Chapter 49

◎Encore waits for Echo◎

Fang Fang summoned Du Ningyang to come home for dinner, claiming that she had something important to discuss with her.

When she received the call, she was busy putting a mask on her face, and asked Wen Xu to help her press the hands-free button, signaling him not to make a sound.

He was sensible, leaning against the bathroom door quietly to squeeze toothpaste, but he was not so sensible that he had to prick up his ears to listen to other people's family affairs.

"What's the big deal?" After hanging up the phone, he couldn't help asking, "It sounds very exciting."

Du Ningyang's tone did not change, and he patiently smoothed the wrinkled mask bit by bit, "Don't worry, my mother talks like this, she loves to make a fuss, it won't be a big deal."

If there is a big deal, Du Minda usually calls to talk on her behalf.

"When can you take me to see her?" He asked, pinching her waist, "I don't see her often."

She rolled her eyes at him. He was just getting started, and he wanted to meet her parents. He was not afraid of scaring her parents.

"Here, I'll give you the sink," Du Ningyang ignored Wen Xu's question and walked out of the bathroom with her head slightly raised. She was too lazy to tell him that his name was a frequent guest at her family's dinner table and he was always praised to the skies, so as to prevent him from getting carried away.

The next morning, she got up early to catch the bus back home. Before leaving, she ate a sandwich made by Wen Xu with milk.

Thinking to herself, "Why hasn't he gotten tired of that machine yet?", she unconsciously wanted to laugh, and then the car stopped at the bus stop downstairs.

"I'm back," she said lazily, her voice unhurried, "What's the big deal?"

Sure enough, it was nothing big, just a few relatives came to visit the house, pointed out that Fang Fang's house was too full of rags, and used a fashionable term "hoarding" to describe her, and said to her: "A clean house is a kind of wealth."

This made her feel embarrassed, and she made up her mind to clean up the house.

But looking left and right, the living room, the master bedroom, and the kitchen were all treasures she had collected for many years, and she was reluctant to throw any of them away, so she decided to start with Du Ningyang's room.

"Anyway, it's the same as if you hadn't come back at all. This room is like a storage room," Fang Fang muttered softly, a little unhappy. "You don't live at home when you come back. If I don't call you to trick you into coming back, you wouldn't even come back to see me - Du Ningyang, am I still your real mother?"

"Hehe," she was busy and couldn't take care to come back every week. "Dear mother, tell me how you want to clean up."

Fang Fang led Du Ningyang to her room. The bed was piled with her old clothes, layer upon layer, like a colorful small mine. "Do you still want these?" "

No," she took a look. They were all clothes bought a long time ago. "Throw them all away."

Fang Fang pouted again, pointing to the few pieces in front of her. "They are all good new clothes. I buy them but don't wear them. What a waste."

Du Ningyang was a little confused. Wasn't she asked to do the decluttering? ——But these clothes looked unfamiliar, so she flipped through them and identified the years. "Mom, these are my elementary school clothes... Do you want to throw them away or not?"

"Oh," Fang Fang sighed, groaning, "Then throw them away."

Du Ningyang neatly put these old clothes into Fang Fang's old sack and pulled them out the door with all his might.

When the heavy sack fell to the ground, he felt relieved. She seemed to be inspired and asked, "Is there anything else you want to throw away?"

"Here," Fang Fang pointed to the pile of junk on the desk, "and the jewelry you bought before, I picked out some good ones to keep, this pile has either oxidized and turned black, or there is only one earring, and the necklace is broken."

"Throw it away," she said straightforwardly, "Next time just throw it away, don't ask me."

"You'll be angry again if I throw it away by mistake."

"A biological daughter won't be angry with her biological mother."

"Don't coax me, you've become cunning after working in Shenzhen for a few years. You don't learn to be good, but only learn to coax people."

"Are you happy?"

"Humph."

Du Ningyang diligently went to the living room to bring a trash can, swept the pile of jewelry into it, and asked as he swept, "Is there anything else you want to throw away? Throw it away today and I'll buy new ones."

Fang Fang's face wrinkled, "Buy more... You should save some money, don't be a moonlighter."

"Don't get off topic, is there anything else you want to throw away?"

"These pairs of peep-toe wedge heels you bought in college... My god, they're too high. I really admire you for being able to walk in them."

"No more! No one wears them now. Not only for walking, I can also wear them to chase the bus..."

"And these leather bags, they've been peeling off after being kept for a long time... But you can take them to the tailor shop to have them repaired."

"Throw them away, they didn't cost much."

