On the train of seasons, if you wanted to get off early, please do not wake me up who was pretending to sleep. Thus, I could sleep to the end and pretend that I didn"t know you were gone.
The easiest things to lose: cellphones, wallets, keys, and umbrellas.
Your life would be incomplete if you didn"t lose them several times.
One day when it was rainy, I couldn"t catch a taxi. Having waited for a long time, I finally stopped one where there was already a customer, so I carpooled. I drank a lot that night, so I felt dizzy and fell into sleep after telling the driver my destination. I found my wallet lying beside my feet after waking up and was about to bend over to pick it up. The driver interrupted me coldly, "It"s not yours. It"s left by my last customer."
Having glanced at it after I picked it up, I found it was mine.
The driver insisted on saying, "It"s not yours. Can you tell me how much money is inside? To be exact, you have to tell me how many banknotes and coins."
I had lost my wallet many times before, so I never put my ID in it and couldn"t remember how much money I put in. The driver still stuck to his idea and almost wanted to pull over to grab my wallet.
I couldn"t speak clearly because of the liquor, but I tried to explain to him in a calm tone. Then, I suddenly realized from his indifferent eyes that he wanted to blackmail me.
At the critical moment, the girl sitting on the back seat said, "I can prove that it"s his wallet. I witnessed that the wallet slipped out of his pocket."
With a darkened face, the driver abruptly pressed the horn and shouted with his head stuck out of the car window, "If you want to die, don"t hit my car. Why do you drive an electrically-operated vehicle on such a rainy day? Do you want to die and buy a Santana car in the next life?"
I staggered a few steps after getting off the taxi. The girl suddenly caught up with me and said shyly, "Your keys, cellphone, and umbrella."
I asked in surprise, "Why do you get those?"
She said, "You left them on the taxi."
It was still raining. She got an umbrella, but it was mine, so she didn"t unfold it. I possessed one, but I was unable to open it, because the one she held was mine. Thus, we were like drowned rats.
I said, "Hahaha, aren"t you a swindler?"
She was short and shivering in the rain. "Give you."
She directly hid in the awning of a bus station after I accepted those, probably because her destination was different from mine, but in order to return my stuff, she got off earlier.
I shouted loudly, "You can have my umbrella!"
She shook her head.
Later, she became a good friend of mine. Her name was Yao Ji, but I called her by Chick. She often partic.i.p.ated in the gatherings I and my friends held, but she was rather introverted and ill-adapted to us. No matter in KTV or a bar, she would always sit on the invisible corner with a gla.s.s of lemonade on her hand, winked her eyes, and listened to our nonsense.
Among us, Mao Mao could dance if she got intrigued even if we were at a roadside stand for barbecue, which made Chick so stunned once that she even dropped her kebabs.
Among us, Han Niu could only sing Father"s Straw Shoes. Each time he entered KTV, he wouldn"t stop singing it until he burst into tears. Once when he finished singing it the 19th times (he ordered it 20 times), she vomited.
Among us, Hu Yan was mind-absent while speaking. He furiously said upon seeing her who was alone, "Can you care about Chick?" She hurriedly said shaking her head, "I"m fine..." He continued, "Do you feel you"re gang-raped by us when you"re with us?"
I said to her, "Since you can"t integrate to them, you don"t need to show up next time."
She shook her head. "It"s alright. I don"t understand your lifestyle, but I respect it. What"s more, you live in a mess, but none of you lie to me or make no sense with me. You don"t envy or attack others. You just live in your own way. I can"t make it, but I like you."
I said, "You"re a good people."
She said, "You"re a bad people."
I said, "I"ll be a good one in the future, which will startle you."
My friends advised me to rent a bigger house, so they could save a lot of money by coming to my house for drinking and movies. I said yes to them and then rented a bigger one. They were cheerful and helped me move. Having helped me move, they gave me red pockets respectively and said that they should also contribute to renting the house.
She said with her face flushed, "I"m still an intern, so I can only give you 800 RMB."
I immediately smiled and felt that I have a deposit.
