Chapter 6 Blooming 2
When I heard Chen Qiaoluo's voice, I cried even louder. I hit his back hard with my hands and cursed: "Chen Qiaoluo, you are a bastard. If I don't run away, do I have to wait for you to humiliate me?"
"Who humiliated you?" Chen Qiaoluo let me go, and held my shoulders with his hands to force me to look at him. With a slight smile on his face, he said, "I was so shocked by you that I didn't even have time to say anything, but you just ran away without a trace."
Seeing him like this, I felt much better, but I still said stubbornly: "I don't care, it's all your fault, you made me sad."
"Yes, yes, it's all my fault. I made you sad, young lady." Chen Qiaoluo echoed my words, and suddenly raised his head and looked at me seriously and said, "Yunhao, please forgive me."
In fact, we both made mistakes from the beginning to the end, so there is no question of who forgives whom. I stopped crying, looked at him seriously and said, "Chen Qiaoluo, I was also wrong in the past. So, let's just let it go. I just hope there won't be so many misunderstandings between us in the future. If there is anything that can be said face to face, we should never say it on the phone, and if there is anything we want to say, we should never keep it in our hearts."
After hearing what I said, Chen Qiaoluo lowered his head and was silent for a while, then he suddenly raised his head again, stared into my eyes affectionately and said: "You said that you should not keep what you want to say in your heart, then Hello Zhu Yun, now I want to tell you that I have been very painful these days without you, very, very painful. Every night I am so sad that I toss and turn and can't sleep. I want to find you, but I am afraid to find you, so I can only hide at home and not go to class. I am afraid that once I see you, all my pretended strength will fall apart. You see, you are so important and occupy my whole heart."
Hearing such lingering love words from Chen Qiaoluo again, for a moment my heart seemed to be filled with flowers all over the mountains and fields.
Just as I was secretly rejoicing, Chen Qiaoluo continued, "I know it may be too difficult for you to accept me now, but I can wait. No matter how long it takes, I can wait for you to slowly fall in love with me. If one year is not enough, then two years. If two years are not enough, then ten years. If ten years are not enough, then a lifetime. No matter what, I believe I can wait for you in the end."
This confession was even more touching than the last one. I looked at Chen Qiaoluo's face so close to me and tried to speak, but the words in my heart got stuck in my throat. I was too cautious, I was afraid that I just cared about him as a friend, not that I really liked him.
Seeing that I didn't say anything, Chen Qiaoluo lowered his head and gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead.
He said, "Hello, Yun, see you at school tomorrow."
Chen Qiaoluo started to appear in my life again. Before the Chinese New Year, he, Gigi Lai, and Tong Xiaotian and I would often meet up to review lessons at a milk tea shop outside the school. As the college entrance examination approached, the atmosphere in the school became increasingly tense, and even the winter vacation was delayed until the day before Chinese New Year's Eve.
This year was different from the past. Aunt Shen had officially moved into our home. On New Year's Eve, she woke me up early in the morning to go shopping for groceries and couplets, and after I came back, I helped her clean the house. She made me feel the long-lost maternal love, and I happily listened to her chatter.
Gigi Lai called me before dinner to wish me a happy new year, and she was as happy as usual.
For this New Year’s Eve dinner, Aunt Shen prepared a table full of dishes. It was a rare occasion that my dad and I were no longer spending the holiday alone.
After eating and drinking, my father and I sat on the sofa to watch the Spring Festival Gala, while Aunt Shen was busy in the kitchen alone.
Such a family reunion actually moved me so much that I wanted to cry. After all, such a scene had only appeared in my dreams, but I never thought that one day my dream would come true.
Chen Qiaoluo called me at 11 o'clock. As soon as I answered the phone, I heard him say, "Hello Zhu Yun, there will be New Year's Eve fireworks in Times Square tonight. Do you want to go watch it with me?"
"Okay." I agreed immediately and asked, "Where are you now? I'll come find you."
"No need, I'm just downstairs from your house."
Hearing him say that, I stood up from the sofa and walked to the window to look down. Chen Qiaoluo was standing below in a bright red cotton jacket. As if he felt that I was looking at him, he suddenly raised his head and smiled at me, saying, "Come down quickly, I'll wait for you."
After hanging up the phone, my dad seemed to have heard what I said. He turned around and asked me, "Daughter, are you going out to play?"
"Yeah, a classmate called me."
"Then you should be careful and come back early."
As my father finished speaking, Aunt Shen also reminded him, "Call your father when you come back and ask him to pick you up. It's Chinese New Year, and it's a little unsafe for a girl like you to be outside. Do you hear me?"