"Do you still want the romance novels?"

"No."

"You bought them even when you were not allowed to, and you read them even when you were not allowed to, and you even got myopia!"

"You obviously got myopia from studying!"

...

Throwing things here and there, they were so tired that they were panting and sweating.

Du Ningyang and Fang Fang leaned against the closet and looked around. This small second bedroom, which was always full of things, was actually mostly empty.

The things to be thrown away were almost all bought with her pocket money and living expenses before she started working. After that, she always went home with a 28-inch suitcase. All her luggage was packed in that suitcase and she could go wherever she wanted.

"Mom," Du Ningyang said softly, "you bought me so many things. You are so generous to me."

"Well, you are a big spender," Fang Fang said, "I thought the big spender would become a big spender when he grew up, but I didn't expect that you never asked us for money again."

Du Ningyang leaned his head quietly on Fang Fang's shoulder and said, "Hmm."

Fang Fang stroked her face, "Now that you're back, just be our child again. Mom will buy you whatever you like and fill this room up again. You have one good thing about you. The things you like are not expensive. You don't want airplanes or cannons, but just clothes and jewelry. Mom can still afford them."

This time, she was too strong to refuse and answered the question irrelevantly, "Yes, the old doesn't go, the new doesn't come."

Fang Fang's heart tightened suddenly, and she pinched her face, "I don't mean to urge you to find a partner, but we still encourage you to meet new people. After all, the spendthrift in our family is still young and outstanding."

"Not everyone is as good as you and dad."

"So we won't force you to get married or have children again. We're just afraid that you'll be lonely in the future."

"I see," Du Ningyang paused and said half-honestly, "I have someone I'm in contact with and I like him very much."

"Oh," Fang Fang was immediately delighted, "That's great!"

"But maybe he's not a good match, and they won't be together for long." Du Ningyang lowered his eyes and looked at the cracks in the floor, his tone was rarely depressed, "He has good conditions in all aspects."

"Let's just date for now, and we'll talk about the future later," Fang Fang said seriously, "When you were a child, you liked taking the train very much. I asked you why, you never cared about the destination, and every time you said it was because the trees along the way were green. It's the same principle. You treat him as a tree you like very much, and there will be many, many trees on your journey."

"Okay, you are worthy of being my mother!"

"Is he handsome?"

"Of course."

"How old is he? "

"A little younger than me."

"Sister-brother relationship!"

"Well, not much younger."

"Do you have any photos to show me?"

"No," Du Ningyang didn't dare to show her anything, so he changed the subject, "Oh yes, is there anything else you want to throw away? Get rid of them all today."

"Oh yes! I almost forgot."

Fang Fang dragged out a large flat rectangular storage basket from under the bed, "There are a lot of your certificates, papers, notebooks, and greeting cards in it, a mess. I pulled it out and took a look the day before yesterday, and some of them were powdered. I opened the lid and got covered in dust and choked. I wasn't sure if you still wanted them, so I didn't dare to throw them away."

What's in here? She couldn't remember, and through the translucent frosted lid, she saw a small square paper box with "Sony Bluetooth Speaker" written on it.

The doorbell rang, and Du Minda shouted outside with full energy, "I'm back, I forgot to bring my keys."

"Your father is back from buying groceries," Fang Fang shifted her attention to the door, "Yesterday we went to the vegetable market and asked the boss to keep the freshest tenderloin. I'll fry spiced meat for you later. You can take whatever you want. I'll go cook."

After saying that, she left Du Ningyang alone in the room.

She opened the lid, and the dust rushed to her nose, choking her to sneeze twice. Indeed, her parents have reached an age where they need to pay special attention to their health, and old things should not be kept at home.

She picked up the yellowed paper box, weighed it in her palm, and then she remembered that this was the gift she had picked for her twentieth birthday for a long time, but because of the unpleasant lunch party that day, she missed the opportunity to give it away.

She also remembered that she had specially picked this model with a recording function, and recorded a birthday song for him in it. She recorded it many times, but either her voice was too coquettish and artificial, or she was too nervous and sang the wrong words - yes, she was so nervous that she even sang the wrong words to the birthday song.

She didn't know how many times she recorded it, and finally kept the first version that she was barely satisfied with. For the last sentence, she added an extra sentence, "I like you.

" How long ago all this happened? She recalled her memories, inexplicably bravely connected the power supply, fumbled, endured the coquettish voice, and deleted this immature recording. She walked into the living room and asked Du Minda, "Dad, do you want this speaker?"

