Chapter 75 I'm Just a Substitute
If Cao Fengjiao had been messing with me like this at other times, I would have definitely turned on her. But now, I don’t know why, after hearing her say this, I was a little confused and said, “Will burning paper money now really cause trouble?”
"Doctor Tian, don't listen to her nonsense. She just doesn't like us and is here to pick a fight!"
"That's right, it's fine at other times, but today Jia Jia is gone, isn't your heart made of flesh?"
Without waiting for Cao Fengjiao to speak, several patients yelled at her indignantly.
Cao Fengjiao sneered and said, "Keep yelling. If you get into trouble, don't blame me for not warning you. Get out of here, all of you, go eat shit!"
"Who are you talking about eating shit? Do you have any manners?"
"You uneducated thing, I'm old enough to be your father!"
The patients became even angrier. Normally, they didn't care about Cao Fengjiao, but Jia Jia's departure today obviously made them lose their minds. They surrounded Cao Fengjiao and scolded her.
Cao Fengjiao was not to be outdone. She raised her voice and quarreled with them.
I stood up silently and returned to Building D.
Cao Fengjiao’s words reminded me that Ghost Festival is only three days away - by then, will some kind of disaster happen in Building D again?
In the dead of night, it seemed as if an endless amount of thick ink was heavily painted on the sky, without even the glimmer of stars.
Twelve thirty-nine at night.
By this time, most patients were already asleep.
They are in poor health and usually go to bed early, but very few of them can sleep well.
I walked out of the lounge and heard various BGMs of Douyin coming from Cao Fengjiao's room from a distance.
As usual, I patrolled the building. When I reached the fourth floor, I deliberately went to the door of 415. Inside, I could hear the breathing of the patients falling asleep.
The girl holding the ball, the girl who loves to laugh, will never appear again.
I thought about the thing attached to Jia Jia, what was it?
The devil?
Why is it warning me?
Why does it know me?
"Aa ...
The sound of a baby crying interrupted my thoughts.
My heart trembled, and I turned around and looked at 404 not far away.
The crying sound naturally came from room 404.
Is the baby boy in black going to move again?
I was a little nervous and my breathing became rapid, but this time I did not choose to leave immediately. Instead, I walked to the door of 404 step by step with difficulty.
The crying became clearer and intermittent, but unlike the sharp sound before, it was not very aggressive. Instead, it was full of resentment, desolation, and sadness.
Listening to its crying, my mood also became sad, and scenes of the patient's death kept echoing in my mind.
Is it crying for the dead Jia Jia?
Dadadada——
Behind me, there was a sound of light footsteps.
"Zhiyong."
A girl's voice sounded deliberately.
I turned around and saw a girl in a purple dress, with long hair and a pale face, standing not far away and looking at me with a smile.
It’s Cheng Xiaoyan.
"Xiaoyan, why are you here?" I asked in surprise.
"I can't sleep and want to go out for a walk. Can you accompany me?" Cheng Xiaoyan's smile was very natural and clear, completely different from usual.
I felt a little strange. Lately she had been locking herself in the ward, not going out of the main door or in the secondary door, and except for going to the toilet, she basically didn't communicate with anyone.
But now, why did she suddenly want to go out for a walk?
No wonder some experts say that people become emotionally excited late at night. I guess this is the case with Cheng Xiaoyan.
"Okay, where do you want to go?" I nodded.
I would not refuse her request, because I like her, and more importantly, because she doesn’t have much time... anymore.
"I want to to school." Cheng Xiaoyan's eyes flickered with a certain light, and she said faintly, "Not the vocational school now, but the high school I attended before... It's not far from here. I want to go to the playground and the classroom. Can you accompany me?"
I was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Okay."
It is obviously wrong to leave my post at this time, but I just want to be with her now, to be willful once, and again, until she can leave this world peacefully and without regrets.
We walked out of the hospital and hailed a taxi.
On the way, the driver frequently looked at Cheng Xiaoyan in the rearview mirror, not because of her beauty, but because he was curious about what the spots on her neck and face were?
Cheng Xiaoyan didn't seem to care about the driver's gaze and kept looking out the window. I was a little annoyed. When the driver looked at me again, I stood in front of her and glared at him fiercely.
The driver finally stopped looking.
There was no conversation along the way until they reached Cheng Xiaoyan’s former alma mater, Jinhua No. 7 Middle School.
After paying the money, Cheng Xiaoyan was like a little swallow that had escaped from a cage, her face full of joy, and she skipped into the school gate.
