Chapter 7 The war between women must be resolved by themselves 2
Qiu Zhuoping walked up to Chen Yiying, he just touched her hand lightly, and then held it tightly. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from her seat. When he took a few steps and pulled the cloth off his eyes, the whole audience applauded. Only Liu Jiaran stamped his feet angrily and stepped hard on Zhong Jialiang, saying that he was useless.
"How do you know it was me?"
"There is a scar on the back of your hand. You said it was caused by a burn when you were a child. I have always remembered it." Qiu Zhuoping held Yiying's hand. He looked at the scar on the back of her hand, and a hint of warmth appeared in his cold smile.
Yiying had the habit of writing a diary a long time ago. During her college years, she recorded a lot about him in her diary. After he disappeared inexplicably, she eliminated him from her life. She didn't want to let this person who controlled her emotions enter her life again. But perhaps, she couldn't completely eliminate him from the beginning to the end. Because a long time ago, he walked into her heart and occupied the most important position.
Soft music and lights filled the hall. Qiu Zhuoping put his arm around Yiying's waist and started dancing the waltz.
"Why did you like me before?" Yiying followed Qiu Zhuoping forward and backward. This was the first time they had such a close conversation since they met again. It was as if they had traveled through time and space, as if everything around them had disappeared.
Qiu Zhuoping couldn't help but think back to his college days: Chen Yiying was the first girl who dared to yell at him and break up with him, and she was also the first girl who made his heart beat fast.
He did not answer Yiying's question, but smiled faintly. He spun her around and danced the waltz gracefully.
Liu Jiaran looked at Qiu Zhuoping and Chen Yiying who were covered by the lights, and she was so angry that her teeth itched. She had always been a proud princess, but Chen Yiying took away all her pride and glory with the attitude of a queen. She did not dance with Zhong Jialiang, but turned to the beverage area and kept drinking. She hoped that she could get drunk and no longer be tortured by such feelings, but the alcohol made her anger gradually burn, and finally it was out of control.
The loud sound of the slap made the music stop abruptly, and everyone looked at Liu Jiaran, who was staggering. Her cheeks were red and her eyes were full of tears. She pointed at Chen Yiying, who was covering her face and unable to react, and shouted loudly: "Why did you want to compete with me for Brother Zhuo Ping? How can you compare with me! Are you richer than me? Are you prettier than me?"
"Liu Jiaran, you've drunk too much." Seeing that the situation was not right, Qiu Zhuoping hurriedly pulled Liu Jiaran away and kept a certain distance from Chen Yiying.
Liu Jiaran glanced at Qiu Zhuoping and sneered, "Brother Zhuoping, you know, I have liked you since I was a child. As long as it is something you ask, I will not refuse, and I will do my best to help you. But what about you? You are so high and mighty, you will only ignore my efforts. In the past two years, if it weren't for me, if I hadn't helped you, you and..."
Liu Jiaran couldn't continue speaking because Qiu Zhuoping slapped her in the face in public.
"Curb your big-girl temper."
"You won't let me say it?" Liu Jiaran smiled bitterly , tears immediately overflowing from her eyes. This was the love she had worked so hard to cultivate, and this was the reward she got for her time and money. She knew he didn't love her, but she didn't care, as long as he was by her side. Why did he want to destroy even this thought, why was her love so humble?
"Qiu Zhuoping, for your dignity, for her, you hit me? In your heart, who am I? Am I really inferior to Chen Yiying?"
"I've always treated you as my sister, that's all." Qiu Zhuoping knew he shouldn't hit her, but he couldn't watch the person he loved being bullied, and he couldn't let her continue to hurt Chen Yiying. He opened his lips slightly, wanting to apologize, but Liu Jiaran had already pushed him away, ran to Chen Yiying, and started fighting with her.
Qiu Zhuoping wanted to step forward to stop him, but Zhong Jialiang grabbed his hand tightly and shook his head at him: "The war between women must be resolved by themselves."