"What's it for?" Du Minda closed the newspaper, and her round eyes looked at Du Ningyang through the lenses of her reading glasses.

"For music, I'll connect it to your phone for you. Use this to listen. The sound is louder," she handed the speaker to Du Minda, "You know Sony, right? It's a big brand. I bought it before but never used it."

"You're so generous to me, why don't you use it yourself?" Du Minda took it and played with it in his hand, "I don't need such a good thing. I can just use headphones to listen to it."

She felt a little guilty. When she counted carefully, it seemed that she had never bought anything good for her father. He seemed very satisfied with a small speaker.

"I have one myself," she sat aside by herself and took Du Minda's phone to connect to Bluetooth, "I'll write you a note later. If you forget how to connect, just look at the note. You should be familiar with it after connecting a few times." "

It's good that my daughter is back," Du Minda suddenly sighed, and confirmed with her, "You won't leave in the future, right?"

"Yes, I won't leave, and I will try to go home for dinner every week," her nose was sour, "I still have some things I haven't collected, I'm going to clean them up."

She returned to the room and continued to face the pile of rags.

Inside was her first high school math test paper. Although there were many big crosses on it, she could no longer understand the questions that were checked.

There was also a thick stack of paintings, with quick sketches, drawings and watercolors randomly stacked together. These were just a few of the huge amount of works she had created during the training camp. Suddenly, she remembered that her work was pasted on the wall for the first time, side by side with the work of that cold boy. As she was admiring it, she turned around and stepped on his white sneakers.

Thinking of this, the corners of her mouth rose and her eyes curved like the moon.

Hey, what is this?

She picked up a hardcover hinged book with an oil painting cover and found that she had no memory of it.

She opened it and the title page read: "In Memory of Our Xicun Sketching! Long Live Seventeen! Long Live Summer! Long Live Friendship! Long Live Love!"

What level? Friendship and love can live long in summer, but seventeen is seventeen. How can it live long?

She couldn't help laughing and turned the pages one by one.

-The

person who made this "Xicun Classmate Directory" was the fledgling teacher Wei Xiaoquan that year.

He had just graduated from college and was only in his early twenties. He was full of fighting spirit and energy, but he was later extinguished by groups of noisy students.

He only did such a thankless job once in his life.

During the rest of the summer vacation, he taught watercolor classes while taking time to organize the answers to the questions that his classmates filled in randomly, and the photos that took up all the memory of his camera.

The first half of the book is similar to the pages of a yearbook, one page per person, a single photo of each person, plus sections such as name, birthday, zodiac sign, motto, and things to say. The second half is the photos taken during the sketching process and excellent works, basically all the photos that were not blurred are put in.

It's a very meaningful thing, why do you say it's a thankless job?

——Because when all the layouts were completed, it was already the end of that year. The section of "Long Live Love" was completely miscalculated. Shu Lixiang and Pei Pei broke up in an undignified way, and everyone knew about it. "Long Live Friendship" also seemed unconvincing. The old faces in the studio came and went, and more than half of them were gone.

Seventeen years old may not be called "Long Live", but it is indeed long. As one of the largest cities in central China, the competition for the college entrance examination in Huaicheng is very fierce. The students who stayed behind entered a tense training state, running around in the classroom and studio day and night, chasing each other every minute.

The number of copies of this yearbook printed far exceeded the number of copies received. It was piled on the scrapped chair next to the podium, and gradually accumulated dust. Du Ningyang returned to the studio after a joint examination and took out a copy to read. A thick layer of dust fluttered out, causing her to sneeze.

"What the hell - you took a picture of me so ugly," she muttered, turned two pages, and didn't have the patience to continue reading.

In her solo photo, her bangs were wet with sweat and oily in strands. She leaned against the wooden pillar of the ancestral hall and looked ahead in confusion.

She looked dull and had no image. According to her recollection, she was stunned by the heat at that time.

Zhu Yao added fuel to the fire, "It's not a good photo, but I advise you to take yours back, so that there will be one less copy of your black history in the world."

"That makes sense. You should take one too. You look ugly in this one." She took the booklet home, threw it aside, and never looked at it again.

Looking at it now, it doesn't seem that she was that ugly. Her face was plump and pink at that time, full of collagen. Although her eyes were confused, they were more full and clear.

This was when she was seventeen years old. Long live seventeen.

"The poorest is begging, and if you don't die, you will eventually succeed... How can there be such a motto?" Du Ningyang whispered, feeling ashamed while reading, "But it makes sense, haha."

So he took out his mobile phone, took a picture, and sent it to the trio's small group.