They carried a box of beers and started to dine and wine before I put everything in order.
Chick sneakily ran about with a gla.s.s in her hand when the others didn"t pay attention to her.
I followed her with curiosity and asked, "What are you doing?"
She said, "Shh, keep your voice down. Does t the spotted dog-styled gla.s.s look beautiful?"
I said, "Just so so."
She said, "They don"t care about the gla.s.ses, but this one is for me, so I want to hide it, and they won"t use mine. I"ll use it next time. It"s special for me."
She added proudly with her face raised, "I"ve contributed 800 RMB, so there must be something special for me in this house."
After that, she ran about again with the gla.s.s.
Having drunk too much, they all fell into sleep on the sofa or the ground.
I went to the balcony, continued drinking, and felt somewhat sad upon thinking of something while looking up to the stars.
Chick tiptoed over me and said, "Doesn"t matter! Everything will be fine."
I asked, "What do you know I"m thinking?"
She said, "Other people." She added pointing at my hand, "Is the postcard sent by her?"
I said, "I plan to have it sent, but I give up."
I asked, "Chick, will you be my girlfriend?"
She rolled her eyes at me and ran away.
Having also drunk too much, I slept while lying p.r.o.ne on the windowsill. I heard that she approached me, and then a blanket was placed on me. She said, "I have to go. It"s almost midnight."
I didn"t want to speak, so I pretended to sleep.
She suddenly burst into tears and said, "I like you very much, but I know you won"t like me forever. If I"m your girlfriend, you"ll leave me one day. I"m stupid and don"t know your world, so I can"t make my way to your heart. However, I deeply believe that you"ll be fine and much better than before. I"ll be startled by you by then."
I struggled to stand up after she left and found the postcard nowhere. Perhaps, she took it away.
I was planning to have the postcard sent but didn"t want to do it anymore.
It read as follows:
I came to know you in autumn. Summer was almost gone, so you should wait for me there ten years ago. You were the moonlight brought by the ebb tide; you were the bookmark rolled away by time; you were the brightness held up by streams. I wished autumn could cover the tracks, and all the station signs were written with those that August wasn"t over. On the train of seasons, if you wanted to get off early, please do not wake me up who was pretending to sleep. Thus, I could sleep to the end and pretend that I didn"t know you were gone.
I raised my head and saw that the shadow of trees fluttered by the wind so late at night.
If you missed someone, you would turn into a breeze and gently sweet past him or her. Even if he or she couldn"t feel it, it was the effort you tried. It was life, and everyone would turn into the breeze they missed.
I left Nanjing later. Before I left, my friends collected money again and told me that they would still pay for the rental fee.
I said that since no one would live here, why they still rented here. Guan Chun said, "We"ll keep the house for you no matter how long. You always lose things, so we don"t want you to leave us behind."
I wandered around and got a lift to Daocheng. The car broke down halfway, so I had to walk and finally reached a hotel before sunset. Unfortunately, the hotel was full, but its owner gave me a quilt. Wrapped by it, I laid on the corridor and stared at the starry sky. Guan Chun called me when I was drinking Xiaoer Liquor to warm myself. During this chitchat, we talked about Chick.
Guan Chun said that Chick had gone to the bar and got married to a public servant her family introduced to her.
I didn"t know how her life was. One night at Lugu Lake, I once took her call. She cried without speaking anything. I kept silent and quietly listened to her sadness.
I didn"t know why she cried, probably because that public servant didn"t treat her well or she just drank too much.
She never contacted me since then. Even if I called her, she wouldn"t answer me. Two months later when I called her again, her number went dead.
I went back to Nanjing over a year later. My landlord told me the rental fee was paid all the time, and the keys weren"t changed, so I could directly live inside.
I had lost many things over a year, but I still kept the keys.
I went back to the house full of dust.
I cleared up everything one by one.
When sweeping the closet, I took all my clothes out and found the spotted dog-styled gla.s.s stuffed in a down-filled coat.
I had never discovered where Chick hid her gla.s.s.
It turned out to be here.