Because Zhong Jialiang and Qiu Zhuoping did not intervene, the others in the hall did not dare to intervene. They watched the two women fall to the ground together, overturning several tables with desserts and drinks. They tore each other's hair, and their gorgeous skirts were torn into several pieces, leaving them in a mess.
Liu Jiaran tightly grasped Chen Yiying's neck, while Chen Yiying fiercely pulled her long curly hair back. The two were fighting in the most primitive way, with no one to help or dissuade them.
That was the most embarrassing day in Chen Yiying's life. Her long skirt was torn into several pieces, revealing her denim shorts. The pearl necklace around her neck was also torn off, and the pearls were scattered all over the floor. The light reflected her embarrassment.
Liu Jiaran wasn't much better off. Yiying bit her arm, and her originally delicate skin immediately turned red. Her curly hair was torn off, and her neck was scratched with several red bloody marks. She was like an angry lion, relentlessly pouncing on her prey.
Finally, Chen Yiying kicked her away, got up, picked up a large bottle of cold water next to her, and poured it on her face.
The cold touch made Liu Jiaran shiver, and Chen Yiying took the opportunity to run out the door and escape from this embarrassing party.
Qiu Zhuoping and Zhong Jialiang originally chased out together, but Liu Jiaran, who was splashed with water, rushed forward and grabbed the hand of one of them tightly.
"Brother Zhuoping, don't leave me! Brother Zhuoping, it's all my fault. Can I admit my mistake? Please don't ignore me for her anymore, wuwu..." Liu Jiaran hugged the figure tightly, crying.
Zhong Jialiang sighed as he watched Qiu Zhuoping's back gradually recede into the distance. Liu Jiaran, who was hugging him tightly from behind, reeked of alcohol and seemed to be so drunk that he couldn't tell who was who.
Chen Yiying originally wanted to hail a taxi on the roadside, but the taxis were full of people. She turned around and watched Qiu Zhuoping approaching. She didn't want to face him in such an embarrassing state. She lifted her skirt and wanted to rush across the road to the other side of silence.
Qiu Zhuoping saw her running a red light and quickened his pace to catch up with her.
The vehicles passing back and forth kept honking their horns, but Yiying ran across the street regardless of her life.
"Are you going to die?"
"Are you sick!"
“I didn’t see any car!”
The car owner rolled down the window, leaned out and yelled at the disheveled Chen Yiying.
In the dim light, no one noticed her sadness. When she crossed the road and stepped onto the lawn, the heel of her right foot suddenly broke. Her center of gravity was off balance, and her right foot twisted along with the broken heel. Her entire ankle touched the ground directly, and the pain spread from her ankle to her whole body, so painful that she almost had no strength to stand up.
"Yiying!" Qiu Zhuoping crossed the road and hurried to her side, helping her up with a caring look on his face.
She pushed him away with all her strength and fell to the ground again. The pain in her ankle was even more heartbreaking.
"I beg you not to follow me anymore. I just want to be alone. I just want to live a simple life! If you don't plan to tell me anything and exclude me from everything, then two years ago and two years later, I don't need you. I don't need you!" For some reason, her tears fell without any warning.
Why should a relationship that could have ended two years ago remain unclear two years later?
"I don't need you to take care of me, please go away, okay? Don't interfere in my life anymore, don't disturb my originally peaceful life anymore. I don't want to be sad anymore, I don't want to be as depressed as I was two years ago when I suddenly couldn't find you anymore. I don't want to shed tears anymore, and I don't want to pretend to be strong and indifferent." If crying means weakness, then Yiying is weak at this moment.
She buried her head on the lawn, tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyeliner washed away by the tears and melted on her eyelids.
That was the first time Qiu Zhuoping heard her speak in such a weak tone. He always thought she was strong and could live well on her own, but in fact, her fragility was beyond his imagination. She spent two years digesting her sadness, but he always thought she was living a happy life.
"Can I take you home and then disappear?" Qiu Zhuoping's attitude softened. He remained calm as always, but he was at a loss in his heart. He used all his strength to help her up and held her tightly in his arms: "Let me take you home. I will not interfere in your life anymore. I will disappear, okay?"
