putting on makeup. While applying mascara, she was thinking about going to the New World Mall next door to buy him an anniversary gift. She had already decided to buy a white shirt with a good cut and non-wrinkle fabric, so that he could wear it for interviews and work.

She thought about this so seriously that she forgot the time while shopping, and tried on her clothes one by one in front of the mirror, without even having lunch.

When leaving the Convention and Exhibition Center subway station, she met a few confused foreigners. They were tall, sunny and handsome, standing in front of the road sign scratching their heads.

There are foreigners in Huaicheng as well, but the concentration is low. It is rare to see them on the street. There are many foreigners in Shenzhen.

Du Ningyang walked up and asked in poor English: "What's wrong with you?"

Several guys looked at her with a little embarrassment. She realized that she had used the wrong sentence. She corrected it: "Uh, I mean, How can I help you?"

They handed her an English card. She frowned and finally figured it out after a lot of effort - they were going to the convention center.

"Follow me," she waved at them, signaling them to follow. After Du Ningyang arrived at the door, she felt as comfortable as returning home. She ran to the main venue

on the second floor. Several guys stopped her, thanked her, and then went to the side hall on the first floor.

She realized that there was an unpopular branch venue here. It looked normal from the outside, but it was a different world when she walked in - it was a tattoo exchange meeting. Everyone in it had dragons and tigers carved on their bodies. If you didn't know, you would think it was a meeting held by the government.

It was quite strange. Seeing that it was still early, Du Ningyang simply slipped in to take a look. She was fascinated by it as soon as she saw it. Who could blame her for liking this kind of "non-mainstream" things since she was a child?

"Skin is a warm canvas, and tattoos are eternal memories," she looked up and murmured the slogan hanging on the stall. When she came to her senses, her eyes met a muscular man wearing a black vest and a flowered headscarf.

He had two tattoos on his arms, the most traditional blue dragon and white tiger. The tattoos extended to the back of his hands and the knuckles of his ten fingers, like he was wearing two pairs of emotional gloves. His face was sharp as a knife, his eyes were slightly world-weary, and his right eyebrow was cut diagonally upwards at a quarter of the end. He looked like the type who was not good at speaking.

The man quickly retracted his gaze, and the cross earrings hanging on his ears sparkled.

Du Ningyang saw the sign on the stall that read "Recruiting Apprentices". There was a small black box next to it, with business cards inside, a dark Gothic design.

How can you recruit apprentices like this? You don't even greet people when they come. Are you waiting for the apprentices to come to you?

Jin Zhenqi called, "Is the baby here? I'm closing the stall here."

"Here he is."

She had a bag from the boutique on her wrist, which contained a shirt she bought for him. She couldn't keep things to herself, and she liked to create surprises, so she wanted to give it to him immediately.

"I'll be right there."

She was about to leave, but somehow turned sideways, took a business card, and put it in the pocket of her jeans.

Then she took the elevator upstairs, found Jin Zhenqi with a backpack, took his arm, and happily waved the bag in his hand to him.

He seemed to be happy as if he had received a reward, muttering some boring questions, "Why is my baby so good to me? Why is my baby so discerning?"

"Why do you have so many questions?"

On the way to the food stall, they sat in the last row of the Shenzhen bus, repeatedly admiring the beautiful and soft white shirt. The setting sun brought a hazy light, which was reflected on the clothes through the slightly yellowed glass, freezing the beauty.

One headphone cable, one person listened to one side, and the headphones played it in a loop. In the tender days, loving you is effortless.

Later, when she was listening to a song, she accidentally played Karen Mok's "Cloudy Day". When she heard the lyrics "Silly two people, how sweet their smiles were", this frame of the picture always flashed in her mind. The bus was heading to an unknown and unfamiliar front, and she leaned on his shoulder.

Even though she always stubbornly believed that among all the people she had liked, Jin Zhenqi was not her favorite one.

So they couldn't go to the end.

Jin Zhenqi happily took a photo and posted it on his space: A gift someone gave me.

Du Ningyang took his arm and took the first floor to reply: What about mine?

Friends told them to "enough", "stay away", "stop abusing dogs", and asked them "is it disgusting?"

He grinned at the comments, turned his head, kissed her on the cheek, and asked: "What gift do you want?"

"I haven't thought about it yet," she said without hesitation: "I will definitely choose a good one, and I must let you spend money on the second anniversary."

He smiled and said: "No problem, I make money to spend on my wife."

Unfortunately, good things are always fleeting. At that moment, none of them expected that twelve hours later, they would break up completely.