Chapter 6: Meeting You at the Horizon Lu Shuang 03
Yu Nansheng realized it belatedly and pushed through the crowd to catch up. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something but nothing came out.
I smiled and spoke first: "I'm sorry, I didn't want you to know, but you saw it anyway..."
Yu Nansheng lowered his head, as if thinking about something. After a long time, he uttered in a low voice: "I'm sorry... I really don't know you..."
"You mean to say that my family is a bunch of trouble, so you think I deserve sympathy and you shouldn't have blamed me like that before, right?" I gave a self-deprecating smile.
Yu Nansheng didn’t know what I meant by asking this. He wanted to answer but hesitated, and his expression was very awkward.
I didn't want to embarrass her, so I just said, "There's no need to sympathize with her. I'm really not a good person and I've done a lot of bad things. I guess it's because I have half scum blood in my body that God punished me as well."
Yu Nansheng looked at me, biting her lips, and said after a while: "Don't say that..."
"Don't worry, I'm fine. I've been through this for so many years, and this little thing won't kill me." I pretended to smile and said to her, "Go wherever you need to go. I'm really fine."
Yu Nansheng didn't leave, but couldn't help asking, "Are you worried about tuition fees now?"
I didn't give a direct answer, but just said, "I can always find a way, so you don't have to worry about it. The bus stop is across the street, I'll go there first, and see you at the newspaper office tomorrow."
Yu Nansheng seemed to want to say something, but was stopped by my words.
I know she is just showing concern and sympathy with good intentions, but I don't like to receive concern and sympathy from others. Sometimes I wonder, if I were not in this situation, but had similar living conditions to Yu Nansheng, would we become good friends?
But who knows? There is no such thing as "if".
Before I even got home, I received a call from an unfamiliar number.
I was stunned for a moment. Logically speaking, Su Xin would have at least some time to wait before having another attack. Could something have happened to her again?
Confused, I pressed the answer button. On the other end of the line was a male voice that was unfamiliar but seemed to have been heard somewhere before: "Is this Lu Shuang? I'm Xia Xingfeng, who you met at the police station last week."
"Xia Xingfeng?"
I hesitated for a moment and searched in my mind. It seemed that the son of the person Su Xin stole the bag from last time was named Xingfeng.
He seemed to sense my hesitation, so he said on the other end of the phone: "Ms. Lu, I'm near your house now. If it's convenient, please come out and meet me."
I felt a bit of a headache: "Didn't we settle the last matter privately? Do you think the compensation is not enough and regret it again?"
As if he didn't expect me to think this way, Xia Xingfeng paused for a second and quickly explained: "I didn't mean that..."
I had no idea what Xia Xingfeng was up to, so I wanted to hang up the phone, but then I saw him standing under a street light not far ahead, holding his phone. I recognized his handsome, childish face, and he didn't look like someone with bad intentions.
I sighed and said, "I'm here, right to your right. Just tell me what you want to say."
Xia Xingfeng was obviously stunned for a moment. After he reacted, he turned his head and saw me. Then he put away his phone and walked towards me with a brown paper bag in his hand.
"Ms. Lu, actually I came here this time to return the compensation you gave me last time. I learned about your family's situation from Officer Su, and I felt that we cannot accept this money, so I came here today specifically to return it to you." Xia Xingfeng said as he handed over the brown paper bag.
I didn't answer it, I was just stunned for a moment. Normally, if a thief steals a valuable bag and returns it in a damaged state, a normal person would still be angry even if they received compensation. But the boy in front of me was so generous that he cared about the thief's survival.
Seeing that I didn't answer, Xia Xingfeng added, "Don't worry, I really have no other purpose. I just think this money may be very important to you."
I looked at the paper bag, then at him, and was silent for a long time before I said, "Actually, I'm really short of money right now. If I were a little thick-skinned, I might have gotten it back. But there's nothing I can do. I'm not that thick-skinned. This was caused by my mother, and the money has already been paid. You don't have to pay it back to me..."
My eyes fell on the paper bag and I said, "Although I rarely take so much money, I can see that there must be more than three thousand in this bag."
“…”
"Mr. Xia, no matter what your purpose is, I appreciate your kindness." I nodded to him politely and prepared to leave. "It's getting late, and I should go back. Please do as you please."
Xia Xingfeng held the paper bag in his hand and remained silent for a while before he asked me, "Don't you believe me?"
I smiled and said, "I'm sorry, I don't trust anyone, it's not targeting you."
Xia Xingfeng frowned, his expression a little complicated: "You really don't remember me?"
I glanced at him, looking him up and down, but he didn't look familiar at all. "Mr. Xia, I think you have the wrong person. I have never seen you before."
I seemed to see the light in Xia Xingfeng's eyes go out in an instant. He opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.
I didn't wait for him to speak again, I just walked past him and went into the hallway. In fact, I was really worried that I would be tempted to accept the money, but it might also be because I have been in the outside world for a long time, so I always keep a wary eye on such pie-in-the-sky things.
Although Xia Xingfeng does not look like a bad person on the surface, many people appear to be good people on the surface but are actually scumbags behind the scenes.
It ’s such a pity. If I could really get that money back, I’d have hope of paying for my tuition.
What I didn't see was that after I left, Xia Xingfeng stood alone under the street light for a long time. He took out a very small photo from his pocket, which looked like it was cut out. It showed a girl with short hair wearing a school uniform. She looked only about twelve or thirteen years old. Her face was obviously childish, but her expression was serious, without the slightest smile.
Lu Shuang, I found you. Five years have passed, and I hope you are doing well.