She grabbed the gate railing with both hands and said excitedly, "Zhiyong, look, inside is my old high school... Alas, I never thought that after so many years, it is still the same as before, without any change."
I walked up to her and said with a smile, "You've only been out of high school for less than two years. How much can you have changed?"
"Yes, let's go in and take a look."
"Go in? But the doors are locked?"
"Just climb in. I used to go out to surf the Internet in the middle of the night, and when I came back to the dormitory, I would just climb in. Look at this door, it's not high at all. I can climb over it easily."
Cheng Xiaoyan said nonchalantly and started to climb up the iron gate, but after a few steps, her body tilted and she was about to fall down.
I rushed over, held her back, and complained, "Nonsense! You are nothing like you were then!"
Cheng Xiaoyan's face was full of disappointment, and she said bitterly: "Yes, now I am sick all over, and my body feels weak after walking a few steps. It's nothing like it was back then."
I immediately realized that I had said the wrong thing, and quickly said, "Don't think too much, wait until you recover..."
"Zhiyong, I want to go in and take a look, can you help me?" Cheng Xiaoyan interrupted me and looked at me with pleading eyes.
There was really no way I could refuse her request, so I turned my head and looked at the flimsy iron lock on the door.
It is not difficult to pry open the iron lock, but I am afraid of alerting the school security.
A bold idea came to my mind, and I gritted my teeth and said to Cheng Xiaoyan: "I'll carry you on my back, and you hold on to me."
Cheng Xiaoyan was surprised: "You want to carry me over?"
"Don't worry. When I was in sports school, I often did weight training. It was common for me to do pull-ups and push-ups while carrying sandbags weighing 50 or 60 kilograms. You weigh at most 40 kilograms, which is nothing to me." I said confidently.
In fact, Cheng Xiaoyan is very thin now, probably weighing less than 40 kilograms.
When Cheng Xiaoyan heard what I said, she was immediately moved and lay on me without much hesitation.
I took a deep breath, said "hold on tight", and started to climb slowly towards the iron gate.
To be honest, my physical fitness has indeed declined a lot after not doing any exercise for such a long time. I felt a little tired carrying Cheng Xiaoyan, who weighed only more than 30 kilograms, and I was out of breath after a while.
Cheng Xiaoyan laughed at me behind my back, saying that I was a sports student, so how could I fail so quickly?
I was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and sped up my progress. However, when climbing over the door, I slowed down again and reminded her to be careful. Fortunately, nothing went wrong during the whole process and she entered the school smoothly.
"Wow, I didn't expect that I would actually get in!" Cheng Xiaoyan shouted happily.
I quickly covered her mouth and said, "Auntie, the security guard is sleeping. If we wake him up, we'll all be doomed tonight."
Only then did she restrain herself.
…
The campus late at night is completely different from the daytime. There is a sense of tranquility everywhere - the teaching building, the cafeteria, the convenience store, the playground, all the noise is gone and everything becomes quiet.
Cheng Xiaoyan and I walked around hand in hand like two students attending class.
We went to the playground first. The playground of No. 7 Middle School was not big and even a bit simple.
Cheng Xiaoyan really looks like a swallow.
She was running, jumping, and hopping on the playground, pointing at the ping-pong table there, and then asking someone to point to the camphor tree next to it.
Finally, she stopped under the basketball hoop, lost in thought.
I asked her what she was watching, and a blush crept up on her face. She said, "I'm watching my idol play basketball."
"ah?"
Cheng Xiaoyan smiled mischievously and said, "Let's go to the classroom and take a look."
I wanted to ask her who her idol was, but she had already pulled me and was walking happily towards the teaching building.
When I arrived at the door of classroom 303, this time I didn't have any scruples. I directly broke the lock, pushed the door open, and walked in with Cheng Xiaoyan.
When I turned on the lights in the classroom, rows of desks came into view. Some of the desks were covered with thick books and stationery.
"Yeah, I'm in!"
Cheng Xiaoyan seemed to have done something very successful. She was extremely excited that night.
She walked to the middle window seat and sat down, her face pressed against the cold desk. She looked nostalgic and said with a smile, "This is my old desk - look at it, there are words I carved on it!"
I walked over and took a look, and sure enough, there were a lot of random words, all quite non-mainstream, like "It's just right to have you accompany me in this green sky.", "If my meeting you is a tragedy, then let my life stop now...", "Teacher Jiang is so hateful, he always stares at me", "My male god, you are so handsome when you play basketball", "Sun Ao, I, Liu Junmei, love you!".
