On New Year"s Day in 2011, the suns.h.i.+ne was very good. Gu Wei wrapped me up and carried me out of the house. He and his friends made an appointment to play football. At the gates, something unexpected happened.
Gu Wei took my hand and said, “Come on, let me show you around my high school."
The guard patted him on the shoulder and let us in.
During the holiday, there were some scattered students on campus, some laughing together, some playing basketball with sweat on their foreheads, some standing in the corridor in the sun, reciting in English, and some gathered at the stairs to debate about test answer options.
“There, the sculpture, before any exam someone would paste notes on it wis.h.i.+ng for high scores…”
“The stairs, every time it snows, it freezes the next day. So, pay special attention when you walk over there…”
“The basketball court has been expanded now. There weren"t so many fields before. The fastest runner in each cla.s.s would come to grab the right to use it …”
“Ah, the breakfast in the canteen tastes very good. I never knew what they added in soybean milk. Lunch is a bit more painful, for three years the food is basically the same …”
After listening to him recalling his high school life sporadically, I suddenly wanted to see what young Gu Wei looked like. Whether he was also running around in a school uniform laughing loudly or morosely complaining that the test paper is too difficult, the teacher is weird etc. etc.
“I came to X city twice a year, I would have come over if I had known …” I started to ramble.
Gu Wei smiled: “When I was in high school, you were still in primary school. In any case, I wouldn"t have laid hands on a child.”
At 3 o"clock in the afternoon, Gu Wei"s friends arrived one after another. When I was introduced as "my family", I felt a little embarra.s.sed. The crowd greeted me politely and I took off my coat to warm up on the lawn. I stayed beside a pile of clothes.
(TNote: Introducing someone as “my family"s etc etc” means that they are close and their family has acknowledged the relations.h.i.+p. This would mean GW introduced her as “my family"s Zhixiao”.)
The group of men thought I couldn"t hear them—
A: “Gu Wei, you are so bad! You already have a wife!”
B: “You are intentionally teasing me who was recently lovelorn, aren"t you?”
C: “Speak! Where did you get her?!”
D: “Gu brother, does sister-in-law have any cousins?”
E: “Please invite us tonight! You have to!!”
I just wanted to sigh with emotion; even in their 30"s, men could be so childish —
Gu Wei: “You cover it up a little bit. Your envy, jealousy and hatred are too obvious.”
I … found the most childish one.
Gu Wei drank very little that night, but when this fellow sat on the co-pilot seat and looked at me with squinting eyes, I thought I was going shrink back.
“Doctor, are you—are you drunk?” I don"t even know how much alcohol he drunk until now.
“Do you want me to be drunk?”
Flirt!
I took a deep breath: “Just look outside the window!”
New Year"s in 2011 felt very short, busy with buying New Year goods, cleaning, New Year"s Eve dinner and New Year"s greetings.
On the 4th of the month, when I went to see Xiao Geng. He could already understand clearly. I played with his soft fingers and made him laugh. My cousin gave me a look: “Haven"t you had a showdown with aunt-flow yet?”
Me: “Almost …”
The door was pushed open, and my cousin-in-law came in: “Come on, so! Let"s ask your aunt for a red envelope!”
Auntie smiled and held Xiao Geng to him. She pulled me out of the bedroom together, whispering in my ear, “take the person home directly.”
A straight cut to the chase!
After the new year, I returned to X city.
Since the last time I talked to Gao Xi, seeing her again in the hospital always made me feel strange. You are so persistent now, what were you doing back then?
I have always believed in the Doctor"s personality, but who knew that this boyfriend and ex-girlfriend got along with each other every day? And the other party still had a wicked heart, how can someone feel comfortable? Even if the man doesn"t look over the wall, how could you be happy when someone else knocks on the wall and tries to reach over it every day.
I decided to organize an intervention.
“Doctor, I am too lazy to explain things. You too. But sometimes it is necessary to explain them.” I searched for words anxiously, to organize what I wanted to say in a string of words. But my language skills were all killed in the college entrance examination. “There are some things that aren"t convenient to ask by one party. If the other party does not take the initiative to explain. It"s easy to lead to a misunderstanding.”
Doctor: “You made a mistake?”
Me: “No!”
Doctor: “Then why isn"t it convenient to ask?” Why are science students so good at ‘equivalent subst.i.tution"!
“You and Gao Xi."
“Oh. ” Why are you enjoying this?! Not even a follow-up…
“There is a person on the other side of the wall who covets you every day. Just like a fly is buzzing around all the time. It can"t be swatted away and can"t be slapped like other flies …” I suddenly think this metaphor is extremely inappropriate.
The Doctor was silent for quite a while: “I"ve told her everything. I should have told her off… ”
Chen Cong told me about this long ago.
I sighed, “Isn"t there a one-step solution to the problem?”
The doctor rolled over and pressed on my body: “Yes.”
“What are you doing?” Unb.u.t.toning me.
“One step at a time."
“What kind of one-step approach are you talking about?!”
“Yes. ”
Yes, what ‘yes"?!
“Doctor!!!”
“Let"s get married. ” The doctor looked at me, “you should give me formal status.”