"I want you to disappear now, disappear now! Don't show up again, I don't want to see you, I don't want to!" Yiying struggled, but finally leaned in his arms and cried.
She didn't want him to leave, nor did she want him to disappear, but she was really tired. She felt at a loss about this love that could neither continue nor turn back.
Finally, Qiu Zhuoping hailed a taxi, and the two of them sat in the car in silence, as quiet as strangers.
The taxi stopped at the bottom of Chen Yiying's apartment. The old apartment with mottled exterior walls looked like cracked land, and there was no elevator. Yiying limped out of the taxi, and Qiu Zhuoping paid the fare and hurried over to help her.
"I'm here, go away, I don't want to look at you any more." Chen Yiying, still angry, continued to walk towards the stairs of the apartment. Her self-esteem did not allow her to accept any goodness from the man in front of her, as if all the goodness would burn her.
"I'll take you up."
"No need!" Yiying shook off his hand and tried to keep her balance on one foot.
And just as she turned around with a determined look on her face, Qiu Zhuoping hugged her.
When I got a little closer, my bitter lips were moistened, and the long-lost moisture lingered between my lips.
The shadows under the streetlight overlapped and then separated. Yiying waved her hand and slapped Qiu Zhuoping hard.
That slap was extremely loud in the silent night; that slap seemed to shatter all of Qiu Zhuoping's dignity and pride.
"roll!"
This simple word made Qiu Zhuoping tremble all over. He paused for a moment, turned around and left in a taxi.
Chen Yiying looked at the taxi speeding away and sneered at herself. He would never let go of his dignity and would never change for her. If that was the case, why should she have any hope for him?
Yiying limped up the stairs. Although she lived on a low floor, with her lame leg, she felt like she was spending her whole life climbing the stairs.
When she was a child, Yiying couldn't understand why those disabled people with crutches walked so slowly. Now, she finally understands the inconvenience of having a disability. When she climbed to the second floor, she saw the taxi Qiu Zhuoping took disappear at the end of the long street. When she spent more than ten minutes climbing to the fourth floor, the taxi that disappeared drove back and slowly stopped downstairs.
The moment she saw Qiu Zhuoping getting out of the car, she knew that perhaps she would never be able to get him out of her heart.
Qiu Zhuoping took two or three steps to the fourth floor, picked her up horizontally without saying a word, and walked briskly to the fifth floor. He kicked the door of the apartment with his foot, and Huimei, who came out to open the door, was shocked for a few seconds, and then hurriedly opened the door to let them in.
After entering the house, Qiu Zhuoping found the medicine box, rubbed Chen Yiying's injured ankle with medicated wine for ten minutes, and then simply bandaged it with gauze.
"I'll give you an extra half month of vacation. Tomorrow, let Huimei take you to the hospital for an X-ray to see if you have any fractures." After giving the instructions, Qiu Zhuoping left the apartment and closed the door behind him.
Huimei looked at Yiying's miserable appearance and did not say anything to comfort her. Instead, she used their usual way of communication and said, "Did you go to participate in Halloween?"
Yiying looked at Huimei's gossipy expression and suddenly felt that Huimei was the person who should be eliminated from her life!
After spraining her foot, Yiying has been recuperating at home. Although she went to the hospital for a checkup and found nothing serious, she asked the doctor to issue a certificate of comminuted fracture. Since Qiu Zhuoping gave her a half-month vacation, she would enjoy her leisure life.
Because Chen Yiying can't cook and can't take care of herself, she can only go downstairs to buy a fast food every day, and then go back to the apartment to eat while watching TV series. When she is bored, she will clean the room and sort out some old things.
Among some old things, she saw her old diary. She has always had the habit of writing a diary, and her diary is always filled with dense words, and between the lines are her past memories.