"Okay." I agreed with her, went back to my room, changed my clothes, came out and said to them, "Dad, Aunt Shen, I'm leaving first. You two can stay at home and have a good time dating."
"You girl..."
Following Aunt Shen's coquettish words, I closed the door and walked out. In an instant, the cold wind in the corridor blew into my collar.
I walked downstairs. Chen Qiaoluo was looking down, thinking about something. When he saw me coming out, he smiled at me and said, "Let's go."
Every year on New Year’s Eve, Times Square in City A holds an event with tens of thousands of people celebrating the New Year. I remember when I was little, my mom and dad brought me here, but after my mom left us, I never came here again on New Year’s Eve.
When Chen Qiaoluo and I arrived, the square was already crowded with people, all holding sky lanterns in their hands.
Chen Qiaoluo glanced at the vendor next to him and said, "Let's buy some too."
I nodded and saw him pay and bring over two lamps and two pens.
The Kongming lantern is also called the wish lantern. Write your wish on it and release it when the clock strikes twelve. In this way, your dream will come true in the coming year.
Chen Qiaoluo and I wrote our wishes with our backs to each other and then held them in our hands.
There were still more than ten minutes before the New Year. We both remained silent, each thinking about our own things.
Soon, the sound of bells came from the big bell in the middle of the square, and in an instant, brilliant fireworks exploded on the lake not far away, and cheers came from all around. People lit the Kongming lanterns in their hands and let them fly into the sky with the wind.
Chen Qiaoluo handed me the lighter. I lit the wick and gently lifted it up. The Kongming lantern in my hand floated up to the sky with the wind. I watched it gradually drift away.
I just looked at the sky, countless Kongming lanterns were dancing with the fireworks, and the originally dark night was now full of lights. I turned my head to look at Chen Qiaoluo, and suddenly asked: "Chen Qiaoluo, do you think our wish will really come true?"
At this time, Chen Qiaoluo had just released his Kongming lantern into the sky. When he heard me ask this, he was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Hello Zhu Yun, are you a fool? Isn't this Kongming lantern called a wish lantern? So your wish will definitely come true."
The fireworks lasted for half an hour. After it ended, the number of people in the square gradually decreased. Chen Qiaoluo looked at me squatting on the steps and said, "Let's go. I'll take you home."
I went back to school on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year. It was snowing in City A at that time. It had been snowing since the fifth day of the Lunar New Year until now. I went to class wearing snow boots and a down jacket that reached almost to my ankles. Gigi Lai complained to me that the snow was falling at the wrong time.
At the beginning of the new semester, the countdown to the college entrance examination was written on the blackboard at the back of the classroom, and I was no longer as reckless as before.
Looking back on what happened back then, it seems like a dream.
The day Chen Qiaoluo got into trouble was the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month. The school was closed on the 14th day of the first lunar month to prepare for the registration for the new semester. When I received a call from Aunt He Pei, I was out shopping for things for the new semester with Aunt Shen. When I saw that it was her calling, I immediately had a bad feeling in my heart.
I signaled to Aunt Shen, and then hurried out of the store to answer the phone. As soon as I picked up the phone, before I had time to say anything, I heard Aunt He Pei crying and gasping for breath, "Hello, Ah Luo... Ah Luo is in trouble."
For a moment, I stood there as if struck by lightning, and the phone slid down my palm and fell to the ground with a thud.
Aunt Shen seemed to notice something was wrong with me. She rushed out of the store and asked nervously, "Hello, Yun. What's wrong? What happened?"
My tears fell from my eyes as if I couldn't control myself. I shook my head at her and squatted down to pick up the phone. Aunt He Pei on the other end of the phone hadn't hung up yet. I choked up and asked, "Aunt He Pei, where is Chen Qiaoluo now?"
I met Chen Qiaoluo in the detention room of the police station. After not seeing him for two days, he had a green beard on his chin and his eyes were full of bloodshot. When he saw me, he seemed to have expected it. He smiled weakly and said, "Hello, Yun, you are here."
"Yeah." I nodded, and my tears almost burst out again.
When I met Aunt He Pei outside just now, she told me what happened. This morning, when she was washing vegetables and preparing for the reunion dinner, a group of police suddenly rushed in and took Chen Qiaoluo away without saying anything. They told Aunt He Pei that Chen Qiaoluo had committed a crime, saying that there was something fishy at the place where he worked before, and they wanted to take him back to the police station for investigation.