"My dream is... to be admitted to Huaimei, okay, this dream is more reliable."

"What I want to say is... I have nothing to say?!"

I was so cute when I was a child! Du Ningyang smiled, turned back, and found Zhu Yao's page.

Zhu Yao on the screen has thick bangs, short hair pinned behind her ears, a colorful clip on each side, and raised her hands to the camera to make a "yeah" sign.

Her dream is "I can still earn 5,000 yuan by playing at home every day for a month", her motto is "Hard work does not necessarily lead to success, but not working hard will definitely be easy", and what she wants to say is "I am not interested in ordinary humans. If there are aliens, future people, people from another world, or people with superpowers among you, just come to me! (Suzumiya Haruhi's opening remarks)"

Yes, this is very Zhu Yao, Zhu Yao who has not changed in more than ten years.

After turning over the first thirty pages for girls, it was the boys' section.

Du Ningyang suddenly remembered that Wen Xu had also gone to Xi Village at that time. Although he arrived late and left early, would it be recorded? What was his dream at that time, what was his motto, and what did he, who seemed to care about nothing, want to say?

Her heart was beating faster and faster, and her fingertips trembled a little when she turned the pages.

Will it be there? Will he be there? She turned the pages one by one, looking closely at the names on each page, afraid of missing them.

Finally, she stopped at an inconspicuous page mixed in.

Name: Wen Xu.

His photo was a silhouette taken from a group photo taken on an open lawn. The dark gray short-sleeved shirt made the boy's skin look too white. He supported the wooden fence with his hands, raised his head slightly, and looked far away, but focused.

What was cut off was the blurred crowd of people coming and going, and the girl standing at the other end of the crowd, looking at him in confusion, his sweetheart.

At the age of seventeen, they stared at each other across the crowd, and at the age of twenty-eight, she restored their story.

His dream column was blank, his motto column was blank, and what he wanted to say was, - Encore waits for Echo.

Perhaps because he was afraid that she would not understand, he patiently added Chinese at the end and waited for good news.

-

The word Encore is like a key.

After experiencing a failed love, a failed marriage, meeting all kinds of people, and being involved in many hypocritical superficial relationships, her heart slowly closed and became hard.

But the long-standing, unextinguished true heart awakened her again.

Du Ningyang sat at the desk, turned on the desktop computer that was about to be scrapped, logged into QQ, and released Encore from the blacklist.

Encore's level was very low, with only two small stars, which was basically equivalent to not being online much, and his information and data were almost blank.

This computer kept their chat records.

Echo: [Who are you? ]

Encore: [Guess. 】

Echo:【Congratulations, you are using a fake account to deceive me again, right? 】

...

Echo:【I really hate you! 】

Echo:【I will never like you again! 】

Encore:【Yeah. 】

...

Du Ningyang was stunned. When did she say such nonsense to him?

Why was he so stupid that he could not see at all that there was someone else who liked him.

As the blacklisted account was released, the messages he sent but she had never seen jumped out one by one.

At the end of July when he was seventeen, before leaving, he said goodbye to her.

Encore:【I am not congratulating you, I am Wen Xu. I am going to study in the United States. I hope everything goes well for you and your dream comes true and you are admitted to Huaimei. 】

The message was sent, but it was rejected.

On Christmas Eve when she was twenty, she disobeyed her strong mother and gave her an eye-catching gift.

Encore:【Merry Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year. 】

The message was sent, but it was rejected.

In the summer of twenty-two, she watched from afar and watched her walk up to the high platform for graduation photos.

Encore:【Everything goes well in Shenzhen. 】

The message was sent, but was rejected.

In the late autumn of her 25th year, she inexplicably attended the wedding of her best friend.

Encore: [When I come back, can I go to Shenzhen to pursue you? 】

The message was sent, but was rejected.

...

This has been going on for many years, one message after another, accompanied by the somewhat unfamiliar "di di" and "cough cough" sounds, making her brain a little numb.

It is no longer possible to say whether this is touching or a belated heartbeat, but it feels like the heart is reviving. It turns out that being firmly chosen is not a fairy tale.

Time and the world have polished her smooth, and she has given up the fantasy of loving whimsically and feeling that she is special and extraordinary, but now, beautiful love has fallen on her again.

Like a gentle feather, it tickled her eyes and made her want to cry. Du Ningyang sniffed, and with the sharp extension nail, he typed two words with difficulty and slowly.

Echo: [Okay. 】

After so many years, the confused and bewildered girl finally looked back firmly.