In her memory, her parents lived in two different places because of work, and she was used to living with her father or mother. Because she liked to watch martial arts dramas when she was a child, she defined herself as a chivalrous woman who was self-reliant and strong, and came and went like the wind. Later, because of her studies, her family was separated into three places. She wanted to gain a foothold in this city far away from her parents and fight for her own little world. Later, she met Qiu Zhuoping.
She flipped through the yellowed pages of her diary. It was only two years, but the memories made them wrinkled.
She saw a recipe she had written on a piece of paper. It was Qiu Zhuoping's favorite food. She wrote it down one by one, but before she could learn how to cook it, Qiu Zhuoping left her world.
She had wanted to burn these memories many times, but every time she saw the flame of the lighter burning, she was reluctant to put it down.
“At the beginning, we are all children. At the end, we all long to become angels. Ballads of ballads sing the shadows of fairy tales. Children’s children, where should they fly to…”
The ringtone of her cell phone was "Days on Beijing East Road". This song brought Yiying back to reality. She looked at the unfamiliar number on the screen, not knowing whether it was a harassing call or a customer's call.
"Hello." Yiying said politely, and from the other end of the phone came the broadcast that the plane was about to take off.
"Hello, is this Chen Yiying?"
"I am. You are..."
"My name is Xu Xishu, and I'm about to fly back to China. Qiu Zhuoping asked me to call you and ask you to pick me up at the airport in two hours and take me to find a house to live in first."
Xu Yushu's voice seemed to become more magnetic, and Chen Yiying, who had not had much contact with Xu Yushu, was unable to recognize it quickly.
"Okay, I'll meet you at the airport in two hours." Yiying nodded hurriedly, even though she knew the other party couldn't see her.
After hanging up the phone, she called Huimei and told her that Xu Xishu had returned to China.
Huimei, who was drawing the character design manuscript in the studio, stopped writing, and the ink from the pen tip spread to the same point on the paper.
He returned to China? But... he didn't call her.
But what did it matter? Since he went to Canada for further studies, there was not only distance between them, but also time difference.
In the first few months after Xu Shu went abroad, he would chat with Hui Mei about foreign topics - foreign architecture, foreign scenery and culture. Hui Mei often stayed up until three or four in the morning waiting for his reply. But later, they had fewer and fewer topics to talk about, and finally only liked the posts on WeChat Moments. In the end, they both stopped posting on WeChat Moments and even omitted the likes.
For Xu Shushu, university was just a small insignificant station in his life, and she was one of the passers-by he met at the station. She would remember him, who was full of light, and he would meet many people like her at different stations. They were neither lovers nor friends, and they could neither be lovers nor true friends.
Life is sometimes so embarrassing and we can't avoid it.
Huimei politely declined Yiying's request to go to the airport to pick up Xu Shu. She knew that she was just a shadow covered by Xu Shu's figure and could only watch his light in the dark corner.
"I have something to do in the afternoon, so I'd like to take a break." Huimei finally put down the pen in her hand, took her cross-body bag and left the studio.
When she arrived at the airport, Yiying was standing at the passenger exit to greet Xu Shushu. Xu Shushu came out with his ticket and passport in hand and waved at Yiying, with a warm smile on his face.
Huimei was secretly watching them not far away. Yiying stepped forward to help him drag a suitcase, and the two of them walked towards the airport exit together, talking and laughing.
Xu Shushu looked more mature and steady. He wore dark jeans and a windbreaker, with a simple round-neck T-shirt underneath. He wore a Swiss mechanical watch and checked the time from time to time.
"How is Huimei doing recently? Why didn't she come?" Xu Shushu asked on the way.
"Emi is doing graphic design and game character design. The studio has received a lot of orders recently and is very busy, so she doesn't have time to come. By the way, are you going to settle down in China now or..."
"Oh, I am planning to hold an art exhibition. I have made a lot of preparations and have decided on a location. I will come and show my support when I am free."
Huimei watched them walk out of the airport and get into a taxi and speed away.
Even if I come to pick you up, what else can we talk about? It's better to watch you from a distance like now. Although it's not perfect, it's also what I think is happiness.
Huimei smiled in relief and followed him out of the busy airport...