"How about it? Pretty cool, right? I carved them all." Cheng Xiaoyan said proudly.
I was speechless and said you were destroying public property.
"But you're probably not the only one who does such stupid things - for example, this, Sun Ao, I, Liu Junmei, love you, muah. This should have been carved by a girl named Liu Junmei."
Cheng Xiaoyan's face immediately turned red, and she said that in fact she also carved this, but she was afraid of being discovered by her idol, so she used the name Liu Junmei.
Male god?
This is the second time I heard her call her male god.
"Is this guy named Sun Ao very powerful?" I asked .
"Well, yes, he's a very good man."
As if lost in some memories, Cheng Xiaoyan's smile gradually faded.
She told me that Sun Ao is the captain of the school basketball team. He is handsome, tall, and good at playing basketball. I don’t know how many girls like him.
At that time, she was also madly infatuated with Sun Ao. Every day her mind was filled with Sun Ao's figure... Later on, she almost lost her appetite.
Hearing Cheng Xiaoyan say this, I felt a little uncomfortable and asked casually: "Do you still like him now?"
Cheng Xiaoyan glanced at me and said, "I like it."
My heart trembled, as if it was hit hard by an iron plate.
"But I hate him too." Cheng Xiaoyan gave a miserable smile.
She said that in order to pursue Sun Ao, she dressed herself up beautifully every day and deliberately created opportunities to meet him. Whenever Sun Ao played basketball, she would be a cheerleader, bring him water, wipe his sweat, and encourage him.
Love grows over time. Although Sun Ao is outstanding, Cheng Xiaoyan is not bad either. In terms of appearance, there are few girls in the school who are prettier than her.
Soon, the two fell in love.
What Cheng Xiaoyan never expected was that this kind of campus love came and went quickly.
The two of them separated after being together for less than a month.
The reason is - Sun Ao cheated.
Cheng Xiaoyan was almost crazy at that time. She cried desperately and begged Sun Ao not to break up with her. She almost knelt down to him.
However, Sun Ao's attitude remained the same. He said that Cheng Xiaoyan's investigation of him showed her lack of trust in him and that they should not be together in the future.
Hearing this, I couldn’t believe it. Cheng Xiaoyan’s love could be so humble?
She actually asked for forgiveness from someone who did something wrong?
What’s even more bizarre is that this guy Sun Ao still doesn’t agree?
"Do you regret it now?" I looked at her and asked.
"No regrets." Cheng Xiaoyan shook her head.
"Why?" I couldn't help it and raised my voice a little, "He played with you like this, why don't you hate him?"
Cheng Xiaoyan laughed at herself and said, "Because, I still like him..."
I was silent.
like……
Yes, a simple love is better than anything else...
Since ancient times, in terms of love, the one who gives is always humble and lowly...
Even if you know that the other person is wrong, even if you know that this relationship will not work out, you still have no regrets and work hard without complaint...
"Zhiyong, I want to apologize to you." Cheng Xiaoyan bit her lip, and suddenly, as if she had mustered up the courage, she said, "The reason why I like you is because, from your profile, you look a lot like Sun Ao..."
From the side, very similar?
I laughed.
An indescribable feeling of humiliation and irony spread throughout my body.
I nodded and sneered, "I see. You mean, I'm just a substitute for that scumbag?"
"No, it's not like that. You are you - Zhiyong. I don't want to lie to you anymore. I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Cheng Xiaoyan said anxiously, her voice gradually choking, and big tears flowed down her cheeks.
I shook my head and said, "Okay, stop talking."
I felt indescribably heavy, as if the night was no longer beautiful and the classroom was no longer pure.
It turns out that everything is fake.
It turns out that these are nothing but illusions.
"Zhiyong, I'm sorry..." Cheng Xiaoyan said crying.
"You haven't done anything wrong to me. After all, we have never confirmed our relationship." I said self-deprecatingly, looking at my phone, "It's getting late, I should go."
"Zhiyong, I..."
boom!
Suddenly, a row of glass windows next to it shattered instantly as if they were hit by something...
I was startled and asked in surprise: "What's going on?"
Snap!
Then, the incandescent light on the ceiling went out...
The entire classroom was suddenly plunged into darkness...
“Oops…Oops!”
In the darkness, Cheng Xiaoyan's trembling voice rang out, "My grandma is here!!"
